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Thanks for visiting our blogspot. This is our attempt to keep everyone who is interested up-to-date on what is new in our world.
Check out our pictures, videos, and journal entries of everything we encounter.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Hi everyone, sorry once again about the time lapse between posts.

Kater has finished her second round of tests, and done well! We are relieved and she even has a little bit of time for fun.
This week my mom, sister, and her boyfriend TJ arrived to spend a week with us. I've spent the week showing them around the island, and taking them to our favorite places for food and fun.
We have snorkeled at Timothy Beach and saw the biggest stingray any of us had ever seen. It measured about three feet across and about five feet long! It was incredible. We swam and snorkeled at Shipwreck, Reggae, and Majors Bay too. We've enjoyed foods at Ciao's, The Sunset Cafe, Shiggity Shack, Shipwreck, Reggae, and the Marriott to name a few. A sample of the local cuisine you might say!
We spent the day today checking out sugar mill ruins, and Romney manor, as well as Brimstone Hill Fortress.
They saw the monkeys, pigs, goats, and donkeys that we've written about too... all that's missing is some sea turtles... there is still time and our hopes are high.
Stay tuned for some photos which will come soon.
The family has one more full day on the island and we plan to make the best of it!

Thanks for checking in!

Friday, March 5, 2010


Hey all!

So finally I have some new pictures to share. As I mentioned a few days back, I had the incredible opportunity to go snorkeling with Dr. Kevin Fitzgerald, from Animal Planet's 'Emergency Vets' out of the Alameda East clinic, in Boulder CO. It was so great to meet him, and he was very excited to get in the water with us. Not long into the swim, we spotted our first turtle.
It was a small Hawksbill sea turtle, and we saw that it had not yet been tagged... so the chase began.
(Our group leader Steve, coming up with the turtle.)
Catching them requires the group to coral the turtle and try to get it to settle on the bottom. The person catching swims down directly above it, in hopes of staying in the turtle's blind spot. We then get hold of it by grabbing one hand on the carapace (top shell) behind the head, and one by the tail. We then slowly bring it to the surface and swim it in, at a 45 degree angle, which helps it breathe properly.
(Dr. Fitz was given the turtle to swim in)
When we got to shore, we took measurements, took a blood sample, and tagged the pectoral fins (front flippers).
(Dr. Fitz holds the turtle before the measurements take place.)
(We took several photos from different angles to keep file of each turtle we tag, so if we catch it again later we can compare. Here Troye holds the little guy.)
(The carapace (top of shell) above, and plastron (bottom of shell) below).
(This turtle appeared to be in very healthy shape, but we won't know for sure until we get results back from the blood sample. The vets here look for any kinds of illnesses or diseases etc.)
(Here is what the tag looks like once it's clipped onto the pectoral fin. These are scales without any blood vessels, so the tag can be securely attached without hurting the turtle or causing infection. The numbers on it allow us to keep track of who is who.)
(Our guest of honor releases the turtle back into the water, where it swam away just fine.)
(The proud turtle team group picture.)

Following the turtle dive, Dr. Fitz gave several more lectures through the week, as well as a stand up comedy routine and slide show for the students. It was a ton of fun, he is hilarious and obviously has a great sense of humor and adventure. Both Kater and I really admire this guy, and we're both still beaming from the experience.
To thank him for taking time out of his busy schedule to come out with us, I illustrated a caricature of him with a small note:
He really liked it, we had a good laugh, and he told me that the turtle dive was the best day he's had in the last 15 years! Imagine that. I was pretty nervous to give this to him, but I'm glad I did. He said he was going to frame it and invited Kater and I to visit him in Colorado! Hopefully one day we will get the chance to take him up on it.

Other than that exciting bit of news, everything else has been pretty much business as usual. Kater began her second round of exams this week. She did well on the test Wednesday, and is getting ready for the next one on Monday. I (and all VIPs) now have access to the school's fitness facility, which is really nice. I've been going this week and I feel great. It's nice to be able to exercise in air conditioning... it's just too hot here to do anything during the day, and I like to go in the morning.
I'm still going to the glass studio, making beads for the sea turtle project. I set a schedule of Tuesdays and Thursdays to go in for a few hours. That has been a lot of fun too.

So, that will do it for now I think, thanks for reading the blog, even though the posts have been fewer lately. I enjoy writing it, but sometimes I wait to have a few good pictures to add- I think it makes it more interesting.


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Hey all,

Just a quick update since it's been about a week.
What's new? Well... Kater begins her second round of exams tomorrow, wish her luck. I went for my official first day at the glass studio to make beads for the turtle project. I made about 8 five sided beads from bombay blue sapphire gin bottles, what a beautiful color.
If any of you have ever watched 'Emergency Vets' on Animal Planet, one of the main people from the show is here visiting Ross. His name is Dr. Fitzgerald, you would recognize him by his glasses, white mop of hair and mustache. Tomorrow I will have the amazing opportunity of going snorkeling with him on one of our turtle research dives. I hope to have some photos. It will definitely be a great one of a kind experience.
I'm continuing to work on Sam and Jam, although progress at this point is slow. We are still waiting to hear back from publishers about "the next step".
That's all for now, not much time for a great update but one is coming this week I promise!!!