Podcasts. OK, so I'm a bit late on the Podcast scene. Does everyone know how awesome they are?? Because I sure didn't. Sure, the last time I checked out the Podcast section in the iTunes store was approximately 2006, when the offerings were less than stellar, but 4 years have done wonders. Now, when I'm trying to drown out the sounds of my colleagues, or my phone, I just put my ear buds in an let Rick Steves take me on a wild adventure through Armenia, or discover why magnesium is a good supplement to add to my diet. Excellent. So I can work on things that aren't interesting whilst listening to things that are (and yes, nutritional supplements are fascinating to me...no judgment, please). Anyways, the best Podcasts I've found so far are Travel with Rick Steves (I love his books, so it makes sense that I'm into his Podcasts), Sex with Emily, Dishing up Nutrition, Savage Love (as in, the Dan Savage newspaper column), The Moth and Sound of Young America.

The local farmers' market. Again, a bit late to this scene. I've only lived here for over two years, no big deal. There is a fantastic farmers' market on Saturdays not far from where we live, so for the past month I've been dragging Kurt to it bright and early and loading up on fresh, organic vegetables and eggs at a fraction of the cost of their half-rotten, overpriced, supermarket counterparts. It has made a huge difference to our meals and our grocery bill. Not only are we now eating local and organic, which are both so important in my opinion, but we're eating seasonally as well. This is a huge, fantastic step forward for our life on the Rock, since produce has been such a huge downer for me since pretty much the first time I ever set foot in a grocery store.

Getting OFF of the Rock! We're going to Cayman in just over two weeks, which is going to be a.w.e.s.o.m.e. Not only will we be reunited with Ash and Andy, our much-missed pals who left this Rock for that one, but we will also get a chance to hang out with Heather and James, who are going to be there at the same time to celebrate Heather's birthday. I sense some mayhem approaching. There might be stingrays involved. And boats. And rum. And a lot of food. Good times!

Two weeks or so after we get back from Cayman, we're off again - this time, to NYC. The main components will be similar to Cayman...a chance to visit with our much-missed friends, EAP and Mugsy, fine dining and general good times. I can't wait. We're staying a bit longer than our first trip in 2008, trying a new hotel (still in Midtown), and I'm mostly just looking forward to exploring, night and day. My camera will definitely be the first thing I pack.

We're also planning a bigger trip for late in the year - likely November. We've got the general idea mapped out but still need to work out a few details, so more to come on that later.

Dreaming up home-based business plans. It's always been my dream to work at home, for myself. After years of having no really good ideas for how to accomplish this, 2010 has presented me with three totally different ideas, all very do-able with a bit of business training and some experience under my belt. One would require about two years of course work, but it's something I'm really passionate about, so I'm thinking I would really enjoy the schooling anyways. Anyways, after the madness that is my work life, it's really nice to think that working for myself at some point is more feasible than I had previously thought.

Happy thoughts, indeed.

Remember when I blogged? Wow. I'm pretty embarassed about this.

Five years ago (!!), I started my first blog. It was kind of the lead-in to this blog, which I started when we moved to the Rocks. Anyways, I was a pretty formidable blogger, back in the day. Sure, I still only had like...6 loyal readers but I was blogging regularly. Sometimes even more than once each day. Imagine. Anyways, I went from being a blogger extraordinaire, to an OK blogger, to a shamefully delinquent blogger. Ouch. How the mighty have fallen. Or, how the moderately adequate have fallen, rather.

So, what is up with you, my 3 remaining readers? Are you still out there?

I'm still here. I'm still on the Rocks, lost at sea.

I spent two and a half glorious weeks in Victoria over Christmas, soaking up all of the comforts of home. It wasn't originally supposed to be such a lengthy trip, but when the time came for me to start packing to come back to the Rock, I decided that I wasn't ready yet, so I somewhat randomly decided to have a tooth pulled. Not a random tooth, mind you, but that devil tooth that started giving me trouble about this time last year, while I was working in CayMAN. To make a long, gory story short, I managed to weasel my way in to see the same specialist who yanked out my wisdom teeth when I was 16. This guy is THE guy to see in Victoria, should you ever require any tooth yanking services. In 20 minutes, my troubles were gone. And now, two months later, my mouth is finally back to normal, after a year of pain. Oh, the lengths I will go to for extra time at home. Sad. But can you blame me?

The highlight of my trip? The family Christmas dinner, hosted at my parent's house. 20 persons of varying levels of Swede gathered in our living room for a feast. No roast beast, but a formidable spread anyways.

I came back to warm, sunny, beautiful weather and, of course, my lovely man. The warm, sunny, beautiful weather gave way to the Rock's "winter" about mid-month, leaving us with miserable torrential rain and gale force winds pretty regularly since then. Can I complain? No. It's not cold. I work indoors. Some rain and wind is not the end of the world. It just means that I haven't had a good hair day in awhile.

My job went from being 8:59 - 5:01 to more of a 7:01 - 6:30 kind of situation. I'm not making excuses, but coming home and blogging was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do. And then I got a secretary aaaand...back to 8:59 - 5:01, for the most part, which is absolutely fine with me. As an added bonus, my secretary has also made it her personal mission to save my soul and to assist me in finding Jesus. We get along great, but if I get annoyed, all I have to do use some mild profanity or casually yell "JESUS CHRIST!" and she gets all quiet as she undoubtedly contemplates just how effed I am, spiritually. I love her.

Obviously, we are very excited about them. They are pretty awesome. GO CANADA!

The Rock has some representation in the Olympics, believe it or not. One guy. We were cheering for him too, but he was disqualified on, like, the first day. Kind of like the idea of a Jamaican hockey team, winter Olympians from the Rock are...challenged. Though, I understand that he is quite the luger. Lugist? Whatever.

By far, the Olympics were trumped for us by the appearance of George last weekend! Our 30 year old tortoise came out of hibernation last weekend for an hour. He ate half of a ham sandwich and then went back into his igloo for a few weeks. I don't think we'll see him regularly until the end of March, but it was nice to see his smiling face for a little bit, anyways.

Today is my birthday. In my head, I am 23. In reality, I am 29. Yiiiiikes.

I was totally spoiled today. First of all, my amazing mother sent me a birthday present which arrived last week and has been staring at me from the dining room table. I was good though. I waited until this morning to open it up and found a new pair of super cute shoes and a kit for this new form of art called Zentangle which is 100% addictive doodling.

At work, I was spoiled too. One co-worker made me a cake, some friends took me for lunch, and then there was some singing....it was fun. And tonight I was spoiled by my man, who took me for a birthday date to one of my favorite restaurants.

Fun day. So far, 29 is pretty awesome.

2010 is my year.

That's the sound of our new dehumidifier, dehumidifying. Thank effin' God.

I told a few people at work about the Mould Incident and they all asked why I didn't have my dehumidifier on, because obviously I wouldn't be having any mould issues if I did. When I told them that I didn't own one, there was a lot of finger wagging (whilst snapping) in my face and "Giiiiiiirl, why you don't have none? You out your mind!"

In other words, I got told.

I acted quickly and we just plugged in our new (to us) appliance. Which may send our electricity bill to the Moon but really...my Frye's are worth it.

For most of the year, the humidity on the Rock is very high (it hit 98% in the summer). For my skin and hair, this is fabulous. My hair has never grown faster and I hardly ever need to use moisturizer. But it's not all good news. With houses made out of coral and rock, that means that dealing with dampness in the home is just a regular part of life here - a fact which we have recently become acutely aware of.

Our previous apartment, which was in a 400 year-old building, was framed and drywalled, much like a house in Canada. There are probably 3 houses like that on the whole island...it is VERY rare. I'm guessing this is because moisture + drywall = eventual disaster. But, our apartment was dry as a bone, all year round. It was fabulous. Besides the lovely floors, it was pretty much the best thing about the place.

Our new apartment is less than a year old. However, it is a regular-style house, made out of coral, cinder blocks and cement. No moisture barrier. No drywall. Not dry.

I noticed it shortly after we moved in...a bit of a coldness in the sheets tipped me off one night and then the fact that it took 3 days for a pair of jeans to dry on a hanger sealed it for me. We are now officially living in a regular house and now we have to deal with what everyone else is dealing with: the War on Mould.

Mould...is gross. I'm not a fan. Up until now, my experiences with mould have been confined to the food variety - leaving an open juice box in my locker for weeks on end would normally sprout something pretty, and there has been more than one container of forgotten leftovers in my fridge that was "discovered" to be a greener shade than necessary. I'm not messy...it happens.

But when mould sprouts on my SHOES...everything changes.

This evening, Kurt and I were having a casual conversation in the closet (our closet is huge - larger than our bathroom) and I randomly pulled my beloved Frye sandals out of the shoe organizer to discover this:


Oh, hell no.

Yes, that is a crop of mould on my lovely sandal. A tiny green forest of gross.

Disgusted, I pulled out all of my shoes and discovered that The Mould had invaded another favorite pair, my Born sandals (you will probably note how similar they are to the Fryes...at least the Mould has good taste):


I said some words that I don't feel comfortable repeating on my blog, gathered up my beloved sandals and every bottle of shoe product that has ever been hawked (successfully, apparently) to me by shoe sales people, and got to work in the kitchen.


30 minutes later, my pulse had gone back to a regular pace and my sandals were looking as good as new. Some shampoo and conditioner were all it took to bring them back to life. However, I'm now freaking out about everything else in my closet. Like...my clothes. My luggage. My PURSES. My pashmina collection. What else is quietly becoming a home to The Mould? I don't really care to find out.

We got some closet heaters from a co-worker of mine and installed them immediately. They don't heat up much - just enough to zap the moisture from the air. Hopefully that's enough to prevent future invasions. Until then...daily inspections.

Ahh...life in the tropics. Always a pleasure.