Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Today, my baby brother is 22. Now, as with other members of my family this year, I realise how few photos I have to show off on my blog, so I scanned a couple that I have displayed in my house. Kevin is 11, 14 and 18 in these photos ... he was cute, eh? Obviously a common thing involving fish in these photos. It's the Looney-family favorite pass-time. The first two are photos of when Kevin would travel to Minnesota to visit me in the summer and I would take him to the Boundary Waters. We camped near Isabel after a horrendous thunder storm in the first photo. We stayed in a friend's cabin on Hobo Lake near Ely in the second. And then he graduated from high school. Kevin is on track to graduate from college this year. How did I get this old???

Happy Birthday, Kevin!

Visit to Cork Ireland

Hiya! I just got back from a long weekend in Cork, Ireland! I joined my friend, Rebecca who was in town to do some work with Apple. She came into town early in order to adjust to the time, visit with me and do some sightseeing. I arrived Thursday and tried to get the lay of the land. Rebecca arrived Friday and tried to stay awake until 8pm [not easy!]. We spent our time on Friday exploring the High Street in Cork. I saw this store and it reminded me of Mo whose maiden name is Guiney. The store reminded me of her, too. Lots of stuff and lots of bargains! There were all sorts of treasures to be discovered inside!

On Saturday we picked up a rental car and ventured out to Kinsale. It's a cool little touristy town with lots of shops and a few good restaurants. The guidebook pages that Rebecca had said we should eat at Fishy Fish Cafe'. We did and THIS was my lunch! The prawn was posed. It was very good, but I had to make a spectacle of myself and take a picture of this before I ate it. The back "legs" are crab meat on avocado with Bearnaise and mayonnaise. It was really good, but unexpectedly creative!

On Sunday we started out early and made a stop in Kilarney for breakfast. Not much has changed. Nothing is open before 9am. I was in Kilarney in 2004 with my folks. The center of town has horse drawn carriages that will take you on tour and down to Ross Castle. The square where they begin has been redone and now has a nice public toilet facility, but otherwise, nothing has changed. We stopped at the castle to take a few photos and there was a fishing tournament beginning. All of the boats were in the water huddled together, and then they took off! [Somehow the guy in the orange shirt got in both of my shots!]

After this stop, we headed for the Ring of Kerry. When I was last there in 2004, it was a rainy, cloudy day and I was driving so I really never saw the Ring. We had great weather on Sunday, so we took full advantage. About half-way around [North-to-South], there was a sign to go to the Skellig Ring. We thought it was a destination and the road turned closer to the water, so we followed it. It ended up being a great detour. We saw two different house ruins right ON the water. One was being reclaimed.

We had lunch in a fishing village with the locals who were watching Gaelic Football, which looks like a combination between soccer and rugby. It's played with a round ball, 15 players each team and you can kick the ball in the net or over the uprights. And in order to advance the ball down the field, you can carry [but for a short distance], kick to yourself, kick to your teammate, or laterally pass the ball. It's very fast-moving. Rebecca was not as impressed with our bar-mates, however! I looked up the game on Wikipedia, and my description was spot on! If you're interested in more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaelic_football

Then we saw a sign that boasted that for a 15-minute walk, you could see the "Best Views in Kerry". I was up for this. Rebecca was not! I considered leaving her for the 30 minutes it would take to see if this was true, but then thought better of it and we continued down the road. Only to find that a farm house had posted the same sign and for 2.50 Euros each, we could borrow a pair of binoculars and walk up their amply built trail to the cliff's edge. Mind you, as we were entering, a cute older couple were disassembling their scooter from the Scooter Store, so this was NOT going to be a difficult climb. From the top of the cliff to the water is about 1000 ft. It was not quite as grand as the Cliffs of Mohr ... especially since there was a sign at the end of the path that said 'Viewpoint Is Here". But we had access to a clean toilet [no paper] and our friendship remains in tact because I didn't billy goat it up the hill without my friend. In all, a good day!

Dog days ... of spring!

It's been a while since I have written about the dogs, so today might be as good of a day as any for an update.

It started out with our usual activity. The neighborhood squirrel was busy snacking on the squirrel trap food [peanuts in the bird feeder] and he [or she, who knows?] is making progress on chewing his / her way through the mesh to eat all of the peanuts.

This morning the squirrel was there. Allie was standing at the door, but truth be told, she doesn't care about the squirrel. In fact, I opened the door slightly, the squirrel saw Allie and promptly jumped onto the fence, across the yard and into his tree. Allie watched. What I didn't notice, is that Misty saw the squirrel from the landing in the house and was in full pursuit and headed for the door. Our timing was off as she had a head start on me and I couldn't get the door open fast enough, and she smashed into the sliding glass door! I'm not sure how, but nothing was broken, glass, teeth or nose!

As it has been unusually warm [75-80 degrees] and dry and the days are long, the girls and I walk every evening for about two hours. Tonight we took a bit of different route in our cow field. [Incidentally, there are about 1/4 as many cows in the field as there were just two weeks ago. Hmm...] The dogs were busy chasing rabbits, at least a deer or two [though I didn't see them] and these little "gophers" appear along the edge of the briers [Blackberry bushes and yes, they have big thorns].

We divert into the wood. Actually, a more open wood as it is windy and cooling down. Lesson learned for me: do not wear crop pants when walking through the Stinging Nettle. My legs are still tingling.

Anyway, we find the spring, dogs drink and Allie takes off on one of her many hunts. She does this a lot. We lose her for a bit. I call her back, and she returns. She returned this time looking more like a fox. She was covered in foul, cow-smelling, black molasses-like mud on her entire under-belly. The spring wasn't deep enough to clean her off!

When we returned to the house, she went straight into the tub as ALL of my carpeting is off-white [who does that-?]. We have no dog shampoo as I haven't bathed the dogs in years. Bluegrass Kennels took care of that for me [yes, they spoiled me]. I used some shampoo. Have I mentioned this tub is the size of a small boat, that to get the shower handle to work, you have to hold the knob up, and that my hot water tank is broken??? So is my back after trying to remove the pungent paste from Allie. And the way, the only time she is not happy is when she is being bathed.

Bfn! I'm off to the Emerald Isle!

Spring Sports

In the month of May, football will finish. And in the month of May, Cricket has started, as well as lawn bowling, both seen here at the local Portishead pitches taken this weekend. There are a lot of reasons to wear white when playing sports here in the UK, I guess. Personally, I don't get it!
Spring is here and I am definitely enjoying the longer days. The sun rises by 630 and sets after 830, and it's not the summer soltice yet. I have plenty of time to spend 2+ hours a day walking and exploring Portishead. I also made it back to the docks in Portishead where this new exhibit has been erected celebrating the UK's history with the sea. The pillars are set up to look like waves, and each has an inspiration carved. Getting to it is another story as it is still in the middle of a construction site, but it is pretty impressive!

Lastly, it is very important to note that Manchester United will be traveling to Moscow to play Chelsea for the Union of Eurpean Football Association [UEFA] on 21 May. This is an all-England play-off and the host city travels like the Superbowl. UEFA represents the national football associations of Europe, runs Europewide national and club competitions, and controls the prize money, regulations and media rights to those competitions.

http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={D90E226E-325D-4992-A29A-794945874D65}&categoryid=120

By the way, this is different from the results of the Premier League, the English league in which both Manchester United and Chelsea both play. Manchester is still favored to win, but Chelsea is not far off.

New words or phrases:

Gutted - means unhappy to miss, as in "I feel gutted about the meeting yesterday"

Trip to the tip - means gathering you recycling and trash, usually over a holiday weekend, and taking it to the recycling center and/or dump

The cat's mother - something that is really cool, kind of like saying "the cat's pajama's" though how many cats do you know wear pajamas?

Bfn!