Erin goes and goes

I drove home from Ashland on Friday night and mom kindly helped me re-pack my bag to include all the birthday goodies for Emmet's party and drove me to the airport for my Aer Lingus flight on Saturday afternoon. After a pretty good flight (only on screaming baby and I was able to get some sleep), my met my high school roommate Sarah (and her sister) at the airport in Dublin and we took a bus (and the subway) back to her house for an episode of Father Ted and a short nap before walking around her neighborhood. Then she took me to the bus that would take me to Clonmel (she even packed me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the trip with lots of black currant jam). The bus ride was good (and I got to sleep for a little while). I was worried (only a little) about meeting Bridget in Clonmel but as luck would have it, she and Orrin (and the boys) were only their way back home and were right behind my bus! On Monday, Bridget and I visited Cahair castle and then returned home to decorate for Emmet's birthday party. I think that everyone had a good time (there were about 30+ kids!). So after unwinding a bit on Monday night (and watching a few episodes of The Office). Bridget dropped off Orrin at work and went to the Rock of Cashel (where I saw St. Patrick's Cross) and to Kilkenny castle (which was updated during the Victorian period so it really only looks like a castle from the outside, the only way you can really tell is the thickness of the windows). And today we went to Blarney Castle were Bridget, Silas, Emmet and I climbed the 127 steps to the top and Bridget and I kissed the Blarney stone! We also walked around the gardens of the castle (which were beautiful) and stopped for some gelato (and a patch for my bag) before heading to Cobh on the coast. Cobh was the last stop of the Titanic before it crossed the ocean (and sank) and an emigration point during the Great Famine. There is statue commemorating the first person to immigrate through Ellis Island who left from Cobh. This sounds like a lot, but we don't have too much planned for tomorrow morning, so we will relax a little bit.

And Bridget will be posting pictures soon!!

T- minus 3 days

In three days, I will be on my way to Ireland to visit my roommate from the Academy and Bridget (and family). I am really excited about going. I will be really busy at work for the rest of week so it will be really good to get a break from work (and not think about work or dream about it). I'm mostly packed (most importantly I've picked out the few books that I would bring with me). I even went to the post office to hold my mail while I'll be gone. I totally feel like such an adult now, you know making lots of preparations and making sure that I won't be behind at work when I get back. Add to that the fact that it is time for re-enroll in the benefits program at work and I am definitely not a student anymore.

HANK: I know I'll never love your feet as much as they do, but the way I look at it, you're like a fully loaded truck. The big tires are part of the package. You pay extra to get those really big tires. Now, why are you crying? You know how much I want a new truck.

Baby you can drive my car

This ad from the UK make me want cake and be really impressed at the same time:

Colorization

For the past few days, I have been watching a lot a black and white movies. I saw Harper (with Paul Newman) on Saturday (which is in color) but then I caught the last (really suspenseful) 15 minutes of the black and white thriller "The Spiral Staircase" with Dorthy Maguire and Ethel Barrymore. After that I watched "The Enchanted Cottage" with Dorthy Maguire. I have never heard of this movie prior to seeing it on TCM on Saturday night. It's about a scarred World War II veteran who finds love with a plain house maid. The play the movie was based on was commissioned by the British government after the end of World War I to create compassion for returning soldiers. And then on Sunday, I watched "Mildred Pierce" with Joan Crawford. I mostly just yelled got annoyed at the daughter Veda. And then Tuesday and Wednesday, I watched "Lady Eve" with Barbra Stanwyck and Henry Fonda and "To Have and Have Not" with Lauren Bacall and Humprey Bogart. And for this weekend (while I work on a baby quilt) I have "Dark Victory" (Bette Davis), "Kiss Me Deadly" (Mike Hammer film noir) and "I'll Be Seeing You" (with one my very favorite actors: Joseph Cotten).

HANK: We used to make movies all the time. Dale, you practically slept with that little camcorder.
DALE: "Practically?" I was going to be the next Zapruder. Except nobody shot a president after that. Nobody that knew what he was doing.

Laughter for one

I heard an interview with the guy who created Father Ted and he talked about his new show called the IT Crowd and I've been watching the show for the past week. This episode is my favorite and since the show is about 24 minutes long, I'll just post the funniest part. The show is about a woman (Jen) with no computer experience become the head of the IT department. In this episode, Jen has her period (for which she uses the euphemism Aunt Irma is visiting) which causes the two IT guys (Moss and Roy) to think that they share her symptoms. Moss sends out a email to every IT person he knows to see if someone else has this symptoms. And hilarity ensures.

Kings and Queen

I didn't do a book review last week because I was up in Ann Arbor helping Rachel prepare for her awesome Halloween party. But this week I do have a review of "The New Kings of Nonfiction" which is a collection of essays/articles edited by Ira Glass from "This American Life". I will admit that I skipped over some of the essays (I couldn't get into the essay and skipped the rest). But the articles that I did, I enjoyed a lot. The topics were quite varied from the SEC charged a 13-year old to 6 degrees of separation to an interview with Val Kilmer. I think my favorite essay was one by Susan Orleans about her interview with a 10 year old boy. Although the one about Val Kilmer was pretty good, Val comes off as both completely wacky at times but also totally normal. I really enjoyed Ira Glass' preface on why he chose some of the essays or more specifically the authors of the article. When I was younger, I would also skip the preface to book until I read this incredible preface to "Persuasion" written by Margret Drabble and since then I always read the preface (although sometimes after the book in case part of the plot is discussed in the preface). What I love with a good preface is an insight to the author frame of mind which often makes me enjoy the book more.