A little while back I mentioned how I had read about a great defense against slugs. What I read is that chickens are great for eating bugs, they can get an out of control yard (mines not.  Mostly.) in control in no time.  Cool!  But, you know, who would go buy chickens when they live in a neighborhood with a crazy strict HOA?

So I kept reading and asked my dad to find out about the HOA since he used to be on the board or something.  I read that chicken poop is great for gardens, and chickens in general are great for composting.  Not the birds themselves (gross) the fact that they scratch around all day pooping nitrogen and eating things like weeds and bugs.  The scratching and eating part helps break down everything into a nice compost.

Also, I read they don’t really take all that much time.  Once they’re big enough to move outside into a coop anyways.

Also, my dad found out for me that I can have a limited number of hens, just no roosters.

And so I went and got 4 little tiny baby chicks. Look how these 2 have grown in less than 3 weeks!   Nugget (my daughter named her(?)) already has a comb on her head!  I’m afraid that may mean she’s a he.

The didn’t even have feathers when we got them, just fuzz and now they are in an awkward in between stage.  Still cute though!

This weekend I build the coop, I’m pretty excited about it since I’ve never made anything like that before.  Another adventure!

So far the chicks have been fun and my kids are already thinking a little more about where their food is coming from, without any prodding from me at all.  Have you ever had chickens or other outside birds?  Would you?

Yes, I did it to myself AGAIN.  I was doing great with my running, I was up to 4 miles and keeping to a running schedule, running 3 or even 4 times a week.  Great, right? Right.

Then February hit and I just fell right off every wagon there is.  Stopped running, stopped blogging, stopped doing yoga, guess how great I feel about now?  Yep, not that great.  But all of that is just the start. Guess what I’m doing in the morning.  Less than 12 hours from now.

Mud Endeavor! Not just any mud run. This one is 5 or 6 miles, depending on how they decided to set up the course.  So not only is it the longest mud run and longest run I’ve done yet if I must be honest, it’s after taking an entire month off of doing anything even remotely healthy for me.

I really don’t hate me, but I CAN be my own worst enemy.  As a matter of fact, I excel at it!  Does it make it better or worst that I am super excited about the run tomorrow instead of dreading it like I think I probably should be?  Oh yeah, and I have a case of tennis elbow so bad I’ve been drinking my coffee with my left hand.

There won’t be any kicking ass tomorrow but I will still have a ton of fun!

So what exactly have I been doing with myself besides watching Netflix (I’m in the midst of a full on 4400 kick) and drinking hard cider? Gardening!

I cleared out the side yard (yet again), build a new raised garden, and planted the whole thing with non-gmo seeds.  I have lots of things sprouting and I’m planning to share pictures but at the moment it’s a wee bit too dark outside and I just wanted to share my insanity of the moment, my longest, most unprepared for mud run.

So with me luck since I’m going to need it, and come back later to see if I made it.  Ya, you can laugh.  Goodness knows that’s what I’ll be doing.

Everyone has a greatest fear.  That one thing that you hate more than anything else, way out of proportion to what it is.  Mine? Roaches.  I hate them like nothing else on this planet.  I once couldn’t sleep for like three days because I saw one in the house but couldn’t get it quick enough.  No way was I sleeping when that damn thing was probably just waiting for me to fall asleep so it could crawl in my bed.  Ew, I feel a little sick just typing that.  Um, seriously.

Just to be clear, I stayed in Arizona for 2 years after my entire family (grandparents, uncles, parents, sisters…) moved to Florida because Florida = palmetto bugs.  (roaches, people!)  I have an old fashion Italian family where we get together for pasta on the weekends and we could easily take over entire neighborhoods but I ate pasta sauce out of a jar, family-less, to avoid this.

Happily, it’s not near as bad as my preconceptions.  I think I’ve had one roach in my house since I’ve lived here and I kind of got over it.  At least they don’t have sewer roaches like AZ.

THEN I saw one in my car a couple weeks ago.  It was huge but dead.  I drove home with my foot that I didn’t need for driving up on the seat with me and left it in the car when I got home.  The next morning I psyched myself up to remove it, but it was GONE.  Gone. It had been for sure dead, but I drove with my foot up on the seat for the next week (just in case) and wondered where the hell it went.  My car hadn’t been dirty before, but it became the cleanest car on the block.  Not that I go around looking in other people’s cars, but I’d bet.

I saw another one a week later, killed it. From far away, with spray.  Ya, I’m brave like that. Then Sunday night my son saw one in the car so I sprayed like crazy and we walked where we were going.

Then comes Monday morning.  There were 3 dead roaches, each easily bigger than 3 inches long.  Needless to say I called in sick to work and fumigated my car.  Twice, for a total of 3 bombs.  Yes, that is poisonous smoke you see through my car windows. The light is on in there, you just can’t see it through the lovely smoke.

Needless to say I haven’t seen another one live since.  Needless to say I still drive with my foot up looking around the car like I’m jonesing.  And, needless to say I will be bombing the car again this weekend.  Just in case.

Of course I Googled this nightmare and you know the one state that’s known for this sort of thing? Florida.  You are welcome for not throwing in a few select curse words.

Oh, and just for good measure.  On the way back from my lovely new place to walk on my lunch breaks I had to walk (way) around this.  Because he (?) had zero fear of me and had no intention of moving out of my way.

I love Florida, I love Florida, I love Florida. Right?

Related articles

• Why Tampa Rocks. (kindazennish.com)

Everyone around me seems to be very excited that fall is here. I understand why.  The leaves turn color, the air picks up a bit of a chill, running seems easier, and the holidays are on their way. The family is talking about wearing sweaters, baking bread and cookies and the like.

Oh, wait.  I’m in Florida.  Fall doesn’t really apply. Not yet anyway.

I sat outside having a cup of coffee with my dad and other neighbors on the first official day of fall. The air was thick and heavy with humidity, one of those morning when you can almost feel a literal weight on your shoulders.  I decided that if we have time zones then we should get to have season zones too.  It’s only fair, don’t you think?

I have to admit, I am looking forward to the weather cooling down, making soups and bread for dinner and feeling a crispness in the air.  As a runner I also look forward to how much easier it will feel the first few times I run outside in the cold.

Plus, Halloween is on it’s way and it’s always been my favorite holiday of the year.

But probably the best thing of all is that once it gets cold I won’t have to mow every single weekend.  Come on, you know that’s your favorite part of the season too!

I looked through all of my old pictures and this crooked picture of a bridge (which gives me a bad case of vertigo) is the only one I could find that looked a bit like fall. It seems that Florida is really green all year round.  Which is great until you are looking for a picture that reminds you of fall…

Are you excited that the seasons are changing?  Are you looking forward to the holidays this year?

Am I the only one who doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with doing all of the things that I know I need to do, even when I’m only trying to do the things I like?

I love doing yoga, it somehow leaves you feeling relaxed and invigorated at the same time.  I don’t even know how that’s possible, but it is. I used to do yoga pretty much every day, sometimes as much as an hour but most days about 20 minutes.  In my humble opinion it cures pretty much everything.  Your back hurts? You’re over stressed? Aching shoulders from working on the computer all day? Yoga can help that! In my case it’s usually my hips that are sore, and pigeon pose and others like it are a god-send.

For probably the last 6 months I’ve only done yoga after a run, and even that has been getting rare.  But I found a pretty neat challenge that has me back in the right direction.  Even if I am a little late to the party (as usual).

DoYouYoga has all of the videos uploaded on YouTube for a 30-Day Yoga Challenge. I’ve only done the first 2 days, but I’m already hooked on yoga all over again.  I even got up only 10 minutes after my alarm went off to do Day 2 today.  If you knew me at all you’d know that is a major big deal.  I hate getting up on work days.  Funny enough I’m fine getting up early on weekends though. Go figure.

So far, after a big 6%(?) into it I recommend you try their challenge! It’s a lot of fun, though I forgot what a challenge Warrior One could be.

Here’s hoping that by the end of the 30 days it’s easy again!

I’ve decided its past time that I start preparing for the zombie apocalypse.  I’ve always been big on horror movies and especially love the monster movies, who doesn’t?  But some things have come to light lately that make me realize it’s about time to take this stuff seriously.   For instance, have you noticed the huge uptick in zombie movies? I used to be the only one, now everyone is talking about them. I figure it’s the government’s way of preparing us. Also, bath salts? Enough said.

What finally pushed me to get prepared was the little spider ants in my coffee pot.

Really, they were gross.  They moved right in to the actual coffee machine and then after a while they layed eggs or something and twice when I poured water into the top of the coffee maker spider ants came running out by the millions.  I didn’t count them, but it looked like millions. I didn’t get a picture of this unbelievable occurrence because I was much too busy waving my hands and jumping around like a two year old.

Obviously, I threw out 2 coffee pots.  I decided not to waste my money buying a new one because it seems Florida is just too weird to allow me to own one.  So now I blow 2 bucks picking up coffee on the way to work everyday and on weekends I go down to my dads’ and drink coffee with him and his friend.  His very-into-preparing-for-a-disaster friend.  Maybe you know someone like him. He’s the one who talks about how guns will be outlawed within the week (so you better go buy some), social unrest is causing a civil war next month (better buy lots), and a nuclear bomb may or may not be coming at us right now (not gonna help a bit).  But it’s all good, because unlike ME, he’s prepared. When I shamefully admitted that I run at night by myself without a gun he looked at me like I said I ran with nothing on but maybe a glow light strapped to my wrist. Where exactly am I supposed to carry a gun when I’m running?  I don’t even bring a key.

Well I HATE when someone one ups me (not really, but in this case) so I proudly announced how I’ll be just fine; I’ve been reading zombie preparedness sites. Another one of those looks.  And then he announced that when I have nothing and come knocking on his door I won’t be allowed in because I won’t have anything good to bring to the party. Well, that wasn’t the exact wording but there was mention of food.

FINE.  I will just have to prepare for my own party.  But since preparing for civil wars, social unrest and hurricanes is boring I’m preparing for the zombie apocalypse instead.  Some people better be stocking up on rum and coke if they plan on knocking on MY door!

As displayed by the fact that I’m still back down to running a mile after my last illness I like to take little steps in all things.  So my first step is to find a place to hoard water, canned goods, and other stuff to be determined.  I have a walk in closet that I haven’t cleaned since I bought the house 7 years ago and I’m working on getting it cleaned out to use a portion for storage.  It’s a bit more paranoid than my usual self but the idea of storing food and water in the sweltering garage sounds like food poisoning to me, so the closet will do.

I managed to get it almost half way cleaned out.  The goal is to finish clearing it out by next weekend and then start stocking it with very necessary stuff. Since preparing for the zombie apocalypse is almost as important as running I’ve decided to post updates about how the preparedness is coming. Sorry in advance.

I finally found the answer to what to do with Lucky so she isn’t always the one left home but she doesn’t over exert her poor legs.  If I fold down one of the seats in the car she can get in by going from the floor on the opposite side to the regular car seat to the folded down seat and lay down there.  Since she is lying on the back of the folded down car seat she’s up high enough to look out the window, but she can still lie down and not worry about her legs being unstable as I drive. She loves it!  We can go to the drive-thru at the McDonalds up the street, get me a coffee and her a cup of water (ya, she’s that cool) and head home and Lucky is in dog-heaven.  She better appreciate that since I won’t even take my kids to McDonalds!

Honestly it can really be a pain having dogs to take care of.  I can’t pick up and take the kids somewhere for the weekend, even staying out the entire day requires calling someone to go by the house because the dogs need to go out and they need to eat and they simply need someone around. It’s kind of like having 3 more kids, except they aren’t welcome to go with me most places.

But at the end of the day I really can’t imagine not having dogs around.  They have a simple joy for living that people just don’t have, and it’s happily contagious (or obnoxious as hell, depends on the moment).  If you don’t believe that just show a dog a box of treats or walk towards their leash and ta-da, happiness and joy abound.

It’s probably for the best that we people don’t show that joy for the little things.  I’m pretty sure if I did someone would commit me anyways.

As much fun as it is to kayak on the bay I have to admit it can be kind of creepy. The water is hypnotic. You know that the little fact that you don’t see any life out there other than the fish jumping doesn’t mean there is nothing out there. There could be anything in the water, just beneath as far down as you can see. The bay water is pretty dingy so that isn’t very far down at all.

I like to paddle out and then relax in the kayak, letting the water take me where it will. There’s always a point when I’m just staring down into the water watching the patterns of the sun and the chop. I feel like I can almost see something in the water, it’s just not quite close enough to the surface to see what it is. The brownish patch sliding under the kayak could be a manatee, it could be a shark, it could be anything.

I know that what I’m seeing is (probably) the light refracted through the water, a bit of plant or sometimes maybe a school of fish but my mind always has to bring up Steven King’s short story The Raft. Seriously, every single time.

The funny thing is my friend and I where kayaking last weekend and after we passed a large patch of (creepy, oily looking) seaweed he admitted he had been thinking about The Raft too.

It’s amazing what a reach books have on how we see things. I’ve always been a huge reader and the stories I like the best have always been either scary stories or spy books. Or anything with a super-hero in it. There’s more but I’ll leave it at that.

Point being it is amazing how often in day to day life I am reminded of a book I read, a story I heard, or a movie I saw. Without all of these stories I’m pretty sure my outlook on life would be completely different.

It’s probably thanks to Outbreak that if someone coughs in a movie theater I have an instant urge to cover my nose and mouth and leave. If an old man dressed in rags at a gas station tells me I should turn left a bit down the road you can bet I’m turning right. Or, more likely, turning around and going home. I’ll sleep in my car before I’ll sleep in that creepy looking house that I just happened to get a flat in front of.

I did stay in a cabin in the woods up in Flagstaff more than once, but I did NOT open any boxes or look in any closets and if someone would have knocked on the door I wouldn’t have answered, let alone walk out into the woods to see if I could find them.

Jaws anyone?

I think that if I did not have kids and dogs I would love to have a job that involved a lot of travel.  I had to go out of town last week for the whole week; it was the first time I’ve gone anywhere out of state by myself at all let alone for a week. I was a wee bit nervous.  I loaded my Kindle with books, packed a backpack with clothes and my all important GPS and was off. 

First important lesson- if you can get away with just a backpack when you are flying it is IDEAL.  No luggage to check in and pick up and nothing to shove in the overhead compartments on the plane.  Just pushed it under the seat and was on and off the planes ( 4 of them!) easily.  Of course not even most guys are as lazy and light a packer as I am.

Second lesson – pack light but bring an extra t-shirt.  I had to wear but the tank tops I had for under my work blouses when I went out in the evenings, good thing the weather was perfect!

Third lesson I actually learned last time I went out of town – always try the local beer!  I don’t really drink much beer, but I made the rule and I must stand by it.  Oh, the trials and tribulations.

My first night there I drove through down town then went back to the hotel for pizza and merlot, the second night I went to to park then stopped at an Italian restaurant for pizza and merlot, and my third night I went to The Lazy Goat for pizza and a beer. and merlot.  Is there a theme there?  The Lazy Goat is very nice, but I have to admit I wasn’t thrilled with the pizza, just because it had a pesto sauce and I don’t really care for pesto.  For some reason I still try it about once a year.  Seems 2013 is not the year I suddenly realize I love pesto.  Oh well.

The company was good, the service was great, and the view was awesome.

After dinner we walked around downtown a bit, I even saw one of the mice on Main.  I hadn’t heard of them before or I would have gone mouse hunting!

Oh, and by the way, my last night there I had hummus and pinot noir.  Branching out!

It’s painfully apparent reading this blog I am horrible at keeping a schedule. I have lots of things to blame it on – I’m tired, the kids, the dogs, the lightning outside, the list go on and on. But the number one thing that honestly messes me up is my work schedule. It can be anywhere from 8-5 to 11-8pm depending on the week.

Plus, work is an hour and a half from my house. That’s 3 hours a day, 15 hours a week just spent sitting in my car. Geez, seeing it in writing is just sad.

In a couple of weeks that will be all over! I start a new job less than 40 minutes from the house, and it will mostly be 8-5 every week! That is over an hour a day gained plus the same schedule every week! That’s a lot of exclamation points, but I’m pretty excited to be gaining all that time. I’m going to have to get in the habit of actually cooking dinner and eating it with my kids. What a concept!

I’m really excited about this but I am also a little nervous. I’ve blamed my changing schedule for my lack of structure the last few years, so now that it is no longer an excuse I’m going to have to step it up.

So, I start the new job in a week, but then in two weeks go out of town for some training. No way I’m sticking to a running schedule in a strange town by myself. But after that it’s all bets off and no more excuses. Time to sign up for a half marathon and get to it!