Casa Irlanda

I am typing this while my computer balances on the bottom side of a Martinelli's Sparkling Cider box. We have no coffee table. There are no books left on our shelves. Although those, the boxes filling our living room, and the cans of primer, are the only signs that we are moving. Our pictures are still on the walls, our bed is still covered in blankets, my clothes are still strewn all over the floor, and I still caught up on my Glee fix via the internet tonight. The reality is though, we are moving, soon.

I've been absent for a long time here at Casa Irlanda. I'd like to think it was because I've been so busy, actually physically busy, and just haven't had time to even look at a computer. The truth is I've probably spent more time surfin' the net in the last couple of months then in awhile. I am fully up to date on all the television ever. I am schooled in current fashion trends as well as Spring and Resort 2010. I know too much about other people's status'. It's just...I have been feeling on the verge of something for so long it didn't feel right to write about anything. Until today.

TODAY! My dad's birthday. The only one I've missed in a long long long time! Which is a bummer, and strange, and I hope his weekend is full of all the fun birthday things everyone deserves, and really I hope this birthdayness lasts all month, because I also believe everyone deserves that too...especially my dad.

TODAY! The day Mr. and Mrs. Ireland officially became homeowners. WHAT?!? Oh, and by Mr. and Mrs. I mean us, not the in-laws. And truthfully I don't think I've ever written or ever referred to ourselves as that...Mr. and Mrs. Ireland. Is that what home ownership does to you? It's not marriage that gives you that title it's home owning?

Point being, this has been in the works for a month and half now, which you will notice is when I stopped blogging. My mind and my life and my heart have been so preoccupied trying not to fall in love with a house we only wanted and didn't have. Even as each paper was signed, and each inspection came back positive (mostly), we couldn't say it was ours. Until today. Today we got the keys. Today I was carried over the threshold of the very real Casa Irlanda. Today I can write. And give four walls, and hardwood floors, and tacky wallpaper, to the title of this blog. There is a genuine Ireland Home now. Just over there a couple of miles. There is a view from our new front porch of the house we fell in love at. There is also our favorite thai place just a block away. And the park Rico used to love to run to. Also that middle school that tried to burn down, well, that's right across the street. We'll keep you posted on the rebuild.

This is just the first 6 hours of it all...and I'm already a ball of emotions. I'm going to miss the place we've spent the last 5 years at. The apartment where we became husband and wife. Where my brother lived. Where our friends have crashed when they really, really, needed a place to stay. There is a very old man that lives across the street and he has a very big garden and lovely smelling woodstove and I've never spoken to him. One time a 40ft cedar fell in our driveway. I nursed my Rico back to health here. I have the space memorized and can maneuver it in the dark, and I don't get too scared when Jesse's not here. We've fallen in love with our landlords parents who maintained the yard until just late this last summer when they finally couldn't do it anymore. We fell in love with our landlords. There is a trail behind our house that leads in one direction to water and in the other the best sledding hill in Bellingham. I finally just got my kitchen in order. I finally planted tomatoes this past summer. And now...we're leaving...and all of these wonderful things will come with us, and when we plant tomatoes next summer they will be in our yard, and when a tree falls down we're going to really be glad it didn't land on our roof, and when our friends and family need a place to stay it will be a little roomier and a lot closer to the bars, and there will be a point when I will be able to maneuver in the dark, without being scared to death (I hope).

And anyways, we've already got our first memory in our new home...

"Remember when we finally got the house and you were working a 24? And you had to take the ambulance to meet me there and get the keys? And remember how we discovered that funny light? And the Scooby Doo flag? And how you carried me over the threshold? That was rad."




Pop, fizzz...cheers!

And a very happy unbirthday...to who?

to me!

in your FACE...book.

"just got all up in vicky cristina barcelona...liked it...but is wondering why, in movies, they still turn the lights on when answering cell phones in bed. i mean, i understand old fashion telephonos cuz it's dark and you can't find the phone. but don't cell phones light up, a lot, so you can totally find them in the dark? i've never turned the light on to answer a cell phone. also why do the ladies always have perfectly curled hair as though they just rolled out of bed that way? it's more distracting then anything. especially in twilight. i do not believe that bella is the kind of girl who just gets out bed 2 hours early to curl her hair. um. this probably should've been a blog post instead of a status update. but c'mon, i'd like to see some REAL bed hair on film, all smooshed against yr forehead and sticking straight up in the back, maybe with some tangles...hrmf."

originally a facebook post that was DENIED because it was 882 characters long...which is exactly 462 characters longer than allowed. hrmf.

Rice to meet you...

Tonite for dinner I took my solo self out to the Soy House and got myself a big giant heaping serving of rice noodles, nom nom nom, with a side of spring roll all wrapped up in a rice paper wrapper and filled with MORE rice noodle! And for dessert!?!? I made myself a big pile of RICE PUDDING! mmmmmm. And while this all may sound very sarcastic. It's not. At all. This rice puddin' is damn good. mmmmawwwww.

Almond Apple Rice Puddin'

Some rice
Some unsweetened vanilla almond milk
Some vanilla
Some cinnamon
Some chunky all natural organic applesauce
Some raisins

Bring it all to a mushy boil, let it simmer FOREVER, add some more liquid if it gets dry before it's good and puddingy. I like mine chilled. Just chillin'. But it's awesome hot. That's hot.

Eat it up and get really excited and put the recipe (?) on your blog in a way so that no one will ever be able to recreate the delicious no bad stuff rice pudding you just made. Good luck suckers.

xoxo,
rice rice baby.

no big deal...

no wheat
no sugar
no clothes
no dairy
no weekend
no pork
no casein
no jewelry
no hats
no citrus
no shoes
no corn
no sausage
no alcohol
no strawberries
no scarves
no tights
no red meat
no problem.

No one wants to hear about, what you dreamt about, unless you dreamt about.....them....

Why do people blog? I began a blog because I thought (naively) that people used them as online diaries. I thought the world had needed a new place to rest their thoughts on these busy tech driven journey's. And they had found it in the blog world. I understand better now that many a blog makes many a dollar, but I thought and still do think that most of them are written by people like me. And my friend Claire. And her friend Shirley...and the like. Just for fun. Just for me, and maybe you.

Was I wrong? And more than being wrong, should I not even be here? I am wondering if blogging is supposed to be used for very specific reasons and I just didn't know the rules and here I am out here throwing my weight around... But wait! There has to be plenty of room in this crazy world (wide web) for all sorts of online narratives. I hope to utilize this strange communication technique in a whole different way when I start up my own business. It is a great business strategy. No argument there. A lot of blogs come out of business. A lot of business comes out of blogs. Many of my favorite bloggers are making some cash money by just being themselves, by sharing their ideas (incredible ones) on very specific topics that need explaining. Like fashion. And technology. And gluten free living. And medicine. This is all amazing, and I'm glad it's out there. I'm not immediately headed in that direction at all, and very specifically, at casairlanda, don't ever intend to be. And I think that's ok. I guess what is throwing me for a loop is the disingenuous blogs masked as intellectual, thoughtful, creative blogs. Hmmm...what AM I so worked up about??

I feel like a well done blog is genuine. It begins with a purpose. If that purpose is a place to just drop your thoughts off (wink wink) then by all means go forth! If that purpose is to never have a purpse, then by all means go forth! If that purpose is to sell your goods and talk about how awesome your goods are, then by all means go forth! Just do it genuinely, with heart, with passion and with all your cards on the table. But what if that purpose is just to get as many followers as you can? What if your purpose is just to mimic what others are doing (and doing with heart) in the hopes of getting a book deal or ad dollars? You become the awful millions of youtube videographers grasping for that one viral video. You bore me at that point. If I can't feel a heart beating beneath those words, even if it's a heart that only loves money, then you've lost me as one of the all important 'followers'.

Why am I ranting (babbling)? I just read a little blurb (on a blog!!!) that was pretty cut and dry as to what a blog should be. They had a strong opinion that a blog about nothing, the seinfeld of blogs, is pointless. Pointless because who would want to follow a blog about you and your silly day to day observations? Who would ever comment on a blog that had nothing to do with them? And this is what freaked me out. I had never heard anyone describing blogging as such a straight forward popularity contest. Is that what this is? If so, I am back in high school and I am sitting under the stairs with just a few of my buddies and nobody else is paying any attention, and well, we are just NOT that popular. And we are having the most fun ever. And if I ever think of some amazingly point driven, book worthy, comment worthy blog idea maybe I'll understand what that all means...but for now I'm content with writing about nothing, with no focus or theme. That's why I started, that's why I've maintained. Sure nobody wants to read about something that doesn't pertain to them. In turn though, I don't want to write about anything that doesn't pertain to me...so right now you are getting a face full of blog rant and tomorrow maybe a little promised Ralph Maccio insight...who knows! who cares? nobody, and that's awesome.

"part of me will know deep down that i am pretty cool

the part of me that knows i never cared for being cool"

kimya dawson
being cool

Anne Heche has children. shiver.

This is an interview on David Letterman with Anne Heche, from well, right now. I found it so unbelievably irritating I had to share it with you. Immediately. I have never seen a celebrity act so abrasive. Fingernails across a chalkboard, fork against an empty plate, you know...blech. My ears are bleeding. I dare you to make it all the way through. Although, the spanx, pasty thigh, and David cringing make it sort of worth it...
This interview has officially taken her off my 'yr boring i kinda hate you' list and onto my 'you may just be the devil' list. Her and John and Kate Gosselin. And if you don't know who they are, well, don't worry about.

(hey brother! help me make the video fit the screeny thanks smart computer one!)