Kitty Deschanel

When we remodeled our kitchen, we painted the door to the laundry room with chalkboard paint. Let me tell you, if you don't have a chalkboard in your house, you are missing out! It is so much fun to write wacky messages together! The paint was a little tricky to obtain. They keep it locked up at Lowes , where I suppose it will be safe from all those elementary school teachers with bad intentions. We can only hope, right? Biscuit mostly speaks Spanish.   It's a long story. Christmas in August? Sure, why not! Cartoon Sexy Nerd never leaves home without his trusty Pocket Protector Neither of us speaks Spanish, (other than a few phrases we remember from college) but the phrases are supposed to say something about our dog Biscuit hiding under the safety of the table and searching for her turtle. If our online translator can be believed, it does.   Note that Pica is shedding profusely, like usual. She does not speak Spanish and is just mocking

Sexy Nerd and I just returned from a walk around the neighborhood with Pica and Biscuit. We were stopped by a cute little girl who was playing outside with her brothers and mom. She asked if she could pet our dogs. "Sure," we said, happy to meet more of our neighbors. Almost 3 years here and this was only the 3rd house where either of us has spoken to the neighbors. It's tough being socially awkward. Biscuit isn't a fan of strangers, but Pica, our wiggly and happy Jack Russell Terrier, loooooved getting attention from the little girl. In fact, she loved it so much that when the girl (maybe age 3 or 4?) reached out to her, Pica jumped up and placed her front paws on the girl's shoulders. No worries though. The girl was laughing. Her mom was smiling. We were making friends. Then Pica, who just looooooves attention, sprung a leak. She PEED all over the little girl, abruptly putting an end to our meet-and-greet with the neighbors. She was just so excited! Sexy N

I've been so tired lately. The last time I got a good night's sleep was...let's see...3 weeks ago? 4? I finally, finally scheduled an appointment to have a sleep study done. Hopefully, it will shed some light on my lifelong (yes, even as a baby) sleep troubles. Exhausted at work yesterday, helpful coworkers pointed out, "You look SO tired!" (I'd actually thought I looked pretty good.) Sexy Nerd was out of town on a business trip, so I decided to get to bed nice and early. No internet or TV, a comfy, cool room, despite the scorching heat wave we've been experiencing here in Albuquerque, and twice my usual sleeping pill dosage (don't freak out - I usually break the pills in half) meant I had a good chance of catching up on some desperately needed sleep. Or so I thought. Our dogs have a nightly routine which you must never  ever vary from, lest you destroy their little dog worlds. Even though I was getting to bed a bit earlier than usual, (like, an

In keeping with the theme of the last 5 months, which deserves a depressing blog post of its own, I expected this Thanksgiving would be a disaster. A depressed person does not make a great party host. Still, we borrowed tables and chairs and made plans for a large family gathering. Menus were printed. I bought these plates on clearance at Macy's last year. Aren't they delightful? The little pumpkins are from Cost Plus World Market. This year, the menu doubled as a place card. (Side note: I put extras aside for next year...and just now realized they say 2019. Whoops!) Keeping an eye on the news, it seemed many people across the country were having their holiday plans affected by storms. We were no exception. Half of our overnight guests arrived. SN's parents were able to make it through the wintry weather but his brother and our sister-in-law had to cancel. The drive from Nebraska was too treacherous.  As far as an excessively wiggly Olive was co

My Thanksgiving, 2020 blog post ended up being one of the most popular on my site this year (thank you!), so here's a quick Christmas Eve update, filled with photos.  Christmas, 2020 hasn't looked like it has in previous years... My younger self (with  braces !) was excited to wear that purple flower pin, which had been recently purchased at a consignment shop. My old lady self questions my previous sense of fashion while simultaneously wondering whatever happened to that purple flower pin. Though, to be fair, our Christmas celebrations often seem a bit untraditional. There's certainly no snow for Santa's sleigh when your family lives in Arizona. I'd had a light jacket, but it was so sunny and warm in Scottsdale the year we visited Frank Lloyd Wright's  Taliesin West. It would just be SN and I for the holidays this year. No homemade lasagna, no tamale brunch, and no Christmas cookies. Imagine my surprise when I received a card from my aunt saying to enjoy the p