September Florida trip planned and la-sis is coming with me. So there will be 2 of us there and we are determined to get in some time at the beach. We both like the "I'm reading, leave me alone" approach to the beach so things should work out. Absolutely no "who was treated worse as a child" discussion will be allowed which I dislike being involved in and refuse to ever participate in (except recently in a kind of humorous way for entertainment purposes only to someone who requested said story!!)
November trip to be scheduled.
Oct trip to mil shaping up but not completely finalized. More research into pet-friendly hotels needed for bil.
Dec trip may not happen in December lol.
Otherwise have been wasting way too much time. My needlepoint project that was not finished for last Xmas is not much further along. Cataloged all but 2 shelves of living room books on librarything - project stalled due to them being ohs books. I will probably have to finish them. Recipe organization project from last week still sitting on kitchen table along with the pizza box that kitty has been sleeping on every day for the last month.
I signed up for free French lessons online here (hehe, just figured out how to do that type of link). Anyway, I get a weekly email from the site showing me the next set of lessons and I got my second one yesterday but have not finished last week's lessons. OH is doing the same think in German. Right now he is studying his lessons and I am doing this blog instead. right.
Plan today is study French, get some FOOD at the grocery store (making list/menu and going thru coupons first), get car inspected and oil changed, empty kitchen countertop and clean it, clean stuff that was on it, and put everything back. Spilled a cup of coffee this morning and it went all under the microwave. WASH KITCHEN FLOOR - must do. Watch equestrian olympics which should be on from 5-7 p.m. Mess around with laundry. It is supposed to rain -
Went riding last night and W was so good. I put up the reins and he put his head down. I lifted up the rest of the bridle and he totally put his head down and turned it towards me and opened his mouth for the bit. !!!!!! I worked on all this last week did not see any improvement on the weekend but last night was a different story. So I will see next time. I did hold the bridle differently last night - with my hand around to the side. But the point is that he opened his mouth for the bit!!! hehehe
So it's 10:30 and I have done nothing but look at the paper, eat yogurt and mess around on the computer since 7 a.m.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
What? Five more trips this year?
Keeping to our schedule, I have to go to Florida at least 2 more times this year. September and probably November.
All the brothers are going to visit my MIL in October and I actually want to go on this one. I have not seen her for a year and a half and I like being with them. Plus, I am the only one who can cook, altho I can't really speak to my SIL.
There's 3 trips.
The next two could actually be combined but it sounds like a giant hassle. One to see my soon-to-be nephew in S Ca and the other to see the kids in N CA. I can't go 5 months without seeing them. This one would mean 2 plane tickets to sc, driving to nc, hotels, eating out, driving back, plus the cost of pet care, plus missing so many riding lessons!! Nooooooooooooo!! Am I crazy??? Oh kids, listen up! Why don't you come visit us??? I would not ask it really because I always had to do it when you were little, but . . .
Next year I am going riding in Wyoming for a week, no matter what.
All the brothers are going to visit my MIL in October and I actually want to go on this one. I have not seen her for a year and a half and I like being with them. Plus, I am the only one who can cook, altho I can't really speak to my SIL.
There's 3 trips.
The next two could actually be combined but it sounds like a giant hassle. One to see my soon-to-be nephew in S Ca and the other to see the kids in N CA. I can't go 5 months without seeing them. This one would mean 2 plane tickets to sc, driving to nc, hotels, eating out, driving back, plus the cost of pet care, plus missing so many riding lessons!! Nooooooooooooo!! Am I crazy??? Oh kids, listen up! Why don't you come visit us??? I would not ask it really because I always had to do it when you were little, but . . .
Next year I am going riding in Wyoming for a week, no matter what.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
When am I ever going to get myself to go thru all this?? I mean it has mostly been sitting there forever so I must really not need any of it. Buried in one pile is a bunch of Christmas cards bound with a rubber band and meant to be gone thru to update my address book - hahaha
I have still not gone thru my cards from BlogHer - is it the heat here that makes me not want to do anything? I think I am still recovering from all the work I did this spring and all the trips. It's too hot to even go swimming. I walked the neighbor's dogs yesterday morning and then goofed off until it was very hot before I went riding. I had fun tho.
I was only a teeny bit homesick a couple of times on my trip. I guess I was so busy that I didn't have time to be homesick.
Already planning my next trip to Florida - probably over the Labor Day weekend because J is going then for my mother's birthday. If we go together, things will be easier to handle. The other day, I called J there and my mother wanted to get on the phone. So she starts off, "I . . .I . . .I . . . (she usually can't think of what she wanted to say), I . . . I . . . love you."
WHAT?????? Our family NEVER says that to each other!!!!! omg, you will never know how funny and sad that is all together.
J sent me a DVD of a compilation of old home movies my father took. Lots of WWII vids and then the family movies. J and I when we were baptized, first communion, confirmation, beach, snow, Easter egg hunts, etc.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
My horsie saw the chiropractor!
After watching Wizz walk, the chiro said that his barrel was not swinging to the left - meaning his sternum is displaced to the right. So she reached under him and pulled it over. An adjustment to his left shoulder left him lowering his head and licking his lips in relief. An adjustment to his left stifle - same thing. Then some lower back work and 2 right ribs pushed into place and various other pokings and proddings that I could not tell you about.
Poor guy, no wonder he kicks out when asked to canter on the right rein! And he was his usual sweet self throughout the session. Love him! No riding for 2 days and then a follow up appt in 2-3 weeks. XOX
Poor guy, no wonder he kicks out when asked to canter on the right rein! And he was his usual sweet self throughout the session. Love him! No riding for 2 days and then a follow up appt in 2-3 weeks. XOX
all set for blogher
I am packed and am bringing both pairs of dress shoes.
I am bringing an extra suitcase with my riding gear because we are taking a day to go horseback riding here: http://www.westerntrailriding.com/Trails.html I will probably bring my helmet on the plane with me. I would not trust the helmets they have there because if they are 3 years old or have been dropped or left in the sun, they basically have no protection left at all. I get to check a second bag for free due to my special, super-de-duper, fabulous "elite" status. lol
I have also packed my new bathing suit. It is a halter, which I never buy, black and white stripes and a very nice scoop neckline. The bottoms are a short skirt over the typical bathing suit bottom and the skirt has a zipper and snap and white top stitching so it looks like a jeans mini mini mini skirt!! No pic but it is very cute.
my old jobs
I don't think I have said much about my jobs. Since I'm retired not (one year and one month!), I don't have much to do with them.
I got a master's in library science in 1984 and went to work for the H Public Library main location in the Business, Science & Technology (BST) area. I worked there for a couple of years and then made a brief foray out into the business world as a librarian at Pt Marwk. They then promptly disbanded their library (I hated the job anyway) and went back to HPL as the assistant manager of BST. This created a lot of bad feelings in the department since many much more qualified people applied for the job. There was some objection to all of them tho. One had made no secret of the fact that she was about to retire to NJ, one was a very good librarian but had the reputation of being kind of lazy, one was fairly sick (died a few years later), and one was buddy-buddy with the "witch" of the department. So I muddled thru and finally won the respect of most of the people by being very fair and not encroaching into their particular areas of expertise.
A lot of my time was taken up with scheduling 15+ people everyday for time working at the reference desk. The worst part was scheduling Sundays and no one was ever satisfied.
The part I liked best was collection development. During my 12 years there, I had 2 collection development areas. Both of them were very complicated since they involved both the business and the science departments, so it was like having 2 CD areas instead of one!
The first was Transportation. Oh, and keep in mind that this was pre-internet!! so everything had to be found in books or journal articles!!! Transportation in the science department meant everthing to do with cars, planes, boats, motorcyles, ships, railroads, etc. (except "how to" which was in the Fine Arts dept.) Blue Book values!! Indentification of cars!! Fixing cars (omg, Chiltons)!! Boat motor repair!! Driving test booklets!! In the business dept, it involved, of course, the business and history of transportation and a lot about ocean transportation of goods - shipping.
The second area of CD I had was Energy. Needless to say, for Huston, this was a massive undertaking since we had to have a comprehensive collection. For science, we had everything about geology. Geology is the most highly documented area there is. We had an immense collection with many series that had to be kept up-to-date plus an old donated collection that was falling apart but was not supposed to ever be weeded. My boss and I finally did weed it and I bought achieval-type boxes and paper to neaten it up and keep it as safe as possible. Aother problem with this collection was that it was not in the electronic catalog. It was in the card catalog though (we were in the process at some point of switching from the card catalog to a CD-ROM-type of thing which was horrible - one long tape inside that you had to scroll thru). So we laboriously pulled all the cards and kept them in an alcove as the means to finding things in this collection Unbeknowst to us, however, one of the street people was pulling the cards out and using them as scratch paper!! So much for that!!
In business, the Energy collection included all the directories of oil companies, and the STATISTICS for oil and gas. Let us just say that it was hard work but I loved it for some reason.
Another thing we did a lot of was stock quotes. Before the internet, how would you have found a stock quote for any particular date? hehe, we had a set of books that helped but a lot of WSJ on microfilm was used. Ugh! And oil companies are notorious for merging and changing names. There were books to find out about that also.
A couple of science reference questions that stand out in my mind:
What color is the equator? (came from a grown woman) after much discussion about how the equator is an IMAGINARY LINE, ended up with, "okay, you can think of it as green over the land and blue over the ocean)
What is the "angle of repose" for a pile of crushed cement? hehehehehehe (found it btw)
Besides working in BST, we all had turns working in "Telephone Reference". This was a separate area that up to 7 people could work in at once and had a "ready reference" collection designed to answer all general questions. If questions could not be answered with that collection, the call was transferred to the subject department.
Add to all this, various committees, conferences, and general goofing off (not much really) and you have the picture. I mostly liked being on committees. For one, you were off the reference desk. Second, I quickly found out that I would have a "vision" of how I thought things should be for any given situation and most people would not volunteer their thoughts so the one who did usually had their way!! I do have to say though, that HPL is notorious for forming a committee for something they actually had no intention of doing. So the several committees on "selling the business department's services to the business community" never amounted to anything which was extremely frustrating, especially when there were so many documented accounts of other libraries across the country that were actually implementing this idea. So many conferences attended with this idea in mind, so many reports written up which were ignored - sigh. I don't care any more though so HAHAHAHAHAHA.
In 1998, we moved to Venezuela due to OH's job. When I came back, I worked as a temp for about 2 months for J, an investment bank, putting a ton of documents into an in-house database. The I worked for 6 months at Ricaroni University in a 2 person department that did paid research for businesses - mostly on DIALOG, a collection of fee-based databases. I did not like the commute and so quit, especially as they really wanted someone who knew chemistry and I knew virtually nothing about chemistry and the databases for chemistry are very complicated and specialized.
I then went to work at J for good as their librarian and loved loved loved the job for 5 years, then got tired of it. The last year I was there, OH had retired and was lolling around at home and I was supremely jealous. I have to say that I was very suited for this job since they did almost all energy-or transportation- related deals in Huston. I did have to help out the other offices with other industry deals but a lot of the information was obtained the same way and the actual industry didn't matter.
Factset, SDC, Investext, Factiva, Bloomberg, Disclosure - goodby!!!
I got a master's in library science in 1984 and went to work for the H Public Library main location in the Business, Science & Technology (BST) area. I worked there for a couple of years and then made a brief foray out into the business world as a librarian at Pt Marwk. They then promptly disbanded their library (I hated the job anyway) and went back to HPL as the assistant manager of BST. This created a lot of bad feelings in the department since many much more qualified people applied for the job. There was some objection to all of them tho. One had made no secret of the fact that she was about to retire to NJ, one was a very good librarian but had the reputation of being kind of lazy, one was fairly sick (died a few years later), and one was buddy-buddy with the "witch" of the department. So I muddled thru and finally won the respect of most of the people by being very fair and not encroaching into their particular areas of expertise.
A lot of my time was taken up with scheduling 15+ people everyday for time working at the reference desk. The worst part was scheduling Sundays and no one was ever satisfied.
The part I liked best was collection development. During my 12 years there, I had 2 collection development areas. Both of them were very complicated since they involved both the business and the science departments, so it was like having 2 CD areas instead of one!
The first was Transportation. Oh, and keep in mind that this was pre-internet!! so everything had to be found in books or journal articles!!! Transportation in the science department meant everthing to do with cars, planes, boats, motorcyles, ships, railroads, etc. (except "how to" which was in the Fine Arts dept.) Blue Book values!! Indentification of cars!! Fixing cars (omg, Chiltons)!! Boat motor repair!! Driving test booklets!! In the business dept, it involved, of course, the business and history of transportation and a lot about ocean transportation of goods - shipping.
The second area of CD I had was Energy. Needless to say, for Huston, this was a massive undertaking since we had to have a comprehensive collection. For science, we had everything about geology. Geology is the most highly documented area there is. We had an immense collection with many series that had to be kept up-to-date plus an old donated collection that was falling apart but was not supposed to ever be weeded. My boss and I finally did weed it and I bought achieval-type boxes and paper to neaten it up and keep it as safe as possible. Aother problem with this collection was that it was not in the electronic catalog. It was in the card catalog though (we were in the process at some point of switching from the card catalog to a CD-ROM-type of thing which was horrible - one long tape inside that you had to scroll thru). So we laboriously pulled all the cards and kept them in an alcove as the means to finding things in this collection Unbeknowst to us, however, one of the street people was pulling the cards out and using them as scratch paper!! So much for that!!
In business, the Energy collection included all the directories of oil companies, and the STATISTICS for oil and gas. Let us just say that it was hard work but I loved it for some reason.
Another thing we did a lot of was stock quotes. Before the internet, how would you have found a stock quote for any particular date? hehe, we had a set of books that helped but a lot of WSJ on microfilm was used. Ugh! And oil companies are notorious for merging and changing names. There were books to find out about that also.
A couple of science reference questions that stand out in my mind:
What color is the equator? (came from a grown woman) after much discussion about how the equator is an IMAGINARY LINE, ended up with, "okay, you can think of it as green over the land and blue over the ocean)
What is the "angle of repose" for a pile of crushed cement? hehehehehehe (found it btw)
Besides working in BST, we all had turns working in "Telephone Reference". This was a separate area that up to 7 people could work in at once and had a "ready reference" collection designed to answer all general questions. If questions could not be answered with that collection, the call was transferred to the subject department.
Add to all this, various committees, conferences, and general goofing off (not much really) and you have the picture. I mostly liked being on committees. For one, you were off the reference desk. Second, I quickly found out that I would have a "vision" of how I thought things should be for any given situation and most people would not volunteer their thoughts so the one who did usually had their way!! I do have to say though, that HPL is notorious for forming a committee for something they actually had no intention of doing. So the several committees on "selling the business department's services to the business community" never amounted to anything which was extremely frustrating, especially when there were so many documented accounts of other libraries across the country that were actually implementing this idea. So many conferences attended with this idea in mind, so many reports written up which were ignored - sigh. I don't care any more though so HAHAHAHAHAHA.
In 1998, we moved to Venezuela due to OH's job. When I came back, I worked as a temp for about 2 months for J, an investment bank, putting a ton of documents into an in-house database. The I worked for 6 months at Ricaroni University in a 2 person department that did paid research for businesses - mostly on DIALOG, a collection of fee-based databases. I did not like the commute and so quit, especially as they really wanted someone who knew chemistry and I knew virtually nothing about chemistry and the databases for chemistry are very complicated and specialized.
I then went to work at J for good as their librarian and loved loved loved the job for 5 years, then got tired of it. The last year I was there, OH had retired and was lolling around at home and I was supremely jealous. I have to say that I was very suited for this job since they did almost all energy-or transportation- related deals in Huston. I did have to help out the other offices with other industry deals but a lot of the information was obtained the same way and the actual industry didn't matter.
Factset, SDC, Investext, Factiva, Bloomberg, Disclosure - goodby!!!
Thursday, July 10, 2008
back from florida
So my parents are okay but it's really sad to see them the way they are. I did nothing yesterday but lie on the couch watching TV. Today we want to do something but are too lazy to think of anything fun. My just swim a while and go grocery shopping. I have not even unpacked one thing yet.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Dont want to go.
To Florida. Way too scary. I'll be responsible for them from 5 p.m. to 9 a.m. every day!!! I plan to sneak out and go to the beach one day. I will say I am going to see Dean's cousin. I don't really have to sneak, but I don't want ma to feel bad that she can't go.
Trail ride today. They said early and last time they aimed for 9:30. So I was ready by 9 a.m. but didn't even see Christy til 10 and then she had to tack up and warm up and then go back for her helmet. We did not get back til noon. She got off and walked her horse on the nice straight trot/canter place so it was pretty boring after all. Plus we were in the sun some of the way and I did not put sunscreen on. So now have a slight burn on top of a tan.
Why can't people be on time???? I'm really sick of it.
I have a giant suitcase of stuff to go to Florida with. I think I will buy some of the things I usually take while I'm there and then not have to bring them. Such as a hairdryer, shampoo, etc. I can put it in the closet and label it as my box of stuff. I'm bringing my horsie needlepoint that I started last year for RI. Maybe I will actually work on it this time. I need to have really good light and time to waste!
Trail ride today. They said early and last time they aimed for 9:30. So I was ready by 9 a.m. but didn't even see Christy til 10 and then she had to tack up and warm up and then go back for her helmet. We did not get back til noon. She got off and walked her horse on the nice straight trot/canter place so it was pretty boring after all. Plus we were in the sun some of the way and I did not put sunscreen on. So now have a slight burn on top of a tan.
Why can't people be on time???? I'm really sick of it.
I have a giant suitcase of stuff to go to Florida with. I think I will buy some of the things I usually take while I'm there and then not have to bring them. Such as a hairdryer, shampoo, etc. I can put it in the closet and label it as my box of stuff. I'm bringing my horsie needlepoint that I started last year for RI. Maybe I will actually work on it this time. I need to have really good light and time to waste!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Florida saga -
Yesterday ma woke up early and needed to go to the bathroom so daddy got her up. Of course she fell, of course she cut the back of her head. He is supposed to get the aide. So the aide finally got her back in bed and put a towel on the back of her head. Aide went to get dressed and came out to find that daddy had gotten ma up and sat her at the dining room table, ready for breakfast!! He loses all contact with reality when something happens.
So nurse comes up, calls ambulance, tells aide NOT to clean up the blood (potential evidence in case of death) and off she goes. Daddy and aide follow later in taxi and somehow (didn't get the details) she gets home and is okay.
The stream of phone calls thruout the day - the less said the better.
J tried to teach ma to say, "Get the hell away from me!" when he tries to help her.
So nurse comes up, calls ambulance, tells aide NOT to clean up the blood (potential evidence in case of death) and off she goes. Daddy and aide follow later in taxi and somehow (didn't get the details) she gets home and is okay.
The stream of phone calls thruout the day - the less said the better.
J tried to teach ma to say, "Get the hell away from me!" when he tries to help her.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Yummy trail ride
Went for a trail ride this morning and W was a star!! omg, what a sweetie he is!
What a brave boy and so happy. He went second in the line of three on the way out and first on the way back. He kept to a nice walk without any trouble at all. He wanted to trot but I did not have to struggle to hold him to a walk. He did trot a couple of times but was easily brought back with no pulling on the reins (well hardly any) - just holding the reins and saying "walk" and a couple of times I did the rein combing, esp when we went by the scary huge rusted out truck someone dumped in the woods. He even walked up the embankment after crossing the creek on the way back. Seen, but not by me - a big deer and an owl. I would have dearly loved to canter by the sand pit/retention pond, but we were good and just walked. W was thinking wtf is the matter with her, this is perfect!!??? All things in good time I guess.
Meanwhile, plumber is here fixing the incompetent work of out contractor's plumber - the master bathroom toilet is leaking thru a light fixture in the ceiling of the family room downstairs. crap.
On a positive note: making macaroni and meatballs for dinner and it smells good. Will get some rolls tomorrow for meatball sandwiches. So i imagine that i will pig out on pasta tonight and fall asleep on the couch watching some asinine tv show.
What a brave boy and so happy. He went second in the line of three on the way out and first on the way back. He kept to a nice walk without any trouble at all. He wanted to trot but I did not have to struggle to hold him to a walk. He did trot a couple of times but was easily brought back with no pulling on the reins (well hardly any) - just holding the reins and saying "walk" and a couple of times I did the rein combing, esp when we went by the scary huge rusted out truck someone dumped in the woods. He even walked up the embankment after crossing the creek on the way back. Seen, but not by me - a big deer and an owl. I would have dearly loved to canter by the sand pit/retention pond, but we were good and just walked. W was thinking wtf is the matter with her, this is perfect!!??? All things in good time I guess.
Meanwhile, plumber is here fixing the incompetent work of out contractor's plumber - the master bathroom toilet is leaking thru a light fixture in the ceiling of the family room downstairs. crap.
On a positive note: making macaroni and meatballs for dinner and it smells good. Will get some rolls tomorrow for meatball sandwiches. So i imagine that i will pig out on pasta tonight and fall asleep on the couch watching some asinine tv show.
oh, the time spent!!
How much time do J and I spend on the telephone organizing things in Florida?? It's ridiculous! Since last Friday, it's been a constant stream of phone calls. Daddy has an ingrown toenail which he just happens to mention on Friday so there is no way to get him seen by a doctor. So poor JW frantically tries to get him an appointment with his regular podiatrist but can't get an appt til next Wed. So he gets taken downstairs to the nurse and she gets him an appt with an unknown dr for Monday morning. The aide can't take him then, so the SC bus is supposed to take him.
I get all this from J in a very jumbled way via two long phone calls on Friday late afternoon. Well, that plus the fact that he has something in his eye!! (that no one else can see) I send JW an email and she immediately calls me back and talks for almost an hour. I get the straight story from her plus and update on her social life including the new guy she has met online that she is calling "the turtle whisperer". (JW is so nice - I wish she could find a really nice guy!)
So I call Florida and talk to daddy and tell him that he needs to soak his foot in epsom salts in the meantime and put eye drops in his eye since the last time he thought he had something in his eye and was taken to the eye dr, the dr told him he had nothing in his eye but it was just dry. He gets pissed off at this but wtf??
Saturday, call Alliance and arrange for an aid to go with him to the dr since it will be a place he has never been and he won't know what to do. Of course J doesn't think of this. I don't know why it takes an army of people to manage them. Call daddy and ask how he is and tell him someone will be going with him. Ditto on Sunday along with speaking to ma which is quite painful now and also to the aide who is almost impossible to understand once she picks up speed in English.
Monday morning, call and make sure things are in place. Daddy doesn't remember an aide is going with him, so also speak to aide and remind her. Monday afternoon, call and make sure everything went according to plan which it did. Do not find out anything about the toenail, but get a long impossible-to-understand story about my mother's Monday morning dr appt where it seems that she has very dry skin and needs moisturizer. Well duh-
Okay, you get the picture. Every week there is this kind of heinous back and forth phone calling over something.
On the good side, woke up ridiculously happy from having such a good riding lesson yesterday.
I get all this from J in a very jumbled way via two long phone calls on Friday late afternoon. Well, that plus the fact that he has something in his eye!! (that no one else can see) I send JW an email and she immediately calls me back and talks for almost an hour. I get the straight story from her plus and update on her social life including the new guy she has met online that she is calling "the turtle whisperer". (JW is so nice - I wish she could find a really nice guy!)
So I call Florida and talk to daddy and tell him that he needs to soak his foot in epsom salts in the meantime and put eye drops in his eye since the last time he thought he had something in his eye and was taken to the eye dr, the dr told him he had nothing in his eye but it was just dry. He gets pissed off at this but wtf??
Saturday, call Alliance and arrange for an aid to go with him to the dr since it will be a place he has never been and he won't know what to do. Of course J doesn't think of this. I don't know why it takes an army of people to manage them. Call daddy and ask how he is and tell him someone will be going with him. Ditto on Sunday along with speaking to ma which is quite painful now and also to the aide who is almost impossible to understand once she picks up speed in English.
Monday morning, call and make sure things are in place. Daddy doesn't remember an aide is going with him, so also speak to aide and remind her. Monday afternoon, call and make sure everything went according to plan which it did. Do not find out anything about the toenail, but get a long impossible-to-understand story about my mother's Monday morning dr appt where it seems that she has very dry skin and needs moisturizer. Well duh-
Okay, you get the picture. Every week there is this kind of heinous back and forth phone calling over something.
On the good side, woke up ridiculously happy from having such a good riding lesson yesterday.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Bathroom wallpaper is up (hidious 3 days of work for just one wall) and the drawers are ready to install. Pics later today. I want to go riding this morning but can't seem to get moving.
Did not go riding but got a lot of small houseworky stuff done and read all afternoon while it poured rain! Made brownies during the afternoon and OH and I ate half of the results! :P I have not made brownies in about 10 years or so!!
Did not go riding but got a lot of small houseworky stuff done and read all afternoon while it poured rain! Made brownies during the afternoon and OH and I ate half of the results! :P I have not made brownies in about 10 years or so!!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Stirrups
My RI put my stirrups up 2 holes today. We couldn't figure out what was going on. After I left the barn, I realized that I had never checked them when I got on so who knows not what hole they should have been in!! I think I may have been riding in too long stirrups anyway so next time I will try shortening them from my usual hole 11 and see how it feels. I did a lot of work the other day with no stirrups.
Today, all of a sudden, a major jump to the side and wild canter off. I stayed on but pretty well wrenched my back in the process. I think he may have been stung by something or bitten by a horsefly because afterwards he was trying to scratch his back leg. He is doing so much better with contact now and I can get him back right away when he evades the bit.
I'm doing much better lately with my riding. I have to keep in mind my constant collapse of my lright side which I'm thinking is due to one, being right handed, and two, carrying a purse on my right shoulder all these years. I have to make myself think about weighting my inside stirrup and outside seatbone and keeping my inside shoulder back. The big improvement tho, is that I am developing a better feel for what is going on. The secret is to picture what you want to happen. I can watch someone do something and then do it whereas all the technical analysis gets me nowhere.
Today, all of a sudden, a major jump to the side and wild canter off. I stayed on but pretty well wrenched my back in the process. I think he may have been stung by something or bitten by a horsefly because afterwards he was trying to scratch his back leg. He is doing so much better with contact now and I can get him back right away when he evades the bit.
I'm doing much better lately with my riding. I have to keep in mind my constant collapse of my lright side which I'm thinking is due to one, being right handed, and two, carrying a purse on my right shoulder all these years. I have to make myself think about weighting my inside stirrup and outside seatbone and keeping my inside shoulder back. The big improvement tho, is that I am developing a better feel for what is going on. The secret is to picture what you want to happen. I can watch someone do something and then do it whereas all the technical analysis gets me nowhere.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Lovely kitchenware!
I bought all these at Anthropologie! After badgering OH for two or three years to agree to buying (useless) china, I came across these and the difference in price was so great that he instantly agreed to purchasing them.
These are rice bowls but we use them for salad. Salad bowls are usually too small. I got 4 of them!
These are rice bowls but we use them for salad. Salad bowls are usually too small. I got 4 of them!
Dinner plates
Dessert plates.
Bowls - soup size and small size.
Coffee cups.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
so much to do
Why is it that when I was working, I never had a list of errands and now that I am home, I have a never-ending list??? I could never understand how J always had so much to do. I guess part of it is this whole house remodel/organization/cataloging stuff I'm doing but I also think that some of it is just pure laziness. I could knock off plenty of small things if I would just stop wasting tons of time doing Sudokus (thanks Tim :P). Okay, 4 half days a week are spent on horseback riding but what about all the other time?
Also, with all this time on my hands, I wish I would plan better meals. Today I am going grocery shopping (only one can of cat food left!) and I need to get coupons out, decide which ones to use, plan some menus, etc. I get slightly sidetracked in the store when I see something nice tho or if something I want for a meal looks gross. For instance, why are all the green beans so horrid looking? I think I will get some watermelon and see if Wiz likes it!!! The other day I gave him a pear and he was in a state of bliss. I will buy some chicken today and grill it with this marinade:
1T lemon juice
t tsp deli mustard
3 T olive oil
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T water
lots of minced garlic and parsley
This is from Cooks Illustrated and it makes the chicken taste like steak according to OH. I usually grill 6 chicken breasts with the tenders separated and we can eat for practically a week on that! I will buy some portobello mushrooms and make the chicken jambalaya recipie from The New American Plate.
Yesterday the drawers for our bathroom were finished and installed. Today I think OH is going to sand a couple of sticky places and prime them. Then they will have to be given 2 coats of paint. I need to sand the wall over the vanity and apply some of that stuff you put on before wallpaper (can't remember what it is called). I may wait til next week to actually put up the paper.
My next-door neighbor washed my king-sized mattress pad for me in her giant washing machine! So now I can make my bed up and get the bedroom looking slightly more put together. I would like to have an upholstered headboard made and get some decent lamps - oh, they must have big big fringy shades. There is not a decent lamp store in Houston. I need to find a good lamp shade web site (must look).
Ziggy cartoon in the paper today:
"I've got so much to get done today!
I don't know what to put off first!"
Also, with all this time on my hands, I wish I would plan better meals. Today I am going grocery shopping (only one can of cat food left!) and I need to get coupons out, decide which ones to use, plan some menus, etc. I get slightly sidetracked in the store when I see something nice tho or if something I want for a meal looks gross. For instance, why are all the green beans so horrid looking? I think I will get some watermelon and see if Wiz likes it!!! The other day I gave him a pear and he was in a state of bliss. I will buy some chicken today and grill it with this marinade:
1T lemon juice
t tsp deli mustard
3 T olive oil
1/4 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 T water
lots of minced garlic and parsley
This is from Cooks Illustrated and it makes the chicken taste like steak according to OH. I usually grill 6 chicken breasts with the tenders separated and we can eat for practically a week on that! I will buy some portobello mushrooms and make the chicken jambalaya recipie from The New American Plate.
Yesterday the drawers for our bathroom were finished and installed. Today I think OH is going to sand a couple of sticky places and prime them. Then they will have to be given 2 coats of paint. I need to sand the wall over the vanity and apply some of that stuff you put on before wallpaper (can't remember what it is called). I may wait til next week to actually put up the paper.
My next-door neighbor washed my king-sized mattress pad for me in her giant washing machine! So now I can make my bed up and get the bedroom looking slightly more put together. I would like to have an upholstered headboard made and get some decent lamps - oh, they must have big big fringy shades. There is not a decent lamp store in Houston. I need to find a good lamp shade web site (must look).
Ziggy cartoon in the paper today:
"I've got so much to get done today!
I don't know what to put off first!"
Friday, June 13, 2008
So interesting
Things to do today:
Call my mother
Air conditioning man and also carpenter coming early this morning
Get some groceries
I need to go pick out some wallpaper for my bathroom. This is the hole that must be covered up
I must see if it matches okay and if I have enough left over from doing OH's closet! Okay, and I have to remember where I put it when I packed everything up for the new carpeting.
Call my mother
Air conditioning man and also carpenter coming early this morning
Get some groceries
I need to go pick out some wallpaper for my bathroom. This is the hole that must be covered up
I can't drywall over it because it is the connection for the lights on either side:
Here is the hole covered by the previous wallpaper.
So now I have the dreaded task of choosing wallpaper that
1. I can stand
2. will match the rest of the colors, mood, etc. that are in the room. The bathroom doesn't look like that anymore - the space under the vanity is filled in and the countertop is a neat coffee-colored Silestone.
Why is so much wallpaper so ugly???? Maybe I should put more of this up:
I must see if it matches okay and if I have enough left over from doing OH's closet! Okay, and I have to remember where I put it when I packed everything up for the new carpeting.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
happy
I'm totally happy with my blog now that Liz has put that soothing green color on it and linked it up to stuff. Even if no one ever reads it, I love it. I have been writing a few sentences about my day in an engagement calendar every day since 1985. I think a couple of years are either skipped or somehow missing, but I can go back (probably never will) and get a brief on what I was doing at any given time. There are blank spaces in most of the vacation slots and also during times of depression, but for the most part my life is there, boring as it ususally is. Typical entry:
busy at work
boring day
cleaned and grocery shopped
hehe, stupid.
I am going to go ride this morning while Dean sits on the couch, turns on the financial/obama news and either plays scrabulous or Civilizaton or looks up his ancestors. This should be his gym morning but he will not go.
Later!!
busy at work
boring day
cleaned and grocery shopped
hehe, stupid.
I am going to go ride this morning while Dean sits on the couch, turns on the financial/obama news and either plays scrabulous or Civilizaton or looks up his ancestors. This should be his gym morning but he will not go.
Later!!
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Near the end of the remodel!
Scanning that list, it seems that most of it is done. I painted my bedroom a fairly dark green but the room is big so it looks nice. Actually, I love it! I stole the little table from the living room and now it looks just exactly like a picture from a magazine that I have been saving for years and years. I then took the almost matching end table from the family room and put it on the other side of the bed. I still need to get some nice lamps with big fringy shades. The book cases I took from another room since now I will have no drawer in my nightstand. Must see how aggravating that becomes. Since that is the view you see when you come up the stairs, I want to keep it looking nice. Ha, we'll see.
Still to do- contact the carpenter who started to fix the mess the contractor left in the bathroom and ask him to actually make the two drawers. Pick out wall paper for the vanity area (to cover up the hole with the electrical connection) and then re-hang the mirrors.
We worked hard and almost everything is put away. I put all the books back upstairs in a sort-of organized way but not really. For the family room books (5 bookcases), I am putting them all on librarything as I unpack them. I seem to have a lot of books with no LC or ISBN numbers. Okay, Very Broad Categories only!! I just had to pay to add more than 200 books but that's okay.
Today I had lunch with my old supervisor and it was kind of nice to see her. We talked about our ailing mothers, people from work, being retired, my grandchildren and her great-grand children. The food was very good - Italian.
I got my moo cards today - all horsey and very cute. My blog address is on it so maybe someone will read my blog and be interested in it. Any HORSE people out there???
I'm planning to ride out in CA when I come for the BlogHer conference at a place called Blue Sky - it is a half hour south of Half Moon Bay. They have Tennessee walkers which I have never ridden but they are supposed to have smooth gaits.
Mother: not doing well. Has trouble walking. She holds the walker with a death grip and can only walk if you hold her hips from the back and move them forward one at a time. I am going there at the beginning of July and not looking forward to it at all. J just got back from 4 days there.
I have a new huge list of Things To Do but I don't even want to think about it.
Here is the sofa from the living room - now back-to-back with one of the family room sofas!
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