Video of the day!!!

Modest Mouse - Dashboard from Jenny Ko on Vimeo.

Another lazy day at the house. The weather was beautiful though. Tomorrow I get to go to work yaaaaaaaaay! So, I better get settled and get to sleep.

Hope you are all well and happy!!!

Rainy day in paradise....

It was a rare, cool, cloudy, rainy day here on island. Looks to be more of the same tomorrow! Makes for good sleeping and napping in the hammock. I plan to do that all day tomorrow. No work.

I made a mexican food feast last night because I was missing home and craving it. It was good. Had it for dinner again tonight and probably the next 3 nights in a row till i can eat it all! I even have a batch of enchiladas in the freezer for a later date.

Will just moved to PUERTO VALLARTA yesterday!!! I am so excited for him! He is living 2 blocks from the beach and the bars and has 10 chickens and 2 donkeys in his yard. He says the donkeys are loud as hell and make him wish for more chickens. He also thinks I should just move there so we can be Will and Grace, or Willimena and Graciela in Mexico. Don't think I'm not tempted.

I have a few leads on some freelance gigs on yachts around here. Hopefully something will come through.

In other news, I finally got to go to the store, the real grocery store, for the first time in like years! I have a real kitchen! I got all sorts of goodies. Lots of morningstar farms veggie meats and fun stuff like, riblets, chicken fingers, spicy black bean burgers, and chicken patties! Some little frozen pizzas, stuff for sandwiches and soups. Of course all the makings for Mexican night, ground beef, taco seasoning, refried beans, cheese, rice and beans, salsa and chips.... too bad no one showed up. yeah... I invited my roommate/not really roommate Shauna and her boyfriend Alex and Jason who work with Lilly, over for dinner but Shauna said this morning that she forgot about it. I tried to text and call her but she didnt answer last night so now i have plenty of leftovers. Sucks. Oh well, Alex is always asking me when I am going to make tacos and Jason is from Ennis, TX so I know he would jump at home cooking so it sucks that she forgot. Whatever. More for me.

On that note, my video of the day. New favorite by Fall Out Boy. Enjoy!

Fall Out Boy - What A Catch, Donnie from Pete Wentz on Vimeo.

Busy week so far!

I have been working at the boat show with Jen on her catamaran called Good Medicine. It's been fun but long long hours! We were cleaning and detailing the boat as well as prepping food for the show. Basically the charter boats sit at Yacht Haven Grand marina and all the brokers from all over the country and caribbean come tour the boats and talk to the crew and gather info for prospective charters. Jen and I made appetizers and cocktails for the events. We even made mini cheesecakes in... you guessed it Dad, MUFFIN TINS! Ha! They are awesome. We made cuban beef skewers with chimichuri sauce and some really cool tomato mozzarella balsamic skewers. I mixed up a big batch of mojitos to round out the theme. Work is slow, so it's a blessing that she needed my help this week! I work on Limnos on Friday and have no idea how I'm gonna get there!

In other news, I am thinking about joining the Coast Cuard Auxilliary here in St Thomas. Now, before you freak out... it's not the reserves or anything like that, it's a volunteer group that dispaches to help the USCG in the event they don't have a boat near by, they also do safety for events like the sailboat races and boat shows, as well as vessel inspections locally. They also teach you all these great life saving and survival skills. We will see...

There is a kitty asleep on my back. It came with the house. Very cuddly.

I love this place. It's so cool and airy and breezy! I have been sleeping very well! I would sleep alot better if I had stable work.

Soon come.

Above are pics of the house.

Moved!

Well, I finally got my stuff moved into the new place but unfortunately the car that my friend was going to rent to me is broken so now I am just stuck up on the north side which is really isolated. Beautiful views but far far away from work or town. Oh and BTW I got my old job at Limnos Charters back for at least a few days a week. I also got an offer to work as a chef on a yacht in the BVI for a week. I need to call Jen today about that. Things will be ok eventually. I know it. I will have to take some pictures of the new house and post them like a tour sometime but I think I will be training with Jen on the new boat so that will have to wait. I am so stressed out.

Locked out. Tired. Bored. Getting eaten by Dengue Fever carrying mosquitos.

Guess I will just type here till the battery on my computer runs out.

Been lounging around for a few days. Have to go to work tomorrow though. Thats good. Need the money. We got our shifts cut down to 4 shifts a week which sucks. We have so many people working there that we can only have 4. I guess they are trying to stock up for season. I need to hurry up and get my TWIC card so I can part time with OnDeck to make up for the days I won't be working.

In other news, Lilly leaves on Monday to go home to KW for a whole month! We found a nice place on the North Side that I will be moving into on the first, she will join me when she gets home. It's super nice, I can't wait to take pictures for you! This is the view from our living room. :) Did I mention the living room is all open air? No windows or screens or anything. Just a giant tile living room with couches and chairs and a coffee table and a big dining table right at the edge of the porch. It's covered and everything, just open.

Pretty nice huh? That's Magens Bay on the right, the island on the left in the foreground is Hans Lollick, in the center in the background is Jost Van Dyke, BVI and to the right out in the mist is Tortola, BVI. So. Yeah. It's going to be a huge change but we will be saving money on rent and we will be saving money on food and entertainment because we will be living out in the country and we will have a real kitchen!!! Right now we live in a hotel room with a microwave and a mini fridge so you can imagine how much money we drop eating out. Also, living in town gives us an excuse to go out drinking all the time because we can walk to the bars and stumble home. Living on the mountain will keep us in shape and give our livers a rest.

It's about that time of year again, all the mega yachts and sailboats are trickling back into the harbor! My buddy Brian (the one i got my fingerstache tattoo with) will be here on his yacht this thursday! WOO HOOOOOO! And I am sure the rest of my wayward pirate friends will follow soon.

Damn these mosquitos!

I have spent all day cleaning the house and doing laundry like a good little wifey and now I am locked out. wow. I don't know when Lilly is coming home and Jill and Doug are out so I have no way of getting in until Lilly decides it's time to stop drinking and comes home. This could be a long night.

Day off, relax. Do nothing.

I have today off. I didn't get out of bed till John called me at 11am. Even now I am just lounging on the pool deck Facebooking and reading TextsFromLastNight. I am so tired for some reason. Lilly and I took it easy last night and went to bed early. I registered for my TWIC card so I can start working for OnDeck, a sailboat racing company here. I need something to break up the monotony of working in a restaraunt. So that's what's new with me. Lilly is going to KW for a month and wont be back till the day after Thanksgiving. In the meantime I have to find a place to live. I would like to stay in Frenchtown or at least in town here somewhere close. I will be looking for a two bedroom place even though Lilly and I haven't decided if we are going to live together or not. I like having a place to myself but I get lonely so I am thinking I definately want a roommie. She hasn't given me a straight answer on her plans yet so I am going it alone for the time being. Everything will work out. I really don't need to find something till December 1st anyway. So, I'm gonna put that off my list of things to stress about for now. The weather is fine here, hot, but we got lots of rain this week so everything is nice and green! Tropical. I got bit by some weird bug on my arm and now I think I have staph so I will have to have Jill look at that today. Boo. Hopefully not.
OH!!!! My best boyfriend in the world, Will came to visit me last week! Stayed for 3 days, too short but he had 4 days off from work and was freezing in P-Town, Mass so he showed up here! We had an AMAZING time. We went on Limnos, the boat I used to work on, to Virgin Gorda, Norman Island, Jost Van Dyke and St. John. We stayed in St John at Maho Bay Campground, my favorite place in the world! We called it our "honeymoon"! Pics above!

Hot Hot Hot in da ilons.

Its SO EFFING HOT HERE!!!! It was already 86 degrees at 7am. Things are good. Lilly has decided to stay for the whole season so we are looking for a 3 bedroom place with a co-worker of hers. Hopefully it's somewhere nice and close to the bus route or safari. Lilly and I have also been looking into buying this old Taurus that a friend is selling for 600 bucks, but honestly, having a car opens up a whole new box of pain in the ass. I don't think it's a very good idea.

In other news, my old boss, the owner of Limnos Charters called me and asked me to come back to work for him. He heard I was back. That makes me feel really good but he would have to make me on offer I can't refuse. It's really hard work and I have been making such good money here at Bella Blu that I would have to guarantee that I could make at least the same amount. I would have to start commuting again, which I hate. I would really consider getting a car if he offered me a good deal. I was only getting paid 80 bucks a day plus tips for an all day trip, and it was really really hard work. I made 80 bucks yesterday in 3 hours at lunch. The only thing is, I really miss the water. I think I am going to stick it out here at the cafe. After all, they have agreed to give me the time off I need to take my capt. course. And that's really what's most important here. There is a class starting on Saturday but I don't have the time off or the money to take it yet. I may have to wait till December.

Life is good. The weather is great. Water is clear. I need to go fishing soon though, need to touch some fish!!!!! One of our buddies is mate on a big sport fisher, he says next week he may have a chance to take us. WOO HOOOOOO!

I am off all weekend! I don't know what I'm gonna do with myself! We are having a painting party here at Villa Olga and Jill asked Lilly and I to do the detail work on all the railings and whatnot. We love to do maintenance!

Suckers!

Lilly and I went lobster hunting the other day with Mango, Peanut and FNG. She snared one, I sat on the boat because I was too scared to get in the water. It was late evening, I dont wanna die by shark bite.

Worst blog ever award goes to...

me.

I have been really busy and really stressed out. Having Lilly here has really saved my life though. It's so nice to have her around, I missed the hell outta her. We have been trying to figure out what to do this winter. We both want to go back to Key West but I'm so damn stubborn that I keep coming up with reasons to stay because I don't want to admit I was wrong about coming back. I just want to get my captain's license so bad! My job is still good but I miss the water. Lilly's job pays really well but its hard work and her boss is quite unsavory to put it mildly. We will more than likely save our pennies till late october and bail out of here. The college in key west offers the captains course once a semester but we missed this one, we are thinking about doing it in the spring. We just need to do SOMETHING. That's all I have to say.

Hello Ana and Bill!

Tropical storms Ana and Bill look so come near us this week, not a big deal because Ana is fizzling and Bill will probably get sucked way north. But, hey, its H season and this is to be expected! Lilly gets here in 75 hours! Just in time for the Hurricane Party! Things are going well, I am off to the 25th Annual Texas Society Chili Cook-Off! I wish Lilly could have been here for this party! I have been hanging out with my new roommate Chris alot, he is a boat captain, surfer, boxer, from.... you guessed it.... Texas. He is from Farmers Branch which is like 20 mins from where I am from. Small world. So we are headed to the cook off together to make our executive decisions about the chili. We already put our stamp of DISAPPROVAL on the new mexican food place in Red Hook. Totally sucked. He is a mexican that doesn't speak spanish so I'm not sure if he is even qualified to make decisions like that. LOL. He's looking forward to Mom coming to visit so she can teach him some words! HaHa! Well, I have to run! Time to get to the beach!

Twins?

No... I am not having babies.
But, today as I walked past a rasta fruit stand in town I stopped to try a Quenepa. They are small fruits that I have seen all over but never tried. I asked the rasta man what they tasted like and he said "go on a try one chile". So I picked one off the bushel. I couldn't figure out how to eat it, apparently you are supposed to bite the skin to break it open then the pulp covered seed slides right out and you suck the pulp off the seed and spit the rest out. As I did this in front of the old rasta man and some island ladies lounging under the palm trees they asked "you like?" to which I replied, "it tastes like grass." They all cracked up laughing and the rasta man said he would hand pick my perfect quenepa. So he picked up the bushel and chose my new one. I bit into it and the old rasta man said "IT'S TWINS!!!" I said "What?!" and sure enough, there were two seeds in the pod. He said that means if I get preggo I will have twins. Great. I said "I better be careful then!!!" They all had a good laugh with me today. My Dad is a twin and my Mom always said that I would have twins because it skips a generation. I told the rasta that and he said "da fruit nevah lie!"

Well, tomorrow I work a double, hopefully I will make some money. Sunday I am going to Jost Van Dyke and the Willy T with my friends from work. It's gonna be awesome! I will post pics when I get back.

That's the Willy T. The floating bar/restaurant.

And this is the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost Van Dyke. They call it that because there is no dock here, you have to swim from your boat to the beach... hence the soggy dollars.

VIDEO OF THE DAY!!!

Holy crap. I love this song. You wanna see a Virgin Islands night club erupt into a frenzy??? Ask the DJ to play this song. It was amazing. I can't wait to go out and do it all over again. This is a great video too! Proud of Mr. Sean Kingston from Jamaica. :) Only in the Caribbean are whistles and air horns considered instruments... I love this place. p.s. 13 days till Lilly gets here!

Move over Thelma and Louise...

Jolea and Lilly have taken over.

Lilly will be here on the 19th!!!

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! My partner in crime is actually moving down! I am so happy! She gets here at 3:30pm in two weeks! It's great timing because we are losing a waitress on the 20th. Lilly can just take her place. That and Meg's charter boat company just got two new boats and they need crew so we can pick up shifts there too.

Work is going great! I really like it. I have to work at 6 tonight and tomorrow night, then I am off Thursday and Friday and I work a double on Saturday. Woo HOOOO!

I have been eating vegetarian for a few days now. I don't know what kind of animals they grow at Morningstar Farms but damn they are tasty.... My favorites are the Spicy Black Bean burger and the Buffalo "Chicken" nuggets.

Well I gotta go! See ya later!

Farmer's Market day at Yacht Haven Grande!

Awesome morning! Jill and I went to the farmer's market at the marina this morning! It's so nice to support local farmers and visit with the people of the island. There were fresh baked breads, produce, and crafts from all corners of St. Thomas. We ran into tons of people we knew and I bought a cucumber and some local honey. Jill bought some lettuce, sprouts, passion fruit and some homemade blue cheese dressing. So we had a delicious healthy lunch! Now I am off to Hook Line and Sinker, a local cafe on the water, to meet up with my friend Wes for bloody mary's. Love my life.

HELLO FROM ST. THOMAS!!!

I have really been slacking on the blogging but I am going to try to keep you up to speed from now on!

I am back in Frenchtown, living at Villa Olga! It's HOT HOT HOT and I love it. All my old friends are still in town and it's been awesome catching up with them!

I got a great job at a very well known long standing restaurant here in Frenchtown called Bella Blu.
I will be working there 5 days a week or more which is awesome!

The food is great and it's the oldest restaurant on the island! 32 years. Their specialties are Shnitzel and pastas. It's sooooo good! I am trying to stay away from the pasta for fear of getting faaaaaat! I am so lucky I got this job! The people who work there have worked there for a long time, the girl I am replacing has been working there for 2 and a half years.

I am living at the guest house right now with Jill and Doug but pretty soon I will be moving into the house that Jill and Doug bought over the last year when I was gone. The house is right here in Frenchtown, it's a two bedroom place and I would have a roomate who is already living there. Jill says he is really nice and laid back, he's a surfer. Sounds like someone I could get along with. Jill actually took me over to the house the other day and showed me around. The house is beautiful! HUGE kitchen, a real living room! HUGE bedrooms! I can't wait. It's so nice to have work so close, it takes me less than 5 minutes to walk to work. It's a huge difference from when I lived here before. I used to have to get up at 5:30am to walk to the safari stop to catch it by 6am, in order to make it all the way across the island to work by 7am just to work all day on the boat, drag tourists through the Baths at Virgin Gorda, fix them lunch, put away the lunch, take them snorkeling, save their lives, take them back to St. Thomas, clean the boat in the heat of the day all to get back on the safari at 6pm to be home at 7pm, completely, thoughrouly exhausted. I don't want to do that 6 days a week again. At Bella Blu, I wake up at 9:30am, take a swim in the pool, take a shower, get dressed, walk up the street, work from 11am-4:30pm, walk home, take a swim in the pool, have a cocktail, watch a movie, go to sleep. Oh boy. On a day where I work the night shift it's even better! Wake up at whatever the hell time I want, lounge by the pool, or go into town for lunch with Meg and the crew of the Schooner Doubloon, or go to the beach, then come home by 3pm, shower, get dressed, walk to work by 4:30, work till 10pm, come home, watch some tv, go to bed. Oh boy. YAAAAAAAY! And sometimes I will work a double but thats all good too because it's mas dinero! Oh and we are closed on Sundays so I never have to worry about missing out on SUNDAY FUNDAY!!!!

Speaking of Sunday Funday, The 25th annual Texas Society Chili Cook-Off is being held at Brewers Bay here in St. Thomas on August 16th, a Sunday!!! I was here for it last year and it was one of the best days ever! This is my landlord Doug at last year's event...


And this pirate ship on the right is the Schooner Bones, where me and all my friends took breaks from the heat and the chili on the beach while the coast guard dropped frog men out of helicopters! We hope to bring the boat around again this year and do the same. Swinging from the crosstrees while intoxicated probably isn't the safest thing to do but hey, at least we all landed in the water.

Chili cook off madness.

I am looking into the captain's courses because the one I wanted to take isn't till November. I hope to find one in August so Lilly can take it with me. She wants to come down for a while but she wants to be productive as well. Smart. If she can't take her class while she is here then she is just going to go back to Key West and take it because she can live with her family. I hope we can find one sooner. Well, I think that about updates everyone on everything. I will write more later!

BYEEEEEE!

At this point...

I can imagine you are all quite tired of my behavior. I have managed to quit yet another well paying job in search of something that excites me. The yacht wasn't my scene. Not gonna say anything more than that, if you want the whole story you can email me. I quit in Newport after the offshore passage. I loved being out there in the middle of the ocean for 6 days. It was so quiet. But after that I was happy to be back in the land of people. Newport was fun, got to see some old friends. Then I went up to Boston for the Liberty Clipper crew reunion! It was awesome!!! Saw all my old sailing friends and had a great time with Lilly and Sean. I am currently in Provincetown, Mass, staying with my friend Will that I worked on the Schooner Jolly 2 Rover with this year in Key West. He is living here for the summer. This is a beautiful place. Cape Cod is so green and lush!

After careful consideration of my life's direction I have decided to move back to St. Thomas and pursue my 100 Ton Captain's license. I want to take it where I took my STCW license course because I like the way the guy teaches. Not to mention, I really miss that water and the sand and sun and the life down there. I have amazing friends. Can I just say that right now? I called up Jill and Doug who were like my surrogate parents in STT, and when Jill answered the phone the first thing she said to me was, "when are you coming home?" I said, how's Saturday? She said "perfect, call me when you get here you are staying with us."

I have a few jobs in the works there too. I think I would like to bartend a few nights and work on a boat a few days to keep it interesting. I was working myself to death doing all day trips on Limnos. When I get my capt license I will see about maybe running little 6pac boats to Jost Van Dyke or something like that. Who knows, that is a ways off.

I just got to thinking, obviously I am going to work on boats for a living. Thats what I do right? Ok, well, its time to move onward and upward. Can't just keep on being a deckhand forever now can I? Besides, I think I would be an awesome captain.

Sorry for being a total mess. I haven't been blogging because I have kinda been dissappointed in myself. So, here I go again on my own.

I'm really gonna try harder to make you proud of me instead of just shaking your heads saying "what the hell has she got herself into this time?"

Well, I leave P-Town on Wednesday, headed to Boston to visit Lilly and Sean again before I fly to St. Thomas on Saturday.

Catch ya on the flipside. Island time.

One day.... we will leave the dock....

Hello everyone! Happy Saturday! Things are around here are calming down a bit. We have most of our projects done and we will be leaving here on Tuedsay evening. Our generator will be done on Monday but we have to wait for a shipment on Tuesday before we leave. Monday I have to go aloft and wax the mast from top to bottom. 100 feet up! Hope they don't drop me! :) I have had a nice time here in Ft. Lauderdale but I really really really want to get out on the ocean, and get to a new town where I have never been and see some things I have never seen.

It looks like it will take us 6 or 7 days to get from here to Newport, RI. We will be there till the 14th of July then we will head to Martha's Vinyard.

I commemerated my Key West spring with a new tattoo.... yep...

YAY! MIKE IS ON THE BLOGGER!!!

Yall check out my good friend from High School's new blog. Mike is a storm chaser and photog and is freakin awesome!!! Go welcome him to our world!!!

DAMAGE PATH!

MOM! Make these...

http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2009/05/hasselback-potatoes.html

they look YUMMMMMM!