International Rules

Summer has finally truly arrived in Ireland with temperatures (drum-roll please) above the 70 degree mark. It was gorgeous on Saturday and one of my softball teamates suggested a picnic in the park. We ended up spending 5 hours there in flawless sunshine. Loveliness. I even played my first game of Cricket (with a couple of South African guys, an Ozzie, two Americans and a few of the local variety.) We even adopted a couple of Nigerian kids and added them to the game for a while. Practically a model UN! ;) We also had a throw-around with an American football but strangely I'm much better at Cricket than I am at football. I've never mastered the art of the spiral throw. All this sportiness was interspersed with bouts of eating...melting bits of cheese, strawberries and red wine handily disguised in plastic juice bottles.

Truly one of the best days I've had in a long time. The night ended (as they all do here) in the pub. It was great craic talking to people from all over the world about everything from the price of gold in Western Australia to the taste of springboc to Sex-Ed for 50-year-old Irish women to the best ways to get laid in Dallas if you happen to have an Australian accent (a long story...) And then there was the Lesbian Penis story (one for another day I promise. ;) ) Such good stuff. If only every day could be this warm and sunny and filled with good company and good beer.

Northy Goodness

Here are a few photos from a recent trip to Donegal. It was Tommy's friend's 30th birthday and nearly 40 people converged on a tiny town in Donegal to celebrate. The first night, we all went out for a meal and then to the pub (of course) which featured a "local" band whose oldest member couldn't have been older than 15. (Check out the pic!)

It was one of those weekends that was a perfect mix of debauchery and ruggedness. A night at the pub follwed by a day spent outdoors. It was the first good weather of the summer and I was actually able to go swimming (with a wet suit of course!) in the icy Atlantic. I also borrowed a body board and I can't tell you how amazing it was to be in the water again after 10 months on dry land. I was meant to live in the tropics I think. If there's anything better than surf and sun, (even if the sun is weak and the water is subzero) I don't know what it is. Unfortunately, I didn't get any photos of our swimming adventures or the pristine beach we were on. (Fortunately, there are not photos of me in my wet suit... ;) ) Swimming was followed by a pub lunch in my favorite Donegal local. (I had raw oysters and soup and brown bread and hot port...Irish food at it's simple best.) And then a trip to a nearby waterfall and an evening spent sitting by a roaring fire. When Ireland is bad, it's cold and wet and dark and dismal, but when the sun shines on this little island, there is really nothing like it, and Donegal is it's pinnacle.