Evan's Here!

Wednesday was a lovely, productive day.  Connor was in daycare, so Nina and I went to lunch at a new place I'd been wanting to try and headed over to Dunnes again to go shopping.  Nina then showed me Dublin's best kept secret: a GIANT grocery store in the basement of Dunnes!!  It's cheap, it's huge, it has a million choices, and it's now my happy place.  Gone are the days of multiple grocery stores for multiple items.  This place is one stop shopping and as I now have a Dunnes Frequent Shopping card, I'll be back all the time.  Every day perhaps.  Who KNOWS!?  I bought some stuff for the apartment, walked across town to get a new oscillating fan, read in the park, came home and made Spaghetti Carbonara for the first time (no pics, but I'll make it again), and then we got ready for Evan's arrival!!  Here are some pics of my day before Evan.

Pretty day on the river!

Merrion Square.

Oscar Wilde in my park.  We talked about how important it was to be Earnest and stuff.

The Custom House.

Evan, Drew's oldest and best friend, and my best guy friend since 8th grade, is going to Harvard in the fall and took a month off of work before school to travel.  We were lucky that he was able to swing by Dublin on his way home for 5 days!  Woohoo!  His flight got in on Wednesday night and I ran down the stairs to shower him with hugs.  I kinda thought I'd start crying and never let go to be honest.  There's something about fighting a (relatively fun) uphill battle and seeing a loved one from home that really brings out the waterworks.  We all hugged and danced around and giggled like school girls and caught up on his travels and life.  So good to have him here.

Thursday, I let him sleep for a long time and we finally got ready and out of the house by noon.  I took him to our worthless piece-of-shit bank, and then walked over to Lolly and Cooks for the savage roll that he saw a picture of on the blog.  I got one too and they were DELISH.  As per usual.  I then walked him through Merrion Square, St. Stephen's Green, Grafton Street, and Trinity College, where we sat for about 2 hours in the grass talking and laughing.  We walked over to Temple Bar for some afternoon beers, home for more lounging and changing, and then met Drew at Ocean Bar for din.  Other conversation and activity highlights include...

• Planning a trip to Croatia, Summer 2013
• Reminiscing about meeting at Student Council Camp before 8th grade, where our friendship blossomed, where Tyler was nice, and where Peter poured his heart out to me about Kendall D.  
• Looking over at the table next to us at Temple Bar to see some teenagers measuring something out with a credit card and then SNORTING IT!  Maybe I'm a naive lame-o but I was very disturbed.
• Having one of the girls who snorted the mystery substance with swastikas all over her hands crash into our table and fall on her face, only to pick herself up and hug me and kiss my cheeks and neck several times 
• Evan talking about finally getting the nerve to ask Jordan Stiff to the Christmas dance in 8th grade, and hearing she was sobbing her eyes out after she accepted.  Ouch.
• Discussing Middle Earth and the possible location in real life and the fate of the Elves and Aragorn and Arwyn's romance
• Lamenting how difficult it is to make friends in new places
• Evan's desire to get a sleeve of tattoos on his lower arm, and what they would be ("I don't know, nebulous gases?  Stars?  I have to decide because this is happening.")
• Answering Evan's thought-provoking questions, like "What are 3 things you'd ask a genie to change about yourself?" or "Name your top 5 Beatles songs." or "Pick 5 places in the world you'd like to have a home." (Mine were the French Riviera, Tuscany, Sevilla, New York if Mere still lived there, and somewhere in the Caribbean but I need to do more research.  With a home base in Dallas.  This is happening.) 

Friends!  Yay!

St. Stephen's Green.
You might not be able to see the droves of people sitting outside to enjoy the weather, but Evan observed that Ireland's economy might be better if anyone actually worked, rather than lounging in parks.  Well put.

Ocean Bar!

Evan is always a good time, asking good questions, telling good stories, making me laugh non-stop, so I see great things for the days ahead!

Real Housewife of Dublin

I've been telling several friends that I'm going to be starting the pilot episode of Real Housewives of Dublin soon so stay tuned.  This week, I'm doing things differently.  This week, I have a plan.  I'm waking up when Drew gets up and I'm not going back to bed.  I made a lengthy to-do list that I'm happily crossing off.  I'm being PRODUCTIVE and feeling productive!

We went to Ikea on Sunday with a list of things we needed: a coffee tables, bedside tables, a TV stand, and a shelf unit thingy for our bathroom.  And various accessories.  No matter how much you mentally prepare yourself for Ikea, it's still a physical and emotional beating.  We'd planned on picking everything out and getting it delivered the next day, but two hours later we had everything purchased and were waiting in line for a taxi van to take us back to the city, saving us 20 quid!  Woohoo!  We dropped our stuff off and hit up some pubs for an afternoon of Irish football viewing.  Fun times.

Monday, I woke up when Drew did.  I walked him to work and I went running along the river.  I came home, showered, and began my new career of constructing Swedish furniture!  I made the bedside table and the shelf unit and the TV stand and I finished the coffee table today.  And I've been doing laundry.  Laundry, laundry, and more laundry.  It takes FOREVER to do even one load.  Some settings/programs include drying time, some don't, and the clothes aren't even very dry when you pull them out.  And they're wrinkled.  All of them!  

Today, I will be ironing.  My parents taught me how to iron many a year ago, though they claim I never knew how to iron because I never did it.  Why would I iron when they can do it so much better and faster??  Now, I shall train today and become an ironing pro...and hope that all of Drew's shirts come out alive.  I'm also going to the grocery store today to make another delicious meal tonight.  Tomorrow, I'm going to the bank, researching travel for our 3-day weekend coming up in August, hang out with Nina, and prepare our home for the arrival of our first guest tomorrow night!  Yay!

Building furniture, laundry, ironing, grocery shopping, cooking...who am I?  I'm seriously a housewife and have no clue what I'm doing.  But I will say having a to-do list feels good.  I shall be productive.  I will not rot my brain.  I will follow the list and cross things off and be glad in it.  Wanna see the furniture I built?  Ok!

TV stand.  Without a TV.  It's coming soon though!

It was half way through the construction of my bedside table when  I realized I'd put the bottom panel on the wrong way.  F!  It was too late to undo, try as I might.  Ah well.
 

Finished product, wrong panel and all.

Bathroom shelf unit.

Coffee table with our new rug.

I'm still not ready to post "After" pics of the apartment yet, but we've made definite progress.  I did this post in two parts, and now, after having tried to iron, I'm here to tell you it SUCKS and I don't know how to do it and it takes forever and none of the wrinkles came out of Drew's shirts!  UGH!  I talked to Jane and she told me I'd have to use the steam function on the iron.  Which I'll be able to do, once I add water.  Whatever.  More adventures in Dublin Housewifery to come!

Lazy Days and Croke Park

I need to get better about writing more frequently.  All these popular bloggers say the key to good blogging is updating it regularly because if you don't, your followers will lose interest!  Ahhh!  That can't happen!  Even though my blog isn't always interesting, as evidence by the Spaghetti and Meatballs post.  I guess I'll report on my weekend.

Thursday...I slept in, went running, and then went to lunch with Drew's American coworker's wife, Nina, and her cutie son.  I went and picked them up at the apartment near our place and walked over to a cute coffe shop/cafe that served delicious pasta salads you could mix and match.  After that, I went back to Dunnes to do more shopping.  

Living in a city where you walk everywhere is interesting and daunting.  I got to talk to Mere on the phone last week about this very thing and she said you just "get used to it".  As of last week, I'm not used to it.  I don't like walking everywhere.  Thinking about walking somewhere even 15 minutes away seems like a pain in the ass and I don't wanna do it!  I'd rather stay home.  Or drive.  I remember Mere telling me about carrying a big-screen TV all through Manhattan to her apartment and me chuckling at the thought of city life.  Well here I am, carrying a huge trash can through the streets of Dublin, and stopping off at a park with my huge trashcan so Nina's son can play.  They ran around and I stood there with my huge trashcan like a dummy.  I just kept waiting for someone to come up and try to put their trash in there because they thought it belonged in the park.  Then they stopped at the bank and I stood outside AGAIN with my huge trashcan!  I literally looked like a homeless person, with my stance right outside the bank door and a huge trashcan standing in front of me.  Sigh.  Mere warned me about mystery bruises from carrying junk all over the city and I officially have them!  Last night Drew and I were walking around the city and he asked where something was; I told him it was just up the street about 3 blocks, and we got there and Drew said "that was really far from the apartment."  In my opinon, it was close!  So maybe I'm getting more acclimated!  Who knows.

Friday was a day that started off with a great deal of laziness, wallowing, and self-loathing.  The majority of my week has gone like this: wake up when Drew does, make his lunch, get him organized and out the door, climb back in bed, sleep for another 2-3 hours, watch a movie on Netflix, maybe run, maybe lay around, get clothes and makeup on in time for grocery shopping or a walk to the park or before Drew gets home.  Repeat.  The problem is...is that I have no set agenda.  Yes, I'm in IRELAND, and I have the world at my finger tips and I can do anything and everything throughout the day.  But without a specific agenda, or a reason to literally GET OUT OF BED, or something already planned, I just lounge around like a lazy bum with nothing to do but rot my brain with sleep and DVDs.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not unhappy and I'm still thrilled to death we're here.  I'm just saying that unemployment in a foreign country where you don't know anyone and have nothing specific to do isn't all it's cracked up to be.  I don't want my brain to waste away.  I literally had these panicky thoughts on Friday around 12:30pm, when I had just woken up, STILL in bed, wondering what the hell I was doing with my life as tears streamed down my face, all while hating myself for STILL BEING IN BED yet being too paralyzed to get out of bed and actually do anything!  But never fear: I got out of bed.  I went running and headed to our old apartment and LO AND BEHOLD!  Our debit cards were in the mailbox!  I jammed my fingers in the box and almost got them stuck/amputated but I retrieved those God forsaken cards and never looked back.  I cleaned up and loaded a new book on my Kindle and went to Merrion Square to read for hours.  Much to my surprise, they were having some sort of huge festival/carnival/fair at Merrion Square.  There are three huge sections of the park, and I sat right smack dab in the middle.  On either side part, I heard loud speakers and performances going on of something I didn't know and couldn't understand.  After awhile, I watched people billow out into the center, crossing through the middle green, while loud beats that sounded like Prodigy played on speakers in the background.  Random clowns on stilts walked by my bench eyeing me suspiciously.  On my way out to meet Drew, I heard the DJ exclaim, "ALRIGHT GUYS!  Our next act is DEADLY SERIOUS, performing since 1999 all over Europe!  Give it up for DEADLY SERIOUS!"  I tried to see who/what Deadly Serious was, but all I could see were more clowns.  Maybe it was a traveling clown brigade called Deadly Serious.  That's ironic and hilarious in and of itself!  No?  Yeah ok me neither.  Maybe I'd find out what the hell was going on tomorrow.  

I walked to meet Drew at his office, we walked home and ate dinner, had some wine, and he headed off to his work happy hour while I got ready.  He had a pretty good time, met some people, chatted with some partners, talked about golf, and then he and I met up at The Hairy Lemon for a "friend's" engagement party!  (The friend being the girl who invited us to the 4th of July party, God love her.)  We actually had a great time.  Drew met a guy who wasn't at the party (though it was at his house) who told him all about the pubs that show NFL games, college football games, where all the casinos were, where all the best golf courses were (oh, and he has a car), and I think Drew got his digits and now has a serious man-crush.  And with a schwarma stop on the way home, I'd say it was a successful and fun evening had by all!

Saturday was PWC Family Day at Croke Park, a stadium here in the city where the headquarters and games for the Gaelic Athletic Association are.  The GAA is responsible for Gaelic games like Hurling and Gaelic/Irish football.  What we thought was a 30 minute tour of the museum and locker rooms actually began in a room where they were fitting us with harnesses.  What the hell?  Turns out we had unknowingly signed up for a "Skyline Tour", which is two hours on the ROOF of the stadium.  Breathtaking views if you're not afraid of heights and harnesses!  

The roof of the stadium.  Yikes!

A beautiful view.  If only I'd taken my nice camera and not my iPhone!

Harnesses and rails.

Pretty view of the sea!

One part had a narrow rail that jutted out over the field.  This is the view from one side....

And this is the other side.  The harnesses didn't really matter at this point because if you fell, the whole railing would come crashing down with you!  My legs were jelly.

A big departure from typical Texas condiments.

Humongous Hurling paddles.

They had activities for kids - and Drew participated.  He's hitting the Hurling ball with a paddle and calculating how fast it goes.

Trying to see how high he can get to catch a ball.  White men CAN jump.

Love.

Us!

It turned out to be a great day with burgers and chips afterwards!  Yum.  We took a leisurely afternoon stroll around the city, an Italian dinner at a new restaurant, and then went home for bed early to mentally prepare for our trip to Ikea on Sunday.  Which deserves it's own post!

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Like I talked about previously, I decided to cook on Wednesday night.  Which meant I took several trips to several different places to find things and try to refurbish my kitchen...but what else did I have to do?  I didn't necessarily ENJOY walking all over the city trying to find bread crumbs or ground turkey or standing there in the middle of the store looking like a clueless dummy but hey!  It's all part of the process!  We ate leftovers on Thursday night and I'll add more to my recipe repertoire more next week.  

We've had our fair share of delicious Irish food so I made a classic American dish.  Or Italian.  I made Linguine with Turkey Meatballs and Quick Sauce from Giada's cookbook, Everyday Pasta.  This has been a dish we've used in our home since we've been married, but I've tweaked it a little bit and usually change it up every time I make it.  

Note to reader: I don't have a lot of natural light in my kitchen with which to make great pictures.  And I don't know how to use this camera.  My apologies.  

Let's begin.

The Cast of Characters, as PDub would say: onions, garlic, spaghetti noodles or linguine, parsley, basil, oregano, fennel seeds, bread crumbs, salt, pepper, olive oil, canned diced tomates, cannned whole tomatoes, mushrooms, sun dried tomatoes, pancetta (but I used prosciutto, not at all the same but it worked I guess), store bought tomato sauce (because I couldn't find the other stuff I usually use), and ground beef.  And two bottles of wine for when this goes terribly awry.  

I only shipped over one pot, and our apartment didn't come with one.  So I boiled some hot water and cooked the noodles before I did anything else and let them drain in the sink to free up my pot.

Now we're going to focus on the meatballs.

Giada calls for 1/2 of a yellow onion, but these were small so I went for the whole thing.  You also attempt to cut up your pancetta or prosciutto or whatever you're using, but be careful!  It's tedious to cut those slices and you don't want to chop part of your finger off.  Trust me, I know.  Then you throw some olive oil in a pan and saute the onions until they're a little caramelized/charred and until the pancetta/prosciutto/bacon you're using is crispy.  Mmmm!

You'll set your pan of onions and prosciutto aside to cool, and then add the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.  Giada uses exact measurements but I can't be bothered with that anymore.  She calls for a pound of ground turkey (I used a pound and a half of ground beef because I can't covert grams to pounts in my head yet), 1/2 cup fresh parsley (I just start chopping and throw it in there), 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (again, I just eyeball it), 1/4 cup bread crumbs (I added a little more, probably a third of a cup), 1/4 cup sun-dried tomatos, 2 beaten eggs, 3/4 teaspoon of salt (who needs exact measurements?) and 3/4 teaspoon of ground pepp.  After the onions and prosciutto have cooled a bit, add those too.  

Then mix it up!

I line a baking sheet with foil and use some Pam (though I didn't have any, so I just spread some olive oil around with my hand), and used a small, perfectly sized ice cream scoop given to me by the Chapmans to make the meatballs.  They come out perfectly sized every time!  It makes quite a bit, as you can see.  

Then you pop those suckers into a 450 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  

(I had to do some conversions on my computer for those damn degrees again.)  And make sure your oven won't set off the smoke alarm, like mine almost did.

Now...the sauce!

We like a chunkier sauce, and even though Giada doesn't call for this, I usually chop up an onion or two and a bunch of mushrooms and throw those in the pot with a little olive oil to begin the sauce.  

And you gotta add LOTS o' garlic.  (Giada calls for 2 whole garlic cloves to be thrown in with the tomatoes to flavor the sauce and then you take them out, but I need my garlic IN the sauce!  I refuse to take it out.)  Now saute the onions and mushrooms first for awhile, and THEN throw the chopped garlic in when you think you're about to add your sauce.  Evidently garlic burns easily or something.

Mmmm.  Looks and smells delish.

Look who's home from work to help me cook!  Yay!  I'm seriously loving this suit thing.  Isn't he cute?

You should also probably refill your wine glass at this point and pour a glass for your hard-working husband too.

Now, we'll add the sauce.  Giada calls for a 28 oz. can of whole San Marzano tomatoes that you squeeze yourself into the pot.  I've found that this isn't enough sauce, so I generally add a couple more cans of chopped tomatoes and some canned tomato sauce too.  This time, I had to use some store-bought tomato and basil sauce as a base, THEN add the chopped/diced tomatoes for more chunkiness.  If that's a word.

I'm crushing these whole tomatoes with my hand.  Make sure the sauce doesn't fly everywhere.  Cause this did.  Ah well.

Chop up some basil.  Lots of it!  I love basil.

Then add the basil, some more parsley, some salt, pepper, a couple of shakes of oregano, a couple of shakes of fennel seed (which is mostly used on pizza but I just throw it in my sauce too, why the hell not?), and some red chili flakes if you're feeling wild and crazy.  Stir that up and let it simmer over medium heat and check back in a bit for flavorings.  

The meatballs are ready!

Yummmmm.

Now throw those pups into the sauce and stir it around and let it simmer another 5 minutes or so, and then you're ready to eat!

Spaghetti, meatballs and sauce, topped with some freshly shaved parmesan and a sprinkle of more basil.  Perfection.

One satisfied customer!

Overall, I think it was a success!  Never mind that we ate at 9:30 and went through an entire bottle of wine.  That's just part of it!  

Now I think at this point I'm supposed to write out the exact recipe if anyone wants to make it at home, but like I said...I don't use an exact recipe.  So if you want me to write something out, just email me!  

Bon appetite!

Firsts

It's been a pretty slow week.  Today's Thursday, right?  What have I done all week?  Walked around a lot.  Tried to put stuff away in our apartment.  Gotten to know the characters of The O.C. pretty intimately.  Snuck into mailboxes.  Stole mail.  Dealt with the most inefficient, ridiculous bank on the planet.  Caught up on some correspondence.  Went grocery shopping.  Went running.  Cooked.  More O.C.  

On Monday, I brought everything else over to our apartment and began to hang up clothes, make piles, sort things out, etc.  I also knew I needed to wash some of our new sheets and make our new bed if we wanted a place to sleep that night.  The washer/"dryer" (if you can even call it that) naturally intimidated me with all of the foreign bells and whistles but it's AMAZING the things you can learn from reading the instruction manual!  (My dad taught me that, thanks Dad!)  I made up our bed with it's new duvet and pillows and voila!  Already the place looked better.  Never mind the huge piles of clothes in the wardrobe that have nowhere to go and the stack of shit on the shelves in the corner that might topple over at any given moment.  It's FFIINNEE!  I turned on my Under the Tuscan Sun DVD for inspiration and found and loved this quote:

"Buyer's remorse is a very common affliction among new homeowners. Just because you have a sudden urge to weep, that doesn't mean you've made a mistake. Everybody knows old houses have their quirks. Especially ten-thousand-year-old houses. I have inherited empty wine bottles, one grape, every issue of La Nazione printed in 1958, and assorted previous tenants. The trick to overcoming buyer's remorse is to have a plan. Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite, introduce yourself, so it can introduce itself to you."

Though this isn't a villa in Tuscany that I purchased, I could relate.  The room I picked to make "mine" was our bedroom and I had to make it liveable.  The living room can be dealt with later.  Monday and Tuesday went buy in a blur of O.C. dvds and cleaning, and walking over to Dunnes (a department store that offers cheap home goods) to buy things for our place.  I think I've been there every day this week actually.

Wednesday...I decided to do two things I hadn't done in months that I actually used to like a lot in Dallas: RUNNING!  And COOKING!  I was able to bust out 2 miles, which is a huge deal for me as I'm out of shape and not the best runner anyway.  Molly says that if you run, you're a runner.  In my opinion, if you run long distances daily, you're a runner. I guess I'm on the lower end of the spectrum but still!  I did it!  I ran from our new place to Ballsbridge and around Herbert Park, and over to our old apartment to try to break into the mailbox again to rescue our mailed debit cards from our new bank.  That's Drew's task for me every day...to surreptitiously sneak back into our old apartment building, go down to the mail room/lobby, make sure no one is in there, stick my hand/screwdriver/pliers into the box, try to figure out if there's any new mail with our name on it, and get my fingers unstuck from inside the slot before someone walks in from parking their car.  EVERY DAY I TELL YOU!  I understand we need these cards in order to spend money here in Ireland but he's not the one doing the dirty work!  Though I've long harbored dreams of working for the CIA or NSA, this alone confirms that I am not up for the job.  But bottom line...I'd put off going running for some reason and now I'm back in the game.  Whew.

I came back and had some emails from Tracy about joining the American Women's Club of Dublin and I promptly looked up the definition of Social Anxiety Disorder.  I think I have it.  But I'm joining this week and it'll be fine.  It'll be fine.  It'll be fine.  

Like I said, I also decided to cook for the first time since we've been here.  And since we moved out of our apartment and in with our parents in Dallas.  I decided to make a good old-fashioned American dish: Spaghetti and Meatballs!  Grocery shopping here is relatively difficult.  As I only shipped over a few herbs and spices, I need to refurbish my whole kitchen.  I didn't even have salt and pepper!  At the end of the day, I had to go to 3 different grocery stores, a few of them multiple times, to find everything I needed for Giada's Spaghetti with Turkey Meatballs.  And I didn't even get ground turkey.  But all hope was not lost.  Though it took me about 3 hours to make and smoke billowed out of the stove every time I opened it, I made a successful dinner.  Whew.    

I tried my hand at food photography with my new fancy schmancy camera, like Pioneer Woman, but I'll put that in a different post as it's pretty long.  And potentially uninteresting for those of you who don't like cooking or photographs of food like myself. 

I'm still taking things one day at a time and crossing milestones off my list...whether it be something small like running or cooking or something big like joining an American Women's Group.  More posts about cooking and the rest of my week next time!

Before Pics

I took some blurry "before" pics of our apartment with my phone so you can kinda see the ridiculous mess and unbelievable amount of stuff we have to find a place for.


Here is our purple bedroom...

Our wardrobe, which is already full of the clothes we shipped.  No place to put the clothes we packed in the two huge body bag duffles we brought.  Awesome!

Our hallway and living room....

Kitchen....

Cute Texas towel that Lauren and John gave us!

Thank GOD my box full of intellectually stimulating DVDs arrived.  (This is for you, Blakely.)

Friday evening with a glass of wine in our apartment!

We are slowly but surely making progess: putting things away, removing trash and boxes, changing out the ridiculously colored curtains that smell HORRIBLE, washing sheets and making the bed, and we've made an even longer list of things we still need to get.  But we're taking it one day at a time, as we do with everything here, and it should be good to go soon!  I went grocery shopping for the first time last night, and I even cooked my first meal here for lunch today (scrambled eggs, very impressive)!  Side note: this no dishwasher thing is going to get real old, real fast.  


Today I'm off to the slowest bank in the world to see if our checks have cleared, and maybe headed to our old apartment mailbox to see if I can break in and get our mail that we no longer have access to.  Then maybe some more errand-running for some more items for the apartment.  Who knows!?  The world is my oyster.


I'll be back with more "after" pics when I deem it presentable.  See ya!