Kitty Deschanel

This is a Father's Day re-post, full of fun and yummy ideas for your own Father's Day get together. Enjoy! We played host at an impromptu Father's Day party yesterday for my parents, brother, and sister-in-law. You might remember seeing my dad and brother mentioned on my site before. They're a little bit awkward . Our kitchen, almost ready to party. (Not shown: A pre-photo shoving frenzy of knick-knacks anywhere and everywhere out of sight. I can never find anything after I "clean" the house.) Sexy Nerd gathered some flowers from our backyard, eventually. Every time company is coming over, without fail, he lounges around lazily while I frantically cook/clean/decorate/panic. I get mad at him, he's bewildered with no idea what's wrong, then he finally, FINALLY helps get things ready. It's our own little party tradition. The half wall dividing our living and dining rooms served as a convenient beverage station. But som

Construction has been delayed (surprise, surprise) for quite some time due to our local utility company, PNM, refusing to do their job. This has meant deep, open trenches and sky-high mountains of dirt blocking the path to our house. No one has been able to do any work, interior or exterior. Somehow, Sexy Nerd and I still managed to get inside without any trouble. We were even able to move in a long, cumbersome vanity for the guest bathroom, as well as all of the cabinets Sexy Nerd built for my closet (a ton of cabinets...I may have gotten carried away), even though every member of the construction crew was helpless to access the house until PNM arrived. Weird how that works, isn't it? Not to complain though, because guess what? PNM has finally come and gone and the trenches have been filled! After So beautiful. Before Ack! If I'd started with this hideous photo, in typical Before & After fashion, you never would have clicked the link to this kick-@ss

Our house needs to be finished by July 1st...and we don't even have our flooring, stucco, roof, or cabinets installed! In fact, I don't think anyone from Panorama Homes has even been to our house this entire week. The deadline is quickly approaching and our house is just sitting there, empty and forgotten. I email the builder and the foreman for an update and am ignored. I ask our builder in person what the plan is for next week and am told, "I don't know". We're screwed, aren't we? "Screwed and tattooed," my boss says. It's not the sort of language one expects to hear from a little old lady, and especially not from a children's dentist, so it sticks with me. Screwed and tattooed , I think, staring at the unfinished, well, everything. Screwed and tattooed. On the plus side, the work that has been completed looks great. The interior walls have all been painted (Sherwin Williams Polite White), the tongue and groove ceiling is up, and