We spent 9 days in Dublin visiting Rose, Steve, and Evie (over Thanksgiving week). I haven’t seen Rose and Steven since 2017, which is a small travesty as they are some of my favorite people in the world.

It was so good to see them. I really liked this board game they had (they always have good games). The only bummer is I caught a cold that got into my sinuses the day I left. That took 5 days to shake and really hurt my energy levels. I had hoped to see a few things in Dublin, given it is one of my favorite cities in the world, but with the cold, I didn’t manage anything past seeing my old office and some delicious Thai food.

I cooked the Turkey and did the spatchcock method. It turned out well (glad I didn’t screw that up). Lindsey, Rose, and Steve made so much fantastic food (and Lindsey found “diamond-encrusted” canned cranberry sauce for my nostalgia). Lindsey made amazing pecan, pumpkin pie, and her world-famous vanilla mascarpone whip creme. It was an amazing feast.

I hope to see Rose, Steve, and Evie again soon. It had been too long between visits. And I bet Evie is walking by the time we see her next! This was my first time flying since the end of 2019.

I am looking forward to seeing my mom and stepdad next month for Christmas. The last time I saw them was in 2019 (before our move to Europe and Covid).

Wow, I realized when I was cleaning up my travel list that I have visited a total of 44 countries!

Other random thoughts while thinking about this…

• I’ve spent 3 of the last 4 years living outside the USA.
• I lived for a year in Melbourne Australia and Cairo Egypt!
• I lived for ~9 months in Dublin, Ireland.
• I’ve spent at least a month in 15 different countries, a few twice!

I love all the countries I’ve been too, but I especially love Croatia. I’ve been there twice for a total of ~6 months and can’t wait to go back. Amazing weather, fantastic food, great people, and a fantastic mood.

Where do I feel the most at home? Ireland, the entire country just feels like sitting down in a bean bag after a long day at work, ie “this is where I belong”. Plus they don’t have snakes.

I’ve got a lot of places I’d like to visit in the future (if I am able too). And, quite a few places I want to go back too. I’ve been really lucky to be able to travel so much!

I flew over to Ireland for the weekend to surprise Iris, Rose, and Steve and had an absolutely amazing amazing time! Watched some rugby, drank one or two Guinness, danced, and somehow managed to stay up for 40 hours that first day / night. Thanks to Rose and Steve for putting me up in their awesome new gaff!

I ended up delaying my return for a few days because I was having so much fun! I went to Galway and the Clifts of Moher with Elizabeth and it was great to see Ireland when the sunshine was out. It made me realize when I was living there how much less sun you see in Dublin. My flight was probably just 20 minutes from getting canceled Wednesday and I should have just stayed through Sunday (Volcano screwed me by about 30 minutes)! No decisions should be made prior 10am when it comes to leaving a country :) (and in general).

Getting back was a bit rough, on the ride home from the airport I got a call about a massive work emergency which has occupied every minute of the last two days, it is ok now though (enshallah) and a lot of work to do to ensure it never happens is finished.

Here are some pictures from my iPhone, not great quality but I forgot my normal camera.

Steve and Rose visited for a week from Ireland which was a blast! Big thanks to Chappy and Liz for letting us stay at their house and Liz for teaching us all how to snowboard and getting us a big discount on our passes! Apart from a small fluke wrist fracture Steve suffered we all did well and by the end of our second day were able to turn! A few more days and we would probably be falling a lot less. I’ll try to post some photos and videos when Rose posts them.

I had one monster fall where I hit the back of my head, thank god for helmets or my brain would be splattered all over the snow. I switched from Regular to Goofy on my second day and I think that is going to be the way I go in the future, but a bit tough to switch everything in your feet and mind. By the end of that day it was going well and I can see how addictive snowboarding could be.

I’ve been meaning to make this post for a while, I just wanted to say thanks to the Guinness Enterprise Center in Dublin Ireland. I was working remotely in Ireland a long time ago and they helped me get a small office, setup high speed internet for VOIP, and a lot more! They were absolutely fantastic and in particular I wanted to thank Dolores Dempsey for her help.

This is a really great center that helps Irish people start companies and they do fantastic work!