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The Ambitious Traveler: Recipe For Disaster Or Most Bang For My Buck?

Sexy Nerd and I have been on a 7 night cruise and a 5 day cruise. We enjoyed them so much that we decided it's time for more cruisin' - 14 days of nonstop cruisin', to be exact! We will be flying into Seattle, where we plan to cram several of TripAdvisors top rated touristy activities & top rated restaurants into 3 hours. Next, we're taking Amtrak to Vancouver,(and we will make sure to sit on the left side for the best view) where we expect to (hopefully) arrive shortly before midnight. There's not much time for sleeping though. We only have a few hours in Vancouver before boarding the Holland America Veendam, so we'll be getting up bright & early to take a bike ride around Stanley Park. No big deal, you think? We can relax on the cruise ship? Ha, you sound like Sexy Nerd (and boy is he in for a surprise)! Here is a tiny preview of what else I have planned for this trip, cut & pasted from part of our itinerary: Eat at Bowpicker Fish & Chip

Quack, Quack

Color pencil, by yours truly. As someone without any artistic talent, I'm pretty pleased with it. Color pencil duckling I drew this for our "just ducky" bathroom back when we were renting a house. Perfect for testing out my new scanner!

Blog Hop? BLOG HOP!

Oh man, I am SO ready for this freaking week to be over. (I'll explain later.) (It's absurd.) A friendly reminder: this blog hop is open to any and all posts you're proud of. To share a link on Pinterest, click on the image directly. To visit the link, click the description underneath the image. This linky will return next weekend, giving extra exposure to all the wonderful blog posts and giving you more time to discover links you missed the first time around. Thanks to everyone who messaged me in response to last weekend's Linky with info on the Great Sand Dunes. We went and had a blast. Also, we learned that I am extremely out of shape. Those dunes are a workout! Isn't it enough just to see the sand? Do we really need to walk all the way over to them? My legs are still aching! Have a fun weekend, bloggy friends.

Not Baaad Link Party

It's the weekend (FINALLY!!!) A friendly reminder: this blog hop is open to any and all posts you're proud of. To share a link on Pinterest, click on the image directly. To visit the link, click the description underneath the image. This linky will return next weekend, giving extra exposure to all the wonderful blog posts and giving you more time to discover links you missed the first time around. Has anyone out there been to the Great Sand Dunes National Park? It's so close to Albuquerque and we've probably driven past it 100 times visiting Sexy Nerd's family in Colorado. Maybe we should actually go sometime... (After visiting all your nifty links, of course!)

Blog Hop (New and Improved!)

So, apparently the Not "Baaad" Sundays blog hop linky tool hasn't been allowing my readers to post anything new (those InLinkz crumb-bums.) Not to worry though. It's not only fixed - it's new and improved and better than ever! Remember, this link up is open to any and all posts you're proud of. To share a link on Pinterest, click on the image directly. To visit the link, click the description underneath the image. Have a great weekend, my bloggy friends! P.S. I leisurely stumbled out of bed this morning after 9am to discover that Sexy Nerd had washed and waxed my car , just because. How lucky am I? P.P.S. If anyone out there has a suggestion on where to go in Colorado, please let me know. I've caught the road trip bug :) P.P.P.S. This is not to be mistaken for an actual "bug" bug . Bleck!

Ash Tree And Budget Bathroom Remodel Sneak Peek

*Update* Wondering how our master bathroom remodel turned out? Click here for photos! Is it just me, or has this remodel been going on FOREVER?? To be fair, we were distracted for a while with the task of saving our dying ash tree. Did you know that there is a type of insect called an ash borer? We didn't! Was the rescue time well spent? Not exactly. Oh, our yard is so crappy now! Fingers crossed that the bathroom will be completed within the next month. We still need to plant a new tree!

Blog Hop

Have a happy weekend, everyone!

Thrifty Decorating

I love browsing through decorating blogs. Here is my quick contribution to the world of bargain-hunting decor: This plant was marked down to $0.50 and was in a shopping cart full of discounted Easter merchandise last year. It didn't look like it would last very long, but here it is almost a year later and doing great. Not bad considering that it spends most of its time in the guest bedroom with the blinds closed. Instead of planting it in an actual pot, I just placed it inside a cute bowl from the $1 Store. The colorful thingy on the right is just an old jar filled of incense and tied with a bow. As for the slate tiles, they are the top of the bar that Sexy Nerd built. They're sitting inside a groove, not grouted down, so that if we ever change our decor, we can easily switch out the top of the bar with different tiles.

Road Trip Day 5 - Hoover Dam & Brandy's Flagstaff

Leaving Las Vegas, we drove over the Hoover Dam. About 5 years ago, SN and I paid to take the tour of the dam. We will never do that again and recommend avoiding the tour at all costs! What a waste of time. Hey! You're not in Vegas anymore. Get back in your car! If you don't stay inside your vehicle, I'm guessing that this guy might have something to say about it: We found Brandy's Restaurant Bakery in Flagstaff, AZ on the site for Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins, & Dives. It never would have crossed our minds to stop here otherwise. It was delicious! This employee didn't seem too keen on us taking photos of our food. Looking back, I guess it was a little weird.

Road Trip Day 4: Las Vegas

We start our day by checking into the Imperial Palace casino/hotel. It was less than $40 a night and included tickets to see their auto collection and 2 tickets to Nathan Burton's comedy magic show. Not too shabby. Ah, Vegas! If it weren't for the heat, the crime, the crowds, and the general sleaziness, I could see us living here. Even Sexy Nerd enjoys shopping when it's on a fake Paris street. We shared a plate of nachos at Margaritaville. Usually, it is one of our favorite Vegas stops, but this time didn't go very well. Not only did they never play the Margaritaville song and sacrifice the girl to the volcano (awesome), they ripped us off. When we ordered the nachos, the waitress casually asked if we want salsa. They're nachos. Sure we want salsa! That's a standard nacho ingredient, right? Surprise, surprise when we saw the additional $2 charge for salsa on our bill. Normally, it is just me who gets irked by things like this, but even Sexy Nerd thought the $2

Road Trip Day 3: Tempe and Fremont Street

It's time for our first trip ever to Ikea. I assumed it would be a large store, but I was expecting large to be like Bed Bath & Beyond. It was more like an amusement park for shopaholic decorating adults! We knew it was going to be awesome when we walked through the door and heard "we hope you enjoy your day at Ikea". Ikea is insanely huge! If we had wanted to just run in and buy one specific item, we still would have been there forever, lost in the maze that is Ikea. Whenever we thought we were nearing the exit from our little adventure, we'd find ourselves in another section of the store. First, you go upstairs, where you wander from room to room, like in a model home. Next, you're in some sort of crazy cafeteria, which is surprisingly jam packed with people. If only Sexy Nerd and I hadn't eaten before we got there! After the cafeteria, you travel back downstairs where all of the items you saw upstairs, (ALL of the items - from bedding and rugs to counte