When you live on an island, things change daily. I have lived on St. Croix for over 13 years. And I have done things that I never in my wildest dreams as a Northern Rhode Islander would I have imagined.

I started out being born to a typical NRI family. In NRI at that time, it probably meant your family worked in some sort of mill. My mother and all of her many sisters had jobs sewing and stitching robes and clothing they would never be able to afford to wear, in the textile mills. My father worked in a machine shop. He made parts for rockets and such. It was cheap labor for the government. After a while, both of my parents got better jobs, but their education limited them.

I had always loved school. Other kids hated it, but I loved getting out of the house with the same old TV shows and boring stuff going on. And I guess maybe even before I got to Jr. High, I decided that I wanted more out of life, so I would get as much of an education as I could. My parents would never have afforded to send me to college and I had no idea about scholarships and loans, so I got married (right out of high school) to someone who believed in me and my abilities, and had the money to pay for my education at the most affordable college in NRI. It was sort of like marrying someone for a green card. But I was sure I could live with him for the rest of my life, because he was so nice.

It is so ironic,that the more educated I became, the more I resented what he and I had done. I loved academia. My professors were interesting and knowledgeable, but not pompous. I felt very much at home among the college faculty and I wanted to become like them. So I went on to earn a master’s degree in teaching. I LOVED science and hoped I could pass on the passion to other impressionable young minds.

But boredom with RI set in (with lots of other stuff in between) and I moved to StX. I worked for a construction firm, and it went out of business. Then I worked in a restaurant, and it went out of business. Then I worked on the charter boats that go to Buck Island daily. Then I actually got a teaching job, but discontent with the system and recovering from hurricane Marilyn caused me to resign and eventually work in a book store which led me to becoming a massage therapist. Cows in the neighboring pastures got loose and I had to help herd them back to where they belonged. Dogs of all shapes, colors and sizes needed a good home, so I adopted them. Blah blah blah…..

But I digress, yet again. My point with all of this is….you must be flexible to live on an island. Your favorite brand of cereal might not be there next time you go to the grocery store. And lots of other things you’re used to (like electricity, and maybe your spouse/partner) go off at a moments notice.

Last week, during our supposedly “busy season”, I did 10 massages in 7 days. This week, I will do 12 massages in two days. You must be flexible to live and work on an island.. ….

I have had many companion animals in my life. Consequently, I have met many veterinarians.

Two have had perfect names for people in the animal sciences. Meredith Bird was our vet in North Kingstown, RI. I wonder if having a certain name points certain people toward a particular career. Michael Dance could be a choreographer, but he’s not. Terry Chretien could be religious, but she’s not. Peter could be a rock or a stone,  and somtimes he acts like one. Oh well…..

Stuart Fox is another, now retired vet who comes down to St. Croix every winter. At least some people follow where their names take them. Interesting….

I was on my way this morning to my weekly non-profit visit to Chenay Bay Beach Resort. For the past few weeks, I have been going out there one or two mornings to set up my massage table and hope for some business. I haven’t had any, hence, the “nonprofit” status.

It’s not a bad place to hang out and get a little reading done. But, I digress……On my way out to Chenay, as I was driving along the road that goes from Estate Sight toward Cheeseburgers, a deer stood in my lane a few hundred feet ahead. I slowed and the deer looked at me, nonchalantly turned toward the field behind her, and gracefully bounded into the bush. She was beautiful and I silently wished her well, as I do with all animals I see near our roads.

My hour and a half at Chenay was pleasant. It was quite breezy with swells coming in from the north. I watched the boats anchored and moored off the beach being tossed by the murky surf. Most of the chairs on the beach were occupied by people facing the sun rather than the water and reading paperback novels. I read a book called, “What to Eat”, a very interesting expose on the food industry which makes me want to eat only mangoes and guavas and coconuts from my own trees and farmstand produce from Southgate and the Saturday mid-island farmer’s market.

A little after noon, I started packing up my stuff. On my way out, I met a guy who says he “comes down off the hill” to volunteer his expertise and services to the hotel. He had been digging a trench to lay some PVC pipe all morning. He felt bad for me, since I’d had no business, took a couple of promotional items and promised to “talk to the guests”, to try to get them to book a massage with me. I was not feeling sorry for myself, but I guess he thought that if I showed up, I should get some business. Fine by me.

A friendly neighborhood iguana

On the way home, on the same stretch of road where I saw the deer earlier, there was a van idling on the right hand side of the road, and another car passing slowly by. I could see an animal in the road and hoped that it hadn’t been hit. The guy from the van was walking toward it waving his arms. As I approached I realized that there was an iguana (a good sized one, too!) moving slowly toward the bush in my lane. The guy seemed to be herding it. I slowed as I neared, smiled and said,”Do you have a license to herd iguanas?” He mumbled something about just wanting to get it off the road, since it had almost gotten run over by three cars. I said, “Good work!” and drove happily home, knowing that two of nature’s children were safe from the evils of cars and traffic. For the time being, anyway.

This is how I can say, “There are some annoyingly cheap rich people out there,” in a nice way. I could also say it with a southern accent and add, “Bless their hearts”. So that would be, “There are some annoyingly cheap rich people out there, bless their hearts”. That would make my point in a nice way, too. But my point is not a nice one. So I’ll just say it my own way….Cheap rich people really piss me off!

This week-end was supposed to be a really productive dismantling the blue Rover one. And it was. But at around 12:20 on Saturday afternoon, we were interrupted in our destruction by a phone call from a locally well-known wealthy guy. He’s not subtly wealthy, either. He flaunts it. He has TWO huge boats that he charters out for thousands of dollars per day. One of them has been at Buck Island for the past few weeks. He also goes to the best restaurants, and pays top dollar for the best wines at wine auctions. We’ve seen him in action.

He calls and says, “Hi this is (Let’s call him Jack Jones)”. So I say, “Hi Jack!” And he asks if I would be willing to be shuttled out to Buck island in his boat’s tender, to do 3 or 4, or maybe 4 or 5 massages out on his yacht that afternoon, and how much would I charge?

So, I asked what time, and he was flexible saying, 2 or 3 pm. So I said I’d speak with Michael and we’d come up with a price and get back to him in a few minutes. I went flying out the door to tell Michael the great news. “…And Jack says, it could be a pretty regular thing if it works out!” I was sooo excited. Anyway, we came up with a reasonable price, since we knew they’d love our massages and tip big (all that money and such…), I called him back and he was speechless.

He was expecting to pay $50 per massage. He was expecting 4 massages for $200. Now I was speechless. He said, “Well, I guess prices have gone up since we had someone out here a couple of years ago.” And I said, “Well, maybe, but our prices are still VERY reasonable compared to any spa on island.” And he said, “Well, they should be since you have no overhead like a spa does.” So, I tried to come up with a better price, but couldn’t because I’m not about to be nickel and dimed to death by another one of these guys.

Someone tried to do that to me a couple of years ago claiming that he’d be my “best regular client”, when I knew he was always jet-setting and would only be here maybe half of the year.

I may have a lousy attitude, but my time is just as valuable to me as anybody else’s is to them. And I always want to ask things like, “Hmmm, Jack, when you go to Bacchus and they’re charging you $40 for a lobster dinner, do you say, ‘Well, I can get a lobster dinner for $25 in Hyannisport (or wherever). If I order 4 of these, can I get a discount?’” I always want to ask these people if they do things like that.

Anyway, he ended the conversation by saying, “Well, if you change your mind, here’s my girlfriend’s cell number, just give us a call back.” I took the number, but I really should have just said, “No thanks, I’m not going to change my mind, but if you change yours, you know where to reach us.”

It takes all kinds, doesn’t it?

I have been wanting to call the talk show with this comment for the past few weeks. I am just always too busy with projects or work to wait on hold.

For over a year, Roger W. Morgan has been asking the members of the current VI legislature to join him on his talk show. They have alternately responded by saying things like (and I’m paraphrasing here), “There’s no way in hell I would grace your program with my exalted presence”, and “Sure, I’ll go on as soon as I can wrench my fat butt off my comfy tax payer sponsored ergonomically correct chair”!

However, none of them have ventured toward Paradise 93.5’s studio until very recently, when Roger Morgan hired Nellie O’Reilly, an Hispanic Cruzan woman to host the Friday morning version of “Free Speech”. Can we now call them the CCCC (Cowardly Clueless Clucks Clan)? I think so!

Blue Junker before
engine removal and
further deconstruction

Terry takes a hammer
to the blue junker

Current state of the blue junker
…more or less

Dave and Michelle help us
demolish a bottle of Malbec

It is finally happening! The blue thing is being dismantled! It has been sitting in the driveway for all the world to see since last June! When it first arrived, I told Michael he had until September to take it apart. Many of the parts could be used on our other two rovers and our friends and Rover gurus, Dave and Michelle, could use some too. September came and went, and the blue thing remained.

It has been a bone of contention in this relationship. But I must remember all of the stuff that caused the dismantling to be delayed. Having the cistern emptied, cleaned and resealed caused Michael to need to re-coat the roof. That also needed to be done before the solar panels went up, so that took a week-end. After we lost the baby, there were times that we needed to get out on the water. It was therapeutic. There was also always a lot of yard work and I was still anemic, so had no energy to do it myself. Michael spent lots of time doing that and a little time maintaining the pool. Then it was time for my surgery, and Michael played nurse maid for another few week-ends. Then there were issues with the blog server, our anniversary, the holidays, etc.

It’s not easy work, and he would go out and try to do it, but the nuts and bolts were rusty and difficult to budge, never mind remove. So now I have requested that it be out of the driveway by my birthday. Well, that ain’t happenin’ either, but we’re getting close!

This week-end, Guru Dave came over and the work progressed very quickly. I helped remove nuts and bolts and doors and hinges and the roof(!) and the rear window panels. It’s getting smaller…..And it’s very rewarding to be a part of this process! I think we have come up with my next PMS victim! Micheal will just hand me a hammer and point to the thing. I think the sledge hammer might be more appropriate for my level of PMS energy! But now I’m wondering if it will still be there when the time comes ;)……

Friday morning we traveled to Frederiksted to work on the beach at Sandcastles. It’s a great beach. The water is always calm and beautiful.

We set up our tables and met our clients who decided that while we were preparing for them, they’d go for a walk into the water. Before that, they were clean and sand free. Now they had to walk back to the table getting sand all over their salty, wet feet. Oh kay.

Well, we carry paintbrushes with us for brushing sand off people. But this was fresh, wet sand, now, and there was a lot of it on the feet. I brushed a lot of it off, and then it was on the table. I brushed most of it off the table, but there was still some on the ankles and between the toes, and on the table, too.

So when I got down to massaging the legs, there was no avoiding the sand. I brushed and wiped and brushed some more, but there was still more sand. So this couple each got a free exfoliation with their massage. What the heck. Why not go for the whole nine yards with your massage on the beach experience?!

Early on in the session, I looked at the sky to the northeast. It was getting dark. It looked like it would rain in a few minutes. I thought, “Well, now these guys will get the complete island experience when it pours for 120 seconds and they bolt off the tables and undercover, and then have to get back to wetter sand and damp sheets.” It actually did rain, but we could see it in F’sted town and it didn’t reach to where we were! We were a little bummed that we forgot our swimsuits. It was warm and sunny for the massages (except for when it rained in town) and the water looked VERY inviting

We successfully finished our massages and the people ooohed and ahhhed and gave us money. And we packed up to get some doggy drugs at Dr. Deller’s ( he gives us a good deal on ‘Revolution’, which is a necessity for our canine critters, but we rarely get out to F’sted, so when we do, we have to make the all important stop).

After that, we decided to have lunch at the Beachside Cafe. It was yummy! And when we got into the restaurant it did start to rain. What timing!

We couldn’t get the pictures in the last post to go where they were supposed to. No matter how loudly Michael yelled at the computer, it still would not work the way we wanted it to.

For now the pictures go from top to bottom: Hot water tank with solar pump; lots of wires being re-wired; there are really solar panels up on the roof!; big battrees; and the invertenator!

Maybe soon, it’ll make sense to us…..and everyone else…..or maybe not.

Tomorrow (Friday) marks the end of three weeks of having guys working around here. But there is still work to be done. Beecher Higby of West Indies Solair, and his assistant, Samuel have been here for two of those weeks and they have installed the solar hot water heater, which is working great now that the sun has been out. During the overcast days of late, there was still warm water, which is all I need, since I don’t spend a lot of time in the shower.

There are also 10 solar panels on the roof (10 more on the way!) and some huge, heavy duty batteries and a gigantic DC to AC inverter in the storage room. Beech will be done in the next few days (until our next batch of panels comes in in a few weeks and he installs them). Although I’m thrilled to be getting the work done, it is kind of a pain to have to tie many of the dogs up. EVERY day we tie Bubba, Ruby, Percy and Mini in the back yard, Emmy in the front yard, and Yoda stays in the bedroom all day because she’s scared and scary. It’ll be nice when all the work is done and the dogs can have a normal life (oh, and we can, too).

Most of my clients become friends. This is a touchy subject (no pun intended originally, but now I like it) in the massage therapy area, as I’m sure it is in many others. We in the massage industry are often torn about how close to get to our clients, and also about massaging our friends. We want to help people. That’s why we do what we do. But sometimes people want to take things too far.

Maintaining a division between clients and friends is especially difficult on a small island, where we see everyone everywhere we go (at the post office, bank, beach, concert, restaurant, bar, driving through town, at the doctor’s office, attorney’s office, etc.) So people tend to know more about each other than is typical in places like the states.

Almost without exception, my clients ask me weekly, “When’s Peter going to open his restaurant?” I’m sure getting tired of that question, because I don’t know! I have hardly seen Peter in months. He’s busy, I’m busy.

There is one client in particular who frequently asks me what’s going on on St. Croix this week. It bothers me somewhat, because if someone lives here, they should be paying attention to what’s going on here. Anyway, when I massage her, she talks almost all the time. She will tell me what she’s done since we saw each other last week, and she’ll ask me what I’ve done. That’s cool with me. It’s her session and if she wants me to fill it up with words, fine.

A few weeks ago, I told her about the Greek dinner we had gone to at Dominique’s house. Peter’s chef is trying out recipes at weekly Greek dinners at the homes of some of his friends. It’s a good idea. It keeps Aaron working and making a little money while waiting for the restaurant to be ready. Anyway, that dinner was very disappointing in my opinion. I didn’t blog about it for this reason. But she asked me how it was and I told her that it was disappointing. Of course she wanted me to elaborate, so I did.

The meal started out with some delicious appetizers. I didn’t get to eat a lot of the appetizers because people were crowded around the counter and I was holding Goliath and a wine glass while trying to converse with all the cool people who were there. I think I got two bites of appetizer. I asked Aaron what he had prepared for us and he told me it was “Stuffed cabbage rolls similar to stuffed grape leaves” and that they were stuffed with rice and pork. Well I don’t usually eat pork, but I love stuffed grape leaves and I like rice and cabbage. So it sounded good.

We sat down to eat and we started out with a tiny bit of “salad”. My little bowl had a few pieces of iceburg lettuce, a slice of cucumber, a crumble of feta cheese and one small kalamata olive. Okay, hopefully the main course would be better. Well, I hate to say this, but it wasn’t. There was a pale leaf of cabbage stuffed with mostly white rice, sitting on a bed of more white rice. There was a spoonful of (red pepper?) sauce on top for added color and maybe flavor. But it didn’t really help. It was very bland. I ate the rice and the cabbage leaf, tried some of the filling and had the rest wrapped for Michael or the dogs to eat the next day. Dessert was a nice orange nut cake. It was good.

We had a good time at the dinner because of the company and the wine. The food did very little to add to my enjoyment of the evening. But Michael enjoyed it and ate my leftovers the next day.

My client paraphrased me, “So the food was tasteless and colorless”, and I said, “yes”. We sort of giggled when she said , “Tasteless and colorless, like an inert gas….” To me it was just very bland and a terrible example of the cuisine of a passionate colorful culture.

Peter saw this person at the parade in Frederiksted at the beginning of January. He mentioned his Greek dinners to her and (according to Peter) she said, “Oh no! Terry said they’re absolutely horrible”. This was after I had described the second one we attended the following week as “much better”. One of the appetizers was spanakoita, which I adore, the salad was much more interesting with spinach and red onion, and the main course was a flavorful eggplant dish (moussaka?). Dessert was excellent. But did this client mention that? Maybe, but “Terry said it was absolutely horrible”! was what he said she said. So apparently she is not interested in going to one of his dinners, or maybe she’s upset because she was not invited to the earlier ones. And from what he said after that he doesn’t seem to care if she comes to a dinner or not. I can’t know. But I feel bad because I’m in the middle of it.

In any case, she also had a disappointing dining experience at a famous local restaurant at around the same time. She went with her man friend and some house guests, to Kendrick’s Restaurant. She complained that her lamb was tasteless as was her friend’s duck. I find that very interesting, and it makes me want to go there to see if that was an anomaly, or if the food is going down hill at this establishment. But that’s just me. I said that, maybe the chef was having an “off night”, since Kendricks has been highly esteemed for many years.

Another example of this person’s callousness occurred just after I had my miscarriage. She suggested that we have my daughter (with her healthy uterus) carry a baby for Michael and me. Can you believe it?

….make kumquatade?

We chopped down the lime tree to make room for the deck to be built. I said, "Oh, there’s another lime tree growing in the little yard outside the massage room. It’ll be producing soon. Besides, we don’t use limes that often."

Then, the other day while I was carrying water from the gray-water trough to the plants in the front yard, I saw little orange fruits on the "lime" tree in that little yard.

The fruit is EXTREMELY tart, but the rind is sweet. It is almost impossible to eat because there are so many seeds. I think we’ll have to pass them through the juicer and mix whatever comes out with mango pulp. It should be interesting…

Once upon a time, a small animal was born on the island of St. Croix. He was furry and orange and white. The placement of the colors on his face made Auntie Maggie exclaim, “Milo will always look like a kitten!”

Milo on Yoda’s bed on the “Dog Porch”

Milo came with his name. At one point in my life I said, “We need an orange and white cat.” Suddenly, we had two! Milo and Al (Al came with his name, too).

That was about ten years ago. Auntie Maggie was right! Milo still looks like a kitten. But the fact remains, he’s a dog in a kitten suit. Milo hasn’t groomed himself in a while. He sort of has “dreadlocks”. People might be tempted to call him “Rasta Cat” or something to that effect. But Milo has a method to his madness. The dogs accept him as one of them.

If any other cat would attempt to walk through the “dog yard” (yes, our yard is separated by fences, porches and gates into “dog areas” and “cat areas”) the cat would be ripped to shreds by our rottweiler/pitbull/chow mixes. It has happened too many times. At one point 15 cats lived here. Today, we have four.

Or maybe three and Milo. Milo saunters through the dog yards on both sides of the house with ease.

Milo on Ajax or Emmy’s bed

The first time I saw him lying down (I thought I might have a coronary!) in the dog yard (!), I screamed and ran after him to get him over the fence before the dogs saw him. He nonchalantly jumped over the fence to appease me. That was well over a year ago.

To this day, Milo comes and goes wherever he pleases in each yard and even in the house. I stopped letting cats into the house over 3 years ago when I got tired of the neutered males spraying all over everything.

So, he’s not completely a cat, but not quite a dog either. He’s just Milo.

Cruzan Time victory lap

Superior Sailing Yacht, Cruzan Time, skippered by the brilliant and fastidious Carl Beckstedt, took first place in her class in the 2008 Around St. Croix Sailing Race today. Core crew members, Carsten Breuer, Michael Dance and Terry Chretien were joined by world-renown maritime engineer, drag racer, former sail maker and Land Rover expert, Dave Walworth to carry the classic CAL-27 to a stunning victory.

Unbeknownst to the crew, as they celebrated the end of the grueling two day spectacle back at the mooring, the awards ceremony, originally scheduled to begin at 5 pm, had begun at the club at 4:30. Captain Beckstedt, along with 4th mate Chretien and 1st mate Walworth were still on Cruzan Time while crew members Breuer and Dance carried what remained of supplies and rations back to the vehicles to be transported home.

The only crew member present to receive the coveted First place trophy was Michael Dance, who gracefully bowed to the appreciative audience as he approached the awards podium, preparing his acceptance speech as he went along. His words, which will go down in the history books of the St. Croix Yacht Club were, “You’re kidding, right?”

But they were not kidding. Cruzan Time had demolished her competition, winning the coveted mahogany clock by 1 second (corrected time)!

Even though the two competing boats in her class came in earlier than Cruzan Time, her handicap, coupled with the skill and foresight of the excellent captain and crew brought her into first despite the setbacks they encountered on day one of the race.

Captain Beckstedt rewarded his loyal crew with a couple of beers after the race, since he was out of tee shirts.

Early mornin’ tomorrow!

We got to the Yacht Club (STYC or just YC) on time. Captain Carl said, “On the dock at 8 am!” So we were there at 7:45 and Carsten (aka Pookie) was waiting for us.

St. Croix South Shore from off shore.
We live over there somewhere.

We waited for Carl. (There’s a good reason his boat is called “Cruzan Time”!) The YC tender, carrying crew to their boats was waiting for us to decide whether we’d head out to the boat or wait for our captain. After 20-30 minutes, we went with the YC and got the boat ready for the arrival of our captain. He arrived in his own dinghy and the guys prepared the decks while I filled the coolers with ice, beverages and various food items.

We left the mooring in decent time, but got to the starting line well behind most of the other boats. This was a good strategy on the part of our Captain, since there was a collision at the line involving two boats, one of which was in our class (our class was “spinnaker” class). Another boat in our class false started but did not know it since they did not have their radio on (or they just weren’t listening). So they kept on going. We rounded the starting buoy neither too early nor in the midst of the 15 boat confusion, so had an easy start on our way east to Point Udall. Carl was hoping it would only take us 2 hours to round the point, and with the excellent sailing abilities of him and our crew, we made it!

Now, for the easy, down wind phase of the race…. We can crack open some beers, have a sandwich, reapply our sunscreen, and watch the island slip peacefully by to our north.

Pirates Gaining on us!

But the pirates began to approach. They were gaining on us. And they even overtook us! They owed us lots of time because of our handicap in the race, so we didn’t knock ourselves out pursuing them until an oil tanker decided to finally start moving toward the refinery just as we were coming into their water.

The tanker had been sitting there forever. Until it was our turn to pass in front of it. The huge horn blasted twice or three times and we were forced to abruptly change course to avoid being demolished by this behemoth!

I had gone below to use the head and Carl told me to stay there and hold tight to whatever I could while the guys maneuvered Cruzan Time to avoid becoming flotsam.

Skippers Carsten and Carl
discuss strategy

We lost a lot of time because of that and democratically decided to attempt raising the spinnaker (even though Marvella, the spinnaker babe decided to abstain from this entire endeavor). Carl let Carsten (who has lots of sailing, but not sailboat racing experience) steer while he went to foredeck to wrestle with the spinnaker pole and sail.

Michael and I were at the ready with the sheets and as it went up, something went wrong, and we had to abort. We ended up trying three times and then going back to wing-on-wing with the spinnaker pole holding the jib out. The spinnie was ripped to shreds and would hit the dumpster as soon as we hit land.

Frederiksted is usually a nice calm port, but the wind was whipping and we were heeled well over until after we crossed the finish line at the pier. An exciting day for all!

The other day I went out to Carambola to do a massage. This massage was booked by a man quite a while back via e-mail. It was for his wife. He paid for her massage via Paypal. I met her on the beach in the little shack between the pool and the sea.

She thoroughly enjoyed her massage and mentioned that her children had phoned to complain about the weather in Ohio where she had flown to STX from. We chatted a bit at the end of her session and she asked where I was origninally from. So, as usual, I said, “Rhode Island”. She bolted from her comfortably horizontal position and blurted, “Really? I’m from RI!” So I said, “No way, where in RI?” And (this is too bizarre for words), she said,”Woonsocket”, and I almost fell on the ground!

I’m from Woonsocket too. But we have both lost our accents (we work really hard at that, being from Woonsocket and all). So we had a couple of chuckles about the home town where we still have family and went on our merry ways.

I gave Kara our card and hope she will keep me posted on what’s going on in Ohio and Woonsocket, since I don’t hear too much from my family back there.

Small world! Too funny!

The Blues Cruise was in yesterday and we went out to Freedom City with Meredith and Jenna to have a quick dinner at the Blue Moon before heading over to the ballpark for the concert which had begun at 2 that afternoon. Taj Mahal was the headliner. What an awesome time we had!

Dinner was great! I had a stuffed portabello appetizer which contained spinach, salmon, and lots of other good stuff topped with cheese. I debated having the spinach and artichoke (or was it crab?) dip appetizer instead, but I lucked out and got to try both, since Michael wanted to try the dip and he also wanted the mixed greens salad topped with rare tuna. (I couldn’t have eaten very much, because I had had a large lunch in C’sted with the lovely and talented Nicole from Gems Direct.) Everything we had was yummy. Jenna had the shrimp scampi and Meredith had the Blue Moon chicken, which had some sort of amazing looking creamy sauce. Jenna wanted more of the Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc like we’d had the other night at King Crab night at Cane Bay, so she and I shared a bottle while Michael stuck with his Fat Papis and Meredith had H2O.

We were comfortably sated when we began our walk to the Paul E. Joseph Stadium and we got there juat as Coco Montoya was finishing up. During the break while Taj’s band was setting up, we got to visit with a bunch of our friends and catch up on the island melee.

It seemed like EVERYONE we knew was there and we had a blast chatting with them as well as many of the passengers from the ship. Sooo many people came up to us wanting to pet Goliath. We passed around our cards and told them to keep in touch and to be sure to come back to STX. One couple said that of all the stops they had made on this cruise, STX was BY FAR the best, so they promised to return. Cool!

Taj Mahal was fabulous and even though the blues is nowhere near my favorite type of music, he had me dancing around with Michael and Biggie. We got to talk to Amanda and Carsten (aka Marvella and Pookie) about sailing in the around STX race this week-end. It’ll be great to be out on the water for two full days!! I am sooo psyched. It’s becoming and exceptional week :)!!

How exciting! I got home today and there were THREE men on the roof! That means…. stuff is getting done! And I didn’t have to remind, nag, cajole or bribe any of them!

I think I might faint from the shock. Not only are there THREE men up there, there’s another one next to the pool deck! He’s doing stuff, too!!

Tomorrow morning, besides these men, an ELECTRICIAN will be here too!!!! He will either start doing other stuff or tell us he’ll be back in a day or two to do the other stuff!

Oh my god….I may need an EKG or some nitro soon….

I love our kayak. I love being on the water. It was a great day out there even though we did not see dolphins. The sky was somewhat overcast. The blue was about 50% obscured by puffy white and gray clouds. We thought as we were getting to the beach that it might rain on us, but it never did.

Biggie looking small

Biggie does not love our kayak, nor does he love being on the water. He also hates riding in the land rovers. He totally struck out today, because he did all three. Poor Biggie!

The seas were calm and flat all week. There were some swells, today, but it’s fun riding up and down like we’re on a roller coaster ride. Biggie disagrees. I was holding him in my arms as we pedaled the boat up and down the waves, getting splashed and wind-blown. He was getting wet! It was cold and windy! He was shaking all the way out there. As we approached Buck, Michael and I discussed whether we would go to the trail or beach first. I wanted to do the trailside first, so that hard stuff would be over and then we could go to the beach and have or snack lunch and beverages. So we headed toward the east end just as Llewellyn’s “Charis” and Big Beard’s “Flyer” were leaving the area. There was one little boat left out there, but it was bobbing up and down like mad. I really didn’t want to tie the kayak to a mooring and leave Biggie all alone with it that rough. I thought he might be tossed into the drink. So we just puttered around a bit checking the reef depths, and turned toward the west carried by the wind and currents.

We pedaled a little to go faster and Michael tried pedaling and paddling at the same time. It really made us go fast! I couldn’t do that, though because I had the child on my lap. He also opened the buttons on his shirt and held it open to see if it would act as a sail (he’s such a guy sometimes). There’s a smaller beach on the south side just east of the dock, so we pulled in there where no one else was. We didn’t know at first what the bottom was like, but Michael wanted to snorkel around the patch reefs just offshore and toward the entrance to the lagoon. He went in the water right away while Biggie and I went for a walk. I was warmed up when we got to the kayak and decided to go in too. The bottom close to shore looked murky, but it was just the sea grass. It was pretty clear and I snorkeled around some of the reefs and saw a bunch of parrotfish and wrasse and tang and damselfishes. At one point there were TWO of those grouper type things we see every time we go to the dive sites on the east end. They’re just slow, dumpy-looking things. Wreggie loves them.

Michael got back to shore before I did, and as I came in, I remembered that I had forgotten to pack a cup for his rum and cokes (oops!) I had also forgotten a cutting board to cut the tomato and cheese on. We were able to improvise with the containers that carried the tomato and crackers. Michael used the tomato cup for his beverages and I used the plastic box for a cutting and laying out area.

We had farm fresh tomatoes with fresh mozzarella, and basil from the potted plant by the pool. I had wine and Michael had his fat Papis. Biggie had cheese and water, with an occasional molecule of basil, tomato or cracker. He was so happy to be back on land doing his favorite thing - eating cheese! It was a yummy time. When we were finished, we packed up, put Biggie’s jacket back on him and headed toward the yachts anchored off the main beach. We said “Hi” to a few folks we knew as we went toward the north where Michael wanted to check out the reef depths for future “Origami” adventures.

We got back to the big island a little after 4, put the boat up onto the rover and headed home. My knees are a little sore and pretty sunburned, but that’ll go away by tomorrow.It was great getting all that fresh air and exercise!

We went to the Roseway’s fund raising auction last night. It was an awesome time. We sat with Meredith and Jenna, Hildegarde and Marjorie and MaryAnne. We bid on a few things in the silent auction and won none of them. Meredith bid on parties aboard the Roseway and didn’t win (although she kept on trying). But Maryanne was the big winner of the night. She bought a sailing dory for $7,000 and she has never sailed!!

They had a martini bar with pomegranate martinis flowing in a huge silver fountain. Plenty of Cruzan rum and South African wine. Appetizers of salmon, creamcheese and capers, sushi, and duck canapes were passed around. Tuna ceviche, roasted veggie dip, spinach sage and blue cheese spread and an herbed tomato topping were displayed in martini glasses at a self-serve appetizer table.

Dinner was boeuf and shrimp, mashed mixed tubers on a grilled portobella, and asparagus. The boeuf was like buttah. Dessert was white chocolate mousse in a dark chocolate treasure chest with fresh berries. And Maryanne bought a boat! We will help her learn to sail, along with Dwight, captain of the Roseway, in the coming weeks. Woo Hoo! Another boat in the family!

Now, we will get ready to kayak out to Buck and hopefully swim with the dolphins who have been around for the past few weeks. Life is good…..

Brrr! It was really cold this morning. And it’s already really cold tonight at 6pm. It wasn’t even hot during the day. I sat on the beach at Chenay for a while and even though it wasn’t breezy, it was not hot. My feet got cold just sitting there. I had to move around and put them in the sun to warm them.

It’s Thursday, and Thursday’s “Luncheria” night.  I put a sweater on and long pants. I think I’m going to need another layer, especially after I start drinking frozen margaritas! Ole!

It has been a struggle for me during the 3 1/2 plus years that Michael and I have been together to maintain a regular workout schedule. When we first met and sort of started being “a couple”, I had recently resurrected my love/hate relationship with running in the early hours. Peter and I would meet at the Buccaneer and run the golf course in the dark. It was beautiful watching the sunrise over the hills and many times the full moon would be setting as well.

Michael began to join us after a short while, and we started training for local running races and triathlons. Michael had wanted to get his bicycle back on the road, and our dear friend, Michelle gave me her old bike since she was training more seriously and doing bigger triathlons. We trained, ran, biked and swam on a somewhat regular basis. I guess I had a lot of energy with the positive transitions happening in my life. We did some small running races and relays in small triathlons. It was fun and I felt good and healthy.

When I started feeling more serious about this new relationship (with Michael), I stopped being so anal about my workouts. People would ask me why I wasn’t doing those early morning runs anymore, and I would say, “I have someone nice to stay in bed with” :). It’s still really great to have someone nice to snuggle with on these cold winter mornings. But now I feel like there’s way too much of me snuggling.

The “deck project” has finally begun and the “final window replacement project” will follow shortly thereafter. I am really feeling the need to embark on a “fit body” project. So we have started walking again. It doesn’t thrill me to walk on the main South Shore road with all the traffic, but the other day, as we were starting out, my brilliant husband said, “Why don’t we try this little dirt road down to the salt pond?” I said, “Because it’s all the way down there and we’d need to turn back before we even got there”. But he said that there was a road we had just walked past that went down that way and we should explore it. I hadn’t even noticed it because I was always so intent on watching where I was walking and stepping out of the way of oncoming vehicles.

We turned around and a few yards back, there it was. The little road he was talking about. We started down it toward the water and it was lovely! There were wild pinkish-purple morning glories alongside the path leading to the Great Pond. There were giant footprints left by the Senepol cattle and smaller ones left by deer, dogs and birds.

It was wonderful to do that first thing yesterday morning, and we did it again before dinner tonight. Next time, though, we’ll take binoculars. There are so many different species of birds that hang out by the pond. We are incredibly happy that Mr. Paul Golden will not be able to build his casino/convention center/golf course/”resort” on this unspoiled gem in our neighborhood.

After 30-odd years, the long awaited (by a few vocal locals) Christiansted by-pass is becoming a reality. I saw the scar on the hillside for the first time today as I was driving home from work. My heart sunk.

I actually started writing this months ago. It’s really hitting home now as the scar begins to show itself just a few yards west of the Canegata ballpark, across from Gallows Bay. It is strange, the earth moving goes up the hill. A very steep hill. We wonder if the road will start on the steep incline (where large trucks will supposedly haul something), or if they will dynamite the hill to create a passage.

The beautiful, majestic hills behind Christiansted town will soon be violated by big machines. We will no longer be able to gaze in awe at the unspoiled green slopes. From now on, there will be wounds that may never heal.

Many years ago, there was no”container port” in the industrial section of the south shore. All things shipped to our island came into Gallows Bay, east of Christiansted town. Big trucks were forced to travel through our lovely historic town to carry cargo to distribution points elsewhere.  We now have a container port on the industrialized section of the south shore. There is no longer a need for this project except in the minds of those who do not think outside the box. A more economically feasible and environmentally sensitive solution would be to pave “Spring Gut Road”. The connection between the south shore and Gallows Bay has been there for years.

Our government cannot even properly maintain the roads that are already here. The infrastructure doesn’t work. The sewers overflow in town when it rains. There will be more runoff from this new road further overwhelming the system. Just another travesty.

But, as usual, in this “Banana Republic”-type government, favors have been promised to contractors and they will get their money despite the fact that an abomination will take place. We have protested to no avail.

We now mourn the rape of the hillside over our beautiful Christiansted and the deaths of the inhabitants in town and the creatures of the harbor who will be affected.

Alaskan King Crab Legs. All you can eat. For $29. Good deal.

It was Meredith’s birthday yesterday, so we took her and Jenna out there (well, actually, Meredith drove, so I guess more accurately, we went with them). I didn’t really trust the beach bar to have nice wine to go with such nice food, so earlier in the day I was fortunate enough to find a couple of bottles of “Monkey Bay” Sauvignon Blanc at Food Town :)! We really enjoyed this wine with crab last year when Michael’s parents were here.

I was right! But the bar owners and staff had no problems with us bringing our own. It was good. The service was good and the food was good, too. Once last year, we saw a woman with some little scissors cutting the crab shells open to easily get at the meat, so I went to Essentials for the Office and got 4 pairs of crayola scissors for us to use.

It’s serious fun eating crab. Little bits go flying, you get melted butter all over everything. At one point, Meredith felt like it was starting to rain, but Jenna was eating her piece of corn on the cob and it squirted toward Meredith.

We all had a wonderful time. It was awesome to spend the evening with three of my favorite people, and I am really happy to report on an excellent island dining experience .

He’s been on the computer and on the phone alternately for the past 5 days. When he’s not waiting on hold or waiting for some result on the computer, I have had to listen to his ranting about things not working the way he thinks they should work.

At least Saturday we spent some time on the North Shore. Some of our clients went to Buck Island that day. It was really rough on the sea, but they still got to swim with dolphins. The water was so murky, though, that the dolphins had to be really close for the people to see them. Good thing dolphins can “see” with their echo-location or whatever it’s called. There were three dolphins who seemed really interested in a BIG sailboat anchored off the beach at Buck. We think it might have been the “Sea Quell”, a large charter that usually lives on St. Martin.

I’d like to make dinner or watch a movie, but Michael’s on hold. If I make dinner and he stays on hold, we can’t carry on a real conversation. Well, I guess we could if the cordless phone were working. But right now, he’s on the phone in the bedroom because he’s been on hold so long that the cordless needs to be recharged. So if I made dinner, he’d have to eat in the bedroom. Hmmmm. I guess I’ll just put laundry on the line and open a bottle of wine. Maybe spread out some cheese and crackers…..

History was made at 4pm on January 5, 2008 when Michael Joseph Baldwin and Anna (I don’t know her other names) got married. We were lucky enough to get to see them this morning and to massage Anna and her mom, who is down from Asheville, NC, believe it or not.

It was a funky day on the north shore. A and B have been staying out at Carambola where the wedding was to be held. While we were massaging them in the little gazebo on the beach, the wind was howling and the seas were tumultuous. It rained and got cold, then the wind stopped and it got really warm. They opened their eyes during the massage and said, “It’s okay if it rains now rather than later”. After that brief shower, it drizzled again at around 2:30 or 3 while we were at the Cane Bay beach bar and then it stayed more or less overcast, which is a good thing because they would have FRIED on the beach in their wedding clothes at that time of day if the sun would have been out.

We wish them all the best!

Wreggie’s “thing”

After the massages, we decided to stay on the beach at Carambola so Michael could do some body surfing. The waves were really rolling in and that’s usually a good place to do it. The tide was low, though, and there wasn’t enough deep water like there usually is right off the beach, so the waves didn’t last long enough for a decent ride. We read our book for a little while and left for Cane Bay when we got hungry. The “Full Moon” beach bar is under new ownership (and now serves breakfast every day!) , so we thought we’d check out the menu. Last time we were there it was not great and it hasn’t changed. Just a few sandwiches, salads and very expensive fried appetizers. We took a picture of Wreggie’s thing and the guy sitting next to us at the bar took a picture of us with Biggie.

Cute!

The bartender was not attentive and generally didn’t seem to care about waiting on us. We sat for 5 or ten minutes waiting for her to ask us what we wanted to drink and whether we wanted to look at a menu. We ordered food and beverages, and when our drinks were empty, she didn’t offer us more. We had to ask. She had no personality and no ambition. We miss Diane and Kelly :(! But it was nice to sit out there watching the beautiful huge waves roll in. We would have liked to go snorkeling, but could tell that the visibility would have sucked. Our food was good. I had a grilled cheese and tomato on rye (it was a toss-up between that and a mahi caesar). I was hungry, so opted for the sammy with (close your eyes, Wreg) curly fries. Michael had a Wilbur and cheese burger with onion rings. I wanted onion rings and he wanted curly fries, but I was undecided and he ordered first, so he made sure we’d have the rings. They were gooooood! Four hours later, I’m still full and am regretting eating all that fatty stuff (I shoulda had the salad…).

We went across the street to the beach and sat reading and watching dogs and kids play in the sand and people and kids playing in the surf. We got a couple of movies to watch tonight. Maybe we’ll just have popcorn and ice cream for dinner.