Happy Hallowe'en!

I am up way, way too late. 'Cause why? 'Cause I was carving pumpkins, that's why!

Every year, my tradition is to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas as I carve my pumpkins. It might technically count as a Christmas movie, but this song always gets me super-excited for Halloween:

This year, I had two pumpkins to carve-- one was purchased for my friend Bri, but she hasn't had the time to come carve it, so I went ahead and did it myself. So, the fruits of my labors! (Click to embiggen... and apologies for the poor quality of the photos, my camera's batteries are dead so I had to use the laptop's built-in webcam.)

XD


A Clockwork Pumpkin!

I had a hard time getting a shot that showed the eyelash things. But I figured I had to do this, because after all I do own a bowler hat.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have two pumpkins' worth of roasted pumpkin seeds to eat. Which is of course the best part of the whole carving experience.

Today is what is known as a "Bank Holiday," and consequently I am the only person in the postgrad study room! In the U.S., we make up fake half-assed excuses for holidays, like "President's Day" and "Columbus Day," where the banks and post offices close but pretty much everyone else has to go to work. In the U.K. and Ireland, they dispense with the pretense and just declare a Bank Holiday every couple of months.

So anyway, today is October Bank Holiday Monday and therefore no one is on campus. It feels strange and deserted. Of course, I am on campus, because I have a big paper to write this week. It's important that I get a lot of work done this week, because next week...

MY MOM AND SISTER ARE COMING TO VISIT!

More on that later, I'm sure. ^_^


In other news: in the past week, I have twice set out to make something without a recipe and twice succeeded in creating a hella-delicious meal. On Tuesday or Wednesday, I decided I wanted salmon cakes. I half-remembered watching a couple of different people make them, and rather than try to track them down for recipes I just decided to wing it. And they turned out great! Not perfect-- I fried them a little too hot, and the browned parts were tough-- but still delicious.

Then, Saturday night, I made homemade bean-and-bacon soup. About a year ago I found a recipe for bean-and-bacon soup that purported to taste like the Campbell's variety. Campbell's bean-and-bacon soup has been my favorite food since I was a wee little child, and they don't have it here. So, I couldn't find the recipe I had used before, and I decided to just wing it-- I remembered the important parts, like the tomato paste. And it turned out even better than when I used a recipe! Though, as is often the case when not following instructions, I just kept throwing more stuff in the pot and ended up with way more soup than I planned on making. This isn't a bad, thing, though.

Weather? Damn near killed 'er!

Ireland has what is known as an "oceanic climate," temperate and with very few extremes. This is quite different from Michigan, which is quite extreme, temperature-wise-- well below freezing all winter, above 80° F most of the summer. Ireland, on the other hand, rarely gets down to freezing at all. I can count the number of times I've seen snow here in the last two years on one hand. And even then, it has always melted away by the end of the day. Of course, it also rarely gets above 70° F in the summer; I can also count the number of times I've worn shorts or short skirts in this country on one hand.

This is both the feature I love and hate the most about living in Ireland. My wardrobe year-round has very little variation, which gets rather monotonous. All summer, I miss the hot Michigan weather... I would much rather be too hot than too cold, and where I grew up I could just drive down to the beach any time I felt like it. Even when I was in college, I could either run down to the athletic center and use the pool, or drive up to Lake Lansing and take a swim there. Of course, all winter I love it here, because I don't have to deal with the horrible bitter cold. I never, ever miss the snow. I would be perfectly happy to have a completely green Christmas and never see the stuff at all. (Jim once described me as being "allergic to snow.")


As of this month, Ireland has finally swung into the time of year when I'm happier with the weather here and not jealous of my friends and family in Michigan. Galway has been almost unseasonably warm for the last two weeks-- on Wednesday this week, it was probably around 65° F! Today it is a little colder and rainy, but altogether it has been a very dry autumn, with only a few really rainy days.

Autumn used to make me feel a little depressed, because it meant that summer was dying away and that winter was creeping in. Here, I don't mind it so much, because even though winter is creeping in, that isn't so bad! I feel like I can enjoy the smell of fall leaves and the fresh produce, apples and pumpkins, much more in Ireland because I know they aren't harbingers of snow. Just more rain, which I can deal with.

...

Other than enjoying the nice weather, I have been very busy. Mostly, with doctoral stuff-- I have to write a chapter of my thesis by Christmas, so that is eating up most of my time right now. Also, I have a 5,000 word paper due November 2. Which I haven't started. And, to top this off, I have had a surprisingly busy social life as well! I have had dinner with friends five times in the last two weeks. Last night, my friend Bri had a housewarming party, which ended up being fairly small but also fairly convivial, because everyone who attended brought both wine and food. And for some reason, most people brought some type of Cabernet and some type of dip, myself included! Which, really, is everything a housewarming party needs.

on beer and music, not in that order (in which our heroine drinks beer she doesn't like)

I didn't post last weekend, did I? Oops. Well, I didn't do much last week. Since getting back from Canada, I have mostly been working a lot. I need to write the first chapter of my thesis by Christmas! Scary! And Lionel wants the first ten-or-so pages by October 23. I spent a year reading and researching, and still I don't feel prepared to actually start writing the thing... eesh...


Other than that-- which really takes up a lot of my time, even though it doesn't make for a very interesting story-- the only 'blog-worthy thing that has happened lately was last night. My friend Jenn called me up and offered me a free ticket to "an outdoor concert" in Galway for Saturday night, somewhere "down at the docks." I had not seen one piece of advertising or heard one word about this, but I agreed, because hey-- free concert! So I went along with Jenn, her boyfriend Brian, and our friend Brianne.

It turns out that the "free concert" was the Coors Light Peak music event. Like I said, I hadn't seen any advertising for this thing, so I had no idea what was going on or what to expect. I kind of vaguely imagined a small crowd and a small platform for a couple performers. It turned out to be a huge extravaganza-- a "music event," as they called it. There were dance bands, and rock bands, and at one point a drum line standing along the walls of the stage area! There was a pretty good-size crowd, as well, with lots of people dancing. The show itself took place by the harbor, with a serious outdoor stage set up. I was surprised by the location of the concert, but the signs all said that they were playing "in the heart of shipyards and ports across 5 cities." (The other cities being Limerick, Cork, Waterford, and Dublin.)

It's actually a pretty genius marketing idea on the part of Coors Light. Get smaller bands that will play for cheap or free, just to get exposure. Play in outdoor areas that don't typically host concerts. Give away free tickets... and then only sell Coors Light to the attendees. The drinks were €5 apiece, which isn't that much more than you'd pay in a pub, but also enough that I'm sure they made a huge profit.

Of course, I don't actually like Coors Light. I bought one, just to have something to sip on during the show, but it tasted like watery pee. Then when I had about 1/3 of the pint left, Brian went and bought us all another round. I appreciated the gesture, but I also didn't want another one! So I finished the first drink quickly, which gave me a stomachache. I never finished the second pint. I'm not a beer snob, really-- I just don't like beer that tastes bad. And I happen to think that most lagers and pilsners, especially the big brands, taste bad. I'll stick with my ales and porters, thank you!