200 Grams

5 weeks of Bootcamp, 4 days a week (at 8 in the morning, no less) and I lost..... 200 freaking grams! This equates to .4 of a pound. What the beep?

Ok to be fair, I do feel much fitter and my arms "appear" to be more toned. The whole point of joining was to become more toned overall so I guess that kind of worked. I didn't really need to lose any pounds, but honestly after 5 weeks not even one full one? Sigh...

Battle of the Decades

A lot went into the preparation of mine and BF's date night last Sunday. Neon gloves had to be bought. Mullets had to be found. Electric blue leggings needed to be sourced.

And all for what??? The BEST cover band in Ireland Ever. (Ok, maybe a bit strong, but they were so good.) How can you not love a band that does covers of the best 80's songs in costume? They even have their own WIND machine.



My "Hot" BF and I- note his lustrous locks


The girls- Yes, that is CRIMPED hair you see.


A whole lot of NEON pink


Oh right and the battle of the decades part...well, there was a 90's cover band which I had seen before. No pictures? You know who won this battle!

Cork Jazz Weekend

The BF and I headed down to the Republic this weekend to hang out with his folks, see some jazz and attend an 80's concert, (which deserves it's own post).

This is the second time I was at the Cork Jazz fest. The first time was 6 years ago on my very first trip to Ireland- EVER!

We had lovely family dinners on Friday and Saturday night, and we ACTUALLY went to see some Jazz. Below is a brief clip of the band we saw although apologies for the lighting! We were told this is a pretty authentic jazz band from BF's musically gifted friend.

What the heck!?

I went shopping last night for my outfit for our party this weekend. In doing my research, I came upon this.



I'm not sure what is scarier... the dress or the fact that it is sold out online.

Hummm....

The BF and are are headed to an 80's party in Cork this weekend and I brought this home for him



Only it was bright Neon Pink and from a woman's store.

He put it on without questioning me. Is this a sign of a good boyfriend or should I start questioning our relationship? :)

G Celebrations

So after drinking the G KoolAid at the conference, they provided us with real beverages at numerous fun events. We were there for two nights, and there were different events on for each night.

The first night, there was a street festival. Amazingly fun! They closed down a street in Kilarney, set up tables full of food and drinks and had a great band. The only downside...torrential rains. They also set up partnerships with all the bars in Kilarney and there were special events in each one including Irish dancing, story telling, stand- up comedy, etc. So Irish!



After the rain, we headed into a club to dance the night away... No pictures here as they are currently being used to black mail my mates :)

The next night, there was a G's got Talent content and the special guest was "Flawless" a dance group finalist on Britain's Got Talent. Not as good as last year's guest who was M.C "freaking" Hammer. The year before? David Hasselholf. (This is really where the recession is hurting us!)



We had a lovely dinner and our tables were loaded with Irish goodies.

My roommate and I being very Irish.


I would love to show you pictures of the after party, but again my friends would not appreciate this!

Drinking the G Kool- Aid

As mentioned in a previous post, I headed down to Kilarney this week for a company conference, and it was soooo good! Sometimes doing the day to day work, I tend to forget what an amazing company it is, so this conference was amazing to get me motivated and ready for Q4.

We had great speakers with lots of insights into what will be happening in the upcoming year. Plus there was lots of fun to be had as well!

There is normally a special guest speaker for the presentations(Last year it was Al Gore- Amazing!). This year I didn't know the guest speaker (UK- based, I'm not hip enough!).

Anyways, here are a couple of my fav pics from the conference. More to follow about the evening events.

Geeking out with Mr. Schmidt


Irish Dancers


Don't be Evil

Killarnage

The poor little village of Killarney will not know what hit it when over two thousand co-workers and I invade its village streets this week.

G hosts annual sales conferences for each region, and this year it will be in Ireland. (um...last year, it was in Greece and the years before, Spain and Germany....grr... I'm being a total brat, here- it is a recession year after all.)

Recession or not, G always does it right and we're being whisked down to hear about new products, initiatives, blah blah blah, but there will be two nights of fun!

The first night, G has essentially rented out the village streets and bars and is having a street festival for us complete with comedy shows, traditional Irish Music, Karaoke, Ceili Irish dancing and more goodies that they have yet to reveal.

Then the next night, there's a dinner gala and a talent show.

Can't wait! What I am NOT looking forward to is my 6:35am train back to Dublin on Wednesday after a long night of fun.

Octoberfest- Dublin Style

Last night the girls and I went to the Paulaner Octoberfest along the quays as a substitute for our weekly dinner get-togethers. The set up was similar to what BF describe about his Munich Octoberfest experience but obviously on a smaller scale.

We were in a beer tent with rows and rows of tables. There was a band playing what I can only describe as cheesy German music interspersed with Neil Diamond (amazing, no?). Towards the end of the night, people were dancing on tables and doing crazy synchronized dance moves to songs we heard over and over throughout the night. It was brilliant fun!

Here are some pics from the night.

The crazy German musicians-


Amazingly delicious street meat- yum yum!


Video of the Dancing

One more month....

until Boston and Thanksgiving!! I can't wait to go back and visit family and friends. Let the online shopping begin :)

But before that I have a PACKED traveling schedule including-
- 3 day trip to Kilarney for work (It's going to be AMAZING!)
- Weekend trip to Cork for the Jazz festival
- Overnight trip to Liverpool for a Monday Night soccer match
- Weekend girly trip to Galway complete with Spa, drinks and dancing

I'm going to need a holiday from all my travels!

A STAR! (Kind of)

As I mentioned in a previous post, my sister made her One Life to Live debut yesterday and I finally found a clip. You can see her around the 40 second mark. I couldn't embed the video so you'll have to click on the link above to see her in action.

Brutal

An update on the half marathon with pictures. I had many pictures of me running to chose from; however, most make me look like I am about to DIE...sooo here are pics from the best of the bunch. They are taken from the MarathonFoto.com site.

Look at the concentration.


So happy to almost be done!

Pleasant Surprises

I was having a crappy morning (missed buses, crazy clients, no gym, etc) and needed a break so I went for a walk to the post office to pick up a package that has been there for a week.

And it was full of loveliness!!!! My good friend Liz sent over an AMAZING care package full of items that I miss over here including -

- A1 Steak Sauce (Love it, miss it)
- Old Bay (Amazing for any seafood)
- Tazo Chai Tea (Perfect for the autumn weather that is already here)
- Ghost Peeps
- Archer Farms (Target Brand) Lemon Straws
- Kraft Mac N' Cheese (Tons and Tons of boxes, both the EZ mac AND the normal box)
- Slim Jims (It seems that I'm healthy with all the running, but I LOVE all kinds of strange, bad for you meat products)

One Life to Live

I have never seen this soap opera before, BUT my darling, gorgeous sister (pictured below - lovely, right?) is on it tomorrow. She will be playing a high school student, which is ironic as she is a 30 year old lady.



I can't believe I'm missing it and will only be able to catch it when I go back for Thanksgiving. Maybe it will appear on YouTube like her past work.

Opening credits for her PBS TV Show

The Academy

Sunday, the girlies and I went to see Joshua Radin at The Academy. I normally think concerts are eh... just ok, but he was brilliant! A small venue, an amazing voice and great banter with the crowd made this an AMAZING concert.

Here's a clip of one of his lovely songs.



He really connected well with the audience and even joined them for one of his songs. Can you find him?

Mortifying!

I was multitasking yesterday- Emailing a client about a new product and emailing a friend about ankle boots.

Instead of sending my client the link to the product, I sent him a link to the shoes I like. My client is fun so not so bad, right?

The mortifying part is that I sent him a pair of shoes with SEQUINS! EKKKS! I was describing to my friend how I like the shape of the shoe but wish it were in a normal material - Not sequins



I've never met this client before so my image as a nice, classic client manager is now marred. My client probably thinks I'm a floozy!