6/8: With the Celtics humiliating the Lakers with a 24-point lead, in the middle of the fourth quarter of Game 2 of the NBA Finals a big fire broke out in the pub I watching the game in. Everyone got out of Joe's American Bar & Grill safely, but the place will be closed for most of a week for repairs. My writeup and photos here.

6/7: Went down to Dartmouth, Mass with my coworker Jay and managed a scenic 62-mile ride around South Dartmouth, Horseneck Beach, and into Rhode Island to hit Adamsville, Little Compton, and Sakonet Point in 85-degree heat.

6/5: After work, trucked over to IBM to catch BostonPHP's hosting of an introductiory pres by John Resig, the founder and lead developer of jQuery, a fabulous Web 2.0 Javascript scripting library. Then ran home and caught the Celtics' ten-point victory over the Lakers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.

6/4: Attended an author lecture at the BPL with two other people about George Daughan's generously-titled new naval history: If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy -From the Revolution to the War of 1812.

5/26: Weekend trip to Maine included two 35-mile Bike Friday rides: one through Manchester, Monmouth, West Gardiner, and Hallowell, and the other through Manchester to Belgrade Lakes and back via North Augusta.

5/16: Finally came home after a four and a half month deployment in St. Thomas. Yayness!

5/14: Went to a well-attended farewell pub crawl in honor of Andy and I. Stops included East End Cafe, the Cellar, Molly Molone's, Lotus, Island Time, Caribbean Saloon, then (after I bailed) Fat Boys, Duffy's, and XO.

5/11: Spent my last weekend in the Virgin Islands with one last sun-worshipping trip to a few of my favorite places: St. Thomas' Lindquist Beach on Saturday, and then over to St. John for snorkeling around Waterlemon Cay, a quick dip at Maho Beach, then more sun and sand at Cinnamon Bay..

5/3: Maiden voyage of my brand new travel bike, a Pocket Rocket from Bike Friday. It folds down into a standard suitcase for ease of travel, and is designed to mimick the feel and behavior of a full-sized road bike. Look for a full review soon on my cycling blog.

4/24: Learned something important about myself thanks to a couple of my work buddies.

4/23: Got up before 4am in order to enjoy J'Ouvert, one of the highlights of St. Thomas' Carnival that celebrates the sunrise. Everyone gets dressed up all sexxay and tramps along behind several bands playing from flatbeds hauled by a tractor-trailers. It was quite an eyeful and earful!

4/22: Kicked off St. Thomas' Carnival with a trip to the Cultural Fair for tasty roast chickey.

4/20: With another morning on my own, I brought my snorkeling equipment and underwater camear to Lindquist Beach, which was a pretty good experience overall.

4/19: With my buddies busy doing their scuba certification test, I set off on my own to St. John to explore the ruins and absolutely amazing snorkeling around Waterlemon Cay in Leinster Bay. I also borrowed a camera with an underwater housing and got a bunch of great shots that you can see here.

4/18: Who says miracles don't happen? Inna regained near-perfect vision after her lasik surgery today. Congrats!

4/9: Everyone from work went out for a party at the East End Cafe out in Red Hook. Afterwards, the cool kids hung out at Duffy's Love Shack, and then the real hardcore group followed that up with an excursion to the XO Beast-Row.

4/7: Began the morning at Sapphire Beach with Inna, but intermittent showers pushed us back to Cowpit Bay for a swim. Went into Charlotte Amalie for a West Indian lunch at Cuzzins, then dropped Inna off at the airport.

4/6: Took Inna over to the touristy beach at Magens Bay, where we were beset by tree-sniffing Frenchmen and partying locals. Dinner overlooking Sapphire Bay at Agave Terrace.

4/5: Inna and I hopped the ferry to St. John and spent the whole morning at the amazing beach at Cinnamon Bay. Returned to Cruz Bay for a nice Mexican lunch at Margarita Phil's, then an afternoon of swimming at Maho Bay.

4/4: Spent the morning with Inna enjoying a rough surf at hidden Lindquist Beach, then admired the view of Magens Bay from the overlook at Mountain Top. Finished with sushi at Lotus Asian Grill.

4/3: Inna arrived for a weekend visit in St. Thomas, and I took her straight to Emerald Beach, and then a fine schnitzel dinner at Bella Blu in Frenchtown.