Denise mentioned being a former personal assistant on LeeAnn Kreischer's "Wife of the Party" Swapcast last month and you asked her for stories of working for the rich and famous... so here we go!

Denise also brings in one of her best friends, Gina Jackson, to help out. Together they recount the ups, downs and oddities of working for uber-wealthy families in Bel Air. They talk about what a personal assistant does, their adventures--and misadventures--working for these Beverly Hills families and how they handled this always challenging (and sometimes bizarre) occupation. Even better, Gina started out as a nanny so get ready for a fascinating inside look!

From being tasked to find obscure pieces of red carpet jewelry half a world away, to being asked to euthanize the family dog--wait, WHAT?--Denise and Gina spill the tea on the life of being a personal assistant for Hollywood royalty. Enjoy! #emptynest #fulltank

From Evanston to the South Suburbs, nobody knows Chicago like Denise. Despite being in Los Angeles for 25 years, she’s still a Windy City O.G.
We talk about the best of Chicago, the music and entertainment scene, the people and, of course, The Chicago Bulls. We also dig deep into the food: Giordano’s vs. Lou Malnati’s, Aurelio’s and why “the Greeks” own the best restaurants—even if it’s not Greek food. Denise also breaks down the North Side vs. South Side attitude and culture and we even get into colleges like University of Chicago, DePaul, Northwestern and her alma mater, Loyola of Chicago. Enjoy! #emptynest #fulltank

Paging Dr. Nandi! We are HURTING right now. And by "hurting," we mean "sick as dogs." Denise has had 2 head colds just this month and James' flu from over the holidays turned into a slowly-fading pneumonia. We're doing better, but before we hit the road for Savannah, we needed to make sure we had a new strategy for staying healthy on the road.

That's where Dr. Partha Nandi, MD FACP comes in. He's a gastrointerologist, Chief Health Editor for Detroit's WXYZ News, the host of his own "Ask Dr. Nandi" show and has even given a TED Talk.
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Buying a car in 2023 turned out to be a surreal odyssey. Getting scooped on the purchase of an SUV not once, not twice BUT THREE TIMES was mentally taxing. Then, we got a hearty dose of dealership trickery and fine print. We knew we were really strangers in a strange land, though, when we visited a car lot... and none of the cars had gas in them. True story. Find out what we finally settled on, and why. The heavens finally opened up and delivered us The Skip Mobile, thank God!
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We purchased the Florida property and finally found a renter. We refurbished--and refurnished--the house. The day finally came for our renter to arrive and we were beyond excited... but then something went terribly wrong. There's no other way to say it. It was an EPIC FAIL.
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There's nothing to prepare you for someone calling and telling you they want to fly you and your significant other halfway around the world on their dime, but that's exactly what happened to us in March of 22. James' client phoned him and offered to pay for flights and accommodations if we were willing to drop everything and go to Dubai. Du-freaking-bai! The result was the trip of a lifetime in one of the most unique cities on the planet and you don't want to miss what we have to say about traveling to the United Arab Emirates.

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Since LeeAnn Kreischer first had us on her show, Wife of the Party, Denise has been wanting to get her on ours... but a Zoom interview just didn't seem right. Then, we realized we'd be back in SoCal for the holidays. Why not ask LeeAnn to be in the hot seat for a change? Fortunately, LeeAnn agreed to be interviewed by us--on her own show! You're gonna love learning about this lady and how she raised 2 brilliant kids and kept her modesty and grace despite being married to someone who would become a celebrity that's a household name. Yes, the Wife of the Party (that "party" being Bert Kreischer) has quite the rags-to-riches story of her own to tell. Enjoy!
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If there's one thing you know about us, it's that we got our start on LeeAnn Kreischer's podcast, "Wife of the Party." So, you can only imagine how great it felt to come "home" for the holidays and sit down with LeeAnn Kreischer to catch up. What we didn't know was that Santa (aka Bert Kreischer at bertbertbert.com) was literally flying down from the North Pole to join us. It was an awesome surprise with awesome people who have been in our corner since Day 1, and we think you're going to love our candid discussion about work, family and the future! Enjoy and Happy New Year!

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On the 12th Day of Christmas my travel log gave to me:

12 hour layovers

11 dollar coffee

10 nasal swabbings

9 flights delaying

8 lanes a-merging

7 dollars per gallon

6 damaged presents

5 SCREAM-ING KIIIIDDDDSSSS

4 shuttle changes

3 canceled dinners

2 missing shoes

And a drunk uncle in Q-A-NONNNNNNNNNNNN

Happy Hanukkah. Merry Christmas. Happy Kwanzaa. Merry Festivus. We're airing our grievances and wishing you the best in 2023. Thanks for joining us this year!

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If we told you a story of 150,000 people invading 3 counties within the US borders, you'd think we were all hopped up on some immigration conspiracy. But that's exactly what happened somewhere in between Orlando and Gainesville, Florida--in a place called, generically enough, "The Villages."

It's a retirement community that keeps sprouting houses and expanding its borders every single year--with its own towns and cities inside. It has its own infrastucture, radio station, entertainment venues and over 100 restaurants. Heck, it has over 700 holes of golf to be played! Do you know how many courses that must be?!?

Even if you're from Central Florida, it's a hard place to really describe... so we turned to Denise's family to get answers from our real-life "Village People." Sorry for the clickbait title. Not really.

Anyway, they have lived here almost 20 years now and have loved every minute. We finally carved out enough time between our travels and our sister-in-law Vickie's pickleball schedule to get her and Denise's brother Ron in the hot seat to see if we couldn't get to the bottom of this enigma called "The Villages." Enjoy!

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What starts out as a recap of Denise's bungled attempt at being a bootlegger--and James realizing Canada has some pretty strict rules about firearms--turns into a low-key therapy session. We said we'd be honest and not hide the bad stuff when we started this pod. Consider this episode a promise kept.

Check out ALL of our links at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars #emptynest #fulltank

La Ciudad. CDMX. Whatever you want to call it, Mexico City has always been on Denise's "must hit" destination list--and it did not disappoint! We started our Mexico vacation in the party town of Cabo San Lucas, but we'd been there before and it was time for a new adventure.

A quick day trip to the fishing town of Todos Santos and a sunset at Cerritos Beach were a start in the right direction, but when we landed in Mexico-Freaking-City we were surging with the energy only a city with 22 million people can supply!

Protests. Food. Ancient ruins. Canals. Real estate. Culture. You name it, we talk about it in this mucho grande episode. Start this episode en la manana and finish it in la noche if you need to, but make sure you hear us out because CDMX should be on any serious traveler's itinerary.

Check out ALL of our links at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars #emptynest #fulltank

Air Bnb? Hotel? What are we feeling like tonight? From Seattle to Orlando, we've slept in the best--and lay awake in the worst. Check out our take on the hits and misses from everywhere we've crashed so far, what to watch out for when booking an Air BnB and how a standard corporate hotel can occasionally save the day.
Check out ALL of our links at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars #emptynest #fulltank

We owed Mia a "Friends and Family Weekend" experience because we couldn't make it last year. In this return, we decide to put some new cameras to use and actually shoot a pod with her roommate, Sierra. The mic quality on the cameras wasn't the best, but hey... if the college crowd wants to party with us, who are we to deny them?
Check out ALL of our links at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars #emptynest #fulltank

After the last stop in Little Rock, we realized we were a quick trip away from seeing the shining star of American exceptionalism... Graceland! Elvis' story and home were as amazing as we expected, but the rise in crime around Memphis over the past several years left us saying, "Roll, Tide, Roll!" and before we knew it, we were waking up in Tuscaloosa. Check out ALL of our links at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars #emptynest #fulltank

It’s official… we have our first affiliate partner for the show!

Could not have done it without you and we’re psyched to be working with Anytime Mailbox and this episode features Anytime Mailbox’s VP of Ops and Sales, Nathalie Shroeder!

Nathalie is one of the core team that launched Anytime Mailbox, as well as a jewelry designer, Skiptown listener and family friend. Hell, she was at our going away party back in July!

Take a listen to Nathalie’s own empty nest story and, if you’re in the market for a service that handles your snail mail while your traveling or otherwise living your life, check out what Anytime Mailbox can do for you!

And, as always you can find all of our links here.

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After 5 great days in OKC, it was time for your favorite empty nesters to hit the road again. A eerie feeling about The Big Easy was beginning to grow, and after a snap decision we gave up our plans to hit New Orleans and head to THE ROCK. That's right. You didn't ask for Arkansas but you got it anyway. From hiking to dining to digging into some history, we packed a ton of enjoyment into our brief 2-day adventure in Little Rock. Hell, the only thing we didn't catch a glimpse of was an actual razorback, and for that we're pretty grateful. Check out ALL of our links at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars #emptynest #fulltank

After a Texas-sized adventure and a Louisville slog, our young-ish adventurers embarked on one of James' "must see" destinations... Oklahoma City. See, he was around shortly after the worst-of-the-worst hit the city, but was eager to see its rebound. Long story short? It FAR surpassed the revival he expected. Meanwhile, Denise could easily be bribed into an OKC suburb with a corndog and free parking. To be continued, Oklahoma City... James' fat thumbs are working Zillow to find a plot of land there even as we speak! Find us at linktr.ee/skiptownallstars. #emptynest #fulltank

"What's it REALLY like traveling with James/Denise?"
Yep. It's our #1 question from you to our inbox, every week since we left LA. We decided it was finally time to answer this question from our perspective, and to flip the script on you. #emptynest #fulltank

We didn't have Kentucky on the map for our travels this time around, but after an elated call from Ellie we found out she made the cut for her traveling volleyball squad. She was going to be in Louisville while we were in Texas. Not exactly next door, but it DID merge nicely with our curiosity and wanderlust... so we struck out for The Bluegrass State.

Upon arriving in Louisville, we weren't exactly greeted with open arms, anywhere. Thank God a listener turned us on to Covington, though!