We finally cleared away enough stuff that we have begun using our kitchen table for puzzles again! Huzzah!

Not that Nate doesn’t always enjoy going to C2E2, but something tells me he’s really gonna be jazzed about this one…

That snow that was predicted for which Nathan would need new coat, snow pants, and boots? It actually happened!!

Yeah, this little gem – the KitchenAid peeler/slicer – made quick work of prepping apple pies this year.

The Great White Mouse Hunter is back! After a couple nights trying, I finally caught a mouse on one of the traps I had set throughout the house.

As an update to yesterday’s post, the traps caught nothing. They weren’t even tripped and the peanut butter wasn’t touched. So either Katie was mistaken or, as she calls it, she was going crazy.

I had to do something tonight that I haven’t done in about three or four years… set mouse traps in the house.

It’s been a while since I checked in on this front, but I am still soda free since the end of May. 5.5 months.

Nothing like a flat tire on your new car to start off the day.

Is my new hat totally me or what?

While perusing Instagram, I discovered an online service that allows you to customize a Peanuts-inspired Christmas ornament.

The Bears are a really tough team to love. Incredibly tough.

From apples to margaritas, that was our Sunday.

22 years ago — under similarly downpouring conditions — Katie made me the happiest person alive by marrying me.

So how do Katie and I spend a Thursday night after Nate finally falls asleep?

It’s so funny how obsessed I’ve become with Sam the little burlap-sack-headed kid from the cult favorite Halloween horror film Trick ‘r Treat.

As if it weren’t enough that we are paying out the wazoo to give Nate a beautiful smile, now he has to go and steal my lid!

I have officially hit four months soda free… AND IT HURTS SO BAD!!! I JUST WANT ONE GINGER ALE, DAMMIT!! JUST ONE!!!!!!

Ho boy. Today I became that person. The person who puts wine in a coffee mug.

Is it weird that, since I was a child and to this very day, my dream car is a vintage Volkswagen Beetle?

Well, poop.

He’s 11! Freaking 11! How in the name of all that’s holy did that happen?!?!

A local geek-run coffee shop just texted me a special deal on their Iced Red Wedding Latte and it just sounds so oddly unique that I feel the need to try it.

I found a new hot snack at Aldi today. They’re called Kronchis and the packaging promises “Spicy • Limey • Crunchy • Corn Snack.”

A major brouhaha is erupting out of this situation in which actors Ashton Kutcher and Mika Kunis, along with Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith, wrote character letters in support of former costar Danny Masterson during the sentencing phase of his multiple rape conviction trial.

Nathan wants to start a sweat jar for me. Yeah, I swear. I know it.

And just like that… three months have passed, summer is (almost) over, and our community pool is closed.

I hate when I find things the origin of which I know not.

Nothing good can come of Nathan and I being set free in Spirit Halloween and American Science & Surplus.

Another free trial we received with the purchase of our Rogue is three months of Sirius/XM satellite radio. We've gotten this with each of our Hyundai Sonatas as well and we use it. It's actually kinda nice to have a reliable radio-esque signal no matter where we are in our car. 

With the purchase of our Rogue, we also received a free trial of a mobile hotspot in our car via AT&T. And, man, does AT&T wanna sell me on it. I get emails every few days reminding me to activate the trial.

I'm not sure if you know, but Katie and I have named every car we've ever owned. This act even predates us as a couple. Katie has had The Smurfmobile (a really old blue Dodge Colt that Katie had as a teenager), the Silver Bullet (a silver Dodge Stratus), and Finn (a white Hyundai Sonata, named for Finn from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and his Stormtrooper uniform). I have had Red Ranger (a red Ford Ranger) alternately named Aragorn after the character in The Lord of the Rings who was a ranger as well as Grayson (my gray Hyundai Sonata).

As I said before, we knew what we wanted in a new car. Make, model, package, year, even the color. We knew the VIN, for god’s sake. We also knew what we wanted to spend each month on financing.

I got Grayson from the shop after work today and went straight from there to a used car buyback place that shall remain nameless. I wanted to see their offer.

My Hyundai Sonata is on its last legs.

I remember writing something similar 12 years ago when my beloved red Ranger was rendered effectively dead and we sold it to buy Grayson, my Sonata.