Blog moved to TheRunningBran.com!

In case anyone actually follows this BlogSpot blog, my site has moved permanently to the following location:

http://www.theRunningBran.com

Get ready for FFGeekBlog.com!

Well, it's time for the fantasy football season again. I personally am signed up for a whopping four leagues already, so hopefully you've found yourself a league or two (or three). If you haven't, I recommend you head over to Yahoo! Fantasy Football and sign up for a team. However, the important news is that myself and a fraternity brother from college, Matt Dana, are starting a fantasy football blog that will contain cheat sheets, player updates, matchups, etc. The site is www.FFGeekBlog.com and it should be up and running in the next day or so. I can't promise that it will have all the information you are looking for right off the bat, but give it a little time and we'll get useful information posted very shortly. See you there!

Mason the flying dog

Apparently while I was over in Ireland, Mason learned to love the ocean, something he was petrified of before I left. While I was in Ireland, my brother had mentioned that he was teaching Mason to run and leap off the dock to catch a toy or something. Little did I know that Mason was a couple feet removed from being the next contestant on the ESPN out doors competition for doggy long jump!

Video #1
Video #2
Video #3
Video #4

Back in the US of A

Alright, well I'm finally back in Connecticut. Our flight got in Sunday night and was pretty uneventful (I guess that's a good thing!) I need to backtrack a few days however to cover some of the events that transpired on Morgan and my trip to Dublin. We left early Saturday morning on what I assumed would be a nice scenic trip to Dublin...little did I know that I would be severely disappointed. The trip ended up taking about three and a half hours, which was expected, however there was absolutely no scenery the entire way, which I wasn't expecting at all after seeing some beautiful sights on the trip to Killarney and such.

Anyways, after getting near Dublin city, we quickly learned the hard way that Dublin doesn't like to put up street signs on any of the roads barring the one major motorway that surrounds the city. After passing multiple roads that would have taken us to the hotel, we finally found our way there after about half an hour cruising around the city. Luckily the hotel was nice and was a decent distance from the city center. When we got there, we immediately tried to catch a bus from in front of the hotel, only to realize that the lady had misinformed (lied to) us and the bus wasn't running. We ended up sharing a cab with two girls from Italy and had to listen to one of the most broken conversations I've ever heard between the Irish cab driver and the girls, as they had a terrible time understanding each other and Morgan and I didn't feel any need to become interpretors. The cab driver ended up not wanting to drive us into the city though, so he dropped us off nearby and we took the train into the city, which was pretty convenient actually.

Once we got into the city, we realized that it was probably a good idea to immediately hit up the Guinness Brewery as we'd probably miss it if we didn't. The tour of the brewery was a self guided tour, but was one of the best parts of the trip. We got to drink a Guinness at the top story of the building, in the Sky Bar at the top of the Brewery, which was awesome. From the bar you could see the entire city in 360 degrees.

After the tour of the brewery, we wandered around to see most of the other major sights of Dublin, such as the Christ Church, Trinity college, and Temple Bar. We were only minor-ly impressed with each. After wandering for awhile, we decided to call it quits on the "tourist" thing and decided to get some food then start hitting the pubs. For some reason, I decided I wanted pizza and we ended up making the second worst decision of the trip, as at the pizza place they forgot our order and we ended up being there over a hour. We then begin hitting up some of the pubs there, trying to figure it out so that we could hit several pubs on our way back to the hotel. We went to a few that were pretty decent, then we decided to head back to the hotel. We immediately realized that we forgot the way that the taxi driver had brought us, so we tried using maps and our intuition to lead us home. This is where we made our worst mistake of the trip, which is a little cloudy on who to really blame for. We end up on the road we think is the right way back to the hotel (it actually was) and we ask two old Irish guys if we're heading the right direction. After they ramble on about strange things such as why New England is called New England and not New Ireland, and why we should steal everything that's not "nailed down" in Ireland, they tell us we're going the completely wrong direction. Of course we believe them (not sure if they intentionally lied to us or they were just basing their directions on a map made when they were young'uns) and turn around to go the direction they told us. This ends up being a nightmare, as we end up going through a few construction zones and crossing one interstate en route to realizing that when we first saw the old men, we were on the right street already! Eventually though we made it home for the night, although I was completely detox-ed and exhausted.

The next morning, we decided to save ourselves trouble and not head into the city. Our flight was at 5pm, so we had a little time to burn. We ended up heading to the east coast of Ireland, right by Dublin, to a place called Howth. There was awesome bluffs there that we got to see...however, somehow we again ended up taking the loonnnnnnggggg way back, so I was completely done and ready to head home after that.

So the trip's finally over though and as far as I can tell, I'll probably be heading to Puerto Rico sometime this summer. One reason I was happy to be home was to finally be able to watch baseball on tv and I was not disappointed to come home and see the Red Sox in first place with the best record in baseball...and the Yankees in last place (boo yah!). Also...the Patriots made the pick-up of the century, giving Tom Brady the awesome end zone target in Randy Moss. The Patriots definitely look like the team to beat this year.

Home stretch!

Well I'm finally done with work here in Cork, Ireland for the time being. I had originally planned to get out of work early at about 2 or so, but for some reason I got roped into a teleconference with people in Puerto Rico, so I didn't end up leaving till about 3:30...but after that I was runnin' for the door. I had planned to head down to Garretstown for a little surfing with Morgan, but when we finally got there the surfboard rental guy was already gone apparently. We contemplated going for a swim, but with no wet suit, it would probably have been a pretty cold swim. We decided to do a little exploring of the surrounding bluffs instead though, which ended up being really cool. As you remember from my previous blogging, I had already checked out some of the bluffs around Garretstown, but we went the other direction this time to a place called Old Head and it ended up being a pretty good decision.

When we first got out to the "point" of Old Head, we came to a gate with a small tower that was the entrance to a private golf course. It was an amazing spot for a golf course, but I'm not sure how it could have possibly been more than a 9 hole course, considering the real estate it was working with. We decided that we probably shouldn't sneak onto the course, so we ended up parking a little up the street and took a walk to the edge of the bluffs.

We saw a small trail leading down a bit so we wandered a little more and then realized that with some effort, you could actually work your way down the entire bluff (which was probably over 100 feet high). After making our way down, we ran into a few people that had came down from another direction, but were looking for a little friendlier exit. We sent them to the place we came down from and decided that we would be a little adventurous and attempt to do some rock climbing up this insane spot that they had shuffled down from (the picture doesn't do it justice...this thing was really steep!) After a few minutes of pretending we were from the movie Cliff Hanger, we finally made it to the top and decided that we were now qualified to give low level mountain climbing lessons. Anyways...although we didn't end up going surfing, it still ended up being a cool time and the weekend can only get better as we're heading up to Dublin tomorrow morning for a little sight seeing and Guinness drinking. Plus, I'm done with work until Tuesday...woot woot!

P.S. Morgan went to Galway and the Arran Islands the past two days, but I'm not sure he'll be writing us another blog entry, so I'll just mention then he seemed to have a good time on the Arran Islands, but didn't enjoy Galway all that much.

Morgan goes to the zoo

While I was at work today, Morgan went on a small adventure and he has been kind enough to share his experiences with my devoted readers:

"I touched a Kangaroo in Ireland today before you even woke up. I'm not being a cocky bastahd...I'm just telling you like it was. It all went down @ Fota Wildlife Park, a Gaelic football's kick away from the city via train. 3 euro got me a round trip to this non-profit little park in..well Fota. My expectations where a little ehhhhhh for it being non-profit (give me a break! I'll explain in a second), the website and pamphlet weren't to promising, and to be quite honest a "zoo" in Ireland...what kind of interesting animals love cool, soggy weather!? Obviously the very first second I step through the gate...both feet enter my mouth. The place is THE best park/zoo/aquarium/place of animals of the wild variety...place...I've ever been to and probably will ever go to...hands down...or should I say flippers or talons or paws..hohoho.

Living in America pretty much sets you up for disappointment with all sorts of over the top commercials, advertisements, trailers, pamphlets..bombarding you with insane amounts of hype until the release date or when you purchase the item or watch the TV show. So with Fota being non-profit (Listen I know the Newport exploration center is bad ass BUT just hear me out) I didn't realy know what to think...I figured I'd take the train out and if worse came to worse I'd head back early and head off to Blarney Castle. The train actually dumps you off at the back entrance to the park which at first I thought was the front entrance reassuring my doubts. SO WRONG..in fact it was the best place to enter the park!

After entering and getting a bearing on my surroundings I soon realize this park is different then any other I've ever been to. Fota prides themselves in having a different sort of viewing policy/plan then any zoo I've ever been to. I think that's why the name is Wildlife Park because that's exactly what it is. A vast majority of the animals are free to roam around anywhere they please at anytime. The more unpredictable animals are tucked behind modest barriers yet still are so close...amazingly close and without having to view them through a fence or from a safe distance of 50 yards or more..I had a smile on my face the entire time and people were definitely thinking I was probably up to something. As soon as I step foot into the park I notice all sorts of animals from Geese to ducks to squirrels to these giant prairie dog things to Alpaca-lama-things to cappybara to kangaroos to...all sorts of little birds and critters. Little ducklings with there mums darted across the path. Large geese hissed at me if I got to close and gibbons swung all over, stared at me and whooping to the others the entire time I was there. Well alright I'm pretty much writing a novel and well the pictures speak louder then the words I'm typing. Check out the pictures...check out the videos(well as soon as B posts them) and realize the next time youre in Cork you realy realy need to go..I got there 15 minutes after it opened and it was feeding time and it was great. Ha.

Oh yeah went to Blarney...if you ever go bring a flashlight to explore Badger cave and the dungeon section...such a sick sick siiiiiiick place to go once you kiss the stone(Bring an extra battery pack or don't take a hundred picutres and video at Kota thus draining the battery thus when pulling out your camera to have the guy take your picture smoochin the stone it doesn't even turn on thus forcing you to buy a picture from them....but hey it's supporting the castle and it's a pretty slick little souvenir.) The Rock Close there...incredible. Such an amazing day. Well if you made it this far then congradulations...I'm not going back and proof reading so uh..it's probably a mess :) Leaving on a two day adventure tomorrow to Galway then an overnight on the largest Aran Island ..then to Doolin to hopefully get a glimpse of the Cliffs of Moher. Should be interesting..should be cold...should be wet....should be exciting. Back here to try to surf on Friday then finishing off the trip with an overnight in Dublin on Saturday till Beaker and I hop on a plane back across the pond to home sweet home. Need sleep...I'm out!"

Anyways, this is your regular host Brandon again, just letting you know that I'm nearly done with my stay here on the Emerald Isle, but apparently not for long as I will most likely be back sometime in late May. I may even end up in Puerto Rico in the not too distant future, but who knows. Maybe if we're lucky, Morgan will write another entry for us when he returns from his trip to Galway in a few days. Peace!

Zoo 2 in the house!

So last night I finally made it out to a pub for the first time in a while, which was cool. We started off at a pub with an Irish name that I can't remember, but it ended up being pretty good as there was a guy playing acoustic guitar and covering some decent oldies songs. We had a pint of Guiness there and decided to move to the next place. After wandering around for a few minutes, we decided to try our luck in this pub that I had been in a few times called The Old Oak. The place didn't seem to busy when we first walked in, but we noticed that they had a stage set up for a band so we figured we'd stay for a bit. We found out a bit later that it was a U2 cover band called Zoo 2 (very clever name I must say) and they were the self-proclaimed "best U2 tribute band around at the moment".

Once the band started playing, the pub filled up really fast, which was kind of impressive considering it's one of the larger pubs in Cork and it was a Sunday night. The band was decent...you can't really complain when you get to hear all U2's hits sung live for free. Most of the entertainment we got however was from certain individuals around us who seemed to be enjoying the concert a little more than everybody else. One hippy-ish guy was playing air guitar, air drums, air bongos and anything else "air"* he could think of on the table and got so excited that he fell backwards off his bar stool onto the ground. It was quite the sight, as he was right in the front of everyone and the bar stool was probably over three feet tall. Not to be outdone though was an old man who was trying to hit on some middle-aged ladies near us. He also decided that playing the air drums was a good idea, but also felt the need to dance around the whole time, thinking he was impressing the women. Overall, I must say it was probably the most entertaining Sunday night I have had in Ireland so far and who knows what else is to come this week.

*In case you're not familiar with the term, playing an "air" instrument is the exact same as playing the normal instrument...just without the instrument.