Kitty Deschanel

I uploaded my photos to this blog post when we returned from our Alaskan cruise, then saved it as a draft, planning to come back later that week to add captions. That was almost a year ago.          

Anyone want to guess where Sexy Nerd went on his business trip? Yes, those are SHARKS! Sexy Nerd wears his "finger shoes" everywhere (much to my embarrassment). Ooh, that is some scary vegetation. So many people have stayed in this room...and no one has bothered to peel the stickers off the TV. Haven't figured out where Sexy Nerd went? This photo is a bit of a dead giveaway.   He even got to ride in a helicopter! I'd be jealous, but it sounds terrifying. Just your average business trip.

I'm not supposed to be blogging right now, (that novel isn't going to write itself, after all) but I wanted to quickly share my favorite travel site. Have you tried the Google flight finding tool? I've loved it for a while, but only recently noticed this feature: THANK YOU, GOOGLE!!! Is that the coolest thing you've ever seen? The Google flight homepage automatically puts in my location (Albuquerque) and shows me everywhere in the entire world I can fly to, with the total cost of my roundtrip (or one way) airfare. The prices above are my options for ditching work today and hopping on a plane. Who'd have thought a last minute fare to Vegas could be so low? Then again, if I call in today, who else will help all the crazy parents who visit our office? It wouldn't be right.

Have you ever seen the movie The Birds ? We took these photos at the Peel Zoo in Australia last year.   Call us crazy, but we decided not to enter. Remember when we visited Loreto ? Apparently, I'm a psychotic bird magnet. Wait...does that sentence imply that the birds are psychotic or that I am psychotic? Are there any grammar experts out there?

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 do

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 panhandl

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

I haven't quite gotten Omaha out of my system and have been researching what it would be like to move there. How long do midlife crises usually last? Do you cut that time in half for a mid-midlife crisis ? The Omaha tourism websites only increase my desire for at least a visit, if not a life-changing move. At visitomaha.com , there's an entire section devoted to shopping. They have a store called Chocolate Peacock. Whatever could that be? My rational guess is that it's a typical, everyday candy shop. Then again, who's to say Nebraskans aren't serving the birds as a delicacy, fondue-style? Certainly not me, as Sexy Nerd hasn't agreed to vacation there yet. Omaha does make a big deal about their zoo. Just saying. I really should move to Omaha. Their tourism department needs me! Did you click on the link above? They're trying to convey how friendly and lovable the folks in Omaha are. They want me to believe that a day spent shopping in their various whimsic

Waiting at the airport. Flight before us is missing 1 passenger. Many announcements with her name. Final call. More announcements. "Will so-and-so please make their way to the gate?" Plane leaving. Guess what? The missing woman was sitting there THE ENTIRE TIME. She was playing with her phone and not paying attention. Somehow, she didn't hear her name or notice that every person sitting around her had left. Now she's creating a scene, yelling at the gate attendant because no one called her!

Vacation Day #2 - Waikiki, HI Nothing had been going right on our vacation. Our Southwest flight from Albuquerque was late to depart because a plane had been struck by lightening. We landed in Las Vegas, then sat on the backed up runway another 30 minutes. We called our hotel for their courtesy shuttle and we waited. And waited. A follow up call revealed that they had forgotten to send the shuttle to pick us up.  By the time we finally made it to our hotel room, it was after midnight. It seemed best to scrap our idea of walking to the strip for our one and only night in Vegas and just go to bed. But things were going to go better now that we were in Hawaii ! We pulled up to our hotel, the Wyndham Royal Garden at Waikiki, and it was nicer than we had expected. Actually, it was probably one of the nicest hotels we have every stayed in! A friendly valet instructed us to reverse out of their parking area until after we were checked in. He guided us into a spot in front o

Okay, so this is probably not going to sound "adventurous" to most people, but for me, it's huge. While in Brisbane, I ate several calamari and one prawn. In Perth, I ate salmon, in actual salmon form! No tarter sauce or anything. I've never been a seafood person. I think I deserve a few kudos for venturing outside of my picky eating bubble. Don't you agree? Calamari = Disturbingly similar appearance, taste, and texture to the rubber bands used for my braces Prawns = Not the same thing as crawfish, which is what I was expecting to be served (super relieved, as I'd already agreed to try one!) Extra bonus that their creepy eyes had been removed Salmon = Convinced myself I was eating chicken. Not bad this way! Accidentally flipped over the skin underneath the salmon to reveal iridescent fishy scales. Gave the rest to Sexy Nerd  This handsome fella (love the nails!) tried to steal some of our picnic lunch in Perth. Our American

Pinterest gold, right here. We broke up our flight to Australia with a few nights in Hawaii, which eased us into our new time zone so gently that neither of us suffered any jet lag. This was much to the surprise of my family members in Australia, who had expected us to be zombies. Traveling home from Australia, however, we went straight from Sydney to Albuquerque. You know, with several hours to kill stuck inside the Nadi, Fiji airport and LAX. 34+ hours without sleep. Home at midnight. Back to work immediately. Add in the fun bonus of a cold I seem to have caught while flying and you have one grouchy, headachey, TIRED space cadet. Plus, don't forget my idiopathic insomnia . That's right. In addition to not being able to sleep on any of our flights, including the 10 hour overnighter, I have barely been able to sleep since we returned home. Over a week ago! Which brings me (finally) to the point of this post. The other night I didn't nod off until almost 4am

$50 tickets! I wasn't sure how the "limited view" seats on the sides of the Sydney Opera House would do, but they were fine. My advice for next time would be to choose the corner seats, even if it means not sitting side by side with your group, and to go for further back on the lower row. The photo below was taken from my seat at the Sydney Opera House before the show...right before the usher scolded me for breaking the no photos rule (and right before Sexy Nerd said "I told you so"). See the orchestra? The stage pulls back at the start of the show and after intermission and you can see everyone. Worth it.

We just returned from Australia. Over 34 hours traveling without sleep = super duper jet lag ridiculousness. I went to bed around 6pm, straight after work (HA! What kind of maniac agrees to come in to work just a few hours after returning from Australia? I'm nuts). I woke up at 9:30am. Still sooooo sleepy. Just wanted to share a quick photo before heading back to work. Way happy that I don't have to go in at my usual time today. While visiting my family in Western Australia, Sexy Nerd insisted I take this photo of him at the Peel Zoo, standing by the "Red-Necked" Wallaby sign. *rolls eyes*

Sexy Nerd is IMPOSSIBLE to plan a vacation with! He's the kind of person who says things like "Why are you stressing out about this? Just book something." and then complains about everything you consider booking. I really wanted to include a stopover in Honolulu. It would break up the long flight from LAX to Sydney and only cost a little more than flying directly. With our 5 year wedding anniversary approaching, we had been hoping to revisit our ceremony location and eat our wedding cake (one of the benefits of using a cake that the bakery has in stock every day). Unfortunately, no matter how hard I planned, I just couldn't seem to create an itinerary that included Hawaii. Sexy Nerd kept saying to skip it. He said that a trip to Australia should focus 100% on Australia and that he didn't care about stopping in Honolulu. So, I showed him an idea for an itinerary. "But I thought we were going to stop in Hawaii," he said, completely crushed. &qu

Sexy Nerd and I spent Memorial Day Weekend enjoying a kick-butt road trip. We found something awesome/weird/funny within the first few hours of our vacation! We stopped in Gallup, NM for lunch at Jerry's Cafe, which I had read excellent reviews of before hitting the road. Can you see why Jerry's Cafe in Gallup is so highly rated? YUM!   They were packed when we arrived at 1pm, but we were helped to a table within just a few minutes by one of many friendly servers. How friendly were they? Sexy Nerd and I are budget travelers. Our order of two waters and sharing one of their cheapest (though super-yummy) dishes, the stuffed sopapilla, wasn't met with any eye rolls and they even divided up the entree for us. Above is one of two plates we received - most restaurants don't even offer us a second plate! Anyhoo, this post is not intended to be a Jerry's Cafe review. It's actually inspired by the artwork that was above our booth. Presenting... &quo