captbrando's log

Garrett is 3 months old! Well he was a while back. Anyway, we added some pictures to the studio album shots.

Garrett 3-months.

Wow, what a trip. All of the pictures are up in the gallery at http://www.brw.net/gallery/ireland05. Enjoy! Thanks again to Michelle for showing me a great time on Wednesday. Go Tim Freedman from The Whitlams!

We got to see Eric, Erin and their newest, Jack! Erin looked very sleepy (as to be understood), but Jack looks so cute! Baby Garrett cannot wait for his play pal to come visit!

The return trip was long and frustrating. I fargin hate Chicago O’Hare with a passion. Because of the antics of O’Hare, and poor planning by American Airlines, my flight was delayed over 3 hours. I did not get home until nearly 10pm… had to cancel class. I felt very bad as I wanted to give the students a review, but they will have to do it on their own. I’m off to Austin later this coming week, so James & I will have to have safe fun. Then he is coming up this weekend.

On that note, I’m going to run for the moment. The rest of the crew came back from Hawaii today, and I just ran into the parents for a few minutes. Thanks for the pineapple!

Welp, I’ve arrived at the second and final stop in Ireland. I’m in Wicklow at the Druids Glen. Wow, this place is amazing. I’m definitely out in the country.

Heh, for some reason around here the first floor is really the second. Let me explain. The floor on the ground is the Ground floor, the one right above it is the First floor, and so on. Caused me confusion at both hotels. This one was even weirder though, because I am on the First floor, but that is really the 3rd floor (actually the 4th) per the elevator. Much confusion, but I figured it out and made my way.

So now I’m going to do some work for a bit. I’ve considered going and getting a massage, but I am not sure yet. Real big client work starts tomorrow, so I’ve got to spend time and prepare.

Well I did make it. Yesterday was a very long day. I was able to grab about 3 hours of sleep on the plane on the way over, and that was all. The seat was not very comfortable for one, and I kept getting hot. Oh, and it turns out I was sitting next to a PhD from California that graduated from Duncanville! Can you believe that? I think she said she was class of ’79.

Once I got to the hotel here (took public transport for 2 Euro), I showered and had lunch, then it was time to have some fun! I took a bus into town (bout 45 mins) and then changed to a tour bus. You pay like 10 Euro and the ticket is good for 24 hours. Hop on, hop off. I did the Guinness Storehouse tour and also the Jameson Distillery Tour. Both were very cool and ended in free beverages! Man, the Guinness here DOES taste different! Though I will add, not everywhere. The Guinness at this hotel tastes like the states.

On the way back to the hotel, I took public transport and I was SCREWED! Why? Not because I could not get a bus, but because there was some sporting event that had just gotten out and 82,000 people flooded the streets. Not only did we have to weed through all of that in a double decker bus, but we also picked up almost 100 of those guys along the way. Bus ride took me 1.5 hours to get home. Only cost me 2 Euro, but I should have taken a taxi.

I am working on posting pictures from day one right now. I’ll be wrapping things up here in Swords today and then heading down to Wicklow by the afternoon. Will post more then!

Here ya go

Baby Garrett’s First Swim!

Man, what a great time for a breather! Actually I realized that I was not accruing vacation days anymore and I had maxxed out. So I decided to take a day now, some later, and many more later as well. It is so far working out quite well!

We took the kiddo for his first swim today! Be looking for pictures on his gallery soon. Also, everyone has left us for Hawaii now. Well, everyone on my side anyway. I picked up Ash’s car from the aeropuerto today (oh Ash, btw… Spell phonetically when saying Terminal C, level 21 D next time… would be helpful Thanks for the early fathers day gift!) and they are all landed by now. It promises to be a really amazing trip, and we both wish we could be a part of it. BUT! We are VERY happy we did not agree to go with the kiddo. We would not have enjoyed ourselves as much.

I’ve been pulling peppers off the plants! Up until today, we have had no Serrano peppers growing, but we do now! Just one, but that plant is ready to sprout many, many more! I’m preparing for my Dublin trip, and I will have many pictures for you! We got ourselves a little compact digicam so I don’t have to drag one of the SLRs over. I feel much better about it.

At any rate….. I’m going to go throw steaks on the grill now… More soon.