This Stop Willoughby

When I was in elementary school, I had all kinds of ideas of what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be an author, an archaeologist, a teacher, a fashion designer and a few dozen other things. By the time I got to high school, I was far less inspired. While many of my classmates had decided on specific career paths, I was clueless. Being an author was still something that interested me, but I knew I could spend years writing books and never make a dime, so I needed to choose something with a more solid income potential. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but I thought I might like to be an x-ray technician. Our family doctor had an x-ray center in his office and employed a technician several days a week so his patients didn't have to go to the hospital for x-rays. I got some information about training and job opportunities from her (the tech). She worked at several different offices and loved the variety it offered. I lived close to a hospital that offered a prestig...

I hate my hair. I really do. I like to have it looking nice every day, but not in a vain "I'm so beautiful" kind of way. It's really more of a "I don't want small children pointing and laughing" kind of way. It never seems to do what I want it to do and I have no patience with that. If I get it to do something I really like, it doesn't last, but if I get to look terrible, it lasts all day. Why is that? Part of the problem comes from the fact that I have what I call "Christmas Tree Hair". What that means is that if I let my hair dry naturally it will be flat at the top and progressively poofier (is that a word?) toward the ends, forming a triangle, or Christmas Tree effect. Festive? Perhaps, but attractive? Absolutely not. I'll never be one of those women you see at the beach who can shake out their wet hair and look stunning. Once, when we were on vacation, I had pulled part of my hair back in a rubber band before we went swimming in th...

We had our favorite grilled pizzas for dinner last night. My son and his girlfriend were headed out to a concert, so we had more dough than we needed. Instead of making extra pizza crusts (which refrigerate nicely for later use, by the way) we made mozzarella filled breadsticks. I can't even begin to tell you how amazingly delicious they were. They were excellent with pizza, but would equally good with any grilled meat, or as an appetizer with drinks. Mozzarella Filled Breadsticks one batch of prepared grill dough * mozzarella cheese (string cheese would be great for this, we used shredded) melted butter assorted dips, if desired (marinara, garlic butter, ranch dressing, etc.) After grill dough has risen, pinch of a piece of dough about the size of a small golf ball. Stretch and shape with your hands until you form a rough rectangle. Place a small handful of mozzarella cheese (or a piece of string cheese) in a line down the middle of the rectangle. Pinch the long sides together to ...

I'm feeling under the weather tonight and I won't be enjoying anything stronger than a Coke, so I'm cheating a little bit and reposting a drink that I posted a while back. It's our new favorite drink and if you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it. It's easy to make by the pitcher if you're serving guests, just hold off on adding the cola. Top each glass with it just before serving to maintain some carbonation. San Juan Tea 1 1/2 ounces Bacardi Limon 1/2 ounce light rum 3 ounces whiskey sour mix 8 ounces cola In a cocktail shaker, mix Bacardi Limon, light rum and whiskey sour mix. Divide evenly between two ice filled glasses and top each with 4 ounces cola. Enjoy your San Juan Tea responsibly and have an extra one for me! Happy Friday, everyone!

My husband and I have been together for so long that we don't need to speak to each other in complete sentences all the time. Sometimes one of us will start a sentence and the other one will finish it. Other times, a sentence will just trail off with no ending and still be perfectly understood. There are even times when a single word is sufficient. Of course, we also have conversations that wouldn't make sense to anyone but us. I'll say something like "What did you have for lunch today?" and he'll say "One of those things" and I'll say "Did you put that stuff on it?" and he'll say "No, I used the other stuff, but it was good". Makes sense to me. If you are visiting our house, it's very helpful if you speak and understand movie quotes fluently. For example, if you said that you hated someone, you may get "If hate were people, I'd be China" as a response. It comes from the movie City Slickers . If you were ...

Can you find me? I'm wearing a yellow jacket with a red "W" on the back. If you click on the image, you should get a larger view (aaargh! not working, I'm working on it, I'm just not great with HTML). I've been absent for about a week now, but I haven't actually been hanging out with Waldo. In reality, I've just been busy with some yard work. I hope you didn't miss me too much while I was gone. Wait, no, I take that back. I hope you were checking your computer every ten minutes around the clock for the past week, just waiting for my latest post! Now that I'm back, I want to start a new feature on my blog. Martha Stewart has her "Good Things" so I'm going to have "Willoughby's Wonderful Things" where I can share some products or ideas that I think are worth mentioning. I'm not sure if I'm going to make it a weekly thing or just surprise you with it from time to time. To kick off this new feature, I have two wo...

Tonight's drink is creamy and smooth. It's almost like a shake, but with the kick of alcohol. Creamy Raspberry Grenade 2 ounces Irish Cream 1/2 raspberry liqueur dash of grenadine Mix ingredients in an ice filled cocktail shaker. Shake well. Strain into a martini glass. Enjoy your Creamy Raspberry Grenades responsibly, please. Happy Friday, everyone! *Please forgive the quality of my photo. I can't seem to get my camera to focus on the foreground instead of the background. If you have any ideas how I can fix this, please leave them in my comment section. Thanks!

I know I'm always telling you that one thing or another fascinates me. What can I say? I'm a thinker, a ponderer. I wonder about things that probably aren't interesting to other people. Today I'm thinking about change. It's interesting to me that you often don't realize the finality of events until after they happen. I'm not necessarily talking about major events, just little things. For example, think of a toy that you loved when you were a kid. You probably didn't realize that the last time you played with it would be the last time you played with it. For me, it was Barbie dolls. I loved them and I had a lot of them. I don't remember how old I was when I played with them for the last time, but I'm sure I didn't know that I was putting them away for thirty years (they belong to my daughter now) on that day. I suppose you could say it was a milestone marking the end of a part of my childhood, but I didn't know that then. It...

I love games. Board games, card games, online games, video games, I love them all. In the summertime, especially, I love to sit on the back porch and play games. We have a good sized collection of them, but I like to add to it whenever I can. Last year at the flea market, I spotted a Monopoly game in the 50 cent box of one of the vendors. When I paid for it, he told me to take the other game he had, too, at no charge. It turned out to be Clue. I was prepared for some missing pieces, but both games were complete. Not at bad deal for 50 cents! Some of my favorite games are Scrabble and Battleship. I'm partial to Trivial Pursuit, too, although we can never get through a game without one of us making reference to the episode of Wings where Lowell thinks the answer to every question is Ann Margret. Have you ever seen it? We used to invite friends over to play cards. We would usually play Texas Hold Em, but once in a while we would play Euchre. I am seriously the world's worst Euchre...

I'll bet you're wondering what that title means. Read it backward and you'll see. It's a palindrome; a word or phrase that is the same read forward or back. Racecar , deed, mom, dad, toot and radar are all palindromes, too. Yes, my friends, we will be having fun with words again today. Creating palindromes may be considered f loccinaucinihilipilification (categorized as worthless), so instead we will discuss some new words to add to our vocabulary. I'm sanguine (cheerfully confident or optimistic) that you'll enjoy using them. Remember the nude resort from this post? You may cause some umbrage if you stare at the sunbathers. Someone may be offended and ululate in your direction. You may even have to put your hands over your tragi . Before you think this has become an x-rated blog, I'll translate. Umbrage is the feeling of being offended, ululate is to lament loudly and tragi is the plural form of tragus which is the flap of cartilage tha...

I didn't spend much time on the computer yesterday because I was busy doing yard work. It was a beautiful sunny day and perfect for working in the garden. I don't mind watering the flowers or doing some pruning and dead-heading, but I do hate weeding. I don't hate it a little, I hate it a lot! This year, the weeds are getting the best of my flower beds. The clover and grass, especially, have it in for me. We're not talking about a measly dozen weeds or so, but a full out attack on my garden and my sanity! If you listen closely, you can probably hear them laughing and mocking me. I have several strategies to keep myself from going insane while I spend countless hours on my knees pulling weeds. I try to visualize the ocean, or mentally work on that book I'm supposed to be writing. Sometimes I'll think of a song I like. No such luck, yesterday, though. I couldn't seem to get the ocean on my mental viewing screen, I had writer's block with the book and the o...

This afternoon, we had a visitor to our yard. He was a handsome fellow and not terribly shy. We first saw him when he landed on our porch railing. He sat looking at us for a while and then flew over to one of the flower beds where he sat motionless for quite some time. I was able to get fairly close to get a picture without scaring him away. We were concerned that he might be sick or injured. Although it's difficult to tell in this picture (my camera's focus hasn't been working well), his feathers were fluffy leading us to believe he was still a baby. He was much larger than other baby birds we've had in the yard, larger even than some adult birds. We're quite curious to find out what type of bird he is because we've never seen another like him. He was still in the flower bed when we went in the house for lunch, but he was gone when we came back out. Sadly, we found him dead on our porch some time later. He had found a spot behind our bar and quietly passed away...

It's Friday night and the bar is open! We won't be having our usual cocktails tonight, though. It's a lovely breezy evening, perfect for a bottle of wine. Wine snobs will likely scoff at our choice this evening, but I'm okay with that. We're not wine snobs, we'll try almost any wine regardless of variety or price, so we will be enjoying our Gallo Moscato without their approval. If you've never had it, Moscato is a sweet wine. It's not the sort of wine I would want to drink every day, but it's refreshing in the summer time. If you're enjoying some wine or other drinks this evening, please remember to do so responsibly. Happy Friday, everyone!

Words fascinate me. I enjoy everything about them. I love reading, writing and especially word puzzles. I've even developed a habit (obsession) with finding anagrams in written words. This morning I was playing an online anagram game and one of the words that came up was nuder (not to be confused with neuter ). This word is real head scratcher for me. Doesn't the word nude mean to be unclothed? How, exactly, can one person be more nude than another? I thought I might be overlooking another definition so I looked it up on an online dictionary site. It was listed as an adjective for nude . It stands to reason, then, that if one could be nuder , one could be nakeder , don't you think? No such luck. The next time you visit a nude beach or resort, it might be helpful to know that some sun bathers may be nuder than others, but certainly not nakeder . While you are visiting this nude resort, could you call yourself a nudiustertian ? Probably not. The word nudiustertian mean...

Last summer, I became the sort of unofficial president of the grilled pizza fan club on the recipe exchange at Allrecipes.com . I think I recommended the recipe and gave step by step instructions on a daily basis. The only thing I think I explained more was how to make home made yogurt (I'm thinking of demonstrating that in the near future). For some reason, people seem to be a little intimidated by putting unbaked dough on the grill. They think it will stick or be difficult to work with. It's actually very easy and unbelievably delicious, not to mention fun. If you've never worked with yeast before, this is an easy recipe to start with. You can find the entire recipe here . It belongs to Allrecipes.com , so I can't post it here without their permission, but I can give you step by step instructions. Start by proofing your yeast with 3/4 cup warm water. (You can use a thermometer, but I never do. The water should feel "just warm" to your finger. If it's hot...

My last post was "Cheap Eats" and I like the idea of carrying on the theme of saving money. After all, who doesn't like to save a few bucks, right? Even if you're not currently in a financial crisis, why spend more than you have to? Plus, I like the challenge of finding ways to get more for less. I should also say that I'm using the term "cheap" playfully, here, to mean less expensive, not of lesser quality. It's all about being creative and not about lowering your standards. We don't take our family vacation until fall, but since summer is upon us, I wanted to find some "Cheap Thrills" to enjoy while the kids are out of school. I've told you before how much we used to enjoy day trips, so I decided it's time to bring them back. My goal is to spend less than $20, aside from gas, on each trip. The cost of a picnic lunch isn't included because we would eat lunch at home anyway, so it's not an added expense. To meet the ...

Chances are, you or someone you know has had to cut back on their grocery budget because of the economy. I'm not a financial expert, but I do know what works for my family, so I thought I would post some of my favorite shopping tips and inexpensive meal ideas. The easiest way for us to save money on groceries is to buy most of our food at Sam's Club. No one is paying me for the endorsement (I wish they would), but we save a lot of money shopping there. There is a $35 yearly fee, but we more than make it worthwhile in a few shopping trips. I did some comparison shopping last summer and found that we spent approximately 50% less by shopping at Sam's. I don't know how much the prices vary by city or state, but here's a list of my favorite budget friendly purchases in our area: Oscar Mayer Hot Dogs - $4.57 for a 3 pound package. There are 30 hot dogs in each box, separated into 6 resealable packs. That comes to about 15 cents per dog. Aunt Millie's Hot Dog Buns ...

There are so many things I want to blog about, that sometimes I have a hard time choosing. Today's list included secrets of life, inexpensive meal ideas and shopping tips, travel destinations, and some miscellaneous summer items. I was thinking about all of these things while I was reorganizing my office. My job is supposed to be selling clothing on ebay, so my office is full of inventory. I haven't had any listings posted in a long time. The business was in full swing up until the time my brother in law died in October. Everything seemed to come to a halt, then, and I never got back to listing my items. I also never stopped accumulating inventory. Today, I decided, is the day to get back to selling. The shelves are pretty full and there are stacks of shirts and hoodies in another cabinet. On the floor is a stack of boxes of clothing that haven't yet been unloaded. We buy our items in lots, so I couldn't even recall what was in the boxes! I started going through the b...

I've been a little busy for the past few days, so I haven't posted a blog or read any of my friends blogs. This morning, I've been trying to catch up with all of you. It's amazing how much you miss when you're away for a few days! If you're wondering what's kept me so busy, I'll tell you. I've been making the world a more beautiful place. Well, maybe not THE world, but at least MY world. On Sunday afternoon, my daughter and I went to the local greenhouse to pick up some flowers. I bought quite a few flats of annuals as well as some perennials and I've been busy finding homes for all of them. I tried to step out of my comfort zone a little bit this year and include some pink and burgundy along with my usual purple/white/yellow color scheme. The only pink I've had in the past few years has been my roses and the blossoms on the apple tree. I also bought some plants I'm not terribly familiar with, but just couldn't resist. I've never...