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Amerisleep AS3 Reviews

  My Amerisleep AS3 Unboxing Video (Surprise, my voice is ridiculous!) If I can (just barely) do it, you can totally tackle a bed-in-a-box by yourself. Updated 10/15/22 Amerisleep's AS5 was recently featured as the 'Best Soft Mattress in a Box' by Good Housekeeping , with the panel of reviewers noting: Pressure relief for side sleepers Taller than other boxed mattresses Good customer service    Amerisleep Mattress Reviews  We've been happy Amerisleep customers since purchasing our first AS3 mattress more than 9 years ago. Now we also have an AS2 and an AS4 (the AS3 is still our favorite). Born with chronic insomnia  (even as a baby - my family insists I was a nightmare), the struggle to improve my sleep is my life. My husband, the overly-analytical mechanical engineer, was initially skeptical of a mail-order mattress, but he was quickly won over. 2012: Wine glass test, sans wine. I was fairly confident our brand-new mattress would pass with f

Homemade Pumpkin Ice Cream Recipe

Sexy Nerd and I are going to his family's house for Thanksgiving this year. We're a bit low on the Thanksgiving totem pole, which always makes it tricky to figure out what to bring. What will we be making this year? Oh, just a little homemade pumpkin ice cream ! Yes, it is as delicious as it sounds. Here are a few photos from the last time I made this ice cream: Technically, this ice cream is perfectly yummy without adding any chocolate syrup or almonds. But where's the fun in that? If I weren't so determined to get a good photo of this for my blog, I would probably have chowed down on this ice cream right from the mixer. I had never made ice cream the "real" way before (with egg yolks) and was surprised at how easy it is. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Saveur.com . If you've never visited their site, you're missing out on some wonderful recipes! Saveur's Pumpkin Ice Cream Makes 2 Quarts This article was first publish

Construction Update: Let the Framing Begin

Another construction update already? But I just posted yesterday. This is madness! Apparently, Panorama Homes is making up for lost time. Have I mentioned lately that I love them? This almost makes up for the email I received from our bank today, stating " Per the inspection, I have sent $79,098.00." o_O I knew a bill like that was coming. I think. On some level, I must have known. They kept it under $80,000 and didn't charge us any cents, so I guess that was nice. Although, now I'm wondering if it's such a neat, tidy number because they rounded  up , not down. I really need to see an itemized copy of that invoice. To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what part of the house I'm looking at here. That holds true for the photo above and below this. Where the heck is this supposed to be? We'd better get up to the lot and make sure they're working off the correct set of plans. This house is going to

At-Home Sauna? Yes, Of Course

Another Crazy Purchase of the Day... The custom mountain home we're building has gotten a little out of hand. Why build a regular garage when you can build an RV garage? Why put in a bathtub when you can have a jetted pool? More windows, more skylights, more wood, and more custom millwork? Sure. Why not? I'll tell you why not. Because our budget is in shambles! Currently, the plan for our kitchen is that the white cabinets are going to be twelve feet tall. TWELVE! (And I don't care what else we have to cut out, Sexy Nerd. I will stack my cabinets to the sky.) One of our "must haves" that seems a little silly is a sauna. And not just any sauna, of course, but the biggest sauna, like the ones you find in a spa or corporate health club. It's not like we can invite people over to our home and tell them, "We have a sauna, but there's no room for you," right? So, we researched saunas on Globo Surf and designed our floor plan to include the

A Warning Against Impulsiveness

My crazy, anxiety-prone brain is a real jerk sometimes. Throughout our home building process, I've been required to meet with different suppliers one-on-one at least a dozen times and usually do a believable enough job playing the part of competent homeowner. Today, however, I set out on a quest for carpet prices feeling like a meek, pitiful shell of a human, wasting everyone's time and making a fool of myself. There was no reason for it. What's so difficult about asking for a carpet price? I even had a good idea what I wanted for once, so I could skip my usual look of indecisive puzzlement. My anxiety and I stepped timidly through the door of the flooring shop, my forehead knit with concern. I try to stop myself from doing this. The raised eyebrows don't do me, or my wrinkles, any favors. I've tried Botox to fix this bad habit, but apparently I'm immune to botulism. I even remind myself to relax my face periodically, reaching up both hands and smoothing the g

Lizard's Visit to the Pediatric Dentist

Recent posts from my office Facebook: 4/14 at 1:27pm You might expect to hear rambunctious children at a pediatric dental office, but you've never heard anything like the shrieks that just came from our front office staff. Somehow, a GIANT LIZARD HAS GOTTEN INTO OUR OFFICE and he is scampering around underneath Marie's desk! In more than 30 years of practicing dentistry, this is a first. Only in New Mexico, right? 4/14 at 1:39pm We're not sure where he is at the moment, but are being extremely careful when rolling our front office chairs. In fact, new rule - no rolling the office chairs until the lizard is safe and sound! 4/14 at 1:49pm *This just in* Danielle has named the lizard Bob. (The lizard shown is not Bob, as Bob is still hiding underneath Marie's desk, much to her dismay.) Also, the patients this afternoon are having a great time trying to find Bob, and an even better time exclaiming "There's a lizard!" and wa

The Siren Call of Sleep Aids and Supplements

You've probably seen all the hubbub in the news about how many of the sleep aids, supplements, and vitamins on the market are a scam, often containing little or none (NONE!?) of the ingredients claimed. It's especially bad news here in our household, where we have a bottle or two...thirteen...of vitamins and supplements. The ones I take every morning. Oh, and these too. I hate mushrooms, so reishi pills make a lot of sense, right? Sexy Nerd and I take these each day. The Saw Palmetto was recommended for our lousy, acne-prone skin. (I am not taking it for prostate health. I really can't stress that enough!) Even our dogs take a daily fish oil pill!   Pica loooves them, whether there are any health benefits or not. She's addicted to sucking on her own toes (aren't dogs just the worst?) and fish oil pills supposedly help reduce the hacking that results. She still hacks just as much as ever. In my defense, I never intended to buy some o

Long Distance Marriage

I don't say it enough here on my site, but I just absolutely love that Sexy Nerd of mine. You wouldn't suspect it if you knew him in real life, with his professional attire and reasonable social skills, but he's every bit as weird as me. I'm missing him this week because he's been traveling for work more than usual. He just got home from Kansas City last night and he's already gone again for a different business trip ! And he leaves again next week for California . Sexy Nerd insists he doesn't have a secret other family, but isn't all this traveling exactly what someone with a secret other family would do? You'd expect this would mean lots of phone calls, but guess what? I don't have a phone, home or otherwise. Well, not a working phone, at least, but my non-working phone is only $5 per month (more than $6 with taxes...which seems like a heck of a lot of taxes, now that I think of it. More than 20% taxes??) so we are all about emailing. Pretty

Freezing in Washington, DC

I tagged along with Sexy Nerd this week on a business trip to Washington, DC. The weather forecast warned against it, but I decided to take my chances because I'd never been. Record cold wasn't going to cancel my trip to Washington, DC...although perhaps it should have. Next week, Sexy Nerd is jetting off to Napa Valley. I may have chosen the wrong business trip.  Here's a photo of me freezing my butt off, on the warmest day of the entire trip !!! I've lived in the Bay Area and the desert. I've never experienced such cold weather in all my life. It was BRUTAL! Saturday warmed up enough to snow and snow some more (and then, it snowed a little more) until the snow was finally replaced with something called "freezing rain". I had a second pair of pants on under these jeans. How can people live like this? There were a few people who were excited to see me during my trip...until they found out I'd need showing around during the bli

Decorating with Wallpaper

Update: We are happily moved into our new home and I have narrowed down the choices on this list to  only  19. Most of our walls right now are just plain white. It's so boring! We recently (okay, SN recently) installed  our home's very first wallpaper , which looks amazing and completely changed the look of our hallway. ***** I fell down the rabbit hole this morning, clicking a wallpaper link in my digital copy of House Beautiful and scrolling through dozens, maybe hundreds (thousands?) of pages. It was around 9 am when I started and was close to 4 pm when I finished. This was a problem for two reasons. I actually had things to do today. Lots of things. Our new house won't be ready until at least July. I'm not in the market for wallpaper. A few hours into my never-ending search, it occurred to me that it wasn't really wasting time if I shared my favorites here on my blog. Yes, I was totally being productive! Don't let the pajamas fool you. Decora