Thursday, January 13, 2011

Thursday, January 13, 2011:

Rainy again this morning. But hopefully it will clear up in a while. (But who cares anyway right? I’m here and not working!)

I got a surprise this morning.  The cleaning lady came! HOW EXCITING! A CLEANING LADY EVERY WEEK! I’M SO THRILLED!!!  Big bonus points for St. Croix! =)  We’ve hardly dirtied the place really – only been a couple of days.  But we decide to change the sheets and exchange the dirty towels anyway and begin the regular cleaning, sweeping and moping next Thursday. The ladies’ name is Agnes…and she is my new best friend! Of course I was in my jammies, so I apologized to her and said I didn’t have the place ready to be cleaned (isn’t that stupid)!  But she said that our place was excellent compared to others…you gotta wonder about that huh?  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised anyway, with the condition that people have left the condos we’ve stayed in. Some people are just inconsiderate pigs. (ok…enough rant!) 

We decided to walk up the beach to Smugglers Cove to hit their happy hour and eat dinner.  Before we go, we are on the deck and spy the Mongoose in the garden.  Apparently she is a mommy with a little baby.  My picture isn’t good…couldn’t get it focused before she saw me and ran off.  They are cute aren’t they!

 (Mommy & Baby)

 (these are the bushes they live in below our deck)

(awww...)

We head over to Smugglers. When we got there, there weren’t too many people but business eventually did pick up.  Apparently it was trivia night … and everyone seemed to be psyched to vie for the $25 bar credit – that you couldn’t use that night.  Gerald and I didn’t actively participate.  We were busy eating.  But watching the others around us…we sew a few that were very competitive.  It seemed to become a life quest to win that bar credit.  Some questions were pretty difficult, especially at the end when there was a tie-breaker. For instance…if you are standing on the equator, how fast are you going in miles per hour.  Now, if it was in relation to how fast I could get to a sale at the mall, and how much money I could spend…I’d have it in the bag…but it doesn’t, so I had no idea.  Gerald said he was working feverishly on the answer…!  But apparently 2 people did know – 1038 (+/-) miles per hour is about how fast you are going if you are standing at the equator.  Now, I’m guessing that if you know that information you are either 1) someone who has never had a date, 2) Stephen Hawking, 3) you are using your iPhone for reference (cheating), 4) or you have been victim to another trivia night elsewhere and have assimilated this seemingly useless information by accident.  By the looks of the two guys involved in the tie-breakers, personalities #1 and #4 seemed appropriate. After another tie-breaker question – how fast are you going on the equator in relation to the Milky Way galaxy in miles per second (OMG!) – personality #1 won the price.  Imagine that!  It was something to watch.  He paced and paced and appeared to be calculating this problem in his head (in much the same way that I would be calculating how much I could save in relation to how much I could stuff in my Explorer).  SOMEBODY GET THIS BOY A DATE!  This poor guy! But he was very excited to win the prize. He would be wise to use the bar credit for good…and buy girls lots of drinks to reap the possible rewards…but I doubt he will! Too bad.  I bet he would clean up nicely.

We also learned from trivia night that it is possible to get salmonella poisoning from a turtle.  Ewww! I’m not touching a turtle ever again!  I’ll have to research that further…because that is just gross!

We meet 2 young guys (in their late 20’s) who introduce themselves and gave us some information on the island.  They have been here about 4 days and have apparently had lots of fun.  They are from Philly and their names are Tony and Joey (go figgah) and they are very cute. Mr. Nerd boy should take some notes. Tony was very chatty and it was fun talking to him. He also told us about another couple that lives at the condos there…Loraine and Bill … they are from New Jersey. (oh moi gawd)   Apparently Loraine has a reputation of being lots of fun. 

Loraine and Bill show up a little later and Tony is right. They look like fun. Loraine is already bopping, dancing and walking to the music and goes right to the bar for a drink! She seems to be a very happy person and she and Bill walk around and talk to everyone!

There was a table with a small group of people that Loraine visited. One of the ladies at that table (I didn’t get her name) had brought in a tiny pet.  From a distance, you could hardly tell if it was a cat or tiny dog, but it turns out it was a itty bitty black dog. A Chihuahua.  She was SO CUTE!!! (and I want one) 

Her name was Lilly and she was 2 months old.  The lady was passing her around and everyone was holding her. It would have made me nervous, but she said she did that because Chihuahuas are not necessarily sociable dogs (true), so she wanted the dog to get used to lots of people and noise.  She said that’s what she did with her last Chihuahua and she was a very friendly dog – not a barker or biter. She has lived here for about 20 years and apparently hangs out at Smugglers Cove quite a bit.  We will see her again I’m sure (and I will get her name!).

With dinner finished and the trivia competition over, we pay the bill and walk the beach back home to the condo.  Thankfully either the idiot neighbors are gone or they have made up, but at least it’s quiet.