the furminator

the furminator is quite possibly the best "product" for long haired pet owners. even for semi long haired pet owners. what is the furminator you ask? it is a special brush/clipper that takes out the dog's (or cat's) undercoat which is most of the hair that comes out when the animal sheds. 

a friend's brother's friend (got that?) recommended this product to me this winter when i was in colorado with the disappointing news that it had not yet made it across the mississippi, so if i wanted it, i'd have to order it online. now, i do order things online (like a purse the other day. stupid project runway introduced me to bluefly) , but i just couldn't bring myself to do this with the furminator for some reason. wow, was that a mistake. 

i furminated both maddux and carlos. it didn't do much for maddux, but carlos (who has longer hair than maddux)-- damn! we could go into business making wigs for cancer patients with the amount of hair that is coming out of this dog. it's ridiculous. and kind of amazing. we have had "issues" with dog hair for as long as we've had dogs (i admit part of the problem is that neither of us like to clean much. or at all.), like to the point that i have to use my hands to "scrape" up the hair on our area rug (dark blue rug with shedding dogs=bad choice) which i know is very gross.

however, i have faith that the furminator will change all of this. we close on our condo tomorrow and i'm furminating carlos every day from now until when we officially move in. and then every other day once we're in. if i don't have to clean up balls of hair all over the house (no, kyle doesn't clean up hair), it will be so worth it.  or my dog will be bald. this would also solve the problem. 

and yes, i know this has nothing to do with running. 

I know, I'm such a follower

So yes, I am aware that everyone else has been blogging for about a billion years and I'm totally a follower because I'm starting to do this now. However... I have decided that its time. Why now you ask? It certainly has nothing to do with my free time (I'm working, taking a class, playing soccer, running, closing on a condo, etc. etc. this summer). Oh no, it's much more selfish than that. I'm blogging so you can all guilt me into running. In particular, I'm training for the Chicago Marathon in October. I've run a couple marathons before, but I've never completed a full training plan because I always wuss out at the end. This means I also wuss out at the marathons and end up walking and being way slower than I want and throwing up after the race. My goal for this marathon is to not wuss out. On either the race OR the training. 

This is where my friends and family come in. I'm not Catholic, but my mom's side of the family is. Therefore, I think I have some weird recessive Catholic guilt gene or something because I am quite possibly the easiest person in the world to guilt into something. So make me run people! Exploit my emotional weaknesses! 

** On a side note, I just saw the "condom blowup race" from the Tila Tequila show on The Soup. Oh. My. God. People tell me that I watch crap tv because I watch reality shows on Bravo. No people, I do not watch crap tv. Project Runway in NO WAY compares to the crapness of Tila Tequila. Sorry. **

So, the running. Today I did a 12 miler and it was alright. The last couple of times I've run, my legs have been strange. I've been a little concerned about this because I'm doing the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Colorado next weekend. However, the first 6 were good (besides the fact that it was raining when I left, so brought my raincoat, it stopped raining about 5 minutes after I left my apartment, so I got to carry a jacket for 11.5 miles.) I stopped and picked up some Gu (Goo?) on the way out-- this is my first Gu experience. I've heard good and bad things about it and wasn't totally sure how my body was going to react as I have trouble with Gatorade on long runs because of the sugar. I just had a tiny little bit of the Gu (it tasted like the fluoride at the dentist. rather gross.), but I didn't throw up. I also don't know if it did anything, but I'm proud of the lack of vomit. Low expectations... 

**On a final note, near Ohio Beach there were people swimming laps in the lake. Anyone know what this is? Ironman training? Crazy people who swim in the lake in thunderstorms? It was kind of cool. If I were a good swimmer (and not a little bit afraid to put my face in Lake Michigan for fear of what is in the water), I would totally think about doing that. Way better than swimming laps in a pool!**

**Oh yeah, and for those of you wondering: Planet Unicorn Hey!