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

Update: We've earned our Southwest Companion Pass! For years, I've hoped to earn enough Southwest miles to receive the glittering holy grail of travel rewards, a Southwest Companion Pass. This nifty little card entitles you to a Buy 1, Get 1 Free discount on every Southwest flight you take, even ones booked with points. Half price weekend getaway to Las Vegas? Yes, please! Actually, scratch that. Half price trip to sunny Hawaii! Southwest expects to be flying there soon. My husband travels exclusively with Southwest for work and he is always away on a business trip , so you'd think if anyone was going to earn a Companion Pass, it would be him. He has received A-List Preferred status with Southwest, which doubles his points, Platinum Premier Elite status with their partner, Marriott, and whatever the top rewards tier is with Southwest's rental car partner, National. Still, no Companion Pass. To earn one, you've always had to fly 100 flights with Southwest pe...

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...

As part of my New Year's resolutions for 2019 (yes, I still do those, old soul that I am), I've been treadmilling daily and trying to make healthier food choices. The treadmill part is easy, as long as I don't overdo it and kill my feet again , because I can use my laptop the entire time - online shopping and fitness combined! The food part is more of a challenge. I looove sugar. Oh, and salt. Now I want to whip up a chocolate cake and binge on pickles while it bakes. So not the point of this blog post! Another resolution is that I'm going to invest more time into this site. Stay tuned for big improvements! You know how all (successful) bloggers swear by the rule of having a clear topic for their site? Yeah...I have not even come close to doing that. This blog is just like my mind - all over the place. Kitty Deschanel, 2019 = more beauty, more sleep, and less nonsense. Recipes? Get the heck out of here, recipes. In the meantime, here is a post from 5 years ago ...

SN and I have lived in New Mexico many years, but had never visited (or wanted to visit) the River of Lights event that is held during the holidays every year at the botanical garden. At $12 per person, the tickets seemed too expensive, especially as I'd seen the remnants of the exhibits during the day while there during the spring.  Yes, I thought the dozen or so scraps that were scattered around represented the entire thing. But guess what? The River of Lights at the ABQ BioPark is HUGE. We spent more than an hour there last night and could probably have stayed even longer. We're old though (and pitifully out of shape for our 30s) and our legs were tired from walking so much. I forgot how enormous the Albuquerque botanical gardens is. A quick story before I get to the photos - we nearly missed the Albuquerque River of Lights last night. The weather was perfect, around 40 degrees with no wind or rain, and I was certain the crowd would increase by Thursday night, when Win...

I was just scheduling one of our dental patients for December 21st, our last day in the office for 2018, and said we'll see them next week, then thought that couldn't possibly be right. December 21st is next week?! Where the heck has my year gone? I'd better publish this post before it turns into Merry Thanksgivmas. SN and I hosted Thanksgiving in our new home this year. Despite all our antisocial impulses (we're essentially hermits), we had a blast! Bring on the socializing!  Actually, we did bring on the socializing with another small dinner party and overnight guests the very next weekend. And that was quite enough for these two introverts. No more socializing until next year, please. We went even bigger and better than last year's Thanksgiving . We even had a seating chart! Martha Stewart would be so proud. #1 must-have item when hosting Thanksgiving = adorable turkey invitations I made these, and the other printables in this post, for ...

We decorated our mountain home for the holidays yesterday and woke up blanketed inside a snowy winter wonderland today. Living in the NM mountains is the best! Mountain Home Decor If you don't have one of these wooden bears on your porch, is it even really a mountain home? (Wooden bear carvers everywhere say no.) Up in the mountains, we "let it snow" to the point that we're snowed in. Luckily, our John Deere tractor is always ready to come to our rescue. We'd rather stay home anyway. A collection of rustic red lanterns from a Colorado antique shop adds color to the patio. (You know, in case our yellow front door didn't do the trick.) When decorating your mountain dream home, natural hides and antlers can be used in a modern, sophisticated way to keep things from feeling like a hunting lodge. There are more photos of our hallway in the post, The Great Wallpaper Mural Indecision . I'm pretty sure this is my favorite phot...