As other cocktail bloggers begin writing about the approaching spring and hay fever, I'm still stuck in the great white north deep freeze. It's warmed up a good five degree's since my last post, so, with the wind chill, it's a balmy -19. Even though I don't mind that temperature, as long as it is sunny, I still feel that this has been a long winter. Maybe it's the one year old that requires a lot of prep work before I go outside, or maybe it's been the record snowfall and just possibly it could be that I'm getting old, but I need a short break from the winter. A Caribbean cruise isn't in the budget, so I'm back to tiki drinks. Today I'm going with a Beachcomber's Rum Barrel, which should put me in a temporary tropical comma.

The month of February can be the most depressing month, especially when you live in the North. The daytime high temperature peaks around -7° and the wind-chill this evening will be a cool -24°. The sun, well, let us not speak of the sun, because it only comes out from behind the clouds to taunt us. And of course there is the weekly blizzard / ice storm that seems to be like clock work these days. The worst part is the snow is no longer a pristine white, it now resembles dirt, but uglier. Now that I've set the mood, I think it is time for a quick getaway. Since a cruise through French Polynesia isn't in the budget, I'll just make a Tiki drink, turn on some bright lights, point a hair dryer at my face, and dream.

Guest Blogger: Megan O'Neil - A great bartender and a few killer drinks made for one hell of a New Year's Eve in New York City. Sip Bar at 998 Amsterdam in Manhattan certainly paved the way for a memorable first night in 2008.

Both of us thirty-something women, my friend and I decided on Christmas Eve that one more boring New Year's Eve at home was going to make us crazy. On that whim we decided to book a couple of hostel beds in the Upper West Side of Manhattan and headed to New York City for New Years.

One of the things you can count on in the cocktail, and culinary, world is variations on existing recipes and it just happens that this months Mixology Monday is on "Variations". Generally, a variation of a recipe comes about because people get bored of the same old thing, don’t like something, or sometimes out of necessity. Taking something that is established and applying a twist is also a fun way to experiment, and I try to do this frequently just to see what happens. Today, I’m doing a variation on a variation. A long time ago I modified a Caesar into an Octavian, but now I’m going to take some of those modifications and apply them to a Bloody Maria, which in itself is a variation of the Bloody Mary.

Since December 2007 I've been writing for Eat Drink, a Southern Ontario magazine looking at local restaurants and their menu's. I, obviously, have taken on the "mixology" column and my current focus is to locate local places that are serving good cocktails. Unfortunately, it has been a bit harder than expected, but I'll keep searching.

I've put the comments back online, even though I'm being inundated with spam. Hopefully I should have that solved soon. If you tried to post a comment, try again. Thanks goes out to Dominik (Opinionated Alchemist) for send me an email.

If you are viewing the main page of the redesigned Art of Drink, this is where the more frequent "news bites" will be placed.

Well, some of you may have noticed that my posting frequency has plummeted, but for good reasons, I assure you. I spent all of that time upgrading and redesigning this site, actually now called artofdrink.com, I dropped the "The". I probably would have been done quicker if I just did a basic make-over, but no, I had to upgrade the whole internal system, which was an absolute nightmare. Other than that I'm very happy with the new design, which should provide a whole lot more flexibility in the future. For all the new features and benefits please read on, but if you are reading this via an RSS feed, you should check out the main page, at least once, to get a look at the redesign.