aurora

So...I was listening to the radio today, and they were doing a classic 90's country top 20 from this week in _____ (I missed what year it was).

Then the song "Two Tear Drops" by Steve Warner came on and I just went "ohh fuck". I knew what year they were doing. 1999. Because that song caused me to burst out into tears whenever it came on, because that was when my first horse, Speck, had died.

And this week in 1999, shit I was just in the beginning of an almost year long depression. Speck would have died just 2 weeks earlier. It makes me tear up just thinking about it.

God damn you RTD for making me bawl my fucking eyes out again.

( It's the end of time )

All I have to say, is NBC better fucking pick up David Tennant's TV pilot, because I need to see him on a weekly basis. Even if he does have an American accent.

...there are times I really wish I had a loud speaker mounted on my car so I could scream at dumbasses who do not understand the purpose of the "Yield" sign. This is why i don't drive the loop around the airport waiting to pick my dad up. Its much better for my sanity to just shuck out $2 to park and meet them in the airport.

I am really not looking forward to driving to the barn tomorrow. I'm kinda cringing at the thought of possible holiday shoppers clogging the already-hated Pleasant Hill Rd. But I haven't been out to ride Marlee in a week...which is probably a good thing that there were no therapy sessions this week. He did well last Monday, except for the right lead at the canter, he kept dropping his inside shoulder and trying to motorcycle it around the corners. We'll see what happens with that tomorrow. Blech, maybe I'll pull out the ground poles to give him something new to do.

...Oh my God...Jim Gaffigan is on the Daily Show. Oh, I'm sorry "Tom Brokaw Awannapoor", Senior somethingorother Correspondent. Didn't think this show could get much better, I'm glad to be proven wrong.

The new dog's training has been going okay, but it looks like he has a bit of a hitch in his back leg too. Sonuvabitch. I'm going to call the vet wednesday if he's still looking lame, but he's going in next week to get "snipped", so I might see if I can just wait to bring him in then to save on office fees. Dogs, you need to stay healthy!

alright, time to go read some and head to bed. later y'all.

We had a fairly quiet Thanksgiving for once. But maybe I'm just saying that because I wasn't the one running it and cooking about 6 things at once. My aunt coordinated and we ate over at my cousin's house. It was mainly my uncle's side of the family there, but it was good to see all the cousins and crazy kids.

Logan was not in a good mood, though. He did not like all the people and spent most of the time outside. Nothing like a cranky almost-2 year old. I took over distracting duties once I finished dinner, putting Logan in the driver's seat of Kim's car and let him play with all the switches, knobs, and car keys. Then Aunt KiKi showed him how to use the horn, oh then it was on. He couldn't honk the horn with his hand, but he accidentally learned he could honk it with his stomach. This lead to me alternating between dying laughing and trying to stop him from freaking out people walking on the street or driving by. His mood improved after a little while in the car and we eventually got inside, although he did stick close to his mom and dad for a bit.

We ate our meal ridiculously early (1 o'clock ish) so we got home and just chilled for the rest of the evening.

Today was spent out at the property in Madison, letting all the dogs run around while we went searching for an envelope of money my dad has managed to lose. We still can't find it, I have no clue where it got to. Ridiculous. The dogs had fun though, this was the first time we've had Buck and Molly out there since Molly decided to quit shunning the puppy.

Buck tried his hardest to keep up with Molly, but she is just too damn fast. Not to mention she can turn on a dime and perform some pretty impressive slides underneath my dad's truck. Unfortunately, by the end of our time out there Buck had a limp. Still has it this evening. I'm hoping its just a pulled muscle or he stepped on a stone or something. I can't find a sore spot on his leg or foot, and there are no cuts. He's not 3-legged lame, and its not so bad it stops him from playing. Ugh, maybe working with horses has just made me lameness paranoid. I dunno, hopefully it'll be fine in a day or two.

Kelly and I made a brief sojourn out into the shopping chaos, both of us buying a gift for the other. The two of us need to not go to white house/black market though, we get tempted too easily. We both tried on dresses, she tried a party dress and I tried this dress which would be great once I started teaching, and it fit perfectly. Both of us decided we against the purchases, Kelly because she "has enough black party dresses" and I'm not going to start teaching until next August.

It is amazing how easy it is to coerce christmas gifts from Kelly despite her insisting "I don't want anything" Give it 10 minutes at a store, that train of thought is quickly derailed.

Alright, I'm spent...its time for bed.

Apparently I got the flu. Whether its H1N1 or just the regular ol' flu, I have no clue. I'd had a sore throat since last Wednesday and had just a general "blah" feeling for most of the week, but nothing I would consider OMGZ Sick!

That is, until yesterday. I woke up feeling like ass. Congested, throat worse than before, chills, dizziness, achy, the whole shebang. I ended up spending most of the day sleeping, since I haven't had a full nights sleep since we brought Buck home (he STILL cries non-stop in his crate at night). I had a low grade fever (~99.0) that morning, but by the evening it had shot up to 101. I felt terrible. I decided to let Buck sleep in my room rather than in the kennel because I just couldn't handle his whining all night long again.

But that didn't really matter, it seems, because I couldn't stay asleep anyway. I woke up around 2:30 and had, what I'm going to call, restless arm syndrome. Just like restless leg, except my arm had that tingly "i've got to move!" feeling that resulted in me tossing and turning in bed the entire night.

When I woke up this morning around 6:30 my fever had broken, and while my throat still hurts and i'm still stuffed up, I'm feeling a lot more human. I dunno if I should still go to the doctor today or not. I'm hoping that was the worst of it and things will just continue to improve.

I do need to go out and get some more food and toys for the dogs. Molly and Buck have finally started playing, YAY! I was able to initiated a tug-o-war session with them, and that kind of broke the ice. They now play all the time, and Buck has learned how to instigate play from Molly.

Buck has turned out to be quite the escape artist. We usually keep our older dog, Charlie, blocked off from the rest of the house (he can go into the garage or upstairs to our bonus room, since he likes to pee on the hardwood floors and in my bedroom, especially. So we had some baby gates that we leaned together to keep him blocked off. Buck, however, has no fear of gates, and would just squeeze his way between them and roam the house. Now, this is a problem, because we would typically keep the garage door open to let charlie go outside and pee whenever he wants to, and that means buck could get loose outside. So I bought a new gate online, that was long enough to block that entire entry way, and I thought the problem solved.

Nope. Buck learned how to move that gate so he would have a gap to squeeze through. Dang dog. He's pretty smart, he just has no common sense whatsoever. I can finally take him out on walks around the neighborhood or to the dog park now, since he should be done shedding the parvovirus. He'll get his first round of puppy shots this week. And then in 3 weeks we will be able to take him in to have him neutered. Which will hopefully cut down on all the humping he seems to enjoy so much.

Ugh, well, i'm going to go lie down some more. Maybe watch some Fringe. Later y'all.

So for the last month I undertook a pretty big project. For me at least. I decided to knit my first normal-human sized garment (NOT an accessory).

I knit myself an argyle vest!



It turned out great! I have never done fair-isle knitting, so it was definitely a learning experience. The knitting also required steeks, which I have to say, is the most terrifying knitting technique I have ever heard of. You actually cut up your knitting.
( Here there be steeking )

Now, I had read a lot of people having issues with the arm holes with this project, so I got kinda scared. I considered trying to alter the pattern, but considering I have no clue how to do this, I decided to go with the original pattern and then could go back and fix it if its a problem. But nope! It worked. I kinda got lucky though. Because starting off, my stitches were looser, since I was trying to figure out knitting with two colors at once. And then as I learned how to knit with two hands, the stitches became tighter. This turned out to be a blessing, because if I had knit that bottom half tighter, the vest probably wouldn't have fit.

The neckline was the only thing that gave me problems. I couldn't seem to cast on the number of stitches the pattern described. So the first time I tried it with fewer, but it stretched the neckline out too much, so I pulled it out. The second time I had too many, ended up gappy, so I pulled it out. Finally the third time I got it and I was able to finish this bad boy.

Now if only the weather would cool off enough for me to actually wear it that would be fantastic.

I'm trying to post a bit more often now. Especially since there are actually exciting goings-on right now. With the puppy, working at the therapy barn, teaching certification classes starting this week, and maybe a 4-H meeting if it doesn't get canceled for the third time in a row.

First up, ( The puppy )

( Therapy Barn )

( classes )

And so that's what's been going on. Now I need to go get changed and take the puppies out to play so I can go ride and they will sleep.

Yup. We officially have a new dog. I was allowed to pick up Buck/Buckey from the vet yesterday evening. He finally started eating something on Tuesday night...even if it was just baby food (Chicken & Chicken broth flavored only). He only eats a little at a time, but we've managed to transition him to just wet dog food now, and he's kinda trying little bits of Molly's dry food.

He's definitely a different dog from the pathetic little guy we saw last friday. He's got more personality, although he is still shy and unsure about a lot. Apparently our hardwood floors are terrifying and any transition onto those floors tends to take a while. And even then he sticks close to the wall when walking on them. I don't know if he's afraid of slipping on the floor or what.

He was really good last night. I fixed up Molly's old kennel and used another old saddle pad of mine for the bed, which he liked a lot. He climbed right into the kennel and slept through the night, and I never heard a peep out of him. He's had 3 mini accidents in the house. I think he's been trying to mark territory in my bedroom. And then he actually peed in our living room this morning. But for a new puppy, that's not bad. I've been employing my grandfather's method of take-them-out-every-30-minutes. He pees every single time. He still has diarrhea, but that's a work in progress. plus he still hasn't really eaten much solid food.

Molly is kinda pissed at me about him. I thought she would like having him around...but she's jealous. He wants to play with her and follow her around and she just ignores him. I think she'll snap out of it, but she's been pretty much an only child for a while (Charlie stays in another part of the house, so he doesn't really count)...so it's going to take a bit of a transition. She likes to play with other dogs at their house or at the park. But on her territory? It's got her a quite pouty.

...make that 3 times he's peed in my bedroom. I thought we were getting close to his 30 minute window.

I think this dog will be good for my dad. I'm helping to train him, but he's essentially going to be his dog. It should be a good distraction for him, along with starting on getting the new house built.

Once he recuperates from his illness though, this dog is getting neutered. He's displaying a bit of a humping issue already. He stops pretty quick when I catch him at it...but yeah. it's there.

Anyway, I'm pretty beat and ready for bed. Here's hoping for another quiet night.