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Hi there! I'm Paula and I live in Orlando. I like to run and watch too much TV. I'm a lover of cupcakes and hater of chia seeds, even though I've never tried them. I eat peanut butter out of the jar and think Aaron Paul is my boyfriend.
Tag Archives: Bunnypants
Five for Friday. Ok, It’s Six.
1. I am currently on Day 5 of good eating. That means Day 5 of lower carb. Day 5 with minimal desserts. And more importantly, Day 5 without peanut butter. I have an unopened jar at home that I find myself gazing at longingly a couple times a day. Also, now that I’m peanut butter free, I’ve realized that I don’t really like Saltine crackers and bananas. They were just a means to transport more peanut butter into my mouth. I’m looking forward to the day when I can just spoon it all in again.
2. Speaking of eating lower carb, it is making my Crossfit workouts so much harder. I am just dying during them. The workouts don’t have new moves or anything like that and I usually get tired, but just not this tired. I’m sure I’ll get used to the lower carb thing at some point and start busting out workouts like it ain’t no thang.
That’s usually how I look by the way. Just like that.
3. I haven’t been running much. Still. I might get in about three miles a week, and that’s not even consecutive miles. This week, I thought I would get back at it. So, last night I did a speed run. I warmed up for .60 miles and then did this x8.
- 1 minute @ 8:00
- 2 minutes @ 10:00
I went to the gym with the intention of doing 10 repeats. Guess who’s endurance is shot? THIS girl. I could barely get through 6 and 7. Very humbling and sucky experience. I’m going to have to change my treadmill approach.
4. Work is sending me to Killeen, TX again. For three weeks. Three! I’m not even sure how one packs for three weeks but I’m fairly certain I should just put my house on wheels and roll it there.
5. Hubs and I think Pants has a ghost petter.
See those lines in her fur where it looks like someone scratched her back? At first we thought it was from her squeezing in and out of her box. But those lines are there all.the.time. We’ll even mess up her hair so it stands straight up and it will go right back to looking like that. See? Ghost petter.
6. Go check out this post about yours truly. I giggled reading the whole thing. I even made the blog title! Plus, she is much better at recapping events than I am and has much better pictures.
Buy a *Chocolate* Bunny for Easter
Reblogged from Eat: Watch: Run:
Each year, thousands of people buy ‘Easter’ bunnies for their kids without knowing how to properly care for a rabbit or the commitment involved. Unfortunately, some pet stores encourage this mindset and as a result, most of these bunnies wind up abandoned, neglected, or dead. A few are lucky enough make it to the SPCA.
As a bunny mommy, I wanted to do this post to get the word out about the commitment it takes to own a rabbit. It’s not easy. This little girl takes a lot of work.
Bunnies live 9-12 years, so it’s a long term commitment.
Bunnies need lots of supervised play time. It’s recommended they have 2 hours a day.
It’s a good idea to get bunnies spayed or neutered. They have a lot of reproductive issues when they get older. Getting Pants fixed cost us upward of $200. (And smaller animals don’t always do well under anesthesia.)
Bunnies need fresh veggies every day. I’m always going to the store during lunch breaks to get her lettuce, parsley, broccoli, Timothy hay, litter, toys, and treats.
Bunnies can be litter trained. It took us less than a week to train her when she was 8 weeks old, but you have to be patient and do your research beforehand.
Bunnies chew. On EVERYTHING. (See the baseboards in the background?)
They also like to dig on carpet, or even better, all the litter out of their litter box. Right after you’ve cleaned it. (Oh, she needs her litter box cleaned out at least twice a day, too.)
Bunnies also shed like you wouldn’t believe – and go through “molting” season where they shed clumps of fur. We have tumbleweed of fur rolling around the house on a daily basis. It’s like a terrible, terrible Western.
Bunnies hate to be held (or at least ours does). Which makes it interesting when you have to cut their nails.
You can’t go out of town without finding someone to watch the bunny. They are not like cats. It’s always a huge production to dismantle Pant’s cage, gather all her things, and get her unwilling ass into her carrier.
Although Pants is a lot of work, we love her and she is so worth it. We never get tired of playing with her and making her do bunny photo shoots and she always makes us smile, but it’s a lot of work that we didn’t expect at first.
Of course, we’d do it again in a heartbeat. She’s part of the family.
(That was right after she was fixed so she was still drugged. There’s no way she’s sit still like that now.)
Rabbits are definitely not animals to buy on a whim. Do your research first if you’re ever interested in one – or ask me! Or, check out this site for more information.
Being Realistic
I don’t normally talk about my goals on the blog too often, mostly because I never achieve them. I know lots of other bloggers often write about their goals because they say their blog keeps them accountable. Well, this blog doesn’t keep me accountable for shit. I wish I could say that I feel guilt or disappointment that I didn’t reach a goal because I put it “out there,” but I don’t. I’m perfectly fine letting everyone know I fail.
.
I wrote a goal post awhile ago and when I look at those goals now, I see that I only achieved two out of six of them.
I’ve also mentioned wanting to lose 10 lbs, but that hasn’t happened either. I’m unwilling to give up beer and cupcakes for the long haul. I eat well most of the time and I work out hard, but beyond that I still want to live. So maybe I’m not serious enough about goals? Or maybe I’m just the queen of goal-achieving suckage?
So mean. Yet so cute.
Yesterday, I tried to make up a 10-miler that I should have done this weekend. I made it 4.3 miles until I quit. I was tired, it was my day off, and I wanted to be on the couch. Not even a good excuse.
Next weekend, I’ll be out of town so I won’t be able to run long then either. Which brings me to the one goal that I (also) haven’t met: running a sub 2-hour half marathon. It’s the one goal that I actually really care about. I’ve been trying for two years and it still hasn’t happened.
I got close…once. A long time ago (2:02:41).
The fact that I might not be able to get in a long run for two weeks before my race doesn’t seem like the best strategy for making my goal happen even though I’m trying my best to keep up with speed training. So basically what I’m saying is that I suck at achieving goals and given my track record, I think we know how my race will go in two weeks.
So anyway, I’m not saying all this to fish for encouragement. I’m not. At all. I’m saying this because I wanted to share two posts from other people that I really liked about meeting goals:
- This post about a half marathon PR that is really inspiring (especially since he didn’t really want to run the race).
- This post about a marathon DNF (that’s Did Not Finish for the non-runners) that is still pretty inspiring even without the happy ending.
When I have trouble inspiring myself, I’m glad there are people out there that give me a little inspiration when I need it.
You catch all that, Pants?
I thought so.
By the Numbers
*This post was deleted somehow today (8/31). I was able to restore the post but unfortunately lost all of your comments. 
*
It’s a random one today.
1. I had a great run last night. I think there’s something to knowing that I’m going to the gym and will only be there for 35 minutes, because shorter workouts are really doing it for me lately. The run wasn’t anything special, just three miles, but it felt awesome and ended up being the tiniest progression run in the world.
It’s possible only I find that funny. Tiniest violin? Anything? Fine, here was the run.
- 1 @ 10:00 (.05 incline)
- 1 @ 9:40 (.05 incline)
- 1 @ 9:22 (1% incline)
That extra .05% incline in the last mile was unusually hard. Am I just a big baby? Because you wouldn’t think half of a percentage would make that much of a difference. I need to gradually increase my incline anyway so I figured I would do it during my easy runs to make them a little more challenging.
2. Our dryer stopped working last weekend. Well, it spins but it doesn’t heat up, so now our entire house is being used as a ghetto clothesline.
I made a service appointment at Sears online a few days ago and the confirmation page said that someone would be calling to confirm the appointment. Well, they are supposed to arrive today and I haven’t heard from them. So I called and spoke to someone named Caramel and the extremely helpful conversation went like this:
Caramel: Thank you for calling Sears, this is Caramel.
Me: Hi there. I made a service appointment online but never received a confirmation call, so I was just calling to confirm someone would be coming out today.
Caramel: *silence*
Me: Hello?
Caramel: Yes.
Me: Can you hear me?
Caramel: What is your number?
Me: *gives her number*
*Silence*
Caramel: For your dryer?
Me: Yes.
Caramel: Yes
*Silence for a good 20 seconds*
Me: So you have my appointment and I’m good to go and should expect someone today?
Caramel: Yes.
Is it too much to ask for…more words? That’s all I want. Just a few more words so that wasn’t the most awkward conversation ever. And honestly, if your name is Caramel, people expect more of you. That’s just how it is.
3. Hubs and I had a double date with the in-laws this weekend. We went to dinner at Ale House (one of my favorite chains in Florida) and then went to see Premium Rush, along with the other 10 people in America.
Alright, so it bombed at the box office but we all liked it. It was good fun. I’m not saying you need to (premium -ha?) rush out to the theatre to see it, but if you’re looking for something to do on a Friday night when it’s on video, pour yourself a frosty beverage and check it out. Plus, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is adorable so even if you hate it, you’ve got that.
4. Speaking of Friday nights at home and nothing to do, hubs and I found this movie On-Demand, watched the trailer, and decided we had to see it. The trailer gave us chills.
The movie was really good. It’s not gory and it’s not really scary but it makes you feel so tense the entire time because you know something is going to happen. It was filmed as if it was shot with one camera in one take, so that makes it even creepier when you can hear things happening in other rooms but can’t see them. Plus, I think the camera work was really well done and that’s not something I normally notice in a movie. So, if you like thrillers, check this one out.
It stars Elizabeth Olsen (the Olsen twins’ younger sister), who I’ve never seen before but I thought she was really good. Also, I’m pretty sure she is what the Olsen twins would look like if they were remotely attractive. Or at least brushed their hair and stopped looking like hobos. Elizabeth definitely got the looks in the family.
I guess Elizabeth just didn’t get all the money. Maybe that’s why the twins are the multi-millionaires? It’s like karma evening things out.
5. I don’t have a number five for you but I can’t just leave it at four because that feels wrong. So, here’s a picture of Pants that I took today.
Remember when hubs and I got that video of Pants growling? Well, I’m working on getting another video of her latest adorable thing. We had a jacket on the floor (that was going to Goodwill) and when she was playing one day, she jumped on it and tried to smooth out all the lumps with her paws to make it flat. It was so damn cute. Of course the jacket never made it to Goodwill and is still on the floor because we want to see her do it all the time, but it never happens when we have the camera ready. What a sneaky minx. I’ll keep trying.
Hopefully I can get more adorable Pants videos and then I can go viral just like this girl.
Back to Real Life
I made it back to Orlando safely. And now I get to hang out with these two cuties again.
That might be my favorite picture ever. Hubs loves his bunny snuggles. So sweet. <3
I have today off because of all the hours we put in on travel. I’ve been killing time by catching up on MasterChef, not showering, taking gratuitious pictures of Pants, and rearranging the magnets on the fridge. And by rearranging, I mean just putting a new one up there.
Whenever I visit a new place, I have to buy a magnet that has the name of the place I visited. I like the reminder of where I’ve been and I think as the years go by, I’ll like looking back and remembering all the trips I’ve taken. I get pretty upset if I forget to buy one too. I forgot to buy one in Savannah and Jacksonville last year, which still bums me out that I don’t have a reminder of my first and second marathons. I also couldn’t find one in Austin, so I had to beg my co-worker, Lee, to pick one up for me. I realize I am ridiculous. But it’s my thing.
Anyway, Killeen was pretty sparse in the magnet department. What? No one wants a reminder of Killeen out there? Unthinkable! I found exactly one at the airport, so I had to buy it. It’s not pretty.
That deer looks pissed to be in Killeen.
I just found out today that in three weeks, I might be going on another two week work trip (to Maryland this time). I’m not thrilled about it since I was trying to get vacation time approved next month. Plus, the last thing you want to hear right when you get home is when you’re leaving again. I guess I’ll see if the trip actually gets approved. It’s just in the planning stages now but it’s kinda killing my mood.
Not killing my mood? That I get to go to Crossfit tonight after 2 weeks of doing workouts on my own. And, I’m officially back on my running plan! I’m following one from Smart Coach, which is free from Runner’s World. The easy run paces are a little on the slow side for me, so I may have to tweak those as I get into it.
My ultimate goal is a sub 2-hour half marathon. I have a 10 miler coming up at the end of September and I’ll have a little more time after that to train for my half marathon in November. I’ll be running the half alone, which I think will really help my motivation during the race because I won’t be thinking of who is running ahead of me. At least, that’s how it worked for my last marathon. So my fingers are crossed for this one.
In an unrelated note, I decided to take back to school pictures of Pants today. Almost everyone I know is posting first day of school pictures of their kids on Facebook and I’m feeling a little left out. So, please enjoy Pant’s first day of school pics.
She’s packed and ready to go.
Stuff
I’m out of clever titles. So today I give you…stuff.
1. Race pictures for the Sarasota Half Marathon are in. I think that town is trying make nice with me. I know for a fact that two photographers caught me walking and one photographer caught me shoving a PB&J in my face. But, by some miracle, none of those pictures made it on Marathonfoto’s Web site. And I’m sure we’re all better off for it.
Well played, Sarasota. We can be friends again.
2. Speaking of that PB&J, eating during a race is especially uncomfortable for me since I can’t eat gels or any normal “runner food.” Of course I can’t eat and run at the same time either, so it’s completely awkward to walk and eat a sandwich while tons of traffic is driving by. I look like a total lazy ass as every other runner is passing me by and I’m chowing down.
I need sugar-free PB&J Gu’s invented STAT. Someone please make that happen.
3. This Saturday, I’m running the Navy League 5k. My work is sponsoring one of the water stations and asked if I wanted to run it. I love free stuff so of course I said yes. I’d probably take a case of rabies for free if someone offered it nicely. The race proceeds go to charity. It’s basically an un-timed fun run with a raffle for everyone at the end instead of prizes for placing. I’m pretty sure there are no rules for this race either. It’s the first race I’ve ever seen that allows roller blades.
Does that even sound safe around a bunch of runners? I can’t see anything good coming of that. But the good news is that I could probably ride a pony to the finish and it would be ok.
4. My playlist is set for the 5k. It’s more songs than I need but chances are I’m going to hate life once I get out there anyway and turn it off.
5. Last weekend, I went over to the in-laws to help my MIL to help celebrate her 65th birthday. We had cake.
Once I picked off the almond slivers (95% of the time, I don’t like nuts in desserts), that thing was pretty good. A few family members were over and as we sang Happy Birthday, I noticed that my MIL sang Happy Birthday to herself. Twice. Once in English and once in Spanish for good measure. She’s a one-woman party. I’m not even sure she needed us there.
6. Because my bunny is freakin’ adorable, here’s a picture of her trying to hide her face while I was clipping her nails. She’s never done anything like that before. OMG, I die.
7. And lastly, my friend Jim at Biking My Mass Off is raising money for Multiple Sclerosis for his upcoming MS 150 bike ride. If you’re local in Orlando, he’s having a fundraiser at the Mellow Mushroom on Colonial and Alafaya. If you mention the fundraiser, 15% of your total check will benefit MS. That means you can get fat on pizza and drink till your sloppy and not feel guilty because it’s for a good cause.
Jim even offered to buy a drink or dessert for the first person that comes up to him and mentions that you heard about it on my blog. Luckily for me, he didn’t say that person couldn’t be me. Race you there to order the most expensive drink on the menu?
P.S. If you can’t make it but would like to donate anyway, you can do that here.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Bunnypants, Family, Navy League 5k, Running, Sarasota Half Marathon
30 Comments
You Will Be Mine
Yesterday, I met my friend Ursula’s dog, Moe. Then for the remainder of the night, I contemplated how important our friendship was because I.want.to.steal.that.freaking.dog. He is so cute. And I’m pretty sure Bunnypants will agree that he needs to be part of the family. She can talk about how she has one ear and a penchant for parsley.
And Moe can talk about how he has one eye and no depth perception.
I just think it’s rude that anyone would show me this dog when I can’t have him. (And I’ll spare you the details of how he lost that eye.)
We posed for pictures all night long. We talked about the future. This dog and I are MFEO. I’m coming for you, Moe. We will be together. In the meantime, I have to return my running shoes again. And eat some lunch. And maybe catch up on some stuff on the DVR. But after all that, I’ll definitely steal Moe.
Today, So Far
I had to get up early this morning (7:50am). I know. Life is rough without kids. Sorry moms and dads. Anyway, we had an appointment to have new internet set up that’s going to be faster and save me $50 a month. Since we had an 8-10am technician arrival window, I killed some time by actually cleaning the house. I made sure to follow these steps precisely, just in case.
Hub’s allergies have been acting up lately, so I decided to do a really good vacuuming. This means, de-furring the bunny first because she molts like a mofo for several months out of the year and you can literally pull clumps of hair out of her.
That picture was taken when we were done. There were 3 other piles just like that.
After the de-furring (which she is not a fan of), we rewarded her for good behavior with a new cardboard box. Nothing but the best and most expensive gifts for Pants.
The diva wanted her picture taken today. I love that curious little face.
The new internet was set up without problem. We also had a new data outlet installed and that went well too, which I thought was unusual. Something always goes wrong no matter what I have set up. After the technician left, I even mentioned to hubs that it was weird it went so smoothly.
After our internet provider was switched, I headed back to Fleet Feet and went through the same process I did a month ago. I had my gait analyzed and ran in a bunch of different shoes. The lady that helped me this time told me that the shoes I bought probably have too much stability. She also really reminded me of Marnie from True Blood last season.
So Marnie recommended ones with minimal stability, which I thought was what I had already with the Brooks, and said I should stick with the inserts. She also told me my calves are super tight, which I knew. I’m just too lazy to move from the couch to the floor to foam roll them most of the time. This time around, my feet chose the Nike SuperFug Lunarglide 3.
I’ve always wanted my size 10 boat feet to be the absolute center of attention and now they can be! I haven’t ran in Nike’s in years, so we’ll see how these go. They were over $30 cheaper so I got some money back, which was nice since I’m going to look like an moron in these.
Oh, and as I’m writing this blog post, our internet is running at dial-up speed. The guy gave us the wrong modem and they need to come back out. Yeah. That sounds about right.
No Love
The medal I’ve been waiting for finally came in the mail. That would be my Rock Encore medal for completing 2 races in the Rock ‘n’ Roll series. They give you a different medal (on top of what you get after you finish the race) if you complete 2-7 and 10 R’n'R races in a calendar year.
(source)
The extra medals are well-deserved too. I think they give them to you for putting up with the Rock ‘n’ Roll series. An “I’m sorry, we suck” medal, if you will.
When it came in the mail, I was a little disheartened when I saw this.
Say what? So if I didn’t live at the same address I did when I registered for the race, whoever does live there can have my medal. Awesome.
Anyway, I’ve been waiting for this bad boy for over a month now. It’s pretty nice too, so I will proudly hang it with all my other medals. But first, I had to show Pants. For a short moment, I thought I was going to get some awesomely cute bunny action, but then it went something like this.
Sorry that medal doesn’t meet your standards, Pants. You are such a diva. I only ran a full and half marathon for that. What do you do? You eat hay and you poop. I don’t see any medals coming in the mail for that.
Just Another Manic Bunday
Someone had me a little freaked out yesterday.
Hubs fed Pants her usual lettuce and parsley breakfast in the morning. Then, a few hours later, we noticed she didn’t touch her food. When small animals don’t want to eat, it’s never a good thing. Instead she hid in her box and wouldn’t come out.
I tried to give her a grape (her fave) and bunny yogurt treats but she didn’t want that either. I mean, she grunts (literally), does figure-eights through my feet, and nips at my ankles if I don’t feed her fast enough, so I was worried.
All day, I was sure it was the end because I’m morbid like that. We checked her teeth to see if they were chipped (often a reason small animals stop eating). Then we tried to give her some good old fashioned lovin’ but she was having none of it. So we left her alone. Hubs and I went out to lunch, did a little shopping, and when we came back she had finally eaten her parsley. *whew* Then she slowly ate the rest of her food but it took her all day, which was weird. So, I guess she just wasn’t feeling well? Now she’s back to her normal personality, poopin’ like a champ, and licking herself like no one’s watching.
While I was out, I picked up a stuffed polar bear to cheer her up. She gave him a good sniff down and has finally welcomed him into her inappropriate stuffed animal humping family.
So, a bunny crisis was averted and I didn’t become a sobbing mess. And with that, I leave you with a bad bunny joke.
What do you call 10 rabbits walking backwards? ——> A receding hare line. (I’ll be here all night.)
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