Sun Dog House is on-line!

Our 3 bedroom, 3 bath, solar-powered home is available as a green green green villa rental as of January 1, 2010.

Check us out here!

We actually do have a Staples “Easy” button that one of my clients gave me a few years ago.

Anyhoooo. The little dog was safely trapped yesterday (less than ONE day after the scrawny-necked cartoon character gave us the reigns) and the wonderfully competent Sue Brown took her home, bathed her and called Michael to tell him that we might need to keep her as a companion to Goliath.

My sweet husband called me to inform me of this. I responded in the negative. Someone else had first dibs on this baby, and we have an agreement that we will NOT adopt another dog until we are down to bare bones, so to speak. Besides, Goliath has plenty to do as my NSAR certified service dog.

As our other eight dogs age (the youngest is 6 and the oldest 13), they will need more care, and I’m not going to rush the older ones into the next life by having ready replacements. They have been devoted companions and a cracker-jack security system for too long. And I won’t have them worry about competition for their alpha slots.

For now……

I’m not perfect. I don’t purport to being even close to perfect. I’ve lived on this island for over 15 years, and I’m so much more lax in my life than I have ever been. Sometimes, I’d even refer to myself as a slacker. I  do try really hard to help my clients and my favorite non-profit organizations in whatever ways I can. But I know my limitations.

If there is something I am not emotionally, physically or financially able to do, I will not do it. Okay, I may try. But as soon as I know I am not up to the task, I will admit it and move on.

Unfortunately, this is not so for everyone. Just look at our Virgin Islands government.

There are also, a couple of people I have personally dealt with in the last week, that take the phrase “delusions of adequacy” to entirely new levels.

At this time, I will not talk about the first one, because s/he works for the attorney we are using to assist with property acquisition and incorporation. And we’re not done with this, so I don’t want to jeopardize any of it.

The other one, however makes me wish I had a punching bag with her face on it. Or a voodoo doll. For most of the day I was visualizing smacking her upside the head, then choking her.

I actually spoke to her on the phone at one point and wanted to scream, “ARE YOU F****** NUTS?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING YOU RIDICULOUS MORON?!!”

Ahem. But I didn’t do that. I calmly spoke and listened to her while my blood pressure rose to the point that I thought my brain would fly out of the top of my skull.

The situation we were discussing involved a little dog that we tried trapping a couple of weeks ago. Since then, we have seen many people stopping to leave food for the little thing, and since we’ve been incredibly busy with turtle activities, work, household chores, and starting a new business, we decided to leave it to others who might have more free time and could therefore do a better job.

And then, when we went by the area of the little dog over the week-end, there was a BIG sign posted on a tree which read, “Please do not feed the puppy, we are trying to trap it…..” or words to that effect. And it had the person’s name on it. So we thought, “Oh good. Someone’s trying to do it right.”

Riiiiight.

When Michael was coming home from work yesterday, he saw the little dog and stopped to see if he could convince it to come home with him. But another car came up behind him and scared the little dog away. While Michael was there, he noticed that there was no trap anywhere in the area. So when he got home, he tried to contact the person whose name was on the sign.

This person no longer has a land-line, so he couldn’t call her directly. He tried her at work, but she was not there. He asked one of her co-workers to give her a message to please call us about the little dog. The co-worker said that her cell phone number does not work at her house, so he’d just have to leave a message and she’d get it whenever.

Sigh.

So today she called and told me that she hadn’t really set a trap since she needed someone to “help her with it”. But she’s leaving tomorrow for 10 days, and….Meanwhile, the dog has not been receiving any food because there’s a BIG sign on a tree telling people not to feed the dog because….well, you know. As she was explaining this to me, I felt like a crazed cartoon character. I wanted to reach into the phone and grab her by the neck and pull her through to my side where I could twist her scrawny little neck into a knot.

But I remained calm. I went to get the trap, and brought it to Michael who set it up on his way home from work. We went to check it tonight and we have set up a schedule with another competent and reliable dog-lover. We will catch the little guy and we know someone who will give him a good home.

I do not know the moral of this story. I just know that stupid, inept and apathetic people are the reason I am self-employed. If I worked in a situation where others were slacking off, I would feel responsible and probably either do their jobs for them, or I’d lose sleep over it. Unfortunately, I see over and over again, that they are everywhere. They haunt me. I could write my own version of Sartre’s Huis Clos.

Sigh.

Well, the new place at the corner where the South Shore Cafe and most recently, Kaleidoscope used to be, is (ugh!) a Santo Domingan-type “bar & rest.” Called El Azuano and opened last week-end with blaring music well into the wee hours.

I did call the police, but nothing happened. The music went on until the tylenol pm kicked in. Ugh!

Michael promised to go over to try and ask the people to keep it down in our nice quiet residential neighborhood, and today, on our way back from doing errands, we did stop by. We asked to see their business license. It does not say “night club”, only tavern, restaurant and tobacco retailer. We asked them to keep the volume down. They looked at us like we have twelve heads.

It’s pretty quiet there tonight. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Hope I don’t have to call 911 again. Although that would be a fun blog post I’m sure. Hahahaha, they probably won’t be answering with halloween and all…..

The injured hawksbill turtle who was being treated at a Florida turtle hospital is back in the waters around St. Croix.

Yay!

Maybe we’ll get to see her during our night patrols in the coming years….

Despite the fact that we are less financially healthy right now (at this time of year,  and since we’ve been doing soooo much home improvement) than we like to be, we are supporting our friends and family members in their new adventures in the restaurant arena.

The Pickled Greek is surviving the slow season. (Yay!)We go there because we love the food,  the people and, of course the prices.

Besides, my lovely and talented daughter, no longer a jewelry business owner (this is a relief in quite a few ways), has finally received recognition as an excellent customer service representative, so is suddenly is working at 3 (yes THREE) restaurants.

{The typical “rags to riches” story continues…..I was a poor jewelry store owner who became a waitress…. – (sigh)}. Steve Martin couldn’t have done it better…. 

So, Friday night, we went (on Mitchell’s birthday) to his soft opening at the new Cultured Pelican. It was absolutely lovely!

We wanted to try everything, of course, so we started with soup and salad. They had a roasted eggplant soup. We’d never had anything like that before. It was like eggplant Parmesan puree in a bowl. Perfect for these two eggplant lovers. (My daughter- one of the servers – go figure- reminded me that I ate eggplant parm just before giving birth to her. So, in my world, anything associated with eggplant is GOOD!)  And this soup was delizioso!

We needed to try the caesar salad, because housemade caesar dressing is a rare and beautiful thing. It was also fabulous, lightly dressed with shaved parmesan cheese.

For our entrees, Michael chose the housemade pasta dish called, “Fallen Hankeys”, created by former owner and chef, Dennis. (Yes, Dennis is still there working with the new guys. Is this an awesome place or what?!) “Fallen Hankeys” consists of sheets of fresh pasta in marinara sauce topped with ricotta cheese and pesto. Red, white and green, like the Italian flag. Magnifico!

I had the fresh local Mahi with charred tomato risotto and mixed veggies italiano. Eccellente! The mahi was exquisite. Tender, juicy and flavorful. Not over-cooked nor over-sauced, and therefore not overpowered by distractions. Perfetto!

I described dessert in detail, but the computer ate it, it was so delicious. So all I can say is. “Mmm, Mmm, Mmm!

We would definitely eat there again. So we made reservations for Sunday brunch, which would happen the day after their next dinner shift. 10am, right when they’d open because we needed to get to World Food Day festivities at the University of the Virgin Islands.

We were asked about how we like the paint job. Well, the paint job is great. It looks fresh and clean, but I am so totally not a white person, that it really does nothing for me. I like Caribbean colors and I loved the bold blues and purples of the last incarnation. But that’s just me…

Sunday’s brunch was also lovely. Again we ordered a bunch of stuff so we could adequately review the menu items. I started off with a Stoli bloody Mary topped with shrimp and olives. When they are officially open, they will have pickled asparagus and green beans along with the jumbo shrimp garnish. The shrimp were huge and delicious with the olives and the nicely spiced concoction. My food choices were: an omelet with roasted eggplant, artichoke hearts, spinach and goat cheese. I also needed to try the baguette French toast with banana kiwi sauce. Yum!

Michael started with their special cane rum drink with fresh limes. It was cool and refreshing – like a mojito with out the mint. He also ordered and enjoyed the lobster hash with eggs and homefries.

We  saw lots of friends there. Meredith back from MA brunched with Nancy and a large contingent from the Pickled Greek  came to celebrate and wish Mitchell well.

We were stuffed, but headed to the festivities at UVI hoping that we could work off those calories and eat some breadfruit…..

I called Bonnie and Kelly today to ask if I could publish Kelly’s brilliant letter to the VI Daily News. Bonnie and I never got to that, but at the risk of being scolded by either of them:

Just a little sumpin’ sumpin’ to keep y’all entertained while you patiently await Terry’s forthcoming gastronomical reviews…

We’ve all heard the conservative rants about ‘liberal media bias’, but you really have to love the latest developments. Leonard Pitts, Jr. of the Miami Herald, brought this to our attention: Get ready for conservative Bible.

Apparently, the pernicious liberal bias extends deeply into Wikipedia and even, you guessed it… The Bible. Conservative Hero Andy Schlafly and a troop of home-schooled right-wing-nuts-in-training have been diligently countering the liberal onslaught in a wiki of their own, Conservapedia. Now they are taking on the penultimate purveyor of liberal hyperbole, The Christian Bible.

For the last few decades the far right has pretty much hijacked Christianity for their own twisted uses, but darn it all, many of their claims are refuted by the Good Book itself. Well not any more! Schlafly and crew have taken on the task of translating the King James Version from English to… ConservaSpeak?

For more hilarious commentary on Conservapedia and the bible translation, check out these fine sites: We couldn’t make this up…, RationalWiki, Liberapedia.

“The truth is that, to far-right conservatives, it is reality that has a left wing bias” ~~ Liberapedia

One of my “Snowbird” clients is back early! Another regular is back from a 4-month stateside stint, so business is.

Right. It’s not booming at all, but it is what it is. And since one of my snowbirds comes to our house for his massages, I have to clean the house twice a week. Time consuming and tiresome.

A few weeks ago, I got a call from Dee at Sail Bilinda Charters. She knew that I had worked on charter sailboats and loved sailing, so she asked if I could crew for her on her boat, Zulu few times during the month of October.

Yes! Back on a sailboat. And getting paid for it! Dee’s a great Captain and  offers a fun trip for her guests

I met with her at the dock on Sunday for a briefing for the Tuesday morning trip. Monday on my way home from doing massages   (    !), I saw a bicyclist friend on the side of the road with a puppy she’d just found running on the side of the road. Of course she flagged me down, we chatted for a minute, but traffic behind me told me I had to get going. Apparently, there was another pup in the bush that she wasn’t able to catch. I already have my quota filled, and someone was there to help with the  healthy, friendly pup.

Tuesday morning as I was getting ready to go to the boat, Michael called. He saw the other puppy, and couldn’t stop, so could I go see if I could catch it? Okay. So I rushed out and didn’t see the dog, but we decided to set a hav-a-hart trap for it as soon as we could. Well, we caught two mongoose and the last time we set it, someone released whatever we caught. Oh well. Done with that for now. Haven’t seen the dog in a while.

I did some errands in Christiansted town and ended up gabbing the afternoon away. I rarely get into town and I was lucky enough to see two of my favorite local people/business owners, Sue Victor at Cache of the Day, and Michelle Pugh at Dive Experience.

We’ve been doing a lot with the sea turtles. Patrolling three mornings a week and doing one all-nighter each week. I really believe I’m getting too old for the all-nighters, though. Exhausting!

We’re also back to painting now that the tile work is done. Last night Mitchell and Bob had their soft-opening at the Cultured Pelican (more to come about that) so we had to go eat and wish them well..

Today we have an early morning bird-watch, and tomorrow brunch at the Pelican and World Food Day Festivities at UVI.

So, Wreg, that’s partially why I haven’t posted in a while.

Saturday was cruise ship day, and we had an appointment to do a 90 minute couples massage on the beach at Carambola. A  honeymoon couple contacted us months ago and we agreed to meet them out there. We have had a few of these nice little jobs since the cruise ships started coming back. Hope they continue.

They were a nice young couple (everybody’s nice and YOUNG these days – I feel so old sometimes), enjoyed their massage and probably spent the rest of the afternoon lounging out there talking about coming back to visit, or what it would be like to live here. They had been to a few other islands and especially liked St. Lucia. They hiked up a volcano there and are into outdoor pursuits (like us).  But they liked our island, too, so hopefully, they’ll return.

When we were done massaging them, it was time for lunch, so we went to Cane Bay and ate at Eat @ Cane Bay, Frank and Katherine Pugliese’s new place. Aahhh! Beverages served in glasses and food served on real plates with silverware. If you must have a traveler for the beach or the road, they’ll give you a regular plastic cup instead of styrofoam. Add $1 for a take-out  meal since they use eco-friendly containers. Love that!

And, of course, with Frank in the kitchen, the food is superb.

Classy beach bar food. How perfect is that!

Menu items include create your own burgers and salads. Starting price for a burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, and choice of cheese is $8.50. You can add bacon, egg, avocado, mushroom and onion, blue cheese or jalapeno cream cheese for $2.50. Or duck chili, chorizo or pulled pork for $4, truffle aioli for $2 or foie gras for $12.

Your salad is $10 with a butter lettuce and romaine hearts base. You can add any 6 of the following: carrots, cukes, tomato, red onion, mushrooms, kalamata olives, red pepper avocado, croutons, roasted beets, chick peas or edamame; 2 of the following: roasted turkey, hard cooked egg, feta or blue cheese, bacon or strip steak; and dress it with herbed yogurt, passion fruit french, caesar, blue cheese or evoo (?) and balsamic.

When we were there, they had a special of fresh local wahoo sandwich and also a tuna sashimi appetizer on fried wantons. We had both of those. They had also just gotten in a 90 lb tuna. We wanted more, but we saw mussels on the menu and had to try them. We had onion rings (yum) and hand cut fries  (kind of limp and oily), but everything else was great.

The rest of the menu includes an open-faced BBQ brisket sandwich, a pulled pork sand, fried chicken, an oven roasted turkey club, mixed fried seafood. Fun sides include the ones we had along with sweet potato fries, roasted beets, smoked duck chili, peel and eat shrimp, orzo salad w/red pepper and edamame.

They have a kids menu, a couple of desserts,  and  a nice wine selection. Two whites and two reds by the glass, and bottles ranging in price from $18 for the Chilean Montes Cherub Rose, to $40 for the Italian Masua di Jago Ripassa.

We are happy to have the Frank and Katherine team feeding us again! Eat @ Cane Bay! Bon appetit!

I found this on another blog and naturally was fascinated.

I think it’s very cool that there are people like this guy out there.

He’s a bit extreme, but for a good reason. It’s not like he’s cheap because he’s greedy.

We actually took a day off from around the house duties this past week-end to enjoy our surrounding waters.

Saturday, we borrowed one of the Yacht Club’s Rhodes-19 sailboats and practiced tacking and jibing in the perfect gentle winds and calm seas of that day. Michael did a great job at the helm and first mate, Michelle skillfully handled the jib sheet.

I, of course had to hold and console the little dog, who had a traumatic experience last time he was on a small monohull, and was NOT a happy camper at all being on one again. A few years ago, when we owned a small sailboat, we went out on a rough day and got into trouble, and had to be towed back to the club.

He survived a couple of hours on the water, though. Nothing bad happened, and he was rewarded with a nap on the cool, not- rolling floor of the yacht club while we enjoyed a yummy lunch of mahi sandwiches.

After that, we took Michelle to our favorite snorkeling spot, where we saw three hawksbill turtles and dozens of other very cool sea creatures, coral formations and sea fans.

Yes, another awesome day in paradise!

In restaurant news….. Well, it may not be news to a lot of people, but Frank and Katherine Pugliese have taken over at Cane Bay Beach Bar. We KNOW it will be good, now! Apparently it has opened and everybody knew about it but us. We’ll get there ASAP. Maybe this coming week-end if it’s not PACKED.

Since Frank is no longer at the Galleon, Craig Butler is back cooking there, along with Yummy.

Mitchell and Bob from Zebo’s will be taking over at the Cultured Pelican in the next few weeks. Can’t wait to eat there again!

“Good Spirits” Deli and BBQ will hopefully open soon where Lori’s used to be.

And Ziggy is the new owner of the gas station formerly known as Smokey’s. New menu, new energy…looking good. We saw him last night at Luncheria with his very sweet right-hand man, Dale.

The restaurant on the corner formerly known as the South Shore Cafe and most recently, Kaleidoscope, has been re-painted (from their nice bright blue to a dull beige – soooo strange), so I guess it will be re-opening as something. Will find out and report ASAP.

New energy! Exciting and wonderful!

Try watching this.

But we still don’t have cable or satellite to get any of it.

This week, we’re in luck, though!

PBS and the National Park Service are showing the series “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” on a big screen TV on the lawn next to the gazebo in Christiansted. Last night we went and learned how John Muir and others worked tirelessly to get Yosemite and Yellowstone set aside as the first National Parks.

It is very awe -inspiring.

I can’t think of a much better way to spend an evening  than being outdoors relaxing on a cool, comfortable night. The lights of the harbor buoys  flashed red and green, and the moon shone golden on the dark water as people fished off the boardwalk and kids ran around playing.

Unfortunately, there were only a handful of folks out there. A couple of families and individuals and us. Hopefully many others were watching at home.

The series continues every night this week at 8pm at the Christiansted National Historic Site. We’re going to be there every night but Thursday, when we have turtle night patrol duty.

Hope to see more people there tonight!

The tiles are all installed and they look great.

There of course has to be a dark lining behind this silver cloud.

Yogi has died.

The day before the job was to be finished, Yogi asked me if he could go outside. I had not allowed him in previous days because of all the noise and activity. Yogi is the kitty who came home partially paralyzed a few months ago. He’d been doing so well, adapting to being an indoor/outdoor kitty, so I stupidly thought that, since the guys were almost done, they surely would be done making a lot of noise and he’d be fine out there.

I’m having a hard time dealing with this because I made the conscious choice to let him go out. He went out. I had a couple of appointments that morning, so I wasn’t home to hear what was going on out there.

Doors had been taken off an outdoor closet and the pump room, and the tile guys were nice enough to cut the doors and replace them (they did a great job, too). But at some point, Yogi must have gotten scared and hidden in the pump room and then maybe tried to jump to a high shelf with his weakened back legs. Then he must have fallen on something in there and really hurt himself.

When I got home from my appointments, I was thrilled that they were able to cut the doors and put them back on. They left and I started to sweep the dust and pieces of concrete and hardened thin-set out of the laundry room, where they had also removed, cut and replaced a door.

I heard Yogi crying from outside and opened the door. He wasn’t there, but I heard him from inside the pump room, so I opened the door and called him. He was crying and in pain, but he was able to drag himself out from under the water tank. He was again only using his front legs. He was covered with vomit and urine and thin-set or grout, but he bravely dragged himself out of the pump room and into a carrier. I called the vet, and the receptionist (this one I really don’t like) reluctantly told me to come in with him, since it “seems to be an emergency”.

Yogi and I talked all the way to the vet. He was really brave about the whole thing, so I hoped that it would be like last time and he’d be able to make a miraculous come-back.  I wasn’t ready to let him go. Dr. Stacia was not nearly as optimistic as I.

She explained a couple of possible reasons for his paralysis, but the prognosis was not good at all. I wanted her to x-ray him and give him some more steroids since they helped him last time. She said that he’d have to stay overnight, and I agreed since I knew he’d be more comfortable there. It’s a pretty cushy animal hospital, after all.

Anyway, my poor little Yogums didn’t make it through the night. So I’ve been beating myself up for letting him go outside that day.

Michael dug a hole while I went to get his little body. The Sugar Mill staff had picked some flowers for us, and we got another little gravestone, too. Nice touches.

I still feel responsible. He didn’t have to die like that. He knew I loved him, but it still really sucks.

Smokey’s is under new management!

Yesss! Someone has bought the gas station on the east end and is cleaning it up like mad. Woo hoo!

Now I can end my boycott!

The tiles are almost all laid and the guys have been grouting the front and side porch. Woo hoo!

Since last Tuesday, we have been getting up a little earlier every day and getting the dogs ready to have workers around. This means that after they’ve had their morning “cookies”, I put Wiley out in the back yard (he snapped at one of the painters when they were here, so he can no longer be trusted), and Yoda goes outside in the front yard where Emmy, Fudge and Bebe have chowed down their Vita Bones and are making their morning rounds sniffing things and peeing where necessary.

I clean up the poop and then move the dog beds from the porch to under the neem trees, where Fudge and Bebe will be tied up for the day. They are getting used to this routine now, but at first, Fudge was highly insulted that I would not let him “help” the tile guys. He’s such a good boy.

After Yoda and Emmy are finished outside, I move them into our bedroom where they will spend the day. I close the sliding glass door so Yoda doesn’t go through the screen. She will occasionally bark like crazy at the guys that she can see through the glass, but she’ll calm down when I go in to talk to her. Emmy’s just happy to be inside.

We even did this all on Sunday, since they said they wanted to work for a few hours that day. Well, that didn’t happen. Too much partying for the guys on Saturday night, I guess. But they did call to let us know they wouldn’t be making it to work. So the dogs regained their freedom even earlier than we expected.

Not a lot of turtle activity on our morning patrols. Oh well, the experts did expect it to be a slow year for greens and hawksbills. But we had a nice snorkel Sunday when we swam out to Green Cay. Saw a very large green turtle with a big long tail, and a couple of  smaller hawksbills. I love the sea fan gardens out there. The colorful waving of the fans as the currents move them is one of my favorite underwater seascapes. We swam around out there for over an hour. It was great!

Yesterday, I noticed that my watch had stopped working. Since my daughter has closed her store and Patrick has retired, I went to Millenium Jewelers on Queen Cross Street. The woman working there sent me across the street to Tropical Jewelry which was closed because they’re officially on vacation. But Gotham was still there and agreed to change my watch batteries for me. How sweet is that? What a lifesaver, too, because I’m a watch-a-holic, and wear mine 24/7/365.

Anyway, when he reopens the store after vacation, I will definitely go shopping there for holiday gifties. He’s got some pretty cool stuff, and his space in that very old historic building is beautiful.

I love this place!

The other week-end, we went to buy the tiles for 1200+ square feet of porch. One of the guys sitting in the flooring showroom said he would be able to do the installation. So we made an appointment for him to come the next day (Sunday) to check out the job and give us an estimate.

He really showed up at around 10am on Sunday morning. He measured the job and wrote up an estimate. We needed to do some preparation before we could have him start, so we asked him if he could come Labor Day week. He said that he could, and he also said he recognized the truck  in our neighbor’s yard, knew his name, and used to work with him on a construction crew.

So after he left, we checked with the neighbor and eventually found out that he does good work. He’s from Haiti and his accent is pretty thick, so there have been a few communication difficulties. We’re used to the regular West Indian accent without the French, so maybe I can try to use some of my long forgotten second language from my childhood.

Another guy we talked to about building shutters recommended a stateside guy for the tile job. The stateside guy came over and didn’t measure anything. He wrote a number down from our receipt from the flooring company, multiplied it by 3, added some for the steps and gave me a number. His number was about 30% higher than the Haitian’s. I was not impressed by his lazy attitude toward measuring and we’ve had a couple of less-than stellar experiences with supposedly able stateside construction workers who give you a good line, but get distracted by other jobs they’re working on at the same time, or they keep jacking the figures up as the job progresses. I like confidence but not cockiness, and the stateside guy’s attitude left a lot to be desired.

We figured the guy from Haiti would need the money more, he’d be more familiar with Caribbean construction (another thing about statesiders is they base a lot on what works where they come from. And as we well know, stuff down here does not always work that way), and he wouldn’t be resentful about having to work for a living.

He and his helper arrived at around 7:30am, just as he said they would. They got right to work scraping paint off the back porch and Michael helped the boss man moving the thinset and grout and tiles while his helper went to see about immigration paperwork.

The truck that delivered the materials couldn’t fit into the yard close enough to the car port, so there was a lot of heavy lifting to get the stuff in bags undercover. After everything was delivered he started right away on the east porch. Both he and his helper are neat and polite and after I asked them to keep me informed, the communication has been flowing more smoothly.

So far the job is progressing well.

During the rains on Friday, Michael went to rent a pressure washer and spent most of the day pressure washing in the rain. The guys at the rental place questioned his wanting to work in this weather, but when he explained what a good idea it was to use the water from the cistern to pressure wash while the cistern was being refilled with water, they totally agreed with this brilliant idea. He was pretty soggy out there in his raincoat and boots. The paint chips from the ugly old brown floor paint stuck to him all over. It took him all day, but the porch came out great and he got all of the crud off that side of the house, too.

Wreggie and his friend, Ty had arrived from NC on Wednesday night, and one of their vacation projects would be to install a venting unit the roof of the Pickled Greek kitchen to remove some of the heat from the cooking. Last week, Aaron said it was 140 degrees in there !!  A little ceiling prep got done on Saturday, but they didn’t cut a hole out, since there would be people working in there that night. They’d wait until Sunday to actually install the vent.

Saturday morning, Michael started working remotely from home on the webcam for the Greek that he a Wreggie had been working on together. That was another of Wreggie’s vacation projects. After Wreggie and Ty played a little with the camera over there, too, they took off to go snorkeling. Michael was having trouble with working remotely, so he went down to the restaurant for the rest of the afternoon.

Michael and Wreg had been conspiring to put in a webcam there since before it even opened, but the owner didn’t want them to. However, since the “incident”, a couple of weeks ago, the owner has changed his tune. Now there is a webcam hooked up which faces the front door and records the comings and going of everyone in that spot. But with internet fluctuations during the stormy days,  Michael continued having trouble getting it to work the way he wanted it to. Eventually, since we had dinner reservations for 7, he headed home at around 6.

Just as Michael was coming home to get ready to head into town to go to Galangal for dinner, the storm came back, poured more rain all over everything, and there was thunder and lightning enough to make power go out at the restaurant, scare the dogs again and make us cancel our dinner reservations.

The Greek’s generator  had a dead battery, so Vinny got his jeep close enough to it to jump start it, and they were set to serve.

I was all dressed and ready to go to dinner, and as I walked into the kitchen, I walked into a puddle. I thought that one of the dogs had had an accident, since they were so scared of the thunder, but quickly realized that our cistern had started to overflow into the house. This was a first! We’ve had a lot of rain storms, and we have a large roof and a small cistern, but because, in the past, we’ve had old, leaky, flimsy gutters, excess water would spill out and not overwhelm the overflow pipe.

Well, now we have nice new extra large gutters and downspouts, so a LOT a WATAH was getting into that underground water tank. So much that it started coming into the house in the storage room which also houses our fancy shmancy inverter to change DC current from the solar panels into AC used by all of our appliances and ceiling fans, etc. Yikes!

I reminded Michael that we had the downspouts installed so that if this happened, we could remove a cap and the water in the gutters would immediately drain out into the yard and not make it to the cistern. So he got the wrenches and went out to fix the problem while I used lots of towels to sop up the water which had come into the dining/living room. We then put a small fan into the storage room to dry out the  floor and damp boards underneath the big batteries that store some of our excess electricity. Whew!

Sunday afternoon, we all went snorkeling at Tamarind and saw three different hawksbill turtles! And lots of fish, too.

Monday, we went west to snorkel out to the wreck of the North Wind. We had lunch at Sunset Grill (yum) and then I had to head east to go to work. They went to the crab races in town and I met them at the Deck Bar. After a nice dinner at Rum Runners, we were tired and came home.

The tropical storm formerly known as Erika went by but came back it seems. After we waited aaahll day yesterday for it to start raining. I could have been painting, but I baked (or tried baking – I rarely do that, so my corn muffins came out like hockey pucks). It was not nearly as rewarding as painting either. In creating food all your effort eventually goes down the toilet.

Anyway, Erika took her sweet old time arriving (while we waited after moving things around that had just been put back after the threat of Ana a couple of weeks ago). And finally around midnight the big rains started. The thunder and lightening frightened the dogs who huddled in front of the door, whining pathetically.

So of course we let them in and it took them a while to settle down and we were wide awake again.

With the menopause coming on, my sleep patterns are pretty erratic, too. Last night was just one more in a string of lousy nights of sleep. Hence, I’m frequently grouchy, anxious and depressed. But…. we heard on the radio the other day that depression has hit epidemic proportions. (sigh) So I’m not alone. (thank goodness) I’d better start sneezing into my elbow, though!

We’ve been busy doing the detail work around the new deck because once the passion fruit vines start to take over, they will be totally in the way. That’s just about done.

But now, we’ve bought a bunch of tile and thinset and grout, and the guy will be coming next week to start laying tile on over 1200 square feet of porch. So the big push is on to get most of the paint onto the house before the nice new tiles are laid. We’re not the neatest painters. I always get paint all over my body and in my hair.

There are drips and spills all over the place, and even the dogs have been getting in on the fun.

Well, we don’t even know if the person or persons responsible for contacting the service animal registry still read this blog. They may have started their campaign against us a year or two ago, when there were a lot of critics who commented by calling us and our friends names and even threatening us.

Believe it or not, some disgruntled reader contacted the company we used to register Goliath as a service animal and complained. This very peculiar company chose to believe a person with a personal vendetta against us and revoke Goliath’s certification rather than contacting us to discuss the situation. I received a certified letter the other day after I repeatedly called the company which had cashed my check for renewal, but never sent me updated registration cards. When you call this strange company, you always get a voicemail, and there was no signature, not even a person’s name on this letter.

So we’ve gone with another much more professional service animal registration company. You can see Goliath’s new service animal registration here. You can search their data base with my last name, Chretien, and Goliath’s name, and there you have it!

So, some of the suspense is over (for our faithful readers). We however still do not know, and we may never find out who was so petty as to stoop to trying to prevent Goliath from going everywhere with us. The three of us will be watching out for him/her or them, though. I’ll spend part of my day today fixing the little snuggli we have for him, and he’ll join us even more places from now on….

Ha, ha, ha!!!

There is a reader (or there may be more) of this blog who have attempted to cause upheaval in the wonder-filled, amazing and happy life of Terry and Michael and our little piece of paradise. Something sacred to us has been taken away because of this person’s pettiness.

We are in the process of rectifying this evil doing (or joke, whatever the case may be).

Ha. Ha. Ha!!!

This is so incredibly cool!

We got an e-mail the other day from an avid St. Croix bird watcher. She and another friend had been at our Great Pond and photographed a whimbrel with a tag on her leg. It turns out that this bird also has a radio attached to her and she has been tracked from Virginia to northern Canada, and then down to here in our backyard.

You can check out her migration path and others here.

And here are a couple of actual photos of this soon-to-be-famous bird at Great Pond:

You can actually see the radio and antenna in the picture on the left. How cool is that!?!

Well that last blog post seems to have been a real dud. Let’s see if I can go two in a row.

A couple of months ago, Michael came across “Earthlings“. He wanted to buy a bunch of copies to give out to people and organizations.

I told him that over 20 years ago, watching “The Animals Film” changed my life forever. And back then, I wanted everyone to watch it. But with time, I have come to see that most people are just plain selfish and too fat and comfortable with their American lifestyle. Even people who supposedly “love animals” want to keep their heads in the sand and pretend that the burger or hot dog they are eating was not once a living, breathing,  creature who had emotions and felt pain.

So do I because I do lose sleep sometimes thinking about what animals go through at the hands of insensitive humans every minute of every day and that they have been suffering  for centuries. But it’s gotten so much worse today with factory farming and our increasing supply and demand. I have been called names as I protested the fur trade, hunting, and the circus. I have been arrested twice during protests, but apparently I have not done enough.

Michael bought 10 copies of “Earthlings”. We sat down together to watch it even though I knew I would be sick if I did. I had to leave the room after just a few minutes. I was in tears sobbing and knew that the scenes I had seen would haunt me. This was weeks ago, and every now and then I start to cry thinking about the guy slaughtering the pigs. The way he mocks and ridicules their frightened and stunned behavior…..

Michael was strong enough to watch the whole thing while I sobbed as I played computer games to try to numb myself.

It is not for the faint of heart to watch this movie, but the more people who do, the better the plight of our fellow Earthlings will be.

Hopefully.

We still have 9 copies……

There are many times that the people we come in contact with express their priorities in life. They do it in many ways.  And actually even people we don’t come in direct contact with express their priorities to us in many ways.

Ever since I was very young, I have been interested in the truth and what is right. These have been my main priorities. In fact,  the truth and what is right have had a tremendous effect on my career and my lifestyle choice.

In my world, there are certain behaviors that are “right” and certain behaviors that are “wrong”. Others may disagree with me, but, since I live on a beautiful planet which sustains me and my fellow inhabitants, I place the health of this planet at the top of my list of priorities. If our planet is not healthy, none of her inhabitants will be. Anyone who does something intentionally harmful to our planet is wrong in my book.

Many people believe that we humans can rip up parts of our planet to build factories which will produce things that they believe will make their lives better. They believe that all humans can continue to drill into the Earth and take substances out which will allow them to drive extremely inefficient vehicles which produce toxic fumes and gases, and that this will not effect the health of our beautiful planet.

I’m a believer in a holistic lifestyle, where all parts of a living system interact to create health.

I believe that our beautiful planet cannot maintain its health if we continue to rip pieces of it up. Just as people who have parts of them ripped away, whether physical or emotional, have difficulty maintaining good health without a tremendous amount of support, our planet cannot continue to sustain herself or us without our consideration of the effect that our activities have on her.

Our excessively consumeristic lifestyle, which other developing countries wish to emulate is killing our planet, and many people (I will call them “idiots” to be kind) refuse to believe this. People continuously argue that global warming is not happening. Well, how can it not be. Just look around. Just pay attention to the natural environment and the depletion of the beautiful and formerly bountiful resources that we’ve enjoyed. And even if it’s not as drastic as some say, even if our Mother Earth can miraculously come back from the attack of the humans, why not err on the side of caution and try to protect her? We only have one planet.

We have soooo much more than we need to survive and live a happy healthy life. But there are those who refuse to change their excessive lifestyle. I just don’t get it. Why can’t “the powers that be” be less greedy and more holistic-minded? I guess it’s because the “little people” (aka consumers) have also become greedy and support the excess that is not only killing the planet, but their own health.

Sometimes I just want to say, “Fuck ‘em all”, and sometimes I do. But mostly, I get up in the morning seeing the miraculous colors that the sunrise brings. I am nuzzled by my furry four-legged children and I admire my adorable life partner as he makes the coffee. My life is so rich even without all the “stuff” that many other people have come to “need”.

I’m lucky, and I live in the hope that others may someday be happy with what they have rather than always wanting more.

We love Dean’s Beans Coffee Company. Not only does he do great work selling wonderful fair trade coffee, but he’s got a fabulous sense of humor.

Too much fun!

I think I’ll stick to normally processed and harvested coffee beans thank you very much!

First, I’m going to send out HUGE hugs once again to Greg and Margaret for visiting and causing the massive clean-up that made our house and yard presentable. (Miss you guys!)

This major overhaul made preparing for Ana and Bill a piece of cake. And it’s not because Ana and Bill did not and will not come to sit right on top of us (we never really know, but need to prepare well in advance – just in case), it’s because there’s very little crap still left around to fly in the wind.

Most of my plants have been re-potted into ceramic pots which are less likely to blow around in the wind, and which do not disintegrate in the tropical sun like any plastic. The Land Rover parts which had become a major eyesore and hazard are now comfortably stuffed into the ugly container (in the back yard and camouflaged by trees). The Rover roof which had been jammed under the mango trees, has been moved and tied to the other side of the ugly container. Woohoo!

I asked Micheal to count the number of windows that needed 2X4’s to secure the shutters and to make sure we had enough boards. He replied that he had checked before, but would double check now. He made sure that we have enough and they are easily accessible.

The chaise lounges by the pool and the chairs around the outdoor dining table were easily secured. Last minute items would be closing the shutters, lowering orchids and ferns from trees and tables, and taking heavy planters off railings.

Inside, the massage room still is not put back together since the painting of the ceilings, so dogs could easily be put in there without worry, the cats have been getting along in and outside, so closing them in the laundry room would not be a problem. We actually have one of those Staples’ “easy” buttons, which we definitely could have used yesterday.

The moral of the story is this: keep the place properly maintained and there should be no real issue with preparing for a hurricane.

We were so comfortable after moving a few things around yesterday morning, that we went snorkeling at our favorite hawksbill-sighting beach underwater trail (and we saw two small hawksbills), which is also a lot easier to get to than Buck……

Oh, and on the way back from doing a couples massage, we stopped at the yacht club to strap Origami and the extra kayak to the dinghy rack. Piece of cake!

Ahhh….paradise!

Well, the jury’s still out. There are a few cautious proponents, but there are more vociferous opponents to the supposedly carved- in-granite deal in which garbage from our landfills in addition to pet coke, a by-product from the oil refinery will be burned to produce electricity.

We need to get rid of our landfills, we need to get rid of our garbage, and something needs to be done with the pet coke. We also “need” a utility which uses cheap alternative energy to produce power. Well, people need jobs and the government of the VI needs to feel like their in control of the power situation. But this is going to be adding to the green house gases that some of us are trying to reduce.

I’d prefer everyone have solar panels on their homes and generate their own electricity.

As Van jones says in his book, The Green Collar Economy, “Solar energy is as reliable as the sunrise; through solar-thermal and photovoltaics, we can harness the sun’s majestyto make abundant clean energy. Enough solar energy falls on the Earth’s surface in one hour to power all of human civilization for a year.”

Many of us have been calling solar energy a “no brainer” for those of us in the sunny tropics, but the governor and his administration keep trying to demonstrate that they have less than no brains.

We’ll see what happens……

Cheap people drive me nuts. People who have plenty but hold tightly to it make me want to barf. Like the gazillionaires that nickel and dime us about our massage prices.

I don’t have millions. I barely have thousands. But I don’t mind paying for good food and service and quality products that I need to improve my life or business. I gladly buy dog food and meds for our four-legged children who are devoted and lovable.

But I won’t deal with beggars. On Sunday, while we were on the streets of Christiansted participating in the “Peace Chain”, as I like to call it, one of the street people came to beg money from us. She took one look at Michael’s kind and generous face and knew she’d found her sucker. She stood there staring at him making pathetic noises and moaning about how “hungry” she was.

Michael decided to go back to the Land Rover and get the big bag of mangoes that we had brought to give away to participants. He brought it back and she immediately took the entire bag. She walked down a few feet and started selling the mangoes. Carsten bought 2 for $2, but another guy bought the whole bag for $5.

Yeah, she was hungry alright. She’s annoying and  a liar, and I will not give her or any other useless beggar any of my hard earned money.