We’re wondering if this is standard operation procedure for you and your villa garbage.
The typical villa garbage bag does not have drawstrings. It does not come with twisties. It is a cheap, rugged bag on a big, perforated roll.
The method: Step One: Pull bag from can and hold in front of you. Step Two: Give the bag a good spin so you have a long tail. Step Three: Tie the tail into a tight knot.
Now your garbage is ready for the dumpster. But whatever you do, don’t put that garbage out until just before you’re ready to take it down. Leaving it out in the open, even for an hour, is almost sure to attract critters that’ll rip your garbage bag apart.
We once threw away a bag with a lizard inside it, because we couldn’t get him to come out. Nothing like a garbage bag that wiggles.
Things can go smoothly at the Innovative Telephone office, or it can be a miserable experience.
For us, this day, it was smooth, but the poor woman in front of us held us up for 20 minutes, whatever she was trying to do. She didn’t have the proper paperwork and that never goes over well at the Innovative Telephone office.
We replace the cable remote at least once a year.
It’s almost always the battery cover. First it’s loose. Then it gets taped in place. Eventually it becomes a sticky, busted up mess. Is it because they fall on hard floors? Are they just cheap remotes?
In any case, Innovative happily replaces a remote, on the spot. They even remind you to take your batteries out of the old one. And you don’t pay for it there. A charge for $13.95 shows up on your next bill. We should get two at a time, but that probably requires paperwork.
Today’s rum punch is served up by buff Brett at Island Blues.
Island Blues may be closed right now, but it’s re-opening soon and we hope Brett comes back too.
Brett makes his rum punch with Cruzan light and dark rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine and a Myer’s floater, served with orange on the rim and cherry in a fancy Sunday glass.
“No mixing!,” says Brett. He likes his rum punch with colorful layers.
The Island Blues rum punch: $7 most times, $6 at Happy Hour. Sip this fancy one and enjoy the view.
This is a 1985 Jeep Scrambler, and it belongs to Dave Trent, the new owner of Happy Fish.
Dave inherited the Jeep from Nate Kulchak, his friend and Happy Fish’s previous owner, and it’s called The Duke.
“The driver’s side door doesn’t open, so I have to jump in it, just like The Dukes of Hazzard,” says Dave. “It has other issues too. Right now the only way I can start it is to pop the clutch, so I always have to park at the top of a hill pointing down, or just leave it running.”
The Duke has been on St. John for more than 25 and was originally a taxi, and Dave says the bench seats in the back are perfect for picking up hitchhikers. “The exhaust is screwed up and it sounds like a Harley Davidson, so everybody hears it coming,” he says.
Dave, who came to St. John from Boise, Idaho, has owned several other Jeeps, as well as a GMC Denali, a BMW 5 Series and a Ducati motorcycle, but he says The Duke is by far his favorite.
“I’m thinking about my Halloween costume for this year. I may go dressed as my Jeep.”
About 30 third and fourth graders from Julius E. Sprauve School picked up 50 pounds of trash along Cruz Bay beach Wednesday, their contribution to this year’s annual International Coastweeks cleanup.
What did they find the most of? Cigarette butts.
“They picked up more than a thousand cigarette butts,” says Friends of the VI National Park program manager Audrey Penn. (The kids had clipboards and they counted and categorized the trash.) “High Tide has put smoker polls out on the beach, and we thank them for that contribution, but obviously not everybody is using them.”
Joe’s Pizza gave the kids free pizza lunch after the big cleanup.
Other schools have also cleaned up beaches this fall. Gifft Hill School students tackled Mary’s Creek, Guy Benjamin students cleaned Haulover North and South, and next week, The Montessori School in John’s Folly to tackle Nanny Point.
The most interesting thing they’ve found this year?
A Hawksbill turtle hatchling washed up along with some garbage at Mary’s Creek.
“Fish and Game said it needed to be re-introduced to the water at night, so Rafe Boulon took it home, and let it go in Trunk Bay that night. We hope it comes back to visit St. John again when it grows up,” says Audrey.
If you hear the drone of a hundred honeybees, they may be gathering pollen from a nearby palm tree. A particular palm tree called the Christmas Palm.
After many years, more than a decade according to Josephine Roller at the Coral Bay Garden Center, these particular palms sprout berry-bearing branches and sweet little flowers that bees love, and this is the time of year bees flock to them.
Long about December, the little green berries turn bright red, like Christmas tree ornaments. And that’s why it’s called a Christmas Palm.
Like smoked meats? Take note: Fatty Crab reopens Saturday for dinner, but coming soon…”Smoke Out Sunday.”
Fatty’s will fire up its Ole Hickory smoker, chef Seann Hogan will assume the additional title of Pit Master, and they will serve up BBQ all day on Sundays from Noon until 10 p.m.
“We’ve got this great smoker, and last season we started thinking about doing an all smoked meats day,” says Fatty Crab’s Jenny Grondin. “It just sounds like a lot of fun, and it’ll be a nice Sunday alternative to a typical brunch.”
The menu will include brisket, pork ribs and smoked lamb, and their own, spicy twist on BBQ sauces. Two or three smoked meats, plus sides – like sweet rolls, pickles, potato salad and charro beans – for $15.
Jenny says they hope to have Smoke Out Sundays up and running in the next couple of weeks.
Today’s rum punch is passed through the window to us by smiling Erin, at Woody’s Seafood Saloon.
Erin makes her rum punch with Cruzan light and Cruzan dark rum, orange juice, pineapple juice, grenadine and triple sec. Served with a free-floating lime and cherry, in a plastic glass.
The Woody’s rum punch: $5 most times, $4 at Happy Hour. And you can’t have a Woody’s rum punch without an order of Woody’s Shark Bites.
Spotted in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia: A beautiful, silver Porshe Carrera with a STJ sticker on one side, and a Lewes Beach, Delaware sticker on the other.
