Another American Idol juicy tidbit.

Last night I dreampt my boss was madly typing and I was in awe of her incredible mad typing skillZ. Work dreams.. not good.

In about an hour I'm going to head out with Isabella to Napa.. may the traffic gods be gentle and forgiving. Wish us luck!

Blogger's been really sucky and slow lately.. hence the lack of posts.

I didn't care for last night's American Idol too much.. although I did vote after I watched the show. The lines were perpetually busy. Here's this week's analysis:
Bo: Didn't like the song, fast fowarded. Hooray for TIVO.
Jessica: Awesome!
Anthony: Ugh, he has to go.. I can't stand him.
Anwar: I don't like his voice much either. But here's a little juicy tidbit.
Constantine: Cheesy, but I like the guy. (although my favorite is Matt) ;)
Scott: I like him too. He did a good job last night.
Nadia: Her fake smile nauseates me.
Vonzell: Did a good job with Whitney last night, but I'm still not a fan.
Carrie: Awesome!
Nikko: He just seems like the 1000 other R&B singers out there.. nothing special.

There ya go! Matt has kidnapped China and taken her up to Santa Rosa until this weekend. I'll be going up there tomorrow night with Isabella to attend a 3 day long horsemanship clinic in Napa. I'm looking forward to the clinic because I know I'll learn tons.. but they usually have a lot of spectators at these clinics so I'm a bit nervous.. I hate people watching me ride. Blech!

Had to remove a few items from my wishlist that are no longer available (goodbye elk carcass, how I wish someone had bought you for me so that I could've tasted your sweet, sweet nectar). So, they have been replaced with equally as succulent items. Please go check them out (and buy me stuff).

My Easter Adventure(s)

8 am on Sunday morning I get to the barn to trailer Isabella over to El Granada to my friend's place to ride. Everything goes smoothly, Isabella is in the trailer and traveling like she always does (in a hurry, stompstompstomp), and we arrive to El Granada a bit early. Woohoo, lots of riding time and good weather (no rain), yippee! Well, I get lost from the directions I wrote for myself and we end up going on this muddy jeep road that is an offshoot of a curvy mountain trail. It's bumpy and as I turn in I realize this is not the smartest idea in the world.. but I keep going. I try to keep my cool and turn around at the Y about 500 feet from the road. Instead of going where I want it to, the trailer goes up a little hill in the middle of what looks like marsh ground and perches itself there. I try to rev the trailer and truck out of there.. doesn't work and I sink about 12 inches into the ground. I try not to either panic or cry - I see that I have no cell reception so I can't call anyone to help me! I unhitch the trailer to see if I can get my truck out by itself and just sink myself further in the mud. So... I hike up to the nearest house, about a half mile away. The windows along the door have Navy Seals and National Rifle Association stickers on it.. lovely. The grumpy old man that answered the door turns out to be very nice and lets me use the phone to call USRider (they rock, AAA for horse owners) and my friend who I'm supposed to meet who comes out to give me moral support. Turns out I was less than a block away from her place, argh.

Long story short, the tow truck guy who was in great spirits despite being called out on Easter got my truck and trailer out, unscathed. He was very amused when he saw the predicament I got my vehicles in and took many pictures stating, "They're not going to believe this back at the shop!" haha! My friend Tina asked if I still wanted to ride and I said, heck yeah - I didn't go all the way over here for nothing! So we went on our ride.. we rode the old Hwy 1 over to Shamrock and back - it was so gusty and windy!! I've never ridden in such wind before.. a few times it almost knocked me off of Isabella.. but she was a doll, taking it all in stride whereas Tina's horse, a big silly arab kept spooking every 5 feet so she finally got off and walked home since she didn't want to end up down the canyon.

Matt has this story about this chicken he grew up with. One day the chicken got loose and ended up in the neighbors yard. When his dad found the chicken, it was cornered by this rattlesnake about to eat her and by the neighbor's lab, who was barking and going ballistic at both animals. His dad managed to save the chicken from its untimely demise and when he returned the chicken to her coop, she sat there for about 10 minutes squaking frantically, clucking and flapping her wings as she 'told' her story to her captive audience. The other chickens in the coop all sat there quietly listening and watching the brave chicken tell her tale until she finished. Funny.

Anyways, yesterday after I got home I told Matt all about my adventure that morning, a little delirious from the experience and lack of food I blurted the story on him talking very quickly.. afterwards he said that I was that chicken today! HEHE!!

I haven't been following the Shiavo case at all but this morning I had a freaky dream about her. When the radio went off this morning, I pressed snooze (like I do about 10 times every morning), but not before hearing a tidbit of the local radio morning show chatting about her and the state of her vegetative condition.

In my dream, I saw her lying down on her side with her eyes wide open. Her eyes were blank and greyish black, her pupils dilated and huge. She wasn't staring at anything in particular, and the image of her was somewhere between her and the scary girl from 'The Ring'. I think it's sad the family is keeping her alive. That is no quality of life.. but I also think it's sad that she's basically now starving to death.

One of my most favorite Futurama episodes is when Bender joins the Penguins on Pluto. The scene of him squatting in the middle of a sea of penguins - he's gesturing and squaking away like he's talking all important while everyone else is squaking and having discussions along with him is just hilarious! I tried to find a picture of this but couldn't find it online. :( Somebody has to have this somewhere!

Tried a Myler combo bit on Isabella yesterday and she hated it. More proof that I need to just keep her in the S-hack.. I wanted to try something different so I could work on getting more lateral control and bend on her, but this isn't the way to go. Maybe I should just try a simple sidepull on her.. dunno. At the same time I tried all 4 Easyboot Epics on her and she walked up and down the driveway very nice, no ouchy steps. Gotta use the cotter pins though, both hind boots came undone although they stayed on.

My back feels SOOOO much better! I think all that activity on Tuesday and walking all around the neighborhood yesterday loosened everything up. My back is still crackly though.

Matt came over yesterday (yay!) and we made turkey salad sandwiches with french bread. Sooo good, I don't know why people don't eat turkey more often. I've been meaning to try a Jenny-O turkey which I've been hearing advertised all over the radio. You pop it straight from your freezer to your oven and waaalaa! After a few hours, you have a perfectly flavored, seasoned turkey to eat. Mmm-mm.

Sleeping with Matt is awesome (yes, in that pervy kind of way also). I'm not much of a cuddler, but I'll snuggle with him for a while before un-entangling myself.. and I'll usually hold his hand or touch him somehow as I fall asleep. We had some sleeping issues for a while when we first began overnight visits.. both Matt and I weren't used to sleeping with other people and it took a while for him to be able to fall asleep next to me, and it took a while for me to 'respect his space' and not hog the bed. However, a few weeks ago when Matt was sick, we unconsciously declared bedtime wars against each other. Mainly because we were both restless in our sleep- Matt coughed and tossed all night which in turn kept me up and made me (unknowingly) cranky.

The day afterwards, I asked him if he realized what was going on.. here's his recap of what happened, much funnier, although maybe just to me.

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hahahha, i wondered if you were aware of that. here's what really happened (aka my interpretation) i just want you to know i was quite bemused by this whole episode, it was funny.. actually, it makes me laugh just telling it to you :P

round one: there i was hugging the corner of the bed (as usual) with half of the sheets off my body because you were all wrapped up in them. i didn't mind too much though because i was a little hot. i've been trying to sleep for about ten minutes or so all is motionless completely still... then all of a sudden you kick me and jab me with your elbow and then push me. i didn't know what the fuck was going on, it kinda hurt though. after a bout of puzzlement i fall asleep..

round two: later on, i wake up and i'm cold, i look over and you have a significant amount of real estate on the other side of you and the covers tucked in, so i gently pull the covers that you have wrapped down between us, you tug back at me like i'm hogging them, groan dismayed because i won't give them back and roll over.. i giggle to myself and squeeze off a fart.. back to sleep...

round three: at one point lying on my side facing you i start to roll over the other way when i realize that i am already on the edge of the bed, it freaks me out because i almost fell out of bed so i decided i wasn't taking it anymore of your crap. so i take my foot, put it in your ass and push you onto your half of the bed, grab my share of the covers and go back to sleep.

any other pushing or prodding was completely involuntary.

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Copying Lizette's site.. (because I'm obsessed like she is. American Idol = genius)

Anthony - Get this dude off the show.
Carrie - VOTED! She's awesome. I tivo'd the show and had to watch her performance twice.. beautiful!
Scott - He sounds like Aaron Neville.

Bo - I really like him, but he seems like he's twice the age of everyone! He'll probably do well.
Nikko - Did well this time, won't get voted off.
Vonzell - Her voice is like nails running down a chalkboard. Yeech.
Constantine - Awesome. He seems to have a lot of fun and he's goofy and cute.
Nadia - She needs to go. Mohawk was stupid.
Mikalah - She's one of the reasons I watch American Idol, but I keep waiting for an awesome performance from her and she has yet to bring it.
Anwar - Dude can sing but I'm not a huge fan.
Jessica - VOTED! I love her.. beautiful voice. I liked the top she wore.

The judges were fucking hilarious! They all cracked me up. I love Simon's comments.. they were just being ridiculous and goofy.. at one point Paula was the only one that liked the performance, and while she was beating up Simon for berating the singer, Randy was all - 'Dude, you agree with me?' pointing at Simon then himself, then to Simon, then to himself.. he was really insistent about it. Funny!

Matt is sick with food poisoning.. :( he's feeling better though. I'm not doing too great either - my back was really bad today and I almost cried out a few times at work when I turned wrong. I knew I needed to go out and be mobile to stretch out those muscles so in a short break in the rain I grabbed Isabella for a mini ride up and down the driveway in hopes that would loosen up my muscles.

Afterwards I went and finished glueing the insulation pieces for the trailer.. almost done! We just have to cut out the edge pieces all around and we're finished! Woohoo.. I can't wait to see how cool the trailer stays in 100 degree heat when I'm away at rides. I'm also thinking about getting a trailer vent fan.. but I have to figure out how that would work with the existing electrical system.

So after all that, my back is feeling much better. It's still crackly, but the searing pain has dissipated somewhat.

Tornadoes! They were spotted in South San Francisco in the late afternoon yesterday and were big enough to cause damage to a bunch of homes and businesses! That's nuts! It occurred around 3:40pm, right around the time Matt and I were driving home from the barn in a torrent of rain and hail. The rain was coming down HARD! It was like that the whole afternoon while we were working on insulating the trailer. It would rain sheets one minute, and after a few moments passed, the rain would completely stop. After a while we stopped bringing China in and out of the trailer and just left her outside. She found a cozy dry spot to curl up in while we were working.

Well, the check book is still burning.. this morning I paid $265 for a saddle fitter to completely reflock Isabella's saddle. Money well paid because he came out and measured her back and did it all right then and there.. but that will make a grand total of over $600 spent on Isabella in less than 4 days!! YIKES. I'm also taking a horsemanship clinic from April 1-3rd in Napa which will be another $325. I'm not really sure where the money will come from.. oh well. As long as Isabella's happy, I'm ok to go another year with the same clothes and shoes. :)

Saturday night I suprised Matt with a movie outting to see Steamboy. He's a big fan of Akira and they're both by the same director. We went to the Lumiere theater in SF and the crowd was unique to say the least.. a mixed crowd of Japanese people, trekkie-look alikes, and the dark goth crowd. Wierd. The movie was interesting.. although I fell asleep in the middle of it. So tired.. it was a good 2 hours long and so I just snuggled into Matt's shoulder and fell asleep - which is probably why my neck is a bit crampy still two days later. The animation was great and the storyline was typical anime style raising social questions without there being a true 'bad' or 'good' guy. I'm definitely not the authority when it comes to anime movies, but I had a good time at least (while I was awake).

More storms tonight.. I love the rain!

Having a horse is DAMN expensive. Today I spent $175 in vet bills and another $205 in vet dentistry bills. YOWZAS~!!

Isabella had her teeth floated by Scott Loman, DDS. He's a normal people dentist as well as an equine dentist. He had with him two accomplished vets from Scandinavia and another old timer vet dentist from southern California. So, for my $205 I got 4 expert opinions and a really thorough job. Not too bad. They had borrowed another vet dentist's horse trailer that was equipped with automated electronic equipment - Isabella has never had such a great job done on her teeth! I was very pleased.

She also recieved 4 progesterone implants that will hopefully subdue her heat cycles through the spring/summer. They'll slowly disintigrate over the next few months hopefully until fall, after the endurance ride season. Sorry boys out in pasture, no more hussy for youz!

This is awesome. I want one for my commute!

Remember Kids Incorporated? Stacey is Fergie from Black Eyed Peas.. who knew?

I'm scared to go into the bathroom stalls at work. The toilets here seem to uh.. smear whatever solid matter is in the toilet and they aren't really powerful enough to suck everything that is expelled down into the depths of toilet land. Gross, yes.

Isabella has a back wound from hussying around the pasture. She's in raging heat right now and she's gotten the attentions of a HUGE 17hh gelding who is quite accomodating. Not good.. I can't ride her! :( The weather is so nice right now and I can't ride. Poop.

This weekend even though I wasn't feeling so hot, Matt and I took a walk at the lake by his house. China was happy retrieving sticks for us... as long as she didn't have to swim to get it. She'd get to a point where she'd get on her tippy dog toes and wouldn't go any further. Sooooo... I took her (with Matt's help) to the dock and threw her over. Cruelty, yes. She kind of froze with her paw in the air and an odd expression on her doggy face before she sunk down a bit and began swimming. She's horrible at swimming! Anyways, Matt chided me a bit for being a mean dog mom then said, LET'S DO IT AGAIN! YES! So we threw her off the dock a few more times. Even after realizing she could swim, she still wouldn't go fetch those sticks thrown into deeper waters.

In Santa Rosa right now. I felt really crappy at work so I took the afternoon off. I think the drastic change in weather (lots of rain last week to almost 90 degree temps this week) really affects my system.. at work I wasn't thinking very clearly so, I went home and rested a bit. Matt is working on his parent's house here in SR and invited me up for the weekend, so I went to see Isabella for a little bit before driving up here. I'm still not feeling 100%, but I'm better now that I know I can just relax and rest all weekend. Tonight he made a YUMMY cheese and chicken ravioli with pepper sausage, tomatoes, and marinera sauce. It's so damn good.. and at 1:30 in the morning it tastes even better! We spent the evening watching 'Finding Nemo' (Matt hadn't seen it since the first day it came out in the theaters), then playing Champions of Norath II. I bought Baldur's Gate II off a dude at amazon.com, but the disc was scratched and didn't work. :( poop!

Anyhoo, I like spending time up here.. his parent's place is pretty remote so as I'm sitting here typing this, there are absolutely no sounds.. no traffic, no air purifier, no beach, no TV, just the barely audible hum of the refrigerator in the other room. I don't think my eardrums are used to this level of quietness because I always hear ringing in my ears for a day or so when I come up here.

Hopefully this heat will subside.. it's not summer yet damnit, bring back the fog.

My nose keeps running this morning.. icky allergies.

Yesterday I recieved my first package from Farm Fresh Capay Organic. I decided in an effort to become more healthy, I would be recieving a mostly-fruit box from this farm every month. For $29 I recieved: a buttload of Lady Pink apples, lots of blood oranges, lots of Satsuma mandarins (which are DELISH), a few naval oranges, and a big bag of mixed green salad. I also recieved 2 bags of dried strawberries, yum! I could've used the carrots they have in this week's box, but Isabella will just have to settle for the apples instead.

I'm not sure if I'm getting too much sleep or not enough, but lately I've been very tired.. yesterday after getting home I laid down for 10 minutes before remembering about the produce box and running outside to get it. I've been getting about 7 hours of sleep every night. So tired..

Ugh, my blog was down for a few days because I'm reaching the 35 meg max limit that my hosting site provides. I may have to start looking for a new home once my yearly contract runs out. Anyhoo, I deleted a few large files so I think I'll be okay until August.

It's been a quiet week. I was jerked into reality when I realized that my first LD endurance ride is coming up in May, so I've started to get my butt out on the trails and upped the motivation to get my trailer ready to go. I've met a prospective training buddy in El Granada that I'll be riding with on March 26, and I think I may have motivated her to come out of her 3 year endurance retirement and ride with me in May. I've also decided to participate in a horsemanship clinic in Napa. I haven't done anything like this in a long time, so I'm looking forward to learning a lot with Isabella.. it's a little expensive, but I figure for 3 full days of instruction plus hopefully getting a little more control over Isabella when she gets the morning pre-ride willies at the rides we'll be participating in this year, it will be worth it.

Today was the first day that I saw it be really foggy in Pacifica. The rest of the bay was sunny and in the mid-70s, but Pacifica was completely shrouded. I left work a little early to get in a ride where I timed us at a little less than 5 mph without really trying. Not too bad for starting back into the conditioning routine. The trails around the barn are very hilly.. so we climbed to the top of the hills and emerged above the fog. It was surreal looking over the clouds and seeing different mountain peaks emerging from the white cover. Shoulda brought a camera.

I can't believe this is Rachel Ray! Crazy.

You scored as Natural Child. The Natural Child (or Free Child) is the part of the ego state that is fun-loving and playful. People who score high in this state feel, want, play, demand and fight. Natural Child 73% Adult 70% Nurturing Parent 67% Adapted Child 57% Controlling Parent 40% Interaction with Others Survey created with QuizFarm.com

So, I did it. I cut it all off.. it's no more than about 1-2 inches now. I hope I don't regret it later! It'll grow back right? Eventually? ACKKKKKKKK, see?? This is what happens when you have a bored girl and a rainy day. I just go hacking away..

Pictures to come..