Flashbang Fatbottom and Benito were too excited about their secret santa to sit still for the photo shoot.

Jocelyn Edgeworth, Guinea Pig christmas, Guinea Pig, holiday, snowman

The piggies received their secret santa gifts today from the piggies Isabel, Lily, Luke. They had help with wrapping the presents from Janet, who sent me a gift too! I love the guinea pig wrapping paper. Flashbang, Edgeworth, abd Benito must’ve been very good piggies this year.

Jocelyn Benito, Edgeworth, Flashbang Fatbottom, Guinea Pig christmas, secret santa

I fixed something! I put needled and thread to my torn Vibram FiveFingers and violà:

VFF Stitched

Not the prettiest piece of work, but it keeps the rocks out. Feet are as sensitive as hands and can feel those little peddles rolling around in the sole.

From a couple of weeks ago, my bull riding costume for Halloween:

Bull Riders at Work

Sarah (on the right) discovered the costume at Party City. I wasn’t going to dress up this year but that costume is so great.

Last but not least, a sampling of pleasing piggy pictures:

Upper left corner: Flashbang Fatbottom kept trying to move the pigloos into the carrot cube.

Benito loves his dandelion greens!

Flashbang barely fits in the tent. Later he tried chewing the lace around the enterance off.

Jocelyn Benito, Edgeworth, Flashbang Fatbottom, Guinea Pig, Running halloween, Vibram FiveFingers

After around 450 miles of pavement running, my Vibram FiveFingers have taken a beating! Here’s the current list of damages:

Hole in VFF

The neopene rubber has completely worn away on the ball of my right foot. It’s very thin around the hole as well, although my left foot’s rubber sole is fine. I plan on adding some pads called Sure Foot. It’s what skaters add to the bottoms of their shoes so they don’t get ripped up by the street when braking.

Mesh tearing

This picture is a few days old and the mesh tear has gotten a little bigger.  I plan on taking needle and thread to it to see if that’ll hold it.

You can see the duct tape wrapped around the strap to prevent the eyelet from chewing through the strap. The duct tape was worn through and needed to be replaced.

I picked up some Injinji NuWool socks to help keep my tootsies warm while running. They’re a little expensive – $16 per pair – but so very nice and warm. I noticed that my two smaller toes barely fill the sock. Do I have super small toes, I wonder?

This is how far my toes go. Look at all that room!

I’m still looking for a cold weather solution to Vibram FiveFingers, because as much fun as these shoes are, they won’t cut it in the snow.

Jocelyn Running Vibram FiveFingers

The newest addition to the piggy arena, a very nice acorn house. This was handmade by Sewing 4 A Cause. It’s quite plushy and comfy. Benito was a little scared of it at first. Because it’s been warm here – mid 60s! – the piggies haven’t seemed too interested in going in the acorn house. For the moment it’s being mostly a chew toy for them.

YouTube video of Flashbang Fatbottom’s inspection.

Flashbang Fatbottom and Acorn House

Benito and Acorn House

Jocelyn Benito, Edgeworth, Flashbang Fatbottom, Guinea Pig acorn house

Edgeworth! He is the winner of the Humane Society of Huron Valley pet costume contest. You can check out the other entries on the HSHV site. Second place is Miguel the Wizard, third place Paco the Fearless.

My second favorite picture (my favorite being my piggy, of course!), is the cat second from the bottom. He looks quite displeased. The last picture, Battle Cat, is a great idea and the He-Man is pretty cute, too.

Jocelyn Edgeworth, Guinea Pig hshv, Humane Society of Huron Valley

Last night, after polishing off a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked frozen yogurt, I made little pirate hats out of water bottle caps, black felt, and stickers for the Halloween piggy photo shoot. The bottle cup was glued to a rectangular piece of  felt to create the hat. Once the glue had set, I cut out a pirate sticker and pressed it onto the front flap of felt.

The background is a bottom of a box covered with paper and stickers.

Edgeworth and Flashbang were both content to sit for their photo shoot. Benito is a squeak machine and kept running around, that little pirate!

Jocelyn Benito, Edgeworth, Flashbang Fatbottom, Guinea Pig halloween, pirate

Watch the Happy Piggies Video starring Flashbang Fatbottom, Benito, and Edgeworth below! Flashbang Fatbottom popcorns – pops up into the air with happiness – at the :47 mark.

Jocelyn Benito, Edgeworth, Flashbang Fatbottom, Guinea Pig

I’ve been looking forward to the Big House Big Heart run for a month! The 10K course loops through Ann Arbor’s central campus and finishes through Michigan Stadium’s tunnel and on 50 yard line.  The 10K, 5k, and 1 mile had more than 10,000 people combined.

I agreed with a woman that I overheard while looping around the first time – loops aren’t fun. They make the run seem longer, for whatever reason. There was a volunteer standing at the 2 mile/5 mile sign saying “almost done!” when we were doing the first loop. Someone laughingly said that she was trying to mess with us.  On the second loop, that same woman said that we had less than a mile left on the second loop, when we had 1.2 miles to go.  That was the only bump in the course – every turn had volunteers and the miles were well marked. For the literal bumps in the road – the speed bumps – volunteers called out that they were coming up to make sure no one was tripped up. Overall the course was very well done!

While tootling around the course, I heard a woman yelling at a volunteer who watching a road block to make sure cars didn’t get onto the course. “I’m trapped in here! The city didn’t tell me about this. You can’t do this!”  Bad on the city if they didn’t tell her, but sheesh, don’t yell at the volunteer. They can’t let you out onto a course with thousands of runners.

I had a running buddy around mile 3.5 until around the 6 mile mark. Sometimes he would pick up the pace and sometimes I did. We both benefited, it was nice!

I ended up with a new personal record of 44:22.3, a 7:08 pace.  That’s 1:36 improvement, hooray!  I was third in my age division, women: 16/706, overall: 101/1336. The side stitch showed up around mile 4, and again at the very end, preventing my end sprint. I need to figure out how to stop those stitches from putting a cramp into my speed!

I’m also in a random person race picture!

Jocelyn 10K, Race, Running Ann Arbor

Back in August, the straps on my Vibram FiveFingers ripped through and had to be replaced. It’s been about a month, so these straps seem to last around 250 miles. A couple of days ago I noticed the straps on my current VFF were getting worn through so I busted out the duct tape.

Outside of VFF eyelet

Inside of VFF eyelet

The inside of the shoe  strap was noticeably more worn, but I figured I should wrap up both eyelets to keep the friction away from cutting through either strap, especially since I’m racing this Sunday!

The race is the Big House Big Heart race in Ann Arbor. There will be 10,000 people! Wow! That’s a total for the 5K and the 10k races, of which I’m doing the latter. The biggest race I’ve ever done was 2,500 people so there’s a good chance this’ll be my biggest race yet. The finish line is on the 50 yard of Michigan Stadium with the finishers being projected on the big screen. I’m awfully excited about it!

Benito plots in the background.

Jocelyn 10K, Ann Arbor, Edgeworth, Guinea Pig, Race, Running Ann Arbor, Edgeworth, Race, Vibram FiveFingers