Thanksgiving! and Dublin!

I've finished my presentation and now my final semester projects await me. Yay! Since my last post, so many things have taken place, but the main two were my trip to Dublin to spend the day with the lovely Claire Williamson, and the Thanksgiving dinner we hosted at the house.

Yesterday, I spent all day in the kitchen. Yes, the kitchen. There were no fires. The menu? Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mac & cheese (of course!), mashed potatoes, corn pudding, rolls, and pie. Four pies. Apple, Pecan, Lemon and Chocolate. Friends, I pulled it off. There were 11 of us total, and I think everyone had a great time. Of course, some things, I could have done a bit better, but I didn't send anyone to the hospital and that is fine with me. We ate, drank and were merry. Success!

Last weekend, I ventured into Dublin for the first time in five years. Through a sheer stroke of luck/genius (or just sleeping through my stop), I met Claire at the airport and we headed into town. Claire's been in Glasgow for a few months and it was so great to have a JMU reunion in Ireland! Claire had found a bakery online and wanted to check it out, so we went off in search of the Cake Cafe. We couldn't find it the first time around, so we stopped to fuel up on caffeine in a little shop run by an Italian family ( I think they're Italian?) and chatted with them about directions to this cafe. Apparently, it's in a small sketchy looking alley way. It took us a total of three tries to find it, but it was worth it! Teeny tiny with almost no room, bike racks galore outside and tasty tasty cake inside. We then proceeded to roam the streets and take pretty pictures and buy books from outdoor vendors. Or rather, Claire took pretty pictures and I bought books from outside vendors. We then had an early dinner at a random cafe and then we went our separate ways, Claire to Glasgow, me to Galway. It sounds perfectly boring typing it all out, but it was actually lovely.

By the time I got back to Galway it was fairly late, but the Christmas directions looked great lit up! And that's all the excitement for me folks. Now it's off to write.