This Stop Willoughby

From time to time I suffer a bout of insomnia. Sometimes I can't fall asleep at all and other times I fall asleep, but wake up continuously. A few years ago I found a solution that works well for me. It's a form of self-hypnosis, I suppose, because it involves keeping your mind on something other than the fact that you're not sleeping. It works like this. I make lists in sets of ten. It doesn't matter what the topic of the lists is, but ten seems to be the magic number (and you must be laying down with your eyes closed; sitting in a kitchen chair and writing them on paper won't work). I will list ten songs I like, ten places I'd like to go, ten foods I hate or anything else that comes to mind. When I start needing my fingers to keep track of what number I'm on, I know I'm on the verge of sleep. I can't remember ever making more than three lists before drifting off. Recently, I tried making a list of ten sounds that I like. It took quite a bit of conc...

I was telling the kids, recently, that I used to live down the street from a girl named Bertha. I was about four years old at the time and Bertha was a teenager. I didn't really know her, but I knew her name. I remember that, when she walked by, my friends and I would say "Bertha, Bertha Butt, she's one of the Butt Sisters" and she would laugh, but I never knew why. When I told this story to the kids, they thought it was hysterical. Last night, my son decided to search the "Bertha saying" on Google to see what would come up. To his surprise and mine, it was part of the lyrics to a song by the Jimmy Castor Bunch. There's even a video. Of course, Mr. Willoughby, who I swear knows every song ever written, knew it right away and could have solved this mystery had I told him the story. I can only assume that the older kids starting quoting this song and my friends and I picked it up from them, because I don't think I was listening this kind of music when ...

Yes, mateys, we're continuing the pirate theme tonight. Captain Willoughby and I have created a new and potent drink that we hope you like. Pegleg Willoughby 1 1/2 ounces coconut rum 1/2 ounce Captain Morgan Spiced Rum 6 ounces cola ice Mix coconut rum and Captain Morgan Spiced Rum and pour into an ice filled glass. Top with cola. Enjoy your Pegleg Willoughby responsibly, please mateys! If you start walking as if you have a pegleg, you've had too many. Unless, of course, you have a pegleg! Happy Saturday Night!

It probably comes as no surprise that I do stupid things from time to time because I've often blogged about them. There was the time I thought the bleach in the washing machine had disintegrated my laundry , and the time I took the expired coffee creamer to work . I also misread a recipe, once, and added 1/4 cup of baking soda instead of 1/4 teaspoon (this produces bubbling lava when baked, not bar cookies). If those weren't stupid enough for you, here's a few more: When I was in middle school, I signed up for intramural racquetball. A bus took the group of us from school to the indoor racquetball club which was a few miles away. Some of the kids were really excited when we got there, oohing and ahhing, but I was trying to be cool so I headed for the stairs to the locker rooms. In the uncoolest way possible, I caught my foot on the top step and slid all the way down the stairs on my knees. I was sending away for some free offers I had found in a magazine. Each request requi...

It feels like fall in our neck of the woods. Not only because it never got above 65 degrees today, but because we spent our evening at a football game. Tonight was the first JV football game of the season. Our son is number 58. He plays nose and a few other positions on the line. He's out there somewhere! He played a great game and had two amazing tackles. It was a home game, so his team really wanted to start the season with a win. This was the score four minutes into the second quarter. His team scored one more touchdown before the end of the game. The final score was 46 - 0. Not a bad way to end his first game, wouldn't you say? We couldn't have been more proud of him! Shout Outs I follow so many great blogs that I'm having a hard time keeping up with all of them. If I haven't commented on your blog lately, I'm sorry! I haven't forgotten about you, I'm just trying to get caught up. I do need to give some shout outs to a few of my blog friends for some...

I love coffee. It's the first thing on my mind when I wake up in the morning. Depending on my schedule for the day, I either head straight for the shower or straight for the coffee maker as soon as my feet hit the floor. I was a teenager the first time I ever made a pot of coffee myself. We had an automatic coffee maker at home, but I had never been the one to make the coffee, so I had no idea how much to add. There was a measuring scoop in the can and I assumed I should use one scoop for each cup of coffee. The machine made 12 cups, so I assumed I should add 12 scoops. The basket was so full I couldn't close the lid all the way. Once the water started to pump through, the whole thing overflowed hot water and coffee grounds all over the counter top. I didn't drink coffee on a daily basis until I started working full time. After the first few days at my new job it became clear that the morning coffee ritual was an important social event among my coworkers. There were unwritt...

Aye, mateys! The plank, errr, bar is open. If you haven't guessed, we have a pirate theme going tonight. Captain Willoughby and I have created a drink that we think you will enjoy. It's like a root beer float for grown-up pirates. Shipwreck Willoughby's 1 1/2 ounces Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum 3/4 ounce Irish Cream 6 ounces root beer ice For each drink, mix Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum, Irish Cream and root beer together by stirring gently. Pour into an ice filled glass (if your root beer is icy cold, you can skip the ice). Enjoy your Shipwreck Willoughby's responsibly, mateys! Happy Friday! *************** Are you up to my challenge? If you haven't seen it, click here .

I've finally gotten some long overdue tasks done and I'm determined to keep the "get it done" attitude going. This morning, I used bribery with myself. I was looking at the onscreen preview guide and saw that some good movies were coming on. I decided I could watch a movie or two as long as I was doing something productive while I watched. One of the movies was Somewhere In Time . The preview guide called it "earnest and hokey". I've seen it dozens of times and I've never found it to be hokey. I think it's a wonderful story with gorgeous scenery. I think I like it so much because I like the idea of time travel. I don't believe it's possible, but I love the notion of it. Time travel is a common theme among some of my favorite movies and television shows. Besides Somewhere In Time , I love the movies Frequency, A Christmas Carol, Back To The Future, The Butterfly Effect, Groundhog Day (more stuck in time than time travel), The La...

I walked outside to water my plants and found a wonderful surprise waiting for me on my front porch. It was a package from my friend Joanna at The Fifty Factor . Joanna and I became acquainted when she spotted the name of my blog a while back. You see, Joanna is from Willoughby, Ohio, the inspiration for the idyllic town in The Twilight Zone episode A Stop At Willoughby. That episode is, of course, the inspiration for the name of my blog. What a wonderful coincidence, don't you think? On a recent trip back to Willoughby, Joanna picked up some souvenirs for me. I love this poster! I'd like to frame it and hang it in my office. A calendar of summer events in downtown Willoughby and two flyers for the Last Stop Willoughby festival. One side has information, the other side looks like a ticket. A City of Willoughby totebag! I've been needing a new totebag and I can't imagine finding one that I love as much as this one. Isn't Joanna the best? If you haven't ...

Panic At The Flea Market Going to the flea market used to be a Sunday tradition, but we've had so many projects going on around here that we've been skipping it. Yesterday, though, we thought we should start bringing the tradition back. After all, the flea market only runs through October and that will be here soon enough. The temperature was climbing and we didn't get out the door as early as we had planned. By the time we got there, it was in the upper 80's and the humidity was high. There wasn't a cloud in the sky for the sun to hide behind. You could break a sweat just by standing still. We had made our way around the outer perimeter and down one row of vendors. As we started down the second row, our daughter said she was too hot to keep walking. I knew she was disappointed that she hadn't gotten a new video game at one of the booths, so I thought she was just being pouty and I didn't take it too seriously. After a few more steps she again said she could...

The pool theme continues with tonight's drink. It's essentially a Lemon Drop Martini, but we've made it a touch sweeter and renamed it. Teeny Weeny Bikini Martini 1 1/2 ounces vodka 1/2 ounce Triple Sec 2 teaspoons simple syrup* 3/4 ounce lemon juice Ice cubes Pour vodka, triple sec, simple syrup and lemon juice into an ice filled cocktail shaker. Shake well to combine. Strain into sugar rimmed martini glass. Recipe yields one martini. Please enjoy your Teeny Weeny Bikini Martini responsibly! Happy Friday, everyone! *Simple Syrup is equal parts sugar and water mixed together, brought to a boil for three minutes, then cooled.

I spent about an hour writing a post about the future this morning. It was about the flying cars, robot maids and unisex silver jumpsuits that we all expected to have by now. Remember when the year 2000 sounded exotic and far away? Well, when I was all done, I looked it over, decided it wasn't that interesting and deleted it. Surprised? Don't be. I do it all the time. I've decided it would be fun to take yesterday's timeline and flip it. Instead of looking into the past, let's take a peek at the future. We'll use the same date from the timeline through the past. Here we go: August 12, 2009 - Our children are 9 and 16. My husband and I have been married for 20 years. We've been living in our current home for 13 years. My husband has been working for a major communication company for 15 years. August 12, 2010 - Our children are 10 and 17. Our daughter will soon be starting her first year in middle school while our son will be starting his last year in high sch...

I made Spaghetti with Tomato Basil Cream Sauce and Chicken Parmesan for dinner last night. It's not a difficult meal to prepare, but it does require the oven and multiple burners on the cooktop so it heats up the kitchen. After dinner, it was still awfully warm inside, so I left all of the dishes right where there were and my husband and I went outside to sit on the back porch and cool off. We had eaten rather late, so it was already dark outside. Our neighborhood was uncharacteristically quiet and the only sounds were that of the crickets chirping and the faint whoosh of cars passing by on Main Street. It was a perfect summer evening, the sort that you dream about in the middle of February. I asked my husband what he thought we might have been doing at that exact moment one year ago. Had we been sitting in the same place enjoying similarly beautiful weather? Had I made the same meal for dinner? What about five years ago? How about 10, 15, and 20 years ago? I know I've taken a ...

Now that we have the new pool up and running, we want to get rid of the quick set pool we were using before. Of course the first thing we thought to do was to put an ad on craigslist. I know it's getting late in the season for a pool, but we're finally getting some hot weather and I thought there might be someone interested in it. The pool is in excellent shape and comes with some extras we purchased separately so it's more than complete. I decided to price it at about a third of what we paid for it. I placed the ad and sat back and waited for responses. For the first few day, no one seemed interested, but as soon as the temperature went up, the emails started rolling in. Out of fairness, I contacted the responders in order to make arrangements for pick up. Responder number one was excited to come and get it and would get right back to me for my address. I waited and waited, sent a few emails to her, and waited some more. Finally, I told her I would need to contact the next...

Water Hazard We had thunderstorms on Saturday and the temperature was around 70 degrees. Not exactly optimal swimming weather. Sunday, however, was perfect for spending some quality time in the pool. It was sunny and 93 degrees and the water looked like this (yes, that's actually our pool). So we all got our swimsuits on and got in. The water was a little on the cold side, but we got used to it in no time. After about an hour, we decided to get out and sit in the sun for a while. The kids had other things to do, so they disappeared, and Mr. Willoughby and I got back in the pool, which we had all to ourselves. We swam around for a while and then decided to do a little floating. Mr. Willoughby's floatation device of choice was one of these (not our actual rafts). While I opted for one of these. (No, that is not Mr. Willoughby and I in the picture. We look much better in our swimsuits than those two slackers! You believe me, don't you?) The sun was warm and without anyone ...

While I was enjoying my coffee this morning, I read an article about warehouse shopping and whether or not it's a good deal. The stores they mentioned were BJ's, Costco and Sam's Club. The article wasn't very decisive, it basically said you can save money depending on what you buy. It was the reader comments that followed the article that were the most puzzling to me, however. More than one reader claimed that they could spend $300 on food items and not have enough for more than one meal. Huh? If you read my blog regularly, you know I'm a big fan of Sam's Club. We don't have a BJ's or Costco nearby, so I don't know much about their merchandise or prices, but we shop at Sam's Club about twice a month. Three hundred dollars, for us, would buy enough food for three weeks or more worth of meals. What did these people spend their money on? I supposed if you were lured into buying a lot of snacks and frozen convenience foods you wouldn't h...

I posted a recipe for Mixed Berry Margaritas that was made with frozen mixed berries a while back. They are spectacular, but if you don't have frozen berries on hand, you're out of luck. This recipe is equally wonderful, but uses frozen condensed mixed berry punch (in the freezer section of your supermarket next to frozen orange juice and lemon juice). Take a guess where I took the picture! Mixed Berry Margaritas 12 oz. can frozen mixed berry punch 3 oz. tequila 12 oz. ice (use the empty can to measure) Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Pour into salt rimmed margarita glasses. Enjoy your Mixed Berry Margarita responsibly, please! *The picture was taken in the new pool (as if you hadn't guessed that!). I promise you, the water is much clearer than it looks in the picture.

It's a simple fact that you become a legal adult in the US when you turn 21. For me, that was March 18, 1989. I can't say that anything magical happened on that day to make me feel more mature or adult in any way. I remember when it really hit me that I was an adult, but it didn't have anything to do with turning 21, having a job and earning my own money, getting married, paying bills, ordering a drink in a restaurant or anything you might expect. The moment it hit me that I was an adult was during dinner with some friends of ours. This was shortly after we were married and they had come to our apartment for the evening. We were enjoying some pleasant conversation when the topic turned to bathroom cleaners. We discussed which ones worked best and the attributes of spray versus foam and paper towel versus sponges. Like being hit with a ton of bricks, I realised that only adults would talk about cleaning toilets and tile with the same enthusiasm once reserved for such ...

I was going to wait until it was easier to post some pictures to spill the beans on our yard project, but I changed my mind. We're about two thirds of the way through summer and I hate to wait any longer to give you the details of our project in case it might inspire you to do something similar. So what did we do? We put in a pool! Everyone in the Willoughby house loves the water and we've talked about getting a pool for the longest time, but it just wasn't in the budget. We've always had a quick set type pool (you know the kind with the inflatable top ring) and used it a lot, but it wasn't the same as having a real pool. An inground pool would have been ideal, but was a little out of the budget, so we had been talking about an above ground pool since last year. Initially, I balked at the idea because I didn't think it would look very attractive in our yard. Once we came up with the idea of adding a surrounding pool deck and landscaping, I was sold. Our ...

I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that, although I can't see anything on my screen, my computer is still working. The bad news is that, since it's a laptop, I can't easily swap out screens. The good news is that Purple Hoodie Chick let me borrow the monitor from her desktop computer (and thanks to my son who set it all up for me). The bad news is that some functions (picture files, data files, links, etc.) show up on the laptop monitor and have to be dragged onto the secondary monitor. More bad news, I can't see them well enough to click and drag! So, for the time being, it looks like NASA Mission Control around here with multiple monitors and cords all over the place, but at least I can still access my blog. I just won't be able to post pictures or clickable links for a while. I had planned to start giving you a peek at our yard projects, but without pictures, it won't be as much fun so I'll save it for another day. Instead,...

Remember in my last post when I uttered those immortal words, "It is what it is"? Well, I now have to say them again. Yesterday afternoon my computer screen started going dim and then turned to black. My husband is trying to diagnose the problem, as we don't know if the screen has burned out or the mother board is fried. Wouldn't you know this would happen just as I was ready to get back to posting my regular Friday Night Drink Demo? It was a good one, too! Right now, I am using a borrowed computer, but I don't have access to my picture files so it may be a while until I am back to regular posting and commenting. I hope to be back before the weekend is out, but that will depend on whether we can fix what's wrong. What else can I say, but, it is what it is!