Michael & Liz are Bloggable

I have been waiting to write this blog post for a long time, and this will be forever long, but hang with me, it'll be worth it.

Ever since I read the blog post from Donald Miller about good stories, I have been seeking out stories that make life interesting. Around that time the concept of "The Home Run" was offered to me, and I emphatically threw out my need to participate. But the reason why I wanted to participate ended up being the least exciting part about it, at least in my opinion.

Starting in 1981, 28 years ago (my birth year by the way), a group of friends who were IBMers went to the Rec Center only to find it was closed for a week. Frustrated and itching for a run, they decided to just leave their cars at work, and run home. This was before GPS, before greenway trails, before running belts with bottles on them, before energy packs of GU, before some big roads and some highways. The run ended up being 20 miles finishing at one of the guy's houses in north Raleigh, right next to Crabtree Valley Mall. It became a yearly event for them and today, we completed the 28th annual "Home Run".

With a few course changes and trail "improvements", the run has been shortened to 16.4 miles. I am thoroughly happy with myself that I was able to run the entire thing without any walking. We completed it in 2:34 if you don't include stops to fill up for water, stops to use the bathroom, and also a 10 minute stop to... ford a creek. It took a total 2:47 if you add all the stops. That's 9:20 minutes per mile. We ended up hitting the half marathon right at 2 hours. Considering that I did the Country Music Half Marathon this past Saturday in 1:58, I am thrilled with another run of the same speed.

What an awesome story, 28 years in a row of running home from work one day in April. There were 9 of us for the run this year. A married couple, two current IBMers (me incuded), and 5 retired guys who have been running for decades. I was intrigued, it sounded so cool. My only issue was that I am not an extrovert, I am very much an introvert and do not do well when meeting new random people. Not that I don't like it, but my small talk skills are a lacking part of my personality. But what made me the most nervous turned out to be what I enjoyed the most.

Boy did these retired guys have SOME STORIES TO TELL! It could have filled the entire run. One guy in particular, Kirk, should write a book with all the stories he had. I volunteered for the run for the story of running "home", but it ended up being the stories they had to tell me that really made it what it was.

So here are some abbreviated stories (that I can remember) both from our run and from their historical runs:

• At one point we came to a creek that came up to our mid calves where we had to take our shoes and socks off and walk through. They said one year the creek was up to their chest and they still walked right through. One dude pulled out plastic bags to cover his shoes and walked through, he almost made it through without getting his shoes wet. I'll be the first one to say though, after running 12 miles, having freezing cold water rush over your feet felt absolutely amazing.
  
  
• One of the first years (80's) they hacked their way through some brush and fields trying to find their way. They came upon a house in a clearing that looked like no one had been around for years. All of a sudden dogs came running out and barking and foamed at the mouth on chains. Outside the house they said "Hello? Is anyone there? Any chance you could give us some water?" People were apparently nicer back then but also didn't understand the concept of running. Who ran anywhere? A woman came out of the house furious and with a cocked shot gun and told them to get off her property. The next year they came to the same house. The woman came out with the same reaction and weapon but was not as furious about it. The 3rd year, she relented and gave them water in the yard. The 4th year she let them in and gave them water and just had a ball talking to them about what they were doing. Soon her house became a poor stop to travel by, so they never saw her again.
  
  
• One year they realized that running through the RDU airport grounds was the best way to get to a trail they used. They called the National Guard requesting permission to trespass on the airport grounds. Their 10 minute access was granted and through a security gate at the airport with an armed guard, we ran down a path and cut through some brush, hopped a creek and onto a trail in Umstead Park. Today we got the same permission, it seemed like the armed guard enjoyed seeing us pass.
  
  
• A few years ago they were going for a 5 mile run. This was around the time they maintained 7 minute miles, which is flying to me. Kirk told the guys, "By the way, I'm bringing a girl with me, her name is Jessie." The guys said "Can she hang with our pace?" and Kirk said "She'll be pushing the pace." When the guys showed up, Kirk was standing there holding the leash of his new Jack Russell Terrior puppy who could run like the wind. He said he tried to stay in the back with Jessie, but she kept tugging on him to go faster. He relented and she ran past the lead group and pushed the pace to a 6:30 minute per mile. Impressed with Jessie, they invited her on the Home Run one year. She managed without a problem until they let her off the leash in Umstead Park. At that point, not only did she push the pace, but she ran across a road before the group could get to her. Fortunately she made it across dodging a few cars, but that was the last Home Run Jessie was allowed to attend.
  
  
• One year someone planned on running half way and then bike the rest. When they got to the bike at mile 9, it was bent and broken all over the place. Someone must have taken a baseball bat to it because it was completely out of commission. Plan ruined, to say the least.
  

That's all I can remember for now. I can't even exclaim how much I enjoyed this group of awesome people. One of them had a GPS watch and said they'd email us the route mapped in google maps, so hopefully I'll be able to post the map on the blog here too.

They have reassured me that I'm now on the list to attend the Home Run next year. I can't wait, I wish it were tomorrow... but then again, my muscles disagree. I can settle for a few 5K's they've dragged me into though. I can't wait to hear more stories, after all, what else is there to life then telling stories and living stories?

As I mentioned in one of my first posts about the garden, we decided to name it Daisy's Garden. This is because there used to be a huge pile of dirt in that corner of the yard and Daisy would always climb it...becoming known as Mt. Daisy. To show the name in a subtle way, I made a stone a few weeks ago with a daisy:


How could we do that and leave out Gryffin? We couldn't, of course, but it just took a few weeks longer to find the perfect way to incorporate him into the garden as well.

Meet Gryffin the Gnome:
Don't be confused...it actually has a silent G. So it's really Ryffin the Nome. He's our new garden protector, just chillin on the stone wall smoking his pipe. I think he's pretty cute!

In plant news, everything seems to be growing well so far. Unfortunately, we did have our first plant casualty. Last week a very large branch fell from our tree and landed right on top of a Jalapeno pepper plant. It's still in the ground because we want to see if it will grow back, but it's pretty much just a stick in the ground with a leaf. Pretty sad looking. Also in vegetable casualty news, we have a lot of determined birds that started trying to steal the bean plants last weekend. To deter them, we put a mesh fabric over top the beans (and carrots by default) so the birds could no longer get to them. Now, the bean plants are thriving.

Unfortunately, we still have no progress from Romaine lettuce, and watermelon. Nothing, nada. I'm not sure what's going on there, but everything else is looking great!

Today was one of those days. Last Saturday I went out and ran 13 miles in 1:46 ish. I say "ish" because it's more like 12.8 or 12.9 miles. But regardless, when I finished my watch said 1:46. Today however was a different story. I went out running crazy fast. Finished the first 6 miles at 8 minutes per mile (48 minutes total) and all of a sudden my body said "NO!" and pretty much stopped trying. My legs weren't tired, my lungs weren't tired, but my... engine was out of gas. I ended up completing the run in 2:10. I don't care that I finished a 13 mile distance, 25 minutes slower is a failure to me.

I am not one to make a lot of excuses, at least I think that I'm not. It was a bad run, that's all that matters to me. But my only consolation is that I donated platelets yesterday. If anyone doesn't know what that is, you sit there for 2 hours while 3 pints of blood gets taken out of your body. By the end of the two hours, those 3 pints will have been filtered for platelets and plasma and 2 pints of your blood are given back to you. So naturally it takes a toll on your body, whether that had an effect on today, who knows. Side note: I passed 8 gallons donated lifetime yesterday, I'm pretty excited about that.

But I did get something out of the failure. Walking part of the 6 miles back from downtown Durham makes you think a lot of things.

Anyone who reads this blog probably knows I'm a very goal oriented person. If I'm not working toward some goal, then what's the point of certain activities? I started thinking about how every little tiny decision in your life affects the goals you aspire to achieve. I just got started thinking about all the decisions I make that undermine my goals. For example, two very large goals in my life right now are to lose 26 pounds this year in order to run faster and train for a marathon in the Summer/Fall. It's amazing how many decisions I've made in the last week that undermines those goals:

• Wednesday Run - Skipped, no time: UNDERMINES goals
• Thursday Dinner - Moes plus milkshake at Chick-fil-a: UNDERMINES goals
  
• Friday Lunch - Chick-fil-a: UNDERMINES goals
  
• Saturday Lunch - Burger, Fries at Farmer's Market Restaurant: UNDERMINES goals.
  

I just continue to ruin progress I've made toward those goals. Why do I do those things? I don't really have an answer. Back in January I blogged about "Becoming a Machine". That thought process lasted maybe a month and floated away with our trip to Mexico. Lately I haven't been eating "machine-like", it's been more of a "future-biggest-loser-contestant" diet. Without running, I'd be lost. If there's one thing my failed run today taught me, it's that I need to make sure every decision in my life is made for the purpose of a goal. "Does this decision affect my goals?" It might not be worth my time.

So to that end, there are two changes to my New Year's Resolutions I am making today. In addition to removing all soda from my diet (which is still going), I am including beer (alcohol actually, but I never drink wine or liquor) and ice cream with it. Those two items serve absolutely no purpose for any of my goals. I don't drink much beer anyway, but I will have one every other day with dinner or a movie or sports or something. But I don't need it and I certainly don't need ice cream for anything. The only exceptions to this addition to my resolutions will be my Birthday (cuz I have a super double awesome plan for that) and the cruise in December. Other than those two events, no beer or ice cream for the rest of the year.

Hold me to it because I have goals to achieve... so I guess this day wasn't a total failure.

One week ago today everything was planted and it's been awesome to see the changes in such a short time. The past week has been unseasonably warm (reaching up to 90 degrees some days), so I decided it was time to plant. We decided to get the seedlings of things we were able to at a local greenhouse, and the rest would be planted as seeds directly in the ground. From the greenhouse (Gunters Greenhouse to be exact...check it out if you're local) we bought:

Red Onion
White Sweet Onion
Buttercrunch lettuce
Strawberries
Tomatoes - Big Boy, Roma, Sweet 100 Cherry
Peppers - Japapeno, Hot Banana, Golden Wonder (sweet), California Wonder (sweet)

It turns out that buying seedlings from a greenhouse is WAY cheaper than I expected so we overbought a lot, especially for tomatoes and peppers.

Then we went straight to Lowes to buy seed packets:

Cantaloupe - Hearts of Gold
Watermelon - Allsweet
Cucumber - Muncher
Pumpkin - Small Sugar
Summer Squash - Fordhook Zucchini
Carrots - Danver 126
Lettuce - Vivian Romaine
Spinach - Baby Leaf
Beans - Tenderpod
Parsley - Big Italy
Cilantro - Coriander

After only 1 week, all of the seeds have germinated and popped out of the ground except the carrots, romaine, watermelon, parsley, and cilantro. Zucchini came out of the ground after only 4 days! I didn't expect to see anything until today, but it's been thrilling to go out every day and see something new out of the ground.

One huge thing I learned over the past week is that transplanted plants, and new seeds need a lot more water than I was expecting to give them. The buttercrunch lettuce had the most trouble after being transplanted - on Sunday it was a very light green and all the leaves were down to the ground. I watered everything, and just two hours later all the leaves were standing back up, and today it is a much darker green. It's so cool to watch transformations like that!

Buttercrunch last week (before they wilted):


And Buttercrunch today (don't they look happier?):


Also, potatoes were planted, but I got those elsewhere because Lowes didn't have the type I wanted. I ended up getting small red potatoes that just went in the ground today, so no progress on those.

First prize for popping out of the ground first goes to:


And just in case you were curious:


I'm looking forward to watching everything grow this summer - more updates to come!

I have always said that I would never get a tattoo. And for anyone who just gasped from surprise, don't worry, I still don't have one. Not to say that I think it's a bad decision, it's just mainly because I think in most cases I would immediately regret it. I can just see myself sitting there at age 60 looking at the tattoo thinking, "why did I tattoo that on myself?". I happened to come across this article on one of the Bengals players named Rey Maualuga who recently got a big tattoo on his side that says "Never regret anything because at one point it was exactly what you wanted...". I thought the statement was ironic because the chance of "regret" is the reason why I've never been interested in getting one.

It got me thinking, is there any situation where I would get a tattoo? I think there is. It would have to occur as the result of an extremely significant accomplishment in my life. More specifically, an accomplishment that is a test of will and stamina far beyond the normal bounds of achievement. What do I mean by that? If you asked me 5 years ago if a marathon was significant enough, I would have absolutely said "yes". But now that I've done 3 and plan on doing 4, I just don't see it as difficult or significant enough. Don't get me wrong it's hard and awesome to do one, but when you finish a race involving several thousand people, it really diminishes the achievement a little bit. The only 2 realistic accomplishments I can think of at this point that I would deem worthy enough of a tattoo is if I were to compete in an Ironman competition or complete an ultra marathon. Of course there are others like climbing Mount Everest or Mount McKinley, but nothing I can say that I'd ever aspire to accomplish.

An Ironman is 140 miles of swimming, biking, and running. An ultra marathon is any race of a distance longer than a marathon(26.2 miles). So why does it take an accomplishment of that magnitude to get a tattoo?

• I feel like the chances of regret would be much smaller if I'm tattooing something about the past.
• The chances of regret would also be small if it's about a significant accomplishment.
  
• It's definitely meaningful and something I'd want to be reminded of on a daily basis.
• On that note, it would remind me of what I can do if I put the same time and effort into every task.
  
• It can never be taken away from you. Nothing about that achievement will ever be different.
  

If I were ever to complete either of those goals, a tattoo might have to happen. Will I ever, I'd like to think so? But that's really why they're so significant, because you never know.

Last week after filling the garden with dirt, we started having a problem with one of our dogs going into the garden. You'd be surprised to hear that it's not Daisy, as much as she enjoys blazing new trails on her own. She actually has been really good about obeying the "don't go in the garden law" we've established. Gryffin on the other hand, with his ridiculous jumping ability, does not obey the law very well.

We constantly saw him in the garden the first week. He'd sniff around in it and we constantly were out there picking him up and throwing him out (that's an exaggeration despite how badly I wanted to, more like setting him down outside of it). After several days of this, I again saw him in the garden and he was peering over the wall near the back and was whining and crying at something. In building the garden, we didn't want the soil up against the fence slats because they aren't strong enough, so I built a wall of wood that screwed it into the fence posts. That created a gap between our garden and the fence the width of the post. That space is about 2 or 3 feet deep and big enough to house any kind of rodent or reptile. While scurrying out there I started saying out loud "Please don't be a snake. Please don't be a snake." I'm terrifed of snakes. They don't make sense to me. So when I got to garden to see what he was whining at, low and behold it was



a DIRTY WABBIT! We had fun making Elmer Fudd references during this whole event. Unfortunately after throwing some dirt at it, the rabbit hid behind one of our posts and I couldn't do anything about it.

The next day I went back out to the garden (with Gryffin of course) and started looking around the back and there was no rabbit to be found. I figured it had a hole it goes in and out of, so it must be gone for the day. I looked around for the hole but didn't find anything. I then walked down the fence line towards the house looking in the weeds and grass looking for a hole. I got all the way to the fence door and as I started to open the door, I looked down and the rabbit was standing FROZEN at my feet.

I opened the fence door immediately and he didn't move. I then nudged the rabbit with my shoe toward the door and he wouldn't budge. I did that for an uncomfortable amount of time and the rabbit stayed frozen. The dogs were of course curious to see what was going on and ran over. If the dogs had seen the rabbit before I yelled "SIT! STAY!", this blog post would be called "THE GREAT CHAOS OF 2010". It would have been epic.

I picked the dogs up (before they smelled or saw anything) and put them inside and got a very long stick from the garage as a poking device. The rabbit was unimpressed and remained frozen. I poked him so hard that I got him to roll over a couple times. A few more rolls and he would have been out door, when all of a sudden he took off next to the house and under the deck and started heading down the other side of the fence to the back of the yard. I knew he was trying to get back to his hiding place so I tried cutting the corner. I managed to shove my stick in front of him to thwart his jump to get behind the garden. I wasn't ready for his second jump however, and he retreated to safety.

At that point it was difficult to get the rabbit motivated to move again. He kept hiding and I kept poking. At one point he ran out of the garden, down in front of it, and back into it from the other side.

Liz came home and we generated a new plan. We created a lock system where we'd block the entrance on one side and start to poke him in the other direction. Every time he moves from one post section to another, we'd block him out of the previous section. This system worked like a charm. The rabbit couldn't go backwards and was NOT happy about it. The second he left the garden, he was locked out of it for good. It took a good half hour to get the job done, but once he left the garden it was easy to chase him to the door of the fence to get him out.

Since then we haven't had any critter issues. Hopefully it remains that way and they stay away from our delicious veggies.

Far too often we are blogging about things other than ourselves. And since you come here to find out what we are doing and how we are doing, here is a "life update".

Garden:
I can't really say that I am more excited than Liz about the garden we have built, but I am pretty stinkin' excited. Liz will blog about it all soon. We got all the soil last weekend and put it into the garden and today Liz worked on planting seeds and seedlings. It's really awesome to look out there and see green scattered around. There's also a lot of empty space too but that's where all the seeds are planted. Liz just said to me "I'm going to go out and check the plants". I couldn't help but laugh and say "tell them I say 'Hi!'". I am really proud of how she has approached this garden though. She has taken it seriously and has really done her research. I think some people would just throw seeds in and not do the proper reading to figure out what each plant needs. How deep each seed goes, how many to plant, how far away to space them. There's a LOT of information to sort through. I'm glad this little investment has turned into such a passion of hers. I can only hope it reaps the benefits that I am imaging in my head. My one contribution was taking some of the wall stones and breaking them in half so they fit in the corners and it doesn't look terrible on the sides. We also had a problem with Daisy and Gryffin trying to eat some of the dirt so completing the sides will prevent them from doing that. There's a lot of organic material in the dirt including horse manure, and since our dogs are gross, we definitely don't want them fraternizing. Look for a post about this coming soon, but planting is done and now it's just time for waiting and watering... and then EATING!

Woodworking:
From now until we go to Asheville and Nashville on April 22nd, I am going to be working on the cornhole I am building for our friends John and Allison. After that, when I have the time, I think I want to work on building an end table for our couch that would also double as a dog crate. Right now the dogs use metal crates that just take up space and have no use other than stacking blankets on top. You can see a picture of what I'm going for here. I won't exactly copy that design since we have two dogs and it'll obviously be different. It will be bigger than our two crates combined and will also give the dogs physical access to each other instead of completely separating them. They never fight (viciously) and giving them more room would be sweet. That will be a HUGE project so it may be my last commitment until at least my Christmas Secret Santa project.

Photography:
Liz is working hard to get more experience and get better and better with her pictures. She took a class last Fall and went to a photography workshop in March that she absolutely loved. Between gardening and photography, she is a happy camper. This Summer she'll be taking another class, a much more advanced one. This past weekend she met up with a family from our church and did a photo shoot with them. She was pleasantly surprised with how it went and thinks she got a lot of quality pictures out of it. She also said she felt like she learned a lot about herself, not only as a photographer but also as a person. It's tough in those situations to decide on what you want people to do and also dictate that to them. This is all a part of the "experience" she's looking to gain.

Running:
For anyone on the outs, I am running a half marathon in Nashville on April 24th. It's the Country Music Half Marathon. I wish I had counted the number of half marathons I've done, it's got to be in the 10 to 12 range. I am absolutely loving running right now. I feel like lately it's gotten to the point where I feel like I'm in the middle of marathon training, not half-marathon training. On Monday, I went out to go as fast as I possibly could and ran 10 miles in 83 minutes, which is roughly 8:15 minutes per mile. That's right on pace with my fastest half marathon ever which was 1:47:13. Today I ran 9 miles and strictly just wanted to do it at a relaxed and easy pace. I ended up finishing in 81 minutes which is a 9 minute mile. To say 9 minutes per mile is an "easy pace", feels great. At this point I am definitely signing up for the City of Oaks Marathon in Raleigh in the Fall. Also, on the Tuesday after my half marathon in Nashville, I am doing something pretty special as far as running goes. Look for a blog called "The Home Run" coming soon on that subject.

New Year's Resolutions:
I made 3 this year: Not to drink any soda (which that is Liz's too), lose 26 pounds going from 196 to 170, and learn everything there is to know about wood finishes. So far we haven't had any soda. It's tough sometimes though because I feel like I'm cheating when I have Hi-C or lemonade from fast food restaurants. We really only ever have Chick-Fil-A (as far as fast food goes), but I feel like having any kind of sugary drink is cheating no matter what it is. "No sugary drinks" might be my 2012 resolution since "no soda" is every other year for us. So far, weight loss wise, I've lost 18 pounds and am down to 178.4. Here's the proof:


People say blogs without pictures are boring. Since we are saving the garden pictures for a garden post, this is the only kind of picture I could include. It's been really hard not to be complacent especially since I've been running so well. Starting on April 26th I am going to start doing the P90X workout program so that will help. Also in June and August I am going to be doing something that I have a feeling will put me over the top weight wise. Look for a blog post on that soon. The last resolution I haven't worked on at all. I might give that some time around Summer or Fall.

House Projects:
I have a list of things to accomplish in the house and it continues to grow. Recently I finished plastering the window in our front guest bedroom since it was ruined by rain water. It was fixed on the outside, but I still hadn't finished it on the inside. I am also working on expanding the attic. It isn't big enough and there are some things we want to store up there like an extra bed from the guest room. Expanding the attic should be simple but just timely. Anything else is just odds and ends like painting something here or re-caulking something there. But there is always a list and it continues to grow.

Daisy & Gryffin:
These two pups are just so much fun. We spent all day in the garden and they absolutely loved being outside and running around. Gryffin is still obsessed with his ball and still follows me everywhere and Daisy continues to try and be as independent as possible. She loves sleeping on the brown chair all by herself and she will spend hours just lying in the grass in the yard.

We made a decision about Gryffin though. He has one behavior issue that needs to be corrected and we are going to take him to dog obedience class starting in May to do it. Whenever we are walking around the neighborhood and he sees another dog, he goes absolutely NUTS. If someone comes in the house and he is being held back he goes NUTS. Anyone who has met him knows what I am referring too. He gets so excited that it's almost like he gets taken over by a velociraptor and he just squeals and screams and basically has a seizure. This NEEDS to be corrected and I really want to do it. The other thing about this is that he is so incredibly smart, it's almost a shame that his aptitude for learning is being wasted without the proper instruction. I realize these changes will only take place if we instill it in him, but I need direction from a professional. So I am very excited to spend that time with Gryffin. I hope to blog and post some videos in the future of his learning things (hopefully).

This post has been too long so I will end it there. Do you feel updated?

Haven't you always wanted to know the answer to that question? Yeah...I'm sure.

It's been a few weeks since I've updated you all on the progress of our garden, but I am happy to report that we have dirt and are ready to plant! Last Saturday we had a dump truck of approximately 15 tons of topsoil delivered in our driveway.

Here it comes!




At this point we're thinking "oh crap". Although, now looking back at this picture, it doesn't look as big as it did in person.



One wheelbarrow full at a time (59 to be exact) was brought back to the backyard....and it only took us about 5 hours. Every time we went to the back, we thought we wouldn't have enough because it didn't seem like we were making any progress. But then we'd go back to the driveway and think we were going to have way to much and didn't know what to do with it all. It turns out we ordered the perfect amount!


And the end result is a garden full of nice topsoil/compost.


It's nice that the initial building of the garden is done, but I've spent the last week researching and taking notes on what to plant, where it should go, whether to buy seeds or plants from a garden center, etc etc. I am very excited to get started, which should be this weekend, although the official last frost is April 15. I doubt it will get below freezing here again, but I'll be planting the more hardy things first. I have a feeling I'll be impatient...I want fresh veggies now!

More updates to come after I get my seeds/plants this weekend!