Kitty Deschanel

Mojito Watermelon Fruit Salad Recipe This will be your new go-to dish for potlucks, parties, and holidays...and breakfast. Well, probably not right before heading to work. Oh, it's the most wonderful time of the year. Christmas already? Even better. We're celebrating  wine festival season! I've even brought you home a souvenir this time. Here in New Mexico, we're spoiled with stunning scenery and a unique culinary heritage, which result in some of the best wine festivals in the USA. There's something for everyone with the Wine & Wagyu Weekend in gorgeous Angel Fire, followed by the Taos Summer Wine Festival in the prestigious Taos Ski Valley. Calling all Instagrammers. These fields of flowers are just growing on the side of the road in Angel Fire, NM. They have the world's most beautiful wine festival setting without even trying. If I had to choose, I'd say Angel Fire is best if you're a cowboy at heart and Taos is best if you're mo

A Change in Plans Step 1: Sexy Nerd and I have way too much going on to even think about planning a vacation, so we will just browse through our photos of our trip to Savannah and Charleston last year. Step 2: Wow, that place was amazing. The food! The cute houses! The friendly people and the pretty dresses and the towering trees and the history!  Step 3: Work be darned. It's time to plan a vacation! While reaching this epiphany, it occurred to me that I said I'd share our Charleston, SC photos here on my site but never did. No biggie because I'd already sorted the ones I want to post...oh, except there are a whopping 175 to share! It really is an incredible place to visit. My 'work be darned' attitude applies to blogging too. Who has time for that when there's a vacation to plan? Here's a quick summary of our Charleston trip, as well as all 175 photos. Update: It turns out 175 photos in a single blog post is overly ambitious. Here are photos of the most im

Thank you to everyone for wishing me a happy birthday. I work with the best people - this German chocolate cake they surprised me with is so tall that it didn't even fit in its bakery box! They said that's not how you cut a cake. I said I'm old now so can cut a cake any damn way I please.  Stabby-style it is. My amazing work peeps (am I now too old to call my friends 'peeps'...) prepared an Italian birthday feast for us to share in our break room.  Fancy organic salad, a lasagna made from scratch (even the sauce - go Christie!), and ooey gooey, cheese-filled breadsticks.   Nothing can top that, right? Somehow the food was topped! I stepped away from my desk for a moment and when I returned, there was a tiny gift bag. Inside was a pair of Maggie Simpson socks. I ripped off my boring, professional black socks and swapped them for the pink and yellow cartoon baby socks. If you don't know, I love The Simpsons. And if you don't know that, we've clearly never

Sexy Nerd is building us a new kitchen island. Boring! Have I mentioned it's also a beautiful air hockey table? If I can think it up, he can build it. We're a good team. Especially because I hate to get my hands dirty or do any sort of physical labor. My grandma says I've always been a pampered pup. Thank goodness for my Sexy Nerd! Unique Kitchen Island: Air Hockey Table Does it look like real walnut? He is VERY patient - this project requires 2,120 tiny, perfectly spaced holes. Each hole for the air hockey table really is teensie. To me, they look like they might be too small, so of course I asked Sexy Nerd, What if the holes are too small? "I'll go back and redrill each of them a little bigger." VERY patient indeed. Hang in there, Sexy Nerd. Only 2,090 of these too-small holes to go!

Remember the 1963 GMC truck we purchased after attending the Street Rod Nationals? SN has been diligently restoring this disaster of a vehicle, which is currently in pieces scattered around our garage and yard. I thought you might enjoy seeing Before photos. Restoration of a 1963 GMC Truck What were we thinking? Meet our old farm truck, 'The Lawn Ornament'. We love the turquoise and even the rust. Well, maybe not all the rust - don't use the side step or it will snap right off! Originally purchased by a New Mexico railroad worker on Christmas Eve of 1962, our GMC truck came fully loaded with all the bells and whistles. While cleaning it out, SN found decades of mementos, including the original paperwork, lipstick, wine glasses...and shotgun bullets in the glove box. Automotive safety standards were a *little* different back in the 1960s. The leaky gas tank was located inside the cab, directly behind the seat. Relocating it to pretty much anywhere else is on SN's To Do