Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Ta me' ag dul chun Eire

For those of you wondering what "Ta me' ag dul chun Eire" is, its a Gaelic phrase meaning, "I am going to Ireland!!!"

Ireland, Erin, Emerald Island, Eire, the Republic of Ireland, the Land of Saints and Scholars. Whatever the nickname she goes by, I am lucky enough to have the chance to go and see her this March. Boo and I have always had Ireland on our list of places to see before we kick rocks, but I didn't think it would happen so soon. I was looking for some inexpensive places to travel to for our anniversary this year and low and behold, travelocity had an amazing deal on flights and car rentals to Dublin. Well, after I factored up the cost, I realized we would be paying less to travel abroad in Europe, then we would if we decided to take a quick vacation in the Caribbean! The only string attached was that we had to travel in late March/early April instead of on our true Anniversary in May. We both agreed that this once in a lifetime deal was too good to pass up. So Eire, here we come!!!

Visions of medieval castles, rolling green hills dotted with sheep, charming small villages, inviting local pubs with live traditional Irish music, pints of Guinness, friendly jovial Irishmen and women, a leprechaun hiding a pot of gold underneath a rainbow. These are the images that seep into my over imaginative brain. (Well, maybe not the leprechaun-pot-o-gold-rainbow scenario, but a girl can dream, right? hahaha!)

I've already taken steps to Irish-fy myself. I have two Irish music stations set up on Pandora, the traditional Irish Celtic music and the Flogging Molly band type music. Both are getting me into an Irish frame of mind. Oh... and St. Patty's is just a few weeks away! My husband will no doubt be sporting something with the "Kiss me, I'm Irish", and rightly so, he's Irish. I'll be green with envy b/c I can't. I wonder if they make any "Kiss me, I'm ALMOST Irish" or "Kiss me, I married an Irishman" stuff? hmmm.

We also picked up a Rick Steves Ireland guide from Borders last night and I've already read through half of it. Just reading about the different places, Dublin, County Wicklow, County Carlow, Kilkenny, Cork, Dingle, Ring of Kerry, Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Galway.... so much to see! The cute little local bed and breakfasts we will be staying in, (which I find are way cheaper than a regular hotel) and the pubs we'll be visiting daily to replenish ourselves. I can't wait! And maybe, just maybe, I will be able to finally put to rest the great Irish beer debate. Which Irish beer is better? The stout Guinness or the red ale of Smithwicks. I'm sure it will be fun finding out. :)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Challenging Disc Golf


Today we played Disc Golf on a new course. A competitive course. And dare I say a hard ass course! Wow!! Just take a look at some of the placements of these baskets. CRAZY. There were some lethal ravines you could happen to fall in if you didn't throw your disc just right. But don't worry, there were also some cables you could use to repell down to retrieve it if you did shoot it into the ravine. NO JOKE. It was hilly, muddy, slippery, hard, challenging, breathetaking, and fun. Needless to say, I played short the entire time. I didn't want to slip down into those ravines. Boo played well as usual, and he went all out. Just throwing those disc with full force. He made most of his pars. I on the other hand.... well lets just say on average if it was a par 4, it would take me about 7 times to get the disc into the basket. hahaha! We played with some really good people too. One guy played ultimate frisbee for over 10 yrs and only used a regular frisbee. We all were making so much fun of him with that BIG (I think some one called it a retarded frisbee, no offense to anyone. Just repeating what someone else said. ) frisbee. But he played the best of us all. Serves us right for picking on him. :) This course was fun and I can't wait to get back out there. I think we are planning on hitting it this weekend. Hopefully it won't rain! Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Tennis and Dog Guilt


This past Sunday, Boo and I played tennis. It was a gorgeous day, the weather was stellar and the tennis was really good. We both worked up a sweat, got some good exercise in. My backhand is improving and I practiced my serve. I got the mechanics of the serve down, I just need to get them to flow in one swift motion.

On a different note. I've been feeling a bit guilty about leaving the dogs at home lately. Usually they are my trusty companions on the weekends. It just seems as if I've been doing some outdoor sports that may not be suitable for MY dogs. I've seen plenty of dogs out with their owners on the Frisbee golf courses, but I know "thing 1" will make it his mission to retrieve every single frisbee anyone tosses. A long time ago we bought him a floppy, waterproof dog frisbee and taught him how to catch it in mid air. It's a pretty cool trick to see, anyways, its our fault for teaching him to be a frisbee retriever. No frisbee is safe in his presense. hahhaa! I think "thing 2" would do ok, but I feel guilty taking one dog without the other. Same issue with the tennis balls, they play with tennis balls as retriever toys. In fact, a funny little story, although Boo would probably disagree. We bought a mesh bag of 2 dozen tennis balls for our games this Spring. Well Boo accidently leaves the mesh sack on the stairs one morning. I come home from work that evening and I hear the dogs having a hay day in the front room. I go to see what kind of fun they're having and when I turn the corner, I see it. Yellow tennis balls splade all over the room, two dogs wrestling over one ball, and the sad reminents of what used to be the black mesh bag. I burst out laughing because honestly, I thought it was funny. The dogs found the tennis balls, thought it was theirs, and had a field day with them. Boo didn't find it as funny Ooops.... dog slobber and tennis just don't go together I guess. Ohhh the stresses of dogownership. :) Since the weather has been so nice lately, I'll think of something to get my trusty companions out with me soon. Promise. Til then, GET OUTDOORS!!

Monday, February 9, 2009

Snow Day!


Every few years we get lucky enough (or some in this town would say unlucky enough) to get some snow. It snowed the other night and only lasted 1 day, but it was enough for thing 1 to frolick and enjoy it. He is so curious, it just made me laugh watching him play in the snow. Thing 2 on the other hand was not having it. She stayed warm and snuggly inside and watched us out the window. Yay for snow days. Til next time. GET OUTDOORS!

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Frisbee Golf

This weekend, Boo and I hit our local frisbee disc course for some outdoor fun.
(For those of you unfamiliar with frisbee golf, also called disc golf, here is a blurb taken from www.discgolf.com. ) "DiscGolf is a game played like conventional ball & club golf, however, the tools of the game are different, in that instead of hitting a little ball around the course into a little hole, you throw 'discs' at, or, into targets (baskets). The basic object is to to traverse the course in as few throws as possible to attain a low score."

We met a group up at the course and because if was some of us' first time ,(Boo has played before and is an old pro at this), we took it easy and had a nice time.

We get to the course a bit early so Boo can give me a breakdown on throwing, putting, and hand holding the disc. He pulls out a sack of brightly colored disc and only gives me two of them. :( I get a BRIGHT colored red and yellow disc. He said the yellow was a putter and the red I could use for everything else. (I suppose even if he tried to explain what the different disc's were for, all I would of heard was the voice of Charlie Brown teacher because I was mesmerized by the rainbow colors of the discs he had. ha!. ) So, I grab my two really bright colored discs and start tossing them into the basket for practice. It's alot harder than it sounds.

The rest of our group shows up and we finally start on our 18 hole adventure. We traversed through hills, bridges, woods, lakes, and ditches. I'm not going to brag and say that I was the best (cause I wasn't), but I wasn't the worst either and I didn't lose my discs. I was pretty happy with the way I played and I learned alot. It took us a little over two hours to complete the course (yes, we were slow, but we had fun. Even trampling in the woods looking for our wayward discs was fun. haha!) Check out the last picture on the right. I had to throw on either side of those trees b/c the basket on this hole was behind the median of trees. Next week our crew is going to tackle a tougher course. I'll let you know how that goes. Till next time, GET OUTDOORS!!!