Home - ish.

The flight from DUB to SFO was pretty miserable, which any long flight usually is. Ryan fussed about 1/3rd of the time, slept 1/3rd, and was happy for 1/3rd. So it could have been worse.

We spent one exhausted night in SF at a friend's house. I visited our empty house on Potrero Hill and found it to be in excellent condition--not that we expected any different.

The drive down I-5 to LA is notoriously dull, but I found it beautiful. We left at 5:45 Tuesday morning thanks to jet lag, and we got to see the sunrise. Right now in Ireland the sun is about four fingers (held at arms length) above the horizon at the middle of the day. Well, in California's central valley it arcs high.

On the agenda:

• Fly up to Seattle on Dec 31st
• Fly back to LAX on the Jan 5th
• Buy a car to get us back to SF
• Find a place to live in Northern California while we wait for the house to sell (or not)

Things I'll miss about Ireland (by Mike)

The same stuff Riko will miss, with the addition of the almost total absence of bumper stickers.

Things I will miss

This will probably be the last blog entry I make until our return to San Francisco. The house is slowly becoming more and more empty. I'm starting to fill our many suitcases with the things we don't need on a daily basis. I've begun cleaning and preparing the house for our departure. I've been eager to leave Dublin for some time now. I miss the comforts of home, family and our good friends.

But I will also miss some things about living here in Dublin:

• Walks in the park along the Dodder River and to the Dropping Well
• Our butchers, Dunnes of Donnybrook and the taste of real Irish lamb (sorry Beth)
• Aussie Amanda (who is getting kicked out of Ireland) and the other friendly people at O'Briens wines.
• Hanging out with the Jo and Jill at Dundrum Mall
• The friends I made through Coffee & Kids meetings
• The trees in spring and summer
• The shower of yellow-gold leaves in Autumn on Ailesbury Road
• Feeding the ducks in Herbert Park with Ryan
• Watching Ryan play on the jungle gym at the Herbert Park playground
  

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Stuff

Last Thursday, 27 boxes of our stuff was collected for shipping home to CA. That was a lot of packing, mostly done by Riko.

Yesterday I noticed that despite the absence of 27 boxes of said stuff, I hadn't actually noticed much diminution in lifestyle.

Apart from baby necessities, we've accumulated very little. We moved here in such a stripped-down state that I'm surprised that we could still reduce.

Then again, we're living on crazy-moving-energy right now. Comfortable reality has been on a hold for a while.

-Mike

Oh Yeah...

This blog can no longer be called "A California Dog in Ireland."

Dog Gone

Whiskey is on his way to LAX, via Newark, NJ. He should arrive around 6:30pm (local) today.

Also, Saturday was his birthday. He's six now.

"Normal"

Since Ireland is paying, I just had some blood work done to verify that my hypochondria level is within established operating parameters. Everything came back normal, indicating that my level of hypochondria is right there in the sweet spot.

-Mike