Our second day in Dublin was spent in museums and parks.  We took pictures with the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Square, took a nap in St, Stephen's Green, Chad ogled over ancient swords in the National Museum, and we stared at a giant assortment of stuffed animal in The Natural History Museum.
We have now been at our first farm a day and a half.  We are staying with Sylvia and John, who are an English couple who moved to Ireland several years ago, and could not be more charming.  Sylvia had a hip replacement just before we arrived, and so will be staying at the local hospital while we are here.  They have animals literally all over the place.  Everytime I turn around I see another cat perched upon a cabinet, or another rooster waddling towards me in the yard.  They have a retired racehorse named Puff, who we are already in love with.  One of our jobs is to do the cooking while Sylvia is away, and Chad has already cooked some fine steaks and chicken.  John drove us into the mountains up to a beautiful lake so that we could see some Ireland scenery.  He wanted us to bring his three dogs with us as we climbed to the lake, and 'take a gamble' with them even though the leashes were not in the car.  Chad and I, knowing nothing, thought this would be a fine idea and took off down the path running with the delighted dogs, and taking carefree pictures of ourselves on a beaten path in the mountains of Ireland.  In Irish mountains, the sheep roam about freely, something we found to be charming.  As it turns out, so did the dogs.  One second they were on the path with us, the next they were down one side of the mountain and halfway up the other after the unsuspecting sheep.  We took a moment to freak out, and then bolted after them.  Chad eventually was able to wrestle Lucy, the Belgian Shepherd, off a sheep and rally up the other dog.  The first dog that Chad caught and gave me to hold somehow knows how to escape her collar and she bounded away to join the others.  We somehow got them all back in one piece.  Fortunately, I didn't learn until after the fact that farmers shoot dogs that chase after sheep in Ireland.  It was our first real adventure!