Another Reason To Miss Target

I'm attending a potluck meet up of Americans tomorrow with the theme of Mexican food.  We're all so excited because, Mexican food here?  Not good. 

While shopping for ingredients to the cucumber salad and the avocado and goat cheese dip I'm making, I had a brainstorm... margaritas!  Woohoo!!  What would make Mexican food even better?  Tequilaaaah. 

Unfortunately, I quickly came up on another roadblock placed by Rip-Off Ireland.  One pint-sized bottle of tequila = 35 euro!  What??? 

I soooo miss the Margarita Bucket mix from Tar-gay!  Add a bottle, freeze to slushiness in the (full-sized) freezer, and voila!  Good times.

Pretty, Pretty

Sun. Blue Skies. Palm trees. So much to love about Miami. Fantastic jewelry? Hmmm, that wouldn't have been the first thing to come to mind, but now I'm convinced.

While hanging out with my sister on my recent trip, we had to do a quick drop-in at a jewelry party for a friend of a friend. "Five minutes" we thought. Two hours later....



I am so in love with my new Silpadajewelry. Definitely worth the pain in my wallet :-) Beautiful, top quality, and a lifetime guarantee. Give me more!

Color me confused... and craving Mrs. Butterworth syrup

Another reminder today that I still don't completely get everything about life here.

Pancakes. Pancakes? What? Why?

Or, maybe it says more about my not being of the Catholic persuasion that it really didn't hit me till hours into the day, and multiple confusing references to people's need to take in an unusually high amount of pancakes, what day it was on the liturgical calendar.

As a non-high church Protestant, albeit a relatively active one, I don't generally keep up with any but the major dates of the church year. But, given that it is Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras!), that means tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. The start of Lent. The build-up to Easter, the most important day of the Christian church calendar.

Which brings me back to wrestling with semi-obscure references to church traditions of long standing... this isn't the first time I will be giving something up for Lent. There was a very painful abstinence from romance novels a couple of years past that really brought to life the real meaning of "sacrifice".

In that tradition, this year I'll be giving up sugar (as added to tea, cereal, etc). I'm sure I'm not at all prepared for the pain.

It's mine, mine, mine!

OK, it's done. I held out as long as I could, but I finally HAD to give in to its seductive powers. I'm totally in love and like any new relationship we're spending as much time together as we can. A few frustrations - including the 6 hours I spent last night into the (not so) early morning fighting with it and trying to smooth out the relationship between another big part of my life, before finally figuring out how to make things work between them.

We're all happy together now, my new iPhone, home wifi, and me. Long may we hold this menage a trois! (And if I never have to read another Mac or iPhone help forum, I'll be a very happy camper!)


I do take the fact that I held out for so many months as a good sign of my impulse control. Although everyone who heard me salivating about it on and on for months may have wished I'd given in sooner :-)

Come to me my pretty!

Impulse control. That's what it's all about. I've been obsessed with the iPhone since I first saw Steve Jobs' presentation at last year's MacWorld conference. It blew me away, seriously, and it hurt to have to put off buying one because of the move overseas. I've been telling everyone for months now how I couldn't wait for it to actually get released in Ireland. Maybe it was the open letter I posted on one of the Mac/iPhone sites begging S.J. to please, please bring it to the Emerald Isle, but it actually got released here March 14th. Almost a month gone by and yet... I haven't bought it.

I have my reasons. Logical, rational reasons. Reasons echoed by other iPhone maniacs and tech heads. It's overpriced. No Visual Voicemail at all! Price gouging by O2 for the price plans. Plus, best of all, an updated, 3G version is due out soon. Like in May or June. But, it's still a day-to-day struggle not to give in and buy the darn thing already!