Sno Cone of Luv

Just a quick note to those of you who have been relying upon this newfangled “electronic correspondence” to communicate with us, whether it be via e-mail or i-chat. As of this morning, we’re losing the internet connection in our apartment. It won’t be easy, seeing that we rely upon our computer for a large percentage of our communication (and entertainment) needs, but it’s all a part of the process of getting ready to go home. If we’re strong, I think we can manage.

We will still be able to check our e-mail periodically at one of the ubiquitous internet cafés. I presume we’ll even be able to check in while on our vacation. We’ll see. Anyway, feel free to write, just know that it might be a bit before you hear anything back.

Random thought for the moment: today’s high in Minnesota is supposed to be 30-35 degrees warmer than Dublin’s. Yes, we are very afraid we will melt upon returning home.

As I type: listening to The White Stripes "Get Behind Me Satan"

Posted by Brandon at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

One of the frequently asked questions we get when people learn that we are returning home earlier than originally anticipated is whether we have been able to take advantage of the opportunity to do some traveling around the rest of Europe. The answer is “no”, but that will soon be changing.

Crammed between Jenniffer’s sister visiting, my last day of work, and our return flight to Minneapolis, we will be embarking on an eleven-day whirlwind tour of continental Europe.

On Tuesday May 30, we’ll depart for Rome, where we will spend three days and nights trying to soak up as much history, culture, and ACTUAL Italian food as humanly possible. From there we will take a night train to Zurich where we will spend a day recovering from running around Rome.

On Sunday the 4th of June, we’ll hop on another train, this one taking us to Brussels, where we’ll spend the next three nights. At this point we don’t have a game plan for Brussels aside from a side trip to Bruges (and oh, maybe some sampling of a few Belgian beers.) We have a tour book (complete with ginormous “look-at-me-I’m-a-tourist” map) so I’m sure we’ll get it figured out.

Lastly, we board one more train, this time to Amsterdam where we will spend our last three days and two nights. Despite it’s reputation, the city actually has a good amount of culture and history to offer; the Anne Frank house and van Gogh museum come to mind. Who knew?!?! Regardless, I think it will be a good place to wind down our holiday.

On Friday June 9, we’ll fly back to Dublin, giving us a little over two days to get everything wrapped up before we leave for the States on Monday the 12th. See you soon!

As I type: listening to Rocket from the Crypt “Group Sounds”

Posted by Brandon at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So my sister Jacqueline and her boyfriend Jason are in town right now. On Monday we battled the rainy conditions and went to the Dublin Zoo. It's a pretty big zoo and I would recommend it to anyone who visits here. The animals have a lot of space unlike the St. Louis Zoo, but not too much space like the Minneapolis Zoo. I have posted some photos in the Gallery. Some of the pictures are even pretty good. I had a particularly good time in the tiger area. They were just so darn cute.

Posted by Jenniffer at 04:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday at 9:00pm I finished my last shift in the Keith Shaw ICU at St. James’s Hospital. After nearly eight months of e-mails, phone calls, enquiries, and general pain-in-the-butt paperwork, I wind up working here for a total of seven months. Yes, I enjoyed working there, and I learned a lot in the short time I was there, however, it still felt good knowing I was done. I guess that just reinforces the fact that we are indeed looking forward to returning home, wherever that is.

Incidentally, a week and a half was about all of the time that elapsed between when I started looking for a job to return to in Minneapolis and when I had the job offer in my inbox. Funny.

So, things are really picking up now. I’m done with work, loose ends are being tended to, and Jenniffer already has one of our large suitcases packed and ready to go home. At the same time, we’re also planning for the Euro-trip we’re squeezing in between now and when we head back. We’ll post more details on that before we go.

Tonight we had a nice dinner at a local Indian restaurant with Jenniffer’s sister Jacqueline who is visiting Ireland with her boyfriend Jason. Later this week they’ll be doing a bicycle tour in the western part of the country. For now, though, they’re crashing on our floor and taking in some of Dublin’s tourist attractions.

One last thing I wanted to mention tonight. . . I’ve now been here for over seven months, and I have yet to come across anyone with the name “Carlos O’Kelly.” Discuss.

As I type: listening to Booker T. & the M.G.’s “McLemore Avenue”

Posted by Brandon at 11:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have posted some new pictures in the Gallery this morning. They span a few different outings around Dublin.

The first few are from a trip I took out to Phoenix Park. Phoenix park is huge, 1752 acres. Needless to say I didn’t walk through the entire thing, but I did see their version of the “white house” , the US Embassy, a herd of wild Fallow deer, and where the zoo is located. We’ll go to the zoo sometime next week while Jacqueline is here.

The second set of pictures is from the Munches visit. They’re pretty self-explanatory.

The third clumping is from a trip we took Tuesday up to Croke Park. Croke is the home of the GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) and what that basically means is that the only sports that are allowed to be played there are Gaelic. This would include: Hurling, Gaelic Football, Rounders, and Handball (although they only seem to do the first two there). The stadium is huge (82,300) and sells out for most events taking place there. Brandon loves stadiums so we took the tour and he took lots of pictures of the stadium.

For you history buffs, Croke Park was the site of the 1920 Bloody Sunday where British troops went into the stadium 15 minutes into a Gaelic Football match and just started shooting. 13 spectators and 1 player were killed. You can read the full story here.

As I type: listening to The Beastie Boys "Licensed To Ill"

Posted by Jenniffer at 10:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So this last Saturday, we did something that we really have never done before. We went out to a big dance club. I’ve always tended to avoid that sort of thing. Perhaps it’s a fear of potentially bad music. Maybe I was scarred in my youth (I do remember being told by a club employee at a local club’s “teen night” some friends and I mustered the courage to go to when in high school that “you need to dance if you are going to be on the dance floor” . . . we thought we were.) Regardless, a friend of mine had some passes to Spirit (big, angry dance club here in Dublin) and I was at work when Jenniffer took the call and made plans for us, so off we went.

I must admit, it was a lot of fun. We spent our time upstairs in the main room, where a DJ was mixing his butt off. Though spurred on by the semi-rare remix of U2’s “Vertigo”, I proceeded to jump around and shake my booty like it was nobody’s business. Dance like nobody is watching. Clear your mind and you’re ass will follow.

You get the point.

Here it is now Wednesday morning, and the last bit of ringing has finally left our ears. Thank you Jacqui for dragging us for a night out that we normally wouldn’t do. It was a good night.

As I type: listening to U2 “Pop”

Posted by Brandon at 06:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Bunches of Munches! Bunches of Munches!

So, I had a few days off, and during that span, we got to visit with the Munch family (aka Mike, Marianne, and Gwen Ihde) for a few days. Mike happened to be in England for a bit on business, and took a few extra days to make it a vacation out of it. In some of those extra days, they came to Dublin for a bit. Though we didn’t partake in the touristy activities – a third trip to Guinness just didn’t sound that appealing, especially with a potential FOURTH trip looming in a few weeks when Jenniffer’s sister comes to visit – we were happy to join them for a few dinners (and a few pints!)

Fortunately during their short time here, they had some nice weather in which to tool around the city. In addition to sun, we’ve actually been breaking the 60’s for highs! Funny how you still see people wearing coats and sweaters, yet if it were to break 70, it would simply be too warm. Some people are never happy.

Needless to say, Jenniffer and I are just a bit concerned that we will burn to a crisp when we return to Minneapolis, particularly if it is unseasonably warm there. How are we going to cope with temps in the 80-90 degree range when all we know is the 50’s & 60’s? And then there’s the humidity. . . ugh! Hopefully it won’t be a bad return to the states, but there is potential for disaster. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

As I type: listening to Sam & Dave “The Best of Sam & Dave”

Posted by Brandon at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Guess what?

This June, Jenniffer and I will be returning home. No, we won’t just be visiting, we’ll be back for good. I’ll spare you all the details and just say that we doing this for personal reasons. Yes, the two of us are just fine.

Here are the specifics:

We’ll be back in the states on Monday June 12.

We will be living in the Minneapolis area. The current version of the plan has us renting a tiny apartment for a few months, giving us time to look for a house. Yes, the plan does involve us settling in somewhere for more than a few months at a time.

I already have a job lined up in the ICU at Fairview-Ridges Hospital in Burnsville.

Jenniffer is planning on once again marching with the Govenaires.

We have already renewed our Hawkeye season tickets, so yes, there will be tailgating.

Things will be rather crazy for a bit when we first get back, but we’ll be sure to pass contact information along once we get it. In the meantime, e-mail will continue to be the best bet. We look forward to seeing you all again in the near future.

As I type: Listening to Down By Law "punkrockacademyfightsong"

Posted by Brandon at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Get this.

Has anyone noticed something funny going on with regards to the tickets for the Iowa-Minnesota game in Minneapolis this November? Since, at least in each of the years we’ve been up there, there are as many (if not more) Iowa fans as Minnesota fans in attendance, it seems the Gophers are trying to do something about it. Before they will sell you a ticket to the game, you must first match at least one of the following four criteria:
1. U of Minnesota Season Ticket Holder
2. U of Minnesota "M" Club Member
3. Minnesota Resident
4. Current UMAA Member

On top of all of that, they’ve doubled the face value of the ticket, as opposed to the rest of their home games. Yup, that’s a $60 ticket to a Minnesota game. Now, here’s the funniest part. . . When you buy your ticket for the Iowa game, they graciously give you a FREE ticket to the Gopher’s game against North Dakota State!

I’m sorry, but that’s crap.

As I type: watching “Kelly’s Heroes”. . . classic!

Posted by Brandon at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So after another (ANOTHER!) week of night duty at the hospital, I found myself with a few days off. With the extra time on our hands, we decided to hop a train and explore the city of Cork for a few days. Though the change of scenery was nice, the trip wasn’t quite all it could have been.

For starters, the weather was crap. Wind and rain, more wind and rain. Yes, I know what country we are living in, and that when in Ireland one has to expect a certain amount of such weather. What gets me is that it has been like this since Saturday, which was coincidentally the first day I had off in a week. The previous week, when I was working nights and trying to sleep through the day, the weather was perfect, low 60’s, and sunny. Not a drop of rain. Ugh!

The second factor that took away form the trip a bit was the fact that Cork is apparently closed during the first week of May. OK, so the city isn’t closed, but it might as well have been. Here’s a brief run-down of what we tried to do, sometimes successfully, sometimes not:

Beamish Brewery: No tours given yesterday because they were taking VIPs through the place. No tours given again until Thursday.

Crawford Municipal Art Gallery: Actually open, but a large portion of the museum was closed until Friday while they install a huge new exhibit. We did get to see the works of several Irish artists.

Cork Vision Centre: No, not an optometrist’s office, this building houses a presentation on the history of Cork. As interesting as this may (or may not) have been, it was closed this week while they refurbished the exhibit.

Triskel Arts Centre: A gallery of contemporary art that, like our previous attempt at culture, was only partially open. Though most of the rooms were closed for new installations, we did get to see a small display of paintings from artists from Belarus and the Ukraine, who were affected by the Chernobyl accident 20 years ago.

Cork Butter Museum: Yes, you read correctly. The museum, though small, was actually fairly interesting, detailing how the region’s dairy farmers became major players in the butter markets of the world. Now there’s a statement I’ve never uttered before!

Cork City Gaol: A well-preserved 19th century prison that not only housed some of Ireland’s more famous political revolutionaries, but also common folk happy to be found guilty for petty crimes, as it meant they would have a few weeks worth of food and shelter.

Today we came back into Dublin, and now it’s business as usual. Thankfully, the train station in Cork was open for business today.

As I type: listening to Fugazi “Steady Diet of Nothing”

Posted by Brandon at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)