Kitty Deschanel | Food, Wine, and Travel Adventures Across the USA

Everything went so smoothly during our first week of construction, clearing trees and dirt faster than we'd imagined, that we began to expect the entire process would be much easier than everyone had said. People have been voicing their concerns to us ever since we purchased our lot. Clearly, though, everyone else was wrong. Ha! First, the good: (Keeping with the theme of our last two weeks of construction, this part is brief.) Five years in, we finally brought Pica and Biscuit to see their future home. After many attempts to get them both to look at the camera, this was our second best result. Small dogs = small attention spans. Close enough.  Thus ends the "good" portion of this construction update. On to the bad. Oh, it's so bad. GIANT ROCKS!!! (Oh no!)  There were barely any rocks found during the first week of construction, but with only a small section of earthwork to go, the crew hit rock, rock, and more rock. Special equip...

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 ...

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 ;)

You've all been very patient waiting to see our new home. The bank admits we "fell through the cracks" (their exact words!) but now we're finally, finally going to actually build this thing. The bank actually took so long that we have no choice but to close on our construction loan next Wednesday, because waiting until next Thursday would be outside the application window and we'd have to start over from the beginning. That said, next Tuesday would be too soon to close on the loan because the bank "can't possibly have everything ready" on their end by then. I just have to keep reminding myself that we got a screamin' deal by going with Compass Bank. Our house is going to look just like this (pending HOA-approval) but with a few nifty details Sexy Nerd's computer program couldn't show - yellow shutters around the big square window and a white (or possibly red...no, definitely white...I think...) arbor above the garage door. We're...

  We had a bit of a drama-filled afternoon today. I stepped out of the shower, only to discover the floor drenched in blood! Somehow, Pica had caught one of her toenails on her baby gate and ripped it right out. If she were a human baby, there'd surely be a lawsuit, right? Still, our poor little furbaby! One gigantic claw I held her steady as best I could. Jack Russell terriers don't really do "steady". There was always something twitching or shaking! Sexy Nerd applied styptic powder , which THANK GOODNESS we had on hand. If you have a pet, be sure to buy some of this. Ours came free with Pica's toenail clippers. In the 10+ years we've had her, we've used it only once before, when a nail was clipped a tad too short, and it stopped the bleeding almost instantly. This time, however.. ...it kept bleeding... ...and bleeding... ...AND BLEEDING... (Ack!) After more than an hour of using my best wresting moves on Pica, and with almost all o...

For the record, I'm using the term "crazy" in only the most loving of ways, especially if you happen to actually be my boss currently reading this. You are still my boss, right? C'mon, ol' buddy, ol' pal. Also, "ol" is not short for old in the above sentence. Sixties are the new forties, after all. I love my boss. I've worked for her for more than 12 years and am planning to stick with her until she retires. She's a pediatric dentist who gets enjoyment out of treating her patients with compassion and kindness. How can you not love a person like that? Okay, here is the quote: I was walking down the hallway at work and my boss and I crossed paths. I always feel a little out of place when this happens, thinking that because my job is at a desk up front, I must surely be loafering* around if I'm spotted in the hall. But nature doesn't care, so as we walked by each other, I awkwardly squeaked that I was just heading for the restroom....

Reading this made me feel a lot better. Also, my suspicion is that the problem with #9 is the cemetery sold my family plots, then re-sold the same plots to double their profits and it's finally catching up to them. I've made the best parts bold . 3:23pm  I talked to Jackie and Andrew today.  They were at the mortuary with Grandma making the final arrangements.  Jackie said she is doing OK, and Grandma is doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances.  Here is my understanding of the sequence of events: 1.  They brought Grandpa home from the therapy place on Monday the 28th of March.   2.  Andrew mentioned that he and a hospice worker gave Grandpa a bath sometime during this time frame, and that Grandpa hated it .  He also mentioned that Grandpa wasn't doing well and slept most of the time. 3.  Both Jackie and Andrew said that Grandpa had a really good day on Wednesday, the 30th as he seemed to rally.  ...

I'm not the sort of person who believes in things like this, but my Grandpa died today and when I got in my car after work, the radio was playing an oldies station. Old oldies, like music from the 30s. The radio display said I was still on the same R&B station as this morning, yet it was actually on a different number altogether. Before thinking anything of it, I pressed the button to change the station. The station did not change.

Thank you to everyone for your kind comments about my poor Britney. She was the best dog ever. Looking back on my memories of her, she wasn't the most ideal puppy for me though. At the time, we probably both would have been better off without the other. Right before I graduated from high school, my 26-year-old boyfriend and I rented a cheap, dilapidated duplex together in a terrible part of town. Here in Albuquerque, it's affectionately known as "the war zone". It was really bad - no heat, which is illegal, cockroaches spilling out of the sidewalk whenever we'd walk through the neighborhood, and a landlord who would show up late at night, drunk, when I was home alone and threaten to beat up my boyfriend for not paying the rent (which made me defensive at the time because I'd given him the rent money, but looking back, I'm sure my loser boyfriend had squandered my cash on something else and lied about it.) The house two doors down made it onto the news...

After seeing that the window place doesn't open until almost noon on the weekend, I told our rep we'd meet whenever was convenient for him. He wasn't supposed to choose 8am! 5pm: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 4pm:   We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 3pm: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 2pm: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 1pm: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 12pm: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 11am: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 10am: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 9am: We need to meet our Pella rep. to discuss windows and doors. 8am: What century is this? ANYTHING THAT COULD POSSIBLY NEED TO BE DISCUSSED CAN BE RESOLVED EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH EMAIL. THEY'RE JUST WINDOWS AND DOORS, FOR FRICK'S SAKE.

I've worked in a pediatric dental office for the past 11+ years and yesterday I received a call that stumped me. The man on the line asked me about doing technical writing and my work experience. He said he'd read my LinkedIn profile. Caught completely off guard ( You read my what??) , I said something like "I just work here. There's an opening next Wednesday when we can see both of your children." and then freaked out a little the moment I had him off the phone. Okay, I may have freaked out a bit while he was still on the line too. Where did technical writing come from? There's no mention of technical writing on my site. How did he even find that? Kitty Deschanel is my pen name, not the name parents know me by at our office. And even if there was a profile created years ago that I've forgotten about, it wouldn't be linked to the dental office. Plus, the parents I meet through work only know my first name. I'm stumped. To top everything off,...