I’m about to jump out of my skin as I sit here working on our upcoming magazine. Not because I don’t love what I do, but because I’m leaving on Thursday to go on a 10-day Mediterranean cruise. Woo-hoo!
Soon, I will be sipping wine in ports in Italy, France, Morocco and Spain, gorging myself on delicious meals and wandering around foreign cities.
Luckily, as I rush to get everything knocked out on my to-do list here and at home, I have very little to worry about when it comes to the actual trip details. My husband and I are traveling with our good friends. She happens to be a travel agent — a very obsessive travel agent who already has every single detail nailed down. She even knows a little Italian.
Now, if she could just make time skip forward so I can sit back, relax and enjoy the trip!
Ciao!
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
We held our second-annual Angie’s List Publication Department outing this past weekend. A group of about 12 of us headed to the country to my parents’ house to go camping and much more. Our department now tops 30 people, but many folks apparently prefer to stay within the city limits. Others didn’t want to subject us to their crankiness after a night in a damp, bug-infested tent on the hard ground. I don’t know why that doesn’t sound like fun to them. But, hey, I’m a country girl.
The group that did attend had a great time. Continue reading ‘Dog-driven golf cart nearly causes disaster’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
Giant hairballs are taking over my house. In the eight years I’ve had my dog, Buddy, I’ve never seen him shed as much as he has this year. We bought a shearing tool to combat the furry problem, but nothing seems to work. Buddy doesn’t think it’s a problem — he truly enjoys all the attention he gets while we brush him. I, however, am fed up.
Although I’ve considered it in the past, I’ve never taken him to a dog groomer. He is a very high-strung Border Collie and Dalmatian mix, so I worry about the stress of taking him to a stranger to be shaved. Continue reading ‘Shedding dog creates hairy situation in home’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
I never have enough time to do everything I’d like to accomplish. You know how that goes. The best part of working at Angie’s List is that I can achieve some of my bigger life goals while at work. The perks of the job are above and beyond what most any company offers.
I’ve been meaning to get back in shape for a while — a real long while. This February, my co-worker Liz and I decided it was time. So, we started hitting the Angie’s List gym on campus three to five times a week during our lunch hour and now take aerobics and kickboxing classes at Angie’s List. We even have access to a free personal trainer.
Having been a crime reporter in the past, I understand how important it is for a woman to be able to defend herself against the crazies. Continue reading ‘Living life at the List’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
My chief goal this summer was to rip out my unsightly, peeling and warped deck, and replace it with a paver brick patio. Working at Angie’s List, I’ve learned a lot while interviewing home-improvement specialists for our magazine’s Comparative Shopper column and other stories. Advice on how to improve my home’s resale value always gets my attention. So, that said, I knew replacing the deck with a patio that not only looks lovely but is also maintenance free was the way to go.
My husband, however, chalked the idea up to a womanly impulse to spend our hard-earned money and nearly chickened out at the last minute. He hated the deck, but he said, “I can build a new one… installing a patio can’t be that difficult, I can do it myself.” Now, that’s a manly impulse. Continue reading ‘The battle of man vs. wife’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
Angie’s List sure knows how to treat its employees!
The company rewards top performers each quarter with a fun, daylong excursion. I’ve been lucky enough to make some of those trips in the past year – we went to a horse ranch in Brown County, rode rides at Kings Island and even cruised on a private boat around a lake in Monticello. At the end of the year, Angie’s List goes all out and takes the top 10 percent of the company on a big vacation. Continue reading ‘Fat Tuesday’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
The Second Annual Angie’s List Soapbox Derby results are in. Nope, I didn’t win anything. I did, however, have a fantastic time. My team’s name was “Big Brown” in honor of the great racehorse. (I was hoping I’d get to say “Triple Crown Winner” in this post, but alas his reign is over this year).
They chose me as the lucky driver of the tiny, green garden wagon we bought with our $75 home-improvement store gift card. Being barely 5 feet tall, I fit the part of the jockey pretty well. To complete the look, I bought some little boy’s baseball pants, found a cheesy silk jacket at Goodwill and borrowed a riding helmet and crop from my co-workers. Continue reading ‘Giddy Up’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
I faced one of my biggest fears this week – I finally went to the dentist to have a couple cavities filled. There’s a good reason I’m scared of the tooth doctor, and it’s not the needles or drills that give me the heebie-jeebies. I’ve had too many bad experiences with several different dentists.
When one dentist filled a cavity for me a couple of years ago, my whole face swelled up like a balloon and my mouth became covered in sores. Continue reading ‘Drilling for a nerve’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
Finally, warm weather has arrived. (Well, kind of. We hit freezing temperatures in Indy last night after enjoying a week of 70-plus degrees.) After spending all winter getting my house spruced up on the inside, I’m ready to dig out the gardening supplies and get to work on further improving my home’s value. At the top of my list of outdoor home improvements is the demolition of a hideous red deck the previous homeowner haphazardly installed. It’s gigantic and eats up nearly half of my already small yard. That, and it sits way off the ground, allowing my neighbors a full view over my fence (which is painted a matching hideous red, of course). Continue reading ‘Pave the way…’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
A couple of us magazine staff writers have been working on a feature story about the plethora of home improvement TV shows for our June issue. I have to admit, when I first started reporting on the topic, I knew very little about the quirky hosts my co-workers gushed about and the drama-filled plots that seem to keep millions of viewers enthralled. My TiVo only records a few of my favorite sitcoms, so I hardly ever venture out of my comfort zone to check out what’s airing on the other channels.
Apparently, Angie’s List members are big fans. In a recent poll, 79 percent of our members said they watch these types of programs — everyone from “This Old House” old-school fans to the fanatics who love watching the fiery Niecy Nash annihilate clutter in “Clean House” chimed in to let us know why they watch. Some have a pretty serious addiction to home improvement TV as a handful of respondents admitted they tune in to more than 15 different shows per week. The majority said they watch it to get ideas for their own house and because they’re entertaining. Continue reading ‘Channel surfing’
Brittany is senior editor of national affairs for
Angie's List magazine. When she's not busy reporting for the magazine, she enjoys relaxing, bowling and watching movies.
