Thursday, October 27, 2011

The Mouth of Babes

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, my husband and I spent some time with his friend’s children. There were three of them – A boy (age 5), a girl (age 4) and a baby boy of 6 months. The two older children kept us occupied with games and stories. They were both very sweet and polite. Most of the fun things that we experienced were what they said to us about daily life.

• We went walking around a place that had many trees. I pointed out to the girl that the tops of the trees were losing their leaves. She informed me that the trees were going ‘bald’.

• When they caught my husband without his wedding ring, they asked him if he was married because their parents never took their rings off. He explained that he often took off his ring at night. They notified him that their parents were married even when they slept. I admit that I thought they had a good point of picking on him about this particular topic.

• One morning I came down the stairs in my pajamas. They asked me why I was still in my pajamas. I told them that I had just woken up. They mentioned that my husband had just woken up but he was dressed. I didn’t explain to them that what they thought was dressed up for my husband was really still his pajamas. I told them that I wanted to take a shower first so that I could get dressed. They seemed a little more satisfied with this answer than with my first one.

• We visited a place where a big stone tower stood in the middle of a field. At the bottom of the tower was a window into which the little girl poked her head and say “Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!”

• My husband was taking a lot of pictures and the boy asked him if he liked taking pictures. My husband told him “No, I love taking pictures. And I hate taking pictures!” To which the boy replied “Well that makes no sense!” My husband enjoyed antagonizing the kids. He often answered all their questions in ‘No’.

• At one point the girl asked me if my husband’s favorite word was ‘No’. I told her yes it was his favorite word. She then questioned me about what his ‘worst’ word was. And I informed her that it was also ‘No’. She made a face and asked rhetorically “No is his bestest word and his worst word?”

• One day the girl was trying to nap. She noticed that I was watching her so she pretended to nap by closing her eyes and snoring. After a while she asked me if my husband snored. I told her that he did and that it was very loud. She persuaded me to ask him on her behalf. She knew that if she asked him, he would say ‘No’ (since this was his bestest and worst word after all). Indeed when I asked him, he replied that he did snore. She had figured my husband’s game out completely!

Kids usually do say the darndest things. And I always love to hear children with accents talk. It’s always great when you can get the benefit of both in your life.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Chirp, Chirp

As you can see I’ve been chronicling (to some extent) our recent visit to the island of shamrocks and Guinness! (I already mentioned the leprechauns in an earlier entry!) We saw a couple of my husband’s college buddies, some of whom I had never met. I had however heard lots about them so it was nice to finally put the face to the stories. One of his friends has 3 children so we spent some time with them too (more about them in future entries). All of it lovely, relaxing and fun.

My one complaint (aside from the small roads, thank you!) was that the grey, drizzly weather did something crazy to my hair. My hair is normally a bit disheveled in humidity. No matter how many products I have used, it’s hard to control certain koala hairs from sticking up. But in Ireland, a lot more of my hair was uncontrollable - more than the normal humidity levels in New York allow.

I would wet my hair; no luck. I would wear a hat; the minute I took it off, I was emulating Einstein’s coif. I kept expecting baby birds to poke out from the top of my head and chirp at me on a consistent basis.



The bird’s nest on my head was huge, after all. At times I thought small birds were the least of my concerns. I had to prepare myself for some ostriches to say hello.



I couldn’t put my finger on it. By the last few days, I gave up bothering. After all, it was a vacation. I didn’t need hair stress to subtract from it.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Temporary Surfaces

Driving through Ireland was a great experience. Seeing green hills and mountains surrounded by stone castles was lovely. Occasionally we’d spot cattle or a herd of sheep grazing as we sped by. It was quite memorable.

My husband got used to driving on the other side of the road quite quickly which was commendable. My only gripe was that many of the roads were far too small for the enormous trucks that occupied one of the mainly two lane roads. Being on the right side, I faced many close encounters with shrubs, vines, trees and cars. We definitely scratched my side of the car a bit but I think that was expected.

During one particular road trip, I noticed some signs that stated “temporary surfaces”. After seeing that sign we would cruise on a very lovely and smooth paved road for a stretch. It made me wonder why the government of Ireland wouldn’t invest in having those ‘temporary surfaces’ made permanent. Or was the temporary surface the gravelly, bumpy and pot-holed one? I do think it was one of those language differences that I might only be able to solve on another trip to Ireland!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

The Project Manager

Recently I’ve been working from home for a number of reasons. My next door neighbor has been doing some construction on his apartment so I have to deal with the noise of that work. Normally I’ve been keeping the window closed to drown out the racket. On some occasions though, it is a little harder to concentrate while the work is happening than other times.

Whenever the drills and hammering is happening, it’s not too bad for me to concentrate. However when the construction workers start to talk, it’s very hard. This has nothing to do with eavesdropping or anything. It has to do with one of my dogs.

As long as work is happening, she will sleep through it. Whenever there is talking, she begins to bark at the workers. It’s as if she is telling them ‘Hey, get back to work people!’ I noticed it the other day and thought I was imagining it. I checked with my husband to see if she was doing the same thing when I was not at home. He confirmed my suspicion.

It seems as though my dog got a project management certification when I wasn’t looking. She is determined to keep everyone working and all projects on track!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Pub Songs

While we were driving around in Ireland, my husband decided we needed some music to accompany our travels. We walked into a gift store during one of our many stops and he bought a CD. He picked up a collection of Irish pub songs. I rolled my eyes at his purchase.

He placed the cd in the player in the car. I expected to hear some ‘Riverdance’ type music or a rendition of ‘Danny Boy’. But oh no!! It sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks dancing through Ireland. I was completely shocked. My husband and I agreed that he could keep playing the music as long as the volume was low. That proved harder than I thought but I enjoyed the scenery and just laughed when each song became more ridiculous than the other. Throughout this my husband kept driving and smiling.

I realized after a while that this was a collection of pub songs. I guess that’s what songs sound like when you are insanely drunk in Ireland.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Leprechauns

On our recent trip to Ireland, I made a discovery that I never thought would be possible. Leprechauns had always been one of those myths associated with Ireland, along with fairies. I saw a few leprechauns when we walked around the streets of Dublin. Mostly they were smaller people with painted faces decked out in green. I did not however see any pots of gold on the other end of the rainbows they held with them. Suspicious to say the least.

However, one day in Killarney, I realized that this was not a myth. We were staying in a lovely bed and breakfast when we went down to have said breakfast. We were presented with a lovely meal which we gobbled up in far less than a half hour – 20 minutes tops!

We returned to our room to find that it was all miraculously neat and clean – sparkling with the sun’s rays even. Not at all how we left it when we went down to breakfast. The bed was made, the room was vacuumed, the bathroom was cleaned and everything was put in its new place instead of strewn all over.

That is when I had the epiphany. Leprechauns aren’t out in the wild of Ireland. They were working in this bed and breakfast! So if they were in this bed and breakfast, they must be all over the Ireland working on keeping the lovely bed and breakfasts clean!

Hey, over time everyone’s roles evolve. Who can say this isn’t the case for the leprechauns as well?

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Sad Day

When I saw the headline on the New York Times this morning, I was completely shocked. How could I tell my husband that ‘god’ was dead? No matter how much you can prepare yourself, sometimes there is no way around the stupefaction of hearing that some one has passed away.

Back in the 80’s my first home computer was an Apple 2e. I remember taking it out of the box and playing with or using it almost every day. It was so easy to use. Turn it on, wait for it to load, select a program and there you go. I recall playing games by using simple keyboard functions – arrow keys and space bar - to execute moves on the screen.

How can I not spend time discussing how much I love my ipod? I can barely work in my insanely loud work area without the peace that that little device brings me. If it weren’t for my little pocket protector, I would never be able to clean my apartment or do the dishes or fold the laundry. It is like an electronic puppy –follows me almost everywhere I go. My mechanical shadow.

Steve Jobs was my husband’s hero. Although I never placed him on that pedestal before, now I’m forced to really think about how his ideas have influenced my life. I visit iTunes at least once a week, if not more. I love Pixar movies – two of which I’d say are among my favorites. We know how I feel about my iPod. I am amazed at how he had a thought, saw it through to the end – facing naysayers and barriers galore along the way. Through it all, he had the vision, confidence and determination to tell everyone to shove it; he was going to do what he wanted. A true ‘out of the box’ thinker, a creative mind allowed to express his ideas as he felt…sincerely missed by many.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The Evil Eye

Earlier this year I received an evil eye bracelet. I know the person who got it for me meant well. The hope was that the bad luck that I was having would clear up. Sadly, it worked in the opposite way than how it was intended. I have been dealing with back issues since March and I had some other physical problems earlier this year. All while wearing the evil eye.

Recently someone else got me an evil eye bracelet with the hope that it would bring me good luck and happiness. I seriously wanted to throw it in the garbage.

My mom thinks that having amulets and little sayings can keep things from happening. She has always encouraged me to have something with me to keep evil spirits away. I have never been one to believe in a talisman. I wonder if that had something to do with the bracelet’s ‘power’ going awry?

I wore the bracelet without really thinking anything except that it was a thoughtful gift that someone had given me. I barely even noticed it on my wrist. Am I overanalyzing?

Tons of athletes have good luck charms that they believe help them through tough times. Would a different item have been more helpful? I guess I’ll never know.