I am so weird

I honestly got choked up watching the Preakness this weekend. All those horses are just so absolutely beautiful and then to see when Big Brown's jockey let him out and he just stretched out and pulled away. I can't help it though I obviously have a big soft spot for horses.

I did pick up my camera this weekend finally, I should edit some tonight.

miscellaneous

- I had a great lesson last night. I feel like my riding has reached a whole new level the past couple of months. I have no idea what changed or where this all came from but I am loving it!

- We had a wonderful but short trip to West Virginia last weekend to meet our nephew Lucas. He is adorable. I can't really share any pictures though as SIL doesn't want them on the web and I have to respect that. I got to feed him three times, give him and give him a bath!!

- I am just waiting on an email from that job in PA to schedule an on-site interview. I hope I hear from them soon, I am starting to worry as it has been 3 days since I sent them my list of dates (I am always worried they will have changed their minds). If this pans out there is a real chance we could move by the end of the summer. That would make me SO happy!

- We might go to the racetrack tonight to bet on the ponies, eat hotdogs and take pictures. It all depends on if Mike gets done with work on time.

Attention Attention

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog posting (of Disney images) to bring you a special update on what an amazing riding lesson I had last night! Seriously I have felt really off since I feel off of Finnely in the fall and nervous about jumping, and lessons being so sporadic with the winter rains around here I never really got over it. But last week I mentioned it to Dagi, and we have been working on it. Last night I was riding Elvis for his 4th lesson of the day, so the "crazy" was already out of him, but he still had good energy. I don't know what else has changed lately but I seem to have really finally found my balance. I am not all thrown off after a jump, I can be in two-point and still bend him, and use my inner and outer leg independently without throwing my balance off. Those things have always been tough for me. So last night we did a little course, trot polls, sharp turn, a small jump at the trot, sharp turn while picking up the canter (btw my transitions are just so smooth these days as well, no fights, just collect/bend, sit/signal and go!), jump, go around jump again, go around jump again. Then she raised the last jump a smidge and we went over it one last time at the canter. And it was perfect, for the first time I really felt him preparing for the jump and I was able to sit back with him just a little as he pulled himself together and then just go over with him. It felt AMAZING!!! I really needed a great lesson like that.

Best Lesson!

Finally last night after nearly two months I managed to fit in a riding lesson. I was a little nervous on my way over there, I usually am if it has been a while. But it turned out really well!! I rode Elvis, Finnely hadn't been ridden in a while and was probably TOO energetic, and Elvis behaved well, pretty forward which was nice! We trotted and cantered of course, simple lead changes, trot polls and a couple of small jumps. It felt really good to ride and to ride well. Makes the $55 price tag a little less painful.

Finnley

Last night at my lesson I got to ride a new horse. His current name is Finnley (which no one is calling him, Dagi likes it least of all since her dogs name is Finn), he is a 4 year old chestnut quarter horse. He is a little shorter than I am used to (considering I am more of a Thoroughbred girl myself) and quite stocky. But super sweet, very energetic and forward. Overall very fun to ride! I am going to have to take my camera in two weeks when I ride again so you can see him. I can't wait to try jumping him! Dagi is still working with him on that, since he is so young, and I hung around after my lesson to watch them! He has a couple of little quirks like all horses do. He is very responsive to leg aids and your seat (which is a dream in a lesson horse!). He likes very light calm hands, to be guided or held with the reins but not pulled. Being that is so young he very much needs you to always be telling him where you want him to go, especially if you are away from the rail. If you don't keep your legs guiding him, he starts to feel all wiggly like he doesn't know if he should go left, right or straight. It's kind of a weird feeling. I really hope I get to keep riding him, it was such a nice challenge last night!

Riding Lesson??

You might have noticed that I haven't talked much about riding lessons lately. Mainly because I haven't had one in a while. My instructor (who I adore and would have to find a new barn if I can't ride with her anymore) has been having green-card issues (she is from Germany) so we haven't been able to fit anything in lately. Which really stinks! I am missing it a lot!! I don't know how long I should wait before I start looking for other places to go? At this point I haven't even heard from her in two weeks! How long would you wait? Finding a new instructor that I really like is always difficult, and she is going to be a really tough act to follow if it comes to that.

Back in the Saddle

I finally had a riding lesson again last night. It's been a month with Dagi going home to Germany, and then my changeover work schedule. It was so nice to get to ride again, and I have to say I did a really good job. I held on to the work we did last time about being patient and collected and calm and that really seemed to work. And that was great timing too since Pickles is gone, back to his original owner and guess who I got to ride last night? Elvis! We know how little I trust him since he threw me off in October and how nervous and distracted he can be. I think my being calm, and collected really helped keep him calm, which in turn kept me calm. As did knowing that Dagi has been working with him some. There was only a little jumping, but that is okay. We worked on lead changes again and they went really smoothly. Hopefully we will be ready soon to put some small courses together at the canter!

Horse-y Macros

I finished up PP'ing these last night while Mike was at band practice. Most of them I just changed the white balance, upped the saturation and sharpness a little. A couple I cropped, and one I vignetted.

First here is Elvis (it has been a long time since I introduced him and that was with my old camera)




His feet!




Chowing down.




And this is Ebony, he was born about 2 years ago, very sweet! And gorgeous!!










And one last Pickles shot (this was inside the barn, I should have grabbed the flash from the car)

This Week

Reasons this has been a bad week:
-Getting my IQ back with big corrections (that I should have known, that always makes me feel dumb)
-Don't love my shootsac as much as I thought (this is just based on looks though, I haven't actually used it yet, maybe that will change my mind?)
-Left really early for work Tuesday to witness a pressure test, it wasn't ready when I got there.
-Mike is leaving on Saturday for a week away for work
-Over-marinated shrimp for dinner Monday (why did we think they would need overnight?)
-Didn't get my t-shirt at the ho-ho yesterday (they wanted to wait until after a bunch of speeches to hand them out, and they didn't start those until 4:30!)

Reasons this has been a good week:
-I love lists!
-My work window to inspect some piping yesterday (by taking down lights) went really well (and got done really early)
-My run was really good today (ie I feel energized now not lethargic)
-Riding lesson!!!!
-I picked up my camera again, and enjoyed it.
-I scored this hilarious picture of Elvis:




More pictures to come after I have some time to post-process them.

Finally

I finally had the urge to take pictures again last night, after more than three weeks of not really caring. I was going to take my camera to the barn last night for my lesson and try to get some horse-y macro shots, but alas my lesson got canceled, which is probably good anyway. The actual recorded high temperature in Walnut Creek yesterday per weather.com was a steamy 102F!! Ouch! Probably better I stayed home with the AC and did some yoga. Hopefully I will pick up the camera this weekend.

Once a year

About once a year Mike gets the urge to come support me in my riding habit and watch a lesson. Which really means bringing the camera, distracting me during my $1.83/minute lesson, and complaining about both the smells and the weather. But it is really cute that he wants to show he loves me by watching me enjoy doing something I love. So last night was that night, and Michael took 38 pictures, I won't tell you (or show you) how many of them were various butts (horse butts, people butts). But here are the ones that turned out the best and/or I look the least stupid in (I apparently make really dumb faces while riding).

A Lesson!

Last night I managed to get out of here early, at 2 am actually. Tonight doesn't look as good for that. But that is okay, I don't have to come in again until Saturday. The really good part about getting out at 2 am (other than actually getting to sleep in bed with my husband for a couple of hours!) was that I got to get enough sleep to squeeze in a riding lesson at 3 today. I took my camera but I didn't end up taking it out of the car. It was too stinking hot. And really I was in a bit of a rush to get through the lesson and go home to get ready for work.

Elvis was healthy, he has started to lose his winter coat and he looks SO bony now, nothing like the muscular stocky horse of less than a year ago. It makes me kind of sad actually. And I know it's not that Devitos isn't taking care of him, they take good care of their horses otherwise I wouldn't take lessons there. Maybe he is sick and that is why his personality has changed so much? I will try to take pictures of him in two weeks.

11 Month Anniversary

Happy 11 Month Anniversary to us!! We went out to dinner at our favorite chinese place, Yan's to celebrate. And because we didn't have any dinner planned. I was supposed to have a riding lesson tonight, but Dagi's puppy Finn got stepped on by Pickles yesterday. She thought he was doing better this morning and went out to the barn but then by late afternoon he was just miserable so she had to cancel to go take care of him. Which I totally support, I just miss riding, chatting with her, and seeing the puppy! I really hope he recovers from this. Bad Pickles!!

Less than 4 weeks until Hawaii!!! I can't wait. I am going to start booking things now. I can't decide if I need to buy more stuff or not. I should plan out my outfits and see how it goes. I have already bought a ton of stuff, clothes (dress, coverup, bathing suit, shorts, tank tops, hoodie), floppy hat (which Michael finds hilarious but I need to protect my skin from the sun!), scarf (to hold hair down in convertiable), camera remote (so our self portraits aren't those funny one arm ones), waterproof camera case for my elph (so excited to use this!!!). I do still need new sunglasses right??? Maybe I just am addicted to shopping? That is more likely.

Elvis has returned to the building

I had my first riding lesson since November last night (due to weather holidays etc there have been a lot of cancellations). And I walk into the office to leave my check and see who I am riding and next to my name it says - Elvis. Well that can't be right, I thought he was gone. I checked the date in the ledger, Jan 11th, that is right. Last I had heard the people who bought him on trial were super happy with him so what happened is he back? Yup. Apparently they were happy with him until they took him out on the trail and then they realized what a nutjob he is and sent him packing.

His ground manners are even worse now, threatening to bite me just for brushing him along with his standard quirks (no ear touching). But he was actually really well behaved once I was on him. Trotting, cantering, even jumping (just twice) with no fights. Well except to keep him from dropping the trot or canter. Weird.

Burnt-out

I really wonder if I can make it through the rest of work today. Thank goodness there is a ho-ho because I am just burnt out from this week. I think I have to stop working on some of the crazy stuff that has been going on and just do some relaxing boring paper work. I have plenty that needs to be filled out. I have been ignoring my own projects for far too long now.

In other news, Elvis has been sold on trial!! For more than the barn paid for him! Hopefully that means they can spend a little more on the next horse. I hope they can find a good one. I love Pickles and Nifty but they have their limits. Pickles was great last night though, full of energy, ready to run, but still well behaved. How can you beat that combo?

Finally I have made a little time to post the photos from the Raiders game. Enjoy.

Quiet

Life has been pretty quiet this week. The most exciting thing that has happened (other than riding Elvis last night and not falling off) is that I ordered a bunch of shoes from Zappos. Gotta love free shipping and returns on a huge selection of shoes. So with the expectation that at least one pair probably won't be as cute in person or won't fit well and will need to be returned I bought:

Today I am going to play golf, it's a work outing. I suck at golf but last year it was really fun so I thought I might try it again. This time I brought my new camera so I can maybe take some golfing pictures when I am not totally sucking at the golf part. Then tonight I am dragging Mike to the movies. Marie Anotoinette came out today and I am dying to go see it.

My butt hurts

For once it isn't because I have been sitting on it too much. It is because pain in the butt Elvis was being a jerk last night and bucked me off. Honestly I can't remember the last time I came off a horse. And it is always rather embarassing and leaves you feeling shakey and unsafe. Don't worry I got back on him, after Dagi rode him around for a while. But it really sucked. And it sucked even more because J finally came to ride with me, and while I think she still had a good time as Dandy played nice she didn't really get to see what I normally do in my lesson. There was no jumping, hardly any cantering. Which is also a bit embarassing. Anyway so here I sit with an ice pack down my pants, secretly hoping I at least end up with a nice bruise to show off, and remembering how ADORABLE Dagi's new puppy Finn is and what a licker! I just wanted to take him home with me.

Scones

Something upsetting happened to my riding instructor on Thursday (I still don't know what) and my lesson had to be cancelled. Of course I was sad about missing it, I had to miss it the week before because of Michael's surgery but the thing that upset me the most was hearing Dagi sounding so upset on the phone. I am still worried about her. Hopefully this Thursday I will get to take pictures of her new puppy and of my friend J from work trying to ride a horse.

When I am sad about things I tend to bake so that is what I did this weekend. I chose to focus on scones. Yummy! Pumpkin Scones (Starbucks knock-off), Chocolate Chip Scones, Raspberry White Chocolate Chip Scones. Everyone at work should be pretty happy with me tomorrow. Well if they like scones they will be.

Something magical

Something magical happened last Thursday and my work got done early! Which made for a really hectic afternoon but I got to ride. Sadly I didn't have much energy left for it, but I still made the best of it. Poor Elvis got ridden three times in a row so he was tired too.

Tomorrow is my group offsite, we are going river rafting. Yippee. Thanks to the graces of a fire we will be going on the tame boring river. Which most of the people in my group are upset about (they are a lot less risk adverse than me), but I am happy. Yeah we might all get a little bored, but I won't come back bruised and banged up. Though I might come back burnt, it is supposed to be in the 90s again tomorrow. When does it end?

I'll miss you Elvis

Don't worry Elvis isn't going anywhere. I just won't be able to make my lesson tonight. Silly scheduling people at work scheduled some work I wanted to watch be done at 5:45pm. That makes it hard to make a 45 minute drive home and get to the barn for a 7 pm lesson, unless of course the work started on time and took only 1 minute. Actually that would still be hard. Oh well I suppose I can survive missing a week. I won't enjoy it though.

In related news, because I am working a really long day today I couldn't drop off and pick up Mike at BART so he was going to take the motorcycle in. Apparently it wouldn't start this morning, which is a common problem for that thing, usually requiring us to wheel it around behind our building and plug in the battery charger overnight (yes we have tried to take the battery out but you pretty much have to take the bike apart to do that). I think he really wants to sell it now.