Snowy Days!

I know this has been a pretty common site in Minnesota and other parts of the US this winter, but Dublin has had more snow this week than it has had in about 20 years. And, it's only been about 3 inches at a time! Unfortunately it seems to hit right about the time everyone is on their way home. On Monday I left work early enough that I made it home in a reasonable amount of time, but Paul left his office (only about 3 miles from our apartment) around 6pm and didn't get home until 9pm! He did stop and get something to eat for about an hour because he was going nowhere fast and was getting hungry! On Tuesday I was headed home from work and Paul was headed home from a meeting in town, and we both ended up stuck on the same road- Paul was in the fast lane, and I was in the slow lane. We would occasionally pass each other and wave! It was two hours and forty minutes for me to get home, about 8 miles! Yesterday wasn't bad, but it's been snowing again today. The Dublin airport has been shut down all afternoon.

It is just kind of funny to me to see this little bit of snow crippling the eastern part of the country. I know it's all relative though. There are no snowplows here, road surfaces are different, tires are different; they just aren't accustomed to snow! As I've been driving around the past few days, kids throw snowballs at all the cars because it is such a novelty. In County Wicklow, south of Dublin, a few people had to be airlifted out by helicopter from some hilly areas because they were stuck, and cars/trucks couldn't get up the roads! Below are a few photos I took on Monday night outside our apartment.




Other than surviving the snow this week, we've been doing the ordinary- work, gym, keeping up with stuff around the house. We've seen a few movies- Bride Wars (typical chick flick), Yes Man (not too bad, basically brain popcorn), The Wrestler (good but depressing), and Slumdog Millionaire (I really liked it). We went to some friends' this past Friday for a Texas Hold 'Em night, and somehow I ended up being the overall winner! Talk about beginner's luck- I had never played it before, and the last time I played ordinary poker was about 10 years ago!

We're supposed to be heading up to Northern Ireland to visit Marie and Brian tomorrow, but now we'll have to see what the weather does!