So, earlier this spring I mentioned that I was dithering back and forth about this horse I was going to buy. Well, after backing out at the last second I pretty much consigned myself to remaining horse-less in the Yukon.
Let's face it: the horse situation up here just isn't what I want. People like it and they love saddling up and trail riding to their heart's content, but that just isn't me. I enjoy a good trail ride once a week or so, but when your horse is going lame becuase she needs shoes to deal with the rock-hard ground, sour as fuck about cantering because of the endless kiddie rides, and you never have anyone to ride with (adult) in a slippery, rock hard outdoor ring? Yeah, I am taking a sabbatical from *that* situation.
It's just no fun. I am too competitive to endlessly wander down life-threating trails, to be frightened by the crazy crap that pops up here. I want to jump, lesson with a GOOD trainer, have a decent ring to jump in, ride with adults who are nice, ride my own horse and go to horse shows in the summer. Apparently here that is just too much to ask.
So, I backed out of my previous potential horse. And promptly found a new one.
He's not perfect. He's actually a total jerk, can be difficult to handle and likes to try a few tricks to get you off when you're riding and scared.
He has a big buck/crow hop thing that he pulled with me, while I was riding without stirrups! I stayed on. He is also a pony...Not that scary, haha.
His owner says he needs someone to 'kick his butt in gear' and you know? I'm that someone.
I can handle attitude on a pony. I can't handle nasty on a bigger horse. He doesn't bite, but does pitch hissy fits--hence the handling with a chain. He's also very talented, and an incredible jumper. I did a cross rail and he popped me out of the saddle, a remarkable bascule. He also has a slow and easy to sit canter, it is just gorgeous. His trot is lousy, but ahh you can't win 'em all.
He's cute, a bit evil but I think we will make a good partnership. I am signing papers this week--a pony for my birthday! Who would have thought of it!!
(I also wish I had photos, but for some reason, my darling husband took closeups of my butt and thighs instead of the horse. GRrrrrr)
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Birthdays!!
Yup it's that time of year...my birthday!
I helped celebrate a friend's birthday this past weekend (July is a gooood month!) and I baked and iced a cake. With my mom's extra-special marshmallow icing. Yum.
Turns out cake mixes from a box aren't as easy as they make out to be... The vanilla layer behaved fine but was so flat. Crepes or pancake flat. Ugh.
The chocolate layer was as flat, but that's where the similarities ended. I had to scrape it out of the freaking pan, and then flop the mostly crumb-cake onto a cooling rack. I then came home a few hours later and prepared to ice them with the fabulous icing. The chocolate cake was stuck to the cooling rack! It dissolved into a pile of crumbs, so the cake ended up being vanilla-icing-chocolate-crumb-icing cake. Ugh
It looked pretty sad and silly, but oh well. I got my tube of purple icing for the '28' as he was turning 28, and guess what? The icicng splatted all over the cake, so it was more like *2*8 and everyone thought there was just an '8' on it's side, like a mobius or something. ARGH
I thought, well this is great. The only best thing that could happen is my hand going through the cake, or me dropping it on the gravel outside.
The sadly misshapen cake made it to the party unscathed, where it was enjoyed by everyone.
Phew.
I helped celebrate a friend's birthday this past weekend (July is a gooood month!) and I baked and iced a cake. With my mom's extra-special marshmallow icing. Yum.
Turns out cake mixes from a box aren't as easy as they make out to be... The vanilla layer behaved fine but was so flat. Crepes or pancake flat. Ugh.
The chocolate layer was as flat, but that's where the similarities ended. I had to scrape it out of the freaking pan, and then flop the mostly crumb-cake onto a cooling rack. I then came home a few hours later and prepared to ice them with the fabulous icing. The chocolate cake was stuck to the cooling rack! It dissolved into a pile of crumbs, so the cake ended up being vanilla-icing-chocolate-crumb-icing cake. Ugh
It looked pretty sad and silly, but oh well. I got my tube of purple icing for the '28' as he was turning 28, and guess what? The icicng splatted all over the cake, so it was more like *2*8 and everyone thought there was just an '8' on it's side, like a mobius or something. ARGH
I thought, well this is great. The only best thing that could happen is my hand going through the cake, or me dropping it on the gravel outside.
The sadly misshapen cake made it to the party unscathed, where it was enjoyed by everyone.
Phew.
Gosh, it's been awhile
I found this quote I thought was awesome: "Yet more proof that octopi will soon rule the world. Do not fight it, my friends. Embrace your cephalopod overlords warmly."
Also, on the 'railroad' talkers vein of conversation:
"If you are talking to people, and they know you have a kid, and they ask (out of politeness) "how is johnny doing?" and you say "oh good. he's in 3rd grade and enjoying playing chess now.. How was you trip to panama?" it's cool.
If your response is "oh he's great. He is playing chess now. I think he's got the talent to go professional. But he's also so athletic, he'll have his choice of being in the NFL, MBA or NBA in a few years. And he's so smart. I know he'll be doogie howser and have Harvard, yale and duke courting him for college before he's done with 5th grade. He'll probably get a dual degree.. I'm thinking Lawyer and doctor.. he's just so smart. And kind. Just last week he raised .33 for the oil spill. Such a kind heart. Yup Yup. he's going to be the president someday, I just know it. And so artistic. I mean, Picasso couldn't paint like he does. Just yesterday, he took his crayons, and made a masterpiece on the walls. When we sell the house, that is going to raise our resale value so much. And he'll have his black belt in Karate soon. He's got his white belt now, but i know he has so much natural talent.. it's just incredible"... yeah, by then people are bored, eyes glazed over, and you're pretty much a raving lunatic."
Yeah. I only WISH I never met these people.
Although, I would like to meet Paul the Octopus. Yummm
Also, on the 'railroad' talkers vein of conversation:
"If you are talking to people, and they know you have a kid, and they ask (out of politeness) "how is johnny doing?" and you say "oh good. he's in 3rd grade and enjoying playing chess now.. How was you trip to panama?" it's cool.
If your response is "oh he's great. He is playing chess now. I think he's got the talent to go professional. But he's also so athletic, he'll have his choice of being in the NFL, MBA or NBA in a few years. And he's so smart. I know he'll be doogie howser and have Harvard, yale and duke courting him for college before he's done with 5th grade. He'll probably get a dual degree.. I'm thinking Lawyer and doctor.. he's just so smart. And kind. Just last week he raised .33 for the oil spill. Such a kind heart. Yup Yup. he's going to be the president someday, I just know it. And so artistic. I mean, Picasso couldn't paint like he does. Just yesterday, he took his crayons, and made a masterpiece on the walls. When we sell the house, that is going to raise our resale value so much. And he'll have his black belt in Karate soon. He's got his white belt now, but i know he has so much natural talent.. it's just incredible"... yeah, by then people are bored, eyes glazed over, and you're pretty much a raving lunatic."
Yeah. I only WISH I never met these people.
Although, I would like to meet Paul the Octopus. Yummm
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Amusing Events of Today
Random amusing events of today:
Meeting #2 in the boardroom this morning, someone almost sat on a banana. It was apparently left on one of the boardroom chairs…she pulled it out and was like whoah, almost sat on it! Then someone was like, hey Lauren was looking for that. Yes, someone was asking around if anyone had ‘seen her banana’…which was left in the boardroom on a chair. HAHAAH
Then, I went to do stairs at lunch and some punk spraypainted orange on the green stairs. Ugly but whatever… I run into an acquiantence, who doesn’t usually do stair Thu. I was like, oh why are you doing stairs today?
Turns out their friend, who also does stairs, happens to be a vigilante citizen graffiti cover-upper, who was out spray-painting over the orange with gold spraypaint…And she is like over 50 years old, granny type. Haha. She tells me she had problems with graffiti on a shed, so she put a magnet of a saint on the shed. Lasted two yrs until someone stole the magnet. She replaced that magnet with one of the Virgin Mary.
Nobody has messed with that. Ever.
Meeting #2 in the boardroom this morning, someone almost sat on a banana. It was apparently left on one of the boardroom chairs…she pulled it out and was like whoah, almost sat on it! Then someone was like, hey Lauren was looking for that. Yes, someone was asking around if anyone had ‘seen her banana’…which was left in the boardroom on a chair. HAHAAH
Then, I went to do stairs at lunch and some punk spraypainted orange on the green stairs. Ugly but whatever… I run into an acquiantence, who doesn’t usually do stair Thu. I was like, oh why are you doing stairs today?
Turns out their friend, who also does stairs, happens to be a vigilante citizen graffiti cover-upper, who was out spray-painting over the orange with gold spraypaint…And she is like over 50 years old, granny type. Haha. She tells me she had problems with graffiti on a shed, so she put a magnet of a saint on the shed. Lasted two yrs until someone stole the magnet. She replaced that magnet with one of the Virgin Mary.
Nobody has messed with that. Ever.
Monday, June 21, 2010
What's with girls named Summer?
I have been watching the O.C. (so sue me, I don't have any cable and need something to watch!) and Summer, one of the main characters, is a flighty little witchy woman. She's super cute and awesome, and it made me wonder two things:
Why are flighty, capricious, beautiful women always named "Summer"? Eg 500 days of Summer, Summer Wheatley in Napoleon Dynamite, Summer in the OC...
Also, why does everyone always sing about California? Eg Hotel California, California, by Phantom Planet, even that duo 'Wave' sang about California...
Those are my musings of the moment...I actually had a few things I wanted to write about but got ran over by a series of unfortunate Tuesdays, of which I am still recovering from. Until next time...
Why are flighty, capricious, beautiful women always named "Summer"? Eg 500 days of Summer, Summer Wheatley in Napoleon Dynamite, Summer in the OC...
Also, why does everyone always sing about California? Eg Hotel California, California, by Phantom Planet, even that duo 'Wave' sang about California...
Those are my musings of the moment...I actually had a few things I wanted to write about but got ran over by a series of unfortunate Tuesdays, of which I am still recovering from. Until next time...
Monday, June 7, 2010
Cosmos sending a message
So, I have kept a running tally of the strange coincidences (existential investigators, are you hearing this??) that have occurred to me over the past two years. Now, these may sound mundane and ordinary, but I have a feeling these are no ordinary coincidences! Yes, it is clearly the cosmos sending me a message, of what I have yet to interpret/decipher but I will get there one day...
To tally up the coincidences:
I found a clipboard written with "property of (persons name)" ...and I had just gotten an email from my then-new job, sadly telling of the death of that very same person that day! I put the clipboard back, I didn't want to tempt fates.
The second is more mundane and less dangerous. I was taking the bus, on a route I never usually take because I drive to work. I was carrying my gym clothes to and from work, and one day found my gym socks lying on the side of the path I was walking to the bus. Odd, they must have fallen out. I picked them up a bit abashedly and continued on the way. When I got home, I found my actual gym socks--they'd never even left the house! I had picked up a pair of socks that looked exactly the same, and these weren't white gym socks, they were bizarre blue fuzzy pink and white argyle socks. One of a kind.
The third coincidence was a book. This past weekend I was talking up a book, The Glass Castle,by Jeanette Walls (great book, by the way. So powerful!), and I mentioned that a friend had it, and maybe I could borrow it to lend to her. I was looking forward to sharing thoughts about the book with my friend. We set out downtown that afternoon to do some shopping, and stopped by to drop off recycling at Raven Recycling. I browsed the free store for books, and lo and behold, there sat The Glass Castle. It was fate! I snatched it up and gave it to my friend. But still, this isn't the type of book that is just everywhere, like say, A Million Little Pieces or something. It is hard to find, and you have to seek it out. And there it was, waiting for me to give to my friend, who I'd been talking to about it.
Clearly there is a larger message in the works here. What can these coincidences mean?
To tally up the coincidences:
I found a clipboard written with "property of (persons name)" ...and I had just gotten an email from my then-new job, sadly telling of the death of that very same person that day! I put the clipboard back, I didn't want to tempt fates.
The second is more mundane and less dangerous. I was taking the bus, on a route I never usually take because I drive to work. I was carrying my gym clothes to and from work, and one day found my gym socks lying on the side of the path I was walking to the bus. Odd, they must have fallen out. I picked them up a bit abashedly and continued on the way. When I got home, I found my actual gym socks--they'd never even left the house! I had picked up a pair of socks that looked exactly the same, and these weren't white gym socks, they were bizarre blue fuzzy pink and white argyle socks. One of a kind.
The third coincidence was a book. This past weekend I was talking up a book, The Glass Castle,by Jeanette Walls (great book, by the way. So powerful!), and I mentioned that a friend had it, and maybe I could borrow it to lend to her. I was looking forward to sharing thoughts about the book with my friend. We set out downtown that afternoon to do some shopping, and stopped by to drop off recycling at Raven Recycling. I browsed the free store for books, and lo and behold, there sat The Glass Castle. It was fate! I snatched it up and gave it to my friend. But still, this isn't the type of book that is just everywhere, like say, A Million Little Pieces or something. It is hard to find, and you have to seek it out. And there it was, waiting for me to give to my friend, who I'd been talking to about it.
Clearly there is a larger message in the works here. What can these coincidences mean?
The Most Unhealthy/Awesome/Gross Desserts Money Can Buy
I found this one on Jezebel, who found it on The Daily Beast. I kind of want to do a tour of these fantastically fattening desserts. Whoever coined the term 'just desserts' really meant what they were talking about...
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-07/40-desserts-that-can-kill-you/
These desserts make Dairy Queen milkshakes look like diet food at 700+ calories. Eeep.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-07/40-desserts-that-can-kill-you/
These desserts make Dairy Queen milkshakes look like diet food at 700+ calories. Eeep.
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