Yes, I am the turtle.... it's official.

Last night at the gym, I ran 5.5 miles in less than an hour. (59:50 to be precise, but hey, it's still less than an hour). I am still a turtle, but slow and steady is the way I roll.

At one point during my workout, I was being outrun by a woman who was probably in her 60's and had arm wrinkles.

Let's just call her Lois because that sounds like a good name for her.

Lois was huffing a little bit, she had her white Reebok princess shoes smoking on the treadmill, and she was rocking out with an iPod.

Does it seem like everyone else's mom or grandma wears these shoes?

I was running at 5.8. She was running at 6.0.

Lois rocks the Reebok Princess and she is my new hero! Man, I hope I can still run when I have arm wrinkles!

You can bet I'll be sporting these shoes when I hit 60 years old. How about you?

New Goal for 2009

I have been a lazy slug with my running for the past couple of months. I think I had swine flu for a couple of weeks in February and then again in March. Being too sick and too busy really slowed me down, but NO MORE EXCUSES!

As of last night, I'm back on the treadmill. I did 5 miles total at a whopping 12 minute mile average pace. I am a turtle, but it's a place to start again.

My new goal is to do a Half Marathon in 2009.

A couple of months ago I was running consistently and I was running 6 miles at a 10:30-11:00 minute mile pace. I want to get back to this... and get faster.

Step 1.
Do a 5 k run.
Check.
Valentines Day.
Birmingham BE&K 5 k.
31:00 exactly.

Step 2.
Find a 10 k run sometime this summer.

Step 3.
Half Marathon
Orange Beach, AL
November 28, 2009.

weekend recap & The Bachelorette

The weekend went like this...

• Fanatic OCD house cleaning marathon.
• My friend and her boyfriend came to visit us (they're awesome- we had so much fun)!
• Mimosas started at 8 AM on Sunday morning with breakfast
• .....followed by more mimosas
• .....followed by mid-morning cava
• ....followed by wine with lunch
• ....followed by a nap at 4:00 PM (allowed time for repair of liver).
• ....followed by Detox.
• I ate so much this weekend that I thought I might explode.
• I discovered that many people have never tried chocolate gravy and biscuits for breakfast... many have never even heard of it!?! How can this be?!!?

Is anyone else watching The Bachelorette?

I'm excited that Jillian is this season's Bachelorette! My favorite guy this season is Jake (the pilot). The one-on-one country dancing date was super cute and I'm hoping Jake stays around for more episodes.

My husband does not stop whining the entire time the show is on. Yes, I try to make him watch it with me. Yes, he seems to be ok with my crush on Jake the pilot.

Ladies, which bachelors do you like this season?

For a laugh

Courtesy of http://textsfromlastnight.com/

Hilarious drunken text messages:

(402): Omg. Just talked to a semi driver from nebraska. Got her truck stuck. Gave her and her riding buddy a glass of vodka and a cig. YES.

(925): I didn't go out last night, but I dreamed that I blacked out and the *CRAZY* thing I did was to eat 12 cupcakes off 12 diff plates and stack them up neatly. If I had a life, I'd hate it.

(925): I mean roof. it goes up. its important day. you should recongziw it.
(916): You're drunk. Make complete sentences.
(925): It's not luke its my birthday or anything. Mike, understand.

Memorial Day, Memories, and Pondering

Memorial Day is coming up.

We're having one of my friends and her boyfriend come to visit us and I'm so excited to see her! We'll grill some burgers, chicken, and brats (eww- my husband likes these disgusting fatty sausage things). I will stick with burgers and chicken, thank you very much. It seems like most people do the cookout thing, hang out with friends, and have a good time being off work. We will do all that... but does anyone else ever think about the sad part of the day? ...the "memorial" part of the day? I may be a Debbie Downer. (Please tell me someone else loves Saturday Night Live as much as I do.)

Anyway, I talked to my mom last night. Since Memorial Day is Monday, my mom took some flowers to the cemetery for my grandma (her mom) and my aunt (her sister). It's a pretty cemetery, as far as cemeteries go. It's surrounded by green trees and hills and when the sun sets there, you can almost see where heaven begins on the horizon.

My mom says she hates headstones with those little concrete flower vases on them. The vases are usually empty. It makes my mom so sad to go to the cemetery, but she goes anyway... because that's the right thing to do. My mom always does the right thing. Mom is like a moral compass.

When my grandma died, my heart broke. She raised me as much as my parents did... maybe more. She died at the end of May in 1996. She was 81. Memorial Day always falls around that day. This time of year was when my grandma was so sick in the hospital. My oldest aunt died a couple of months after my grandma. It's been 13 years and my throat still almost closes shut when I try to talk about either one of them.

I went to my grandma's house every day in the summers. When school was in session, she picked me up and I would stay with her until my parents got off work. She was one of the smartest people I've ever known even though she only had an 8th grade education. She survived the Great Depression. She grew her own food, canned it, and cooked it. She told me stories about feeding the hobos during the Great Depression. The train would stop near her house and the hobos knew that my grandparents would share the food they had.

She had 8 children, the last of the bunch was my mom. My grandma was the one who taught me how to tie my shoes, read, swim, climb trees, shoot a pistol, play a few chords on the guitar, set up a quilting frame, and how to plant a garden. She saved strips of cloth from her quilting projects to tie up her tomato plants... nothing was ever wasted. I have never respected anyone as much as her, even though I probably didn't show it enough when I had the chance. I wish I would have paid more attention when she was canning veggies, or making apricot fried pies, or quilting. I don't know how to do any of those things... I was too busy playing the stupid Nintendo.

Has anyone else ever wondered about how people look in heaven?

Someday when I get to heaven, I wonder if my grandma will look old to me because that's how I knew her? I wonder if she will look young to her parents because that was how they knew her? Will everyone see her the way they want to see her? It is heaven after all, so anything is possible. Will we just recognize someone's soul instead of their body? I wonder if she can see me now? Does she know where to find me? This may sound crazy, but for a year or so after she died, I really thought I could sense her around me sometimes. Maybe it was just because I missed her so much. As time passed, I couldn't sense her anymore. I still missed her just as much. This time of the year is sad for me.

I like the DCFC Bixby Canyon Bridge song. Anyone who has lost someone really close to them can probably relate to it. You miss someone so much and you want (and maybe even try) to talk to them again. Then you realize you have to keep going with your life and that the person you lost is really, really gone. The person you lost goes on, and you go on too.

**********************************************
"Bixby Canyon Bridge"
by Death Cab for Cutie

I descended a dusty gravel ridge
Beneath the Bixby Canyon Bridge
Until I eventually arrived
At the place where your soul had died.

Barefoot in the shallow creek,
I grabbed some stones from underneath
And waited for you to speak to me.

And the silence; it became so very clear
That you had long ago disappeared.
I cursed myself for being surprised
That this didn't play like it did in my mind.

All the way from San Francisco
As I chased the end of your road
Cause I've still got miles to go.

And I want to know my fate
If I keep up this way.

And it's hard to want to stay awake
When everyone you need, they all seem to be asleep.
And you wonder if you missed your dream.

You can't see a dream
You can't see a dream.
You just can't see a dream.

And then it started getting dark.
I trudged back to where the car was parked
No closer to any kind of truth
As I assume was the case with you.

***********************************************

What are your top 5 songs of the day?

Thank God for iPods.

It's the only thing keeping me sane at work today. Anything Almost anything is tolerable with good music playing!

My top 5 songs of the day:
1. "Waking Up in Vegas" by Katy Perry
2. "Show Me What I'm Looking For" by Carolina Liar
3. "Heartless" by Kayne West
4. "Bixby Canyon Bridge" by Death Cab for Cutie
5. "Your Heart" by Donovan Frankenreiter

What are your favorite songs right now?

We're keeping the dog...

Thanks to everyone who reposted Neko's picture and story on their blogs! The blogging network is such a wonderful community of caring people!

Yes, we are suckers. We can't resist an animal in need. We will keep him.

Here's the update on the abandoned Husky:

Neko is at the vet today being neutered and getting all his shots.

Good news:
The surgery went well and I should be able to pick him up soon.

Bad news:
Since his owners did not think it was important to give him a $5 per month heartworm preventative, the poor guy tested positive for heartworms. He also had two other types of intestinal parasites.

Anyone with a dog knows how important the heartworm pills are! We spend $5 per month per dog so we don't have to pay for the $425 heartworm treatment. Ouch. We will start his treatment in the next couple of months as soon as we save up the money.

So we have a new addition to the family....

Neko the Husky.

And our two Dobermans.

That's a lot of dogs.

At what point do we become "that crazy couple with all the dogs" that the neighbors talk about? I think we aren't far away from that classification.

Please help Neko find a home

Meet Neko, a happy, friendly, beautiful boy.

He's a 6 year old pure bred Siberian Husky. He needs a home.

Here's Neko's sad story...

My husband and I were walking our two Dobermans two nights ago when we saw Neko wandering our neighborhood. He had a collar with a Home Again pet ID tag. We called the number on the tag and got in touch with his "owners" who got our address and agreed to meet us to pick him up in 10 minutes. About 4 hours later, we still had their dog. We called again and they finally agreed to come get him. (His "owners" live about a mile down the street from us).

When the guy showed up, he was covered in tattoos and smelled like pot. We gave him his dog and he "jokingly" asked if we wanted to keep Neko. We told him we already had two big dogs so probably not.

The next day my husband called me and said "Guess who is in our yard again." Only this time Neko didn't have his collar on. It was not loose the day before, so his owners took his collar off in hopes that he wouldn't come back home again. We still had their number so we called them to come get him again. They said they didn't want him and that we could keep him. What a couple of scumbags.

How sad is that?! The guy got Neko as a puppy as a gift from his wife at the time. They had him 6 years. Then they got divorced. The guy shacked up with his new girlfriend who lives on our street. And now no one wants Neko. Breaks. My. Heart.

Since we already have two giant Dobermans, we REALLY need to find him a home. Do you know anyone in the Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee area who would give him a good home? My husband and I will only let him go to someone with references from a vet who will give him proper care for his entire life. A dog is a LIFETIME commitment. The way people can discard an animal is horrible.

Please help Neko find a home!

Leave a comment if you are interested or email me at biologygal@hotmail.com

Rain Rain Go Away!

Our back yard looks like a jungle because it has been too muddy to mow for weeks now! (causing my husband an annoying amount of joy- that man hates, loathes, detests mowing).

Mud = my nemesis
Mud = paw prints all over the house
Mud = dirty dogs who are happy, happy girls.

I put up garage sale signs in the rain this morning. I sooo hope our garage sale doesn't get rained out on Saturday. Every surface of the living room is covered with stacks of neatly folded and bargain priced clothing.

Thanks to all my blog friends for all the garage sale advice!!!

Tonight= Wine Club Book Club
This month's selection was: Who By Fire by Diana Spechler

I liked it. It's about a very messed up family. Each character is a little crazy in their own way. I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else thought about it. Have you read it? If so, what did you think of it?

Garage Sale this weekend!

Have any of you ever had a garage sale? Did you make any money? Any tips for advertising?

I have posted an add on Craig's List and plan to put up some neon poster board signs around the major intersections in a couple of days.

Any advice? Words of wisdom? Am I crazy?

Will anyone buy my couch that smells like dog?

Crawfish Boil with no crawfish

Weekend recap:

• Watched Marley and Me. Cried like a little girl. The husband also cried like a little girl.
• Went to the Crawfish Boil on Saturday with a friend. Did not see anywhere to buy crawfish. Paid $5 for a corn dog instead.
• I saw Filter, Everclear, Katy Perry, and the All American Rejects. Good bands. Fun stuff.
• Decided that I am officially too old for outdoor concerts. I do not enjoy getting bumped/pushed/trampled by drunk 18 year olds for 6 hours straight.
• Made some brownies that turned to stone when they were removed from the oven. Betty Crocker failed me.

Next up:

• Death Cab for Cutie concert tomorrow!
• Happy Cinco de Mayo to all tomorrow!