A Quiet Week

Sorry to all of you faithful readers who have had to wait some time for this post. We have just had a really not interesting week to write about. Here is a recap. Basically from Monday until Wednesday we slept in, relaxed by the fire place, skyped with friends and family, worked, played cards, watched multiple Friends episodes, talked, read, ate real food, and even more junk food. I hardly left the house. Jared took a bike ride to Lehinch on Monday without me to see the town and the sandy beach. On Tuesday the most interesting thing we did was our brunch on the coast. We packed our bags in the morning and rode out the the rocky shore where we sat and drank instant coffee from our thermos and ate mini muffins and crackers and cheese from Aldi. It was really enjoyable. On one evening we went to see the sunset in the West over the ocean.

You know how I broke the percolator? Well, I also broke our pitcher a few days later... yesterday I think, when I was making tea. I am really used to a plastic pitcher, and not a glass one. I boiled the tea, and poured it directly into the glass pitcher, and it shattered in my hand. Got tea all over the counter, coffee mugs, bowls, and our bread. It took me longer to clean up the mess than it will for me to type this entire post. Jared's words from the other room: "Did you break the pitcher too?! Cooking 101: Don't put boiling liquid into a glass container." I felt pretty dumb, but mostly really annoyed because now we have to buy a new pitcher as well.

Last night we went on a date, if you want to call it that. We are kind of on a date for the next seven months anyway, so I like to call it a date date. We went to a local pub/restaurant called Vaughn's. It is a cozy little place with short tables and a fireplace and only one waitress. I ordered fish and chips and got a HUGE fish, skin still on it, covered in batter and then fried plus some home made french fries. Jared got a B.L.T. with no T, which also was huge, loaded with the B. and three pieces of bread stacked up. Huge meal: huge bill. We paid with our debit card and didn't realize there would be a mark up for using it. Our $30 meal turned into a $40 meal. We learned a valuable lesson: Always get cash from an ATM. We asked our waitress where there was an ATM and this is what she said "In Lehinch there should be a hole in the wall. Probably the Bank of Ireland has one. Just go up to a hole in the wall and stick ye card in." The Irish refer to an ATM as a "hole in the wall." We got a kick out of that.

This morning the roads were covered in frost, but we got up and rode our bikes to Lehinch, which is only about a stone's throw away (it actually is 7km), and went to the hole in the wall to get some cash. Then we walked to a coffee shop and got real coffee with real milk and whipped cream and caramel and caffeine!!! It was absolutely the best part of my day. We drank our coffee as we walked the beach. The tide was really low because there hasn't been any rain surprisingly, sunshine all week. We walked and window shopped and bought a few random things for the house. We stayed long enough to enjoy lunch at a little place with good prices and good food. I got a kids meal. I said, "I'll have the chicken tenders and fries... I mean chips." and she said "You mean Chicken Groujons?" What a weird word for tenders. Nevertheless, they tasted just like the American ones.

After riding our bikes back from Lehinch we are at the cottage we call home and working for the rest of the evening. The fire is going, and the house is warming up and we are settling down. It has been a really relaxing and enjoyable week in Liscannor. We aren't sick of each other yet, surprisingly. ;-) We have plans this weekend to stay in Galway at a B&B, which is something I have always wanted to do. It only costs $48 for both of us to stay and that includes a full Irish breakfast. We are leaving tomorrow afternoon and coming back Saturday evening. We are staying Saturday and Sunday evening in Ennis with the Fitzpatricks and going on Monday to Limerick with Brian. Looking forward to our weekend. Hopefully it makes for more interesting reading than this.

Missing everyone. Love.