Goat Milking Champion

I married Andy for many reasons.

I could write about how I married him because he's kind, handsome, has great fashion sense, blah, blah, blah, boring.

But the real reason I married Andy.

Was so that I could say the following:

"My husband was the Fowlerville Fair Goat Milking Champion."

It's true. Husband raised goats. And milked them. And apparently they have competitions at county fairs for that sort of thing.

Now that Andy is older he has traded the farm life for a suburban house and the goats for dogs.

And thankfully for everyone he's never tried to milk Toby.



He's also replaced the goat milk with another beverage.

Beer.

And last week, these two different passions intersected in the most glorious way.



That's his kegerator. Can you spot it?



Oh yes.




Handyman Andy took the top of his goat milking trophy and attached it to the top of a tap handle.



Now we just have to think of a great beer name to go along with that great tap.

My status.

Back in the day, asking about someone's status might have meant marital status.

Single? Married?

Or perhaps job status.

Employed? Unemployed?

Or maybe social status.

Middle class? Lower class?

Now, with the Facebook revolution, it seems status has evolved to mean: Whatever I'm doing, thinking, eating, smelling, drinking, etc. that I think the rest of the world would care about.

I came to find that FB had a fancy little program that threw a bunch of my statuses from 2010 into a cute little picture.



Some were related to clothing choices:

• Andy examining his wolf t-shirt in the mirror: "One, two . . . five wolves. One, two, three . . . ten moons. Two moons per wolf. That's the equation for awesomeness."


• "Will you be mad if I wear my deer t-shirt out tonight?" "No, why would I be mad?" "Because I'll be fighting off the chicks all night."


• Came home from a long run and got ready to jump in the shower. Whilst disrobing realized that I just ran 12 miles wearing my running shorts inside out.

Others were related to our travels:

• We attempted to spend as little as possible on groceries this week, so that we have more money to gamble with in Vegas.


• Engadine or bust!
  


• Andy's favorite part of the Dingle Marathon: The old woman picking blackberries in her front yard and handing them out to the runners and saying "Well done, lad." My favorite part of the Half: Petting a goat that was wandering along the course.

A few lot related to beer and drinking:

• Founders Brewery Tour! It's okay to drink beer because it's after noon.


• "Shots of Boone's Farm? What is this, kindergarten?"


• GPS died on the drive from BWI to Fredericksburg. Used a winery map to navigate instead. 3 wineries and 5 hours later we made it to Fredericksburg.


• Playing Taboo: KJ - "Ok, you get a shot for this once a year." Me - "Your birthday!" *time runs out* KJ - "Um, I was trying to get you to say 'flu.' "

Sports were of course involved:

• Final Four. Freak yes.


• HE'S SO FAR OUT!! HOW IS THAT SAFE?? YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! WORST CALL EVER!
  


• Moose Tailgate. GO GREEN!
  

And one or two eight million related to the pups:

• Test driving a dog for the night.


• Toby is licking the sliding glass door. Which technically makes him a "window-licker." *sigh*


• Home sweet home. If you need me in the next 24 hours, I'll be attending the dog party on my living room floor.
  


• From the guests at our home: "Toby is a great alarm dog, but a horrible guard dog. He barked loudly at us when we got out of the car and then ran over, flopped down and showed us his belly."

So that's my status for 2010.

Or I'm just plain married, employed and lower class if you want to look at it that way.

A Look Back on 2010

I know everyone's been saying it.

"Man, this year really flew by!"

"How is 2010 over already?"

"Did I really eat 5 dozen Christmas cookies over the past 6 days?"

Somehow we survived another year, and despite Andy's efforts to break his face and Toby's efforts to never walk again, the family is limping into 2011.

Early in the year we welcomed a new member of the family.



We traveled to 17 more Michigan breweries, bringing us to a current total of 57 visited out of the 83 brewpubs and microbreweries in the state. We also attended 2 beer fests to further experience all that Michigan has to offer in beer.





Toby turned 2 years old and underwent 3 surgeries to correct his ACL injury.



We took various trips throughout the year to Milwaukee, Las Vegas, Ireland, Virginia, North Carolina and assorted travels around Michigan of course.



I watched a baby grow into a little human.



Andy ran two marathons, including his first one in Ireland. He set new PR's in every distance he ran - 5K, 25K and the marathons.



I ran various 5K's, a 10K, a 25K and a half marathon and was able to set new PR's in each distance.



Overall, the year was filled with good times with friends and family. I'm certain the new year will bring new travels, new beer, new runs and new fun.



So even though 2010 seems to have passed far too quickly, I'm ready to see what 2011 has in store for us.

Ummm, yeah, about your TPS reports . . .

So, I've been slacking.

But, I have super awesome excuses.

I bought Andy the Ken Burns' Baseball documentary for Christmas.

Hence, if I've been home, it's been on the TV. If there's ever a random baseball trivia game in my future, I'm going to own it.

I bought Andy beer for Christmas. And a new brewery opened up in Grand Rapids. And my friends have been in town and keep inviting me to bars. And my friends keep having birthday celebrations.

Hence, we've imbibing far more than usual. And after a long night of drinking, we purchased tickets to fly to Vegas in January. That's how much we've been imbibing.

Toby had surgery again. For the third time. For the same ACL injury. The vet referred to him as "clunky." As in "if I had realized how clunky he was, I would have added more reinforcements during the first surgery."

Hence, I've been hand feeding him ice cubes, rubbing his hamstring and crumbling Christmas cookies on his food in order to get him to eat.

Eventually though, I'll start blogging again.

Just as soon as Toby is healed, Andy's finished watching the Baseball documentary and they reinstate prohibition, that is.

Learning Something New Everyday

I'm in the bathroom getting ready as Andy gets out of the shower to dry off.

Me: "Why are you using my wet towel?"

Andy: "I always have to use your wet towel."

Me: "Why don't you use the dry one?"

Andy: "They're both wet. You use one for your body and one for your hair."

Me: "No, I use one for my body and then wrap my hair up in that same towel."

Andy: "Oh."

We've lived together for about 4 and a half years now.

4 and a half wet towel years for Andy.

Alger Heights Halloween 5K

On Halloween Eve, before I went to Proctoberfest in the evening and drank beer and ate candy, I decided to do something healthy. Run.

The in-laws happen to leave a few blocks from the race start, so I signed up with the Proctors. Andy's knee is still iffy so he sat this one out. Instead he was on dog duty and brought my two biggest fans to watch the race.

The best part of the race?

Costumes.



I decided to pull out my 2008 costume and throw it on over my running clothes. It was easy enough to run in, but others chose more difficult options.



The race was a lot of fun and entertaining because of the people watching. I was able to post a decent time and it was fun to run with the Proctor Pumpkin family.



Toby was a frog, but the head portion of the costume has difficulty fitting due to him suffereing from elephantitis of the skull.

We all went home and celebrated with Andy's homebrewed Octoberfest and lots of goodies.

Including a banana split.

Driving Conversations.

Driving home one day and passing by a collie playing in a yard.

Andy: Look, a BGB.

Me: Awww. Do you think anyone has actually ever named their collie "Lassie"?

Andy: Probably.

Me: But it's so cliche it seems like nobody would never do it.

Andy: We had 4 beagles and named them all Snoopy.

Point taken.