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

Or is it a super-stealth pantry of looove? Sexy Nerd recently had a birthday and graduated from a fancy pants program at work, all on the same day. Clearly, this called for something special. See that pretty white door? It's just your typical, everyday pantry. Go ahead and open the door. Grab yourself a box of Multigrain Cheerios. ***SURPRISE!!!*** (Ahem. The banner is the surprise , not the mess.) I may not have thought this through. How do I top this next year? And Sexy Nerd's next birthday is a pretty big deal - 30! Geez, perhaps I should've stashed my banner away for another 12 months. Who am I kidding? Sexy Nerd is such an old man now, he'll have forgotten all about this banner by next year.

Happy weekend, everyone! Please be sure to visit your fellow Not "Baaad" Sundays blog hop party goers. Wish us luck with our house hunting endeavors :)

At the ripe ol' age of 27, I figure it's time to place higher emphasis on staying in shape. I've been very good about getting up early the last few weeks and going for a walk before work. Yesterday, I walked further than I ever have on my own and, of course, was feeling quite impressive later when I told my coworker how far I'd gone. She immediately stopped what she was doing. Her eyes grew enormous and she asked, "You walked there this morning ?!" I bragged about how the walk really wasn't very challenging and how you just have to make the time, even if it means setting your alarm for 5am. That wasn't why she was alarmed. "Didn't you watch the news this morning? Did you hear all the sirens?" Honestly, I had heard *something* when I started out on my walk, like the sound of a police officer talking on a megaphone the next street over, but I didn't give it much thought. My coworker asked my route again, then pointed out: ...

Nope! We're still here, albeit semi-absent from the blogging world. Geez, I didn't even post the Not "Baaad" Sundays linky this weekend (tsk, tsk!). Sexy Nerd and I have been 100% distracted by something since last weekend. We are thinking... ...of buying a house! And not just any old dumpy house either. Well, okay, the house at the top of our list right now is about as dumpy as they come (it's a foreclosure that would need everything redone, including repairing the damage from this winter when all the pipes burst). But it has potential! Over 5,000 square feet of potential, actually, which is a bit nuts because we were originally hoping to downsize from our current 2,700 sq ft house. We also have a few more reasonably sized homes to visit today and tomorrow. We're dreading selling our first home, partly because it seems like such an overwhelming process. What if our buyer wants to purchase with a contingency, but then their buyer needs a contingency, and...

Inspired by Passionate Penny Pincher, I decided to maximize my Walgreens deals this week, sans the diapers she had purchased. They are a great price and I'm sure one day I'll wish I'd bought them, but for now, baby-free, it just seemed too weird to buy a package of Huggies! Several drafts and alternate spending scenarios were required for this. You can't just walk into Walgreens willy nilly - that's how they get you! Here was my plan of attack, factoring in the annoying Walgreens rule that requires an equal or greater amount of items purchased to number of coupons: To Buy Omega Smart (cost: $10; Get a $10 register reward) (2 bottles) Speed Stick 24/7 (cost: 2/$5; Get a $3 register reward) Revlon Nail Polish (cost: $3.99; Get a $3 register reward) Pert Shampoo & Conditioner (cost: $3.99; Get a $3 register reward) Twizzlers (cost: 3/$4) Existing Register Rewards from Last Week 1 for $1 1 for $2 Transaction #1 Buy 2 Speed Sticks Use both existing c...