Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Before getting pregnant, I thought naming our baby would be extremely easy. We started talking about baby names years ago, even before we were married. I think if we were having a girl, we'd have been done months ago. Naming a boy on the other hand, has proven much more difficult.

Imagine how many times in your life you say or write your name. It's kind of a big deal. I mean even on a day full of nothing, you probably have to say, write, or hear your name at least 10 times. 3000 times a year maybe? 54,000 times by the time you graduate high school. And that's on the low end of my estimate.

Nicknames, middle names, inherited names, names that flow, difficult to say names, names that rhyme with dirty words, initials that don't spell out something funny like "BUF". There's a lot to consider.

But I think Liz and I have finally come to a decision. We'll be keeping it a secret until our boy is born. Now we just have to continue to mull it over and decide if the decision we've come to is the right one.

Oh, and continue to keep it a secret, that won't be an easy task either. We've heard stories of people who start calling their baby by their name before their born, and then accidentally say it around other people. We are totally the kind of people to do that. We'll try and be careful.

I haven't blogged very much in the last month, and I don't know why. I guess I don't feel like I have much to blog about lately. After my last post I have decided that I really don't care about my injury.

Let me clarify that. I have decided that I am going to do what I want no matter if I get it fixed or not. Granted, it hurts. But some activities hurt it more than others. So far I have run 20 miles in the last 4 days and the only real pain I've had during this time is in the groin soreness immediately after, or the morning after, running. At a comfortable pace, the stomach pain is barely there.

Running is an activity that doesn't aggravate the injury as much as Soccer. Soccer may be out of reach for a while just due to the twisting and turning involved. I actually tested my ability to sprint today and the pain is far less than it was this Summer. So things are improving, I guess that's good.

I am still going to pursue getting the injury corrected, but I've decided this will not stop me from doing what I want to do. I refuse to let my body dictate my life's activities. In fact, I am a firm believer in the exact opposite, that your diet and physical activities will dictate how your body feels. The days I feel the best is when I eat healthy and exercise. I think at this point it would be easy for me to throw in the towel, become fat and lazy, and stop running or working out. Not happening.

So with that said, here's what I want to do. I've talked about it before and if there's anything that annoys me more, it's someone who talks the talk and doesn't walk the walk. I want to participate in an ultra marathon. That's any event farther than a marathon distance of 26.2. Now is as good a time as any.

The one I had in mind was the Lake Hinson 24 Hour Race. What I love about it is the concept of testing your mental will along with your physical. The race is a 1.5 mile loop, and you start at 8AM one morning and you run/walk however much you feel like for 24 hours, and it ends the next morning at 8AM. The reviews I've read call it a tailgate party with some running. I haven't signed up yet, but I don't know what I'm waiting for. It's in September, so it'd give me plenty of time to train.

I have to set a goal in the race because what's the point without a goal? It certainly wouldn't be to win. The winner last year finished just under the world record, going 163 miles in 24 hours. For me, I'd have 2 goals. The first would be to travel AT LEAST 50 miles, and the second would be to never stop. I could take a minute or two break for food or drink or to stretch, but I'd want to continue to move the entire time. I'm under no delusion that I'll run the whole time, so the "continue to move" would be running and walking. I'll have to come up with a game plan to prepare myself for what I'll do.

Back in college, I participated in Relay for Life which was a decent introduction to this kind of race. It started at 6PM and ended the next morning at 8AM. Apparently the point was to have a team and pass a baton or something, I didn't like having to do that. I walked the entire time without stopping. I even ran 9 miles with some friends as well. In those 14 hours I traveled roughly 27 miles according to my pedometer. Without that experience, I think I'd scoff at doing a 24 hour race, but to me, it's possible.

Some stupid injury is not going to stop me from doing what I want to do. I want to run.

I have a confession to make, I've been living the last few months angry. It probably doesn't make sense to some people because I'm really good at burying it. After all, life is going so well with a baby on the way. Life is great, but when it comes to athletics, I'm really angry. I have a sports injury and it's turning out to be more formidable than I expected.

You may not remember, but back in early June, I hurt my stomach somehow playing in a soccer game. I mention it here as an issue during the marathon training. Well that stomach pain has actually gotten worse. I didn't mention it in the post, but it was a combined pain, some in my groin and some in my lower pelvic abs. I gave it a month and a half to heal itself, when that didn't happen, I went to the doctor in July to see what he thought. I got an x-ray with nothing found, and the doctor said to see a sports therapist.

"Garbage" I say. I don't need some a sports therapist, I workout enough and know what to do for exercise. So I kept running and just "dealing" with it hoping it would heal. Well October and November rolled around, and with the pain in both groin and abs getting worse, I saw the doctor again who surprised at it not having gone away, recommended a MRI and a meeting with a surgeon.

I got the MRI done last Friday and that was an interesting experience. I learned I am *not* claustrophobic, in fact, I really enjoyed it. I had headphones on, and it was slightly uncomfortable not being allowed to move, but there's something to be said for staying completely still for 1 hour. It was very relaxing.

Then on Monday I saw the surgeon who gave me both good and bad news. I'll start with the good news first, he verified that I do in fact have an issue with my pelvis area that the MRI identified. I'll actually quote the diagnosis here:

There is parasymphyseal bone marrow edema. Mild fluid signal intensity is seen within the pubic symphysis. There is asymmetry of the distal aspect of the rectus abdominis, smaller on the right than the left. A cleft sign is seen at the inferior parasymphyseal region consisting with a partial tear of the origin of the adductor musculature. 

Constellation of findings suggesting symphyseal instability, consistent with the term 'sports hernia'.  

Super, sports hernia, that's exactly what I thought I had, but here comes the bad news. The surgeon takes off his glasses and looks at me all serious, and says "I don't know anyone in our area that can perform this surgery." Apparently this is not a common enough injury to have trained, available surgeons to fix it.

After a 20 minute conversation with him he describes a surgeon from Philly that comes down every January, flies in professional athletes, and does 20 of these surgeries a week. A quick google search of this Philly surgeon shows this is not a viable solution and he may be more of a crook. Ironically enough, the surgeon I was talking to actually said he thought it was a sham because he didn't know what the Philly surgeon does to fix it and it's expensive.  The Philly surgeon doesn't accept insurance and charges $15K up front. And if you know me well enough, I scoff at such a proposition. I would happily cut off the lower portion of my body than pay $15K. Get real.

So this is where I am angry. There is no next time in life. There's no "oops", fix it, and do it over again. No eraser on the end of life's pencil. How many times are you 30? To think I will never be able to kick a ball in soccer like I have in the past because I tore whatever, is INFURIATING. I run because I'm young and I can. I play soccer because I'm young and I can. To think that something I could do so easily a few months ago has been completely shut off to me, is MADDENING.

I didn't do this to myself. I didn't go out and do something stupid. I played hard in a soccer game on June 1st, tried my absolute damndest to score goals on a random night, and ended up tearing my stomach/groin.

Now granted, I have not tried very hard to find another solution. I talked to 1 surgeon, but in talking to him, and reading the reviews online from people with a similar ailment, my hopes are completely crushed. It sounds like "living with it" is what a large majority of people end up doing. I'll start calling around and seeing what else I can do, but I might have to face the fact that stomach/groin pain will be a staple in my life.

So what can I do physically right now? I can run but not very fast and not as far as I used to. Right now, if I run any faster than 8 minutes a mile, the stomach pain is too much. Which means sprinting of any kind in a sport is too painful to handle. That limits me in running the bases or playing outfield in softball. Also, if I run any farther than about 8 or 9 miles, my groin pain is too much and I have to stop. To be honest, I haven't tested the distance part too much, but I will soon. I refuse to allow my days of marathon running to be over.

Soccer? I might have to concede that that's a thing of the past for me. The twisting action of kicking a ball causes a sharp pain in my stomach and it's way too much to take just once, let alone 50 times in a game. I just can't take that.

So... angry, upset, furious, any other synonyms you can think of? That would describe my attitude right now when it comes to my body and sports. Throw  dejected and hopeless in there too. I got no happy ending in this blog, that's all.

To say that Liz's Dad is handy around the house, is an understatement. More accurately, if given the time and the tools, he could probably build a house by himself. He and Liz's Mom were in town this week and he put his skills to use on our house / car.

One of the first things he did was replace Liz's brakes and rotors in her car. I would have loved to have seen him do it, but I had to work earlier in the week and we only had so much time later on in the week.

Then Thursday, we spent most of the day wiring our 2nd and 3rd bedrooms to install ceiling fans. This was very interesting to see because working with electricity is something I am terrified of. Voltage and watts and amps oh my. But we got it done, and then on Friday we installed the ceiling fans.

Both rooms have 3 switches on the wall. The left is for an outlet on the other side of the room, the middle is for the fan, and the right is for the light in the fan. Pretty awesome.

And then, because we hated our fan downstairs, we got a new fan for the sweet room to match the coffee table and entertainment center we bought this Summer.


But what takes the cake is what they brought us as a gift for the baby's room. A changing table!! Check out the wood work. It's pretty freakin' awesome. I hope someday I can make something that looks this good!!


The front knobs are little elephants. You can also see the color of our baby's room. It's a light turquoise color we picked out before we knew the sex of the baby. The changing table is one shade darker to match. The excellent paint job was done by Liz's Mom.


Look at the details on the side!


Liz and her mom bought little brown baskets for the slots in the front.


The puppies are too cute (and so good with the "stay" command). They have no idea what's coming though. We are just waiting for Gryffin to lay next to Liz's belly and get kicked by the baby inside. Should be hilarious.

In September we canceled our instant streaming from Netflix, so our movie watching has slowed down a little bit. But here are the movies we've watched over the past 3 months. I highlighted in red a movie below, that is hands down one of the most inspiring documentaries I've ever seen. If you have netflix and enjoy running, you need to see this movie.

August:

• Country Strong (2010) - 3 stars - I don't recall actually enjoying this enough to give it 3 stars. The acting was well done, but it was a depressing plot. 
• How Do You Know (2010) - 5 stars - Paul Rudd is amazing. I seriously loved the ending to this movie. This was a totally predictable love story, but it was definitely feel good. If you enjoy romantic comedies, you gotta see this one.
• Just Go With It (2011) - 5 stars - Adam Sandler in a 5 star movie? Yeah totally. Just like the one above, this ending was awesome. Jennifer Aniston plays a little bit outside her comfort zone as a dorky secretary type person, and did a great job as the love interest. 
• Tron: Legacy (2010) - 3 stars - This movie was actually really confusing to me. It didn't help that I was working while watching it because Liz fully understood it. The graphics are crazy good though.
• True Grit (2010) - 2 stars - It deserves every bit of the accolades it received from the acting performances. That part was phenomenal. I would have given this movie 3 stars mainly because of it's mediocre and relatively boring plot, but I took 1 star off for 1 very disappointing part. Ask me on the side what it was if you care to know, so I don't ruin things for other people.
• The Green Hornet (2011) - 3 stars - This is not what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be a lot more Ironman-like, and a lot less like the movie "Kick-Ass".
• Black Swan (2010) - 3 stars - This got 3 stars for the acting. Natalie Portman did awesome. What I did not expect was how freakin' CREEPY this movie would be. It was borderline scary part of the time too. If you don't like being somewhat creeped out, pass this one up!
• The Tourist (2010) - 4 stars - This was a surprisingly awesome movie, although I shouldn't have been surprised seeing as it has Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. We very much enjoyed it. Johnny Depp playing a completely normal dude was weird though. 

September:

• Parenthood: Season 2 (2010) - 5 stars - We have a new favorite TV series. There is seriously nothing I dislike about this show. It's phenomenal. 
• Letters to Juliet (2010) - 2 stars - I can't honestly say that I paid much attention to this movie. It was also super forgettable with zero A list celebrities. Don't watch it unless it happens to be on.
• Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) - 3 stars - What's not to like about Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan? OK, maybe the plot, but other than that... 

October: 

• Your Highness (2011) - 1 star - I really thought this would be hilarious. Instead it was raunchy and boring. I can't believe James Franco and Natalie Portman actually read this script and thought it was a good idea.
• Paul (2010) - 2 stars - The most impressive part of this movie was the graphics and integration of an alien into human life. It seriously looked believable. Nothing else in this movie was that great though.
• Something Borrowed (2011) - 3 stars - This movie was somewhat frustrating. Kate Hudson played the most annoying character ever, and John Krasinski's awesome character basically got crapped on the entire movie.
• Body of Lies (2008) - 2 stars - I tried, I really did, but this movie is so incredibly boring. This is actually my second try at watching it, and I could not stay interested for 2 hours either time. Leonardo DeCaprio did a great job of acting, but even he couldn't save this one.
• Cedar Rapids (2011) - 4 stars - Ed Helms rocks the house. This movie did not get national exposure, but I really enjoyed it. I can't really explain why, other than Ed Helms being his normal funny self.
• MacGruber (2010) - 3 stars - I was surprised with this one. It started out being absolutely hilarious, but then as it went on, the jokes somehow disappeared. I think if they had maintained the humor from start to finish, this might have gotten 4 or 5 stars. Although be aware what you are getting with this movie, it is a SNL spoof after all.
• Thor (2011) - 3 stars - The plot was so far-fetched and ridiculous, that it was hard to enjoy this one. Although it had enough of the good sci-fi stuff to get up to 3 stars. 
• Megamind (2010) - 2 stars - I had high hopes for this movie. And recently a lot of animated movies like "Despicable Me" or "How To Train Your Dragon" are really entertaining for adults, but this one was completely a miss.
• Inside Job (2010) - 3 stars - This was a documentary about the banking crisis. Lets just say that if this was all true, then anyone with a brain in the banking industry would have seen this crisis coming.
• Robin Hood (2010) - 4 stars - You need to pay very close attention to this movie because if you miss one part, then you may get lost by the plot. We first saw this movie at an outdoor movie theatre, and I must have gone to the bathroom because it was confusing to follow. The second time around was much better, and this movie freakin' rocked. I love Russell Crowe. 
• Running the Sahara (2007) - 5 stars - This movie may need it's own blog post. I would say that without a doubt, this movie was probably the most inspiring thing I have ever watched. You ever asked yourself what is the hardest thing you could do? What will push you past your limits? These guys asked that question, and then answered it. Absolutely amazing! I wish I had half their will and guts.
• How To Train Your Dragon (2010) - 4 stars - This movie was made for kids, but it absolutely is adult-worthy. Very funny and entertaining. I highly recommend it.

When we first found out that Liz was pregnant back in July, we started playing this game. We're due in March? That's forever from now, we have tons of time. But do we really?

The game is pretty simple. Randomly we would say "The next time" and then finish the sentence with something that will occur after we have our baby.  It's an easy way for us to realize we really do not have a lot of time. The baby is coming, and it's right around the corner. I wish I would have written all of them down, because some of them were HILARIOUS. But I'll write out what I can remember, most of the non-funny ones.

• The next time the Summer Olympics are on. 
• The next time the Winter Olympics are on, we'll have a 2 year old! (holy crap)
• The next time there is a World Cup, we'll have a 2 year old. 
• The next time there is a Spring finale of Biggest Loser. 
• The next time there is a presidential election.
• If Obama has a second term, the next time we elect a new president, we'll have a 5 year old. Now THAT is weird.
• The next time I have a birthday.
• The next time we have a day off for Memorial or Labor Day. 
• The next time we fly on a plane, now that is weird. 
• The next time we are able to go to Movies in the Park nights at the Art Museum. 

You get the idea. All these events and activities we have lived with over the last 5 years, are now going to be drastically changed. But so far life hasn't changed at all, except Liz's belly is a little bigger than it used to be. This is just our way of making it real.

Also my sister sent us a onesie in the mail today, that did a pretty good job of making it real.

Well we had our big ultrasound yesterday and had the sonographer write down the baby's sex so we could open it at dinner. We thought that might be tough because we weren't sure how obvious it would be. Good thing most everything looks like patchy blobs to us because we couldn't tell. She had us look away when she was specifically looking for it.

This entire time we've been thinking it was a girl just because of what our doctor said at the 12 week appointment. He certainly misled us, that's for sure. Boy or girl, we would be thrilled just as long as the baby is healthy, and it sounds like all is well.

It was actually difficult for the sonographer though, because he was kicking and moving around like crazy. At one point on the screen, we could literally see him kick is his legs straight out and then curl up, over and over again. The sonographer was laughing because she was having a hard time getting pictures of the important stuff (organs) with all the movement. Sounds like we're going to have our hands full!!

We got a bunch of pictures from the ultrasound, but I thought I'd share our 2 favorites:

Everything in the pictures are a little bumpy, but that's just the inexact science that is taking pictures during the ultrasound. The one above is our favorite.

The picture below is one we had a hardy laugh about. Liz said "Oh my gosh, it looks so frail, I need to eat more!"


But believe me, she's eating enough. He's progressing just fine. Today marks week 18!

4 years ago after we bought the house, the main sewer line going from the house to the street got clogged up. We had a plumber come out and unclog the drain and the plumber said that he thought there were some roots in the drain, but there wasn't that much. He said, he wouldn't worry about it.

Then, this Spring, we had the same thing happen. Drain clogged up, we got a plumber to clear the drain but this time he said it is a pretty strong root. His suggestion was for me to dig down and fix it myself. I put a stake in the ground where I thought the clog was, and said "I'll get to it".

This week I got to it, although not in the way I wanted. I was forced to. On Wednesday Liz was running the washer upstairs and all of a sudden, when it started draining, our toilet downstairs started gurgling and then the water started to rise. ACK! It's only been 6 months!!

A plumber came out again and said the root was so strong that when the drill bit used to clear the clog went through, he couldn't pull it back out. They unhooked the drill at the other end, and then just pulled the wire back through.

So today was the day. It was time to dig down and find out what's going on. To prepare, I called the 811 number to get our utilities marked, so I didn't hit an electrical wire or gas pipe or anything. And this morning I started digging.

I was smart enough to document the work with pictures, check it out.

So you can see where the line goes. It's from the little spout at my feet all the way to the white pipe coming out of the ground near the trash cans. If you look close, halfway along, there is a white dot where the plumber thought the pipe was on Wednesday. Turns out he was completely wrong and the spot was where I put the stake back in the Spring. Oh well, cost me about a half hour of digging.




We've struck GOLD! There's the pipe. Nowhere near where I originally started digging.


The problem is instantly evident. Should there be a massive hole with a big root sticking into the pipe?? The root is to the far right of the crack. You can't see it in this shot, but it's there. In fact the root had wrapped itself around the pipe, and was starting to tear a crack in the bottom of the pipe. Give it a little more time and we may not have had a pipe anymore.

I has a tired.

Can there be anymore roots? What an awesome source of water this tree has had!!


You can see the cracking that has already started around the bottom of the pipe on the right.

Now this is the point at which my easy little task took a turn for the worse. Little did I know that when building the house, the builders ran the water line directly beneath the sewer pipe. So when I started to saw the sewer line out, I accidentally hit the water line.

Saying that I panicked would be an understatement. Luckily my neighbor across the street was outside and he ran over and turned off our water line at the street. I didn't even know how to do that, but water was spewing every where and I couldn't hardly think. I actually didn't take a lot of pictures at this point, because lets face it, documenting this moment wasn't a big concern of mine.

I immediately called a plumber to get someone who knows what they are doing. I spent the next 30 minutes cleaning out water from the hole and continuing to dig to get a better look at both pipes. The plumber arrives and says to continue cutting out the sewer line and he'll fix the water line. Good deal.

So... back to pictures. We finally get the sewer pipe out:




Ah! Relief, the water line is fixed, but for a pretty little $155 penny. Back to the sewer line... It took a while to find the parts, I had to go to 3 different stores to find the correct pipe and couplers.


I probably cut the new pipe unnecessarily close to the length needed, but that way there is very little lip on the inside for stuff to get stuck.


This is exactly how the plumber suggested I do it. He even got the part out of his truck to show me. Very nice of him.


This is the second largest pile of dirt we've ever had in our drive way.


This last picture might be more for my benefit than anyone elses. If we ever have to dig the pipe up again, I know where it is.

So now we are running laundry, I showered, we finally flushed our toilets, and are now enjoying the amenities we are use to. I'm leaving the pipe exposed until tomorrow to make sure we don't have any leaks. If all is well until tomorrow, I'll cover it up and try to forget this day. But for now, I am going to sit here and enjoy the sound of our washing machine. Go water go!

For years I have been singing this song every October. People (friends) would ask me "I've never heard that, where is it from?" and include a jab in there somehow. I would respond with a meager "from my childhood somehow, I can't remember, but it's awesome." Well it is awesome and it's songs like this that make me love October/Halloween.

Well here is it's awesomeness, in all of it's glory:



(You can fast forward 1 minute to hear the words, if you get bored by the spooky sounds)

You're welcome, your life has been changed forever.

H-A-Double L-O-Double U-Double E-N spells Halloween. I love it.

I thought I took more pictures than this. But here are all the good pictures from our Blue Ridge Relay Race. I need to do a better job of spreading the camera around because all the pictures are of not-me.

Wow, I bet a bunch of people who read this blog just had their blood pressure jump. There's probably fewer subjects that are more volatile than this one  right here.

I'm not talking about federal income tax. While I do have my opinions on that, it's not something I feel like expressing here. I'm not even talking about the most influential tax that I feel should be implemented, a huge gas tax. Could there be anything in the United States that would impact our country more than having to pay an extra $5 per gallon? It would be pretty awesome in my opinion. If you disagree, read the book "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" and then feel free to comment.

No, here I'm talking about state sales taxes. Can anyone honestly claim they fully understand how your state sales taxes work? What you'll be taxed when, and how much? I am happy to admit I am 100% ignorant on the subject. I couldn't have even thrown out a number without looking it up, and even now, I'm still confused.

A few years ago, when Liz and I started cracking down on our budget, I started grocery shopping with her. Not to help pick items out, but to be her personal calculator, keeping a running total of how much the grocery items we'd collected would cost. I actually take a lot of pride in being able to nail the total right on the button. We always play the guessing game in the checkout aisle, and I can usually hit our total within $1. I can't help but feeling proud when Liz strokes my ego with a drawn out "Woooooow" too.

The point of my story, is that the first time I started shopping with her, I had no idea how much to account for sales tax. 5%? 7%? I dunno? So at that time our total came to roughly $120 without tax. So I guessed $135? Do you know in our state, that a grocery bill of $120 would generate a tax of only $2.40?

Are you as surprised as I was? The tax on groceries is only 2%. Liz just came home after picking up a few items for dinner tonight. She spent $9 and was taxed a whopping 18 cents. Now I realize other things like hotels and electronics are taxed more, like 6% to 8%, but it's all relative in my opinion.

Most people would say "that's awesome, what's wrong with a low tax rate". Here's where my opinion changed.

I heard on the radio a few weeks ago, that one local county would only have to increase their sales tax rate by .25% in order to save several hundred teacher jobs that would soon be laid off. It wasn't done, obviously, because all taxes are bad nowadays (apparently). Why not do that though?!?! It's not too often that a tax is instituted that would go directly to one announced cause. And would anyone seriously notice? I know I wouldn't, and I guarantee 99.9% of anyone else would either.

I'll take it one step further, why don't they increase the sales tax by 2% more and make the local schools absolutely awesome?? If that's what it would take to cure a current problem, why don't they just do it?!

The downside is that it would never be taken away. Not only would it never be taken away, it would then be diluted into other forms of funding until the original "for the schools" cause is no longer necessary. Maybe that's where local politicians can go from good to great? Announce what the tax was for, and announce when it's being taken away. It's probably not that easy, and that's where my ignorance comes in on the way it could or could not be done.

Taxes shouldn't be used to cure all government problems, but when offered as a direct solution to a current problem, not to mention a temporary one, I don't see how that's bad. Please don't comment with a one-sided political argument about how all taxes are bad. I'm just talking about a measly sales tax here. Government spending and regulation is a massive problem, I understand that, but what I heard on the radio and what I see on my receipt doesn't seem to add up to me. If I can pay an extra $1 on a grocery bill so several hundred teachers can save their jobs, sign me up immediately.

The kitchen is looking bangin', but it's not quite done. We are done painting the top cabinets but we still need to work on the lower cabinets. There's also some finishing touches on the top cabinets left to do. We need to put on some knobs, put on little rubber stoppers behind the doors so there's a small barrier between painted doors and painted cabinets, and then we still need to paint below the cabinet above the refrigerator.

So here's some mid-kitchen progress, and yes, they are as awesome as they look.

You can see little paper towel rolls stuffed between the doors and cabinets so they don't stick until we get some tiny rubber stoppers.




The last picture is of the cabinet above the fridge. That cabinet used to have an empty space above it where we put plants just so it would take up space. I'm kinda proud of how that looks. It's not quite as seamless as I intended, but it looks good in the picture.

One thing I have always wanted is a running dog. I am pretty sure the next time (which I hope is 20 years down the line) we get a dog, I'll consider exercise into the equation. 

The last two days I've taken the dogs around the neighborhood. One thing has become blatantly obvious to me, every time I try and run, Gryffin outruns me and doesn't stop until forced to. I have never given him a chance, but I honestly think he's a runner, and I'm going to give him a chance.

Yesterday Liz and I took the dogs for a walk. I took them individually and did a little jogging with each one. Not much of a distance at all, but enough to get their heart going for sure. Today I went on a run with them. This was not an easy little stroll around the neighborhood, it was meant to be at most a constant jog, and at the very least a walk/jog combo.

To be honest, Daisy enjoys running as far as the fun of it will take her. She's a little chihuahua, what do you expect? When we start out from the house, she runs for a good minute. It's fun, she bounds around, and bites Gryffin along the way. She LOVES it at the start. From that point on though, every time we start to run, she'd go about 10 seconds and then stop and sniff and analyze every grass blade. If she gets tired, she'll walk at her own pace, and I have no chance of rushing her. She's made it very clear that she's in control of her own exercise.

Gryffin on the other hand continues to show an interest in running. Tonight's run, it was go-go-go the entire time except for about 3 moments where he did his #1's and a #2. He wants to run fast and for a long time and rarely slows up. In fact, not only does he run fast, but he pulls on the leash as if I'm a sled. Tonight was only a mile run but the dog has energy.

I am actually contemplating taking him on a longer run (2 miles) at a slower pace to see if he could do it. He's got short legs, but big muscles and an even bigger heart. I seriously never imagined loving this little boy as much as I do. He means so much to me, so the last thing I want to do, is put him in a situation he can't handle. But Gryffin's actions are speaking loud and clear. He wants to run, so as a runner myself, I can't help but nurture that. 

*DISCLAIMER* - I am well aware of how ridiculous this challenge is. I am not taking this seriously. It is 90% fun.

Over the past few days, while petting the dogs, I have noticed they are a little more pudgy than I think they should be. The vet actually keeps telling us, "they are slightly higher than they should be, by maybe a pound or two". Which for two dogs as small as them, a pound or two is a LOT.

Well lately I have also been meaning to drop a few pounds so I figured what's better than making it a challenge. Me vs. Daisy & Gryffin.

It's basically like Biggest Loser, who ever loses the most weight percentage wise wins. They dogs will count as one person, so their weights will be combined.

This morning I weighed them and Daisy weighed 13.4 pounds and Gryffin weighed 18.6 pounds. This is where my "DISCLAIMER" is important. I won't be starving them, I won't be working them out in any abnormal way. I will keep their food the same. What I am going to change though is the amount that I walk them.

These days, we are lucky if we take them on a walk once a week. When I say walk though, I mean going all the way around our 1.2 mile neighborhood. They do plenty of running around in our backyard and house but for this challenge, I am going to make it a requirement that I take them on 5 walks around the neighborhood every week. So if I do it every day, Monday through Friday, that's good enough. I also intend on taking them to the dog park more often, but I don't want to set a requirement for that.

I thought of this idea yesterday, so I started this morning by weighing the dogs first thing when we woke up. This challenge will go until October 29th, which is Halloween weekend. I love Halloween so having a goal set for that weekend is very fitting.

My goals here? Realistically I think the dogs each can lose 1 pound. Doing the math, that would mean I'd have to lose 12 pounds from my current 184. OOF! That's a lot of weight, but I'm going to try!

What am I going to do? I'm going to get back to my daily healthy routine and also do a lot more than just running at the gym. I need to switch up my cardio by doing some stair master and also lift some weights.

Wish us luck!

I totally forgot to blog about the completion of this challenge. I doubt anyone cares but the obsessive person inside of me could not leave the blog incomplete. So here is how I finished out the month:

August Day:	Miles:
1	3.5
2	1.8
3	1.2
4	3.5
5	1.2
6	1.2
7	1.2
8	1.2
9	2.7
10	3.2
11	1.7
12	1.2
13	1.2
14	7.5
15	1.2
16	1.2
17	4
18	3
19	1.2
20	4
21	1.5
22	1.2
23	4.6
24	5.5
25	4
26	1.2
27	1.2
28	1.2
29	5.6
30	3.6
31	9.5
Total:	86
Average:	2.77

An average of 2.7 miles a day isn't bad. I really enjoyed the month. I found out the last 3 days that I had to run 26 miles in order to hit a 3 mile a day average. I thought about trying to do that but didn't want to make myself miserable so I took it easy.

I didn't officially make a challenge for September, but I'm thinking about starting one soon, and believe me, it's absolutely ridiculous. I need to run it by Liz first to see what she thinks. I'll let you know.

We're making it official now, Liz is pregnant and is due late March. Weren't you wondering why we were making our 3rd bedroom "livable"? (all 3 of you).

We won't find out the sex of the baby until our appointment in late October. But for now we just wait and fix up the house. We're going to be painting the baby's room a light turquoise color so that it's gender neutral. Liz has already started hunting for deals on cribs and baby seats and stuff.

We couldn't be more excited about it!! I'll blog more about stuff later, this is enough information for one post.

So last year, for the first time ever, I ran the Blue Ridge Relay. You can have all your "what is that" questions answered by this post I made last year. There are some pretty amazing things that happen over the course of the race. I also posted about that last year, and you can reference those with this post.

This past weekend I ran it again. It was absolutely amazing and I have a bunch of pictures and info to share, but I will post about how the race went later. Today is all about my specific legs. I was runner #3 of our 12 person team. We started the race at 7:30AM on Friday, and my first leg happened around 8:50AM. It was 5.2 miles and labeled as "moderate". That part is funny to me, only in the Blue Ridge Mountains would this run be considered "moderate". It's all relative though, believe me!! Here is the outline:

The hills are as brutal as they look. The last part of this run was beautiful, just rolling country side with small homes lining the road. At one point I was running by a house with an older woman sitting on the porch knitting. The house was close enough so I yelled "Good Morning!" and she looked up with a smile and said "Good Morning!" back. It was really cute, I felt like a southerner. It's all about the enjoyment of the race, and enjoy it I did. I finished this 5.2 miles in 39:49. Under an 8 minute mile? I'll take it!!

My next leg didn't happen until 8:15PM that night. Matt, runner #2, had a brutal 10 mile run up Grandfather Mountain. He claims it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be, but I don't want to hear it.Any run up hill for 10 miles is a bad and brutal run. So what did that mean for me? I got to go downhill. I got to go downhill very very fast. It was only 2.3 miles to the next town. Here are the specs:


My strategy? Start out sprinting and then ease into a pace slightly slower than that. The "Easy" label is an understatement for this run. Most of the time I was trying to slow myself down so that I wouldn't completely wipe out if I hit a weird crack in the road. I was keeping such a close eye on my watch too because how long was this run supposed to take? A sneeze should have taken longer. My goal was to hit a 6 minute per mile pace. The 2.3 miles took me exactly 13:52. That's a 6:01 pace, good enough.

My last run was certainly the worst of all 3. I had been dreading it all day. I estimated I was going to be running around 4AM and it was a daunting 9 mile run mostly up hill. I don't do very well with sleep deprivation. In fact I'd argue I am the worst person I've ever met when it comes to staying awake past 10PM. Fortunately I was able to get a good 3 hour nap in right before the run so I was refreshed. Here is the leg info:



I bet this would have been a gorgeous run had the sun been out, but unfortunately the entire run was done in the dark. I started at 4:28AM on Saturday morning. I was passed by one runner in the first mile but then over the next 20 minutes, I passed 8 other people. From that point on, for the other 50 or so minutes, it was just me, the road and darkness. I saw absolutely no one except for a van that passed every now and then. It's a very surreal feeling. You're running down a road with a headlamp and blinking lights attached to your hip. It's pitch black behind you and all you can see is what your head lamp illuminates. You are heavily relying upon the signs on the road to guide you to the next exchange zone. If you miss a turn, you are in a lot of trouble. It's the most amazing experience.

Finishing this leg felt absolutely fantastic. I have been struggling over the last month with running. I had taken all of July off from running after the marathon in June, so I was struggling to get back into running shape. I might not have lost anything physically, but I certainly lost a lot mentally. I needed to get it back.This run was exactly what I needed. It ended up taking me 76 minutes, which is almost exactly a 8:30 minute per mile pace. That's not good enough in my mind, but it is what it is.

My next post about the relay will have pictures and more fun information about the trip.

I have so much I need to blog about, but lately we have spent a lot of our home time painting. I just have to say... WOW. I built these shelves a month or two ago, and I knew when painted that they would look good, but I'm so excited with how it's turning out. Here is some mid-kitchen progress!! In not too long, our kitchen will be bangin'!

Back to work...

Now that I'm done with all the wood work that needs to be done in the kitchen, my girl is stepping it up and painting like a mad woman. We took all the upper cabinet doors down and she's spent a few hours in the garage both yesterday and today painting up a storm. Now I just gotta get crackin' on the inside cabinet part, that was my job.

We're using Low VOC primer and no VOC white paint for the kitchen. I don't know anything about it but apparently it's an environmentally responsible and less-stinky paint to use. The only down side is the higher cost, but if we're adding less pollutants in the air, the small extra we have to pay is worth it. We are so super psyched. Can't wait to have this kitchen done and looking awesome!!

I might just go buy an air compressor and nail gun tomorrow... so much excitement in this house.

 This project started on Wednesday afternoon when Liz sent me this email:

This is what I have in mind for the shelves above the tv:

http://www.amazon.com/Burnes-Boston-LL2932-Level-Black/dp/B000B50F18/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314797349&sr=8-1

There should be 3 of them, just like this set includes.  I'd like the longest one to be the same length (or as similar as can be) to the length of the entertainment center (50-ish inches I think?).  the second should be maybe 3/4 of that length, and then the smallest one being roughly 3/4 length of the middle one. 

Also - just like in this set from amazon, they should have a little lip in the front so I can prop things up and they won't fall over. That's probably obvious, but i just wanted to point it out.

I've looked all over the internet and in stores for these, but I can't find any long enough.

Is this do-able?

The only problem with starting this project this week was that I knew I would have to give back the nail gun, compressor, and miter saw to Bobby on Sunday because I've held onto them way too long now. He has no idea how much I've appreciated borrowing the tools. Now that I've had a little test drive and a taste of life with sweet tools, I'm starting to hunt craigslist. Our house just might explode in woody goodness if I owned them permanently. After the last month of building things, I can't go back to the stone age of non-miter saw/nail gun life. 

The shelf lengths we decided on are 50", 30", and 20". They have crown molding around the bottom and then a piece of wood inside cut at an angle so it sits down below the top. She wants a lip, then a lip is what she gets.All in all this project took me 2.5 hours yesterday and cost $57 at Lowe's for the wood. Crown molding is shockingly expensive.

I actually have to go out on a limb and say this was probably my favorite project I've ever done. Not only did the project produce something usable, but it's also decorative and good looking. Here are the pictures: 





I had to include an up-close look at the lip. You can see the small brad nail holes that I'll have to touch up. They should be almost invisible with wood filler.


 The small gap at the top between the wall and shelf really bothers me, but I don't think I can get it any closer. It's the hangers that I bought that do not allow for any tighter of a hold. Oh well, from a distance you can barely tell, it's only from up close like this that it looks a little weird. I've already gotten some dark wood filler and after a day of drying, I should be able to stain these bad boys a dark mahogany brown just like our coffee table and put them back up.

Now if only I had a table saw to make the long wood lip angle cut easier... oh to dream...

I should probably blog about something relevant to our lives or something that may be worth while to yours, but I'm in the mood to blog about something completely irrelevant.

Today I started thinking about 2 places that make me really uncomfortable. These are common places that usually wouldn't do that for someone my age.

First of all, the bank is a very awkward and uncomfortable place for me to be. At the beginning of every month, we "refresh" our cash budget by going to the bank and withdrawing a certain amount so that we have money for the month for food, personal money, dog expenses, and toiletries. It's a great way to keep spending in line for the month.

That may sound like a natural situation to go to the bank, get money, and leave. My problem with the bank though is that it's anything but private anymore. You stand in line with a bunch of people, most of which I wouldn't trust with a butter knife. For some reason, all other bank patrons feel to me very untrustworthy and sketchy. Then you get to the counter in their non-booth like, one long counter experience where everything you say echos in their massive ceiling buildings.

When we refresh our cash budget, we get out a pretty large amount, enough to last one month. So I quietly whisper how much I'd like, but then the woman responds with a loud "What kind of bills would you like? $100's? $50's? what?". And I quietly whisper how much I want of each bill. At this point, I feel like the very close line of untrustworthy people is watching as the teller slowly pulls out money and thumbs through it on her desk. Then she hands me a massive envelope (because I like getting lots of $5's and $10's) and I feel like I was just granted permission to leave with what I just robbed from the counter. I quickly stuff the thick envelope in my pocket and pray I make it to my car safely without any interaction from anyone. "I HAVE A WAD OF MONEY IN MY POCKET PEOPLE, GET OUT OF MY WAY!! (I say inside my head)".

Maybe I'm alone with feeling this way, but banks these days have become a very awkward and non-discrete place and I don't enjoy going.

The other place that makes me feel awkward is the ABC store. I'm 9 years past the drinking age and I still feel like I'm breaking the law. There's always someone at the register you'd never interact with outside the confines of the building. There are signs all over making it clear that "Alcohol is a controlled substance!" and "It's a state law to do anything ever". On top of that it takes me roughly 49 minutes to find a label on any bottle that I recognize. There are even sections of the store that are foreign to me (cognac) so I move along for fear I may have to pronounce it later. I feel like the whole store is designed to make you feel uncomfortable, rushed, and as dumb as a box of rocks.

Then, half the time, there's a police officer awkwardly staring around, possibly judging you, as you do a summer sault inside because you recognize the large white malibu rum bottle. "I recognize it and it's delicious" (a 21 year old girl might say). Despite the fact that I have 9 year's experience in the alcohol shopping genre, I still constantly think to myself "am I acting the way I should act if I was over 21? Am I acting in a way that may make them think I'm 19?! I hate that I still look 16."

I can't be the only person who feels like these two establishments are awkward. I'm sure there are more places I feel awkward in, but none come to mind right now.

Contrary to what my last blog post may suggest, I don't sit and watch TV all day long. Maybe just on the weeknights after work? For the longest time we've wanted to make our third bedroom livable and this past weekend the stars aligned where I finally had the time and the tools to get the job done. Thank you Bobby for the tools!! The goal is to make it look the same as our second bedroom which I finished back in 2008.

So Friday night we went to Lowes and bought all the supplies and most of the day Saturday and Sunday I spent installing beadboard. I finished Sunday night but it was too dark to take pictures. All that needs to be done is painting the beadboard white and then painting the rest of the room a decent color other than it's current bland cream color. We also need to clean up the riff-raff, put some crap in the attic, and put the furniture in the proper place, but other than that we've gotten it up to livable standards. 

Here are the before pictures:

And now for the after pictures (ignore the terrible caulking job, it will be covered by paint):





I guess I still took the pictures when it was too dark outside. That is the advantage this room has over the other one. The sun sets on the other side of the house, so after about noon, it's super dark in there.