Netflix Day 27

We’re just about at the end of our 30 day free trial of Netflix and I’m pretty surprised at how much my whole family has taken to it like a moth to a flame.  The kids discovered Inspector Gadget the other day and so that has been the new obsession for them.  My 9 yr old son runs to get the mail just about every day (he even asks to get the mail on Sunday) in case there is a new red envelope with a movie in it.  My 7 yr old daughter is a TV baby (she could sit and watch for hours and barely move) so she’s happy with just about anything that’s on.  John started watching Pawn Stars, which he never watched before, and is now addicted.  That show is pretty cool. I’m still making my way through the Weeds series, up to Season 3 episode 5 I think.  I was doing pretty good till John said last week, “I cant believe you watch that without me, I kinda liked that show too ya know.” (insert pout here) Damn it John you are rarely home at night and now I have to wait until you’re sitting on the couch with me to watch it?  Not pleased and I'm thinking that won’t last much longer…

So with all this happiness with Netflix I’ve been wondering lately what the downsides are/will be.  I found out one of them last night…. Since Netflix operates on Wi-Fi, it stands to reason that when the Wi-Fi isn’t available your streaming isn’t available either.  My Wi-Fi was fluctuating last night, you know, coming in and out of service, while I was trying to watch Ghost Adventures (since I guess I’m not supposed to watch Weeds) and every 10 minutes or so the screen would freeze and say ‘receiving’  UGH! A show that should have taken 48 minutes to get through was more than an hour! I even remember thinking; I’d rather be fast-forwarding through commercials than waiting on this. (On a side note, I’ve noticed that my attention span is dwindling more and more lately. I need to work on that) I ended up sleeping through the ending, damn it. 

Speaking of sleeping with the TV on, in a fit of irritation last week with crap that happened that costs us over $2k to fix, I called DirecTV to cancel our account.  So no more TV in the bedroom.  First, allow me to explain… last Wednesday the transmission to one of our vehicles AND the AC to our house went out. SHIT! When stuff like that happens that costs a lot of money my very first reaction is to cut all unnecessary costs to minimize the damage to our budget.  Since DirecTV was on the chopping block anyway, I just called a week or so early.  The guy on the phone was really really good.  He just about offered us the moon if we would stay on with DirecTV.  OK, for real he offered to waive our DVR service for the next 2 years (costs us about $5/month) and take the package that we currently are paying $29/month for and make it $15/month for 2 years.  Wow dude that was pretty enticing but no thanks.  Unless you can magically make TV not suck AND throw in no commercials ever I think I’ll stick with Netflix.  Good try though.  So back to me sleeping with the TV on….. I told you I’d have to go cold turkey and I did, and I’m not cool with it yet.  I’ve slept with the TV on for years, so this will take some adjusting.  I have an app on my phone that plays the sound of the ocean that I’ve been using (I totally miss the beach) so that is helping. However I’m pretty sure that I’ll be reading books on my iPhone soon.  I downloaded a sample of “The Help” last night and read a few pages. That calmly sent me into Dreamland where I dreamt that my favorite restaurant in NC, Smithfield's, opened a location here in Cincinnati!  J Imagine my disappointment when I woke up! No good bbq for me till Nov when we head to NC for my race. L

Only a few more days left of this 30 days so my next entry will be my last regarding Netflix.  Stay tuned though for my Half Marathon training updates! Have a great day! 

Forming Day 21

I’ve had a week full of reasons why I didn’t train hard…… Number 1 reason though-the AC in our house went out.  During one of the hottest weeks on record for our area and for 3 days we have no air conditioning.  Nothing zaps your energy or patience like a hot house. I even considered pitching our tent in the back yard and camping since at night it was cooler outside than it was in our house. By Friday when I had finally had enough and was 2 seconds from booking a room at Great Wolf Lodge the repair man calls and says our motor is ready to be picked up!  There is a God!!!  I’m not exaggerating when I say our upstairs was over 100*.  So with the assistance of my fantastic brother-in-law Mike, John was able to get it up and running again by Saturday morning.  Ahhhhhhhh  J  And so prepping for my first Half Marathon resumed Saturday afternoon which was fueled by the announcement that one of my sisters (I have 4!) will be running the race with me and  John!  YEA!!!  I’m so happy!  She’s living in Denver so this will be a fantastic way of getting to hang out with her while doing something we both enjoy, running. 

So with the knowledge that Sara will be along for the ride I’m now extra motivated to train.  Well, I’m extra motivated for her to train also, she’ll be running the full marathon with a friend of John’s from the Marines and we have a bet going that she can beat him.  Sara, a 23 yr old former college soccer star and runner extraordinaire WILL beat a former Marine who I believe just turned 30 (and I will be $25 richer)…. Yea she’s got this in the bag!  She shared with me her marathon training poster that is hanging on the back of her front door to her apartment.  Every day she has to look at it and either think to herself, ‘yep I got my miles in for the day!’ or ‘damn I have to get out there!’ I love the idea of the visual accountability.  Once I roll into my actual Training Days (coming up soon!!) I think something like that would be great for me.  I’m a very visual person and if I don’t see it, it gets forgotten about… this would be a great tool for me.  

Speaking of Training Days, it just so happens that once the kids go back to school I will have exactly 13 weeks to prepare for the OBX Half.  This also happens to be exactly how long my boot camp was; coincidence? I don’t think so.  Although this time there will be no gas chamber, or rifle range, or chow hall duty.  I would love it if Jillian Michaels were yelling at me DI style though, man she is awesome!  I will however still be waking up at zero-dark-thirty to get the kids on the bus.  Haha!  It has been extremely challenging to get miles logged with Thing 1 & Thing 2 home all day and John at work (stupid night shift!) so I’m really looking forward to ‘Jen time’ starting Aug 18^th. 

With the ‘forming’ that I’ve been working on, I can see and feel my body changing and that is definitely a good thing.  In fact I wore a 2 piece bathing suit yesterday that I haven’t fit into in a couple of years, WHICH felt awesome!!  I told you that I am visual so having that profile picture on FB which I also uploaded to my phone as my background has really helped.  The constant reminder of my ‘goal body’ helps me when I want to eat junk or be lazy about getting to the gym. My abs and arms are taking on tone they haven’t seen since I was 22 and my legs are getting lean and strong.  I need to keep this up, I feel fantastic.  J  When I think about eating a piece of cake, or donuts, or Oreos with peanut butter on them I just look at the caloric content.  Imaging how long it will take me on the treadmill to work off those calories is usually deterrent enough.  Who likes doing extra work?? 

 So just a few more weeks and my real work begins!  I’m really excited!!!  Now to answer the really hard question….. what will I wear to the race?!?!  ;)