time to go!

So today is the day my mother and i leave for Ireland. I'm leaving right from work. i hope i have everything i need. i'm catching up on junk and tying up loose ends here. i hope i remember to do everything, so when i get back next monday i won't have some shitstorm to sort out.

So this is our rough itinerary. we have lots of things to to. everyone says, boy that's a long flight for a short trip, but it's really not, the flight is only about 5 hours. the flight to orlando from logan is 3.5 hours. and i don't mind saying, if i'm gonna shell out $1500 for a vacation, it won't be orlando.

02/20/05 Depart from logan

02/21/06 Arrive in Dublin
Spend the day shopping. Go to Arnotts and Boots, Perhaps go to Dublin Public Library, see what has replaced Bewleys. Go to Christ Church Cathedral to look around. Go to the National Gallery or The National Museum. have pub supper or
perhaps get supper ready made at Marks and Sparks.

02/22/06 Spend the day in Dublin
Go to have coffee, and perhaps a curry. Go to Easons and the GPO.At 13.00 there is a guided tour of the Chester Beatty Library. in the afternoon, see about a matinee of the play with Ralph Fiennes, or see if there are any games being played at Croke Park this week. Wander around St Steven’s green. Go to Hickeys Fabric Shop and Marks and Spenser to do real shopping. Supper at a nice little place like that italian restraunt.

02/23/06 Take the Bus to Glendalough and Wicklow mountains.

02/24/06 Side adventure out of town
Early in the morning, take the Dart Train or Bus to Malahide Castle, then come back and go to the Winding Stair.Then later in the afternoon, take the Dart Train South to Bray to go to the fabric shops and yarn shops. Perhaps have supper or tea in Dun Laoghrie on the way back.

02/25/06 Fly Home (Booo!)

I'm going to try to post a web journal at cybercafes and what have you, but i might not be able to do so. one thing i like to do is send a post card to myself every day of the trip. you know, write it at the end of the evening, andthen post it the following morning, that makes a nice travel journal, and then you know you'll get at least one good photo a day.

more news later!

yippee! spring is here!

it's truck day! It's truck day! it's truck day! that is the sox equipment truck is leaving fenway today with all those bats and balls and uniforms and pitching machines and extra bases and bat donuts buckets of david seeds. for the treck down to fort myers.

how fitting that the truck leaves the day after a gigantic snow storm. there really is light at the end of the winter tunnel, and it's not a train, it's the red light on the top of the pitching machine!

hoo hoo hoo! five more days until pitchers and catchers, such as they are and then the rest show up a few days later. buy me some peanuts and cracker jack, i don't care if i never get back! PLAY BALL!

it's just that i think George W is inept.

i just don't get the impression that he's actually in touch with reality. i really wonder if he actually reads the reports or actually listens to msnbc or wbz 1030.

it's just that i really wonder how he plans to get things accomplished. Sure, medicare part d works, but it only works because dedicated staff at the pharmacies and insurance providers have spent long hours on the telephones figuring the shit out.

the dependency on oil has been exacerbated by politicians (republians especially) for decades. just now there is a project proposed for a wind farm off the coast of cape cod massachusetts

called the cape wind project,

that is languishing in beauracracy, red tape, the courts and all that crap that nobody understands. I realise that checks and balances prevent the president from interfering with the courts, but come on, it would be a sparkling reccomendation if the president gave his endorsement to the project.

no child left behind is a joke. this plan hasn't actually made students smarter or more qualified, it makes them able to pass dot tests. whoopee. did you know that in my niece's school system they no longer teach phonics? The tool they teach the children is the idea that "if i know how a word begins and ends then i just put those letters, and that will be ok." well, actually love, that is a spelling mistake, and it's not ok. c-a-t spells cat, not k-t.

on top of these, i really wonder if he is reading the same newspapers we are when he hears about the war in iraq. it really dosen't take a mental giant to realise that the war is not going as planned, and it's not going well. the soldiers are up shit's creek, for lack of a better term; and we can't keep shovelling good money after bad trying to dig ourselves out of the mess into which we were hoodwinked. At some point the well is going to be dry.

three or so years ago, my company was going inventory the day bush decided to move the war to iraq. i vividly remember my coworker Ed say to me, "kris, it's situations like this that you have to trust your president. That is why he's the president and we aren't. he's better equipped to deal with this sort of problem than we are." At the time Ed explained it, he made it sound so sensible and logical. and when i listened to him i decided he was right. and i figured that George W had more info than i, so of course he was making a well informed and well thought out decision.

I have to confess though, i'm just not so sure any more, and the more i think about it, the more i really have to come to the conclusion that Geoge W. Bush really has no blessed idea about much of anything. He's full of bluster and hot air, and piss & vinegar, but empty of diplomacy, foresight, or real skills.

In short, we are in for a long three more years, and buckle your seatbelt it's going to be a bumpy ride.