highest Crimes rates in the Caribbean according to Frommers 2008

Mine's acting OK but I had to unplug the box thing & plug it in. Do you use Crap Cleaner? I run it nearly every day & it gets rid of a bunch of junk as well as Ad-Aware. Both are free & are fast. Ccleaner also allows you to save some cookies so you don't have to relog into your favorite sites.

I'll have to ask hubby. I am computer stupid. I just type and then yell for him when I have a problem. This morning I just turned it off and then back on and it is running better.

When do you get back to STX or do you know yet?

August 23rd. JJ starts school on the 25th. My baby is going to kindergarten.

Is he excited? Got him all kitted out yet with the backpack, etc?

Yes, he's all ready. I think it's great that he can just have a plain old kmart backpack and no designer clothes here. Back in the states if the kids don't have top of the line everything they are made fun of.

I'll say! I also like that the public schools have uniforms.

Me too. I wish they would do that in the states as well.

Seems they occasionally bring it up but it gets vetoed. Supposedly stifles the students' "creativity" on indiviualism.

I think, "in the states", the uniform issue is a local issue. I know some of the inner city public schools here in Baltimore have gone to uniforms. I think it's a good thing. Although, (note proper punctuation) as a product of Catholic school upbringing , I complained about uniforms for 12 years 😉 so don't tell Mom.

(Now, stop paying attention to proper grammar. If you are an English teacher and I have already screwed up please forgive me)

I just realized this thread is about crime. How ironic it has turned to outfitting a child for kindergarten. How great is that? Let's hope the crime talk stops. It's all around all of us. I assume most everyone has been a victim of some type of crime. If not, well, I am envious. Thank God, in my case, nothing too serious. I travel a lot for my work and am often in cities unfamiliar. I know one block in the wrong direction is one block in the wrong direction. I respect that.

In STX, I am more on alert until I get my feet wet, so to speak. At my home there, I am fine. I think our house is in a safe neighborhood. It's out of the way and quiet so anyone passing through is noticed. But, in town I am very aware. It's funny though, what may look scary to an "outsider" may be acceptable to a "belonger" or native.

Last trip we decided to take young nephew out in Fredricksted for pizza. We have been to the place before and knew the pizza was good. But, upon arrival, there was a really crazy guy yelling all kinds of profanity. He looked like he was getting into his vehicle so we tried to wait him out. No luck, He got in, got out, over and over, yelling all the time. It was freaky so we left. Just happened we went through Hannah's Rest so hubby decided to stop at the police station. They ended up sending a car to the location to check it out . We were pretty much escorted yet we stayed away from the police car so as not to identify us as being the complainers.

Crazy guy was still there, but more subdued.

We mentioned his outbursts to the staff and they just shrugged it off. Once inside we could not hear the guy anyway and eventually he left.

And we . . . ate pizza.

Uniforms are popular at schools here in Phoenix. However, sometimes I think the joke is on the adults. The students do anything they possibly can to make themselves stand out by adding unique jewelry, socks, shoes, hairstyles, hair colors, etc. On the other hand, students who don't have required uniforms basically come up with their own... everyone has to have exactly the same "cool" clothes... which usually ends up being jeans and a t-shirt. I suppose you can't win. *-) I'm thrilled to hear that kids don't care about that stuff on STX... with any luck, I'll be raising my (hypothetical, as-yet-nonexistent) kids there, and the lack of materialism makes me so happy!

In any case, I hope JJ has a fantastic first day of kindergarten!!

Back to the topic of crime, my boyfriend's car was stolen from our driveway here in Phoenix for the second time in less than 4 months, in broad daylight, while we were sitting inside the house twiddling our thumbs. We live in a nice area where you would never expect such a thing to happen. And it's a 14 year old car, for heaven's sake! It's almost like they waited for him to fix it up after the first go-round (it was partially stripped), and then they struck again. Regardless of what people say about crime in STX, it's looking better than ever!! :X I told Brian the first time around, and I told him again today, that it's definitely a sign that he needs to get rid of his little sports car and get a more island-y car that we can take to STX in the next couple of years! 😎