To me, summer is gin-and-tonic season. Lots of ice, a slice of lime--like a juniper flavored, alcholic limeade. Yummy.

Mmm. Yes. A nice big wedge of lime, squeezed, not just a little twist that decorates the glass without really flavoring anything.

Favorite summer dessert?

Anything with fresh blueberries.

Beach or pool?

Beach.

Predictions on the overplayed song of summer '05?

I think I'll have to agree with all the votes for "Hollaback Girl."

What was your worst family summer vacation?

I can't think of any that were really horrible.

your best?

Any of the times when I was a little kid and we went to Maine. We'd rent a house for a month, and my mom and my sister and I would stay there the full month, while my dad came up on weekends and for the last week. I was able to ride my bike wherever -- I felt so grown up when my mom would ask me to ride to the general store to pick up something -- and we had tennis lessons and dances and stuff at the community house, and swimming lessons at the beach, and we were pretty much free to run around barefoot with almost no schedule for the whole month. It was great.

worst summer vacay: Dad decided to drive from Phoenix to El Paso in like a week. WAY too much time spent in the car, even if it was an opportunity to teach me to drive. Plus, he always carries, so we accidentally drove into Mexico with a gun in the car, which is practically a hanging offense.

best: Prolly the one where we went to California and visited Magic Mountain two days in a row and the beach and Disneyland. Super fun.

Pools are too common. Beaches rule, even if the Pacific is freezing.

Favorite summer dessert?

Vanilla ice cream (home made or Breyers or Julie's) with fresh raspberries

Beach or pool?

Hm. Beach. Though I have a pool this summer, so that may change my answer. I haven't been to either in years.

Predictions on the overplayed song of summer '05?

No clue. I canm't even think of a current pop song to name.

What was your worst family summer vacation?

I can't remember a bad one. There were rough episodes in each, but no one vacation was overall bad.

your best?

Anotehr tough call. Camping on the island in lake Ouachita was great. Backpacking for a week in New Mexico, likewise. Driving across the country in '84 eating free food we won in that Olympic tie in game at McDonald's to see Babushka get married was certainly memorable. The time we found off-season ski resorts that were cheap and deserted and really nice was a lot of fun. Driving up and down the east coast and seeing NYC for the first time on the 4th of July and meeting my dad's favorite uncle and not staying in a hotel the whole trip until the car died in Meridian Mississippi was a great trip.

I think my family just did vacations well. Kinda surprising, because it was 5 of us packed into a Volvo or Toyota sedan most of the time, with the leg room taken up by luggage and full days of driving, but it always seemed like an adventure at the time.

Oh, I remember that '84 Olympic Games summer. My grandmother took us to the Coliseum to see some of the early rounds of the diving competition. Good times.

What is this Jack radio format? Does that just mean no DJ's?

We drove to Red Lake, Ontario

One of my buddies growing up moved with his family to Red Lake. We couldn't even imagine the desolation/isolation and we were from a pretty small northern Ontario town ourselves.

Favorite summer dessert? Fresh strawberries. And creamsicles from the ice cream man.

Beach or pool? Both! But the pool for the sheer get-cool-in-the-water convenience of it.

Predictions on the overplayed song of summer '05? I'm going with Kat on the Rob Thomas song.

What was your worst family summer vacation? As a kid, it was probably the year we had no money for a vacation and instead accompanied my dad on some sales calls in Delaware and Pennsylvania, on the way to the family reunion in West Virginia. Which meant lots of time in the car, and lots of evenings in hotel rooms watching bad TV while my mom and dad took clients out to dinner. Bo-ring. And then the non-anticipation of seeing my cousins, who drove me insane.

Your best? Last year, Outer Banks, with the kids and my parents. Great weather, lots of very mellow family time, good seafood.

favorite summer beverage:

Summer is practically the only time I want white wine. Well chilled, to be sipped in the afternoon outside on the porch/deck/verandah/fire escape.

I also love English Raspberries - Irish Cream (not Bailey's, I think St. Brendan's might be what I use) and Chambord shaken with ice. So good, yet so deadly for productivity. Once I have one, I can't do anything the rest of the day but sit around drinking them and chatting with whoever else is having them with me.

And in the heat of August, those sugary tourist drinks like Hand Grenades are surprisingly tasty. I really need to work up a good sweat and have no access to a/c in teh near fuuture to want one, though.

What is this Jack radio format? Does that just mean no DJ's?

It's a much bigger playlist than most commercial stations have, with no real clearly defined format -- pretty much anything from the late sixties until the late nineties could be in there. No DJs, just music, and no real order to the songs.

What is this Jack radio format? Does that just mean no DJ's?

No DJs, and I think they're going with "anything rock-ish since the 70s is fair game". Their tag line is "Playing what we want". It's obviously automated, and they have a few too many ID blurbs between songs, but they manage to personalize those for the locale enough to make it less obviously a franchise.

I like it because they play the 80s rock that so many stations think they're too good to play. I loves my big-hair bands. I hadn't heard Ratt in ages.