Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Let's be honest, half the reason why I loved having a foosball table is because Joey and Chandler had a foosball table in their apartment on the show Friends. There... I said it... that's how far my love for Friends goes... so today it was "the end of an era. No more J-man and Chandy" (a quote from season 6 episode 2). I have sold the foosball table. It was a wonderful game during bored times but we just don't play it anymore and it takes up space that could be used for other things like a play room for Daisy and Gryffin. Liz probably wants me to say a "dining room table" but we'll see, I don't know what we'd use that for =P.

So this afternoon it's getting hauled off. I asked $650 for it and ended up selling it for $550. Not too shabby if I say so myself. It's in perfect condition and I think both parties got a fantastic deal. It was a young couple who came by to look at it. Looks like they are going use it very very often as they live with some other friends.

So it is time to say goodbye to all 26 of the devoted players. You keep on kickin'. Score one for me in the next game. I'll miss you and never forget you. Although my skills might suffer, my love for you won't. R.I.P foosball table.

This picture is unrelated to this post, it's just cute. He's a Virginia Tech fan if you couldn't tell:


This probably will not be the last post about Gryffin's love for me. Last night we're getting ready for bed and Gryffin crawls into the closet and disappears into my shirts. My shirts are long enough to barely touch the ground from that level in the closet, so he is completely buried. He then just plops down behind them and we figure it's because he isn't allowed in our bed and they smell like me. I'm already in bed and Liz, standing in the bathroom, starts cracking up laughing. She told me to go get the camera as quietly as I could so he wouldn't jump up. So I tip toed out and down the steps and into the kitchen and came back up with the camera. Liz had parted my shirts to just be able to see his face. We took some pictures, he got up and moved around, and then went back in and we snapped some more. They are too adorable.

Today has been a very lazy day... well for me at least. Liz on the other hand has been very productive, but probably not in the most productive way possible. This blog will be a little choppy because it's mostly conversation.

This morning Liz ran errands and did some housework. At noon, I started doing some work and watching the VT game and was sitting on the couch the whole time. Liz calls over from the kitchen

Liz: Hey I'm going to make a pizza for lunch, is that cool?
Michael: yeah that sounds great.

So as I'm sitting here, I hear some vegetables getting cut and Liz frying them on the stove to cook them before putting them on the pizza. Then 10 minutes later:

Liz: Oh CRAP! We have no pizza crust!
Michael: Oh no.

Liz then comes over and lies down on the couch for a minute.

Liz: what should i do?
Michael: (I had absolutely no suggestions for her) no idea.

She then hops up and comes over with a box of homemade pizza crust in her hands and reads the back.

Liz: oh... it requires blah-blah oil... we don't have that... I guess I'll just leave it out.
Michael: it'll probably be fine.

(btw, I say blah-blah oil because I don't remember what it was exactly and she is napping right now. it's rare and weird, I will say that.)

So she goes to work on the dough and this whole time in the kitchen, I can't see her. But I hear the kitchen-aid mixer running and the rolling pin doing it's thing... So after about 15 minutes more:

Liz: I'm waiting for the dough to rise...
Michael: cool!

So Liz walks around doing stuff upstairs and comes down and about 5 minutes later I hear:

Liz: oh crap! We have no pizza sauce!
Michael: you're kidding.
Liz: no, we have no sauce
Michael: have you checked on the cheese? ... make sure we have that.
Liz: Ugh! I'm gonna have to go to the store.
Michael: You want me to?
Liz: No, the dough has to rise anyway, I'll go.
Michael: How long is the oven set for?
Liz: The dough isn't in the oven, it's just sitting out.
Michael: Oh, I didn't know.

So Liz heads out the store and I continue my sitting. She comes back a while later and goes back to work on the pizza. She spreads the sauce and gets the pizza ready and slides it into the oven. Then I hear:

Liz: I DO HAVE BLAH-BLAH OIL! Oh man!
Michael: I'm sure it's fine without it.
Liz: This is going to be the ugliest pizza ever, just to let you know.

10 minutes later, Liz is cleaning the bowls and knives in the sink...

Liz: OOOWWWW... EEEEESSSSHHHH
Michael: (I hop up immediately) what happened??!
Liz: I cut myself on the knife, can you run and get a band-aid and neosporin?
Michael: Yeah.

So I run and get it and bring it all down and wrap it up and give the boo boo a kiss. She then walks over and opens the oven door.

Liz: uuugghh!! I burnt the pizza.
Michael: this has been a disastrous lunch.
Liz: yeah it has...

So as we sit there eating, 2 hours after lunch was started, it turned out to not too bad considering everything.

Liz: are you impressed with my productivity today? I've gotten a lot done. (talking about the errands she ran before lunch, and the long lunch process, and the stuff she's done around the house).
Michael: yeah, i'm impressed with your perseverance. i'm not impressed with your preparation. (talking about lunch).

But we both agreed it made for a funny lunch.

So ever since we got Gryffin we have been trying to get him to be polite and follow the rules of the house. We have a lot of rules and most of them are pretty logical. Like rule #1, no peeing in the house. You can probably guess what rule #2 is right? After watching an episode of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" last night we have also decided that yelling, screaming, or shouting is strictly prohibited in the house, however that rule won't need to enacted until we have kids because Liz and I do not yell.

Well one rule that we have is that neither of the dogs are allowed to share food. If Daisy's food is in Daisy's bowl, then only Daisy is allowed to eat it. And the same goes for Gryffin but I used Daisy's food as the example because you can probably see where this is going.

Gryffin came from a foster home where it was a free for all on the food. The foster mom left food out for the dogs 24/7 so they could eat whenever they wanted. I don't know how Gryffin didn't get to be 300 pounds because he eats like a horse. So when he came to our house and he finished his bowl, he went over and attempted to eat Daisy's food while she was still eating. We put a stop to that quickly. The problem is that whenever Daisy decides she doesn't want to finish, Gryffin will swoop in when she's done and finish it for her. But over the past 3 months he has slowly gotten better. He moves toward her bowl slower, knowing he is doing wrong. He'll eat only a little and then run away before we can scold him. Well this morning was victory for Gryffin's manners, and it was one of those mornings where Daisy does not finish her food but leaves it for later. So Liz sent me a message during the day and here is what it said:

Liz: oh Gryffin was so cute this morning
Michael: yeah?
Liz: I was making breakfast for myself, and daisy was in the living room. gryffin was just sitting next to daisy's food and being soooo good not to eat it. then eventually he just walked away
Liz: and then
Liz: when i was starting to pack up my stuff daisy finally went to go finish her food. so i waited until she was done and just sat on the coffee table until i could crate her up. and gryffin just went in his crate and laid down as if he knew i was leaving
Michael: awww that is too adorable!! good for him for having strong will power
Liz: yeah, he was too cute

I still need to work on getting him caught up on the tricks that Daisy knows... and come to think of it, practice the old tricks with Daisy so she still knows them!!

And his name is Gryffin. This picture is the result of Gryffin's actions only, we did not place him in this position.

Anyone who has been to our house and been around Gryffin, knows that he is somewhat fond of me. Ok, let's be honest, very fond of me. We often joke that Gryffin has a crush on me because he can't stand being away from me for any amount of time. If I go upstairs he either jumps over the baby gate we have set up in his way or he cries endlessly until he gets his way. We don't really understand it and most of the time it is really cute but every now and then it gets really annoying.

When we go to bed, his crate is set up next to the edge of the bed on my side so he can look up and see me at all times. If I am in bed, he is in bed. If I get up he sits up to make sure that if I am leaving the room, he can follow quickly.

When we come home to them from being away, the easiest way to get him to go out in the yard and pee, is if I go out there and make him follow me. I'll stand there long enough for him to do his business and then when I go in, he goes in. He has gotten better about being outside without one of us out there with him but he doesn't last too long.

Gryffin is still very dependent. He absolutely adores getting his belly rubbed and if you even make the slightest move to rub his belly he'll flip over for you. He is as lap doggish as it gets. He loves being in contact with us and if he naps on the couch, he prefers to snuggle against our leg. He loves to be held and carried but only at his own will, if you force it or if it's someone that he doesn't know well, he will give an innocent growl. I say innocent because he has never actually acted on it or bitten anyone, it's just a warning. So in that case you just have to put him down and let him do his own thing.

One thing that will be a perpetual problem is his stinkin' nails. He has incredibly long nails and they hurt. "Cut them then" you say? We try but his skin or cuticles or whatever you call them in the nail are naturally long, so even if you cut them as short as possible, they are still long and still hurt. No big deal, it's become somewhat endearing.

We blame his attachment to us as his paranoia that he will be given away again. When the animal rescue found him, he was curled up in box under a car port in southwest Virginia. It's assumed his owner abandoned him. Someone found him and then gave him to the animal rescue. The first foster home he stayed in had some mean dogs and picked on him and he didn't fit in. They then moved him after a month to a second foster home where he immediately bonded with the dogs there. Sunny, his foster mom, said he had some good friends in that pack and they got along wonderfully. Then we adopted him in May after a month at his second home. He has now been with us a whoppin 3 months, and the longest he's been in one place in his life. I keep telling him "we got you for keeps", "this is your forever home", "you and Daisy will be best friends forever" but I don't think it sinks in. He'll just have to see for himself because he really has become part of the family.

I got an urge last night to change the design of our blog. There's no way I'm going to get rid of the picture rotation at the top but I just wanted something a little more flashy and smooth. I think the results are awesome and it will stay like this for a long while.

After my blog entry last week where I talked a lot about running it motivated me to start a new blog about running. So I have started the "Miles For Michael" blog and the link is in the picture area at the top. It will just be a place where I post information about my running. I will probably blog here far more often and I don't really care if anyone reads about my running, but I need someplace to vent my frustrations or exclaim my elations.

Only a few more days until the end of vegetarian month!! woo hoo!!

This first section is called "Commitments". There is so many ways in which I can write this post and I know that I am going to leave something out so bear with me. Within the past two days, two books have caught my eye and they are the source of this blog post.

Every Sunday I have an hour between the time our church service ends and the time I pick Liz up from choir. Yesterday I decided to go to Borders books and just browse around the personal finance section. Ever since Jacob gave me two Dave Ramsey books and two of Dave's videos for being a groomsman in Annie and Jacob's wedding, I have been obsessed with personal finance. I created a budget for our family. We have dumped our credit cards and haven't used them since May. We really have started to head on an awesome path to financial success. Yesterday when I went to Borders, it was to find more motivation and more information on things that Liz and I can do to continue to improve our situation.

I came across a book called "Debt Cures" by some guy named Trudeau. The premise was ways in which you can work to get out of debt. Granted we have no credit card debt, but we have payments on things like my car and we are working to pay off that debt, so this book understandingly intrigued me. I very quickly realized that this book is the complete antithesis of who I am as a person and every approach he suggests on getting out of debt goes against every intuition I have. It had chapter after chapter of "tips and tricks" to "cutting your $30,000 debt in half" and "becoming free of the burden of debt". At one point he actually said "your debt is not your fault". I'll admit, in the hour of time I had, I didn't read the whole book but in skimming through the chapters, reading all the tricks, and getting 4/5 of the way through, I can honestly say that the one solution I expected to find was no where to be found. ACTUALLY PAY IT!! I wanted to scream at the book and throw it down. It makes me so angry that anyone would follow these suggestions.

The other book doesn't have a long story behind it. Today Liz and I went to the library and in skimming the personal finance section, I found the book "Beat Your Ticket: Go To Court and Win!". It's the exact same concept. Instead of being a citizen and paying the penalty that you incurred, go waste someone's time and you'll be OK. It's like spilling coffee on yourself and being angry that it's hot... and somewhere someone is a millionaire for it.

People say college is the place where you find yourself and you figure out who you are. Honestly I don't think I found out who I was in college but instead after I was done with it and I had free time on my hands. One characteristic I found in myself is that when I find a passion in my life, I wrap my mind and body around it as much as possible and relentlessly dedicate and commit myself to it. It's irrelevant whether or not that leads to success because sometimes it doesn't. Liz over the past couple months has said to me "can we not talk about finances anymore?" because it has become a passion of mine and it's all I think about. When I commit to something, it consumes my brain during any free moments of the day. There are SO many examples and personal finance is just one. It happened and is currently happening with running. It happened with every website I've ever developed. It happens with every with New Year's Resolution (Liz and I haven't had a soda since 2007). It happens all over my life and that's just part of who I am.

So it's the characteristic of commitment that drives me crazy about those two books. They are directed toward people who don't want to take responsibility for the burden they committed to. I know that a speeding ticket is not a commitment but it's denying your responsibility as disappointing as it may be to you. As a citizen, you need to suck it up and just pay it. Reading through it opened my eyes to who I am as a person so at least I got something out of it.

This second section is called "Challenges". One thing that has been on my mind for the past two weeks that the "debt cures" book made so incredibly evident is that I love challenges. I love difficult challenges. I'm going to use the example of running because of how difficult it is. If running a marathon was easy, then everyone would do it. But it's not easy. It's actually excruciatingly painful. Most of the time I don't enjoy running past 3 miles. I usually grumble when leaving the house. I'm not going to joke that running a marathon is fun. I don't think I've ever actually answered the question "why do you do that?" What I've realized, it's because I thrive off challenges and I'd rather not just wait for life to throw challenges at me. Without trying to run a marathon, I wouldn't have ever had the feeling of crossing the finish line in Nashville. I put everything I had into it and I crossed with tears and sobs of joy. It's really a unique feeling that would take forever to describe.

I think the other reason I love the challenge of marathons is because when my body has gotten old enough that I can't do them anymore, I don't want to feel like I threw away my best athletic years and look back wondering what I did. I know there is going to be a day when I want so badly to run and my legs will just say no. At that point I can at least take solace in knowing that I did it when I could.

I love the challenge of staying on a budget. I love the challenge of rebuilding my deck even though I know very little about deck construction. I love the challenge of paying off a debt early and going against the grain of payments. I love the challenge of going a year without a soda. I love the challenge of teaching a stubborn dog to just set it's butt on the ground when I tell it to.

So commitments and challenges. They have caused me to think about things in the future I want to accomplish. Some are short-term obsessions and some are long-term challenges.

• Run a marathon in a foreign country (maybe Paris or Athens?).
• Accomplish the financial goals Liz and I set out for ourselves before 2012.
  
• Finish the deck and plant bushes around it.
  
• Organize the garage with shelves. (this was a new years resolution too, but our budget killed that idea for a while).
  
• Run a marathon under 4 hours.
• Take my lovely Liz on a 2012 Europe trip.
  

I don't want this list to get out of hand or become unreachable and I've said enough in this post, so I'll stop there.

This would normally be a long blog entry because this week of running was amazing and I feel like I'm close to being in the best shape of my life. But I was told by a certain someone that the entries about running are the most boring thing to read, so I will try to make it short.

Tuesday - 3m
Wednesday - 7.5m (only supposed to do 6, but I was feeling too good to stop)
Friday - 3.25m
Sunday - 12.8m
26.55m for the week.

I was only supposed to do 12 on this Sunday run but I decided to just run a full 2 hours no matter how far I went and ended up getting 12.8. The amazing part is that after mile 1, my heart rate was 130 beats per minute and when I finished, I checked my heart rate and it was at 138 bpm. That's why I say I'm in the best shape of my life. For my first marathon, I just wanted to keep my heart rate below 160 for the first 10 miles. So to have it at 138 after 2 hours and basically finishing a half marathon is mind blowing to me. I finished feeling a little sore and achy in the knees and a little winded but not really tired at all. Great run.

I'm inching closer and closer to committing to the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon in May. I'm running too good right now to stop after October.

mile counter: 111.1

...vegetarian month would suck. Maybe not suck, it's glorious thus far.

I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to enjoy the meals so much this month. Where's the meat!??! So now that we are completely vegetarian this month, you'd think we would struggle with our nightly meals. The last two nights it feels like we not only didn't skip a beat, but in fact upgraded our meals above what they had been before. I'm going to assign credit where credit is due, it's all because of Liz. She picked the recipes, made them for dinner and we both reap the benefits. I am super appreciative too, she's wonderful to me and is really an awesome cook. I'm just glad she enjoys it.

So last night we had vegetable quesadillas. The day before, I questioned whether or not they were going to be quesadillas because we don't have big massive tortillas like Taco Bell does(the experts on quesadillas) . We only had little small soft shells that we usually use for tacos. So to make the quesadillas, she put one shell down and then loaded the shell with lots of fixings and then put another shell on top. So it was more like a mexican pizza from Taco Bell(the mexican pizza experts as well). After work I stopped by the grocery store to get some refried beans to spice up the quesadillas.

Side Note: Anyone ever looked at the ingredients of refried beans? If you are not careful you could make a disastrous mistake. They had many cans on the shelf and I chose the one that said vegetarian. You know what ingredient they left out on my can that was included on all the other ones? Lard. They don't even disguise it. They printed it in color on the label. It's such a nasty 4 letter word, isn't there a better way to say it? No joke, the 3rd ingredient in all the other cans was Lard. No thanks, my belly has plenty.

The quesadillas were amazing. The only critique I made was that they had a little too much cheese but it was close to one of the best meals Liz had ever cooked. It had refried beans, peppers, onions, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, and a few packets of Taco Bell fire sauce(the experts on fire sauce) we had left over. So simple but oh so good.

Tonight I was a little worried though. I was going to eat something I have never heard of, a Frittata. How am I supposed to know what it is if Taco Bell doesn't even have it? (ok, enough of the Taco Bell jokes). I wasn't really expecting to enjoy it but it gave the quesadillas a run for their money, literally. The frittata all together had to have cost about $2. It was basically eggs and potatoes. It was again so simple but so filling and delicious. I would explain what a frittata is but here is the link, you can see for yourself :). Here is a picture of me enjoying it.



It's hard to believe that she could top these meals but she's got a winner coming on Thursday too, I can feel it (she has choir tomorrow so I have to fend for myself). We are having Ratatouille, and yes, it's the exact same meal they prepared in the movie. I just like saying it, but now I get to eat it?!? Awesome! Again, here is the link. If you are into vegetarian and love movies, it's right up your alley.

It was a week ago yesterday that Liza flew back to Belarus. We miss her a lot. I know I have broken my promise of posting pictures quickly, but gimme a break, I was busy sitting. Here are some from her last few days with us:

Just finished week 6 of the training and I am very pooped. Not only physically but mentally as well. This was supposed to be an easy week. A week to re-energize me but all I am is exhausted.

I think it's the heat. I have run outside for every run this week and it is just too hot. Today's run almost felt unhealthy to be outside it was so hot. I don't have much to say other than I am really tired and want to take a break. But with training, the longest break is 1 day long. Running starts again Tuesday.

This past week I ran 3 miles Tuesday, pushed Wednesday's run of 5 miles back to Thursday and Thursday's run of 3 miles back to Friday, and then ran 7.75 miles today with John. The 5 mile run was great. I did it in 42 minutes which is around 8:30 per mile. It was tiring and difficult but felt great to get a decent time for once. Today John and I completed 7.75 miles before stopping and while it was crazy hot and I was very very tired, it felt good to get that under my belt as well. To have run a long distance outside after doing them on the treadmill gave me a sliver of confidence.

Next weekend should be interesting. Should I run the 12 miles on the treadmill in the gym where I know for a fact I can do it without any trouble, or should I brave the heat and the hills to run it outside? I think I will choose the treadmill but we will see. My reasoning is that in October it won't be hot so why should I torture myself for no reason. The goal of training is to build my muscles and stamina, not to deteriorate my confidence and cause me to cut short the long runs. I think once it cools down, the outside runs will feel fantastic, but until then I see no reason to make it so painful.

mile counter: 84.55

8 days till the Bengals first preseason game... who dey, and I actually mean it.

Written by guest writer, Liz :-)

It's a perfect time and place to be a vegetarian. We are fortunate enough to live near the North Carolina State Farmer's Market in Raleigh, which is supplied by local farms from across the state. And it's the time of year when all the best veggies and fruits are in season. I went early this morning to get enough fruits and vegetables for a week or two and when I got home, they just looked pretty enough for a picture.



This picture does not include the fresh peaches, roma tomatoes, onions, green beans, sweet corn, cantelope, eggs (from pastured happy chickens), and fresh parsley and basil plants which are now sitting in my window sill. I just think it's so great that I can get all this straight from the farmers at one convenient location for great prices. Now that I have my vegetarian cookbooks from the library and all these great veggies I can finally start experimenting in the kitchen. I have some recipes lined up, so we'll let you know how the month progresses.