Ronaldo? Messi?

Nor did I have a clue who these two were until a few days ago when I learned that my alternative to watching the Champions League Final tonight between Manchester United and Barcelona was to attend a second family reunion dinner with CW, her mother, her father and two sisters. Since then, I have been attempting to convince CW that I have always been a closet football (soccer to you Americans) fan. CW is quite skeptical but when I just happened to mention in conversation her brother's team was relegated (Newcastle) she started to believe. Whereas my love of rugby both playing and watching is well-documented. So much so we spent Saturday evening in a Cork bar with our friends visiting from Holland watching Leinster (Irish) beat Leicester (English) in the Heineken (Dutch) Cup Final. And whether fan or not, tonight's game is bigger than the Super Bowl--at least for these European types--so it's an adventure to be here watching this game. Well, must be going. Have to read "Idiots Guide to Soccer" I mean football. Dreadful Creatures? Don't worry--they will be safe with internet sitter tonight!

Casual Fridays (i.e. track suit)

ODC attempts to break out of St. Maries of the Isle for quick run to "Forever 21"

Another successful St. Patrick's Day...

As our friend Paul Sanchez (www.paulsanchez.com) sings, "What's an Irish boy from a good family doing in the gutter?"

Feeding Time...

Visiting hours at YDC's school!

Suffer the Children...

The Irish Child Abuse Commission's report came out today (www.irishtimes.com) and as expected the findings of "savage and institutional abuse at the hands of religious orders" have sickened and saddened this nation of Catholics. On the brighter side, these "secret" photos from the Dreadful Creatures respective schools appear to show things have lightened up somewhat:
1) That's YDC getting a few lashes from the Headmaster for sitting in a square position during "Circle Time"
2) That's ODC in Overnight Detention for wearing her i-pod in class.

I read the news today oh boy....

and saw our Older Dreadful Creature in the Irish Independent newspaper commemorating the Irish famine at her school, St. Maries of the Isle--that's her in the middle--doesn't look underfed to me! (n.b. Edmonds: Claire and Isabelle aren't the only kids with a stage mom shamelessly promoting her brats to the media!)

Twenty-twenty-twenty fours hour to go, I wanna be....

in Dublin. This is getting scarey--My sister-in-law and partner (parents of two daughters ages 9 and 11 here in Cork) insisted CW and myself go to Dublin for the night wtihout the Dreadful Creatures--our very very first "complete" night away from the Younger Dreadful Creature YDC (I mean we have stayed out until 4 am but that's in town). So CW and I hopped a train to Dublin (3 hour ride north) and checked into the Trinity Capital Hotel near of course Trinity College (picked up application for ODC--cheaper than Harvard with all that Irish socialism.) A few arrival drinks in the hotel bar, a decent dinner at Balzac, and then off to a Dermot Bolger play about the notorious Dublin slum of Ballymun-- "The Mun"! Where was the play performed? In Ballymun in what appears to be a experiment involving poverty, crime and the arts. As an added treat, our dear friend Mick Judd was one of the actors in the play (Irish fellow who returned to Dublin in 2001 after ten plus years in New York). The play was a great social history of Ballymun and afterward we had a drink with cast and director--CW was an actor in Ireland and NYC for many years so she was in her element--and I of course acted up and made particularly insightful critiques about the performance that I am sure were well received by the cast members. Mick dropped us off at hotel and I drug CW to Kehoe's--a traditional Dublin pub that had fantastic Guinness and happened to stay open an hour past the usual 11:30 pm official pub closing time--great last night, not so great this morning! Walked around Dublin, met Mick for lunch, quick pint at the International Bar, and back on train to Cork, home by 7 pm. Picked up creatures! Not bad for 24 hours plus--eat your heart out Jack Bauer! That's the hotel's Do Not Disturb Sign which I "borrowed".