Or will we kill each other in the process? Last night was a lazy night, as was the night before. Every day and night has been lazy, with the exception of me researching tubs for our guest suite, which Sexy Nerd took no part in. So, imagine my frustration this morning, barely awake and getting ready for work, when a certain someone frantically demanded that I drop everything and choose a tub right this instant. Apparently, I'm holding up the entire project, and being late for work is a small price to pay for not causing any more problems. *Grumble* Oh, and that part of the drawing that says "matching ceiling plane"? I might just insist on changing that, just to irk you-know-who.

Construction on our mountain dream home, week one: (This is post 2 of 2. Click here for post 1 of 2 .) See that fence? Don't get too used to it. The neighbors will be moving it onto their property any day now. If only we'd caught them before they'd paid someone to build it...and before the posts were cemented into place! (There's that neighborly guilt again.) Here's a weird question for you - what do you think of this part of our lot? I call it our dry riverbed and Sexy Nerd calls it our canyon (it's hard to tell from this photo, but the ground dips down here) and we like it so much we've designed the hot tub in the master retreat (hee, hee) to look out over this area. However, the last time we both thought something on our lot was really neat (a gnarled old tree trunk), every person we showed it to was like, "That's really ugly and stupid and what's wrong with you two?" The construction crew was just going to

We broke ground last week and have been amazed by how quickly everything is rolling along. Within only 4 days, the crew created a driveway, cut down all necessary trees, removed all the waste (including a pile of wood from when our crazy neighbor cut down a bunch of our trees, much to our dismay, but that's a story for another day), dug a pit/created a mountain, and more! Photos from Week 1 of Construction (post 1 of 2)( click here for post 2 of 2 ) Can you imagine how disappointed our neighbors must have been when they drove home and discovered a porta potty next door? Even worse, the neighbors on both sides of us just moved in and neither family had any idea construction was about to begin! I know there's no way around it, but I can't help feeling guilty. There are doorstep goody bags (with balloons!) in their future. Truth be told, I don't look like I feel guilty at all in this photo. On day 3, the ground was flat. The next day, we had our ve

Today I will... ...stop wasting so much time on the internet! When Sexy Nerd and I were in Iceland last year, our Airbnb rental had Wi-Fi that worked great on his tablet and on his phone. On my tablet and on my phone? It did not work AT ALL. Weird, right? No matter how hard we tried (oh, how we tried!), my devices refused to acknowledge the existence of the perfectly functioning internet signals beaming all around them. It made me crazy. A funny thing happened though. Without the internet constantly in my life, I was able to think more creatively, enjoy my free time better, and even came up with a few genius ideas for my novel (you know, the one I've been working on for the last decade, darn internet). No mindlessly scrolling through my never-ending Facebook feed. No "just checking my email real quick". It was like my brain had been freed!  Of course, you probably can't just ban the internet from your life altogether. How would you keep up with your

Excerpt from an email I sent my BFF on 12/13/11:  A few months ago, Sexy Nerd and I were browsing land and houses online, not really planning to buy anything, and came across a listing for a 13.1 acre property in the mountains. It was described as having "various meadows and views of 4-5 mountain ranges", which seemed funny to us. We walked the property and, although we didn't find anything we would consider to be a meadow, we bought it. Now we're designing a home to build on it.  4.5 years later, I received this nifty email from Old Republic Title: Congratulations, we have closed, funded and inspected.  You may start construction. Happy Homebuilding! That's right. WE'RE BREAKING GROUND TO DAY !!! Can you believe we're finally, FINALLY going to build? Woo hoo hoo! We spent the weekend shopping for tile FOR OUR DREAM HOME THAT WE'RE ACTUALLY BUILDING! (Not this exact tile. Ick.) Oh, and now I finally get to use this :

Sexy Nerd and I are finally,  finally  almost ready to break ground on our mountain dream home outsi de  of Albuquerque, NM . How much longer has it taken than we'd expected? Well, I thought we'd have been living in the house a long time ago! We hiked our lot yesterday, double checking the house placement and making sure the windows are correctly located to maximize the views. We have new neighbors on both sides of our lot and we discovered one of the homes has built a new fence since we last visited, about 10 feet of which is on our property! In the interest of making friends with our neighbors though, we decided not to say anything. There's a tree that has fallen over at the top of our lot. Our plan is to eventually turn it into a fireplace mantle. In the meantime, it has been a great picnic spot, complete with 360 degree views of the mountains. We'd packed a snack and a beer each and up we hiked to the edge of our property, looking forward to resting on that fal

Sexy Nerd - flirting with the front desk or business traveler extraordinaire? Welcome Mr. Wartman! You are like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow - a wonderful sight to see! Livermore Residence Inn Sure, when Sexy Nerd stays at a hotel, he's like an enigma wrapped in a sunshiny unicorn kiss. When I stay at a hotel? DISASTER, pure and simple. I have waffle-induced PTSD . The most important part of this little ramble? He knew to bring all the chocolate home to me, as well as the little bags of microwave popcorn. A smart man, that Sexy Nerd ;)