Sunday, January 16, 2011

Sunday, January 16, 2011:

Looks like it’s going to be a pretty nice day. Hardly any clouds.  Don’t know what we are going to do yet, but whatever it is…it will be sunny!

Got a newsletter about St. Maarten (our next stop).

Cold Wave Hits St. Maarten; Nighttime Temp Plunges to 73 (With Wind Chill): Sweaters, hoodies, and scattered winter hats were reported on the island last week when nighttime temperatures here plunged to an unseasonably bone-chilling 73 degrees when you factor in the wind chill. One tourist was even seen wearing socks with his Sketchers. "I wish Dunkin Donuts was open here already," said one woman from Boston, where some Dunkin Donuts are a stone's throw from others. "I can use cup of steaming hot coffee. Brrr."

I am concerned about it being too cold there and if we should change our plans! (we are such babies!)

After breakfast, Gerald takes a walk to get a paper and I start cleaning the kitchen.  In between inspecting dishes, putting the dirty crusted ones in the dishwasher, washing down cabinets and the microwave, I take little breaks to hang off the deck and take in the breeze and view.  It’s so beautiful.  My concentration on the view is broken though by the squeaks and squeals of the mongoose down in the bushes. I’ve heard the noises many times, and have tried to run to see what the clamor was about – assuming they were fighting or playing. So of course I glance down hoping to get a quick view of the mommies, daddy and little babies playing and romping. But, no.  That is not in the cards.  What I do get to see is daddy trying to “get busy” with mommy. Nice. I didn’t mean to keep staring, but I couldn’t help it.  Then I started to chuckle. It was so typical.  Poor little guy.  There he was trying so hard to do his duty and get his business done, and she kept moving and looking around for food (or malls). Totally oblivious to his amorous advances or plight caused by her constant moving and inattentiveness. Very unromantic indeed. But he never gave up, persistent little critter that he was, he just kept trying.  That is, until she caught a lizard and then he had the audacity to try to steal it from her. But she was too quick for him and she gobbled it down before he got the chance to take it. He sniffed around in the grass to see if any scraps might have fallen in her haste to swallow it whole, but it didn’t appear that he found anything.  Defeated at his quest for the food, he quickly returned to the task at hand.  Courting the lady mongoose and plying her with his charms and suave ways. HA!!  Good luck little buddy!   ppfff…it’s a wonder that any of the species survive! =)   Well, I can tell you one thing, I will no longer try to run to see what the noise is about when I hear it again, and will try to keep the vision from popping into my mind again! Now back to cleaning.

Talked to my friend Theresa today.  She had a wild story to tell me. Suffice it to say, it’s a small world indeed.  Apparently her son Nolan has been spending time with a friend (Matt), whose mom (Trish) and dad (Ron) are long time friends of mine but I haven’t seen them in a long time. Theresa also has known Ron for years – albeit only by phone. Matt and Nolan have been playing ball together for a while now and Theresa and Ron have talked and seen each other at games, but they didn’t realize who the other was – until today.  How funny is that!  So a big hello to Theresa, Nolan, Ron, Trish, Matt and Josh too! Hope you guys are well! How funny the world is when our paths cross in such a way!

Gerald got up from his nap and said he wants to go to Smuggler’s Cove for happy hour, after that we can come back and make dinner. Might as well do something, so we get ready, walk over, sit down and have a drink.  The football game is on and there are some hard-core Jets fans in da house – with one poor Patriot fan, who eventually got run out! I believe I heard a few of the guys throwing out some BS, but no fights broke out so everything was good.  We finished our drink and came back home. I made sketti for dinner and that was pretty much the highlights of the day. See you tomorrow!

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Saturday, January 15, 2011:

Waking up in the Caribbean again… how boring! =) (That is sooo mean! Sorry!)  Gotta figure out what to do today.  We decide we are going to go to the pool this afternoon.  So I get the beach bag ready and head down.  We settle at the pool, since the wind is pretty strong, and I hate being sand blasted! The sun is intense and it doesn’t take long before I can tell it’s cookin’ me! PASS THE SPF 50 AGAIN!  Gerald is sitting under the Royal Palm Tree, in the shade. Chicken.

Of course, baking in the sun makes me hot, so I go to get in the pool and the water is ICE cold…not just cold, sister….I mean it is ICE COLD!!  I could only get one foot in and had to take it out before hyperthermia set in.  BRR!  What are they doing? Piping this in from the North Pole? Is that an iceberg I see floating in there?  OMG it’s the Titanic!  (uh…naw…it’s just my reflection in the pool…phew!) Gosh. You can’t even get cold water from the faucet, how can it be this cold in the pool when it sits in the sun all day! Wow…that was a shocker! So I just splashed some on my face and arms and thawed in the sun some more.    

Now I’m lying in the warm sun getting toasty again, thawing my foot, reading my Nook when I notice birds in the sky.  We are right on the beach, and there is a reef out there, so it would be natural to see birds flying and fishing. We’ve seen the pelicans diving in the water from the deck. It’s so cool to watch.  There are gulls, frigates and pelicans just hovering over us, gliding in the air currents coming in from the Atlantic Ocean, perusing up and down the shore for fish to catch. They are just floating in the air, hanging there with no effort whatsoever.  Ummm… now that I think of it…they are hovering right over us!  Directly over me actually.  …   That can’t be a good thing.  I hope one doesn’t decide to let loose and make a deposit in the general vicinity of my lounge chair. Maybe I should move! Just to be on the safe side!  

We meet some people at the pool who are leaving this afternoon, and are taking in the last few minutes of sun before they head back home to Up State New York! I’d say! I would too, with all the bad cold weather you are getting up there…they’ll be lucky to make it past Florida!   Not long after that, we pack up too. 

So we get back from the pool and I check my computer.  I’ve received an e-mail from my credit card company about a possible fraudulent transaction.  We get that sometimes when we travel, but I thought I had called them and told them of our travel plans.  But, better call just to be sure.  Unfortunately, someone tried to make a $2,000 purchase with our credit card from an electronics store online. Wasn’t me…and you know it wasn’t Gerald. This means we have to cancel it and get another one. It makes it difficult and a little complicated when you are out of the country.  It took me about an hour, but we got the new card approved to send it here to us. Now…I have to remember all the automatic payments I have scheduled and update them with the new card information when I get it.  Hopefully none of the bills go delinquent…like the water bill. =)  You know how this credit card stuff makes Gerald grumpy… he LOVES credit cards! HA! (he’s mumbling about them already!) Oh well.  I’m just glad they caught it.  They are usually really good about identifying strange or out of the ordinary purchases.  Yay CapitalOne!  Plus, letting them know where we are helps them identify odd purchases too.  It’s been a while since we’ve had anything like this happen. So as long as you stay on top of it…it’s just mostly having to endure some inconvenience for a little while. Better that than paying for purchases someone else made – against your will and/or knowledge. And only I have the right to make purchases against Gerald’s will and/or knowledge!

Well…better get a shower and get the SPF scraped off.  The internet is down…so I can’t post until it gets up and running again…probably tomorrow when the office opens up in the morning.  Until then, we’ll make supper and I’ll update my blog or play with my phone (which I still love!). Till the next adventure! I’m signing off.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Friday, January 14, 2011:

What to do today.  Nothing I suppose.  I really need to clean the drawers out so I can put all the clothes away and organize them.  That way it will feel more like where I’m living…not just where I’m staying, so it will be more comfortable.  While I was doing that, Gerald took a walk up and down the street to check out the area.  That’s good.  No questions! =)  He found another grocery store (but didn’t pick up anything).

During occasional breaks out on the deck, we see the mongoose again.  There is a whole HERD of them.  Ok, technically herd is not correct.  Several or a group may often be called mongeese, mongooses,  mongaggle, mongi, business or trouble (which sounds more appropriate) or even the related meerkat that live in a troup,  but whatever they are called, there is a WHOLE BUNCH of ‘em down there!  They live in those bushes and busily crawl around in them, up, down and around and they chirp and chatter.  Quite entertaining. They remind me of my cousin Machelle! Busy busy busy – moving all the time!  =)    Sometimes they make noise and they sound like a cat fight! Weird! (oh…and the noise isn’t like my cousin Machelle…except for when she and I get together, we chatter and make a lot of noise)

There is a rooster in the distance that constantly crows.  I hear him at all hours of the day, and all hours of the night.  This rooster is apparently STUPID because he can’t tell when the sun is coming up, or going down.  He needs to be a chicken dinner, and I may make it a quest to find him….and have a chicken dinner.  At least he is not outside my window, otherwise I would have a chicken dinner today.

There are also water planes that fly in and out of Christiansted.  We hear them too, but at least they wait until after sunrise to make noise…! (unlike that stupid rooster)

Well, I’m done organizing and working around the “house” today.  I’m going to rest and watch a little TV then go to bed.  ‘nite!

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.