Squids, Bingo and Anguillans in Rowboats

Well. here we are. Another day in paradise, right? Alden and Mary leave tomorrow morning. I think they have had a very good visit. They went to the beach just about every day, and went on various hikes to ruins, historical homes, bat cave, etc. They've gotten to see a great deal of the flora and fauna Nevis has to offer: bats, humming birds, crabs, fish, pelicans, doves, frigate birds, cattle egrets, a school of squid, monkeys, donkeys, goats, sheep, cattle, cats, dogs, all kinds of exotic tropical plants and Alden's favorite tree, the coconut palm. They even had a midnight excursion to watch a sea turtle laying her eggs, right up close. Not bad! Oh, and let's not forget the buhzillion ants that march shamelessly through this house day and night. We've all learned not to lean on the walls. Alden shot a piece of video of a three-legged goat to amuse his friends with, and happened to catch this goat drinking the urine of another goat! You'd think he'd won the lottery! He and Mary burned a path to the computer to get this piece of pure gold onto YouTube. Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YL3pnb6XRM0

This last week I set out about 400 seeds to sprout, lots of tomatoes, peppers, lettuces and greens, herbs and watermelon. We'll see what grows. No, this doesn't represent any new horticultural interests, just a desire to eat food that hasn't been sprayed with chemicals or shipped from the opposite corner of the earth. I'm lucky to be able to use the greenhouse at the medical school for this project, and the groundskeeper is even watering everything for me until the time comes to start transplanting! His name is Mike, and I can understand about every other word he says, but I imagine and hope this is the uphill of a learning curve.

Ava's had one playdate since we've been here, certainly not up to her standards! So she's been driving us all a little nuts, and we've all put in a turn playing ponies with her (pure torture) and have had several family ZINGO BINGO tournaments (thanks, Brenda and Solomon!!) that were fairly competitive.

Also slightly challenging has been the loss of water (one whole day) then the sudden emptying of our propane tank before a four-day weekend (they have lots of weird holidays here) which means no cooking on the stove or in the oven (oooh, goodie, rice cooker surprise again!) and to top it all off, loss of electricity COMBINED with no propane. Which means no microwave, toaster oven, rice cooker or the usual appliances. You can or maybe cannot imagine what dinner was like that night.

What else...I made the mistake of joining a book club without prescreening it. Who knew?? The current book isn't in print, and there are only two copies circulating amongst the members. I was given one of the copies a little too enthusiastically by one of the members who hasn't even read it, and now I know why. Because of the short supply of books, and only 6 more days until the meeting, I have only two nights to read it, and I fall asleep every time I try. Crap!! It's a, sigh, it's a military history of Anguilla. It was written in the early '70's. Wake up, I won't tell you any more. I've never been in a book club before but sheesh!! Aren't they supposed to be...fun??

So, the competition for the computer has been fierce, even with Alden having his laptop It should get better. I miss you all! And now, for a flashback to highschool history, I must away to my veryfun reading assignment. Sleep is not far away.

Rachel

PS, Alden informs me that the cat brought a rat into the house and ate only the top half of it. I have to get rid of the bottom half of it (gulp) which has a seven inch tail, I swear-to-god. Sleep now very far away.

Ugh.