Nov / Dec 2015

The rest of November was rather uneventful. We started bathroom renovations that lasted until Christmas.  In fact, a couple of things remain undone (2nd coat of paint, hanging of a mirrored cabinet).

We had an early Thanksgiving that was quite enjoyable as always.  11 of us and a moderately sized turkey - the leftovers didn't even last a full week (i.e. I wanted more turkey cranberry sandwiches!)

ORBJ's birthday was on December 1. We celebrated with dinner at a new gourmet burger restaurant, which was pretty tasty (and much better than last year's option, Eddie Rockets aka Johnny Rockets).

For her party, ORBJ had a cooking party, where someone came over and baked pizzas and cupcakes with the girls (although a couple of them did very little cooking, so to speak).  It seemed to go over quite well, which is what really mattered.

ORBJ's cake, make by LBJ of course

Note the penguin that just dove in the blue water - very impressive (in case the picture does not do it justice).

ORBJ and her biggest present (from PL and UM)

The chaos of ORBJ's party

Then, before we knew it, Christmas was upon us.  We managed to get all the presents sorted with a couple of days to spare (and no unshipped items like last year's Amazon / An Post debacle).  I finished grading in time to share a whiskey with Joe Elliott from Def Leppard.  Ok, we were in the same whiskey bar, and he was about 10 feet away from me.  I couldn't figure who he was, as the years have not been especially kind to me (perhaps not surprisingly).  I didn't tell him that I saw him in concert in 1988 in Iowa - let's face it, he'd probably like to forget that he performed a concert in Iowa in 1988!

Ah, Christmas.  It was nice although I would have enjoyed seeing my family.  Still, no travel or jet lag, presents and dinner in my own house (with a closely guarded cat who did not get any turkey, not due to a lack of effort).  LBJ's dad brought a great selection of wines (there were leftovers).

The girls in their new outfits from Nana and Papa

The only downside to the holidays was the weather - lots of wind and rain.  Very little time for FABJ to get out and ride the new bike she got for her birthday.

Bonn / Cologne (Koln) - November 2015

Just a week after the Paris trip, I attended a conference in Bonn for work.  It was a useful conference, although the quality of papers presented was quite uneven.  Still, I received useful feedback on my presentation and was able to meet several established researchers in the area.

The conference finished with lunch on Friday, so LBJ's parents offered to take the girls for the weekend.  So LBJ arrived around 4pm or so and we had a lovely weekend in Cologne (i.e Koln -  sorry I can't figure out how to put dots over the o).

Although it was strange not to have the kids around, we managed to enjoy the weekend. We met up with a local whom I know for a drink after work at an "old man pub" in Cologne, where we had a couple of mini beers of Kolsch, the local beer.  The waiters were very grumpy (part of the charm of the place).

The church is so big it can't fit in the picture!

We enjoyed the sights of the town such as the famous cathedral. We did an hour boat cruise on the Rhine. We saw the Roman museum (which was huge).   We enjoyed several good meals, including one in a restaurant for locals with no English menu.

View from the river

Our boat

Alas, the weather was lousy in Dublin and the girls had colds, so they did not have the best time without us.  So I'm not sure we'll get another weekend away any time soon.

Quality German sausage!

The street with our hotel

Roman ruins