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.