Doin' the New Low Down

Greetings, Gate! Welcome to another installment of this blog-o-roonie and to all the cats who hail from the rock bound coast of Maine to the dewy cliffs of California we say, quote, Hello Cats! unquote.

Gate, drivers in this neck of the woods are freakin' insane. Dig this: we've had our thirteenth fatality on Highway 101 in seven months. This incident involves someone speeding nearly 100 mph and t-boning a car coming off a side street. I'm unclear on a lot of the details, Jack, but the driver of the t-boned car was most likely killed and the children in that car were medivaced out to Seattle. Nearly two months ago there were no less than three fatalities on 101 within the space of two weeks. The problem lies in people trying to over take slower cars ahead of them and colliding with oncoming traffic. It's bad news, Gate, and if I'm lying, I'm flying.

Augh and double augh! So, Gate, my coffee date with Ashley was shot down ... apparently her boyfriend didn't approve. Oops. As Dan said when he heard the bad news, "Coffee is so benign ..." Ah well, Gate. It's not a huge let down and fortunately there is Plan B! What is Plan B you ask? Well, it involves a similar scenario with a wonderfully ironic waitress who makes a fabulous paisley martini.

I'll name you two wonderful things, Gate: tea and free samples. And it's even better when you can combine the two. Now, I'm not a overly big fan of pre-packaged teas. I like the elaborate ritual of loose tea ... boiling a kettle of water, the tea diffuser, the aroma of the loose tea, letting it steep. Most pre-packaged teas are sweeping from the plantation floor. Besides, with pre-packaged teas you're paying for the pretty packaging and many companies use chemicals to create their decaffeinated teas. Here's two pre-packaged teas I will recommend, Gate: Numi teas and Celestial Seasonings. Both are a bit spendy, but worth it. Now to the free samples part. A benefit of my job at the natural foods store is the occassional free sample. This week I picked up three free samples of some new Celestial Seasonings teas: Moroccan Pomegranite Red, Marrakesh Express Vanilla Spice and Persian Mint Spice. The Moroccan Pmoegranite Red featured a fez-wearing monkey and I could hardly resist. It has hibiscus in it and thus a slightly sweet, exotic taste reminiscent of Astrud Gilberto. The Marrakesh Vanilla Spice has ginger as well as vanilla in it, giving it a slightly sharp, hot, sweet taste, not unlike Ella Fitzgerald. The Persian Mint Spice is a nice mint tea, rather cool, somewhat like listening to Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan. These three are new,s o look for them on your local tea purveyors shelves, Gate. Tell 'em I sent you ... the password is "swordfish."

That's all the news that's fit to print, Gate, so to all the ships at sea and to Mrs. Calabash (where ever you are) ... see you later, alligator.