One of the biggest surprises from our recent family trip to Ireland was the fact that the day when it was time to end our family week and head off our separate ways, we lingered over the goodbyes. We still liked each other. We were sorry to leave each other. We had made a similar trip to Italy in ... Read More »
There’s a story I read or heard once about the actor Liam Neeson (he of the unmistakable voice and beautifully craggy face): When he was growing up and feeling maudlin, his mother would tell him to go outside and split some wood. And sure enough, having completed a useful task and worn-out by physical activity in the fresh air, the ... Read More »
Our visit to Ireland included a hefty history lesson for most of the family members traveling, or maybe a refresher course for some, while others got new details to round out the story. My husband looooves watching the movie Braveheart. If it is on cable, it will be on our televisions. We quote William Wallace often. “Go back to England and ... Read More »
Somehow… Somehow… How? The first times I visited Ireland – at 20 years old, at 28 years old, and then again in my 40s – Irish pub culture escaped me entirely! If you know me at all, I am no stranger to bars or restaurants. A wine and food blogger, no less, completely clueless about the vital role that pubs ... Read More »
Most guidebooks will give you a few sentences about County Mayo in northwestern Ireland. They call it inaccessible, and recommend skipping it, preferring other, more touristed areas. Thankfully, our Granny O’Toole lobbied furiously the entire time we knew her. County Mayo is one step from heaven. Granny was right. Granny was born and raised in Ballindine, Co. Mayo. It was ... Read More »
Ireland launched a brilliant marketing campaign: The Gathering – Ireland 2013. They encourage you to search out long lost family members, distant cousins, and relatives twenty times removed. We held our own personal Gathering for one week in July in Western Ireland. My mom was born there, and came to live in the US when she was 15. I am ... Read More »
I am just back from two weeks in Ireland with 24 family members! I had hoped to blog from the road, but days of touring and activities, followed by naps, dinners, and several pints… two whole weeks escaped me entirely! With only one pen in my purse, I did not faithfully write up a list for each new day, and ... Read More »
Sometimes the myriad of options offered by Netflix create this weird situation in which I spend so much of my time trying to decide what to watch that I end up watching nothing. So the other night, as I was going from one genre to the next, I wasn’t very hopeful that I would actually find anything. Just as my eyes began ... Read More »
Music has that crazy ability to evoke a rich and detailed moment from the past, just like the smell of apple pie might make me think of my mom’s pies fresh out of the oven, with the flakiest, tastiest crust you could ever imagine. My iPod Nano is loaded with a playlist titled “All time faves”. When most of ... Read More »
I know. I make it sound active, as if I were actually DOING something. In fact, parenting teenagers is more about letting go and hoping that things won’t go too wrong. Teenagers need to exert their independence, and they need to make mistakes. You just hope they are mistakes that have consequences you dole out, and not the law. Back ... Read More »
Sauced In New York Sometimes the food is in the sauce, sometimes we are