Cape San Blast

What :
You are cordially invited to the first annual Cape San Blast - a genuine Hawaiian luau

Who:
Your Hosts, Joe & Beth Mares (Mike & Edie too . . . since they have half the condo)

When:
6:00 PM Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Where:
Joe & Beth's Condo (Mike & Edie's too!), Cape San Blas

Why:
The f#@k not ?

As we said, this will be a genuine Hawaiian luau, complete with

Poke
The traditional Hawaiian poke was raw fish, gutted and sliced across the backbone. The slices still had skin and bones, which were spit out after all the flesh had been eaten. Poke was eaten with condiments such as salt, seaweed, and crushed roasted kukui nuts (inamona). Ok, we'll probably substitute hamburgers instead on this one.

Kalua Pig
Pork cooked in a pit oven (imu). A whole dressed pig (pua‘a) is salted, wrapped, lowered into the ground oven, and covered. Kālua is the earth-oven cooking method. And if we're not able to find this, we'll have hot-dogs.

Laulau
Packages of ti leaves or banana leaves containing pork, beef, salted fish, or taro tops, baked in the ground oven, steamed or broiled. Also know is some circles as 'Potato Chips'

Mai Tai
1 oz gold rum, 1 oz dark rum, 1 oz triple sec, 1/2 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz Orgeat syrup. Garnish with maraschino cherry, pineapple, mint sprig. Shake all the ingredients in a shaker with ice and strain into an old fashioned glass over crushed ice. Garnish with fruits and mint, and serve with a straw. OK, this we can do !


Your invitation to this event does not guarantee your entrance.

PROPER ATTIRE WILL BE REQUIRED.

For the girls this can be a floral patterned sarong, grass skirts, coconut bras or even string bikinis. The hair should be done up with local, indigenous flowers.






All the guys will need is a Hawaiian shirt.
Stupid looking hat is optional.






You will also be required to know your name in Hawaiian (Beth=Peka, Joe=Keo). With any luck, you'll be speaking in tongues by the end of the evening anyways.

Events will include a hula dance (Joe will provide the music - the theme from Hawaii 5-0 played over and over again) and a limbo contest.

So save the date . . . what else were you gonna do anyways ? Sit around and watch the sunset ?

Rich's Senior Picture Proofs

rich's senior pictures proof are in
can view on flickr

2005 Christmas Entertainment

We'll have board games and card games. We'll have appropiate video games. Not having anyone younger than 17 (and Rich is not your typical 17 year old) in the house we do not have toys and such to entertain the horde of nieces & nephews under age 13, however. So feel free to have them bring thier own means of entertaining themselves should board, card and video games not excite them.

Christmas Dinner 2005

OK - here's the Christmas dinner plans:

Beth will be making lasagna, enchiladas, beef vegetable soup (or maybe chili), corn, cookies & desserts
Joe will be making rotel & cheese, ham roll ups and cheese and crackers
Rich will be making mashed potatoes if he wants them
Danny will be doing chicken wings

Edie & Mike are picking up Chicken Shack for us and Edie is making some of her wonderful jello

We were hoping we could count on Tommy for some of his famous beans

Beth is looking forward to Steve's peppers (no double entendre intended)

Do we need a Honeybaked Ham (Nick?) ?

We were hoping we could find people for the following items:

Another appetizer or 2
Hot vegetable (?)
2 Green Salads
2 Pasta Salads
vegetable Tray & Dip
Bread / Rolls

We have a coffee pot and coffee but . . . we don't know how to make coffee so we'll need someone to do that for us (Mike - pretend it's a barbecue and just take it over)

We don't do wine. The last time we drank wine was 1983 At Pine Knob (and it was still called Pine Knob at that time). It came in a big green gallon bottle. Cost $8.99. If our memory serves us, it was quite tasty. Then again, we were just seventeen and happy to have any alcohol.

We'll have beer (Labatts, Bud & Busch Light, no?) and soda (90% Coke - 10% Pepsi). If you all want wine we ask that you bring it yourselves. You can't trust us to pick it.

We ask that you use the comment feature to post your comments online so we all can see who is doing what. Thank you

2005 Christmas Charity

OK

It's bad enough that you all are coming over for Christmas and made me accelerate the basement refinishing from a 12-year plan to a 3-year plan (with 2 years and 11 months already expired).

No, that wasn't inconvenient enough.

Now we have to pick a charity to boot?

Fine - should be simple enough, no?
Not really . . .

First off, last time we were given this responsibility we picked the Christ Child Society. Now I love my mother-in-law, almost as much as I love my mother, and they are a very fine and worthy organization, but . . . {yawn} . . . "been there, done that".

No, we really wanted to pick a charity that we could get excited about.
Emotionally aroused. Stirred. Feeling a very strong emotion.
Atingle. Fired up. Thrilled. Worked up. Psyched. Stoked. Turned-on.

That's were the problem came in. How to pick a charity we could get excited about that wouldn't upset the neocon half of the family? (for the record, Joe tested out as a 'realist', not a 'liberal' - who knew?)

I got it!

Let's meet in the middle on something. How about if we pick a charity that supports military families? We find it very disappointing that in this current political climate if you oppose the war you are somehow un-patriotic, un-american and you don't support the soldiers.

So let's support the soldiers. But how?

Not knowing any specific charities, I did some research online. This is where it gets tricky.

I googled "Military Family Support".
OK, that didn't really help.
Too many to choose from.

Then I remembered seeing a billboard by the Zilwaukee bridge on the way up north with brother Mike (this was the older, shorter brother Mike, not the new, taller brother Mike) about "America Supports You". I found their website. It's not a '.com' or '.org', it's '.mil' - i.e. - military . . . must be legit. (it is - it's the department of defense).

They had a listing of charities.
Ok, this narrows it down some.
27 to pick from.

Let's throw out the big ones - the American Red Cross - not that we have anything against the Red Cross - remember, we are looking for something more unique than them.

Also, we're gonna pass on the specific branch ones - Marine Moms Online, Coast Guard Mutual Assistance, Air Force Aid Society, etc. I am sure they are all fine organizations (actually, I'm not sure of that - but I'm getting ahead of myself) We were hoping to be more broader scope than this.

The first one to catch my eye was the Children of Fallen Soldiers Relief Fund. Sounds good. Checked out their website. Look's nice. But who they hell are they really? How do i know if they are a legit charity? There's got to be a way to check them out, no?

Let's google "charity watchdog".

Cool - the American Institute of Philanthropy - after all, they were mentioned in the article I found.

So I pull up their website and go to their top rated charities. They have them broken down in categories, including one for "Veteran's & Military".

Hell, this is gonna be a piece of cake . . .

Shit! They don't recommend any.

Maybe I am barking up the wrong tree. Let's check out the list of charities they recommend and see if any of them get me stirred up. With the categories they have I can eliminate these right away:
ABORTION & FAMILY PLANNING
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
AIDS
ANIMAL PROTECTION
ASIA & ASIAN-AMERICAN
CIVIL RIGHTS & ADVOCACY
ENVIRONMENT
HOMELESSNESS & HOUSING
HUMAN RIGHTS
JEWISH & ISRAEL
WOMEN’S RIGHTS
YOUTH – RESIDENTIAL CARE

It's a safe bet that none of those would fly.

So let's see what else was available . . .
HISPANIC
Hey! We're part hispanic.

And the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund got an A+.

Let's check them out.
Hmm . . .

"MALDEF Opposes Samuel Alito's Nomination to U.S. Supreme Court. Ann Marie Tallman, President and General Counsel, releases statement."

Ok, so they won't work . . .

Then I am thinking that maybe D.A.R.E. would be listed.
They have done a good job, no? The older grandchildren - Sara, Mike, Dan, Dick & Katy - are clean and drug free . . . at least they tell us they are. Children don't lie to their parents, right? And parents don't lie to their children, either. {nudge nudge} {wink wink}

Shit! "No top-rated groups"

Besides, they obviously let one slip through the cracks (pun intended) (if you only follow one link in my rant, read this one - it's a hoot)

Onward we go . . . Ooh - PEACE & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
I figure, can't we can all agree on peace?
'Peace on Earth & Goodwill Towards Men' and all that jazz.
(Or so I thought until I was driving home one night and spotted a bumper sticker on a BMW - I swear I saw this, I couldn't make it up - "Give War A Chance" )

Let's look up Witness for Peace.
Not bad - nice buzzword on the front page - "Christian".
At least that they put the "Christ" back in "Christian".
"X-tian" is just sick and wrong.

Let's review their history:

"WFP activists across the country organized events to resist Reagan's war on Central America. Such activism may have averted an all-out U.S. invasion of Nicaragua, and certainly contributed greatly to the effort to cut off U.S. military aid to the Contras."

I can see brother Nick opening his checkbook now . . .OK, maybe not.
BTW - It really bother's me when the liberal left co-opt Jesus to serve their political purposes. That's the right's trick . . .

Maybe the American Institute of Philanthropy is too damn stringent.
Let's try the other charity watchdog list - Charity Navigator.
Back to the military idea - we enter "military" in the keyword search.
43 results.
And then we'll sort them by rating.

Let's see what we have . . .
here's an interesting one: Freedom Alliance

"Freedom Alliance was founded in 1990 by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, who now serves as the organization's honorary chairman. Freedom Alliance has worked diligently to advance the American heritage of freedom by honoring and encouraging military service, defending the sovereignty of the United States and promoting a strong national defense."

Perhaps we should introduce them to the aforementioned Witness for Peace. Maybe they can pool their resources.

By this point, we are very frustrated.
And no closer to making a decision on a charity.

After a further review of Charity Navigator, however, I found where I can search for local charities.

I do a search for "Human Services" - "Social Services" - "Midwest" - "Michigan".
Top rated is Coalition on Temporary Shelter - also known as COTS. They helps the homeless.
If you want to support them, however, there is a concert at the Magic Stick on Friday, December 23rd with some really cool bands including the Come-Ons (Joe's personal fav), the Fondas and the Paybacks, among others. Since we'll all have nothing to do the night before Christmas Eve perhaps we can all meet down there for a pre-chicken wing celebration.

OK, Maybe not.

Next one on the list is The Heat and Warmth Fund - also known as THAW.
They offer assistance for low income families and seniors.
What's even better is that our DTE Energy & Consumers Powers match every dollar given.
This effectively doubles our donations. That's hot!! (Pun intended).
With energy prices skyrocketing this year - due to the current administration's pro big-energy policies - energy prices this year will be at record levels. It has gotten so bad that we have chopped up some of our furniture to help heat the house this year (serious - check it out when you come over . . .) There it is - your 2005 charity - THAW. And this is how I stumbled upon this year's charity. And to answer your question - yes - it has been a slow day in the office. I am going to ramble on for another couple paragraphs, however.

Why?

Because I suspect most of you, at about the Mexican American Legal Defense & Education Fund passage, skipped to the end for the answer.

For those looking for some free Christmas music I have a couple options for you. The first is from one of Danny, Dick & Beth's favorite bands (Joe is lukewarem on them at best) the Low Life - What Child is This. The other is from the aforementioned Come-Ons (a very cool local band) and their version of an old Peggy Lee song - Don't Forget to Feed the Reindeer. Enjoy these while you can. You may not enjoy the selections I have picked out for Christmas Eve . . . unless you have a sense of humor.

"Peace on Earth to everyone; abundance to everyone you're with"

Joe & Beth
. . . and Dan & Dick in proxy
. . . and Burnette, Fulson, Dixon (who may not make it to Christmas), Muddy & Cookie (Rice Miller)
. . . oh yeah - Valkayre - Beth's horse too

Hi Nick ! - skipped to the end, didn't ya?
I named this years charity at least two or three pages up.
I would suggest you go back to the top and start all over again and read it all over again.