Choose a band/artist and answer ONLY in titles of their songs:
My Artist Is... Ceili Rain
1. Are you male or female?
Queen For a Day
2. Describe yourself:
Jigorous
3. How do some people feel about you:
Forty Shades of Green (edit: green as in Ireland not envy)
4. How do you feel about yourself:
I Wanna Be Different
5. Describe your ex boyfriend/girlfriend:
You Just So Never Know
6. Describe your current significant other:
I've Never Been to Ireland
7. Describe where you want to be:
House Not Made with Hands
8. Describe how you live:
'Tween the Jigs & the Reels
9. Describe how you love:
A Hundred Smiles an Hour
10. What would you ask for if you had just one wish:
Peace Has Broken Out
11. Share a few words of wisdom:
These Things Have a Way of Workin' Out
12. Now say goodbye:
Call Home
Oh, and a side note on the previous post... If I ever get a galapagos, it's name will most likely be Darby.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Friday, March 24, 2006
A G-A-L-A-P-A-G-O-S-agos
Lately we've started doing "Flying Scotsman" questions again. In "The Flying Scotsman," everyone has a turn to lead the "train," so sometimes each person answers a question as they lead off. A couple of weeks ago was cool because everyone called out their favorite dances, and then we spent the rest of the evening dancing our favorites. My favorite is "Cuckoo Clock" because it has such a good variety of figures. It is also David's favorite dance, so Beth had us dance as lead couple. It was rather weird because I so rarely dance it as a woman. China and I are nearly always partners on that particular dance with me on the man's side. Some dances you don't really notice a change when you switch sexes, but "Cuckoo Clock" is not one of them. I even stuck David on the girl's side once!
Last night's "Flying Scotsman" question was what we think would make the best pet. There were some pretty interesting answers from sea cucumber to naked mole rat. My answer was rather boring as I just said turtle. After giving that answer further thought in order to remedy the mundaneness of it, I have decided more specifically a galapagos would be nice. If I ever have kids, they could ride the family pet. Also, with a galapagos I should be able to plop down next to it, rest my arm on his shell, and ramble on without worrying about boring him. He would be slow enough, I wouldn't have to worry about him running away; and with a turtle's life span, I should never have to deal with a dead pet.
Last night's "Flying Scotsman" question was what we think would make the best pet. There were some pretty interesting answers from sea cucumber to naked mole rat. My answer was rather boring as I just said turtle. After giving that answer further thought in order to remedy the mundaneness of it, I have decided more specifically a galapagos would be nice. If I ever have kids, they could ride the family pet. Also, with a galapagos I should be able to plop down next to it, rest my arm on his shell, and ramble on without worrying about boring him. He would be slow enough, I wouldn't have to worry about him running away; and with a turtle's life span, I should never have to deal with a dead pet.
Thursday, March 23, 2006
St. Thomas: Episode 5: Last Full Day
Sunday morning we picked a church out of the yellow pages, called them up for directions, and gave it a whirl. They sang all the old familiar Maranatha songs we sang back when I was a kid in West Virginia. My favorite part was the greeting time when everyone walked around the church giving quick hugs and blessings to everyone else while the choir sang a song that fit perfectly. I wish I could remember the song. I think TCF should do that kind of mingle time mid-service and save the visiting for after church. I enjoyed the worship so much that I was surprised to find how late it was. We ducked out before the sermon started so we could get a little sightseeing into our day. 
When we got to downtown Charlotte Amalie, we found out it was a 3-cruise-ship day. That meant that traffic was crazy with taxi drivers inching along trying to offer any pedestrian a ride back to the ship. We finally realized we would just have to park and walk. After lunch in a nice cafe supposedly world famous for its hot sauce (Gladys' Hot Sauce, anyone?), we started walking in the general direction of Seven Arches Museum in hopes that we would get lucky and actually find it. We not only found it, but it was open! The proprietor who lives there with her husband gave us a nice, albeit slightly rushed, tour of the 18th century Danish home. With the heat what it was, we were rather disappointed not to get the free tropical drinks that are advertised.
Not knowing what else to do, we headed back to the guesthouse for another evening of relaxation and family time. With all that free time, it was a good thing I had brought Dutch Blitz and playing cards.
The next morning, we saw Chris off in his seaplane to St. Croix. When we went downtown to do a little more shopping before we left, a police officer told us the car's tags were expired so Dad dropped me and Mom off to grab a couple of quick souvenirs before heading back to the airport early. It's crazy that we went the entire trip without being pulled over until two hours before we planned to head to the airport, but, hey, that's life. It was a good vacation.
When we got to downtown Charlotte Amalie, we found out it was a 3-cruise-ship day. That meant that traffic was crazy with taxi drivers inching along trying to offer any pedestrian a ride back to the ship. We finally realized we would just have to park and walk. After lunch in a nice cafe supposedly world famous for its hot sauce (Gladys' Hot Sauce, anyone?), we started walking in the general direction of Seven Arches Museum in hopes that we would get lucky and actually find it. We not only found it, but it was open! The proprietor who lives there with her husband gave us a nice, albeit slightly rushed, tour of the 18th century Danish home. With the heat what it was, we were rather disappointed not to get the free tropical drinks that are advertised.
Not knowing what else to do, we headed back to the guesthouse for another evening of relaxation and family time. With all that free time, it was a good thing I had brought Dutch Blitz and playing cards.
The next morning, we saw Chris off in his seaplane to St. Croix. When we went downtown to do a little more shopping before we left, a police officer told us the car's tags were expired so Dad dropped me and Mom off to grab a couple of quick souvenirs before heading back to the airport early. It's crazy that we went the entire trip without being pulled over until two hours before we planned to head to the airport, but, hey, that's life. It was a good vacation.
Wednesday, March 22, 2006
St. Thomas: Episode 4: Bay Day
Our plans for Saturday were to visit the St. Peter Greathouse in the morning and Magen's Bay in the afternoon. This worked out well because the morning was hazy and not ideal beach weather but by noon everything was bright and sunny.
St. Peter Greathouse is a beautiful tropical estate near the highest point in St. Thomas. We just wandered around enjoying the views and the flowers then relaxed under a gazebo while drinking tropical punch. We did have a little drama to begin the visit when I suddenly said, "Turn here!" so Dad did and wound up with one wheel stuck over the curb. Fortunately, he was able to get unstuck fairly easily once the rest of us got out of the car. Anyways, on with the day... As we headed towards Magen's Bay, we took the opportunity to stop at Drake's Seat where Sir Francis Drake supposedly watched his ship's travel through "Drake's Passage."
We got to Magen's Bay, reportedly one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, just in time for lunch but nothing exotic. After lunch, I rented some snorkel gear and Chris took me snorkeling. I had such a difficult time getting started I couldn't do anything but laugh. I finally gave up trying to put the goggles over my glasses and that worked much better. I was close enough to the marine life too see most stuff pretty well, and I held my glasses as I swam around to get an occasional better view. The wierdest thing was swimming through a giant school of 2-inch translucent white fish. I saw just a few colorful fish, several white fish the size of sandwich plates, sea fans, spiny urchins and I even managed to spot a sea cucumber!
St. Peter Greathouse is a beautiful tropical estate near the highest point in St. Thomas. We just wandered around enjoying the views and the flowers then relaxed under a gazebo while drinking tropical punch. We did have a little drama to begin the visit when I suddenly said, "Turn here!" so Dad did and wound up with one wheel stuck over the curb. Fortunately, he was able to get unstuck fairly easily once the rest of us got out of the car. Anyways, on with the day... As we headed towards Magen's Bay, we took the opportunity to stop at Drake's Seat where Sir Francis Drake supposedly watched his ship's travel through "Drake's Passage."
We got to Magen's Bay, reportedly one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world, just in time for lunch but nothing exotic. After lunch, I rented some snorkel gear and Chris took me snorkeling. I had such a difficult time getting started I couldn't do anything but laugh. I finally gave up trying to put the goggles over my glasses and that worked much better. I was close enough to the marine life too see most stuff pretty well, and I held my glasses as I swam around to get an occasional better view. The wierdest thing was swimming through a giant school of 2-inch translucent white fish. I saw just a few colorful fish, several white fish the size of sandwich plates, sea fans, spiny urchins and I even managed to spot a sea cucumber!
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
St. Thomas: Episode 3: Drive Me Crazy
We had seen all there was to see at Coral World by lunch time and were stuck saying, "Um, what now?" Mom's friend from work used to live on St. Thomas and said there was a nice view of St. John from Red Hook, so we decided to head that way. We came across Red Hook shortly, but didn't really see a good place to stop and before we knew it we were out of town and headed back towards Charlotte Amalie. We turned around and drove around and around trying to find a good spot to stop until we gave up and decided to head back to the center of Red Hook for lunch. Trying to stay in the island theme I had a jerk chicken wrap.
Did I mention I was sort of the designated tour guide? Therefore, everyone turned to me to figure out something to do for the afternoon. We all agreed upon Blackbeard's Castle and headed back towards Charlotte Amalie to find it. We got to where the magazine I was referring to said it should be and it wasn't there, so I switched magazines found a new point of reference for where it should be and we kept on driving. We finally found Bluebeard's Castle and wound up the hill to check it out. Bluebeard's Castle turned out to have been built up into a hotel, so after some fancy driving on Dad's part we got out of there and went looking for a tourist information center. Since Chris needed to stop at a bank and it was near a tourist shopping area, we set out looking for someone who might know something, but all we could find was this dude running a pirate shop who gave us vague directions but didn't know the street names. Heading back into Charlotte Amalie, we got lost in neighborhoods a couple more times before finally locating the castle around 3:10 pm. We headed in and started looking around, but were soon informed that they closed at 3:00 pm. After all that driving, we had figured out where a couple other sites were so we headed back downtown to climb the historic 99 steps and visit the garden of the First Ladies of the Virgin Islands.
Did I mention I was sort of the designated tour guide? Therefore, everyone turned to me to figure out something to do for the afternoon. We all agreed upon Blackbeard's Castle and headed back towards Charlotte Amalie to find it. We got to where the magazine I was referring to said it should be and it wasn't there, so I switched magazines found a new point of reference for where it should be and we kept on driving. We finally found Bluebeard's Castle and wound up the hill to check it out. Bluebeard's Castle turned out to have been built up into a hotel, so after some fancy driving on Dad's part we got out of there and went looking for a tourist information center. Since Chris needed to stop at a bank and it was near a tourist shopping area, we set out looking for someone who might know something, but all we could find was this dude running a pirate shop who gave us vague directions but didn't know the street names. Heading back into Charlotte Amalie, we got lost in neighborhoods a couple more times before finally locating the castle around 3:10 pm. We headed in and started looking around, but were soon informed that they closed at 3:00 pm. After all that driving, we had figured out where a couple other sites were so we headed back downtown to climb the historic 99 steps and visit the garden of the First Ladies of the Virgin Islands.
Pirate queen fountain below Blackbeard's Castle and above the 99 Steps.
After all that driving around, we were ready to just head back to the guesthouse to relax. For dinner, we headed to Tickle's Dockside Pub which was a little bit pricey but then all Virgin Islands food seems to cost more. The fresh ocean air and the location mere yards from a submarine and fancy-schmancy yachts gave it a nice atmosphere and it gets mega-bonus points for not being next to impossible to find. The fish & chips don't compare to Scotland, but I blame that in part to my preference for haddock over grouper.
Monday, March 20, 2006
St. Thomas: Episode 2: Coral World
We got going Friday morning and found Coral World, St. Thomas' aquarium attraction, without too much trouble.
We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of feeding time at the "Caribbean Reef Encounter" and admire the varied fish, especially the sting rays. Wandering on outdoors we found sharks, sea turtles, and stingrays in individual pools and an iguana nearly ran over my foot before leaping a story to the rocks below. For a more natural encounter with the reefs, we descended into the undersea observatory where we could admire the marine wildlife in their natural habitat. The coolest thing was spotting a sea spider, just because it was something you've got to be sharp eyed to notice.
We headed back to the shark pool to watch the sharks be fed and to pet a baby shark.
We continued to wander about the grounds enjoying the unique fish and sea creatures in the "Marine Gardens" aquariums; exploring the little nature trail; and feeling starfish, sea cucumbers, and the like at the touch pool. All in all it was a very enjoyable and interesting morning.
We arrived just in time to catch the tail end of feeding time at the "Caribbean Reef Encounter" and admire the varied fish, especially the sting rays. Wandering on outdoors we found sharks, sea turtles, and stingrays in individual pools and an iguana nearly ran over my foot before leaping a story to the rocks below. For a more natural encounter with the reefs, we descended into the undersea observatory where we could admire the marine wildlife in their natural habitat. The coolest thing was spotting a sea spider, just because it was something you've got to be sharp eyed to notice.
We headed back to the shark pool to watch the sharks be fed and to pet a baby shark.
We continued to wander about the grounds enjoying the unique fish and sea creatures in the "Marine Gardens" aquariums; exploring the little nature trail; and feeling starfish, sea cucumbers, and the like at the touch pool. All in all it was a very enjoyable and interesting morning.
Friday, March 17, 2006
St. Thomas: Episode 1: The Journey
The trip down to St. Thomas was uneventful on the surface, just your typical air travel - delays and all. However, there were a few interesting factors in the delays:
* Right before we were to board the plane in Dallas, a flight attendant fell and apparently cut his head pretty bad, so he had to be taken care of and a replacement attendant called in before boarding could begin of course.
* Once everyone was settled on the plane, it was determined that a fuel gauge or some other such mechanical device had to be replaced before we could take off. Fortunately, that took less time than they estimated.
* We finally arrived in San Juan where it eventually turned out that 3(!) airplanes had to be grounded due to mechanical troubles so our flight had to be combined with a later flight to St. Thomas.
* Boarding in San Juan was a little crazy because the shuttle got the passengers out to the airplane before the flight crew. The bus was so packed that people started pushing out even though they weren't supposed to and there we were just hanging out on the tarmac.
We finally made it to St. Thomas where Chris was waiting for us at the airport. The adventure was about to begin. After finding our rental car in an unlit parking lot, finding our way to the other side of Charlotte Amalie was a piece of cake. It was once we pulled into our guesthouse's neighborhood that things started to get interesting. Narrow, steep, crumbly streets were to become our norm for the next few days. In the dark, the first time it seemed like we wound through that neighborhood forever before finding Ramsey's Guesthouse, but we made it and it wasn't long before we all settled in for the night.
To be continued...
* Right before we were to board the plane in Dallas, a flight attendant fell and apparently cut his head pretty bad, so he had to be taken care of and a replacement attendant called in before boarding could begin of course.
* Once everyone was settled on the plane, it was determined that a fuel gauge or some other such mechanical device had to be replaced before we could take off. Fortunately, that took less time than they estimated.
* We finally arrived in San Juan where it eventually turned out that 3(!) airplanes had to be grounded due to mechanical troubles so our flight had to be combined with a later flight to St. Thomas.
* Boarding in San Juan was a little crazy because the shuttle got the passengers out to the airplane before the flight crew. The bus was so packed that people started pushing out even though they weren't supposed to and there we were just hanging out on the tarmac.
We finally made it to St. Thomas where Chris was waiting for us at the airport. The adventure was about to begin. After finding our rental car in an unlit parking lot, finding our way to the other side of Charlotte Amalie was a piece of cake. It was once we pulled into our guesthouse's neighborhood that things started to get interesting. Narrow, steep, crumbly streets were to become our norm for the next few days. In the dark, the first time it seemed like we wound through that neighborhood forever before finding Ramsey's Guesthouse, but we made it and it wasn't long before we all settled in for the night.
To be continued...
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Happy Magnuson Day!
It's been a while since I've posted anything, but a St. Thomas trip report is pending, and meanwhile:
I just encountered a very odd coincidence. I was writing the "s" in Magnuson when for completely unrelated reasons the name Magnuson was mentioned in BBC Scotland's Reel Blend trivia segment. According to OneLook, Magnuson is a rare surname occurring in 1 out of every 33,333 families with a popularity rank of 4,553 in the U.S.
In honor of this newly declared holiday, here is a picture of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirwall, Orkney, Scotland:
I just encountered a very odd coincidence. I was writing the "s" in Magnuson when for completely unrelated reasons the name Magnuson was mentioned in BBC Scotland's Reel Blend trivia segment. According to OneLook, Magnuson is a rare surname occurring in 1 out of every 33,333 families with a popularity rank of 4,553 in the U.S.
In honor of this newly declared holiday, here is a picture of St. Magnus Cathedral in Kirwall, Orkney, Scotland:
Tuesday, March 14, 2006
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