St. John Thurs. 3/15/12

Beware the ides of March! Well, so far there hasn't been anything to beware as it is another beautiful day on St. John. Last night, Dave and I walked down to the dock. The sky was magnificent. We could clearly see the Milky Way, Pleides, Cassiopeia, Orion, Big Dipper, Venus, Jupiter and Mars. I wish we had brought our star chart with us as I have forgotten so many of the constellations. I was thinking that we should bring one out West this summer as the skies are so big out there and I think the boys would enjoy learning some of the most famous star clusters. Barb and Jim drove Jerry into town early this morning to catch the first ferry over to St. Thomas. He will be on vacation for two weeks and plans to go to St. Martin, Guadalupe, and Dominique. Dave and I finished cleaning in the classroom - organized the videos, games, craft supplies, etc. We then washed the chalkboard and the tables, and swept the floor. It did look a lot better when we were done. We moved on to the the museum. We had gotten several boxes of new merchandise in yesterday and we shelved as much as we could. We also gave a tour to two couples who stopped in to visit. Dave swept the kitchen and dining room while I made and baked oatmeal craisin cookies for tomorrow's lunches. We finished up just as lunch was ready. I made Dave take another nap - he is feeling much better so I hope he can get into the water tomorrow. I went for a snorkel with Charlie in Greater Lameshur. We took a piece of ham and attached it to a stick with a rubber band to tease the octopus out of his hole. Not only was the octopus interested, the fish were too! I hope Charlie got some good pictures. On the last piece of ham, the octopus came out, grabbed both the ham and the rubber band and retreated back into his hole. I wonder if he is still chewing on the rubber band?! Hopefully, we will find it outside his little den the next time we snorkel by. We then swam out to the far point and saw two scrawled cowfish, a 3 foot trumpetfish, and a 3 foot mutton snapper. It was a lovely swim and I was happy to see some different fish. Tonight we will celebrate Jim's birthday. The ice cream wasn't ready last night so we will have it for the celebration. Dave just finished carving a wooden spoon for the kitchen. It came out great! Manhattan College leaves tomorrow morning so we will have housekeeping chores and laundry to do. If Dave is feeling up to it, we might go to Drunk Bay and Salt Pond so I will have some pictures for you all tomorrow.