Soup day

Yummy Taco Soup on left. Gross Bean Soup w/ huge hambone on right.

Guess which soup I cook for others and which soup I love...

Asparagus Risotto

I ate this a few times on the boat ride and wanted to see if I could make it at home. It is time consuming and with the recipe I'm using, I can't really walk away. I am going to search for a different recipe for the next experiement.

I hope it tastes as good as it smells.

Adorable planter received today

Anonymous note so someone needs to fess up and take credit. I love this planter and anxiously await the blooms of the spring bulbs.

Elsie loves her new blankie

Looks like the devil dog just had a cookie too!

tired annabelle beep-beep

this is a test post sent from my phone directly to the blog. Oh I hope this works!

lyle and john... and the civil wars and more on CAYAMO 2012 sixthman

there were many artists on this cruise. you can google cayamo 2012 if you are interested but I'll name a few of the headliners: lyle lovett, john hiatt, lucinda williams, buddy miller, richard thompson, jim lauderdale, the civil wars, shawn mullins, greg brown, john prine, loudon wainwright III, keb' mo', iris dement, chuck cannon, edwin mccain, and i can't remember the others right now. many are grammy nominated and many are grammy winners. not just for their album or song of the year but for writing, producing, etc. I'm not a fan of cruises but these themed cruises are the bomb. I highly recommend one if there is one that has a lot of entertainers you follow.

here I am representing one of my local favs who is very popular across the US and in Europe...Damon Fowler. People on the boat recognized the logo and beamed when they talked about seeing him in concert. Yay Damon.... love ya man!

The Civil Wars. The Grammy Winning Civil Wars. They left the boat early to go to the show. They also performed. I was fortunate to see them in Tampa a few days before the boat. To listen to them again was such a treat. They were having a great time on the boat too. Their first album was released Feb 2011... in Feb 2012 two grammy awards. yay civil wars.

st barths airport and beach... and one of the sunrises - cayamo 2012

I stayed up all night a couple or maybe a few times on this cruise. I shot this photo one morning when I returned to the cabin. Room service delivered about 2 hours later and we were up and running again. Yes, I'm tired today.. Monday... February 13th!

The airport runway in St Barths ends at the beach as you can tell by this photo. I love sitting on this beach and watching the small planes come and go. That's Tawni and Lyndon getting ready to leave after a few hours in the sun.

show your colors night... hippie night..tie dye, whatever on CAYAMO 2012

This is the only photo I have of us together... it is kinda cool but if only you could have seen the SHOES too. hahahaha self portrait in the elevator headed someplace on the big boat.
yes, I got a little sunburned. In only two places. One out there for the world to see. not so good with sunscreen application earlier that day. it was worth it. we channeled goldie by allowing people to paint on us. this is Mike from Sixthman. tawni painted a cool vine with flowers and lady bugs on my leg but I don't have a pic of that either. FIRE THE PHOTOGRAPHER!

cayamo 2012... songwriters and spinnaker lounge shots - sixthman

another show of singer/songwriters. Rhett Miller (old 97s), Jim Lauderdale, Edwin McCain, Angie Aparo, and Joe Purdy. You may not know their names but they are all prolific songwriters and have many of their creations recorded and played on the radio or in a movie, whatever. Ever heard the song I'll Be? well, the handsome young man in the middle wrote that song and he says he will play it every day, every set, whenever requested. One of my fav parts of this cruise was the stories behind the songs... how they wrote what they wrote. here's an old you tube clip of edwin... he's gotten a haircut since this was shot!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVTKq0kM2tI

here we are waiting for a show to start someplace. perhaps before the show in the photo above.
below we are on another one of those fancy couches in the spinnaker. this was during a james mcmurtry show. we'd seen him once already but wanted to listen again and it was SRO so we utilized the sofa. Lyndon is tired.

st maarten - cayamo 2012 - james mcmurtry

that's james mcmurty in the green shirt. i've been told he's shy. i have listened to him for years and many of you have read his daddy's books and viewed his movies. must run in the family, huh. one night at the bar he was ordering a drink and so was tawni. he isn't exactly approachable so i wasn't going to say anything and then suddenly i just said 'you're looking handsome tonight' and he looked and me... didn't know what to think i guess... and said 'thank you' . .. .my james mcmurtry encounter! then some bonehead shouted (rude!!) JAMES YOU COMING BACK NEXT YEAR... as he walked away he said 'maybe. if i don't piss anyone off'

gotta love him. I DO hope he returns next year.

our boat on the right. st maarten

Angie Aparo on Cayamo 2012

Angie Aparo's guitar. A Gibson Chet Atkins style. I love the sound of this guitar and will be buying one soon. Why? An investment! A man magnet? Who knows. I just loved the guitar. We caught a few minutes of Angie's act the first day on the boat and proceeded to go to every show at which he appeared. He was at most jams and was having a great time on the boat. You may not know him but if you google him you'll see what he has written for stars. I never knew the song Cry by Faith Hill... but I know it now... and he wrote it. (and many others!) yay angie.

Cayamo 2012 pool deck concerts - shawn mullins, jim lauderdale, buddy miller, sara watkins, richard thompson, sean watkins

upstairs pool deck. Shawn Mullins night show.

Tawni and Lyndon at the Shawn show. that dang yellow stair thingy in the background needs to be removed for this cruise.... or use another dang boat! I'm sure peeps love it on a 'regular' cruise but for this one it is just an eyesore and in the way... takes too much space.

Daytime show on pool deck. there were many shows outside but they could have booked even more. the weather was perfect except for one day and I know I would have loved to have been outside more during the day listening to music. perhaps this is when they were using the slide... when we were all inside at the stardust, etc. watching other shows while the sun was shining. I don't know, I wasn't out there! I was listening and enjoying music indoors.

Jim Lauderdale, Buddy Miller, Sara Watkins, Richard Thompson, Sean Watkins.

Jim Lauderdale again. Three mornings on the boat he conducted tai chi (sp) classes for the guests. Tawni was a good girl and went all three days. The girl who stayed up all night made it to only one class. It was great. I learned some new stretches. Thanks Jim! He had to leave the boat early for two reasons... Donna the Buffalo festival in Miami and then jetted to LA for the GRAMMY's since he was NOMINATED!

on the pool deck waiting for a show to start on CAYAMO 2012 cruise

tawni sunning herself while i'm getting very windblown it seems.

nice shirt, huh.

not sure what lyndon is doing here but we were having fun in the sun listening to great music.

Represent night on Cayamo cruise 2012

Skippers Smokehouse tank, Gasparilla beads and cup from some Krewe, pink flamingo pin on hat, and Tampa Theatre tattoo. Tawni representing Los Angeles with Kobe's shirt.

CAYAMO! 2012 Journey through song . . . more SIXTHMAN

jams like these were going on all over the boat and into the wee hours of the morning. these are passengers who brought their instruments. you never knew which artists would show up and jam. lots of fun.

loudon wainwright III in the stardust lounge. below: this stage was in the atrium. shows started here around noon and ended around 2am. sometimes later.

keb' mo'

the spinnaker lounge had all sorts of funky furniture. this is one of many fabulous lounging areas in that club. also a smaller stage where artists started playing around 2ish and ended at midnight-ish.

ok... cruise 2... CAYAMO! Journey through song 2012

views of our cabin.

waiting to leave port. blondes have more fun but redheads like it HOT.

Delbert McClinton Sandy Beaches Cruise 18 . . . enough already

representing damon fowler group on board. stage to the right, pool to the left. decked over foro dance floor.

self portrait walking away from st. kitts

elsie and annabelle beep-beep waiting for their dinner go-ahead signal

I learned this from a dog trainer in california and tried to teach it to my girls. they are getting pretty good at waiting for me to give them the OK to eat. Annie almost has 'shake' in her vocabulary too. well, only if you are holding a treat in front of her.

Delbert McClinton Sandy Beaches Cruise 18 . . . even MORE!

last night on the boat. getting chillier as we cruise closer to miami.

me and michael again.

trapped eric before he entered the elevator. he sure did smell good!

a school of tarpon at the docks in st. barths. i could have watched them all day. below, the beach at st. barths where the small planes fly over and land just feet from your blanket. i could have stayed here all day too.