Saturday thoughts

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

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?

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!

...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

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.