Well, we have settled on the place in Ballsbridge and will move next weekend.  In my last post I described the two options.  Ballsbridge was the first to accept us, but only because it was earlier in the day, the people in the place in Terenure wanted to meet us first.  That was perfectly reasonable but once we were OKed in Ballsbridge we both were pretty relieved and realized that we both want closer to the city center and were willing to trade the bigger and nicer house for that convenience.

We're not looking forward to the actual move but there's not really that much to it, we have our personal belongings and a sofa and that's it, so one van's worth should get is in.  We have a bead on a man with a truck that I will call today so that we can hopefully arrange it quickly.

We met with the tax man last week as well.  I'm hopeful that all that will work out OK.  He was pleased that we got Irish social security numbers (called PPI here) and that we haven't been back to the States since we came because both of those things are signals that we are not just casual visitors and entitles us to a big exemption on income.  Thankfully, as well, we actually earned some income while living in Ireland in 2012, otherwise the exemption would be moot.  It will take a while to get it sorted but I think it will be good once it's done.  More on that later I'm sure.

I've also made a commitment to do Dance Across Dublin with my Wednesday dance group, CoisCeim Dance.  That will mean rehearsals three times a week until the mid May but I'm looking forward to it.  I will know on Wednesday if I will be accepted to do it.  I have a week's work in Lisbon at the end of April which would mean missing three rehearsals so it might not be OK with the choreographer, that would be the only thing preventing it.

All in all, there's a lot going on all here in Ireland.  Other than a Lisbon trip for me at the end of April, we don't have any more travel outside Ireland planned until September.  In mid-September I will go to San Juan de Compostela in Spain to walk the last part of The Way with my friends Mary and Deirdre and a group of people they know.  Alan has taken a pass on that.  Then the following week, we will spend a week in the West of Ireland (Connemara) in a seaside house with friends from the States.  Then in October we've signed up for a cruise on the Black Sea starting in Istanbul.  I'm looking forward to a summer exploring things close by and hopefully getting started on the memoir after my two-day workshop in Sligo when I get back from Lisbon.

I'm just finishing up a white paper on association governance that's been a thorn in my side for months now.  I spent Easter weekend getting all the parts in order and hope it will be done today or tomorrow.  Of course, I thought it was done last month till I got the feedback from ASAE.  There was some good criticism that made for an extensive rewrite.  I think, and hope, that it's a lot better now.