Boring Leadership Training all afternoon

Boring Leadership Training all afternoon
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Hooray China has her own profile and blog up at dogster. Within 1 hour of having her profile up, we recieved the following message: "China, you just have to be Foster's pal. He has the same "gourmet" tastes as you. Sometimes mom has to race him across the yard to clean up before he has a 'snack'. Woofs and Wags from Dakota and Foster." Haha, gross!

STARBUCKS COFFEE IS SOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER THAN normal coffee. This morning I had to come in early so I bought breakfast from the company cafeteria and poured myself a HUUUUGE cup of home blend. Mmmm.. smoooooth. I'm not used to drinking coffee, I drink maybe 1-2 cups a week if that. So I'm feeling the effects, sweating and vibrating at my desk. YES. That's hot.

Nona's Cafe, where Matt and I have breakfast almost every Sunday morning, has some really delicious strongly brewed coffee. You can tell the owner is high on the stuff because he flutters his 200+ lb self around the restaurant with his feet barely touching the ground. This past weekend we were disappointed though.. after sleeping in for 11 hours (the longest I've slept in for 3 weeks), we shared 2 strong tasting cups and came home. I then fell asleep for 2 more hours. Ya think it was decaf?? YA THINK??

This past weekend was also Matt and my first anniversary together. Reading back at my blog a year ago, here's what I was up to: Making the Albany Bulb spider, whining about how I want to start endurance riding again, talking about my LASIK eye surgery, wondering about the resemblance between China and Pete Sampras. I really didn't start writing about Matt until a month and a half later.. the first post being when we went to my company picnic at the race track. Love you baby!

Coffee is fun! I wrote this post in 19.3 seconds!

Penis umbrella at ace hardware

Penis umbrella at ace hardware
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Flickr

Cool, I got my flickr thing working! :) I'll be more motivated to take pictures now.

I'm sitting here at work catching up on my weekend gossip and I hear a bunch of taps/clicks on the window of my office. I look up and behold! A cute little bird is starting at me from outside! She peered at me for a while, cocked her head from side to side, then flew away. What more motivation do I need to create a journal entry? :) I think they've built a nest outside my window as they keep fluttering by and looking inside at me.

This weekend was tiring, but nice. Saturday morning I went for a long trail ride on Isabella that nearly killed China (I really don't understand that dog - she runs after every single animal she sees then is absolutely exhausted in the middle of the ride). You'd think she'd learn.

Afterwards we went to Merima and John's BBQ. OMG that boy can BBQ. Holy crap, his tri tip was sooooo tender and yummy. We had some damn good food this weekend. Sunday morning we returned to Nona's (I kept asking Matt if he thought the owner missed us since we missed a few weekends being out of town. His reply would be to roll his eyes and say 'yes.. he missed us'). hehe. We had ham steak and eggs, and blueberry/strawberry waffles. Sooo good. For dinner we marinated some skirt steak with lime, garlic, cilantro, salt and pepper. Holy moly, it was so delicious. I gained about 2 pounds this past weekend. :~(

How can I forget Friday! We went to Manor Pizza (really good Pacifica pizza!) and while we were eating we saw this upset customer throw a pizza back at the bar patrons before he stormed out. One of guys got up and punched/kicked the guy's face in.. yikes! Pacifica drama.

You are a sock. You are a cozy, fuzzy, warm-hearted person. A lot of your friends describe you as a hopeless romantic. You fall for the opposite sex very easily. But be careful, because usually you don't know what you are getting into, and because you are very sensitive, you can get hurt... especially in early relationships. Also, don't exclude the cold-hearted from your "want-list", because they just might be looking for a kind person to warm up their heart.... or a sock to warm up their feet. Most compatible with: Toilet Paper. Click here -- What Random Object Represents Your Inner Self?

OH MY GOD. What am I still doing up on a Wednesday night at 2am? I'll tell you what I'm still doing up on a Wednesday night at 2am. I'm working, that's what! GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

My supervisor is gone this week from work so I've been crazy busy, trying to get my job responsibilities done in addition to her tasks. busybusybusy.

This past weekend Matt and I went to the Horse Expo - I was easy on him and we only stayed for about 2 1/2 hours. It was very sweet of him to come along.. an expo which is centered around horses (which he doesn't really participate in) and for which the main attraction is shopping (200+ vendors, *drool*).

He made another non-horsey observation which I found hilarious. We were walking along and a horse that was being led close to us around whinnied loudly. Off in the distance we hear another horse whinny back. Matt observes that when a horse whinnies he is saying "Holla back ya'll!!!" and then when another responds, it's like his friend is saying "Yeah brother, I hear ya!" haha! It never ceases to amuse me what comes out of him.

I was going through my old emails and found this one from Walt. I was complaining to him about not pooping:



No poo for you?

You should drink more water
or eat more greens
pooing is good
pooing makes you clean
Poo for yourself
or poo for others
I'd poo all day, if I had my druthers

Be sure to brink a book
something to read
to pass the time
with illusionary speed

if you plop
no need to cough
always remember
if you get bored
you can always jerk off

Yesterday I rode Isabella in the rain. I've never purposefully ridden her in bad weather and I thought I'd give my new rain jacket a test drive. It was pretty darn fun, riding out in the fog and light drizzle.

China is absolutely soaked in just a few minutes. The trail is slick, but not too bad once we travel up the mountain a ways. We trot and canter up to the top.. I think Isabella was a bit confused as to why I'd take her out in weather like that - when I asked her to canter, she let out a huge BUCK, almost deseating me and then we go on our merry little way. Near the top I give her a loose rein and I let her go as fast as she wants.. in the rain and wind her hoofbeats are all I can hear and when we ride like that it's almost like we're soaring to the top of the mountain.. flying past all the trees and rocks and forgetting everything else in the world. Time freezes and nothing else exists except for us at that moment.

Today we rode with a few barn friends up half the mountain and back. We picked up speed and Isabella went into her big extended trot then cantered a bit up the hill. I was very surprised she didn't go into her crow hop bucking spree like she usually does when we ride with other people.. I gave her her head and trusted her to not rush. Giving her that bit of trust made a huge difference and I could tell she appreciated it. Afterwards I let her run around in the arena, watching with her tail flipped over her back, snorting and trotting around. Every so often she'd trot up close to me and stand there with me. I would let her rest her head on my shoulder and give the underside of her neck a good scratching.. her favorite place. She would stand quietly and make blissful faces, indicating I was getting that perfect spot. Time stands still.

Oftentimes when I'm riding her and we're riding down the same trail, the same path we take almost every day.. I wonder why she lets me do it. I anthropomorphisize her and think to myself, I'd be so tired of the same routine, same trail, same rider with the same persistent commands. But she lets me catch her everyday with the same nicker as she leaves her herd and walks up to me in pasture, she travels along the trails with interest, her tail swishing and her ears perked to see what's around the next bend. She's patient and forgiving to my follies, she's more than my riding companion. She's my therapy and sanctity, and with her I'm one with my core and I'm the best person I can be. She's my horse.

Yesterday was nuts.

I set out of work at around 4:30 to get to the barn and ride. Unfortunately as soon as I sat in my truck I realized something wasn't right - I got out and saw that my left front tire (which I just bought a few months ago) was COMPLETELY flat. Down to the rim flat. A lovely screw (complete with washer) had stuck my tire.. :( Fortunately I had my trusty USRider card (this time they didn't have to tow me out of the mud somewhere). I really got my money's worth on this roadside service this year.. I didn't want to just sit there so I took the tools out of the truck and began lowering the tire from beneath the bed. I got it lowered, but unfortunately the tire weighed about 500 pounds so I couldn't pull it out. People started coming out to their cars and going home.. there were a few nice folks that came over to help (I finally got the tire pulled out from underneath the car). An hour and a half later, the tow truck guy came along.. he had on new leather sandals and drove a beat up van.. SKETCHY! He didn't even have the right tool to take off the wheel lugs - he had to borrow mine. 1/2 an hour later, he finally go the tire onto the wheel and I headed to the gas station to fill up the spare.

The gas station was a story in itself. Some contractor guy was just sitting in his truck (with his 8-9 year old son) by the air machine so I had to park on the opposite corner in a no-park zone. I had to struggle with the cord to get it around to the left tire and in doing so, fell into a hole, wrenching my ankle, and falling on my ass - right in front of that dude in his truck. That guy didn't even move or acknowledge my existance.. what a prick! I'm sorry, but that is just a lame example for your son having a GIRL struggling with the fucking hose and falling on her ass less than 5 feet away from you and not doing anything about it. Lame lame lame.. Oh well, I got my tires filled back up on went on my merry way. :P

Got a whole afternoon of training session ahead of me, joy! At least there will be cookies and soda.. :) It finally stopped raining outside.. hopefully I'll be able to go out to the barn and ride this evening.

It's been quite nipply in Pacifica these days. Last night I had an impromptu BBQ get together at my place with a few people: Mark & Jen, Amit and his cousin, Merima and John, and of course Matt (who was a busy bee cleaning and setting up for everything). Who knew it was going to get so cold!? I brought out extra jackets for the girls and we re-set up everything inside the garage. I marinated chicken, pork, and different veggies for everyone to create their own shishkabobs on the BBQ that John brought over. I was pretty happy to have everyone over.. it's been about 6 months since people had been over to help me move into the place, so everyone got to see the final setup (and Merima got to see it for the first time). What started out as a simple dinner with just Mark and Jen turned out into a pretty fun little shindig. Afterwards, both Matt and I were totally pooped. I was drained and fell fast asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

The rest of the weekend was fun as well. Friday night we had Cal Sushi in Berkeley with everyone then hung out for a little bit at Albatross for a drink. I hadn't done that in AGES so I was pretty happy to spend time with everyone.

On Saturday, Isabella got her first full set of shoes. I was very happy with our new farrier (Dana Moore) who was extremely patient with Isabella, who had shoes for the first time on her hind feet. Dana said it was a pity having to put shoes on feet that hard - he really had to hammer to get those nails in. Unfortunately shoes are going to be a necessity for this ride season.. with all the riding we're doing she's wearing her feet down to nothing! For the first pair, he decided to put on standard lighter steel shoes to see how she wears and gauge whether she needs anything special the next time around. He's a big proponent of natural balance shoeing and took his time making sure the hoof balance and breakover was correct, which I really liked. I was so proud of Isabella also.. she's a very trusting horse and had only minimal protests with the hammering. I stood at her head and patted/talked to her softly while Dana was putting on the hind shoes and she was pretty good. At one point Dana asked me a question and I answered in a loud voice while turning away from Isabella and she proceeded to almost knock him over by trying to get her foot back.. I guess she needed the reassurance of the talking/petting.. :)

Sunday morning Matt and I put curtains up on my horse trailer, hooray! We bought retractable curtain rods and tea olive green curtains for the two big windows. I'm more than excited.. next project will be to get the wallpaper up and it'll look almost complete! Everything is coming together slowly but surely..

Vader fun.

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

I was feeling a bit out of sorts for most of the weekend. There was a lot on my mind.. but Matt and I ended up talking for a while on Monday and I felt much better afterwards. Sometimes a girl just needs a little assurance..

The weekend started off Saturday morning with a nice morning trail ride. China was horrid during the ride. She found a big juicy pile of horse poop to roll in and covered herself from head to tail halfway during the ride. She also proceeded to eat every single piece of shit she came across on the trail. Bad... bad... dog. Anyways, Isabella and I climbed up the HUGE NEVERENDING HILL and I was pleased to see that her HR was at 120 most of the walk up, 10 bpm lower than when we walked up the hill a month ago.

The rest of the day was spent shopping. Matt actually volunteered to go so I grabbed the chance to go shopping with him. :) We had a nice dinner in the evening (we found a cheap good Japanese place near us with decent spicy tuna!).

Sunday we headed south towards Santa Cruz for a night at a bed and breakfast that I won at a ride a few years ago. The drive down the coast was beautiful. The beaches were crowded and every fruit stand we passed was packed. When we arrived into town, there were cars and people everywhere. Fortunately it was Matt's old stomping grounds - he spent his college years there, so he knew all the good places to park. We strolled around downtown and then down by the boardwalk. China saw a rollercoaster for the first time and she couldn't keep her eyes off of the screaming people. She was fascinated/horrified. Pretty funny.

The bed and breakfast wasn't that great. We had the cellar room and the room was dank and musty and smelled like cat pee! :( Very disappointing, especially since we paid $125 extra to upgrade to this room. I wouldn't recommend this place. The room looked dirty and I was afraid to walk around barefoot, and the breakfast was dismal at best. Unfortunately this was Matt's first experience at a bed and breakfast.. not a good one.

We took our time on the way home. We had a nice little stroll down to the river at Henry Cowell Redwood Park, and in downtown to grab lunch. We stopped by the tide pools at Pescadero and I got a little grumpy when I fell into the water and my pants got all funky. The water there was NASTY. Matt loaned me his comfy shorts and when I cleaned and changed, my spirits were lifted. We ate boba at Eggettes and spent the rest of the evening lounging around at home. By that time I was feeling much more myself.. thanks to sweet Matt for putting up with me and listening to me and reassuring me that life will be ok.