Just a Quickie

Hey All,

Just wanted to write a quick update since Katie and Abby are here! They arrived this morning and seem to be dealing with the jetlag in the way only people under twenty can. A shower and a sandwich and they were ready to shop....wahooo. Am looking forward to having company.

On other fronts, had a pretty mellow weekend, Walked up to Clontarf last night (which is about 20 minutes from my house and right on the Dublin Bay) and had dinner in a cute bistro with Tom. Shared a bottle of wine and pizza (which was actually good) and just relaxed. I really like that neighborhood as it's got a great promenade where the Tolka river meets the bay. And it always has that salty ocean smell which I love and reminds me of home. It's kind of got an industrial edge to it, lots of fishing boats and commercial barges and cranes in view but I can get into that. Anything ocean and I'm all for it. I love that I can walk there.

Have been commuting my ass off except for Thurs. when I had an Adobe training in the morning in Dublin at a posh hotel, then had lunch (with a book) in a really fabulous and on the cheap vegetarian restaurant and then went to Meath to do a photoshoot for a blues singer's website. The shoot was at her house which is a 200 year old farmhouse on the water. Very pretty and it was actually a warm and sunny day. Listened to her play a few songs and shot some film and then had tea in the garden. This tea idea rocks. Have been drinking mad amounts of it. I will probably have yellow teeth and a heart attack by the end of the year, but I'm into it nonetheless.

Have been wandering around my neighborhood just kind of seeing what's there. The strangest thing of note so far is the video store/tanning salon. Talk about an odd combination. The tanning is charged by the minute too so you could conceivably get 4 minutes of tanning and Lord of the Rings III in no time at all... Talk about one-stop shopping. There are plenty of orange tinted people walking around too so tanning of some sort must be pretty popular. The tan in a can seems very big...lots of people with positively tangerine elbows and knees in the house. Looks even better when paired with peroxide hair and pearlescent lipstick. Overall the Dubs are super fashion conscious but not always in a good way. Plenty of 'Kylie Minogues gone wrong,' walking the streets.

Have decided that I should start taking pictures of all the defaced signs around Dublin. Hopefully will have some pics to post soon (If Smart Telecom ever comes through with my internet connection.) My favorite sign so far is on a fence outside of some ominous looking factory. Someone messed with the letters so that it says: No Smoking Naked...haha. Just in case you were having a jones for a naked smoke or as they say here, a fag in yer birt'day suit.

Well am off to take Katie and Abbie to their first legal pint in Baile Atha Cliath. (that's Dublin FYI.) Dublin just won a big GAA game against Wexford so I'm sure there will be liveliness in our local.

Hope you're all well.