Our Dutch guests showed us how to make pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes) yesterday and they were a big hit, especially with Syd although that probably had something to do with the mound of powdered sugar she dumped on them. She looked like an extra from Blow when she was done. Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that our day long excursion to the northern Exumas took us within a mile of Escobar's place where some of the events of Blow occurred. Not as interesting as wandering through the hills from The Sound of Music, I guess, but still damned exciting.

http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com

It's amateurish and repetitive but it's hypnotic. I've gone back to watch it four times already and I've even caught Syd muttering “badgerbadgerbadgerbadger” to herself while she's playing.

Was a pretty domestic weekend, overall. We went to a birthday party for Keith, one of Syd's friends from school. Judging from the decor, Keith is a pretty big Spider-Man fan; even the bouncy castle had the webslinger on it. The big problem is that Syd's been taking notes for her own birthday party so now she wants two clowns, a Buttercup pinata, and a bouncy castle with a slide. I think my birthday present to her is going to be a great big life lesson. She'll thank me for it one day...

Spent some time in the pool yesterday, I think my first time this year. William and Ethan, Syd's friends from next door, helped us break it in. We are seriously lacking in pool toys, though. Later we pretended to be superheroes on the trampoline. (Syd likes to be “Action Lady” and I'm affectionally referred to as “Buttman”; guess what my “special power” is.)

Playing host to Pedro's sister and her husband for a couple of weeks. They're very nice and Frank is a legacy computer programmer so I'm looking forward to some war stories.

Just over a week ago, we went on a day-long excursion to the northern Exumas with some new friends from the UK. A high-speed boat took us to a private beach. (It was about an hour and a half over fairly choppy water and Syd seems to have picked up her daddy's motion sickness.) When we got there, a middle-aged American couple started feeding us and they didn't want to stop. We laid on the beach for about an hour until the boat took a few of us out to the coral to go snorkeling.

Got back to the beach to a delicious lunch and afterward, we pitched everything into the water to feed the sharks and barracudas (which, I later discovered were swimming around just around the corner from the beach). Later, Syd got to feed a sting ray right from her hand and on the way back (along even choppier waters), we stopped to feed some iguanas on a little cay. The tour guide said no one knows how the iguanas got on the island to start with but I suspect the Ministry of Tourism had a hand in it.

Anyway, was a great excursion. Hope to do it again when someone else comes to visit.

OK, the first attempt was marred by technical glitches and the fact that it was too cumbersome to use. This time, though, I did what any good developer does: I found something better that someone else is giving away for free. So hopefully, this will be the beginning of more frequent updates from us down in the Bahamas. In the meantime, click the Feedback link below to make comments of your own.