Birthday Fun!

March appears to be quite the popular birthday month in our class - even more so for my group. We had Laura and John M who share the same birthday (John's 30th nonetheless), Kelly a week later, then me a week after that. Crazy!

John and Laura's birthday fell on the weekend just before exams started, so while Laura still celebrated her birthday on the day, John wasn't about to celebrate his 30th during exams. Instead, he postponed his big party until the Friday of the last exam - coinciding with Kelly's birthday. SO, our last day of exams passed and it was party time! Dinner out for Kelly's birthday first with most of the class (complete with bunny ears for people to wear), followed by a mass migration over to the bar where John's birthday bash was going on. Somehow, even with the lack of sleep I managed to stay out until 2am - go figure =P

Here are photos from the birthdays:

Laura & her husband Marc

The group at Laura's birthday dinner

Immediately after the last exam, champagne & cookies were shared to celebrate mine and Kelly's birthdays

Us birthday girls with our personalized cookies...and bunny ears

The collage Jill put together for my birthday. Kelly had one of her own as well.

Post-exam drinks at The Bailey. Birthday kids John & Kelly

Aidan, Eoin C., Laura outside at The Bailey

At dinner later that night for Kelly's birthday. Here she is with her cupcakes

And here come the bunny ear photos! Here's Andrea

Colin in bunny ears

Corry

Me & Shannon - with Shannon in her black bunny outfit....

Tomo & Vinnie

Susanne

After dinner at John's party: Andrea and Corry

Late that night, Corry is tired...

More School & Exams

The second half of the 2nd term (Hilary Term) went by very fast.

Stage 1 of the company project was completed by delivering a presentation on the Post-secondary Education Industry to our assigned company, along with a 37-page report on the industry. There's nothing like meeting the senior executives at a company for the first time and delivering a presentation on the industry their company operates in - and hope to God you didn't screw the presentation up. Seeing as they had practical experience in the industry and all... It was another successful presentation though, and the company seemed to be very engaged with the project, hoping to actually get some useful help out of the 8-month project.

Then there was the Strategic Human Resources Management assignment. The assignment was to do a comprehensive HR review of any company we wished - preferably one with which someone from our group had experience. Laura on our team was spearheading this project, and because our team is once again ambitious, we did the report on the organisation she had previously worked for - the Government of Canada. I mean, why do something easy when there is something massive out there? Haha, once again we got ourselves in over our head. Granted, we didn't do the report on the whole government - just the Aerospace, Defence & Marine Department - but still.

That report was only 47 pages.

Oh, and I can't forget the Organisational Behavior assignment. This was to pick a chapter of our textbook and supplement the topic through analysis of 5 NEW peer-reviewed journal articles on the matter. 3 of them had to be empirical articles (full of lovely statistical analysis of experiments). Talk about fun (not). Thankfully this was only a 15 page report.

All those projects were in addition to our 6 classes, each with a 3.5 hour lecture each week, and additional 'personal development' classes that filled up seemingly every free half day.

Finally, February came to a close, bringing with it the start of study week for exams. Thank goodness for this week, because with all the projects going on there was never time to do all the assigned reading. At least this time I was better at strategically studying for exams and knew how to focus my efforts towards just the subjects that would be covered in the exams. Still, 6 exams is a lot to study for!

The week of exams brought plenty of stress and lack of sleep (naturally), but I survived. My favorite exam was the International Financial Statement exam. The structure of this exam involved receiving the annual report for a publicly-listed company an hour before the start of the exam. We had that hour to pour over the statement and do any preparation we wanted prior to starting the exam and seeing the question. Our instructor said he tries to select a company in an industry which no one in the class has had in-depth experience in, preventing someone from having a leg up on the exam.

He picked a winery. In Oregon. And then proceeded to ask banking-related type questions. Apparently he hadn't looked at my CV which indicated I had commercial banking experience on a wine-lending team. Let's just say I got an A+ =)



The night before our Corporate Finance II exam, a few people asked me to go over how to do a company valuation - something we figured was bound to come up on the exam seeing as we did one every week in class. The problem was that our lecturer for Corporate Finance 1 during the first term was not good, and those people without prior finance experience came out of that class still not understanding the material. So, the night before the exam I found myself facilitating a review session on valuation. Pretty soon our group's study office was filled with people as I went through the step-by-step process to do a simplified business valuation. I have to say, it was the most fun I've had studying for an exam. Everyone was in a good mood, especially as this was going to be our last exam and it was going to be another case study based exam where we would get to go over the case study for an hour before the exam started. After the exam the following morning, it was great to have one of my classmates come up to me afterwards saying 'I just did my first ever valuation and understood it - so thanks for the tutorial last night!' - it hadn't even ended up being a requirement to do a valuation on the exam. I later found out this person got an A as well on the test and I got a chocolate easter lamb as a 'thank you' gift later - one of the best feelings I've had all year =) Here's the chocolate lamb:

While I didn't repeat my straight-A performance from the first term, I did manage to walk away with all A's and B's, achieving above-average grades. Hooray!

The Start of Visitors

Just after returning from my week trip back to California, I got an email from an old college friend of mine, Alex. He had just recently started a year's backpacking trip throughout Europe and Asia, and he was looking to come by Ireland for a brief visit. So, I got my first visit from a friend back home when Alex came to Dublin for a few days. Poor guy had to sleep on the small bit of carpet space in our dorm 'kitchen' area though - the downside to being in a dorm: visitors. He put up with it nicely though and it was fun to see a familiar face!

While visiting, my friend Kelly's sister was also in town, so the 4 of us went to the Guinness Storehouse for a bit of touristy fun. It was my first time too (but definitely not the last). Here are some photos:

Me & Alex at the gravity bar at Guinness - 360 degree view of Dublin from the bar

Alex with his pint of Guinness

Alex, Maryclare, Me, Kellyanne

After the Guinness Storehouse and some dinner, we paid a visit to Kehoe's for a night drink

Me & Alex

Alex

Baby Guinness shots - Colin came for the fun as well

Snow!

So while I was enjoying the warm, sunny California weather, Dublin was experiencing super cold weather...which then turned into snow. I have to say, even though I was ecstatic to see blue sky and have warm weather, I was a little bummed to be missing the snow. After all, I am not used to experiencing snow, and I feel like I deserved a little fun after having to deal with the record cold winter.

BUT, I got lucky. I arrived back in Dublin on Saturday morning (Feb 7th) and when I woke the next morning, there was a thin blanket of snow covering everything outside my dorm window. After church, I decided to grab my camera and document my one snow day. Here are the photos:

The courtyard outside my dorm building.

The rugby field

The walkway through the rugby and cricket fields

Snow covering the 'sphere within a sphere' art sculpture

Lawns by Front Square

More snow

Looking back at the Front Square

Seeking Out Some Sunshine - California Style =)

Winter in Ireland is not as easy as winter back in California. For one, with the end of daylight savings time, Ireland is subject to short days and long nights. The sky would only start to get light between 6:30-7am and it would be dark again by 5-5:30pm. To top it off, this winter was one of the coldest in Ireland in recent memory (according to the Irish). So, for those of you who understand cold winter mornings in California when frost is on the ground - think of that, but the temperature only rises enough to thaw the frost - only barely. Highs were around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The standard wardrobe became pants, thick socks, about 3 layers of tops (long sleeve shirt or tank top, followed by another shirt, followed by a jacket or sweater), scarf, and often a hat. Oh yeah, and don't forget the gloves. And the umbrella that lives in my purse because, after all, this is Ireland. The fields and hills don't stay green all by themselves...

So, during the week-long 'reading week' (a.k.a. 'week to sleep and catch up on school') when we had no classes, I left on a jet plane bound for California for some much-needed sun. I originally had great plans to actually skip classes on the Friday before so I could get in a full weekend in California - but the Friday in mind was January 30. That was the day after the Stage 1 company project presentation to the faculty panel, and the day of my group's corporate finance presentation. So much for a full weekend in California - I ended up having to change my flight to the next available day - Sunday Feb 1.

The trip was SOOO worth it! Upon landing in San Francisco, I was greeted not only by Kevin who so graciously drove to the airport to pick me up, but also by a glorious day weather-wise. Clear blue skies, about 65 degrees, and it was California =) Kevin took me to enjoy some real Mexican food (something I always crave while away in Ireland), and then on the drive up to his place in Santa Rosa, we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge - giving me a picturesque view of the San Francisco Bay - complete with sail boats, a blue sky, and the view of the city. Just the change of scenery I needed. Plus, upon arrival at Kevin's place, he had a gorgeous bouquet of roses waiting for me =)Kevin still had to work while I was in town for the week, but I still had plenty of school work to get done, so the time alone ended up working out well. Ok, so I did end up sleeping and relaxing more than studying, but I like to think it was some well deserved rest!

Unfortunately the trip was a short one, seeing as my flight back was booked for that Friday afternoon, but Kevin and I still managed to enjoy ourselves tremendously for that one week. We dined out every night, and my brother even made the trip over from Davis one night to say hi and indulge in some delicious pizza. Because of the short trip, I wasn't able to make it down to Paso Robles to visit my parents, which was tough especially since it was shortly after the death of my grandmother. However, my mom decided to drive up to San Francisco the night before I flew out, and Kevin and I drove down. We stayed at a hotel (Ben came out as well to visit again), drank some wine, and I got to hear the stories from my mom about the last few weeks of my grandmother's amazing life. It was soooooo good to have that visit.

On Friday, my flight was delayed by a coupla hours, so I checked in and then Kevin and I actually left the airport and went to go enjoy a meal outside of the airport with a bottle of wine. Below is a photo taken right before heading back to the airport.

Me & Kevin

Company Project Takes Over My Life

Right. So new term, loads of classes, tons of projects and school work, stress from my grandmother's passing, and suddenly this company project starts taking on a life of its own - and in the process taking over my life.

To back up, my new group rocks. Honestly. Team is super cool, people are awesome, and we seem to be close enough to being on the same page. In fact, our team's joke nickname is 'Team Perfect'. We are mostly extroverts, want to do well, and are all loud - with one exception. We need to check ourselves often to make sure we don't get too loud for the one introvert who is awesome and a tremendous core to our team, but we are continuing to meld fairly well.

The company project is one of the core parts of the Trinity MBA - a chance to apply all that we learn in a real-world context by acting as quasi-consultants for an Irish company. The project starts in January and lasts through the end of August - with the report acting as a thesis and being the last deliverable for the MBA. Here's the breakdown of how the project works:

• Stage 1: Industry Analysis (January through mid February) - as a group, we have to define and subsequently analyze the industry in which our assigned company operates by looking at the industry size, key segments and players, trends, profitability, and key success factors for operating in the industry.
• Stage 2: Company Analysis (mid February through April) - analyze our assigned company in-depth - by financial results, operational structure, key products and customers, strengths & weaknesses, etc.
• Stage 3: Issue Identification (May) - after analysis of the industry and company, agree with the company on an issue to analyze and later prepare recommendations for improving/resolving the issue.
• Stage 4: Issue Analysis (June through mid July) - analyze the issue in depth by getting to the root of the problem and identifying where solutions can be applied.
• Stage 5: Recommendations (mid July through August) - outline specific and actionable recommendations for the company to implement.

At each stage of the company project, a 20 minute presentation to a panel of faculty at the business school is made, followed by revisions and then a 20 minute presentation on our findings is delivered to the company. Also, a report on each stage must be prepared and ready by the time the presentation is delivered to the company.

So backing up to where I am time-wise, it's January, and I have a full class load with more assigned reading and projects than the first term. And now we have to identify an industry, write a report on it, and deliver our findings in front of a panel of business school faculty......in our spare time.

Now, because our team is ambitious (and because our director made it known that there is a prize for the best project completed at the end of the year), we were dead set on winning this competition. All efforts turned to working on this project, meaning all the course reading for our actual classes got shelved, with only the necessary bits done to get by week to week. Our group obsessed ourselves with team meetings, reading articles, and trying to get any information we could about our industry. Hell, even deciding what our industry definition was going to be wasn't easy as we tried to come up with something that could be quantified and supported. We also didn't want to fall subject to the classic Coca Cola case when the company looked at its industry too narrowly (soda) and ended up losing market share to the bottled water companies once bottled water took off. We spent hours discussing the industry value chain, doing the classic Porter's 5 Forces analysis, and researching trends. Below is a photo of one afternoon's work on sketching out the industry value chain after hours in the MBA classroom:

As January started drawing to a close, we were working throughout the weekends from 10 til' 6 as a group, and then some of us stayed until midnight or 1am doing more research and work. I never knew it was possible to spend so much time analyzing one industry - but then again I've never had to write a research paper on a particular industry either.

Because this was during the time when my laptop was out of commission, I hardly left our group's office in the business building. It literally became a situation where I routinely left the office between 11pm and 1am to go pass out in my dorm room for a few hours, then get back up around 6:30am to be able to talk to Kevin for a few minutes before getting ready for class and being in my seat for 9am lectures. Skipping classes wasn't a good option - in a class size of 30, people notice when you're not there.

Putting together the first presentation to deliver to the faculty panel was also an interesting experience. Our faculty member assigned to us as a tutor has a history of his team winning the company project (4 out of the last 6 years), so he had a vested interest in seeing us do well. But that definitely didn't mean he gave us answers or was super nice - more along the lines of tough love. Our first PowerPoint draft of the presentation was returned to us with scathing comments - albeit somewhat deserved. However, it lit a fire under us and we ended up delivering a good presentation, but not of course without many days of significant sleep deprivation. The "fun" part of the first presentations was that because no confidential information about our assigned companies was involved, we delivered our presentations in front of not only the faculty panel, but also the rest of the class, and then subsequently had to sit through a round of interrogations by the panel while everyone else looked on. Fun times indeed.

This presentation was on Thursday, 29 January.

While the rest of the class got to go celebrate the successful completion of the first presentation, our sleep-deprived group had the pleasure of returning to our group room to work on another presentation to be delivered first thing in the morning for our Corporate Finance II class - a presentation analyzing the IPO of PaddyPower, and Irish betting company. And it hadn't even been really started yet...

Let's just say that I never saw that Saturday morning after all the presentations - I was passed out asleep.

Introducing the Trinity MBA Class of 2009

Back at the start of Term 2, it was class picture day - you know, the look pretty and smile for the photo that will later haunt you for the rest of your life in some yearbook photo day. Ok, so it's not that bad, but nonetheless we all were asked to don our business attire that has thankfully been left in the back of my closet since I started the MBA, and have professional photos taken for the school to record our place in MBA history. The funny part was watching everyone show up looking professional after spending the entire year thus far showing up to class in casual clothes - it was hard to think of everyone looking so professional. At any rate, here's the photos:

Me

Trinity MBA Class of 2009

After the photo shoot, we decided to take advantage of looking professional by going for drinks in the Shelbourne Hotel - one of the nicest hotels in Dublin - for wine & cocktails (hope they didn't mind all the backpacks and laptop bags which followed us in...). Here's the photos that captured our rare moment of upscale socializing:

Susanne, Joan, Laura, Me

Elaine, Fiona, Rhett, Justin, Vinnie, John F., Jill

Kellyanne & Andrea

My computer decides it's had enough studying too...

Before leaving for Ireland waaaaaaay back in September 2008, I realized my good ol' Dell of the past 3 years was quickly heading for retirement. So, I figured I should probably invest in a new laptop before starting school to prevent computer problems while busy in school.

Wishful thinking.

Apparently, around January my new Dell decided that one school term of Trinity's MBA was all it could handle. Shortly after the 2nd term started, my computer started acting up - freezing up specifically. I decided it was high time to invest in an external hard drive to back up my files just in case, and for once luck was on my side. Within a day of completing my back-up, the computer stopped working all together. The school's IT doctors took a look and thought it was a virus and would require wiping the hard drive and starting over. Thankfully, my whining and complaining about computer problems was overheard by good ol' Eoin, who has a friend with lots of Dell experience. After a new diagnosis, the verdict was a faulty hard drive.

Awesome.

So now I am in the middle of the 2nd term, taking 6 classes, and trying to delve into this big 'company project' - without a computer. In all I was sans my laptop for about a month, meaning the hours I spent in the business building increased dramatically since I had to make use of the computer in our group's office to do most of my work. As if I didn't already live in the business building! It's about this time that living in campus housing started really paying off, since I could leave the office as late as I needed and only have to walk 5 minutes to reach my bed without having to walk through town at late hours. However, it also meant I never saw the outside of Trinity College except for the rare occasion.

Thankfully, the ol' laptop was still under warranty, so within a few days I had a new hard drive and was able to re-load all my files (and pictures!) and be back in business.

The upside? For that month, I actually had to pay attention in class since I was without facebook and the internet for browsing...I was only hoping that the added paying attention would help pay off in exams later that month.

What....I have a blog???

It's amazing how the best of intentions are sometimes the hardest to follow through on. Take for instance, my blog! We were told at the start of the MBA program that the 2nd term would be the hardest (January through March), but that things would start to ease up during the 3rd term (April and May). Well, the 2nd term was definitely hard, but unfortunately the 3rd term didn't exactly ease up. Needless to say, studying and working on projects 10-12 hours/day during the week and at least another 10 hours over the weekends results in a crazy life...one where the only spare time consists of sleeping (ok, and maybe the occasional pint at one of Dublin's many pubs). But seriously, those pints became few and far between.

Even the onset of the summer months did not result in much more free time, although I did gradually emerge from my sleep deprived existence. Thus, my blog was noticeably empty for many months. Here is my attempt, once again, at filling in some of the gaps of what I've been up to for the past 6 months or so. Hope you enjoy!

Madeleine Normandin (aka "MaMere"), 1921 - 2009

Soon after returning to Dublin for term 2 of the MBA program, I received a phone call from my mom indicating that my grandmother (whom we lovingly call "MaMere") had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital.

The following 2 weeks were filled with hard decisions but also many blessings to my mom's family. The stroke had caused major damage for my grandmother, and the resulting decision was to take her home under hospice care to live out the remaining days of her life around family. My mom traveled to Newport Beach to be with my grandparents during this time, and while MaMere peacefully reached the end of her earthly life, she was blessed by visits from almost the entire family, and appeared to be happy and at peace with being at home. I was unable to travel home during this time, but called often and was even able to speak with MaMere twice on the phone. Thankfully, Emily being at UC Irvine allowed her to be with MaMere a lot during this time as well.

I knew when I left for Ireland that such a thing could happen, but it is definitely one thing to think of it and another to live through it. Those two weeks found me clutched to my phone in between classes and in the evening, waiting for any news or updates. Kevin became a huge support system for me in addition to the usual support he provides during school. In fact, it was one night while sharing stories of our grandmothers that it finally hit me how much I will miss my grandmother. She was a quiet woman, but very stubborn and determined. She loved my grandfather enormously and set a wonderful example of a wife and mother and grandmother. I realized also at this time how much I am like her in several ways. It was a great opportunity to reflect on the blessings we have been given in life from those in our families.

On January 23, at 1:12am I received a text from my mom that MaMere had gone to join her heavenly party. From what I was told, the last day was very peaceful, and many family members were around.

In the last days, us grandkids were asked to write a few comments about our memories of MaMere, so I am including my thoughts below in honor of her life:



Memories of MaMere

As one of Grandad and MaMere’s grandchildren, I am immensely blessed to have had the quality and amount of time with them both that I have had. Grandad is the super social one, and MaMere the quieter one. Yet, the older and wiser I get, the more I have learned about MaMere through stories. What I have discovered is an extremely capable, loving, sometimes stubborn, but very stable cornerstone in the Normandin family. She helped raise a large family and instilled values which have been passed down to her children. I, as a grandchild, have reaped the benefits of this through the example of my own mother. In some ways, I see MaMere in myself. Just ask my parents about my own stubbornness at times. But it is a stubbornness used as a desire to be independent and the knowledge of being capable of handling life. MaMere not only displayed this, but achieved it in an incredibly humble manner. That is something I can only hope to be able to achieve myself.

As a memory, one of my favorite ones was actually just in the last couple of years. I was living close by in Newport Beach at the time, and there was a day when Grandad was away overnight and most of the following day. So, after work on the second day, I came over to spend time with MaMere and visit until Grandad came home. While we did not do much, we enjoyed dinner together and ended up watching Erin Brochovich on TV. We were mostly quiet while watching the movie, but there was something about that quietness that was not only comfortable, but pleasant. Just the two of us, separated by a generation, but still able to just kick back, relax, and appreciate the same movie. What a treasure that time between us was, and still is for me, as it is the only time in my memory that I recall spending a considerable chunk of time with MaMere when it was only the two of us.

The picture here is of MaMere and I on my last visit before leaving for Ireland.

Term 2 Classes

With the start of the new term (Michaelmas term), we got to look forward to a new load of classes. The line-up was as follows:

Monday: Organisational Behaviour (note my Irish spelling!) in the morning
Tuesday: Operations Strategy in the morning
Wednesday: Financial Statement Analysis (aka Accounting) in the morning
Human Resource Strategy in the afternoon
Thursday: nothing set in stone - sometimes one-day special classes
Friday: International Finance in the morning
Marketing Strategy in the afternoon

In addition to the above, we continued a series of "Personal Development" classes on topics ranging from problem solving to leadership to emotional intelligence. Also, we had the start of our big company project that will continue throughout the rest of the MBA - until the end of August.

My goal this term was to stay on top of my reading and stay organised throughout the term - something that got a little out of hand during the first term. So, I purchased several binders, notebooks, and set to work getting everything in place from the start.

......
......
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That lasted under 2 weeks.

As classes got underway, there proved to be simply waaaaay too much reading assigned than was ever going to be accomplished, and the addition of the company project started consuming our lives. Sleep was little to be found...as well as the concept of "fun" in the MBA.

To assist in the reading, our class compiled a list of all the readings for our Organisational Behaviour (OB) and Human Resources (HR) classes and divided them up for people to read and summarize for the rest of the class. This proved very helpful later on during exam time!

The basic summary of term 2 is that it was a marathon run that ran for 2.5 months - the only thing to do was to keep plowing ahead in hopes of the finish line arriving sooner than later. The following posts will try to highlight both that experience as well as the glimpses of life outside of school.

First Term Success

As I wrote at the start of January upon my return to Dublin, the new term was starting off well and life was good. About a week later I received my grades from classes during the first term, and let's just say all the studying and hard work paid off - straight A's! That is something I never accomplished in undergrad, so it's nice to see for sure. Woooot!

So it's been a while...

I am sitting here in my room in Dublin, with my brother who is visiting passed out asleep on my bed for an afternoon nap (us Gallaghers like to sleep!), and me realizing I have done NO updating on my blog in the last 3 months! The last school term was extremely hectic to say the least, and I feel as if I am still recovering.

Alas, tomorrow marks the start of a new term - the last one involving exams - and so I will try to update on some of my adventures and sleepless nights over the past 3 months before I get behind again!

New Term Begins with a Positive Start

Today was back to the grind of classes and craziness. Thankfully, the week started lightly: Organizational Behavior in the morning and just a short meeting with our MBA director in the afternoon.

A bunch of us went scrambling yesterday for the Organizational Behavior ("OB") textbook when we realized there was a ton of reading assigned for the first class. When we discovered that the local bookstore with most of the textbooks was out of this particular book, a slight panic set in (such a great way to start out!). However, a quick email to the lecturer by one of my classmates revealed that he didn't expect us to have read anything by the first class - whew! Nonetheless, I've discovered that this class will be plenty of work between all the reading and a seemingly significant group project. Thankfully the lecturer was great this morning, with a positive blend of lecturing and class discussion to keep everyone engaged. So while this class may end up being a bit of work, it thankfully will be delivered in a good fashion.

The afternoon brought an overview of our big company projects to be completed over the remainder of the MBA. Our director gave us a large packet of information on this report, with all significant dates pertaining to presentations to be given not only to professors at Trinity, but also to the top management of an assigned company. Finally, the news was delivered: our new groups were revealed along with the company assigned to each group for this large project. The new groups will be in place for the remainder of the year in order to coincide with the company project, and awaiting this news caused much anxiety and excitement now that we all know each other a little better. I grabbed ahold of the team assignments and breathed a sigh of relief: not only does my team look awesome but the project should prove very interesting - it's definitely not in any way related to my past experience, but this will hopefully provide plenty of learning opportunities!

So, with the first day down and a VERY busy schedule ahead of me, at least it is all starting off on a good note! And now, off to dive into the textbooks awaiting me...

Christmas Break: Best Break Ever!

Upon completion of exams, the flight home to California was a great moment. Being able to see Kevin again after 3 months would be great, especially since the stress of classes would be put on hold and we could just enjoy the vacation. The 10 hour flight (thankfully, non-stop) was of course a long one, but none other than Kevin was there at the airport waiting for me. He was even dressed up in a shirt & tie with a red rose! All that time of talking on the phone made that moment worth it all. After reconnecting in the airport, we drove into downtown SF for some very yummmmy Mexican food, where I actually ordered fish tacos instead of other dishes. Then we drove back up to Windsor, and I was thrilled to see blue skies! The weather report said it would be cloudy and potentially raining, so to see blue skies was awesome. A few pictures from the drive back are below:

Over my first weekend home, there was much relaxing, sleeping, and of course, eating! On Saturday we enjoyed a nice dinner at Kevin's parent's place, we also went wine tasting at Limerick Lane since the previous time we were there we enjoyed delicious Zinfandels. So, we tasted again and purchased a few bottles of Zin as well as a Zin/Syrah blend (called 1023). Both are highly recommended! A picture of Kevin at Limerick Lane is below, along with more roses Kevin had waiting for me at his place =)

Sunday was Kevin and my 6 month anniversary, so we remained up in Windsor, chilled out and then enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner, along with some Turley Zinfandel (a big time favorite). Then on Monday, we headed down to Paso Robles to spend Christmas with my awesome Family! The Monday - Saturday in Paso was spent enjoying family, eating TONS of food, celebrating Kevin's 26th birthday, visiting the elephant seals at San Simeon beach, wine tasting, etc... Below are some pictures:

On Saturday night, Kevin and I returned to NorCal since Kevin was treating us to a 49er Game the next day! This was my FIRST ever professional football game, and the last one of the season for the niners (as they sadly are not going to the playoffs this year). Turns out the game was fantastic, with the niners winning in the last 3 seconds off a field goal. Pictures are below:

For New Year's, my family, along with the Duncans (my godparents) and the Karbousky's (Kevin's family) were planning on hanging out together. Our three families are close friends and we took this opportunity to get together since everyone was going to be in California. On New Year's Eve Day, Steve, Amy, and Kristen Duncan, along with Dan Karbousky and myself went on a little wine tasting trip through Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma (everyone else was either working or still traveling up to Santa Rosa). Below are a few photos:

On New Year's Eve night, our three families got together for a delicious dinner of stuffed chicken and wine, followed by a game night consisting of Cranium. I must say the best part were the team names and each team's winning "cheer" - highly amuzing! Below are photos from dinner and the game night:

At midnight, my dad rang in the new year with his bagpipes!

On New Year's Day, our families got together again for brunch, and finally got an updated photo of EVERYONE in the three families! Here is that shot:

Alas, the time came for everyone to leave on New Year's Day, and I got to enjoy the last night with Kevin before boarding a plane back to Dublin for the next school term. We got some great Chinese food for dinner, and even found a new great zinfandel in the process: J. Keverson. We are going to try and find this place to get some more of it perhaps. The one we had was a Dry Creek Valley Zin (Sonoma County again).

Then, on Friday morning, Kevin once again took me to the airport and we said goodbye. Thankfully, it will only be one month until I see him again, as I get a week break in the middle of this next term (similar to last term), but this time I am going home to California for a bit of a break and a change in scenery. I truly have to say though, that my time with Kevin better than I could have imagined. It was hard to know how it would be as we reunited after 3 months apart - despite all the phone calls - but it was not even an issue. It only helps reinforce why I love him so much!

At any rate, I am now back in Dublin and got an awesome 13 hours of sleep last night to kill the jetlag. Classes resume tomorrow and I am already behind on my prep reading! At least I can say that I had the best vacation.

EVER. =D