since we last spoke

A lot has happened since December 3rd, when I last posted (as Y reminds me every day as he checks this blog in vain).

On December 3rd, I was just a naive Southern girl who thought that this was a lot of snow:

And then this happened:

Okay, maybe that's a hole in the ground. It was more like this:

What you don't know is that Ike is 6 feet tall.

Since December 3rd, I've become obsessed with a teen movie (Pitch Perfect) and not twenty minutes ago, when I wanted to trim my bangs, I turned to Seventeen Magazine for advice. I think my brain is Benjamin Buttoning. But at least my freshly trimmed bangs look good.

#SELFIE

In the last month, I've slipped on the ice at a busy corner and landed on my ass. Minnesota rite of passage?

It never would have happened under Ike's watchful eye. 

In the last few weeks, Y got a gold tooth and will henceforth be known as ¥. 

And finally, in the last month I've realized two things:


1. My life, thankfully, no longer revolves around med school/residency. Sure, it's still a big part of our lives --I still only understand 5% of what ¥ says -- but now I have other things to worry about. I know people who have nothing to do with medicine! More to the point - I have other things to blog about. My little blog is still fairly little (despite being mentioned on a super famous blog), but it has grown to the point where more than just medical spouses read it. 


2. The resources out there for spouses of medical people continually frustrate me. If you're not incredibly religious or have a bunch of kids, there just isn't much out there to work with.

Keeping those things in mind, I've decided to start a little community specifically for medical spouses. 

If you happen to have strong feelings for someone who is a doctor/doctor adjacent, you should check it out! Medicine: A Love Story will be home to my weird residency-related stories (some of which I'll still post here), but also things a lot of my new, non-medical blog friends won't care about - advice, link ups, and more of a community feel.  

Here at Just Dand¥, I'll keep writing about our lives (well, like I used to prior to December 3rd). In fact, I've got a post lined up about how I was hit on by an 8 year old. (That says HIT ON, not SHIT ON -- even I had to read it twice.)

Happy New Year!

semi DIY gift guide

Do you want to know what I did this weekend?

Silly me, of course you do. 

I spent hours reading countless bloggers' gift guides. I don't know why, but I can't get enough of these. The more ridiculous, the better. A $40 paper flower for your mom? $60 candles as a housewarming gift? I want it all. I especially love how specific these things get. 

For the artsy niece who picks her nose occasionally. 

 For the chic BFF who has a pet lizard. 

For the hipster boyfriend whose secret favorite movie is Aladdin.   

So you know what's coming, right? The first ever just dandy gift guide: under $25 gifts from the well-meaning friend whose DIY attempts look like they were created by an eight year old and who is still using her iphone 3 to take pictures so she attempts in vain to make them look nicer with an instagram filter.

Eh, we can work on the title later.


1. for your favorite brunch date

Fill a container (this is an empty clementine box) with brunch fare. Seen here: homemade chai syrup, homemade granola, homemade jalapeno vodka for bloody marys, and maple syrup.

2. for your beloved co-worker who wakes up early and works from home to catch up

A cozy shawl and socks, fun file folders, homemade granola, and a mug for the necessary coffee 


3. for the voracious reader

A new book and a new mug, wrapped in a soft blanket and adorned with a homemade bookmark.

Bonus idea: (see previous photo) a gift tag made from a Victoria's Secret catalog for your 14 year old brother-in-law.

___

I love coming up with themed gifts -- dare I say I'm kind of good at it? --  so hit me up in the comments if you've got someone hard to shop for. As long as they like anthropologie mugs and homemade granola, you'll be all set. (just kidding - I'm willing to think outside the [empty clementine] box.)

(By the way, the mother of all gift guides this year is To & From, which is approximately one million pages. It's amazing.)

a tale of two cocktails

the perfect winter cocktail to keep your friends and family drunk, happy, and begging for more: this pear ginger fizz cocktail (from Style Me Pretty's Thanksgiving guide) is simple, delicious, and a crowd pleaser -- at least it was at my Thanksgiving.

the perfect pop culture cocktail to keep you constantly looking over your shoulder and waking up at 4 a.m. due to  nightmares: Homeland is amazing, The Walking Dead is addictive (even though the constant, redundant arguing makes me want to tear my hair out), and Gone Girl is so twisty you'll get carsick. But I don't recommend watching/reading all of these at the same time to anyone. Small doses. Zombie dreams are bad. Abduction dreams are bad. Terrorist dreams are bad. Together? I don't even want to talk about it.

following up

>> As a followup to this post, I heard Eminem on the radio the other day and practically licked the radio.

>> As a followup to this post, there has since been a poop elephant and a poop turkey to accompany the poop whale. Someday I'll post a collage of our poop menagerie. 

Also, Young House Love put a link to that post on their blog yesterday, making the story of the poop whale my most viewed post ever. This traffic surge knocked this out of the top spot, a post in which I mentioned Kristin Chenowith. It's not a particularly special post, it just gets hits when people search for Kristin Chenowith feet. People are... interesting. & thanks to YHL for the shout out! 

>> As a followup to this post, the other day, my cashier at Trader Joe's cheerily sang "OOOOOKIE DOKIE" to the tune of "HAAAALLLELUJAH!"

>> As a followup to this post, my rectum is still amazing.

weekend lessons v. 6

01. Giblets is a really funny word.

02. Last night, we went to a holiday parade in downtown Minneapolis and I just wanted to PINCH ITS LITTLE CHEEKS. Lesson: Non-Louisiana parades are so cute, with their teeny tiny floats and sober riders and lack of things flying through the air.

03. The other day I was talking to Ike, and I apparently called him Mr. McStinkyButt.  Y called, from the other room, "Of the Minneapolis McStinkyButts?" It was then that I snapped to consciousness and even realized that I had been talking to the dog. I have a problem, I think.

04. We started watching Homeland this weekend and BAM. Marley from Glee, topless. The lesson: Marley from Glee is topless in Homeland and I just don't feel like her mom the cafeteria lady would have raised her daughter to be so... topless. Related: Angela from My So Called Life is a CIA agent.

05. I'm thankful for a dog that winks at me and a husband that sleeps through the cutest photo session ever. (see above photo)

pinterest in real life + Young House Love

A few weeks ago I posted some pictures of real fall, meant to show you what's going on behind the scenes as your favorite bloggers frolic through apple orchards and make out with their pumpkin spice lattes. 

Today, along those lines, I want to show you Pinterest in real life.

Ever since some genius crafter discovered that - gasp - dry erase markers work on glass, Pinterest has been full of pinners posting their dry erase frame creations.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon, putting a frame in our bathroom (on those shelves that I fought so hard for).

Brushing our teeth is usually the last thing each of us does in the morning before work, so it would be perfect for the love notes we were dying to leave each other as we parted ways.

Or  helpful reminders-

Not that I would ever have the foresight to package up leftovers for Y's lunch.  But that's the thing about Pinterest - it's supposed to make you perfect. 

But, readers, my husband is not John Petersik*. So instead of love notes, this is what I got:

*John Petersik: co-blogger of Young House Love who seems to be open to any and all DIY projects and doesn't incorporate voyeuristic whales into home decor. 

Edited to add: I actually met John and Sherry, the couple behind Young House Love last night at West Elm for their book signing. 

I'll share more later -- they are as friendly and real as their blog suggests -- but I thought this little story was relevant. You see, this exact project (sort of) happens to be in the YHL book. I showed John and Sherry Y's whale, which they, of course, loved (how could you not?! Look at that face!). 

And then, because I was at the back of the line and I think everyone in the store was a little delirious, John wrote this in my book:

My copy of this book is going to be worth millions one day. 

what causes radon: the truth

Being married to a resident can be kind of humbling.

Like when you realize that no matter how much you have to do at work, no matter how annoyed your boss is, when something happens to your house there is no argument: you don't have lives to save. You are the one staying home with the repairman.

This has its perks. Like... hanging out at home with the dog.

It also has its downfalls. Like, staring at an unfinished bedroom that would look a million times better if a) there was a picture ledge on the wall*, and b) there was no underwear on the floor.

But mainly it has its perks. My favorite: getting the real story from the repairmen. 

Recently, while sitting at home entertaining the people who were installing our radon mitigation system,  I got the inside scoop on why our basement has so much radon. I made sure to share with Y. 

Apparently, insinuating that Y caused a poisonous gas to emanate from our floors is the way to his heart. Just a few days later, our bedroom looked like this:

some other bedroom shots:

By the way, this is what our bedroom looked like when we looked at the house:

*I screw up every time I try to put something in our walls. Otherwise, I would have hung the shelf myself.