Mai Tai

Continuing our research to perfect recipes for tropical adult beverages, we have, I believe, arrived at the optimal Mai Tai recipe. After first tasting a Mai Tai a few years ago when visiting the Hawaiian island of Kauai, we set forth on a selfless mission to develop a Mai Tai formula to endure the test of time. Here's a shot of the ingredients for these 2 recipes:

For the past few years, I'd been using a recipe based on pineapple juice. Here's a pic:

We did a little more research this weekend, and my new fave is slightly modified from the original Trader Vic recipe. Here's a pic of the new winner:

So...Here are the recipes for Mai Tai. The background picture one I took from the bridge over the Aitutaki lagoon when we visited the Cook Islands a few years ago. As mentioned above, my favorite Mai Tai recipe is the 2nd one listed on the web page - the modified Trader Vic recipe. But either drink is quite tasty and refreshing.

Cheers :-)

Sand Key Park, Clearwater FL

This afternoon we decided it was a good day to lay on the sand and take the occassional dip in the Gulf. So we popped over to Clearwater, to Sand Key Park (a half hour or so from here). Here's a few pics to show how awesome it was. This is what weekends are for - a few hours that feel like a mini-vacation. :-)

Florida sunsets

Here's a little more Florida eye candy. Friday evening we drove down to St Pete Beach for dinner at our fave sunset dinner joint, Hurricane Restaurant. On the way Shirley snapped a few pics of another awesome sunset (click on a thumbnail image to see the larger image):

   

Wilbur the cat

OK, I can't say that Wilbur is his name...yet. Shirley's not so sure about that name, and wants to see what the personality suggests. But I'm lobbying for "Wilbur".

Anyway...our last cat, Maggie, made the move from Washington state down here to Florida and seemed to be getting used to apartment life. But she'd always been an indoor/outdoor cat. By that I mean that she would sleep inside sometimes, but often would spend the night outside and liked to sit on the front porch or be curled up in the bushes out back. Several weeks ago, Maggie was given the opportunity to explore the outdoors here at the apartment complex. We haven't seen her since. We're guessing that she's either happily dining on cockroaches and geckos and sleeping under the boardwalk...or maybe she's been "taken in" by some other tenants, and not let out.

So today Shirley decided to give "Wilbur" a chance. He had been abandoned by some other tenants who were evicted, and after 10 days of the apartment management trying to find a home for him, he was about to be handed over to the kitty pound (or whatever they call the organization that takes these animals and tries to find them homes ... and maybe sometimes ends up putting the animals on death row).

We're guessing Wilbur is several months old, but definitely not full grown yet. We'll have to get him to a vet to see how soon he can be neutered. The last thing most towns need is more cats breeding.

Here's a pic of "Wilbur" under one of the beds:

And here's Shirley holding the new adoptee:

By the way, if you have any inspired names for this little critter, feel free to offer your suggestion ;-)

Another reason to vote for John Kerry

In the past I've stayed away from policital postings on my sites. But there is just way, way too much at stake to be silent any more. There are many very serious reasons why I am supporting John Kerry and will do what I can to see that Mr Bush does not spend a second term in the White House.

This is not a serious reason. But it is true:

John Kerry's web site works just fine with the Firefox web browser. I am running Firefox v0.8 on top of the Linspire operating system. The election site for George W Bush, however (it shouldn't really be called a RE-election site, since he was not elected) - does not function with Firefox. At least not with Firefox on top of Linspire. When I try to go to Mr. Bush's site, it crashes Firefox....everytime.

Just for the record, I am registered as a Democrat in Florida. But I have voted for Republicans, Democrats, and candidates from neither party. I vote for the person I believe would do the best job.