Why not join us?

Earlier this week we launched a microsite for our team here in Dublin.  The new site is chock full of informational goodness.

The new site was built under the watchful eye of Dan and the end result is quite slick.  It even makes me want to re-apply for a job.

So, if you like the sound of great benefits like 31 days of paid vacation (yep, 6 weeks) and being within spitting distance of anywhere in Europe... review the job list then click one of the "e-mail your CV" links on the site to submit a resume.

Now, that you've applied, it's time for a little hide-and-seek... can you find the picture of me on the site?

Paula's using my old laptop and Pa really needs to take it out back behind the barn with a shotgun.  It's slow, it won't dock properly and I really don't like the way it's been looking at the toaster.

This past weekend we finally bit the bullet and placed an order for a new laptop for Paula, the ThinkPad X61s.  Paula's top desire is small and light and this unit fit the bill (as well as came with a ton of awards to ease our minds).  Sony and Toshiba have some very sexy laptops... but the price of the ThinkPad sold us (although we were both tempted by the pretty hardware).  The total with shipping and tax: $1,989.93, a full $1000 less than the Sony.

We were very pleased with the results.  Paula really wanted the Sony TZ, but once we added a dock, shipping and tax the price jumped up to $3,158.07.  Lenovo had a sale on ThinkPads through October 1st making the price hard to beat.  But it gets better...

Our order was delayed because I didn't have my alternate shipping address (Leslie's house) on record with my credit card.  As part of the process I went back to the web site and what should I find?  Lenovo started a new sale.  Bad news normally, but good news for me since my order was still pending.  I canceled the order and put in a new one.  Ding!  Saved $100! 

But wait, there's more.  While I was admiring my new, lower total I noticed a blank line: "eCoupon".  I'm already getting a great price on this laptop (in my opinion)... they're not going to allow me to apply a coupon to their sale price, are they?  Only one way to find out... I type "lenovo ecoupon" into Live search and first result is for a coupon listing on Dealigg.com.  I hop back over to my order and sure enough, my good deal just got better!

End result: the laptop I was pleased to get for $1,989.93 is being shipped to me for $1,527.22. 

Oh, by the way, out of curiosity I went back and tried the same search on Google... the money saving coupon was seven links down.  Thanks Live Search! 

... but rock stars have a shorter expected life span due to [gasp] use of alcohol and drugs.

If you have a choice in the matter, however, be a pop star in Europe... you'll live longer.

You can read all the shocking details in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.  While on their site you can read other fascinating studies like "Drinking water makes you less thirsty" and "Playing in the street can cause injury".

I'm going to need Babel Fish's bimbo-to-English translator for this one.

Video: Miss Teen USA 2007

Okay, I'm starting to get my head back above water. 

Paula and I got back from Germany last Tuesday,  and Thursday our friend Max flew in from Colorado.  We went from ten days of touring Germany with my parents to five days of touring Ireland (well, Paula and Max did most of the touring... I dug through e-mail ).

And now more fun news, our friend Christopher is going to come stay with us next week!  We're both stoked to have yet another visitor from the states.  We really enjoy living in Ireland but do miss our friends tremendously.

With work, out of town visitors and life all pouring heaps of activity into my life I fear I'm never going to have time to write a proper post about the trip we took to Germany with my parents so I'm just going to brain dump quickly so I can refer back to it later.

Here's a quick summary of our German trip:

1. Flew into Düsseldorf to visit our old house and haunts
2. Drove to Ilsenburg in the Harz mountains to stay for a few days.  From Ilsenburg we took a day trip to Goslar (home to some of Paula's ancestors) did some hiking and visited Wernigerode.
3. Drove to Hamburg, toured the massive harbor and saw some of the town.
4. Drove to Lübeck to stay a night and tour the old town
5. Drove north to check out the Baltic Sea then south through Schwerin to stay in Berlin for a couple nights.

It was a fantastic trip and a great chance to spend some quality time with my parents.  About the only complaint we had was that there are no smoking restrictions in Germany, so no matter where you go you are going to be sucking in lots of second-hand smoke.  It's not ideal, but you just gotta deal.

Oh, and Tami, you might be able to eat off the streets on weekdays but not on weekends.  They don't sweep the streets on weekends.  When we were walking around Lübeck the local guide told us the streets were filthy because they don't sweep on weekends (I just figured they were filthy because people couldn't be bothered to use trash cans).

Paula and I have been having a great time in Germany over the past few days We flew into Duseldorf on Saturday morning and met my parents at our hotel.

When I was in elementary school (fourth, fifth and sixth grades) my family lived in Duseldorf for three years. It was fun to get a chance to revisit some of the places we used to frequent. We even went by our old house... it's now an Italian restaurant.

After a brief time in Duseldorf we drove east into the Harz mountains to stay in Ilsenburg. From our hotel in Ilsenburg we took a short drive west to visit Goslar. Besides being a wonderfully preserved old German town, it's also where Paula's great-great grandfather lived and died (though we didn't do any family history research this trip).

We just finished our second day in Hamburg and are off to Lubeck tomorrow. Here's a quickie picture of the town hall in Hamburg (sorry for the cell-phone quality, better pictures when we're back home).