A drunk was proudly showing off his new apartment to a couple of his friends late one night. He led the way to his bedroom where there was a big brass gong and a mallet. "What's that big brass gong?" one of the mates asked. "It's not a gong. It's a talking clock," the drunk replied. "A talking clock? Seriously?" asked his astonished friend. "Yup," replied the drunk. "How's it work?" the friend asked, squinting at it. "Watch," the drunk replied.

He picked up the mallet, gave the gong an ear-shattering pound, and stepped back. The three stood looking at one each other for a moment. Suddenly, someone on the other side of the wall screamed, "You asshole... it's three-fifteen in the morning!"

1020061044a.jpg

1020061044a.jpg
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

China ocean walk

Here's what's going on with Isabella, as emailed to a horsey friend of mine. Mainly for my benefit to look back to this lameness issue:

So we deducted that Isabella is off on the lower left foot area. She wasn't lame trotting straight, but circles to the left she was off on hard ground and she was off to the right on soft ground. Negative to hoof testers. He said that indicated in 80% of horses, that it was 2 different problems.. down in the foot somewhere and a high suspensory problem on the same leg, ugh. So he did a lower leg block and she was sound going both ways, which indicated it was just a lower leg problems. That's good..

So, in the dark (at 7pm!) he took about 6 xrays of her lower left front. What could it be? I'm ruling out ringbone because she wasn't positive to hoof testers.. maybe pedal osteitis? *sigh* I won't know till he calls me back today. If the xrays don't reveal anything, it's ultrasounding next. I kind of wish now I took her to PenEq so I would know already, but ah well. I trust Ashton and his experience..

After Ashton's phone call:
So, nothing found on xrays, ugh! Next step is ultrasound... Ashton says there are 2 gals in Davis that are very good at ultrasounding that have a drop in schedule in Fridays. The deal is Isabella goes in, they do their stuff, then I go home and they talk to Ashton about their findings. Wierd, eh? But it only costs $100 so I'm going to go for that option...

Other options were: Carol Gillis, an excellent ultrasonographer in Petaluma (?) and another vet named Matt something based down at Steinbeck vet clinic in Salinas. Both probably much more expensive.

I did a little trim on her feet yesterday.. her toes were horribly long and she had a lot of sole up at the toe that runs flush with her hoof wall, so I was wondering if she had some foot pad bruising.. but Ashton said she would've responded positive to the hoof testers, which she didn't. I'm going to continue to trim to see if I can get her feet into decent shape after all this shoeing, and I have a certified hoof trimmer coming out in November. After shortening her toes, I trotted her in the round pen and she was still off.. so it probably isn't a hoof issue.

I have tomorrow, next Monday, and next Friday off, so one of these days I'll bring her up to Davis.

Haiku by China (semi-translated by Mark)

BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK
BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK
China Vagina

I've figured out what made me so incredibly irritable last week. There seems to be a pattern around this time of month, right after rent, Isabella's board, and bills are paid off, when I have very little money in the bank. Around the 2nd week of the month I start panicking and that leads me not being able to cope with any additional forms of stress, last week being truck, Isabella, and personal problems. Now that I can point it to something I'm hoping I can plan better so it doesn't happen again next month. Don't try to pay off the credit card in such big chunks, avoid expensive unnecessary purchases, know better where my money is going.

I really didn't believe it when I heard money problems are the number 1 reasons why couples fight, now I know why. When I worry about money I just can't deal with anything else.. every additional problem seems to be magnified ten-fold and insurmountable.

Things are better now - I've moved some money from my savings into my checking account to cover any surprise expenses until Friday when I get paid again. I have a vet appointment tomorrow for Isabella, China will get washed this week (thanks Mark), and I will bring my truck to the shop on Saturday morning.

Life goes on..

I've been in such a pissy, easily annoyed mood lately. At first I thought it was just me.. maybe that time of the month or something. But you know what, there are certain things in my life that just suck right now. If you care to read I'll list (some of) them:

1. Isabella - ever since the last endurance ride she's been on/off lame. I was so excited because she was looking better (or I was in some sort of denial) and I was going to enter a local competitive trail ride. Unfortunately after a great deal of examination because I'm not very good at spotting lameness, I found that she's definitely off last night. So no competition, and most likely a really hefty vet bill. I'm going to trailer her to Peninsula Equine to diagnose the problem once and for all instead of jacking around which I had been doing. I even tried a new farrier (who way overcharged me) in hopes that it would solve the problem. Unfortunately it didn't, and he was rude, so now I don't have a farrier since I let my old one go.

2. Truck - Saturday morning the truck started fine, in the afternoon I hopped in and the starter went, but couldn't turn over the engine. I finally gave it some gas and it caught, but then the idling was totally funky.. vibrating louder then softer. I brought it to the shop and they cleaned the air filter, replaced the fuel filter, and put in a new serpentine belt on Monday, but yesterday the same problems started up again, after I paid the $300+ to get it fixed. *sigh*

3. My checking account - $47 in the bank as of 30 minutes ago.

4. Plus other things in my life that I won't get into detail, but I'm very very frustrated about.

I wish that I could just leave someplace alone away from everything and everyone and not have to deal with anything for a while. There just doesn't seem to be a place like that for me right now except for the gym. Ok I'm done complaining. I really just needed to get all that out. Life sucks right now.

So fucking hilarious...!! (courtesy of Bev, danke)

China Cart

Dog is on sale this week at Safeway!! Stock up..
Originally uploaded by Julienne:).

Note to self, do not ever EVER eat Amy's Kitchen organic soup again. The stuff is so salty I feel like I have salt coming out of my ears.. it's been 2 1/2 hours and I still feel ill. The stuff is disgusting. Die, organic lentil soup, DIE!!!!

Yeah baby, 'The Open Door' was released yesterday! I can't wait to get it. Why the hell I slacked in buying tickets for their show I don't know.. :( Wait, I know why.. the Lake Sonoma ride. And I'm not even sure if I'm going to the dang ride.. poo!



I can't believe I'm *still* sore from this past weekend. On Saturday afternoon, Bev invited a few of us girls along on a wild adventure - Trapeze lessons! The scariest part about the whole thing was climbing this little metal ladder 2 stories up to the trapeze. By the time I'd get up there, my heart would be pounding out of my chest and I'd freak out a little more each time. Our goal the first few swings was to swing forward and manage to get our legs up to wrap them around the bar. From there you'd let go and dangle (to eventually be 'catched') then fall, in my case very ungracefully, down to the net. I went about 4-5 times, and managed a flippy thing at the very end that got me very very motion sick. So I didn't get to do the catch.. I feared I would barf all over the net and the girls would then have to land in that, and landing in vomit is never good, so I stopped.

After the lesson, Matt and I hung in Berkeley because the traffic going into the city was just horrendous. We lounged about Cafe Strada and Amit came by to hang out for a while. Merima and Laquel happened to be at Tully's and they joined us. Afterwards we went to yummy Cal Sushi (mmm..) and Gelato afterwards. After I had sipped a few Italian sodas and sat around (motionless) for a few hours, I finally felt better, thank goodness.

Sunday Matt and I got our creative caps on and decided to work on a project.. we built our own potato gun! Our thinking is that we will launch the potatoes out to sea. It'll be so great. Maybe we need to have a party for the launching of the potatoes. I dunno. Now let me tell you, an oldest child and only child working together would provide good reality tv because both of us are right ALL THE TIME. I really think we should enter the Amazing Race.. Anyways, we managed not to kill each other and we made a pretty kick-ass potato gun. It's pretty girly too.. the pvc primer we used is purple, and we sprayed a gold horse on it. We're still looking for names for it... suggestions?