Dublin Survived, Ice Skating, and an Exciting Tie

Hello,

It's John. I had my office holiday party already. Thanksgiving day my office flew everyone to Dublin. Nice huh? Not only that, we partied on the roof of the Guiness Storehouse (the home of Guiness) in the Gravity Bar. The Gravity bar is an oval shaped glass enclosure with a 360 degree view of Dublin - very beautiful.

I got everyone dancing shortly after the steak buffet. We danced all night until they closed the bar at 1 am. The Guiness flowed freely and for free! I busted some mad shapes on the floor and had a fantastic time.

When I finally arrived at the hotel, I was a bit hungry. I know, you must be surprised that John Ramsburg was hungry. I mentioned this to those around me in the lobby of the hotel -I forgot to mention that the lobby was turned into an impromptu Cohn & Wolfe party palace - ie bottles of wine and pints in abundance from the hotel bar that was kicking out everyone.

I was accompanied to the nearest open burger "palace" - Not McDonalds, Wendy's, or Burger King BTW- by a nice lass who suggested purchasing cheeseburgers for everyone. Guess what I got to ask a cashier at 2:30 AM?

"We would like to purchase 55 Euro worth of cheeseburgers. Can you make that happen?"

Luckily for us, the manager realized the benefit of thawing out 25 meat patties. We got a veggy burger, chicken burger, and two cokes thrown in for free.

According to those still sentient in the lobby, we were like Santa arriving on Angel's wings. A little bit of heaven wrapped up in cheeseburger form. One could argue the state of contemporary society based on the messianic reception we received. Please don't. I just brough cheeseburgers to the masses - St. Johnny R would acceptable..

We were flown back the next afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't have time to actually explore Dublin, but that was more than made up by having my first (2nd, 3rd, and 4th) Irish Guiness in a gastropub off of O'Connell street during lunch the first day.

Friday night Jamie and I went to the Natural History Museum to their Christmas shopping fair. We did some shopping and went ice skating. I haven't gone ice skating since I was sixteen, and Jamie had only gone once. Did you know rental skates now have hard boots like ski boots? WOW! What a difference 13 years makes! Aside from major advances in rental skate technology, it also removes your ability to skate. Jamie and I spent our hour session in the kiddie training rink - we think we'll be ready for the big rink next time. It was very romantic, and I am very proud of Jamie - she picked it right up!

We then celebrated our sixth anniversary on Saturday in our traditional fashion of watching our wedding video, eating pizza, and drinking beer. It was great.

Today (Sunday) we did some more shopping and then watched the biggest Football (Soccer) game of the season (Man U. vs Chelsea)! It ended in a draw - which was fantastic, as it means the Gunners have chance of getting back into fourth sometime before June.

Exciting news - a new free TV station now shows American sports. If we stay up all night, we can watch the Eagles play at 1 am. I look forward to reading all about it tomorrow morning.

Off to bed.