The Grump Goes to Santa Fe

Once upon a time, there was a Grump. He didn't always used to be a Grump. Maybe it was his skepticism of the value of a staycation. Perhaps he was frustrated with people judging his water-carrying backpack, saying that he was much too close to home to dress like such a tourist.

Some people just don't like Santa Fe.

"Santa Fe people," thought the Grump "are a bunch of hippies. I will not smile, no matter how much my cute wife wants a photo of me in front of the Santa Fe sign. You must never smile at a hippie or they will steal your power."

When faced with the prospect of walking to Canyon Road to browse the art galleries, the Grump crumpled his oversized hat in frustration. "We have perfectly good art in Albuquerque," he muttered.

Shopping at the Santa Fe Plaza only seemed to create a Sleepy Grump. "We rode the Rail Runner train here," he was quick to point out. "You can't get any of this junk home. It's all overpriced anyway. The music in this store sounds like lasers. It's stupid."

After that, the Grump refused to look in his cheerful wife's direction any more when she had her camera out.

Would the stupendous Santa Fe staycation be destroyed by the Grump? Wasn't there anything in Santa Fe that could interest a nerdy engineer?

The Grump spotted something at the Railyard Park. His MBTs took him straight to it, lickety split.

"A bench suspended in the air? Is it just more foofy Santa Fe art or can you actually sit on it?"

The Grump sat down cautiously, prepared at any moment for the inferior Santa Fe engineering to land him in the dirt.

He didn't fall.

"Hmmm," thought the Grump, hardly a grump at all anymore.

Of all the fun things to do in Santa Fe, it had been a floating bench that turned his frown upside down!

Then his delightful wife stopped in the middle of the road to take a photo of a whimsical tree and asked him what he thought might be living inside.

And he went right back to being a grump.

Cake Mix Pancakes

This reader-favorite recipe is *almost* as popular as my Cake Mix Cookie Bars recipe . When making Cake Mix pancakes , the scrumptious possibilities are endless. Red Velvet cake mix pancakes. Chocolate cake mix pancakes. Butter Pecan cake mix pancakes. Funfetti cake mix pancakes. (Yes, Funfetti cake mix pancakes!) With this 2-ingredient recipe, you can turn your favorite cake mix into your favorite pancakes. Pancake making at its finest. Cake Mix Pancakes Personally, I think my funny napkin is the icing on the (pan)cake. It's Sunday morning and you're planning to do all the things today - scrub those grody baseboards, polish your quartz countertop that was supposed to be low maintenance but actually isn't at all, sort through the disaster that is the freezer. While on your superhuman kick, you think I'm going to make my family pancakes for breakfast. Not just any pancakes - the best pancakes ever. I may even serve them as breakfast in bed! You pu

10 Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks

You're in for a treat. Today I'm sharing my best canned cinnamon roll hacks and improvements for turning store-bought cinnamon rolls, like the Pillsbury Grands ones or even the store brand, into something special. Dry cinnamon rolls? No thank you. They need to be OOEY and GOOEY. That's just Cinnamon Roll 101. All of these ideas keep Pillsbury canned cinnamon rolls soft, company-worthy, and delicious. These are also great for taking homemade cinnamon rolls up a notch, but what a pain that is. With these better-than-homemade canned cinnamon roll hacks, you'll never bother to bake them from scratch again. Test out some of these ideas tomorrow. Won't it be nice to dig into a mouthwatering cinnamon roll for breakfast? You can't get a better start to your day than that. Canned Cinnamon Roll Hacks Actually, make that 11 easy ways to improve store-bought cinnamon rolls: you can top them with homemade coffee whipped cream . Yum! Nope, make that 12 canned cinnam

Chemical Peel Before & After

This article has been updated! My new chemical peel post, which includes pricing, Jessner peel before and after photos, product recommendations, and a helpful timeline for scheduling your treatments, is at the bottom. My original Jessner peel post (one of the most popular on my site of all time) is at the beginning. Original Chemical Peel Article Considering a chemical peel? I recently underwent my first Jessner peel and thought I'd share my results, post a Jessner peel review, and answer some frequently asked chemical peel questions. (I'm guessing that "Does a chemical peel hurt?" is a biggie!) I'd been planning to order an over-the-counter peel when we were in Iceland , but my computer led me a different direction. I decided to do this on a whim after Groupon greeted me one morning with a great $40 chemical peel deal. Now, I can read your mind. You just gasped in horror and thought You trusted your face to a discount chemical peel?! You're wondering w

Sharing Funny Memes

Funny Memes Post 2 of 3: kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3: https://www.kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html You know those people who have nothing better to do than browse through memes for hours at a time, many of which are in poor taste? Yeah, I'm one of them. Oh, except I actually do have so much to do and absolutely should not be scrolling through memes. Just try and stop me. Covering everything from cute dogs to COVID, here are my Top 20 Funny Memes from the last week: Funny Memes Post 2 of 3: kittydeschanel.com/2021/05/funny-dog-memes.html Funny Memes Post 3 of 3: kittydeschanel.com/2021/12/christmas-memes.html

Hello Fresh Complaints

Hello, my bloggy friends. I have a HelloFresh complaint and believe they are pulling a scam. Yours truly came *this close* to falling for it. Maybe scam is too harsh of a word. Sneaky? You can decide for yourself. The fact that there are so many Hello Fresh complaints online does seem suspicious. Update: Google is totally filling my site with Hello Fresh ads now, ugh. Also, since posting this Hello Fresh complaints article yesterday, I've already received this message from a reader: "I did order from Hello Fresh previously and was not charged what I was originally told (or thought I was told). Also, the food from them was anything but fresh and they refused to do a refund, only doing credit - even for the overcharges! So basically I ended up being out of money thanks to them." My main complaint about Hello Fresh has to do with their promotional rate, which seems like it is set up to be intentionally misleading (more on this below). Despite so many people complainin

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Inspired by the popularity of my other memes posts, Funny Memes and Dog Memes , I have a new collection of memes for you to enjoy. I waste my life on the internet so you don't have to. Bookmark this post because I'll be adding to it as I find new memes for Xmas. Christmas Memes and More Fair warning that some of these are in poor taste. Isn't that usually the funniest meme?

My Instant Pot Explosion!

Like many new Instant Pot owners, I've wondered, How many Instant Pots have exploded? (Eeek!) I'm happy to report that my research on Snopes and other sites has shown that these do not explode, at least not when used properly. There is a lawsuit between a woman in Texas and the Instant Pot manufacturer, but she admits she had thrown a towel over the steam vent. Do NOT do this. Still concerned? Consider that on Prime Day of 2018, Amazon sold more than 300,000 Instant Pots. That's more than a quarter of a million sales in only 1 day! If these things were not safe, you would see news stories every day about someone being injured. Still, things can go wrong. We love our Instant Pot, the digital pressure cooker that seems to suddenly be in every home. You can't mess up - just throw in random ingredients and you'll get something yummy every time. It's foolproof. At least, that's how I used to feel about our Instant Pot, until the explosion... Inst

Window Seat Ideas

Sexy Nerd and I are planning to build a window seat beneath the windows in our dining room. Well, really Sexy Nerd is going to build it while I blog in my pajamas, but I'm still planning to take 98% of the credit. I love all the possibilities offered by a new window seat - extra storage, a reading nook, and even a place to stretch out and take a nap. Here are some photos I've gathered from various sites for the best window seat ideas . There's something for every style, from a traditional all-white farmhouse to a cozy mountain hideaway. Update: This post has been so popular that I've added more window seat ideas . Enjoy! Window Seat Ideas My original window seat ideas post was written in February, 2011, when we were planning to add a window seat to our home. Two+ years later, how is that window seat coming along? To quote Christmas Vacation, I can picture it in my mind and it's breathtaking. Sexy Nerd has been too busy to build my window seat. Between organizin

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