We have a group of people on island who have gotten together to swim every Saturday morning at 8 am for around 20 years. The group is called “The Fin Folk”. One of the long time members, Sheelagh, comes up with a shcedule roughly quarterly and we swim from one beach to another, on different parts of the island.

About ten years ago when I returned home from massage school in Berkely, CA, my friend, Marie (aka “our little Marie” or “Mah-wee”) asked me if I’d like to swim in the Buck Island to Buccaneer race (5.5 miles) at the end of October on a team with her. I had never been much of a swimmer, but, since moving to the island and working on Big Beard’s boats, I felt more comfortable in the water than I had at any other time in my life. I said I’d give it a shot. So we got together a couple of times a week after work and swam. Then one Saturday morning she introduced me to this group called “The Fin Folk”. We swam from Cane Bay to the Carambola Beach Resort. It’s about a 1.5 mile swim, with amazing underwater sights to see. Some of the swimmers are purists and just wear goggles. I want to enjoy each swim, so I wear my mask and snorkel and usually fins, too. Marie and I were the only two person team in the race that year (the rest of the teams had three swimmers), and we won a blue ribbon for first place in the team division! Not bad for my first swim race!

Anyway, since then I have been swimming sporadically with the Fin Folk. They are a great bunch of people and the swims are generally fun and beautiful. So Michael and I decided to swim this Saturday. We started at Boiler Bay, on the east end and ended at the St. Croix Yacht Club (2 Miles). There were 6 of us. All guys except me. The water was a little rough and the currents variable. In some spots we felt like we were flying and in others we seemed to be going nowhere. We saw a few small stingrays, a spotted eacgle ray and a small turtle. This swim is often quite boring because the topography is mostly sea grass, so not much to see for the most part.
It felt good, though, and I could have gone farther.

After that we went home to have “brunch” and get some work done around the house. We need to rearrange things in the carport so Michael can start disassembling the junk rover and storing parts in an organized space. We had about a 3-4 hour window of opportunity before we had to get to the salon to get our hair cut. We got quite a bit done, too. I’ll be making a trek to the flea market to donate unneeded items ASAP.

Karen, our hairdresser, is a neat lady. She has 3 tortoises for pets that she brings to work every day. A few years ago, when she first got them they could fit in the palm of her hand. Now they are about a foot long and it’s more challenging to move them, but she does it anyway. She always tells us stories about their antics and how they respond to the things she does. I never realized they could be so interactive.

After that, we visited my daughter at her store, Gems Direct to check on her and see if her long lost kitty, Sebastian, had been found. She had gotten a call from someone responding to her “Lost Cat” poster and we were keeping our fingers crossed that it was him. It was actually a female that this person had seen. So that was disappointing . I’m thinking that maybe he is trying to get back to the condo he recently moved from. It happens and has happened to us once, when our friend, Charlie, “borrowed” one of our cats and the cat traveled the mile back home in just a few hours.

Nikki got busy with customers, so we went down to the waterfront to get a bite to eat at the Fort Christian Brew Pub.. We started, of course, with some of their home brewed beer. I had the pale ale and Michael had the brown ale. Mmmmm. We were happy to see that they once again have fried pickles on their menu. We ordered those as an appetizer. For entrees, Michael had a “small” order of ribs and I had a black bean quesadilla. Everything was yummy and our tummies were full again. It’s a great place to sit and watch the people go by. And there’s always plenty of activity in the harbor with boats coming and going, people feeding fish and birds. The breeze was very slight, but enjoyable when it blew, and the setting sun created muted, but lovely colors through the haze in the western sky.

Friday is Michael’s “day off”. This week was a little different in that we had massages, facials and wraps scheduled for the morning. I had met Brenda, Leon and their friends on Monday when three of them got massages after they first arrived on island. They wanted more treatments before heading home, so Michael and I decided to split the work this time. It was a great day where they were staying. The “Sugar Mill” villa in Estate Judith’s Fancy. You get a wonderful view of Christiansted Harbor and Buck Island and can often see the islands of St. Thomas, St. John and the British Virgins, as well.

After we were finished there, we went out to Carambola to massage Austin and Darby, long-time friends who had a gift certificate for a couple’s massage. The resort out there is under new management (again), but this time, Marriot Renaissance has taken over. The room they were staying in was newly renovated and looked fantastic!
The unit had a nice kitchenette with dishwasher, two burner stove top, microwave, full-sized fridge and enough cupboards and cabinets to make some apartments around here look puny. The furnishings were updated and the floors and bathroom elegantly redone. It was great to see how the transformation of the property is going and it was nice to see our friends and catch up on things.

While we were out that way, we thought we’d have a swim/snorkel at Cane Bay and then have lunch out there. The water was refreshing after those hours of work. We saw some neat coral formations, a couple of squid, lots of butterfly fish, basnded and spotted, and I saw the most beautiful jeweled damsel fish. She was royal blue with iridescent turquoise spots on top and a bright yellow tail ~ gorgeous! We also saw a little black and white blenny hanging out next to a black and white damsel fish. At first we thought there were two blennies, but this guy just had the same coloring as the damsel fish in that area. He was very cute!

By then it was three pm and we were hungry for lunch. So we went across the street to the Cane Bay Beach Bar. That would be our big meal for the day. I wouldn’t feel like cooking or eating much later.

With full tummies, we headed home to feed the dogs and cats and maybe get a chance to see Peter’s friend (and ours, now), Lin before he took off for Little Rock the next morning. They weren’t anywhere we could find them, so we just stayed home a read a book. A quiet ending to another lovely day in Paradise.

It’s official! The green Land Rover is finally truly green. My ingenious husband has been working for months to get to this point. We’ve been collecting waste vegetable oil from our local restaurants. Michael has been researching formulas with which to obtain the optimum viscosity, and the day has finally arrived! How did he settle on this particular day to become THE auspicious day that the rover runs on yucky stinky rancid used cooking oil?

Let me tell you….Michael came home from work the other day. I came home a bit later to tell him that he would need to use the rover to get to a massage appointment IMMEDIATELY after work the following day. Unfortunately, he did not have enough fuel in the tank, and would not have time during the day to get any. I mentioned that we could just go get more that evening. Here was the glitch: The gas station with a diesel pump was ALL the way on the other side of town. So I said, “When were you going to try using the veggie oil formulas that you’ve been working on, since you know they have the proper viscosity?” And that was it! That provided the impetous for the BIG day!

Michael went out to the carport and started pumping filtered vegetable oil. He mixed it in the prescribed proportions with a small amount of unleaded gasoline and kerosene (okay, so it’s not TOTALLY green, but it’s a lot better than it was. Biodiesel uses methanol which is really difficult for us to get here, and not “green” either).
He mixed the concoction in a 15 gallon barrel, and he filled the rover’s fuel tank….Then…..he started the engine!

It worked!! Now the rover exhaust smells like it comes from a fryer rather than a stinky old diesel-guzzling engine! Mmmm mmmm, good! Yay, Michael!!

I was massaging the guy who lives in a tree house the other day. It’s usually fun because we’re outside under his house and there’s lots going on in those parts.
Once I watched a couple of lizards prepare for a duel. That was quite comical. These little critters trying to act all big. They finally got close to each other but by then they were on the other side of the cactus plant and I couldn’t see the actual battle, or if it even took place.

But the other day I was bird watching. A family of pearly-eyed thrashers has a nest in the bottom of this guy’s house. It’s inside the bottom of the house, so you can’t really see it. But you can see the birds going in and out of it occasionally. There are babies in there now, so the parents were in and out constantly while I was working just 15 feet away from the nest.

First one of them brought back a small lizard. The other one brought a turkey berry.
Next time a bug, and a different type of berry or seed. Next more berries. This went on for the entire hour. It was neat to watch and to hear the baby birds start to chirp and tweet when food arrived. But at the end of the session when I was doing my client’s feet, I was almost under the opening to the nest. They got a little nervous about the fact that I was so close and had trouble getting in a couple of times, since I was in the way. I wondered if they’d dive-bomb me. Visions from Hitchcock’s “The Birds” flashed through my head and I wondered if I could keep from screaming and giving my client a heart attack if they came at me. I hoped I could remain calm and business-like with feathers in my face. I tried to duck down while I worked on his feet so they could have a clear flight path. It worked. I didn’t get attacked and start screaming and give the guy a coronary. And the bird family got to enjoy the rest of that meal and the rest of the afternoon in peace.

Now I have that Van Morrison song on the brain. I don’t know most of the words, but the melody keeps coming. Is that even the name of the song?

It was getting more difficult to see the bananaquits and humming birds at the feeder, so it was time. Again. Already. Didn’t I just do this a couple of weeks ago? I took the screens out and swept, then hosed them off. Then vacuumed the fuzz and cobwebs from around the frames, then took a layer of dust off each pane with a moist rag, then sprayed with window cleaner and polished off the streaks. Each window has 2 screens and twelve panes (pains?). Ha ha!

I did three windows. The ones on the front porch that I see everytime I come home. It has been a very hazy, dusty season. Usually the dust stops at the end of June, from my recollection. But there was a thick layer of dust there. In the area of cleaning, I think life is easier in the states. I only used to wash windows twice a year and they weren’t nearly as dirty as these get when I wash them every other month.

I suppose it’s living with everything open all the time. Living on a dirt road and with 11 dogs probably has something to do with it as well. I also need to vacuum every day when I’m feeling anal. I don’t usually, though, and the fur and dust generally get sucked up twice a week. Most of the time the house is “lived in”. We’re not slobs. We don’t leave food all over the place, but no Better Homes and Gardens look here. I’d rather be doing almost anything besides cleaning.

A wise man once said to me, “Life is messy.”

I’m glad I’m livin’ life!

The phone rang at 7:30 am on Saturday. We were still sleeping after our fantastic friday which ended with “plenty wine” at Sunset Jazz. I thought it might be Peter, since he’s usually up at 4:30 and after a while gets bored and needs someone to play with. While we were on vacation in Anegada, he got us up at 6:30 one day. Thank goodness Heike came shortly thereafter so we didn’t have to babysit him anymore!

Anyhoo, it was Peter. I was still groggy when I answered the phone on the bedside table. He hit me with the news that our friend Jay had had another heart attack. “Oh noooo!” was my reply. (Poor Michael is left there half asleep wondering what the bleep is going on….) Jay just had a “near heart attack” two weeks previously. But they hadn’t put a stint in his artery. Jay’s wife, our friend, Beth, had a heart attack last week. They did put one in her artery. So now he has “the real thing”. Is this family having some sort of bizarre one-upmanship thing?

I wondered if there was something he or they needed from us which would warrant a call at 7:30 am. Peter quickly answered my question. “We were all supposed to go to Buck Island with Llewellyn. I’d love it if you guys could fill in for them.” The trip aboard the custom-made trimaran, “Charis +” is always a treat, but it would be a struggle to get up, get breakfast and get ready in time for the 9:00 departure. “Let me wake up and talk to Michael. We’ll call you back in a few minutes.” We decided (of course), to do it. I fixed breakfast while Michael got our snorkeling stuff, cooler with snacks and beverages and towels together. We were a couple of minutes late, but fortunately they hadn’t left without us.

Passengers were: Terry and Michael, Peter, Vinnie and Goliath

Goliath!. Crew was: Captain Llewellyn Westerman and First Mate, David Letson. Me and all those men. Oh joy. They’d be talking about “guy stuff” the whole time. That was pretty much the way it was, although we did see lots of turtles on the way to Buck and the wind and the sun felt great.

Rather than going to the trail, they decided to take us to the north side of Turtle Beach, where David would lead us on a snorkeling trip to places we hadn’t gone to on that side of the park. There were usually juvenile black tip sharks there, so we might get to see one or two while in the water. Exciting! And, as soon as we got in a huge school of sprat (fish) started zooming around us in some strange frenzy. I thought, “Oh crap, there’s a shark chasing them”. And I was right. It was 3-4 feet long and it was just flying through that water. I grabbed Michael’s hand and held tight trying to convince myself that this shark was probably not hungry enough to come after me since there were all these fish for him/her to eat. We swam away toward the reef and were not followed by the shark. The water was a bit murky, but the coral formations were nice and, as the current took us west, the sea fan gardens became spectacular. After about 30-45 minutes I decided to go back to the boat. Our friend, Vinnie had been babysitting Goliath, so wanted to relieve him and let Michael take him out to show him what we had just seen. This was Vinnie’s first trip to Buck Island since moving to St. Croix 4 years ago. He said he did not want to snorkel. He just jumped off the boat for a minute and came back aboard.
Okay.

Peter and David returned a short time later and we compared stories of what we’d seen. We saw one small lobster in addition to all the usual fish, but David and Peter saw quite a few crustaceans and one huge one under a ledge that we missed when we went back to the boat. While we were gone, Llewellyn worked on patching up one of the sails. After we were back on board, he took off for a swim to cool off.
We snacked on cheese and crackers and drank mango champagne that we had purchased a few weeks before at “Mango Melee“. It was hot in the sun on the lee side of the island and Vinnie was starting to fry. I told him to put more sunscreen on, but he didn’t listen. Michael did, though and WE got back NOT looking like stupid tourists or lobsters. The sail back to St. Croix was lovely, as usual. A lot less “guy talk”, since David was up at the bow and Vinnie was sleeping. Llewellyn is an amazing yachtsman. He wins races throughout the Caribbean, and his boat does not have even the thought of an engine on it. He just makes sailing look so easy, but he’s been doing it longer than I’ve been on planet earth in this incarnation. (A looooong time).

Okay, back home at around 2 pm after stopping for petrol. Now we had to feed the dogs and cats and have ourselves a bite to eat before heading out to Frederiksted (again!!) for a “Geocaching Hike” sponsored by SEA. Hadn’t ever heard of it and certainly hadn’t tried it, so, something new involving hiking with gadgets. Michael would love it! I would enjoy the hike to the Hamm’s Bluff Lighthouse.

We ran out the door after putting on appropriate hiking clothes and shoes (ugh! shoes!) and got to the meeting place just in time. A small group (about a dozen) of us were equipped with GPS units and told to find the “buried treasure”. Michael and I took off to the south. Our GPS told us to head south. Everyone else stayed on the beach milling about. But we were heading south. It was hot at 4:30 pm as the sun was blazing at a very intense angle. We cursed ourselves for wearing long pants and tried to stay behind trees and bushes in the shade while heading south. We got to a spot close to the place our GPS unit said the treasure was. But it said the treasure was in the water. It would have been nice to cool off, but we weren’t dressed for it. Finally we went back and consulted with Don and Freddie. It was determined that our unit was messed up. The treasure we were supposed to find was a couple of yards to the north of where we started. Okay.

Fortunately mostly everyone else’s units worked, so we could just follow them to the prize by the lighthouse. We got in our cars and drove to the National Guard property where the trail up the hill began. The trail was nice and wide. It was cool and shady, and small vines hung down like curtains creating an effect reminiscent of scenes from “Harry Potter”. The hike was great. A little strenuous for someone (like me!) who hadn’t hiked in months. And it felt wonderful to get to the top. The views were breathtaking and the breeze was just what the doctor ordered. We didn’t immediately find the prize. The bush was very thick and we didn’t know if there were thorny things or critters underneath it. One brave member of our group, Bob, who just moved to St. Croix with his wife, Debbie, decided he was “going in”. He found the prize a couple of yards into the bush where none of the rest of us were brave enough to go. (Michael probably would have, but he was busy exploring the lighthouse.) Anyway, it was a little plastic box with postcards and trinkets and a camera and notepad and pencil. You record your presence with the camera and notepad and the person monitoring the site logs the info on the official geocaching website. The hike back down the hill put the burn on the quads this time. The knees objected a bit, but they had no say in the matter. We made it down and met back at the Sunset Grill to enjoy a cocktail after our successful trip.

We decided to stay and have a little dinner in F’sted. Peter’s friend, Lin was coming in from Arkansas later, and this way we could stop at the airport on the way back home to welcome him to our island. We ate at Napoleon’s Pizza. The slices are enormous!
We had a veggie (mine!), a supreme-type thing (Michael’s!) and a seafood slice that we thought we’d share. There was too much food. After I was done my veggie, I only had room for a bite of the seafood one. It was good, and the meal, including two beers, cost under $20. What a deal!

We finished and headed toward the airport. Lin’s flight was scheduled (according to Peter) to arrive at 8:55 pm. We’d be a little early, but we had reading material, so no biggie. We hadn’t heard from Peter who we thought he might still be napping after the sailing trip. Finally, at 9:05, we heard a plane landing. Peter arrived at the same time and surprise (!) Lin was on the plane. Everything worked out great. We got to greet Lin and then head home, exhausted. We didn’t even stop to help when the Great Dane dog Peter had borrowed vomited all over the sidewalk. We did, however, stop at the supermarket to stock up on bagels, breads, english muffins and corn chips (no low carb diet for us!)

Gosh! Just reading that seemed to take a couple of days, didn’t it? Another interesting “islandy” day. Lots of sun and fun. Sunday would now have to be a work day. The grass needed mowing, laundry needed doing, there was also a trip to the dumpster on the itinerary which meant gathering up junk to throw out, loading up the Land Rover…….

I love Fridays because Michael has them off. We get to sleep in and, if we don’t have any appointments scheduled, we can play in the water. Like the time we went out in our kayak and the dolphins came over to swim with us. I guess I’ll blog about that when I run out of other topics.

This past Friday, we decided to go snorkeling at Tamarind Reef. There’s a small hotel there, a marina and a couple of our favorite restaurants, The Deep End and The Galleon. The beach is not much to write home about, but right off shore there are a few floating marker buoys that the watersports people put out to indicate a nice underwater snorkeling trail. You have to go in all the way to the right, the east end of the beach at the breakwater to avoid sea urchins and coral rocks. We hadn’t snorkeled it from that direction in quite a while. Last week we came to it from the Shoys Beach direction. The water is often a little murky, but there are a lot of nice healthy coral formations and beautiful sea fans. The underwater topography is very interesting, there are alway some cool fish and usually you can spot a hawkbill turtle or two.

This time was no exception. We saw at least a half dozen trumpet fish in various places just hanging there vertically. They’re so funny when they do that. There were also a lot of bluehead wrasse and a pair of dinner-plate-sized French angel fish. They’re really cool, too. At first one of them was very shy and swam under a ledge, but after a few minutes, they both seemed really curious about me and didn’t try to hide. We came upon another small hawksbill, a bit smaller than the one we saw last week. S/he hung out for a while until we got too close to the rocks and the we couldn’t see through the murkiness. A couple of minutes later, while Michael was practicing his free-diving, I saw what looked to be a juvenile queen angelfish. She was pretty small (3-5) inches long, but the most gorgeous shades of blue and yellow. Magnifique!

After about 45 minutes out there we came back to the beach to read a bit before heading home for lunch. That evening was Sunset Jazz in Frederiksted, a free concert where you bring your chairs or blankets and hang out on the beach or grass listening to great music and watching a usually beautiful sunset (sometimes you even get to see a “green flash”). We enjoyed our trip west even though the sunset left a lot to be desired. It’s been hazy for the past few days and the gray sky gets old after a while. But all in all another lovely Friday doing “islandy things” with my honey.

This is not the most appealing topic. But lately, my health issues, which never existed before, have come to the forefront of my life. I was always extremely healthy, and an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of person.

For years I was strict vegetarian and runner. Obsessed with a low fat intake and vitamins and supplements to correct any potential deficiencies. I juiced, I sprouted, baked my own whole grain breads, ate no animal products whatsoever, no white sugar or white flour. I felt great. I had more energy in my 30’s and early 40’s than I’d had as a teen-ager.

So I was pretty surprised last year when I went for a blood test to find out that I was anemic. I had mentioned to the doctor at a visit for an ear infection (first one I’d had since childhood) that I was feeling more lethargic than normal, so he sent me to have some bloodwork done. He didn’t tell me this immediately, but I was very anemic. He told me to take iron supplements and come back in two months.

I hated the thought taking iron, so I didn’t, really. I’d harbored hopes of becoming pregnant, so I took 1/2 of a prenatal vitamin every other day. I didn’t realize that the problem was so severe. After a few months, I went for another blood test and the results came back the same.

Since I was also approaching menopause, I decided to consult with a female doctor, an MD who has a more natural outlook on health care. She agreed that I was extremely anemic and told me exactly what I should be doing. By that time, we had discovered that I was indeed pregnant, so I got serious about taking the iron. Especially after my obstetrician asked me if I was willing to have a blood transfusion if necessary to save my life. Serious stuff requiring serious action.

Another problem I was previously unaware of was the presence of a large fibroid in my uterus. This would cause me to look much more pregnant, once I started showing, than I really was (for example, I’d look 7 months pregnant at 5 months, etc.). We read up about fibroids and found that it is possible to have a relatively normal pregnancy with them, and mine seemed, according to the ultrasound to be situated in a good place for the developement of the baby.

But I had a couple of scares with hemmorhaging. The first one in late April. The second one occurred while we were on vacation in the BVI. The third was a few days before my miscarriage. On each occasion, the baby’s haert was beating just fine and during my last visit to the ER, my OB Doctor and I saw even the baby moving on the ultrasound machine. He prescribed “bedrest” for twenty four hours or so. Well, I was able to force myself to lie down more than normal, but felt fine the next day and in the days afterward. Then, there was the miscarriage, something that I never consciously believed could happen to me. I was even in denial while it was happening.

Last week we had our first appointment with OB since that horrible event. And he’s pretty optimistic that if I have the fiboid removed, we can have a normal pregnancy. We asked him if he could do the surgery in mid-September and he said that would be fine. He also talked about the pathology report from the miscarriage. Apparently, since I’d had so much hemmorhaging, the cervical plug was compromised allowing some bacteria to invade the uterus leading to an infection which caused the miscarriage. There was nothing that could have been done to prevent it.

So now, I’m really taking care of my health again. Not as rigidly as when I was in the states, but I’m eating well, juicing, taking my iron and vitamins to prepare for the surgery and recovery and trying again to conceive. We’re keeping our fingers crossed….

Paradise is a word that could be used to describe my life. I am married to the most wonderful man in the universe. I have a fantastic daughter and fabulous friends. I have a comfortable home on a beautiful island with lots of loving, adorable dogs and cats to share it. And I have an awesome job.

As a mobile massage therapist, I receive many benefits, not only monetarily, but also emotionally and spiritually. I get to drive around this incredible place to meet with people who are always happy to see me. It nourishes my soul to see the green hills and the blues of the sky and sea. As a hyper person, I often need to stop and focus on something. My work offers me opportunites to do this almost every day. I go to amazing homes, beaches and rental villas. And I meet terrific and inspiring people.

I have a handful of regular clients who live on St. Croix year-round. We talk about island happenings and concerns. They keep me informed and grounded in my weekly routine. Then, I get to meet other people from all over the world. Mostly America, but I’ve met folks from many different countries in my ten years as a therapist.

A number of the folks I’ve had the pleasure to meet have become dear friends. Reggie and Gigi are favorites. And now, we’ve received an e-mail from Melissa and Jason from Pennsylvania. Michael and I massaged them as a couple on the beach at Cottages by the Sea in Frederiksted. They’re sweet people who are getting married in October and hoping to some day soon relocate to our island. While we massaged them, they asked us questions about St. Croix. We are always happy to share as much information as we can. They asked about going to Buck Island with Big Beard and we told them that they’d probably have a great trip out there if the weather held out. They wanted to go on Sunday and the forecast was for rough seas and rain. As it turned out, the seas were rough, but the day was sunny and bright. That was the day we went out on the half-day trip (see post from July 10th). Melissa and Jason had a blast here and stopped in Puerto Rico on the way back to the states. They did not enjoy it nearly as much as they did St. Croix. They e-mailed to say they talked about needing another massage in PR because it stressed them out so much (I love my work…).

Anyway, the beach out there in F’sted is a gorgeous place to work. My only issue is the Tamarind tree we set up under. It drops its leaves and flowers all over, and I fear that a tamarind pod might fall on a client some day. Tamarind fruit is tart and sticky and grows in fuzzy pods with a few shiny black seeds throughout the fruit. The fruits vary in size from 2-5 inches or so and having one fall on your head would probably not injure you terribly, but it might sting, and would certainly disturb a relaxing massage session. In the future, I’ll just have to try to work on positioning the table to avoid that potential problem.

Other reasons I love my work: 1.) It’s a physical workout in many cases, especially when I have to carry my table any distance. So I get paid to exercise. 2.) People feel better when the session is over. It’s incredibly rewarding to make people feel good every day. 3.) The pay is pretty decent. We are not financially wealthy by any stretch, but when people give you money to do something you love, life is good. Aaaaah….Paradise!

My daughter is a jeweler and gemologist who owns a jewelry store on King Street called Gems Direct. A Danish family who visited her store a few times recently were speaking Danish to each other. The mother stopped for a moment to tell Nicole that her family agreed that she resembled the crown princess of Denmark. Nicole thanked them for the compliment, then after they were gone, zoomed to her computer to find a picture of the princess.