Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can't Lose

Tomorrow night, there will be a tear in my beer which I'll be drinking in order to cope with the fact that my favorite TV drama is going off the air. Friday Night Lights. Yep, really. Seriously. For real.

I tell people I love this show, and they usually laugh at me and scrunch up their faces, like "Really? It's about football and high school and Texas. Really?" And the answer is yes, really really. I love it. As a person who is a teacher in real life, I get excited about shows focused on school (remember Boston Public anyone?) even when the story lines are mostly unrealistic and the actors all look older than actual high schoolers.

I also love the character of Coach Taylor because he's almost the perfect guy, but he's not at the same time which makes him human and believable. Then, there's Tim Riggins (or in real life, Taylor Kitsch) in his cowboy boots. Um, yea. And, I kind of think about Julie and Matt's relationship in my free time. Will they make it work?? And, in this latest season, I really miss Landry. Aaaand, the music is usually really good. Well, it's good when you're watching a show about high school football. In real life, not so sure. I'll test it out next week.

ESPN is picking up reruns of FNL. It'll be on ESPN Classic. I don't have cable, so I guess I'm out of luck. But the Internet is full of interesting things dedicated to the show, like this article and this tumblr which I will continue to follow in hopes that there will be a reunion show or something.

In order to deal with the sadness, I'm hosting a party. I'll be invited and Amanda will be there out of roommate obligation. We will be eating chocolate cake and drinking beer. Cake for my sadness, beer because that's what they'd do in Texas (I think).

Green Eggs & Ham

I have some new questions about what Dr. Seuss meant when he wrote Green Eggs & Ham.

A few weeks ago, one of Will's friends was going to get some new chickens. He's been buying them from someone nearby. He'd bought 11 and then 7 of them ended up being roosters, so he went back to trade them for hens. Since he was heading out there, he called to ask Will if he wanted anymore chickens, like maybe a couple of Ameraucanas. These are the chickens that lay green eggs. Will ended up getting two, so now everyday we get two little green eggs. This new addition made me wonder, when Dr. Seuss wrote about green eggs and ham, did he mean green eggs as in green shells or green yolks? That's all I want to know.

The two Ameraucanas had been living with roosters, so we knew we couldn't eat their eggs for the first couple of weeks in case they were fertilized. I have a fear of cracking an egg to find a half-formed mutant chicken. If that happened, I would never crack another egg again. I would just give up cupcake baking all together or make Will crack all the eggs. He probably wouldn't go for that. So, instead of tossing the eggs, Will left them in the chicken coop because one of our chickens, who we call Butter, was broody and wanted to sit. So for a couple of weeks, she's been sitting on those green eggs. This morning when Will went out, he found this little chick that hatched over night.

In case you were wondering, green eggs do not make green chickens.

Roomies

Our new roommate Amanda (I'm officially going to quit calling her roommate Amanda and go to just Amanda, starting now!) got a new roommate too! She rescued this cute little pup from the pound.

His name is Joey, as in Joey Pigza (who swallowed the key, lost control, and other funny things).

Pretty sure that as soon as we all saw this face, we were done for.

It's like he's saying, PLEASE! I'll be good and not bark and not eat too much and not chew up anything and not spill my water and not put my feet in my bowl and not argue with Lily and Clover who are so big and I will sleep and be good. Please.

I mean, look at those little eyes.

**So the blurriness of these photos is totally my fault. Joey is not a rambunctious dog at all. He sits still; it's me who has the shakes apparently.

Vacation

Last week was Beach Week 2011! Here are some highlights:

Here's the whole gang.



Amanda and I perfected the margarita.



Lily and Clover had the most fun!




And Will and I cracked up about something.


Other highlights include some of the following:

-The new bridge. You can read about that on Amanda's blog. We all ended up crossing it on morning runs.

-Jimmy. I still believe this is the BEST investment we've made in years. :) We made pina coladas, margaritas, smoothies. Yum! You can't beat an actual margarita. My best concoction for beach drinking was a peach watermelon margarita (1 peach, a few pieces of watermelon, splash of triple sec, shot of tequila, and a splash of oj. add all of that to Jimmy and go!)

-Dinner. We all know that going out to dinner is a disappointment since the majority of beach restaurants are not at all impressive. Even our favorite hole in the wall bar seemed to be under new management this year. Therefore, dinner happened in our house. Other than the 80 batches of guacamole, we had some amazing ravioli a la Rob.

-Sunburns & other skin problems. As the resident red head of the bunch, I am the only one who didn't end up with a sunburn. I learned back during my life guarding days that reapplying sunscreen makes it pretty effective. However, I reapplied enough this year that I ended up with an allergic reaction to the sunscreen, which landed me at Doctor's Care on Friday night begging for prednisone.

-Porch sitting. There's not a lot to say about this one, but it's what we did. Every night!

-Fireworks chasing. So apparently it's illegal to shoot fireworks in NC? On July 4th though, people break the rules. A lot. On Sunset Beach, there are approximately 3 police cars. As people shot fireworks on one end of the island and then the other, the 3 police cars zipped back and forth trying to catch the culprits. While that was happening, we headed out on foot to find the fireworks. In the process, we witnessed a COPS-like scene of the 3 police cars screeching into a driveway and running to the back of the house only to find that the fireworks were being shot across the canal. So close! They clearly should have jumped in the water and started swimming!

This year was one of the best. We stayed in a different house because our old faithful, Island Time, changed their dog policy. This one was called Pointe Comfort. I'm not very good at reading maps, and when I looked on the map at where this house was located, I thought for sure our trek to the beach each day would be longer. It's good to not be able to read maps sometimes because sometimes you are surprised! This house was so much closer to the beach access and required no stair climbing to get over the dunes. Couldn't have been better!

Summer Food

Best summer dinner of the summer...honey balsamic chicken salad.

Will robbed the bees of more honey today, so I was motivated to use it.

Honey Balsamic Chicken (No measuring allowed!)

Put some balsamic vinegar, a squirt of dijon mustard, and a blob or two of honey in a bowl. Add oregano. Whisk! Marinate chicken for a few, then grill. Slice it up and put it on top of a salad, featuring veggies from your garden if you have them. Done and done!

Clover

One of the main reasons I love my dog to pieces is because she does silly things like this when I make her stay up past her bedtime.

I procrastinated on a project that I'd given myself a deadline of tonight for. So, I set up shop in bed with laptop and books and Clover to keep me company. After two hours of work, Clover rolled over and gave this pose that says it all, "Can we go to sleep already!!?? Turn off the light!"

Ha! Love her!

Some Things About Running

There are some things about running that have not changed for me since 7th grade. I think it was in 7th grade that I started running, like for fun/exercise, not away from a bear or scary person. My sister was a running fanatic by that point, and I tried to do everything she did because she was older than me and therefore, cooler.

Since the end of the school year, I've been trying to get back into the swing of things with being a runner. This past year was a bit insane in terms of my schedule, so running had to take a little bit of a back seat. I just wasn't consistent enough. So every morning for the last 2 weeks I've rolled out of bed and gone for a run. I've noticed some things about myself that have changed since 7th grade, but some that haven't.

1. When I run up a hill, I curse the cars that go speeding by me. I've done this forever. If you pass me in your speedy car while I'm hauling myself up a hill at a snail's pace, I'll mumble some ugly words your way and probably give you a glare.

2. When I get tired, I put my head back, like I'm too tired to hold it up. This is stupid as it doesn't provide me with any renewed energy. I remember in high school overhearing some other team's coach tell one of their girls to watch for when I put my head back because it meant I was tired and she could pass me. So apparently it was a dead giveaway.

3. My knee hurts. It hurt then and still hurts now, though now it's worse and blows up to the size of a cantaloupe on a regular basis. Nice, right? Ice and advil are my runnig BFFs.

4. I still hate running in muggy weather. Who doesn't? Right now, if I get out the door between 7-8:30, I'm good because though it's muggy, there is a breeze. In the next couple of weeks though, Columbia will be so hot and muggy and the air won't be moving at all. I'm dreading that.

5. I still can't keep up with boys and get annoyed that they can be all silly while running and not die. When I ran cross country a million years ago, there was this boy who I ran with sometimes. He would run through people's front yards, hurdle over for sale signs, shrubs, dance around stop signs. It was funny, but I remember thinking that if I tried to do all that, I would die. Now, when I go run with Will, he does the same thing. We run on some trails at a park nearby. I'm already a klutz on bumpy trail ground, but to top it off I have to watch him act all crazy, running in front of me, jumping over the dog, swinging on branches, all while I'm trying to not fall over, twist my ankle, or lie down and cry in general.

6. I still really like to listen to music while I run. Back in the day, it was all about the radio. Now, it's all about Pandora. I really think it's dangerous though because I get so into the music, I forget to look both ways and have almost gotten creamed by a car on a couple of occasions. Therefore, I've been running sans music, which is sad.

7. Since forever, I give myself pep talks while I run. Not about running, but about life stuff. Whatever it is. I also give other people imaginary lectures. Especially if they are being really stupid and need a lecture, but for whatever reason, no one can really give them one. In retrospect, this seems lame, but it's what I do and have forever.

8. My biggest motivation to run is still because my sister does it. I still want to do everything she does. Here we are, and for some reason I have a giant, fake grin on my face. That must be my "I want to fall over but there's a camera" face.



9. And here's what's different about running as a 30 year old vs. running as a 13-18 year old: I'm slower, I require food/water before a run and sometimes in the middle depending on length, I do it in an effort to be healthy (and not die of heart disease)rather than to get faster or participate in a race.

It's good to know the majority of things stay the same.