Gunternation

Mom and Dad arrived safely this morning. Bill picked them up and took them to lunch while I was at my interview. They groggily hung out in our apartment throughout the afternoon. The mattress for the extra room was delivered at 5PM. I’m glad they’ll have a place to sleep tonight.

I have another interview in the morning. Maybe we’ll make it into Dublin proper tomorrow afternoon.

One of the many purveyors of fine goods in Kilkenny.

These guys should know how to crack a conker.

Bill vs. Sharon. Sharon’s conker was crushed by Bill’s ruthless offensive.

A strong rain blew through right as the festivities were to begin. We kept dry in the Saint Lachtain church, pictured here with an amazing rainbow after the downpour. The conker championships quickly resumed.

A leaf in Butler Gardens, Kilkenny

We finally made it home from our bank holiday weekend at 7:00pm today. This makes the second bank holiday weekend where we’ve run into difficulties (strangely enough the very same bank holiday weekend in consecutive years), but at least this time we got to have some fun. The first time we drove around the Boyne Valley in County Meath for hours trying to find Newgrange. When we finally found it the tours had ended for the day. We were mighty sad that day. Mighty sad.

This time at least we made to our destination in time to do something. The car is still there, in fact. The repairs couldn’t be completed today, so we took the train back to Dublin (and the LUAS and the DART and our feet to our home). I’ll hopefully return to Kilkenny via train either Friday or Saturday to retrieve the car.

In addition to attending the Conker Championship we toured Kilkenny Castle and strolled around its vast yard. There are numerous ruins and other interesting sites in County Kilkenny, but of course we couldn’t make it to any of them without our vehicle. We intend to revisit Kilkenny.

We’re sitting in an internet cafe in Kilkenny. Bill planned a great get-away for our first bank holiday weekend. Everything started off well, at least the first hour or so until our car starting making a horrible grinding sound. It’s some clutch-related malady. We made it into Kilkenny, after every garage had closed for the day on Saturday, of course, and a mobile mechanic we found was full up. Everything will be shut down until Tuesday, so we think we’ll be here until then and hopefully the car can be repaired and we’ll make it back Tuesday night. Well, we will be back to Dublin Tues night, car or no car, because we have very important visitors arriving Wed morning and I have a job interview.

So, Kilkenny is a cool city. Lots of ancient buildings, nice restaurants and cool shops. Our primary reason for making the trip was to attend the Irish Conker Championships. We’ll have to take a taxi, but we’re not missing the conkers.

About that chili… There was actually a recipe for “Mexican Chili” on the back of the label on the mince (ground) beef. We’ll overlook the fact that chili is in no way Mexican for the moment. The ingredients listed were pretty normal: mince beef, chili powder, cumin, onion, garlic, kidney beans, tomato, even chocolate (I guess that makes it Mexican). It was the proportions that were a bit off.

• Irish Mexican chili
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Bill’s chili
• 1/4 cup chili powder (24 times as much)
• 1 tbsp cumin (6 times as much)

1/2 tsp isn’t even worth fooling with. Might as well just call it beef and bean soup.

Anyway, my chili turned out pretty darn good. It could’ve used some lime juice and cilantro, not to mention corn muffins alongside, but not bad for a first attempt in Ireland.