54th birthday

Hi everyone,

This week I turned 54, and in truth I hardly noticed it. I took a luxurious day, starting with my first canoe trip on our bay. The photo above was shot by a nice German lad who had camped on the beach the night before. Other than that, and a few laughs with my fellow Rotarians in Cork it was lovely and low key. Margie and I will celebrate more the week of her birthday (April 28th) as we go to Trim and visit the ancient sites of Tara (soon to be a highway) and Newgrange.

This month has found us recouping from a trip to the US. It amazes us that the break in routine takes two weeks to reinstate once we are home. Its kind of an ongoing culture shock. Our Tidy Towns committe was extremely excited by the two garden vacs we brought back for them. This year picking up the cigarette butts in the streets goes high tech! But it is confirmed that the smoking ban in the pubs has made for more litter on the streets, all over Ireland.

Our work has been time consuming as I finish up a class I am writing on how people learn for our beginning Masters of Ed students. My university is beginning to mount a new doctoral program in K12 eduation and I get the fun of being associate chair - in other words, I get to seriously help steer this ship towards success. I am loving it. Margie is property manager for the apartment and rentals have taken off.

For fun, we play cards or board games every Friday night at our local pub. This is a women's game which balances the poker which men have played there the same night for years. We tease each other across the room. Come join us some Friday won't you? The Dock Pub, Kinsale, Co Cork 7:30 pm.

Lots of love to all,
Alana