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Americans tend to only get a week or two off for vacation the entire year. It’s not enough. We all know that. Think about planning a big trip that lasts one week. You spend at least two of those seven days traveling. That leaves a mere five days to try and relax and experience all of the attraction of your chosen destination. Often, you are so busy trying to see sites and eat in great restaurants that you actually come home form your vacation less rested than when you left.

My goal in life is to find a way to take at least one month-long vacation every year or so. I think Hawaii would be an idea place to spend a moth, don’t you? I’m looking at a website that lists condos for rent in Hawaii and in most cases; they are about the same price per night as a nice hotel. Why would I stay in a hotel, though, when I can rent a condo that has a full kitchen, a washer-dryer and in a lot of cases, private hot tubs or gyms? The units at the Lahaina Roads condos are both reasonable and private. That’s my kind of hawaiian vacation accommodation.

The Aloha Condos website lists all sorts of condos available as vacation rentals in Hawaii. It’s easy to navigate and I enjoyed the section that let me look for special pricing and deals. In the past, I’ve talked about using condos or private homes when you go on vacation. You will almost always save money and in return you are getting all of the comforts of home. I couldn’t be stuck in a tiny hotel room for a month, or even a week. When I go to Orlando for a week, I always rent out a villa. That way I can cook and do laundry and we have our own pool in the backyard. There is no better way to travel. It’s always worth checking out before you make reservations at a hotel.

Alyssa Frank has been found safe in the Florida Panhandle.

She was spotted in a Wal-Mart in DeFuniak Springs in Walton County. It turns out the creepy sex offender, William Mitchell, who she had met on MySpace and run away with left her in the clothing department and told her not to draw any attention to herself or he would kill her. He told her to wait 5 minutes and come find him the music department, but it turns out he ran off without.

Isn’t love grand? Not only is Mitchell a sex offender, he’s also a coward.

Mitchell is still at large and considered armed.

Sometimes I look back on my late teens and regret that I did not take the year after my high school graduation to travel, tripping around the German country side or exploring cool hotels in Barcelona. The main philosophy behind not taking a year off was that it would be too difficult to get back in the educational groove and settle down for college. Kids do it all of the time, though, and I tend to think it might have actually worked just fine.

Most of my circle of friends did just move directly to college. I found out later that a couple of the girls I had been semi-close to did take a year to live in Italy near a vineyard. One did come back to the states and attend college. She eventually entered the FBO academy and made a career for herself. The other girl got addicted to drugs and stayed in Italy. I have no idea what she is doing these days.

When Gigi is finished with high school, I suppose I will suggest she move right to college. But, if she wants to travel for one year and has a good plan in place for how to fund the gap year, I may just be open to helping her along in her endeavor.

Here is an easy one. I do want to say, though, that I have started only buying shrimp if it is marked that it has been caught or raised in the United States. Here in Florida, I can often find Key West Shrimp. I have just been too disgusted by the stories of the shrimp being raised in raw sewage in other countries and if the product is not marked with the point of origin, I just pass.

1 pound shrimp
3 small star fruit, medium-sweet, about 2 ounces each
2.5 tablespoons butter
Salt and white pepper to taste
Pinch of sugar
1.5 tablespoons lime juice

Shell and de-vein shrimp. If the shrimp are not small, cut them in half lengthwise. Trim tips off the star fruit and slice 1/8 inch thick.

Heat butter in large sauté pan. Add shrimp, star fruit slices, salt, pepper, and sugar. Sauté just until shrimp are pink. Add lime juice and toss. Remove from heat.

Serve immeidately.

OK my readers, this one’s for you!

I know a lot of you are artistic. I get tons of traffic from other web graphic designers and people who have businesses making and selling crafts. Here is a chance to re-design a logo for a major program and also win design software and music prizes for your efforts.

So if you are 16 or older, open up your favorite graphic design program and let your creative juices begin their proverbial flow.

The Ford Motor Company Fund has a scholarship initiative called the Ford Blue Oval Scholars program and they are on the hunt for a brand new logo. They are sponsoring a http://www.fordscholars.org to find this new logo. How exciting is that?

The winning logo is going to be used as the official logo for the Ford Blue Oval Scholars program. That’s not just on the web, but for all materials related to Ford Blue Oval Scholars. The top ten designs will be chosen by a selection panel of Ford Motor Company employees and design experts and Ford Blue Oval Scholars will vote online to pick the winning logo. Everyone in the top 10 will receive great prizes.

Here is the current logo. They are looking for something bigger, better, bolder.

Entries must be received by November 1, 2007 and the winner will be announced December 1, 2007. You can download all of the relevant contest rules and materials on the Ford Blue Oval Scholars website.

So, follow the links and check out the contest. This is an amazing opportunity for you to find national exposure for your artistic talent.

As the day progresses, we are getting new details about missing 15-year-old Alyssa Frank.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office is now saying Frank met registered sex offender William Joe Mitchell (who uses the nickname “Billy Mitch”) on MySpace. She went on to fall in love with him through a series of online conversations.

The freak is old enough to be her father, by the way. His last known residence is a home for sex offenders in Jacksonville. How charming.

“I’m not sure she knows she’s abducted,” a Sherriff’s Office spokesperson said. “She left because she was in love with his image created on MySpace.”

Do we need any more warnings about MySpace and other social networking sites before we start to take more seriously what is happening in our society? Adults with sex problems have a new playground – the internet. It’s been widely reported lately that child molesters are beginning to actively seek out single mothers on online dating sites. We’ve all known for a long time that they troll the social networking communities. Kids can be such easy targets online and it is often the lonely and vulnerable that spend a lot of time online for social reasons.

Monitor your children’s internet usage closely. Keep computers in a common room of the house, install snooping software if you feel there is a need and try and help your kids understand why they need to be open with you about who they meet online.

I love a rainy day…
In fact, down here in Florida I sometimes crave a rainy day. We just don’t get the kind of downpours you see up north. I remember living in the DC metro area and there would be weeks where the skies remained gray and the rain just fell in buckets day and night. After a few such days, I would just start to stay inside and find lazy things to occupy my time like reading a book, painting my toenails or looking at honda motorcycles pictures online with my friend, Shawn, who was motorcycle obsessed and all too happy to have a captive audience. I had WebTV back then, so it was actually a blast to surf the net from the couch with my friends.

Florida is built on sunny days. Don’t get me wrong, the sunny days are a major draw for me. I am a girl who needs her sunlight. I think that the three years I lived and worked just south of Pittsburgh were the worst in my life in terms of mood and happiness, simply due to the sheer lack of sunlight and clear skies. That little mountain area is just a pit of bad weather.

Today, though, is a rainy day in Florida. I did not see it rain this morning, but every thing is wet and dim. I suppose you might describe the rain as spitting. It just sort of sparkles from time to time, enough to keep the roads wet. The weather reports say it will be wet all day, with intermittent periods of thunder. I can dig that. It’s a cup of hot tea and good book kid of day.

A wet fall can make for some of the most lush and colorful Florida landscape. The flowers just love the cooler, wetter weather. We have apple blossoms in the backyard now, and little impatiens flowering out front. The petunias are particularly happy. My daughter even took her umbrella to school with her. She was excited to be able to use it.

Yes, I love a rainy day.

I’d like a new digital camera. I do not need one. The one I have is actually fine. In fact, at 2.1 megapixels, I often get better shots than people with much newer cameras and more resolution options. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that I am very comfortable with my camera and skilled at using it.

Nonetheless, it is hard to ignore the fact that cameras like the Sony Cyber-shot® DSC-W80 has 7.2 megapixels and only costs between $200 and $300. I paid much more for my Olympus back in 2000. The only con I can see from reading the reviews is that it uses a proprietary battery. I suppose I am spoiled by my current camera’s 4 little AA batteries that I can slap into a recharger at any given time. Other than that, reviews say it is easy to use and durable. It sounds like a good, basic digital camera model.

I was going to hold out for a good price on a digital SLR, but my old Olympus is getting pretty beat up and I need something economical to use in the meantime. This Sony looks like a viable option. Do any of my readers have experience with this camera? I would love to hear from you.

Florida authorities issued an Amber alert for a missing 15-year-old Bartow girl Tuesday morning. The Sheriff’s Office in Polk County reports that Alyssa Frank’s parents thought she had run away, but authorities now believe she is in the company of a sexual offender. Frank’s parents reported her missing at 6 a.m. Monday.

Her uncle says Frank met someone in an Internet chat room and that person had called Alyssa’s cell phone before midnight Sunday.

Frank has hazel eyes and curly brown hair, and she was last seen wearing a “Tinkerbell” shirt, jeans and black tennis shoes with checkered laces. She was last seen in the area of of the 4000 block of Shay Drive in Bartow, FL.

Detectives are looking for William Joe Mitchell, 46, of Jacksonville. He is registered sex offender and 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighs 158 pounds, and has brown hair and blue eyes. He has several tattoos on his arms and fingers. On his left arm are the name Lisa and a cross. The word “love” is tattooed on the fingers of one hand. On his right arm he has a tattoo that reads “we” and the name Bill.

Investigators believe Mitchell traveled to Polk County to meet Frank. They may be traveling in a 2000 model black Chevrolet Lumina with Florida tag G02-5EL.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 863-533-0344.