Kitty Deschanel

*For the record, this post is not sponsored in any way whatsoever by ThredUp . I just wanted to share their awesomeness with the world! Also, to clarify, I do NOT recommend them as a place to sell your clothes, as they seem to just steal them..though if no one sends them anything, it's going to make it much harder for me to find so many good deals, so...nevermind? I have a new favorite clothing store. They're online and they won my heart after I placed my first order and saw this: (My shopping soulmate?) ThredUp sells used clothing and shoes, but only if it's name brand and in excellent/clean/like-new condition. There are things for women and children. You can also sell your top-notch, unwanted clothing, which I'm sure is great for some people. Me? I'm too much of a hoarder to part with any of my clothes and I have the outgrown walk-in closet to prove it. (Too big? What if I gain weight one day! Too small? Motivation to fit into that again...or

We had a blackout here in Albuquerque tonight. Despite the heat, I used the break from Wi-Fi (it seems the only way to get me off the computer is to give me no choice) to enjoy an hour of yoga and meditation. Afterward, I stood in front of my office window, allowing the cool breeze and total darkness to calm my mind further. There's something hypnotic about watching your always buzzing neighborhood reduced to total, silent blackness. No drone of swamp coolers. No conversations escaping from a patio. Nothing. I felt renewed, hopeful for the day ahead and for life in general. Without warning, the power flickered back on, blasting the lights on porches, street corners, and from windows. And as I continued to gaze from my office, all feelings of tranquility were replaced with shock. The instant the lights returned, three people in the street took off running different directions. A man and woman together, as well as a man on his own. They were wearing all black and they'd been

Sexy Nerd and I have a tradition of turning our travel photos into canvas prints for our home. We lounge in our loft across from a photo we took underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. Our guestroom greets visitors with a colorful print of the picnic lawn and duck pond near my favorite museum. As far as a souvenir goes, you really can't top it. However, when you travel at every opportunity like we do, your trip photos can quickly outnumber your wall space (and budget!) Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 2014 Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, 2014 (Or was this the Grand Canyon?) This was taken...ummm...somewhere, 2014 (in Utah, maybe...?) As you can see from my ramblings above, it's crucial to organize your travel photos while the trip is still fresh in your mind. Before my location details got any sketchier, I ordered a photo canvas from canvaspop.com to surprise Sexy Nerd. I've used several photo canvas companies over the years. The thing that makes C

There's a high school down the street from my office. You never know what you're going to see. On my drive home one day, I watched a young driver turn out of the school parking lot. She slammed into the SUV in front of her and put her hands to her head, probably thinking something like OH NO, OH NO, OH NO. I felt bad for her, especially with her classmates everywhere. Some were pointing. Some were laughing. Scarred for life, right? Well, the poor girl made things much worse. She put her car into reverse and pulled around the SUV, trying to drive away like nothing had happened. I didn't feel quite as bad for her anymore, what with her brazen criminal ways and lack of smarts on display. At just after 5pm, summer school had just gotten out, along with most of the many offices along the street. She was caught in a traffic jam! Knowing this, she still tried to drive away. The driver of the SUV pulled over, got out of her car, and slowly walked around the car that had hit

Pica has been dreaming about the posh new bed she's going to win, leaving her nights on the cold, hard floor behind her. What a mean mom and dad she has! ;) Our little troublemaker is behind in the competition though. If you have a free moment, please pop over to my Instagram to like Pica's contest entry. I think she's beautiful . Thank you! Thank you! (One from me and one from Pica. She's very polite like that. We raised her well.) (Is it super obvious we don't have kids?) A photo posted by Kitty Deschanel (@kittydeschanel) on Jul 10, 2016 at 7:05pm PDT I know I'm biased, but just look at that face! She could be a model, that pup of mine. P.S. Don't tell Pica, but we're totally going to make her share her new bed with Biscuit. Mean parents, I tell ya. P.P.S. With this post titled "Sad Jack Russell", I'd hate for you to be disappointed to have clicked the link, only to find Pica beaming that mischievous smirk of

You know how cute weird it is when you come downstairs and find your husband asleep on the couch? Mine truly believes in sharing everything 50/50. "Move over, Dad." Have a better caption? Leave it in a comment below! (And, yes, our house is trashed right now. We'll clean the next one .)

Remember all those terrible rocks I told you about? Well, right after my last construction post, we stopped having to worry about digging up giant sandstone boulders. Because once we got through all that annoying, expensive sandstone... ...we hit a solid sheet of GRANITE. (*sob*) But guess what? Just a few days later, the world's best construction crew had everything taken care of. Whew! I know I should be a home-building expert by now, but that's at odds with my naturally cheap frugal ways. Sexy Nerd has explained to me again and again why we couldn't just build the house on top of the granite and it makes sense every time he says it...but it's not like the giant slabs of granite were going anywhere, right?? I understand...not really. At the beginning of the week, we had mountains and mountains of dirt. But by Saturday... ...they'd all disappeared! Sayanora, you &*%#ing rocks. During week 4 of construction, I also g

"I'm going to beat you with this frozen loaf." Muttered after I finished the last slice of thawed bread and didn't take a loaf out of the freezer. Yeah, he looks like a nice guy, but mess with his stockpile of bread and you'll incur the wrath of Sexy Nerd! *I'm a bit worried that someone is going to read this and email me information on women's shelters. Really, he hadn't had his coffee yet and I laughed hysterically after hearing this. Sexy Nerd is not the type to "beat" anyone.

Everything went so smoothly during our first week of construction, clearing trees and dirt faster than we'd imagined, that we began to expect the entire process would be much easier than everyone had said. People have been voicing their concerns to us ever since we purchased our lot. Clearly, though, everyone else was wrong. Ha! First, the good: (Keeping with the theme of our last two weeks of construction, this part is brief.) Five years in, we finally brought Pica and Biscuit to see their future home. After many attempts to get them both to look at the camera, this was our second best result. Small dogs = small attention spans. Close enough.  Thus ends the "good" portion of this construction update. On to the bad. Oh, it's so bad. GIANT ROCKS!!! (Oh no!)  There were barely any rocks found during the first week of construction, but with only a small section of earthwork to go, the crew hit rock, rock, and more rock. Special equip

Or will we kill each other in the process? Last night was a lazy night, as was the night before. Every day and night has been lazy, with the exception of me researching tubs for our guest suite, which Sexy Nerd took no part in. So, imagine my frustration this morning, barely awake and getting ready for work, when a certain someone frantically demanded that I drop everything and choose a tub right this instant. Apparently, I'm holding up the entire project, and being late for work is a small price to pay for not causing any more problems. *Grumble* Oh, and that part of the drawing that says "matching ceiling plane"? I might just insist on changing that, just to irk you-know-who.

Construction on our mountain dream home, week one: (This is post 2 of 2. Click here for post 1 of 2 .) See that fence? Don't get too used to it. The neighbors will be moving it onto their property any day now. If only we'd caught them before they'd paid someone to build it...and before the posts were cemented into place! (There's that neighborly guilt again.) Here's a weird question for you - what do you think of this part of our lot? I call it our dry riverbed and Sexy Nerd calls it our canyon (it's hard to tell from this photo, but the ground dips down here) and we like it so much we've designed the hot tub in the master retreat (hee, hee) to look out over this area. However, the last time we both thought something on our lot was really neat (a gnarled old tree trunk), every person we showed it to was like, "That's really ugly and stupid and what's wrong with you two?" The construction crew was just going to