Last exam!

E sent this picture last night of the last of her final exams being wheeled into the classroom. I'm sure she's glad she's done, and half-way through her college years, if things go as planned.

Afterward, she treated herself to a milkshake. She bought it with some of the remaining credits from her food plan and she needs to spend those before she comes home tomorrow. She said that's also why she had a $9 steak for dinner.

May flowers

Amazing transformation

Andy's cousin sent this picture out yesterday of the family baptismal gown after they cleaned it with Retro Clean and Retro Wash. Looks good for being 64 years old!

Backyard changes & lights

In an effort to deter the middle school graffiti artists that like to draw on the side of our garage, we decided to put up two trellises and plant some clematis. We also planted the wildflower seeds in front of the trellises. Hopefully, something will grow.

The bigger project is that Andy installed patio lights to hang above the yard. Here he is bringing the electrical box to the eave of the garage.

And B helped string the lights over the yard.

They change colors, too! White, red, green or blue. I think I'm going to like the blue.

Gold coins

L stayed after school yesterday for the soccer team's Cinco de Mayo celebration. When I asked her for change from the money I had given her, she handed me these gold coins. They're dollars. Apparently, I don't get out much because I didn't realize there were gold coins in circulation. The ones she received have the faces of James Madison, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Van Buren. Now the trick will be to distinguish them from the quarters when I'm in a store. Guess I'd better shop with the readers on.

Beef Udon

I love when one of the kids decides to cook dinner and B knows if he has a craving for Japanese food, he's going to be the one cooking. He made us a beef udon soup with shitake mushrooms, carrots and spinach.

I wasn't able to eat it with the chopsticks, but once I switched over to a fork to grab the noodles, it was really good.

Time for the 'sad bus'

This was our last day in Jamaica. Andy stood on the balcony taking in the view for the last time.

Here we are on the "sad bus" that means the vacation is over and we're headed to the airport.

We had quite a bit of time to kill in the airport so we walked through a lot of stores until we got tired and ended up in Margaritaville for one frosty drink and chicken quesadillas.

Since Andy spoiled me on the way down with first class, he couldn't very well expect me to sit in coach on the way back, could he? We actually were able to upgrade (again!) for a decent price. At least that meant we didn't have to pay for our checked bags. Here we are enjoying a complimentary drink and assorted nuts.

And this was our lunch, a chicken in mushroom sauce, salad and roll. Andy's not a big fan of mushrooms, but the other entree choice was fish, so he got the chicken. It was OK.

Jamaican sunsets

...and our names drawn in the sand by one of the resort's photographers:

Our excursions

One of the free excursions offered by the resort is the sunset catamaran cruise. It takes about two hours and gives people the chance to jump off, swim into some caves and go down the slide. Since I'm not a swimmer, I stayed on the boat, as did Andy. It was fun watching people go down the slide. One guy went down on his belly. I think that had to hurt.

On morning we went on the shopping trip to a local mall full of souvenir shops. Most of the shops had the same stuff - clothes, bracelets, postcards, wood carvings, keychains and lots of magnets. We left this one in the store:

On Wednesday afternoon we were the only couple that went on the resort's free trip (transportation was free, food and drinks weren't) to Pushcart, a restaurant/bar in Negril's West End.

Andy taking in the view. We were up on a cliff.

We had jerk chicken skewers which were good but spicy and a couple of drinks as we sat outside and watched the sunset.

I was already sunburned by this point in the trip.

As the sun began to set, they turned on the patio lights.

And it was well worth the drive to see this sunset.

The staff was nice enough to take a couple pictures of us before our driver came to pick us up and take us back to the resort.

Leslie's party!

Andy and I made it home from Jamaica just in time to go to our friend Leslie's 60th birthday party at the Sidebar of Fitzgerald's Night Club last night! She's a big fan of folk music and brought in two musicians to perform. This is Robbie Fulks performing. He said one of his songs was nominated for a Grammy this year but he lost to Vince Gill. The first performer was Anne Heaton. Andy and I could have walked the four blocks or so to the party, but it was raining so we drove. The party was catered by the business next door, Capri Ristorante, and the food was delicious. L would have loved the meatballs! Andy and I decided to put Capri on the list of restaurants we need to try.