It's all your fault Mom

So, my mother decided to give us Prison Break - Season 1 as a gift. So now that's ANOTHER show that I'm hooked on! We are now on Season 2 and I will say that I'm glad they're not physically in the prison anymore as that was too nerve wracking for me. It doesn't hurt that Wentworth Miller is a hotty. :)

List of current TV show addiction:

1. Biggest Loser
2. Lost
3. 24
4. Prison Break
5. Brothers & Sisters
6. Grey's Anatomy
7. Ugly Betty
8. ER - might as well finish this one off
9. Gossip Girl
10. Young & Restless - yeah yeah
11. Family Guy
12. Desperate Housewives - this one may drop off of the list
13. Project Runway
14. America's Next Top Model
15. Lipstick Jungle
16. Cashmere Mafia - is this still on?
17. Tudors
18. Entourage
19. Private Practice
20. How I Met Your Mother

It's out of control.

The big day

Last Friday I went to a 21st birthday party. No, I'm not going through some 1/3 life crisis and hanging out with 21 year olds - have a connection to the family.

From what I've been told, the 21st birthday is celebrated here with a party the size of a wedding reception. It is normal that 100-200 people would attend. I think for my 21st my friends and I did shots at some bar on The Strip in Lafayette. I was lucky as Louisiana didn't increase the drinking age to 21 until the year that I turned 21. Slid right in there.

For a 21st, the party was impressive. Had to pay for drinks, but I never bought one myself so that was ok. :)

The best thing for me was that it was pure Irish tradition. Not the leprechaun-Irish dancing kind of tradition. Apparently the tradition for the 21st includes a stripper. Those are pretty much standard in any country. Big muscular/greasy guy in a thong with his socks on dancing all over the girl who's sitting in a chair. The difference with their tradition is that it seems the birthday girl's friends give the stripper embarrassing stories about the girl to tell the entire room. Hmmm... may take that out if it were MY 21st.

Drank til 2:00, met loads of family members (here's me mom's sister, here's me mom's other sister, and another, and so on), and did my best to understand all of the conversations.

I think the actual birthday girl ended up with €2,000 from birthday cards - not too shabby when you're 21 - or when you're 30something!!

No Man's Land

We went to see a play last night at the Gate Theatre. I got second row seats, but I expected there to be an orchestra bay between the first row and the stage. But nope - first row was right up against the stage.

I can't even tell you what the play was about. Wikipedia says:

"No Man's Land is the name of a 1974 play by the English dramatist Harold Pinter.

The play is a four-hander. Hirst, a successful but isolated and alcoholic writer, looked after and guarded by Foster and Briggs, has met Spooner, a failed writer (if a writer at all) who seeks to inveigle himself into Hirst's household.

Once the four characters are established, the play shows their manoeuvrings - Foster and Briggs seeking to fend off Spooner, and Hirst and Spooner's verbal jousting. An entire scene is spent on Hirst's mistaken - or feigned - recognition of Spooner as an Oxford contemporary from the 1930s, to which Spooner plays up, leading both of them into ever-increasing extravagance of reminiscence. The play ends ambiguously, after Spooner's most blatant attempt to supplant Foster and Briggs, when Hirst pronounces that the subject has been changed for the last time, leaving him (and conceivably the others) 'in no man's land...which never moves, which never changes, which never grows older, but which remains forever icy and silent.'"

We went because of the actors. They are relatively famous here and in the US:

1. Michael Gambon (Hirst): This is one of those actors that you would recognize but not sure from where. His credits include all of the Harry Potter movies, Layer Cake, The Good Shepard.


2. David Walliams (Foster): His main credit is for one half of a comedy show called Little Britain. They are actually going to start Little Britain USA on HBO on Sunday, September 28 at 10:00 pm EST. http://www.hbo.com/events/littlebritainusa/


3. Nick Dunning (Briggs): He's currently playing Anne Boleyn's father in The Tudors on Showtime. They're filming the second and/or third season here in Dublin so his schedule seems to work out well.


4. David Bradley (Spooner): Harry Potter movies. He had the most lines in the actual play.

We weren't sure if we could take pictures, but here is one of the stage:

Cell phone pictures don't have the best resolution, but you can get the idea. That's taken standing in the middle of the theatre, so you can see it's not very big at all. We guessed about 400 people maximum.

All in all a great night! I think an Oscar Wilde play is next.

What's the most interesting thing about this picture?

It's difficult to see, but it says:

"Happy Hour: Every Day from 10:00 Until 19:00"

Is it the fact that it was taken in Portugal? No, I don't think so. Apparently the "you're an alcoholic if you drink before noon" thing doesn't translate there.

Another fun fruit to try

When I saw the dragon fruit, I thought it was pretty:

I honestly expected it to have a red middle. Apparently that was an idiotic assumption:

Check that out! I wasn't sure what to expect with this, but since it is a fruit, I thought for sure it would be sweet. Not so much. Strange really. See for yourself. :)

BANANITO!

This is a bananito:

No, that is not a really big dollar bill, it's a really small banana!! I swear it said bananito on the label. I may occasionally be funny but that's not something I would come up with. The description said that it would taste like an apple. Huh??? So I had to try it and I would say that it's mostly banana flavored, but does have a hint of apple. Maybe 5-10%.

Go out and get yourself a bananito today!

I now have a Mii on my Wii

The Wii has finally been set up and I was able to use it last night. I haven't yet gotten into the sports games: tennis, baseball, etc. Don't want to pull my back out just yet.

What I did do was the Wii Fit game. It's all the rage (I think it is even sold out here for a while) and a colleague of mine let me know that you can determine your "fit age". Sounds like tons of fun - I know.

You pick a profile that is similar to you - a little person with brown hair, brown eyes, etc. That's your Mii. It starts out by asking you a few questions: birthday, height. Then it weighs you - in kilograms! Much nicer as there are 1.9 pounds per kilogram so I was feeling skiiiiiinny. Then I got my calculator out and booo hooo. It calculates your BMI and identifies you on the chart of underweight, ideal, overweight, dead by tomorrow. :)

Then it asks you to do a few balance tests. Apparently my center of gravity (or "COG") is a little too the left. After the balance tests comes a drumroll and then - ta daaaaa - your fit age. Very nerve wracking process, but in the end I was:

34.

So, I'm just as fit as I'm supposed to be I suppose. But I want to be fitter and younger! So, I set my weight loss goal and away I go. I did try a few of the yoga poses in the Wii fit last night and they aren't as easy as it looks. I can see how it would be great for toning. The secret is that since I now have a goal on "paper", I will get my butt to the actual gym and start eating better. Don't want the Wii to fuss at me. :)

UPDATE: When you step on the Wii fit board, I swear it goes "yeoww!" Now, is that really necessary???

Bugger