Lucky enough to be Irish

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I couldn't resist decorating Pookie for the occasion:




A big shout-out to my fellow Daughters of the Potato Famine - Ann, Eileen, Pat, Rita, their daughters Kelly, Katie, Elizabeth, and new members Emma and Lydia. We are daughters of daughters of daughters etc. To all the Irish and Honorary Irish out there in the blaggardsphere, put on your garden gloves, hoist your favorite adult beverage and think of Ireland. Here's a wee limerick:

While gardening or going on walks

Or hiking near a picturesque loch

It's lucky you'll be
To look down and see
An emerald cluster of shamrocks!

'Round the world (almost) in 14 days

For the past two weeks, your humble blogmistress has been on an audit trip to Dubai and Hong Kong. I loaded these pictures in the wrong order, so we have Hong Kong first. Here is Victoria Harbor (Harbour) as seen from the window of my awesome hotel.
Sandy took me out shopping on Sunday, and we noticed this big pile of bamboo poles. They're used as scaffolding! It must be safe, but I'm not climbing up there.

Here's a nice pic of the old and the new, near our HK office:

I climbed up this old street one evening to go to dinner. Look at those ancient steps. If I did that every day, I would probably lose a couple of pounds.

On to Dubai. Victor and his lovely bride took me to dinner one evening so I could see the magnificent Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world. Here is an action shot as we got nearer, I didn't want my camera to flash and freak out Victor as he drove along:

Here I am - finally looking downright petite in front of 122 stories.

They go big, or they go home in Dubai. Here is their giant aquarium.

Here's the Ferrari store, right behind our office in Festival City. I'll take a red one and a yellow one, please:

I left Hong Kong at 12:30 am on Saturday and flew back to Dubai, hung out there for a few hours (picked up some duty free cigs for hubby - $16 cheap), then flew from Dubai to Houston. That day lasted 36 hours. I was stuffed up and couldn't sleep, all the men on the plane had sleep apnea and were snoring like chain saws, I finished my book, watched some movies, listened to music (Eric Clapton's latest is good), prayed for relief, and by then we were over Greenland. WHAT? Yes, I had to measure when I got home, but the shortest way to get from Dubai to Houston is to fly north over Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Greenland, down over Canada's Hudson Bay, slide along the west side of the Great Lakes, and after just 16 1/2 hours, I was home. It was a great trip, and it's great to be home. My thanks to all my colleagues in both cities!