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It's Valentine's Day
By Chris Petry Well, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. Love is in the air. Or something like that. I’ll probably just order a pizza, watch my usual double feature of My Bloody Valentine (1981) and Valentine (2001) and sob because nobody loves me. No! This is the year I finally take charge of my life and feelings. I’m all I need! Me! And pizza. This just in, my bloodwork reveals tha

Snowflake Science
By Chris Petry As the song goes, “If you’ve got no place to go, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.” Well, unfortunately, most of us do have places to go. Namely work. If it wasn’t for the early morning commutes, no one would hate the snow. Of this I’m convinced. So, let’s just forget about all the driving nonsense for a moment, I guess the shoveling too,

What's with Ginger Bread Homes?
By Chris Petry As of this writing, the Federal Reserve has enacted its third interest rate of the fiscal quarter. These rate cuts coming after two years of steep increases. While rates will fall even more in 2025, current projections indicate it will be much more gradual and deliberate. No matter what, rate decreases will almost certainly be welcomed by the home buying public. While it

Holiday Cookies by State
By Chris Petry Last month, we reviewed Google’s state by state breakdown of the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes. For the Winter Holiday season, we thought we’d see what search analytics revealed about the most popular Christmas side dishes. Well, turns out that data’s not quite in yet. However, they did analyze the most popular Christmas Cookie search for each state. Whi

Winter Train Ride
By Chris Petry For today’s topic, let’s rewind the clock back to 1802. In Shropshire, England, on the Welsh border, inventor, engineer (and wrestler interestingly enough) Richard Trevithick, introduces the world’s first steam locomotive. It’s hard today to really explain the revelatory nature of that moment but suffice it to say, the world was forever changed. T

Hotels of Ice
By Chris Petry If you’re ever in Quebec City between January and March, you can book a room at North America’s premier and, until 2012, only ice hotel. What is an ice hotel, you ask? No need to overthink it. It’s literally a hotel made of ice. Which is why bookings are only guaranteed within the aforementioned three-month period where temperatures and precipitation permit its

Most Popular Thanksgiving Dish in Every State
By Chris Petry A couple of days ago, I ran across this article from Delish where they discuss the release of Google’s Annual trends results for the most popular Thanksgiving side dish is each state. I personally look forward to seeing what recipes people are searching for the holiday season. The reasons are many. For one, I might discover or rediscover a dish I haven’t had in a long

Soup Season... It's Here
by Chris Petry Go ahead, laugh it up, sun worshipers. You know and I know, these 70-degree days won’t be able to hold out much longer. If there’s one thing about cold weather, I think we can all agree on, it’s soup. I guess there are dissenters out there somewhere. An old friend of mine once broke up with a girl who told him she didn’t like soup. “How can you unila

Famous Real Estate from Horror Films
By Chris Petry A couple weeks ago, we featured some haunted real estate you can visit around the country. Some fairly close to home. This week, we’re going to talk about notable real estate that isn’t haunted in “real life” but has the distinction of being featured in some of the most terrifying motion pictures ever made. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Haunted Real Estate
by Chris Petry You know what they say about ghosts and real estate: location, location, location! Look, it’s the middle of October and we’ve yet to post a blog with an exclusively Halloween-y topic. You probably wondered if we’d decided to buck tradition and skip it all together. Still, you’ve been patient, and much like a restless spirit compelled to roam the halls of a