MORE RANDOM THOUGHTS

My husband and I walked down to one of my favorite places to eat today for lunch - Twist Cafe.  We had to leave the house because our landlord said someone was coming to look at it to see if they wanted to rent it.  As we were walking back home down main street, I thought to myself that if I owned one of the shops in that town, I would sweep the sidewalk in front of my store every single morning.  Then I'd get a bucket of hot water mixed with bleach and pour it on the sidewalk and scrub it with a stiff push broom.  Then at least the sidewalk in front of "my" store would be clean. :0)

The other day we went to the grocery store where I have shopped 3 times a week (at least) for the past year and a half.  Every time I bought groceries I would charge it on my American Express card, because I get frequent flier miles for every dollar (or Euro) I spend.  Most credit cards here in Ireland are what they call "chip" cards.  They have a computer chip in them, unlike the "swipe" cards we have in the US.  When I presented my American Express card with my ID, the cashier informed me that they no longer accept "swipe" cards.  I said, "Are you kidding me?  I've used this every week for the past year and a half here."  She called over a manager and he agreed with her.  I told her, "Then I will no longer be able to shop at this store, and most Americans will not shop here, because we do not have "chip" cards."  She didn't care.  Fine.  I went to the other grocery store a few days later.  Then one day I needed just a couple of things.  My husband got cash out of the ATM and we went back to our regular grocery store.  As we were waiting to check out, the guy in front of us handed the cashier his "swipe" card.  She told him the same thing.  He assured her (in his Irish accent) that he used it all the time there.  She accepted it.  ???  Whatever, I'm leaving.

We've had incredibly beautiful weather here the past couple of weeks.  It has been sun-shiney every day and mild temperatures, and hardly any wind. You still need a jacket, but it's nice.  I love jackets anyway. They are one of my favorite articles of clothing.  I've even had my windows open. 

I'm glad my husband could go fishing one more time before we left.  He went today right after we got back from lunch, when his friend texted him to tell him he was done at work and would meet him at the river.  I was also glad we decided not to send his fishing equipment with the movers.  He thought he might fish when we got back to the States, and didn't realize he'd be able to go one more time here.

You know, even though we had to stay here an extra week, it really hasn't been that bad.  My husband has worked from home almost every day.  We had dinner one night with our US friends and are having dinner with them again tomorrow night (minus one couple that went home yesterday). 

We've been without television since Tuesday afternoon.  The cable company wasn't supposed to turn it off, but they did anyway.  Our relo liason argued back and forth with them about getting it turned back on.  I didn't think she would win, but she did.  I just thought I'd check one more time this afternoon and lo, and behold - it was on!  Way to go Fabiola!  We compensated by buying 3 dvds on sale at the grocery store - one was 3 euro, one was 5 euro and one was 7 euro.  It's cheaper here to buy a dvd than to go to the movies.  We went to the movies last Saturday and it cost us 12.50 euro apiece.  That's like $18.00 apiece US. So add that plus a large popcorn and 2 diet cokes - $$$.   And that was Saturday afternoon.  They've never heard of "matinee prices".  We went to see "The Blind Side". 

I wonder if it will take me awhile to get used to hot weather again....