UNOs, watch out for slaughter spinoccoli

For anyone who doesn't know, I am an Unos pizzaria junkie. It was "our
place" when Steve and I started dating, and even without the
sentimentality, their spinoccoli pizza is heaven on earth. Last night,
I decided to try my hand at homemade deep dish. Gotta say, it turned
out pretty amazingly tasty! The dough still needs a little work, and I
need a remedial math class (two 8 inch pans does NOT equal a 14 inch
pan) so, the crust was ridiculously thick. But, at least it tasted good!

We have an Unos here, but it's an hour away in Mayaguez. I have been
known to risk life and limb to drive there just for lunch. If I can
nail this recipe, we just might save a tremndous amount on gas...

More Birthdays to celebrate

After playing with the fish Saturday morning, we went to Jose's house to celebrate his daughter's 10th birthday. I am constantly overwhelmed by the degree to which people throw parties around here! Let me reiterate, this was a birthday party for a 10 year old. We got there just as the stretch limo containing all the girls arrived - they had spent the morning ice skating and being chauffeured around town in said limo. They were greeted by all of us shooting them with a silly string tunnel, a live DJ (who was quite good, I might add) a pool, a squirting bouncy house, CATERED food and appetizers, and more people than I could really count. I then found out that 21 people had spent the night there Friday night, and the party was scheduled to continue until at least noon on Sunday. My my my... but what a good time! I have to say, I really like the concept of kids' birthdays being a celebration for grown-ups as well. It's a win/win for all involved and everyone has a good time. I am definitely having Jose plan our next party!

Saturday Morning Dive

Saturday morning, we got up and went to the water again with Justin and trusty spear guns in hand. Alas, still no joy on the fresh fish for supper venture, but I had a really fun day of finding critters. There was a lot of big sediment in the water, which you'll see in the pictures, but I'm not complaining! In the first picture, I drew a clumsy arrow pointing straight to a pretty big puffer fish. These guys love to hide up under rocks! Unfortunately, this was about the best picture I could get of him; the water was surging, my camera is painfully slow to focus, and I still have the world's most buoyant butt. You put all those things together, and it's a wonder I get any focused free-dive pictures at all. I love the faces on the puffers - they've got HUGE blue eyes, and their little mouths kinda look like they're giving you a shy smile. They just look sweet.

The next two pictures are of something not-so-sweet... I found yet another lionfish. This guy was about the length of my forearm. In the first picture, if you look just to the left of the fish in the center of the shot, you can see his spines sticking out of the crevice he likes to hang in. The next picture is the best I've got of his whole body.

And then the last 2 pictures are of a great cowfish. I just love these guys too - they look so unlikely. The first picture is looking down on him so you can see how funky his shape is; they're like flying deltas. Second picture is one of many I took of him glamming for me. Usually, they won't let me get too terribly close. This guy all but swam into my camera a couple of times, and just hung out with me, putting on a little dance. Very cute.

Interesting sightings in the air

It's been a really fun spring to watch what comes and goes from the airport down here. For a few weeks, we had Predator Drones flying in and out of the airport. Recently, a U2 has taken up residence. Not something you see every day; that's for sure! Usually, it lands at about the same time every day, so Steve and I went out to take some pictures of it. One of the cool things about this guy is the fact that it only has 2 wheels, like a bicycle. On the ground, it has extra sets of wheel trucks to keep it stable as it taxis, but it leaves them on the runway when it takes to the air. When it lands, two support cars go whizzing down the runway behind it in chase, so they can tell how far he is off the ground (they're notoriously hard to land) and so they can replace the wheel trucks for taxi back to the hangar.

Great fun to watch, if you enjoy airplanes!

The pilot gets out at the end of the runway, but beforehand, they put a canopy over the cockpit to prevent any satellites from being able to get a picture of the inside of the plane. You can see the square canopy in the last picture.

Another interesting tidbit about this plane: to keep flying at its desired ceiling (about 70,000 feet), it must fly essentially at its maximum speed. At that altitude, its maximum speed is only about 10 knots above it's stall speed. That's an astonishingly small margin of error!

More shots of Borinquen and cleaning up

You gotta love having essentially the entire beach to yourself. I throw in the "eventually" as Leslie was treated to a heavy-set, middle-aged man with a wicked farmer's tan parading back in forth in front of her on the beach. Wouldn't have been such a big deal, had he not been wearing a thong. Some things just shouldn't be done. I would have taken a picture for your viewing pleasure but my camera is JUST back from the repair shop, and I see no reason to send it back there.

I love the picture I posted earlier of Steve trying to pour the water out of his dive booties while still wearing them, standing on the beach... The last picture here is his payback to me. I decided I couldn't start cleaning the dive gear until my plants had gotten a drink; Steve thought that the sandy booties with the skirt were a nice touch. I have to say, it is a look.

Maybe the thong wasn't so bad after all.

To boldly go where no aircraft engine has gone before

Steve's Birthday Dive

So, even though we didn't come home with any fresh fish for dinner, we all had a good time swimming around and looking. We swam out to the rocks at Borinquen Beach, and Justin showed us where all the old aircraft engines were sitting on the bottom of the ocean. This beach is directly under the cliff at the end of the airport, and apparently, sometime in the past, someone thought it would be a good idea to just chunk all the broken aircraft engines over the cliff into the water. While I'm sure it set up a bit of a natural disaster for a few years after their petroleum-lubed blocks hit bottom, I have to admit that they look pretty cool now; covered in sealife and fish.

Here's Steve showing off his new gun, and me poking something with it...

Happy Birthday STEVE!!

Yesterday was Steve's 39th birthday (again). Not wanting a big to-do about the day, we decided to keep it small and enjoy a beautiful day with friends. I spent the morning making his birthday cake; a local favorite called tres leches. It's a very airy white cake, soaked in 3 kinds of milk, and then given a heavenly cream cheese frosting. It turned out great! Not without mishaps, however. I made the bad decision of pulling out our 30-year old hand mixer rather than using my lovely Kitchenaid.... Apparently, my choice has decided to go wonky in its old age, and turned itself on while my back was turned, spraying every inch of my kitchen with cake batter. I'm looking at the bright side... it WAS time to clean the underneath sides of my cabinets, as well as the ceiling and the back of the refrigerator. Today, you can literally eat off the floors in the kitchen.

Steve's b-day present was a new spear gun. Fun for him, tasty dinners for me. The water was pretty glorious yesterday, so we went with Leslie and Justin to Borinquen Beach, in hopes of spearing dinner (no joy) and to enjoy the sun and good visibility. More pictures of that to come.

Stomping out sparks

I love this video! These two little folks were entranced by the sparks that kept blowing on the ground, and were having a great time stomping them out. I was impressed that they were stomping out red hot cinders... barefoot! You gotta love a place where kids grow up barefoot, and tough enough to do this!

Dance Fever!

As I said, it was about 3000 degrees in front of the bonfire, as Brett's and Steve's shirts can attest!

Beatles and Bonfires

More pictures of the concert on the cliff. I can't believe that these guys gave a whole concert in Beatles suits and ties... on a hot night in PR.... in front of a raging bonfire. It was pretty toasty onstage! The last picture of me and Leslie was at Steve's request. We were pretty tickled at the tiki torches lighting the way to the crapper. Here's hoping that the port-o-john was well-ventilated, otherwise, opening the door could cause ignition. Heck, it already is kind of shaped like a rocket...

Beatles and Bonfires

Last night we had another concert and bonfire on the cliff. The band is one of the best Beatles impersonators in the nation; they've won multiple contests, and just so happen to be from Puerto Rico. They were absolutely fantastic! We got a group of friends together and really had a great time laughing and dancing through the night.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Best. Game. Ever.

We finally finished it this morning. My legs are exhausted from jumping around the room, controller in hand, trying to kill the last guys. Fantastic game!!

My favorite variety of fly trap

And, showing off my newly painted gazebo. I spent ALL DAY yesterday painting it, and I'm sad to say, it's only half done. I, however, am still 3/4 painted this morning.

Sure signs of happiness

 
A shady nook, treasure from the ocean, and clothes giving way to swimsuits!