But first more sad news. Yet another friend has passed. We knew him through Peter and listened to him play at the Galleon on many occasions. Ben Miele was not in great shape. He needed regular dialysis treatments. But he was never without a cocktail and a smile. His hearty laughter filled the air whenever he was around people. He died on Tuesday and we just heard about it Friday. We will miss “Big Ben”.

On a happier note, the art show at the atrium in Gallows Bay was a big hit. Bonnie Luria’s paintings of island people are so stirring. You can really feel the energy of her subjects. Way to go, Bonnie!

This painting is entitled “Crucian July” and I love how you can see the juices dripping all over from the ripe mango. Mango season is very messy!
Too bad we are clean out of wall space…. .

Some of Don Scafidi’s, Ross Meuer’s and Madeleine Meehan’s works were displayed as well. The place was packed. I liked the idea of having it in the atrium, but couldn’t figure out where they’d put the paintings. They had them on portable wall systems with special directional lighting. It was a nice thought, but there wasn’t really enough room to back up and see the paintings from the proper distance. And there were always people in the way because of the narrow passages. Despite these minor deficiencies, it went well from what I saw.

After schmoozing with Lorine and Michael and Deb and Asha and a dozen other friends, we headed out, in Jenna’s car to Savant for dinner with her and Tori, who has been visiting for the first time.
Michael and I were there a couple of weeks ago and have not had a chance to blog about it. So here goes….It was great! Both times!

We could hardly wait to dig in!

The funny thing is, the bartender came over to talk to us remembering that we’d been there recently, and for some reason, thinking that we’d had a bad time. We told him that we had thoroughly enjoyed ourselves the other week and knew we’d have a great time again. We always start off with the grilled baby calamari. Both times it was cooked just right and even though the pieces were large, they were not too rubbery. Last time we had a lobster dinner with ginger mango sauce and a cumin encrusted mahi. Both were fabulous. This time we chose the mahi stuffed with shrimp mousse and wrapped in a chinese cabbage leaf over soba noodles and the mahi ceviche.

The stuffed fish was excellent, but I was not thrilled with the ceviche. Michael enjoyed both, though and ate all of the ceviche and half of the mahi. Jenna opted for lambchops and Tori had the stuffed mahi, too. We quickly went through a bottle of Bodega Dolium Petit Malbec, so Michael and I each had an other glass to get us through to dessert.

There were nine dessert items to chose from. Three frozen pies, three cakes and three other things (I forget, now, duh….). Michael wanted the hazelnut mousse pie and Jenna wanted the chocolate coconut rum cake. Tori and I wanted forks and decaf. It all was delicious and we were stuffed!

But this time, we weren’t dressed up like people.

Meredith, Jenna, Michael and I had been planning our costumes for this event for weeks. And here it finally was….The Annual SEA Creatures Ball.

Jenna ordered some glow-gel and some hairpieces that light up. We bought sequined blue dresses and wore them with leggings, tights, and, in Michael’s case, boxer shorts. We put blue paint and glitter in our hair and hung the light-up barrettes off our tresses and dresses. The glow gel was dotted onto our exposed skin and clothing. Michael did his nails with it and the splattered blue glitter all over them. Michael bought dowels and attached strands of blue rope. We glued ribbons on each “wand” and tied them into bows. We started the dressing process at our house, and finished in the parking lot at the Palms Hotel, where the affair was being held.

Does Meredith have krill in her teeth?

We entered the party and some people actually understood that we were “Bioluminescent Dinoflagellates“. We were blue, we glowed and sparkled, and we had whip-like flagella. Yes, we were creatures of the sea (or at least nutrient-rich bays like the one off Vieques which we visited on our honeymoon).

The auction/fundraiser was very different from past years. There was not a sit-down dinner or even buffet. It was sort of a free-for-all, which was confusing and disappointing. There was a complimentary wine bar which somewhat made up for the lack of organization of food. The silent auction items were many and varied, some wonderful things and packages, but there were no minimum bids on any of the items. People could literally steal fabulous, expensive donations. It was extremely different from the fur ball two weeks ago, where there were hardly any silent auction items and there was NO live auction, but at least there were minimum bids.

Just like the fur ball, nice things could have been packaged: A two night stay at a local B&B with a couples massage and some flowers or a Buck Island trip. (The fur Ball had NOTHING like that, just individual items, and no one asked us for a massage donation, which we would have gladly provided). And, actually, there were a few great packages, which we stole one of. The one we got was a 5 night stay at the Palms Resort, an island flight tour with Captain Al, and a half-day trip to Buck Island with Big Beard’s. We got it for $250. It was very sad. Many of the live auction items could have been silent auction items, because they were not remarkable. Like an hour-long photo session with a little-known photographer (?). I didn’t get it. And there were almost TOO many live auction items. We weren’t able to pay attention, especially to the early ones that were so unimpressive. Rashidi was the auctioneer (I remember when he wrote the local sports news for the Avis), and he was excellent. But I still couldn’t get into some of the boring items.

Anyway, there were some nice live auction items like a trip to Dominica and a trip to Old San Juan (at the Gallery Inn, which is an amazing place). We bid on both of these, but lost, and that’s okay, because someone with more bucks than us is supporting SEA and that’s way cool.

Michael wanted to play the “rescue a turtle” game, so he shelled out 20 bucks for a chance and won a tee shirt and a gift certificate to “Off the Wall”. Meredith won a package with an air tour by Bohlke and Jenna won a beautiful Maria Henle print.

All in all, it was worse than the Fur Ball foodwise. The SEA Creatures Ball’s scattered and unimaginative buffet was unsatisfactory. It was better than the Fur Ball as far as auction items were concerned (and especially since there was an actual live auction). But I wish that after so many years of doing this kind of thing, that both of these worthwhile organizations would get it just right…..

Whatever that means.

This time of year, we work 7 days a week. It’s okay because season has started VERY slowly this year and we need to make the bucks while they’re there and save some for when it’s slow (from July through December).

We worked quite a bit yesterday. We did two couples massages and then I had two regular clients for 3 hours until 6 pm. We were going to stay home and finish making our costumes for the SEA Creatures masquerade ball tonight, but Michael thought there’d be time to do it today, since we had a last minute appointment for 4 massages cancel at the last minute because their flights were canceled, at the last minute, due to extreme weather conditions in America.

I’d been wanting to go to the Galleon for dinner, so we did. We didn’t call for reservations (a “no no” this time of year), but figured we’d just eat at the bar anyway. They weren’t extremely busy (they’d been slammed the night before), so we lucked out and found two stools at the bar far away from the piano. Usually the music is too loud for me in there, but Ben Staron, who we hadn’t heard before, kept the volume perfect for dining in the lounge area. He’s really good and plays a wide variety of favorites like Elton John and Billy Joel.

We looked at the wine list and noticed a malbec by the glass but not by the bottle, so we each ordered a glass after Cass let us try a sip of the Bogle Old Vine Zin she had open. It was good, but we liked the malbec better.

They had a few yummy sounding specials, and the new menu looked wonderful as well. We started with the mahi chowder, which was creamy and delicious, and the tuna futomaki in a cone of nori with wasabi and a ginger soy sauce, which was awesome, too. For an entree, Michael ordered the crispy snapper with a sweet and sour pomegranate-orange sauce, and I got the appetizer portion of smoked eggplant in an arugula and walnut pesto with a sweet onion and lemon marmalade and flat bread. Both were fabulous!

We had no room for dessert. Our tummies were full and our wallets empty by this time, so we walked off in a sated balance, got Biggie out of the car, and strolled along the docks for a while, admiring the moon’s fullness and the activities of the bats and night birds in that quiet section of the marina. Paradise at it’s finest.

I had lunch with my daughter, the thespian. Since neither of us had been there in a long time, we went to Cafe Christine, in the upper section of the Apothecary Hall courtyard. It was fabulous! We started by sharing the chilled creamy asparagus soup, then decided to also share the Vegetarian platter and a shrimp and asparagus salad. The Veg platter consisted of a slice of spinach quiche, a lentil salad, some tabouli, greens and pasta salad. Everything was delicious. While we ate, my phone rang twice and hers once. Her call was from Gloria, her assistant manager, about a customer looking for the diamond earrings he was going to buy. She sort of had to go, so we couldn’t stay for dessert. Annabelle, however, talked us into taking a piece of apple cranberry pie with us. So we took it back to the store, got a couple of coffees from Ivy’s Ice Cream in the Kings Alley, and devoured the tantalizing triangle.

I left to do a couple more errands before heading home to get ready for my 4:00 appointment.
After work, there was plenty of time to get ready for the function at the St. George Village Botanical Gardens at 7, so we took our time, had a bit of rum and got dressed for the evening.

The courtyard at the new Bodine Pavillion was decorated elegantly with table cloths, chair coverings and candles. It was catered by Teddy’s and the food was superb. There were passed hors d’oeuvre of crab and shrimp in puff pastry, ham in an eggroll-type crust, and mini eggplant parmesan with eggplant relish. We had sangre del toro wine while we mingled and Michael took pictures of the food and the bright full moon rising over the arches.

Sue Ladwig, a member of the board of directors of the Gardens, invited us to sit at her table and we gladly accepted, as did a few

more of our favorite people, local artist, Sondra Catts, Emmy Thomas, artist and author, Lindsey from the Galleon and her Mom, Marlene, visiting from the states.

The buffet table was beautifully set up with fresh fruit platters, brie en croute, spinach pasta salad, escargot, and boeuf on bread. After we dined and listened to the Governor’s and Lt. Governor’s wives, John deJongh himself, spoke about the Gardens and their cultural and economic value to the territory. The birthday cake came out and we stood up to sing happy birthday to the Gardens, then the Governor visited each table and shook hands with everyone. We thanked him and his wife for their support and got our picture taken with him.

After wolfing down our carrot cake, we went on a tour of the night blooming plants and historical buildings with David Hamada, the horticultural director of the Gardens. He is a wealth of knowledge and we always enjoy listening to him speak about the history of the place and the fun plants that are pollinated by bats.

Rare shot of the light actually
being sucked out of the moon,
presumably by Wreggie

When we were a few minutes into the tour, the skies opened up. It poured. We made our way down the path, back to the pavillion and went into the gift shop only slightly damp. We bought a couple of things and escaped to the car for the trek back home, stopping at plaza west for some organic eggs for breakfast. Back home, we went out to check on the progress of the eclipse. The moon was about half gone during the breaks in the clouds, but then a huge dark one engulfed it and we returned to the warmth of the hearth ;). I mean, the warmth of Biggie and the bedsheets…