What a great Saturday for napping and watching TV. I made a big pot of oyster stew for lunch and bam! Instant coma.
Yesterday I went to the local dive shop to pick up a set of fins and such for snorkeling. What a weird bunch that was. I can't imagine sitting through certification classes there.
We plan to be back in St Croix in May. I figured it was time to own my own dive stuff.
Most of the equipment you rent leaks and I assured that it harbors toe fungus.
Haley is still doing wel. She is not confident as I would like. She cowers a lot. I had to correct her this morning and she just fell apart.
Cedie has had to adjust as alpha dog. There is some struggle with Cedie and Haley. It interesting how pack animals work this out.
I'm playing golf today with a client. This will be my first round of the year and I can feel a bad one coming on. If all goes well I can have fun and make some money by closing a long overdue deal.It's always strange to me how folks spend so much time looking for golf tees. Clearly golf tees are the cheapest part of the game. I rarely bother to pick up a tee unless it's clealy lying unbroken in front of me.The game went well. The weather was perfect in the low 70's. We were both rusty but improved as the game went on. Thank goodness we didn't bother to keep score.
We are enjoying Haley. I forget how young dogs wake up in the morning just happy to be alive. I wake up in the night and she is lying by my side just quietly looking at me.She is very grateful and happy to be in our house. Rescue dogs are always more appreciative.Yesterday was the first day we ran the girls together in the pasture. In fact it was the first time I had taken all three down since Galaxy was alive.It was nice to have three again running around like idiots like you saw on the video.I had been exercising Peaches and Cedie by walking or just in the back yard tossing the ball.Cedie has assumed a more serious roll. She now plays more diligently with the Frisbee. She's actually gotten quite good. Before she was the spoiler trying to steal Peaches or Galaxy's Frisbee.Now Haley is the spoiler.Haley has no interest in playing ball, a little more interest in playing Frisbee.This morning Cedie was sideways in the hall and Haley ran under her belly to get by. She is so fast and agile. Cedie looked like "what the heck happened?"I'm enjoying playing with them so much that I've been late to work all week. Haley spices up the whole house.
Haley made it through her first night just fine. Gigi let her out once to potty and she disappeared. I went out to find her and she had jumped up in the bed of my pickup to sleep. Go figure?
We got our new dog today from East TN Border Collie Rescue. What a sweetie. She is very obedient and very willing to please.Suzanne did a great job matching our needs to just the right dog.Haley is young and enthusiastic.The other two dogs seem happy to have her. Cedie sulks a bit and Peaches is taking the new girl in stride.
Saturday, February 04, 2006 - I never get sad on the last day of a vacation. I just switch to the "Anticipation" mode for my next vacation.

This has been an active yet mentally restful trip.

This is the point in the trip when you start taking inventory. Not of you life or anything that deep. You start looking at all the stuff you bought and will leave behind.

There are 3 beers in the refrigerator along with some great leftovers. I know the next renters will not appreciate the leftover pizza. Heck I'll take another swing at that for lunch.

A glance to the liquor cabinet and it looks like and even bet. There was a bottle of Jack Black and it's still there. We drank the rum that was there but will leave some 151 rum.

We did use a bit of the Jack Black as a disinfectant. Gigi fell in downtown Christiansted mid trip and skinned her knees.

There's also frozen lemonade and lots of round limes.

Overall we did pretty good not overbuying groceries even though we ate most meals here.

Honestly I have been insulated from the worries of the world. This has been very relaxing.

I'm still getting over the scuba dive from the other day. I can't seem to get my right ear back to normal. My ear doesn't hurt.

Diving was a life changing experience. Heck, just being able to breath under water was life changing.

I just put the top back on the Jeep. That's top is one fine piece of fine American engineering. NOT!

We had a back panel fly off yesterday in the middle of the highway. I did a u-turn and Gigi flung open the door and scooped the panel up. I did not have the panel zipped up.

The ladies are off to town for some last minute shopping. I'm headed to the pool.

It was one relaxing vacation.

The tan will fade but the memories will not.
Friday, February 03, 2006 - We are off to an 8:30 Tee time at the Buccaneer this morning. It will be interesting with the ladies vs the men.

Well we didn't pull off the golf. As we pulled in the Buccaneer an ominous black cloud with lots muscular backup helped us to decide that maybe it wasn't the day for golf. Oh well, no worries.

We headed to the dry end of the island where it was bright and sunny. Looked at Point Udall, and worked our way down the south shore.

Hay Penny beach was a real disappointment. It had been billed as something special. It was so remote. Maybe nudie types go there because it is deserted. We felt a bit unsafe there.

Pizza! Tonight's the night. Lori with Just-in-Case Deli has taken our order for three fresh take and bake pizzas. Can't wait! I'm hoping for a 5 shrimper!

We spent the afternoon with our island friend Margaret Walsh.

We ate "Goat Water" a goat stew, herring, rice and spinach, and johnny cakes for lunch. Completely Carribean.

Then we ate the pizza to go from "Just in Case" deli. It cost like a zillion dollars for one of them but was very, very good.

Judy and Tom came over to join us.

We did splatter the oven a bit. Sorry Terri and Joe.

It was a very hot and humid day.

The stars are bright tonight.
Happy Ground Hog Day!

Thursday, February 02, 2006
- We plan to head to the Divi this morning for breakfast. Then we have reservations to scuba this afternoon. Oh boy! Another brush with death for me.

It is raining all to be damned this morning. It's a chilly 72 degrees. We are huddled around our hot coffee mugs.

I never have figured out why coffee carafes dribble water and coffee all over the counter when they are full. This one here is no exception.

We have the fastest dial up here. I am consistantly connecting at 52.0 kbps on an Earthlink connection from St Thomas.

This looks like the day is going to end up with a trip to the Cruzan Rum distillery and a nap if it keeps raining this hard.

It finally quit raining about 10:30. It was a flooding rain. There are lots of washouts and the parking lot at the villa is very pot holed.

Breakfast was good at the Starlite Grill in the Divi Resort. We all had pancakes and bacon with fruit. It was what you expect in a decent breakfast with good service. Nothing special, nothing bad.

Starlite Grill in the Divi Resort


Judy was raving about a lunch place her and Tom ate the other day. Judy got the Carib Shrimp Salad at The Mix on the waterfront in Christiansted. She said it was fresh pineapple with greens, grilled seasoned shrimp with grated fresh coconut.

The service was outstanding and very friendly.

The Mix


News Flash.......... St Croix is slowly but surely getting street signs. This is a major developement.

We did the scuba dive from Cane Bay and I didn't die. I've always wanted to try this and figured I'd better try scuba before I get too old.

The instructors were great. The view looked like Discover HD Channel.

The equipment weighed about 5 times as much leaving the water as it weighed going in. We are very tired.

Jerry was a great instructor. I would say give scuba a try at Cane Bay Dive shop.

We are headed to Bacchus for supper.

Thank goodness Bacchus botched our reservation. We called in earlier this morning and left a reservation on their voice mail. They got the call, they got the time, they got number in the party, but they didn't understand the number to confirm the reservation. Shame on Bacchus.

I asked them to call Kendricks. I wish they had tried to help us earlier. Kendricks could seat us at 9:00 PM. No thanks. I was hungry from diving.

Oh well.

To our good fortune we ended up at The Mix. The sevice was outstanding. The food was fantastic. The live music was very good. The view was the water front. The bill was about 1/2 of what we expected.

The Mix is a hidden gem. I hope they can keep the chef.

The Mix again gets


As a bonus Channel 2 was filming a TV commercial that will air in Puerto Rico, USVI, and the British Virgin Islands.

They had their pretty actresses all having a fancy dinner with lights and cameras. We sat and enjoyed and became the background for the commercial.

They even panned the camera our way a few times. Thank goodness we were dressed for Bacchus. Our ladies looked stunning.

So next time you are watching Puerto Rican TV, watch for the commercial with Reggie, Gigi, Tom, Judy, Dee and Bill in it.
Wednesday 2/1/2006 - If you want a Pizza on Tuesday in St Croix then plan to make your own. We tried twice to get a pizza last night and were told they don't make pizza on Tuesday.

This must be a universal fact all over the island. I didn't probe for any details. We just accepted the fact and moved on.

We first tried "Just In Case Deli". They had a rather complicated schedule of days they made and didn't make pizza. I here these pizza's are the best on the island from the villa owners. We'll never know.

Then we went to another quaint open air restaurant over on the west side of Christiansted. It's near the Hibuscus Resort area. Smugglers Cove Bar and Restaurant is worth a visit.

There seemed to be a lot of regulars, blue collar types. My guess is they all were contract workers at the refinery.

The service was good but "island slow" which is no problem. They cook fresh pizza here but we were told not on Tuesday.

So we orded a variety of food from the menu. All items were good and reasonably priced.

Smugglers Cove Bar and Restaurant


So far the award for the coldest beer in St Croix goes to Styx on the boardwalk. This is a real dive. The bartender is not friendly and the patrons look like questionable characters.

The good news is they keep their beer in a giant cooler on ice. Then sit outside and watch the day go by.


The agenda today is the pool in the AM, horseback riding this afternoon, then fresh lobster at the villa for supper.

Okay....no lobsters today. We'll have to make other plans for supper

The weather is June-like today. Very warm with a breeze.

If you don't see anymore blog entries then I assume I died horse back riding.

I didn't die. In fact we had a blast riding.

Paul and Jill's Equestrian Stables is well worth the drive to Fredricksted. We took a tour through the rainforest, a short ride on the beach and had lots of laughs. Jill did a great job of matching her horses with our abilities.

Gigi looked like a humming bird on a water melon. She rode a huge Persian horse.

Paul and Jill's Equestrian Stables


We stopped by Schooner Bay Market and picked up some huge thick New York Strips with veggies and merlot.

It was funny....the store had just been resupplied and folks were buying up all the items that were fresh from the mainland. I think everyone had a container of ice cream in their basket.

The butcher shop had plenty of very good cuts of beef, but no pork. The seafood looked good, but no lobster. The ladies cooked and the guys broke out the charcoal grill. It was wonderful.