Michael & Liz are Bloggable

In case you missed it, this is an update from my April challenge called Driving Frugally.

There's no doubt this month is going to be a success, the question is whether or not the numbers will be enough to make a difference. I actually think they will be. This might just be a lifestyle change of mine, hopefully the numbers can justify it too. I'm going to try and keep the numbers under wraps until the end of the month.

The reason I haven't blogged about it yet is that there is no real big secret to getting good gas mileage. Whenever you are driving, for the most part, if you are touching the accelerator you are using more gas than your average MPG, and when you let the car coast you are using less gas than your average MPG. So basically do your best to coast more and accelerate or use the gas pedal less. The reason I say "for the most part" is because when you are on the highway, it's possible to increase your speed without using more gas than your average MPG. It's a very small window of opportunity there, but it's possible.

Here are probably the biggest tips I can give though on getting good gas mileage:

This tip I have to give a name because it's the best one I can give. It's called "FIND A BIG SLOW TRUCK". That's the game I play on the highway. Obviously the highway is the most efficient gas mileage you can get, well if you want to increase it by a HUGE amount, then do what the title says: find a big slow truck, and stay behind it. I'm not saying you should tailgate, but give 3 or 4 car lengths, but you wouldn't believe how much that helps your gas mileage!! You ever try and hold anything out the window? It's almost impossible to maintain your grip with that much wind resistance. When you hide behind a truck, that resistance disappears. My car is supposed to average 29MPG on the highway. The other day I drove downtown and on the way there, my car barely ever dipped below 40 MPG. I can't WAIT to test this out on a road trip to see what I can average for a whole tank. It's going to be CRAZY.

My other tips are not so revolutionary so they only get bullet points:

• You'd be amazed at how well your car can coast. You might initially feel like you are going too slow when you start coasting, but eventually when you approach a stop, you'll be going so fast you need to brake. 
• Timing lights really does work (despite how dumb I think traffic light sensors are). I never used to watch the lights as far as I could see up the road, but changing your speed adjusting for when you'll hit a green light is really helpful. 
• Pay attention to how often you needlessly hit the accelerator, it's amazing. Like when you pull in the driveway for example. I used to pull up, wait for the garage door to open, and then give little accelerations to get in the garage. I've cut down on doing that and now I time it so that by the time the door is open enough to pull in, I can just roll in without touching the accelerator. This is even worse in the open road. Every time you touch the accelerator, you're killing your gas mileage. 

Now this isn't really a tip as much as it's an argument. There is one thing tip about MPG that people suggest and that is to accelerate "low and slow". Meaning to accelerate slow and change gears while the RPMs are low. I'm not convinced this is the most efficient way to accelerate.

Being able to watch the gauge in my car is super helpful in being able to see what my current MPG output is. What I've learned throughout the month is that going from stopped to the speed limit keeps your MPG output below your cars average, no matter how quickly or slowly you accelerate. So what I'm wondering is: "is it really more efficient to accelerate slowly?" If your car is at it's most efficient when you are trying to maintain your speed, wouldn't it be better to intelligently accelerate to the speed limit as fast as possible and then maintain than to accelerate slow and keep your cars MPG output below the average for longer than necessary? I say intelligently because obviously jack rabbit starts are bad where you rev the engine a ton, but getting to the speed limit and still keeping your RPMs at a reasonable level to me seems the most efficient. Intentionally going slow while still trying to accelerate is really not efficient based on what I've seen.

This is not a question I expect to solve, and I don't even think there is anyway to run a test using human input. You'd have to use a computer simulation or something. But the differences between the two ways I've suggested to accelerate your car I believe would be very small. My argument is that "low and slow" probably isn't the "most" efficient.

I like how this month has gone. I feel like I've made a permanent change too. I still get annoyed with other drivers cutting me off or driving as if I'm going the speed of a snail, so if I can just get over that, then there's no reason I can't keep this up every month.

Remember when a few weeks ago I decided to make more room in the garden for veggies? I am so glad I decided to move the herbs to the deck because I had FUN at the greenhouse yesterday picking out my new herbs.

I may have gone overboard, and some of these plants might get bigger than I’m expecting, but that just means I have to cook more delicious food to keep them trimmed.

In the first planter we have parsley, thyme, oregano and rosemary. In the middle there is lemon basil, traditional basil, and chocolate mint. And in the last planter are chives and cilantro. I’m pleased with my variety and absolutely love how close they are to the back door. Since I planted yesterday, I’ve been going out every once in a while just to go smell the goodness.

And in other gardening news, my AWESOME husband surprised me with a compost mixer last weekend! I’m very excited that my vegetable scraps won’t be wasted in the disposal anymore.

Other vegetable plants and seeds will go into the garden tomorrow so stay tuned for more garden updates!

I've noticed that anytime I write down the movies we watch, I sometimes reveal a little too much. So you have to assume that with some of my comments, I may reveal move than you would like me to. Also, every month I feel like we haven't watched that many movies, but here there are 17 movies and a whole season of Anthony Bourdain. Here's what we watched in March:

• Crazy Heart (2009) - 4 stars - We watched this movie because it was critically acclaimed and was up for many awards. It's awesome and just as advertised. Technically the story line was somewhat boring, but the acting and music was phenomenal. Really enjoyed it.
• Welcome to Durham (2006) - 1 star - We didn't finish this. It was awful. It was made to outline the history of gang violence in Durham. All they did was get gang members to spit garbage into the camera. It had no story line or information of any kind. The only interesting part was the beginning where they outlined the brief history of Durham.
• Ninja (2009) - 2 stars - The one thing I remember about this movie is how ridiculously ripped the main character was. I've never seen a white guy more ripped than that. I like the idea of ninjas, but it rarely translates into good movies. 
• Predator (1987) - 5 stars - Awesome movie. I hadn't seen it in a while. As it turns out, this is the only predator movie where the predator actually does any hunting of any kind.
• She's Out of My League (2009) - 4 stars - This was a lot funnier than I thought it would be, but as you can expect, the plot was totally ridiculous. It was refreshing to see the movie put the main character into a 21st century job as a TSA security guard. That definitely contributed to the comedy.
• The Wolfman (2010) - 3 stars - This movie won an Oscar for best make-up. I can tell why. Decent werewolf movie.
• Kindergarten Cop (1990) - 3 stars - "Take your doll back to the carpet." "I'm not a policeman I'm a princess." "It's not a tumor." Love this movie.
• Monster's Ball (2001) - 2 stars - This movie gets talked about like it's amazing. What was so great? The boring middle or mediocre ending? We were not impressed.
• Burn After Reading (2008) - 2 stars - There are a few actors that I cannot stand to look at in a movie. John Malkovich is one of them. I've never liked anything he's done, including the movie "Being John Malkovich". So as you can imagine, I didn't like this either. The Netflix overview called it an "irreverent tale", more like irrelevant.
• Dempsey (1983) - 2 stars - I love boxing movies, but this was boring. I don't recall having finished it either. I lost interest.
• Prince of Persia (2010) - 3 stars - This was better the second time around. The ending is absolutely absurd, they could have improved that, but every other part was enjoyable. I've never been a huge fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, but he did a good job.
• Grown Ups (2010) - 3 stars - It had it's funny moments, but for the most part it was silly.
• Zombieland (2009) - 3 stars - I didn't know what to expect with this one. How can a zombie movie be funny?? Now I get it. There were a few jumpy moments, but it was genuinely funny, most especially following the rules of Zombieland. Like rule #1: cardio. I love how they portrayed this one.
• Paper Heart (2009) - 1 star - Terrible movie. How did this female lead get famous? Charlyne Yi. She is a wet blanket on a movie. She has no charisma and has a monotone voice. I can't stand her, maybe it's because the first role I saw her in was as a pot junky in Knocked Up.
• Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (season 1) (2005) - 2 stars - I love learning about other countries and the foods that they serve, but I can't stand Anthony Bourdain. That poses a problem, and I think I've decided to stop watching his show. He has no redeeming qualities, he's only funny because of his self-deprecating tendencies. What bothers me the most though is the fact that he smokes. Not only that but they actually show him flicking away his cigarettes on camera. "The world is your ashtray" has never been more true. I am tempted to keep watching so I can see more of other countries, but I don't think I can do it.
• Thirteen Days (2000) - 4 stars - I thought Kevin Costners accent was going to ruin the movie for me, but after I got over that, it turned out to be a good movie. Although one thing to note, it's not too common you can make a movie where the climax is something that DOESN'T happen. I can imagine the director struggled with that one. If this is historically accurate, I feel more informed over what happened during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
• Facing the Giants (2006) - 5 stars - I don't cry watching a lot of movies, but you couldn't help getting choked up by the ending. This movie is overwhelmingly religious, and basically mirrors the story of Job. The best scene in the movie is the one on the football field where he breaks down the star player. This movie is a classic sports movie and is a can't miss.
• The North Avenue Irregulars (1979) - 2 stars - I think this movie was made for kids, and it showed.

The other day, at the same time we got Gryffin's bomber jacket, we got into a conversation with the Assistant Manager of the Petco, her name was Melanie. It was one of those conversations that I had more questions than there was time for her to answer. I will try to divulge as much as possible. Just a FYI, I can't recall the word-for-word conversation, but I feel like dialogue is the best expression here, so I'll just do my best. 

We were standing in line with our bag of "Organix" made by the company Castor & Pollux. The reason we buy that brand is because it's the only bag (that we could find) in Petco that specifically says they do not use antibiotics, hormones or steroids or anything in the meat they use for the food. I'd like to limit how much of that crap I eat, so I want to use the same standard for my pups. We figure it's gotta be decent. We pull up to the counter and Melanie says "This is excellent dog food right here."

She's referring to the food we're putting in our beloved pups, so I had to ask.

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me: "Why do you say that?"
Melanie: "Because they use real food and good meat and is quality nutrition for dogs."
me: "What food isn't good quality?"
Melanie: "Most of what we have here, although I'm not really supposed to say that."
me: "We used to use Purina Pro Plan and used Nutro a few times before that, is that good food?"
Melanie: "Well it's good that you switch up the foods, but no, both those brands are awful. They use rendered meat and meat byproducts from dog food rendering plants. Things like roadkill, dead farm animals, euthanized dogs from shelters, feedlot waste, and stuff like that."
me: "Ewww roadkill, seriously?"
Melanie: "Yeah, all those companies are required to do is heat the byproducts to 500 degrees to kill any bacteria and diseases and then the 'meat' is labeled as OK to use in dog food. Dogs really shouldn't be eating that crap though."
me: "What about Science Diet, that's gotta be good right? A friend of ours uses that."
Melanie: "No they do the same thing, it's awful for your dog."
me: "So you do recommend this food then? What brands are OK?"
Melanie: "Yeah this stuff is great. The other brands that we sell that I feed my dogs are Halo, which is co-owned by Ellen Degeneres, and Blue Buffalo. Those are the only foods that are good enough to feed to dogs in my opinion. Blue Buffalo was started by a guy who had a dog that died from a bunch of tumors at the age of 4. He felt his dog became ill primarily due to the food he used and disgusting practices the company used to create the food. He decided to pursue making food for his dog on his own that he knew was nutritious and properly made. (by the way, here is a link to the story).

See what I do with my dogs is give them a very balanced diet. People can't eat the same thing day after day for years and think they get a balanced diet, so why do we do that to dogs? I give my dogs different foods for breakfast and dinner and they absolutely love it. I wouldn't recommend doing this immediately, but if you switch up their diet enough so that they aren't sensitive to change like that, then they can handle it.

These foods, because they are higher quality, are more expensive. But Petco has tons of sales all the time on these foods, and I never pay more for the good food than other people do for the bad food. Bags of dog food can stay fresh for up to a year, so just look for the sales and buy a little more in bulk, and it's just as cheap."

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That's just about the whole conversation I can remember. She was totally right though. All you have to do is search for "dog food rendering plants" on google and get nailed by all the crap companies throw in dog food. It's sickening. I seriously recommend looking into those 3 companies when it comes to dog food, or at least look for the words "byproduct" and "meal" in the ingredients on your dog food. Most large companies follow these same practices, they have to make money right?

Some people say "well dogs are different creatures, it's good for dogs". Well then you go feed your dog other dog's dead bodies, and I'll maintain my ignorance as to what they can or cannot handle, because I don't want them consuming that. If for no other reason than just the ethics and morals of it all.

The reason I post this is because if someone I knew found this out, seeing as I have two dogs that I care deeply about, I'd want to know this information. I knew that dog foods were probably gross, but roadkill? euthanized animal shelter dogs? I'd rather Daisy and Gryffin not be cannibals. I'm going to research dog food products a lot more in the future, that's for sure.

Every now and then, when Liz and I are doing something in the kitchen, we turn on the country music channel. This song comes on all the time and it hits me hard every single time. There's not a person in the world who can't relate to what is being expressed in this song. There's always someone in your family who might have gone through this experience, and it's really a devastating situation to see happen. I always think of my Gramma and Grampa.  If you get a chance, it is well worth the time to watch the official music video because it's awesome. Youtube won't allow the official music video to be embedded, so here is a link to that. Below is another version of the video with just the lyrics. Give it a shot, see if it gets you too:

I sure don't know what got me listening to country music 1.5 years ago, but man do I love it now. There's rarely a song that I don't enjoy, it's just the twangy/redneck stuff that gets annoying every now and then. It's also lucky that Liz enjoys it now too, otherwise I'd be driving her nuts with how much it's on.