New Year

We're here, in one piece, with no big mistakes to date. Thanks to family and friends, we left Vermont on schedule, had a good time with family and friends in Massachusetts, and got ourselves and a copious amount of luggage onto Aer Lingus. It was hard to leave, especially because everyone was being so nice to us. Next time, all of you should just kick us on our way out; it would be a lot easier.
The logistics of the trip went fairly smoothly, although it turns out that an Irish 7-person van is a wee bit smaller than an American 7-person van. This difference meant a second trip to the Shannon airport to haul our stuff, which Barry did on our second day. I've more or less mastered driving on the left side of the road after being awake 28 hours straight. Nothing like adrenaline to keep you alert, I always say.