another weekend, another wedding

wow. i almost can't believe it. normally, i'm not a huge fan of weddings. i'd say gerry's brother's wedding was no exception. but! i've just discovered the absolute saving grace.

the siege of ennis

how much fun is this?

so MUCH FUN!

it's an irish set dance that is traditionally done at weddings. this last wedding was my first time doing, other than a very fumbly attempt in our living room.

i will try to explain it, mostly because if i ever get married, i'm sooooo having this happen!!! there are multiple lines of four people holding hands. it usually goes boy-girl-boy-girl. each line faces the other and dances back and forth three times. then each row splits into two couples and basically makes a circle. but with one couple dancing in front and going left, and the other couple going around the back and to the right. both still facing forward. then you go back to the line formation and each person goes forward separately to meet the person across from them. and they swing each other around a bunch of times. then it's back to the line formation and both lines go forward, with one line going under the arms of the other. each line will then be facing another line to which the whole thing repeats.

the whole thing was great. i did request it... who knows when i'll be at the next irish wedding (we're rsvping as "no" for the october wedding we've been invited to). but it was great that there were a whole bunch of people doing it. if anyone is looking for a good dance as part of a workout plan, i'd like to suggest irish set dancing. geesh!

the jumping church is still my favourite irish thing, but between the siege of ennis and the giant's causeway, it's pretty tight.

congrat's to jim and tara. good luck and best wishes!!!

syl

dear syl,

you were a good woman.

great humour, and an endearing quirkiness that was so cute!

funny and smart too.

you did a great job 'bringing sarah up'... well, you know what we mean. thanks for taking me in all those times that family should be together, and making me a part of yours. easter, thanksgiving, a warm welcome always met me... a warm welcome and a good laugh.

you are dearly loved and missed.

xo
ursula

a weekend in london

thursday after work gerry and i caught a plane to london.

we met sean at the airport and had a drink with him... it was great to see him, since it'd been almost exactly a year since the last time. he happened to be in london and so did we, so last minute-ish we set it up. there's was some remembering of the good old days... like the time wade died at the casino in reno. and some general catching up too.

gerry and i basically got to the hotel and crashed that night. the next day we had some breakkie, went shopping and saw phantom that evening. saturday we say a matinee of the cantebury tales and checked out the market at covent garden. come to think of it, i should really rate that f'ing restaurant that had crap service and didn't bring me my salad but tried to charge me for it. hmmm... guess i just did.

anyway, the shows were great and it was a nice, but busy weekend away. what did i learn on this trip? what restaurant to *not* eat at in london, and that my hands are too old and arthritic to carry a handbag (no matter how new and cute) around all day. also, it makes sense to go to marks and sparks before a show because you can eat in the theatres, and the prices at M&S are waaaay more resonable.

good trip.

canadian killers

maybe it's just because it's not as usual as in the states, or maybe it's just because i'm canadian. in any case, i'm concerned canada's getting a bit messed up.

this is the second serious shooting that's happened in montreal in the last 15 years. it's been a bit hard to get information other than a guy in a trench coat shot a bunch of people at a school. (that's what happens when you don't get your news on the cbc, so i had to check out the website just this evening.)

i still can't find information on *why* this happened. i doubt it will make it easier for the parents of the girl who has died, but i can't help but wonder. will it be more of an "un-canadian" problem if we know the guy had a mental illness? will this make canadians realise that gun-control and acts of violence aren't just american issues?

the terms of this cannot be held down to a man who blamed women for his misfortune... gill attacked men and women and he didn't even apply to the school according to one of the administrators. can we find someone/thing else to blame or are we going to have to look at ourselves?

weirdly, in the marie claire that i bought this month, there was an article about karla and how she got the sweetest deal for murdering and raping girls by blaming her husband for controlling her.

is canada becoming the new america? what can we do to stop it?

wedding bliss

friday, gerry and i made our way to celbridge for his friend's engagement party. we were on our way to his brother's wedding, so it seemed appropriate. we got there late, but not too late to have a few drinks and chat to the soon-to-be bride and groom.

we stayed in celbridge and went for breakkie the next morning, on our way to 'dumdum' where i bought not one, but two furlas. one named ursula and one not. :o) both uber-adorable.

also this past weekend was gerry's brother's wedding. i'm guessing it was the bride's dream wedding.

it was at a big catholic church and the ladies were wearing hats. the reception was at cabra castle–– a castle that works as a hotel and reception-type place.

it was a big wedding with a multi-course meal, lots of wine and eventually dancing and fireworks. all the while full of questions similar to, "should we keep our hats for your wedding?".

i still think vegas is a better idea.

there's just one more thing

ah, columbo... how i love you.

the smell at work has been solved. when i found out what it was, it grossed me out so much i dry-heaved. no kidding.

it was coming from the tray in the water cooler near the printers (the ones whose paper we had smelled to see if it was coming from there).

someone put some coffee or some juice or, maybe it was just water that didn't evaporate into the tray and it went, um... bad.

in a lucky coincidence, the water guy came that day and i asked him to change the tray. he said he'd never seen anything that bad before. i wasn't as concerned with how it looked, but more so with the smell. i was happy i'd never taken a glass of water from that cooler and had been drinking the bottled water which is also provided for free from the canteen.

gosh, the idea is making me sick. yucky.

more on my weekend (4 days of wedding fullness) on my lunch break tomorrow; or else when i get home.

csi cork

today at work near the printers that my side of the department use, there was a weird pukey smell.

matilda first told me about it, and i warned her that it could be this guy's feet (i'd smelled them before at this terribly long meeting we had last week... well, before that too, but never for such an extended amount of time). anyway, we decided that could be it. then i went over to get some stuff from the printers, and i almost dry heaved from the grossness. it wasn't that guy's feet. it smelled like vomit.

periodically throughout the day, we'd get whiffs of it, even as far over as our desks. some theories as to what the mysterious smell was (since we made almost everyone in our department go over to see if they could figure out where/why/how it smelled) included:

a dead body dragged taken apart by rats and dragged over the ceiling
just a dead and rotting corpse
hidden vomit in the corner
a dead mouse
feet

it really smelled bad and grossed me out. i don't like to smell vomit. it makes me want to vomit.

funny, that

i finished the hitch hiker's guide to the galaxy on friday. it was good. really funny.

funny thing? people were talking about it at work on friday. funnier? the mini-series was on this evening. i'd never even seen it 'til today. it didn't look as good as the movie.

weird when things like that happen.

ahhh sweet relief

today is the day after month end. this makes me happy. a nice easy-ish day with only filing and some small accounting things to do.

roll-on weekend!

this weekend gerry is going to do a motorcycle driving course on saturday and then head to carrickmacross on saturday evening. i can't remember the last weekend we had to ourselves to just relax and cuddle up. well, it will still be a few before that happens again.

my weekend will involve housework, chatting to danielle on saturday evening, going to the market and tv watching. it will also involve the final details of our paris trip (this week has not been conducive to getting personal things done). i will also be trying to plan some stuff for ian's visit here... i'm going to look into cities that would be good for him to fly into (we'll meet up with him and spend a couple of days there) and then places that are warm for a week's visit. he will also get the (now) traditional list of things to start getting together for me. mwah hah hah!

ian's trip here means a nice vacation for me so i think i'm putting the excitingness of both things together. i'm way too out of it today to fully wrap my head around it, but for now, i will leave it at being excited.

oh shoot... i should make a list, i also need to get jewelry for the weddings this weekend and possibly some kind of hair thing like feathers or a hat.

help me jeebus.

month end = my end

as danielle mentioned in a recent email: it's month end, i've fallen off the face of the earth... or at least the social continent on said planet.

i've been busy with overtime, talking to birthday folks, and trying to plan our trips to london and paris. to top it off, i'm working on getting rid of this cold.

my success hasn't been great, but yesterday i made progress. after work i ate, talked to srs (mostly at the same time), had a shower, grabbed hitcherhiker's guide and went to bed. it's been a few nights recently that i've been exhausted but unable to sleep. there's just too much going on. finally, last night, i went to sleep early, and started to sort of lose it. i think i was so exhausted, mentally and physically that my body and mind stopped working properly! i woke up kinda stressed and out of it, and couldn't even answer gerry when he asked what was wrong. went pee, and then came back and realised i'd been dreaming about orders. i woke up randomly through the night, but basically had a good sleep, relatively speaking.

why the physical exhaustion? well, it's not that easy to be sitting at a desk all day, while not having slept well the night before, also i really need to be working out more... i've kinda fallen off the train since coming here. to top it off? ah! indeed... a story:

last week i asked some ladies to meet up for dinner on monday. elaine's going to college in dublin soon, isabel's going on a vacation for two weeks, trish is also off to college, but on friday next week, and beverley came too, but she's not going anywhere, yet... so it seemed like a good time.

we met up at cafe bar deli and everyone was close enough to on time. gerry was dropped off on the way, because he was meeting damien (beverley's boyfriend) for a pint as i had planned to drive.

everything was grand. good time, good food, great company. because i figured i'd be picking up gerry from somewhere on the road to beverley and damien's, i offered her a lift home. poor her. we went to the garage, and my car wouldn't start. so i decided to give it a push to see if it would start. well, the little push ended up being a bigger push (we were sure it would start going down the hill through the gate–the garage attendant held it open for us) and it did! but then beverley had to stop for the red light. gerry and damien were called and they came over. we pushed it the wrong way down a one way street, and YAY! it started again! and then it died. again. did we block traffic? of course! so we were pushing it down st.patrick's street (the busiest street in cork, especially at that time of night) and miracle of miracles, it started again. and i kept it revved the entire way home so it wouldn't die again. soooo crazy. i was stopping with the handbreak so i could keep it revved up, please keep in mind, this is in a 95 ford fiesta (a real party in a car). we were at stop lights and roundabouts, and i'm revving the engine... ah! the looks.

somehow we got home.

the next day i was in for work at 6.40 because gerry had to drop me off, and he works at 7. good news? got lots of work done.

gerry got a new battery for me, but the light still comes on... at least it starts now. the security guard at work told me to unplug the back window defroster. apparently with too much moisture they short out and cause battery drainage. i did it. anything to help, really.

at least now i know my my arms were killing me last night, too much pushin'... and definitely not the good kind.

huckleberry pie

was it last year that we had the strawberry social?

i miss that.

on that note... there was eton mess served at harvey's bistro, different than the one at the strawberry social. lovely. but not as lovely.

say what you mean

it's a bit weird. i've caught up on my regular blog readings but i didn't make one comment.

i like to comment on my friends' blogs because i feel like then they know i'm reading... and possibly more important, that i'm paying attention.

i always wonder how people will perceive my comments...or other people's comments even. especially if you don't know someone, how will they know that it's supposed to be funny? does it matter?

as an aside: i've been sick twice now since i started my new job 2 months ago. well, two months ago on saturday. the first time was when i first started there, and the second has been since coming back from vacation. i'm just sayin' is all.

You've got a boat-load o'nerve

all i talk about lately is moving. i'm sure it's kind of bugging g, but so far he's not telling.

it's true that we're making big effort to do more of europe (i think we're both enjoying the efforts, but are also wanting this to placate me) while we're still here; we've got tickets for london in september, paris in november, and possibly a quick flight to germany after my birthday and then a drive from there back to ireland. my sister, as per the norm, still has not followed through on getting fixing the storage to liberate the '71 bug that i wish to take here. maybe i should articulate to her that my desire to leave here gets stronger every day, and that my motions to make this happen are becoming more desperate.

we've started to play the lottery... then who cares how much g likes his job... he wouldn't have to work. we could just travel around until we find some place that we both like. or more than one place.

i've been searching for "around the world" tickets and trying to figure out which would be most suitable and economic for us.

i've considered the option of moving to the states.

at worst, we'll probably be here until march-ish 2008. then g is pretty sure he could get a transfer for a year or so to australia. maybe i will like there.

Does your mother tell you things?

this weekend i got to chat to srs. she's in ottawa until thursday. then she's off back to san fran.

she sent the phone number for the hospice that her mom's at so i could give a call, so i did. i'd say she's in a pretty similar position that my mom was in two years ago.

i cried when i talked to her mom. which is pretty much exactly the opposite of what i wanted to do. when srs and i talked, we talked normal. maybe we sort of both wanted it to be a bit normal... or maybe we were just trying to ignore how we feel. or something. maybe we just don't need to say it... that's what i like to think. that we both know, and we don't need to say it outloud.

like everything, it's hard to know the truth.

weatherman wet-fingers the sky

okay, so after danielle and her mom left i went right back to work that day. sometimes i enjoy wallowing in my misery, but other times, with some foresight, i will prevent this by making plans.

it was craziness at work because i'd been gone for a week. my department was basically a mess, excepting that orders had been done, everything needed some tlc.

also, in that time, a girl who has been quite negative about all things irish and all things her boyfriend, decided to go on a vacation, and a guy there quit. it was weird. i suspect they are related, but maybe shouldn't go into detail.

yesterday i left work early because i was sick. today, on dr.gerry's orders, i've taken the day off. i'm not fully recovered, but am certain it will come (from watching tv and surfing the web for holidays, and soup). tomorrow i will go back to work.

almost the whole time danielle and her mom were here the weather was pretty frickin' nice. the day before the left it started raining. since then it's mostly been raining. lots of thunderstorms, lots and lots of rain. everything's back to normal now.

we don't go anywhere, just on trips

it's been quite some time since i last blogged. now it's going to be one of those massive blogging sessions.

so much has happened. let's start where we left off... danielle was visiting. now, if you'll allow me, i will sum up.

we went to blarney: it was a gorgeous day. i didn't realise that i already blogged about this. *blush*

we went to dublin it was a long day, and a short visit. my first time in dublin was a success. we went to a cathedral and a museum after a yummy lunch at cafe gertrude. we were guided there by conor and it was yummy.

sadly we didn't make it to dumdum centre to buy the "ursula bag" by furla. would it be weird to take the bus to dublin this weekend while gerry's doing over time? wait a second, if he's doing over time doesn't what me that *he* should get the bag for me?

we shopped in cork

we went to west cork: stopped at inchydonny (however it's spelled) stopped at what we thought was a craft fair at a church. ended up being mass, but it got me directions to the "other church" that apparently had events like craft fairs. the stuff was less crafty and more arty than expected... but all very nice. it was cool to see local stuff, and to find out about classes. i'd love to take the chair making class, but i don't think my hands are up for it right now...maybe once i don't have arthritis. that would be fun.

we had a lovely meal at annie's: extra yummy.

we played loads of games: this includes cribbage, and the couple times people came over and we played cranium.

overall, i'd say a good visit. it was nice to be able to see stuff i'd been holding off on, because i didn't want to do it twice.

kissing lips

so far danielle and her mom's trip to cork has been a mix of hanging out and playing cards and doing the tourist thing.

friday evening we went into town for wagamama. it was an all-around, 'YUM!'. we met up with elaine and shantella and funnily i even saw matilda from work there.

saturday we went to the coal quay market to drop off the basket to the german baker, picked up pretzels and a croissant and went to the english market to get a picnic for fitzgerald's park.

sunday we had a barbeque and finished an evening of too much food with a solid game of canadians vs. irish. the irish won, but we're looking for a rematch on saturday.

monday we went to blarney, where i was the only one brave (stupid) enough to kiss the stone. i don't think my gift of gab has increased, but i guess it's hard to get chattier when you're already the chattiest.

the weather's been great since danielle and her mom arrived. i encourage canadians to visit more regularly. please. we got some rain on sunday and thought we might get rained out, but it cleared up nicely for the barbeque and we even ate outside.

that's hoff-tastic

just saw an add for an internet service provider. the hoff is their spokesmodel. it's funny, self-mocking, and disturbing.

has anyone else noticed that when he walks it's really stiff? like "old man, i'm having trouble moving" kind of stiff walk. it's almost like he has wooden legs.

going places

gerry and i don't have much free time between now and christmas. as mentioned, danielle and her mom are coming for just over two weeks, and i've taken some time off for that. we have two weddings to go to (gerry's in the wedding party for both) but we've now managed to plan a trip for london (ehm, england) in september, between weddings, and a weekend in paris (still not the one in ontario) in november. in london, we're going to see a couple shows, gerry (he's gay below the knees) would like to see phantom, and i would like to see something shakespeare. in paris, we're going to do touristy things because gerry's never been, and really, we couldn't get cheaper flights to anywhere else.

this leaves me with 2 days of vacation time left between now and december 26 which is when my contract runs out. i might have to just randomly take those days off, cause every weekend that gerry has off, we have plans, and here, if you don't take your vacation time, you don't get to bank them or anything.

v is for visitors

YAY! one more sleep until danielle and her mom arrive!

i get to leave work early for the second day in a row. gerry will pick them up from the airport, and i will meet them at the house, unless by some miracle work decides that i am not needed and that it would be wonderfully kind to let me leave extra early. for some reason, i don't think this is going to happen.

i'm ready for some time off, some cribbage and some more canadiana!