casacaudill

it's been a bit quiet around here

But I swear to you I have a very good reason.

I'll be back soon with a TON of pictures and a recap of our 12-day trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland, which we literally just returned from two hours ago. In the meantime, it's off to snuggle with the cat who is letting us know under no uncertain terms that she never wants us to leave again.

openID

Any other Typepad users having problems signing into other blogs to comment using their OpenID username (or whatever it's being called these days)?  At first I could log in but was showing up as some 27-letter/number long username and now it's telling me that I don't exist at all.  Clearly that's not the case.  I just wish TypePad would get its act together so I can stop logging in to comment as a Blogger user.  Not exactly helping people find my blog now is it?

i'm loving it

Courtesy of MadeByGirl @ etsy

packing failure

When we went to Rome & Florence for 6 nights we took one big ass suitcase with us and felt like it was too much.  Then, when we went to Paris for 6 nights, we took a carry-on each and it was perfect.  Most of our trips since then have been done solely using carry-on luggage.  Because we're going to Ireland for 12 nights, we wanted to do a packing dry run this weekend to see if we could make the trip using only a carry-on each again.  After spending all day going through laundry, sorting what I want to take and then having Alan tell me "too much!" we realized that even if I cut it down to what I consider the "bare minimum" for 12 days, it's still too much.  I am a packing failure.

So we decided to go back to using the big ass suitcase we took to Italy with us in November 2006.  We went down to the basement only to remember that we'd given it to my sister when she visited a couple of years ago and her luggage had broken.  Unfortunately, we have absolutely no idea where the still big but not so huge luggage has gone to, so we're scratching our heads on that one.  In the meantime, we'll be borrowing a suitcase from Alan's parents and I'll be adding everything back that I couldn't take before.

genealogy

Tracing your family's history is incredibly hard to do when your family isn't a tight-knit one to begin with and the only stories you can remember about people older than you are is that time your Grandpa got so drunk on Thanksgiving that he had to go to bed early, only to re-emerge hours later wearing nothing but his boxer shorts while your mom and your aunt talked about how much they loved U2 and he stumbled out saying, "I love you too girls!"

Rumor has it that back in the day my great uncle Monsignor Lawrence Donelley of the Los Angeles Diocese traced our full family tree in Ireland. What ever became of that is hard to tell as no one seems to have a record of the information, and those that might are pretty much strangers to our side of the family.  We saw the cousins at holidays when I was a child but then not so much over the years.  You see, they were well-to-do, and we were not.  I last saw my other great uncle and his wife back when h ewas dying of Alzheimers - I think I was about 22 or 23.  Then, his wife and their daughter were at my Grandpa's funeral in 2007 but that was the extent of any sort of familial reconcilliation. I don't even think they made it to the gathering at my uncle's house afterwards.

Don't get me wrong ... I'm not bitter - I'm just being matter of fact.  I don't know my extended family and they don't know me and that's kind of a shitter because right now I'd really like to know our history since I''ll be traveling to the place where my ancestors hail from and the only thing I know is they either come from Donegal or Cork and that's not a whole lot to go on.  I've tried LinkedIn and Facebook and a ton of other sites to track down these second cousins but I've come up empty handed time and time again.

I really don't know how the people who trace geneaology rapidly do it because in the 5-6 hours I've done research over the course of the last few months I've found nothing but frustration and dead ends.  Maybe they start out with more info to begin with.

doing the frump

A month or so ago when I was buying a 6 pack of beer at Trader Joe's I asked the checker if he needed to see my ID and he told me no, "We only card you if you look under 40."  Well, okay then. (For the record, I'm 32.)

I won't lie, I look kind of frumpy at times.  Trying to be cute and clever, I used to say I was bringing frumpy back.  With my soccer mom hair and my Gap chic wardrobe, I'm definitely not what you could call stylish. I dress for comfort and usually comfort does not equal cute.  At least, most of the world doesn't think it's cute.  Sometimes I think my outfits are downright adorable (and I guess therein lies the problem, no).

In an effort to frumpify my wardrobe even futher, I've purchased a pair of Dansko clogs that I'm wearing today.  They are extra tall like heels so my pants don't drag, but they're clogs so I can wear socks with them and don't have to worry about my toes getting all smashed up like they do when I actually do wear heels.

Seriously though, I bought them for our upcoming trip to Ireland and I'm trying to break them in this week before we leave.  Having worn them for one day, I'm thinking they are going to be a good option. I just need to buy more cute socks.

(random picture found on Google Images, not me)

all for a good cause

I don't think it's any surprise to those who have been following this blog for any amount of time that I have a deep and abiding love for animals. In fact, I like them more than I like most people.  Yes, I mean that.  Unfortunately, not many people share this sentiment and as a result, thousands of animals are left to live out their lives in shelters, or worse, be put down because no one wants to take a chance on a black cat, or an older dog or a big dog who looks scary but is actually a sweetie pie who would be your best friend ever. 

For obvious reasons we can't adopt a dog right now.  But when the time comes (and I shudder to think about it because that'll mean Dakota has left us), I know the first place I'm visiting to find my next buddy dude or cutie patootie - the Oakland SPCA or the Milo Foundation.

In the meantime, I continue to donate to animal-related charities and activities.  This time, it's one that I have a personal connection to.  My friend Jessica - who I've known for YEARS now (we planned our weddings together over the Internets) - is a vet in San Diego.  She's also a very popular blogger known for her hilarious reenactments of client conversations with her trusty Barbie and Ken dolls.

 
  
On a more personal note, when Miles was sick last year she was the friend I needed to cry to and get second opinions from.  She never made me feel bad about milking her for free insight, something she does for hundreds of other people like me who find themselves in sad pet situations.

Since she was such a help to me - both as a vet and a friend - when I heard she was doing a 24 hour blogathon to raise money for a local animal shelter I knew I was going to donate some money.  And then I saw that she would also be giving away prizes during the blogathon and I thought, "I can help out there as well!" 

So, for the first local (to me) person who donates $50 to her blogathon and is interested, I am willing to do a 1 hour family photoshoot, just in time for Christmas cards or what have you.  Don't worry, I'm not some goofball nutjob with a point & shoot (although at times I am).  I've actually done this a lot, and here in the Bay Area, it's cheaper than you'll get with any of the professional photogs.  Hell, it's cheaper than those assholes at The Picture People.

 
 

Interested? DONATE NOW.
 

lemons = lemonade?

Back when we first started planning our vacation to Ireland, I was torn over whether we went to the Ring of Kerry or Connemara.  And then I managed to convince a certain someone that we could leave the cat home alone for more than a week and I planned a trip that had us going BOTH places, staying in Killarney at the Cahernane House and Cong at Ashford Castle.  All was well with the world.

Or was it?

Today I received a very unofficial looking email from a woman that works at Hotels.com telling me that my reservation at Cahernane House Hotel had been canceled by request of the hotel and I'd been rebooked at The Brehorn Killarney.  There was no logo and worst of all, I didn't book through Hotels.com.  During my 7 years in tech PR, I've had a lot of information security clients so my first thought was PHISHING SCAM.  My second thought was, "ha ha, you don't know that I know what you're up to."

And then I called the 1.800 customer service number at Hotels.com because what if I had accidentally booked with that site before I booked with Expedia and I had TWO reservations for Cahernane House in my name and dear lord, this whole thing could be a giant cluster on my part and please, please, please do not let my credit card get charged for a hotel twice for the same stay.

I spoke with a very nice lady at the customer service number who let me know (1) Hotels.com and Expedia are owned by the same company and (2) they didn't have any information about MY reservation using the confirmation number supplied in the email (it was for someone with a very Latin sounding name instead).  I told her I was worried because my trip is IN DAYS and I needed to know if I had a hotel or not because if I got to Killarney only to find out I didn't, I might want to cut a bitch. She looked up our Expedia itinerary number and then put me on hold for several minutes.  She came back on the line to confirm my reservation was canceled but she could re-book me at the Brehorn.  Bleh. 

Nothing against the Brehorn, really.  I'm sure it's a perfectly fine hotel. In fact, it's ranked #4 on TripAdvisor for hotels in Killarney. But it's brand new. And it looks like a Marriott.  A Marriott in any city in America.  Not exactly what I fly all the way around the world for, you know? So I logged into our Expedia itinerary and canceled the whole damn thing myself. And then I went into crisis mode.  This is why you always plan. You have Plan A, Plan B for when Plan A goes to shit and Plan C when some asshole tries to drive you nuts by not letting Plan B work out for you either.  I'm damn good at imagining just about every possible scenario and then creating a plan for how to deal with it should my imagination actually meet reality.  I have plans for plans, I am that much of a freak.

So, what did I do? I went back to my del.ici.ous links and my bookmarks and I found all the hotels that at one point or another in this entire multi-year planning process I had wanted to stay at.  And then I found out where they were located in relation to Killarney and then I did even more searches to find which places had availability so late in the game and from there evaluated what I was willing to pay and for what level of hotel - $481/night for Sheen Falls Lodge?  Not so much my friend.  $179/night for the Lake Hotel?  Maybe, now we're getting somewhere.  And then I saw it.

Ballyseede Castle in Tralee had a superior room WITH breakfast (this is key) for $167/night + taxes.  The reviews on Expedia were mixed, and then I read them.  Apparently someone was upset the hotel booked a wedding the same weekend they were there.  The nerve of them! What kind of asshole wants their wedding at an ancient Irish castle and what kind of hotel doesn't do weddings?  So yeah, we booked it.  Now we're staying in 3 castles during our trip to Ireland.  Those damn Earls of Pembroke at Cahernane are just going to have to do without us.

good samaritan

Earlier this morning I made a pitstop at the new Remedy coffee cart on Telegraph to pick up some Ritual coffee cappucino which comes highly recommended. While a few of us were in line, a police officer walked up and asked if we'd seen a girl in a yellow t-shirt walking around the area.  None of us had, but he pulled out a picture and described her anyway, asking that if we did to give the police a call.  It turns out a 16 year old with the mental capacity of an 8 year old walked away from school earlier today and hadn't been found. I listened, and looked at the picture, and filed it away.  The chances of me seeing the girl in the 10 blocks between my house and Remedy were slim to none - or so I thought.  As I was 5 blocks from my house I saw a girl that matched the description exactly, including the very pronounced limp and her bring yellow t-shirt. I called 911 who transferred me to the police station, gave them the information and hung up the phone.

I was hoping this random act of kindness and responsibility would give me some good karma, but alas, it has not.  One of our hotels in Ireland - a place that I was sooo looking forward to - canceled on us today as they plan to close down for winter.  Well shit.