This Stop Willoughby

The calendar may say that spring is here, but the weather begs to differ.  It is slightly above freezing, right now, and there is still a fair amount of snow on the ground.  The only thing that is keeping me going is the idea of taking a trip once the warmer weather finally arrives.  It doesn't help, any, that I keep seeing this commercial on television. Every year, I request a copy of the Michigan travel guide.  It's full of gorgeous, glossy pictures of places I've never been (even though I've lived in Michigan my entire life), and places I'd like to go.  It's a good starting point for planning day and weekend trips.  Once I find a place of interest, I begin my search on the internet for more information. We've been talking about spending a weekend in the Upper Peninsula, so I spent some time researching points of interest, there.  It is primarily forest land, which means that a trip to the area is not going to be full of amu...

The other morning I had the kitchen television on while I packed my daughter's lunch.  I was standing at the kitchen counter, sliced ham in hand, when I glanced at the screen just in time to see a close up shot of a cold sore.  I wasn't watching a medical show, this was a commercial for cold sore ointment.  I quickly looked away and went back to layering sliced ham on bread, but it wasn't easy with the image of an oozing cold sore burned into my brain.  Thank goodness my daughter likes mustard on ham, mayo might have been more than I could handle, just then. With lunch making duty complete, I sat down to drink some of my coffee and forget the nasty cold sore image.  I grabbed the remote, scanned through the preview guide and found a movie that I like, a comedy, so I thought I might watch that for a few minutes.  I clicked over to it just in time for a commercial.  No cold sore this time, instead, acne treatment...

Sometimes our dinner table conversation gets a little carried away.  A few days ago we started coming up with unnecessary products that aren't (yet) available.  Have a look and see if there is anything you can't live without.  *************** Kwick Kill Brand Vitamin Enriched Rat Poison - Only the best will do for your family.  That's especially true when it comes to eradicating vermin.  Our tasty pellets are enriched with calcium for strong bones and flax seed oil for a shiny pelt.  Simply distribute Kwick Kill Brand pellets in areas pests are known to inhabit.  Once consumed, death should occur in two to four hours.  Your family will have only the healthiest dead rodents.  Guaranteed or your money back. Kids Love Em Brand Bone-In Fish Sticks - Because our product is minimally processed, our fish sticks are more economical than the leading brand.  Your children will delight in finding and removing the bones from each...

I remember watching my grandpa use a sharpening steel to hone knives when I was a kid.  He could do it really fast and it was amazing to watch.  He came from a family of butchers so he knew the value of a well maintained, sharp knife. Cooking is something my husband and I enjoy doing together, so, from time to time, we watch cooking shows to get some new ideas and techniques. Professional chefs have some impressive knife skills, but many of them do something that surprises me.  They use the sharpened edge of their knives to scrape food from the cutting board. If you look at a typical chef's knife, you'll notice that the blade is curved on the cutting side and flat on the top.  There are a number of reasons knives are made that way, but one of them is to make scraping food off of your cutting board more efficient and save the blade of your knife.  Using the sharpened edge of your knife to scrape your boa...

Winter just keeps dragging on around here.  Every time we get a sunny, slightly warmer day, the snow melts a little bit, but then we get hit with six inches of snow.  It's two steps forward and one step back.  I've been complaining about it for weeks, but here's the kicker, it may have been my fault all along. You see, a few days after Christmas, we took down all of our indoor and outdoor decorations, but I left the crystal wreath on the front door.  I decided that it was more of seasonal adornment than a specifically Christmas-themed decoration.  What's the harm, I figured, in keeping it up, especially since it looks so beautiful when the light reflects off the glass crystals? But then today, out of nowhere, it hit me.  Mother Nature has seen the wreath still hanging on the door, celebrating all that is winter, so she thinks I'm enjoying the snow, the ice and the cold.  She's not punishing me with what seems to be...

My husband and I were watching a cooking show the other day and one of the dishes the chef prepared was oatmeal layered with sauteed apples.  It looked good and since I have some apples that are starting to get a little soft, I thought I would make it for Sunday brunch. While I was peeling the apples, I flashed back to a memory from thirty years ago.  I was at Girl Scout camp and I had been assigned to cooking duty.  I was asked to prepare the salad.  The scout leader handed me a bowl full of lettuce and assorted vegetables, a cutting board and a knife and told me to get started.  I washed everything, tore the lettuce into a big bowl, cut up the tomatoes and then started to peel a cucumber.  "What are you doing?  Are you trying to cut yourself?"  she shrieked at me.  "Who on earth taught you to peel vegetables?" "My mom,"  I answered, sheepishly. "Well, it's wrong. ...

First of all, I'd like to thank you all for entering.  If you've been a follower of my blog for any length of time, you know I prefer the low tech approach of selecting a winner to a giveaway.   I think it's more fun and so does my daughter. Here's what we did.  We listed all of the entries on little slips of paper, folded them in half and placed them in a bowl.  We shuffled them up really well and then my daughter closed her eyes and selected one.   The winner of the $40 CSN Stores Gift card is.......................L.B. of the blog Muddy Runner !  Congratulations!  I hope you enjoy your prize! Willoughby

Statistics are endlessly fascinating to me, especially when applied to real life situations, so I've decided to create a scenario that everyone can identify with to glimpse some of the mundane, funny and downright strange statistics I've found. Our scenario, for this example, is going to be the supermarket on a weekend afternoon.  We're going to assume there are 100 people, including employees, milling around the store and parking lot.  Based on percentage statistics (which I admit may not translate accurately to a number as small as 100, but work with me here), you would likely rub elbows with: 10 people who have been involved in a menage a trois 1 person who bites their toenails 40 people who make New Years resolutions 25 people who are afraid of spiders 1 person who can ride a unicycle 31 men and 14 women who sleep nude 1 person who practices a vegan lifestyle 3 people who are ambidextrous 17 people who talk to themselves 75 people who are dehydrated 19 p...