Sorry everyone who reads this to find out what I have been reading! I haven't had time to read, watch TV, or even work on the cross-stitch baby blanket. Nicke and Anne arrived from Finland last Weds. night and it has been go non-stop since then. I left them here on Thursday so they could get their first shade of red at Bluebeard's Beach Resort beach and went to Montessori, but that is the last time I have been in the car by myself.

Friday we went diamond shopping and Annika (her full name - we call her Anne, sounds like Aunna, long A, when you say it) picked out a gorgeous ring with white and blue diamonds. It is tradition for the groom to get the bride a necklace as a Wedding Morning gift so they picked out a 3 diamond necklace with 2 white and one blue diamond to go with the ring and added small diamond hoop earrings to go along with it. So she certainly wore something new and something blue. I won't mention what was the borrowed piece, you couldn't see it anyway! :-)

The Finnish way is for both the guy and girl to buy and wear plain bands when they get engaged and then the diamond ring for the woman is the wedding ring. And the woman picks it out, rather than the guy doing do as is the case with most of us. My Steve has wonderful taste in jewelry and I love my diamond engagement ring so I am not complaining! Nicke was drinking beer at 9:30 in the morning so he could deal with Anne deciding on which of the MANY rings she tried on! As it was she picked out a ring with 5 blue diamonds and only wanted 3 so the jeweler had to switch out two of them for white diamonds. In other words - it was an all day process. We did go to the 18th Hole in Drake's Seat and buy knock off sunglasses and a hat for poor Nicke whose face was bright red from the sun, and probably the shopping!

Carnival is in full swing on island with the Food Fair today, Jump Up tomorrow night, Children's Parade on Friday, and Adult Parade on Saturday. We are not "crowd people" so Steve and I are taking the ferry over to Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands and hide from tomorrow afternoon until Sunday. Carnival is like Christmas on the mainland as far as saving to buy new clothes, etc. The costumes are very expensive and the West Indians really get into this annual event.

Can't talk to you about any great books I have read, as I haven't had time to read! But, I can say that I am taking Harry S. Pariser's Explore the Virgin Islands, 6th edition, with me to Virgin Gorda. I read through the section on St. Thomas thoroughly and found a few minor editing errors - in one place it said there is no daily newspaper and then later in the section there was a editorial piece about the new owner of The Daily News, which is our daily paper. The locals don't care for the paper as it exposes the corruption in the government and the crime rate on the islands, etc. Steve won't go a day without it - mainly because he does the crossword puzzle! I gave up on reading it as I am tired of hearing about all the problems on the island. I read the world news online instead.

All for today - I am sorry if I missed a bunch of editing errors. I am feeling stressed out as this is also a big grading time for me - end of the semester so I am either on the go with Nicke and Anne (who are, thankfully, at the beach) - behind the wheel of the car, or in shops, being tour guide, or I am in front of the computer grading student assignments.

I'll write more about the actual wedding on Saturday next time! It was beautiful!!