My 'Coming Out' Day...

I made it official today.... I 'came out' to the world via FaceBook that I'm going to run a half marathon. OMG am I nuts? Why would a person want to do that?? 13.1 miles of consecutive running? That will take me like 2 1/2-3 hrs of non-stop running..... Seriously.... My reasons are 2 fold:

1) running for me so far has not been all that challenging. I ran a 10K Turkey Trot last Thanksgiving without training for it and still came in at 1hr 12 mins. I want to push myself to do something outside my comfort zone. I ran in the Marines and while I NEVER got in the slacker van I wasn't all that strong compared to the boys I worked with. I want to be stronger.

2) my husband ran a full marathon last year and I'm nothing if I'm not competitive. Nuff said.

The race I've selected is http://www.obxmarathon.org/site3.aspx The Outer Banks Half Marathon starts in Kitty Hawk and the finish line is in downtown Manteo. I mean if I'm going to run 13.1 miles shouldn't my view be fantastic for most of the course?!? Plus, I'm a NC beach girl at heart so this is just another excuse to get there. :)

So I need to start training, reading, and find a person to completely critique my running form so I can be better. I told you I'm competitive. I'll be blogging as I progress so you can follow along with me as I make this journey. If you have any serious tips or suggestions feel free to leave them here.

Happy Trails!

Netflix Day 2/ Day 3

So yesterday we told the kids that we are transitioning from DirecTV to Netflix and their reaction wasn't at all what we expected. I expected tears, drama, and cries of dissent, instead the conversation went like this, (me) "hey kids I have bad news. We're not going to have DirecTV soon." (my 9 yr old son excitedly asks) "Are we getting Netflix instead???" So apparently the word is out among 9 yr old that Netflix is the way to go, am I that behind the times as a woman in my EARLY 30's? They were ecstatic about the prospect of having anything their heart's desired at the push of a button. John & I set up a few shows that we knew they liked as well as a few from our childhood that we thought they would enjoy (He-Man, She-Ra, Pink Panther, etc). Turns out the first thing they asked to watch was "Pippy Longstocking"; we just finished listening to that story in the car. In fact they are watching it again as I type this.

We were playing around with the search menu last night to see more of what is offered and it turns out that quite a few titles weren't available for immediate watching... that has been a bit of a disappointment for us. I'm not sure if we can order the DVD's to be sent to our house or if they just arent streaming anymore. According to my logic, those titles are still on there so they must be available somewhere, however my logic rarely equates to what is reality. haha!

Netflix offers parental control so that you have to type a code (which you create) in order to even access the main page. This is cool however I am hoping there are more in-depth controls that restrict what the kids can watch according to the ratings. I can already tell that having to type in the code each and every time we want to have the TV on is going to get old real quick so I hope that level of control is available. Plus telling the kids what the code is so they can turn Netflix on if I'm out of the room really defeats the purpose of having the code. We'll have to figure out a solution to that conundrum. Last night when we got in from my softball game they had 20 minutes till bedtime; I wanted to get cleaned up, so I just told them to turn on the DirecTV.

Another cool feature is Netflix keeps a running tab on the home screen as to what you have watched. So if there is a show or movie we particularly enjoyed we can go back to it in our 'Recently Viewed' section instead of having to search for it again, or remember the title. This is a nice feature, especially for the kids. This is also an EXCELLENT accountability tool for an unnamed adult that lives in my house that has to stay up late some nights for his work schedule.... So when "Diary of a Nymphomaniac" showed up yesterday on our 'Recently Viewed' section there were a few words exchanged along the lines of "is that what you want our kids looking at when they are trying to find cartoons?" I don't think we're going to have that problem again.

All and all, so far so good. One issue I know we're going to be dealing with soon is the fact that we have DirecTV in our bedroom. Guess if we decided to stick with Netflix we'll get rid of that TV- which is older than dirt anyway.... I remember my mom watching All My Children on that TV when I was in high school, although honestly that wasn't that long ago. ;)

Feel free to post comments or questions. Have a great weekend!

So we've been thinking of breaking out with Netflix for a while now but lack of information and fear of change kept us from doing that..... We're not in our 20's anymore so change doesn't come around without a fight in this house. We backed down our DirecTV service about a year ago and got an uber basic package. $29/month. TV is crap anyway so why pay $75/month for garbage? Well yesterday we received an offer of free Netflix for 30 days so after a little research we decided to take the plunge, sort of. We are going to use the 30 day trial AND keep our DirecTV service for the time being. We want to see if we can truly be happy with only Netflix, especially since it's not just 2 adults that need to be happy here..... we have a 9 yr old boy and a 7 yr old girl.

When it comes to the kids we really monitor what they watch and try our damnedest to fast forward through any commercials that we can. There's nothing like a Cialis commercial popping on in the middle of 'Wheel of Fortune' or a sultry Herbal Essence commercial during 'America's Funniest Home Videos'. I mean seriously people, those are typically FAMILY television shows and you show a commercial like that..... Like I said, TV is crap, and if I had my way about it we wouldn't have a TV at all but that is a bit idealistic and very unrealistic for 2011. My biggest fear about going only with Netflix is that in this world of "instant gratification" that this will just further this mindset. If a kid grows up only knowing he/she can watch what they want when they want it, what are we teaching them? I kind of like the parameters of having a 'Guide', however even that is just about out the door with Tivo. As it is we record Scooby Doo, Transformers, My Little Pony, etc for them now so what will we be losing if we go only to Netflix? The commercials. So if TV is already on their schedule thanks to Tivo, what we are really paying for is those god-awful commercials that I cant fast forward through fast enough.

Now as for what the hubby and I will watch... we both have a radically different opinion as to what to watch although we both enjoy comedies. That's about the only thing we can agree on when it comes to TV. Family guy is a regular for us once the kids are in bed. :) He likes the Science Channel ( I went to Catholic school as a kid. I never even heard of the Big Bang theory until high school and to this day have issues with believing it), I like PBS. He like Food Network, I'm trying to train for a half marathon- watching Giada de Laurentiis or Guy Fieri making me hungry at 10pm isn't going to help me achieve my goals.... While navigating through the Netflix on our Wii (he has the remote) we were trying to find a movie we both wanted to watch. He's looking for a familiar title, I'm trying to read the movie descriptions. {insert a grumble from me here} We finally decided on Hot Tub Time Machine...... Eh..... but this blog isnt about movie reviews.

With last night as our first experience DirecTV free in over 10 years, I'd have to say it wasnt horrible. Let's see what the day brings today when we break it to the kids, speaking of I hear little feet on the steps now so I'd better wrap this up. More to come soon! Post comments/questions please!