Relay for Life

Here is the article in the UVI Campus paper along with a video of pics and a link to a YouTube video of the Karaoke contest.

UVI has Strong Showing for Relay for Life
More than 50 UVI employees, their families and friends participated in UVI's effort for the 2008 Relay for Life. Held on June 21 and 22 on the Charlotte Amalie High School track, the American Cancer Society fund-raiser has become a major community event. UVI's theme was "Pirates of the Cure-ibbean" and members of the UVI teams wore pirate-inspired gear such as bandanas, eye patches, and bracelets. Inez Bartlette and Curtis Gilpin were co-captains for the UVI effort. Bartlette said she was pleased with the support from the UVI community and thanked everyone for their hard work and participation. She called UVI's participation in the event "a huge success" and has asked the UVI community to start gathering their ideas for the 2009 Relay for Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPYy4Kt5xww

Weather is Great!

Well Jay said the forecast was rain and thunderstorms, but that hasn't happened yet. Just walked outside and it's beautiful. Hot and sunny and no rain clouds. So apparently the weather man was wrong again.

Enjoy!

Deb

Spring Time

Spring time in the islands......hot, hot, hot. But according to the VI Now website, spring time is not much different than Summer or any other season. (http://www.vinow.com/usvi/weather.php) The temperatures stay fairly consistent year round. The hottest month is August (as in most places), but hopefully it doesn't' get much hotter than today. It's 84 degrees but it feels like 90. I had to go out at lunch to run an errand with Jay (a left over from yesterday) and it is blazin' outside and not a whole lot of breeze either. Today's walk is going to be fun!

Deb

Last Day of Walking

Well today is my last day of being able to walk to and from work. Since we are moving in our new place this weekend, it's back to driving; dropping Jay off in the morning and then picking him up in the evening. With traffic it will be at least a 30 minute drive each way.... could be longer if there are cruise ships in port. I've really enjoyed walking....it's quiet, beautiful view, no traffic, and not to mention good exercise.

Deb

Walking to Work

Well I've been walking to work for the past two days and love it! It takes less than 15 minutes to walk to work (all up hill) and less than 10 to walk home. It's quiet, no dealing with traffic, or parking, or listening to the brakes squealing! I'll be able to continue until end of next week, after that we move and then it will back to driving.

Weekly Recap

Well another work week came to an end and was as productive as the first. Still getting acquainted with the University’s systems, but making great headway. Had my new hire orientation with the benefits coordinator and "wow" what awesome benefits!! 21 vacation days, 14 holidays, 15 sick days, plus 2 weeks for the Christmas/New Year holiday. Medical, dental, free tuition at the University for the employee and their family and awesome retirement....the employee contributes 8% and the university contributes 14.5% for a total of 22.5% and you get to choose whether you want to contribute to the Government Employees Retirement System (GERS) or with TIAA-CREF. Unbelievable!

Jay still likes his job. Being out on boats all day, how could you not. He had to work today, which is probably going to be the case for most Saturdays, but they are going to try and give him Sundays off so that we can have at least one day off together. Since he was working, I took another Saturday morning walk. (see picture above) This time I walked to the University and back and then down to Brewers Bay beach. It's up hill the entire way to the University and it took 18 minutes. But coming back I found a shortcut down a bunch of stairs and paths and it only took 9 minutes. So I'm wondering if I should be walking to work instead of dropping Jay off, then coming back to the University and then back to pick up Jay and then back to the University. I may try it Monday and see how it goes. We only have two more weeks at the University and then I'll have to drive, so I should try it while I can.

Speaking of driving, we used our first tank of gas. It took 12 days to use 12.7 gallons and drive 195 miles. It cost $49.30 to fill up. That's right.....$3.88 a gallon and I'm only getting 15.5 miles per gallon. Crazy!

Some friends from home are coming in today so we'll be going to dinner with them tonight. It'll be fun playing tour guide. Next week a big group of friends will be coming in and staying on St. John for 10 days. We plan on going over next weekend and crashing at their villa!! I can't wait to see them!

Deb

Weather

Weather, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Just saw the weather forecast for back home. Brrrrr. So I thought I would give something to help warm everyone up. It's 75 and sunny with a little wind at 8am with a forecast of 82.
Deb

Work Recap

My first week at work went really well. Everyone was very friendly and gave me a warm welcome. I was given an overview of the different systems they use and then was given the rest of the week to read and ease into learning all their systems. They use an application that a lot of universities are using called Banner. It's Oracle based, which they have running on a UNIX server. The user interface is web based, but they run extracts and reports by using SQL Plus scripts on the UNIX box and use VI for an editor (which I know really well). Our department basically is support for the Banner application, adding new users, running/creating reports, implementing new modules of Banner not yet utilized, automating a lot of their manual processes, etc, you get the idea. I think I'm really suited for the job, even though I won't be doing much developing (code writing) I'll still be using my developer skills.

Friday we picked up lunch at a really good bbq place in Havensight. I need to get their name and number. They take to go orders over the phone and several of us put in an order and then went to pick it up. Most of the week everyone is busy and just eats lunch at their desk, but Friday was more laid back and it was nice to having lunch with the whole group.

Jay goes to work before me and gets off after me, so it works out nice with just having one car. I drop him off, go to work, then when I get off, I go pick him up. There is a pretty cool restaurant/bar at the marina where he works, so if he has to work over a little bit to finish up a job, I have a cool place to hang out to wait.

Yesterday Jay had to work so I just hung out at the apartment. I went for a really nice walk down to Brewers Bay beach, then up a really big hill and then back to the University. It was 82 degrees and sunny and I was sweating my buns off so I decided to come back to the apartment to cool off. The view was beautiful; I think I will make it a part of my regular weekend routine. (see picture above)

Deb

TGIF

TGIF, originally uploaded by captainjay.

Well its Friday and its been a good week. Here's a picture of the view from the University. The picture doesn't do it justice; the view is absolutely beautiful!
Deb

More Work Sorta

Well by a weird quirk of scheduling I had yesterday and today off. Actually the person training me at work had them off so by default so did I. So I ran errands, store, bank etc. and Deb continued her orientation and training at work. While checking the mail yesterday I saw the signs for the Mardi Gras celebration at Tickles, see picture below, and the "Fiddler" was playing. I had been told about him by a friend on a previous trip down. He play at Latitude 18 on a regular basis during the season. It's a very entertaining group. We only stayed for one set since Deb has to work today. I will be cleaning up around the apartment a little and running a few more errands then back to work tomorrow. The picture is of Deb's office.

Employment In De Islands

Well we both started yesterday as you know. Both went well. Deb got a warm welcome at her new job. She is still suffering from a nagging head cold. Most of her first day was taken up with paperwork, orientation, and setting up her work station. There will be a ton of training for her to do as she gets up to speed on the schools systems. As for me I jumped right in and put in a full day. We took a boat to dry dock for bottom paint, moved another boat around and did some periodic maintenance on another boat to get it ready to go out on charter. I have to say working in a marina in the Caribbean definitely has it's perks.

By the way the picture is at Honeymoon Beach on Water Island at Heidi's Honeymoon Grill. Taken the last day of fun before starting work.
Jay

The Mini Vacation is Over

Work starts today for both of us. Deb has her first day at UVI. I am starting at CYOA Yacht Charters in French Town. So today we start reversing the cash flow. So far all we have done is spend money so it is time to make some. We will post more about the whole work in paradise thing as time goes on. We will also continue to post the fun stuff, which after all is why you move here in the first place.

One Week Anniversary

Well this is about the time normal people pack up their stuff and head home after a week of vacation. It does seem a little weird but we are home so there is nothing to pack up and no plane to catch. Things are starting to settle down as the sequel to the list is winding down. We have a few more days of goofing off and running errands then Deb will be starting work on Monday. It is very likely I will be as well. There will be more on that later. Today we have to go pick up the laundry, as the temporary apartment doesn't have a washer. Go to the bank to activate our new ATM cards as the PIN number has to be set in person, just one of those little island tings. I also have to go finalize the details of my likely employment. On the fun side we are trying to rent a boat for the day with some friends for Saturday so we can play a little more before the realities of cash flow in the Caribbean sink in next week.
Jay