Day 2 (May 23, 2012)

One of the few benefits of jet lag is that the kids aren’t getting up too early in the morning.  Today, they slept until 9am.  Too bad that I awoke at 8am confused by the sound of a radio, even though my wife was still asleep and our in-laws (and hosts for now) were out of town.  Turns out that the in-laws left their clock radio alarm on.  Oh well – I was happy to sleep until 8am.

My wife accomplished several of the items on our master to-do list.  For example, we now have one unlocked phone and 20 euros worth of credit on it.  Alas, my free (with service) “dumb” phone appears hopeless for use in Ireland.  That’s ok – I was hoping to get a new phone once we arrived here.

Given the difference in voltage, we left nearly all of our electronics in the U.S.  So we also started acquiring electronics today.  We (i.e. my wife) of course started with the most important items: alarm clocks, a toaster, and my favorite – an iPod dock.  Tomorrow, we plan to go to Ikea (a much further drive) for other items that would not fit in our rental house, such as a guest bed (which will be ours until our stuff arrives) and bunk beds for the girls.

The description of the store – Argos – reminded me of a now defunct chain in the U.S. called Service Merchandise.  It’s basically a giant warehouse.  You place your order and the items are brought to you for you to take home.

On the bright side, the kids have enjoyed the in-laws’ back yard (i.e. the garden, as they call it here), as well as the neighborhood park.  The weather is amazing – possibly the best weather I’ll ever see in Dublin.  Despite what you hear, the sun does shine in Ireland.  Just not very often.  In fact, the weather has been so nice that we ate lunch and dinner outside.