Company Party #2

So here are John and I at Rossini's Italian restaurant last night where we had the procurement "teambuilding" dinner. Basically it was a Christmas party for 9 but we couldn't mention Christmas because that offended some people. Whatever works for you!
Dinners here take a while longer than in the States. We got there at 7:30 and left at almost 11PM. Whew! That made for another late night!
So the food was really good for the most part--homemade pastas and sauces. John and I both got a chicken dish that had kind of rubbery chicken, but that seems to be kind of normal. I'm weird about chicken to begin with, and chicken in different countries just tastes different!
The restaurant is located in the Cork City Centre, and it's a really neat place with mostly pedestrian-only areas. It felt exactly like being in New Orleans in the French Quarter, except it was a lot cleaner. I'm guessing their Paddy's Day parade is NUTS down there!
I found tons of shopping that I did not know existed, and that's always fun!!! I'll have to try that out another day when I have the car. Fortunately there are a lot of car parks in the City Centre. Since there is very little street parking, they are basically your only option unless you get really lucky--like John did last night! Woo-hoo! But they are super-tiny and tall. Going up all the ramps is kind of crazy. I'm glad we don't have a car that's any larger than ours (slightly smaller than a Camry).
So dinner was a lot of fun and a mix of Americans and Irish. It's amazing that Christmas is in just a few days. It's pretty exciting! Ours will be very low-key but relaxing. I'm guessing we will catch up on some much-needed sleep and rest. We are just worn out!
The picture below is of my trying to can-can while I was getting ready last night. I figured that my skirt with it's weird, gauzy ruffles would be a good can-can skirt, but the combination of wearing heels for the second time in a year, the slippery wooden floor, and just generally goofing off made balancing nearly impossible. Fortunately, John caught this picture before I splatted back against the wall. If you're checking out the possible bump, then, no, I'm not really showing. I am considerably thicker around the middle, but no defined bump. I'm sure I'll start looking more pregnant soon enough and then wish for the weeks when I wasn't showing!!!
More to come! I have at least one more post for the day and then may change our photo program to one my friend Cindy showed me. It's awesome and seems much more interesting than Flickr, I think. We'll see!!! Enjoy that warm weather for me, Houstonians!!!