November

Yesterday was Thanksgiving.  We hosted the dinner and I cooked a turkey by myself!  Thankfully I had some help from Facebook when I couldn't locate the giblet bag.  We had kind of smelled some plastic and my husband was trying to blame it on my oven bag.  No, no.  It would be the giblet bag that was still in the turkey.  Luckily the bird had only been in the oven for 20 minutes and we were able to fish out the bag before a total catastrophe occurred.

We had a small gathering.  My husband's aunt and one of her daughters attended, along with her SIL and grandson.  Her son's daughter also attended.  And the husband's uncle too.  We had a ton of food and it turned out ok.  Thankfully I bought a small turkey, so I don't have much for leftovers.

In other news...I got to help shoot a wedding earlier this month and that was my first real test of shooting in manual mode.  My pictures came out better than I expected and everyone was pleased.  That's a good feeling! 

Last weekend I got to enjoy the perks of working with photographers and was able to get my pictures taken for our Christmas card this year.  I edited the pics and designed my own Christmas card, so I am pretty excited to send them out this year.  Here is just one of the pics from the shoot...I may share the Christmas one later.  I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!

Busy much?

Hmmm, I haven't posted anything since mid-August...what happened?  I'll tell you what happened.  School started and photography business picked up and I have been busy, busy, busy!  Here's a quick rundown of what's been happening the past couple months:

*We have a new superintendent and with that comes a lot of new "stuff" we have to do.  It's been quite a change and quite an adjustment.

*I have been helping the photographers with sessions, diva parties, and editing photos.  Lots of this is after working at school all day, so I'm not getting much couch potato time!

*My neighbor with the THREE dead pine trees at the back of our property and his is being a turd after one of his trees fell and took out my fence and broke windows in my garage.  I guess technically he now has two dead trees, but I might make sure he gets every piece of the one on my fence back.

*My washing machine went out and I got to buy a new one.  The new one plays music when it finishes a cycle!

That's my life in a nutshell!

Photoshop!

Ok, so I will soon be helping a local photography studio with some of their editing.  This is the same studio that I help with the Diva birthday parties, and just recently have helped with lighting some location photo shoots.  So I have been studying up on Photoshop, got a mini-lesson from one of the photographers on how to use it, and have been reading tutorials online and playing around some more.  I thought I would share some of my pics I have edited with you!  Now these are edited a bit more than you would someone's portrait, but I am having fun playing. :) Just a reminder that if you click on the actual picture, it will blow it up larger for you to see.

A Letter to Lowes

Dear Lowes,

I am very disappointed with Lowes.  I needed to replace my cooktop, and since I live 40 miles away from a Lowes store I started browsing Lowes and other websites. I found Lowes had the best price, and found the model I wanted, but according to the website my store didn't carry it and I would have to order it.  So I did.  I waited 3 weeks and then called to check the status of the order.  Previously I had checked and was told I would be called by an associate as soon as it arrived.  Yes, the phone number they had on file was correct.  Well, I never got a call, so when I called today they said that it had been ready for pickup for a while.  This was mildly irritating because being without a cooktop for 3 weeks is tricky. So tonight my husband and I arrived at Lowes to pick up the cooktop and when they brought it we noticed the styrofoam packing block was busted. (We have driven the 40 miles back home just to open boxes of broken stuff before, so we try to always check before we leave now.) So we lifted that up and the cooktop we waited 3 weeks for was dented.  So the customer service guy thinks about what to do for a minute and then informs us that they actually carry that model in the store!  So I waited 3 weeks for a dented cooktop that I ordered only because the Lowes website said it wasn't carried in the store, and that no one was apparently going to call and let me know it had arrived anyway.  I guess next time I need something I will pay more and go to Home Depot.

Sincerely,

Heather

(I did actually send this to Lowes already...jerks!  And we did get a non-dented cooktop that the store had in stock. Grrr)

Random Ireland Observations

• The people are super-duper nice.  Seriously.
• There are not many fat Irish people.  I think part of this is because they don't drink soda like we do.  When I did order a Coke, it always came in a small size (with no ice) and there were no free refills.  I think the other part is because a lot of them walk or ride bicycles everywhere.
• The Irish don't use ice!  Our hotel room was lacking an ice bucket.  When we got water with our meals, there were no cups full of ice.  However, the beer was chilled!
• Using an ATM was an extremely easy and effective way to manage money while we were there.  Credit cards worked fine too.  Also, Post Offices would exchange currency.
• The paid parking system confused the tar out of us.  Parking garages had you pay the fee at a kiosk before you got back in your car to leave.  Pay-and-display parking was scratch-off ticket looking things for sale at the Post Office and maybe elsewhere in Limerick.  In Ennis there was a machine on the sidewalk that printed out a ticket for you to put in your car.  It was all just very strange because we didn't know how it all worked the first few days. 
• Bono sings about "where the streets have no name", and many of the streets in fact had no name.  Thankful for the GPS, even though I cursed at it 80% of the time.
• The roads are crazy narrow and curvy, with stone walls overgrown with shrubs that will scrape the side of your car constantly if you stay on your "side".
• The people are really nice!
• The countryside was so breathtakingly beautiful...yet stinky.  Sheep don't smell great.

Ireland Trip Part 8...Dublin

Sorry for the time lapse between posts, but my laptop power cord burned out and then I went on a trip to visit the familia in Kansas.  This series of Ireland posts should be about finished though!  It's hard to believe that exactly one month ago we were flying to Ireland.  Anyway, our last day in Ireland we drove the 2 whole hours across the country to Dublin for one purpose...to visit the Guinness Storehouse.

Dublin did have a bit of traffic, but it also had something we had been missing.  Traffic lights!  No roundabouts here!  The part we drove through looked kind of trashy, so we didn't think Dublin was much nicer than Limerick at all.  We made it to the Storehouse without incident.  I had pre-booked tickets to save a couple euros, and was I glad I had.  There was a huge foreign tour group getting tickets at the counter, and we were able to go to the self-serve kiosk and right through the gates.

The tour was self-guided, but we learned a lot, and there was so much to look at.  The bar at the top had a panoramic view of Dublin where we enjoyed a tasty pint.  We visited the Guinness Store and bought several t-shirts, pint glasses, and other little trinkets.  We even bought some Guinness chocolate bars, and they were definitely interesting.  Then we used another coupon I had to eat lunch on site, and there was another unexpected surprise...an ice bucket!  Were we in heaven?

The hubs surprisingly didn't want to traipse around Dublin, so we hopped back in the car and on the way back stopped in Roscrea.  There was another castle tour we did there and we walked around a bit.  After that we went back to Limerick and chilled.  It was a fun, but exhausting vacation!  I wanted to start packing things up, taking inventory of souvenirs for the customs form, and just little stuff like that, so we ordered room service.  Bad idea.  We did get them to send up a bucket of ice, but the food we received was rather nasty.  At this point I was really missing "normal" food and was ready to get home just to have something I knew I would like.

As always, a few pics from the day:

View of Dublin from top of Guinness Storehouse

Roscrea

Roscrea

Looks are VERY deceiving

Ireland Trip Part7...the husband's plans

At this point we had seen pretty much everything that I absolutely *had* to see.  So I gave the day to my husband to plan.  He's not a big planner, he's more of just do whatever we come upon.  This was hard for me, but I managed to survive the day...barely!  We started off at John Street Deli again.  My husband wanted more of their tasty breakfast.  Then he wanted to walk aimlessly about the streets of Limerick some more.  So we did that for a little while.  Then we decided to hop in the car and drive to a castle we had passed a few times on our other adventures.  He didn't want to do too much driving this day because the next day we were going to Dublin.  Anyway, we found Knappogue Castle and toured it.  It was sprinkling on us pretty good, so I actually didn't get too many pictures of the exterior of the castle.  This castle had a couple of very pretty gardens too.

After we had our fill of the castle, we found ourselves in Quin and walked around the ruins of the Quin Friary.  Unfortunately, this was a Monday, and this was the only day the friary was closed, so we didn't get to go in.  But the headstones were neat to look at and the outside of the building was really cool.

Then we went on to the nearby town of Ennis.  This is where I had intended us to go when we arrived in Ireland, but talk about crazy narrow streets, lots of traffic, and roundabouts galore.  Not a good idea for someone who is learning to drive on the left from the wrong side of the car.  Anyway, we figured out the pay-and-display parking and got a map from the tourism office.  Then we went to the Ennis Friary and took some pictures.  They are in the process of restoring this site, so it was one of the few free attractions we found.  After that we walked around Ennis aimlessly (again, not something I am good at doing since I like to walk with a purpose) and found a nice little place to have lunch.

After that we got our Ireland book out and found another castle to go to.  This was Dysert O'Dea, and it was pretty cool. It was more museum-y than any of the other castles we had been to.  I found my family name on one of the displays!  And surrounding the castle within a 2 mile radius (supposedly) were 25 other historical sites to see.  We purchased the map and started tromping through cow pastures.  We found the high cross and that was really cool.  Then we went on to the church and monks' tower.  From there we found an old lodge building that had seen better days.  And then we were supposed to walk past some supposedly haunted house.  That's when things went wrong.  Somehow we missed the trail and just kept walking.  And walking.  And walking.  And walking.  That's when I kept telling my husband that I just knew we were lost, that we passed that house a long time ago!  He pulled out the map and tried to tell me we were ok.  Then some random giant of a dog came upon us in the road and barked and snapped and I thought we were going to die!  Well, maybe not die, but I did really think my husband was going to get bit because he kept talking to the dog and running from it!  So when we were past the ferocious beast, I reviewed the top rules of dog safety with him.

Just when I was about to break down into tears because we were lost, I see a sign that says we are 2 km from the castle.  So we walk and walk and walk and walk some more.  Then finally we come upon another sign that says we are 2 km from the castle!  WHAT?!  I thought we were 2 km away 2 km ago!  So I was on the verge of tears again because my feet hurt and I thought we would never ever get back to the castle.  But we finally did. 

My poor husband.  He thought that was the greatest walk ever until the first time I almost cried.  I'm just a fun ruiner.  Here are some pics from the day:

Knappogue Castle window

Knappogue Castle Great Hall

Knappogue Castle

Quin Friary

Ennis Friary

Ennis Friary

Dysert O'Dea

Church at Dysert O' Dea

High Cross  at Dysert O' Dea

The road that never ends...

Ireland Trip Part 6...Adare, Blarney, and Fethard

The fourth day of our trip was a lot of driving.  Two of the things I wanted to see were 1 1/2 hours away...from each other, and from the hotel.  So we started off with a short drive to Adare, which is billed as the "prettiest village in Ireland."  I guess because of this, it was a major tourist mecca.  We're talking huge chartered buses full of old people descending upon the town.  So the hubs and I ate breakfast and then decided to tour the Adare (Desmond) Castle since we love castles!  We hopped on a bus with the tour guide, and had a rather private tour since no one else went at that time. :)  It was very informational and the ruins were pretty cool.  I think this is when we started to really gain a hatred for Oliver Cromwell and his dismantling of so many castles and wonderful buildings in Ireland.  Curse you, Cromwell!  We walked around the town a bit and popped into a few shops.  Then we went on the first 1.5 hour drive south to Blarney.

Blarney Castle probably comes in second place to Bunratty.  It was a pretty well-preserved castle.  There was a cave that the husband walked through (I told you previously that I decided I wasn't a cave person).  Then we explored the castle and walked the 125-ish horrible castle steps to the top, where the Blarney Stone is!  Basically the legend says those who kiss the stone will be bestowed with the gift of eloquence.  So I decided to kiss it so I could be the best bull-shitter around!  After that we walked the castle ground and found a really beautiful park inside.  There was the witch's kitchen tucked under a great tree, druid stones, and lots of other cool little things.  We could almost imagine being back in time and walking through the woods.  So when we got done there, we walked over to Blarney Woolen Mills, which is apparently the largest shop in Ireland.  It was full of souvenirs, clothes, home goods, and all kinds of stuff. 

After we bought some great little things, we went back to the car for the next 1.5 hour drive to Fethard.  This was a trip that was all my own doing and totally out of the way.  My husband was a good sport and took me though!  I wanted to go to Fethard, because they have a pub called P.J. Lonergan's!  This is my dad's name!  I just had to get a picture.  When we arrived, the place was packed!  Standing-room only!  There was some game on that everyone was watching, so there was a lot of yelling and shouting.  Too scary for us chickens to go in and join. Ha!  However, Lonergan's also owns a restaurant next door called Oriental Gardens.  So we did pop in there and ate some Chinese food.  Chinese food in Ireland tastes a lot like it does in Texas.  Only they had something called "prawn crackers" which I didn't try.  Michael said they weren't too fishy, but they just looked weird and nothing about a fish cracker sounded good to me.

So after we had our fill of Fethard, it was back in the car for another 1.5 hour trip to Limerick.  Home sweet home.  We went to bed around 10 that night, and then at 11 I heard booming noises and jumped out of bed hollering, "fireworks!".  Sure enough, they were shooting fireworks over the river for their ending to the 4-day long 4th of July festival!  I still think it's hilarious that not only do they celebrate the 4th, they celebrate it 3 days longer than we do.  Here are some pics from the day:

Full tourist mode in Adare...that's me!

Adare

Adare

Beautiful gardens all over Adare!

Adare (Desmond) Castle

Me and our tour guide!

View from inside the castle of the River Maigue

Blarney Castle

About the stone...

Kissing the stone!

Fethard

Ireland Trip Part 5...Dingle Peninsula

Our third day in Ireland started off in search of cheap breakfast. After some googling, I found a place in Limerick called John's Street Deli that boasted a full Irish breakfast for around 6 euros.  This was a lot of food for cheap!  The full Irish breakfast here included eggs, pork and beans, two sausages, two ginormous pieces of bacon (Irish bacon is way different than our bacon), mushrooms, grilled tomato, and black and white pudding.  What is black and white pudding?  I will tell you it is *not* vanilla and chocolate!  It is some weird meat patty thing, and the black one is black because it includes congealed pig blood.  Is your mouth watering yet???  I skipped the full breakfast for some scrambled eggs and bacon.  But Michael choked gobbled down every bite of his.  Needless to say, we skipped lunch that day. 

After breakfast we walked on down to King John's Castle and then stepped into St. Mary's Cathedral.  Then we went on to do what I realllly wanted to do...drive the Dingle Peninsula.  We probably could have made a few more stops along the peninsula, but we had spent too much time in Limerick and stuff closes around 5 in Ireland.  Anyway, Michael wanted to see a beach, so the first stop we made was at Inch Beach.  Talk about some wind!  It was soooo cold too!  But we stayed and collected some shells and took a few pics.  Then we stopped at the Famine Houses and learned all about the potato famine that killed so many people.  Next stop was the Blasket Island Centre, where we learned a great deal about the island and the people who lived there at one time.  And then finally we stopped in the town of Dingle for a bite to eat.  We met an older Irish gentleman on the street, who was telling my husband what a good-lookin' woman he was with. ;)  We chatted for a few minutes and then asked where was a good place to eat and ended up at Danno's.  I had the best hamburger I have ever eaten in my life!  Then we headed back to Limerick.  This was a lot of driving in one day, but it was a great day!  Here are some pics:

King John's Castle

St. Mary's Cathedral

St. Mary's Cathedral

Inch Beach

Famine House

Dingle harbor

Along the peninsula...

Ireland Trip Part 4...Cliffs of Moher and Doolin Cave

After we spent a lovely morning at Bunratty Castle and Folk Park, we drove on to the Cliffs of Moher.  When we arrived we noticed the wind was blowing pretty great, and it was definitely chillier.  It was also super-duper foggy!  Pretty much the entire time we were in Ireland the sky was covered in clouds and it sprinkled on us a little each day.  The Cliffs are simply breath-taking.  They are also somewhat famous, being the "Cliffs of Insanity" in The Princess Bride, and they also make an appearance in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.  Anyway, there is a nice exhibition center, a few shops, and then of course the Cliffs.  There was a safe trail to walk along part of the way, and then we came to a fence that said "DANGER! KEEP OUT! PRIVATE PROPERTY!" that everyone and their dog were hopping over to keep walking along the cliffs.  So, we trespassed with the rest and got some more  pictures and maybe got a little too dangerously close to the edge.  If it hadn't been so foggy, we might have paid the extra euros to climb up in O'Brien's tower, but the further up we got, the less of the cliffs we could see due to the fog.

So after we had our fill of the cliffs, we saw a sign on our way out for Doolin Cave.  So we drove on a little bit further and visited the cave.  This was the first cave I've ever been in that wasn't part of an exhibit at the zoo. Afterwards, I decided I am not a cave person.  I didn't like the water dripping on me, stepping in puddles, crouching through narrow passageways, hitting my helmeted head on the cave ceiling, or the overall spookiness of it.  But we did see what the dude said was one of the largest free-hanging living stalactites in the world.  It was pretty cool I guess.  So we stared at it for a while, learned more history of the cave which was interesting, and then climbed the 120 steps back up to the top.  Again, I'll leave you with a few pics.

Us at the Cliffs of Moher

Cliffs of Moher

The great stalactite at Doolin Cave

The great stalactite at Doolin Cave

Ireland Trip Part 3...Bunratty Castle and Folk Park

Our first adventure was to Bunratty Castle and Folk Park.  This castle was maybe 20 minutes from our hotel so it was a good choice for the husband, who was still getting the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road from the wrong side of the car.  After a bumpy start the day before, we now had a GPS and were good to go!

There is a long history at this site, but the present castle structure was rebuilt in 1425.  This was my first experience with castle "stumble" steps, and I can tell you honestly that I hate castle steps!  They are called stumble steps because that's what they were designed to do...stumble enemies that tried to run up them.  They are narrow, spiral, and all different heights!  So I walked like a 100-year-old woman up and down these steps, while Michael ran.  Show-off.

They didn't allow flash photography inside the castle, and it was too dim for me to get many pictures.  However, I took a few in the Folk Park, which is a 19th century village outside the castle.  I love thatched roofs! Bunratty was one of the nicer castles we visited, and the village was really cool too.  I would highly recommend this to anyone traveling to Ireland.  Lots to see in one place!

The Castle

Me at the top

One of the cute houses in the village.

Church tower

Ireland Trip Part 2...Limerick

Way back in February when I booked the trip on Orbitz, I selected a hotel in Limerick to stay in.  Limerick wasn't far from the airport we were flying in to, and it seemed like a pretty central location to everything we wanted to see.  The Clarion Hotel Limerick had received good reviews and it had a waterfront location, so I booked away!  Later on I decided to Google "Limerick", and kept reading stuff about it being nicknamed "stab city".  Great!  So I had no intentions of leaving the hotel and wandering about Limerick ever. But, the husband had different ideas.  We did a lot of walking and exploring on the streets of Limerick.  And we didn't get stabbed or witness any stabbings.  In fact, people we met in Dublin said that the "stab city" nickname was all political in order to make Dublin look better.  Limerick isn't that bad.  HA!

Limerick isn't the cleanest of towns.  There is a major problem with dog poop on the sidewalks.  There was graffiti everywhere ("true artists", as one local explained to us).  But the River Shannon was pretty, the people were nice, the beer was cold, and the food was decent.

Michael in Limerick

Clarion Hotel Limerick

River Shannon

I told you it was a major problem!