The description will be short and sweet, but I just got back from an amazing week long vacation in Ireland. My 359 pictures can be found here, and there are probably 600-700 more coming from Dave & Erin’s and Sohui’s camera.

Thanks again to our tour organizer, driver and guide Gordy — we never would have seen as much as we did without him.

Quick impressions on Ireland:

• It’s beautiful! Water, green grass, sheep, cattle, even the rocky landscape — it’s all stunning.
• The people are incredibly friendly – the most offensive people we met on the trip were from the US
• Belfast is growing, Dublin is a metropolis, and the country towns are quaint
• It was super safe – I can’t remember a single moment where we didn’t feel completely comfortable

Some stories you’ll have to ask me about:

• Delayed in Chicago
• The Hertz rental car fiasco
• Sohui’s rough first travel day
• Galway Races – Go Hard Rock City!
• Flat tire
• Gordy’s friends — all hilarious and friendly
• 3 meals at Kelehans
• Horseback riding in Ardara
• Traditional Irish Music night in Ardara
• Gordy’s family — his mom, dad, nephew and dog — again, some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet
• Dunluce Castle Ruins, Bushmills Distillery, Giants Causeway, and the Rope Bridge — all in one day
• Belfast Hop-on, Hop-off bus tour
• Ned’s
• Dublin

This video is from Ardara — traditional Irish music jam session — they were wonderful:

Pictures

So, we’re in the beautiful Pewaukee home of Kay’s “aunt” and “uncle” prior to Kay and Chris’ wedding. Conversation turns to eating contests, and specifically the legend that it is impossible to eat six Saltine crackers in one minute.

Erin was nice enough to raid her parents cupboards for some crackers and the challenge was on.

Tim went first and failed. I also failed — in capturing his attempt on video using my phone.

Brian went next, and you can watch his attempt here:

After Brian, it was the ladies’ turn as Kelley, Nicki and Kay’s cousin Claire took on the crackers:

Finally, Chris, his brother Mark and Garrett made a run of it:

What if The Office patterned itself after Heroes?

Other than me being disappointed because two of my favorite shows became one, it might be really funny, like this video:

…and I remembered that I had a blog. Yep, my very own web log thingy where I can type whatever I want and maybe somebody will read it. It got me to thinking, “now that fantasy football season is over, you’re going to have a lot more time on your hands, so maybe you should go write something on your blog.”

Then, I went back to work.

Then, I went home. And I surfed the internet some more. And that’s when I found some cool stuff. And remembered that earlier thought about putting something in my blog. So, I came here and decided to share some links to the cool stuff I found. So, here goes:

• Anticlown Daily – This blog has all kinds of random news on it every day, plus it’s anti-clown, and it has funny looking monkies at the top of the page
• GorillaMask.net – Speaking of monkies, this site sometimes has “naughtier” content, like the new pictures of Anna Kournikova checking her bikini bottoms for god-only-knows-what. (making me wonder, “Don’t celebrities know that they are being photographed ALL THE TIME?”
• busblog – The guy at GorillaMask had a link to this site, which was frankly pretty funny, so then I read that one. This guy has also written books about blogging — which seems odd, because you’d think that you would just blog that kind of thing, but then I remembered that Barnes & Noble doesn’t sell blogs, so it was probably a good idea. Oh, and tony works for the xbi and never uses capital letters. that’s cool.
• Jennifer and Brad Break Up – when I just went back to busblog to copy the link, he had posted a new article about having lunch with Wil Wheaton and Kat (more on Wil in a second) and there was a link at the end about the latest celebrity break up. Finally, Jennifer is single again. I think I’ll give her a call.
• Wil Wheaton Dot Net – Part way down on the BusBlog site was some stuff about how he was nominated for an award for his blog, and there was this link to Wil Wheaton’s blog. I had no idea who Wil was. Turns out he’s an actor. He was in Stand By Me and later, in Star Trek: The Next Generation. I’ve never been into Star Trek, so that’s probably why I didn’t know. Anyway, his blog is interesting. Here’s a guy who is an actor (albeit maybe struggling and stuff), is the same age as me, is a geek (like me and probably anyone who is reading this), and seems fairly normal. So, his blog just got bookmarked.
• ThinkGeek – I almost never click on the ads on websites. But, this one got me clicking. And I found what might be the coolest online store ever. I think I will end up buying stuff from this place. Really. I mean… You can get a red swingline stapler here! Yes, you read that right!

And that my friends is a little story of how I’m spending a Friday night. Surfing the internet and then writing about it somewhere where probably 2 people will read about it. Funny, huh?

Have a great weekend!