Update: We've earned our Southwest Companion Pass!

For years, I've hoped to earn enough Southwest miles to receive the glittering holy grail of travel rewards, a Southwest Companion Pass. This nifty little card entitles you to a Buy 1, Get 1 Free discount on every Southwest flight you take, even ones booked with points. Half price weekend getaway to Las Vegas? Yes, please!

Actually, scratch that. Half price trip to sunny Hawaii! Southwest expects to be flying there soon.

My husband travels exclusively with Southwest for work and he is always away on a business trip, so you'd think if anyone was going to earn a Companion Pass, it would be him. He has received A-List Preferred status with Southwest, which doubles his points, Platinum Premier Elite status with their partner, Marriott, and whatever the top rewards tier is with Southwest's rental car partner, National. Still, no Companion Pass.

To earn one, you've always had to fly 100 flights with Southwest per year, e…

Confession: I think it's creepy to hang the head of a dead animal on your wall. There, I said it. Maybe you shot it humanely and it fed your family and the deer were overpopulated in the area anyway or, heck, maybe you just hit it with your car by accident. (Or it hit you - I recently had a very close call with a spooked deer nearly running into the side of my Volt! Apparently, that's a thing.) That's all well and good, but doesn't it seem even the slightest bit icky to have the now-deceased deer inside your home...watching you? Plotting its revenge? You sit at the table eating venison and it stares at you, unblinking. Can you imagine sitting alone in a room during a thunderstorm, surrounded by the heads of deer, and the power goes out?

I would scream.

I just don't get it.

This blog post is off to a gruesome start. Let's try this again.

I love nature and have been incorporating deer decor into our new mountain home. We've learned firsthand at our annual ex…

15 years ago, my life took a happy turn when I went on a Match.com date to the China King buffet in Albuquerque (still our favorite) with the best guy ever. It would have been 15 years ago yesterday, but he couldn't make it because he was taking his Grandpa to the Natural History museum. (See? Best guy ever.) At his insistence, he even paid - my only date to ever do that!

We were just kids when we met. I wasn't even old enough to drink. Sexy Nerd received a word of warning from his Grandma before our first date, insisting he be cautious and make sure I wasn't just after his money. It gave both of us starving college students a good laugh. What money?

We're not actually able to see each other at all today, as Sexy Nerd left on a business trip yesterday and won't be home until tomorrow. I contacted the Marriott Kansas City Overland Park about this and they are going to arrange for some nice anniversary surprises. I'm not sure what exactly...it will be a surprise to…

As part of my New Year's resolutions for 2019 (yes, I still do those, old soul that I am), I've been treadmilling daily and trying to make healthier food choices. The treadmill part is easy, as long as I don't overdo it and kill my feet again, because I can use my laptop the entire time - online shopping and fitness combined! The food part is more of a challenge. I looove sugar. Oh, and salt.

Now I want to whip up a chocolate cake and binge on pickles while it bakes. So not the point of this blog post!

Another resolution is that I'm going to invest more time into this site. Stay tuned for big improvements! You know how all (successful) bloggers swear by the rule of having a clear topic for their site? Yeah...I have not even come close to doing that. This blog is just like my mind - all over the place.

Kitty Deschanel, 2019 = more beauty, more sleep, and less nonsense. Recipes? Get the heck out of here, recipes.

In the meantime, here is a post from 5 years ago that hel…