More Books

Thanks to some friends from another site, I am now officially in love with PaperBackSwap.com. I've already sent off 11 books, and have 5 on their way to me. As if I needed another way to get books. My TBR pile is just ginormous.

I was on pager this weekend, and it was relatively quiet. In order to stave off boredom, I read like a fiend. Since Friday night, I've read :

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
New Moon by Stephenie Meyer
Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer

I wasn't sure I would like them, as it's a Young Adult series, but I love them. I guess I read Harry Potter, so why not? I can't believe I never found these books before. I'm usually on top of any vampire-related books, but I won't beat myself up. This way, I got to read three in a row, instead of waiting a year in between each one. I'm not sure what will be next. I'm in a book club, and the next book for it is A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle. So, that's definitely in the mix. And, something odd for me, is the desire to actually re-read a book. Yes, this has only happened once ever before. That was Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore. This time around, I'm wanting to re-read the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series by Laurell K. Hamilton. They've recently made the first book in the series a comic. The 15th book in the series just came out and I read it, and I realized I couldn't remember some of the things referenced. I don't have the books anymore as they were all lost in the fire, so I'll need to get my hands on those again somehow. With 14 books, that could get pricey.

Anyhoo... just a bit of a ramble. Nothing crazy important. But there ya go...

My Fellow Book Nerds...

Just a silly little post, but I want to get into the habit of sharing things I really enjoy.

First is bookcrossing... What is bookcrossing, you ask? Well, let me inform. It's basically making the world your library. You take books of any kind, register them with bookcrossing, and then go leave them somewhere for someone else to find. Then, hopefully, they will take that book, find it's registration number (and info telling them what to do with it), and go back to the website saying they found it. Then, hopefully the process keeps repeating. You can watch the books you register to see where all they go. While I was in Ireland, I took books with me that I wouldn't mind leaving, and registered them beforehand. Then I just left them as I finished them. I think I ended up leaving 3 or 4 there. If you sign up there, say reign referred you please :D

Up next, thanks to a friend from work, and something I just think is such a book dork's dream, is DailyLit. They have about 500+ books, most of which are classics, and they will email you 5-minute reading installments daily of the book(s) you choose. You can actually have 1, 2 or 4 installments sent at a time, and you can force it to send the next one immediately. I thought this was awesome when a co-worker told me about it. I immediately signed up for Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. It's a book I've always wanted to read, but just never took the time out to do it. It has 149 installments, so if I had only read one a day, it would have taken that many days. However, I got so into it, and truly wanting to avoid work at times, that I read it in 17 days. I think the next ones I'm going to start are Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I figure I'll probably read those slower.

Well, that's it for now. I hope someone out there enjoys one or both of these. I love 'em!

Is it me?

So, I've changed the page again. Not sure if I'll stick with this particular look or not. It's a bit bright for my tastes. For those of y'all just using an RSS Reader, maybe check it out directly and let me know what you think. I just can't tell if I'm feeling it or not.

Ponder. Ponder. 

New York, New York!

...So good they named it twice.

We arrive in NYC via JFK around 7:30pm. I'm exhausted, beyond in pain, cuz my knee did not take too kindly to the pressure of being up in an airplane. It seriously took everything out of me to either not bawl like a baby or just pass out from the pain. So, imagine that, I'm kinda not in the greatest mood. Mike wants to take the Subway, and I SOOoooo did not. So, I got my way and we ordered up a shuttle ride to our hotel. Mike should appreciate my grumpiness from time to time. If we would not have rode in that shuttle, we would never have experienced that which is New York driving. OR all the buildings and sites we got to see just on the way. There were a lot of people in the shuttle and I saw no rhyme or reason to how the driver was dropping people off, but I just went with it. I was quite lucky in that I was in the front passenger seat, but Mike was somewhere in the back. I probably looked like a wide-eyed kid looking all over the place to catch every detail I could. I also decided very early in the ride, that the driver did work for a large company that drives people around, so I let go of any anxiety about the zipping around/honking/sudden braking. It was a lot easier than I would have guessed. I think it took us over an hour to finally get to our hotel, but it was seriously worth it.

So, we check into Millennium Broadway Hotel, which is so seriously posh. I probably looked like a fool with my mouth gaping open just looking at the lobby area. Very art deco. The actual room itself wasn't super special, but it was still nice. Our view was out onto 44th street just around the corner from Times Square. You could see all the activity out there and the crazy bright lights. Good thing those curtains were so good at blocking out the light. We were so desperate for clean clothes we sent a bunch to get cleaned at the hotel. We obviously weren't thinking. More on that later. I was completely shot for the evening, but I could see Mike was really raring to go. We were very hungry, so Mike took it upon himself to go in search of some good ol' New York pizza. I stayed behind and either read or bathed or something. He took awhile, but he finally came back with pie and beverages in hand. We scarfed.

We woke up, hit the concierge up for some breakfast recommendations and eat at a diner called The Red Flame. Excellent place. Good, cheap, and fast food. I had an omelet of some sort and I can't remember what Mike had. I know there was a bagel involved. We go back to the hotel, and try to look where we can buy clothes, cuz we're seriously gross. I think is the point where Mike went down to the Theatre Desk to see what broadway shows we could get tickets for. I really wanted to see Wicked. There were some others I wouldn't have minded, but I really really wanted to see Wicked. I had also resigned myself to not having a chance in hell at seeing it, cuz when we looked at available tickets online the only ones available were $400 a piece!  Mike gets done talking with him and he says he can probably get some for about $200 a piece, any other show would be about $150. I figure for an extra $50 a pop, it was well worth trying. So, he goes in search of those, and will call us with any news. We also talk to the concierge to ask about restaurants to go to before the show. We want italian. So, he gets us a reservation at a place called Tramonti at 6:00pm. 

We hop on the NY Subway and go to where we think we can find a place. We didn't find what we were looking for, but we found an Old Navy and an H&M. Good enough for me. The Old Navy was probably the biggest I've ever seen. Take your typical local Old Navy, then stick 2 more on top of it. It was 3 stories of crazy cheap clothes. All the clothes in my department -- yes, the "Women's" area -- were 75% off. I didn't realize that until I went to pay for a pair of pants I grabbed and they were $3.25. Even the lady was baffled and checked with like 2 other people to make sure that price was right. I quickly headed back to the section and grabbed as much as I thought I would like. I think I ended up spending something like $28 for 4 or 5 pants/shorts and a couple shirts. It was crazy. We then headed over to H&M cuz Mike is so above Old Navy (joke!). He found some really nice stuff there. He even ended up buying a new outfit for our Broadway night cuz he wasn't feeling the one he brought with him. I think sometime while we were shopping Mike got the call that the dude found us Wicked tickets. I was so excited! I really thought we had a snowball's chance in that hot place.

We go back to the hotel to change into our new non-stinky clothes, and then get back on the subway to head towards Ground Zero. It was kind of a pain to get there cuz I got off too early and then we ended up waiting forever for the next train, then the line was under construction so you had to get off kinda far and hoof it. So, we're kinda rushing cuz we have to get back to the hotel by 5ish to get ready for dinner and Broadway. We literally walk at a brisk pace around Ground Zero, check out the pictures & timeline info they have there, and then we get right back on the subway.

At the hotel, our clothes from the day before are all clean and pretty. And we think, why did we do that? We just went and bought clothes anyway. REAL silly considering the laundry bill ended up being over $100. What the desperately stinky won't do for cleanliness. Anyhoo... We are, of course, so late. We get dressed, and start the not-terribly-short walk to Tramonti.  Get there about 15 minutes late, but our table is still available. I don't know if we just didn't see all the restaurant, but if we did, it was very small - narrow and long and packed with tables & people. We get to our table just in front of the brick oven area and we are greeted by a very energetic friendly waiter with a terrible fake italian accent. But no worries, it worked for me. We order some wine, peruse the menus and my eyes stop on the Gnocchi Alla Sorrentina. I freakin' love gnocchi. I get it almost anywhere that has it. So, my mind is made up, but Mike wants to get a pizza cuz the concierge says they are to die for. He can't really seem to decide. So, I suggest we get the gnocchi and a pizza and split both. He likes that idea. Another bottle of wine later, we get our dinner and it just looks delicious, and it was! I don't think I've had better gnocchi anywhere. The gnocchi was fresh, the sauce was fresh. After a couple bites, it dawns on me that only half of this is mine. I have to eat half and then give it up. And! it was MY idea. I wanted to kick myself. But, I finally ate my half and switched with Mike's pizza. The pizza was really good, but oh! I felt the loss of the gnocchi. Seriously. We had some tiramisu to top it all off and booked it over to the Gershwin Theatre.

Granted, I've never been to any theatre on Broadway, but this sucker was HUGE. Not what I was expecting at all.  It seats 1933 people. Yowza. Our seats were on the front row of the second section of the Orchestra section on the left side. Something like 18/19 rows back from the stage. I was in awe just sitting there waiting for the show to begin. It was spectacular. The production value was just beyond anything I could have imagined. The sets were awesome, and the costumes were just unbelievable. Glinda kind of comes across as a bit of sorority girl with a good heart. So, she definitely had use of the costumes. I think hers changed the most & frequently. The play was almost 3 hours in total with a 15 minute intermission. Absolutely breathtaking.

We stroll on back to the hotel through Times Square and I got to truly experience it for all it's gaudy glory. I kind of had mixed emotions about the whole deluge of advertising. While I found it very visually stimulating, it just kinda blows my mind that the area seems so hyped. In general I find advertising completely annoying and overly used, but I could definitely appreciate the uniqueness of the whole display. And the people! You've never seen so many people in one place. I'm amazed people can even walk around.

The next day we headed downstairs, got another breakfast recommendation from the concierge and had an awesome meal at the Brooklyn Diner. I had "The Mixed Marriage of Irving & Gina" which was a nested egg with peppers, onions, sausage, and polenta. Mike had the "`Tony Bennett's`Cinnamon Raisin Pecan French Toast", and I think you an figure out what that one was. Both were beyond lishous, but were also pretty pricey. Well worth the experience, of course. We head back to the hotel, check out, leave our bags with the bellhops and decide we're going to do one of those bus tours. We loved the Dublin one, so we figure it would be a great way to see a bit of Manhattan before we have to leave at 5:40pm. The tour takes about an hour and a half and hits some pretty interesting buildings/sites. The tour guide was very entertaining which always helps. New York has some very cool architecture.  We head back to get our bags, and hail a cab. The bellhop tells us for $20 more we can get a Lincoln Town Car - that includes tolls (cabs don't) and baggage (cabs don't either). So, really we probably didn't pay that much more if any. And it was much nicer than a cab, I'm sure.

So, after a very long and arduous process. I have finally completed my tales of travel. Sorry it did take so long, but sometimes the days just get away from you. 

Éire finale

Ok, first, I obviously was full of crapola last time when I said I would be faster. I have no idea why I'm having such a hard time with this. This usually comes so naturally to me. Anyhoo... So, we finish off the Ring of Kerry and then have a rather difficult time finding our next B&B, Weston's Lot in Dundrum, County Tipperary. So, after passing it several times, we finally found a local that knew what we were talking about and gave us much better directions, and we found it right away. This was a really nice B&B. Really big and it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. The next day we go a town over in Cashel, and check out the Rock of Cashel. It was a gorgeous day with a great breeze, at least while we were up on the Rock. Very serene, I thought. Afterwards we grabbed a good sandwich around the corner before we headed off to Waterford. Yes, that Waterford. And of course, one cannot visit the city of Waterford without touring the Waterford Crystal Factory. I will admit to being in a foul, grumpy mood this day. This was probably my worst day as far as moods go, I think. You might need to ask Mike on that. My knee was just excruciatingly painful by this point and I since we never had a bathtub in our rooms (just showers), I never got to soak it or anything to help it not hurt as much. Anyway, I have no problem admitting I was not a pleasure to be around. However, I did enjoy the Waterford Tour a lot. I never realized that every single piece of crystal that comes out of there is hand made. I thought that was just absolutely mind blowing. It also allowed me to understand their pricing a bit more too. Another thing I was thoroughly impressed with was how little they waste. I think the tour guide said their waste percentage per year is like 2%. Every extra bit of crystal, like a messed up piece, is recycled back into crystal to be used later. On the blades that they cut with, water is sprayed on them to keep it cool, and from there the dust that is made, is sucked back into the system and sent back to be reused also. So incredibly efficient I thought. Waste not, want not, and all that. So, back to my grumpy mood. After the tour we ended up in the store, mais bien sur, and Mike was ready to let me loose and buy whatever I wanted. I could have bought an entire set of crystal that cost a ton, and would have probably been ok with it. So, what do I do, I buy absolutely nothing. Not even a christmas ornament. I was just in one of those moods where I would not have been able to actually pick something I wanted. So, yes, it did suck that I did not buy anything, however, it was probably for the best as I most likely would have purchased something that I wasn't really into. And really, when you think about it, Mike doesn't know how lucky he really was that I was in such a foul non-shopping mood. I would probably have spent a small fortune. See? You can truly find the positive in anything if you try. :D Our next B&B was in Ashord, County Wicklow - Mount Usher View. The garden/yard area of this B&B was really beautiful and taken care of impeccably. Besides sleeping & having a meal, we didn't stay too long here. The next day we were headed back to Dublin as our flight was at 5pm. On our way we stopped in Glendalough, which means Glen of Two Lakes. Near the Lower Lake is a monastery that originated in the 6th century by St. Kevin. There are some seriously old ruins here, and they were surrounded by some of the most beautiful mountains & trees. I could definitely understand why a hermit priest would settle here. We then drove up to the Upper Lake which actually cost us something ridiculous like €5 and we couldn't stay for too too long. But, I guess if it helps them take care of the area, it's all good. We parked, went to the lake which is only feet away from the parking area, took some pictures and ooohed and aaahed over the insane view. You only see these types of things in pictures. Just breathtaking. Mike wanted to do some hiking and I really couldn't because of my knee, so he went off for a bit, and I sat in the car and read/slept. He came back running. I guess we were on a time table that I wasn't really paying too much attention to. So, we left quickly and zoomed fast fast towards Dublin. We dropped off the car, talked to some other folks who did our same B&B deal, and got on the plane without having to wait too too long. So, my summary of the trip. I adore Ireland. As most people are already aware I plan on opening my own B&B in Doolin and my mom can open a restaurant that goes along side it or next door or something. Seriously, one day. Our trip was a helluva lot more hectic than I wanted. We were constantly on the go and I wish I could have relaxed more. Especially when my knee always felt like it wanted to explode. A couples notes for anyone thinking of going -- be aware that every bed in Ireland appears to be slightly more comfortable than a slab of rock and take all the clothing you'll need. There's not one laundromat in the entire country. Having to wash your unmentionables in a sink is just something I could have lived my whole life never having to do. So, besides the uncomfy beds and the hectic pace, this was an amazing trip. AND! I only wigged out from panic/anxiety once! It helped that the Irish are some of the most friendly people. Now, off to New York...