High maintenance doesn't begin to cover it

I have to do a little product rave because I was just on Anne Taintor's website looking for gift ideas and remembered how much I LOVE her stuff. It never fails to make me smile and all of the products make excellent gifts! They offer magnets, pill boxes, note pads, luggage tags, etc - each with a different funny blip and vintage picture. Here are a couple of my faves:

Dublin girls: you can get her stuff at Avoca! In the states I've found Ann Taintor trinkets at bookstores and boutiques :-)

Grumpy Girl

I'm sorry. I can't contain it anymore. I. Hate. My. Job. I know I should be thankful to have one in this godforsaken economy, but can't I be thankful and not happy at the same time? Why do I dislike it, you ask? Because it is painfully boring, mostly. I basically put myself to sleep writing the marketing pieces. The other thing is that my job is very lonely. I am the one and only marketing person, so I have no one to bounce ideas off of, and I work with all men on top of that. In fact, most of the people in the software industry are men - I have nothing against men, but a little yin and yang would be nice. 

I was extra grumpy this morning and wasn't very nice to hubs. I feel like I'm starting to get envious that he is so passionate about what he's doing, while I'm miserable at work. I don't want to start resenting him for loving what he does, because I think it's fantastic that he's pursuing his dream. 

I'm not sure if I should start looking for another job, or just roll with the punches at my current workplace. It is good money. But money is not everything is it? Actually, yes, right now I need to make as much as I'm making now, so money does matter quite a bit. So my options are: 1. Stay in the job which is a great resume builder but is making me a b*tch. 2. Start a new job hunt where I would only accept a position with an equal or greater salary.

Hmm... I guess it can't hurt to keep my eyes peeled for jobs. I think I will. At least I'll feel like I'm being proactive.

When I came home from work last night...

This is what was waiting for me:

Thanks, Hubs!! You're the best :-)

A First

I was at Tesco last night at the busiest time (right after work) which I normally avoid at all costs; but be were out of food so it had to be done. So, I finish getting the goods and wait in the painfully long check out line. I say to the cashier "I have a bag at the bottom of my basket somewhere..." and proceed to dig it out. After I get it he says "I can do the bagging," at which point my mouth drops in shock. Number one - it's really busy in there so normally they just want as little contact with the customer as possible and number two - even if it's not busy, it's very unusual that they'll bag your items. So at first I declined and said "Oh no, that's okay, I can do it." and he persisted! So, long story short. The cashier bagged my stuff at Tesco yesterday. It was a good day. 

I've seen London I've seen France...

Hubs and I returned to Dublin from the big city across the Irish Sea Yesterday afternoon.  We saw most of what I wanted to see (Hubs has been already on several occasions).  Friday night we went to see Les Miserables at Queen's Theatre in London's West End, which was absolutely brilliant. The venue is quite intimate and the acoustics were fantastic! I've still got the music running through my head.   

On Saturday we woke up early to take advantage of all the daylight hours to see the city.  We started out the day by going to breakfast with the man Justin works for at Oxford. Please ask me about this encounter because it is too controversial to write on a public blog! We carried on after that and went to Trafalgar Square first which, as you can see was bustling with people!

The National Gallery is right there so we popped in there to see the art, which was fantastic. I especially enjoyed the Monet pieces they have.  We went on from there to see Big Ben and then Westminster Abby - which was by far my favorite part of the trip. We opted to do the audio tour, which goes into detail about all of the nooks and crannies. They do not allow you to take photos of the inside - but here's one of the outside:

I'm not going to drag you through the rest of our trip.  Just know that we had an amazing time and can't wait to go back!