Living in a Land Down Under (Part I)

In 2012 my sister, Allison, was studying abroad in Australia. I had been working at the Bench for a little over a year, hadn’t yet bought Bones, and had no idea what to do with server money after working minimum wage retail jobs for the previous six years. So when she suggested I come visit, …

A House With No Curtains

Today I’m going to talk about “in a pinch” window treatments that work. This post is pretty short because these are pretty easy. Sometimes you have a window or two that needs dressing up without needing a full-blown window treatment. It may be a frosted window in your bathroom.  It may be a window that …

How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?

  So. You and your partner think that you’re ready to take the next step in your relationship and acquire a baby mammal of some kind. For the purposes of this blog I’m going to assume that is a pet and not a baby human because I have no experience acquiring children (that sounds so …

Running On Empty

When we were renting our house, we had a regular old 40 gallon tank water heater. I’m honestly not sure how old it was at the time. But it drove me nuts, because apparently, I like to take absurdly hot showers. Seth says it’s like I’m trying to burn myself alive. Needless to say, our …

If I Had a Million Dollars

We have many animals, and I’m sure you’re all wondering, “How do you come up with names for all those critters?” Let the curiosity end here! All of the animals Kayla and I have bought together have one naming convention in common; they’re all named after items in the Barenaked Ladies song If I had …

Where Do the Children Play?

In our circle of friends, RISK has always been our excuse to get together and hang out, usually for absurdly long game sessions. One complaint we always had was that the countries on the RISK board were often too small to accommodate large armies (of plastic game pieces). At the time, we had a hand-me-down …

We Just Disagree: Seating

Finding furniture for our house can sometimes be a real chore. I have already mentioned Seth’s penchant for picking up nearly anything off of the curb and bringing it home. But one topic upon which we can have an especially difficult time agreeing is when it comes to upholstered pieces like couches and chairs. Kayla …

Masters of War: Garlic Mustard

We’re here to talk about our monthly Michigan invasive species, which is in full spring frenzy as we speak. Name: Alliaria petiolata, commonly called garlic mustard. Native Range: Europe Description: Garlic mustard is an herbaceous plant (meaning it has no woody stems) that smells like garlic when you crush the leaves. The first year, it …

Bills, Bills, Bills

I was listening to a morning radio show on my way into work a couple of days ago, and they were talking and laughing about when they lie to their spouse about their spending. I wish I was joking. They didn’t call it lying of course. One of the hosts was talking about her “shopping …