Christmas has come and gone

Here's a bit of an update from the Rames'.

Getting to Christmas
With the kids going to Catholic schools, there is quite a bit more involvement with church things near the holiday. Both the boy's and girl's school had their separate concerts at the church leading up to the Christmas break. It was pretty impressive how they got 150 girls and 237 boys to line up, get in, sing songs, read scripts, AND get out in less than 90 minutes for each event! Each class had their songs or parts and it was very well put together. Grace sang, J.J. played the tin whistle and sang, and Rod read parts to their program and was told he was a born orator. The church was packed like it was Christmas Mass for each concert.

Shopping
I can't say that shopping and the craziness around the holiday is any different. Not sure if that's good or not, but it is what it is. We spent our time getting ourselves and the kids around to find gifts for each other. I think next year, we give them their allowance and let them figure out how to get it done. I think they're old enough walk down to the local shopping center or find a bus to get them to the right mall?! Like most places, shopping is a breeze if money is no option, but I've found Ireland pretty difficult to shop around in. There is a dearth of big box stores to run around and compare and the smaller retailers just don't have the web presence to allow you to compare.
Christmas Dinner
Turkey is the traditional meal at Christmas, but since we'd just had one at the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, we decided to try something else. Ham? Predictable. Steak? Unconventional. A stroll through the local Lidl (big grocery store) revealed a large supply of goose just before the holiday, so we thought that goose might be a traditional choice. Every curious Irish person that asked us what we would have on our Christmas menu was surprised, but not judgmental, at our apparent unorthodox choice. The goose was good, not great. Unless you are talking to J.J. who felt that goose was his new favorite food. He was proclaiming this long after others had abandoned the table as he was working on the wing with goose fat giving his chin a very fatty shine. If you know how to cook goose, let us know. Ours was a bit tough, although we've now been blessed with 2 cups of goose fat. We used this to make a wonderful pan-fried zucchini last night!
Christmas Day

Our day didn't start too early: 6:40AM

"Twistables are the coolest"

The happiness quotient varied greatly. Grace struggled to identify her favorite as she loved everything SO MUCH!! She hasn't left the house without her Twistable crayons and carrying case, so I'm going to nominate that as her favorite. Her talking dog, Cookie, is also a favorite.

J.J. about 300 pieces in.

J.J. is still working on his 1200+ piece lego/mega block of a Halo Elephant. Since his fingers are red snapping this thing together, that probably wins. He does have this love-hate relationship as he sifts through the pieces looking for the next one he needs.

Fishing stuff. "Fake smile".

Rod turned 12 this year and apparently that tripped off some type mental condition that made him work very hard to make everyone else's Christmas a bit less enjoyable. Part cynicism, part evil, it made for a long day. Little did we know that his fascination and interest in fishing would end sometime a couple of weeks before Christmas and all the gifts we gave him related to that no longer were wanted?! It got so bad that he received the privilege of staying home by himself with no TV or video console rights, while the rest of us went to visit with neighbor friends. More of that visit later. Never fear, Rod did come around and mentioned late on Christmas that he would "try not to be such a pain tomorrow".

Martha loves nothing more than giving at Christmas, but she certainly loves receiving, ESPECIALLY when it's jewelry. Her favorite this year came from all the boys. There is an Irish artist named Alan Ardiff that makes jewelry that moves as you wear it. She got a Daisy that moves as the chain moves on her neck. It's very cool and she loves it.


Joe's favorite was the griddle for the electric stove. Pancakes have been a problem since coming to Ireland as demand exceeds supply in the pan we have to cook. A problem no more as we now have a griddle that sits on the stove and can hold 6 pancakes at a time. Joe's a happy short order cook at this time!

Radley got a 12" rawhide that he jealously guarded (from Tootsie). This lasted about 2 days before he consumed the remaining gooey pieces.

Poor Tootsie... Have you ever seen a child get a Christmas present and love it so much and play with it so much that it doesn't make it through Christmas day? Well, this picture was taken about 5 minutes after Tootsie opened her present.


Tuna got some kitty crack. It's been a while since he was put in rehab for his addiction to catnip, so I'm not sure what we were thinking giving him a big container. He was so dazed that he didn't even mind the strange dog coming up and sniffing his you know what. Hopefully, his efforts to score more will reduce the amount of time he spends sitting in front of Daavve's cage licking his lips. Daavve was getting a bit paranoid that Tuna's intentions were not honorable.

Christmas visits with the neighbors
A week or so before Christmas, we received an invitation to come over after church to a little party on Christmas day. Now, our Christmas days are usually filled with pajamas and little external visiting, so we were a bit apprehensive. But why did we come to Ireland? Was it to sit in our own little space and isolate ourselves? Nope. We went to church on Christmas Eve, so about noon, we traipsed (minus said 12 year old) around the block to the Fahy's house. Along with the 10-15 kids running around, there was a familiar crowd of adults from the neighborhood. Most of the folks at the party were heading to other places for their Christmas dinner and the party cleared out around 2PM. It was full of champagne, mince pies, biscuits (read: cookies), and buns (read: cupcakes). A thoroughly enjoyable time. We then headed back to cook our goose and tried to get the goose of the said 12-year old out of the hot water.

Hope your holidays were a joyous event!

A furry reunification

The day we had been waiting for finally arrived on Tuesday.  Radley and Tuna joined us in Ireland!!!

 For those of you unaware of the rules about importing a mammal into Ireland (most likely learned by listening to our struggles), it is quite an ordeal.  I think rabies is kind of like electricity in Ireland.  (See this post.)  There is a serious fear of allowing a rabid animal into the country, so they've created a pretty serious bureaucracy around keeping them out.  Our introduction to this started on June 1st, when we started on our journey of enlightenment and relocation.  To get these dangerous creatures to Ireland, they have to be sure they won't come and introduce rabies to the locals.  This requires the beast to spend 6 months in an Irish quarantine facility  or spend 6 months in another country under house arrest. We chose house arrest.  This is a bit of an exaggeration.  It's not like they couldn't leave the house.  Radley actually had two or three houses he frequented during his sentence.  They just had to get a rabies shot, have a blood test, and then spend 6 months in any other country other than Ireland.  Oh and they had to have another vet check within 4 months of arriving in Ireland and another 24-48 hours before arriving in Ireland for a few more shots and treatments for tick and tapeworms.  And they needed to get another vet check when they got to Ireland and we had to have numerous pieces of paper completed correctly most with actual seals of approval by the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.  And an Irish import approval.  And they had to get ticket on an air plane (cargo) and follow all the rules they have related to cage size and conditions. And they had to be met and transported by a specific trucking company that has the monopoly on the route between the airport and the quarantine facility where all beasts enter Ireland.   The upshot of this is that Martha and Joe (mostly Martha) have proven once again that they are completely capable of following directions, however crazy they are.

Wet and unhappy Tuna

Although it was no secret they were coming to the kids, we kept the exact timing from them, mostly to keep them from demanding to go with us.  The crates were going to take up quite a bit of space and in the end, there were no seats in the wagon for additional two-legged creatures.  Joe took the morning off and he and Martha made their way up to Lissenhall (aka, quarantine) to pick them up.  After doing the needful (paying a few hundred more euro to cover transport and vet bills), we had in our happy hands, two very tired and smelly pets.  No matter to us.  On to the house after dropping Joe off to work for the rest of the day.  Martha went and collected the kids from school and surprised them as they opened the door to find Radley.  The day was spent bathing the cat (yes, Tuna received the 2nd bath of his lifetime), cleaning out the crates, bathing the dog, and just being happy they were with us.  Both Tuna and Radley were pretty tired.  There was a whole lot of sleeping going on.  The first 24 hours was pretty uneventful with only 3 throw-ups and 1 peeing on the bed (Rod was the lucky recipient there.)  We couldn't be happier.

Happy Rod and Radley

Happy Grace, uncomfortable Tuna, and Happy J.J.

The most amazing feat of this whole ordeal was that almost all the work to make this happen was done by our dear friends in Redmond.  The Dapogny's (neighbors and friends across the street) boarded Tuna.  The Woodman's (friends down the street a bit) took Radley to provide company for their 2 dogs.  So these incredible friends have looked after and helped us get everything done correctly since August.  You know you are blessed in this world when you have friends like this.  And to top it off, they both made mad dashes to get them to the vet and the airport on the last day to make it all happen.  Truly blessed we are!

Tootsie

Our home has gone from having 1 guinea pig (Daaavvve) to 2 dogs, a cat, and a guinea pig.  For those of you doing maths (Irish for math), you caught the addition of a dog.  Yes, we actually picked up another dog for a short-term stay.  Some new friends (from Seattle) went back for the holidays and we are keeping their Tootsie, a yellow lab.  She and Radley are getting along famously, sharing everything from water and food to chew toys to affections (for all of you that know Radley, you'll know the affections we speak of).

The Christmas Tree

I've read that 88% of the population of Ireland is Catholic, so Christmas is not surprisingly a big deal.  We were asking some locals where we should find our tree and the answer was pretty unanimous:  At the pink house.  In our neighbourhood, the pink house is a landmark.  Like most direction given by locals, it involves turning at some notable building.  In most cases that building is a pub, but in our neighbourhood, the pink house is a landmark.  It's not bright pink, but it is probably a turn of the century home of larger size that sits on Booterstown Avenue.  We pass it each day on the way to school and it is right across the street from the church and just above the street from Gleeson's Pub. (See how I worked a pub into the directions?)  Next to the house itself is a garage that looks older than the house, but about a week ago, the garage was not something you noticed.  Then, one day, signs appeared out front and a business opened.  There is no name, just some banners and signs and the door to the garage that was once closed is now the entrance to the tree farm in the back garden.  It is a very big garden indeed.  You can't really see the back gardens of ANY of the homes on this street as all the homes are built right next to each other.

Now, somethings in Ireland don't change.  Like smaller stores aren't open early on Sunday and most are actually closed when it isn't the holiday, unless perhaps they are in a mall.  At some point between 11AM when Rod and I walked home from church and noon, when we walked back to meet the clan, the doors were open.  Lots of trees and business was brisk.  We were looking for a tall skinny tree as we have reasonably high ceilings (about 9'), but not much floor space.  We weren't disappointed and found our tree.  I think it's a noble fir, so nothing unique there.

The unique aspect of this tree shopping adventure was that we got to carry the tree to our house.  It's just a 5 minute walk, so we put Rod on the trunk, Joe in the middle, and Grace on the top and we headed down the street.  From the looks and smiles, I could see that it wasn't the normal way to get the tree home, but we managed to get it home with smiles still on our faces, although the photographer struggled to get good action shots.

So tree acquired, now what do we do with it.  Like most of our activities, we rely on the gracious generosity of our friends or liquidity in our bank account to make things happen.  Today was no different.  On the way to Dublin, I tried to put my Christmas tree stand in my luggage, but the bucket wouldn't fit.  In Ireland, you don't need no stinking bucket.  We were informed by our friends that most people just have two pieces of re-bar welded together with a large screw sticking out and you just screw this into the bottom of the tree.  Apparently the 3 gallons of water my Redmond tree sucked up wasn't really necessary. We were game, so we borrowed a spare stand.  When we got home, Rod screwed it in.


Lights and decorations?  Some serious lack of this stuff.  We knew we had to get lights and the Irish retailers haven't found it in their hearts to pass on the cheap prices they acquire crappy Chinese lights at.  After taking a deep breath, I think we paid 22 Euros for a 20-foot string of lights.  For those of you that don't know, in the rafters of our Redmond Garage, we had a 1 and a 1/2-4x8 sheets of plywood stacked with Christmas stuff.  Martha loves this time of year and having all our stuff in storage is a sad state.  We've received a few decorations from friends, we acquired a few, and then we made some.  All in all, the tree looks great.

A tradition in our house (carried on from Martha's family) is to make a decoration each year.  These are treasures that chronicle the kids abilities through time.  This year's decorations were made out of pop cans and the bottoms to Pringles cans.  Inspired by a school project of Rod's to make a Christmas decoration out of recycled material, we did some simple items.  I'll get you pictures of Rod's "present" that he made by cutting out, embossing, and folding into a 3-D gift box with a ribbon and bell.  It actually won a prize and is being shown at the local equivalent of The Mall of America (Dundrum Shopping Centre).  We were a bit less ambitious with 2-D Christmas trees and stars with some painting in fingernail polish by Grace.  Martha's "star" for the top is actually a nativity scene in relief made out of a tall boy Heineken can.  Here's a selection:

Martha's latest knitting project.  If you don't have your stockings, make your own.

I'm sure we'll post again before the holidays come, but please receive our wishes for a peaceful and joyous season.

Electricity

When I married Martha, I was a pretty handy guy and could work my way around an apartment or car and solve my own problems.  Electrical stuff was not in my list of skills.  I think the first real lessons in that came in our Oak Park house when Martha's Dad, Bill Siembieda, came and explained to me why the electrical set up in that house was a bit iffy.  We didn't do much in that house to the electrical system, except replace blown fuses (Yes, fuses.  Not flipping a circuit like most modern homes.)  The second lesson was a bit harder for Bill in our Newcastle house.  In the excitement of ripping apart our kitchen, I had left all the electrical wires hanging in disarray, waiting for the impending arrival of my electrically-mind father-in-law to help me get it all straightened out. The multitude of 3-ways switches confused him until the day he left, but he managed to get them straight.   Although Bill was kind in his words, I could tell he was shaking his head inside.  In our 3rd house in Redmond, my confidence and skills were at a level where I did most of the electrical work myself (outside the replacement of our electrical panel).  There was still plenty of assistance from Bill and brothers, but I now owned electricity!!

Then I came to Ireland.  There seems to be a difference in attitudes about electricity between our countries.  I think the attitude change happens somewhere between 110 and 220 volts.  The first thing you notice is that the light switches for bathrooms are all on the outside of the doors.  Strange, but functional.  The next thing you notice is that there are no plugs in the bathrooms.  Shaving and hair drying aren't something that is apparently safe.  They often have heaters in the bathroom, but they are high up on the ceiling with a cotton pull string to pull to turn them on.  They often advertise "electric showers", which really means good pressure and heat.  Ironically, you have a big box with 220 volts inches from your body standing in a puddle of water, but that's apparently OK.  I guess it's the difference between what 110 and 220 can do.  I think it was Bill that gave me this advice when working on the Newcastle house as we were stringing a bit fat 220V cable to where the stove was going to be.  He said something to the effect that, "110 will make your arm tingle, 220 will kill you."  Now, I know not everyone does their own wiring in the U.S.  But, IF you wanted to, you would have at your hands all the materials and guidance to do it and there would plenty of people to sell you the stuff to do it.

As we readied our trip to Ireland, the advice was to leave everything electrical behind as the power differences would make them either burn up or force you to connect them to a Step-Up-Down transformer.  The Holmes' went as far to give me the link to a Amazon page that had exactly what I should buy for the 110V items that we couldn't just abandon (mainly computers and video game consoles).  Because if I came over here and attempted to buy a transformer here, I'd have "American Sucker" written all over my face and I would likely have to come up with another child to exchange for it.  That's a bit tough for me at this point.  So I took that advice and brought 3 transformers over, when I really only needed 2.  Everything was grand, until last week.

It was then that my one and only US-110V surge protector/power strip decided it wasn't happy with it's current situation.  There were 4-110V plugs that needed a place to call a home.  For these, I used the surge protector/power strip to plug them into and plugged the surge protector into the transformer.  After discovering a popped circuit, I experimented a bit and found that my surge protector was the cause.  After consulting the all-knowing source of truth (the Internet), I found many cautionary tales related to using a surge protector on a transformer like this.  They weren't applicable to my current state, but this left me in a strange predicament.  Here I am in Ireland, needing a 110V surge protector/power strip.  They just don't sell that stuff around here and if they do, any purchaser has the aforementioned label on their forehead with the appropriate price.  I put the request into my letter to Santa, but only received a quick reply back from his legal department that they couldn't support my intended use.

The Holmes' came to the rescue with a 3-plug power strip.  That almost got us all the way home.  It was then that I had a brilliant idea.  Just because my surge protector was a problem didn't mean I couldn't just make it a power strip and take out all the now defective parts that were causing the problems.

So I dismantled my surge protector and started pulling all the pieces out that were in between the power cord and the plugs.  It was actually pretty easy.  Then I had to put it back together, which involved splicing a few wires together.

US Wire Nut

When you connect two wires together in the US, you use a wire nut.  This was something that I would have had in my garage (actually 100's), but unfortunately they didn't make the trip on the air plane, so I made my way to the local DIY (Irish for hardware store).  I asked the young man where the wire nuts would be. (Blank stare.)  I then proceeded to tell him what I was doing.  (Blank stare with a bit of fear that he was speaking to a crazy American.)  I was then referred to "Mr. Bauman".  It was Bauman's DIY, so I thought I was making progress.

Irish wire connector

Mr. Bauman first suggested that it probably wasn't a good idea for me to be messing with electrical stuff, but if he needed to connect two electrical wires together, he'd use the pictured wire connector to the left.    So I left Bauman's with a roll of electrical tape (as a backup) and this device.  Of course, my wallet was 5 Euros lighter in exchange for what would have cost me $2 (at most), but you'll recognise that recurring theme in my stories.  But, this blog is now being written on a computer plugged into the new non-surge protecting power strip.

Surge protectors are kind of like insurance, so odds are good that I won't be needing that additional protection.  Just in case, I might pick one up on a business trip back to the US in the near future...

Thanks Bill for giving me the knowledge and confidence to wire my way to success!!  

Turkey Day in Ireland

Updated with Turkey Results!!!!!!!!!!!
For the Rames' in Dublin, Turkey Day was filled with the normal, everyday activities like work and school.  There were no crazed crowds of pepper-spraying shoppers to deal with.  There wasn't a parade.  There wasn't a football game.  And most of all there wasn't a TURKEY!!  Much to J.J.'s disappointment, we had beef for dinner.  But have no fear, the turkey is near!!!  We decided that we'd move our Thanksgiving Day celebration to Saturday to give us time to clean, cook, & host.  We're actually going to have some Americans over.  The Holmes' were introduced to us by Drew and Aya Robbins, our neighbors in Redmond.  They have 4 kids with a couple of teenagers.  They've been here since early in 2011 and have been our expat mentors prior to and after arriving in Dublin.  We're not going to mess with the traditional Thanksgiving Day fare, however.  Since Ireland doesn't have an equivalent, no point of assimilating Irish customs.  On to the discoveries we've made related to Thanksgiving:
1. The Turkey.  Turkey is a traditional Christmas entree and they are plentiful.  I'd have to say they haven't pumped their turkey's up with genetic engineering technology or spent as much time breeding their birds to be near-Pterodactyl size.  I'm sure this has something to do with the size of the typical Irish oven.  And yes, if you look at the picture, you will see our turkey has SHINS?!  They took the feet, but left the lower part of his legs.  I have an historical hypothesis as to the reason.  The Irish have been known to have larger families and to avoid family strife, leaving two additional leg segments was sure make dinner a more pleasant affairs without the wrangling over the limited supply.
So the turkey shins were definitely not edible, but the rest of the bird was great.  We learned that our oven is always on convection, which would have been really nice to have known prior to calculating when the turkey should have gone in.  So it was finished at tab bit early, if you consider 45 minutes a tad.  It had plenty of time to rest and I had plenty of time to make, THE GRAVY!!!!  Between the muffled voices stuffed with mashed potatoes and stuffing, words were heard like, "best gravy ever" and "do you have a syringe that would allow me to inject this"?  The pan from the oven that we cooked the turkey in was a perfect fit on top of the stove with all four burners going.  The 4 cups of gravy were but a memory when dinner was over.

2. The Stuffing. We're going with a chestnut dressing.  Martha was strolling down in the city and found a vendor selling chestnuts on the street so we're going to try it out on our guests this year.  Plain bread crumbs didn't seem to be something the stores stocked, so it will be a costly addition to the meal as we used some fancy croutons instead.  Next time, we'll just have to buy the bread and open it up to dry out. The stuffing was also very good.  We didn't even touch the pan that was cooked separately from the bird as it became one of those forgotten dishes on the side table that no one remembered.   
3. Potatoes.  Well Ireland is known for spuds.  Shopping for potatoes in Dublin means heading down the aisle and perusing the myriad choices.  There are a lot to choose from.  One of our local stores (Superquinn) has home delivery and they list 25 different types of potatoes.  We went with the Maris Piper.  The reason we went with this variety was simple:  they were the cheap store brand.  Someday, I aspire to be a potatoe expert to regale my dinner guests with my adventures of shopping for and consuming potatoes in Dublin, but I'm still working on becoming a spud snob.  (My spell checker is telling me I've misspelled potatoe, but Dan Quayle and I know differently.)  Of course, we'll have some sweet potatoes and fill them with fluff (marshmallow paste).
4. Green bean casserole.  The search for French's Fried Onions or a reasonable substitute resulted in failure, so we'll be making green beans with almonds.
5. Cranberries in a can.  What is more Thanksgiving that a can-shape plate of cranberries.  Sorry, no cans of cranberries in Ireland.  We had to buy the bags and make our own.  Preliminary sampling says we're better off without the cans!  Perhaps the surprise of dinner, the cranberries Martha made were great.  Next year we'll make half as many as we ended up having cranberries for numerous lunches and dinners over the next week.  It was a bit over the top, even for Thanksgiving.
6. Pumpkin in a can.  Nope.  When picking up our pumpkins for Halloween, all the bins had recipes for pie with them.  We bought the pumpkins, but just never got around to carving them, so we made our own pumpkin pies last night.I'm not sure we'll ever buy pumpkin in a can again!!!  Seriously, it was good and easy.  Cut pumpkin in two, bake for an hour, pull out the flesh.  Put into bowl and mix/blend.  Add other pumpkin stuff.  Bake.  The pie was great and best of all, we have some of that pumpkin in the freezer waiting for the next occasion.  I don't think Christmas dinner would be offended by having a pumpkin pie finish up?  Do you??
7.  French Silk.  I'm not sure if this a Thanksgiving tradition in other places, but it is at our house.  Martha managed to put this together without the assistance of a mixer.  We still haven't picked up one of these kitchen appliances.  If our great grandparents survived without one of these in the house, I'm sure we can make it.  However, we'll keep the bathrooms.When the gravy ran out, some in the crowd got a bit misty, but when the French Silk pie ran out, real tears flowed.  Yes, Grace came back after having a slice of cherry (yummy from the Holmes') and a slice of pumpkin only to find the empty pie tin.  We'll need two of those next year.

The Holmes' will bring some dishes and desserts, so it is stacking up to be a food orgy and that's about as traditional as it gets, even if we are in Ireland.

As you can tell from the tense, we haven't actually eaten the meal yet, but I thought I'd better get it out before the motivation is drained from my body by the addition of all the good friends, food and drink.  We managed to pick up a 12-year old Jameson on the shopping trip to round out our meal, so there is no doubt the spelling and grammar would deteriorate greatly and I don't want to have to generate a corrected blog after receiving a marked up printout from my Mom.  Happy Thanksgiving to all. I am somewhat ashamed to say that there is still a 12-year old Jameson in my cupboard, untouched.  Josh was the designated driver that night, so not one to drink alone, Joe left the bottle untouched and joined in with the girls drinking wine and beer.  After this feast, there wasn't much room for much anyway.

From Halloween On

Our Halloween was a great combination of traditions we recognized and new traditions that were welcome and fun. So let's look at Halloween in Ireland:

1. Costumes? Check! We had plenty of
   ghosts, ghouls, movie stars, witches, pumpkins, and unidentifiable creatures come by the house. Apparently, St. Helen's Wood (our estate, read: neighborhood) is well known for having a lot of trick-or-treaters and it was confirmed on that night. I would say it was a good 100-200 kids, but we forgot to tell our candy distributor(Carlie, niece visiting from Paris) to count. Ours were dressed as a gangster (ala Al Capone) and as Radar O'Reilly from M*A*S*H (as he was a lover of guinea pigs), and as a WWII soldier. There was a party at the Booterstown Youth Club on Saturday night and the traditional night of candy gathering on the 31st. Martha was a gypsy and Joe was some kind of green character in a skin-tight leotard covering every inch of his body from head to toe. We'll spare you the pictures, but in order to spare Joe embarrassment, he wore shorts with this outfit. We also found out that not many adults dress up.

Candy? Check! Check! Although some of the Rames children were disappointed in the weight of their bags (something about last year getting 10 lbs and this only
getting 3), there was plenty of candy for all.


Public Holiday? Now there's a new one! The Halloween date just happened to fall on the last Monday of October which is a bank holiday in Ireland, so everyone had the day off. The kids were in the middle of their mid-term break, so they had plenty of time to play and enjoy their candy. I'm not sure, but it seems like a pretty good strategy for schools to send kids home on break during the season where all the Halloween candy is being consumed. I know the kids liked this tradition


Fireworks? Another pleasant addition. Fireworks are pretty much outlawed in the Republic of Ireland, but every country seems to have their own version of Indiana or Indian reservations where the Chinese are allowed to sell their wares. Ours in Northern Ireland. I won't get into any political discussions here, but fire works are plentiful up there. Some friends of ours from the estate next door are part of a fireworks acquisition society that takes responsibility for providing this entertainment each year. Donate a 10-er (Irish for 10 Euros) and one lucky participant gets to make the trip to Northern Ireland to smuggle back the goods. Apparently there are many members of this society as we were entertained for about 45 minutes. Since this is illegal, there were plenty of discussions with the friends on what we should do if the Garda (read: cops) showed up. And darned if they didn't show up about 1/2 way through. They slowly rode through the neighborhood, their car parting the haze. However, since the actual shooting of the fireworks stopped for that minute, they saw nothing suspicious about 200 people hanging out on the green (read: park) with the smell of gunpowder hanging in the air. Exit Garda and we finished the show. It was grand! (read: great). Later we were told that exiting their vehicle might mean they would have to arrest a number of their close relatives and it would make for awkward family get togethers for the foreseeable future.

What is Halloween without a trip to the cemetery? With Carlie in tow, we decided to head to Glasnevin Cemetery. This is a pretty incredible cemetery in Dublin. It not only is huge (over 1 million people buried), but has quite a bit of historical significance in Ireland as it was the first cemetery where Catholics could be buried according to their traditions. The tour we took was a history lesson on Ireland politics and religion. It seems that everyone who was anyone in Ireland over the past 180 years or so is interred here. They had a ghastly tour that we had hoped to go to, conducted by the grave diggers, but we missed the early tour and couldn't

wait for the next. This place is definitely cool for those into history, politics, and incredible art.

Our next journey took us to Nature. About 40 minutes from Dublin is a national park called Glendalough (pronounced: Glenda'-lock). Up in the Wicklow mountains (read: big hills), we found a couple of pretty lakes, lots of easy hiking, a monastic village founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century, more cool ruins, cemeteries, and the water source for Guinness brewed in Ireland. It also rained on us pretty hard, but no spirits were dampened. We're definitely heading back here sometime.

Last week, the family (minus Rod who was at a birthday party) went to Phoenix Park in Dublin. Picture Central Park in NY, but twice as big. It's home to the Dublin Zoo, the residence of the President of Ireland, the residence of the US Ambassador, and residence to a herd of 100's of Fallow Deer that were introduce by some Duke about 400 years ago. It was also the site where Pope John Paul II said mass to over a million people in 1979. There's a huge cross on a hill where the alter was overlooking a large plain where everyone attended. I'm not sure what happened to the deer as it seems that is their joint now. The ambassador's residence is a beautiful building, but most notably contains some short American Football goal posts in the back yard. Not sure why they are there?

This week, we're looking forward to visits from Grandma and Grandpa Siembieda along with Uncle Steve Siembieda over the weekend. We'll post some updates after our adventures!!

Halloween, secondary school, driving, and a special visitor

The kids are greatly anticipating the arrival of Halloween.  Not only does this mean costumes and candy in Ireland, but it means a week off of school!!!  Score...  If you wonder what this country is thinking about by giving kids the opportunity to collect loads of candy, THEN have them hang out with their parents full time for a week, you'd be in the same boat as us.  Technically, they aren't getting the week off BECAUSE of Halloween, it is just a coincidence that it happens to be their mid-term break at the same time.  Right.

About a week into the school year, a casual conversation between Martha and another mom turned into a critical mission for us.  Apparently, in our area of Ireland, finding a secondary school (read:  Junior High and High School) for your kids begins when they are in utero.  For the slackers in Ireland, it begins in 3rd grade.  For the expats in Ireland with a kid needing to go there in the fall, it begins yesterday.  The Irish school system is slightly different.  You have to apply to secondary schools.  There are certainly rules on who gets in and get preference, but it's not as simple as living in the school district.  You can see the result of this on school days at the bus stop.  The kaleidoscope of school uniform colors getting on/off the buses shows that kids are travelling near and far to attend school.  There are two types of schools:  Fee paying and non-fee paying.  Pretty simple.  There are quite a few fee paying schools of great repute in our area, but even fee paying doesn't mean that you get in if you have the fee.  There are waiting lists for all the schools in our area.  We have an interview with the headmaster of a school in Ballsbridge (known for it's foreign embassies) next Tuesday.  It would be about a 15 minute bike ride or 20 minute bus ride in the morning.  The school is called St. Conleth's and was founded in 1939 on the day WWII was declared in Europe.  As I spoke to the former headmaster, he told me the story of how on that day, the sons of the Ambassadors to Ireland for both Germany and Poland were students at the school.  It's a smaller school and if it works out there would be about 45 kids in Rod's class and they are divided into 2 forms (classes).  I've never been to an interview with a headmaster, so if you have any advice other than don't slouch or scratch in an unseemly way, I'm open to it.  I'll let you know how it goes.

The Road Safety administration was kind enough to grant us a waiver of having to wait 6 months to take our driver's test, so we're about 1/2 way through our drivers "training".  Hopefully in a week or two, we can cross this off our list and be ready to let loose on our travels throughout Ireland and beyond.

I had the honor of filling up the petrol tank of Martha's Purple Van, this week.  Nothing different about gassing up in Ireland, although paying over $100 to fill the tank for a vehicle like this was a bit tough to swallow.  There is certainly a correlation between the size of cars in Ireland and the price of fuel.  They also tax the cars based on their engine size, so if you have a tiny car with a little engine, you don't pay so much for your motor tax disk. We didn't take this into much consideration when getting the MPV.  Oh well, we'll get over it...

Our niece (and cousin) Carlie is arriving in Dublin this week.  Carlie is living in France and is going to spend some time with us on our mid-term break.  The kids are VERY excited and are busy trying to figure out a costume for her.  Cat Woman is the leading contender.  I hope she likes skin tight leotards...

Getting back to ordinary life (maybe not back, but closer)

The romantic view of going to live in another country has you exploring your new surroundings and learning new things every day.  You meet new people and create connections in your new home that will stick with you forever.  These things are happening, it just happens in less dramatic ways.  With work and school, a great portion of our days are taken up by the routine.  Martha, on the other hand, is free to spend her days carefree... Well, more carefree.

We gave you some pictures of our new ride.  In Ireland, it's called an MPV - read minivan.  We've turned the translation of MPV from multi-person vehichle to Martha's Purple Van.  To get the MPV into motion, we had to ultimately get Irish driver's license and  a while back and talked about taking our driving tests, which we passed brilliantly (Joe promised not to talk about actually scores and who scored higher).  All that was real good and gave us a renewed sense of freedom that the Dublin Bus or DART (train) didn't.  There was a catch, however.  What the RSA (Road Safety Administration - read DMV) giveth, the RSA taketh away.  Not that they actually took it, but a very large string was attached.  Passing that test gave us a "Learner's Permit".  The law says that those with a learner's permit must NEVER driver on a motorway (read: express way where you can go fast) and must ALWAYS have an experienced driver with you.  The second one is somewhat problematic, so if you know anyone that lives in Ireland and has nothing better to do that be on call for that short-notice drive to the grocery store, let us know.  Otherwise, keep you mouth shut and don't tell the RSA that we're completely ignoring that law.  To be fair, every normal Irish person we've talked to outside of the driving industry has apologized profusely for what is happening to us with regard to these requirements and has told us to completely flout the law.

To get the real driver's license, we have to do two things:

1. Take 12 hours of driving lessons.
2. Pass the 45 minute driving test.

Technically, there was a 3rd. Wait 6 months after obtaining the learner's permit.  The driving establishment did make a concession for us here in that anyone that had a license from any recognized country could waive that rule.  Of course getting the waiver requires contact and forms with another bureaucracy and a letter from the DMV in your own country.  Have any of you EVER attempted to get a customized letter from the DMV?  It's impossible and I settled for a computer generated one that I pray will suffice.  

Yes, Martha and I can now be seen driving around occasionally with a driving instructor and giant scarlet "L's" stuck to our front and back windscreens (read: windshields) to identify the fact that another Irish driving instructor is being gainfully employed.  After this person leaves the vehicle, our shameful letter is discreetly removed.

A couple of comments on our lessons and it will be time to head back to that ordinary life (read:  go to work).

1. The parking brake.  According to our driving instructors, any time your vehicle is going to be stopped for more than 5 seconds, the driver should use the parking brake.  On Dublin roads, this actually requires pulling up on the handle and hearing that familiar zip about every 5 seconds.  Okay, I exaggerate.  Every 10 seconds.
2. Observation.  To successfully complete this requirement, the driver is required to have neck surgery that enables them to turn their head like an owl about every 5 seconds.  The instructor refers to this as the 5 points of observation.  Left shoulder, left mirror, rear-view mirror, right mirror, right shoulder.  Every breath,  your should check these spots, because you just never know.  Each driving lesson is followed by a trip to the RSA sanctioned chiropractor to receive an adjustment.
3. Forget how you were taught to steer.  Hand over hand, no.  Palming the wheel?  Nope.  Gangsta with the wrist over the top?  NEVER.  The Irish shuffle is the way to go if you want to pass.  Never should your right hand pass over between 6 and 12 and never should your left enter the dark side of 12 to 6.

Try these things the next time you jump in the car for a quick trip somewhere.  Even our instructors have told us that we're welcome to forget all these things once we pass the drivers test.  As one riding a bike to work and having been cut off by left turning cars nearly every day in the bike lane, I can safely say that every Irish person has forgotten rule number 2.  And if every Irish driver followed rule number 1, the collective racket would register on some type of interstellar sound monitors as the noise traveled to other galaxies.  

We're well on our way to getting through this little road ramp (read: road bump or traffic calming device) and then we'll be a bit more comfortable as we move about our new land (legally).

Till next time...

A sad time for the Rames' in Ireland

We received some tragic news this morning.  Our dear friend and neighbor, Steve Dapogny, was killed in a car/pedestrian accident while walking in Chicago.  Though you might not have known him by name, I'm sure many of you would have known him from our stories.  He touched our lives in so many ways that we were never slow in relating a story about Steve, Carol, or the Dapogny kids (Alex, Cindy, and Maggie).

 Here are just a couple of ways he touched our lives:

Steeeve.  JJ had wanted a guinea pig for a long time.  Finally, last Christmas, JJ's wish came true, but he couldn't think of a name.  Steve was over and he suggested "Steve", in a serious tone.  It couldn't be just "Steve", so JJ added a couple of "e's" and thus was christened Steeeve.  Steeeve wasn't able to come to Ireland, but JJ worked the deal that he could get an Irish lass of a pig and bring Steeeve back a girlfriend.  Her name was to be Carol.  JJ mentioned this morning (after hearing this news) that he wanted to name his new pig "Dapogny".

The chiminea pit.  Matt and Sandi Rubio were the proud owners of a chiminea (a free-standing fireplace shaped like a pear).  The Dapogny's, Rubio's, and Rames' spent many an evening in Rubio's back yard enjoying each other's company and  (ALMOST ALWAYS) some of Steve's latest brew and marshmallows.  After a year or so, combined with the Pacific Northwest weather, the area became known as the chiminea pit.  It was getting a bit muddy with boards under our feet and the grass worn bare.  There were a number of discussions about making improvements to the pit, but usually after a few of Steve's beers, so progress was slow.  Joe and Steve decided that they were going to surprise Matt and Sandi while they were on vacation and build a Pacific Northwest chiminea pit.  Bring in the treated lumber, gravel, and a hot weekend of work and the new and improved chiminea pit was born.  When the Rubio's packed up and moved to Boise, the 3 performed an engineering feat by moving the pit 12 feet over into Joe's yard.  When the Rames' went to Ireland, the chiminea (minus the pit) found a new home in the Dapogny's back yard in the patio area that Steve built last summer.

Moving.  Steve was an expert in packing and moving things, a result of a few years of summer/college work.  His experience was highly valuable to both the Rubio's and the Rames' in the last year and Steve was a great friend during those times.  With his help, the Rames' house was packed into a 10x20 storage facility, with no room to spare.  You can see Steve and his son Alex's handiwork here.  And the Dapogny's also volunteered to host Tuna, our cat, until he is free to join us in December.  The knowledge that Tuna would be taken care of by the Dapogny's was probably one of the biggest comforts that helped our kids make this really big step.

Outdoors.  Steve was an avid bike rider.  During Joe's unemployment stint, he sought out Steve for some experienced advice.  Steve took Joe out for a bike ride and left him in the dust.  It took a week for Joe to recover and after that decided he'd stick to hand digging french drains in the back yard and re-double his efforts in finding a job.  Steve also made the trip up Mt. St. Helen's for JJ's first climb in September 2010.

Beer.  Steve had a passion for making beer.  His neighbors had a passion for consuming it.  It was a great relationship.  Steve was heading back into the job market.  I think his quote was, "If I'm going to get a crappy paying job, I might as well get a job doing something I love."  Thus began his journey to go back to school.  This is what brought him to Chicago as he was attending the Siebel Institute of Technology's brewing program.

Military.  Anyone that knows Rod, knows of his immense obsession with anything related to the military.  Having a former Naval aviator next door was the source of great pride for Rod.  I'm sure Steve felt like "Mr. Wilson" to our "Dennis the Menace", but he never let it show.  Steve even dug out his flight suit and helmet for JJ to wear during his presentation on Neil Armstrong in 4th grade.  Steve was also present at Rod's first Airsoft tactical going away party.  If you've never heard of this, think of shooting at each other with automatic bb guns for 3 hours.  Rod was very excited to have Steve join us and still remembers the red spots on Steve's receding hairline from a few precisely landed shots.

The pain that our family is feeling right now is difficult to measure.  I'm sure that pain is dwarfed by the pain in the Dapogny house.  Please put the Dapogny's in your thoughts and prayers.  

I'll leave with this thought.   There's no making any sense of any of this right now.  We were blessed to have a friend like Steve.  The fact there is so much pain in loss is the true measure of the friendship.  May God bless you with friends like we had in Steve.  The pain is great at this moment, but the rewards of having known him will eventually make up for the loss.  It will take a long time.

Joe, Martha, Rod, JJ, & Grace

Cable TV is a bit different in Ireland

Celebrating the 252nd birthday of Arthur Guinness was quite a big deal.  The office made it to the local pub (Bleeding Horse) and raised a pint to Arthur at 17:59, which was the year he was born.

I found something cheaper in Ireland!!!!!

As part of my saga to get licensed, I had to have an eye exam.  So today, I attempted to get an appointment with an eye doctor to perform the exam near my office.  They said they could get me in sometime in late October.  Not really ideal.  So I asked if she had some recommendations and she suggested the local SpecSavers (read:  Irish Lenscrafters).  I called for an appointment and they got me in this afternoon.  I was told it would be EUR 15, which is about what it costs to buy 3 normal items at the local store, so I was immediately suspicious of what I was getting.  "This will get me a completed D.502 for my drivers licence?"  "Yes".  "OK".

So I get to the store and am immediately taken to the big machine that takes digital images of your eyes so they can look at your blood vessels on a big screen.  This option in the US is one insurance often doesn't cover fully and costs about $100.  I said, "Hold on, I'm just getting the exam for my license test."  "This is part of that test, sir."  "And this is included in the cost?"  "Yes."  "OK".  Then I was taken in by the "almost" Dr. (student doing his practicals).  He proceeded to take me through all the tests I would normally get at my ophthalmologist except the eye drops for dilation, which I didn't need because I got the optional digital images.  The appointment took longer and was more thorough than what I normally get and I walked out with an updated prescription, my needed forms for my license, and only EUR 15 lighter.  I need to find places with food that deliver the same results...

Not so fast on that car...

It wouldn't be Ireland if something just happened with the government without there being some lines and some money to pass out.  When you see cars driving around Ireland, they all have this rather unsightly set of papers stuck to the passenger side of the front windscreen (like that use of the proper Irish word for windshield??!!!).  The lessons began late yesterday on just what all those things are.

1. NCT disk.  This proves that the car you are driving is road worthy.  It must go through a thorough test every two years to include stuff like headlight alignment (I knew you could do this, but in my 30 years of driving, I don't think I've ever actually had it done or done it myself.)  Now I get to pay someone to do it for me bi-yearly.  I'm sure there's a few other worthwhile checks, but haven't found them yet.  Good thing for us is that we don't have to pay to have this done for 6 months.
2. Insurance disk.  This one shows that you have insurance.  Pretty straight forward UNLESS you are a newbie American WITHOUT any current insurance.  Insurance can only be issued to someone with an Irish driver's licence.  This week we get to pay an optician to give us eye exams and a form to prove we took it.  We get to buy a book to study to take the Driver's Theory Test and then take the test to show we know the rules of the road and pass out a little more EUR.  Oh, then we get to find an insurance company.  AND ONLY THEN can we take all this stuff to the Motor Tax office (with some more money) to get our ....
3. Motor Tax Disk.  This one shows you paid your taxes to drive.  It is based on the CO2 output of your car and can vary from EUR 146 if you choose to drive an electric car that goes from 0-60 in an hour and a half, to EUR 1566 if you drive a Ford F350 king cab with a full bed and dual back tires (not that you could find it here if you wanted one.)  The Rames' had the opportunity to get on the lower end of the scale, but the Renault Megane we drove just seemed like a piece of cr&p.  Rod had the best response when asked what one he thought was better.  He said, "Dad, you can't really compare these two.  This one is not nearly as nice."  Very true, but we decided that rather than drive on the wrong side of the road AND get a manual transmission, we'd just drive on the wrong side of the road.  I think Martha stalling the car a few times on the test drive had something to do with it also.

Our week will be full of these little trips to get this stuff in order and we don't have a chance in hell of getting it all done before we REALLY need the van on Friday.  There's always someone willing to take some EUR from us to get our stuff moved.  We'll let you know how it goes.

Things to check off: Get a vehicle

It's been fun depending on our feet, DART, Dublin Bus, and today the LUAS, but it was getting a bit trying. We planned to eventually get some wheels, so we took the day to find a piece of transportation that would accommodate the 2 adults, 3 kids, and 1 dog arriving in December.  Conveniently, it will help us move into our new place next week.  It is a 2006 Mitsubishi Grandis.  In Ireland, they don't have minivans, they call them MPV's (multi-person vehicles).  Grace is happy that it is actually purple, but Joe doesn't see much more than a funny colored silver.  We're all excited to gain the freedom to make some longer jaunts.  Time to find some insurance and a drivers license before we take delivery!!

Our US phone numbers are gone...

So it was inevitable, but still a strange feeling when our cell phone and home phone numbers went away completely  today.  We're now on Irish cells.

Martha - +353 86 414 0220
Joe  - +353 86 044 4558

Email is still the same.

First Post from Ireland

The Rames family arrived in Ireland on the 24th of August.  We're missing a few of our family with Radley, Tuna, Charlotte and Steeeve not able to join us.  The great comfort we have is that they are all under the great care of people we love and trust.  Radley and Tuna will join us in December and Steeeve will stay with our friends Beth and Sam until we arrive back with his girlfriend.  Yes, you read that correctly.  We plan to acquire an Irish lass of a guinea pig and expat her to the U.S. to live out her life with some type of arranged marriage.  It's the master plan of JJ's and at this point, there's not much questioning related to the plan.  Charlotte will stay with the Moore's for what we can only imagine are her golden years as an 8 year old goldfish must be about 209 in human years.

We've been here for about 10 days, so I'll give you our top 10 list of experiences.

1. Moved into our temporary house in Ballsbridge, which is a close neighborhood to the city center (about 15 minute walk from the heart of Dublin.  Our house is a bit small, but 4 bedroom temporary apartments are tough to come by.  Who needs them anyway as all three have decided to shack up in the small bedroom with 2 single beds.  Rod has chosen the floor.  It's a great location with one great neighbor!  (On our list of  "Must do once in a lifetime" items, check off:  Live right next door to a major sporting complex.)  Yes, our home for the next few weeks is Aviva Stadium.  Home to the Irish National Rugby team and host to many other major events.  So far, we've had an Ireland/England rugby match, an Ireland Rugby open training session, and a Slovakia/Ireland football match.

2. Enrolled the kids in school.  Rod and JJ will be going to (St. Mary's Boys National School of Booterstown) and Grace will be going to Our Lady of Mercy Convent School, also in Booterstown. They are very good schools in a great area that we are going to be living in.

3. Speaking of living in:   Our new digs are going to be in Booterstown.  It will be about 8 minutes walk to Grace's school with another 7 to the boys school.  Here's the address, but we aren't expecting Christmas cards:  7 Hampton Park, St. Helen's Woods, Booterstown, Dublin 14.  It's a semi-detached house (read: duplex) with a nice small garden (read: back yard).  We are VERY excited to move in on the 16th.  Hopefully, by then, we will have the furniture on the way as it is unfurnished and we didn't bring any furniture.  Yes, Virginia, there is an IKEA in Dublin and we found it TODAY!!!  Pictures of the house to come.

4. Were officially accepted into the country by completing the mandatory tests required of all prospective immigrants to ANY country:  standing/sitting in queues (read:  lines), getting numbers, filling out paperwork (BLOCK LETTERS IN IRELAND), and paying money.  We were able to do all these to such a level they accepted us.

5. Did the requisite tourist stops at such Dublin landmarks as the Guinness Brewery, Trinity College (yes, Martha did get to see the Book of Kells and lecture the family on them), Dublin Castle, St. Stephen's Green (read:  Great big garden - see above), and Grafton Street.  Mind you this was all done on foot.  Martha's pedometer read somewhere about 7 miles.  Joe's repeated comment that day:  "Why would you want to ride a bus when it's so nice out and everything is so close?"

6. Mastered the public transportation system.  OK, mastered might be a strong term, but we have managed to log many trips on the DART (read: rail system for commuters) and Dublin Bus (JJ and Grace can check of their "Must do once in a lifetime" item marked:  Ride a double decker bus)

7. Hosted our first visitors from Duvall WA.  Vijay and Bairavi Raghavan along with their two kids Vaibhav and Teju  vacationed in Ireland and stopped by to share dinner .  It had been a long time since we were able to meet up with them in Redmond, so it was ironic that we both had to come to Ireland to make it happen.  It was a great time and the kids picked right back up from their previous encounters while Mom's and Dad's enjoyed dinner at an Indian / Irish fusion pub.  (Read:  curried mashed potatoes - No not really.  They just had dishes from both countries.)




8. Bought all our books and uniforms for schools and contemplated filing for financial aid.  Yes, uniforms are the rule here.  Jumpers (read:  sweaters), shirts, ties, wool pants, and black dress shoes.  Pleated skirts, peter pan collar shirt, black socks/tights, and navy mary janes.  They look sharp!!  The book ritual was a new one for us as we had to acquire them like college and THEN had to cover them with adhesive contact paper to protect them.  After 30+ books, we're no longer new to this ritual and will not be disappointed AT ALL if they move to eBooks.

9.  Had our first days of school.  Riding the train to school was a new experience and by the second day, Martha had figured out the schedule so we didn't have to get to school 30 minutes early.

10.  Tested the Guinness consistency at a number of locations, including the Guinness brewery.  And for all that know Martha, it didn't improve greatly from her perspective by drinking it closer to the source.  Joe on the other hand is of the opinion that Guinness is better when consumed in Dublin.  Please remember that as you plan your next European vacation destination.  We're waiting with a cool one.

More to come.