3 Parrots Island

Ugh

2010-09-08T22:08:00.000-03:00

I hate this blog. It is giving me such grief for some reason!I cannot change the email address either. I would have to start all over!It is same passwords and email…. I could not enter any cut and paste. I put it on hold and worked on the contracts…I was afraid I was going to throw my laptop out the window.

Announcement - This Blog is Kaput!

2008-03-03T22:34:00.004-04:00

This is the last post on 3 Parrots Island, I am blog moving once again.

The Man and I have started a project and you're all welcome to visit our new internet home:

http://www.stthomasblog.com

The cons: some of the entries to be posted over there might be regurgitated entries that you've already read here.

The pros: you'll finally learn my real name.

It's Nicci.

And the Man? is Scott.

Nice to meet ya'll :)

Weekly wrap-up

2008-03-01T10:05:00.003-04:00

Junebug:

Her last day was a Saturday, and I really wanted it to be a beach day, so she, myself and T (the Man had toe surgery the previous day and was not allowed near sand) all went to Secret Harbour on the East end of the island for lunch, and some napping in the sun. We were tired (hungover) from T's bday dinner and drinking the night before, and a day on the beach would hit the spot.

Here's a shot of T and myself waiting for lunch. If we look tired and drained it's because we were:

Here's a shot from my beach chair of the water and floating raft; there are condos surrounding the beach, and a great little beach bar/resaurant called Blue Moon Cafe. It's a cool place to spend an afternoon:

We sucked down some frozen drinks and enjoyed the day, it was definitely relaxing and a good way to spend your last day on St. Thomas. Here's a shot of T and JB in their beach chairs (the bday boy is out cold):

We left the beach about 4 and headed to the grocery store, for her last night we decided to hang at the house, hit the hot tub, have some lobster and snacks and play some Guitar Hero. We loaded up on food, got home, cooked it up, and hung out until around midnight when we all crashed out. The next day T took her to the airport for her morning flight, and that was that. I hope you enjoyed your trip lady!! It was an awesome 10 days :)

The Family:

My family is here for a visit, my parents/aunt/uncle. They flew in separately and both arrivals were screwy. The original plan? My aunt/uncle were to arrive from England Wed night at 8pm, my parents were coming in Thursday at 3:30. Perfect. I worked Wednesday day, the Man picked me up and after a quick dinner we hit the aiport, arriving just at 8 to see people coming through the gate. There was only one flight due in at that time, and my aunt/uncle weren't on it. Weird. So I went to the car where I had left my phone (it was in the car during dinner as well) and sure enough there was a vmail from them, left about 20mins earlier. When they got to Miami there was an issue with immigration, my aunt's fingerprints weren't matching up and they took them both into a little room to the side to figure it out. Sure enough they realized she was not a terrorist and released them, but their flight had already departed, leaving them to get a room (on their dime!!!) for the night.

Their new arrival time was Thursday afternoon, 4:20. Okay, we can do this. I was working Thursday - the original plan called for the Man to pick up my parents, bring them to the restaurant so they could have a drink while I finished up, and all of us would leave the restaurant at 5 and go home. Now the Man would show up at the airport at 4 to meet my parents who would already be there, wait for my aunt/uncle's flight, and the five of them would straight to the house. T had agreed to pick me up at work and take me home. Cool. I talked to mom that morning, told her that my aunt/uncle's flight had been delayed and that the Man would meet them all at the airport. We were all set with the new plan, until mom left me a vmail about 11. They were in Boston, ready to go, and their direct flight plane had mechanical issues. The people in charge told them you can either A) wait for the issue to be resolved, although we don't know how long that will take or B) jump on this other flight, which is not direct and goes through Puerto Rico. My parents jumped on option B as they just wanted to get here, and my mom's message told me they weren't arriving until 6:30. Okay.

I called the Man, told him about my parents screwed up flight, and we figured he would grab aunt/uncle, then come back into town to meet me at the restaurant, and we would both go to the aiport. Okay. I texted T and told him I probably wouldn't need him to drive me home, but he said he was coming in for a drink anyways. When T showed up at 5 I clocked out and he and I banged down a couple of drinks. As we sat there I called the Man and told him it didn't make sense for T to take me all the way home, but instead T would take me to the airport where I would meet the Man and we would both meet my parents. Cool. Another drink later T mentioned he was driving his mom's SUV, not his Wrangler. 'Oh!', I said, 'Then you have room for a couple more adults and a suitcase right?' 'I guess I do', he said. I called the Man, told him to stay put, T and I were going to get my parents and bring them home. And one drink later that's what we did.

Thursday night we grilled out and had some drinks while aunt/uncle tried to figure out their jet lag. Yesterday a few of us went and did a big grocery shop at the price club, and then we grilled out again. Today we are hanging around at home, by the pool, with the sun. Tonight we have dinner reservations, tomorrow is our beach day and on we go for their two week visit. I'm psyched they're all here.

I'll spare you my Saturday thoughts as this entry is pretty long at the moment, instead I'll leave you with one last picture of JB and our cute little yellow, who was taste-testing her bikini strap:

Enjoy your weekend!

Kayakers

2008-02-28T06:44:00.005-04:00

I snapped a picture of two people boating on by the other day:

Upon closer inspection I saw just how small their 'craft' really was.

It looks like a kayak/dingy that's been MacGyver'd with a motor.

So why are they tiring themselves out with the paddles?

All I know is this, there have been whales spotted out there, and (albeit harmless) sharks, and I think I would want a little more boat around me in the big blue sea.

But that's just me.

Kayak on adventurers!

Creepy crawly Wednesday

2008-02-27T07:51:00.003-04:00

I was a few steps behind the Man last night when he spotted something on this blue tarp and yelled for me to grab the camera.

Can you see it? Do you even want to?

It's near the bottom, here is a close-up:

We thought it was a poisonous centipede GAG and judging by the size of the stinger on it's butt (on the right in the pic above) I worked myself up to full paranoia about seeing one of these anywhere in the house.

After poking a stick near it (which it aggressively bopped with it's head - um Hello? Attacking a stick? This thing is fierce!) we got it to crawl on the stick and moved it to a neighbor's yard, which made me feel much better. I'm pretty sure it's not going to bother sneaking into our house when the neighbor's is much closer.

After we got home from dinner we looked this creature up, and it's not a centipede at all, it's a caterpillar (aww...). A Frangipani Hawkmoth (Pseudosphinx tetrio) to be exact.

There's your lesson for the day!

For the record we YouTubed videos of actual poisonous centipedes, which are large and FAST and I DON'T WANT TO SEE ONE IN PERSON!

Junebug's Visit - Day's Seven, Eight and Nine

2008-02-25T07:05:00.002-04:00

I believe it was Day Five or Six that JB's trip was extended through the following Sunday, which was cool, more time to play! Unfortunately I had shifted all of my waitressing around to be free when she was here, so I worked the next three days. Which meant I was not dragging my camera around.

Wed: I wake up, and go to work from 10 - 5, and then 5:30 - 10, so I am pretty much out of the game. The Man had some work to catch up on also. I believe JB got up, had coffee and relaxed before heading out with T to hang with him. T works for himself, so it was pretty easy for him to shift his schedule around. They went around the island, went up to Paradise Point, had some lunch. Etc. All of them came into my second restaurant for dinner and drinks, and that night I got home and we pretty much hit the sack.

Thurs: I wake up and go to work from 11:30 - 5. The Man works as well, and I believe T and JB spent the day together. I think. I know she and the Man dropped me off at work, so I believe she relaxed around the house for a great portion of the day. Did you stay there for the day? I really have no idea. I do know all three of them came to pick me up at work, and we stayed at the bar for a few drinks until hitting up a restaurant, The Banana Tree, for dinner. I do know we were pretty buzzed, and JB got a little hammered (I do have pictures of that...good blackmail). We pretty much went home after dinner and passed out. Well JB passed out. We all 'went to sleep'.

Fri: I wake up and go to work, 10-5. The Man went to the hospital on this day to take care of his stubbed toe that was not behaving. The night we all had plans with out other buds to go out with T for a birthday dinner. I got a text in the middle of the day that the Man had stitches and other nonsense, so T took him home and was picking me up from work. T and JB showed up at five and we went home to shower and get ready. Don't ask me how I got out of work on Friday night, I have no clue. The Man stayed home - basically he stubbed this same toe a year ago, and it misbehaved. He had some stuff done to it back then, but it never really healed properly, so this time when he stubbed it the doc went in and took care of business. So he stayed home for the dinner and the rest of us went out. Ate. Drank. Drank some more. Hit up a bar. Drank some more. And home we went. To sleep.

Sunday = Beach

2008-02-24T09:19:00.002-04:00

Today's picture comes from Trunk Bay, on St. John.

That's me, in the hat, facing the water watching our bud, S, do his part to start the 'wave'. Unfortunately no one else joined in...although the family to the right enjoyed watching.

Saturday Thoughts

2008-02-23T11:00:00.004-04:00

- I love the Keyword Activity blog stat. Due to my various posts I am currently #1 in Google searches for 'bar like cheers' and 'cutest reptile'. I'm #8 for 'kill spiders by the pool'. I'm #9 for 'lizards in st. thomas'. Put that in your pipe.

- I'm PMS-ing this week, which explains why I've had a bottomless, insatiable appetite. Ugh. However I've had more water than beer, and should get points for that.

- Lipstick Jungle is my new favorite show. It's full of cliches and moments-you-can-see-coming, but still, it's juicy and gossipy - and I love it.

- I am never buying Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe. Not even for a poor man. She's in the Paris Hilton stage of her life...her movies bomb, no one cares about her singing - she's just a paparazzi target at the moment. And it's sad.

- The Man gets the stitches out of his toe on Tuesday. Woohoo!

- My parents/aunt & uncle are flying in Wed and Thurs for two weeks. Woohoo!

- Last night was my last waitressing shift after 5pm. Woohoo!

- I'm saying it now, Obama is going to be our next president. I don't see how it doesn't happen.

- Clinton shouldn't feel bad, she's been a trailblazer.

- It's ridiculous how much money J Lo is getting for pics of her new babies. What is the matter with this world? They're BABIES. Fuck.

Junebug's Visit - Day Six

2008-02-22T08:15:00.006-04:00

Day Six was another wake-up-when-you-want day, and I chose this day (Junebug's last...ish) for a girl's day - shopping, lunch, etc.

Around 11 she and I headed down to Yacht Haven Grande for some lunch, we chose a restaurant called Fat Turtle. Yacht Grand opened last year, and there are a few restaurants in there, all of them have outside seating. We grabbed a table by the waterfront, ordered a couple of beers and salads, and hung out for an hour or so enjoying the view.

Yacht Haven is aptly named, it's a harbor for yachts over 65 feet in length, so it's pretty humbling to sit there and gaze at these giants. Here's a couple of shots taken from our table:

A shot of JB and I clinking our beer bottles, cruise ship in the background (docked at Havensight):

After a nice lunch, and a wecome re-introduction of healthy salad to our systems, we got in the truck and drove around to Havensight, right around the corner. Havensight is one of two cruise ship docks, and as a result it has a TON of places to shop for everything jewelry, t-shirts, souvenirs, etc. It has the same shops as Charlotte Amalie (waterfront) does, but it's easier to park and it's slightly nicer (in my opinion).

Here's JB wandering down one of the row of stores:

She picked up some stuff for people back home, we wandered around for awhile, and finally called it an afternoon around 4:30.

We got home, showed the Man our purchases, and hit the showers. T came over around 7 and we all piled in the truck for dinner at the Agave, one of our favorite restaurants. JB was taking us out to dinner as a thank you, so we chose our favorite place. I get one thing, and one thing only there, King Crab legs. SO GOOD. All four of us ended up ordering them, and a couple of hours later we were full, with buttery fingers and crab shells all over the table.

We drove home after T and JB shared a dessert, and crawled into bed. Thanks for dinner JB!! That rocked :)

Junebug's Visit - Day Five

2008-02-21T09:21:00.003-04:00

JB's visit started with a bang, with two big trips to St. John and Jost. Once the Super Bowl party was over we all shifted into quieter (read: less drunk) activities.

Monday we woke up, tired and groggy from the night before. Needless to say the kitchen, living room and tiki bar were a MESS, but that's pretty normal after a party so I wasn't too bothered. After a long time drinking coffee I finally got to work on the mess, with JB helping once she learned the system, a perfected system after quite a few parties.

Once that was finished the Man, JB and I took ourselves to Magens Bay to recover on the beach. It was a beautiful day, very sunny and hot and a perfect place to sit and read, or chat, or nap - whatever. We got lunch, sat some more, JB and I went swimming, sat some more while we dried off. T came down to meet us around 3-ish, and we packed up and went home around 4.

T was taking JB out to dinner that night, at a great place called Havana Blue (it's in the Marriot) and the Man and I had big plans to Sit On The Couch and Watch TV.

And that's what happened. I have no pictures from this day, but I'm sure you can visualize.

On another note - anyone else get a glimpse of the eclipse last night? I kept popping my head out from work, and after I got out I raced home to grab my camera and laid down on the deck to try and take a pic...but it came out fuzzy. It was cool to think that everyone I know, no matter where they lived, could see the same moon - and I fully understand the universe is huge, and I know how it works and all, but when you think that your bud in San Fran is looking at the same sky you're seeing in St. Thomas it makes you feel pretty small.

Junebug's Visit - Day Four

2008-02-20T07:42:00.006-04:00

After two early mornings JB's fourth day was finally a day to sleep in. Ahhh!

We woke up, had coffee, had breakfast, she helped me with the bird's brekkie (you cut a fine apple JB!) and basically we just relaxed into the morning.

Around 9:30 - 10am I started cooking; Day Four was, of course, Super Bowl Sunday sigh.

While I cooked JB and our bud T went out to do a few errands: JB had to return her Kmart purchases that she no longer needed, and they stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things.

When they got back home I put JB to work helping me cook, the Man and T made the sure the bar was set up and we hung out that way until the late afternoon. Our buds were set to arrive around four, which really meant 5:30 - gametime was 7pm our time. We all showered up, changed, grabbed some drinks and got ready for the big (disapppointing) game.

It's really hard to garner enthusiasm for this post.

I don't have a lot of shots from this day, mostly just our buds around the bar.

Everyone anticipating:

Finally it's time!

Hugh and Billy during the National Anthem:

Web and K:

JB and T (and K):

The party was fun, and rowdy. We chowed on lasagna and sauce during halftime and everyone entered food comas in the third quarter. The game, while thrilling, was nail-biting towards the end, and we all grew quiet in the last minutes. I remember standing next to Billy just staring at the TV, dumbfounded. And pissed.

After the game was over everyone went into 'let's help clean-up!' mode, but I urged everyone not to worry about it. The morning after parties I clean up no problem, but when you have four or five people piled in your kitchen all trying to 'clean' and 'organize' you usually just end up with a clusterfuck.

80% of our party were Pats fans, 2% were Giants fans (good friends, but Giants fans nonetheless) and the rest were just hanging out. The Pats fans pretty much took off shortly after the game ended, the Giants fans popped champagne and, as we tried to hold our tongues, attempted to calm the Man and I by telling us how lucky Boston has been in the past five years(I swear T, one more 'GEEEE-MEN!!!' out of you and you were going over the deck. I'm half kidding.) - and everyone else kind of shuffled away in sleepy food coma mode.

I'll take bets right now on everyone who thinks the Giants will make it to the playoffs. Anyone?

Crap. My bitter is showing.

I love T again, he's safe to sit on the deck. Until the Sox play the Indians.

But enough about sports, this is about JB (Lakers/Dodgers fan, in case you were wondering), and in her first five days it's safe to say she had a killer time between boat trips, partying and hanging with our crew :)

Survey

2008-02-19T13:08:00.003-04:00

Yet another break from the Junebug recap to survey-up:

Two Names You Go By: NJaney (on here), my real one (out there)

Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now: White spaghetti-strap tank, black flip-flops

Two things you want (or have) in a relationship: Humor, trust

Two of Your Favorite Things to do: Go out with friends, read in a quiet room

Two things you did last night: Watched TV, folded laundry

Two people you Last Talked To: The Man, the girl at the deli who took my order

Two Things You're doing tomorrow: Waitressing a double shift, drinking a Heineken (inbetween the shifts)

Two Longest Car Rides: Drove with my family cross-country from CT to CA, a spring break trip CT to FL

Two Favorite Drinks: Beer, juice

Two Things About Me you may not have known: I took piano lessons for nine years, I was a TimeLife operator (for almost two months)

Two jobs I have had in my life: Shoe sales, receptionist

Two Movies I would watch over and over: GoodFellas, Star Wars (any of them)

Two of my favorite foods: Anything salty and cheesy

Two places I'd rather be right now: I'm here

Junebug's Visit - Day Three

2008-02-18T08:20:00.019-04:00

Day three was Saturday, and we were up early once again to catch a boat - this time it was a catamaran owned by our friend Joe. The Man bartered a cat trip for a website with Joe, so we called up eleven of our closest and all met up on the dock in Red Hook around 8:30am. Our destination? Jost Van Dyke in the British Virgin Islands (passport required).

Some background on Jost - pronounced Yohst - via Wikipedia (I'm just getting familiar with this island myself...): A few hundred people live on Jost Van Dyke. The island is accessible by private boats and ferry service from Tortola and Saint Thomas (via Saint John). The most frequent mooring destination is Great Harbour. The popular Foxy's Bar and the other bars in Great Harbour now host a modest crowd year-round and are filled with thousands of partiers on New Year's Eve (locally known as "Old Year's Night"). Located in nearby White Bay is the Soggy Dollar Bar, another famous beach bar on the island. The Soggy Dollar is reputedly the birthplace of the popular drink known as the Painkiller. The Soggy Dollar bar is appropriately named because of the difficulty of navigating one's boat over the coral reef to reach the beach where the bar is located. It is a common practice for boaters to anchor beyond the reef, swim to the beach, and pay for their drinks with wet money.

This was our second trip to Jost and JB's first. I was excited because we were going to Foxy's, a first for the Man and I. Foxy's is the destination of the infamous New Year's party; one of the biggest New Year's parties in the world. Needless to say we're dying to ring in a New Years there.

Anyways, with our passports in hand we all boarded our bud's boat and set sail. Here's a shot of JB and our bud T on the front of the cat as we left American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook (the same place the car ferry to St. John leaves):

The trip over there took a little over an hour, having had breakfast before we set sail we all started boozing pretty much as soon as we got on the boat. Joe was opting to sail over vs. motor over, so we enjoyed conversation and the view on the way. Here's a shot of our buds D&D taking a pic of me taking a pic of them (she and I waitress together):

Here's a shot of JB and I on the boat (I'm covering up her Lakers hat, don't ask me why I'm being a brat, I don't even follow basketball!):

Here's a shot of Jost as we sailed in. Joe moored and we took a couple of dingy trips to get on the island:

We snapped this while Joe's mate took our passports in to clear us:

A shot of the ferry schedule (in case you're in the area):

After being cleared we picked our bags up and trudged across the soft sand into Foxy's for lunch. Foxy's, which sits right on the beach, is a huge open-sided pavilion with tables and chairs everywhere. The bar area is way in the back, and around the corner from the bar are the restrooms. Here's a shot from the back of the restaurant (the bar's on the left):

The bar menu:

And another shot from in front of the bar:

As you can see the ceiling is COVERED in t-shirts, hats, flip flops - all bearing signatures and comments from past-partiers. I wasn't prepared to nail anything up, but I can promise you when I return I will be securing some sort of Pats/Sox/Boston wear onto that ceiling. If I can find a Yankees shirt to cover up that would be a bonus ;)

We hung at Foxy's for lunch and drinks, we were probably there a little over an hour. It's a cool place, and I can only imagine how it must look on New Year's. I wish I could tell you what I had for lunch; I do know I had a couple of Painkillers with my meal. Here's a shot of myself, JB, our friend Leslie (above me) and Joe's girlfriend Ashley (in the middle). Ashley was our wedding photographer:

After lunch a few of us went into a little shop just outside the restaurant to grab some t-shirts, and then it was back on the boat to sail around to Soggy Dollar beach.

As we hadn't been in the water yet just after I snapped this pic of Soggy Dollar I put my Heineken down (way to mix the booze NJaney!) and jumped off of the boat into that luscious ocean water:

I think I swam to the beach with a couple of other people while the Man took my beach bag and camera over on the dingy with another group. I think. Painkillers and Heinekens are making the rest of this day a little foggy.

Soggy Dollar beach is a way chill area; there's a bar (of course), a little t-shirt shop (of course) and the people there are either tourists from the states on a boat excursion or a yacht, 'tourists' from another island on a private boat, or Jost locals. We grabbed more drinks, found some chairs, and settled in for a couple of hours of just limin' around.

A shot of my Painkiller on my chair arm looking into the water:

A shot of JB and T in the water:

Me buzzed and mugging for the camera:

Some dude playing the most addictive game ever:

I don't know the name of the game, but here's a brief description: you nail an upwards-facing hook onto a tree or wall. You then tie a wooden circle-shaped piece of wood to a long piece of string and secure it on a ceiling, or upper tree trunk. Standing about 10 feet back you gently swing the wooden ring and try to land it on the hook. The guy in the pic swung it as I took the shot, you can see the end of the string almost touching the tree on the left. It's totally addictive and we're trying to figure out a place on our deck to put it. So I can drive myself nuts at home as well as Soggy Dollar.

A shot of our group on the beach:

A shot of a local walking into the bar with two leashed goats (I'm guessing she's local, who brings goats on a boat?):

Last beach shot, these five white chairs that were so perfectly postitioned I took about 15 pictures of them:

We wrapped it up at Soggy Dollar late in the afternoon and dingied back to the boat. As we sailed around to a restaurant for dinner (don't ask me where we went...no clue) we were a rowdy drunk crew in the boat singing along to the radio and taking stupid pictures. Here's a shot of JB and I:

...and another one (I so pretty!):

I did manage a sunset shot:

We got to the restaurant and all piled around a table. The buzz was starting to wear off and most of us were drinking water. I think I had some sort of pasta dish, a bunch of people had lobster. It was tasty, but we were weary and ready to start on our way home.

This is the last shot on my camera from that day; me quietly waiting for my meal:

When we got on the boat after dinner we all found a spot and shut our eyes. Joe was sailing back and it was going to be a couple of hours. I believe it started raining about 20 minutes into the trip, and although I was laying on an uncovered part of the boat I pulled my towel around my shoulders and pretended not to feel the raindrops until our pal Billy (I think it was him) came over, woke me up and told me to go inside where it was dry. Which I did. There was a half-circle couch wrapped around a coffee table, and nine of us were passed out around it, a jumble of legs, arms and bodies. We all slept the whole trip home, and when we got back to the dock we piled out of the boat, mumbled 'Thanks' and 'Goodbye' to each other, went home and went to bed.

An awesome day for sure. I can't wait to go back.

Sunday = Beach

2008-02-17T12:02:00.004-04:00

Hello Sunday!

It's noon my time, and usually we are at the beach by now. We took a break last Sunday as Junebug left and we needed to recharge after her fun-filled visit. We were planning to go today, but we like our beach days to be sunny, like this:

But unfortunately this is the weather today:

So we ain't going.

Normally on the island it can be rainy on one side, and clear sun on the other...but we live near Magen's Bay, so we know it's a crappy day to be over there. Our buds usually get there early, and we texted them a little bit ago to see how warm it was, and they answered back 'We're huddled under umbrellas'.

Not fun.

Instead I'll get some things done around here: start a book (True Evil by Greg Iles), fill two photo albums, clean the bird cages, advance my band in Guitar Hero and maybe some laundry. I might even work out. So there.

However I'll post a nice beach picture for you, because that's what I do on Sunday. Enjoy our tootsies, on Magen's Bay, a month ago:

Saturday Thoughts

2008-02-16T10:38:00.002-04:00

* Like her or not you have to admit it's nice to see Britney get back on track with her family's help.

* I've been watching Roger Clemen's downfall with a smirk (fully aware of my Patriots woes, don't think I'm a hypocrite), but after watching him squirm and get shot down by the judge on ESPN I felt a little bad for him. I can't imagine what it's like for such a public person, once worshipped, to go down in flames in front of the whole world. How do you play ball with your kids, or have coffee with your wife with all of that pressure on your shoulders? God.

* Anyone out there still watching Lost? Are we loving the new episodes?

* I'm drawing a blank at the moment.

* I'm so glad not to be waitressing today.

* I'm a little hungover, and gray bird is calling for breakfast right now Guess What! Breakfast!! Good MORNing! Good MORNING!! BREAKFAST!! I'm going to go shove an apple in his beak (with love of course...)

I

2008-02-15T07:44:00.003-04:00

am tired.

I *almost* miss my office job where I could sit most of the day and surf the 'net. I've waitressed 26 hours so far this week, and I have another 12 today; my second double of the week.

Waitressing full-time down here was not the plan, however I'm still pulling 2 night shifts at the pizza joint; that ends on 2/27. Which can't get here fast enough. After that I'll be down to 4 day shifts, M-F, ending at 5.

The good news is my day shift today should be pretty slow, I need to remember my Soduko book.

Enjoy your Friday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T08:47:00.003-04:00

I'm leaving the Junebug Recap for today for a dose of 'island'.

In case you happen to be in the area there are five bar/restaurants in the Havensight area that are getting together tomorrow night for an Anti-Valentine's Day event.

See the invite below:

As I understand it you need to get your hands on one of the passes above, and as you visit the bars you get that bar's stamp on the back...:

...and you get a free T-shirt. Which is cool. People like free shirts.

But all I keep imagining is drunk people waving their passes in some bartender's face tomorrow late-night screaming "Wherresss miiii staaaammppppsss!!! *hiccup* Waaant mmyyy shiirt!!!!!"

Good luck to those bartenders.

Anyways, the Man and I have no plans today. I'm working until 5, then we'll probably watch TV and chill out. This is our sixth Valentine's Day together, and usually we hit up a cool restaurant for dinner, but this year we're hanging low. When I came home last night I printed out six of our pictures, wrote a few things on them and planted them where the Man would find them this morning: on his laptop keyboard, by the coffee mugs, in the egg container, by his vitamins, on top of the silverware and on top of the main power component to our TV/stereo. I get a kick out of making them and watching him find them. He's a big cutie.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY BLOGGER PEEPS!!

SMOOCHES

Junebug's Visit - Day Two

2008-02-13T08:12:00.008-04:00

There's a ton of things that the Man and I love about St. Thomas; one of those things is our close proximity to St. John. It's the smallest of the Virgin Islands, and the most pristine by far. 80% of it is protected conservation land and it's a popular destinations for backpackers and hikers who enjoy one of the handful of camp-grounds on the island.

Note: The Man and I have never hiked on this island, so I have no information on that. I can, however, tell you everything you need to know about sitting on one of the beaches and drinking yourself silly.

Whenever we have guests stay with us we always incorporate a St. John day into their stay, for JB that day was her second day. To get to St. John you can take the car-ferry (out of Red Hook) or the people-ferry (downtown Charlotte). We always bring our truck over, and we like to catch an early ferry, like 9 or 9:30, so St. John day is an early morning, we leave the house around 8.

Here's a shot from the deck of the ferry:

You pull into the parking area, turn your car around and back onto the boat. It's somewhere between $40-50 for a roundtrip, there are four car ferries that go back an forth all day (two separate companies). One ferry takes about 30 mins to get to STJ, the other takes 45. If you choose to build a house on St. John this is how all of the bits and pieces make it over there. Ferry trip by ferry trip. Blows my mind how long that would take.

Once we get to St. John we drive into their (very small) downtown area for breakfst. Here is where we always park:

It's somewhere between $5-10 depending on how long you're there. There is street parking available, but it's a pain to hunt down and we're usually starving by the time we get there. There are many great places to eat on STJ, but we always have breakfast at JJ's Texas Cafe:

I always get the basic breakfast: two eggs, toast, hash browns and a sausage patty for $8.75. Add coffee and juice and I'm good to go. SO good. Plus a great place to sit and watch the small bustle of the area.

Once we're done with breakfast we do one of two things - depending on our guests. STJ has some great shops right around JJ's, and it's fun to browse for an hour or so, or we jump back in the truck and hit the beach. Here's a shot of me...:

...taking a shot of an alleyway surrounded by shops:

JB decided against shopping, so we jetted straight off to the beach. STJ is easy to get around, there's basically two main roads going up either side of the island. Stay on it long enough and I believe you circle right around to where you started (don't quote me on that). One the way to our first beach we pulled off to grab some pictures. Here's JB capturing the beauty:

There's a TON of beaches on STJ, but we like to hit these three: Hawksnest, Cinnamon and Trunk Bay. On this day we decided to bomb right out to Trunk, we had been a couple days before JB got there and the surf was leaving little beach area on the other two.

Here's a shot I took of Trunk Bay, one of the most beautiful beaches you'll ever see:

Once we got to Trunk we parked, paid to get in (it's the only beach that charges an entry fee: $4) and set up our chairs. The weather was NOT cooperating, and we sat and scowled at the sky. Here's a shot of me, wrapped up (it was cold) and wishing for the sun to appear:

There was a brief rain shower around noon, and the sun was still hiding. So we did what anyone would do, popped open the cooler and started drinking. We watched a group of 50 people appear from a cruise ship excursion and cracked up as they started wrestling with their snorkel gear. Soon enough they were in the water and the three of us continued our defiant wait for the sun.

And you know what? It paid off; around 1:30 the sun FINALLY came out to play, and the Man and I were relieved that JB would actually get to see how beautiful STJ could be. We stripped down to our suits, grabbed our sippy cups and floaty noodles and jumped in the surf. The water was turquoise and beautiful and we bobbed for a good hour just soaking in the awesomeness.

Here's a shot of JB and me:

We usually grab a 5:30-ish ferry back to St. Thomas (they stop running at 6), and you're always starving around 4, so at 3:30 we packed up our beach gear and took JB to our other favorite place on STJ, Skinny Legs.

Skinny Legs is a bar/restaurant owned by a couple of Boston guys (one who passed away a couple of years ago). It's a local place, and we heard about it at a gift shop sometime last year. It's becoming more well-known though. It's open-sided and surrounded by three or four little gift shops. They serve the best burger on the island, and we LOVE it. Of course JB is a vegetarian, and I forgot what she ate, but I do know she enjoyed going there:

Here's a shot of my yummy burger and pineapple Pain Killer:

We say it's the best burger on the island, but the truth is anything would taste awesome after a day of drinking on the beach. But it is a kickass burger.

Here's a row of t-shirts from one of the shops:

Here's JB and I sticking our heads through the sign:

After eating we drove back to the ferry, and enjoyed the sunset ride back to St. Thomas:

Here's a shot of JB and our bud chatting on the way home:

After we got back to STT we decided to grab some food and more drink at Duffy's Love Shack (which is a entirely other post). Suffice it to say we made JB and our bud order the infamous Shark Tank drink which comes with a double shot of 151 Cruzan Dark rum:

When you order a specialty drink from Duffy's you get a sticker applied to you and you get lei'd, which JB is showing off in the above picture.

We made her shoot the shark (which we saved to send home to our nephew...)...:

...and then we tucked into our food and booze.

And that ends the pictures for Day Two. After Duffy's we drove home and pretty much passed out. Day Three also had an early rise, and it was going to be a wicked cool day.

Junebug's Visit - Day One

2008-02-12T11:58:00.000-04:00

First thing we did on her first day was call the airport to check on her baggage. No word. We tracked it online using the code she was given. No word. So she and I hiked out to Kmart. What else would you want to do on your first day in St. Thomas?

After picking out some essentials, like a bathing suit, we got back in the truck and headed back to the house. In the rain. But we were gung ho that she would hit Magen's Bay beach on Day 1. As was I.

Once home we called the airport again to see if there was any news, and there was! Lo and behold her bag had been found and, more amazing still, they were driving it to our front door. Damn! We waited about a 1/2 hour, and sure enough it showed up. Excellent! Which means Kmart was completely unnecessary. Oh well!

After Junebug checked her bag out and unpacked a little we changed into our suits, grabbed some towels, said goodbye to the Man (who was smartly sitting this beach trip out) and drove down to Magen's. In pouring rain. Eh, whatever. It was a Thursday afternoon, about 2pm, what else are we going to do? Plus there's a bar there. Case closed.

As we pulled in the rain had stopped, and people were re-setting up their beach chairs and towels. We grabbed some chairs from the back of the truck, stopped in the bar to grab a couple of rum punches, and plopped down on the (wet) sand.

Here's a shot of that day...clearly not the most beautiful of beach days (I know I know, most of you would still take it right now...):

It should be noted that Junebug managed to spill her drink not once, but twice. The first time she set it in the sand in order to free her hands up to set up her chair...and tipped the drink over by setting her bag practically on top of it.

Once we had been sitting for a few minutes we realized we were hungry and decided to leave the chairs and go up to the snack bar. Junebug carefully balanced her drink on the arm of the chair, and then grabbed both arms as she heaved herself up. Unshockingly that very movement caused the drink to fall to the sand.

Rookie.

Here's a shot of J once she managed to actually get some sips of rum:

And one of me, rocking my Pats hat (sigh) and sipping on my (unspilled) drink:

We got some food from the snack bar, settled back in our chairs to eat and just as we readied our first bites the skies opened and the rain came in. Crap. We pulled our chairs underneath a pavilion and watched the rain fall while eating our late lunch. What a great first day!

After we ate we gave up on the beach and went back home. Tonight I was starting the first batch of sauce for the Stupid Bowl and I put J in charge of peeling onions and garlic:

She'll never ask if she can help me in the kitchen again ;) The Man kept our margarita glasses full as we cooked and he prepared dinner. Cheers J! (if she looks weary here it's because she's ALL SET with onions and garlic):

Our bud came over for dinner, eventually my sauce was simmering and we all took our drinks into the hot tub to hang out. I'm pretty sure the high temp brings your buzz around that much faster, and it wasn't soon until the Man took a 'break' (nap...) on the couch while the three of us stayed in the tub. The Man came back in a bit with his second wind and we decided to start up Guitar Hero. We be lovin' that game as you all know!

Here's a shot of J playing her first licks of GH ever (with our bud):

She rocked it out pretty good for a first-timer.

The night ended a little while after that and we all hit the sack. Day Two had an early start and we wanted to be ready.

Introducing my new template.

2008-02-11T23:11:00.000-04:00

"Hi. I'm NJaney's new template. My official name is 'Minima Lefty'.

But you can call me Bob."

How exciting.

Happy Monday

2008-02-11T08:32:00.000-04:00

I have six waitressing shifts this week. Today 10-5, Wed 10-5 and 6-10:30, Thurs 11-5, Fri 10-5 and 6-10:30. I'm tired just looking at that, but on the other hand it's a good thing. Good $$ and a lot of walking. I took a week of when Junebug was here, stuffed my face and I need to get back to the healthy side.

One last thing about the Super Bowl before I get to your pictures for the day. We did squares at our Super Bowl party, $5 a square:

Guess what? The Man and I SWEPT each quarter and the final score. Can you stand it? Not shady at all when the house wins everything...! But no, it didn't take the sting out of the loss. It was only an interesting side show. (you have our friend Russ to thank for the 'penis' squares...)

You pictures of the day come via our deck. There was a beautiful sailboat in the 'neighborhood' and I snapped a couple of pictures, one far:

...and one close:

Each time we see a boat, or jet skier, or snorkeler off our deck we look at each other and say 'we need binoculars'. Do you think we own any yet? Nope.

Life's a Beach Baby

2008-02-10T11:26:00.000-04:00

Two chairs, a rum drink (in a sippy cup of course...) and a beautiful beach day.

This particular beach is Trunk Bay on St. John.

In other news - Junebug left this morning, her flight is leaving as I type this. The funny thing? She was actually supposed to leave last Wednesday, but her new guy friend extended her trip. They're that much in 'like', and we all expect to see Junebug back down here very soon. For a week or forever is the only question ;)

The Man and I are staying home today. We're not going anywhere and no one is coming over. We're tired and bloated. And peopled-out at the moment. The past few weeks have been a blur of friends, restaurant dinners, booze, work, junk food, more friends, more booze, beer, late nights, early morning boat trips, work, ferry trips to St. John, booze, work, continuing to show Junebug our fun island, more late nights, beer, work, football parties, football depression, followed by more beer, more junk food, more rich restaurant dinners...

I think you get the picture.

A week ago the Man stubbed his toe wicked bad while walking outside and his toenail decided to create issues inside the swollen skin. He stubbed this same toe last year, and had part of the nail removed, but apparently it never healed correctly. He went in last Friday to have it taken care of again and they went in and around his big toe to get him to 100%. His foot is wrapped up and he's out of commission until the stiches come out. Which is another reason we're skipping the beach today. We don't need any sand getting in there.

Enjoy your Sunday~

The one good thing about Super Bowl Sunday

2008-02-07T09:22:00.000-04:00

...was my sauce.

It was freakin' good.

And because I took the time to document it today's entry is about the making of.

You need fresh tomatoes; plum and the big ones (what are those called?):

Yes. I bought 5 boxes of lasagna noodles, only because you're usually guaranteed to lose some either from an impatient grocer tossing it in a bag (and cracking them) or if some break apart while boiling.

You need fresh garlic:

A pain to peel and chop for sure, but fresh is best, and our kitchen smelled magical for about four days.

You need fresh herbs; I like oregano, basil, parsley and rosemary (for the meatballs):

For the sauce base I use Hunts tomato sauce and tomato paste. Dump one #10 size can of the bare sauce into a pan. Add your chopped herbs and tomatoes. I also put in roughly 15 small packets of Splenda to kill the tomato acid.

Pause for a sip of your margarita:

Once the onions and garlic are chopped dump them into a frying pan:

Once they're sauteed in a generous amount of olive oil toss them into the sauce. Add a nice dollop of red wine, some salt and pepper, put the lid on and let it simmer for a few hours until it looks like this:

I prepared one batch of sauce on Thursday night. On Sunday morning I started the second and also put together the ricotta cheese for the lasagna (ricotta cheese, grated parmesan, mozzarella, fresh garlic, fresh basil, fresh parsley, eggs), and the ingredients for the meatballs (ground beef, fresh rosemary, fresh oregano, onions, garlic, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, grated parmesan, parsley, eggs).

Junebug was in charge of boiling and laying out the lasagna noodles while I rolled the meatballs and prepared the meat sauce for the lasagnas. Here's a shot of 50 meatballs being quickly fried before landing in the sauce where they would sit and cook for about four hours (notice the margarita has now been swapped for a Corona):

After the meatballs were nestled in the pots with the lids closed Junebug and I set up an assembly line and put together four lasagnas (three meat, one cheese). Sauce goes on the bottom of the pan, then a layer of noodles, meat sauce, ricotta cheese, shredded mozzarella, grated parmesan, noodles, sauce etc.

Here are the four lasagnas in the fridge, waiting to be popped in the oven just before the first quarter ended:

The food came out to be devoured during halftime, and any drunk feeling you had was replaced by food coma. After everyone ate we pretty much all slumped around with full happy bellies.

Go me.

Did that really just happen?

2008-02-05T10:52:00.000-04:00

Did my team just win 18 straight games and lose the Super Bowl?

Christ.

I took yesterday to try and swallow the bitter pill. I went in and around the internet trying to stomach the headlines of 'Giants Win!' 'Biggest Choke Ever!' 'Pats can't finish!' 'Cheaters got what they deserved!'.

Fuck.

When Grady Little overused Pedro in the 2003 Sox/Yankees series and we lost a Game 7 that we should have won I thought that was the most disgusting loss I would ever see. The entire city of Boston left bars that night shaking their heads and punching walls.

When we had 35 seconds on the clock and Brady had the ball on Sunday night I was 75% hopeful, and I based all of that on previous wins. The other 25%? I knew it wouldn't happen. Brady spent more time on his back on Sunday than a porn star. We looked flat. As the clock ticked down we all just sat there, beers motionless in our hands, just knowing what was going to happen and not wanting to believe it.

And then it was over. 18 and 1. And I learned something: Nothing kills a Super Bowl party more than your team losing a nailbiter. As the Man and I sat and shook our heads our buds, equally disgusted, all came down with sudden tiredness and shuttled out the door. Which was fine with us. Thirty minutes later we were in bed trying to find a channel that wasn't screaming about the game.

I'll be a big girl and not make excuses. We didn't lose the game. The Giants didn't get lucky. We got out-played. Out coached. Big time. And it was really hard to watch.

I was pissed yesterday. But today I can't wait. I can't wait for next season. I can't wait to see how we answer back to this loss. I can't wait for more great games against the Colts. I can't wait to see how the Giants deal with the pressure that comes from holding the Super Bowl trophy. I can't wait for Brady and Moss to show off their new moves.

I can't wait to get back to the Super Bowl.

But for now it's goodbye to my Pats:

And hello to my Red Sox:

In case you haven't heard pitchers and catchers report on Feb 14. Baseball is right around the corner kids.

GO SOX!!!

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!!

2008-02-03T10:36:00.000-04:00

Did ya hear about the big game tonight? Didja?

Obviously I am PSYCHED!!! But there's a lot to do in the meantime...make four lasagnas, roll up some softball size meatballs, tend to my simmering sauce...and get ready to get my beer on.

Some highlights from the first few days of Junebug's visit:

DAY ONE
- went to Kmart to shop
- bag arrived, Kmart shop wasn't even necessary
- hit the beach on her first day, and sat in a small rainstorm while the sun played peek-a-boo
- left the beach
- helped me start sauce #1 while the Man made margaritas and started dinner
- met one of our guy friends that we invited for said dinner
- hit the hot tub, played Guitar Hero, and smooched our guy friend (as we suspected would happen)

DAY TWO
- woke up early nursing a hangover
- got in the car and we drove to the car ferry
- arrived in St. John
- had awesome breakfast at JJ's
- hit the beach and growled at the still-crappy weather
- put long sleeves on while keeping determined that sun would come out and rain would stop
- had first rum drink of day, while still glaring at the sky
- determination paid off! sky cleared, sun came out, we bobbed on noodles in the waves while drinking from our sippy cups
- had good food at Skinny Legs
- guy friend from previous night took ferry over and met us at Skinny Legs
- had more drinks
- drove to car ferry and went back to St. Thomas
- had dinner and yet more drinks
- drove guy friend home and came back to house to sleep

DAY THREE
- another early morning, another hangover
- met friends down at dock for big catamaran trip to Jost Van Dyke
- started drinking on boat, Junebug and guy friend at this point are all sorts of attracted to each other
- hit Jost, have lunch, hit beach, soak in sun and booze
- more sun
- more booze
- more canoodling
- dinner
- back on boat
- sleepytime for long ride back (we sailed, no motor)
- got back to house at midnight
- guy friend stayed over

DAY FOUR
- Superbowl Sunday!
- another hangover
- guy friend and Junebug are out buying rum for party and more ricotta for lasagna
- guy friend is taking her to Kmart to return the crap she no longer needs

...and now we're all caught up. There are many pictures from these days that I will bore you with once we slow down. It's safe to say we do it up when friend's come to visit. We're all weary with exhaustion. One more BIG night of drinking and then mama needs some rest.

I AM SO FUCKING EXCITED FOR FOOTBALL TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She has arrived!

2008-01-31T09:28:00.000-04:00

*Update* The airport found her bags and drove them GASP! to us. We were amazed as our area is a little remote and we didn't expect them to arrive on our doorstep. That rocked! Of course we just came back from Kmart with all sorts of stuff that will now be returned on Sunday...

Junebug is here!

Unfortunately her bags are not...yet.

More on that later.

The airport down here is pretty small. We were there last night at 8pm, and it was pretty dead. Here is an airport entrance, this is the only gate where people arrive:

If you fly into St. Thomas this is the door (marked Do Not Enter) you walk through once you're off the plane:

As you come through the doors you pass by this cart which is usually manned by two women serving up rum punch (virgin or otherwise). Unfortunately they don't serve it at 8pm...

Here is a shot of Junebug and her fellow passengers waiting for their bags; they are only three carousels in the airport - and this room is open to the outside, so even with many fans blowing if you arrive in the afternoon you will be hot and sweaty while fighting off tons of bag-searchers who are also hot and sweaty. Fortunately for us this was the only flight in at the time so the room was not crowded.

Here's a shot of Junebug, hands planted on her hips as she waited (in vain) for her bag:

After watching the last five unclaimed bags circle and circle we finally realized her bag was not coming through the plastic strips and we made our way down to the American Eagle office. We got in line with seven (!) other people who were also waiting for their bags. And then we all waited. And waited. There was an open sign on the closed office door, and the light was on - but there was nobody manning the desk. The Man and I understand the island way and both of us split up to (politely) inquire about the person(s) who should be in the office. I found a nice woman who explained to me that the people who work in the office were probably out on the runway as they're also in charge of plane safety when a plane arrives. Don't ask me what plane safety means. And why they're in charge of it.

Around 9:15 (she arrived at 8pm...) the women returned to the office and we all filed claims. Apparently there is another Amercian Eagle flight arriving from Miami at 4pm this afternoon, and that is probably where Junebug's bag is. Cool.

We left the airport and went to a small restaurant in Frenchtown for a bite and some drinks. We know the bartender and the waitress so she met them, and after dinner we got back to our house. I set her up with some clothes, soap, toothpaste, etc. and after a quick chat we all hit the sack around 11:30.

This morning we checked the computer and her bag is tracked to be on the afternoon flight. Our plan today is to hit the beach, so I'm taking Junebug to KMart so she can pick up a bathing suit and we will relax out the rest of the day.

Here's one last picture of J & I in the airport:

Cross your fingers that her bag arrives!

Restaurant Profile

2008-01-30T08:08:00.000-04:00

If you find yourself on St. Thomas and you're staying on the East End, near Red Hook, then The Agave Terrace is a place you should check out for dinner. It's one of our Top Five restaurants on the island.

We first ate here over four years ago, during our first trip to the island. The food (we consider it fine dining) was excellent, the waitstaff was pleasant, and the atmosphere was really nice. It's located by Point Pleasant Resort, a vacation spot. As you walk down to the restaurant the pathway is surrounded by lush plants and colorful flowers. Everytime we visited the island we made a point to eat here, and once we moved here we booked it for our wedding night dinner, party of 18.

Here's a shot of the Man and I on our wedding night walking around the outside of the restaurant:

The Agave is an open-sided restaurant, perched on a cliff overlooking St. John. There's a dining room, and an enclosed bar. If the air is breezefree you some mosquitos come along and try to interrupt your meal; but that was only an issue for us once - and our waiter brought us each a shot of vodka to rub on our uncovered skin. You know what? It worked!

Here is a shot of the entranceway, from inside the restaurant. This was taken the last time the Man and I ate there - last month:

I had the Alaskan king crab legs, which is pretty much what I've had the last four times we've dined there. I can't not get them, they're excellent...EXCELLENT! I eat until I want to lie down on the floor.

Here's a shot of the cliffside seating:

The guy next to me looks like he's full as well.

Here's the dining area:

...and now I want crab legs. Even at this early hour.

We give this restaurant a 3 Bird rating which, if you've been keeping up, is the exact number of birds that we own. So it's equal to 5 stars. Which is perfect.

Thank you Agave, we'll see you soon!

A PSA for Tuesday

2008-01-29T14:53:00.000-04:00

I don't care how drunk you are...

...we please ask that you refrain from tossing brownies or any other baked goods into our pool.

Thank you,

Management

It's a Beach Sunday kids!

2008-01-27T07:15:00.000-04:00

Some of our crew all hanging onto a raft and float-chatting on Magens Bay:

Saturday Thoughts

2008-01-26T12:17:00.000-04:00

**Update Two** - I cried about five times during that movie...

**Update** - we're too comfortable on the couch to go to the movie. So we're tearing open another netflix 'We Are Marshall'. I'm ready for a little Matthew McConaughey, and to finally see this flick. I know you're all resting more easy since I posted this update to our lazy Saturday. Latah freaks.

- We're (finally!) going to see Cloverfield this afternoon. I've been working Friday nights, our usual movie night back home, so we decided on a matinee today. I'm PSYCHED! We haven't been to a movie since we moved back to the island - so we're way overdue. I'm ready for a good 'ol Monster Takes Manhattan flick.

- I just cleaned the kitchen, and we're now on the couch watching Rush Hour 3. Our matinee is at 3:15, and then we're meeting friends at a new sushi place down here. It's also been awhile since we had sushi - so I'm looking forward to a good dinner. And cocktails.

- Waitressing was pretty good this week, I worked five shifts and at the new place I got the good section twice instead of once, and I rocked it, so I was happy with that. I'm taking time off next week and the week after though because...

- ...my CA bud Junebug is coming to visit :) She's ready for her first St. T trip and will be here next Wednesday for a week. We have a lot of stuff planned - so I'm psyched for her to get here and get some island time in. I'm guessing next Thursday will be wacky for her though - she gets here Wed. night, and as we're four hours ahead of CA her go-to-sleep and wake-up hours will be a tad off.

- We have a little over a week to go before the Superbowl and I'm anxious to hear an actual Tom Brady status that doesn't include speculation. I have a better chance of winning the lottery though, so I'll have to wait for the injury report like everyone else. Of course Brady's been on that report pretty much every week during his Pats career so that won't help at all. I guess I'll just have to wait for his first snap.

- My last thought for the day? I have GOT to work on my diet. With five waitress shifts a week I'm pretty much living on restaurant food...and let's just say I ain't picking salad. Quesadillas, pasta, pizza, steak and cheese sandwich, big burger with potato salad - and that was just this week. Yikes! The good thing is with the busy shifts I've had I'm definitely walking a lot, and fast - so that has to count for something. However after you tack on beer and drinks and factor in my lack of vitamins I really need to make an effort. Starting this Monday I'm breaking out the vitamin powder and will start to choose better food options at work. The beer stays though.

All the colors...

2008-01-25T12:21:00.000-04:00

...of a rainbow.

I took this pic last year off of our deck:

I was up early this morning for a staff meeting at the restaurant - at the moment the Man and I are watching a movie...and then I'll tie up my waitressing shoes again tonight from 5-10.

There's not much news for the day, and with a football-free weekend ahead of us it will be nice to relax until we get geared up for the Superbowl.

Enjoy your weekend!

Cutest. Reptile. Ever.

2008-01-23T07:41:00.000-04:00

I saw this little guy on our wall the other morning:

Here's how tiny this little lizard is, as he came upon the lightswitch plate:

He didn't seem to mind me taking a bunch of close shots of him:

Wow. You really don't know just how dirty your lightswitches are until you zoom in on a tiny lizard walking over them.

He kept going up the wall until he found safety underneath a picture frame:

I made him my screensaver. And Q-tipped our 'switches.

Keep on trucking little guy.

...and on another note - I can't believe Heath Ledger died yesterday. Just wow. So so young.

New Year's Eve - 2008

2008-01-22T12:24:00.000-04:00

New Year's Eve on St. Thomas. There are a number of things to do for New Year's: get together at a friend's house, join others at a restaurant for a one-price menu with a champagne toast, find a bar to ring in the New Year. There are also a number of things to do off the island - the number one attraction is going to Jost Van Dyke to party at Foxy's. That party has been called the number one New Year's party in the WORLD - and the Man and I are anxious for our first New Year's at Jost. But that will have to wait as you A) need a boat to go over and B) need lodging. As you can imagine it books up WAY in advance, and it wasn't in our plans this year.

This year we were all about old school Disco. A place on the waterfront, Yacht Haven Grande, was throwing a big bash for New Years inviting people to 'Get down tonight, boogie oogie oogie and shake your groove thang as Yacht Haven Grande St. Thomas welcomes 2008 in ‘Old School’ style with its Disco Funk New Year’s Eve party'.

We began our night with cocktails and light eats at our friends house (where we were bunking in at the moment). There were about 10-ish people who came over around 7pm. Our theme was, of course, Disco, and us chicks put on our most silver heels and sparkly clothes.

Here's a shot of my beautiful veggie plate:

Yum. I show you that because I was proud of my casual 'tossing of raspberries' which made it look attractive as well as tasty. Take that professional caterers!

Am I too excited over vegetables right now?

Guitar Hero was present as it is at all of our gatherings these days. Here's a shot of our friend K and I rocking out:

I bought my outfit that day, and it turned out more Disco Tramp than regular Disco - but at least the shirt had sequins (a Disco outfit must) and the shoes had rhinestones so I had enough shine going on.

Around 9:30 we made our way downtown and joined the throng already milling around Yacht Haven. There were two areas of music, one with a reggae band and one where the disco band would be. We grabbed a spot on the pavement just a few feet from the disco dance floor and stayed there for the rest of the night. Here's a shot of the mass crowd:

The band wasn't going on until midnight so we jammed out to old-school Disco songs spun by a DJ. I haven't danced that much in a long time, we started the minute we got there and didn't stop until our feet were begging us too. The way the party was set up there were bar areas placed here and there and as expected the lines were long. Same with the restrooms. I waited almost 40 minutes at one point to pee and after that I just held it. SO annoying. Especially when you're double-fisting your drinks to save waiting in line.

As expected our group got pretty buzzed and pretty sweaty with all the dancing and boozing. Here's a shot of me with some of our buds:

I don't know what kind of judo chop move I'm putting on my friend L's neck, I obviously knocked her off balance in my photo eagerness - I love how she has her eye on her almost tipped over drink!

Here's a shot of K and I, and while she's pulling a model face I'm once again pulling a judo chop move. It must be my 'thing', so if you're getting a picture taken with me don't let me stand on your back left :)

One of the restaurants fastened a ball on the top of it's roof and we counted down to midnight. At the first moment of 2008 fireworks were shot off and the Man and I kissed in the New Year as did everyone else. We then all kissed and hugged each other while saying 'We love you guys, you're the best friends, so happy we're here and know you!!' The mixture of booze, dancing with our buds, being in St. Thomas, rocking out at a great party, and at the same time being away from home all caught up at the same second in my head and I was teary for the first minutes of '08. Big mushball. Of course I followed up my crying with 'Is my mascara running? Is there make-up all over my face?' Hot stuff for sure. Here's a blurry pic of fireworks going off:

Finally the band came on, called SuperFly, from Washington D.C.:

From what I remember they were really good, and we continued dancing until 1:30-ish. At that point we were getting hungry and the girls' feet were REALLY starting to burn. We had all taken off our shoes earlier, but I don't think that helped, because the minute I tried to put them back on I almost fell over from the pain. It was equally as bad just trying to walk on bare feet. Here's our pile of silver strappy pain-makers:

We left Yacht Grande and made our way down to a downtown restaurant for some late noshing. We munched our way through the food, got into the car and passed out once we got home. The next day we stayed in with our friends and watched movies all day. I was more exhausted than hungover, it was SUCH a great night. These pictures don't even do the party justice: you miss out on the sounds, the grooving beats, everyone screaming and dancing all as one. There hasn't been a New Year's party like this on the island, and it seemed that EVERYONE showed up there. Tourists on vacation, people in from the yachts, local people from every inch of the island - it was awesome. We hope not only do they do the same thing next year, but that they put together some more theme parties in the meantime...going out dancing is something we don't do often here - there's not a lot of places with live music.

Yacht Haven, keep partying!!

I

2008-01-21T18:03:00.000-04:00

am hungover.

Well not so much anymore, but this morning? Around 8am? Oh yeah. Oh hell yeah.

And I had to waitress today. Which really put salt in my cereal.

I powered through and now I'm back home on the couch.

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh...........

GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-20T10:16:00.000-04:00

Good morning!

Here is your Sunday beach pic:

On tap for today - a quick trip to the price club for some booze, chips, wings and other items we need at home. After that it's to the beach for a few hours of drinking, gabbing and other beachy-keen activities. Around 3:30 we'll be packing up and moving the beach party to our deck for the Pats/Chargers game at 4pm (our time).

And that's pretty much that.

GO PATS!!!!!

Pity Party: Table for One

2008-01-19T00:43:00.000-04:00

Blah.

I waitressed tonight, got home roughly an hour ago.

Blah.

I'm in a crap mood and not sure why. Maybe I do know why.

A) I have my period.

2) We were busy at the restaurant tonight; a night I could have happily not moved a pinky...and yet after all of my running around I didn't score the tips I thought I would have. Which really sours my milk.

C) I started a new waitressing job last week, and this week I was on my own. Between you, me and whoever the crap is in charge of Blogger I ROCK at this new job, but because of seniority nonsense I was in the shit section twice this week and I'm scheduled for it again next week. Fuck. Off. The good thing is I sit down with them this week to show them I know the menu and for them to ask me what I like/dislike. Here's a thought: I DISLIKE THE SHIT SECTION.

D) Whatever.

5) I mentioned the period thing.

I'm done with my second beer of the night and ready to pop a third. The Man is sleeping and my plan is to drink beer downstairs, play on the computer, rock out with some chips and dip, watch some TV, drink more beer and finally put myself to sleep and end this pity party.

God I'm ANNOYED right now. Whatever. I want to A) be down to one waitress job but B) I need to hit a certain $$ amount each week and C) with the shit section it's not going to happen. So I need to A) work it through next week and B) sit down with them to make sure we're on the same fucking page or else C) i'm going to have to keep both places and D) I DON'T WANT TO.

To FURTHER annoy I've been sleeping like SHIT all week. I'm having those awake/asleep things where I A) know that it's 3AM and it's sleep time but yet B) people are in our room waiting for me to take their order and it's awkward because C) i sleep in the buff and i'm sure people don't want a naked waitress so D) i end up leaning up on one elbow looking around at the bedroom and it's all fucked because I KNOW it's time for sleep and I KNOW there's no one in the bedroom but yet some part of my brain is all screwed and continues to nudge me awake EVERY FUCKING HOUR with this STRESS that people are waiting for their order. GOD it's making me tired.

And to make my immediate mood worse about 20 mins ago I saw a black roachy thing come crawling out from beneath the couch...then it went back under...then came back out - all while I was standing frozen with my beer saying to myself No no NO!!! See I'm not naive, I know there's crawlies around, I just don't need to SEE them because then I sit here and imagine them in my hair, under my couch cushion, etc. When I don't see them I can pretend they're all outside. But no worries, I took care of the situation. The last time he came crawling out from under the couch I dropped the (full) laundry basket on him. And it will sit there until the Man picks it up tomorrow.

Wow. I LOVE when I sit under the Cloud of Aggravation. It's really fucking pleasant.

I have to pee.

Later.

Dear New England Patriot Fans,

2008-01-18T12:59:00.000-04:00

I just found this, and it pissed me off.

Grow the fuck up.

Recycling? Um, not so much.

2008-01-18T10:16:00.000-04:00

TGIF people! I'm sure you're all looking forward to your weekend.

My topic today is garbage. Literally.

The trash system on the island is pretty simple. Bag it up ('it' being everything...papers, eggshells, empty bottles...etc), put it in the back of your ride, find a big blue bin and toss it. Period. Here's a shot of a bin area:

Yummy.

We learned a couple of trash lessons last year, one comical - and one messy. We have no big bins outside of our house, so when your kitchen trash is full and you have no plans to leave the house that day what do you do with it?

Last year we had a bunch of people over for dinner during our first month. We had a full trash bag and wanted to hide it from sight so we decided to put it in an....uh....upstairs bedroom. Our guests arrived, we had some drinks, and our friend Robyn wanted a tour of the house. As we got upstairs I led her to 'the' bedroom. As I swung open the door and started to say 'Here is one guest bedr...' an odor like no other met our noses and both of our faces scrunched up in distaste. Sheepishly I said 'Yeah, we put our trash bag in here to get it out of the way, and apparently we've learned a lesson', and then we both cracked up as I slammed the door shut. Don't EVER do that at home, especially if you live in a tropical climate. Ouch.

Lesson #2. We had two full trash bags, and before going to bed one night we put them outside on the deck near the bar so that they wouldn't smell up the house. The next morning we found two torn bags and a nice pile of our garbage scattered around the deck and trailing off the deck into the grass. Awesome. As we put our gag reflex into full use while cleaning up we agreed to never leave trash outside again. You may not think that there are animals lurking, but apparently they are.

If we have a full bag now we leave it just inside the front door. With my waitressing gigs we leave the house more this year than we did last year when we were both tapping away on our computers all day. So it's easier to maintain trash removal. However if we have a full bag and someone stops by there's a good chance they're leaving with our trash, especially if they have a pick up truck.

Usually there are two bins in the bin area, lately there has been three - and as it's situated on a bend in the road it can be tricky trying to manuever in, while not colliding with oncoming traffic. Luckily we all know it's right there and people usually slow down just in case there's a trash clusterfuck, like here:

In the pic the car is pulling away from the bins, the car in front of us wants to pull in and we just want to continue on our way. The bin area, as you can imagine, is not the coolest area to spend time in. When we pull in one of us goes to the back of the car and heaves our bags in the bin while the other clears away the empty cans and bottles that tend to pile up in the front and back seats. Then we jump back in, shut the doors, and zoom off. The ground is cruddy, there's chickens trying to get out of your way, sometimes a stray dog or two are lounging in the shade of the bins. We've seen everything from full matresses, to refrigerators, kitchen tables, chairs, old couches...you name it people are dumping it.

You might have the same question that I do; where do they dump the bins? Do they put it in a big pile and burn it somewhere on the island? Do they place it on a barge and send it away? I'll find out the answer and let you know.

In the meantime enjoy your weekend. Take care of your trash. Smile.

Self-Portrait over the waves

2008-01-17T09:40:00.000-04:00

Happy Thursday!

I think my feet hit a wall last night, I waitressed 10:30-5, then grabbed a Heineken (shift-drink) for the 20 min drive to my next job and waitressed 5:30-10. At the second place we were slow after 8:30 and I sat down for a few mins to chat, once I stood back up my feet were just not having it. Clearly I need some better shoes.

A few mornings ago I took the camera (my constant companion these days) out to the deck for some pictures. The waves were crashing pretty hard and I'm always trying to catch the trail of spray that they leave.

Here's one shot:

Here's a second shot, close-up of the spray bouncing off of the rocks:

As I turned to walk back inside I decided to snap this pic of my reflection in our sliding door. Yes, I'm in my house-clothes, which consist of comfy shorts, t-shirt and flippies. And the hair tied up on the top of my head to finish the 'look':

If it's not at Kmart, then we don't need it

2008-01-16T08:03:00.000-04:00

Kmart is the big store on the island, that and Home Depot. Yes, there's a ton of shopping down near the cruise ship docks, but for locals Kmart is where it's at.

The Kmart plaza is also home to these other fine stores:

We Kmart a few times a month, and it's usually for cosmetic items for me: makeup, hair stuff, shampoo etc. I have yet to buy clothes on the island, usually I stock up at home and then ship things down here. This Kmart is where we bought the ever popular Guitar Hero. Kmart also has outdoor furniture, dry (and 'frigerated) groceries and booze.

Here's a shot inside the big K:

That's Cruzan rum stocked up behind the women's clothes section; you gotta love it when you can grab an outfit, rum, makeup, a case of beer and groceries all at the same place. The downside? We've yet to wait in a check-out line that is less than 20mins. It be popular in here mon.

Limin' Lizard

2008-01-14T20:36:00.000-04:00

Today I waitressed, the shift was supposed to be 11:30 - 5, but due to a wicked slooooooow day I got cut at 3. I made a whopping twenty bucks in tips. And the guy at my first (and by first I mean one of three) tables asked me if I was pregnant. Actually his exact words were: *patting his belly and motioning to mine* 'Do you have a baby in there?'. To which I replied 'No, just a lot of food'. He was a local guy, and I think the girl with him was pregnant, and maybe I had my hand on my belly as I stood watching Sportscenter while simultaneously trying to will the public to sit in my section. Or even enter the restaurant. And then sit in my section.

Either way I'm sure our football party and drinking/eating my weight in beer and chips that night had a lot to do with my (apparently) bloated belly. And I'm getting my period this week.

Or maybe I do have a baby in there.

Nah, I'm sticking with the beer and party food.

Anyways, back to the photo o' the day.

Can you spot the cute little critter in the pic below?

Here's a closer view...

I spotted him while I was having coffee a few mornings ago. These little guys are everywhere - on the outside walls, on our deck, in the grass and flowers...you name it they're hanging there. As you walk up the road you often here them skittering away in the grass. Every now and then one of them surprises me in the house. I don't mind them though, they're completely harmless, and usually by the time you've spotted them they're gone.

Patriots Win!!

2008-01-13T21:56:00.000-04:00

We opened up the bar last night for the first of three football parties. House rule? Root for the Pats, or deal with me. Second house rule? DRINK! And we don't mean watah.

The Man and I were home and ready to go around 3:00 after making a special run to buy the 'Lucky Parrot'. More on that later. We watched the Greenbay/Seahawks and waited for people to show. Our game started at 9:00 St. T time, so we invited people 'anytime after 7:00'.

Around 8:30-9 we had a group watching the pre-game outside the bar...:

...and inside the house:

Here's one of our buddies from ME (he teaches down here) showing off his jersey (who would've thought Moss would have ONE CATCH last night...!!!):

The menu at our house for parties...frozen entrees, dogs, burgers, wings, cheese/crackers, chips, dip - all served on paper plates and classy plastic-ware. We asked people to bring either ice or something dessert-ish. We figured with all the drinks (and our Margarita machine working overtime) we went through 100+ pounds of ice last night.

Another shot of our buds:

Last year we had parties throughout the playoffs, but obviously we didn't know the amount of people we know this year, so it was easier for me to pay 100% attention to the games. This year our group has grown, and when you add in the friends I'm making through my waitressing gigs and we ended up with 25-ish people making their way over. Normally I can't tear my eyes away from a game, but after the first couple of touchdowns I started getting dragged away to greet people as they came in, making sure people had a drink in their hands, introducing everyone to everyone and taking people upstairs to see the birds (it was by request only, we had them locked away for the night...).

I always made my way back to the bar though. Here's our buddy Billy, Dave and myself getting ready to knock back some Jager *gag*:

And me quickly chasing it down with beer while swinging around to get my eyes back on the game (do you see the Lucky Parrot glass?):

In the above pic the red Lucky Parrot glass is sitting on the bar awaiting it's next 'passing'. When the Patriots score we pass the Parrot around to everyone in the party so that they can 'love' it. You can love it in any number of ways, the number # way is to take a shot of whatever we fill it with. Last night it was Cruzan 151 Dark Rum and a splash of coke. Nah-ASTY stuff. Some people choose to love the Parrot by kissing it's beak instead of 'shooting it'. Which is also fine. The main idea is that you physically touch it. The Lucky Parrot started last year, but the Parrot was yellow...and sometime after the season ended we found it broken. When we announced our playoff party plans a number of people asked if we were going to have a Parrot glass, so yesterday we made a special run to get a new one, and this time I made sure to pick red. There was much Parrot love last night.

Here's a shot of me working the bar and knocking fists with a Green Bay fan:

Note my second superstition (the Parrot being the first one), my pink Pats hat looped into my belt loop on my hip. I always wear it on gameday, but I got my hair did this past Friday and didn't want to stuff it under a hat; so instead I belted it. As long as the hat is on my body somewhere the superstition still works (just in case you were wondering).

After the game ended we put our drunken skills to work on yet another round of the popular Guitar Hero. Here's a couple of people getting their rock on - I waitress with the girl, the guy came as a friend of a friend:

The game ended somewhere around midnight, and by that point we were a pretty drunk crew. We continued hanging until sometime after 1AM, then the party quickly dwindled down to just a few people and eyes started shutting. We shut the doors around 1:30 and hit the sack. Today we got up, did a little bit of clean-up and hit the beach for a few hours. I finished the clean-up a few hours ago while we watched the Colts/Chargers, Giants/Dallas and our taped replay of the Pats game.

And that completes the photo wrap-up of our first Tiki bar get together. Next Sunday we'll do it all over again: Gametime 4PM. Our opponent? The Chargers, and I will say I'm disappointed that it's not the Colts. That's been the game of the year for the past few seasons, and as gut-wrenching as the games are I was looking forward to a rematch. I can't believe the upset earlier today. I also can't believe how solid the Giants look right now, although I don't see them winning in Green Bay next week.

It's about time for us to hit the sack. We're wiped.

Saturday thoughts

2008-01-12T09:04:00.000-04:00

The Hannah Montana Show Fakes a 'Hannah': Trust me, all I know of this Hannah phenom is that she's the daughter of the Achy Breaky Heart singer, and I can still sing most of that song - so clearly I am WAY older than the average Hannah fan. Apparently someone found out that during the Hannah concert there is someone on stage posing as Hannah while whats-her-name rushes backstage to change costumes. This fake goes on for TWO MINUTES. That's IT, and now her fans are mad at her. First of all this Hannah chick is like a girl scout compared to the likes of Britney, Britney's sister...etc., so based on that alone we should only be praising her. Second of all what do you expect her to do, undress on the fucking stage? But then again, the average age of the crowd in this particular concert is, like, eight (not including the parents), so, like, I can, like, totally see how this finding could, like, ruin their, like, day. Oh my god, like, gag me with a spoon she's, like, a fake. They think that's bad, wait until some guy charms them into bed only to never call again - THAT, like, sucks.

Did I just write that out loud?

Britney Spears: Just....wow.

Marion Jones: The last time I fell that bad I took about six layers of skin off my knee. Then again I fell out the door of our SUV, and she's falling from grace, but still - you know it's gotta hurt.

The Writers Guild of America's Strike: Don't get me wrong, I'm really missing the weekly doses of my favorite shows - but I'm backing these guys. They believe they deserve better, they're making a stand - and the award show season is hurting because of it. So good for them sticking to their guns, and shame on the people who won't help to end it.

Britney Spears: Did I mention her already? She's the best reality show out there right now.

Dengue: Don't know what it is? Google it, it's transmitted by mosquitos and two people in our crew down here have already dealt with it. I want nothing to do with it.

...my last thought for the day?

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!

YEAH BABY!!!

We're getting our rowdy on tonight with our first football Tiki party. We've got anywhere from 10 to 25 people coming. House rule? You MUST root for the Pats. MUST! I'm completely obnoxious during big games, and it has everything to do with beer. I'm PSYCHED for tonight.

GO PATS!!!!!!!!!!!!

What? There's other games being played? Here's what I'd like to see:

Green Bay/Seattle: Favre's a legend, and everyone wants to see him keep winning - so for the moment I'm a Green Bay fan.

Dallas/Giants: This looks to be a juicy game. Eli and Romo are both decent guys, so I really don't have a favorite. I guess I'm rooting for a good game.

Colts/Bolts: This one is tough. On one hand I hate LT and the 'Dolts'; it was fun to ruin their playoff dreams last year, and I'd like to see Indy ruin their dreams tomorrow. However, how can I root for Indy? That's like rooting for the Yankees, and last time I checked Hell hadn't frozen over.

Okay I'm out, we have party stuff to go buy and we have to go make sure the neighbors know we're turning up the volume later and that they're more than welcome to stop on by.

You all are invited too, of course.

Island living

2008-01-10T20:33:00.000-04:00

As mentioned previously we stayed with good friends during the rental, and here are a few pictures from their house. The design is very open with characteristics people associate with island living.

Up first, their view, which is above all the number one thing people want when they are searching for a home on the island, everyone wants to be able to gaze at the ocean. Here is a shot from their kitchen, the arch is highlighted with old brick and is open through to their deck:

I'm standing on the deck for this shot, you can see their dining table (still decorated for New Year's Eve), and their view which is clearly spectacular:

Another staple for islanders is dogs. A lot of people keep dogs outside for both protection (locals don't want to deal with dogs) and also to keep away the creepy crawlies such as rats, lizards etc. Here is a shot of our friends' two pooches, they both heard something outside and immedately stuck their heads out to see what was going on. The house is built on a hill (big surprise, there's hills everywhere here) and the driveway is many steps down from where the dogs are, so in this picture they're looking towards the driveway:

From the driveway it's cute to see their heads poke out to see who you are; it's also intimidating as hell when you realize they're now bounding down the stairs with you as their target. The little one is fine, he's just hyper and jumpy, but the big one? He has rottweiler in him, and some mastiff (I think), and I was frozen the first time he came to say 'hi'. However after staying there we got to know them and they're both dolls. I also found it reassuring knowing they were out there.

When you live in a climate that is warm all the year 'round you will inevitably find yourself at a plant nursery at some point. There are some kick-ass plants, flowers and palms that grow around here, and our friends have a ton of plants around their property. Here is a shot from their couch looking at another part of their deck (and yeah...that's our Guitar Hero on the floor - we brought it with us for New Year's competition):

They have plants in pots, plants in the ground, plants in hanging planters - it makes for a cool look as you make your way up the stairs to their front door.

The last shot has nothing to do with island life - but it cracks me up; their kitten throwing caution to the wind as she hiked herself up on their screen to get closer to something that caught her eye:

Daredevil.

Really?

2008-01-10T08:42:00.000-04:00

A blog a day? With photos?

Currently I'm a liar. But I have an excuse. I started a new waitressing gig this week, all days, and two of those days (including this one) start at 10 am. Which means by the time my love-to-sleep-ass drags herself out of bed it's already 8:30 and I have to shower, have coffee, feed the birds, get dressed, apply enough mascara to look awake and drive 30 mins-maybe-longer-depending-on-the-cruise-boat-traffic.

I'm tired in the mornings, and on Tuesday 'feed the birds' was removed from my list as I ran out of time. Blogging doesn't fit in at all but I'm making an effort this morning for you people.

Do you appreciate it?

Do you appreciate me?

Why don't you ever call?

For Jersey Jen - yes I miss my little red car, but she's staying with her big blue brother (the Man's ride) so I know she's taken care of. She's too young to read so I fear the value of postcards would just be missed by her. We do have a car down here.

It's time for birds, shower, coffee, clothes, make-up. Then I'm off to feed the best burger to the tourists.

I'll be back at 6. And if you're lucky I might have some photos for you people to see tomorrow.

...and we're back!

2008-01-07T09:50:00.000-04:00

...or I'm back. Don't know about y'all.

So, I left off with us packing and moving out so that renters could take over our place. And let me say, that is fine with us. Our island house is not very personalized, meaning all of our cluttered-life-crap is up in MA. So packing up is wicked easy - grab the clothes and toiletries, lock them in the owner's closet and away we go. The only cluttered pile I have down here is mail, and I ship the pile home when we're through with our stay. I do have a couple of photo albums to fill with pictures, but those will stay out for renters to look through. And hopefully not steal.

Hopefully.

We did lose a couple of really nice St. John towels over the summer to some renters. Who does that?? My fault for not locking them away.

But more on the house later.

Today's photos are all about the feathered friends we live with. Like I said, we moved out. Which is easy for us, but what about the birds? Normally they live in nice big roomy cages, as seen here:

Taking the cages with us was not an option as they're too big for the room we were staying in, and they're a BITCH to move. When we fly they go in tiny carriers that are able to fit under the seat in the cabin, but that wouldn't do as housing for a week, so we bought them larger travel cages that are clear all the way around. On moving day we took them out of their palaces and dropped them into the travel ones. Then they watched the Man and I deal with moving the big cages outside and around to the back of the bar where we covered them with tarps so the renters wouldn't see them. the birds weren't psyched about their temporary homes and I had to snap this picture as each one was clinging to the door like What the CRAP! We JUST got here and now we're traveling aGAIN?! Let me OUT!

No worries, they settled in once we gave them pistachios (a favorite treat). For the car ride we put them all in the backseat and I took a pic of Red and Yellow who seemed to really enjoy the ride. In their smaller carriers they don't have clear walls, so this was a new experience for them. Red especially kept her eyes on the road and enjoyed the breeze ruffling her feathers:

Gray was also back there, but we cover his cage when he goes outside...he sometimes gets freaked by the big world, and as timid as he is it will send him into a mini seizure - which is not comfortable to watch. However, with all of the plane travel in the past year and realizing he always ends up safe with us the Man and I think he's becoming more comfortable with everything. He had no issues this past week whatsoever. Little cutie.

In the new place we had a bedroom with a long chest of drawers. It was just long enough to fit all three cages next to each other and, even better, it was located in front of nothing but windows - so they had a beautiful view to look at. It was interesting to sleep in the same room as them though; the Man gets up earlier than me, and they would hear him leave (they're covered through the night) and would start their little morning routines. Which apparently includes tapping their beaks on the walls incessantly, or shaking the toys with bells on them. Not the quiet toys like rope, no, has to be the loud plastic ones with shrill bells. Which would leave me with my head buried under the pillow moaning Stop it! Quiet! only to hear the bell stop for a second before starting up again.

We moved back in our house last Thursday and set the birds back up in their big cages on Friday. Instead of keeping them downstairs in the main room we are now keeping them in an upstairs bedroom. For the following reasons:

A) Red bird can be LOUD and trust me when I say her scream has a way of bursting right into your brain while making toddlers cry. She's just happy, and letting the world know, but after awhile it's too much and we would end up rolling her cage into the downstairs bedroom and shutting the door. Don't feel bad, she didn't seem to mind the alone time. After screaming like a two year old for twenty minutes she would start whistling, chirping and talking to herself Hello. Hello. Hello. It's the cutest thing to hear her talk, but she doesn't do it in public, only when she's been banished. Downstairs is also where the Man takes business calls, and you really can't have a bird screaming in the background. Not hugely professional.

B) When we have rowdy parties (like we will for all the playoff games) the birds really shouldn't be downstairs as people stay way late. Birds should be going to bed and waking up with the sun, and if we're partying late or watching TV downstairs past 11 it puts them off of their schedule. Plus I caught one of our buds giving my baby yellow a sip of his drink during a party, and pretty much bitch-slapped him for it. We started rolling them into the bedroom downstairs and shutting the door during parties, but now they'll be locked away upstairs which is better for everyone.

C) When the cages are gone and we pull out the decor that's supposed to be along that wall the downstairs looks really really nice. And we decided we wanted to keep it that way. We have four bedrooms here, and for the next few months any visitors coming will only need two at the most, so the birds will own that bedroom. Here they are, I just snapped this picture this morning:

The room is not as dark as it appears, and they're very happy to have a nice breeze coming through all day. And for those afternoons/evenings when we want to bring them downstairs to hang with us we put together these playgyms that are where their big cages used to be:

Now the bamboo on the left can stay put. The wiry stuff to the right of the white pillar also goes under the blue picture, but it looks good where it is for the moment. And with the huge cages gone we no longer have to shove the dining room table out of place. It's a win win.

So there you go, you now have your fill of bird life. I hope you're all enjoying the new year so far!

Lazy blogger

2008-01-05T11:44:00.000-04:00

Photo-blogging will resume very shortly, I have a bunch of photos from the past week to post...but in the meantime I am going to cop out and take a survey that I just snagged from Amanda (Thanks chick!).

Enjoy your weekend...it's the playoffs baby - GO STEELERS!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I'm with ya Sean...for this week at least...!)

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before? Got married. Bought a brand new car. Spoke before congress. (okay, that last one's a lie...)

2. Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? Every year I say I will be more organized. Every year I fail. Mainly because I can't find my resolution list under the pile of clutter.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yep, babies all over the place - good friends in MA, NY and CT - two girls and a boy!

4. Did anyone close to you die? No. That's a bad question.

5. What countries did you visit? None.

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007? A lottery win. A bigger cup size. A fishing trip that ends with me reeling in a massive blue marlin. Some rich sailor to walk up and toss us the keys to his yacht. The discipline to start writing my future bestseller.

7. What dates from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 3/5/07 baby - our wedding date :)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Learning how to drive a standard.

9. What was your biggest failure? Um, the big crying meltdown I had in traffic while trying to learn a stick and having the Man make me pull over and tell me he was through trying to teach me. I'm better than that sort of whiny behavior and I put a fork in it immediately.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? No. (knock wood...)

11. What was the best thing you bought? Bridget, my Mini convertible.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Celeb? Personal aquaintance? This is an odd question, and I'm skipping it.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? See answer from q. 12

14. Where did most of your money go? Island life. Car payments. Gas.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My wedding, and our most awesome reception. Having friends/family visit us in St. Thomas and showing them our island-world. The Red Sox and Patriots kicking ass and taking names.

16. What song will always remind you of 2007? Bob Marley reminds me of our wedding (we had reggae playing), I've adopted 'One Love' as our song.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? I'm usually a pretty happy clam.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Writing. I really REALLY want to write a book. What's my fargin' problem???

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Watching TV when I could have been writing. Smoking crack. (kidding...I hate TV)

20. How did you spend Christmas? Having drinks with our buds on the beach while we all called family.

21. Did you fall in love in 2007? I fell in love with St. Thomas (I fell in the love with the Man back in 2002...)

22. What was your favorite TV program? I'm a loyal Survivor and Amazing Race viewer. I love the comedy line-up on Monday nights. We suffer through Lost. We never miss Prison Break and 24. We watch most of the CSI's. We are intrigued with Criminal Minds. There's a ton more, our DVR is running 24/7.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don't really hate anyone. Dislike and barely tolerate? Sure. But not hate. It's all good yo.

24. What was the best book you read? The best (and only...how sad am I) was the last Harry Potter. I'm going to miss that series.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery? It turns out I can play the cello! Okay, that's a lie. I bought the Man Guitar Hero for Xmas, and I've been kicking his ass every since. Who knew I rocked so bad at fake guitar?

26. What did you want and get? I wanted our first winter in St. Thomas to be a successful experience, it's tough when you move with your significant other to a place where you know no one and have to lean on each other while you learn your new life. The Man and I went through smoothly and I loved that we learned together.

27. What did you want and not get? I'm pretty low maintenance in the whole 'want' category.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? I know we saw movies that I was pumped to see, but at the moment I can't remember any of them.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I have no recollection what we did on my bday (June 28). I know I turned 33. I'm sure there was a dinner involved. I know we were in MA. I'm pretty positive my new husband was with me. I think I took the day off and maybe we went to a concert? I just asked the Man and he can't really remember either. Alcohol must kill memory cells. I have some foggy memory of spending the night in Providence and seeing KC and the Sunshine Band...?

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Nothing. We had a good year.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2007? First half: bikini, flip flops, shorts. Second half: Work attire and comfy jammies.

32. What kept you sane? All the booze. At times the scale. Remembering that three little birds rely on me.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? None of them, they exist in a world I can't comprehend.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? I don't really have a good answer for this.

35. Who did you miss? I always miss my friends that live out of state.

36. Who was the best new person you met? We made awesome friends in St. T, namely the four people (two couples) we loved so much we flew them up for our reception. Truly fantastic folks.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2007. Don't drink rum punch in the sun and pretend the punch portion of the drink will hydrate you. It won't, and you'll pay for it later.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. Anything from Jimmy Buffett.

Last day of 2007

2007-12-31T10:00:00.000-04:00

The year 2007

- The Man and I enjoyed five months in St. Thomas and learned the ways of the island
- We got married
- We mini-mooned in Anegada
- The Man turned 41
- We returned home in May
- My parents celebrated 40 years of marriage
- We had our reception
- I turned 33
- I learned how to drive a stick-shift
- I turned in my dying Mazda and got my Mini convertible (which I miss...)
- I got my old job back for five months
- The birds all turned a year older - I think they're 9 (grey), 6 (red) and 4 (yellow)
- We attended a wedding (Oct), celebrated friends having babies (in Jan, July and August) and toasted a newly engaged couple (Nov)
- We attended a handful of concerts, all in the 80's genre
- We celebrated ThanksMas with the family and jetted back to the island a few days after

Last year we had good friends fly down to celebrate New Year's with us on St. T. We went to a bar that has since closed down. This year we are celebrating with our group here - some light eats and cocktails at the house, then down to the waterfront for a disco-themed blockparty. I am PSYCHED for disco.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!~!~!

Bring on 2008!~!~!

So Sweet

2007-12-30T10:20:00.001-04:00

A look at the 2007 New England Patriots

Team: 16-0 - NFL record

Team: 589 single season points - NFL record

Tom Brady: 50 touchdown passes - NFL record

Randy Moss: 23 touchdown receptions - NFL record

Ola

2007-12-29T07:29:00.000-04:00

Happy Saturday :)

I haven't posted in a couple of days, we rented out our St. Thomas place and moved to a friend's house for a week. No big deal, but between waitressing and cleaning up/moving I was away from the computer. So sue me.

No picture today, I'm on the Man's laptop and he doesn't have any good ones. My laptop doesn't work at this place, no internet - and I broke the slot where a Sprint card would go, so you're all out of luck. Until I find a moment to put some pictures here. Blah.

Today I'm waitressing in the afternoon, and then we're busting out to watch NFL history. Woohoo!

I hope you're all enjoying your holidays and gearing up for New Year's!!

Dude, where's my energy?

2007-12-26T08:55:00.000-04:00

The Man and I have been enjoying ourselves for the past 4-5 days. My last waitress shift was Friday, and since then it's been a blur of beach, booze and food. This morning I felt like a college kid after spring break.

It all ends today though, I work a double shift today, one shift tomorrow, another double shift Friday and one shift on Saturday. Yikes. I also need to start eating better, and by better I mean not shoving potato chips down my throat like I'm in a competition.

Let's get to today's entry. In St. Thomas please remember to Drive on the Left. This is easier to get used to than you might think. The only places I get tripped up on are when you're entering somewhere with an In and Out lane and I have to remember to enter on the left side when I'm so tempted to go in on the right.

Here's today's picture:

'Cuz without a picture you'd have no idea what driving on the left looks like, right?

I'm outta here, have to shower up and leave to serve frozen drinks to the tourists.

Merry Christmas!!!

2007-12-25T09:24:00.000-04:00

I hope you're all enjoying your Christmas Day!

Just a few holiday pictures today, then the Man and I are headed to the beach.

My favorite island decoration, I love these froggies:

Our Christmas card from a few years back, you know I love these birdies:

...and the card we sent this year:

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas Eve!

2007-12-24T08:10:00.000-04:00

Today we'll take a quick photo trip down Christmas Eve memory lane.

I gotta worn ya, it ain't pretty.

A short story. Last C'mas Eve the Man and I were on Magen's Bay. Still new to the islands we were hanging by ourselves, having some drinks and calling friends/family. I started the day with a couple of Pina Coladas, but on a drink run to the bar I noticed a sign for tasty rum punches and decided to have those. We happened to know the bartender and she loaded my drinks up, and I mean LOADed. Fast forward a few hours and I was pretty much face in the sand. I don't remember much after ordering the drinks, but I guess I fell a few times and the Man decided I needed to go home. He packed me in the car, drove us home and that's where it happened. We live on a steep downgrade of scraggily concrete. As I opened the passenger door of the SUV it flung forward and I apparently went with it. And landed on the concrete. Hard. The Man got me inside, showered me off, bandaged me up and I didn't wake up until Christmas morn. We hit the beach the next day, and told our small group of people-we-had-basically-just-met what I did. Then I showed it off. I'd like to think it endeared me to people, or maybe not, but either way I got a lot of mileage off my scars and it's been a good story in the past year.

This was taken about a week after the fall:

I took about four layers off my left knee, it was the size of a credit card and it was the worst scab I've had in my entire 33 years. This sucker took forEVER to heal. Everytime I had to stand or sit it took me about 5 minutes to work the scab into a stretched or crunched position. If I went into the ocean it stung, and when I got it the salt stung even worse as it dried.

Here's how it looks one year later:

It's definitely hard to see in this pic, but the scar is (and will always be) visible. Even in my bike riding days of kidhood I never did damage like this.

What does this have to do with island life?

Don't get wasted on rum punch. Don't live on downgrades. Don't open your own door when you're wasted.

Really, the wisdom in this post is so valuable I shouldn't have to spell it out.

Sunday = Beach

2007-12-23T09:59:00.001-04:00

Happy Christmas Eve eve!

I'm sure you're all breathlessly gathered around your computers waiting for your Sunday beach photo.

What? You're not? You're in the midst of holiday travel? or have already reached your destination and are enjoying family and friends?

Makes perfect sense. If the Man and I were home we'd be doing the same thing, but we're here - and everyone pretty much ends up on the beach during the holidays - so we'll put on a brave face and do the same :)

Sunday on St. Thomas is a big beach day for locals. Most people go to Magens Bay and drive all the way down to the left side (if you're on a boat looking at the beach that would be the right). This is where the locals hang out, far away from the beach bar and the cruising tourists. We bring coolers, grills, food, booze, frisbees, water floaties...you name it. Our group wavers between 8 and 20, and we've had pork loin, fajitas, breakfast, salmon, burgers - if you can grill it you can bring it. And we will eat it.

Here's a shot from two Sundays ago:

Sunday beach day is one of my most favorite things about living down here; even if you haven't been in touch with people during the week you know you'll see them on Sunday. I don't know about you but for the Man and I that didn't happen back home, there was no one day where people gathered like clockwork to catch up and have a few drinks.

Sunday is also where we learned how to play Polish Horseshoes (as Polish people everywhere groan...). It's pretty simple, you get two poles about chest height and poke them in the sand so many feet apart. You then fill a soda can or water bottle with sand and balance it on top of your pole. Teams are two people, and the object is to knock off the other team's bottle with a frisbee toss. The game is played to 21, you can score in 1 of 3 ways: if you throw the frisbee and the other team doesn't catch it that's 1 point. If you hit the pole and both frisbee and bottle hit the sand that's 2 points. If you score a direct hit on the bottle and both bottle and frisbee hit the sand that's 3 points. Once a team is halfway to 21 you switch sides.

Here are the rules: A) If you're on the receiving team you can't reach in front of the pole to catch the frisbee, that's called a 'frontal' and the other team gets a free throw. B) If you have a poor frisbee toss and it lands in the sand in the middle of the poles the receiving team gets to draw a line in the sand where it fell and throw from there, which is a big advantage. C) You must be holding a beverage in one hand during the entire game (there are time outs for refills).

I'm happy to say that last year myself and another chick became the First Ever Girl's Polish Horseshoes Team, and while we haven't won yet (our high score is 11) we are getting better. My partner is well endowed and I keep telling her to take her top off as a distraction, she just hasn't been drunk enough yet. And no, the guys don't take it easy on us, they throw as hard as ever.

Here's a game in progress:

Beach Sunday usually wraps up around 4:30-5ish and people either head home, to Sibs bar (for football games), or to our house (if we're having a Pats game party). There are those Sundays where you get into good chats and just hang until 6, but as dusk rolls around there are sand gnats that will come out and find you, so we usually just pack it in beforehand.

It's almost 11AM here, time to change into my suit, pack the cooler with beers and head out the door.

Peace.

I Think

2007-12-22T10:26:00.000-04:00

I just decided that Saturday posts will be photo-less. Instead I'll run my mouth off on current events that caught my eye.

Like Britney's sister. My god.

Like Roger Clemens. Who needs to just step up to the mike and get it over with. Admit it. Apologize. Move on. The longer you have your attorneys proclaim your innocence the more tired the public will grow.

Like Jessica Simpson vs. Dallas fans. Really? Although, I remember back in Tom Brady's 1st or 2nd year there were rumors he was hanging around with the trashtastic Tara Reid, and I do remember the radio sports shows being full of debate and phone calls going something like 'Get that skank away from our quarterback!!!'. So I can't be a hypocrite on this one.

Like the Natalie Holloway case closing up and going cold. Man, what a disappointment. How did those kids get away with murder? We'll never know. So sad for her parents, and so frustrating for everyone else.

That's it for now. I'm out. Happy weekend.

TGIF

2007-12-21T10:27:00.000-04:00

Meet Web:

For the past few Friday nights he's been the entertainment at the place I waitress. Here's a brief description:

Fridays: Web from 104.3 The Buzz. Web and his guitar gear up for a night of puns and fun, some of the best original music including all the local favorites

Web is your typical surfer dude. We met him last year through my friend K, she brought him down on a Sunday beach day. With his unwashed locks flying hat-free and his strong face the Man and I immediately dubbed him Mr. Lee Roth, and I think at the time Web had mentioned something about Van Halen and that's why it came about. I don't think we've ever learned his real name.

Web DJ's on our favorite island radio station the Buzz, he's on in the AM - but when I say 'on' I mean he drops in, does some talking, then plugs in his tape and leaves - most likely to find some 'sick waves dude'. When he's not DJ-ing he's surfing, when he's not surfing he's making up songs and singing them and when he's not doing that he's sleeping (and by sleeping I mean getting stoned). Being a single guy he does make time for the ladies as well and will happily teach them some moves on his board. Surfing or otherwise.

His songs have an Adam Sandler quality to them and they poke fun at island nonsense, like our extreme electric bills by WAPA (Water and Power Assoc), the ghetto supermarket Pueblo (Where can you find year old meat? Pueblo) and the cruise ship passengers (The Overfed, Lobster-red, Newlywed and Nearly Dead).

His latest song is the 12 Days of Christmas island-style...ending with an Iguana in a Palm Tree.

Cheers to keeping it real dude~

While we're on the subject of food...

2007-12-20T09:35:00.000-04:00

The Frenchtown Deli (located in, um, Frenchtown) has the best deli sandwiches on the island (in my opinion). I asked the Man if he could think of another deli place, and we really can't. Then he mentioned Subway, but that doesn't count.

The menu:

My favorite is the Mafioso (2nd column, 2nd one down); ham, salami, tomato, lettuce, cheese, vinagrette on french bread. I add a little extra mayo, extra salami and get a side of the vinagrette for dipping. Holy shit it's good. The Man loves their 1/2 roasted chicken.

They have a room with tables so you can sit and eat, we usually go there after a post office run, about once a week.

Oh, I just thought of another place - Marina Market, located in Red Hook (opposite side of the island from us). They're another grocer, tres expensive. I worked next to them last year for about a month and had a sandwich almost everyday. My favorite there, if I recall, was the melted brie and ham sandwich on french bread. Holy shit. Wicked good stuff.

One of the many questions

2007-12-19T10:52:00.000-04:00

The Man and I get a lot of questions about life on the island. 'Is food more expensive?' is a popular one, and the answer is yes - everything is flown in from Miami, and that hikes the price. There are a few places to do your grocery shopping here: FoodCenter (your basic grocery store), Cost-U-Less (price club), Pueblo (ghetto supermarket) and the Gourmet Gallery (wicked expensive, located at one of the yacht harbors).

Cost-U-Less is where we shop the most, we don't mind bulk and the prices are reasonable. However it's not a place we can just run out to if we need something; it's about 25 mins away so when we go it's a planned trip.

Yesterday we ran out of CoffeeMate (and yes, it's tragic, we NEED it) and we also needed parmesan cheese. Additionally the Man was out of Diet Coke (tragic again), so I decided I would go up the hill and gather these things and fill the tank at the same time. There's a place called Friendly's, it's a gas station/small grocey store. The food is the biggest ripoff ever, so we only use this place in extreme emergencies (which apparently include soda and creamer).

I went into the store and picked out the items that we needed, the whole time trying to forget how awesome the bang for my buck would be at Cost-U-Less. The photos today detail just how much of a ripoff Friendly's can be - and you have to laugh about it.

I purchased two of these tiny little parmesan cheese tubes (it's the only size they carry):

Here's the size:

...and the price:

If I've done my math correctly that's $1.33 per ounce of precious parmesan cheese. Makes you want to cry a little right?

So yes, food is more expensive here but you have to know where to go to avoid that kind of ridiculous cost. Our lesson today? Only buy gas at Friendly's.

The answer to your next question? Yep, gas is more expensive here. But more on that later.

Any Island Life questions? My camera is ready :)

Home Office

2007-12-18T11:12:00.000-04:00

My 'desk', where I'm sitting right now. Photo is in Sepia for your viewing pleasure. One laptop, balanced on top of a pool party casino blow-up floaty box so the keyboard is at a comfortable height. Next to that is my coffee mug on top of the dish that held my english muffin (toasted with cream cheese). There's also a phone, some paperwork, a Diet coke can from last night, some empty photo albums, tv remotes, a Soduko book and a pair of earrings. Behind the coffee table is a chair holding my purse, a roll of wrapping paper and some other clutter.

Back to work I go. Hi Ho Hi Ho.

A bar like Cheers

2007-12-17T10:20:00.000-04:00

Welcome to Sibs on the Mountain, a bar in St. Thomas that we pass almost everytime we go anywhere. As a result we find ourselves here a couple times a week including most Sundays after the beach. On Friday or Saturday nights we'll stop in around 10-11pm and we can name at least five people that we're guaranteed to see.

When you walk into Sibs you find yourself on one side of a big bar that fills the room. It's dark in there, save for the light from the doors and from the four big TV's the put a glow on everyone's face. When you walk into the next room there are gambling machines and a couple of dart boards. Walk through this room and you find a couple of pool tables. There is also a deck with seating, but I've never made it past the pool tables.

If there's a game Sibs will have it on, so it's a convenient place to stop on a Sunday to catch the 4pm NFL games and grab a bite. Fans from every team flock here and debates can get loud and rowdy. There's always a healthy amount of New England fans on hand. We know the bartenders by name and they treat us well. Jessie is the chick we go to the most, she'll charge us $12 for countless drinks, in turn we tip her well - we'd prefer she get our money than the establishment.

Sibs is one of those places that runs itself. The first time we walked in there I could tell it was a cool local place, and that we would have to become regulars to really enjoy it. These days I feel like we're part of the Sibs crowd. Case in point: last week we went to the Hooters VIP party and the beers were free. When we left Hooters I had three 'roadies', one beer I was working on and two full ones. We decided to stop at Sibs and I walked in the bar with two beers. Sean was bartending and he took one of the beers and put it on ice for me. Where else does that happen?

Yeah, we love Sibs.

Rain Rain Go away...kinda...sorta

2007-12-15T09:10:00.001-04:00

Rain rocks on the island. We have a cistern under the house, where the basement would be, and it collects the water we use for everything: showers, dishwasher, filling the pool, etc. It's heavily filtered so it's completely drinkable. When you run out you get your water delivered, 5000 gallons for $300. That's where rain is good, it collects and runs right into our cistern, therefore delaying any need for delivery.

Rain also rocks for all of our palms and flowers that we've planted.

But rain is also bad. For all of the obvious reasons. If people are vacationing this week they've had some sun and a lot of shady wet days. Not fun when you're trying to enjoy your tropical vacation. And yes, I know, island showers are supposed to last for 5, 10 mins. Most of them do. However the Man and I live on the rainforesty side of the island, which means are downpours last much longer.

Here is a picture of our pool basically overflowing from two days of downpour last May:

And that, students, concludes today's lesson on rain.

Today is my last waitressing shift for the week. It wasn't my intention to go four days straight, and today is my longest yet: 10:30 - 4:30. I'm weary just thinking about it, so here's hoping it flies.

I tired...!

2007-12-14T02:32:00.000-04:00

I completed my second night of waitressing a few hours ago, and it's been going really well! I had no idea how I would do with a ten year gap since my last server job, but after I got the first few tables out of the way on Wed night I found my rythym - so yay me! *clapping* Although I have to say, my back hurts and my dogs is barkin'!

Moving onto the photo(s) of the day...my new blog-thing (you likey?). St. Thomas welcomed a new restaurant on Monday night, a little place called Hooters.

They had a VIP eat/drink for free party and we snagged tickets through a friend of ours. I've actually never been in a Hooters before - no real reason. The one in Boston closed down, and the one in Pittsburgh (where I schooled) was a place we just didn't find ourselves as there are many other places to get your drink on in that city.

With that said I thought it was a pretty cool place! Sure, it's full of cheese and drooling guys, but the wings were tasty, the beer was cold and you can't argue with a place that has a TV set every five inches. I can see us hitting it for a football or baseball game, or the odd night out. We had fun, and our waitress was super nice (I know, I'm sure they all are...!). Here she is on the right, next to me and another couple:

Another tidbit? I applied there a week ago. I'm no fool. This place is located right where people spill off the cruise ships, and before the novelty wears off the tips are going to be killer. All I need is a good bra, and someone to say 'You're Hired!'

Oh, and I need more cheerleader in my personality. Um, go team.

Everyone out of the pool!!!

2007-12-13T11:24:00.000-04:00

Things you don't see in Boston?

Tarantulas.

What fell in and died in our pool the other night?

A fucking tarantula. Holy shit. I just about wet myself when the Man fished it out. And we're pretty sure it's a baby, which means mom-ula is wandering around somewhere.

It took all my willpower to lean over and shove a teaspoon next to it for it's photo, I fully expected it to jump up and attach itself to my face.

Enjoy the ickiness that is today's photo:

Correction

2007-12-12T10:28:00.000-04:00

I did not start waitressing yesterday, I start today at 4:30. Last week I picked yesterday to start, and completely forgot that I had a friend coming in on a cruise ship. She's someone I worked with a few years ago. She was with her boyfriend, sister and sister's boyfriend - along with other family members, but she decided that only those four would hang out with the Man and I.

She called me around 10 when they were through customs, I directed them to walk to a nearby bar/restaurant and headed down to grab them. They had just started drinking a round when I got there, and I told them to pay the bill and take the drinks with them...'cuz yeah, you can drink and drive in St. Thomas. Crazy right? Wicked cool right? As long as you're responsible of course.

We got back to our place and the Man had the outside speakers playing some reggae as we all settled down to some boozing. Here's a pic of the cruisers at our bar (my friend is in the pink):

They didn't have to be back at the ship until 6:30, and I had to work at 4:30 which cramped our plans. It wasn't a great beach day but I really wanted to take them to the other side of the island to hang at this cool bar: Duffy's Love Shack. So I made the decision to call the restaurant and see if I could work Wed instead of Tues. The owner called another girl, made the switch, so I am working tonight, tomorrow, Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Originally I was working Tues night, Friday and Saturday...so I gained some shifts! Not bad for someone who hasn't yet worked a minute there.

The Man thought I was foolish for bagging out on my first day, but how often do friends cruise in?! (Answer: not often). After getting them a little sauced on some bad ass rum we headed out to Duffy's and ordered up some drinks and boogied out to some good tunes. The Man definitely pours with a heavy hand, and seeing as how they only had to roll out of our car onto the boat we figured why not get them to the happy place.

My friend's boyfriend basically hit the floor sometime at Duffy's (oops) and we packed it up -getting them to the ship around 5:45. They definitely had a kick ass time, as did the Man and I, and I'm glad I was able to switch around the job.

Here's the shark tank drink at Duffy's that pretty much put the guy in green over the edge - it comes with a double shot of rum in a plastic shark that you have to shoot with your mouth (no hands mom!):

I'm pretty sure they were cursing us out late last night when they came out of their rum coma...

So - today at 4:30 I will officially be a waitress on St. Thomas! Woohoo! No party excuse this time.

I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Another post? So soon?

2007-12-11T08:52:00.000-04:00

I'm getting back to my blogging form, with this - my second post in as many days :) I do miss the blogging world, and I'm coming by to visit y'all this morning.

So - to catch you up - as you've figured, we all made it here safely, exactly two weeks ago yesterday. In the past two weeks we've had two beach days, a bunch of dinners with our friends here, one tiki bar party, about five days of errands (which means MAAAAANY hours in island traffic - sad). I've completed forty hours of virtual work, dropped in five or six restaurants to put my name in as waitress, done a couple loads of laundry, and re-embraced all of the summer clothes I left here last year.

Tonight, at 5pm I will begin my St. Thomas waitress career - woohoo! It's a local restaurant that does a pretty good business. We were there last Friday night to see our friend sing (funny dude, more on him another time) and I asked the owner if he was looking for any servers. He was, and tonight I will shadow the staff, and this Friday I will be on my own - yikes!

Between you and me I haven't waitressed since college, but I'm pretty sure it's like riding a bike. A busy, fast-paced, 'where's my drink!', 'i'm sorry what did you want on your salad??', 'this is all they fcking tipped me?!' bike, but I'm up for the challenge. Plus, our waitress BLEW on Friday night, and I'm positive I can do a better job.

I'll let you know how it goes - if it works out I'll be scheduled for Friday nights and Saturday days. He asked about bartending too, so hopefully I'll move into that.

That's it for today-

GO PATS GO!!!

2007-12-09T09:29:00.000-04:00

It's a WINDY Sunday on St. Thomas today. I'm getting ready to work out and do the hated lunges before we head to the beach. Tonight we're opening up our Tiki bar for the big Pats/Steelers game with our buds - GO PATS!!

Last Monday we watched the awesome Pats/Ravens game at a sports bar, and it was rowdy. If you're a football fan you KNOW that game went back and forth so much that if we weren't cheering we were pissing at the people who were cheering - at the end we all left the bar friends, but I was getting heated as the game came down to the wire. I still don't know how we came out with a win.

I can't believe we've only been here for two weeks, it feels like much longer as we settled in much faster than last year. I do plan to post daily, but at the moment I just haven't been a good blogger. That will all change though - and my plan is to share a photo a day of our time in St. T. So stay tuned.

Enjoy your Sunday!

Happy Sunday :)

2007-12-02T19:52:00.001-04:00

So, it has to be said. My peeps in New England are getting SACKED with a snowstorm right now. Maybe not sacked by our standards...but they're getting some nonsense of the weather-kind, and for sure I will be a beeyotch tomorrow by emailing my work buds to bust them on their commute. That's my right as a now-islander right?

Whatever.

So, on the job front here's where I stand: we spent our day on Magen's Bay, as we will every Sunday...and it RAINED all farging day. But that was fine, I'll take rain at 70 degrees over snow at 25. So we boozed and chowed, and the Man and I took a walk to the bar to check in on my job status. Apparently there's a chick working there until Jan, and then there's a spot open. I'll take it thanks! Hopefully it will fall my way. I'll let you know.

In the meantime I completed my virtual 20 hour week, and will be started on the next 20 hour week tomorrow. I also have another interview tomorrow, at noon, at a place called Paradise Point. It's high on top of a mountain by the cruise ships, and you can tram up to a restaurant/bar, buy a drink and check out the view. Plus they have 3 bird shows a day. WHAT?? BIRDS??? Hell yeah, they gots some parrots, and you KNOW I'm down with that. My interview is at noon...so cross your fingers.

That's all my news...I'm way buzzed on Coronas, and am looking to hit the sack soon. My Pats play tomorrow night...and I'm looking for a HUGE game against Baltimore.

I owe all of you blog-visits, so keep an eye out for me, I'm coming by.

GO PATS!

GO WAITRESS JOBS!!

Later you sexy peeps :)

Break out the Coronas

2007-11-30T10:05:00.000-04:00

I'm happy to report that two humans and three birds made it safely to the island. We got here on Monday and have spent the past few days getting settled.

I will be back to post a proper update with pics, but for now I need you to cross your fingers: I interviewed today for the beach waitress job - apparently it's between me and some other chick. I told the guy I would rock it out; he told me one of us was getting called. I suppose that was my cue to toss my huge chest in his face...but I lack the huge chest, so I smiled and said 'Oooh, suspense!' and he laughed.

So here I am, waiting by the phone like I'm back in 7th grade doodling the names of me and some hot classmate on a notebook while shooting sad looks at the phone. *sigh*

In the meantime - I have no idea how to find out who's lurking my site on Blogger - so I gots to ask- does anyone love NJaney anymore?

Show me the love people! There's a prize in it for ya!

Okay, there's no prize...but just do it anyways.

:)

Close game

2007-11-25T23:41:00.001-04:00

But the Pats remain defeated. Let's see, the spread was 23.5...and we won by 3. Ouch. You KNOW everyone was expecting a rout, especially the frustrated crowd at the stadium. We were sloppy. Heads are gonna roll in Bill's house this week!

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgivings :) Ours was perfect...family time, football, couch-napping. Love it. We got back from the Cape yesterday evening, showered up and met friends out for a goodbye dinner. We got our drink on, and I followed that up with my third sleepless night in a row. Way frustrating. I get anxious with the transition and I'm paying for it with a cold. I'm in the phlegm-battle of trying to cough it up or swallow it. Of course you have that middle area where you keep growling and hacking to get the phlegm to a better place but all you end up doing is annoying those around you. Whatever. I'm going to make someone a lucky person when they sit next to me on the plane tomorrow...!

Our flight is at the crack of dawn, we're being picked up at 4AM, so our wake-up time is, uh, 3. Which, last time I checked, is 3 hours from now. Stupid close football game. If it was a rout I would have clocked out a few hours ago.

I think I'm clocking out now. Right after I check my purse for the third time to make sure I really do have everything I need. My OCD is in full swing at the moment.

Later.

Bring on the Gravy

2007-11-21T12:52:00.000-04:00

Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving!

We are released from work at 3pm today, which rocks. It's also jeans day, which rocks some more. As it's my last physical day at work my co-worker-in-crime and I will promptly head out for some drinks in a celebration of 'goodbye'. *sniff*

After drinks I'll find the Man for some dinner, then the two of us are headed to the bowling alley to chill out with our bowling buds whom we haven't seen since locking up our bowling shoes last year. The night before Thanksgiving is famous for being one of the biggest bar nights during the year (I guess it competes pretty heavily with St. Pats right?) so tonight will be loud and rowdy I'm sure.

Tomorrow we head to the Man's family for turkey and gift exchange in a celebration we like to call ThanksMas; then we will head to the Cape on Friday to see my fam. Saturday night we are meeting pals for a final dinner, Sunday we drop the cars off at our mechanic who will care for them while we're gone...and Monday morning we catch a 6:30 AM flight out of the cold and into the warm.

But for now let's concentrate on the food, family and football that we'll all enjoy tomorrow.

Enjoy your Thanksgivings!!

Oh the pain

2007-11-19T10:39:00.000-04:00

My laptop is sick. I don't know why. I have her at work today to see if our IT dude can help her. I had the shakes yesterday from not being able to play on her. I'm so addicted.

In other news, I'm hungover. We had a couple of friends over last night for an early present exchange (Happy ChrisGiving everyone!) and we put down a few margaritas while watching the Pats WAX Buffalo. Blowouts are fun! 19-0 and baby, I can smell it.

They bought us Cranium and an awesome painted turtle for the island. We helped to pimp their ride and gave them black and white checkered floor mats for their silver Mini. We then spent the second half of the football game playing Cranium and slurping 'ritas.

And now my head hurts.

Tally Ho my good people.

Shake it sistah

2007-11-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

After some back and forth my current company has allowed me to work virtually for the month of December, which I'm psyched about. I have to work year 'round, and this gives me a little bit of cushion for our first month on island as I won't have to rush like a mad woman trying to secure employment.

Last year I worked out of the house doing admin for a realtor, which worked out well enough. That may spring up again when we hit 2008, but for now I'm not counting on it. What I am counting on is happily buzzed tourists opening their wallets; this year I'm going for tips.

I've already called the one that's on the top of my list - Magen's Bay Beach. They have a bar on the beach, and they have servers who will strut up and down bringing daiquiris and margaritas straight to you - whether you're on your lounge chair or floating in the surf. I want to be one of those servers, for a couple of shifts a week. A) for the exercise B) for the tips. So I've been busting my butt with arm weights, crunches and sweating on the treadmill in preparation should I get the job. You see, the servers wear bikinis while they work, and while I'm fine with myself in a bathing suit on a regular day at the beach with our buddies the scrutiny goes way up when you're walking back and forth in front of tourists.

Especially the female ones. We love to scrutinize other chicks in their suits don't we ladies? Catty bitches...all of us. I'm guilty of it. There's a couple of beach walkers in their 20's, with perfect little bodies. Then there's the one who looks slightly older and wears a suit with slighty more coverage, and when the Man and I saw her last year we were like 'If SHE can do it then I can do it!'. I'll meet with them when we're on island to see if they're in the market for a 33 yr old, big personalitied, needs-a-tan, small-chested chick with a not-yet-toned-but-getting-there boot-tay.

Add in a cowboy hat and some sweet-talking and y'all would buy a rum punch from me right?

Question

2007-11-13T11:09:00.000-04:00

When describing a table of food where you line up to serve yourself which do you prefer to call it:

A) Booo-fay?

or

B) Buh-fay?

That is all.

Two Weeks

2007-11-11T23:54:00.000-04:00

Enough time to do the following:

- say goodbye to friends
- squeeze in two holidays with family
- say goodbye to family
- see if my current job will let me go virtual
- mail out some boxes
- get a travel certificate from the vet
- get the house clean and the fridge empty
- tone my ass (i wish)
- make a list of places I can waitress at
- meet my tennis buds for a few more night games
- change our mailing address
- have one last hair appt.
- store our cars
- enjoy last lunch trips to my favorite stores and restaurants with my kickass co-worker
- mentally prepare myself for a day of travel with three squawky birds (and to pray for crying toddlers to be on our flights as buffers)

Two weeks until we get back to de Island way mon. Free rum punches for everyone!

For the Record

2007-11-09T10:10:00.000-04:00

Green Day's song 'Time of Your Life' always makes me teary.

Also for the record, the concert rocked. Wolfgang did sing some backup, played a good bass and generally hung around his side of the stage - while letting the veterans jump around and act silly. He was introduced, and we showed him the love - and you could tell Eddie was tickled to be on stage with his son. Very cool for both of them. The band, as a whole, rocked!

One last VH note: The shirt I bought the Man was a black Hanes t-shirt with an authentic *cough* iron on decal from the 1979 VH World Tour, cost me $30. A few people fell for it and thought it was an original shirt from that concert, and asked the Man if they could buy it, or trade for it. One dude asked how he kept it in such great shape and the Man told him it was framed, but he pulled it out to wear for the reunion show. I love drunk people.

Where's my rock medal?

2007-11-07T13:59:00.001-04:00

I have a chunky ring that I always wear on my right hand's ring-finger. By the end of the night I managed to bruise a spot on my left palm from the chunky ring banging against it each time I clapped my hands.

I guess I clapped my hands a lot. But it's not all my fault...Mr. Lee Roth was telling us too.

You'll be happy to know I have no injuries from the manic fist-pumping that also took place.

Get out the hairspray

2007-11-06T09:32:00.000-04:00

We're going to see Van Halen!!!

The comeback tour - the return...the back together...the David Lee Roth show...the where-the-fuck-is-Michael-Anthony tour...whatever you want to call it we are going and I am PSYCHED!!!

They've added a ton of shows for this concert, and while the Boston ones sold out wicked fast we're heading out to Worcester (pronounced Wuh-stah for you non-New Englanders...) to see them rock the house. Yes, Anthony is not with them. Yes, there's a teenager playing in his place. Do I care? When the tour was announced the Man and I were like - SIGN US UP! Then the news came that Wolfgang was playing Anthony's part...and we hemmed and hawed a little bit. Yes, Roth is back, but is it vintage Van Halen with a middle schooler?

However, as we watched the Boston shows sell out, and starting reading reviews of the first few shows we figured we couldn't miss out. The line up of songs is pure what the fans want to hear. People who have seen the show are still exhausted from singing their lungs out. Everyone in attendance has been sporting Van Halen shirts either fresh from the concession booth, or pulled out from the back of the closet where it was balled up over twenty years ago.

So, until roughly 1pm today I will be a good office worker with sensible attire.

By the time we hit Wuh-stah tonight I will be big-haired, eye-lined and ready to pump my fist in the air.

ROCK ON BABY!!

It's wicked late.

2007-11-04T00:59:00.000-03:00

I'm on the couch watching the BC/Florida game. Do I follow college football? Um, NO. However there's fuss in this town about our BC Eagles, and our DVD player choked out on us, so the Man and I are playing on our laptops with the game on in the background. In case you're interested the Eagles have choked themselves into their first lost.

I've just spent the past hour or so making this blog purty. It's amazing how much time you can lose when you start playing with pictures and blog colors. I think I like what I've created. I did enjoy my little space on MSN...until I was unable to post entries. I emailed MSN and received a loooong email back with 'Things I Could Do to Fix the Problem'. It made me tired just reading it. So I jumped ship. Got the hell outta Dodge. Made like a tree and leave(d). Turned tail.

I think you get the idea.

And here we are.

Are you as excited as I am?

Tomorrow is a big day. Patriots vs. Colts. 4:15 pm. To say this game is huge is an understatement. This game is huger than huge, and yes, it's a regular season game. I'm tense and excited about it at the exact same time. You could say I'm excensed. Or Tecited.

I plan to have a Blogger-Warming party sometime this week to celebrate my new blog. Of course you're all invited. Stay tuned for details.

GO PATS