Caoimhe

None of my European irons had this auto-shutoff nonsense, I was very upset to find that the US ones ALL have it. For small stuff I have a tiny iron that seems to stay on, otherwise I have to get up near the end of a seam and shake my Black and Decker so it will reheat. I tried a cordless Panasonic with a long shutoff time BUT it doesn’t get as hot as I’d like and if I want to press a LOT of patchwork or iron yardage it doesn’t stay hot enough. Irons are one of my biggest peeves too. They aren’t designed by anyone who uses one.

Yes, Dublin 😁 and I keep an eye on Daft for apartments in our home area. I know exactly where I want to buy - in the same place the AirBnBs we used to get, the house we sold was about a mile down the coast from there.

I’ve made a LOT of quilts, been doing it for more than 25 years, and I often rely on pattern images and sometimes kits to get the colours right. For me the “technical” bits are what I enjoy more than the creative / design parts. Machine embroidery and quilting are a lot of fun! I’ve been working on an English Paper Piecing quilt for a couple of years (hand piecing is slow) and I have never liked some of the fabrics I have in it. I’ll finish just because the hand sewing process is calming and meditative which I need a lot right now but will not keep the finished quilt. It’s garish and has lime green / purple fabrics with stripes and huge polka dots which I really hate. Unfortunately I bought the pattern designer’s fabric and restricted myself to using it and discovered her aesthetic isn’t my idea of “pretty”. We used to stay in AirBnB all the time when we went home! It was wonderful and I still am annoyed it’s no longer an option (unless you want a room with the owners there too). The hotel doesn’t give me the option of getting up and making a coffee without disturbing my husband - he sleeps fine away from home and I never do. I can’t relax on a sofa and watch television all day while he’s out golfing. But until I convince him we need an apartment of our own there to use when we visit that won’t change. We had an arrangement with one woman in particular whose son owned the place, he and his family live in the US and used it when they visited. She rented it outside of AirBnB to others like us who were visiting home from abroad but when Covid came that ended.

I’ve no sympathy for that pretentious pox Paul Hewson (aka “Bono”). Leave the others alone though!

The former standard 30-pin? I still have a couple of those hanging around from our iPhone 4/4S before Lightning replaced it. I couldn’t agree more about the outlets and voltages, I’ve had to replace too many things throughout my life because they wouldn’t work in the place I was moving. Sometimes a step-down transformer would do the trick, other times nothing would make a device work. I only own the (overpriced) sewing machine brand I do because they’re dual voltage and could move with me, but for their overlocker I couldn’t bring myself to pay the price so I’ve had to buy new ones.

I feel your pain. Our trees and grass are still covered, the driveway and steps haven’t melted, and we aren’t getting anywhere near the forecast temps as it still feels below freezing. It’s supposed to be spring. 🤬😡

YES. We did this all the time, I was really shocked that it’s not a “thing” in the US and trying to transfer money electronically is difficult and expensive. Before we sold the house there it was how we paid everyone, we still do it to send money gifts to the family (since actual gifts get picked up for customs charges regardless of being marked as a gift, which is a huge peeve of mine). We can transfer from Ireland to the US easily, it does cost but not too much. From the US to Ireland has been impossible to figure out.

The landscape people don’t offer any option other than cheque so I still write them for snow removal as well as spring cleanup. I know there are other things, husband’s golf club membership and the HOA are the two that come to mind. I can pay online for some things with a $1 fee from the checking account and I prefer doing that where I can, it’s worth the fee not to mail a cheque. Credit card fees are too high for that to be a viable option.

The bark mulch outside my window is white but thankfully that’s it. As desperate as I am for some warmth we still have shovels and the snowblower at the front of the garage and will likely leave them there until May. Last year we had a big snowstorm on April 4!

No, but I have so many books I mightn’t notice. They’re sorted by recent and nothing has ever appeared that I didn’t buy or borrow myself. At the moment I’m trying to get a new Kindle set up with my 2800+ Amazon books and another 700+ from my pre-Amazon days. I think it’s time to go through and delete the few I don’t want to keep. I’m also trying to convince myself that I don’t want to purchase a particular favourite series AGAIN just because I can’t get the Kindle to put them in order as I bought them from Fictionwise way back in the past.

I love brown bread and made it for years (when I didn't buy McCambridge's!), but it doesn't agree with my husband and I've given up bread so I don't do it any more. One thing I miss was the packs of mixed smoked fish I could get in any supermarket, it made fabulous meals and one of the things I used it in was a chowder.

I was wrong! In a WhatsApp chat I brought it up only to be told several McDonalds around the country are actually selling these. There was only one anywhere near us and they never did, but apparently many others do!

No, it’s not at all religious for many years now. Mainly just a holiday with the odd parade in many towns but no particular meal, at least not in our families. I recall an American place on Grafton Street in Dublin used advertise “green beer” and places like the Abbey Tavern would do corned beef and cabbage for the American tourists. It’s a day off work/school and a junket for the Irish politicians who jet off around the world to celebrate it in other countries and promote Ireland. The Taoiseach, Tanaiste, and eight ministers visited the US. In all 38 politicians visited more than 90 cities in 40 countries this year. And no, I’ve never seen Shamrock Shakes in an Irish McDonalds @PRgal

No, that was Rumpole of the Bailey.