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Guess you noticed I got last night’s blog up fairly quick….. that’s cause the old fat boy was plum wore out….. may have been a small factor of alcohol in there – but C’mon…. is that really a surprise to any of you ???    😉   Up bright and early this morning after a reasonable night’s sleep – anxious to get the day started, because our baby and her family are coming in tonight. Sadly it is on the late flight…… here on the island – you either arrive at 3:00 p.m. something or 9:00p.m. something……The only 2 flights coming into the island….. My Honeybear is coming in on the (9:00 something (according to latest stats – 9:48 to be exact- however- there is nothing exact on this island….) so suffice it to say… it’s gonna be late and I figured I can bang out my blog while I anxiously await their arrival. We haven’t seen them in 10 months and I have some huggin’ and kissin’ to make up for…….   🙂

We spent the day running around to different grocery stores to make sure we have everything we need for their arrival….. to include 3 rambunctious boys. Suffice to say that we stimulated the hell out of the island economy today – but it is worth every penny in the anticipation~!! We have talked endlessly between stores about what they will want to do….. who will want to do what and such stuff. We are like kids at Christmas~!! We finally finished trying to buy out various stores, got home and started putting everything away……. I would like to toss in here…… the old fat boy made 6 trips from the truck to the kitchen (heavily loaded each trip) to unload everything (that be going up and down stairs to do it) so I got my cardio in for the day….. well,    kinda…… yay me~!  😉  Everything unloaded and put up, we were waiting on a delivery for some sleeping apparatus’ that was supposed to be here by 2:00 ….. 3 phone calls and 3 hours later they finally made it….. DAMMIT Emmit~! We have things to do — let’s get on with it~!

That finally out of the way — we figured we’d best get a bite to eat to soak up some of the drinks we had been having —– oh yea…. RIGHT….. we’re sitting around waiting for late delivery people and we ain’t gonna be drinking~!?!?!?     So we loaded up into DD and headed for Blues…..<yea – another big shock huh?>  My Queen got her a hot dog with Sauerkraut and I had a hot dog with mayo, mustard, pickle and onion…. just like I like my burgers……. we also had a drink or 8. Figured we didn’t want to get too torn down before we went to pick up our precious cargo – so we lit out and came back to the condo to suck up some of that wonderful conditioned air, cool off and get squared away before we take off for the airport.  We have about an hour now before we take off and I can’t hardly keep my big ass in this chair~!!!! Like I said last night – not sure if I’ll get to this during their stay – but will try….. in the mean time……

So while we stand on our patio and watch that gorgeous full moon come up behind the palm tree while the waves break on our beach…..waiting to take off for the airport…. I bid you …..Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in~!

(except for Daughter)  😉

DCIM100GOPROGOPR4888.

 

Fairly tough night last night….. I guess it was a happy mix of alcohol and some wonderfully damn fine ribs…… By the time I finished my blog, loaded pictures, done FB and got my shower… it was 23:30  (11:30p.m. for all you civilians out there) I crawled in to the sack and it still took me 30 minutes to get to sleep. Been having trouble shutting my brain off when I lay down……. anyhow – about 04:30 — I woke with ‘quite the urgency’ to hurry up and get into the bathroom…… wooweee – I hate those…… I laid back down when I was done but never did get good and back to sleep….. so a short night last night and hopefully an early night for me tonight.

My Queen and I got a bunch of running done today picking up last minute items for my Honey bears visit tomorrow~!! Which included lunch at Blues~~  😉   Got that all done just in time to clean up for our Thursday night ‘Date night’ It was my pick tonight and I chose a place called UnaMore’  (finally gonna get me some pizza~!) To look at the place from the outside, you would think it’s one of the biggest dives on the island….. but it was a very nice surprise when we got inside. Clean, nicely decorated and a pleasant staff. Thursday’s there are ‘Doggy’ Nights – with a ‘Yappy’ hour. Patrons are encouraged to bring their pooches with them for dinner (on the outside patio – not inside) A small percentage of all proceeds that night go to the local humane society. My bride ordered mussels and I ordered a Carnivore pizza with the appropriate alcohol to wash it all down with. Angie said the mussels were good (even though she didn’t offer me any)  😉   My pizza was tasty…. not my favorite on the island, but comes in a close second. An added plus is this place is only about 6 minutes from the condo~! We finished off our main course and had to have dessert. Angie ordered bread pudding and I order Tiramisu.  Desserts came out and Oh My Goodness…. these were main course size desserts. Angie didn’t particularly care for her bread pudding and while my Tiramisu wasn’t bad – it was nothing to write home to Mom about. Oddly enough – I liked her bread pudding – which is weird because I normally can’t stand that stuff. Go figure. Bellies full, we loaded up into DD and came back, put our ‘comfies’ on and settled in to let our meals settle. I’m getting this done a little earlier than usual, because tomorrow promises to be a long – but very good day.

With our family coming in late tomorrow… not sure if I’m gonna get anything put up here tomorrow night – or for the week following for that matter – but I will try… keep checking on me — I’ll get back eventually…….

Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for checking in~!

Frederiksted Pier

CRABBS pot luck BBQ

In anticipation of my Honeybear and her family arriving Friday… I spent the morning running to get several things accomplished for their visit. After the first effort—- I had to stop for a drink to calm my nerves and keep from throat punching some people…… Luckily I wound up at Blues Backyard BBQ to help that effort…….sure put a dim out look on the rest of the day though – but I soldiered through to get the rest of my tasks accomplished. Entirely too much horse $hit to go into here and I am fairly sure you don’t want to hear about it anyway…. just suffice to say, that by the time I got back to the condo – upon seeing me, my bride handed me a beer and 3 aspirin when I walked in the door. Exasperating as the morning was, I actually got a lot accomplished which will make our lives and our visitors lives much more enjoyable~! We had just enough time to clean up and head out to meet the couple I mentioned last night (Dave & Joann). We met at Eat @ Cane Bay — we ordered drinks and spent the next 3 hours drinking, eating, drinking, drinking and enjoying each others company. Good people who I think we will have a nice long relationship with. More about them as we get to know each other a little bit more  (I think I may finally have me a dive buddy~!)…….

Finally made it back to the condo…… sucking up some much needed conditioned air. Catching up on news and the goings on, on FB. Chatting via text with our baby who will be here in 2 days with her babies…… we are SO stoked~!! Getting caught up there, we got the most awesome phone call from our damn neighbors……. they have been ‘threatening’ to come see us since we left (last September)….. knowing them as the alcoholic lushes they are…. we figured we wouldn’t see them until our next visit back to the continental U.S.   LOW and BEHOLD — they have booked a flight and will be here to see us in mid August~!!  WOW — butter my butt and call me a biscuit~!!!  I’m not entirely sure our beloved island is going to be ready for that… Seriously, I’m thinking about notifying the Coast Guard……  really~!…. tie me to an ant hill and smother my ears in jelly~!  We were a lethal combination in the small safe haven of the town of Hysteric New Harmony….. I can only imagine the “damage” that can be done on a tropical island (with an open container law!!) For my girls reading this…. please keep some cash in reserve – we may need bail  money  😉

Cooled off…… caught up [mostly]…… I am in serious need of a shower and some shut eye. I have another long day of running before my Honeybear gets here~!!! I think I have a few dive pictures left and some random shots as I ran around today….. I hope you enjoy them~!

Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in~!

 

Dave & Joann

 

Rolled out of the sack this morning determined to get a jump on the day and get something accomplished. My bride got up the same time I did, we had our smokes and coffee. Angie also had a bout with GI issues, so we wound up sitting for a while waiting for that to clear up. She finally announced she thought she was good to  (she made a chicken fajita mix last night, which amazed the hell out of me because she typically don’t like that kind of stuff — and I think that’s what was whoopin’ up on her) and off we went. First stop was a jewelry store…. the other day at the beach, I volunteered to open a guys beer (who didn’t have a bottle opener) using my patented wedding ring trick. I’ll be go to hell if I didn’t snap my wedding band~! I have opened hundreds of bottles like that without issue…. and pop – there it went. So my wedding band is now in the shop. Dammit Emmit~! Left there and went to a new store. We had been there once before on one our very first trips around the island and we were under impressed. Today was a whole different story, I think because we were a lot more relaxed and comfortable this time. Kind of like a small scale SAM’s. We got us some smokes (even cheaper there $36 for a carton!) and a box of Payday candy bars (been on a Payday kick lately) – we will go back Friday to load up for stuff we’ll need for Jeni and company Friday~! Left there and stopped by another place, kind of like a Farm Boy — checking into getting some hot dogs from them. That’s where Blues gets their hot dogs and they are delicious~! Didn’t get any because we don’t have space in the freezer (10 lbs minimum) but I think I have that dilemma solved too  😉  Left there and headed for the condo… stopped for a couple of drinks at Blues on the way back and caught up on the local chatter and then back to rest up for our next adventure.

As I said yesterday – we had been invited to view a turtle hatching. Pretty unique event and only open by invitation. We met up at the gate to Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge. They close the entire area from March through August so turtles can nest on the beaches without being disturbed. They have the hatching down to almost a science and said they had a nest due to hatch tonight. We no sooner got out on the beach, (we were right next to the beach where the final scene of the movie The Shawshank Redemption was filmed) and almost on queue, them little hummers started popping up out of the sand. Quite a site to see. Sadly – absolutely no photography of the event was allowed. After about 40 of them little dudes popped out, there was a nice discussion about them (Leather Back turtles) – then we actually got to hold one of the hatchlings…. very, very, cool. We then followed our guide to another section of the beach and got to watch them release 10 hatchlings on that beach (they spread them out around the area for a better chance of survival) Unless they allow photography the next time – I’m not in a big rush to watch another hatching again – but definitely something worth seeing at least once in your life.

Good night Ya’ll —- Thankx for stopping in~!

ZIHUATANEJO – beach ^

Start to a new week…. a new week that promises to be a busy week with the pending arrival of our ‘baby’ and her family on Friday~! We have been planning on what we need to pick up at the store(s) and things we need to get done around the house. Plans in place, we had our coffee, got woke up and was ready to launch into it. That was the plan…… Dammit Emmit~! Someway or another we managed to get tuned into the movie Jaws 3. Apparently we hadn’t seen it and decided we needed to. O.M.G.~!      That movie is the pure definition of why you shouldn’t make a sequel to a great movie. Terrible would be a gross understatement, but we toughed it out…… only to find out there was a Jaws 4. Well….. we had to watch it~! Duh….. Happy to say it was mildly better than # 3, still can’t believe though we sat and watched both of them…… 😉     About the middle of # 4 – we got a call from a friend I made from another organization I joined a while back. They’re called Fish with a Vet USVI. They said we have been invited to watch a turtle hatching out at Sandy Point Game Reserve. Not sure what all is involved in that, but it sounds like a lot of fun. Definitely something you don’t get to see every day. We are stoked for that. While talking about that, we got started in on another movie called All Hope Lost, with Robert Redford. Only about 12 words spoken the entire movie – but was actually pretty interesting. About half way through that movie, we got a call from a couple we had met last month and got to know a little bit. He is the guy who is retired Air Force, just started diving and is looking for a dive buddy because his wife don’t dive [either]. We have made plans to meet up with them on Wednesday for drinks and chat. I personally am amped about it — My Queen and I have a lot in common with each of them and we are both really looking forward to getting to know them. I may have a dive buddy and Angie will have a non-diving buddy. They both smoke and like to drink — so we should hit it off swimmingly~! (pun, pun)

By the time the last movie was over, we had a bite to eat, watched the sun set and now it’s time for me to do my ‘evening assignment’ —A little play on words for those of you from the Evansville area and old enough to remember Joe Aaron and his morning column Morning Assignment in the Evansville Courier. I loved reading his column every morning. RIP Joe.        SO…… we never actually got anything accomplished today, but a pretty good day in spite of it. Gonna put up a bunch more pictures of the dive yesterday.

Good night Ya’ll —— Thankx for stopping in~!

 

Started out our day by loading up my gear and a cooler and heading for the West end of the island, to Frederiksted and the pier. Met up with the new dive club I joined (CRABBS) for a fun dive off of the pier.  There was a small freighter docked up on the end of the pier, so we couldn’t go all the way out, but it still turned out to be a very nice dive. Nice and relaxed, lots of wildlife to see and enjoy including a small friendly Green Turtle. I shared that video already on FB so the dive club members could see it. I’ll see if it’s short enough to put on here as well (I can only get about an 18 second video on here) Got another video my Queen took for me, showing how we enter the water for this particular spot. Fun little jump into the water versus the usual wading out and swimming. I hope you enjoy watching it. I saw a lot of new fish on today’s dive that I haven’t seen before. I’ve got some homework to do now to figure out what they are. I have been practicing my breathing technique trying to get a little more time on a tank. Being an old overweight, out of shape smoker – I have only been getting 30-35 minutes to a tank of air, course a lot of that depends on how deep you go too. Today I got a full 60 minutes~!!  Woo-Hoo….. Yay me~! (we only went to 30′ today so that helped) – but still…. 60 minutes~!!   🙂

Finished up the dive and got the gear all put away and met up with some non-diving members and spouses of members down the road just a bit for a BBQ. It was a pot luck and everybody brought a little something. Everybody sat and ate, discussed the dive and just chatted in general for a couple of hours. All the while sitting on that gorgeous beach looking out over the water. Beautiful~!

Finally wrapped everything up and everybody headed home. We got here, I rinsed all my gear off (got to get the salt off of it) got my shower and set down with a drink with my Bride to enjoy our conditioned air and reflect on a really nice day. As evening started settling in – we were treated to a gorgeous tropical sunset. From start to finish, the kind of day a lot of people fantasize about…… and we are lucky enough to be living it.

I have 100 pictures from today. Obviously ain’t gonna put them all up today, so will save some for the next couple of posts.

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

IMG_6425      <—- Jumping in video

Those of my regular readers know by now, our “weekend” is usually really laid back because beaches and other venues on the island tend to be fairly busy and packed. It’s not that we don’t like people, cause we don’t, it’s just that on the weekends here on the island, everything is packed. Tourists, as a rule, are not a big issue on the island, as we only get about 1 cruise ship a month. Not sure why…. we have a gorgeous island and lots to do on it – I just don’t understand why the island government don’t promote it a lot more, but I digress. The weekend is typically the time for the locals to hit the beach. Much like weekends in the states – it’s a time for the working folks to chill and relax a little bit. We certainly don’t have anything against that, we just don’t want to be a part of the crowd….. but please — keep working and paying those taxes, so us happily retired folks can enjoy our benefits~! With that being tossed out there — we lounged today in the comfort of our poor old air conditioner that works so hard to keep us comfortable. After having our normal ration of coffee, sunshine and cigarettes, I went in and whooped us up what I thought was a pretty decent breakfast. All the standards….. bacon, sausage, hash browns, eggs, toast and a small glass of milk….. MMMmmmm…. breakfast really is the most important meal of the day  🙂

We sat around and watched movies most of the day with the occasional break to smoke a cigarette and watch that gorgeous water crashing in on our beach. Some of that nasty a$$ seaweed is starting to wash back out now, so we have a little bit of actual beach ‘front’ starting to re-appear…. Yay~! We watched a movie called Ride… with Helen Hunt — kinda sappy, but still an entertaining movie. I have always been a huge Helen Hunt fan…. and I don’t know if she had surgery or what – but wow — she don’t look like herself any more….. Next movie was Acts of Violence with Bruce Willis…. we both enjoyed that one…. That one had my Queen yelling at the TV again  😉   Last one was another Bruce Willis flick called Tears of the Sun….. definitely recommend that one….. which also had my Queen yelling at the screen.  😉

Really looking forward to tomorrow…. The dive club that I joined (CRABBS) is having a pier dive followed up by a pot luck BBQ on the beach. I know I have dived the pier a lot of times…. but that is something you can dive every day and see something new and exciting every dive. What is just as exciting for me is that my Bride will be with me. She is going to help set up the BBQ while I am diving. It’ll be a good time to be able to set around and discuss the dive with everyone while giving Angie a chance to meet some new folks and have her with me there as well. I will have my camera charged up and hope to have bunches of new/good pictures for you~!

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

 

Woo-Hoo it’s Friday…… just don’t have the same ring as it used to when we had to work for a living….. still fun to say though. Even more fun to talk with people who are still working for a living and rubbing in the fact that everyday is Saturday for us~~ 🙂  It’s a little bit mean to do – but fun-none-the-less~!

I went up to Blues early this morning to re-stock the cooking wood supply for Jim. He gets large whiskey barrels, cuts them up into small pieces and uses that for his smoking process for his meats. With having back problems associated with kidney issues, it has become a real struggle for him to cut them up – so I have been volunteering my services and doing it for him. I finished that up within an hour and was soon scoping out my next project. Actually got a little work on it done and plans drawn out for the rest of it. It’s going to be a pretty respectable project. I’ll have to do it on a Sunday [when they’re closed] – it’s gonna take me all day to dis-assemble the current section of fence – sink a new post and rebuild it. I have to have it buttoned back up when I’m done so the guard dogs can’t get out. I also will be blocking the alley to part of their parking area and can’t be doing that either….. so it’ll be a l-o-n-g  hot day. Weirdly enough, I am kinda looking forward to it though. The hurricanes whooped up on that section of fence and really does look bad – this project will finish up that whole section of fence.

Came home, cooled off and took a shower and spent some time on the couch relaxing with my Bride. Wound up watching a pretty decent movie called The Whole Truth with Keanu Reeves. Another movie with a good twist at the end. I highly recommend it~! Finished the movie up and my Queen was getting hungry and found out Blues was having Prime Rib as a special, so we cleaned up a bit and headed up. My Queen got her what turned out to be a nice slab of Prime Rib and I got a hot dog. My dog was delicious as was the Prime Rib — maybe a tad dry – but still a really good taste. Friday night and the place was hopping. Red Hot Mamma and the Flame Throwers was on stage and ‘entertaining’ everybody. I say ‘entertaining’ – because to my ears – every song sounded the same. Same beat, same volume, yadda-yadda-yadda. We bumped into our realtor [here on the island] (Kat) and caught up with her as well as chatting with bunches of other friends. Even some of the local pets were getting in on the action. Fun inexpensive night AND we don’t have to get up to go to work in the morning because….. Woo-Hooo, it’s Friday~~~~~~!!!!!   😉

Good night Ya’ll ……. Thankx for stopping in~!

Don’t panic — it’s water in the cup~!

Last week, my Queen and I decided that we were going to check out a new restaurant. We went and checked out R.A.W. (fairly sure I talked about it) and we decided every Thursday night going forward was going to be ‘date’ night and we would check out somewhere new until we hit most of the spots on the island. After 40 years of marriage, the idea of a date night seems a touch silly to me, but I do like the idea of checking out the new places and seeing my Queen get “all dolled up” for the evening. It was Angie’s pick tonight and we went to a place called 17/64 Kitchen and Bar. If you follow me long enough, you’ll see the reference to 17-64 fairly often. The main reason….. that is the general Latitude/Longitude coordinates for the island of St. Croix. ( Latitude: 17° 43′ 39.04″ N // Longitude: -64° 44′ 49.13″ W to be exact) Nice little place, much like R.A.W., trying to pull off an upscale hipster little place. Chief complaints, A/C apparently wasn’t turned on early enough to adequately cool the place off before we got there (right after opening) and the chairs were too narrow for my a$$. Now I don’t think I have what I would call a wide a$$, but I had an easy 3″-4″ of said a$$ hanging off each side of the chair…… just not comfortable~!!!

We tried out several drinks — I tried the special [I usually always try the house special] the Ian Fleming….. it didn’t sink in until after I got it – but it apparently was a Martini of sorts with some reference to James Bond…… not sure as I have never seen an episode of James Bond…. and I say that proudly~ Angie tried a house drink — neither of us cared for the drinks – but finished them off like the veterans we are…. We ordered an appetizer of Mussels and Frites (fries… you can charge more when you call them Frites)….. Mussels had way too much Garlic – but the fries were out-by-god-standing~!! For our entree’s -my bride had a tenderloin and I had a rack of Lamb. Both entree’s were pleasing delicious~! We ended the meal with a Lemon something or other (not bad) and a Chocolate something or other (much better than the lemon thing) we had a beer – several chocolate Martini’s (wonderfully excellent) as well. Whole meal was way to expensive – but so much worth it….. the nice evening with my Queen, the ambience, the meal and everything all rolled into one….. Already picked out my place for next week ( hint: I’m gonna be able to get pizza there  😉  ) and really looking forward to it~!

We watched a movie before we left for our date night. Called Shutter Island with Leo DiCaprio (notice I know a lot of the actors well enough to call them by their name informally… Nikki Cage (Nicholas)… Leo DiCaprio (Leonardo) Sandy Bullock (Sandra)…… yea – I roll like that  😉   Any how….. Shutter Island… outstanding…. if you haven’t seen it yet, I strongly recommend it…. great twist at the end~!

Doing a little work up at Blues tomorrow morning…. we’ll see what the rest of the day brings~!

Good night Ya’ll …… Thankx for stopping in~!

17 / 64 Bar & Kitchen

My Queen~~ <3

Mussels and Frites

Wonderfully delicious ‘Frites’

Rack of Lamb

 

Street views

Dark Chocolate pate’

Frozen Lemon Souffle

 

This day kicked off much like yesterday – but still, I’m waking up on a tropical island, living on a beach….. pretty heard to put a bad spin on that regardless of all the other stuff. I spent the bulk of the morning filling out more paperwork for the new realtor – and the most time consuming was learning out to scan something from my new scanner to my computer. I like to think I’m reasonably tech savvy for an old fart, but figuring some of that stuff out, takes a toll on an older fart….. but I got ‘er boy~~ If I didn’t know better, I’d swear I knew what I was doing~! So all the paperwork is now completed and sent off – so should have a new listing by Tuesday. Going to get real aggressive with this campaign as we would like to have the place sold by 1 October — so we’re keeping our fingers crossed~!

Spent the afternoon watching movies….. saw one good one called Aftermath – based on true events…. well worth watching. Next one was a non descript one with Minnie Driver called Take —- neither of us cared for it even though it supposedly got rave reviews. Last one was called Vengeance: A Love Story with Nikki Cage. That one was a little bit cheesy, but we both enjoyed it. It had my bride talking to the TV  😉    All in all, a pretty tame day – but it was a good tame day. More pictures from the dive the other day…..

Good night Ya’ll —– Thankx for stopping in~!

French Angel fish