Essay Contests

I've seen quite a few essay contests to win a business.

First there was an Inn.

Then there was a goat dairy farm.

Now it's a horse farm.

Frankly, I think this is an amazing idea.  If you're looking for farm, and don't have a lot of start up capital.. it's great!

My friend posted the horse farm give away and tag me on it.  I thought it was wonderfully thoughtful!  Especially with the homes that I've been posting to Facebook lately.

I don't know if I've ever wanted to farm.  My mother grew up on a farm, and we spent summers there.  it's hard work.  Hard dirty work.  That involves actual dirt...  

Also, I'm terrified of horses...

I don't like gardening.

I'm just made for the farm-y lifestyle.

Why am I looking at those homes on Truila?  Because they have some land.  And not living on top of my neighbors would be kind of awesome.

I just don't see myself entering those contests any time soon.

So close.. yet so far....

It's been a really hard week for me...  A really odd week...

The good:

1.) My BellaBeat Leaf came in the mail.  It's like a FitBit, but pretty!  I was looking for something to track activity.  Something that I'd want to wear.  Something that has an inactivity alarm.  (Once an hour it buzzes and I have to get up.)  The app is a bit buggy, but I do like it.

2.) I have a new program coming in the mail today.  I LOVED 21 Day Fix and TurboFire, so I'm going to try Cize in August.  Interested?  let me know!  I'll let y'all know how it is after I try it out.

3.)  In a fit of madness I bought Jeff Galloway's training app.  it was expensive.  But I loved it when I tried it out this morning.  Training for this year's half marathons begins in earnest right now!











The Bad:

I got a text last night at 10:50 pm.  I was asleep.  So lame!




Also, I have to clean around here SO BADLY.   I bought more shelving for the storage room because the floor was covered with boxes of legos.  Legos everywhere!  Beware the legos!

The Ugly

1.) I don't know what I did to myself, but I felt AWFUL after running this morning.  And the little bit of cleaning that I did left me sweating and shaking.  I'm exhausted, but I can't nap.  Maybe I'm seriously out of shape (running-wise)  Maybe that workout I got this morning kicked my ass, but I know that I'm all this:

2.) Falling off the wagon and eating my feelings last week hurt scale wise.  Yeah.... I totally need to work on that.  Starting in August I have a new program, and I actually want to try to run AND do daily workouts.  We'll see if I survive that....

It's apparently Harry Potter Weekend on ABC Family.  And I don't feel well....

You know what this means....

I'll be on my couch sipping water and watching tv.... trying to figure out what is kicking my butt.

Anne of Green Gables

I don't know what happened first in my life:  the novels or the mini-series.  But they both happened in elementary school.

Anne of Green Gables (and the books that came after) saw me through my elementary and middle school years.

I had red hair as a youngster (I have to dye it back to the original color these days.)  I also had an overactive imagination.  I read too much and almost preferred the worlds of my imagination to real life.  I learned so much from her.

I know I'm not the only teenager that felt a strong connection to the character.  Millions of young people did, and continue to.  Apparently she is also huge in Japan.

My friends and I were a bit disheartened when we saw that CBC was going to make another Anne movie.  As you can see, the miniseries form the 80's is rather close to my heart.

I have this dream.  I'd love to make a pilgrimage to Prince Edward Island.  I want to see the house in Cavendish.  I want to have tea... or Raspberry Cordial...  

I know it's all touristy.  But I don't care.

I miss the time when I could lose myself in my imagination like that.

I miss a time when you could actually by 20 pounds of brown sugar....

I still live by this motto: 

I want to take that vacation... and recreate this picture

Who wants to go with me?

(Can you tell this was mainly an excuse to use my many GIFs?)

The world still keeps on turning.

Thursday night was awful.  Saying goodbye to our poor, sick kitty was the hardest thing that I've ever done.

But it happened.

Afterwords we got pizza.  And I ate pizza, and wine and ice cream.  seriously, I ate all of my feelings, and the feelings of at least three other people.





Friday I got up early to clean up the litter boxes.  And we couldn't stand being at home.  So we went to Busch Gardens.  We weren't there awfully long.

We did get the story of Ernie.  he's the friend of an employee tram guy named Bert.  The ladies in wardrobe make his lovely vest.

Saturday was the Spousal Equivalent's birthday.  We went to see Ant Man, then to get some Mexican food.  I get what I always get.  I couldn't finish it.  I was feeling ill.  I figured I just overate.

But when I felt nauseous all afternoon, I knew that I might not be just overeating.  Sadly, out Roller Derby plans were cancelled in favor of couch time.

The weekend went on, and there were tears.  There was loss.  But it didn't hurt my heart like the month leading up to Thursday did.  Apparently we grieving over beforehand.

There's still a lot of cleaning to do.  I spent the last month not doing anything.  So you can guess the state of my house.

The one thing I'm left with after this weekend is:  Holy crap!  Meryl left SO MUCH of her fur everywhere!  Seriously, the dust bunnies are made of fur!!

It's been a long day

Today we took our beloved cat for her last car ride.

She went downhill fast, and yesterday it became obvious that today was the day.

We'll miss her ever day, but she's in a better place.

Tomorrow we clean the house.  Clean up the cat litter and package up her food.

Tonight is pizza, ice cream, wine, and The Emperor's New Groove.

Hopefully son this blog will have something happy to say!

Oh. My. God. I'm actually going.

The money is paid.  The hotel has been acquired.  The airfare has been purchased.  Hell, I even bought the Spousal Equivalent a spectator package.

Why?

I'm running the Disney Princess Half, baby.

Sunday, February 21st I'll be running my way around Epcot and the Magic Kingdom.

Seriously, I'm so excited I teared up typing that.

I've been saving and training for this for almost 3 years.  Soon after I started running, I found out that Disney races exist.  And I wanted to do this one.

(As an aside, why doesn't Universal do a race?  I'd run the heck out of a Harry Potter Half!)

This isn't going to be easy.  I have a half in October (The Crawlin' Crab) between now and then.  I've got to work on my stamina.  I need to be able to maintain a 15 minute mile.

I've made a training schedule.  Now I need to stick to it.

Who wants to run with me?

May the Force be with us

I take it we've all seen this:


When I was young, we had this old television, and a cable box tethered to the TV with a cord.  Push button 15 and it brought us HBO.

In the late 70's and early 80's HBO showed Star Wars all the time.  And I watched it.  Over and over.

In 1983 Return of the Jedi came to the theater.  I'll never forget it.  It was storming that day.  The power in the theater went out during the battle of Endor.  I was 8, the right age for all the Ewok marketing.  (Hell, I wanted to live in the Ewok village)

It would be many years before I saw The Empire Strikes Back.

Why?

Well, they first had to invent the VCR.  Then they had to invent a video rental store.  Then the price had to come down.  (Early VHS players were spendy!)  I saw the middle movie so far after the fact, to this day it's not one of my favorites.

I saw the prequels when they came out.  I went to each soaring with anticipation.  And they were good.

My father shared his love of Science Fiction with my brother and me.  He and Star Wars (And later Star Trek: The Next Generation) helped form my love of reading, my love of superhero movies and my love of the SyFy channel.

This weekend I saw the footage above.  I will admit, there were tears in my eyes.

For the love of God, JJ.  Don't f*ck this up!

Devastating News

For the previous editions of this story, see here.

We went to see a kitty oncologist today.  We wanted an expert to see and assess our dear babycat.

The tumor is huge, and hot and very aggressive.  It's also in her lymph system.  Treatment would be in the $4000-$5000 range and long term survival is unlikely.

So we've cancelled her follow up appointments.  We're going to keep giving her the meds until they run out.  We're going to feed her the best canned tuna and other canned fish that there is.  And when she slows down, we'll say goodbye.

Personally, this is one of the hardest things that I've ever had to go through.  We're asking that if you've ever loved our cat, please come over and give her some love.

And hold us while we cry.  That's all I seem to do these days.