Fresh-Brewed Brevities

Ireland photo dump

Highlights: drank plenty of Guinness, wandered around Temple Bar, visited the Book of Kells and the Long Room Library, did a ghost tour, and saw my first Caravaggio (one of my favorite artists). I may have teared up a little.

Also visited Marsh’s Library, the oldest public library in Ireland.

In Northern Ireland, we saw Giant’s Causeway, walked through the Dark Hedges (the Kingsroad from Game of Thrones), and visited Dunluce Castle perched on the edge of the cliffs. The green landscapes were even better than I expected.

Disappointed we couldn't make it to Belfast because of the riots and unrest. It was a place I especially wanted to visit as a longtime Van Morrison fan.

Goodbye Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Scottish Highlands photo dump 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

It’s my husband’s first time visiting Europe.

This morning, JoeJoe came back inside the house with his front leg shaking and spasming, and he wasn’t able to put full weight on it, so he was limping. I checked his paw to see if it was injured or if something was stuck in it, but I didn’t see anything. So I took him to the emergency vet. We checked in, but there was a long line.

While in the waiting room I had him walk around to check his gait. He was limping, and every so often he would shake his paw. I decided to check his paw again. He has long hair around his paws, so I examined it more thoroughly this time. He didn’t like it and would flinch and try to pull his paw back, so I started to feel like it was more of a paw injury or foreign object rather than a limb injury.

After a while, I felt something nestled deep in his paw pad. I was eventually able to pull it out, it was a pine needle. I put him down, and he immediately started walking normally again, so I told the emergency vet we were going home. I was so relieved.

My 7YO got the Fortnite Battle Bus LEGO set from “Santa” this past Christmas. We told him to wait for us so we could build it together, but instead he opened half the bags and dumped all the pieces into several bins of random LEGO. Needless to say, I was not thrilled.

So today, I dumped out all the bins and went piece by piece through the chaos. I somehow managed to Frankenstein together half of the bus. The rest of the pieces are still in the numbered bags, so I’ll leave those for my husband and 7YO to build together this weekend.

I think JoeJoe is sad, I think it finally dawned on him that Minky is truly gone.

Our family took a quick weekend trip down to Orange County over the weekend. We were attending a birthday party, and I figured we should stay down there for the weekend. I got a really good deal on a 2 bdrms/2baths ocean front hotel. My kids especially liked that our room was right next to the pool.

We also took the kids to the San Juan Capistrano mission since my 4th grader is learning about the California missions in school. We stopped by a baby beach in Dana Point, where they had so much fun playing and swimming.

JoeJoe seems almost oblivious to Minky’s passing. A while back, I told my husband it would be best if Minky went before JoeJoe, because if it were the other way around, Minky would have been absolutely devastated.

The day my cat, Hula, passed away, Minky kept searching for her all over the house. She would return to Hula’s bed, waiting to see if she would come back. Eventually, she stopped looking and just lay down on the couch, not wanting to move. She didn’t eat for a full day and even threw up.