Are you getting ready for Father’s Day on June 15? Whether you buy Dad a tie, or a fine cognac or some Ping golf supplies, one thing that won’t change is that grilling out is the perfect way to celebrate Father’s Day. Not only will it be smack dab in the middle of prime grilling season, it is also a tried and true fact that most Father’s are pretty skilled at outdoor cooking.

So, I have a couple of recipes for you. One comes from generations back in my father’s wife’s family in Southern Georgia. It’s a thin sauce called Hot Moppin’ that you spoon over pulled pork or beef. Holy cow, it’s good!

Hot Moppin 
• 1-teaspoon Black Pepper
• ½-teaspoon Salt
• 1-teaspoon Chipped Red Pepper
• 1-teaspoon Dry Mustard
• 1-teaspoon Yellow Prepared Mustard
• ½-teaspoon Sugar
• ½-cup vinegar
• ½-stick Margarine

Can add more red pepper to taste if desired.

Stir continually until a rolling boil. Use on Pork or beef as a vinegar based barbecue sauce.

This second recipe is something I love to whip up to use on the grill. It is also great spooned over pulled meats, but keep in mind that ketchup and the molasses is going to caramelize on the grill, and that’s half the divinity of BBQ.

Tangy Sweet Balsamic Barbeque Sauce
• In a 2-quart pan, combine
• 1 cup ketchup
• 3/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dark molasses
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire
• 1 teaspoon garlic
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

Simmer, uncovered, over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture is reduced to about 2 cups, 12 to 15 minutes. Best warm or at room temperature. Makes 2 cups.

I have been pondering on and writing about the alarming rise in grocery prices for months now. My grocery bill and my gasoline costs are taking over my budget.

So, when I saw a headline proclaiming that sales of Spam are up due to consumers looking for less expensive ways to fill out their cupboards, I was…well, I’m not sure what I was, but I stopped to read the story.

When I was a child, in the 70s, Spam was around quite a bit. We did not actually eat it all that often in my household, but when I would spend the night at my friend Carol’s house, one of the biggest treats was when her mom would make us slices of friend spam along with buttered noodles for dinner. For me, Spam was right up there with Vienna Sausages as those mysterious foods I only got on what seemed like special occasion. Little did I know my parents just did not share my love for processed meats and served them seldom to avoid having to eat them.

Spam has been around since 1937 and due to amazing increase in sales this year; Hormel is planning the first national advertising campaign for Spam in years. They are even going to roll out new Spam products, like individually wrapped slices.

Overall food prices are up 4% since last year. White bread is up 13%, bacon is up 7%, and peanut butter is up %. And, if food prices keep going up like they are right now, it will mean that 2008 will see an overall increase of 6.1%.

My mother is a child of WW2 and her parents grew up in the Great Depression. I admit that my daily household habits are much more wasteful than what I have been taught by my family and I need to take a step back and implement what I have been taught. Meals can indeed be made for just a couple of dollars. I can put in a bigger garden, can fruits an veggies, save more cans and jars and bags, re-use foil, eat is restaurants a lot less often, and hundreds of other things.

It all startds with Spam, but it marches onward from there.

Tennis has been on my radar since I was very young. In our neighborhood, tennis lessons were right up there with ballet and piano as the must-have lessons for your children. It was simply a part of daily life for me growing up.

Tennis gained sex appeal for me when Boris Becker came on the scene. In 1985, Becker won at Wimbledon at the amazingly young age of 17. I was almost 15 at the time and he all but glowed with a supernatural light in my eyes. (Boris actually got to Wimbledon at the age of 16, but his win did not come until the flowing year.) He was amazing to watch, both because of his powerful playing style and his looks. His career was a fast-paced series of exciting wins and losses, but for me it was always about Wimbledon.

Everyone has that list of things you want to do before you die. Recently a movie came out called Bucket List, so I suppose bucket list is the correct term. My bucket list is pretty long, and getting over to Wimbledon has been near the top for most of my adult life. This summer, I will be watching the championship tournament on TV, but when it really comes down to it, I want to be there in the stands, snacking on strawberries and cream at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in London. I’ve been to the U.S. Open, so I have one of the four Grand Slams marked off on my list. Still, Wimbledon is the most appealing of the four for me.

Where there is a will, there is a way, right? It won’t be long before my daughter will be old enough to appreciate watching tennis tournaments with me and at that point I am going to just bit the bullet and get my hands on some Wimbeldon tickets. And, I will probably go all out and enter the draw for the really great tickets.

I have written a lot about what can happen when an underage driver gets behind the wheel of a car. In this first paragraph alone you will find five links to some of the another articles I have written about this tragic topic in the past. I feel passionately about raising the minimum driving age in Florida and in the rest of the United States.

This next story does not take place on our highways or even on the streets of a neighborhood. In fact, the car did not travel very far at all. And still, it still involves unspeakable tragedy.

Last night in St. Petersburg, Florida a 13-year-old girl told her mother she was going out to the family’s Volkswagen Cabrio to retriever her schoolbooks. She took the keys and headed out to the parking lot. Instead of just getting in the car, getting her books, and getting back out – she and a friend took a joyride around the parking lot that ended with the death of a five-year-old boy.

First, the girl lurched the car forward, where it struck a wall and knocked out some concrete blocks. The, she put the car in reverse and the struck the five-year-old, who had been sitting on a planter.

He was hit in the torso and pinned against a wall with his feet dangling off the ground. Instead of pushing the break, the eighth-grader put her foot on the gas and rendered the boy unable to breath. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Witnesses say the girl and her friend were playing loud music and dancing as they drove around the parking lot. After she struck the boy, the driver ran from the car and was not found by police until an hour later.

A lot of the comments made by readers of this story on a local news website blasted the girl’s parents as being irresponsible in letting her have the car keys. Tell me, though, how many parents of a young teen have handed their child car keys so they can go retrieve something from the car? I do not find anything at all negligent about that action. This is clearly a case of a teen’s bad judgment and I think the teen alone should be prosecuted.

I do, however, still think it is a good illustration of our current problems with underage drivers in general.

I live in Florida. As you know, we are pretty much surrounded by water. On top of that, there are the lakes and the river. There is a lot of water and therefore a lot of boating. If you look around my neighborhood, you’ll see that pretty much every other house has a boat parked in the back yard or the driveway.

There are also a lot of boating accidents in Florida, and often in the end it turns out that alcohol is involved. In fact,  a third of all fatal boating accidents nationwide are alcohol related. In states where boating is a year-round activity, those stats are highter. In Arizona, 50% of all fatal boating accidents were alcohol related in 2007. That led Arizona to put a lot of effort into educating the public about boating safety and boating operating under the influence.

It’s appropriate, then, to look at the issue of boating under the influence of alcohol. Not only is the issue about safety, but operating a boat while using alcohol is just as illegal as drinking and driving. A lot of great information about this issue can be found on a website set up specifically by the Arizona Game & Fish Department for issues surrounding Arizona boating. The fact is you don’t have to go any further than your computer to find out everything you need to know about alcohol and boating. Getting boating education online is just another one of the great things about the web. You don’t have to leave your house to learn the facts that can save your life.

Here is a general boating safety video that’s being used in Arizona right now. Why is this video so useful? Studies show that educated boaters are 70 %  less likely to be involved in a boating accident:

Our whole family loves this recipe. We picked it up during a visit to Williamsburg, Virginia when we ate in the Tavern one night. I have made it often for us.

1 1/3 cup boiling water
1 1/3 cups fresh milk
1 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 teaspoon sugar
4 tablespoons butter
3 eggs
1 Tablespoon baking powder.

Preheat oven to 350û.

Grease two-quart, shallow baking dish.

Mix sugar, salt, and cornmeal. Pour boiling water over mixture, stirring constantly. Add butter and let stand until cool. Beat eggs with the baking powder until light and add to mixture. Add milk and stir.

Pour into prepared dish. Place dish in a shallow pan of hot water and bake at 350û for 35 minutes. The texture should be soft and custard-like. Serve with a spoon.

Holy Cow! I think I need a few minutes to rest so the shock of driving past the two gas stations that are on the way home from my daughter’s school. Gas prices are up so high, that I am cutting out most non-essential car trips. I’m only going out again today, because I have to get my daughter to the doctor and then take my former mother-in-law to dinner for her birthday.

The rising gas prices, super high food prices, and the rise in nearly every other commercial and retail sector is really starting to impact more than just the lower and working middles classes here in the United States. Employment rates and salaries are not keeping up with the changes and home prices are not retaining their value. Because of that, high levels of consumer debt are becoming more and more common.

Something that a lot of people do not realize is that in some states, if you are in over your head in credit card debt, there are sometimes ways to settle for a lesser amount with your creditors. It’s not for everyone, and you certainly could not continue to use your credit cards, but it is a way for some people to get out of debt and find a better path toward savings and the eventual betterment of your credit score.

I was looking on the ACA website and found a handy little free e-book called the “How to Deal with the Calls Guide”. If you have ever been pestered by creditors who are not following the many laws that are in place to protect consumers, this will be a good read for you. And while you are there downloading the e-book, check out the various debt calculators on the ACA website.

I think I had a momentary lapse of reason last night. For some reason I set my DVR to record the two new shows on E! last night: Denise Richards It’s complicated and Living Lohan. And then, I actually watched them both.

I’ve always rolled my eyes at the odd drama surrounding Denise Richards. When she began dating Richie Sambora, I saw her as “that: kind of girl – the girl who would date a friend’s man. That, as many of you know, breaks a cardinal girl of womanhood. You just don’t do it.

Surprisingly, I liked the Denise Richards show. She is funny and emotional, and rather like someone I would hang out with when I’m feeling like having some fun. I love that her dad has come to live with her after the death of Denise’s mom. On the other hand, Denise has at least one assistant that she needs to kick to the curb. Who pays money to have a spaz-prone flake “assist” them in their daily life?

I think I will keep watching this one.

Living Lohan, though, was pure torture. The family is crass, for the most part. Although Dina appears to have some occasionally sound advice, she is frighteningly obsessed with the tabloids. She is pandering to her 2nd daughter’s questionable music career, and she fully embraces a young “producer” who clearly is there simply to glom onto the Lohan name. Ali is, unfortunately, not as pretty or talented as her older sister was at 14. It must be hard to live in that shadow, but sometimes you just have to ace the truth and buckle down with the plan of actually going to college and getting a job outside of the entertainment industry.

The show was difficult to watch and made me realize that the only two things about the Lohan family that are even remotely appealing are Nana and young Cody. They need to move out and have their own sit-com. ?

My dad is pretty great. I’ll bet most of you would say the same thing about your own dad’s.

When I was little, I gave my dad things for Father’s Day like cards made out of construction paper, glitter, and old buttons. I made him an ashtray (he does not smoke) and a pencil holder out of lumpy, uneven clay one year. He kept them on his desk until he retired and even to this day they sit by his computer at home. Oh, and a rock painted to look like a strawberry. I was particularly proud of that little bit of artwork.

My dad is older now. And, so am I. I’ve moved to more sophisticated Father’s Day gifts. Last year I bought him a massive gift certificate to his favorite local steak restaurant. The year before that, I got him a GPS.

This year, I have a couple of things in mind, but by far the best would be if I could win the Charter Communications Father’s Day contest and give him Father’s Day in HD. My dad has used Charter for years and so I thought this would be perfect. Check out the list of goodies the grand prize winner gets:

• 65″ LCD HDTV Flat Panel 1080p
• FREE Charter HD service for life
• The Charter Bundle for life

There will also be four finalists and they will each get Charter’s Biggest Bundle, FREE for a year. And that bundle I’ve mentioned includes Digital Cable TV, Digital Phone, and High Speed Internet. Very cool.

Your dad needs to live in a Charter serviceable area for you to enter the contest. All you do is enter your e-mail address, your dad’s email address, and then write an answering the question: “Why does your dad deserves the nation’s biggest HDTV?” Hurry, though, you have to enter by June 8.

Most people who have not been living under a rock this past year know the story of Hulk Hogan’s son Nick Bollea and the horrific accident he had last August here in Clearwater, Florida. His passenger, John Graziano, suffered brain damage and still needs 24-hour care.

Yesterday, Nick’s sister Brooke Bollea was involved in a car accident, also here in Pinellas County. Another driver, Ronald Gallmon (19), lost control of his 1997 Toyota while changing lanes going north on the Bayside Bridge, spun into Bollea’s lane, and struck her 2008 Mercedes.

Nobody was injured, which is fortunate. Witnesses told highway patrol troopers that Gallmon was speeding. Sadly, seeing a young boy speeding, weaving in and out of traffic, and generally endangering other drivers is a common sight in Pinellas County, especially on our bridges and on US 19.

I’ve written in the past about how I think the age for receiving a driver’s license should be raised in Florida. I’ve lived in many states throughout my life and I have not seen as much reckless driving by teens as I do here in the Tampa area.

The point of my headline was not that the entire Bollea family are terrible drivers, but that their track record for car-related issues is pretty crappy. Maybe they would be safer just taking the bus. ?

I fully believe that how well you sleep has more to do with your mattress than anything else.

Years and years ago, right after I graduated from college, I got a second-hand mattress from a friend that was 100% foam. It was just this massive, thick slab of fairly firm foam. I slept so well. In fact, on days when I was tired, I would be in the car driving home and just have these longing feelings for my bed.

When I moved to DC, I was unsure where I would be living and I actually did end up sleeping on a friend’s couch for a year. Before all that, I got rid of most of my belongings. I gave my mattress to a married couple I was friends with. They had a terrible mattress. When I would see them after that, they would gloat a little about how well they were sleeping.

To this day, I miss that foam mattress. Now, I have a pillow top. I’m sleeping on a single right now, but I have an even better pillow top in storage. It’s a King and won’t really fit where I am living right now, but I’ve learned my lesson. When you have an awesome mattress, don’t just give the thing away!

Of course, if I find a fully foam mattress I like and can afford in the near future, that King I have in storage in up for grabs.

I live in what is essentially a beach community. And like most beach communities, people move here with a whole lot of money. It’s laughable, in my book, that most of the women begin to conform to a certain look: bleached blonde hair that looks brittle and sun-damaged, French pedicures, orange spray-on tans, lots of gold chains and rings and luxury watches, and massive bug-eye sunglasses. They overdress in pricey, yet still trashy clothes and wear so much makeup that they look older than they actually are – lipstick too frosty, eye shadow too dark, eyes lined with harsh lines. I suppose this is the trophy wife uniform.

It’s not what I aspire, too, though. I live in Florida and I get some of the best sunshine in the world all year long. I want my healthy, natural tan to show, I want my hair to be long and flowing, and to pick up the sea breezes. I like to wear sandals and capris and flowy knit shirts that pick up the winds and let the cool air touch my skin. I love makeup, too, but I generally only wear it in the evenings or for events. My skin looks young and I want that to show.

Seriously, if I had the money that some of these “trophy wives” had, I’d spend it on local charities and putting an organic greenhouse into my yard, instead of on plastic surgery and weekly root touch-ups.

I stopped by the Salvation Army thrift store quickly yesterday afternoon. I am looking for a used pair of ballet slippers for my daughter that she can wear for ballet camp this summer. I did not find the ballet slippers, but I got a super cool pair of black Chucks that should fit her soon. I have them out in the washer now.

However, that was not what I wanted to write about. I was coming back to the car and the couple that was getting into the car next to me was having a very sad conversation. The man was telling his wife/girlfriend/buddy that his cousin was apparently addicted to crack. He was shocked and hurt, because nobody in his family saw it coming; the cousin has a family and a pretty good job. He and his relatives are feeling devastated.

The reason I overheard so much of the conversation is that I was walking behind them out of the store and into the parking lot, by the way.

So, this guy goes on to tell the girl that another of his cousins just got out of alcohol rehab and so now the parents, this guy’s aunt and uncle, are going through a time when they feel like they have failed in raising their kids. This, despite the fact that they apparently live in a wealthy neighborhood in Miami and had everything they needed as they were growing up. Both went to college and were seemingly productive parts of society.

That’s all I heard, but as I drove home I pondered the emotions this family must be feeling. And, I was glad they were feeling them at all. I know all too many families that are so splintered that the family members might not even find out or care if one of them was struggling with addiction. If this family is close, caring, and willing to be involved there is a lot of success in the future for these cousins.

I love tea. I love it iced, hot, blended, and used for the base notes of a perfume (yes, I have Earl Gray Tea perfume). I love tea.

My silly little confession is that my absolute favorite hot tea right now is a tea I got as a part of a liver cleanse routine. Yes, it came in a kit that one would use to do a full liver cleanse. And, it rocks. It’s about the best tea I have tasted in a very long time. I’ll be order some more on its own, just so I can continue to have the tea on the evenings. It’s that good. Maybe they only even put it in as part of the kit to give customers some teatime pleasure. I don’t know and don’t care. I just love the tea.

I used to ship the loss leaders at the grocery stores more for the thrill of it. I was home with an infant and had the tie to put her in her carrier and go from market to market, picking up the items that the grocery stores put at amazing prices that are at cost or below cost just to get you in the door. They count on getting you there and that you will do the rest of your shopping there, so that they can recoup the loss.

I shop the loss leaders for a whole other reason now. I feel like I am spending so much on food and gas per week now that my budget is taking a considerable blow. I shop the loss leaders simply to get the best buy and make my food bill stretch a little more.

If I can find coupons to combine with the loss leader item, I will often try to stock up. This is particularly useful for non-food items like shampoo, deodorant, and laundry detergent. I bought about a dozen jugs of Tide’s Rose and Violet variety when I found them at a price too good to believe. It’s not going to go bad and I have room for it in the garage. Plus, I love that scent and I think they may have discontinued it, so I am a happy camper to even still have access to it.

Of course, if you are planning on stocking up on a loss leader item, check the expiration date before you decide just how much to purchase.

Now, the trick is to go in, get it, and get back out! Don’t give in to impulse buys while you are in the store shopping for loss leader items. And, try to plan your meals that week around the loss leaders.