Travel preparations: 24 days and counting

I will be flying to Ireland (flying in to Shannon airport, staying in County Cork) on March 1st, arriving there March 2nd. My friend and I will do a quick trip to London the weekend of the 11th/12th, and then I will be flying back to the U.S. on the 19th.

The dollar is currently not great against the euro - as of this writing it's about .831 euros to the dollar; for comparison, when I went to Ireland in late March 2003 it was about .88 euros to the dollar, and in late February 2002 (the first time I visited) it was closer to 1.2.* (As a point of comparison, I was just told that a beer at Bennigan's - which advertises itself as an Irish restaurant/bar in the U.S., and as an American restaurant/bar in Ireland - was five euros, or about $6. This is probably a 16-ounce "Irish pint", though.) The dollar is also worth only about .567 British pounds, but I have no personal records to compare that to. I'm wondering how much British currency I should take as walking-around-money for a weekend trip.

So, just as I am about to travel internationally, just as the Olympics are about to get underway, just before the kickoff of the Super Bowl, a few people have decided that the best way to deal with a hornet infestation is to throw rocks at the nests. Brilliant. Thanks.

*According to this site, my memory is not entirely correct. In February 2002 the exchange rate was floating around 1.15 euros to the dollar, and in March 2003 it was fluctuating rapidly from .90 to .95 euros/dollar. Still, now is worse than then. At least the exchange rate is better than the all-time low of 0.73150 euros/dollar.