Our apartments become a gated community the day of our Halloween party.  So yeah... wifey tells me she's heard something about guests have to punch something on a pad at the gate which rings our phone and we have to punch something that lets you in.  That's the **theoretical** way this will work.  However, being that this will be the first day it's operational, the gate likely won't let anybody in because that is bug-fixing day.  So, hmm.. I don't know.  Maybe I'll just have to run a shuttle to and from the high school parking lot.  I'll update you as soon as I know anything as to how to enter.  Looking forward to seeing people!!!!!  =D

Ironically on All Hallow's Day... Yeah.  So.  My place, Nov. 1, 2008 (that's a Saturday).  Be there.  LET US KNOW if you're coming.  Let us know if you're wanting to bring somebody.  We need to know these things.  There will be yummy food!  Dress up.  Rod, I'm going to expect more than a couple tooth marks on you this year.  ;D  Pretty much if you're on my friends list, you're invited.  I only make this a public post because there are people invited that might not be on my friends list (to lazy to check right now.  I'm at work, gimme a break).  They should know they're invited though since they've been to previous parties.  That's all for now, kids.  Lata!

Hooray!  Wifey got a website set up last night for her new massage business.  Here's the link.  GO THERE!  =D

www.exuberanceokc.com

She said the more links there are to her site, the better.  So if you have somewhere that you can put up a link, that would help her be easier to search for on Google. 

Okay, first off I was able to add some more pictures on, so follow this link:

www.flickr.com/photos/29971049@N02/sets/72157607008663760/detail/

I think I might have accidentally gotten them in order too, so that's a plus!

Okay, from where I left off last time, we then hopped a train down to Kilkenny.  We got off the train and rushed and just barely caught the last bus that was going towards our hostel - Foulksrath Castle!  We got off the bus and it was about a 300 meter walk to the castle, but it was such an exciting walk that it was just fine and dandy - luggage and all.  The castle was so neat!!!  It still had a lot of original structure, including the walls around the castle grounds.  It was a bit difficult getting our luggage up to our rooms because it was a fairly thin and steep spiral staircase.  And the rooms were arranged in a spiraled manner too, so there were no clearly defined "floors."  You just kept going around until you got to your spot.  We explored all over the place, looked through old arrow slits and climbing up on the walls.  We tried to get them to let us up on the roof (found the door but it was padlocked) but they wouldn't do it that night, and we were leaving to early to do it in the morning.  :(  It's so amazing how well people built their structures.  There's not a building today that could last anywhere near as many years as these old castles.  And it was quite cozy in there as well.  They knew what they were doing back then.

So morning came along and it was time for us to leave.  We went back into Kilkenny, and were planning on hopping a bus to go visit the Rock of Cashel - a really beautiful and ancient structure (the seat of the kings of Munster) a couple hours outside of Kilkenny.  Got to the tourism office before they opened (9:30), and went in to get our tickets.  Found out that the bus leaves at 9 and has to be booked the day before.  :(  !!!!!!!!  I was really wanting to go see that, but I wasn't going to let it bring me down.  Kilkenny has a lot of neat things to do anyway, so by crikey we did them!

The first order of business was to go tour Kilkenny Castle.  That place was HUGE!  They've done a lot of renovations on it to bring it back to what it once looked like back in the renaissance era, though there were still 3 round drum towers that were of the original medieval construction.  It was really gorgeous - inside and out.  I thought it really odd that the renaissance people were so snooty that they made separate entrances and stairways for the servants so that the family would see them as little as possible.  They even put in a tunnel under the span from one side to the other so that their view of the gardens wouldn't be marred by the sight of servants going back and forth.  

We ran around Kilkenny a little bit more and saw a cathedral (I can't remember it's name right now) and did a couple other things.  Then it was time to catch our train to Dublin - our final stop!  Since we were going to be there for 4 days, and we'd been sooooo very busy doing cool things this entire time, we decided to rest a litte our first night in Dublin and just sit in the hotel and get room service and relax.  Holy cow we needed it too. 

In the morning, we hopped on a bus for the day tour of the Hill of Tara and of Newgrange.  Our tour guide was talking the entire time that we were in the bus.  She gave us all sorts of history - not just about what we were going to see, but of just about anything and everything remotely related!  It was great!  I really liked her.  I learned a lot of nifty things.  The Hill of Tara was the meeting place of the kings of Ireland.  I believe they said that all the kings of Ireland were crowned here and the stone they were crowned at (the "Stone of Destiny") is still there - it's about the only thing left.  It used to be a bustling place with all sorts of buildings all over, but now it is "just a hill."  I put quotes there because it may seem like just a hill, but it is so much more than that.  It is powerful!  The landscape still has the walls of some ancient earthen ring forts.  From the top of this hill, on a clear day (which it was when we went), they say you can see 23 of the 32 counties in Ireland.  It was so gorgeous and so very significant to the history of Ireland. 

Next we went over to Newgrange.  Newgrange was built about 5000 years ago.  It predates the pyramids by 500 years!  This is a very ancient "passage tomb" (basically, a tomb with a passage down the center).  Yes, the dead were put there, but this was not the primary function of Newgrange.  For only 3 days out of the year - at the winter solstice - a tiny beam of light manages to wind it's way down the passage for but a few minutes.  They used this to know when the middle of winter was so they could know when to plan on planting crops.  They put so much love and skill into building this.  They somehow moved huge stones from miles away to use in just decorating this place.  There are lovely carvings on the stones inside and out.  And at the chamber in the back of the tomb, they said that in all the 5000 years that this has been standing, not a single drop of water has leaked through the domed ceiling (made of stacked rocks).  To think that people from so long ago did such feats with such little technology just blows my mind.  I've never been somewhere so old.  It was truely amazing.  Once we were down in the main chamber, they treated us to a simulation of the winter solstice event.  They turned off the lights and not the slightest bit of light reached us down the straight corridor we just came down.  Then a sliver of light just barely creeped along the floor by our toes.  They say the real thing dances a little - is more alive! 

Okay, then that night we hopped on the "Ghost Bus!"  We almost didn't get on, and I'm sure there are quite a few people miffed at me because they claimed to have been waiting there for a half hour... but I've been planning on doing this for weeks longer than that, and I was in the shop right next to the bus stop blowing time for half an hour, and I got up in line before they did... so I win.  The tour guide was such a character!  He was so fun.  We went all around Dublin listening to his great and dramatic tales of old happenings and what people have experienced in the areas since.  He was just the perfect amount of ham - not entirely overboard, but enough to be really fun. 

In the morning, we went on a tour of the Guinness Storehouse.  That place was so much cooler than I expected!  It was like a 7-story brewery/museum of everything Guinness - the process and history and all sorts of neat things.  The first thing they have on display is the ***9000 year lease**** that was signed by Arthur Guinness in 1759.  It was really neat.  And once you get to the top/end, you get a free pint of Guinness.  I've got to say that Guinness in Dublin is a good deal better than it is in the states.  However, I found out which types travel better, so now I know to buy the extra stout instead of the draft.  That tastes a lot closer to what is served in Dublin.  

That night, we went to a little dinner and story-telling thing that we booked earlier.  It was a pretty fancy dinner and we had a historian guy telling us about the Irish, looking in to their ways of life and how they viewed the world.  He went a bit into folklore and fairy tales as well.  It was entirely interesting.  One of the funny things he told us about was that not everybody believed in the fairies, but despite that they don't want to get them angry.  hehee...  There are many a construction projects in Ireland that were made to accommodate and respect the fairies. 

The next day, we finally got a chance to visit the archeology museum that Wifey was wanting to see.  We tried like 4 or 5 times to visit this place, but the hours of a lot of businesses in Ireland are really weird.  So we finally got to visit it, and it was really cool!  Archeology is so different outside of the U.S.  The vikings scattered neat stuff all over Ireland!  hehe.  ...and not just the Vikings.  It still gets me that people have been on Ireland for as long as they have. 

Finally, this being our last night in Dublin before heading home, we decided to head out to a pub.  We went to a place that was right by our hotel.  They had some people playing traditional Irish songs and some step dancers.  It was a fun night.  We had some booze and watched some good entertainment and it was fun.  There were a couple of drunk Irish guys there too.  They were singing along real loud with the music, and smilin' real huge and had their arms around each other's shoulders swaying back and forth.  It was funny.  I sneakily took some short videos of them.  hehee!

Alas, morning came too soon, and it was time for us to go.  I really loved Ireland, as did Wifey.  It was sad leaving, but when I got sad I just thought back on all the unforgettable fun that I had, and it was okay.  Because I might be leaving, but I was taking a piece of Ireland with me in my heart.  It's such a wonderful country, and such a wonderful bunch of people.  I want to go back someday... see all the things we weren't able to.  Maybe since we did a lot of touristy stuff this time, it would be nice to get off the main path and experience a little more of the more personal side of Ireland.  Whatever we do though, it doesn't really matter because it is such a wonderful place.  I could be happy just being there. 

Anyway, that was our honeymoon - the honeymoon to end all honeymoons!  Hope you enjoyed my tale.  Of course there are many more details than this, but I tried to summarize a little bit. 

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

-an old Irish Blessing

mood: nostalgic tags: honeymoon, ireland

Okay, so I got a mere handful of pictures to share with you now.  I can only load so much per month onto this site, so here here's a little bit at least.  :)

www.flickr.com/photos/29971049@N02/

Enjoy!  (I know I did)  And I'll have more story later.  I don't have time now.

tags: honeymoon, ireland

Okay, so Ireland freaking rocked!!!!!  Omg...  I have approximately 6 gigs worth of imagery that I brought back from the trip, so once I rummage through that a little and figure out how to post pictures, I can grace you all with some of the loveliness that came from my camera.  In the meantime, I'm sure you've all probably seen the stuff laughterdance has posted, but if not you should go and check it out.  =D 

The Ballyshannon stop was probably my favorite part of the trip.  Combine a fantastic traditional music festival with a cozy small town that has great hidden things to find on a wander-about.  We just went out for a stroll and stumbled across some lovely churches, one of the (theorized) first settlements in Ireland, what was possibly the oldest bridge in Ireland, and an ancient holy grove that had some cozy little shallow caves right by it that we found out used to be used for baptisms.  It was hard to find any information on that grove because I think the locals try to keep it for themselves and away from the tourists because it's special to them.  It certainly felt special... The instant I set foot in the grove I knew that it was and that people loved this place.  It was awe-inspiring.

Next we went to Galway.  We showed up into town way late, and we were planning on going on an afternoon walking tour of the gothic sites.  When we found out the bus was going to run 4 hours later than planned, we called one of their contacts.  Found out he didn't run those tours anymore and he was perplexed as to how we got his number.  Anyhow, he told us that sure, he could run a late tour just for us.  It was great, and he told us some detail that a normal tour guide wouldn't dare, such as one of the monuments was merely a reconstruction rather than the actual piece where a big event happened (as they like for tourists to believe). 

Then we took an all-day bus tour of the Burren in County Clare.  It was an amazing landscape the entire time - the ground covered with broken limestone as fare as the eye could see, ruins and other structures littered here and there from renaissance times, medieval, and even thousands of years before that.  Then we went to the breath-taking Cliffs of Moher.  It was a bit foggy and rainy, but that cleared up long enough for us to get some magnificent views. 

Kildare was a great little stop on the way to Kilkenny for a few hours.  We stopped at St. Brigid's cathedral and holy well.  We saw a couple old old-old abbeys.  Finally, we found out about where St. Brigid's flame is burning and went out to see it.  It was in the house of a Brigidine nun that is about one of the sweetest ladies on Earth!  She very gladly invited us into her house and took us to the sacred flame in a room devoted entirely to St. Brigid.  It was a tiny flame on a candle, but it still felt so powerful.  Such a small flame, but tended with such love, honor and care to carry on a legacy.  I'll leave it to wifey to go into more detail on this if she likes since this was her special visit.

And on that note, I'm weary of typing and staring at this screen.  So I'll have more to say later, and maybe some pictures.  =D

location: home... vacation time passes so much faster than normal time tags: honeymoon, ireland, vacation

Okay, laughterdance and I are going to be visiting my Momma and doing stuff Christmas Eve and Day.  Since I have some pretty limited time, do you guys think that we could get a get-together/party/shenanigans-fest on that Sunday?  That way I don't have to be running all over town to give you guys your presents and I can see lots o' peeps.  =D  How does that sound.  Doable?  It'd be awfully helpful.  And happy.  Wha'd'ya say?

mood: awake

My wonderful companion of over 2 years passed last night.  My sweet, lovable dear rat Padme.  It was such a shock, too.  She seemed completely normal just last night when we got home from Thanksgiving.  She did have a cut on her though.  The skin on her tumor is pretty thin.  So we gave her a bath to clean her up - she protested quite a bit, poor girl, but it needed to be done.  We cleaned out her cage and disinfected it to make sure that she wouldn't get an infection on her cut, then put some neosporin on her and put her up.  This morning, she was no more.  Poor girl.  I have no idea why she died last night.  Though she is awfully old.  I don't know if it had to do with her cut she had or if it was just an old rat thing.  She was quite upset about having a bath.  I wonder if maybe getting excited like that pushed her over the line to maybe a heart attack or stroke or something. 

I'm going to miss her.  She was always my buddy.  When we would let her out on the couch to stretch her legs and play around, if I was there she would just crawl under my shirt and snuggle down on my belly.  I kind of had to steer clear a bit, unfortunately, so she would actually move about and get some exercise.  But it always felt so good to know that my baby loved me so much. 

I kind of feel bad about not even picking up on her downfall.  I wonder if there would have been anything we could have done.  I wonder if there were any signs that I missed last night or if it was just some sudden, unavoidable thing.  It was so much different with Leia.  We had months of warning there.  We knew it would happen soon.  I miss my rats... they were such great rats.  

mood: sad

I need your help.  The PS3 is discounted for a very limited time, and I need to make a decision quickly about whether I'm going to get it or the XBox 360.  I believe that any research time that I have really needs to be spent on my upcoming wedding, so I'm going to take the lazy way about doing this:  

I call upon thy wisdom of all things electronic.  I hearken for thy pros, and thy cons.  What mighty feats are each contender capable of?  What foul tricks doth lie up the sleeves that could sway the course of of this legendary battle?  Which of these shall attract the greatest host of fair and debaucherous maidens?  ... ... B-)  giggidy

I want a nice clean fight.  No shots below the belt.  Let's GET IT ON!

mood: silly

I just got back from a nice long business trip to FLORIDA!  ^.^  It was soooo much fun, omg!  Me and my boss went to a conference for work.   She and I, laughterdance, and my boss' fiancee rented an SUV and made a road trip down there, stopping for a night on the way in New Orleans.

New Orleans was cool, but it wasn't what I was expecting from all the hype I've heard about it.  Bourbon Street was just a bunch of drunks walking around between a bunch of bars.  We only saw 2 street performers - on of them actually doing something.  Nothing terribly special.  But we had some tasty food (and some bad... one reasonably priced place was not actually reasonably priced once they served us our food.  Bleh!)  And we went on a ghost tour around the French Quarter (such cooooool buildings everywhere!).  Our guide was a great story teller.  We walked all over the place and saw tons of haunted places (and not just the rumors type of haunted.  Almost all of the places had a good documentation of activity).  There were even a couple places he showed us that had what was strongly believed to be vampire activity!  He gave a great account for why it was so plausibly so.

Next day we were in Florida.  Of course we had some obligatory beach time.  I found something that rival the sheer joy of chasing geese: ... ... chasing crabs!  hehehee... XD  There were so many teeny-tiny crabs all over the beach by our hotel and they were burrowing little holes in the beach to hide in (consequently leaving what I dubbed "sand turds" all over the beach).  The beach was crawling with them, and me and my boss' fella ran after them and the fled and it was good.

Part of the conference was they took us on a dinner cruise around the bay.  That was really fun.  3-level high cruise ship, yummy dinner, lots of cool scenery.  Fancy-fancy. 

Highlight of the trip for me was going and swimming with wild dolphins.  /swoon laughterdance and I bought a 2-hour dolphin/snorkeling tour and we got to see, swim with and pet wild bottle-nose dolphins!  There was a momma and her kiddo that we played with for most of the time.  Momma wasn't terribly interested in us, but the baby was.  It was so cuuute!  When I was in the water with them, it came up to me and let me pet it's belly.  Later on (we had to go after them over and over again because they'd swim off) it came up by the boat and stuck it's head out of the water and let us pet us and it was talking to us and it nibbled on my hand.  ^^  I took so many pictures.  I hope they come out good.  Got a water-proof disposable camera. 

Our tour guide said that normally the dolphins stick around just a little bit to check you out and then leave - usually about 5-15 minutes of good dolphin time before they bugger out.  But they were being especially social on our trip, so we spend 75 minutes with them!  I did not mind at all having my snorkeling time shortened because of that.  So the rest of the time, we went to a shallow area that was full of little fishes, sand dollars and urchins.  We snorkeled around and messed with them for a good little while.  That was pretty fun, but I'm so glad that we spent the majority of the time elsewhere because the time we spent here was just about right.  We had to leave right about the time it started getting not terribly exiting. 

That's the highlights of the trip.  I'm sure laughterdance is going to post about it once she wakes up, and she'll have PICTURES!  So go look at that too! 

mood: ecstatic

Okay, haven't posted in a long time.  But I got something I just have to share:  ... ... /snicker  Okay, you're going to have to wait for it. 

So the big bosses at work decided that we need to clean off all exposed surfaces in our areas in the lab once per week.  So today since I didn't have a whole lot going on (and my trainee was late to work) I decided to start catching up on the cleaning that I couldn't do in the 3 hours that I spent on it last Friday (my area... is a small kingdom.  /sigh).  So anyway, I found some really super tiny magnetic stir bars that I had absolutely no use for.  Ask around the lab if anyone wanted them.  Nobody did.  Started joking around with my old trainer about what mischief we could deal with them.

A few hours later, she comes running up to me with this odd looking, long, thin piece of glassware that she randomly scrounged up.  With a big grin she says "I found you a stir bar gun!!"  I blink.  Blink once more, and dash for the place where I stashed the stir bars.  I stuck one into the glass tube.  It fit nice and snugly.  I put my lips to the conveniently flared out end of the tube and blew.  After looking over my shoulder to make sure that the big boss was nowhere in sight, I went dashing after my projectile which had flow a good 30 feet and ricocheted around the lab a bit. 

Two or three more test shots later, there's still a lab full of geeks snickering like imbeciles.  ...I have a new toy.  :] 

mood: mischievous

Got sent home early today for the ice storm.  That was kinda cool, but I was working with training 2 people on 2 different things that take most of the day.  So I had to figure out how in the world to put both tests on pause for the weekend.  Ended up saying... it'll have to be okay.  One of them was supposed to be in a hot water bath for 2 hours.  Eh, nothing we can do.  We were getting kicked out.  heh.  Next week is going to be screwed though because I already have a full enough schedule.  Now I have to continue those 2 tasks next week which will be a short week.  I'm so glad that our new chemist picks things up pretty quickly.  He's a good guy.  (I got to be on the interview committee to hire him!  hehe, I'm glad we chose well.)   *sigh* sooooo many things need doing at work...

So laughterdance's brother moved in with us recently.  It's going alright, but he is so absent-minded.  And what's bad is he knows it and accepts it.  Therefore, lights are left on, front doors aren't closed, and sinks are left running full-blast (I'm glad I caught that one before it flooded the bathroom).  I went into this thinking that I'd be a roommate to him, but it's turning out that his sister and I are taking more of a parent's role in this because he... ... really doesn't know how to function in the world it seems.  It's been a bit of a trial, but it's not been bad.  One thing that I'm so very-very thankful is that he listens to what I have to say rather than do the teenager thing and argue with me about everything and be constantly on the defensive.  He heeds my words and respects them, and he's really trying to improve on his stupid stuff that he's been doing.

*sigh*  Girl and I have tickets to a flamenco thingie tomorrow... and the roads SUCK!  I hope they'll clear up a little so that we can actually make it to our date.  No fair, stupid ice.  grr.

I had the last of my Christmas fudgies from noblexperiment this morning.  That was good stuff.  I miss my Christmas fudge now.  Thank you muchly, btw!!!  :)  Girl chased me around all over the living room acting like PacMan (sound effects and all) trying to get a bite from me.  hehehe.

Stalker's been calling again lately.  Been avoiding her when she calls a lot because I want to do other things with my evenings than talk to her.  When I do actually take a call, I've been trying to bore her into not wanting to call so much until I can work up a good enough alternate personality to display to her to get her to go away.  She called at 11:00 one night because she wanted to tell me my phone hadn't been working earlier in the day.  DUH!  Anyway, I feigned just waking up and that got rid of her.  What the hell was she thinking calling that late???  I think I'm going to put more effort into this alternate personality. 

But enough of that.  Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.  Off work early with administrative leave.  WOOT!  Okay, that's better. 

mood: pleased music: Nightwish - Once

'Twas the nocturnal segment of the diurnal period preceding the annual Yuletide celebration, and throughout our place of residence,

Kinetic activity was no in evidence among the possessors of this potential, including that species of domestic rodent known as Mus musculus.

Hosiery was meticulously suspended from the forward edge of the wood-burning caloric apparatus,

Pursuant to our antisiipatory pleasure regarding an imminent visitation from an eccentric philanthropist among whose folkloric appellations is the honorific title of St. Nicklaus....



-From the daily start-up quote/anecdote on my computer back when I worked at the warehouse.  Hehehee!

Merry Christmas everybody!!  =D

mood: chipper

Mystic Theurge 48% Combativeness, 20% Sneakiness, 67% Intellect, 58% Spirituality

Brilliant and spiritual! You are a Mystic Theurge! Score! You have a prestige class. A prestige class can only be taken after you’ve fulfilled certain requirements. This may mean that you’re an exceptionally talented person, but it probably doesn't. The Mystic Theurge is a combination of a cleric and a mage. They can cast both arcane and divine spells, and are good at both, making them pretty terrifying on the battlefield. They have more raw spellpower than just about any other class. You're both intelligent and faithful, but not violent or deceitful. I guess that makes you a pretty good person.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 99% on Combativeness
	You scored higher than 99% on Sneakiness
	You scored higher than 99% on Intellect
	You scored higher than 99% on Spirituality

Seeing a lot of mage-y blends so far.  That's pretty cool.  =D  I am a crazy uber magicky biznatch!

mood: accomplished

Woot!! Day off of work! Ah-hahahahaha! I'm so happy. I was hoping and hoping for this. After much scrounging around on the internet this morning, I finally found where it said state offices would be closed. SNOW DAY!! ... Yeah, I'm a little bit pumped, can you tell?

So me and laughterdance celebrated by winterizing the apartment. i.e. - covering up as many of the billions of drafty places as we could find. (There was WIND coming in through the front door. *While it was closed!*)

I'm so relieved that I don't have to go out driving in this stuff. I was seriously considering calling in regardless just to avoid all the skating cars. Too bad there's not enough yet for a snowman. I feel jipped. Guy on the radio said anywhere from 3"-14". I wanted 14". I could make a cool snowman with that.

But oh well. Got a fire going, had a nice *cooked* breakfast (that rarely happens), and I get to lounge all day long. All in all a good Thursday.

mood: excited

Hey look, I finally have an LJ. Isn't that cool. heh. And every once in a while I might actually post something up here. :-O Don't check it every day. It's a good wager I won't. So still actually send e-mails to me if you have something quasi-urgent to tell me about. (Dev, this means you! *wink*)

mood: hungry