Guess who's no longer a burden on the state?

Last Thursday the application for my Green Card work permit came through and I was able to register with the Garda (police) and take care of some other things. The timing was a bit close, as Melissa and I are going to Budapest from Thursday-Sunday to visit my friend Mike, who is in a teaching program there until December. Nevertheless, I'm equipped with enough paperwork to totally confuse the Dublin Airport immigration officials when reentering the country. Mike told me it snowed a little the other day, so maybe we'll get a chance to see some snow, since we're not holding our breaths for any in Dublin this winter. We're looking forward to baths and caves and general post-Communism fun, so keep an eye out for some pics when we get back.

Life in Dublin is grand. Melissa has been taking fiddle lessons -she can play violin already- so maybe soon she can go and play on Grafton Street for some money? We went to a Halloween party last weekend (Melissa dressed as a flapper and I dressed as a gangster), and it was by far the most international party either of us had ever been to. I'm probably missing some countries here, but we counted people from Spain, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Australia, France, and the Netherlands. There were maybe 3 Irish people there, tops. Ahh Dublin.

The weather's getting colder here and Dublin is starting to go into full swing Christmas mode since there's no Thanksgiving here to break up the month of November. We've been lucky still that there hasn't been much rain this fall. I guess Dublin had enough of it this past summer. Imagine that.

We'll check back in after our long weekend getaway. Cheers!