ireland - day 6

this is bunratty castle. notice how it's much more compact than yesterday's castle? i took this as a very good sign. and inside it was amazing! all stone ... all medieval. you actual enter by crossing the drawbridge. take that kilkenny!


the terlet.


the drawbridge mechanisms (locked so you can't actually take over the castle by shutting out other tourists).


and, kid you not, the MURDER HOLE! so i'm standing, looking at the drawbridge mechanisms, and a tour guide comes out & tells me that i'm looking at the drawbridge mechanisms. and then says something along the lines of, "and if you look at the floor between us, you'll see the murder hole. this is where you would pour boiling oil on your enemies when they attacked." and then he walked away.

he's right. i would pour boiling oil on my enemies if they tried attacking my castle.


two of the four towers are open for tourists. although the stairs were a little tight ... it was great fun to be one top of the castle.


from the tower.

after bunratty we headed towards killarney & did some souvenier shopping. had lunch at a pub that had a bottle of haig sitting on their shelf. i'm sure marlana will post that photo. :)

after killarney we headed to kenmare to see how far around the ring of kerry we could get. it was getting late in the afternoon, though, so we knew we wouldn't go far. on the way, we stopped at the torc waterfall.


the walk to the waterfall was amazing in & of itself. every tree was covered in moss. it was the greenest path i've ever seen.


and the waterfall wasn't too bad, either. ;)


the lakes of killarney.


the stone ring in kenmare. a little disappointing. the assumption is that it functioned as a seasonal clock, much like stone henge. but it's scale is much smaller. the tallest rock is maybe four feet high. and it's hedged in such a way that it's impossible to get a photo of the whole scene.

we headed back to adare after the stone circle. we were tired, and we have to pack tonight as the flight home is fairly early. i can't believe i'm coming home tomorrow! yikes!


we drove back through the lakes of killarney on the way to adare. with the sun setting i couldn't help but stop & shoot more photos. we never saw a pretty colors sunset in ireland. it always seems to get really hazy as the sun's going down & it just gets dark. maybe it's a seasonal thing? regardless, it's still amazingly beautiful here.

we went back to sean's for dinner again tonight. we wanted to thank him for the fabulous advice on going to bunratty. tonight i drank a harp, my third irish beer. add the shot of jameson, and i'm pretty pleased with my trials of the local drinks. :)

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'becca doesn't want to leave.

ireland - day 5

we started our day today at the kilkenney castle. this stitched photo doesn't do it justice ... but i tried. basically the castle is shaped like a huge U - the photo has you look directly at the center portion & then there's a wing of the castle coming out on each side towards you. it's huge. and very pretty. the inside, however, has been restored to its victorian splendor.

ummm ... victorian splendor? there's no boiling oil in victorian splendor.


you're not allowed to take photos inside the kilkenney castle. and we all know that marlana & i are not ones to break rules. however, if we HAD chosen to break the rules, specifically by not using our flashes to draw attention, we would have captured victorian rooms like this.


and this. yes, they're pretty ... but it wasn't what we wanted. we really wanted a medieval castle with stone staircases and a drawbridge. so we were disappointed. after leaving the castle we drove around town twice trying to find an old ruined church we could see ... but we never figured out how to get there, so we finally just left.


our day perked up when we made it to the rock of cashel before they closed. we were a little concerned katie was against us today, as she felt the need to take us down a very obvious one-lane road to get to cashel. it is very hard to drive with purpose & determination when you're rounding blind corners with no where to go if you meet another vehicle.


the rock of cashel has served a variety of purposes over the years: church, castle and now tourist attraction. ;) there is no roof on probably 98% of the structure, and there were flocks of black birds swooping about. it was all very alfred hitchcock.


and very beautiful. there were only maybe 6 other people at the rock when we got there, so photo taking was easy and we felt like we had the place to ourselves. this totally made up for the disappointing victorian castle.


from the cemetery yard we could see another ruined structure down the road. (can you see it in the picture? no? that's because it's not there. silly reader.) so we asked the gal working the front counter what it was and how to get there.


this is hore abbey.


another magnificent set of ruins.


the town of cashel was our star today. ;)

we headed back to adare and went to sean collins' pub for dinner. turns out he also owns the pink potato cafe next door (where we ordered take-away burgers sunday night), so we put in our order & one of the gals from next door brought it over. tonight i tried a smithwick's - brewed in kilkenney and much more pleasing than their silly victorian castle. :) we had a good time at sean's. sean (yup, actual owner running the bar) was a nice fellow and well, i already told you about the boston boys, right? we had fun. sean turned on the end of the championship rugby match, and he and the fellow sitting next to marlana proceeded to explain the game to us. it was fun. those guys are tough!

we also got a good tip for tomorrow. we're going to bunratty castle (about half an hour away) to see if it won't erase the disappointment of kilkenney. we told sean & the other fellow that we were thinking of driving up to trim (north of dublin) to see another castle ... and they both told us we were crazy, to just go to bunratty instead. we were avoiding bunratty as the rick steves' book told us it was just an over-commercialized potty stop. but can two locals really be wrong?

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'becca can't believe tomorrow is her last day in ireland!

loss of power

we lost power in the villa last night, due to an amazing storm. when we get back tonight i'll do a double post for you. yesterday was a very good day, with a bit of a disappointing start. we went to kilkeney castle & then to the rock of cashel. but seriously, i'll tell you about it tonight. for now, we're headed out the door for bunratty castle on the advice of some locals in last night's pub.

oh! one funny pub story before we leave ...

we're sitting having dinner, and these two guys from boston come in. late 50's, early 60's i'd guess. anyway, yesterday was their first day here so they were still getting their bearings. and boston guy #1 is complaining (repeatedly) that he can't find a sport channel on tv. why can't he find a sports channel? don't they watch sports over here? bartender, don't you watch sports over here? where's the espn? and sean (the bartender) chuckles at him & finally says, "espn? what do you want us to do? sit around watching american football all day? it takes you four hours to play a one hour game!" everyone else laughs. and boston guy #2 points out that boston guy #1 is still upset because they couldn't find cheez-its at the grocery store. sean asks what cheez-its are, and the boston guys go on to describe the baked cheesy goodness. the boston guys ask us if we know what cheez-its are, and of course we do - we're from chicago. so again, sean chuckles at him & says, "am i speaking with an american accent? you're in ireland! we don't have cheez-its!"

it was a good time. :) the boston boys were having a bad first day. no sports; no cheez-its; they hit a curb hard enough to blow a tire; they had to wait 2.5 hours for someone to come replace the tire; and then they lost power that night (they were staying in the villas at the manor, as well). hopefully they do something amazing today. :)

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'becca is hoping to see where castle inhabitants would pour oil on the enemy today.

ireland - day 4

today has been my favorite day so far. better than the cliffs of moher, and i loved the cliffs of moher. it was my turn to drive, and i wanted to head south. i was originally thinking of driving the ring of kerry, but after reading the suggestions of rick steves (seriously, if you're going somewhere ... get a rick steves' guidebook. he's been a fabulous traveling companion so far.) i decided we should start by driving around the dingle peninsula and then hit the ring of kerry if we had time. i really figured we'd do both since the dingle peninsula road is only about a 35 mile loop. i was wrong. :) and while i have no idea what the ring of kerry looks like, dingle was amazing.


we grabbed a quick lunch in tralee on our way to dingle. the mickey d's sold curly fries! marlana confirmed that the mcdonald's in ireland do, indeed, sell shamrock shakes ... but unfortunately they were gone for the season.

from tralee to dingle we had two routes to choose from. one was tight, curvy & treacherous. the other was just tight & curvy. i, of course, opted for treacherous. :) why drive if you can't drive on the side of a mountain?


we stopped at the first available pullout, in part, because i wanted to get a photo of this sign. when we got out of the car, however, we realized ...


there was a waterfall right behind us! marlana, braver than i, scurried across the rocks for a photo and went under the bridge we'd just driven across to get photos. i admired her bravery and stayed on dry land. :)


this is at the connors pass view point. the haze was unfortunate, and the wind was ridiculously strong ... but the drive was still worth it. we had to pull way over on the side at one point to let a tour bus pass us ... but other than that, we were very fortunate on the tight road.

once we got to dingle, we relied on rick steves to give us a kilometer by kilometer (gotta love the metric system) guide to driving around the peninsula. seriously, i recommend taking him with you. dingle is classified as a gaeltacht, which means they're officially recognized by the government as as an irish-speaking region. the signs still had english subtitles, though, so we were good.


we got to ford a stream! it wasn't that the road was flooded ... it's simply built to ford the stream instead of building a bridge over it. thankfully, again, we were the only car on the road so we were able to stop & take a photo.

actually, the absence of other tourists has been one of the best parts so far. it's not like it's creepy abandoned ... it's just nice & calm. and we don't have to wait forever to get a photo without strangers in it.



this is it. this is the landscape that makes me breath deeply & exhale all the stress of everyday life. rocky coastlines are therapeutic for me. i could have sat myself down & stared at the waves for hours. at least, i could have if i wasn't so excited about continuing on. :)


we stopped at the gallarus oratory - an early church built between the 6th & 12th century. it looks like upside-down canoe, and it still completely waterproof inside. the walls are about 3 feet thick, and the doorway is about 5'6" tall. i had to duck a little. :)


and we stopped at the kilmalkedar church & cemetery. the surrounding land has risen so much over the years that you now have to go down three steps to get into the church's front door.

there was no way we could have even started the ring of kerry today. that road is at least three times the length of the dingle peninsula, and as it was we had a two hour ride home. home? maybe not home ... but we are feeling pretty comfortable here.


tonight's pub came complete with an illinois license plate. :) excuse the fuzziness of the photo - i'm against using my flash in restaurants. we started our meal with shots of jameson. we figured it only fair to celebrate the trip with a little irish whiskey. sure, it made my tonsils burn for awhile ... but i figured i'd cure that with a nice, refreshing guinness.


i tried marlana's guinness yesterday and enjoyed it more than any other beer i've tried. and it just seemed right to drink a pint in ireland. the bartender knew we were tourists (must be the lack of accent, right?) & my drink came with this cute li'l shamrock on top. i was not able to finish the pint. it was good, but heavy. and i did have a shot of whiskey already coursing through my veins.

speaking of tourists ... the majority of people we see in the pubs at night are americans tourists. tonight we saw at least three groups - a couple of which had just landed today.

we tried ordering a dessert we'd never heard of before, but they were out. the bartender suggested a strawberry peach cream cake ... yowza, that was good.

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'becca thinks today was her favorite so far.

ireland - day 3

note: if you're itching to see all the photos, they're available here on my flickr site.

today was, quite honestly, tiring. we set our alarm clocks & headed to dublin early. it was about 3.5 hours from where we're staying, but we wanted to see the city.


we rode a double-decker tour bus, which i love. i enjoy the commentary & frankly i see a lot more of the city that way. plus, it stops at all the major touristy places making my life easier. and i'm vacation - my life should be easier, right? :)


we didn't tour the guinness store house. we talked about it, but in the end neither of us really enjoys beer. so we skipped it. marlana did, however, have a guinness with her lunch today. i tried it - not bad.


the river liffey, which cuts through dublin east to west.


we did get off the bus at st. patrick's cathedral. we shot photos around the exterior, but didn't pay for the tour.


a random dublin building. sorry, i don't retain much of the information given in the commentary ... as much as i like hearing it. :)


the bus makes a loop in one place, plus was doing some detouring as the munster rugby team was being paraded home from their championship the day before. and we rode part of the route twice. apparently i liked this church. because this is the first shot i took of it.


and then i shot it again half an hour later.


and then i shot it again about 5 hours after that.


this little sign was above the door on the top of the bus. i think it's just good advice no matter where you are.

we had lunch in dublin at o'brians, i think. a nice place with carvery lunches (choice of a half a dozen meats & then as many of the dozen or so sides available that you want). nothing in the eating area seemed to suggest that the bathrooms would be lit by black lights ... so that was a surprise. :)

we hit several souvenir shops, as well, but still didn't find my sweatshirt. i've got a few days left to hunt ... i'll find it!

dublin was nice, but i enjoyed yesterday at the cliff's more. when the countryside is that beautiful, why spend time in the city? we headed home, grabbed take away at the pink potato cafe in adare & chilled out at the villa. marlana gets extra credit for driving in dublin. the first parking garage we tried finding literally ended with a sign pointing us to an empty ally. and it took katie some time to get her bearings to lead us back out when the day was over.


i haven't been able to pass up the irish candy selections. the top one was bought simply because it said "it's NOT for girls" on it, and i've never been good at following rules. :) it was just milk chocolate; nothing too special. the other two were very tasty. white chocolate with hazelnut filling and dark chocolate with praline filling. yummy.

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'becca thinks she driving through the mountains tomorrow.

ireland - day 2

the villas, inside & out. we're in one of the end units, so we only share walls with one neighbor. and either the walls are well sound-proofed or no one is living next door.

fabulous irish brogue story of the day: we stop at the manor house this morning to ask about the internet not working. a fellow named patrick comes out to help us, mentions it may simply be the card that's not working and offers to give us another one to try. we agree to give it a shot, both wondering what we'll do with an internet card that we probably won't know how to install. but it's worth a shot, right? so he goes in back & comes out carrying a coiled ethernet cable and says, "here ya go, try this card. if it doesn't work, just bring it back & we'll have someone come out and look at it for you." immediately, in our heads, we both say, "oooooh! you said CORD!" luckily we didn't embarrass ourselves by saying it out loud. :) i do love the irish brogue.

as a side note, the card did not work. we'll return it tomorrow and probably just make our peace with being internet-less in the villa. we can use the manor house business centre if we need to, but being disconnected on vacation isn't such a bad thing. (you vicarious-livers will just have to be patient.)


today was my first day of driving. it didn't take as long to get used to as i thought. oh, and we have a new car! katie, our gps unit, came with a card that plugs into the cigarette lighter to charge her battery, but it doesn't fit snugly. so every time the car shakes it turns off & on, which really puts katie in a tizzy. so we returned the original car & got a different one. still tiny, still cute. :) it actually ended up being an issue with the card, and not the car ... but the fellow already had the paperwork done to swap cars before we realized that. so we got both. :)

yeah, driving. not as hard to get used to as i thought it would be. some of the roads tend to be narrow, and i think katie actually enjoys directing us through ridiculous routes. it's fun ... and a bit scary. :) she took us down one road today that there was NO WAY two cars could have passed each other. however, luck of the irish, we didn't see another car on that road so it was never an issue.



we did, however, see a fabulous cemetery today, so we stopped to take photos. i'm sure the locals think american tourists are crazy. to them, this was just another cemetery. but for us, it's all this fabulous history - the likes of which we'll never have here. and the fact it was on a hill overlooking a beach? just another luck-of-the-irish bonus, i'm sure.


today's big goal was to visit the cliffs of insanity, from princess bride. okay, so the goal was to visit the cliffs of mohr ... but they ARE the cliffs of insanity from princess bride. and they ARE amazing. :) if we had more time, i'd suggest we return to the cliffs later in the afternoon some day. that way, the sun would be behind us, lighting up the cliff sides for better photos. we were surprised at the weather, however. so far, we haven't hit any real rain ... i think we used the windshield wipers once today. i mean, the wipers literally made one single pass across the windshield. not what we were expecting. luck of the irish, again?


this is the view if you turn away from the cliffs of mohr. i suppose it might technically still be part of the cliffs of mohr, but it's opposite the famous pictures. regardless, this view had the sun hitting it quite nicely. :)


i think they want visitors to be aware of the danger of the cliffs.

we had lunch at the cliffs of mohr visitor centre and did a little souvenir shopping, as well. i found a sweatshirt that i really liked, but they didn't have my size. hopefully i can find it elsewhere, or at least another one i like. it just seems right that i should take home a green sweatshirt that says ireland. :)


hey, even in ireland i can shoot photos while i drive, right? :)


irish countryside with that clear sunny sky that surprised us.


after the cliffs, we headed northeast through the burren, an especially rocky area that was home to the poulnabrone portal tomb. pretty amazing to look at, and the rocky landscape was slightly baffling. i felt like i might have been walking on the moon. i mean, i know i wasn't ... but it was really cool.

after the portal tomb & the burren we continued north to ballyvaughn and then a little ways east to hit a major road to take back to the manor. the tiny roads were thrilling during the daylight ... but i really wanted to avoid them once the sun set. :) we ended up having dinner at this little cafe with fabulous pizza & delectable desserts in the town of gort.

tomorrow we're heading to dublin - big city, here we come! :)

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'becca had an amazing day today.

ireland - day 1

note: our internet wasn't working in the villa, so i'm posting the trip day-by-day to keep the anticipation alive. :) the trip was absolutely amazing. i did not want to come home.

day one is really two days, i suppose. thursday was all packing, anticipation & the start of the long flight. i was feeling pretty good about my packing until i decided i should following the airline requirements for carry-on baggage weight limitations. yeah, they say 13 pounds max - and the carry-on suitcase i was using weighed almost 8 pounds empty. so i rearranged and ditched that bag completely. i ended up with my checked bag & a back pack. it was easier to navigate the airport that way anyhow. :)


the sunset as we flew out of chicago. the flight to dublin was about 7.5 hours, and marlana & i both took tylenol pm in hopes of sleeping through most of it. i felt like i hardly slept at all ... but in reality i must have dozed through the majority of the flight as suddenly we were descending into dublin. i'm in ireland!


the flight from dublin to shannon was quick - 45 minutes, at most. the line at customs wasn't bad, and we were out the door to pick up the rental car fairly quickly. the fellow driving us to the rental car was a good guy, giving us directions for driving through the irish roundabouts - stay left, look right. it appears they don't believe in stop signs at intersections - just roundabouts. this could be interesting.


marlana drove today, and we are grateful for the gps unit we rented with the car. katie, as we named our gps, is quite useful in the roundabouts. :) i get to drive tomorrow. i'm nervous, but i can do this, right? it's easy ... just drive on the opposite side of the road & don't hit anything.



even though we knew we would arrive before check-in, we headed to the adare manor to see if our villa was ready. yikes is it gorgeous here! kid you not, those are photos of the manor house & the gardens. ridiculous, right? :) i'll get photos of the villa tomorrow for you to see. it's got 3 bedrooms (each with their own bathroom), a full kitchen, dining room, sun room and a brick patio ... basically, more rooms than mine & marlana's houses combined.

the villa wasn't ready for us to move in, so we went to the clubhouse for breakfast. we both got the full irish breakfast, which included black & white pudding. luckily we both tried the pudding before asking what it was. :) it's made of bread crumbs & oatmeal, mostly. and the difference between the black & white portions? well, the black gets it's color from pig's blood. no wonder it was so moist. ;)

a nice gent from the manor picked us up at the clubhouse when our villa was ready. he showed us around the unit, taught us how to lock the front door, and then proceeded to organize a coffee maker for marlana. (kid you not ... he said "organize" ... so cute.) then he drove back to the manor house & got an ethernet cable for us, so we could use the internet. unfortunately, we haven't been able to make the internet work. we'll ask about it tomorrow.


once we unpacked, we headed out to walk around town. the manor has a pedestrian gate that exits right at the edge of the downtown area. so we parked there (is the car adorable?!), but before we walked downtown we shot photos of this little house on the grounds.




that's right, actual ruins on the grounds where we're staying. now, you know how much i love broken down buildings, right? this is likely to make me more happy than i can actually stand. :)



downtown is a series of thatched-roofed gift shops and then brightly colored storefronts. so adorable! downtown is also only about 3 blocks long, so it's easily walked, and we were able to avoid parallel parking on the "wrong" side of the road. :)


the trinitarian monestary is on one edge of town. it was a pretty impressive building, though there was a wedding going on inside, so we didn't go in to peak.


this is the park in downtown adare. it's definitely spring here, and there are daffodils blooming everywhere. daffodils & the smell of freshly mowed grass. i love it!

we drove into limerick this afternoon to pick up some coffee & filters for the newly organized coffee maker. katie didn't seem to have a good feel for where a grocery store might be, but we found one anyway. granted, after dinner we found one here in town ... but hey, driving is an adventure, right? marlana's gonna be a pro at this.


we had dinner at one of the pubs in adare. i had the fish & chips. and i can't have irish fish & chips without eating the chips. good thing i gave myself the irish exception to the french fry embargo. :)

at least one family that we saw on the flight over is also staying here at the manor. they're in the stretch of villas next to us. we saw them walking around town tonight, too. small world, i suppose.

we're crashing early tonight. we were more awake than we expected to be with the five-hour time difference, but we're pretty tuckered out. we're not setting alarms for tomorrow morning. we're on vacation; we're going to relax. :)

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'becca is nervous about driving tomorrow!

random & such

on the shoes: i'm keeping both pairs. i've worn the black ones twice & they're breaking in quite nicely.

on practice packing: so far, so good. my carry-on easily fits my camera, my laptop & a change of clothes. and my checked bag has room for a souvenir or two. finding out that the villa has a washer/dryer convinces me more to take two pairs of jeans instead of three. the one pair really isn't a flattering style, so i'll just leave those at home. i don't roll my clothes, except for the pieces that i can basically tie in a knot and still don't show wrinkles. i believe i'll be taking options C & D.

on updating the ipod: i've added the death cab for cutie & spoon mp3s to the library. itunes is currently downloading the flogging molly album. and perhaps tomorrow i'll remember to bring the alanis cd in & copy that, too. there's an irish group matt suggested at work today, but i forgot to forward the e-mail to my home account. i'll need to do that tomorrow, too.

on stopping the mail/paper: the mail has been stopped. i need to call customer service tomorrow for the paper. i should just cancel the silly thing. today i threw 2.5 weeks worth into the recycling bin that had never been opened.

on bill due dates: checked & no worries.

on picking up my glasses/contacts: i'll be leaving the office early tomorrow to take care of that. after i swing through the doctor's office i'll be having dinner with mom, holly, wayne & alicia. yum. :)

on cleaning the house: i washed all the dishes ... and then proceeding to produce another sinkful of dirties. why does having a clean kitchen make me want to bake?

i think i'll wear my fancy pants to work the next couple of days so i can wash my jeans for packing. i need to cut tags off the new stuff. and figure out what green i'm wearing tomorrow ...

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'becca is airing out the wig.

packing

so i'm testing my packing skills, which means i need to decide what i'm taking. i need seven shirts, and an eighth one would be a good idea since i'm certain to spill at some point. the first six were easy. but now i'm stuck.



option A is comfortable, but the sweater is necessary. the shirt, by itself, does a very good job of washing me out. with the sweater, however, it's good. the shirt has a tie in the back, which i'm going to remove since it looks silly under the sweater.

option B is also comfortable, but less so than option A. it's a little clingy & a tad shorter than i really appreciate. however, it would provide an option that isn't dominantly black or brown, as everything else i'm packing is.

option C, though the picture might not show it, is darn cute on me. however, i can't wear it with jeans because i don't like the denim-on-denim look. it looks very good with my black capris, though. and the weather should be acceptable capri weather. if i pack the capris, do i leave a pair of jeans at home? i'm currently planning three pairs of jeans ... can i do two pairs & the capris? it could be problematic if it's too chilly to ever wear the capris. but, seriously, it's me ... i'll wear the capris, right?

option D is comfortable & heavier than the others. it's also a little on the short side, which may cause me to consistently fuss with it. and frankly, i don't need that, right? but i do like it ... probably more so than option B. although i wonder if i'd like option B better if i untacked the sleeves ... hmmm.

opinions? i could also take my black polo shirt from work, instead. it's comfortable, would pack well and stays well within the black/brown color range i seem to be taking. but maybe i wear that for the flight(s). it'd be comfortable to sit in on the plane & then i'm not wasting a cute shirt on my cabin-mates. :)

i want to point out that my packing currently includes absolutely NO t-shirts.

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'becca can't believe it's 9:15. that three-hour nap was good!

ireland to-do list

1. practice packing. i bought a big suitcase at marshall's last week, now i need to make sure i can fit everything in it. plus i need to figure out my carry-on luggage. i need to carry on my laptop & my camera, but i don't want those to be the only things i carry on. so i'm going to take my small carry-on suitcase and fit my camera & a few other things inside. i might event get the laptop bag in there & just slip the laptop itself into the outside zipper so it can go through secuirity properly. yes, i must practice packing.

2. update the ipod. i've got some tune in need to load onto the computer, and then i need to sync up the ipod. perhaps create a play list or two specifically for the trip. hmmm, know what would be perfect for this? a soundtrack for the blognovel Sara Dawn. i wonder how i could get my hands on that ... *ehem*MIKE!*ehem*

3. stop my mail & paper. i actually want to do this a day or two early, just to be sure it really stops. last time i stopped my paper it still showed up for a day or two.

4. check my bill due dates. it'd sure stink to come back to late bills, right?

5. pick up my new glasses/contacts. thankfully i've procrastinated on this long enough that when i pick them up & pay off the balance it will land on a different credit card statement than the original down payment. on the flip side, the balance will just be on the credit card statement with the ireland trip. :)

6. create a handy "how to attempt the greatness of 'becca" guide for the office. as a side note to this, i also need to remind the folks i work with to be sure & request LOTS of projects get done while i'm out of the office so my bosses all know i really am productive while i'm there. ;)

7. clean the house. seriously, who wants to come back to a dirty house? maybe i'll even get the two-weeks-worth of newspapers out to the curb this week for recycling.

i'm sure there's more ... but it's a start. :)

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'becca took a three hour nap.

in-flight entertinment

it appears on the flight to dublin, we can watch "australia" and "madagascar 2". on our return flight, we can see "quantum of solace" and "four christmases".

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'becca has not seen any of these movies.

irish outlook

currently temperatures in adare, county limerick, are 54-58 degrees.

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'becca is starting to believe she's going on vacation.

shoe note

you can't really tell from that photo, but the black shoes have a bit of a wedge to them, too. that's right. i bought shoes that actually make me just a little bit taller.

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'becca is thinking she doesn't want to be setting up banners in a skirt.

shoes!

which pair looks less like something 'becca would wear?

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'becca had a great night with her mom.

i have flowers!

i was thrilled to see these little guys when i came home tonight. i love spring flowers!


today i learned that it's easy to get attention if you turn your hair bright green. who knew?


and the gray skirt, for laure. :)

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'becca thinks she's going to bed early tonight.

monday evening

yup, spider's still there. i'm glad i've made such a comfortable home for him.

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'becca LOVES that it was still light out when she left the office.

monday morning

that li'l tiny spider is still on my wall. he's alive; he moves around a bit ... but he's still on the same wall. cute, huh?

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'becca denies the chaos that awaits her at work.

thoughts on ireland

no, really ... i am just starting to think about ireland. i mean, i've thought about it enough to buy the ticket & get my passport. and i thought about it enough to order back-up batteries for the camera and ask for larger memory cards for Christmas. but when people say "how exciting! what are you going to do there?!", i still answer, "i have no idea. be in ireland?" we know we'll be close to cliff-y coastlines & old castles. we recently learned that the cliffs of insanity (from princess bride) are nearby, and we'll definitely be going there. but past that? we don't have real plans.

it occured to me recently that i need to do some shopping before we leave. i have two pairs of jeans that fit well. that would be fine, so long as i never get either pair dirty. have you met me? that's not going to happen. so i need a third pair. or do i need to pack a pair of capris? i need to check their weather.

according to ireland.com, the current weather is mid-40's to mid-50's. perhaps a little chilly for capris. so i should get another pair of jeans.

i did learn that there are two restaurants on site where we're staying. one is fancy, one is casual. neither of them allow t-shirts. i did a bit of work on that yesterday, purchasing a couple of tops that will wear well with jeans. and, of course, the cute skirts. we've decided we're taking one nice outfit in case we decide to be fancy some evening.

or perhaps instead of jeans i should find a pair of not-quite-dressy brown or black pants. i may have a pair in my closet, actually. i wonder if they fit ...

i think i'll stop at marshall's or tj maxx on my way to mom & dad's house today and check out their luggage selection. i could borrow a big suitcase, but it'd be nicer just to have my own. and i'm thinking i'll need something bigger than a carry-on. :)

and maybe run through borders & see if i can find a good guidebook, too.

i should start getting ready to leave.

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'becca took a photo of the gray skirt and will post it later.

what do you think?

are these two skirts too similar for me to keep both?


this is a close up of the patterns. the colors are practically identical. however, the one on the left is mostly linen, the one on the right is polyester. the one on the left is a tulip shape, the one on the right is fuller with some pleating. so there are differences. even beyond the obvious awesome banding at the bottom of the one on the right. i found them at two different stores, and i'm now debating whether i should keep them both.

that's right. i basically found enough skirts that i'm thinking i might not need them all. the gray one i bought is really cute, too.

there's a small spider on my wall. awesome.

i just pulled a stone of cookies out of the oven. chocolate chocolate chocolate chip. otherwise known as the "all the ghirardelli goodness you can smoosh into a cookie" cookie.

i'm charging up the second of my back-up batteries. the first one charged this afternoon & is currently in my camera. it seems to work just fine - it took those there skirt photos. so that's good. i'm hyped about having back-ups while i'm in ireland.

speaking of ireland, i need to find a good rain jacket before we go. i tried today but was not successful.

i think i may sprinkle powdered sugar on top of the cookies while they're still warm.

i'm pretty sure i had a shamrock shake every day this past work week. monday i left the office in the afternoon to get one. tuesday i got one with my breakfast. wednesday i may have had one with breakfast, too ... but then i definitely got one for dessert. thursday i walked into a meeting & one of my super-awesome co-workers had one waiting for me. and friday another of my super-awesome co-workers brought me one when he came back from lunch. i do love me my shamrock shakes.

so seriously, the skirts - i can keep them both, right? they're both cute. and they both fit. and the only thing better than one cute skirt to freak out my co-workers is TWO cute skirts. three when you count the gray one.



this is the cute black purse i got to go with the gray skirt. i like it. and the inside is ... are you ready for this?


pink! i know!

i got the purse at burlington, which is also where i got the skirt on the right. it was a crazy-good deal. another reason i should just keep them both. :)

skirts & purses with pink inside. are you sure it's me talking? crazy, right?

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'becca is starting to think about ireland.

with just a little bit of focus ...

there is no way i'm committing to every day in march. i'll be spending a week in ireland - and i am not about to promise that i'll blog every day while i'm there. i love you all, but the anticipation while i'm gone will be good for you. ;)

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'becca needs to sleep but kinda wants to eat a piece of pizza.

really? march 1?

so today's march 1. it snuck up on me. i really thought tomorrow was march 1. i wonder how many appointments i made last week with the wrong date in mind.

i haven't, yet, signed up on the nablopomo site to post every day this month. part of me thinks it would be a good goal - something outside the current work-related chaos that seems to be consuming my every thought. and part of me thinks i can't handle focusing on a particular subject, every day, for 31 days. in response to laure's question, no, i don't celebrate the lenten season. the 'giving (up)' theme does seem like one that a blogger could really dive in to & explore. but it feels too in depth, too commitment heavy.

i actually dreamed about work last night. i hate that. it's bad enough that it's currently occupying nearly every waking moment (not that i'm AT work nearly every waking moment, but the THOUGHTS are too frequent for my own good) ... it really doesn't have any right to interrupt my sleep, too. :)

it's snowing & sunny here this morning. the flakes are coming down as though someone's sitting in the clouds throwing them at the earth. almost as if they know they need to drop them soon because the time for snow has almost passed. perhaps it's just the wind, but the haphazardly way in which they fall lends itself well to the image of a snow fairy dancing about, dropping flakes as she goes.

my package that shipped from the local amazon warehouse was delivered last week. it had to go to wisconsin first, so that slowed it down a little. the package from california also was delivered. i'm still waiting on the one from outside indianapolis.

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'becca heard something fall, but can't figure out what it was.