I finally have something worth blogging about! (besides Grizzly)
My friend Natalie told me I should run a half-marathon with her in Denver this August. 2 weeks after having her baby she has been running! So she's definitely motivated to get in shape, and I want to be motivated, but I think I need something to work towards. So why not sign up for something you can't back out of? Haha. She'll be in Denver, and I'll be in Logan, and when we meet up, it will be magical :)
I've never run a half-marathon before, but I've always wanted to. I actually used to be a good runner in high school, and in college I stayed in good shape playing soccer. But I haven't had a desire to do a marathon actually. I'm a crappy swimmer, so I haven't wanted to do a triathlon either. So a half-marathon is the next step down right? And it seems a lot more doable. I mean, the folks on The Biggest Loser all did one!
Well, let's just say I haven't trained for anything since that biathlon from last Summer. As in, I did that and haven't gone running until now. My body's getting all weak and mushy and it sucks knowing that I'm like that out of laziness.
I figure that I should make some small goals from now until August. In June there's a 10k and on the 4th of July there's a 15k in the canyon. And the Top of Utah half-marathon is 3 weeks after the Denver one. Maybe that will help me stick to running even after the Denver one is over. And there's always lots of 5k's in the community, so I'll try to do some of those as well. It will be good for me to get used to "competing" again. Having several races will be good practice for me as far as timing and pacing goes.
So yeah, guys, I'm gonna be a runner again! And Grizzly is helping me...he's a better jogger than walker anyway :)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Goodbye Puppy Hair
I dedicate this post to my sister Megan who thought I actually might not post about Grizzly this week.
Grizzly got his first aire-cut today! (Get it? he's an AIREdale!)
Well, I almost cried because when they brought him out he looked like an adult Airedale and not a baby anymore...but I didn't! I think his face looks good but this hard-line thing on his sides needs to be blended better. I might try to fix it myself. Well, anyway, here's some before and after pictures of him so you can see what he is "supposed" to look like as he gets older. His legs are a little skinny, but eventually those are supposed to be big and poofy.
Check out how he had black hair on his head and now it's blonde...
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Oh, THERE you are, Grizzly! (Lost Boy from Hook voice)
Yep, he's still my puppy *sniff* Thanks for reading...MEGAN.
Grizzly got his first aire-cut today! (Get it? he's an AIREdale!)
Well, I almost cried because when they brought him out he looked like an adult Airedale and not a baby anymore...but I didn't! I think his face looks good but this hard-line thing on his sides needs to be blended better. I might try to fix it myself. Well, anyway, here's some before and after pictures of him so you can see what he is "supposed" to look like as he gets older. His legs are a little skinny, but eventually those are supposed to be big and poofy.
Check out how he had black hair on his head and now it's blonde...
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Oh, THERE you are, Grizzly! (Lost Boy from Hook voice)
Yep, he's still my puppy *sniff* Thanks for reading...MEGAN.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
FarmTown
I have an obsession. Some of you already know about it because unfortunately sometimes I talk about it during normal conversation. I don't think it's really encouraged for me to mention it, because usually I get eye-brow raising and frown-smiles. Basically, it's uncool.
But this is my blog so I'm going to pretend you care.
I play FarmTown on Facebook. There. Now you all know. And you know what else? I'm okay with that. It's really fun.
That's my little character named Hil over by the lemon tree.
So you're given a plot of land. You click on the plow button and you plow little squares of your land. Then you go to the store and buy seeds. Then you plant them in your little plowed squares.
*AJ just leaned over and asked what I was doing. When I said "I'm posting about FarmTown", he said, "OH my hell." I told you guys. Uncool.
Ok, well you wait a few days and then your crops are ready to harvest, and then you make money! And money buys you seeds, fences, animals, trees, barns, etc. Now up to this point, it sounds very much like MyFarm, which I USED to be obsessed with (I had way too much money and nothing to do with it). Here's where it gets really good...
You go to the Marketplace and there's lots of other little characters running around, just like you. It's basically a chat room where you can talk to other people from all over the world, playing FarmTown like a total geek, just like YOU! And what you do is "hire" one of them, and then they come to your farm and harvest your crops for you. Because hiring other people makes you more money. Plus, if you're hired you get a portion of that money, so it's a win-win.
So you can add buddies and go to your buddies' farms and make them your neighbors and send gifts to your buddies. It's all really fun. Promise!
If you're rolling your eyes, fine. If you want to come play and be my buddy, I'll send you a horse or something. Yay!
But this is my blog so I'm going to pretend you care.
I play FarmTown on Facebook. There. Now you all know. And you know what else? I'm okay with that. It's really fun.
That's my little character named Hil over by the lemon tree.
So you're given a plot of land. You click on the plow button and you plow little squares of your land. Then you go to the store and buy seeds. Then you plant them in your little plowed squares.
*AJ just leaned over and asked what I was doing. When I said "I'm posting about FarmTown", he said, "OH my hell." I told you guys. Uncool.
Ok, well you wait a few days and then your crops are ready to harvest, and then you make money! And money buys you seeds, fences, animals, trees, barns, etc. Now up to this point, it sounds very much like MyFarm, which I USED to be obsessed with (I had way too much money and nothing to do with it). Here's where it gets really good...
You go to the Marketplace and there's lots of other little characters running around, just like you. It's basically a chat room where you can talk to other people from all over the world, playing FarmTown like a total geek, just like YOU! And what you do is "hire" one of them, and then they come to your farm and harvest your crops for you. Because hiring other people makes you more money. Plus, if you're hired you get a portion of that money, so it's a win-win.
So you can add buddies and go to your buddies' farms and make them your neighbors and send gifts to your buddies. It's all really fun. Promise!
If you're rolling your eyes, fine. If you want to come play and be my buddy, I'll send you a horse or something. Yay!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Found half of one
I picked up this unexpected little treasure today at Downeast:
But in solid BLACK. Way cuter. And when I get my picture taken in it, my eyes won't be closed.
I love black. Plus it's really hard to find a cute pattern that will still look cute in 5 years (that's my current rate for buying swimwear).
A.J. likes it. After I modeled it he told me I could wear it all evening if I wanted. Haha. He thinks I'm cuuuuuute. Next time he makes fun of my freckles, remind him of how much he liked my shoulders in this swim top. And also remind him that he has freckles, too.
OKAY, so imagine the top in black only (why don't they have it on their site!? And no I'm not modeling mine). Cute lil ruffle on the top. On, it looks a little more like a bandeau than sweetheart neckline. I really like the neck strap. Although it's not adjustable, there's no knot hitting your spine, which is, you know, nice. The top is very comfy (and supportive!) and long. Downeast makes their stuff long. But because it's long I didn't get the ruffle-trim matching bottoms, because I didn't want an unnecessary bulge under the top. The sales girl tried to convince me it wouldn't overlap, but um, yeah, just tried it on sister. It covers my hip bones.
No, I didn't try on the bottoms. I couldn't figure out how to follow the rules and try them on over my underwear. Um, because my undies go to my knees. Hahahaha!!! But seriously, I've never been in this situation before. What do you do? I guess I haven't been swim suit shopping in a super long time, because it was WEIRD taking off EVERY layer to put on that top. Okay, TMI.
So I think I'll keep shopping around. My mom told me I'm allowed to buy myself at least a couple suits for Hawaii, so I'm doin' it. Because my mom said I could. I want to find another top, and maybe a couple bottoms that can mix and match. Aren't you so excited?? Me too!
Next item I need advice on: Awesome sandals that I can hike around in, get wet, give arch support, camoflages my crazy long toe, etc. My mom and I both have narrow feet and she told me Tevas were way too wide for her so she got Keens. I've also heard Chacos are pretty awesome. (Just kidding about the long toe thing. Although it really does exist on each foot, I'm not sure if a partially-covered-toe vs. a open-toe sandal is better.) I need help!
But in solid BLACK. Way cuter. And when I get my picture taken in it, my eyes won't be closed.
I love black. Plus it's really hard to find a cute pattern that will still look cute in 5 years (that's my current rate for buying swimwear).
A.J. likes it. After I modeled it he told me I could wear it all evening if I wanted. Haha. He thinks I'm cuuuuuute. Next time he makes fun of my freckles, remind him of how much he liked my shoulders in this swim top. And also remind him that he has freckles, too.
OKAY, so imagine the top in black only (why don't they have it on their site!? And no I'm not modeling mine). Cute lil ruffle on the top. On, it looks a little more like a bandeau than sweetheart neckline. I really like the neck strap. Although it's not adjustable, there's no knot hitting your spine, which is, you know, nice. The top is very comfy (and supportive!) and long. Downeast makes their stuff long. But because it's long I didn't get the ruffle-trim matching bottoms, because I didn't want an unnecessary bulge under the top. The sales girl tried to convince me it wouldn't overlap, but um, yeah, just tried it on sister. It covers my hip bones.
No, I didn't try on the bottoms. I couldn't figure out how to follow the rules and try them on over my underwear. Um, because my undies go to my knees. Hahahaha!!! But seriously, I've never been in this situation before. What do you do? I guess I haven't been swim suit shopping in a super long time, because it was WEIRD taking off EVERY layer to put on that top. Okay, TMI.
So I think I'll keep shopping around. My mom told me I'm allowed to buy myself at least a couple suits for Hawaii, so I'm doin' it. Because my mom said I could. I want to find another top, and maybe a couple bottoms that can mix and match. Aren't you so excited?? Me too!
Next item I need advice on: Awesome sandals that I can hike around in, get wet, give arch support, camoflages my crazy long toe, etc. My mom and I both have narrow feet and she told me Tevas were way too wide for her so she got Keens. I've also heard Chacos are pretty awesome. (Just kidding about the long toe thing. Although it really does exist on each foot, I'm not sure if a partially-covered-toe vs. a open-toe sandal is better.) I need help!
Monday, April 6, 2009
Turlock and taxes and gas
Sorry the blog has been a little dull lately. I dunno, I just don't have any good stories for you guys lately. Grizzly just got neutered, but you guys don't want to hear more about my doggy and his boy parts. It's okay, I understand.
We've been planning on going out to Turlock to visit my parents, and it WAS going to be next week, but now we're probably going to postpone the trip until May. It sucks. But the reason is good...AJ has been out of work for the last week and they just got a big client, so he wants to make sure they can get that project done for them in time. So it's nice that AJ is getting work again. We seem to owe a butt-load in taxes this year, so we need that extra income to feel more secure.
By the way, how do uneducated people do their taxes? In my opinion it's like doing homework, and I really don't think all people can get an A+. Well yes, you can take your taxes to a professional, but not all people can afford that. Not that there's any uneducated poor people in the country...
Anyway, maybe we'll be in California for my birthday. That would be fun, eh? It should be pretty warm by the time we get there, so I need to get myself that new suit! I just hope we're not going to miss the one week of perfect weather Logan will get, if we're down there.
In other news, we've been waiting for the gas dude to come hook up a gas line to our dryer, for...hmm 4 months! Yes, we had to go through the same thing at our last place. Our landlord is taking care of the whole thing since we paid for the gas guy and then moved right after, only to need the same thing done. So that's nice of our landlord, but each month when the guy STILL hasn't come, we've gone up to pay our rent, and told him, hey your gas dude didn't come AGAIN. Here are the gas dude's 2 main excuses: "I forgot." "I came and no one was home." The first is unacceptable and unprofessional. The second is straight up bull---- because I have been HOME for the last 8 months! And that particular week he was talking about–I had no car, so I obviously wasn't gone anywhere.
You'd think the gas company was run by the government or something (ha–Jenni). I need some customer service, people!
I'm sick of hanging up wet socks.
K, I'll try to think of something more entertaining for my next post :)
We've been planning on going out to Turlock to visit my parents, and it WAS going to be next week, but now we're probably going to postpone the trip until May. It sucks. But the reason is good...AJ has been out of work for the last week and they just got a big client, so he wants to make sure they can get that project done for them in time. So it's nice that AJ is getting work again. We seem to owe a butt-load in taxes this year, so we need that extra income to feel more secure.
By the way, how do uneducated people do their taxes? In my opinion it's like doing homework, and I really don't think all people can get an A+. Well yes, you can take your taxes to a professional, but not all people can afford that. Not that there's any uneducated poor people in the country...
Anyway, maybe we'll be in California for my birthday. That would be fun, eh? It should be pretty warm by the time we get there, so I need to get myself that new suit! I just hope we're not going to miss the one week of perfect weather Logan will get, if we're down there.
In other news, we've been waiting for the gas dude to come hook up a gas line to our dryer, for...hmm 4 months! Yes, we had to go through the same thing at our last place. Our landlord is taking care of the whole thing since we paid for the gas guy and then moved right after, only to need the same thing done. So that's nice of our landlord, but each month when the guy STILL hasn't come, we've gone up to pay our rent, and told him, hey your gas dude didn't come AGAIN. Here are the gas dude's 2 main excuses: "I forgot." "I came and no one was home." The first is unacceptable and unprofessional. The second is straight up bull---- because I have been HOME for the last 8 months! And that particular week he was talking about–I had no car, so I obviously wasn't gone anywhere.
You'd think the gas company was run by the government or something (ha–Jenni). I need some customer service, people!
I'm sick of hanging up wet socks.
K, I'll try to think of something more entertaining for my next post :)
Saturday, March 28, 2009
End table
Here's a short post for those who don't want to read the super huge long one I just posted.
Just wanted to update those of you who helped me out with great advice on my end table! The doors are off and holes are filled in with bondo (thanks to hubby). I've sanded the main part of the table, and it now has 2 coats of semi-gloss black on it. I plan to paint over that with red and then sand the edges a little for the black to show through. I've got some brushed nickel handles that should look pretty nice. Just waiting for warm weather so I can paint again!
I'll post pictures when it's done :)
Just wanted to update those of you who helped me out with great advice on my end table! The doors are off and holes are filled in with bondo (thanks to hubby). I've sanded the main part of the table, and it now has 2 coats of semi-gloss black on it. I plan to paint over that with red and then sand the edges a little for the black to show through. I've got some brushed nickel handles that should look pretty nice. Just waiting for warm weather so I can paint again!
I'll post pictures when it's done :)
Friday, March 27, 2009
A Walk to Remember
I was going to save this story just for my PA (Planet Airedale) forum members, but hey, I haven't blogged in almost a week.
Yes, I'm aware at how nerdy it is that I'm a member of a forum for lovers of a certain dog breed.
Last night. was. AWFUL. Grizzly and I went for a walk. We went a new direction to mix things up. We were doing well despite the annoyingly cold weather.
YANK. Walk back 10 feet because something smelled good (to Griz). Sniff a bush. Find a treasure. EWW. It's a dead mouse. Luckily, once I yelled ewwww! he had dropped it already.
Keep walking. Turn the corner onto a street full of "mystery". I get yanked all over the place as Grizzly has to stop and smell everything. Usually this means people leave crap all over their lawns, as in old food, garbage, and cat crap. Nice street.
I get yanked again, and give up and look at this ridiculous house while the dog sniffs another yard. This house was VERY decorated for Easter. I mean you could tell they'd been saving decorations from several decades ago. And why replace old decorations when you can just add them to a monstrous non-matching-but-spring-time collection? Classy.
Well I turn back around and Griz has found yet another treasure. This time, a dead bird. Ewww!
He would not drop this one. Luckily he didn't just chomp down on it and was just holding it. He re-caught it a few times so that he could get a better hold, but that's when I could finally grab his teeth – not the bird – and open his jaws to let the thing fall out. Grossness over. Story not over. Walking on...
We're on the last street before ours. We run into a guy walking his dog, and we let the dogs socialize a bit. They sort of jump around each other while the guy and I try to untangle the leashes. Then I look at Grizzly, and he's sort of squatting like he has to poo, but then he just sits there looking sad. So I go over to him, and realize he has these sticker-pokey-balls all over his legs! No! They're in his beard, too! Then his face gets itchy and he starts rubbing it on the ground. No no no! Time to go home.
I throw Griz in the backyard with me to start pulling out the pokey-balls. These things are tough. They look like fuzz-balls, about the size of a finger-nail, but are really evil and pokey and sticky and break apart when you squeeze too hard so that you can never get the whole thing out. Let me remind you our dog has lots of thick curly hair. The more you try to grab at the pokey-balls the more they get entangled with his hair.
He starts running around the yard all weird, bucking and jumping. Then he does this low waddle thing like he has to poop, but keeps moving around. Finally he takes a full 3 minutes at least, just squatting and trying to push poo out. It was so sad. Finally he got a little, and I cheered. THEN he starts rubbing his butt on the ground. Oh no. It wasn't poop. The pokey-balls. are on. his butt. Up to this point I thought my job would be somewhat easy. I can tell Griz is too embarrassed to let me look at his bum, so I just grab him, put him between my knees, grab his tail and help him out. That's right. I pulled pokey-balls off his pooper. And some...were contaminated. And then I wiped his poopy bum. I am the bravest woman ever because I did it all with my bare hands.
It's not over.
It gets too cold to continue outside, so we go in. I start pulling the pokey-balls off his legs and everywhere else. Grizzly tried to help me. Then the teamwork was over and I had to grab one leg at a time to make sure I got them all out, then brushed each one with a wire brush, which he hates. We're 2 hours into this by now, and he's actually being a trooper, considering he usually doesn't let me brush him for 2 seconds. I noticed he started swallowing the pokey-balls and he'd pull them out, or he'd even pick them off the floor sometimes. Well he's start doing this gag-cough thing, so I'd give him water and he'd be good for a while. Well apparently these things don't go down very easily. Grizzly barfed. Twice. Dog food and everything else. I'm all grossed out and have to clean it up, but I can't let Griz leave the dining room to rub on everything and make more of a mess.
I'd say 3 hours into it now, it's like 9:00 and I am officially having an emergency and ask AJ to order pizza since I'm freaking out and can't make dinner. I go to grab the broom to sweep up the mess. BARF. I wipe up the barf. BARF. Grizzly finds more of the pokey-ball remnants to eat. BARF. I go upstairs to get the vacuum so he won't find any more to eat. BARF.
This dog puked like 8 times. I kid you not. And AJ was trying to ask what pizza toppings I wanted. EWW I couldn't think about it.
Some how we managed to eat our pizza, then AJ helped me out big time and took Grizzly up to the tub to give him a bath, so I could finally sweep and vacuum in peace. Clean floors, check.
It's still not over. Grizzly had approximately 25 pokey-ball things STUCK in his beard. He only has a baby beard now, so that means his little chin had turned into one huge hairy pokey-ball. I got up to the bathroom in time to help out AJ a little. By some miracle we managed to saved his baby beard and pulled the junk out of his chin and the corners of his mouth and the edges of his lips. The whole time he was this sopping wet sad little creature.
And just like that (over 4 hours later) it was over. Grizzly bear was so happy he ran into our room and jumped in our bed. But then we all had a hard time sleeping because he did the gag-cough thing all night. But no more puking, hooray!
Sorry, no pictures, I had my hands full. If you actually made it this far, thanks for your pity, and thanks for reading.
Yes, I'm aware at how nerdy it is that I'm a member of a forum for lovers of a certain dog breed.
Last night. was. AWFUL. Grizzly and I went for a walk. We went a new direction to mix things up. We were doing well despite the annoyingly cold weather.
YANK. Walk back 10 feet because something smelled good (to Griz). Sniff a bush. Find a treasure. EWW. It's a dead mouse. Luckily, once I yelled ewwww! he had dropped it already.
Keep walking. Turn the corner onto a street full of "mystery". I get yanked all over the place as Grizzly has to stop and smell everything. Usually this means people leave crap all over their lawns, as in old food, garbage, and cat crap. Nice street.
I get yanked again, and give up and look at this ridiculous house while the dog sniffs another yard. This house was VERY decorated for Easter. I mean you could tell they'd been saving decorations from several decades ago. And why replace old decorations when you can just add them to a monstrous non-matching-but-spring-time collection? Classy.
Well I turn back around and Griz has found yet another treasure. This time, a dead bird. Ewww!
He would not drop this one. Luckily he didn't just chomp down on it and was just holding it. He re-caught it a few times so that he could get a better hold, but that's when I could finally grab his teeth – not the bird – and open his jaws to let the thing fall out. Grossness over. Story not over. Walking on...
We're on the last street before ours. We run into a guy walking his dog, and we let the dogs socialize a bit. They sort of jump around each other while the guy and I try to untangle the leashes. Then I look at Grizzly, and he's sort of squatting like he has to poo, but then he just sits there looking sad. So I go over to him, and realize he has these sticker-pokey-balls all over his legs! No! They're in his beard, too! Then his face gets itchy and he starts rubbing it on the ground. No no no! Time to go home.
I throw Griz in the backyard with me to start pulling out the pokey-balls. These things are tough. They look like fuzz-balls, about the size of a finger-nail, but are really evil and pokey and sticky and break apart when you squeeze too hard so that you can never get the whole thing out. Let me remind you our dog has lots of thick curly hair. The more you try to grab at the pokey-balls the more they get entangled with his hair.
He starts running around the yard all weird, bucking and jumping. Then he does this low waddle thing like he has to poop, but keeps moving around. Finally he takes a full 3 minutes at least, just squatting and trying to push poo out. It was so sad. Finally he got a little, and I cheered. THEN he starts rubbing his butt on the ground. Oh no. It wasn't poop. The pokey-balls. are on. his butt. Up to this point I thought my job would be somewhat easy. I can tell Griz is too embarrassed to let me look at his bum, so I just grab him, put him between my knees, grab his tail and help him out. That's right. I pulled pokey-balls off his pooper. And some...were contaminated. And then I wiped his poopy bum. I am the bravest woman ever because I did it all with my bare hands.
It's not over.
It gets too cold to continue outside, so we go in. I start pulling the pokey-balls off his legs and everywhere else. Grizzly tried to help me. Then the teamwork was over and I had to grab one leg at a time to make sure I got them all out, then brushed each one with a wire brush, which he hates. We're 2 hours into this by now, and he's actually being a trooper, considering he usually doesn't let me brush him for 2 seconds. I noticed he started swallowing the pokey-balls and he'd pull them out, or he'd even pick them off the floor sometimes. Well he's start doing this gag-cough thing, so I'd give him water and he'd be good for a while. Well apparently these things don't go down very easily. Grizzly barfed. Twice. Dog food and everything else. I'm all grossed out and have to clean it up, but I can't let Griz leave the dining room to rub on everything and make more of a mess.
I'd say 3 hours into it now, it's like 9:00 and I am officially having an emergency and ask AJ to order pizza since I'm freaking out and can't make dinner. I go to grab the broom to sweep up the mess. BARF. I wipe up the barf. BARF. Grizzly finds more of the pokey-ball remnants to eat. BARF. I go upstairs to get the vacuum so he won't find any more to eat. BARF.
This dog puked like 8 times. I kid you not. And AJ was trying to ask what pizza toppings I wanted. EWW I couldn't think about it.
Some how we managed to eat our pizza, then AJ helped me out big time and took Grizzly up to the tub to give him a bath, so I could finally sweep and vacuum in peace. Clean floors, check.
It's still not over. Grizzly had approximately 25 pokey-ball things STUCK in his beard. He only has a baby beard now, so that means his little chin had turned into one huge hairy pokey-ball. I got up to the bathroom in time to help out AJ a little. By some miracle we managed to saved his baby beard and pulled the junk out of his chin and the corners of his mouth and the edges of his lips. The whole time he was this sopping wet sad little creature.
And just like that (over 4 hours later) it was over. Grizzly bear was so happy he ran into our room and jumped in our bed. But then we all had a hard time sleeping because he did the gag-cough thing all night. But no more puking, hooray!
Sorry, no pictures, I had my hands full. If you actually made it this far, thanks for your pity, and thanks for reading.
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