Friday, August 8, 2008

Hot Fun in the Summertime

As you should know by now, a typical Irish day looks something like this:


Actual elapsed time, 0.8 seconds.

Well, luckily for us, yesterday saw a change.



And at the same time as the Irish sun was bursting forth from the cloud's familiar hold, another Irish son was bursting forth from a womb's familial hold. Ah, Sweet poetry...

Mary and Tom Marry had another boy! Conor Brendan Marry was born at 3:45pm on August 7th and weighed in at 8 lbs even.
While I've yet to procure any actual photos of the young lad, just for your reference, I'm pretty sure he looked just like this:
I do have pictures of another babe from yesterday...


Tell me the shorts aren't fantastic! And it was great to have a warm and sunny day in which to wear them. Katie has really turned a corner in her walking attempts. While she still walks half like Frankenstein and half like someone with a stick up their butt, she walks everywhere. Only if we are in a serious hurry does she get down to crawl. Or if she sees a puddle.

Speaking of puddles, Katie got her first pair of wellies today.



And speaking of turning a corner... if you turn the corner from Manus' parent's house out in Cuffesgrange, you will find yourself at the very birthplace of James Hoban! Yes, it's true!! Shocking and hard to believe, isn't it??!! Now, I wouldn't want to insult anybody as I know you all know who J. Hoban is, but since I decided to make this an educational site, I will provide links so you can learn more about the Irishman who became an architect and designed the White House (where the President of the United States lives.) That's right, the one and only. And just in case you think you will forget his name, you can use a little mnemonic that I find helpful; Just think of the regulatory action that could put yo Momma out of work.

Well, architecture students from Wash. D.C.'s Catholic University designed and erected (tee,hee) a monument to the great man (some may remember the original monument in the ditch on the side of the road that looked more like a misplaced headstone) and last night was the unveiling.

It is a beautiful monument and all the local papers say it is sure to put Cuffesgrange, Co. Kilkenny on the map. Which is good, because I looked, and it isn't on any of them at the moment.

We were blessed to have Father Funky Dee and the Holy Rollers there to get down and get freaky.

I just still don't understand why they had their backs to the crowd...

My fellow countrymen.... (Take me with you!!!!)

Here is an article about the events from the Kilkenny newspaper: http://www.kilkennypeople.ie/news/James-Hoban-memorial-now-set.4362987.jp

It is almost exactly a month 'til we are in the good ole U. S. of A again and celebrating the life of a man made famous in America did little to lessen my homesickness. And neither did this:

I feel like I'm in the middle of one of those old coffee commercials, "We've secretly switched the restaurant's fresh brewed coffee with Folger's crystals... let's see if they notice the difference." Well, I DID notice the difference, albeit not til AFTER I got home from the grocery. Canadian maple syrup and banana nut? Helllllloooo? Where is Cinnamon and my reason-for-buying, Peanut Butter? I'm sorry, you just can't trust a country that doesn't eat peanut butter.

And I think the weeds are mocking me.







1 comment:

Anonymous said...

HELLO!! James Hoban was the answer to final jeopardy last friday night! and i KNEW it!!! I just couldn't remember his name...... well,i mean, i knew it was HIM, and i got the james part right, but the hoban part eluded me. there was a veiled reference to the white house and i just (as i said) KNEW it was him. i give myself 99 percent credit. laura (just incase i punctuated alot)