Chicago

By Scott: I am in Chicago this week for the funeral of our cousin Julia Koclanes. Julia had an incredible affect on all of our lives and will be truly missed. She was a wonderful person who lived life to the fullest and never let all the problems she faced get her down. She had a long battle with several medical conditions and after a protracted struggle died Saturday afternoon with her husband at her side. We learned about her passing Saturday night and immediately looked into whether I could fly up here. Someone upstairs must have wanted it to be as after seeing the first couple of options at 1500, 1200 and 1100 dollars we found a cheap last minute fare through Charlotte that was less expensive than some of our flights to Miami.

I arrived late Sunday and yesterday I got to see my nephew Nicholas for the first time in over two years. He has gone from being a baby in my arms to a walking talking 2 year old ball of energy. I am not bragging but my nephew is a genius, already counting and spelling and reading his books to me. While the reason for coming here is not at all what I would have wanted it is giving me the chance to catch up with a lot of family I haven't seen in the two years we have been in the Caribbean. I am staying with my cousin Chuck and his family until my sister gets back in town tomorrow. That has given me the chance to spend time with Aunt Catherine who turns 90 this August and to catch up with Twila (Chuck's wife) and Cory and Christy (their daughters). Seeing and babysitting my nephew was a great time, even changing his diaper (something I am sure that would not be near as fun the 100th time as it was the first time). I was the lone baby sitter for about 2 and a half hours and by the end I was worn out which means I need to get into better shape so when Katie and have our own I can keep up with them.

I am spending today with Julia's husband Nick and some of his family who have already made it into town. Tomorrow is the wake and the funeral is Thursday. I plan to see some other family throughout the week and will try and do an update before I leave. Keep Nick and all of Julia's family in your prayers this week as we celebrate her life and remember fondly the affect she had on all of us.

Julia Koclanes Rest In Peace

We received the sad news that our Cousin Julia passed away yesterday after a long illness. She was a fighter who held on much longer than the Doctors ever thought she would. We will always remember our time with her and she will always be in our memories. Her husband Nick is like a brother to Scott and he is headed up to Chicago for the funeral. Our thoughts are with Julia's family during this time and we ask everyone to keep them all in your prayers.

Early season storm kills some of our Appliances

Thursday night we got home from the college to find the electricity out at our house. It seems a transformer near us had blown during the fairly big rain and thunderstorm that struck Cayman from Wednesday afternoon through Friday morning. The power surge to our house knocked out the electricity and in the process fried our DVD player, our toaster, our microwave and our cable box. Fortunately, the computers and I-home were not affected nor was the television though without a cable box we are sans any stations. We bought a new DVD player last night at Cost U Less and will look for a cheap microwave and toaster in the next couple of days. The microwave that blew out wasn't ours, it belongs to the homeowner so that one will be her concern. We are just getting a small miniature one that can get us through since most of what we do is oven related anyway. We did get some good news yesterday as the repairs on our car and the two new front tires came in substantially less in cost than expected. Of course those savings are now going into the DVD player, microwave and toaster. They are also helping to pay the cost of the two adapters we had to buy when our cats chewed through both of our adapters in less than 24 hours. Next weekend is Constitution Day here in Cayman so Monday the 6th is a national holiday. In celebration, we are going on a vacation to Grand Cayman. Everything we do will be as if we were taking a vacation to the Island. Renting a house, going to all the tourist things etc.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to our Dad's and to all the father's in our families.

Great Stirrup Cay

On Sunday the cruise ship headed to the Berry Islands and we spent the day at Great Stirrup Cay on a private beach. Scott made a donation to the Bahamas leaving his snorkel gear somewhere in the water, necessitating an expensive replacement when we got back to Cayman since he had specially made gear with stronger lenses for his vision. Later Sunday night we went to the Italian restaurant for dinner on the boat and the picture taken before the dinner had an uninvited guest who looks a lot closer than he really was and who fortunately didn't give us a present. We definitely feel now that doing an Alaskan cruise is a possibility as Katie did well with a patch to control her motion sickness.

We are back in the Cayman Islands for the balance of the summer and with hurricane season really starting in force next month will be getting the house and our kits fully ready. We plan to get a car later this summer and are hoping the little Charade can hold out until the fall so we don't go too much into debt getting the car. For ex-pats buying cars is a cash deal so we have to pay the full price up front as well as buying one years insurance and paying the government fee's so it is something you save up for a couple of months and then do. Our thought is that if the Charade can survive to September we will buy the car then. An advantage to that is that we get through the peak of hurricane season and don't have to worry about buying a car and then having it flooded right after we buy it if a bad storm hits the Island.

More Nassau Ardastra Zoo Photos

Some Bahamas Pictures

On Saturday morning our cruise ship docked in Nassau across from Paradise Island and the Atlantis Resort. At right is a picture of us on the dock right outside the ship with Paradise Island behind us. During the morning we wandered around the areas near the port before doing our tour of some of the city and the Ardastra zoo. Below right are the Queen's steps built in honor of Queen Victoria. Below is a picture of us at Fort Finfrock overlooking Nassau and the harbor in the background.

Thoughts and Prayers for our Cousin Julia

Our cousin Julia in Chicago is going through some very difficult health issues and we want to send our love and wishes for a speedy recovery to her as well as asking everyone to keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Bahamas Cruise

We are back from our three day cruise to the Bahamas and have definitely found something we will want to do again. More pictures and text will follow as we play with the photo's we took. We were in Nassau on New Providence Island Saturday and then Great Stirrup Cay in the Berry Islands Sunday. We got back to Miami this morning and flew back to Grand Cayman in the early afternoon. The picture at left is from the Ardastra Gardens and Zoo in Nassau.

Checking off another place in the song

We sometimes joke to each other that we are just going places in the Caribbean to check them off from the Beach Boys song Cocomo. From Key Largo to Montego and Jamaica we are working our way through them and this weekend we check off the Bahamas. Our cruise ship leaves Miami on Friday evening at 5 p.m. and sails to Nassau Saturday and then Stripling Cay on Sunday before returning to Miami Monday morning. We will take lots of pictures and post them early next week. This week has been strange with no classes. We are taking advantage of the time to play catch up on a lot of work and get ready for the summer quarter which starts on Tuesday. This Monday is a national holiday here to celebrate the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II so that is why we have a Tuesday start for the quarter.

Two things we wont miss

Two things we wont miss when we do finally leave Cayman are the terrible drivers and the large number of animal corpses on the roads. Unlike many parts of the USA, the Cayman Islands do not have sufficient municipal workers to go around and pick up all the dead animals on the roadways. With over 100,000 cars on this Island (compared to only 50,000 people) and very little space the run ins between car and wildlife occur all too frequently. New roads are being built through previously uninhabited parts of the Island driving the wildlife into active areas of driving. In addition, unlike the US where new development usually simply means the animals move, this is an island they cant just keep moving here. Whether driving to work or biking for exercise we are guaranteed to pass several corpses on our way. The green iguanas breed like rabbits down here (sadly the much rarer blues do not). That means lots of iguanas looking to sun themselves on the roads and lots of minor tragedies every day. The drivers here for the most part are terrible, going too fast for one lane roads and passing at incredibly stupid times. We literally have watched people pass with blind curves just ahead. They have no idea about concepts like closing distance or reaction time and will tail gate so that if the car ahead were to suddenly hit their brakes there would be no way there wouldn't be an accident. Throw in the tourists who are uncertain about driving on the left and you have a recipe for lots of accidents. There have been several head on collisions since we arrived two years ago and whenever we are on the Harquayle bypass we are hyper aware of what people around us and ahead of us are doing because the chances of them doing something stupid seem so much greater here than even Miami where the drivers are the worst in the US. This may be paradise for vacationers but is free for all on the roads.

Late night with the Texas Baseball Team and On Line Poker

By Scott: Saturday evening we got home from the Grand Old House and Katie went upstairs to scrapbook while I turned on the computer to see how my Horns were doing in the Regional baseball tournament against Boston College. They were tied in the bottom of the seventh so I logged into the streaming video site and settled in to watch the last two innings. Little did I know that the game would go 25 innings, the longest of any college baseball game ever. The Horns were actually the visiting team since it was a tournament game even though it was happening in Austin. It ended shortly after 1 a.m. some 4 1/2 hours after I started watching with the Horns winning 3-2. It included a stretch at one point where a Texas relief pitcher appropriately named Austin Wood pitched 12 and 1/3 innings of hit less ball and 13 innings of scoreless ball overall. When the Horns finally scored in the top of the 25th and then held on in the bottom of the inning, I had to quietly celebrate so as not to wake up the neighborhood. The Horns followed that up Sunday night with an amazing come from behind win by scoring 8 runs in the ninth inning that ended with a walk off grand slam. 14-10 over Army. The games are all being streamed on video and with only a few outages I was able to watch the full games Friday and Sunday and of course 18 plus innings of the marathon game Saturday night/Sunday morning. On to the Super Regional against the school I used to live next to TCU from Fort Worth this weekend and I will have to find a way to watch while working the comprehensive exams.

I also participated in an online poker tournament on Friday evening with some 3006 participants. It was all for play money though the winner got a free entry to some on line tournament for real money. We all started with 2000 play chips. The early stages were a free for all with people going all in just for the heck of it everywhere and in the first ten minutes over 500 people were eliminated. By the first hour over half the field was gone and by the one and a half hour mark we were down to about 500 players. I stayed alive for close to five hours and with only 300 players left actually had the biggest chip stack. In the end finished in 12th just shy of the final table. I don't get to play as often as I did before being married, in fact this was my first real tournament action in several months. I wanted to get a little practice time in before we go on our cruise as there is a poker tournament that happens on the ship one night that I want to play in. I was happy with my play, though I made a couple of foolish bluffs that wasted chips. Overall I laid down hands when I knew I was beat and played conservative early while all the idiots played foolish going all in on anything. I lost on two hands where I made trips and the other player made a full house on the river. He went all in and I thought I had him beat so I called, it was one of the few mistaken reads I had all night. Then I went out on a hand where I was short stacked and so I went all in with an ace and got called by someone elses king and they flopped a king. If you have to go out that is the way to do it, making the right play and just getting out drawn. There was obviously some luck involved but I never made a huge call or all in where I didn't have the better hand and the numbers played in my favor until the end. If hadn't made some foolish bluffs and gotten called down who knows what might have happened.

Two years in Cayman

It is a strange coincidence but most of the big anniversaries for us come at the end of the month of May. We met four years ago on May 20, we married three years ago on May 27 and we moved to Cayman two years ago on May 31. Last week we met with Katie's doctor who has given us the go ahead to start trying to have kids later this summer after Katie comes off her medication. This means that year three in Cayman could be very momentous. We are dealing with some insurance issues as well so between the medication and insurance it will probably be September before we really start trying, but it has us both excited and in full on get ready for baby mode. Our personalities are very much plan out as much as we can so we are planning everything. We both know that the best laid plans always go awry but that doesn't mean we aren't trying to plan it all anyway. As we know more we will let you know. There is something exciting about the fact that Scott was born in the Caribbean and hopefully our first born will also be born in the Caribbean, a sort of symmetry.

Last night we went out to the Grand Old House for our delayed Wedding Anniversary dinner and watched the sun set while we ate our meal. This week is final exams and our comprehensive exams. After that, we have a week of no classes before the start of the Summer quarter so our quick cruise up to the Bahamas takes advantage of that. Scott's father is on Island for his quarterly visit as Interim President of the college this Thursday. The weather here gets miserably hot by 9 a.m. and stays muggy until 5 or 6 in the evening. Hurricane season starts officially tomorrow though we already saw the first tropical depression of the season last week. This week we will do a Cost U Less run that will include stocking up our hurricane kit.

Third Anniversary

It hardly seems possible but three years ago today we were married in a Pecan Orchard in Aurora, Texas. So much has happened since then but it still feels like it cant have been three years. We aren't getting much of a chance to celebrate today since it is the middle of the week and a work day. We will have our anniversary dinner this Friday at Grand Old House and the cruise to the Bahamas in two weeks is our anniversary present to each other. We reminisced last night about the events of the evening before our wedding and the morning of the event. We have such great memories of the family and friends who helped us celebrate that special day and all those who have been a part of our married life the past three years. We have had a great first three years and cannot wait to see what the future brings. We are very hopeful that by our fourth wedding anniversary our family may have grown or be about to grow (and not with more cats).

Election Day

Update: The referendum on the new constitution has passed with over 62% in favor, a somewhat stunning result given that just a few weeks ago it seemed destined to go down in defeat. It seems the voters here realized that the alternative was worse than voting for this version. Meanwhile taking their cue form the US, court battles appear to be imminent over two of the Legislative Assembly seats in Bodden Town where two of the top three candidates failed to file a required disclosure on time and are having their election challenged. They are both UDP candidates but with a 10-5 majority even if the court ordered a new election, UDP would still have enough seats and support from the independent to form a new government. Unlike the US where there is two months from election to inauguration, the new government will be sworn in next week.

Original Post: Yesterday was National Election Day here in the Cayman Islands. After being bombarded for 30 days with billboards, TV advertisements, public meetings and people flying the party flags from their car windows, we woke up yesterday to all of it being gone. In Cayman it is against the law to have any kind of campaigning on election day. Campaigning is broadly defined here s0 all the road signs and billboards had to come down, all the flags put away and people even had to go vote wearing neutral colors so there would be no charge that by wearing red or wearing blue and green that they were supporting one of the two major parties. Over 80% of the eligible voters participated (around 12,000 total on the three Islands). It is strange that in a country of 50-60,000 only 14,000 or so have the right to vote but that shows you the number of ex-pats living in these Islands. As expected there was a change in government with the ruling PPM party losing 5 seats and the opposition UDP gaining 4. The fifth seat went to an independent who has said he will caucus with the UDP so the legislative assembly effectively went from 10-5 PPM to 10-5 UDP. The new Leader of Government Business has an honorary degree from ICCI and two members of the new Legislative Assembly attended ICCI so hopefully the change wont affect the college much or if it does hopefully it will be for the better as we will be asking for more government recognition and more government funding.

With both national holidays for the week out of the way we are finishing up week nine of the quarter tomorrow. Final exams are in two weeks and then we have a week between quarters with the Summer quarter not starting until the 16th after the holiday for the Queen's Birthday which falls on June 15. We are taking advantage of that week between quarters by popping up to Florida for a three day cruise to the Bahamas from the 12th to the 15th out of the Port of Miami. We have a stop in Nassau and another stop at a private Island. We have talked a lot about an Alaska cruise some day but Katie gets sea sick and we want to see how she will do on a short cruise before we spend the money on a long one so this is both a quickie vacation and a test.

A Week of National Holidays

We got back from Miami late last night after the spring seminar. It was once again held at the Courtyard by Marriott at Dolphin Mall and that has become our usual site. We are fast learning the streets and short cuts around the area and driving in Miami is now much easier than it used to be. Scott had one of his veneers pop off before leaving for Miami and was able to get an appointment in Miami with a dentist to re-attach it. The seminar went well and we did some much needed shopping for items way too expensive here in Cayman. There were no classes yesterday since yesterday was Discovery Day. That is the day Cayman celebrates the discovery of the Islands by Christopher Columbus. Tomorrow is the national election and that is also a holiday on the Island. That makes for a strange week as we come back for one day of work today, then take a holiday, then have to work the last two days of the week. The Island is really ready for the election and both major parties had huge rallies yesterday with competing motorcades of supporters that apparently crossed at one point and almost caused a riot. The evening news normally only comes on at 6 p.m. with the 10 O'clock newscast being a repeat of the 6 p.m. show. Tomorrow they have to work like real journalists and actually stay on the air until the election results are in. We will know the new legislative assembly tomorrow night but not the results of the Constitutional election. They wont start counting those ballots until Thursday. Amazingly enough the Cayman Ministers Association came out in favor of the new Constitution so now it looks like maybe it will pass after all. We shall see.

Happy Mother's Day

Wishing a Happy Mother's Day to our Mom's Gail Loski and Maryanna Cummings. Also to Scott's sister Johanna and our sister in law Kristy. All the best to Mom's everywhere today.

Star Trek

We went to the matinee showing of the new Star Trek movie yesterday over at Camana Bay to feed Scott's trekkie inner nerd. The movie was "awesome" and is a fantastic reboot of the whole Star Trek story. While changing dramatically the Star Trek story the explanation for the change is very credible and gives them an opportunity to do more movies etc. based on the new storyline. We seem to have fallen into the habit of Friday afternoon movies the past three weeks as we have now seen Monsters vs. Aliens, Wolverine and Star Trek on consecutive Friday afternoons. The Friday afternoons off from work really help to balance the late nights Monday through Thursday and the weekend work.

Elections in Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands are hot and heavy into the national election cycle. Things are done so much better down here than the US. The candidates declare for the election about 60 days before it occurs and they are limited to $50,000 in campaign spending. As a result we don't have to deal with the nonstop political campaigning and commercials for a year and half before the actual election. Instead the campaign is very intense for the month, month and a half before the national election, we have the election and it is over. This year the election is on May 20 and that date is a National Holiday. The government is based on the British system with an elected legislative assembly. There are 15 seats in the legislative assembly with 4 seats from the District of West Bay, four from the District of George Town (which we live in); three from the District of Bodden Town (in which the college is located); two for the sister Islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman; and 1 each for the Districts of East End and Northside.

The majority of the assembly forms the government which consists of a Leader of Government Business (essentially the Prime Minister or Premier) and a cabinet with various Ministers. There are two political parties and lots of independent candidates contesting the 15 legislative assembly seats. The party currently in power is the People's Progressive Movement (PPM) which holds 1o seats in the legislature and is only contesting those ten seats in this election. The minority party is the United Democratic Party (UDP) which holds 5 seats and is contesting 11 seats in this election. The UDP's seat of power is West Bay where they have all four seats and PPM isn't even contesting them in the upcoming election. PPM's power is George Town and Bodden Town where they hold all 7 seats but UDP is running 4 candidates in George Town and two in Bodden Town. There are several independent candidates running in West Bay and George Town as well as some independents in each of the other Districts and the real excitement here is if a few independents can win seats and prevent either party from having a majority in the Assembly.

ICCI graduates and former students are running for both political parties and as Independents so hopefully the next Legislative Assembly will have several ICCI exes in it which should help the college. There isn't any real polling down here so no one knows for sure who is ahead. We are told that typically they have a shift in power every few years and that it is about time for the opposition to take over but who knows. Its hard to see what the real difference is between the two parties (unlike the US where cultural differences define the two major political parties) both are conservative on social issues and if anything the differences are minor on matters of economic policy. Interestingly enough, also being held on May 20 is the referendum on the new Constitution and it certainly looks like it is going to be defeated. Most Caymanians wont say it but the real reason it will be defeated is because the Ministers Association is against it because they fear that the Bill of Rights in it will lead to Gay Marriage. Since we don't have a vote we are just watching from the sidelines and basically cheering for whoever has ties to ICCI regardless of their political affiliation.

Legends Tennis

Today while Katie scrap booked, I went over to the Ritz Carlton on Seven Mile Beach to watch some Legends Tennis. Several retired players are playing a tournament here on Grand Cayman. I got to watch a doubles match involving Mats Wilander a former World Number One and his partner Mikael Pernfors against Wayne Ferreira and Karel Novacek. Then the singles semifinal between former Wimbledon champion Pat Cash and American Jimmy Arias. The matches were played on a clay court and since all of the players were retired it was slower than you would see on the regular pro tour but still fun to watch. The tennis stadium seated several hundred people on box seats and bleachers set up on temporary stands. The canal from North Sound ran past the north end of the court and with the palm trees to the south it was an incredibly picturesque location so of course I had left the camera at home. I can remember as a kid watching these players when they were at the top of their game and so it was a treat to get to see them in person even if it was at probably 1/3 speed of what they used to be. The Swedes, Wilander and Pernfors won the doubles match and Arias beat Cash in the singles to advance to the finals tomorrow.