10-6-2011

I probably have no business posting this on my stupid blog in the first place, and I tend to think it's gauche to talk about money anyway, but it's not often that things like this happen with someone else's signature on the front so I'm documenting it for its rarity.

10-5-2011

According to credible sources, pimpin' ain't easy. Neither is speedwork. Does that mean speedwork is the same as pimpin'?

10-4-2011

Scouting spots for speed workouts. This is going to hurt.

10-3-2011

I've been doing this post-a-picture-every-day blog for so long I don't even know what to do or what direction to go in.

10-2-2011

I posted on 8-25-11 about eating the ridiculously decadent and delicious combination of fried chicken and waffles. Well, with all the ridiculous amounts of running we've been doing, I feel like I have a pass to eat as much decadent and delicious food as I want. As much as I want = all you can eat chicken and waffle brunch buffet. Not just one buffet line, but two buffet lines full of gourmet soul food like three cheese macaroni and cheese, collard greens with smoked pork, and cheesy grits. They knew about my high blood sugar, so they were nice enough to seat us directly next to the dessert table so I could see every time they brought a cart full of fresh desserts for me to eat. I need to run another ten miles.

Today is a day off on our schedule though, so we went to the bookstore instead. I don't know why I think it's so funny that this is now a legitimate literary genre. Oh yeah, we got macaroons too since I clearly didn't just eat enough calories for breakfast (lunchanddinner all at once), and I've been missing cookie time since Paris. So yeah, day off from running means cookie time and reading books by the fireplace with Nicole and Sienna.

10-1-2011

Today I officially survived my first week of half marathon training by completing a (very enjoyable actually) ten mile run. This is the farthest I've ever run in my whole life ever, and I'll be running even further next weekend. I'm swelling with both pride and sore leg muscles.

Well, after our run, we went to go see Nicole's dad's team since they were racing at a meet down the street from where we were. Obviously, with a father who's coached her whole life, Nicole is an experienced running person who has participated and been around stuff like this since forever. This is all still quite a spectacle to me though since I was too busy falling off of skateboards and being in bad punk bands in high school to even consider joining a sports team. Now that my obsessive compulsiveness has targeted running, I kind of wish that I had started earlier so I would be better at it now. Really though, I probably would have looked like this sad scrawny kid running though the mud and crying. I had no idea how dirty cross country running is. If Nicole made me run here today I would literally be crying mud.

9-30-2011

It's Friday night and we're doing something fun/stupid. Isn't that what you're supposed to do on Friday nights? Well, with every other post on my blog being about my peppers, I'm sure you've figured out that I like eating spicy foods. And considering that all the other post not about my peppers are about grilled cheese, I'm sure you've figured out that I like eating Melt. Well when I found out that they were making a sandwich that you had to sign a legal waiver to eat, we had to go right? This is the Ghost Chili (Bhut Jolokia) sauce that all the hype was about. As you can tell, the sauce was a lot of hype and just a little bit of ghost pepper since we were dipping our fries in it, but it was still really good.

9-29-2011

Soaking drowning flooded dripping though my clothes drenched. Five miles in the rain at night. Easy.

9-28-2011

I've been telling Nicole about this guy ever since we moved into our house four years ago, but never actually got a picture until now. Every few days I see this guy walking along my way to work. He's lost a ton of weight, but that's not the point. Whenever I see him he's walking with a little stick. I call it a "hitter." Unless he's running a relay and I've never seen the hand off, I'm pretty sure he constantly stays prepared to fend off attackers on his walk around the block.

9-27-2011

Two days down and so far I'm still breathing. I don't normally post a lot of details like this on my blog, but here's another version of today's picture in case they find me dead in the street, and this blog is the only way that they can figure out that my cause of death was massochistic and borderline suicidal. This is going to be a really fun month!

9-26-2011

I don't know who we should really blame for this one. It's easy to assume that it was my running obsession that caused us to make such a rash and senseless decision, but if you look a little closer, you'll notice that this race is at a winery. Clearly someone else may have had some ulterior motives in the selection process. No matter who's at fault, we've made a pact to murder our legs and social lives. The countdown to 13.1 starts tonight. THERE ARE NO REFUNDS.

9-25-2011

I make messes. Sorry, Nicole's car.

9-24-2011

I know I post too much about both running and my peppers, but it was really pretty and sunny today, so my favorite things I did all day were going running in the sun (no pictures) and hanging my peppers to dry in the sun.

9-23-2011

So as much as I complain about this place almost all the time, I'm a born and raised Cleveland person. I think anyone who's lived here for any extended length of time has strong opinions on the city both good and bad, but in the end the good must outweigh the bad or else we would all live somewhere else. In any case, the late Harvey Pekar is unquestionably the iconic person from Cleveland with strong opinions, and someone that this city can be really proud of. To this end, I was incredibly proud and totally blown away when I found out that an illustration drawn directly from something that I painted made it into one of the last novels he wrote before his death. I found out months ago, but couldn't talk about it until it was published, then slacked on actually picking up a copy. Well I got my copy tonight and I'm really excited about it. Cleveland.

Speaking of things to be proud of in Cleveland, we went to one of my favorite places to get food tonight. Yeah, even after traveling across the ocean to one of the premier culinary centers in the world, I'm still super happy about going to a divey bar and getting fancy vegetarian hot dogs. Cleveland.