What I'm Not Watching Any More

Gatorade, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

I have commented on the end of Lost, but I haven't on the end of 24 or American Idol. I know Idol hasn't been cancelled yet, but it should be. First off, Simon Cowell has left the building. He simply can't be replaced. Second, how the HELL did Lee DeWayze win over Crystal Bowersox? Lee can sing be he couldn't hold a candle to Crystal's power. Meh, I say, meh! That show has ended for me.

Jack Bauer didn't bust Tony out of jail for his roarin' rampage of revenge, but it turns out he didn't need to. As the Television Without Pity's recapper points out, several of the last 4 hours resemble a Friday the Thrirteenth movie with Jack in the role of Jason Voorhees. The scene with the assassin whose guts he cuts open then burns with a butane torch is Jack's Crowning Moment of Crazy.

I admit 24 was getting totally silly, but that's part of why I liked it. I also liked Chloe, one of Jack's only friends who didn't manage to get herself killed or locked up in jail. Sure she had absolutely no filters between her brain and her mouth, but she was brilliant, loyal, and had a strong moral compass. At least Bauer recognized that (and Morris, her husband). I shall miss you, Jack and Chloe, although there are rumors of a movie (what are they doing to call it? 2?).

A Beach on Jost

A beach on Jost, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Let's see, what's happening in the world? Lost and 24 ended, meaning I have nothing to watch. I have a bunch of Fringe in the queue, but it's not the same. Lost went out out well, even though not all questions were answered. I say it went out well because all the characters did things that made me love them, even the normally douche-baggy Jack. Like Battlestar Galactica, I have my own answers for the questions but don't feel the need to share them compulsively on every forum on the innertubes.

In other news I opened the pool. This year was the easiest opening on record, despite having to change the sand in the filter and repairing a crack in a pipe joint. I only pulled one dead animal out of the skimmer basket (a mole).

One semi-traumatic event happened this morning - I went outside to disconnect the automatic cleaner from the skimmer intake pipe, and jumped back because I saw a green head looking at me. About the same second as I registered the head belonging to a big frog, it got sucked into the intake pipe. I ran like mad and shut off the filter pump and Jon managed to free the frog. He was hurt but we let him go. Pools <> (or != for you VB folks) environmentally friendly.

More St. John Travelogue

IMG_0603, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

May 10th: Scuba day with Low Key. We went to Lovango cay and Grass Cay. I think I either need to make it a point to go scuba diving once every six months or so or just quit altogether because I didn't really enjoy myself that much. Of course, putting a BC with a heavy tank over my severely sunburnt back may have had something to do with it. After scuba and lunch, we took the kids to Hawknest Bay, a beach I've never been to. It was gorgeous, just like all the other beaches on St. John. Ho hum.



May 11th: We chartered a boat to the British Virgin Islands. This trip was definitely the highlight of our vacation. The boat we chartered was the Born To Rhumb (there are a lot of Rhumb puns in the islands) with a captain, Kevin, and - assistant? first mate? not sure what her official title was. Or name. We headed out at 9 and stopped at Soper's Hole in Tortola to go through customs then had a delay for some shopping (don't ask). Prices in St. John are high, and outrageous in Tortola.



Our first top was the Caves at Norman Island, supposedly Robert Louis Stevenson's inspiration for Treasure Island. We snorkeled around with the kids in tow wearing ring floatys. Brenden refused to use his snorkel but he loved his mask. He'd dip his head in and report on the fish he saw. I saw some small squid and pointed them out to B. He thought those were cool. The caves were caves.



We had lunch on the Willy T, (the William Thornton), a ship that was converted into a restaurant. Yes, you have to park your boat next to the ship to climb aboard. Despite warnings that no jumping is allowed, people jump off her all the time. Including us. All of us, even Brenden. The kids absolutely loved eating on the 'pirate ship'. About that time us adults all started in on the beer.



Next up was a small island with a very nice beach with naked people. They mostly got dressed when they saw the kids. They also left, thank you. The captain told the kids it was 'Gilligan's Island' (heh) so they loved that too. We swam and played on the beach for a while, then we headed to Jost Van Dyke, home of the Soggy Dollar bar.



I just remember floating and drinking. The captain's assistant was kind enough to wing a fresh beer my way when I was empty. Don't ask me about the trip home because I don't remember. It wasn't the beer, it was the Painkillers I had on top of that. Not the drug, the rum drink.



May 12th: that was Wednesday, or recover from the charter day. What the heck did we do? Oh yeah, we got a late start and went to another beach I've never been to, Maho bay. The kids (by simply being kids) pissed off some lady reading a book nearby - people don't tolerate little kids very well. Sorry lady. I hear there's an adults only beach at the Caneel.



May 13th: We went to Trunk Bay, and the surf was moderately rough. Andrew loved the hell out of being tumbled around by the waves and it brought back nostalgic memories of how much I loved the same when I lived in Puerto Rico. Brenden liked it too, but he preferred building a sand castle and Sierra didn't like it much at all. We ate lunch afterwards at the Banana Deck, our go-to place this trip. Brenden loves strawberry daquiris. Virgin daquiris, of course.



May 14th: Our return home was uneventful, except I had a traumatic experience at the McDonalds drive-through when we were coming home from Atlanta. I asked for UNsweet tea, and Jon drove away before I could taste-test and discovered it was sweet tea. I hate sweet tea with a mad passion. If I'm going to drink sugar water, it better be carbonated! It just goes to show you: they FARK you in the drive through! Every TIME!!

The Kids are Alright

IMG_0872, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

So I owe a trip report, don't I?

May 6-7: Travel days. We left for Atlanta, caravaning with the family we were going with: Stacey and JK, and their two kids Sierra (9) and Andrew (11). Even though the kids are older, they get along great with Brenden. We arrived without incident at one of the Comfort Inns near the Hartsfield airport. Did you know you can get a hotel room AND parking for a week for about the same price as parking for a week? (about $80).

I was kicking myself about getting the later flight to St. Thomas because I found out about the Park-Sleep-Fly program after I bought our plane tickets. Our flight didn't leave until 11:50 so we took our time getting to the airport and killed 3 hours by lounging around at our gate. Fortunately the kids all had their DSIs so the whining was relatively minimum.

About 20 minutes out the captain told us we may have to divert to San Juan because the tarmac in St. Thomas was sporting a pot hole. We circled around for about 30 minutes but then the captain told us we get to land in St. Thomas (much applause). He then told us he will have to slam on the brakes because St. Thomas' short runway is now about 1000 feet shorter. He did, but we landed fine so he got more applause.

As it turned out the earlier flight from Atlanta did get diverted to San Juan and landed after us. Ha!

So we collected our luggage and got our jeeps from Dependable, the company we used last time. We drove to Red Hook, and waited for the car barge while watching a very ominous cloud shroud St. John. Our villa greeter, a nice guy named Demitrios, phoned us hoping we had 4-wheel drive cars because the rain was a torrent and some streets are flooded. Anyone who doesn't have 4-wheel drive on St. John is doing it wrong, rain or no rain.

Jon and Stacey talked about stopping at a store, so I spilled my little surprise: I had contacted a villa provisioner so we had lots of food (and beer and rum) waiting for us. After an exhausting day (we got to the villa at around 7 pm) the last thing I wanted to do is worry about food.




May 8 - 9: After the torrential rain we woke up to a beautiful St. John morning. I convinced everyone that our first stop should be Cinnamon Bay. We overdid it, of course - we spent 5 hours out there and I didn't wear a rash guard (I 'out grew' my old one). When I snorkeled around Cinnamon Cay, I burnt my back something fierce. That night I spent a lot of time drinking.




I have no freaking idea what we did on the 9th. That was Sunday. I think it was a villa gravity day. The kids spent a lot of time in the pool. We all ate lunch out and did some shopping later in the afternoon, and I snagged myself a new rash shirt (it's like a rash guard, but more like a tee shirt so those of us who have a little too much weight around their middle don't look like we've been stuffed into sausage casings).



I'll write more later but in the meantime here's a gratuitous chicken photo:

Bet you thought I forgot!

IMG_4057, originally uploaded by Sandra Maynard.

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you!
Happy birthday Bill Paxton
Happy birthday to you!!!!

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Happy Mommy's Day Y'all! I'm enjoying today from an awesome view from my favorite tiny island. If I weren't so lazy I'd download a pic instead of stealing something from LOLCATs.

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I love this photograph. I don't know why.