Kitty Deschanel | Food, Wine, and Travel Adventures in an Airstream Basecamp

*For part 2 of this repost, please click here . This morning, I awoke to the sound of something hitting the tile floor in the bathroom, followed by "OH NO!" When I went to investigate, I found Sexy Nerd with his arm underneath the vanity, attempting to retrieve whatever it was he had dropped. It was his tungsten carbide wedding band. Now, who here knows what happens when you drop your tungsten carbide ring on your porcelain tile floor at just the right angle? Oh no, indeed, Sexy Nerd! *Update* I just noticed that Google has put an ad for "Tungsten Forever" wedding bands at the bottom of my blog. Oops! If only they knew... *For part 2 of this repost, please Click Here . It will make you say 'AWWWW!' Unless your heart is as cold as tungsten carbide, I suppose.

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 surp...

Sexy Nerd and I recently attended his brother's wedding in Colorado. No smoke troubles, despite all the crazy fires nearby. The best man made his toast with a can of Bud Light! And the awkward, tipsy gal right next to the best man? Oh, she accidentally knocked her Bud Light all over him and his rented tux right before his toast. Best man = my Sexy Nerd. I'll leave it up to you to figure out who the tipsy gal was. Here are a few photos that I took using my Canon T1i DSLR camera:

Our 9 year wedding anniversary is almost here already! These photos were taken on January 10th, 2008 on our way from the wedding at Kualoa Ranch on Oahu to the reception at Lei Lei's Turtle Bay. It was the 4 year anniversary of our first date. So young. So dorky. While visiting Sexy Nerd's family for the 4th of July, the topic of our bizarre wedding came up. No one believed me about some of the things that our wedding officiant, Captain Howie, had discussed during the ceremony. Most of them were there though. They must have blocked the craziness out. Luckily, everything was recorded. Click the image to enlarge - you won't regret it! He'd totally been smoking the Maui Wowie, right?  There had been some red flags about using Above Heaven's Gate and Captain Howie for our wedding. For example, after months of communicating through email, we called and were told to hang on so they could get someone who speaks Spanish. You know, because we live in New Mexico. At the...

Today, it has been ELEVEN YEARS (!!!) since Sexy Nerd and I had our first date and SEVEN YEARS (already?!) since our wedding. Crazy, right? At work yesterday, my boss and I were sitting around chatting (and working very hard, obviously) when my coworker, Marie , exclaimed "Hell is going to freeze over tonight!" She went on to explain that she'd just seen my husband walk past our office window and he was carrying a Frappuccino. "No way," I told her. "It must have been someone else." Sexy Nerd goes above and beyond with many things in his life, but romantic gestures have never been one of them. To my astonishment (to the astonishment of everyone in my office, really) it actually was my Sexy Nerd and he actually had brought me a Frappuccino, just because. It was even Salted Caramel Mocha - my favorite! Now, before you give him too much credit, he told me (in complete seriousness) that he reckons he scored enough points with this spur-of-the-mome...

Molii Gardens at Kualoa Ranch This January 10th = 10 years since our 1st date! They were fancy. Escape is futile, Sexy Nerd! Just a small wedding with a handful of close friends and family Instead of a traditional wedding ceremony, we had our guests walk "down the aisle" (a winding staircase) to us, where each received a lei. The coconut cake from Ted's Bakery on Oahu made the perfect wedding cake. We were even able to have it again when we stopped in Hawaii last year on our way to Australia.

You know those cute, romantic engagement stories? This is not one of those. Our engagement caught me off guard. We'd hardly been dating a year and, having just gotten out of the Worst Relationship Ever, which had been a twisted, rapey mess, I was barely keen on dating Sexy Nerd. Valentine's Day weekend, he checked us into a local hotel for a "romantic surprise". Ummm...yeah. We started by leaving the hotel to have dinner. When we returned, Sexy Nerd seemed disappointed. Then, there was a knock on the door. Room service had arrived with Champagne, chocolate-covered strawberries, and to sprinkle rose petals on our bed. Yes, rose petals on our bed ! Supposedly, the plan was for them to do this while we were out to dinner, but they were running behind and instead set this up right in front of us. Awkward, you think? Oh yes. In hindsight, the hotel should probably not have gone along with this. The Champagne was nice, but I was only 20 years old. I was feeling p...

While visiting Sexy Nerd's family for the 4th of July, the topic of our bizarre wedding came up. No one believed me about some of the things that our wedding officiant, Captain Howie, had discussed during the ceremony. Most of them were there though. They must have blocked the craziness out. Luckily, everything was recorded. Click the image to enlarge - you won't regret it! As you can imagine, there were some red flags about using Above Heaven's Gate and Captain Howie for our wedding. For example, after months of communicating through email, we called and were told to hang on so they could get someone who speaks Spanish. You know, because we live in New Mexico. We even canceled him as our wedding officiant and planned a new ceremony at Turtle Bay...but we switched back because we liked Captain Howie's location better. Funny enough, "his location" was Moli'i Gardens and I'm not sure we actually had permission to be there  (actually, I'...

As mentioned before, Sexy Nerd and I did not have a typical wedding. Our vows were interrupted by a live chicken. When doubting our photographer, we were told not to worry because he's "#1 in Argentina". My dad caught the wedding officiant, Captain Howie, relieving himself in the bushes immediately following the end of our ceremony (really, do not use Above Heaven's Gate Weddings on Oahu!) Click the image to enlarge Yes, of course he had been smoking the Maui Wowie!

Monday was me and my Sexy Nerd's anniversary. We've been married 3 whole years! And, since our wedding was on the 4 year anniversary of our first date, we've been together a whopping 7 years! Crazy. I'd been brainstorming anniversary ideas and came up with some good ones. After Sexy Nerd went to bed on Sunday night, I got started decorating. I rescued this banner from the trash pile when cleaning my boss's house last week. Have I mentioned that I work in a dental office? That's a blog post for another day.   What a fun surprise when you come downstairs!    Sexy Nerd gets up ridiculously early for work. I made him a batch of breakfast burritos to heat up in the morning and pre-filled the coffee maker for him. (Click image to enlarge)   I framed a group of photos for him, including this collage. It features a note from the back of a photo he mailed to me back when we first started dating, when he was living in Michigan. Ta da! Next on my agenda was a litt...

Sexy Nerd and I had our wedding at Moli'i Gardens in Kualoa Ranch on Oahu. You've probably seen it before - many shows and movies, including Lost, Jurrasic Park, and You, Me, & Dupree, have been filmed there. Due to the shoddy company we'd chosen online, (Above Heaven's Gate Weddings with Captain Howie - we do not recommend them!) we nearly switched everything to Turtle Bay at the last minute less than 24 hours before the ceremony! Luckily, everything (mostly) worked out.