Bahamas Bums.

It takes a thousand miles and the relaxed environment of the Bahamas to make me feel like I have time to post! I won't lie, there were many times over the past few months when I have really, really, wanted to post -- things like Thanksgiving (when I ate a TURDUCKEN!), my 30th birthday (eek!), and so on and so forth, but just wasn't able to get it all down.  But now...thanks to the magic of WiFi I can post from our island paradise!

How is everybody??

I'm spending the holiday season with the Long side of the family -- enjoying the total relaxation that comes with being on Man-O-War.

As you can see, Jamie and I went tidepooling this afternoon.  Easily one of my favorite pasttimes when we're on the island.  You can also probably see that I was having way too much fun with my fisheye lens.

The island suffered a little damage from the hurricanes that passed through earlier this year.  When we got here, I was surprised at how green the island still was.  The main casualty (at least that I noticed) was our dock.  But the house still looks great and there is plenty of sand on the beach.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season!  I'll check back in soon...

Bahamian Adventure.

We got back from our latest Bahamian adventure last weekend.  Tanned and rested, we are now faced with some pretty hectic workdays.  Still...it was totally worth it.  Just look:

Hooray for Abby, Jonas and Scott making it to the island with us!  We survived the crazy hot and humid weather by spending a lot of time on the boat or in the ocean.  Fortunately for us, DC was hit with  a heat wave around the same time we were in the Bahamas, so it was pretty nice to know that we wouldn't have been much better off temperature-wise.

The water was unusually calm for most of our stay.  It was like glass when we arrived, and allowed for some pretty smooth boating for the whole trip.  We went snorkeling a couple times, and our last day there, we had probably the best snorkeling I've ever encountered.  Absolutely no waves with perfect visibility.  I even got to see the elusive sea turtle!

The island was super-busy (at least in terms of Man-o-War).  Lots of people around, and we got a few fireworks displays for Independence Day.  We ventured out to Tilloo Bank and played frisbee off the boat.  It's still one of my favorite places on earth...

We visited Hope Town and Great Guana...everywhere we went we saw Wanted Posters for the Barefoot Bandit (who had arrived at the same time we had.)  Whole islands were buzzing about it -- everyone was on the look out -- so it actually makes sense that he got caught there.  When you have islands we so few people on it and everyone is looking for your face...there are not many places to hide.  Sadly, he broke into Curly Tails which is a restaurant we have frequented in the past (when Wally's is closed, of course).  But, the Royal Bahamas Police triumphed in the end.  

And with BB's capture, Jamie and I came back to the States.  On a plane FULL of babies!  Babies everywhere!  All of the babies on the plane were incredibly well-behaved.......except for two (from the same family) who screamed bloody murder the entire. way. home.  I actually thought it was pretty comical because it wasn't just that they cried the whole way...it was that they were full-out screaming the whole way.  

By the end, Jamie and I were rooting for them to persevere.  (They did.)  It actually worked out pretty well for us since all of the rows immediately surrounding the boys cleared out and left Jamie and I (Jamie with his noise-canceling ear buds, and me with my workplace-induced immunity to screaming children) with a whole row to ourselves.  It probably wouldn't have been so entertaining had the trip been any longer...but, hooray for the quick, 2-hour trip between West Palm Beach and D.C.!

I'm already daydreaming of our next trip down...but for now...back to work.

So Long Bahamas...

Happy New Year's to everyone!

We made it back from the Bahamas in time to usher in the new decade!  On our stopover in Miami, we came to terms that we had not yet come up with a plan for New Year's and Jamie made wrote our friends Ben and Ragan to see if we could all meet up.  With a toddler and another baby on the way, we figured they would be up for something low-key if they were in town.  Fortunately for us, they were!  And so we got to enjoy some yummy Thai Curry Mussels with freshly baked rolls (I was in a big baking kick when we got home).

The Bahamas, of course, were awesome, and Jamie and I are already planning our next trip out.  We would have loved to stay longer, but sadly, I have to open the building at work tomorrow (!) so our trip to paradise had to be cut short.  Still, we had a wonderful time...

It had been a couple years since we have been to the Bahamas (since Christmas 2007) and it was great to see how somethings hadn't changed.  It was still gorgeous, populated by friendly people, and completely relaxing.  Although I did have to do some work while I was there, it was infinitely better to do it to the sounds of the ocean and with a cool breeze at my back on the deck.

We spent lots of quality time with Jamie's side of the family and had lots of laughs, got to snorkel at Fowl Cay, and swim in the heaven blue water.  While I really missed seeing my side of the family, it also reminded me how fortunate I am to have two loving families to which I can belong...

I'll put up some more pictures from our trip over the next few days...hopefully!

Bahamas Ahoy!

I am officially a free woman for the rest of 2007! Tomorrow, Jamie, Scott and I will be taking the flight to Miami and a final destination of the Bahamas. Most excellent. As the first official Holiday Season as a married couple, Jamie and I will be spending the holidays with his side.

I will take tons of pictures. I will say "hello" to our dear friend, Piggybank Telephone Car. And I will definitely be getting some much needed rest and repose. I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season among the ones they love. Check back here on the 31st for some pictures and stories...

Running on Empty.

I am falling asleep as I write this. Just barely survived my first day of teaching -- spent a full 13 hours at work. Death to anyone who gets between me and my pillow tonight.

The day went as smoothly as could be expected given how little I was prepared. The kids will be...interesting...it was a good day. BUT, relative to most first days of school it wasn't so great. I actually had to raise my voice (ON THE FIRST DAY!). This does not bode well for the year. Although it might provide for some interesting blog fodder.

More Bahamas pictures: (and if you want to see some really good ones, check out ScoobyDrew today)






















Man. I am cringing as I look at Nick's bare feet on those rocks. Yeowch.

Time for Work.

Somebody shoot me in the face. It's early.

First day of students today. Classroom not ready, lesson plan not ready, and I'm not ready. Also, this organic cereal Jamie bought tastes like cardboard. Think about me today.

Panic Sets In.

Shut down the building yesterday and I am still not finished with my room. Maybe the trip to the Bahamas right before school started was not the best plan. Still, it was worth it.


In other news, Bahamas Vacations are Awesome: The Movie has finished post-production and is now in mailboxes. I have learned that giving Jamie free reign of a video camera can end in extreme levels of corniness and subsequent hilarity.

Must go finish hyperventilating now over school stuff.

PiggyBank? More like PiggyLAME.

I have to do some work tonight, so this'll be short, but I simply cannot believe that no one other than Meredith has any comments to make about PiggyBank TelephoneCar. Where are the comments filled with surprise , disbelief, and/or longing??

C'mon people! That discovery is as good as it's going to get on my blog! I am not pleased.

Send A Money.

One of the greatest discoveries -- and only letdown -- of the Bahamas trip came in this little box.


I don't remember who it was that first discovered PiggyBank TelphoneCar -- I think it may have been Drew or Anne Louise. All I know is, there were many squeals of delight at the thought that we would be able to play PiggyBank TelephoneCar at some point during our trip. We assumed it was a game because it was nestled in with all of the other board games. This, my friends, is where the seed of disappointment was planted.

It turned out that PiggyBank TelephoneCar was not a game, but rather a toy. Let's investigate.


There is a picture of a confused and sad-looking Asian girl on the box playing with PiggyBank TelephoneCar. Her expression is one that suggests that someone on the other end of the line is ruining Christmas by giving this toy as her only gift.

But wait! Let's zoom in little closer...

I was very happy to learn that when pulled this TelephoneCar "may give a KA-KA sound". Add to this the fact that the TelephoneCar
may also be used as a "peggy bank" and our initial disappointment starts to reside. Never mind that they successfully spelled "piggy bank"
elsewhere on the box -- or that the name of the product is PiggyBank TelephoneCar and not PeggyBank Telephone Car.

Spelling errors aside, nothing could prepare me for the actual toy itself and its demand to:

PiggyBank TelephoneCar is genius. You can use the same contraption to call people and get them to send a money, to then store a money for later use. In addition, it is highly mobile and will make a KA-KA sound as it goes (obviously for built-in security purposes).

Ultimately, PiggyBank TelephoneCar did not disappoint me. I know that I will look for it in the game closet for many years to come and think back fondly to this 2006 trip.

Sneaks on a Plane.

I have decided that I will no longer fly through Miami International Airport if I can at all help it. On both occasions when I have flown through MIA I have gotten stuck there. Actually, this time I narrowly escaped sleeping at the airport due to a deus ex machina.

Our flight out of Marsh Harbour was delayed due to lightning storms in Miami. Our plane ended up leaving over an hour late. I was panicked since we would have to get through customs, collect our baggage, recheck our baggage, and then make our way to our gate in less than an hour. Somehow, we blazed through customs and got to the front of the baggage check line (P.S. Miami airport? MOST INEFFICIENT CUSTOMS EVER.) The guy asked when our flight left, then directed us to the American Airlines counter. Even though we had about 40 minutes until our flight left, we were being denied the opportunity to even try -- the line was to reschedule our flight. I understand that it would be nearly impossible for our baggage to go through checks and still make it to the plane in time, but STILL.

By the time we got to the front of the line our plane had departed. We were put on standby for the next flight, but were told our bags would go on that flight with or without us. Of course, we didn't make it onto that flight. Nor, did we make it on the next one. We had spent several hours in waiting rooms, watching people get more and more desperate. Every flight was overbooked according to the American Airlines people so it looked like we would have to spend the night at the airport.

While we were checking in for our third attempt, Jamie noticed a nearby gate for a flight to Baltimore. As it was leaving in five minutes, I did not have high hopes, but I ran over anyway and the most beautiful, incredible, wonderful American Airlines agent gave Jamie and me a seat on the plane. We were told to keep it quiet so that there wasn't a mad rush of other standbys which would cause the plane to delay. Then, this angel snuck us onto the plane and we were off.

I was slightly worried that we were being shipped off to some remote part of the world, but two hours later we landed in Baltimore, MD and came home to our demanding cat.

"Bahamas Vacations are Awesome!" (tm Jamie)

Despite promises that I would write daily posts from the Bahamas, this is my first post from the island and it is also my final day in Man O’ War Cay, Bahamas. The days have been too full of swimming/relaxing/snorkeling/board gaming/laughing for me to write. But, I will try to make up for it with pictures.

The trip was “TREMENDOUS” (as Drew would say).

Let me preface this with the statement that I am blessed to have the friends that I do. I should also state that I am marrying a pretty incredible trip planner. Jamie made sure that we had at least one adventure a day and because of his impeccable planning we had so much fun doing it. I will not deny that there were moments that I giggled at his campiness, but I can safely say that we were so lucky to have him there with us.

A few (little) things that I learned on our trip:

1) I am bad at all board/card games. I will lose lose lose if anyone plays me.

2) 82 degrees is the ideal water temperature in which to swim.

3) Peanut butter and jelly tastes better in the Bahamas. Even on the fifth day.

4) It takes approximately 3.66 swats to kill a cicada.

5) Boys are a lot like Golden Retrievers when it comes to fetching playing Frisbee on the beach.

Enough talk. Here are some pictures from our trip:

A little peek at what was outside our bedroom -- we stayed at "The Bayhouse" portion of the property which meant that we had a great view of the bayside. (Also, we had central AC -- but I swear we only used it a few nights).

The weather was pretty moody while we were there. It rained a bunch on one or two days, but cleared up enough for us to get out on the water every day.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out the best way to put up pictures from our trip without the formatting getting all wonked out. I'm thinking I won't be able to get all of my pictures up in one post -- but I'll put up a bunch now and as the week progresses and I continue telling stories from our trip I will put up a few more pictures each time. For now, how about this series called: Man O' War Cay By The Hour.

This picture was actually taken around 5:20am before the sun came up. It's of a lightning storm over Marsh Harbor (it bypassed Man O' War). I spent a good amount of time futzing with the camera trying to figure out how to leave the shutter open so I could catch a fork of lightning. Unfortunately, I don't think it had the option (or at least I couldn't figure it out without turning on some lights), so I just sat around and took pictures whenever I thought that maybe lightning was approaching. Surprisingly, I actually caught one. Yes, that big glow of white light in the center is the bolt of lightning. It's kind of hard to see, but it's the most clear on the middle-to-left side of the picture. It's pretty amazing to look at when you zoom in a lot.

Of course, I also had to include a picture of our beach -- there are a lot of these. This is from the path leading from the Main House to the beach in front of the house. We also learned that this path was the choice litter box for the cat that adopted us while we were there. A lot of my pictures from the trip look like this one.

And of course, the obligatory "sunset at Man O' War" picture. In the lower-left corner you can see the boat that we rented for the week. It was a nice boat and I worried for its inanimate life. However, thanks to Jamie's savvy navigating and patient instruction it survived the week with nary a scratch.

I have plenty more pictures to share, but like I said, I'll do it in parts. There is only so much uploading of pictures through Blogger that one can endure at a time. But, I'm so excited about sharing my pictures that you can be sure that I'll be posting again really soon. Like, now.

Home Alone.

If you have been following this blog for a while, then you are familiar with Cody:


Cody is our [insert colorful adjective here] cat. We don't leave Cody home alone often -- we don't have the funds for that -- but we do manage to get away for a couple of weeks every year. Last year when we took time to go to Peru and Alaska, we left him in the care of benevolent friends. Over the holidays, we forked over serious dollars to a cat sitter.

This time? He's in the care of Jamie's brother. In a completely good-natured way, I'm a little nervous. Mind you, the last time that Scott was left home alone in our apartment he managed to slice open his hand (which required several stitches to close again). Also, upon returning from our trip, we found that the stove and floor was completely covered in a mysterious, waxy, yellow goo. This I am sure is not Scott's fault (I think our exhaust filter needed to be changed), but the point is: bad things happen when Scott is left alone in our apartment.

I'm just kidding. I am extremely grateful for Scott taking care of our precious Cody. I am also very appreciative of him getting up (or staying up) with us so that he could drive us to the airport at 2:30am (!). That, my friends, is true kindness.

And for all the ladies...he's single.

Excited.

So, like I mentioned before, I'm going to be leaving for Man o' War Cay this weekend. You guys, I'm so excited (click it now -- you won't be sorry). Not only am I going to this beautiful, secluded island, but I'm going with good people.


One of these people is none other than the lovely "Ms. Bananapants" (leaving out real names until I get her approval) who has the honor of being the person in my life who best impersonates Jesse Spano's freakout -- and believe me, there are many. Seriously, she has it down to a science.

Of course, we also have the infamous duo from ScoobyDrew who are leaving their adorable dog at home while they spend some quality time on the white sands of "the Cay".

And there's more! But, I'm going to leave it at that because I don't want anyone getting mad at me for spreading their secrets on the internet. Honestly though, it'll be such good times. I need to rethink going on great vacations right before returning to work -- it makes it that much harder. But, let's not think about work: here are some more pictures (that I'm sure you've all seen before) of Man o' War.

Under the Wire.

Almost didn't make it today. Truth is, I'm trying to update now because in a few days, I won't be able to update regularly. I'll be in the Bahamas with limited (read: no) internet access. But, I promise to come back with tons of pictures. Plus, I'll try to "blog" on a daily basis by writing posts, and just putting them all together when I get back.

Anyway, today a car in our parking lot got busted into! Drama! Apparently they really wanted a radio and Jamie's wasn't good enough so they got the car next to his. Seriously, when stuff like this happens, I'm always scared that I will be blamed for it. I think I've watched way too many movies where the protagonist gets blamed for things they didn't do. So, I was scared even to go outside to the parking lot and look at the car for fear that the police would roll up and start questioning me. I also fear for my car because it's my baby. Granted, I doubt anyone could figure out how to pull out the radio from a Prius, but I still worry.

So what's going on in your lives?