Last week, my husband and I went on a cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Grand Turk, St. Thomas, and the Bahamas. That’s me on the left, swathed heavily against the sun. Unfortunately, that is not my husband on the right. Nevertheless, I had a great time. I had hoped to go kayaking and be able to trade stories with the intrepid Blaze Senior Editor, Brenda Chin, but it was not to be. Instead, I toured del Morro, annoyed iguanas, shopped in St. Thomas, and made friends on the beach (see left). I handled an alligator and went on a pub crawl–and I won the toasting contest with this limerick:

There were two couples from Texas
Who could have been driving a Lexus
But they went on a cruise
And are enjoying the booze
And afterward hope they’re not exes.

My prize was a lovely key chain.

The fact that I was on a pub crawl at all is solely due to the Blaze influence. Blaze heroines are confident and go after what they want. Their attitude has begun to rub off on me. Would a Blaze heroine sit around moping about her cancelled kayaking trip? Absolutely not, and neither did I. And now I have a new key chain and a new friend! (see above)

While I was cavorting in the Caribbean, did I forget the Blaze Blog readers? Why no! Straight from St. Thomas is a lovely, dainty, sterling silver Larimar necklace that a lucky blog commenter will win. Larimar, or blue pectolite, is found only in the Caribbean and is the result of lava merging with copper. The more times you comment, the better your chances of winning. On Sunday night, I’m going to ask the girl next door to draw a number and will post the winner on Monday morning.

I don’t know my new friend’s name since I, er, didn’t bother asking. It didn’t seem important at the time. What shall we call him?