Sadly, Tali and Sabrina left to go back to school, but not before us making fresh conch fritters with the conch we harvested.  After 2 days in the freezer, we defrosted and pulled the meat out.  Little did we know that when unfrozen, those babies get really slimy and sticky.  Using a Bahamaian Pardise Island conch fritters’ receipe, the appetizers were paired nicely with locally caught red snapper we bought at Trainee’s Beauty Salon (hubby is a fisherman).

It’s been raining, a LOT!  It’s been entertaining watching the cruisers (including us) optimistically putting wet clothes out to dry on their rails, bring them back into the boat during the rains, and then putting them back out again hoping this this time, we’ll have enough wind, much less sun, to make things dry!

We weathered a TON of rain, lightening all night long, some came with sound and some light up the entire area without any sound–even more disconcerting somehow.  It was followed by a 1 am tsunami warning which though scary, didn’t ultimately affect us here in the Exhumas.

Activity wise, Don and I made it to the last table during the Texas Hold’em tournament at the St. Francis resort but neither of us made the last 3 players so no payout–next time. We continue to brave water aerobics in the grey dawn and lighter rains, dinghied into town for a fresh food run returning with wet bottoms and flour, and between showers attended a book/DVD/maps swap at the Chat and Chill beach.  Don successfully took me on our single person kayak to the beach without us both falling into the water, and we had a few hours of sun today so our laundry is “mostly dry”…

I’m transitioning to be a part-time subcontractor to TCG effective Feb. 1.  I must admit that I never thought I’d work for the same company 12+ years in this economy.  It’s time to slow down and diversify a bit.  With that, I was honored to be invited to join an NIH Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) study section, reviewing general data science, computational biology; basically, any pre-clinical application of software to biomedical research grants.