Wednesday Randoms/I'm Back!

Back home at blog HQ after a spectacular trip. I'm running out of adjectives to describe the past week. I'll be careful not to turn this edition of WRs into a total vacation recap. Plenty of time to do that in future, non-Wednesday posts.

• Funny, no mention of the Phillies in Ireland. Haha. I did see guys going nuts over some rugby game. Coming home to all this bashing of the Eagles on Fbook/Twitter is laughable. How many times are people going to keep saying to fire Andy Reid? Guess what? As long as people have season tickets, they're going to the games and as long as the stadium keeps filling up, Jeffrey Lurie will keep raking in the piles of money.
• I'm feeling out of the loop on current events, as I only watched about an hour of TV the entire past week. Of course, I was online. You can't take all my technology away from me!
• How much you wanna bet the next vacation Amanda Knox takes will not be an international one? I bet she'll be behaving herself and have the address of the US Embassy on speed dial if she ever leaves the states.
• Coming home from vacation and having zero food in the house is the worst, and now I have to go back out again tonight and buy everything when all I really want to do is lay in bed with my window open and the fall breeze coming in. Need a personal assistant some days.
• Mini rant time. The airlines aren't cutting back that much, at least not in first class. Sitting in the front of the plane both to and from, I had a clear view of all the hot towels and lemons wedges they were handed (what seemed like) every 10 minutes. Maybe I'm a little bitter. Sure, I could have hit yes when at check-in it asked "Would you like to upgrade to first class for $500?" One of these days I'll fly somewhere far, and it won't be in coach! I'll make sure they fluff my pillow and bring me endless cocktails.
• I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love going to Europe because everyone is so much better looking! Maybe if we walked everywhere and didn't have a fast food place on every corner we wouldn't be a nation known for overweight, out of shape slobs.
• An Aussie guy I met on the trip was telling me how he got his ass handed to him by a bunch of Irish guys in Dublin on a pub crawl playing beer pong with Guinness!  How they can drink like alcoholics, look fit, and still function continues to mystify me...
• It was so nice not having to drive the past week. Efficient and clean public transportation in a major city (not Philadelphia) is a beautiful thing.
• Yes, I realize I have lifted the veil of anonymity on the blog with a pic of my looking straight into the camera (gasp!) Is everyone shocked? I thought that pic turned out pretty awesome, so I threw it on the background.
• What's a blog entry of mine without a food mention? I had the most delicious option when I was in the town of Howth. Take one guess which one I got. Too easy, right? Although choice c) was tempting for a minute. I need a crepe pan so I can make one whenever I want.



Yes, Nutella and banana!!

Last blog entry from Ireland

So sad to be leaving tomorrow, but had such an amazing trip. Here's another movie. Don't worry, I wasn't all touristy like some certain groups of tourists famous for taking a million pictures of each other and posing in front of everything. (Guesses anyone?)

That new digital camera I got a few weeks ago is a real gem. So tiny, lightweight, and takes some great videos. Here's me crossing the Carrick-a-Rede bridge, trying my best to take a steady movie in the wind.
Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge

I had to squeeze this post in before I left. Not that I've been up for 18hrs or have my entire suitcase to pack before I go to bed  : O

Bye Ireland! I love being here... and I will be back!

Hiking in Howth

Some consider a vacation to be lounging by a pool all day. If you know me, you know I'm not one of those people. In fact, I actually get more of a workout on vacation than I do at home. Every minute today was enjoyable because, let's face it, you can't get views even close to this at home. Here's one of several videos I took today in Howth as well as some pics from my 4mi hike around the peninsula, high above the cliffs. A serious workout, yes. Worth it? Absolutely!

Sick Sailing Trip!

Sick as in, it was me who was sick for the last portion of it. The first half was pretty sick though, as the boat was going fast, and the wind and water made our outing today especially aggressive according to the guys sailing it. I'll write a more thorough recap later, but here's a video I took from the boat, pre-sickness. This is a good size boat, 54', so it's meant to handle some rough seas and is capable of sailing from one country to another, if one desired.


Not sure if you can tell by this video, but the boat was at definite angle, I didn't have my protractor on me, but it was not upright, part of which contributed to the thrill of it all, and also my close encounter with the toilet/bathroom floor for about 30min. Downing some Lucozade now and feeling much better, but puking your guts out does take a little out of you! Another story to add to my book of life.


I didn't feel so bad when I found out our boat had to call the coastguard on another smaller sailboat who was whipped right into the side of a cliff and pretty much stuck. I missed that little bit of drama because I was too busy locked in the bathroom. There go my dreams of racing sailboats.... :)

Wednesday Randoms/See Yaaaa

• Vacation day is here! Besides Christmas and my birthday, this is my 3rd most favorite day of the year, and it’s the best because depending on how many trips I take, the day comes around more than once. Stay tuned for lots of updates, pics, and stories of whatever adventures (or mishaps) I may encounter, hopefully more of the former.
• NBC10 had a ‘town hall’ meeting with Mayor Nutter yesterday, taking questions from Facebook, Twitter, etc. I’m never shocked by the generic questions posed to any politic figure, but I’m always left wondering about the morons who ask the stupid questions. One was along the lines of “I moved across the river from Jersey, and Philly is so full of trash. Why isn’t this cleaned up?” You know what? I loved his answer. “Because [some of] the people of Philly are slobs!” The city provides trash pickup and fancy solar-powered compacting trash cans, and people continue to litter, continue to junk it up. He threw it straight back on us- and he’s right! He then asked: “Do we throw trash on the living room floor? Then stop throwing it on the streets of Philly” Lazy people of Philly- SYAD
• Rumors of Chris Christie for a Presidential run? First off, if you can’t run a 5K without keeling over, you have no business being president. Yeah, Bill Clinton is a bad example with his yo-yo diets of fried chicken and salads and then he got all into the running thing for a while… but for one of the most stressful jobs in the world, you have to be mentally AND physically fit. Just sayin…
•  I don’t foresee any distance running on this vacation, sooooo that run in 3 weeks is going to be awesome *sarcasm*
• I’m going to miss my birds this week… but they are the background pic on my phone and iPod, so I’ll have a constant visual reminder. No morning tweets though…
• I’m doing a little experiment and created a Dublin-specific Twitter list. I’m going to see if social media is beneficial in any way while I’m there by following some bars and tourism accounts. I’ll let you know if it was helpful or completely futile, cause I know you’re all dying of curiosity.
• Gotta go! Hopefully I'll have a great pic to post on the blog background when I return. Unless everyone wants to look at the staged super cool Euro wall shot forever...

I Must Share...

...something so delicious you are going to run out and get it after reading this post.

If you've read through this blog, you know I'm a fan of Nutella and all other things chocolate and hazelnut. I had the genius idea around 1am last night this morning to take the mini waffles and make a Nutella sandwich! This is OMG good, just warning you. I'm usually a fan of the salty snacks, but this is too good to resist! And adding the vanilla flavor to the waffles... and they also make chocolate chip(!!)

Get yourself to Whole Foods and get some!

P.S. Should I just turn this whole thing into a Wednesday Randoms/Food Blog? WR are the favorite, and I'm always talking about food...

Almost Time

It's almost here! Yay! After a really great Friday and Saturday I've followed through on my plan for a productive Sunday. Everything is almost done. I get so super excited for trips. I'm glad traveling isn't a part of my job, as I know it would kill any excitement I get stepping inside an airport.

Africa is the next big trip in the plans. That definitely requires a lot more planning, $$ and time off. There's not much more to do than book it with a reputable tour guide and let them take care of planning everything. There's always the concerns of malaria and such, but from the few people I know who have gone, it's a must do at some point in your life.

I can't imagine how great it would be if I were on the 10mo schedule at work. I'd take those 2 months off and do Europe from one side to the other. I haven't ever seen the entire US, but I can guarantee Switzerland is a lot more exciting than Oklahoma. The size of our country alone makes it difficult to hit a lot of different states in one shot. You can drive the entire width of Ireland in less time than it takes to go from Philly to Pittsburgh.

Off the travel topic... I worked 2 great events yesterday. The Guinness events might be my favorite out of everything we do. Because it is a specialized pour, people are always so shocked we actually know what we're talking about when we run these promotions at bars. I would hope so, as Diageo is pouring loads of $$ into executing these events. I've already been there, but I might have to take a trip back to St James Gate. After launches in test market cities, Guinness has come out with their own lager, aptly named: Guinness Black Lager. So if you're looking to switch from the usual Yeungling that everyone drinks, give this a try.