Texas football season comes to a close

Last night in San Diego my beloved Horns beat Arizona State 52-34 to close out 2007 with a 10-3 record. The game was on ESPN so I got to watch it from the comfort of my own living room. This was only the third game available through basic cable here on the Island, so I could watch it from home, and the previous two, OU and A&M did not end well. For the first time in 18 seasons I was unable to attend in person any of the Texas games and this was the first Texas bowl game I have missed attending in person since the '91 Cotton Bowl. Ironically Dennis Erickson who coached ASU last night was the coach of Miami, the team which took Texas behind the woodshed to the tune of 46-3 back in 91.

While I haven't gotten to attend any games, I have gotten to watch or follow Texas games at a variety of locations. These ranged from a mansion in West Bay, to a sports bar in Grand Harbour, at my home in Red Bay, a Holiday Inn Key Largo and even on a casino boat in international waters off the Florida coast. I missed two games that later had to be watched on the Internet and generally missed out on the normal day to day coverage you get when you live in Texas.

Missing football is the one draw back to living in paradise (well that and the hurricanes in August and September).

As Katie likes to say with football drawing to a close she gets her husband back. From the end of the Super Bowl until that first weekend in September when the rites of fall renew, our weekends are not spent trying to find the Texas game or tracking the score, back to biking and hiking and shows and snorkeling.

Boxing Day

Today is a national holiday here in Cayman called "Boxing Day". The holiday was traditionally a day when employers would give gifts to their employees and people would give gifts to those less fortunate, ie a day for charitable works. It has morphed into a national sporting day and typically a big cricket match is played. We are off work and will be resting and perhaps doing some more snorkeling. We have been really good about sticking to our exercise schedule and after two straight days of biking today will be a walking day with some swimming mixed in for variety.

Katie and I awoke yesterday to an expected high of 84 degree weather. We wanted to do an early morning bike ride before it got too hot. With a morning chill still clearly being felt we left around 7:45 and biked on the new bypass out to Hirst road then up to Careenage the small dock about a kilometer above the college on the North Sound. After a brief stop at Careenage we biked down Hirst road to Pedro Castle where we ate some apples and drank our water. Then a ride home along the main road back to Red Bay for a good hour and a half tour. We are trying to work our way up to some long rides but this time we are taking it slow and building gradually so we don't have a repeat of last summer.

After cleaning up we made a nice Christmas breakfast of eggs, toast and turkey bacon. Our plan had been to head over to Smith's Cove around 11 and go snorkeling. we were running late and didn't get out the door until almost noon. By the time we got to Smith's cove it was packed. a drive up seven mile showed that everyone else had the same plan we did so we decided to head over to the north side of the Island. When we got to Cayman Kai we were greeted by an empty beach all to ourselves. We set out our picnic lunch and then went into the water. We were feeling adventurous and swam out to the reef a good 1000 feet from shore. The fish that far out were incredible and with our new underwater camera we were very busy. After an hour or so of swimming we headed back in and chowed down on our PB&J's and ginger bread cookies that Katie had made on Christmas Eve.

For Christmas dinner we had a full turkey, stuffing, corn and green bean casserole. We got to talk to a lot of family members throughout the day on Windows live and by phone. All in all it was an incredible Christmas.

Merry Christmas

Kathleen and I want to wish all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. 2007 is drawing to a close and as we reflect back on this year there have been so many changes personally and professionally its hard to keep track of them all. A year ago we never would have thought our next Christmas would be spent in the Caribbean in 80 degree weather but that is where we find ourselves on this Christmas Eve. It has been a very eventful year and we appreciate all the love and support we have recieved as we made these momentous changes. We cant wait to see what 2008 has in store.

Pre-Christmas and New Year's resolutions

We are back on Island after a week in DFW and Georgia to visit family and friends. It was a week of family, shopping, medical appointments and meeting Jennifer and Ryan's new baby girl Emma Katherine who arrived the week before we came to visit.

While home we both had Dr.'s appointments to get regular check ups and both were horrified to discover that all the weight we had lost over the summer had been gained back during the fall. A lot of it is because we now have a car and all the extra biking we were doing was cut out. In addition, we have been spending so much time on college stuff that our morning walks and exercising has gotten progressively less and less. So we have made a resolution to get back to exercising more, spending more time on non-college related activities and enjoying more of this beautiful Island than just the ICCI campus.

We were also both inspired by Katie's sister Melanie who ran the half marathon the first weekend we were home. Both of us would like to start training and do a half marathon by next fall and a full marathon by 2009. The Cayman Islands marathon is usually the beginning of December so we have a year to start building up. There are several 5k and 10k runs here on the Island so those will help gauge our progress.

The last two days we have done an exercise walk and a bike ride on the new bypass road which was built with a bike lane so we have started off well. The temperatures are in the high 70's so it is perfect exercising weather especially when the breeze blows in from the sea.

Thanks to Russ, Gail, Stephanie and Mel for a great time in DFW and to Kevin, Kristy, Kelsey, Scott K and Maryanna for a fun visit to Georgia.

Back to the States for a Week

Tomorrow we head back to Dallas-Fort Worth for the first time in six months. With graduation done and classes not starting again until January 7 we have some time to catch up with family and celebrate early Christmas. We will be in DFW through Wednesday afternoon spending time with Katie's family and doing doctor and dentist appointments. Wednesday night we head to Georgia where we will spend time with Scott's family and catch up with Katie's friends who still live in the Macon area. We head back to Cayman on Sunday the 16th. With the weather here still in the 80's most days and nothing resembling jacket weather we know that our first stop Saturday will be our storage facility to pick up winter clothes. It is hard to believe its been six months since we came down here. We are both looking forward to seeing family and getting serious away time from the college and work.

Graduation

By Katie

Our Graduation ceremony was yesterday afternoon at Church of God Holiness in Red Bay. We had 39 graduates and managed to get them through all their individual shots, getting robed and ready, through the group shot, and all lined up with minimal fuss. We did have four show up with only 5 minutes to spare and almost sent me shooting through the roof but at least they were there and ready before we marched.

It was awesome to see the church fill very quickly. Last year, they had the ceremony at the same location but just 2/3 of the downstairs filled. This year, we had the entire church, including the balcony, packed with people standing along the side walls, back, and in the foyer of the church. I was sitting next to the Chief Secretary of the Cayman Islands (#2 person in the Cayman government) on the platform and he leaned over to me and commented about the turn out. Next year, we will have to consider a location that holds more. The turn out this year was with no advertising and problems getting the invitations out.

I was the Marshall of the ceremony and led everyone in the processional. Dr. Cummings and the Chief Secretary followed. Scott and a member of the legislative assembly, Ms. Lucielle Seymour, came next. The guest speaker, other members of our Board of Trustees, and the faculty preceded the students who marched in last. The students took up the first two pews while we sat up on the podium.

All in all, it was a beautiful ceremony and went off without a hitch. Scott did a great job handling his parts of the ceremony and helping the group of people who handed diploma covers and did the hoods. I announced the names of all the graduates and led the recessional.

After the ceremony, Scott and I celebrated by going to Deckers restaurant on Seven Mile Beach, a new restaurant we had never been to before. I had a WONDERFUL Caribbean lobster tail. Scott had a mixed grill with chicken, beef, and lobster. Scott tried a Pinetini (Pineapple Martini) while I had a Seven Mile Melt Down (Pina Colada with Peach Liqueur).

The ceremony is already having a positive impact. Students that we thought might not be coming back were so enthusiastic about the ceremony that they have already called Scott to talk about their next degree. It was exciting and we are looking forward to seeing the Associates students get their Bachelors! After all the hard work, it was great to see the ceremony come off the way it did and the reaction of the students be so positive.

Graduation Week

This past week has been another long and crazy one. Our graduation ceremony is today at 3:00 and that has meant we were furiously working to clear the graduate files, academically and financially. We are also in the last three weeks of the Caribcert program, trying to get admitted and registered our new students for the Winter Quarter as well as complete registration for continuing students, trying to finish the Standards of Academic Progress for the Fall quarter and finalize all the details for the graduation events. It has meant that Katie and I have been at the office working 12 hours a day pretty much every day this week.

The graduation events included a graduation banquet on Thursday and our rehearsal on Friday evening. Kathleen, as the registrar has been handling the lion share of planning and coordinating all the events. The college had not held a banquet in several years but there was a lot of enthusiasm about restarting that tradition. Katie got a committee of graduates to call several restaurants and get quotes for the meal. They ended up picking Grand Old House and the dinner was held out on the patio next to the water. It truly is one of the most incredible restaurants on the Island with an extraordinary view. Katie prepared a PowerPoint slide show presentation and it was shown on a plasma TV the rental of which one of our students got a local business to donate. Katie printed the tickets and handled the sale of tickets as well as getting all the payments made. She printed up commemorative menu's with the program on the back on card stock which made for a very nice keepsake. The banquet went really well and almost 70 people attended. It was great to restart an old tradition.

The rehearsal Friday night was at the Church of God Holiness in Red Bay where the ceremony will be held. Ironically, the church where we are having our ceremony is just a block and a half away from our house. That means a short trip Sunday afternoon. After missing our Friday night Sushi the last several weeks, we had a chance to go to Yoshi after the rehearsal and enjoy a nice meal. Yesterday morning we did some Christmas shopping and then in the afternoon went over to the college and spent two hours printing and folding programs for the graduation ceremony. We also went over again our roles in the ceremony and made sure everything was ready. After the ceremony today we have a week to get registration complete and then head home for a week in DFW and Georgia.

CIMA walk and Botanic Gardens

This morning at 4:30 a.m. Katie and I got up and headed over to Seven Mile Beach for a 5k walk sponsored by the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority for the benefit of the ICCI library. The walk began ar 6:00 a.m. from the public beach in West Bay down SMB road to the Hyatt and back. We finished in a little over 45 minutes which wasnt bad for just power walking. We started in the darkness and finished with the sun rising to the east of us over the Island. The walk had to be early so we wouldnt have to battle the heat and also to avoid the traffic that really gets going by 8:00 a.m. The turnout was great and at ten bucks a head plus some donations, we are hoping to raise a couple of thousand dollars for the library.

After a nap and some lunch, this afternoon we headed over to Frank Sound Road and the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Gardens. The gardens are the habitat of the blue iguana though they are protected throughout the Island. We saw mostly green iguana out and about but did see one blue iguana in a pen. Katie isnt sure it was a blue iguana and it was mostly green so I could be wrong in saying we saw one. We took some pretty pictures and added another mile of walking to our day. We finished up out at the East End Lighthouse Park while a storm blew in from the south. The botanic gardens were pretty incredible and definitly are added to the list of must see places when family come to visit.

I have come out of my brief period of mourning for the tragedy yesterday. Living in paradise there are some nice things to distract you.

Happy Thanksgiving

Although today is a work day we are having a Thanksgiving meal at work this afternoon. Katie is hard at work right now making an apple pie and a pumpkin pie. I am making the corn. Others on the staff are bringing the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, casseroles and salads. We plan to stop down around three and spend a couple of hours before the students start arriving having our meal.

The quarter is over but we have a couple of classes making up missed days so we are working tonight while classes are in session. Tomorrow we are leaving a little early to watch the Texas-Texas A&M game. Last night we had pizza on seven mile beach with some new friends from Houston who are in town for the week. We had met them at Elizabeth Bezemek's baby shower last year and when they heard we were down here set up a get together.

Doesnt feel like a holiday yet but watching the Macy's parade and smelling the pies is getting us in the mood. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Key West

This weekend Katie and I had our second getaway weekend up to Florida. We flew up Friday morning and after a run to the bank to deposit money, a stop at Best Buy to get some DVD's, a stop at Staples to pick up supplies and lunch at Chili's we headed down to the hotel in Key Largo. Friday night was our night to catch up with Katie's friend Bridgette who is now living and working in Tallahassee. We went to Senor Frijoles for Mexican food and Margarita's and caught up on everyone's news.

Saturday morning we drove back up to Miami and attended a couple of hours of the Seminar our students were attending. After lunch with the instructor and another stop at Staples (we turned in over 100 printer cartridges on our last trip and can only use three per person per day), we headed back to the Keys. We decided to take the water taxi three miles out into international waters and go to a casino on a boat. The sun was setting as we headed out to the big boat and we got a spectacular view over the water. The boat had three decks and was 190 feet long. Slots on one deck, cards, craps and roulette on another and an open poker area on the top. It was Katie's first time gambling so we started out playing black jack together. We sat next to two experienced players who helped us out a lot telling us certain tips and the dealer was nice enough to let them give us help even though it broke the pace of the game a couple of times. I was distracted trying to follow the scores on a TV and see how Texas was doing against Texas Tech. The Horns won in a shoot out and Katie must have had first time luck because we won 45 dollars on the game. We learned about odds and doubling down and when you always hit and when you stand.

We then dumped $5 of that into the slots and decided to call it a night while we were ahead. The boat shines a light onto the water which draws bait fish who then draw sharks. We went onto the outside and could see the sharks swimming around the boat. At one point we counted 16 sharks some of them at least 5 to 6 feet long. They were swimming around and occasionally would strike at the fish. It was a neat experience seeing them. We headed back to the resort on the 8:30 water taxi and took our winnings to a restaurant 5 miles further down into the keys called Snappers and finished the evening with a meal on the water.

Sunday was our drive down to Key West. On the water taxi back from the casino, a local named Skip had told us about things to do in Key West (including a train/trolley tour). We stopped for breakfast at a place called Little Italy about half way down the Keys. We also pulled off at the start of the Seven Mile Bridge and did some walking around. When we got into Key West we stopped on the outskirts of town and rode a trolley train in called the conch train tour. The tour included an hour and half drive around Key West to all of the sites. It was incredible and really gave us a fell for the town.

After the tour we walked from the north end of the Island the mile and half down to the south and and the southernmost spot in the Continental U.S. We stopped at the Truman "Little" White House, mile marker zero on Highway 1, the Key West Lighthouse, the Hemingway house and even the birthplace of Pan American World Airways. The picture of us at the right is in front of the house where Harry Truman would vacation while President. The house has also been used by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Clinton. It was most recently used by Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2001 to host an international conference. We had lunch at a cafe on the beach and key lime pie at a bakery near one of the train stops. We both agreed that the tour was the best part of the day enabling us to see everything and decide what we wanted to go back to and spend more time at. It also meant we didn't have to mess with parking. We headed out of town around 5:30 and watched the sunset in our rear view mirror. The drive back up the Keys was mostly in the dark and we were both exhausted.

We had dinner at Islamorada Fish Company sampling stuffed Florida Lobster and pasta with shrimp. We had an early wake up call this morning to drive up to Miami. The flight was uneventful and this evening we headed into the college so I could do a review session with my Business Law students. This is Final Exam week and Thursday is our last day of classes for the year. Our report to ACICS is due tomorrow and I start a conference for the Association of Caribbean Tertiary Institutions tomorrow for three days that I will attend in the mornings and afternoon's before heading over to the college in the evenings. Katie is hard at work on graduation which is the first Sunday in December. We are headed home in December and will be in DFW from December 8-12 and Macon from the 12th to the 16th.

Swimming in an Aquarium

This morning Katie and I went over to Smith's Cove to do some snorkeling. There had been a huge rain storm overnight. The water was cooler than normal and close to shore was very murky. We swam to the outer part of the cove and the water cleared the farther from the shore we got. There were several schools of fish feeding out near the markers. We saw a new fish that appeared to have camouflage skin with green and dark spots. It had points above its eyes extending out and its tail forked and seemed hollowed out almost. We cant find it on our fish card and will be searching on the net to find out more about it. The water was pretty choppy and it was hard exercise swimming/snorkeling. After about 45 minutes we headed in and are settling in for an afternoon of NFL watching and working on the computer.

Our ABC channel was showing a New York regional game so I headed out to watch the Texas-Oklahoma State game yesterday over at Davie Jones and got to see the incredible comeback. Yesterday the Alabama and LSU fans on the island had a huge game watching party at the other end of the bar and it was interesting to watch their interaction. When the fourth quarter started and Texas trailed 35-14 I was resigned to a Longhorn loss and really only stuck around to watch the end of the Notre Dame-Navy game (when Navy won the whole bar erupted). The Horns had made it 35-21 by that point so I stuck around and got to see them score two more TD's and then the last play field goal.

We don't have the time change here so the clocks didn't change last night. We are now the same as eastern time instead of Central and so our TV is now the later prime time. Other than Desperate Housewives on Sunday and house late night on Friday on USA that doesn't affect us much. It does mean no time adjustment this week when we head up to Miami and the Keys. Katie has joined a weight loss web site and we are trying to get back into regular exercise. We finally got the underwater pictures from Katie's birthday trip developed and on a disk we will update later with some of them.

Busy Times

We got our ACICS report last week and have been working on the response for the past week. Next week is the last week of classes and the Miami Seminar. Katie and I fly up Friday and will attend the seminar Saturday morning. Final exams are the following week and the quarter ends on the fifteenth. We are also getting ready for the graduation ceremony December 2. Sometimes it feels like we just got here and then we realize it is coming up on six months.

Not much to tell of late, the schedule is pretty routine. We get up around 9 each morning, run a few errands then head to the college at noon. We work until three then take a few hours off for dinner. That usually consists of coming home, making some food and watching a DVD to get our minds off work. Then its back to the college. I teach Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. There is always more work to be done than there is time. Sometimes that is discouraging but mostly its a challenge.

We had sushi again last night and Katie tried a new martini with raspberry vodka and Saki that was very good. We are watching Planet Earth on DVD and I will abandon her again this afternoon for a sports bar and the Texas-Oklahoma State game. We are looking forward to our getaway next weekend and to coming home for a week in December. Not much else to tell, just regular routine down here (well except for watching Noel closely and making sure she stayed East of us and headed north).

A/C and Watching Chadin

Sunday afternoon a handyman suggested by our landlord came out to the house to take a look at the air handler and see if it could be fixed without having to be replaced. His instinct was that it could but that it would take a while. He told us he would be back Monday evening.

Monday morning we watched Chadin our business manager Kira's six year old son. His school is off this week and Kira needed someone to watch him in the morning for two days. I had a presentation at John Gray HS so while I went to gave my talk to the HS students, Katie took Chadin to Smith's cove a beach on the southwest side of the Island. After my presentation I picked them up and we had lunch before heading to the office at noon. That evening Katie stayed home with the AC man who worked on the unit for almost four hours. When he left, the AC was running good and three days later it is still running well so we will see if his work saved our landlord the expensive replacement.

Tuesday morning was my turn to watch Chadin while Katie went to an appointment. We went back to Smith's cove and this time I got to go snorkeling with him. Even though he is six, he is not afraid as a swimmer, but we kept a blown up inner tube with us and he would hold on to it as we moved out into deeper waters. We also did some exploring as he wanted to show me tide pools that he and Katie had found the day before. Katie picked us up at around 11 and we went home for lunch and then on to the office. His Grandfather arrived yesterday so we just had two days of kid watching. It was a neat small practice run for the two of us.

I made another presentation to some more students yesterday and Katie is getting ready for her week of teaching my Caribcert class next Monday and Tuesday. We get the official report on Friday from ACICS but are already hard at work addressing the expected citations. Things really haven't slowed down since the team left and we guess they wont until we actually get the notice our accreditation has been renewed.

Watching College Football in a bar with 200 rugby fans

This morning I headed over to Davie Jones to watch the Texas-Baylor football game. When I arrived a little after 11 a.m. local time I could tell it was going to be a strange day. The bar was already packed. There were at least 50-60 people wearing green rugby jerseys with their faces painted the colors of the South African flag. I spoke with the bartender and insured that I would have a single TV for the Texas game and he reminded me that today was the final of the Rugby World Cup, England v. South Africa and that every other TV would be on the rugby match starting at 2 p.m. By the second quarter of the Texas game, the bar which normally seats maybe a 100 was packed with rugby fans who by the way like to drink. I sweated out a Texas win while listening to the fans sing and carouse and generally go crazy. The English fans made their appearance by 1 p.m. and the bar had to be in violation of the fire code shortly thereafter as you couldn't move. It was a very funny scene me the lone yank watching Texas-Baylor game while 18 other TVs in the bar focused on something the rest of the world was watching but no one was in the U.S. Texas kept the game close through mistakes and turnovers so I had to stick around until the very end as the bar got rowdy loud and jam packed.

Texas finally finished off Baylor and when I left the South Africans were singing loudly as they had the lead. I later learned they held on to win. I headed home and discovered that our A/C has again given out. Our air handler is broken and needs to be replaced. We are dealing with our landlord on it but it is taking time. Now those hurricane shutters that provide us protection are keeping all the heat in and without windows to open up, the house is stifling. We have all the ceiling fans running and have two regular fans set up in the living room that we will move upstairs when we go to sleep.

Katie and I decided to go do some late afternoon snorkeling at Eden Rock. Last time we had stayed close to shore checking out the rock formations near the entry point. This time we swam straight out about 100 yards to see what was further out in the harbor. With the sun setting the water wasn't as clear and we couldn't see as much. We swam back toward shore and saw some really neat formations with tons of fish in and around them. This must be the season for fish giving birth because there were a bunch of young fish around several rock formations. With our card from last week we were able to identify several species including four eyed butterfly fish, yellow tailed snapper and some interesting crabs on the rocks by the ladder.

After returning home to change we headed out for dinner at the Lone Star Bar and Grill on Seven Mile Beach. Katie has been wanting to try their margaritas for a while as our office mates rave about them. The margaritas were as strong as advertised though the flavor wasn't as great. The food was good but also not great so we likely wont be eating there often.

We have started a Friday night tradition of going for sushi so last evening for the fourth or fifth week in a row we went for the raw stuff. We have been alternating between Yoshi's and Thai Orchid both of which are excellent. We cant wait for house guests to come and try the fare.

We have another getaway to Miami planned for November 9-12. We will stay at a resort in Key Largo and this time do some snorkeling at Pennecamp and get down to Key West. I will also attend the Miami seminar for a couple of hours with our students Saturday morning. Katie is planning a get together with Bridget, her former Northlake fellow fourth grade teacher, who is now in Tallahassee going to school. Things have picked up if anything for me since the visit as we clean up some of the citations and wait for the official report. Katie doesn't feel much change as her job is constant crazy. She is working on our Christmas stockings and is cross stitching while I watch football this evening.

In closing, we want to say a special hello to Gary and Elizabeth in Houston and Jennifer and Ryan in Macon. Its neat that at the same time my best friend and his wife are expecting, Katie's best friend and her husband are as well. We hope you know that you are in our thoughts and prayers. We will see you soon.

Press Coverage of Governor's Visit

The Cayman Net News ran an article on the Governor's visit which is linked below.

http://www.caymannetnews.com/index.php?news_id=2629

My Birthday Weekend

By Katie

Scott has made this birthday weekend absolutely fantastic!

Friday we went to Yoshi's for sushi and ate at a table where we got to sit on the ground, not criss/cross/applesauce but like you would at a regular table because the tables were set over holes in the ground. We had the love boat, a great combination of miso soup, some tempura, lots of sushi & sashimi, and mango icecream. I had a fantastic Skittles Martini that tasted just like Skittles! The bartender made his own Skittles infused vodka. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting in the future.

Saturday morning we had some friends over, Kira, the business manager at ICCI and her son and fiance. We had omelets and waffles and just had a good time talking and playing.

After the football game, Scott came home and we got ready for our nice dinner out. We went to Grand Old House, one of the nicest restaurants in Grand Cayman. We had been there before and loved the outside seating with the waves, the fantastic food and the even better service. We got there around 7:15 and were seated under a gazebo outside since they were painting the patio. We could still hear the waves crashing and there was a nice breeze to cool things down. We watched a storm move north just to the west of us with wild lighting. After an incredible meal, we had cake. Scott had them bring it out singing Happy Birthday(with real piano accompaniment). The plate was beautifully decorated (see picture). The dinner ended around 9:15 and was a beautiful, leisurely meal.

This morning we slept in, then headed to town to meet our 1:00 tour to Stingray City. We picked up a sheet (waterproof, of course!) that had pictures of fish found around Cayman along with two disposable underwater cameras before leaving Captain Marvin's where we checked in. The tour was very full, most likely because it has been raining for days and these people would have been trapped in their hotel rooms. We had a fairly diverse group of people with a family from France, one from England, quite a few Texans, and some random other Americans. The first stop was a place located just off the regular Coral Gardens (the actual Coral Gardens didn't have great visibility because of all of the recent rain). At this stop there were a lot of Sergeant Majors, some beautiful coral formations, and lots of colorful fish. The second stop was right along the barrier reef. That was fantastic and my favorite part of the whole trip. We were able to snorkle right on top of the reef and Scott and I kept finding ourselves over parts of the reef where we were almost scraping our stomachs. We saw some very large parrotfish(one of my favorite fish because of all of its colors and its strange mouth), some black durgon, bluehead wrasse, grey snapper, Nassau grouper, glasseye snapper, cleaning goby, and lots of random fish that we haven't been able to identify yet. We got some pictures that we hope turn out great.

After the barrier reef, we headed to the Sandbar. As we pulled up to the bar, the sting rays started to gather around the boat. It was amazing being in the water as they glided around you. They have such soft skin as they rub all over you. There were some large rays (at least four feet) and then the smaller males. Scott fed one of the rays then tried to feed another but a fish snatched it out of his hand first. Since this was our rookie trip, we had to give a stingray a kiss and then got a couples massage from the ray. They were beautiful as they glided along the bottom of the ocean and we hope that the pictures we got capture that.

We are both exhausted after a long fun weekend.

ACICS Visit and the work ahead

The ACICS team completed their work Wednesday and left the Island yesterday but not before giving us a preview of their report which will be issued in about two weeks. It will involve a lot of citations a couple of which are major. They are not things that come as a surprise and it means we have to spend the next two months before the council meets to consider their report fixing those issues and drafting a response showing how they are being addressed. Katie's department came through with flying colors mine not so much and other parts of the college not so much. We had three straight 14 hour work days and that followed being in the office all weekend.

Tuesday evening I got away from the insanity of the team visit and made a presentation to the Rotary about our library that went very well. We are lining up help from several members including a Governor of the Rotary who was visiting from Washington D.C. and wants to talk to us about a large targeted grant for the library. One of our major citations was our library so this will help with our response.

Sunday is Katie's birthday and we are planning a trip to Sting Ray City to go snorkeling. It will be our first trip out to the sand bar. The only issue is the weather. The rainy season has hit full force and we have had a couple of weeks of sustained rains that have left lakes all over the Island. One lake has developed on the street we have to drive down every day to get into and out of our complex and it is growing so fast we are worried at some point our little car may flood. You don't get flash floods on Cayman because the rain is steady not huge quick downpours. We are really looking forward to Sting Ray City and seeing what all the talk is about. By the way no worries about a "Steve Irwin" these rays interact with hundreds of people a day and no one has ever come away with anything other than a gentle reminder that no one likes to be stepped on.

ACICS visit Day One and Visit by the Governor

On Monday evening, the team from our accrediting agency and the British Governor both came to the college. The team arrived while my class was still in session and one member sat in on the last twenty minutes of my review for my midterm then stuck around and interviewed some of my students. I met with the other members of the team and so far at least, they seem to be friendly and impressed. They mentioned their student interviews were going very well, of course, they wouldn't tell us if they had gone badly and its virtually certain they were told some bad things by the students but are relaying to us the positive comments.

Katie spent the evening getting them data and after we got home we were both up past midnight completing the Annual Institutional Report (Katie doing most of the work, me reading off to her numbers to be inputted). Katie has been working on this report for a couple of months and when it was done she kept saying what a relief it was. Monday they got to see our college and the best analogy I can come up with is they saw the exterior of our car and we had cleaned it up well. On Tuesday they pop the hood on our little car and lets hope things go as well then as they seemed to go Monday evening. They were only on campus about an hour but for that hour the college was humming. Part of that was the anticipation of the governors visit. You forget sometimes that this is a very British island and the representative of the monarch coming to our college is a huge deal.

When the Governor arrived Dr. Cummings and I gave him a brief tour while Katie took photographs. When he entered the classroom, everyone stood and he was announced "His Excellency, the Governor, Stuart Jack". After his forty minute or so presentation, he took questions for well over an hour. The students were very respectful but asked pointed questions about education, the budget, environment, immigration policy, and foreign policy. I was very happy about the level of discourse and the Governor seemed genuinely pleased at the level of questions coming from our students.

It was amazing to see every student preface their question with "your excellency", a reminder that we are a British dependent and that American style egalitarianism isn't in dominant style here. The contrast between how the students addressed the Leader of Government Business back in August and the Governor yesterday was startling. The Leader of Government Business is the highest elected position but he is political while the Governor is appointed by the Queen and is head of the Civil Service, the Police and must approve all legislation for it to become law. As he pointed out in his presentation he has approved every piece of legislation that has come to him and hopes to never reject legislation drafted by the Cayman Legislature but he has that right and the right to remove elected officials (only for corruption).

Our team visit continues Tuesday and I have a presentation to the Rotary on our library needs. Let's hope day two goes as well as day one. Monday was the easy part and we seemed to pass with flying colors. Tuesday will be the nitty gritty and that's where we will struggle but not for lack of trying. Katie in particular has done an incredible job on the records and while we expect to be cited if she hadn't done all she did our accreditation would be in serious jeopardy. As it is we are very hopeful.

Hurricane shutters

Katie and I were awakened yesterday by the sound of drilling. As we lay there listening Katie said "that really sounds like it is just below us". Convinced it must be one of our neighbors we chalked it up to the weird way sound moves. When I went downstairs though to start breakfast I could see light streaming through our back patio door. The wood had been pulled off. I opened up the patio door to find three men removing the old plywood and putting up brand new hurricane shutters made of aluminum and with hard plastic centers so that you can see out. They put up a complete shutter on the patio door so we cant get out the back anymore. They also put one on the upstairs window. The upstairs shutter is permanent and can be rolled open and closed. The patio one will come down at the end of November. Our landlord had told us she intended to get shutters but we assumed that wouldnt happen until next summer.

This morning they have returned and are putting up a shutter on the front window. It is also a removable one that will come down after the season is over. We seem to have gotten through the heavy part but hurricane season lasts until November 30th so they stay up for at least seven more weeks. Selkirk our property owner was here this morning and mentioned to me that we shouldn't get complacent because late in the season the storms will form in the Caribbean and we have less notice of them.

We are putting the finishing touches on the college for the accrediting visit next week. We are not even close to really being ready but we will do the best we can. We are also preparing for the Governor's visit Monday night by getting a committee together to receive him and getting press releases ready.

This weekend is also Texas-OU and from the look of the coverage map the ABC channel we get will get the game so I will be able to watch at home and not have to restrain myself as I have at the sports bars. We have discovered that its the actually the New York major broadcast stations not Tampa for the regional coverage.

Snorkeling at Eden Rock

Katie and I had not been out snorkeling in several weeks and so this morning we decided to head over to Eden Rock and check out what we had been told was one of the top snorkeling sites on the Island. Eden Rock is just below the George Town Harbor as you come into town on South Church street which is what South Sound road becomes after you turn north at the southwestern edge of the Island. The entrance is at a dive shop. The diving costs money though it is cheap for locals, the snorkeling free if you bring your own gear. We walked out over the black coral shore on a concrete path to a ladder that we climbed down into the water. The water was already 4 or 5 feet at the edge of the rocks and a kick away from the ladder saw the depth drop to at least ten feet. Of course with the clear water you have no sense of the depth and it looks like the bottom is just below you when in fact it is several feet.

The species of fish we saw were incredible. There were a ton of Sergeant Majors and Blue fins and some other species we didn't recognize. One fish had a turquoise body with pink spots, bright blue spots above its eyes, little yellow streaks on its belly and an orange streak on its tail that was absolutely incredible. Our friends were right this place is definitely the best snorkeling we have seen on the Island so far.

We spent about 45 minutes out in the water then headed back to the dive site. We are headed over to the college this afternoon to continue getting ready for the accrediting visit. We also got the news that the Governor of the Island is going to be a guest lecturer on Monday the 8th which ironically is also the first day of our accrediting team visit. Long week ahead.

We finally got cable TV yesterday though our ABC channel is from Tampa so the college football regional telecast was no help in watching Texas. A trip over to Davie Jones Sports Locker gave me the chance to watch the game of which we will speak no more. Katie and I have finished House season three and are now working our way through Desperate Housewives season three.

Article on Anniversary

The Cayman Compass ran a story on our anniversary ceremony and it is linked below.

http://www.caycompass.com/cgi-bin/CFPnews.cgi?ID=1025344

37th Anniversary Celebration for ICCI

Yesterday was the ceremony to celebrate the 37th anniversary of the college and to dedicate a plaque in honor of the students, faculty and staff from the fall of 2004 who kept the college open in the wake of Hurricane Ivan. There was a threat of rain all afternoon but it never came and so the outdoor ceremony in front of Friends Hall came off without a hitch.

Katie and I drove over to the college around 10:00 a.m to set up chairs under the tent that had been delivered on Friday (as had the chairs). We then stuck around to help the student activities committee set up the decorations. Around 1:15 we ran home to shower and get changed before the three o'clock ceremony. The ceremony didn't start until about 3:20 which we have discovered is the norm here on Cayman. It lasted about 45 minutes and as the master of ceremonies I had to introduce the speakers and even made my musical debut leading the singing of the National Anthem (that would be God Save the Queen down here). I sang the first line over the mike then smartly put the mike down and let the crowd pick up from there. Katie told me later that my first line was fine to get everyone started but she was really glad I put the mike down as my ability to carry a note doesn't last very long.

We got to see a movie made in 1973 about the college and it was nice to see the people in attendance recognize themselves from 30 plus years ago. The event was catered and I made the mistake of grazing too much. I say mistake because later Katie and I went to Yoshi's sushi for dinner and I was too stuffed to eat.

Didn't get to see any of the Texas game and by the time we got home from the sushi it was already the third quarter and Texas was winning 41-7 so I didn't head over to Davy Jones to watch the second half. Katie and I have been watching the third season of House that we picked up in Florida so we watched an episode then had some late night sushi that we had brought back.

This morning we went for a bike ride and the afternoon is a cleaning time as we do a couple of weeks of laundry and try to clean up the house. The accrediting visit looms in two weeks and that is pretty much all we are working on at the college (well that and trying to not mortgage the present to clean up the past).

Florida Getaway

When we first moved here, we got a magazine called New Resident. It had lots of helpful tips for getting drivers licenses, immigration paperwork, stores restaurants and activities on the Island. It also had a chapter on vacation trips off Island and pointedly said that most people after about three months of just Cayman will get Island fever and will need to go somewhere. That hit Katie and I almost on schedule a little over three months in, so this past weekend we got away to Florida for some shopping and relaxation.

We flew up to Miami Friday afternoon and after picking up our rental drove down to Kendall a suburb where we were staying. We spent Friday night at an Amerisuites on Kendall Drive a main road with two shopping malls about three miles apart and every imaginable store and restaurant packed in between. We headed over to Staples first to recycle about a hundred printer cartridges from the college. You get a $3 store credit coupon for each one and we had high hopes of bringing $300 worth of office supplies back to the college. Unfortunately, the company policy (written on the coupons) was only to allow 3 coupons a day per person. So we each picked up nine dollars worth of office supplies and made plans to come back each of the next two days before we left. We then made a trip over to Toys R Us to pick up a gift a co-worker asked us to get her son and then to Best Buy for DVD's (House, Desperate Housewives and Friday Night Lights) and more gifts people asked us to pick up.

Coming out of Best Buy I had my first driving moment. I had gotten back into right side driving pretty easily but when you come up to entry and exit areas I had to rearrange my thinking and as I went to exit Best Buy I started to pull left and Katie had to remind me to go right. We had dinner at a Red Lobster which was across from the hotel and after an evening of eating and shopping went to sleep.

We slept in Saturday then had breakfast at the hotel and checked out. A quick trip over to Staples to spend 6 more coupons, some Starbucks for the first time in four months and then we drove over to Dadeland Mall near Highway One. Dadeland is definitely the Galleria of Malls in Miami and Katie was very happy to find an Aveda Salon so she could get her hair cut. While she was getting her hair done I wandered around and bought another Texas cap. After she finished her hair appointment we did some more clothing shopping and finally around 1 p.m. called a halt to the shopping part of the trip (at least until Sunday).

We drove down into the keys to our hotel in Key Largo a Holiday Inn resort just below Pennecamp State Park. Lunch at one of the restaurants in the resort was followed by me getting to watch the Texas-Central Florida game. Once again the Horns decided to play with my emotions keeping the game much closer than it should have been and almost giving it away at the end. However, a 35-32 win meant Saturday dinner wouldn't be ruined. Katie was craving Mexican food and Saturday night we went to a place called Señor Frijoles and had really good fajitas. We ended the night at the Tiki bar by the pool with a daiquiri and piña colada.

Sunday morning we had every intention of getting up real early and driving all the way to Key West. But the early wake up call was not to be as we both rolled over and went back to sleep. We did get up around nine and decided to drive a little south into the keys seeing Islamorada but then deciding to wander back slowly doing the last of the shopping we needed. We found a CVS pharmacy where Katie got a hairdryer and I got a two month supply of my acid reflux medicine which is now OTC, thank goodness, but is ridiculously expensive here in Cayman. We stopped at the Outlet mall in Florida City and Katie got some shoes while I picked up some more short sleeve button up shirts. Lunch at an Applebees was followed by another stop at Best Buy in Homestead for our birthday presents to each other and Anna's Linens to get some rugs for our bathroom. We then drove back into Miami and over to the Staples for one last run. We had been watching for Staples throughout our trip and though we saw many an Officemax and Office Depot we never came across another Staples. After a final stop at a Barnes and Noble we returned the car to Enterprise and headed to the airport. Our half empty bags on arrival now packed with stuff we had bought.

I panicked a little on our customs form returning to Cayman. You can bring back up to $350 CI per person without paying a duty and we had about $500 U.S. in stuff but only had one form. After two tries at estimating I pulled out the receipts and filled out the form coming in at over $350 U.S. We bravely went forward hoping that we didnt need two forms one for each of us. Surprisingly the flight was full of returning residents and status holders so the line at immigration for us was much longer than the visitors line. We cleared immigration and customs with no problem so my paranoia about properly filling out the form turned out to be just that, paranoia.

We arrived home safe and refreshed ready to start a long week that includes another round of comprehensive exams and culminates in the 37th Anniversary celebration for the college this Saturday where we dedicate the plaque to the 2004 class that survived Ivan.

Wednesday Morning Bike Ride

This morning Katie and I broke out the bikes and for the first time in a long while went for a bike ride. We headed west from our house down south sound road toward George Town. We had forgotten how refreshing going for a ride was and as we biked along the shore a real sense of calm struck us. We made it all the way to the southern end of the George Town Harbor to the Eden Rock dive point. It is supposed to be one of the best snorkel places on the Island and we definitely need to get back there to snorkel. The ride out seemed very easy and we thought that we were just getting right back into riding no big deal. Then on the way back we realized that the ride out was mostly downhill and that tailwind which made for an easy ride out was now a headwind and sometimes crosswind making our 25 minute ride out an almost 45 minute ride home. Still it was great to be back out on the road and it helps us reconnect with the fact that our lives are not all work. Speaking of work, Caribcert went well and the college is getting into its fall routine. Two days to our Florida excursion and we cant wait to get away.

Watching College Football in Cayman

After spending another afternoon at the college catching up on work that never seems to end, Katie and I headed over to Davy Jones Locker a sports bar in Grand Harbour about a 2/3rds of a mile from our place. Many of the major US colleges were represented as ex pats wearing shirts from Michigan, Florida, Florida State, Alabama, Texas (that was me) and Texas A&M gathered to watch football. Katie was the only female in the bar for a good hour plus after we arrived except for the waitress, a fact she pointed out to me several times.

The Texas game didn't come on until the second quarter as the early game went to triple OT which would have been really cool to watch except I knew the longer that it went on the less of the Texas game I would get to see. When the Texas game did come on, Katie who had already eaten her nachos and finished a margarita decided to abandon me and go home to talk to her sister on windows live. With only one vehicle that meant I got to walk home after the game. As soon as she left, Texas fell behind 10-0 on two interceptions and I was convinced she had jinxed us by leaving. That 10-0 halftime deficit had me considering thoughts of just how much alcohol I could imbibe and still safely walk home. Fortunately the second half saw Texas actually show up and make plays outscoring the Horned Frogs 34-3 to win 34-13.

This will be an easier week for my former law partner Jerry Bullard in Fort Worth, home of TCU. Gary sold my ticket to this game for a profit and I might actually make money on my Texas season tickets this year if he continues to be able to sell them at the pace he is going (no pressure Gary but keep up the good work). I am loosely planning to try and get back to the Texas Tech game in November which falls on a holiday weekend here on the Island, if my wife will let me and if our budget isn't too strained.

When the game ended I started my walk home. It had rained so there were a lot of puddles and Cayman is not big on sidewalks outside of George Town. I maneuvered around the water and watched for traffic walking on the main road then turning up Selkirk. I got about halfway up Selkirk, when Katie drove up and took me the rest of the way home. She said she saw on the Internet that the game was over and thought she would drive to the bar and give me a ride home (I have an awesome wife).

Davy Jones was not a bad place to watch but the quality of the big screens was pretty poor and the food from the Black Pearl Galley next door was just OK. In a few weeks for the Rice game we will try Lone Star in town. Of course next weekend we will be in Florida so if I get to see the Texas game against Central Florida at all it will be at a US sports bar in the keys.

Tomorrow we start our Caribcert program. We have 20 apprentices who come to the International College two days a week for classes this fall. The Orientation and pictures with the Minister of Tourism are at 8:30 a.m. That means a long day for Katie and I because our normal classes also meet until 10:30 at night. Once the program gets going it wont be as big a deal because I teach at 1:00 p.m. on Mondays and Tuesdays so I will still have my normal work days but tomorrow will just end up being a full day. Katie draws the black bean because she will be working on our Annual Institutional Report all day which is much harder than what I have to do. We are really excited about the tourism program because it is the first partnership with the other college on the Island and the government and because it is obvious the University College and the government didn't want us involved and thought we would drop out, but we never have and now it is actually happening.

The other big looming event is our 37th anniversary celebration on September 22nd. We have the plaque and invitations are going out Monday. We need to finish the program and finalize the speakers but it should be a great PR event for the college. We have invited the Governor and most of the government and private industry big wigs to the college so if even a few show up it is good for the college.

We are both counting the days until Friday and our getaway weekend. Katie is furiously looking for a hairdresser place near our Miami hotel on Friday for an appointment and seems to be looking forward more to a vist to Target for clothes than Key West to watch the sunset. Beaches and sun lose their appeal when you live near them but cheap clothes that you cant get on Island grow in stature the less access you have to them.

First Week of Fall Quarter

This past week has seemed like a whirlwind. We started the Fall Quarter on Monday (there is no Labor Day Holiday in Cayman) and as we wrapped up almost all of the registrations were happy to discover that we will have the largest student population for a quarter since Hurricane Ivan. While it is still well below where the college was pre-Ivan and significantly below where it was at its peak, we feel like it is a great step and that there is movement. The students seem more energized and the faculty is more enthusiastic. Although we still have a lot of work to go it feels like the momentum is moving in a positive direction.

I am teaching two law courses one on General Principles (UK based) and one on Business Law (US based). The General Principles class is unusual in that I really don't know English procedure so while I can teach all the elements of the different actions almost all of which are similar or the same to US law, I am having to learn the legal procedure as we go. I am lining up several guest speakers on procedure so that they can answer any of questions my students might have on Cayman procedure. I am also doing a class for the Caribcert program we are involved in with the Department of Tourism and the University College. We have 20 apprentices on Mondays and Tuesdays for 6 hours during the day and I am teaching Business Communication and Writing. Katie is not teaching this quarter as the registrar job of getting all the records ready for the ACICS visit and for future ease of use is a full time job. She is working on our Annual Institutional Report right now and that is a monumental task.

We got our first electric bill for 20 days in August and almost fell over. The rates here are much higher than the US. Our bill was more than any bill I ever got for my place on McCart and it was only for 20 days in August we didn't have AC for a week. Price of living in paradise. The water bill should be a similar sobering experience. We have to budget for utilities much higher than we thought at least during the summer months. We are told that the winter bills go down dramatically.

Our mornings this week were spent running errands and getting the small jobs done that we need for the house. We still haven't fixed the kitchen sink and that is my job for this morning. We did have to run over to immigration to get a special stamp for Katie. Her work permit application is still pending and her temporary has expired. She can continue to work as long as the permit application is pending but if we want to leave Island we need a special stamp. We have both been feeling a little burned out and suffering the normal three month cases of Island fever so we are doing a getaway weekend next weekend to the Florida Keys. We got Katie's passport stamped so she can leave Island and return for the next two weeks.

The trip to Florida will be multi purpose. We fly to Miami Friday night and will spend that night in Kendall a suburb with a shopping mall. Katie wants to find a Tony & Guy to get her hair cut and a Walmart and Target for some clothes, shoes and other items that are too expensive here in the Island (I want to find sunflower seeds and cornnuts). We also need to go to a Bank of America to make a deposit. So Saturday morning in Miami will be for running all those errands. But in the late morning we will head down to the keys and get some relaxation before heading back to Cayman Sunday late afternoon.

We haven't had a chance to go snorkeling in two weeks and no bike riding either. Last Sunday was rainy and wet which didn't give us a chance to go out and do something, and our mornings always seem full of little things that need to get done. We are hoping to get out tomorrow and do some though with Caribcert starting Monday we may have to spend some time on that. We are headed over to college to get some work done this morning. Tonight we are going to a sports bar called Davy Jones Locker in Grand Harbour to watch the Texas-TCU football game.

We realize we dodged another bullet with Felix. That is one of the strange things about living here, every morning, every afternoon and every evening we check the National Hurricane Center website. Based on the experience from hurricane Dean we drafted a preparedness plan which starts from the time a storm is first identified (hopefully up to five days before it would impact us) and follows right through the post storm cleanup. What that means is following on the web any systems that could be of concern.

First Day of Football Season

We awoke this morning to the strains of the Eyes of Texas. My awesome most wonderful wife had set the I-home to play that song as our alarm music. She also had hung our Texas Flag in our front window so when I came downstairs you could see the sun streaming in through the flag. First day of football season had arrived.

The day began with us headed to the college for a faculty meeting at 10:30 and to proctor a couple of final exams for the summer quarter which ended this week. At the beginning of the day I thought I would be headed home and listening to the game on the Internet. But after the faculty meeting I checked my personal email and I had gotten an invitation from another Texas Ex here on the Island to a game watching party at his house where he was getting the game off a satellite. I had emailed him earlier in the week to see if there was going to be a game watching party and hadn't heard anything and all but given up. We headed home from the college at 2 after a couple of hours of meetings, paperwork and file work.

The A/C guy arrived around 3:30 and fixed our air conditioning which had made this week a tough one at the house. The machine was in desperate need of freon and the filters were filthy. When he finished we headed out to buy some new air filters and then on up to West Bay to watch the game. Texas did not play well and almost tried to give away the game at the end but held on for a way too close for comfort 21-13 win over a team they should have beat by 40 points. The house we went to to watch the game was incredible. The TV room was a huge big screen with surround sound and speakers throughout the house so you could hear the game wherever you were. The main house was two stories with a widows peak third level. The guest house was bigger than our place. The property sits on two full plots and faces the water with bed rooms for the kids bigger than our living room. The folks we watched with were awesome and so down to earth you would never know they were obviously multi multi multi millionaires (he is a land developer here with his father and they own several huge commercial properties). Katie even said she had fun and you all know how she feels about football.

We start the fall quarter Monday which isn't a holiday here. One month to our accreditation visit and things that were already crazy busy are about to be ramped up even more. We are keeping an eye on Hurricane Felix way to our south but he looks like he will not be an issue for Cayman and lets hope it stays that way.

Sunday Snorkeling Tour

Things are much quieter here this weekend. This afternoon we went on a snorkeling tour to three different beaches to see how the surge had affected them.

We started out in East End at a beach near Colliers Bay that we hadn't been to before. The water was murky and even with a lot of sea weed there weren't many fish around. After swimming out to the open water and not seeing anything we headed back in got in the car and drove across the north side of the Island to Cayman Kai.

The public beach at Cayman Kai was still in good shape but like all the beaches we have seen this past week, a lot of rocks had washed up with the surge. While walking along the beach we did have a humorous moment. Some American tourists had obviously just moved in to one of the beach front houses and I guess they weren't told all beaches on Cayman are public so when we walked by and right onto their "part" of the beach to get in the water they reacted huffily. Other people were coming in the same way and at some point they must have realized they did not in fact have a private beach. American concepts of private beach property don't apply down here and I found myself enjoying their discomfort, "sorry folks gonna have to mix with the locals whether you like it or not." Too bad for them, they will be in for a long week as the snorkeling at that beach is still some of the best we have seen on Cayman and many people know it.

We ended up at Beach Bay and it was the most changed. The surge blew in many of the rocks in the carefully created pool area. The snorkeling was almost dangerous with huge boulders and rebar sticking up throughout the swimming area. The waves now came in largely unobstructed so the current and water levels were not the easy pool like quality that existed pre-storm. The beach itself was packed with rocks and getting to the water was even more of a chore than it had been in the past.

It was great to get out and go snorkeling. It is really the best part about living down here.

On Friday we returned the kitties. It was tough but the right decision. We may get some cats in the spring but right now we aren't home enough and want to do some traveling this fall.

Our air conditioning is on the fritz so we are getting to know Cayman in August with just fans. Yesterday a huge storm blew through and the septic tank backed up filling our down stairs tub with some foul smelling liquid. A lot of bleach and cleaning later the tub is clean. It affected all the units on our complex and a truck was out last night to drain the tank some. We also are dealing with some kitchen sink issues so by golly its just like being homeowners again. Will be dealing with our landlord on this no doubt in the next couple of days.

Getting Back to a Normal Life

By Scott:

It is very strange going about the normal day to day activities after an experience like we just went through. Tuesday was basically a clean up day around the Island but by that afternoon the stores had reopened and everyone was getting back to their regular lives. We cancelled classes Tuesday to let everyone who had evacuated have enough time to get back on Island. Yesterday we went in early and basically unpacked the college. The TV appearance about our tourism program is back on for tomorrow and its back to budgets and textbook orders and academic advising and registration. I asked some of our students how they do it, come down from such an adrenaline rush, and they said after a while you just get used to it.

We had house guests Tuesday night as April and her family arrived on Island and still didn't have power at their new place. Rather than having them stay at the apartment in the college we offered our two guest rooms. The kitties are with us for one more day before going back to the Humane society tomorrow. After much thought we decided we really don't have the ability or time to take care of cats right now and will wait until the spring to get some so Dean, Nick, Princess and Josie will be headed back to go up for adoption.

With only a week and two days left in the quarter we will be having Friday and Saturday classes to make up missed time so this will be a working weekend. We do want to get out and do some snorkeling as well and some bike riding so it should be an active weekend.

All Clear and the Return of Andreas

At 4:30 p.m. the Cayman government officially issued the all clear. They had lifted the curfew two and a half hours earlier and all electric and water is back up and running. There are still high winds buffeting the island and rain will be a fact of life for the next couple of days but the storm itself has now moved on. Our neighbor Keith drove me over to the sports complex and I retrieved our car. With the battery reattached the engine started right up and our newly named Andreas (Katie always names our cars) ran just fine. From there, I drove over to the college using the main road that runs along the southern coast. The waves were huge and people were everywhere stopping to look. The surge had obviously come in because you can see flooding all along the coast. Hirst road also had some high water points and I had to drive in the wrong lane a couple of times to avoid it as I headed up to the college. Once there I confirmed that ICCI came through just fine and headed over to Elsa's to check on her and Mr. Keith. They are both well and we agreed to resume classes on Wednesday to give everyone who evacuated time to get back to the Island.

Everyone is out now clearing debris and talking with each other. The maximum winds were 64 miles an hour here and there are downed tree's and flooding in low lying areas but I didn't see anything major even in the complexes right along the coast. The radio is reporting no deaths and only minor injuries so it seems everyone rode it out in security. There is a heavy police presence which means the lesson of all the looting post-Ivan seems to have been learned. Tomorrow will be a day to get our house back to normal, take down the plywood off the patio and clean up. I think we will leave the plywood up on the upstairs window for the next several weeks in case we have to do this again. That is the hardest piece to attach and while it means darkness in the bedroom and not the prettiest outside aesthetic it makes sense with hurricane season just now starting. long term we need to get Hurricane shutters but that could take a while with our landlord so plywood will be our option for the remainder of this season.

The cats are doing fine and we dont know how much longer we will have them though we will be asking about adoption of Dean and Nick. We are making dinner now and will have a quiet evening and an early bed time. The first really peaceful sleep in five days.

Back on the air

No sooner had we written about how lucky we were to not have lost power then right at 10:00 a.m. we lost power. It was out until about 2:20 and has just come back on. In the interim around 10:45 we got a knock on our door. Keith and Kathleen were out cleaning up debris. The winds were still howling and there was a slight rain falling but the worst was clearly over. Throughout the neighborhood people were out on their porch or walking around. I went out to talk while Katie stayed in (not a good time of the month for her). About 11:15 I went for a walk and got the following pictures of the trees and wind. We only lost one tree in the neighborhood and no one lost any windows. Everyone was remarking how lucky we all are.

The curfew was officially lifted at 2:00 p.m. though they are encouraging people to not go out for long. We are doing a caravan for everyone to go get their cars here in a little while. Hope ours made it, if so Andreas it is.

Wind is still blowing pretty strong and you can see rain showers on their way. We are safe and all is well. Of course the weather channel is already talking about an area of concern off the coast of Africa. We have taken down the plywood from the front window to let some light in. You would be amazed how much you lose perspective in a boarded up house. Letting the light in was a pretty amazing thing. Will update after we check on the car. Thanks again for all your prayers they definitely made a difference and were a great comfort to us as well. There is flooding in Savannah and some other parts of the Island especially along the southern coast got hit harder than we did. The surge never got to us but did to some others so keep them in your thoughts and prayers and even as we ponder how lucky we were we sympathize with those who had to face this monster head on and not the glancing blow we took.

9:40 update

We have spoken with Kelly, the ICCI librarian in Miami and the folks who stayed at her place have lost power. That was going to be our backup if Lonny hadn't gotten all the plywood up and given us the OK on our place's structural soundness. Kelly's place is about a mile down the road from us. Our lights have flickered twice but no outage. We also spoke with Elsa and Keith by cell phone at around 9:00 a.m. They are riding it out at their home near the college. They are OK. They too have lost power but Keith has a generator up and running. The winds are really howling again now as we get to experience the back end of the storm. We already felt incredibly lucky but now hearing that others have lost power while we haven't, as of yet knock on wood, makes us feel all the more fortunate. Will be making a late breakfast now and trying to pass the time on the net or watching DVD's. Keep the prayers going because they are working. Katie and I are now adding our own for the rescue and police workers who even now are out and about on Cayman and for the folks now in the path of the storm. We all need to remember them in our thoughts as well.

Wind Track

This is the best representation I have found of the winds we are experiencing. We are the Island directly above the Hurricane. As you can see we are getting only tropical storm winds and were spared what passed right off the coast of Jamaica. Katie has gone back to sleep I suspect that tonight I will crash hard after an up and down night last night. The kitties are doing well this morning too, I expect new addition(s) to our household before they leave. Winds are still loud but somehow don't seem as threatening as the gray light of a cloudy day peeks in from under and over the plywood.

7:35 Monday Morning

We are both awake now after a brief nap from 5:30 to now. It is a virtual certainty at this point that by the grace of God Cayman has been spared what pounded Jamaica. The winds continue to be heavy, the best description I can give is from earlier it sounds like an airplane taking off, but right now the rain has stopped and there is no flooding in our parking lot so not even a threat at present to the home. The NOAA site says a storm surge of 5 to 7 feet which doesn't appear to have reached our home at all. The eye is directly south of us now and moving at a good 21 mph so in theory we should have already seen the surge and had to deal with any flooding. God Bless the poor people on the Yucatan, while we were spared they are in for a pounding. If you know of any organizations that provide supplies or relief for the people of Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic who got hit so much worse than we did and who don't have the economic or government infrastructure of Cayman, now would be a good time to make a donation. I know Katie and I will be making one as a show of thanks.

There will still be very high winds all morning and a lot more heavy rain throughout the day so we cant venture out until late and may not be able to go for our car until tomorrow though depending on conditions we may try later tonight. We never lost power the entire night and are hoping they turn the water back on soon after the storm completely passes. We will start moving everything in the house back to normal later this afternoon and then finally give you a picture tour that is not hurricane prep. Though as our neighbor Kathleen pointed out to us last night on her porch they call this Hurricane "season" and this wont be the last time we have to do this.

We feel incredibly lucky and very grateful for all your prayers. While this isn't over yet it is certainly safe to say that the worst has not happened and in every respect the best possible has. The Hurricane literally took the best possible path it could for us overnight and this morning. We will update throughout day and keep the computer on we will sign back in to windows live shortly.

4:50 a.m. Monday Morning

I woke up from a particularly loud wind gust and decided that I wanted to check the latest track. What a beautiful sight. The track has Dean south of us and moving quickly. I cant imagine what it must be like for one that is close. The sound right now is like airplanes taking off right outside our house as the wind howls. Katie must have a supernatural ability to sleep because she is sleeping right through this while I wake up with every loud howl. I peered out from under the plywood in the downstairs living room and the rain I could see on the parking lot is like sheets I have never before experienced. If this is tropical storm winds and rain I cant even imagine what hurricane force winds and rain are like. We are just about to start getting the worst of it here in about an hour and a half and at 20 miles an hour will feel it for most of the rest of the morning with the aftereffects lasting through Tuesday plus. We still have never lost power which speaks well for CUC. We are hanging in and hanging on, me a little more unable to sleep than Katie but still here, still dry and still able to get on net. God Bless and Be safe.

Scott and Katie

Monday 2:00 a.m. Status

Back on air much earlier than we anticipated. The sound of wind and rain woke me up at about 1:45 a.m. Since we had power I pulled the Internet receiver tower out of the tub to see if it was still receiving and with three bars I decided to try plugging in the computer and checking the NOAA website. The track continues to be south of us for the eye which is great news. We are in for a rough couple of hours but hopefully are escaping what pounded Jamaica. Someday I will be able to tell our children that their Mom can literally sleep through anything.

At 10:00 p.m. we closed up the computer and Internet tower and stowed them in the tub. We blasted the A/C to get the place as cold as possible for the expected power loss. We let Josie out for a little alone time with us but then put her back in with the kittens and finished an episode of Scrubs after which we turned out the lights and got some sleep. I woke up around Midnight but was able to go back to sleep until the most recent round of noise led me to wander downstairs and check on whether there was any flooding. Right now just a lot of wind and rain. Thank God for the plywood as there must be a lot of debris flying around out there. Anything not tied down or really heavy is on its way to Mexico.

Katie is on me to go back to sleep and put away the computer but I have way too much nervous energy. Unlike dealing with a Tornado such as the ones we have been through in Fort Worth this is not a hunker down in your bathtub until it passes over kind of thing. You can walk around your house etc. which just seems weird. So long as the roof holds, one room is no different than another. We are riding it out in the master bedroom upstairs on the back of the house which all our neighbors said was the safest room if the eye was south of Cayman as it is.

They did cut the water so we are flushing with the water we filled the tub with. The tub wouldn't hold water so we ended up bailing that water into our trashcans and buckets and will use it as our potable water until they get the water back on. We know that we haven't even begun to feel the real effects of the storm. That will come later this morning between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. with after effects well into the late afternoon. Don't know if Cayman has been spared but the early signs are all good.

With plywood up and no way to see out I cant give you any kind of description except for the sounds. The rain is constant and the wind must be strong as you can hear it pounding into the walls. Our antenna is still hanging on as I can hear it banging away outside our bedroom window. The radio stations are all still transmitting which is another good sign.

Signing off again and putting everything away again. Depending on power and my ability to sleep may try and get everything back on again later this morning.

We love you all, so far your prayers are doing phenomenal work so please keep them going.

God Bless and Be Safe.

Scott and Katie

Sunday final update

Its approaching 10 p.m. and we expect them to cut the power soon so we are unplugging the computer and packing it away. We are both tired enough that we are hoping we might actually sleep for a little while tonight. Nothing much new to add from the last several posts. We have put down towels and old sheets across the bottom of the patio doors and the front door, a last defense against the expected flooding. We are watching Scrubs episodes on the portable DVD and will use the computer's battery tomorrow during the storm to watch some episodes and pass the time. You can hear some of the howling wind as it moves our antenna around outside the bedroom window. Don't hold much hope we will still have an antenna tomorrow afternoon. We will call my Mother and Father and Katie's parents when the storm passes and they will call everyone else to let you all know. Signing off now until the storm is over and we get back power. We will write a journal while the computer is off and God willing will have some great entries when this is all over.

God Bless, Be safe and Goodnight.

Love Scott and Katie

Nameless No More

The kitty above has been named Dean, for obvious reasons but also because he is the wild one of the bunch. His almost twin brother has been named Nick, because we needed something to go with Dean and Nick just fit :). Their sister has been named Princess, since we live just off Princess street and she is definitely more timid and prissy than her brothers. You can tell Dean because he is looking at the camera in the shot with Josie, and in the one with the two "twins", Dean is on the left and Nick is on the right.

Sunday 8:40 update

The winds have really picked up. We spent about an hour on the front porch of Kathleen and Keith as it got dark and watched the last three planes take off. The news says that they are down to only 1500 tourists now so the shelters wont be as full of them as it was looking earlier.

The whole neighborhood was out watching the clouds roll in a huge band winding from north to south. There were conversations across streets and everyone seemed to know this was the last time we will be out for the next 12-15 hours. Everyone is ready and resigned to what is about to happen. The storm is the size of Texas and no matter what we are going to be pounded and pounded for a good long while. We are completely done with preparations and our neighbors have given us really good words of encouragement. They are a good grounding for us; our imagination has tended to run away today with things like panicking over the small rain shower early in the afternoon. They reminded us everyone has done everything we can do and now it is in God's hands.

We have gotten to talk tonight on windows live with a lot of family and thank you all for your prayers and good wishes. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We will continue to post until we lose power or feel like we have to disconnect.

Goodbye, God Bless, and Be Safe.

Scott and Katie

6:55 p.m. Curfew and Water Cutoff Announced

The government has announced a 10:00 p.m. curfew and the water authority first announced they would be cutting of water at 6:30 p.m. now that has been moved back to 9:00 pm. CUC the utility company is hoping to keep service up throughout but we will see. We are filling our upstairs tub now. Its tough because the calcium deposits have frozen the handle so only the shower works. We can't fill the downstairs one as in Ivan the sewage backed up and caused the downstairs tubs to overflow. We will stop up the downstairs toilet and tub before going to bed.

There is a palpable sense in our complex that things are improving. I spoke with Selkirk the owner of the complex and you could see the relief in his face as he mentioned the track pushing it south. But, in the same breath he said that things can change in an instant and we have to be prepared for the worst. Right now Cayman would only get a glancing blow with tropical storm winds but we will see.

I went outside to look at the clouds and you can see the circular motion so the outer bands have arrived. The sun is setting and the cloud movement is mesmerizing. The wind is strong but not difficult yet so a lot of people are outside to watch the sun go down. Almost as if to say good bye and hope to see you some time tomorrow after the storm passes. Everyone says be safe and God Bless that is the goodbye refrain of tonight.

So from here on out it's Be safe and God Bless to you all, will keep updating throughout night.

Love, Scott and Katie.

5:40 update

We are total newbies at this. Our place is completely put up, the furniture on cans and nothing loose. You can see the furniture up in the living room in the picture above with the boarded up window behind them. This is fast becoming an obvious overreaction this early. At 4:15 we went over to Kathleen and Keith's and they are all boarded up and we actually had to climb over a board that they have up over the door because it faces the road and opens in rather than out like the middle units. But once you get inside their house it looks completely normal. They haven't put away anything, taken down anything from their walls or moved their furniture or anything inside. It was very reassuring to see two people who went through the harrowing experience of Ivan being so calm. We drank some cranberry lime tea and talked about the Humane Society and just normal stuff. They laughed when we told them about what we had done to our place but said it was normal for people the first time to do what we are doing and it is better to overreact than under react.

The winds are blowing but no rain since the little shower at 1 p.m. The funny thing is because we are so boarded up we cant see anything so all we have is what our imagination tells us unless we want to open our door which isn't going to be an option soon. When we get our own place we want to get the hurricane shutters like our neighbors who have plastic in the shutter to see out in the middle. At least they can see what is going on.

We found out that over 108 flights have left the island in the last day but that they are having to move some 7000 tourists to shelters that they cant get off the Island. Reaffirms that we made the right decision not wasting our time at the airport yesterday or this morning waiting in long lines for planes we weren't going to get on when we have a safe place to ride it out and needed to get it prepared. We have seen the best in people, apparently at the airport they are seeing the opposite. The folks at the airport are fighting in line, literally throwing luggage at each other and generally displaying the worst of human traits as they wait to pack the flights with the few precious seats in each plane.

The important storm tracks will come after the storm is past Jamaica so hopefully the mountains in Western Jamaica will deflect it even further south. Keep an eye on the NOAA site it is the best one for updates.

Love to everyone,

Scott and Katie.