Jack Russell Terriers are known for their intelligence, and when Sexy Nerd left the house last week for a business trip, Pica knew exactly what his suitcase meant.

She laid by the front door, whining, until I shooed her away. Even offering her a cookie did nothing to console the poor dog. I thought if I kept her away from the front door, she'd get distracted by something (a noise outside? a moth? a piece of dust?!) soon enough. Instead, she went straight to the garage door.

Now, for my fellow South Park fans, you'll want to read this next part in the voice of Sexual Harassment Panda.

I'm a saaaad Pica.

On our recent Alaskan cruise on the Oosterdam, Sexy Nerd and I were fortunate to visit the Sawyer Glacier in the Tracy Arm fjord, which was unlike anywhere we've ever been. More photos are coming, but I think this is a good one to share for now:


All the dark spots on the ice? Seals! There must have been at least 100 of them, just lounging and showing off their rolls of flab for the tourists. The ship got us right up to the glacier. My photo makes the glacier seem somewhat puny, so look at it in comparison to those itty bitty (though actually big and mighty) seals.
The ice really does look blue like in the photo. The color is caused by air trapped inside the ice. When a chunk breaks off ("calving", which we witnessed several times), the floating iceberg stays blue until the air escapes, which we were told is usually about 24 hours.
I have many more photos to share, but it turns out that Windows 8 is a jerk and the "sort by date modified" option does NOTHING, whi…

This is one of our favorite dinners. How convenient that it also happens to be quick and easy!


It's not the prettiest waffle around, though my blue Noritake Colorwave plate tried to fool you into thinking otherwise.

This is a recipe you should bookmark. These chili-covered cornmeal waffles seem like the kind of meal you worked really hard on, even though they take no effort at all. Sexy Nerd is certainly impressed whenever he comes home to this dinner.

*Snicker*

The superstar of this meal is the cornmeal waffle, so feel free to use canned chili if you're crunched for time lazy. (No judgement!) If you're feelin' fancy though, I have a great chili recipe for you:

LambAround's Easy Peasy Chili
(serves 3)
1 can tomatoes with green chile
1 can white beans
3 Tbsp creamed corn
1/2 - 1 lb cooked ground beef (the amount depends on how carnivorous you're feeling)
1 diced bell pepper
1 diced white onion
1 diced garlic clove
1 dried red chili pepper (be sure to remove this …

My plan for today was to share a long, detailed Seattle story with you. However, I'm still sick (aaaargh!) so that post has been switched out with one that's shorter and faster to write so that I can get back to bed. A few days ago, I had a fever of almost 103F. Now, I have vertigo. It's worse than that though. It feels like I'm seasick (!!!) even though I haven't been anywhere near the ocean since last Sunday. The water wasn't even rough on our cruise.
This is getting ridiculous.
Anyway, Sexy Nerd and I love Seattle. Despite its rainy reputation, we're always fortunate to have the sun shining when we visit. We walk everywhere in Seattle and enjoy the unique shopping, museums, and restaurants. Albuquerque just doesn't measure up.
One thing we do not love about Seattle, however, is the overwhelming number of homeless people. That's a very hard thing to write without seeming mean, but hear me out. There's someone passed out or panhandling on almo…

Sexy Nerd and I spent last week as guests on the Holland America Oosterdam, sailing roundtrip from Seattle with stops in Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, and Victoria.

By the way, the name of the cruise ship is pronounced like 'Oh-sterdam', not 'Awst-erdam', like we'd been telling everyone. Whoops!

We're cruiseaholics. This was our 8th cruise in the 5 years since we got married. The first thing I did when we got back home? Kiss Pica and Biscuit and look online for new cruise deals.

The best part of taking a cruise? The food!!

Here is how each day typically went:

8:30am - 9:30am: Breakfast in the main dining room

My everyday order was juice, coffee, a chocolate croissant or two, an English muffin, a greek yogurt fruit parfait, a sliced banana with blueberries and, depending on how hungry I was, an omelet with all the fixings, french toast with strawberries, and/or a breakfast sandwich. The waiter would usually suggest I get some ham, bacon, and hash browns on the side.…