No more soap :(

That
tiny yellowish sliver in the shower soap dish is all that remains of a
cleansing dynasty...Shirley's soap business. When we were living in
Vancouver, Washington, Shirley had a small business making soap.
Shirley's soap was made the old-fashioned way, using vegetable oil,
coconut oil, lye, water, scent (from essential oils). That soap was
wonderful, and many customers, friends, and relatives had commented on
how much they liked the soap.We've
been spoiled using this good stuff - the remains of her soap inventory
- since moving down to Florida this past January. But, alas, all things
must change, and this morning I forced myself to unwrap a bar of
<gasp!> store-bought soap.

That
color-not-found-in-nature brick of chemicals in the corner is a bar of
the over-perfumed and artificially colored excuse for soap that is
marketed by one of the standard tons-o-advertising companies. After
using a little of that this morning, I had to grab the sliver of
Shirley's good soap and use it to get the smell of the new stuff off my
skin.

I think today we'll hit one of the local health food stores and buy some real soap.

Top Shelf Mai Tai

I've posted a couple of Mai Tai recipes
in the past. Continuing the selfless and relentless pursuit of recipes
for the tastiest of tropical libations, I've modified the recipe
slightly this weekend. Going back to the pineapple juice base that I'd
first used after trying Mai Tais in Hawaii a few years ago, I also
decided to up the quality a little. In the past I'd typically used
Triple Sec or orange Curacao for the orange flavor, and regular almond
syrup for the almond flavor. Well, we enjoy Top Shelf Margaritas, which
include Cointreau in the mix, and I decided to try Cointreau instead of
Triple Sec or orange Curacao. And for some time now I've been using
Disaronno for almond flavor. So the new, revised recipe involves 3
ounces of liquor per drink. Definitely packs a punch. If you prefer to
have a couple of drinks and still be able to walk, this drink is quite
tasty even if you cut the rum in half and only use 1 shot per drink (8/19/2005 I've modified the recipe to skip the sugar syrup and cut back to just one shot of rum).
OK, enough rambling. The new Litton favorite ...the "Top Shelf Mai Tai":

• 1 shot dark rum
• 1/2 shot Cointreau
• 1/2 shot Disaronno
• splash grenadine
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 6 ounces pineapple juice

Put all ingredients except for the grenadine into a shaker
with a handful of ice. Shake to mix and cool the ingredients. Pour the
mix through a strainer into a glass with fresh ice, add a splash of
grenadine for the final touch and enjoy!

Toilet stories

Got
your attention, huh? Well it just happens that the past week or so has
had its share of odd restroom sights, sounds, and stories. This past
Monday, Shirley and I went to dinner with Ben and Ashley at 717, a great Tampa restaurant in the SOHO
district. I went off to the restroom after a while and ...holy cow!
Above each urinal was a flat-screen TV with the football game on!

One day at work this week I went to the restroom and went into one
of the stalls. There was a gent in the next stall, and after a moment I
heard an odd noise...moments later I realized he was snoring! I must assume that my narcoleptic colleague had been toiling for days on end and simply needed a moment of deep rest.

And
then a gent we know who works at a local restaurant mentioned that the
manager of the establishment had to, um, interrupt a very inebriated
couple who were having sex in the women's restroom. Sheesh! They must have
been incredibly bombed. Hopefully neither of them was driving after
being chased from the restaurant!
OK, enough tales of the weird :-)

OK...Feels like December!

Dang! Just a few days ago I was talking it up about how warm it was. We went swimming a week or two ago in the unheated pool here at the apartments. Well things have changed! It was down near 30F last night, and we turned on the heat for the first time since moving to Florida at the beginning of the year. It's only supposed to hit 59F today. Last week we had temperatures around 80F. Weird, this Florida weather. The next couple of days it's predicted to be back above 70F. On the bright side, the sun is shining and the cooler weather feels a bit more like Christmas season, in contrast to the odd feeling we had when it was over 80F and all the businesses already had holiday decorations up.

Tango: my next car

In a post last month, I mentioned my ideal next car. At that time I was thinking a Smart car was my dream car. No more. The object of my automotive fantasy is now the Tango
(pictured to the left - click the thumbnail for a larger image). These
cars are the brainchild of a father/son team in Spokane, Washington (my
old state) here in the USA. It's a 2-seater electric car (passenger
sits behind driver), 0 to 60 mph in under 4 seconds, corners
like a Porsche, is built around a roll-cage that protects the occupants
even in high-speed crashes, and is totally cool. These cars are only 39
inches wide (narrower than many motorcycles), and so are ridiculously
easy to park. The travel range is 80 miles per charge. For now, the
price is too high for a working stiff like me. The goal of the
inventors, however, is to get the production up to a level where the
price will be about US$10,000.

Well, I'm in no hurry to replace my current vehicle (a 7-year old
Subaru Outback). But when the Subaru dies, I'm hoping there's an
earth-friendly option like the Tango available.