Seen and Not Heard

Children should be seen and not heard. Silence is a woman's best garment. Aren't proverbs great? But I'm done with being quiet.

Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Totally Legal!

I finally got my new Permanent Resident Card... I'm totally legal till 2015!

The card arriving last night was perfect timing, as yesterday I found out that we're hiring people in India, which almost certainly means I should start looking for another job. I've got at least a few more months in this job, so can start looking for a good one. Anyone have pointers for writing a good resume... that might actually get me a "real" job?

So, any low level IT jobs open up, or admin/reporting/data manipulation lemme know about it... I'm gonna have a first draft of a resume pretty soon. :)

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Wild Thing!

Today I got to ride Wild Thing... She's actually very sweet. and a LOT smaller than Kaibab or Gretsky.

Getting up

But there was a catch... That's a bareback pad and a halter instead of a saddle and bridle. Um... I know I said she was smaller, but how' m I supposed to get up?

Up No Hands balance


A leg-up from Anna got me past that hurdle, then it was on to more stretching. It's a little different without the saddle, and my hips were aching by the end of the lesson from hanging on.

toes down

Then I got to try steer and stop with my legs and seat (another reason my hips and legs were sore). While doing this, I was also trying to remember to sit up straight, stomach in, don't look down, legs long, toes up, stay relaxed... and who knows how many other things... as you can see, the toes aren't up.

I did get better as the lesson progressed. By the end I was pretty much the one in charge of where we were headed. But Wild Thing didn't give that halt away easily... she wanted to stop beside Anna each time, and if I insisted we stay on the outside of the ring, we didn't stop.

mountains

And finally, a shot of the mountains in the background. It really is lovely there.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Story to make you laugh...

This is the story of the night my ten-year-old cat, Rudy, got his head stuck in the garbage disposal. I knew at the time that the experience would be funny if the cat survived, so let me tell you right up front that he's fine. Getting him out wasn't easy, though, and the process included numerous home remedies, a plumber, two cops, an emergency overnight veterinary clinic, a case of mistaken identity, five hours of panic, and fifteen minutes of fame.

The whole story can be found on Snopes.com. It's long, but it makes me laugh out loud every time I read it.

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

I'm in the big leagues now

I now have a big cube at work. An actual cube instead of a tiny section of desk and a half height wall on one side. I have drawers, and cabinets, two sections of desk, and about 5’6” walls all around me, with just a door size section cut out. Yeah baby, I’m in a manager cube!

I also managed to complete a particular leg exercise in karate yesterday, for the first time ever! The exercise is to stand with feet about two shoulders width apart. Keeping your back as vertical as possible, squat down and touch the ground with your right hand, then quickly stand, and kick straight in front of you with the right leg. Repeat with the left. Then repeat another 28 times, alternating right and left.

My legs ARE stronger! Woot!

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Floating Horse


USEF Grand Prix Freestyle 6-18-2005 -- Melissa Taylor Yee and Succes
Originally uploaded by
Rock and Racehorses.

Some dressage pictures from Flickr here. Several pictures show suspended horses. It's strange to see them floating over the ground. :)

Monday, June 20, 2005

It's Hot!



This is Orion trying to cool down. He does this in front of the fan, it's so cute. :)

Still Alive

I did go riding on Saturday, but didn't feel so good as I'd stayed up a little too late the night before. I am SOO drinking only water, and going to bed at 8 next Friday.

I got to ride Gretsky again, which was really fun when I managed to forget about my pounding headache. I now have two blisters, one on each hand (I'm going to say it was the headache that was making me hold on harder than I should have been). I also have a cool bruise from where my hand got smashed against a metal pole when Gretsky tossed his head to defend his hay from Kaibab. I think The Fat Man is happy his birthday gift is up, and I'll be paying for the lessons from now on. I don't think he wants to feel responsible for any further injuries I manage to give myself. :)

The good news is, my legs are starting to feel a bit stronger, and with karate, riding, and a pilates book (Anna suggested pilates on my first lesson), I'm expecting that trend to continue. Hopefully I'll find trotting a little easier in the weeks to come. Easy enough that I stop getting blisters at least.

Friday, June 17, 2005

Cat Tree Bearing Fruit



I have a cat tree. Orion does like it, although it's been a little blocked off because of reoganizing of the office. Apparently, he's decided a little blocked off is okay.

The cat loves sleeping in the linen closet, you'd think he'd like blocked off! Shh, he doesn't like cameras, so won't look at one.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Ants in My Pants

There are ants in the women's bathroom at work. Not just an ant, or a couple of them, we're at full fledged infestation levels. I shudder to think what they're finding to eat in there, but there are trails of them over the backs of the toilets.

I don't want to explain how ant bites on my butt are a work related injury.

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Totally Unmotivated

I've been totally unmotivated to write about anything this week. I just want Saturday to roll around again and go riding. Just trying to get through the week... Fortunately there's stuff to keep me occupied between Saturdays. I'm apparently going to be testing for my black belt in Karate sometime next month. Doesn't that mean I'm supposed to be a bad-ass or something?

The Fat Man is going to be testing for a yellow, or maybe a green belt, and another guy will be testing with me for black. The problem is, the guy testing for black, isn’t as good as The Fat Man. He used to come to karate regularly (used to meaning about 7 years ago), which is when he got his brown belt. Now, after years of not coming, and some pretty serious health problems, he’s coming pretty regularly again. This is a good thing, he’s a nice guy and the exercise is good for him. But right now he’s not really good enough to deserve his brown belt, and they’re going to be testing him with me?

I was getting quite annoyed last night as my Ex insisted that this guy needed to know higher and higher level kata… He needs to know the stuff that got him the brown belt first, and he doesn’t right now. Introducing new stuff before you’re really comfortable with the old isn’t unusual in this karate class, but he certainly doesn’t “need” to know the kata for the second rank of black belt at this point. It might be good if he knew the kata for green though.

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Lesson # 3!

I got to ride a different horse today, but no smaller than Kaibab (if anything Gretsky was slightly larger).

Gretsky was quite sure that SOMETHING around there was edible... my shirt maybe?

touch toes touch ears surrender

I got to do lots of stretching and moving around today (while moving). Touching my toes, reaching forward to touch the horse' ears, and stretching up... or maybe I was surrendering.

Gretsky has a much easier trot to sit than Kaibab, and we did a lot of sitting trot this week, which went really well. I do still need to work on keeping the stirrups where they are supposed to be though.

let go

And then I got to trot while circling one arm back. Hopefully the blister on the ring finger of my left hand will be gone for next week. In my defense, the blister is probably because I managed to get some fiberglass in the palm of my left hand getting my cat off the roof on Thursday... so I was doing strange things to avoid having anything touch my palm.

carrot

And finally I got to feed Gretsky some carrots. FINALLY, something EDIBLE! He inhaled those things!

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Why do I let him?

Last week, on my birthday, I got an email from my ex-husband. He wished me a happy birthday, asked how I was doing, and told me he had proposed to his new girlfriend. Keep in mind, my birthday was also our anniversary, and 6 months since we'd split.

I ignored the fact I thought telling me about his proposal on my birthday/anniversary was a little harsh, and responded saying that I was a little down because of what else the day should have been, but that I'd started riding again the weekend before. I included a link to the horsie blog, figuring if it was safe for my mother, it was safe for anyone.

He responded:
I'm glad you got back into riding... although the blog seems like an awful lot of documentation, lol.

I don't know what I expected from him, but making fun of me wasn't it. I've been very careful to be nice to him, supportive of him, even when it hurts me. I made sure to ask him how his trip to Australia went to see his new girlfriend. I listened to all his stories. I was polite and interested, and he thanked me for it. He told me it meant a lot to him that I was interested, and ok with things. But when I try to share something that is important to me (and I know there's a lot of documentation, but it's because I am really excited about being able to ride again), he makes fun of it.

Yesterday, I went to karate, and was expecting at least a mention of my horse riding. I didn't think that faking a little interest, to ask how it went, or if I was sore, any kind of acknowledgement, was asking to much. But apparently all I'm going to get is a laugh.

And he always complained I didn't share. Wow, I wonder why?

Sunday, June 05, 2005

My Braid Pictures and Flickr



I've come to notice I've been getting hits from Google Image searches for Braid (I was on the third page when I ran the search!). So my Renaissance Festival braid picture (and a before, and during picture), are now available on Flickr. If you want to see, click here.

Saturday, June 04, 2005

Second Riding Lesson

Second lesson was this morning. My mom got me new pants this week, so no more jeans, yay! :)



Pia had to say hello to us again first. She even stood up on her back legs to lick my face when I bent down to say hi.



I got to ride Kaibab again. His trot didn't seem quite as bad this week, so the practice thing really does seem to help.



I even considered, at Anna's suggestion, letting go of the strap in front of the saddle. That led to my feet not staying where they were supposed to in the stirrup though.



Before we were done, Anna detached the longe-line, and I got to walk around all by myself.


Then we were done for the day. Good looking pants, huh?

So Anna was pleased that I remembered to be on the right diagonal when posting/rising trot, and I was pleased to get a pat on the back for remembering correctly.

I think I did much better today than last week, and if I keep improving this quickly, I'll be doing all sorts of fun things in no time! :)

Friday, June 03, 2005

Do I Have Fat Calves?!

I went up to Phoenix yesterday, and my mother took me to a horsie store to get a pair of riding pants. I wasn't quite sure what size I was, and had forgotten to get measurements before to help me pick. So after looking at a few, I decided to try on a pair of 28L. They fit at the waist, they fit at the hips, thighs were fine... but wait... the CALVES are too tight?

Now, riding breeches are supposed to be tight. They are supposed to be skin tight, so they don’t move against you and chaff. But I was actually worried the material would split after I managed to get them on, it had stretched as far as it could stretch, and actually caused a cramp in my calve getting them off. Nowhere else where they stretched that tight! Just below the knee… so apparently they make riding pants for women with bigger asses and thighs than me, but smaller calves… who knew?

I ended up getting 30L, which seems to fit fine, except the waist is too big. But I don’t think I’ve ever managed to get a pair of pants that fit at the waist.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is 28 years since my birth. 5 years since my wedding day, and 6 months since I left my ex-husband... My timing sucks.

Anyway... yay me... or something.