Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. We had visitors so the usual times to type were spent doing other fun things like going on walks, playing cards, driving around the countryside, etc.
I feel like I should do more than just report the days happenings, but I can't really muster up too much insight but here's what's been going on the past couple days:
Thursday morning was the mom's group meeting. I made banana bread. It was a resounding success. Score one for Bridget in the ongoing battle with the oven. At the mom's group I found out that two of the Irish women I really liked are moving out of town, one to Cork and the other to Dublin. There is still one other woman I think I could be friends with, and one woman who brings her kids to library's story time that I'm kind of getting to know. So it's not hopeless, but still the news discouraged me. It was craft week so we made greeting cards. It was kind of an insane flurry of stamps and glitter and buttons and paper and punches. It was fortunate that I could only stay an hour, otherwise I probably would have stayed all day stitching buttons onto cardstock. Silas spend the hour scouring this woman's house for choking hazards. He started making little chewing motions with his mouth which he sometimes does when he is hungry so I picked him up to nurse him, but he wasn't really nursing, then I realized he had a small plastic pretend euro coin in his mouth. I'm such an observant mother...
I drove over to Limerick and Silas slept peacefully for the hour and a half trip. I found the central bus station after just one stop at a petrol station for direction. But then I had circle it three times, reverse out of a toll gate, almost back into a taxi, and drive over a curb to find a place to park. As luck would have it, once I had completed these maneuvers, Abby called and she emerged from the bus station right in front of where I parked. We drove over to the Cliffs of Moher, which was one of the top sites on her list of things to see. They are constructing a new visitors center for the cliffs and last time Orrin and I were there one side of the cliff walk was closed. This time the other side of the cliff walk was closed, so even though I had been there before it was a slightly different experience with different views. It is encouraging to see though that all the scaffolding you see at these tourist sites eventually does get taken down and work is actually getting done. Also give good reason to not feel so silly about visiting the same places over and over again.
On our way back home we stopped for a little meal and I met my first unfriendly Irish. I asked her where the bathroom was and she looked at Silas and said brusquely, "You can't change him in there, there's no facility." I just cheerfully said that we would make do. Then she said I should go out to the car and change him in the backseat. Yeah, if I wanted to walk back out to the car. And gosh, I'm sure I never would have thought of the backseat. When she brought out the baby chair for him we struggled with it for maybe 5 minutes trying to get the tray latched on. She watched us struggle. Then finally 10 minutes later she came out and said, oh yeah the tray is broken it only latches on one side. So it was basically worthless as a highchair because it didn't actually hold Silas in. Maybe I'm the one being unkind here. I'm sure she thought she was being helpful, but it was just not.
We got home and went out to a pub for a late dinner. Here everyone fawned over Silas. Bringing him brown bread and a highchair and little toys. Maybe I am just getting spoiled and expecting people to be accommodating to me schlepping an infant around.
Friday we went grocery shopping as I was in desperate need of milk and laundry detergent. After lunch we drove over to Cashel and toured the two churches and towers there. When we went with Orrin's aunt we took a guided tour, so now I feel like I can give my own tour of the place. I'm still not very good with the names and dates, but who really remembers those anyway? We walked out to St. Patricks well before dinner, then made sweet potato fries and pecan crusted chicken and played a couple games of dominos and rummy cubes. Silas loves chewing on the dominos and it's fun to hear his little teeth click clicking on the hard plastic.
There was the European championship rugby match, the Heineken Cup, on Saturday, which is required viewing over here. Especially since Munster was competing for the title. Orrin at least had to watch it so he'd not be clueless in the discussions at work on Monday. So we slept in and did a little baking in the morning and then went to a different pub to watch the game. The back part of the pub is where we sat which looked a little less like a cartoon pub and more leather and wood like you might expect. We enjoyed a nice cold pint and Silas got to hear everyone yell "Go on Munster!" It really reminded my f Mrs. Doyle from Father Ted saying "go on, go on, go on." It made me laugh, but everyone else in the pub was really serious about the rugby. Luckily Munster did 'go on' to win the match. I suppose I shouldn't post anything about Orrin's work in this blog, so I will just say that the manager and directors went (with their spouses) to Wales to watch the match for a 'team building activity'. Just a statement.
My friend Jenny arrived Saturday evening, so we walked out to the bird sanctuary and made tacos for dinner. Then played hand and foot canasta since there were four of us. Orrin and Jenny totally slaughtered Abby and me. It was awful.
We left at 8:30 am on Sunday to drive Abby up to Dublin. We didn't have much traffic so it only took 2 1/2 hours and Abby had plenty of time to make her flight. Jenny, Orrin, Silas and I drove back down to Russborough House since it was raining, and they have a nice indoor tour. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures of the inside of the house. And, a major reason for visiting is the painting, which were off display due to restoration work. But, again a benefit of going to a site over and over, to compensate we were shown some upstairs bedrooms that are not usually on the tour. I think it is likely that we will go back with Orrin's parents, since it has lots of very nice antiques, and it is close to Dublin, so we will get to see the paintings when we go again.
We also drove through the Wicklow mountains. Due to all the rain, there were kayakers everywhere on the roiling streams. We stopped at the little town of Roundwood where there was what the guide book described as a thriving market. When we stopped we were the only people there, but they did have lots of yummy looking baked goods. Even in the rain and fog it was a beautiful. It is also where parts of the film Braveheart were shot. We drove down the coast which was a really long drive, but we saw a seal! We stopped at the Wicklow golf course and walked down to the pebbly beach and stood there watching the waves crash and I pointed out that the log floating in the water looked a lot like a seal. Turns out it actually was a seal.
Sunday night I actually started writing this post, but then I had to harass Orrin, because it had been something like three days since I had pestered him. Monday I was a whirlwind of productivity, I organized the pantry, went grocery shopping, made a yummy lunch, and even curled my hair, all before noon. In the afternoon I took Jenny over to the town of Cahir to the castle and the Swiss cottage. She took a taxi down to Cork to fly home that evening.
There was, once again, an attempt to post something here while Orrin and Silas picked up a pizza (with sweetcorn!), but then when I was putting Silas to bed Orrin swooped in and started playing computer games. Well, actually, he helped me give Silas a bath then I asked him to download some songs for me while I put the baby to bed. And then he was attached to the computer the rest of the evening. So I did a little reading before heading to bed.
And lo and behold, Silas slept from 8:30 last night until 4 this morning! Then I nursed him and he's still asleep at 7:30 this morning. Yahoo! And I'm going to get this sucker published before it gets any longer.
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