Wow, thanks so much for all your comments about the book covers. Very, very helpful. It’s like the pigs vs. the cows around here. You guys could totally have your own musical. (”When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way. From your first cigarette, to your last dyin’ day!”)

Thanks for all the poison ivy weirdo bug bite well wishes. I think of you every time I inspect my various rashes.

I thought I’d continue showing you my lovely scenic pictures of my trip to Ireland and Scotland. Prepare yourself for the awe inspiring grandeur.

As mentioned, we visited quite a few museums. This one was at one of my favorite stops, Clonmacnoise.  I don’t remember who this guy was supposed to be.

“I’m Igor. I can’t find my Chi this morning!”

“Please, Igor. Grab my hand. I’ll fix your hair for you…”

Clonmacnoise is THE place to see Celtic crosses and was just beautiful. This is on my desktop right now.

This one is genuinely pretty I think.

We were in Galway, Ireland on our last few nights in that country. The rainbow was much more pronounced, but I couldn’t’ get it. Isn’t Ireland beautiful?

This one is almost as pretty as a rainbow.

This was such a novelty to me. You can find these motion sensor trash cans in Super Mac’s, the Irish version of a McDonald’s. Not only do they sense you standing near and open up so you don’t have to touch the nasty trash can (which is always full, and then you have to touch the bin AND the trash!), but it tells you to have a good day and thanks you for your patronage. Frankly, I do not get thanked enough for eating fries and cheeseburgers, and I found this uplifting to say the least.

This is one of those “only funny to people with brain malfunction” things. This was the Dasani of Ireland.

Vulvic is everywhere. And it’s so close to other words, that it became the butt of many jokes for us. In fact, we pretty much worked the word “vulvic” into any conversation possible.

Small cars rule anywhere BUT America.

I saw it and immediately thought, “If I ever have to pick a moon rover, this is gonna be it.” My brother and I used to play this Atari game called Moon Patrol, and this car totally would’ve been on there.
We drove through Ireland for the four days we were there. And when I say “we,” I mean my two friends, as I was not allowed to get behind the wheel. My perfect driving skills make them jealous, and they retaliated by sticking me in the back seat. But that’s okay because it took me most of the trip to get acclimated to the time change (plus it is light as day in the evenings, so NO SLEEPING= GREAT combination! Also equals me passing out in car every time the key was put in the ignition). One of our goals was to see some sheep in the road. (We are women of simple tastes and basic agricultural wants…)

We saw plenty. Of course we stopped and talked to them. But they weren’t really having it.

“We’re outta here. We don’t want to talk about economic policy and Lady GaGa.”

We also saw a lot of these things. Baby bubbles.

Has baby bubble wrap made it to America yet? It made me hyperventilate just looking at it. I wanted to unzip every one I saw. I guess it’s so rainy in Ireland and Scotland though, if you’re gonna be out, you need something. (I actually have no idea. I just made that up. I’m just determined there is a logical reason for putting your infant in the human equivalent of a Glad-Lock.)

There are many reasons I could live in Ireland, but this is a big one.

Ice cream! There are ice cream “signs” everywhere. I love that! Just like a national symbol for hospital, deer crossing, or train tracks, Ireland has a nationally recognized beacon of my favorite frozen dairy product. And these cones are everywhere. They must really like their ice cream there. Just another reason the Irish are good folk.

We stayed in four different bed and breakfasts between the two countries. Here is our room in Galway. Very 80s country, but we still liked it a lot.

The woman who ran this place was so nice, a great cook, and full of stories. I could’ve listened to her for hours. She had seen a lot in her 35 years of running a B&B.  But do you know the true mark of a great bed and breakfast?

Toilet paper cozies!!!

When my friend almost blew up my hand in the woman’s house, I was afraid we were gonna be just another tale.

See, we were having adapter problems. Our plug-ins don’t fit in Ireland or pretty much anywhere else. So you need an adapter kit. And Leslie told me to try plugging in my hair dryer without one piece. Which piece, you ask? Oh, the piece that stops the fire from coming out of the socket, shocking your body, going BAM!, making your hand all black, making you say something you shouldn’t, making your friend ask if your arm was still attached, and making you both laugh so hard you nearly pee your pants because you’re so grateful you didn’t burn down a nice lady’s house or get a limb blown off.

In Doolan, my favorite Irish town, we had a little time to kill, so we went to a cave and saw the world’s largest  stalagtite open to the public.

I can’t remember how tall it was. I think 23 feet.We walked down about 200 feet below ground level. We get to the bottom, and this guy from Egypt says, “I gotta go. Where are the bathrooms?” Um…you know those stairs we’ve been walking down for the last 15 minutes? Start walking.

We had to wear hard hats down in the cave. I’ve seen enough scary movies to be totally okay with that. Could’ve caved in. Could’ve had giant worms.

It goes without saying that I was disappointed we didn’t have headlights on our hats.

This is my friend Leslie right before she told me to watch my head.

“For what?” I ran right into something. “Oh. You mean for that.”

Not that you can see it here, but in some places, the clocks were set military time.

This really messed with my head. Not only do you think it’s seven a.m. all night because the sun never sleeps here, but when you’re still up in the wee hours of the morning, you have to do MATH!  Twelve plus three…

That’s all my trip pics for this week. But don’t worry, there are more where those came from.  Switching gears, did anyone watch So You Think You Can Dance this week? Mary’s voice…there are no words. Ellen was funny, but she was on there why? And I can’t believe who got sent home this week. But most importantly, what did you think of Katie Holmes song and dance? Why did she lip-sync? She didn’t move enough to require that. I LOVED the Zombie dance. That was awesome. (If someone finds a YouTube clip, let me know!)

Have a fabulous weekend. We just learned The Big Picture is a finalist in the ACFW Book of the Year contest for YA, so I’ll be giving away copies of the last installment in the Katie Parker series next week. See you then!

JEN

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