Invitations, check!

We are now less than 12 weeks to go until the wedding, and the invitations are all addressed, just waiting to be mailed in 2-3 weeks. We got them finished this past weekend. I had Paul print off some accommodation information to be included in the invitations, and when it came time to cut them apart, I gave him my Fiskars papercutter that I have for scrapbooking to use. He thought it was one of the best things ever! Maybe I'll get him into scrapbooking, yeah right!

This past weekend Paul raced in Northern Ireland on Saturday- he got fifth and unfortunately dropped to second in the championship. They have now decided to take apart the engine, as they think that may be slowing him down. I stayed in Dublin and got caught up on things around the apartment. We took in two movies- The Dark Knight and Wall-E. Both were very good- opposite ends of the spectrum!

We have been experiencing some of the warmest weather of the summer the past few days. Even though the temperatures are only around 70-72 degrees Fahrenheit, the humidity makes it feel a lot warmer, and very few cars and virtually no homes have air conditioning. It's nice to finally pull out my shorts though.

My sister arrives Thursday morning! I have Friday-Monday off of work, and we don't really have any specific plans for what we're going to do. We do have tickets to see the touring production of Disney's Beauty and the Beast on Thursday night, and we plan on spending the rest of the long weekend around Dublin, taking day trips to various spots. No matter what we do, it will just be great to see each other!

Where is the summer going?!?!

Well, two weekends have now gone by since I updated this! Last weekend we had a nice relaxing time in Louisburgh, although it was a bit disappointing that Mayo lost to Galway in the Connacht Final Gaelic football match. It was an exciting game to watch, even if I don't quite understand all the rules yet, and Mayo only lost by one point. They can still get into the All-Ireland Final by winning in a qualifying round, so there's still hope!
This weekend I took the train down to Tralee, County Kerry (about 4 hours from Dublin) after work on Friday. Paul's mom inherited a house down there quite a few years ago, and she's working on updating it a bit. Paul's mom, sister and her boyfriend, and I worked on painting nearly every surface of the inside of the house. Paul stayed in Dublin to get some office work done. We got a lot accomplished, but boy am I tired! I got back to Dublin late this morning and Paul and I started tackling one of the last major wedding tasks this afternoon- addressing the invitations to be mailed in Ireland. We got about a third of them done and hope to finish up the rest over the week and next weekend.
Work continues to go well, and I feel so thankful to have my job. The recession has hit Ireland as well, and the government is looking for any way to cut spending- the health service isn't being spared. If I were looking for a job now, I don't think I would be having any luck at all. So, even though it was a long process to get my job and get the okay to work, I consider myself very lucky now!

Racing and other news

I just thought I'd let you all know how Paul did racing this past weekend. He got 6th on Saturday and 4th on Sunday. He isn't particularly happy with how he drove, especially his starts, but he is still leading the championship. His next race is the 26th of July in Northern Ireland.

We're heading to Louisburgh this weekend. The Connacht Final is being played this weekend in Castlebar, County Mayo- a town about 45 minutes from Louisburgh. The Connacht Final is the provincial (Ireland has 4 provinces- Munster, Leinster, Ulster, and Connacht) Gaelic football final, and Mayo will be playing Galway. Gaelic football is a mixture of soccer and rugby. I still don't understand all of the rules, but it will be a fun time.

Some exciting news- my sister is coming to visit! Margo will be arriving on the morning of Thursday, July 31 and will fly out on Tuesday, August 5. It's a bank holiday weekend here, so I'll have Monday off, and I only work a half day on Fridays. It was kind of an unexpected, spur-of-the-moment decision, but we decided we needed some "sister time"! I'm not sure what we're going to do yet, but I can't wait!

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone is enjoying Independence Day! Yesterday a patient of mine asked if I got today off of work since I'm American- I wish! Paul has promised to take me out to dinner to a restaurant called Captain America's on Monday as a late celebration of the 4th. He's away in Wales racing this weekend. He left last night and will be back late Sunday night or Monday morning. I'm going to spend the weekend catching up on things around here. I just finished cleaning the apartment top-to-bottom and plan on catching up on e-mails, wedding stuff, etc. the rest of the weekend. I'm glad to have this type of weekend after being gone the past few weekends!

By the way, Paul won his race last weekend, so he is now leading the championship by 23 points. He has two races this weekend, so hopefully he'll increase his lead!

Below are a few pictures of my trip to Belfast last weekend to visit Paul's sister, Marie, and her boyfriend, Brian. I took the bus up (about a 2 1/2 hour trip from Dublin) on Friday afternoon, and we just relaxed in their apartment Friday night. On Saturday Marie and I did quite a bit of shopping. The Euro is strong against the Sterling right now, so it's a better deal for me to shop in the North- that's how I justified all my purchases! Saturday evening a couple of Paul's friends and friends of theirs came up, and we all went out Saturday night. On Sunday a few of us went on a bus tour of the city before heading back South. I really enjoyed Belfast. The city is doing a lot of building and redeveloping now that "The Troubles" are over. It's hard to believe how recent that history is. They're only now able to build buildings with glass walls- before everything had to be bomb-proof. The former court house had a 10-foot thick concrete wall around it, and the most-bombed hotel in Europe (The Europa) is in Belfast. I plan on visiting again soon!

At a club in Belfast. L to R: Martin (one of Paul's friends- he'll be a groomsman in the wedding- not the best picture of him!), Brian (Marie's boyfriend), Me, Kieran (a friend of one of Paul's friends), and Marie (Paul's sister)

The shipyards where the Titanic was built

Belfast City Hall and The Wheel of Belfast