drowning in pictures

so…. I just checked and through the first 8 days of our 14 day trip on 3 cameras, I have over 5GB of photos. 

There are 400 pictures from just our second day (on Dingle Peninsula). 

But only around 100 – 150 each for the next couple of days after that.

Needless to say, trying to sort through them and decide which ones to post is proving to be a mightily difficult task.

It’s going to be a bit harder to write posts than I thought.

Yes, I’m making excuses for myself for the lag.

day 1 – arrival, adare, tralee

We arrived about 9am on Wednesday, 15 September about an hour before we were supposed to arrive.  Not that we minded getting off the plane sooner – a 757 is not the plane for a transatlantic flight, let me tell you.  I don’t think any of us were comfortable on the plane at all.

As per usual, our car wasn’t ready nor was it available so we got a “free” upgrade from a Ford Galaxy to a Range Rover after waiting for about a half hour for them to fix the puncture (aka flat tire to Americans).

this picture is a combination of something like 12 hours in airports and planes (BWI to JFK to SNN) and Mom’s annoying habit of saying she’s going to take a picture but then just taking it before her subjects are actually ready.  Awesome, right?  I’m not even sure why I’m sharing it with the internet but I feel like it.

We finally got on our way though it took a bit to figure out how to get everything in the behemoth (Range Rovers really are large vehicles) and stopped in Adare Co. Limerick for lunch.

My lunch:

Tomato basil soup that oddly tasted a lot like thin pasta sauce.  I didn’t care – I was so hungry for real food.

But really Adare is known for its old school thatched roofed cottages.

This church holds a special place from our very first trip to Ireland in ‘93 because it was how we figured out that the Irish get married any ole day of the week when we came across a wedding on a Tuesday.

Sadly it’s under restoration.

A few shots outside the church:

     

Including some of Mom’s annoying guerilla picture taking.

After brief exploration, we continued south along the coast past Tralee Co. Kerry to find our bed for the night, The Shores.

Lovely place with a lovelier view at one edge of the Dingle Peninsula which was our plan for our first full day.  For now we just crashed for a bit, got cleaned up and headed back to town (Tralee) for some dinner.

View Day 1 - Ireland in a larger map

sorry folks…

We’ve only had internet twice since we arrived in Ireland and the first time was frustratingly spotty so I wasn’t prepared with any posts when we did find very good internet service.  Now I only have the tiniest proportion of the pictures on my computer but I’ll post a few just to give you something to look at (Hi Mrs. Hein – just for you!)

Adare, Co Clare – our first day

 

Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry – our first full day (Day 2)

Muckross House, Kilarney, Co. Kerry – Day 3

Rock of Cashel, Co Tipperary – Day 4

 

ah, vacation…

We’re about to go back to travelogue mode here for a couple of weeks. 

I’m taking my laptop and with luck we’ll find some free wifi so there may even be a chance for “real time” blogging of our trip.  I’m kind of excited. 

I’m a dork.  I know.

ping pong redux

We visited Ping Pong for lunch after my commencement but the food came out so fast and furious that I didn’t get many pictures – I think I have like 4 total.  We decided to go back and take advantage of the “instructions” on their menu about ordering and then if you’re still hungry, order some more.  That’s exactly what we did before we went to see Edward Sharpe.  We purposefully ordered some dishes and then set about ordering more.

you order much like you would order sushi in most typical sushi restaurants by ticking off what you want on a sheet of paper.  The menu explains the various dishes available.

 
Will pouring his fancy Reserve Sapporo and me very badly lit.

 
Extra sauces – no recollection what they are (it’s been awhile!); Vietnamese Spring Rolls (one is off the plate) – extremely tasty

 
These are the Pork Puffs and they might just be my absolute favorite – superbly tasty, oh so crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

 
Steamed bok choy.  Very good.  Somehow they stay very hot.

 
Shrimp shitake dumplings – they’re good but I think the seafood dumplings are better; now the Crispy Prawn Balls – they’re amazing and this raspberry-y sauce they come with *drool*.  We were literally dipping the random fried bits that fell off the balls in the rest of the sauce.

I wasn’t terribly impressed with the Crispy asparagus – the asparagus was kind of soggy.  The Char Sui Buns are tasty.  Basically the honey bbq filling from the Pork Puffs in my next favorite packaging, the sticky bun.

Will had the Satay Squid – he liked it.  I’m not a fan of squid.  We really enjoy the sticky rice parcels and stuck with the traditional rice – chicken, pork, and king prawns wrapped in a lotus leaf.

 
These are the Chicken and King Prawn Shu Mai.  I don’t recall being terribly impressed by them.

The aftermath of all the tastiness.

All in all it was great.  The service this time was merely a little flighty rather than a bit rude.  We sat in the bar area and got some of the dishes at happy hour prices which was nice.  It can get a bit pricey like sushi or tapas.

fall 2010 tv preview

So we have a bit of a problem brewing.

See… the thing is we like our TV shows and we ♥ our DVR real hard and…

we’re going to be on vacation for the prime fall premiere weeks which wouldn’t be a problem…

except…

we got a new HD DVR box back in June.

It doesn’t know what we usually watch yet and we can’t set it more than a week in advance. Stupid Cox.

So here’s our predicament:

• ANTM, CW, 8pm, 9/8 – it’s currently in reruns and premieres before we leave
• Gossip Girl, CW, 9pm, 9/13 – it’s in reruns and we’ll still be in town
• Parenthood,* NBC, 10pm, 9/14 – we can set it before we leave
• HIMYM,* CBS, 8pm, 9/20 – reruns
• Mike & Molly, CBS, 9:30pm, 9/20 – new show but it’s within the week window so we can set it before we leave. I ♥ Melissa McCarthy.
• Glee,* Fox, 8pm, 9/21 – would have been just beyond what we could set ourselves but it’s in reruns
• Modern Family,* ABC, 9pm, 9/22 – reruns
• Bones,* Fox, 8pm, 9/23 – reruns
• The Big Bang Theory,* CBS, 8pm, 9/23 – reruns
• 30 Rock,* NBC, 8:30pm, 9/23 – reruns
• Grey’s Anatomy, ABC, 9pm, 9/23 – here’s where we start to run into problems
• The Office,† NBC, 9pm, 9/23 – um, I think it’s in reruns. I’ll have to check for Will.
• Private Practice, ABC, 10pm, 9/23 – no reruns. Damn you, ABC, for not running reruns
• The Amazing Race,* CBS, 9pm, 9/26 – eek. AR is never on in reruns.
• Desperate Housewives, ABC, 9pm, 9/26 – ABC, why the hate on reruns?

I’ve got a request out for some help but we’ll see. I’m also afraid that the ones that are set using current reruns won’t work and that nearly 3 weeks of TV is going to kill the hard drive space on our DVR and we’ll miss things anyway even after all of our careful planning.

* denotes what we watch together.
† the one show that I refuse to watch.
Everything else is mine and mine alone. I have awesome taste in TV.

And a thanks to a FB friend for the premiere schedule that I was so desperately looking for yesterday. Found here.

goals and projects – a one year review

I decided that since it’s been a year since I originally started this whole thing with the goals and projects, I would take a look at how I’m doing against the original lists.

Goals:

• Lose 10-15 lbs. – Ha.
• Be able to lift 25-30 lbs dead weight with one arm at a time. – again.  Ha!
• Be able to touch my toes. Just takes yoga.

Projects: (in no particular order)

1. change thermostat to programmable
2. refinish kitchen table 
3. recaulk tub
4. sell extraneous stuff on eBay
5. organize the basement, in particular label all the bins and boxes in progress
6. wedding album - professional and snapfish
7. clean refrigerator
8. clean wood floors
9. figure out our bedroom furniture
10. honeymoon pictures and scrapbook
11. clean snuffles
12. get my knees checked out
13. Christmas stockings - Leia, Sara, Autumn, Austin and Will. 
14. sort through stuff at parents' homes in progress
15. burn CD for Liz of geological pictures from NZ
16. get the bathroom fixed - ceiling, drains, and tub faucet in progress

That’s not too bad.  Out of 16 original projects, 6 of them are finished, 3 are in progress, 1 was done and has to be done again, and parts of 2 others are done.  Maybe I’ll get on some of the others soon.

g&p – 12 months

I would like to begin by saying – holy cow, it’s been a year.

Second, August was ridiculously busy so no projects got worked on, no blog posts were written, and a lot of other things fell by the wayside.

fitness goals:

• I want to run 2 days a week, swim 2 days a week and do something, be it softball, bike riding, yoga, more running and swimming etc, 2 of the remaining 3 days of the week. I’ve been pretty good at keeping up with the running though I’ve kind of stalled at about 3 miles 3-4 times a week.  We walked ~4.5 miles yesterday for something different.
• I’m going to start with doing bicep and triceps curls while I do my single leg stands –  I’m just getting flabby.
• I will continue to do my PT exercises. it’s hard to keep up with the exercises when it’s not really bothering me to run.
• Food goals.  I need to be better about what I eat.
  • Do not visit the vending machine once a day. I’ve been doing better.
  • Lay off the ice cream. I haven’t had much ice cream lately, opting instead for granola, plain yogurt and fruit.
  • Eat more fruit.  This is a new one and I’ve been getting about 2-3 portions (I won’t say servings since I have no concept of what a serving should be) of fruit most days of the week in the last 2-3 weeks.  A banana before work, fruit with lunch or as an afternoon snack and then an apple as I leave work.

projects: (in no particular order)

1. change thermostat to programmable.
2. refinish kitchen table – This is going to be labor intensive so I remain lazy.
3. recaulk tub – I’m thinking that if we can swing it, the morning before we leave for vacation might be a good day.
4. sell extraneous stuff on eBay – I still haven’t started.  I’m losing my window for some things to sell well.
5. organize the basement, in particular label all the bins and boxes – no further progress.  No Time!
6. honeymoon scrapbook
7. clean Snuffles
8. Christmas stockings - Sara, Autumn, Austin and Will – I’m planning to pull Sara’s out for the drive to NJ and to go to Ireland.  I was kicking myself for not taking it on our trip to Ohio a few weeks ago – that was dumb.
9. sort through stuff at parents' homes – We’re going to spend some time down in the basement in NJ this coming weekend hopefully.
10. get the bathroom fixed - ceiling, drains, and tub faucet – I have had several discussions with the landlord and his handyman about the repairs.  Ralph, the handyman, is supposed to come take a look at things next Wednesday.
11. organize recipes – I suck.