We're Baaaack!

Hello all,

Well, we survived 4 plane flights and the perils of jet-lag and being without luggage for a few days and are now back to an almost-normal life! Ireland was WONDERFUL!! So gorgeous, so green, so rural (outside of Dublin and Shannon, of course). I'll post pictures later when I'm on a faster connection. We both highly recommend visiting Ireland but only if you're going to be brave and drive around the countryside by yourself. You really can't see Ireland any other way. Once you get past the initial terror and nervousness of driving on the wrong side of the road (which only took us 1 day to get over!) you can revel in the joy of being able to stop wherever, and whenever, you want. You can get a million great pictures on your own (or, in our case, almost 800) and it's a very freeing sensation. I just can't believe we're back already. As all vacations go, after so much planning, it's over too quickly. I wonder where we'll go next...

We missed our adorable Sam, of course, but he says he had a grand old time with Aunt Stephanie, Aunt Bunny, Aunt Keri, Uncle Nathen, Gracie, Teeny and Sadie. Thank you for taking such good care of him!!

Michael got his diploma today and it says "High Honors" on it, which is FANTASTIC!! I can't wait to frame it and hang it in his office downtown! I call in to work on the 18th (yes, I transferred to another WS here until I figure out what I want to do next) and Michael starts on the 14th, so he'll have a very short first week. After sleeping all of yesterday away, Sam is now...sleeping...again...on our couch. Such is the life of a dog. Our upcoming events include: Stephanie's birthday (hooray!!!), packing/moving Steph, going to the Fair (the Fair, the Fair!), and then going to Sea World for our 2nd ticket day once it cools off a bit. Not sure how holidays are going to work yet with Michael's schedule. We'll see how that goes soon, I suppose.

Maybe I'll go swimming today...Slainte! (Slan-cha...Irish for cheers!)