Baz on Ball

I caught Baz playing one of his favorite games the other day. It's called "roll on the squeaky ball" and I don't really understand the rules.

Crackers

Keith and I have finally arrived in Rosslare, where we will be based through the end of March. For my part, I am relieved to be here, especiallyafter a slightly taxing New Year's weekend in Kinsale. We were invited to stay in a house rented by some friends, PJ and Caroline. There was a total of 15 in the house, plus some others who were staying in town. It was another boozy weekend; fun but exhausting. And then I started getting sick. I think it was about 3 am on New Year's when I thought maybe all this partying was going to take a toll on me. It has. I also blame Frank (or as people have nicknamed him, "Toxic Frank"). He has had a persistent cough for a few weeks and tends to stand a bit close to people in conversation. At some point I compared him to Typhoid Mary, but no one had ever heard of her. In my spare time I looked her up on Wikipedia and you'll never guess where she's from. That's right! Ireland! Anyway, back to New Year's Eve-- it was actually a good time. We had some trouble figuring out when midnight was exactly. We opened crackers, like in Harry Potter. I like crackers a lot. You pull one open with your neighbor at the table and out come items such as paper crowns, jokes, and toys. There was also singing in English, Gaelic, French. Most of the songs were traditional ones about better times in the past. The French one was about cannibalism. It was a bit strange for me, but I liked it as long as I didn't have to sing. Keith says "the Irish are mad into singing" and that if a party goes on long enough that's what it leads to.

Before I post some photos, here's a quick Baz story for you. Because we were moving to Rosslare after Kinsale, Keith and I had packed the car to the brim with our wordly possesions. About an hour in, not too long after we had gone around a traffic circle I looked to the back seat and a suitcase and several jackets and sweaters had fallen over on top of Baz. He didn't even notice I was looking at him because was holding his neck straight up, still trying to see out the window. Jeez Baz, why didn't you say something?

December in Dublin

I've been in Ireland for two weeks now, not including a three day trip to England. When I'm not out meeting in-laws and friends of Keith's I've been spending most of my time in Glengara. Glengara is the name of my sister-in-law and her partner's house, located in the Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dun Leary-- bet you wouldn't have guessed that!) section of Dublin. It's an old house with a warm kitchen and a drafty... everywhere else. In fact, as I write this Keith and Frank are frantically andsecretively caulking the windows before Catriona gets home. I'm not sure why they are afraid of her finding out, but I guess every family has its quirks. Anyway, it is a lovely and comfortable house in a good location for visiting the city and getting out to some nice walks in the countryside.

The kitchen table with a window seat that has views to the garden

Aga cookers seem to be very popular in Ireland. It's an oven that's always on, which helps warm the house and makes turning knobs and pre-heating a thing of the past! I don't really get why everyone loves them. I mean you can't set a specific temperature, so you actually have no idea how hot any of the various compartments are. I'm going to try baking a cake in it Monday, so we'll see what kind of issues I'll have then.

Puppy picture! You will be seeing a lot of these.