Time again for Bar Wars, an obstacle course contest designed to test the bartending and food service skills of the teams who enter.

Teams can be four to six people. It costs $25 per team to enter. All the proceeds go to the Animal Care Center.

Just watching the spectacle is cheap. The Beach Bar will sell $2 Heinekens.

(You can also keep up with the Beach Bar’s music schedule and other events at its Facebook page.)

The Lumberyard road is two way again.

And if this project is on schedule, it should be half done.

Work started on the roundabout in August of 2008. It is scheduled to take just under two years to complete. So, that should mean we’re halfway done.

Does it look half done?

That plate’s not on a truck. It’s on a cooler behind the bar at High Tide.

The owner is from Virginia, but the plate was actually a gift.

“It was given to me about six years ago when I first took over the business by friends of our family, Ken and Pat Lawrence, who have been coming to St. John for about 20 years,” High Tide owner Jason Bergner tells us.

And Ken has fond memories of the plate he gave to Jason all those years ago.

“I put that plate on my 1991 Trans Am. We wanted to be reminded of our favorite place every time we looked at the car,” says Ken. “ Lots of people agreed with us, as we were always getting beeps and friendly waves from people who recognized the message on the plate.”

Jason and his wife Yahira (below) spend most of their time on St. John and Puerto Rico, where she is from, these days, but he still manages to get back to see family and spend time in the Commonwealth he loves.

“I feel very much at home here, but I always miss the truly Virginia experiences I grew up with, like getting bushels of Chesapeake blue crabs off the boat in the summer and the convertible drives down the Blue Ridge Parkway in the fall when the leaves are beginning to change,” he says.

“Having the plate behind the bar has started many conversations and given me the opportunity to have an extra connection with some of our guests and to meet fellow Virginians in their travels.”

Elaine Estern has chosen a name from all of the suggestions for her 2010 St. John calendar, and it will be called St. John Citizens.

The winning suggestion comes from both Jim and Annette Harper and Sandy Dean, who will get their own autographed version of the calendar.

“There were many great entries that were sent in!” says Elaine. “It was tough to choose but I decided on St. John Citizens because I felt it showed respect for all the creatures that are part of our lives here on the island.”

The runner up was “Surf and Turf.” If that was yours, your prize is knowing you were number two.

The calendar is now at the printer and won’t be available from Elaine’s Coconut Coast Studios for a few more months yet, but here is a sneak peak of a couple of the new paintings it will include.

Above: “Guess Who Came to Dinner” Below: “Coral Bay Corner”

This is Jason Hubert, who moved from Baltimore to St. John a few weeks ago, putting his climb up the corporate ladder on hold while he tries out the island life.

Jason loves to shoot video and he wants to share some of it with us.

Like this one.

Here’s a look at a water slide beach party at Hawksnest that Jason stumbled across. “Drew and Wes from ZoZo’s and some of their friends set up the slide for all to enjoy,” says Jason.

Take a look. It’s fun. And, say “welcome” to Jason and his occasional videos.

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