Taking it easy (kinda)

 Goings On, Rant/Ramble  5 Responses »
Jun 282007
 

It’s a bit strange, but because of all my traveling recently it feels like an “easy” week just because I don’t have to get on a plane any time soon.  I have a pretty important product launch on Saturday (ugh), I’m recovering from jet lag and I’m way behind where I would like to be with some personal projects.  Somehow though it doesn’t seem so bad because I get to sleep in my own bed and not have to worry about whether I can get upgraded to business or get my money changed to the currency of the week :)

Of course that could all change on Saturday if things don’t go well with the launch, but here’s hoping for smooth sailing…..

On a brighter note, I think we’re off to catch Hot Fuzz at the Drafthouse tonight.  Last time Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright showed up in person – doubt we’ll be that liucky this time but should be good nonetheless.

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 Posted by Adam at 10:14 am

Back in the USA

 Goings On, Pics  10 Responses »
Jun 252007
 

Got home yesterday, went for a quick bite in King Street Blues with Jen and then hit the sack.  12 hours later I was ready (almost) to face a day in work, some coffee fixed that.  I notice that the Captain has pictures up from the lake house a couple of weeks ago, including some “strange” ones in the hot tub, oh dear….

I haven’t quite finished with pictures from the trip, but the ones from Dublin were not that great – they are smack bang in the middle of the wettest June on record. In fact it crossed the record mark with 9 days to go and when I left on Sunday there had been 12 consecutive days of rain.  It was a pity, especially for some of my American co-workers that were visiting for the first time – usually the weather makes a liar out of me (I complain about Irish rain a lot) but this time I was shown to be correct.

As a bonus though my trip coincided with my Grandmother’s 75th birthday, well almost – it is actually today (Happy Birthday Gran!), but she didn’t mind the card a day early :)

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 Posted by Adam at 4:49 pm

Homeward Bound (eventually)

 Goings On, Travel  No Responses »
Jun 112007
 

Just as things start to calm down and I think I might get back to having some free time along comes another business trip – with no visa stuff tacked on this time though.  I’ll be hitting Paris, London and then Dublin before heading back stateside, and after a weekend in North Carolina that is a lot of miles in a couple of weeks.

Still, will be good to get home again for free and since half of my college class and several old cow-orkers are living in London these days, that should be a nice stop too.  I’m going to take the Eurostar from Paris for a change – never been on it before and it’ll make a nice change from planes, plus CDG sucks in general.

No business class on the way out, because it was full! Some air show or other is on in France and has sabotaged our business upgrade, grrr.  I should get it on the way back though which is the important part.  This time I plan on taking some more pictures and may even post them on the road, wouldn’t that be nice…..

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 Posted by Adam at 1:06 pm

Kookiness

 Goings On  3 Responses »
May 142007
 

A friend of ours that we recently met has a thing for British/Irish music, well all music really, but he doesn’t get a lot of chances to talk about the British and Irish stuff with other Americans. So he was pretty happy when he found a couple of people that actually knew what he was talking about (most of the time at least). One of the bands he asked about was The Kooks – I hadn’t heard of them but Jen had and loved their stuff, so I picked up their debut album.

It is one of the better debuts I have heard recently – up tempo, fun with a nice bit of guitar playing and the singer has an interesting voice. We caught them at the 9.30 club on Saturday night at their sold out show after an agreeable couple of drinks in Duffy’s across the road (made it just before the rain). Duffy’s is the kind of bar I want closer to my house – not too pretentious, not too big and a good rep for food. Throw in the bonus of being able to see the 9.30 club from the window and I imagine they have no trouble getting business.

The Kooks set was excellent (though maybe a little short) – the rocked the familiar tracks and and they mixed in a few new tracks that were generally well received. They certainly did themselves no harm in my opinion – I’ll be looking forward to their next album and recommend going to see them if you get a chance. Several people expressed surprise that the show had sold out, but then these guys have gone double platinum in the UK. Of note to any single guys out there, the crowd was largely female, young and attractive – so if they come back to town or come through your area that should be reason enough to go :)

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 Posted by Adam at 2:32 pm

So much to do, so little time to blog….

 Goings On, Pics  1 Response »
Apr 022007
 

My blogging frequency has been poor recently (OK, non-existant), ironically because I have had so much going on.  Therefore a bulleted list will have to suffice before I dive back into work and visa paperwork. Let’s see, we’ve had:

My next post, which may also take a while, should be from the old country.  Then it is on to Luxembourg before I finally get back here on the 19th (assuming no visa issues).  The nice thing is that I get to fly business, so that helps somewhat.  As a picture teaser, here’s one of the group in MCCXXIII (1223, DC):

group - 1223

Right, back to work……

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 Posted by Adam at 2:40 pm

Catching Up

 Goings On, Rant/Ramble  1 Response »
Mar 212007
 

My Aunt Jen sent me a message today that deserves to be quoted (with some grammar and spell checking applied):

Have a lovely birthday, it’s mad how you’re catching up with me, only a year between us now !!!!

Apparently we are aging on different calendars or something.  As I draw closer to 30, Jen seems to stay rooted at 29, perhaps she switched to the hex system I proposed previously.  In any case, cross off one more year for me – I am off to try something new to mark the day, Ethiopian food at Meskerem in Adams Morgan.

Drinks-wise, for those that don’t already know (probably due to my poor memory for e-mail addresses), Joe and I will be jointly celebrating our birthdays (he’s March 26th) on Saturday in Ragtime – feel free to attend if you are in the neighbourhood :)

 Posted by Adam at 5:54 pm

New Job, New Visitors, No Pictures

 Goings On  3 Responses »
Mar 202007
 

My St. Patrick’s day pictures remain un-uploaded due to the fact that I started a new job yesterday, moved offices and now have to sort out learning a whole new group and role from scratch.  It’s the first time I’ve moved out of my “comfort zone” since I upped and moved to the US 3 years ago and it feels a little weird.  Even then, the main challenge was new people, new country, new lifestyle rather than a completely different job.

Not so this time – it will be good to learn something new though, the old job was getting boring after essentially 8 years dealing with the same technology and concepts.  So, once I get my life in order regular service will resume.  The good news is that I get to go back to Ireland for a visit to renew my entry visa on April 3rd, it will be good to see everyone again.  Then it is on to the world famous party town of Luxembourg for a week of business meetings before I get back to have my brother Andrew arrive for a visit – busy busy.

Speaking of visiting, the other twin James will be arriving at the end of the month and I think it is his first time in the US and he will be just in time to give me a (slightly late, it is tomorrow) birthday present.  Sadly, this year it seems there will be no repeat Adam & Joe Show (joint birthday celebration) as I believe Joe will be out of town :(

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 Posted by Adam at 9:48 am

It Seems I am Quite Popular at the Moment

 Goings On  2 Responses »
Mar 172007
 

Just days after being featured on AOL for the first time, now I get some Wonkette linkage – another first. Needless to say my traffic has seen a noticeable spike. Needless to say, I think this one deserves a wee screenshot also, though given the picture under my link I will understand if the men out there have trouble locating it :)

Wonkette Link

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 Posted by Adam at 11:32 pm

Not Enough Luck for Ireland

 Goings On  1 Response »
Mar 172007
 

Well, we missed out again – by a measly 4 points and the St. Patricks day luck of the Irish just came up short. A late Italian try sealed the deal for France and the Irish missed out on points difference to France for the second year running :(

So, that’s it for this year, but the lads did well. Hopefully we are saving up our luck for the World Cup later in the year where we play Argentina, Georgia, Namibia and (of course) France in the group stage. Winning the group is important because it looks like the second place team will get New Zealand in the quarter finals. Regardless, Ireland are in with a chance and it should be a great tournament.

The narrow miss put a damper on the mood, but enough alcohol helped alleviate that. I am now paying for that with my hangover kicking in around 8 p.m. and as a result the pictures from today will be delayed – tomorrow, I promise.

Proving that it is a small blogger world, I met fellow dcblogs listee Laura from WonL at the game and hopefully made some sort of sense while blathering on to her and her friends for the first two games (Ted, Rachel and John – my memory holds up surprisingly well).

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 Posted by Adam at 10:22 pm

Shamrockfest Report and Pics

 Goings On, Pics  2 Responses »
Mar 132007
 

For anyone living under a rock, Saturday was Shamrockfest, and I had scored several free VIP passes (thanks Jamie) which meant we drank for free, had no beer line, got free pizza and got fancier rest rooms.

The pictures of the day are up in a Flickr set here. A good time was had by all – it was a beautiful day and we rounded it off with a trip to Julia’s Empanadas (my first – what took me so long??) in Dupont at what felt like 4 am but was actually more like 9.30 pm (things kicked off at noon).

My only concern had been the move out of Arlington – it had been so handy in previous years, but the move didn’t hurt the event one bit and the weather ensured very high attendance. I’m not sure it was 40,000 as advertised but there were a LOT of people there. There were many amusements available but, of course, the most popular attraction was the “El Capitan” ride which was only available to cute women with lower back tattoos, as illustrated below:

The

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 Posted by Adam at 12:17 pm
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