Kitty Deschanel

Pinterest gold, right here. We broke up our flight to Australia with a few nights in Hawaii, which eased us into our new time zone so gently that neither of us suffered any jet lag. This was much to the surprise of my family members in Australia, who had expected us to be zombies. Traveling home from Australia, however, we went straight from Sydney to Albuquerque. You know, with several hours to kill stuck inside the Nadi, Fiji airport and LAX. 34+ hours without sleep. Home at midnight. Back to work immediately. Add in the fun bonus of a cold I seem to have caught while flying and you have one grouchy, headachey, TIRED space cadet. Plus, don't forget my idiopathic insomnia . That's right. In addition to not being able to sleep on any of our flights, including the 10 hour overnighter, I have barely been able to sleep since we returned home. Over a week ago! Which brings me (finally) to the point of this post. The other night I didn't nod off until almost 4am

The following post is courtesy of my childhood best friend and guest blogger extraordinaire, Feisty Fatale . Check out her blog for more yummy recipes! I love shrimp. The whole world knows I love shrimp, and there's even a famous fight in my family history about shrimp (me vs. my mom). Unfortunately, it isn't the cheapest ingredient to work with. If you buy raw, shells on shrimp you can reduce the cost. I bought a bag of frozen raw shrimp with the top and bottom shells on for $17 at Kroger (cheapo grocery store in Richmond/southern Va), and was able to make 3 meals out of it, for 2 people each time. 6 meals overall, making the cost less than $3 a meal. Pretty good right? And then I found this recipe, which uses by products of the recipe as ingredients (meaning you don't have to buy them!). This recipe is super cheap to make (minus that initial cost of shrimp) and more importantly, it's delicious. It will make you feel like a seasoned chef too. :)   Shrimp P

Back from a slight, unintentional hiatus! Sorry for the couple of skipped weekends, everyone. We spent the last 3 weeks in Hawaii and Australia (and technically Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fiji, and Samoa too - world traveler style!) Being the kind of die-hard procrastinator that keeps self helpers awake at night, my plan was to schedule these blog hops while away.   Petting a young kangaroo at the Peel Zoo. Oh, the cuteness! It turns out, however, that wireless internet is a completely different animal on the other side of the world. I was sure the hotels we stayed in had advertised free wi-fi. At the very least, the Sydney International Airport would have it, especially since most airlines require you to arrive a ridiculous 3 hours before an international flight. Nope. But enough about that. Now...

$50 tickets! I wasn't sure how the "limited view" seats on the sides of the Sydney Opera House would do, but they were fine. My advice for next time would be to choose the corner seats, even if it means not sitting side by side with your group, and to go for further back on the lower row. The photo below was taken from my seat at the Sydney Opera House before the show...right before the usher scolded me for breaking the no photos rule (and right before Sexy Nerd said "I told you so"). See the orchestra? The stage pulls back at the start of the show and after intermission and you can see everyone. Worth it.