Irish coffee

I have finally found coffee I like. Irish Coffee! A good Irish coffee looks like a well poured Guiness. It is made from coffee (of course), brown sugar, whiskey and topped with thick cream. Delicioso! We're going to practice the fine art of creating these so we can provide our visitors with a traditional Irish beverage.

Run Dublin

The Dublin Marathon was run today. I was told that it attracts some 11,000 entrants, 2000 of which are from the U.S. It has been a beautiful day for it and our house is right about at the mid point. Here are some pictures from right our our front door. One of my friends said the American runners typically bring a lot of friends and family with them and they are responsible for most of the loud cheering that you hear along the streets. He thinks it makes for a great atmosphere.

I have cable!!

Today is a great day. My lovely wife agreed, nay, encouraged me to subscribe to cable TV and it was just installed. The normal channels are not horribly exciting, though there are channels like Discover, National Geographic, etc. plus a number of European channels that play American sitcoms all day. The real excitement comes from the fact that we added a sports package that airs football on Sunday nights...American football! Not only do I get to watch 2-3 of the Sunday games live, but I get a bunch of premier league soccer games as well (I'm probably the only one excited about that).
I hear it calling my name...gotta go!

The social system

I have to vent. Let me know if I'm off completely.

I read in the paper this morning that senior government officials have received around a 15% pay increase. This is amidst a huge budget crisis in which many hospitals are having to cut back service and all hiring has been suspended. It will cost over 19 million euro per year to cover the pay increases, which by the way were revealed the day before a holiday weekend. The chief of finance is now making over 370,000 euro per year. I suppose the saying "Socialism works great if you have the right people running it" can again be shown a farce. The government is reporting that it will have to raise taxes next year to accommodate its spending. I am still not being payed over-time (I worked 12 hours today) and people that can't do their job correctly are giving themselves enormous raises. The physicians I work with have been offered a 37 hour work week and will not be paid for any time over that (which means they probably won't be paid for working on Thursdays or Fridays because they'll be over their hours by then). The free market system could accommodate raises because they are in fact based on productivity and share holders won't pay for poor results. Even in the government voters approve such increases or show the government employees the door. These government officers now make more than the President of the United States, who is (throat clear) the leader of the FREE world. It is sad how dependent people become on such an inept group of leaders.

We just go about our business and hope for the best. Hopefully we won't be corrupted by this sour system. Be thankful for what you have, it could always be worse. I could go on but I'll sum up with this: When Hillary is elected urge your congressman to VOTE NO on government run health care, and send your HMO a thank you card!

Reserve your dates

Malahide Castle

This is an 800yr old castle just North of Dublin. It was lived in by the Talbot family from its construction until the mid 1970's when the last family member died leaving it to the Dublin historical society. Now you can play golf and football on the grounds.

Heart of Life (acoustic)

Some of you may or may not be wholly impressed with this song. I suppose, since it hasn't been radio played yet (I think) you may not have even heard it yet. At present I can't seem to keep it out of my head so I will try to get it stuck in your head now too.