johnnytexas.us

Well, I am at it again. I found out last week that my current roommate did not get his work permit extended and will be leaving the island very shortly. This leaves me with a couple options:

A. Find another person to move into the condo on the water.

B. Move out of my place and try to find someone else to move in with (ideally closer to seven mile beach in the happening of things)

C. Find a cheaper place to live.

Yea, that’s about it. I have considered moving closer to seven mile but at the same time I enjoy the quiteness of Westbay and my place being right on the water. If I were to move closer, then my rent would definitely go up and I wouldn’t have as good of a view either.  However, if we can’t find a roommate to replace him then I won’t be able to afford the rent on my own and I would be forced to move out. ugghh.

“I started the conversation with her explaining my situation with moving to Austin and how it wouldn’t have a chance to become anything, but then said if she was still interested, I’d like to take her out before I leave.  And she said yes.

I thought it was funny that I was dumping her before I even asked her out
and the scent of a man that she has no chance of landing was so tempting she went for it anyway”

This comes to me from a good friend of mine who undoubtedly cracks me up at least once a day.

“The secret is to yank the carpet fast and smooth as too leave her standing in the same place, just without the plush rug under her that she had become accustomed to before she has a chance to look down and realize how nice it was and how much she’ll miss it or to stare at it and find the flaws to throw it in your face”

What the crap!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=shirley_paul&page=Journal-43

I only clicked on the link because last week some little kid was crying when we beat the crap out of his team. I’m not sure why he cried, this is a Division II game, his team is maybe Juniors in high school, playing against 25 - 35 year old men.  There is just no reason to cry. and no reason to sulk on the bench when my team is trying to give a shake after the game. poor sportsmanship kills me.

But seriously. Is crying allowed in sports? I mean I dont cry when the partner tells me that the proposal I just spent the last 3 weeks working on is crap. Probably becasue this has yet to happen…but if it did, I have a pretty good feeling that I wont break down in tears or attempt to hide my face in my dress shirt as so many basketball players have done. Sometimes when I am AT WORK doing MY JOB, I have to change the jug on the water cooler, and I dont cry when I spill some of the water. Uh oh.

You guessed it, an aside. I now recall a distinct event where I did cry over spilled milk. I was standing around in the kitchen, undoubtedly “helping” my father boil some knackwursts, AKA beer brauts, since a good’ole can of Hamm’s was sacrificed. They must have been close to ready as the mustard was pulled out of the Harvest Gold refridgeartor fridge along with the milk for me. As my father handed me a cup of milk my little hands just couldn’t grasp it and it slipped right through. He laughed and told me to pick up my cup. I cried. He laughed more. And that was when I learned to not cry over spilled milk. Or in this case, a basketball game.

In fact, now that I have beat the dead horse a bit, I feel as if my friends and I have previously discussed this or maybe I read an article on it…perhaps bill simmons? Anywho, it’s just a game, much like life.

me: and i’m leaving.
Sent at 4:25 PM on Wednesday
Kendra: u can’t
Sent at 4:27 PM on Wednesday
me: why
Kendra: its not 5
me: yeah. its half 4
i get here at 8
1 hour lunch. and that puts me at 7.5 hours for the day
[grin]

Irish Breakfast

Originally uploaded by johnnytexas.us.

I highly recommend the Irish Breakfast. I even gave the Black Pudding and White Pudding a try. Let’s just check that one off the list.

It starts off with a team meeting on Friday with a nice lunch that continues into the afternoon going to the poolside for some drinks and more food.

Saturday started out with my first touch rugby game, a little brief on the rules of the actual game and I was ready. Oh, I also cut and pasted some of the better rules from the event.

Rugby Rules for team event
Captains Guidelines.
• Captains to report to control on time where playing shirts, meal tickets, water and Heineken will be distributed , Ace Card and team beer card will be issued and where your $500 entry fee will be taken in CI$ funds made out to the Cayman Rugby Football Club
• The day is aimed at fun for everyone lets try and keep it that way
• Dance starts at 8pm till late
• Corporate tabs can be set up at the bar. To do so you will be required to put a cheque/credit/debit card of the tab amount behind the bar at the team registration. When this amount has been used you will be asked for further funds. Receipts are available. We will close all tabs at the end of the evening.
 
How the tournament works – Handicaps, Ace Cards, Consumption bonus points.

Ace Cards
Each team will be presented with an Ace Card that will entitle the team to challenge their opposition (prior to any match) to double points for the particular match at any point during the tournament. The card must be presented to the referee prior to the start of the game and then the following will happen
• The team that challenges is required to win a five person (two girls minimum) boat race against the opposition (and has to supply the ten beers) if they win they get double the points for the game should they win it.
• If they do not win the boat race or the match they are not awarded any points

Consumption bonus points
Every time a bucket of Amstel or Heineken is purchased on your team tab it will be added to your bonus points sheet. Every fourth bucket will win you one bonus point toward your total. Simple. Tab sheets will be totaled after round robin play has finished.
I lead off a couple boat races and contributed where I could on the consumption bonus and played a few rubgy matches. It was a ton of fun and I will definately be joining the corporate touch league.

Sunday started early, I was hanging a bit but needed to get up at half six to read the last two lessons and do the quiz at the end of the section. Watch a short video, take a test, and two more dives and I am certified. It was a great day. I will go into more detail in another scuba post.

It all began when I swore I would not go out on Friday so I could save some money for Saturday’s St. Patty’s Day. After getting to the island and paying for the enourmous amount of upfront costs on top of only getting paid once a month, I hadn’t seen a real pay check in 5 weeks. But truth be told, I went out. We hit up Fidel Murphy’s Pub for a singer name Mundy that was down from Ireland. Apparently, this lad, is huge in Ireland and my neighours have been wanting to meet him for quite sometime. Anywho, we met the guy had a few Guinness and before I knew it we were bouncing from place to the next and it was half one, time to grab a beer sponge and get a few hours of sleep. We spot Gino’s Pizza on the way back and dive in, for a slice. I have $5 cash and of course they don’t take credit card. Now, if you havent been around the Irish, I would say they are quite and reserved until they get a little nectar in them. Then it is full out fun. These two are chatting it up with the two behind the counter and talk them into some slices of pizza for dancing an Irish Jig. And then seals the deal with a kiss on the cheek.

Back on the deck, we play a few hands of poker and I decide it will be an early morning for the 6 nations rugby matches that everyone is keen to watch. First draw is Italy and Ireland at half eight. I wake the Irish and my roommate, throw on my Italia tee and start stiring the pot. We reach the Fidel’s and pay the annoying cover charge for the matches and of course had to order a tradition Irish breakfast with Guinness.

<img src=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnytexas/456568959/” mce_src=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnytexas/456568959/”>

The day was great, the intensity was there when Ireland beat Italy and set everyone it a great mood, but after France rolled Scotland, the point system came down to England needing to win but they let Whales take the match. Ireland falls from first. We catch a ride back to Oceanside (our apartment) and decide to get some pizza and play some spades before the evening St. Patty’s celebrations. We pull our money together to split a couple pizzas and run out to pick them up. Now Dave swears he jogs by this place and will show me where it is since I have not been before. We drive, we turn, we drive, we turn, we turn around, we turn around again and he promises its just down the this street. I see the liquor store and thought we should just stop by and see whats going on there and perhaps ask for directions. okay okay…you got me, I wanted to see if they took credit cards so I could use my check card for a two-four of beer. Of course they do not, but we do have the exact amount of cash to get the beer, it was meant to be. We run over pick the pizza up on the card, pick the beer up using the cash and as I drive back Dave is cracking a Heiniken (non twist off) open with his key. As I glance over waiting for him to bend his key I hear the pop of the bottle opening and a flash fly out the window. I check the mirrors and dive to the side of the road, Dave looks over with a confused look to why we are stopping. “I can’t belive your key just flew out the window!!” to which he replies, “It did?” Classic. Dave attempts to use his Mensa skills and calculate the velocity we were traveling and the breaking speed with the trajectory of key out the window and begins his search. About 3 minutes later I find it about 15 yards further down the road in a patch of grass and dirt. It was pure luck. I still can’t believe we found it.Just an aside, another lucky find…after some pranks and jokes my flip fop ends up in some bushes, its dark, my flip flop is black and no way we are going to find it. Dave charges in, jumps into the bushes (that are a good 9 feet high) and shouts “found it!” as soon as he hits the foliage. I have no idea what the odds are that we find either of these items, but we did.

Let me tell you about a great little company called Jolly Roger. Now the Jolly Roger does tours of the islands by land and sea. And each evening they have a sunset criuse on their pirate ship (I think it is a theme ship during the day cruise but that is more an aside, please let me continue). This cruise costs a mere $25 and starts the night off in the right direction. You get on a large boat with a ton of your friends and you meet a bunch of new people mingling around. The ship sails up seven mile beach and into the westbay area (you can see the boat some evenings from our deck) for the sunset. The sun this night was a bright orange fire ball in the sky and cast beautiful shades of red up on the clouds as the evening progressed. It is about a 2 hour ride and time flies by as the bar is pouring drinks as fast as you can walk by the bar. Everyone starts out with a traditional rum punch but if you are wize you will make the switch to beer or Jack and White (what the Irish Lads call Jack and Sprite) because those rum punches go down like an intern in the white house, quick.

My company put me up in a nice hotel off of Seven Mile Beach, which is considered the place to be. I was fortuneate that the hotel was a deluxe suite with a couch, chair, and table with a small kitchen. One of the first few days I spent on the island I came back parched, a refreashing dip in the pool and a beer sounded delightful so I grabbed a draught of local beer from the poolside bar $6. Yes, a plastic cup of draught beer for $6. My thought here was that local drinks are always less expensive, if I were in Milwakee I would hope that the Milwakee Beast would be less expensive, ok ok, bad example. How about in Italy, I would always order the vino roso locale and it was far cheaper. As I picked up the glass I peered through the side looking for flakes of gold that i could try to filter out to start a collection, surely i could sell this back for more beer,alas, no gold. I drank the ‘Stingray Beer’ and I don’t know if I was jadded but it wasn’t all that great. It was then that I realized I had to go and make a beer run.

As I survey all the beer choices, we have all your standard American beers ‘domestic and imports’ and few more ‘international beers’ to choose from. I grabbed a 12 pack of Bud Light, 15.50. Let me convert that to US dollars for you, that is $18.90 for a twelve pack of beer. I am use to getting twice as much beer (a case) for that price. Anywho, it turns out that all the beer in the store is within $1.00 CI of each other so you may as well drink what you are keen for. I like to mix it up between Heineken and Becks.