Best Friends

Though we are now living far away from our family and friends we've been blessed to have so many of them come to visit. This past week, Katie and her husband Mike came for some much needed relaxation and sunshine. Apparently it is cold in Minnesota.

The week started off with a bang. They arrived on Saturday and we took full advantage of the weekend. Here we are at karaoke the first night. Katie is trying to be the tallest in the group. Mike got a kick out of the name of the pub "Fidel Murphy's".

The island doesn't have much evening entertainment, so we mostly chilled in the evenings. I think the extra sun and heat was wearing on our guests a bit. We did have a fun night of wine and poker. Katie needs to work on her poker face. We both need to work on our betting skills in general. I never checked to see who won, the game dissolved after the third time I played Lady Gaga's "Poker Face".

Katie and Mike did all of the tourist attractions, the turtle farm, stingray city, snorkeling, chilling at the beach, hell, Rum Point, etc. Here they are with one of the larger sea turtles. Mike was determined to catch one.

On their final day we took a sunset pirate cruise on a 1930's Norwegian ship called the Valhalla. Those of you who have been on the Jolly Roger, it is the same company just a larger ship. The trip was relaxing and the water was beautiful and calm.

It was such a fun week. This was the most time Katie and I have spent together (continuously) since high school. Once we left for college it was hard to spend much time together. There were always family and friends to see when we' go back to Wichita or other friends to visit with in Baylor, KU, Kansas City, and Boston. Even now, we barely spent an hour alone over Christmas 2009. This trip it was just us and it was so nice. It is great that our friendship can pick up where it left off.

Thanks for coming Barton's and thanks to Mike for organizing the trip. We had so much fun and hope you will come again next year!

Cayman vs MIT

Last night Bob and I went to watch a friend play for the Cayman girls rugby team. We occasionally go to the rugby club to watch friends play, but last nights opposing team, MIT (yes, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) made me super keen.

Girls running around and tackling each other? Not my cup of tea but I'm sure it is great for releasing aggression. I'm sure I'd get injured the first day. We are going to watch the boys play on Saturday and let me tell you, they play rough.

I finally feel like I have an understanding of rugby now, though I don't understand all the penalties or any of the strategies. My friends are also teaching me about cricket. We are going to watch the West Indies vs South Africa Test Match in Jamaica in June and I'd like to be able to follow along :)

Sorry about the photo quality. The sun was setting and my camera is old. Bob agrees it is time for a nice camera. He loves the quality of the photos on Rachel and Victoria's blogs; I knew I'd wear him down eventually :)

A Random Post

Nothing big has happened in the past few days, so here is a few of the little things going on.

Daylight savings doesn't impact Cayman. We are now in the Central Time Zone. It is messing with my morning tv watching.

I saw my pledge mom Erin Slivinski on Saturday while watching the KU game at Legends. She is here with her husbands family for vacation. I knew she was coming but we hadn't made plans to meet up yet. Just goes to show, the island is small.

My friend Monica gave me the best gift for my birthday. It may have been belated, but it was worth the wait. It is Jamie Oliver's "Ministry of Food" Cookbook. I'm learning to make all sorts of great dishes, British Style.

Wednesday is St. Patrick's Day, probably my favorite holiday. I went to the store to buy the fixin's for corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes today. I also am making my grandma's Blarney Stones for Bob to take to his St. Patrick's Day luncheon at work. I may make a few extra for me :)

Katie "Kate" Barton will be arriving Saturday with her husband Mike for a nice holiday. I am super excited! Gives me an excuse to cook for people. Warning to the Barton's: I've been really into Indian and Thai cooking and my new cookbook isn't helping :).

That's about it. I will probably be back next week with some fun pictures of Katie and Mike's trip.

The Killer Instinct

I've been ignoring the obvious for a while now. A bug here, a crab there . . . occasionally an intruding gecko, but it can no longer be ignored. Siena's death toll has been on the rise.

It seems my dog is of the "hunting" variety. Her number one objective in life is to find food. On walks it is all she can think about. She is constantly trying to sniff out a good piece of trash or a random bone. At home she can't be around us when we are eating without salivating all over the floor. I USED to think that her second objective was chasing iguanas and chickens but today I realized that #1 and #2 are fused.

On our walk we ran into a defenseless chicken with her chicks which were seeking refuge in a bush. Siena successfully scared them out and all the chickens scattered. One poor little chick became Siena's focus and she immediately pinned it down.

This is where I thought the story would end. Siena sniffs the chick, bats it around, barks at it, lets it go so she can chase it down again and then repeats. I was wrong. Siena immediately began to eat the chick. She was biting it a bunch and trying to spin it around in her mouth so she could swallow. I was freaking out because the chick was really cute and I don't want my dog to choke or get worms (these local chickens are pretty gross). Somehow I got Siena to drop the chick and I made sure it was dead (no need for it to suffer). There were some severe puncture wounds and I am done trying to save baby animals (like the bunny incident). We left the scene of the crime and Siena happily trotted the rest of the way home.

Oh Siena. If only we needed a hunting dog, this killer instinct would be really helpful. Unfortunately for you we don't and your leash will be a little shorter from now on.

Wild Waves

Has anyone noticed that the earth is just a little perturbed this year? Snow storms, earthquakes, heat waves, and now . . . wild waves.

Waves are usually minimal to non-existent here. Exhibit A:

Now, the waves have gone off the wall. Like, so crazy that they had to shut down George Town and the docks last weekend.

Things still haven't settled down. It is impossible to get in the water, the current is very strong and a lot of coral and rocks have been pushed up to the shoreline. I'm hoping it calms down sooner rather than later. We also had another earthquake, though this one was much smaller and only felt by people downtown in tall buildings. Crazy.