Who Are These Weird People? (2024)

Aloha!

I was born in Australia, grew up in the bustling Bay Area, and moved to dusty Albuquerque shortly before high school. I have a degree in psychology from the University of New Mexico. Here on my blog, I started out writing about whatever random things interested me and have since narrowed in on just a few topics based on posts that performed well, such as decorating ideas, wine festivals, and Amerisleep mattress reviews. Give your audience what they want, right?

I've worked in a pediatric dental office for 16 years, so don't expect to see any baby posts around here anytime soon. The kids are cute and sweet and well behaved...70% of the time. My job is the best birth control in the world!

Sexy Nerd

Isn't he just the cutest? I love this guy.

Sexy Nerd grew up in the tiny town of Buena Vista, Colorado. Before moving there, he lived in the even tinier town of Johnson, Kansas, where his grandpa was (still is) the mayor. I love to poke fun at him and his naive, small-town ways (withlove, of course).

He's a mechanical engineer with a Master's Degree in mechatronics (something I'd never even heard of before we met...actually, I'm still not 100% clear on what this is) and he'sone smart cookiea clever guybrillianta big nerd. He even has a second "just for fun" Master's Degree in political science. Sexy Nerd cooks, he cleans, he builds things for our house (entirelynew roomsincluded) and he even trims Pica's nails and brews beer. What more could a girl ask for? If only he weren't hopelessly addicted to all things racing!

Nascar sucks! ;)

The Happy Couple

Photo from our honeymoon, a million acne-ridden years ago.

We met on Match.com and had our first date on January 10th, 2004. Keeping our relationship together was tricky because I was living in Albuquerque and Sexy Nerd was attending school in Flint, Michigan.

The first time he came back from school, I had my doubts about him, especially as hehad invited himself to live in my apartment, completely freaking me out. Sexy Nerd decided to take a trip up to Colorado to visit his family. While he was away, I continued to think that us being together was a bad idea. I really liked having my apartment all to myself! As fate would have it, he returned with his hands all cut up - the only reason he'd gone to Colorado was to use his dad's tools to build me a wire candleholder tree, just like one I'd pointed out in a store. Isn't he just the sweetest guy ever?

Sweetest guy or not, Sexy Nerd'sproposal after only a year of datingwas a little soon for me - I had a panic attack, hysterically laughing while trying to decide what to tell him. It wasn't anything against him. It's just that, come on, we'd only been together a year. I'd had bad high school relationships that lasted for more than a year!

Alongengagement later, we got married in Hawaii on our 4 year anniversary. The ceremony was performed by a man in a skirt,Captain Howiefrom Above Heaven's Gate Weddings, who was high as a kite, relieved himself in the bushes, and talked about "midget leprechauns" in front of all our friends and family. It was wonderful and unlike any other wedding...though I would not recommend Captain Howie under any circ*mstance!

Oh, and a chicken wandered over unexpectedly during our vows. We named her Chicklet. She was delicious.

(I'm just kidding about that last sentence!)

What's the deal with the lamb? Why is this site named LambAround?

Growing up, I loved the stuffed lamb that used to be featured on my blog header. One day, my mom insisted on washing it. Convinced my lamb would drown and come out of the washing machine completely ruined, I begged my mom to spare its life. She ignored my pleas and threw it into the wash.

My lamb came out missing an ear!

I'm sure that was one of those "oh crap" parenthood moments and, yes, I'm still traumatized.

My original plan for this blog was to take a photo of my stuffed lamb in different locations, hence the name LambAround. Easy peasy considering the stuffed lamb is keychain-size and I've traveled all over,Seychelles, Paris, andAustraliaincluded. Well, it turns out that is boring! So, I decided to just blog about whatever interests me.

And now the lamb is gone almost entirely from my site, including the blog name LambAround. I left this section here though to avoid confusion if you come across a lamb reference in an old post...though I suppose this section itself is pretty much guaranteeing confusion.

Why is there a pig in the kitchen?

Why not have a pig in the kitchen?Kitchen Pigwas purchased at a little shop inside the Coronado Mall in Albuquerque. Although it was love at first sight, I nearly didn't get him because he was more than I wanted to spend. Luckily, Sexy Nerd was able to convince me that $4 probably wasn't going to push us into bankruptcy.