| cleaning update |
| 10.31.04 (8:15 am) |
The husband did a beautiful job on the garage. There is now enough room for 2 cars again. There aren't two cars in it though because the pool table is temporarily living there. Why is the pool table there? Let's follow the masculine logic.
The original plan:
Someday when we have the money we will finish the basement and put in a game room.
The plan now:
The husband's friends ended up with an extra pool table. (Long story). They were willing to sell it to him.
One friend delivers it. He happens to be a contractor.
Between the two of them they decide that it is entirely too much work to set up the pool table in the unfinshed basement and have to move it again to build around it. Might mess up the leveling of the slate (Oh, the horrors!!!)
So, might as well finish the basement now.
Contractor just happens to have some time off coming up. He's working up a price list.
There is a rabbit in the basement that would chew on a cardboard box that the table is in. So therefore it must stay in the garage until the basement is finished.
I brought up the first part of the original plan. "Someday when we have the money.." Heard back, "Oh it won't hurt to get an estimate." Yeah, like it will stop there with the pool table so tantilizingly close.
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There was a comment on the original cleaning post about using FlyLady techniques. I had tried that before but got a bit overwhelmed. I'm going to try that again though. In fact the sink is soaking in bleach water as I type. I told the husband this morning that I was trying a new cleaning method and his job was to put his clothes in the dirty clothes instead of on the bathroom floor. He truly does not understand this concept but he picked some of them up.
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| attempted Hannitization |
| 10.31.04 (7:53 am) |
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I can't belive it but I just got back from a rally by Sean Hannity, J.C. Watts, Bill Bennett , and Zell Miller. It was held in a church (on Samhain). I tried to start a "No on 1" chant but that didn't work. (Issue 1 is the "defense of marriage" amendment.) On the way out I noticed that they were riding in a Hummer limo. I used my outside voice to say, "Does't that just make you want to vote Kerry?" I'm anti-low gas mileage vehicles. I'm suprised I didn't get shot. My husband just laughed at me. I went to make sure that either he didn't do something embarrassing or that if he did I got to witness it and report it to everyone I know. We had to sit in overflow seating and watch on closed circuit TV so he didn't have much chance to make a scene.
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| mom and church |
| 10.30.04 (6:11 am) |
My mom was getting on my case again today about not going to church. Part of me wants to say, "Well Mom, the reason I don't go to church anymore is because I've pretty much renounced the whole Christianity thing." The rest of me knows that it's just not worth it.
She did say that she raised me to go to church and I told her that I had gotten over it. She thinks that I should go to church because I should. That is her entire reasoning. I told her once that it was boring and she told me that it doesn't matter I should go because I should go.
The thing is I could tell her that I'm studying paganism and she would tell me that I'm only saying that to be difficult. Aren't mothers wonderful?
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| cantering |
| 10.30.04 (5:36 am) |
I cantered yesterday! On purpose and I didn't fall off. Our first cantering experience ended with a crash but other than that it was good. The trainer was telling me to just let her go and not to worry so much about controlling it right now. She veered towards a cone. She wasn't sure whether to jump or go around so she just stopped. I stayed on. Since my only other cantering experience with her was when she bolted and then stopped at the fence and I went over the fence this was a great improvement.
I got a notice today on an national email list about a sidesaddle clinic that is going to be held just down the road from me. How cool is that? I've always wanted to ride sidesaddle. Some (sensible) people might point out that in the last paragraph I was excited about staying on at a canter while riding in the style I've been riding all my life. Why then make things more difficult? Why not? I've just always thought it was really cool. Besides I already emailed the organzier to tell her I'm coming. I'll just be an observer because I don't own a sidesaddle and telling the trainer that I'm taking the horse for a weekend to teach her to go sidesaddle might give him palpatations (or else he'd think it was really cool too - I'm not sure).
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| cleaning day |
| 10.29.04 (7:34 am) |
The husband took the day off to prepare for the arrival of his new pool table tomorrow. Yes, this is such a momentous occasion that he needs a whole day to prepare. I am even more convinced that he will never be allowed to retire. He will follow me around asking what I'm doing until he drives me insane.
I got him to go for a bike ride with me. We only went 3 miles though because it started to rain.
His main goal for today is to clean. He is a very good emergency cleaner. If the parents are arriving tomorrow and the house looks like a war zone - he's your guy. But if he makes a cheese sandwich he is absolutely incapable of throwing away the cheese wrappers. So every day I pick up wrappers, used paper towels, socks in the middle of the floor, etc. But when he cleans he gets very holier-than-thou and has a tendency to give speeches about how he's the only person in the house who has ever picked up anything. He wants to be praised to the skies for cleaning. In those cases I want him dead. So we have a system. If he feels so inspired to clean I must not be in the house. I have to leave for my riding lesson in 15 minutes. Then he can get started. It works for me.
I'm interested to see what he's going to do with the bedroom. He has more clothes than any man needs. He does not have enough storage. He has lots of clothes because if clothes are hung up they become invisible to him. He decides that he no longer has any white shirts so he goes and buys more. I amazed him one day by bringing clothes out of the closet and showing him what he owned. It was like Christmas. They were all totally new to him. Anyway, he has piles of clothes laying in the bedroom. Drives me nuts. He says he's going to clean up. This ought to be interesting.
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| No WE in TEAM |
| 10.28.04 (9:57 am) |
Here's a new pet peeve for me. Sports fans who say "we" when referring to their favorite team. As in "We played well last week." Unless you were handling the ball yourself you have no right to say "we." Cheer all you want but don't take any credit for victories.
That is directly related to my abhorrence for couples who say that "we" are pregnant. No, sorry. Only one of you is pregnant. The other is an observer.
Don't know why that bothers me so much but it makes me cringe every time I hear it.
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| My IPod shuffle |
| 10.25.04 (7:49 pm) |
I've seen some people list the 10 songs that come up on a random shuffle on their IPod. I decided to try it.
1. Something Happened on the Way to Heaven - Phil Collins
2. Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper
3. The Heat is on in Saigon - From Miss Saigon
4. Desert Capriccio - Shanghai Symphony Orchestra - From Crouching Tiger
5. Serenade No. 1 in D. Menuetto I & II - Brahms
6. Piano Quintet in F Minor - Brahms
7. Queen of My Double Wide Trailer - Sammy Kershaw
8. Chug-a-Lug - Roger Miller
9. Sweet Home Alabama - Lynyrd Skynyrd
10. Complicated - Avril Lavigne
If the IPod ads are right (and I think they are) and "You Are Your Playlist" what does that say about me?
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| marriage amendment |
| 10.25.04 (7:36 pm) |
There is a state amendment to the constitution on the ballot here next week. In addition to defining marriage as one man - one woman it also outlaws civil unions or any other legal condition designed to confer the benefits of marriage.
I'm pro-gay marriage. I think that people who say that they are anti-marriage but pro-civil unions are just engaging in a semantic debate. What I don't want to have happen is opening marriage to any combination of people who want to get married. For example, 2 women - one man, brother and sister, etc. I'm all for defining marriage as two people who are not related to each other closer than third cousins.
The amendment is going to pass. People are hugely in favor of it here. That's too bad. I don't think most people realize that it outlaws civil unions too. This will invalidate health plans that several state universities and private companies have in place.
I'm going to go vote against it so at least I can be on record as being pro-civil rights.
As my very pro-Bush but pro-civil union husband says, "At least it will get the bigots and church people out to vote for Bush."
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| horse tantrums |
| 10.25.04 (7:19 pm) |
I went to visit my horse today. It had been a few weeks because of scheduling problems. Usually if I don't see her for that long she acts like she doesn't know who I am unless I have a treat. I was prepared to be totally ignored when I realized that I forgot the treat.
When I opened her stall door Prize rushed over to me and pushed her head into my chest.
"He's...(sob)...being...(sob)...mean...(sob and a sigh)...to me!"
Now some of you may not think that she actually said that. But that just shows that you have never met my drama queen of a horse. She made her meaning perfectly clear. She allowed herself to be consoled by being fussed over as long as her head remained cuddled up to me. Looking her over I saw that her lips were a bit raw where the bit had rubbed them. This is unusual because her trainer is very light usually with her mouth. So now I know something is up.
I go find the trainer and he starts apologizing for her mouth before I say anything. Then he says, "We've had a bit of rough week." Seems that he decided that she was not performing as well as he felt she was capable of so he decided to push her a bit. She didn't need to do anything actually new but she needed to do everything a bit better. Apparently she told him where he could shove his request for better performance.
I'm sort of glad it happened because this was a problem I'd been having with her. She's great at learning new stuff but gets frustrated when asked to improve something that she thinks she already knows. She throws absolute temper tantrums. He said he rode her that day for 2.5 hours before she gave in and acted sensible again. Now she's alternating between greatly improved performance and mini-temper tantrums. I rode her and the tantrums decreased throughout the lesson. I think we've passed a hurdle. Hopefully.
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| Which blogs do you read? |
| 10.25.04 (6:44 pm) |
How do you decide which blogs to read on a regular basis? I've been trying to figure out of there are common denominators in the blogs that I read daily. This came to mind today as I was surfing blogs on BlogExplosion. I'm really picky about what blogs I want to come back and read again.
On the surface there aren't many common characteristics of the blogs I read regularly. They are written by people all over, in all different professions, with different religious beliefs. They have differing political opinions but (here's a common link) most hardly every write about politics.
Other similarities:
- In some way they are trying to improve their relationship to the environment. Some are living rurally and growing more of their own food. Others are urban and trying to cut down on environmental waste.
- They can all spell. No "R U :) ? I M :) 2" in these blogs.
- They are all adults. I think that people who have had some experiences in their lives are much more interesting than teenagers whining about people in school.
- They all write regularly. I hate going to blogs that haven't been updated in a month.
- Somehow I was reached by each of these blogs. I can't always define how. Something about the "mood" of the blog I suppose.
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| Blog Explosion |
| 10.25.04 (10:15 am) |
I joined BlogExplosion. Can't really say that I understand it totally yet but I've been playing with it for about an hour so I can say that it is addictive.
It is supposed to generate more traffic to your site. So far it seems to have me going to more sites so if it works that way for everyone it will do well.
Best of all it's free so I figured I had nothing to lose.
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| another quilt |
| 10.24.04 (7:44 pm) |
Here's the last quilt I finished.
[image]spirit97_138404033 9.jpg[/image]
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| Notes from the batttleground |
| 10.22.04 (4:05 pm) |
Now I know how Scarlett O'Hara felt. I live in the middle of a battleground. I know this because I hear it continously on the news. I come home to multiple messages from Democratic candidates on my answering machine. Recently there have been messages that I've "missed a public opinion poll. We may call back." I'm sure you will. Everyone in my house gets their own individual campaign junk mail every day. Then I get calls to make sure I got my junk mail. This is why I screen calls.
The candidates are here all the time. This used to lead the radio news. Now after the real news it is added as an afterthought. "Today President Bush will be in Canton and Senator Kerry in Cinncinnati." If one or the other are going to be in your town it is left to the traffic reporters to tell you where they are and what are the best alternate routes. This is followed by the weekly articles in the newspaper that tallies up how much all this is costing the area.
It's not that we are apathetic. We're tired. A message to the candidates - anyone who has wanted to see you has seen you already. Diehards have had the opportunity to see you multiple times. Most of us have come to a decision. Those who haven't are most likely not coming to your rally. Please go home now.
Now there are the news stories that say that it may not be over in a few weeks. Great. Seems that there is massive voter registration fraud. More voters registered in Columbus than eligible voters in the city. Whole neighborhoods signing up for absentee ballots. That sort of thing. The lawyers are already boasting that we are going be the "Florida of 2004." Goody. I'm going to start to pray before I go to sleep. "Please, don't make it close."
Sincerely,
A Tired Voter
P.S. I did an informal public opinion poll today. I counted the yard signs as I was driving. The official count was 8 for Kerry and 20 for Bush. Everyone else was hibernating like me.
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| Starbucks |
| 10.22.04 (10:06 am) |
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I have a new addiction. There is a Starbucks in the local Krogers. I'm not usually a Starbucks fan but one day I had just finished a bike ride and figured I deserved a treat. They have a Caramel Apple Cider that is absolutely incredible. They put caramel sauce in the bottom of the cup and then fill it with hot apple cider topped with whipped cream and cinnamon. Heavenly.
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| flu vaccine morons |
| 10.21.04 (5:52 pm) |
I can not believe the fuss being made over a flu vaccine shortage. I keep seeing pictures in the local paper with the caption
"Hundreds of seniors stand in 40 degree temperatures in the rain for a chance for a flu vaccine."
Hey morons! Get out of the cold and wet and you might have a better chance of keeping your body's immune system up and running. My favorite comment I've heard was from someone who said that this year as soon as there was word of a shortage people who have never wanted a flu vaccine became convinced that they are going to die without one. Personally, I've never considered getting a flu shot. I'm not big on vaccines anyway and I hardly ever get the flu.
I also can't figure out why the media is making such a big deal of this. (Well, I can figure it out but I think its crazy is my point.) Drug shortages happen every day. We are always getting notices that one drug or another is not going to be available for so many months. You make do. My favorite shortage ever was when the drug we use for euthanasia went off the market for a while because of contamination problems at the factory. How can you mess up a drug that is supposed to be lethal? If it is contaminated does that mean that the patient gets better? No one was ever able to answer that for me.
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| How to vote |
| 10.20.04 (7:57 pm) |
Here's an interesting link.
http://www.perturb.org/election/" title="http://www.perturb.org/election/" target="_blank"http://www.perturb.org/electi...
This site gives you a selection of statements taken from each candidate for President. You choose which you agree with. Then it tells you how often you agree with Bush and how often with Kerry.
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| Why naked women links? |
| 10.19.04 (9:13 pm) |
Weird Links
I was checking my stats. A few days ago I was getting a lot of hits from a site that features live webcams of naked women. I can not even begin to figure out why.
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| Nickeled and Dimed |
| 10.19.04 (9:09 pm) |
I went to my library's book club discussion of NICKELED AND DIMED tonight. This book was written by a person who went undercover to several minimum wage jobs in different areas of the country and tried to live on that wage.
I didn't like this book mainly because her solutions to every problem seemed to be that the government should step in and do something. It didn't matter what the problem was. Her solution was government. I guess that's the right-wing conservative pro-business side of me coming out to oppose that.
This book did make me think more about how I treat people in service related industries. I wasn't ever deliberately rude to people but I tend not to talk much or make much eye contact. That's just my personality. But she talked a lot about how demeaning it is when people act like you are invisible.
The discussion group had mainly people who agreed with the premise of government and unions can fix all wrongs. I'm pretty anti-union. My parents were union bigwigs and I totally disagreed with a lot of things that I saw go on. I also worked a job once that required me to join a union. That made me cranky because I thought I should have been given a choice. But I was definately in the minority in this group.
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| purple praise |
| 10.17.04 (8:04 pm) |
I went to the wedding on Saturday where I planned to wear the purple shoes. My husband was horrified. He kept suggesting other shoes that I own that he would like better. Too bad. I was wearing a black and white tweed jacket with black pants. The purple was a nice splash of color. I told him that if I had worn the brown shoes he prefered it would mean that I just couldn't tell the difference between black and brown. The purple was obviously on purpose.
At the reception the mother of the bride (who is a stranger to us) noticed the shoes. They stopped her in her tracks, in fact.
MOB: Those are great shoes!
Me: (Looking back to make sure husband is paying attention) Thanks!
MOB: I'm dating myself here but I have some shoes just like that from the '60s.
DH: I TOLD her that they were out of style.
At this point the MOB slapped my husband on the arm and told him that they were back in style. Then she was pointing them out to other people for admiration. The husband's attitude about my purple shoes improved then.
I also learned a lesson if I ever need to put on a reception. If you put the champagne punch in a fountain and the fruit punch in a bowl beside it the kids will go for the punch in the fun fountain every time. There were going to be a lot of drunk kids at the reception. But the parents started to catch on after drinking their own punch.
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| the coolest thing ever - women only |
| 10.14.04 (2:30 pm) |
Yesterday I was shopping in my continued pursuit of an outfit good enough to wear with purple heels. I found a purse I liked. Now one of my goals was to find a purse smaller than the one I currently have which is entirely too big. I put things in it and then have no idea that I still have them. I'm still carrying my birth certificate from the cruise I took in August. Enough said.
I had seen a purse I liked in a catalog. It was bronze leather. It was $25.00. That's probably about as much as I've paid for all the purses I've ever owned combined. This pains a co-worker of mine who has never paid less than $250.00 for a purse and she has several.
At the store I saw a bronze leather purse. It was entirely too big but I picked it up any way. It had a magnet closure which I like but when I opened it up I was thrilled to death. It was a small flashlight that comes on automatically so you can look for stuff in the purse. I was so excited by this I had to tell someone but I was by myself. I turned around and there was a lady nearby. "Look," I said as I thrust the open purse towards her, "It has a flashlight." Well, let me tell you she got fairly excited too and wanted to know where I found it. It was only bronze one left. There was one baby blue one. I thought for a second I was going to have to punch her to retain custody of my purse but she thought better of trying to take it from me. That's good because she was about 4 inches shorter and 30 years older than me so I'd have felt bad about whupping her over a purse.
Now the purse was marked $36.00. But I was so taken I was going to buy it. It was on the 30% off shelf. But by the time I got done getting free discounts for various unknown reasons at the checkout counter I got my fancy purse for $7.20. Every woman I have shown it to (and if you have been within shouting distance of me today you have seen it) has given the same excited shriek at the light and the price. Men are unimpressed. You'd think they'd like it because it counts as a gadget but they get that glazed over look in their eyes that always happens when they encounter the inside of a purse.
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| crazy people |
| 10.12.04 (10:52 pm) |
At one office I work at there seems to be more than a normal amount of totally crazy clients. One person who used to work there theorized that there was a sign out front that said, "Crazy people welcomed. Apply inside." As weird as they usually are I have never had one as loopy as this one.
Patient confidentiality and all that say that I can't give actual details. Suffice it to say that among other things this person seemed to be seeing things crawling over his pet that no one else could see. I"m the third vet to see the animal for this condition. No one seems to be able to fix it. The animal was cuddling up to me as I was getting the history. The owner said, "Boy, I hope you don't catch it too." Occasionally, I'd be asked, "Do you see them?" How do you answer that? I was honestly wondering if the owner was on something. Either the person is crazy or something is crawling on the animal. There was a skin problem. I treated that. Every time I came back in the room another seemingly unrelated symptom was related to me. Had I met the owner in the grocery store I would have assumed normality. But the more I talked the more concerned I got. Frankly keeping a straight face was getting hard. All I could think about was, "This is nuts." But a little voice in my head kept saying, "But what if it's true?"
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| the stripper story |
| 10.12.04 (10:40 pm) |
It so happened that my boss and my coworker's wife were at the same convention this weekend. My co-worker took advantage of his wife's abscence to concoct a plan to go see a certain stripper. Knowing that he would get into trouble if he went to a strip club he tried to recruit chaperones. He invited two female coworkers to go with him.
The plan was for one female coworker to confirm where the stripper was dancing and call his cell phone to give him the details. He gave her the cell phone number.
Problem - In a major Freudian slip he gave her his wife's cell phone number instead of his.
So, at the appointed time she calls the cell phone. Getting the voice mail, she leaves a message giving the time and location where the stripper is performing.
Change of scence to the conference. Co-worker's wife is looking at the caller ID on her phone and listening to her message. My boss happens to wander by. She asks him if he knows why people would be calling from his office to leave her messages about where and when certain strippers are performing. This cracks up the boss.
Let it be known that after the wife called her errant husband he did not get to see his stripper.
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| extra distance |
| 10.11.04 (9:07 am) |
I went bike riding by myself last night. I rode for 8 miles. I was all proud of myself. I'd never been farther than 2 miles down the trail before so everything between there and the 4 mile marker was brand new. When I got back I looked at the trail map to see where I had gone. Turns out that if I had gone 4.5 miles out I would have come to a whole other town! I've never been to that town before but I hear it's nice. I'll have to go sometime.
Today I'm off to shop for an appropriate purple shoe outfit. Then I have a riding lesson and a 4-H meeting.
I have to finish my stockings by this week and I have a baby quilt that I need to have done by a shower on Sunday. I have about half of the blocks finished for that. I"m going to have to get my butt in gear to get them all done. I work best on a deadline anyway.
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| anniversary/purple |
| 10.10.04 (1:40 pm) |
It's my anniversary. Six years. We went out last night to a fondue restaurant that I love and then went and stayed at a fancy hotel. That mostly consisted on falling into bed and going to sleep because we were both so tired and stuffed after the restaurant. Aren't married people exciting?
I have a wedding to go to next Saturday. I really want to wear the purple heels that I bought. But, I don't have anything to wear them with. I've been looking at fashion web sites and apparently purple is big this season. Fell into that trend entirely by accident. What is appropriate attire to compliment bright purple heels? This is a wedding of one of my husband's employees so I probably shouldn't look like a total slut. Maybe a dark jacket and skirt with a purple shirt? I don't own a purple shirt. I can always go shopping I guess.
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| poor zapped pony |
| 10.08.04 (9:58 am) |
For the past week I've been trying to make friends with the neighbor horse. She thinks I'm the devil. I think she's the Whore of Babylon so we're even. For some reason my horses think she's great. She repeatedly talked Prize into crawling under my fence and jumping hers to come play with her. Then when I would go to catch her Nugget would body block me and scream "Run, Prize, Run!" My horse would go, "Huh? I don't see anything scary. But if you say run I'll run." Then I had to go chase her again.
I decided that if I made friends with Nugget the next time I went into her pasture she might think I was a nice person and not try to prevent Prize from coming to me. (There is also a faint hope that she might say it was ok for Prize to stay home.) So I've been feeding her handfuls of grain for the last week.
Last night the husband comes home and says that Spirit is in the pasture with Nugget. I didn't believe him because he has a tendency to say things like, "Spirit is laying on his back with all four feet in the air. Must be tired." just to see my reaction.
But it turns out that the Whore of Babylon had seduced my previously well-behaved horse into visiting her. He doesn't have Prize's finesse. He just broke down the fence. Must have jumped Nugget's though because I didn't find any downed areas. But, the plan worked. They both came running up to me. No body blocks.
So first thing this morning I'm out fixing fence. Got to listen to Nugget and Spirit calling for each other all night. Acted like they were never going to see each other again. I broke my weed whacker in half trying to put the battery pack on so I couldn't knock down weeds. Fixed the fence and then plugged it in. It's been off since Prize left because Spirit never tries to leave. I wasn't sure how well it was working because I couldn't find my tester.
Spirit was running the fence line and calling Nugget. All of a sudden I saw him turn away. It wasn't a graceful, previously planned turn. It was a "What the ^%#$%^^?" turn. I took that to mean that the fence was working. He was staying several yards away from the fence then.
In the middle of writing this I had to let the dog out. There is a hill in the pasture so I can't see the horses when they are on the other side. I decided to go make sure that he was on the other side of the hill and not in the neighbor's pasture. I knew I had electrified only the top row of fence to avoid the weeds. I grabbed the middle row to crawl through and got zapped. Guess I electrified more than I thought. It isn't a huge charge. It won't stop a really determined horse but I don't think he's that excited by the idea of spending up close time with Nugget. I hope not at least.
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| butt ugly women |
| 10.07.04 (3:49 pm) |
My husband and I had a discussion about strippers this morning. I'm not sure why.
DH: "Can you imagine how awful it would be to audition to be a stripper and be rejected?"
Me: "No one would hire me to strip. I'm short and fat."
The conversation goes on for a while. He then says that one of his employees informed him that a bar across the street from their office was now a strip club. He said his employee checked it out and said it was really bad.
DH: (with a flash of inspiration) "Hey, you could get a job there. They hire a lot of butt ugly women."
He realized around the word butt that he was going to say something really bad but it was too late to stop it from coming out. He starts laughing hysterically.
DH: "That's not what I meant. I meant that they'd like you because all the women are ugly. Oh, that's not what I'm trying to say either."
By now he's laughing so hard he can hardly stand up.
DH: "What I'm trying to say is that you'd get the best tips. Yeah, that's it."
He's lucky I'm not easily offended. I pretended to be but I was trying not to laugh at him so it ruined the effect.
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| little bike rides |
| 10.07.04 (3:40 pm) |
Nothing much has been happening for the past few days. The husband and I went for a bike ride on Tuesday. He was all excited. He called me at work to make sure that I still wanted to go. I've never seen him excited about exercise before.
We decided to ride around here because we didn't have much time before it got dark. We went from our garage, down the driveway, out our road to the next road. Then he was tired. That's maybe 0.2 miles. Maybe. And he called me a wimp for only going 4 miles the day before. Oh, well. It's a start.
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| first bike ride |
| 10.04.04 (12:42 pm) |
I went on a bike ride this morning. I survived. It was actually pretty cool. I could get used to it.
I went to the local Rails-to-Trails trail where we went walking yesterday. It is beautifully paved and very flat. Good for people trying to remember how to ride. My main problem is that I weave when I ride. Probably get picked up for drunk bicycling someday.
I didn't think there would be many people there. I usually don't see many people in the morning. But there were lots. They were a friendly bunch too. Everybody kept waving. Yeah, like I have the motor skills to take my hand off my handlebars and wave without crashing. I settled for lifting my fingers off the hand grip in an approximation of a friendly wave.
I had my IPod on too. This could have been a problem because I'm the kind of person that has to always be fussing with the music. So I decided to put on the classical playlist and just let it go. If I can't wave I surely can't manipulate electronic devices. It was a totally different experience. I usually walk the trail with rock music. Now I was biking with Mozart. It felt like I was in an Italian movie. I'm not sure why I think Italian but I tried fitting other nationalities in there and they don't fit. It was an Italian movie moment.
I only went 4 miles. I had visions of going farther than I had been before on the trail but when I got to the 2 mile marker I figured that I was about at my halfway point. On the way back I had to weave between the side of the trail and a rollerblader. I managed without wiping out either one of us. It was a proud moment.
I started looking up bicycling vacations last night. How's that for premature thinking? I decided New Zealand would be fun. Really expensive but fun. I've wanted to go there but didn't know what to do. Now if the husband actually sticks with this we can go see the countryside on bikes. Maybe by next winter we'd be in shape enough to do that. Who knows when we'd be able to afford that but I can dream.
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| new hobby? |
| 10.03.04 (8:18 pm) |
This morning I listed my plans for the day to the husband. I said I needed to go for a walk, to the store, and the library. He said that if I went out to breakfast with him he'd go for a walk with me. I was impressed. He'll usually do anything to avoid exercise.
I decided to take it easy on him. We did a slow 2 miles. He was impressed with himself for going that far. He kept seeing bikes though. He started talking about wanting a bike. He had one when we got married. I never saw him ride it.
Ok, so long story short we bought bikes. Cheap bikes. I had to buy a new seat though. It is a big butt seat. Much more comfy than the narrow seat.
I bought my horse in 1984. I parked my bike in the garage as soon as we picked him up and never rode it again. I was on a bike once in 1992. I was in Costa Rica. I was just getting the hang of it again when I rounded a corner and almost wrecked on a huge male iguana basking in the road.
So I had to practice today. I never had a bike with gears or handbrakes. Tomorrow we're going for our first ride on the bike path. I hope he sticks with this. I'm already having visions of bike tours through Europe.
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| video assistant |
| 10.03.04 (11:44 am) |
Friday I showed up for my lesson and everything was subtly different. There were more cars in the driveway. There were banners on the fence. Everyone was cleaner than normal. There was a woman I didn't recognize saddling the prize stallion.
Turns out they were shooting a video for a series they are making. My trainer was supposed to call to cancel my lesson but didn't so I ended up hanging out to watch for a while. The person I didn't recognize was the assistant trainer (she was wearing makeup!). My main jobs ended up being trying to find the direction that the one demo horse looked least lame (he'd never been lame before they needed him for a video of course) and dog wrangling. This took great skill because there are five big dogs and one of me. Several of the dogs wanted to be in the video.
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| What have you done? |
| 10.02.04 (9:55 pm) |
I stole this from Here. http://apagans.lifeontheridge...
It will show you just how boring I actually am.
Highlighted ones are the ones I've done. Extra comments are mine.
01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula.
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. SAID ‘I LOVE YOU’ AND MEANT IT
09. HUGGED A TREE
10. Done a striptease
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long, and watch the sun rise
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. GONE TO A HUGE SPORTS GAME
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
18. GROWN AND EATEN YOUR OWN VEGETABLES
19. Touched an iceberg
20. Slept under the stars
21. Changed a baby’s diaper (I'm proud to say no)
22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
23. Watched a meteor shower
24. Gotten drunk on champagne
25. Given more than you can afford to charity
26. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
27. HAD AN UNCONTROLLABLE GIGGLING FIT AT THE WORST POSSIBLE MOMENT
28. Had a food fight
29. BET ON A WINNING HORSE
30. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
31. ASKED OUT A STRANGER
32. HAD A SNOWBALL FIGHT
33. Photocopied your bottom on the office photocopier
34. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
35. HELD A LAMB
36. Enacted a favorite fantasy
37. Taken a midnight skinny dip
38. TAKEN AN ICE COLD BATH (showers)
39. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar
40. SEEN A TOTAL ECLIPSE
41. RIDDEN A ROLLER COASTER
42. Hit a home run (only against really bad players)
43. Fit three weeks miraculously into three days
44. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
45. Adopted an accent for an entire day
46. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
47. ACTUALLY FELT HAPPY ABOUT YOUR LIFE, EVEN FOR JUST A MOMENT
48. Had two hard drives for your computer.
49. Visited all 50 states
50. Loved your job for all accounts
51. TAKEN CARE OF SOMEONE WHO WAS SHIT FACED
52. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
53. HAD AMAZING FRIENDS
54. DANCED WITH A STRANGER IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY
55. Watched wild whales
56. Stolen a sign
57. Backpacked in Europe
58. Taken a road-trip
59. Rock climbing
60. Lied to foreign government’s official in that country to avoid notice
61. Midnight walk on the beach
62. Sky diving
63. Visited Ireland
64. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
65. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
66. Visited Japan
67. Benchpressed your own weight
68. Milked a cow
69. Alphabetized your records
70. Pretended to be a superhero
71. Sung karaoke
72. LOUNGED AROUND IN BED ALL DAY
73. Posed nude in front of strangers
74. Scuba diving
75. Got it on to “Let’s Get It On” by Marvin Gaye
76. KISSED IN THE RAIN
77. Played in the mud
78. PLAYED IN THE RAIN
79. GONE TO A DRIVE-IN THEATER
80. DONE SOMETHING YOU SHOULD REGRET, BUT DON’T REGRET IT.
81. Visited the Great Wall of China
82. Discovered that someone who’s not supposed to have known about your blog has discovered your blog (hope not after this)
83. Dropped Windows in favor of something better (never used it to start with)
84. Started a business
85. FALLEN IN LOVE AND NOT HAD YOUR HEART BROKEN
86. TOURED ANCIENT SITES
87. Taken a martial arts class
88. Swordfought for the honor of a woman
89. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
90. GOTTEN MARRIED
91. Been in a movie
92. Crashed a party
93. LOVED SOMEONE YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE
94. KISSED SOMEONE SO PASSIONATELY IT MADE THEM DIZZY
95. Gotten divorced
96. Had sex at the office
97. Gone without food for 5 days
98. MADE COOKIES FROM SCRATCH
99. Won first prize in a costume contest
100. Ridden a gondola in Venice
101. Gotten a tattoo
102. FOUND THAT THE TEXTURE OF SOME MATERIALS CAN TURN YOU ON
103. Rafted the Snake River
104. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
105. Got flowers for no reason
106. Masturbated in a public place (none of your business)
107. Got so drunk you don’t remember anything
108. Been addicted to some form of illegal drug
109. PERFORMED ON STAGE
110. BEEN TO LAS VEGAS
111. Recorded music
112. Eaten shark
113. HAD A ONE-NIGHT STAND
114. Gone to Thailand
115. Seen Siouxsie live
116. BOUGHT A HOUSE
117. Been in a combat zone
118. Buried one/both of your parents
119. Shaved or waxed your pubic hair off (none of your business either)
120. BEEN ON A CRUISE SHIP
121. Spoken more than one language fluently
122. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone
123. BOUNCED A CHECK
124. Performed in Rocky Horror
125. READ - AND UNDERSTOOD - YOUR CREDIT REPORT
126. Raised children
127. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy
128. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
129. Created and named your own constellation of stars
130. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
131. Found out something significant that your ancestors did (my ancestors seem to all be slackers)
132. CALLED OR WRITTEN YOUR CONGRESS PERSON
133. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
134. …more than once? - More than thrice?
135. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
136. SANG LOUDLY IN THE CAR, AND DIDN’T STOP WHEN YOU KNEW SOMEONE WAS LOOKING
137. Had an abortion or your female partner did
138. Had plastic surgery
139. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived.
140. Wrote articles for a large publication
141. Lost over 100 pounds
142. Held someone while they were having a flashback
143. Piloted an airplane
144. PETTED A STINGRAY
145. Broken someone’s heart
146. HELPED AN ANIMAL GIVE BIRTH (dumb cows can't give birth on their own. don't miss that at all)
147. Been fired or laid off from a job
148. Won money on a T.V. game show
149. BROKEN A BONE
150. Killed a human being (not that I'm admitting)
151. Gone on an African photo safari
152. RIDDEN A MOTORCYCLE
153. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph
154. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
155. FIRED A RIFLE, SHOTGUN, OR PISTOL
156. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
157. RIDDEN A HORSE
158. Had major surgery
159. Had sex on a moving train
160. Had a snake as a pet
161. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
162. Slept through an entire flight: takeoff, flight, and landing
163. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
164. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
165. Visited all 7 continents
166. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
167. Eaten kangaroo meat
168. Fallen in love at an ancient Mayan burial ground
169. Been a sperm or egg donor
170. Eaten sushi
171. HAD YOUR PICTURE IN THE NEWSPAPER
172. HAD 2 (OR MORE) HEALTHY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS FOR OVER A YEAR IN YOUR LIFETIME
173. CHANGED SOMEONE’S MIND ABOUT SOMETHING YOU CARE DEEPLY ABOUT
174. Gotten someone fired for their actions
175. Gone back to school
176. Parasailed
177. Changed your name
178. PETTED A COCKROACH
179. Eaten fried green tomatoes
180. Read The Iliad
181. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
182. Dined in a restaurant and stolen silverware, plates, cups because your apartment needed them.
183. …and gotten 86′ed from the restaurant because you did it so many times, they figured out it was you
184. TAUGHT YOURSELF AN ART FROM SCRATCH
185. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
186. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
187. SKIPPED ALL YOUR SCHOOL REUNIONS. (high school and college)
188. COMMUNICATED WITH SOMEONE WITHOUT SHARING A COMMON SPOKEN LANGUAGE
189. Been elected to public office
190. Written your own computer language
191. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
192. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
193. Built your own PC from parts
194. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
195. Had a booth at a street fair
196: DYED YOUR HAIR
197: Been a DJ
198: Found out someone was going to dump you via LiveJournal
199: Written your own role playing game
200: Been arrested
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| aura test |
| 10.01.04 (11:10 am) |
I've always wanted to be able to see auras.
Violets are the inspirational visionaries, leaders
and teachers who are here to help save the
planet. Most Violets feel drawn to educate the
masses, to inspire higher ideals, to improve
the quality of life on the planet, or to help
save people, animals and the environment.
What Is Your True Aura Colour?
brought to you by Quizilla
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