Random winter wants

I am truly a kid at heart and I see all these youth running around in these crochet animal head hats.  Am I too old for one?  The Panda winter hat is on my list of "wants" this Christmas.  My wife has said she can make me one but there are different looks and maybe an owl head would fit me better.  When I was in grade school my mother bought me a knit hat that had a fake pair of goggles on the part you fold up.  Everyone in grade school loved that hat and so did I.  That hat was worn from kindergarten until probably fifth or sixth grade.  I thought I lost it years ago, then one day at my sisters house and she pulled it out of a drawer.  Why does my sister keeps all my memories from me (just kidding)?

As a child my mother would frequent the thrift bakery shop.  This place was a carb lovers dream come true.  They had mini donuts, fried pies, and every bread on the planet.  I drive by a "Mrs. Baird's" thrift bread store on my way to and from work each day.  This store closes at 6pm and usually I either have something to get to or I work too late and the store is closed.  The other day I had a chance to stop in and look around.  These stores should have a diabetic alarm on them.  I picked up as you can see in the picture above 2 packages of eight cinnamon rolls, a pound of powder donut gems, and a pound of chocolate donut gems all for four dollars and fifty cents.  That is like the deal of the century.  They sell fried pies for seventy five cents.  I used to love fried pies.  Maybe these are some of the reasons I became diabetic?  They don't have any loaves of bread over two dollars and fifty cents.  Most bread at the grocery store runs three bucks or more.  I am going to have to add this store to my regular stops.

Frosty

 It is that time of year when a few friends from work get together for the Frosty 5k and Merry Mile.  We did this run last year as a team and was a blast.  Partly because it was good weather and this is a flat course.  Put those two items together and that makes fun for all.

 Above is the usual long sleeve T-shirt you get for participating.  I usually give my running T-shirts to my dogs to use as blankets unless I get one that is really unique.  This shirt is too main stream and pretty for me.  I like my shirts really odd looking like my "Onion Festival" shirt.  The shirt just has a big onion on it with "Onion Festival 2008" written above it.  I get alot of comments about that one.  I tell them "What happens at the Onion Festival, stays at the Onion Festival."

 Running for me lately has been about keeping my diabetes under control and to give me the ability to just eat like crap.  Why not run for two hours and try to polish off a bucket of fried chicken afterwards?  Sounds good to me.  Burn the carbs and replace it with a bunch of fat.  My pace is slow and paying good money to have a timer tell me so just seems wrong.  People say, "well you should do it for the charity" and I tell them isn't diabetes enough for me to support?

 I guess this frosty 5k is my annual race to run now.  The Dallas White Rock Marathon was last weekend and I thought about entering the half marathon until someone told me it cost 130 bucks.  That is a bit high for my slow feet to pay for right now.  My wife and I had participated in marathons years ago and they used to cost us 60 bucks.  At that price I felt that running slow for five hours was worth the price for charity.  It has been so long since I have participated in running events that when I received the goodies bag with my number in it I was confused on this timing thing.  I remember the big plastic things they zip tie to your shoes just before the run and they cut them off right afterwards.  This strip of metal thing looks like I was made in China and being shipped in a box of toys bound for Wal-Mart.

While rummaging through the goodies bag at the bottom was this 8FL OZ bottle of water.  I hope they have more water at the run and I am not supposed to be bringing this with me to drink afterwards.  I was hoping for maybe a GU or snack bar but only this tiny bottle of water was in the bag that falls under the "consumable" label. 

The fun thing about running and participating in running events is having a team.  If I was a member of a local running club then I would have an entirely different outlook on running events.  The game of competition drives us all to better ourselves.  I look forward to the frosty event every year because it is the one time a year my co-workers and I get out and compete to see how fast we can run for 3.2 miles.  After the event we head over to a BBQ place called Rudy's that serves up the best breakfast brisket tacos on the planet.  They also serve Community coffee which is probably my favorite because of the chicory in it.  I think that is the same thing with diabetes.  If we all are on a team that meets regularly and discusses relative subjects then the group as a whole improves their lifestyle.  Just doing things alone there is no reason to improve yourself if you are the only one in the game.  Belonging to a team brings out the energy to help others while improving yourself.  I should join the Plano Pacers again to motivate me not to eat the entire bucket of fried chicken.

Home sweet Pete's Home

 Previously I had mentioned about how our family has come into owning a chicken that my son named "Pete."  Now Pete (yes Pete is a girl) has been living in our garage while my son and I came up with a plan to build a chicken coup. 

 This past weekend I originally planned on going out to our land in east Texas to put out more deer corn, set up the game camera and chop some wood for the winter.  As is with all good plans I was tired by the time Friday rolled around and rain and cold was what the news told me. 

 Instead we built Pete this lovely chicken coup you can see in all the pictures.  We started with an old palate that my wife made me go and get in the middle of the night from some people who had to get them off of their property so they could get a city inspection.  My wife was planning on building her dream (OK a modified dream) back patio furniture set out of palates.  On a scale of one to ten she is about an eleven on her crafts.  I still have a garage full of card board boxes that was supposed to be turned into furniture as well.

 The bottom of the coup is a palate and we filled the gaps with old fence boards we saved from when we had our fence replaced.  The the four supports are from an old landscaping timber we saved from the old fence as well.

 At an auction I purchased the chicken wire for one dollar (money well spent).  The the back boards are from another palate.  The side boards are cedar pickets from Home Depot.  The top is made of pressure treated 2.4's and two 6x2 sheets of corrugated tin also from Home Depot.  Then there are random nails, screws, and the hay.

We even built a nesting box for her with a ramp (we did forget to put the steps on the ramp) for her to climb into.  In the end I spent about 50 bucks and my son and I learned all sorts of things about how to build a chicken coup.  We could have purchased one at Tractor Supply for something like a hundred fifty dollars.  We do have to still paint it with some discount paint I purchased off of the wrong color rack at Home Depot as well.  This was a great father and son experience that we both learned alot and feel proud now that if we were homeless then maybe some palates could be our future home.  I am just saying.