Kristi beats up a wine cork

Kristi, not knowing her own strength, ripped a cork from a wine bottle with such force that it broke in two. OK, so the cork was a little on the dry side, but the manhandling makes a better story.

Midleton

Can't miss an opportunity to go to Midleton Distillery with Mike and Kristi. And since we had done the tour before, we knew when to speak up to get someone on the taste test of whiskey thing.

Mike did this one - tasting an American, Scotch, and Irish Whiskey. Plus the three Irish Whiskey families that Jameson's manufactures.

While he was getting trashed on fermented barley, Kristi and I were exploring new drinks at the bar. We've decided the best new drink of 2008 is Jameson Reserve Whiskey with Ginger Ale.

Unfortunately, they don't have Madison Avenue Marketers in Midleton - so they don't have a name for the drink - but I was thinking of calling it "The O'Gilligan" - oh, think about it.

In Killarney

You know, I've decided this whole work thing has started to take a serious toll into my travel time.

Unfortunately being freshly back from Brazil and Mexico for two weeks meants that I was a tad behind on work for Kinsale - they can get so jealous. So we couldn't spend as much time as we wanted with Mike and Kristi.

No big worries though - they handled a solo trip out to Killarney pretty easily. Ok, there was a slight issue with me telling them the wrong waypoint on the GPS to get back home - but all they had to do was head south until they hit the sea.

Oh Man, I missed it!

I missed it.

Apparently Kelly's beau from summer braved the elements, air travel on a US domestic airline, and that indescribable specialness that we refer to as "My Mother" for a long visit to Indianapolis (he's from Maine).

He's still smiling, and his eyes haven't glazed over yet, so I'm thinking it was a successful visit.

Mike and Kristi Visit

Mike and Kristi came to visit us for a couple of days. If you haven't been up-to-date, Mike and Kristi moved up to Chicago about 6 months ago; so it's always good to see them.

Aren't we all cute?

Lazy Americans not wanting to walk to Charle's Fort due to inclement weather. Of course, by the time we made it to the Bulman, it was a nice sunny day.

The Kinsale Wall

On the days I'm not feeling like riding my bike (6 out of 7 days), I'm doing the run/walk thing along the road to the plant from Kinsale. Perhaps as an excuse to do more walking than running I took my camera along and snapped some photos on the "weeds" that are growing along the two foot tall wall along the water.

Granted it's Spring over here, but it'll be interesting to see through the Summer on what's in bloom and growing.

Sitting Upstairs

OK, so fast forward through some meetings about warehouse systems that will put anyone to sleep, and you eventually get to Wade flying home - well, back to London and then Cork. Remember, wherever Patrick is is home.

Since Sao Paulo basically sits equidistant from Chicago and London, the time zone difference with Ireland is only 3 hours. But the north/south difference is killer - total flying time (thanks to no jet stream advantage is a very long 11 hours (almost as bad as Chicago to India).

The one advantage to this flight was that I was on a 747, and I scammed the top deck in business class. There were only about 24 seats upstairs with two flight attendants, so service was great.

British Airways had also added the new seat pods, so the movie selection was much better than the flight to Chicago. Turns out the window seats are better than the aisle seats though, since you end up having a foot wide ledge by the window to put crap on (redefines Meg Green's version of a little nest on an airplane).

Dinner at Fogo de Chao

You would be so proud.

Wade, the vegetarian, went to Fogo de Chao. Think Ruth Chris Steakhouse on steroids - (oops, cows are already on steroids) - ok, imagine if everyone went to a Ruth Chris, ordered a steak, and then they brought out the live cow and asked which part you wanted (can you say, "Lobster Tank"?). OK, so it wasn't that bad, but you should already have a sense of my need for drama by now.

Actually, it wasn't that bad. Granted they had 20 people walking around with large skewers of meat, but the meat was definitely dead.

So I know you're all asking, what does a vegetarian eat at Fogo de Chao's? Let me tell you, they had the most amazing salad bar I've ever seen. Seriously, it probably had about 150 dishes, and not cheap things like seasame seeds or garbanzo beans, but nice buffalo mozzarella, stewed beans, etc. They actually want to make the salad bar amazing, so you eat less meat. Tricky, tricky.

Twilight Zone Moment

This is kind of an interesting story.

Walking into the hotel in Guaraja, I spotted these two cannons. To give you an idea of their size, the front cannon is about four feet long, while the back one was about six feet.

So here's the funny thing.

My grandfather had two identical models of these two exact cannons. I remember seeing them in our house when I was growing up, and as a matter of fact, I think I have them in my basement somewhere. They are probably British 18th century replicas, but I don't really know anything more than that. I was hoping there would be some connection with the Civil War (lots of Confederates fled to Brazil at the end of the War), but I think that's a long shot.

So if you're following the story - what are the odds of my grandfather 75+ years ago putting together models of two cannons that have identical copies 5000 miles away in a hotel lobby that I happen to visit - cue Twilight Zone music.

Food !

Awesome little place for lunch while in Guaraja. Michelle had been there the last time she was in Brazil (5 years ago). More like a buffet kind of place with what must be the great beans and rice on the planet Earth. Also had some other vegetables that were unidentifiable - a shredded green that looked like seaweed spinach, a french fry look-alike that was probably some sort of plantain, and a lovely little black bean soup.

Need to get Ron and Carlos to do a little food identification for future reference.

Cold Beer

Apparently the Brazilians have an obsession with cold beer, since they can't imagine it being left out to the elements for more than a few minutes. Enter the beer thermos bottle.

Granted it makes you look like an alcoholic from the first moment the waiter brings you a bottle of beer, but that last glass is just as cold as the first.

Not sure how the local beer was called Buddha, but I'm positive there's a story there somewhere.

What am I thinking?

It's time to play "Read Michelle's Mind" . . . Is she thinking?

1. "Right now, 5000 miles away, my son is throwing green beans at my husband."

2. "Wow, one more beer, and I'm going to be lit."

3. "I'm really concerned if Joe (husband) was able to fit Morgan (karmic debt to Michelle's parents) into her soccer jersey that was too big for Queen Latifa. Hmmm . . . Bartender ?"

If you guessed none of the above and went will the ever popular "It's snowing in Indianapolis", you win.

And they said understanding women was so hard.

Caipirinha

A little slice of heaven.

Doesn't matter where you go in the World, there's always some sort of native alcohol out there - with Brazil being no exception.

Take a little sugar and mashed it into a lime, pour in a little fermented sugarcane juice (otherwise known as caipirinha). Cook her down with a little ice, and you've got a beverage that will knock you on your patuckas after about 2.3 ounces.

Unfortunately I had 26.5 ounces that night.

Beach !!!

Ah the advantages of going to a beach when it's not tourist season.

Not sure why few people were at the beach (it's the end of summer for them), since it was a constant balmy 90 degree fahrenheit the whole time we were there.

I did resist the temptation of picking up sand, seawater, and shells for the collection - it doesn't count since Patty and I weren't there together (hopeless romantic, I know).

Going to the Beach

After a relatively short flight from Mexico City to Miami, and then a nighttime flight from Miami to Sao Paulo (with marginal business class service), we had a driver pick us up and drive us to Guaraja - a small beach about an hour outside of Sao Paulo (thanks again Keiko).

Cover up those Ruins

Next door to the Church practically are the ruins. Interesting history of rebuilding on top of each temple until they had this huge complex. And you can basically walk through the 7 successive layers of structures.

Always fascinating to see how old heritage sites were considered unimportant in different times in their history. For this particular area they ran a water main right through the center of the pyramids.

Downtown Mexico City

Only a couple of days in Mexico City, but we had a little bit of time to do some sight-seeing.

Took a "short" taxi ride of 45 minutes to drop off luggage at Gaby's house (she's close to the airport), and then another quick 40 minute jaunt to downtown Mexico.

The Church is th centerpiece of the downtown area - kind of surprised there wasn't at least one Coach or Starbucks within walking distance, but they haven't gotten to that regentrification thing yet.

The Church actually was kind of fascinating since it was basically built on old Indian ruins - you can actually see the foundations through a glass sidewalk in front of the building which is pretty cool.

And you thought they only did Tacos

Shocking as it may sound, Mexico knows food - and not just the crap at one of my favorite haunts - Taco Bell. Great food culture up there with the Italians, believe it or not. And not too bad on the vegetarian theme, since meat can be so expensive for some.

They know how to cook beans and rice, which is a fast dying art form. And they also have a huge range of vegetables, fruits, and other foodstuffs that defy explanation.

Enter this pasta dish (also at the greatest margarita hacienda) - a relatively simple dish of fettucine, butter, and . . . corn fungus. Actually the name in Spanish is huitlacoche, which sounds a lot better than its other names (e.g. corn smut). They need to work on marketing and call the stuff Mexican truffles or something like that though, since I think most of you were lost after "smut". Basically, the fungus is collected from corn (considered a bad thing in the US), but it has an amazing flavor - earthy and unique. The whole dish qualified for the french stamp of approval in good cooking - simple dish with less than five ingredients.

The Best Margarita in the World . . . I'm serious

Just when you think Mexico City is all about yellow skies, decoy wallets for street muggers, and a short drive considered anything less than 45 minutes, the city surprises you.

Off a back road, hidden amongst some non-descript houses sits an amazing San Angel Hacienda (need to look it up) - that makes the most amazing margaritas on the planet. I've had quite a few in my day, but these were awesome. Not the sickly sweet and sour mixture of TGI Friday's, but great tequila - and a nice presentation as well (note the big bucket of ice holding a big flask of heaven).

Affiliate Assessment

Another day, another affiliate assessment.

Here's Bobby and Michelle working through issues in Mexico on their warehouse. I know - looks thrilling, doesn't it.

At least we got out of the small room - cramming 10 people into an non-air conditioned room in Mexico is not advisable. If for no other reason Gaby starts up (ha).

Lucia and Mamacita

I'm a little vaclempt.

Off to dinner with Mamacita and Gaby with the added bonus of Lucia also being in town. Lucia has been in Mexico a couple of weeks working for Bayer, but she's quitting (because Bayer is stupid) and moving to Geneva.

Gaby and Mamacita are both doing great - they will actually see us in Brazil, since Gaby has training down there at the same time.

And the restaurant was amazing - true Mexican food is something to behold - and they have ingredients (like mole and real peppers) that are absolutely amazing.

Gaby

After getting up really early in the morning on Sunday and catching a plane to Mexico City, I've safely arrived. Mexico City is a whole lot easier to deal with when you get to look forward to seeing Gaby again. Granted the woman is in Indy about every other month, but it's still nice to see her and Mamacita.

Also in the pic is none other than Michelle Grabczak - she's down in Mexico City for affiliate assessment too.

Chicago Cubs

While passing through Chicago, Mike lucked out with some tickets to the Chicago Cubs game on Saturday - great seats. The game was pretty good against the Astros, but I think the whole neighbor location of the stadium has got to be the high point of going to a game like this (instead of some impersonal stadium out in the middle of suburbia).

Stop in Chicago to see Mike and Kristi

Couldn't see myself flying straight to Mexico City from Ireland (It's one of those - you can't get there from here) - so I decided to stop in Chicago for the weekend and visit Mike and Kristi - aren't they cute.

Off to Latin America

OK, off to Affiliate Assessments in Mexico and Brazil.

Since we have 6 sites that need a new warehouse system, we need to start planning for Mexico and Brazil - which are currently slated to be next on the list.

So that means I get to do a 17,000 mile circle around Western Civilization. Itinerary is Cork to London, London to Chicago (stay the weekend to visit Mike and Kristi), Chicago to Mexico City, Mexico City to Sao Paulo (via Miami), Sao Paulo to London, London to Cork.

Let's just say Lily travel services freaked out, since the original cost came up to about $15,000 - yikes. I think they eventually got it down to $6K in business class - not too shabby.

So what's this pic? The London to Chicago flight on British Airways. They have this funky lie flat beds, but they alternate with one seat facing forward and the next one facing backwards. Cool if you're travelling alone, but I'm not sure I'm a fan if there are two of you.

All in all a good flight - decent food (especially for the English), 1 movie (thank you Steve Jobs), and somewhat pleasant flight attendants.

Democracy in action

Patrick ? Have you mailed your absentee ballot in yet ?

For the first (and probably last) time in our lives, the electorate of Indiana may actually have a say in the Presidential race. We might actually make the evening news - what a shock.

I can just see it now - Hillary and Barack tie and they can't call Indiana until two absentee ballots from Kinsale, Ireland are counted. We could put Kinsale on the map.

A Room with a View

Ah another morning in Kinsale . . .

Not to rub it in, but it's in my nature . . . this is a picture taken from our dining room. Absolutely amazing - so much so that I'm looking for beachfront property in Indianapolis when we get back.

From Seeds to Plants

Well you can't have a 50 foot patio go to waste, and the easiest and cheapest way I could think of to make it like home is tons of plants.

Of course, to fill said 50 foot patio with plants requires quite a few plants - so I had to go with the seed route (Mother Nature is the ultimate in thriftiness).

So after getting 18 2'X2' square pots, a crapload of dirt, and a tons of seeds - I'm off to the races. As Hilary Cox taught me years ago, the secret to growing seeds is pretty easy if you just follow a couple of simple steps.

We'll see how these puppies do - but they're doing pretty well so far.

Passport Back

Oh thank God !!!

Heading off to Mexico and Brazil in a couple of days, and I finally got my passport back. Turns out getting a Brazilian visa is a major pain in the butt - but it doesn't help that I've run out of pages on my passport.

Usually, I'm not concerned about living in a foreign country with no valid piece of identification (I don't drive drunk) - but this time no passport meant no bank account.

Every day that per diem was adding up, and I couldn't get my hands on it. Hopefully now I can spend some actual euros.