Howth & Misc

First of all, you may notice I gave the blog a facelift. I'm getting more familiar with some of the tools available on the Blogger and I'm trying to put them to use to make the blog more readable and aesthetically pleasing. You still have some time to vote in the "Blog Appearance" poll, but after it expires I'll add another one so that we're constantly engaging in statistical entertainment. Also, I'm looking at different ways to add media to the posts - you can put up videos and slideshows, but you need to interface with a Flickr or Photobucket album to make it happen, and I'm not sure I'm willing to go to the trouble of putting up photos on multiple sites. Also, I don't have a videocamera and the video on my digital camera lacks sound. Contact my parents at jmtumblin@aol.com to see about donating money for one.

Side Note: How galling must it be for people like writers and directors who have their work "Busted" by Mythbusters on national television to see that little Asian guy, with his squirrely little voice, holier-than-thou demeanor and perpetual sneer say stuff like "Yeah, this one is definitely busted. There's no way a 9mm could puncture a Propane tank and cause an explosion." Well guess what, Hirohito. Casino Royale is still more entertaining than your show, and Daniel Craig would shellack your candy ass.

Lennie and Joy (Nicole's parents) arrived on Thursday for a weeklong visit. They were able to fly first-class, which means their chairs reclined to almost horizontal position. Perhaps someday I will be able to enjoy such a privilege, but for the foreseeable future I'll have to settle for sitting between Andre the Giant and a single mother with octuplets in coach. We went out with Nicole's co-workers the first night they were here, which was great fun but raised a number of questions about her workplace. First, given the preponderance of shenanigans and buffoonery we saw out of her co-workers, I wonder how they're ever able to do business. Furthermore, given that we all drank on the company, out of something I heard called the "Social Fund," I wonder how any revenue isn't immediately liquidated (Literally).

On Friday I gave them a walking tour of Trinity and we visited the Book of Kells. Afterwards we met the Shanleys (Nicole's host-parents) for supper. We planned to go to Howth on Saturday, which is a harbor town north of Dublin, after watching the rugby match.

Ireland 12 - 16 Wales
Ireland had several stretches where they looked brilliant, with lots of swift ball movement and threatening play. Unfortunately, they were unable to maintain that pace, resulting in somewhat of a defensive struggle. Wales are the type of team that punish even the slightest mistake, and did so frequently. It was all over for Ireland when, down 12-13 and looking to get in position for a kick that could win them the game with 5 minutes left to play, an Irish player inexplicably drilled a sitting Welshman on the edge of a pileup, resulting in an immediate penalty that allowed Welsh assassin James Hook to put the game beyond reach. Ireland retain second place, but undefeated Wales, who captured the "Triple Crown" (defeating Ireland, England, and Scotland), look nigh certain to win the "Grand Slam" (defeating everyone).

Scotland 15 - 9 England
Scotland bagged their first win against sorry England, who look to be ending their tournament in ignominy. They'll be celebrating in Edinburgh, and eating their young in London.

After the match was over we started towards Howth. Joy was having shoe trouble and I led us on a pretty lengthy hike to the train station, decreasing in popularity all the while. Finally we caught the DART, and got off our feet.

Howth is not a very large place. It has an extensive dock and wharf area, and a few main roads with pubs and small establishments. There was some sun left, but the wind was pretty fast and made it bitter to stand out on the pier.

Nevertheless, we braved the elements to go out on the pier, and it yielded some photographic dividends - there were actually 2 rainbows. I'm assuming the pot o' gold was actually on the sea floor in this case, which would have made it too difficult to retrieve. As always, see the facebook album for more pretty rainbow pictures.

After walking around we repaired to an Asian Cafe - I say Asian not because it was themed as such but because it was staffed exclusively by such - for some coffee to raise our core temperatures. We then went to attempt to eat supper. Nicole's company had arranged for us to eat on them - yes, Nicole's hard, American work ethic and long hours have made the folks at her company feel guilty about the terms of her internship...she gets lots of little perks and favors like this. We were supposed to eat at a place called Wright's, but to our dismay, standing in the middle of Howth and looking at your surroundings, you would see no less than 3 establishments named "Wright's"...a few minutes and phone calls later we entered a restaurant called "The Findlater" above a pub called "Wright's".

Dinner was tasty. I had whole prawns with my steak, which are shrimp that are about as big as my hand with my fingers outstretched. They had their heads and eyes still attached, which made for great fun. They were delicious and I must say very competitive with American shrimp I've had. We also had some good desserts...I'm finding that my Lenten vow not to eat sweets or dessert has been difficult not to break, but in fairness I have opted out of countless opportunities in the preceding weeks.

I spent most of today cleaning, partially because I had essays to write and also because we're getting "inspected" this week by our program people. As I'm out of school I'll be working on my essays and not much else during the days, so you might expect some more frequent blogeration from me. We have upcoming visits by Jaci and a trip to Scotland this month, as well as, of course, St. Patrick's Day/My Birthday. As I write, we're going through what some of the Sunday tabloids have called "The Storm of the Century." Supposedly there's a high tide, a new moon, and a massive storm system all at once, and last time this happened 47% (made-up) of Dublin flooded. I stuffed newspapers in all our windows today to help with the banging, but so far I'm unimpressed by the meteorological mayhem. We're pulling ~40mph winds, but unfortunately that's not too much higher than normal.

Check out the rest of the photos on the facebook album