11/17/02

Much news to report.

My birthday weekend was pretty busy.  Saturday morning I had a surprise--the Julian’s, my host family from Babonneau stopped by for a visit.  They were on their way to church, so they were all dressed up, while I was in my pj’s still.  They brought some flowers and a basket of fruit.  It was really nice of them, and I hadn’t seen Shanet or Chelo in a long time.  And I also will have the treat of a REAL apple and pear.

I also cleaned and cooked all day.  I made a vegetable soup with spinach, rosemary, thyme and unripe banana from the yard.  I also made a banana cake, grapefruit juice and a cucumber salad.  Lauren came up for Saturday night, so I didn’t want her to see how I really live J .

We went out in a big way last night.  We figured since it was a special occasion and we hadn’t gone out in awhile, it warranted dropping some cash.  First we went to Happy Day Bar, which has two for one all the time.  I had emailed a bunch of people to meet us there.  It ended up being the whole volunteer crew from the north.  The Canadians, Shannon, Heather, Sam and their friend Julie were there; the Japanese, Jim, Hitoshi, Miho, Hiro and Taro and Lauren and Me.  Miho made me a banana cake, and we ate it with our beers.  They all sang for me too.

Then Shannon, Heather, Sam, Julie, Lauren and I went to Gaiety, one of two nightclubs on the island.  Once a month or so there are concerts there.  Last night was Rupee and Gillo, two regional Soca guys.  That was the financial bite, getting the concert tickets and paying for expensive drinks at Gaiety.  It was fun, but it went really late.  The theme was "insomnia" so the concert part didn’t even start till 1.  The party was supposed to go till 6, but we left at about 3:30.  I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more dancing.  I had been hoping to dance, but mostly people kinda grooved in their place and watched the show.  I saw several people I knew there, Lisa and Barry from work, and a swimming coach for the other team.

In animal news:

It sounds like the Julians had a bit of a surprise.  Here’s the background of the story: Right after I left their house, their dog, Snippy, got attacked by other dogs that mangled his leg pretty badly.  I saw him about a week later and he looked horrible.  He was thin, his hair was falling out, and his leg was really bad.  I felt so sorry for him, but it’s kind of the lot of dogs here.  Several days later, Krishna told me that they had taken Snippy to the vet. But while he was there, he escaped.  Everyone presumed him dead.  I actually thought maybe they had told me that because they didn’t want to tell me that IO had taken Snippy out behind the house and ended it.

But now the other day, they said Snippy came back from the dead.  His leg was messed up because it never got fixed, but other than that he was ok.

I guess wonders never cease.

Also there has been an addition to the family.  Today I got my kitten, my ti-chat.  Mary has a friend who recently had a litter.  Mary had been there to visit and picked out a good one.  Since it will be hers in the end, I didn’t mind.  She picked out a little boy, an orange one.  I worked on naming for two weeks.  Che was the front-runner.  I had thought of that name for Cosmo, but it ended up not working out.  I was thinking about it again, then mom suggested Cheeto.  It fits because he’s orange, plus I like that it sounds sort of sneaky.  Che will just have to wait.

But he’s so cute!  He’s 8 weeks old, and fits in your hand.  He makes a lot of little mews.  First he was introduced to the dogs.  The rest of the day we’ve just been hanging out here.  He checked out the place mostly.  After everything appeared to be secure, he took a nap.  Later in the afternoon, we had several achievements.  He learned to drink milk from a dish, although I think a lot is going up his nose.  He’ll lick the milk a little, then sneeze, then do that over and over.  Then we had success in my crudely fashioned poop box.  I cut one side off a corn flakes box and filled it with sand.  But the success is what counts.  I put him in the box, and he peed like a champ.  Later he regressed and peed on the couch though.  He also is jumping up and down from the couch.  The rest of the afternoon has been filled with manic fits of activity followed by naps.  I think next we might go talk to uncle Tiger then call it a night.

The only thing is that he has some fleas.  He was pretty good about letting me pick some off.  I think I got most of them, and I’m just hoping they don’t multiply, or that I don’t get them.

So this should keep me occupied.