There’s a lonely stretch of Interstate 8 that runs through the desert, about halfway between Yuma and Phoenix, that boasts a place called “Dateland.” Along the freeway is a giant sign advertising their world-famous date shakes. We always drive on by, of course that’s usually because it’s too late or too early in the day to be interested in a milkshake. Only not today. I happened to be driving by Dateland around lunch, so it seemed perfect to stop for a sandwich and a date shake. I had never had a date shake, and they sounded intriguing. World-famous, even. So…

I saw, who needs to take the kids to Disneyland, when you can just have Disneyland come to YOU.

I don’t really mind going to the dentist. Usually. Heck, sometimes I even blog about it. Some people are just lucky and their teeth are naturally awesome. And some people brush and floss religiously and still have tons of cavities. I am one of the former. I have never had a cavity. In fact, one of my former dentists once told me I had “super teeth” and that I could probably get away with only a dental visit once a year, instead of every 6 months. If we’re being honest, I’m not the best flosser in the world. I mean,…

Seeing as how the husband’s family always sends us gear promoting the University of Iowa, it seemed only fair that my family send us gear promoting Kansas State. And my parents did just that for Christmas. Afterwards, the husband and I had the following conversation. THB: I like my new K-State sweatshirt, but I think it’s funny that they picked the camouflage one. What, do I scream redneck? ME: I wouldn’t say so much ‘scream’ redneck but you definitely ‘announce loudly.’

This is my favorite photo of my Grandma, and the one that I will always remember her by: In my mind’s eye, Grandma Fern was always this person: smiling on the porch steps, standing in the warm dappled sunlight of a Michigan summer.  She was the grandmother who was always happy to see you, who would give you hugs and kisses and send homemade fudge at Christmastime.  She would patiently play cards with pre-teen adolescents as if it were the one thing she wanted to do most in the world.  She let us eat sugar cereals and always, always, sent cards on…

This is what the dog got for Christmas. It’s 250 Vitamin K pills. Because she helped herself to a tasty treat that was supposed to be locked up in the garage, where she couldn’t get to it. So what else did Chloe get for Christmas? She got to vomit and go on a car ride to the emergency vet. Oh, and of course the $300 worth of pills. Merry Christmas dog, it looks like that’s about all you’re getting for Christmas. Except maybe a lump of activated charcoal in your stocking. Oh, yeah, and this is the same dog that…

So this past weekend, my husband and I went on a date. Like, dinner and a movie and some quality time together. It was super. The only weird part is that the movie theater is in the mall, but it’s not one of the mall anchors. It’s, like, smack dab in the center of the mall. So you have to walk through the mall to get to your movie. In our case, we parked by the Wal-Mart and walked in to the mall. Also, does anyone else think it’s weird that the mall has a Wal-Mart? Anyway, as we were…

The husband and I went to lunch with our boss last week. The restaurant had those TVs that are mounted to the ceiling, and at one point my husband and my boss were distracted by a NASCAR-type race. Only instead of NASCAR cars racing around the track, it looked more like matchbox cars with trays mounted to the top of them. We watched them for a bit, as they took a series of continual left turns, until I decided to ask a question. “There aren’t actually people in those cars, are there?” I could tell immediately from the look on…

Our office, like many across the country, has a group football pool. And doesn’t it always seem like it’s someone’s random friend that seems to win? It’s not the dude who lives and breathes football and can recite every team’s stats by memory. No, its that dude’s roommate’s girlfriend’s best friend from college, who knows nothing about football, and just put her $5 into the pool on a “whim.” The win comes out for the week and everyone’s like, “Katie? Who’s Katie? Does she even work here? Didn’t she win last week?!” I, also, know nothing about football. And yet,…

It’s not that there’s nothing exciting happening. It’s just that most of my life right now consists of : get up, go to work, go home, go to bed. So I give you just about all I have right now – a pretty picture from last weekend. Here is the Salton Sea at sunset, from 9,500 feet: And here’s another one, from a different trip, of the Pacific Ocean near the Ramona airport: