Hello, February 2011! Culebra style

February 1 is … Serpent Day - that's today!

So we get started right, I went directly to the calendar for February (that's FebRUary, let's start off really right). This month holds a lot of really great holidays. Consider today, Serpent Day. We all know Culebra means serpent / snake, so today is obviously CULEBRA DAY!!! Now you know. And if you celebrate correctly, you will probably need tomorrow's Purification Day, which is best held at a beach on Culebra.


February 2 is … Purification Day
February 3 is … Cordova Ice Worm Day
February 4 is … Create A Vacuum Day
February 5 is … Disaster Day
February 6 is … Lame Duck Day
February 7 is … Charles Dickens Day

February 8 is … Kite Flying Day - I'm in! I love kite flying!

This is a great place to fly a kite!

February 9 is … Toothache Day
February 10 is … Umbrella Day

February 11 is … White Tee-Shirt Day and Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk Day  - Good thing these two days are together. Unless you are drinking chocolate milk.

February 12 is … National Plum Pudding Day
February 13 is … Get A Different Name Day and Dream Your Sweet Day

February 14 is … Ferris Wheel Day and National Heart to Heart Day

This may be the only calendar in the English language that does not call February 14th Valentine's Day, but rather, Heart to Heart Day. You have to love this! Especially since it is Ferris Wheel Day also. What is Ferris Wheel Day, you are asking? Because I know you are wondering, I've done some of the hard work for you, because that's just the kind of person I am. This is the day that honors Mr. Ferris, the man who invented the Ferris Wheel. What? You didn't know there WAS a Mr. Ferris? Here is all (and more) the information about him you could want. As for Heart to Heart Day, you can work that out on your own.

February 15 is … National Gum Drop Day

February 16 is … Do A Grouch A Favor Day - I'll try...unless I'm the grouch

February 17 is … Champion Crab Races Day - I love crab races. But I'd have to go to St. Croix for them. Maybe I'll do that. Next year. Maybe. If you've never seen a crab race, here is how Tito and Sue on St. Croix run them.

February 18 is … National Battery Day
February 19 is … National Chocolate Mint Day

February 20 is … Hoodie Hoo Day More Info on Hoodie Hoo Day

Anyone who knows me knows that Hoodie Hoo Day holds a big place in my life calendar. If you want to know more about it, you can go to my post on it last year. That post also mentions two little girls I'm very fond of, Lola and Lucy, who will actually be here for Hoodie Hoo Day again this year! Which means I'll be baking some Treats of the Day for them, and for you too, if you get there before they all sell out.

February 21 is … Card Reading Day

February 22 is … Be Humble Day - This is also my friend Tim's birthday, and he is one of the most humble guys I know; truth. I'll be really GREAT at at celebrating this day, because I am. Humble, I mean. Really.

February 23 is … International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day

February 24 is … National Tortilla Chip Day note to self: This must mean nachos at Mamacita's

View from Mamacita's, where I just had nachos yesterday. YUM!

February 25 is … Pistol Patent Day (Samuel Colt)
February 26 is … National Pistachio Day
February 27 is … International Polar Bear Day
February 28 is … Public Sleeping Day

February 29 is … National Surf and Turf Day Actually, this year there is no February 29th, so if you want to celebrate Surf and Turf Day, you're on your own

On the way to the bank, I noticed that Benjamin had finished a new wall painting...

Do you remember what was there before? 

 And that's about all I know for now, this first day of February, 2011.

Have a tender Tuesday. Do something touching.

Stir it all together Sunday

Yesterday after cart time (and thanks to all of you who made it a great day there!), I was in town doing some errands when I came across Benjamin making new murals on his wall.  For me, this little stretch of town is so much what Culebra is about, Don Perez carving his boats or doing his word puzzles, Benjamin's wall advertising Dinghy Dock, Milka's, his book, New Year, or whatever strikes his fancy. Here are these wonderful paintings and then one day they are something else entirely, inventive, filled with details of Culebra's history and present. He kindly gave me permission to take a photo or two...

There is a big blank space next to this one that I'm looking forward to seeing filled in. Gracias, mi companero!

I had to go to the library to return some of the books I've borrowed - I got a letter from the library and I was afraid to open it, thinking guiltily of my overdue books, even though Lawrence tells me he knows my heart is in the right place if I've actually gotten them into bags and almost made it out the door with them, no worries.

After I returned the books, I opened the letter and it wasn't about bad me after all. Instead it told about the new structure that is being built (thanks, Rotary Club of San Juan for providing the funds!), a report on the summer reading program being a big hit, a graph of the huge increase in patrons from last year to this and a request for those of any talents to bring them forward to share with the community. Some of the ideas were CPR, water safety, gardening, island secrets (not THOSE kind, more like shopping tips), writing, kayaking...you get the idea. Got a skill, a talent, a passion you'd like to share? Let them know at the library!

Billy Thomas and crew are making great progress on the pavilion. The new decking does make one think of dancing, but no line dancing for me, Lori!

Later in the evening, while in the kitchen at Susie's, I saw this Christmas special she was making. A kind of Puerto Rican holiday tapas dish, with tastes of lechon, rice and beans gussied up, plantains, blood sausage and pasteles. What are pasteles? I found a neat web site from Hawaii called Mahalo (thanks/respect/esteem etc. in Hawaiian) on the various types of this dish made in many places, but "...Puerto Rico pasteles are a cherished culinary recipe. Puerto Rican pasteles are much more labor intensive than any other."

 

The plate  looked so pretty, we decided it needed a photo.

The night was cool, the breeze was blowing, the moon is starting to look gigantic as we near Winter Solstice and its fullness. Sleep, only interrupted in dream like fashion with the paranda music, was good. And suddenly, it was morning, the sound of a boat motor far out on the bay, darkness giving way to light. As it should.

Have a salty Sunday! Do something splashy.