It was cold again today. I was dressed in warm clothes. Unlike this mannequin whose dress was so low-cut as to be obscene.
I should have gone in an checked out the price. How much is too much to spend for a dress you can't actually wear out of the house without getting arrested?
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Cold and misty morning
This is the reservoir next to one of the routes that I cycle on most frequently. This morning was very cold. My fingers and ears were freezing. Even with my wool socks and toe warmers, it took over 30 minutes for my feet to regain full feeling once I got indoors. We cut our ride very short and included a coffee shop stop halfway through. Brrrr. This is California! What gives?
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Pumpkin pie
I made the pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner this year. It turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I should probably have made two so that there would be leftovers, but I didn't have enough heavy cream. Probably for the best.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Foggy ride
All week I was planning my Saturday bike ride -- I was finally going to ride to Pescadero from my house. The good news is that it didn't rain. The bad news is that it might as well have been raining, for as wet as I got and as low as visibility was due to very thick fog. I spent most of the 50 miles wiping off my glasses every 15 seconds or so. But Pescadero was pretty.
Friday, November 16, 2007
This makes me cry
I want this horse, and I want to ride this well, and I want british guys to gush about me while I do it.
Gobe
This is a test. A cute test, using a beagle puppy. I wish all tests were like this. (A Pup test?)
Thursday, November 15, 2007
A week 'til Thanksgiving
I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving. As much as I'd like for it to rain now and then so that everything in my yard can stop dying, I'm hoping that the long weekend will be dry so that I can do a lot of biking and horseback riding. And I'm hoping that I can resist the urge to work too much. Because after that, I think it'll be work work work work work 'til Christmas.
Saturday, November 10, 2007
Life in the well
I have a lot to do at work these days, and it's weighing on my mind. I can't ever get ahead. I spend 45+ hours at work every week and at the end of the day each Friday, I rarely feel like I've made any positive progress. I feel like the snail in that word problem, where the snail slimes its way 2 feet up the wall each day, only to slip back down 1 foot at night -- how many days until the snail finally gets out of the well? Except in my case, the well is much deeper, and people are always at the top of the well building the wall higher. I'm tired all the time, and to compensate I do nothing but eat sugar and junk. So I'm getting fat and out of shape too.
I'm really looking forward to getting a week off at Christmas.
I'm really looking forward to getting a week off at Christmas.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Autumn in New England
OK, I haven't really seen many pumpkins since I've been here in Merrimac (truth be told I haven't seen much besides horses), but I like this photo.
Last year during our trip to Merrimac the weather was cold and drizzly and generally unpleasant. This year the weather has been great. We've been riding in the outdoor arena, which is ringed with trees turning all kinds of lovely colors -- and yesterday it was warm enough for just a t-shirt. Aaahhhh. I could get used to this.
Last year during our trip to Merrimac the weather was cold and drizzly and generally unpleasant. This year the weather has been great. We've been riding in the outdoor arena, which is ringed with trees turning all kinds of lovely colors -- and yesterday it was warm enough for just a t-shirt. Aaahhhh. I could get used to this.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Another (finally) awesome day
I rode Numenor again this morning. He's a bit of a lazy bastard -- at least at the walk -- so I ended up poking him a lot with my new big-ass spurs. I'm not used to riding lazy-ass horses, so I was kind of nagging at him until Vitor told me that if I kept doing that, the horse would buck me off.
My morning lesson started OK -- not great -- and then went downhill from there. Vitor was yelling at me a lot because I couldn't keep the horse straight. Finally he put me on the long lines to help me out. We mostly worked on keeping the horse straight, with Vitor correcting my position. We did a couple of flying changes which were so smooth that I could hardly tell they'd even occurred. We did some half-pass at trot and canter. Finally Vitor just put me on a circle -- still on the long lines but with him in the middle of the circle -- and helped me find my own balance and balance/flex the horse and work on (for the horse) getting the hind legs stepping under and (for me) lengthening/shortening the stride with my post. I don't remember how it happened, but it all culminated in a canter pirouette that was so amazing. So light, so effortless. At the end I burst into tears just as the onlookers burst into applause. Amazing. Really amazing. All day, every time I've thought about it, I've cried. Amazing.
I hope I never forget it, although knowing me, I probably will.
In the afternoon I rode Niquel, who is a much more forward horse. It was a beautiful afternoon -- sunny and warm enough for shirtsleeves (for those of us who were riding, anyway) -- so we rode in the outdoor arena which is set back among the trees (all fall colors). I had a semi-private lesson with Vitor, who alternated between me and Debra. He kind of turned me loose to play around with Niquel but also coached me on my position and on bending the horse and the importance of the circle in getting the horse to load the hind legs correctly and set up for half pass. My left hip did not want to cooperate most of the time but it was fun anyway.
I have to find a way to come here more often. There's no way I can do this only five days out of the year. It'll take me a million years to progress at that rate.
My morning lesson started OK -- not great -- and then went downhill from there. Vitor was yelling at me a lot because I couldn't keep the horse straight. Finally he put me on the long lines to help me out. We mostly worked on keeping the horse straight, with Vitor correcting my position. We did a couple of flying changes which were so smooth that I could hardly tell they'd even occurred. We did some half-pass at trot and canter. Finally Vitor just put me on a circle -- still on the long lines but with him in the middle of the circle -- and helped me find my own balance and balance/flex the horse and work on (for the horse) getting the hind legs stepping under and (for me) lengthening/shortening the stride with my post. I don't remember how it happened, but it all culminated in a canter pirouette that was so amazing. So light, so effortless. At the end I burst into tears just as the onlookers burst into applause. Amazing. Really amazing. All day, every time I've thought about it, I've cried. Amazing.
I hope I never forget it, although knowing me, I probably will.
In the afternoon I rode Niquel, who is a much more forward horse. It was a beautiful afternoon -- sunny and warm enough for shirtsleeves (for those of us who were riding, anyway) -- so we rode in the outdoor arena which is set back among the trees (all fall colors). I had a semi-private lesson with Vitor, who alternated between me and Debra. He kind of turned me loose to play around with Niquel but also coached me on my position and on bending the horse and the importance of the circle in getting the horse to load the hind legs correctly and set up for half pass. My left hip did not want to cooperate most of the time but it was fun anyway.
I have to find a way to come here more often. There's no way I can do this only five days out of the year. It'll take me a million years to progress at that rate.
Monday, October 15, 2007
Bliss
Almost exactly one year after I took this photo*, I'm back at Vitor Silva's riding school in Merrimac, MA. I rode this horse, Numenor, today. It was so incredible -- I can't even begin to describe it. For those of you who know dressage, you will understand how cool it is that I PIAFFED on this horse today. It was so amazing, I cried. ACTUAL TEARS AND EVERYTHING. Of course, getting to that point wasn't easy -- I was doing a lot of stuff wrong and the horse was objecting -- strenuously -- in some cases, to the point of rearing and bucking (and me without my stirrups!). But SO AMAZING once I got it.
For those of you who don't know about dressage, please understand that piaffe is one of the most advanced movements that a horse can do. Not many horses advance to the level where they can do this. So not many people get to experience this, although most of us dream about it.
Tomorrow will be a huge disappointment, of course. That's just the way these things go. There will be ups and downs the rest of the week. But today was incredible.
*I have to post photos from last year's trip because, like a dumbass, I forgot to bring the cord to download photos from my camera.
For those of you who don't know about dressage, please understand that piaffe is one of the most advanced movements that a horse can do. Not many horses advance to the level where they can do this. So not many people get to experience this, although most of us dream about it.
Tomorrow will be a huge disappointment, of course. That's just the way these things go. There will be ups and downs the rest of the week. But today was incredible.
*I have to post photos from last year's trip because, like a dumbass, I forgot to bring the cord to download photos from my camera.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
My new camera!
I finally got a digital camera of my very own. No more borrowing mom and dad's. Now I can immortalize all of those really important moments in life, like the state of my desk at the office last Thursday. Look out world -- prepare to be dazzled.
Sunday, September 09, 2007
online dating
What an emotional rollercoaster online dating is. On Thursday afternoon I posted an ad saying I was taking proposals for a Saturday night date. I got more than 50 responses, of which only a small handful were at even remotely interesting. The rest ranged from nice guys whom I don't find attractive, to guys who clearly didn't read my post, to those who just pasted their own personal ad text into their response, to the guys who either loved or hated the shoes in the photo I'd posted, to the guys who wrote to chastise me for not including a full-length photo of myself in my post, to the multiple suspicious emails trying to get my real email address, to the guy who sent me a photo of himself nude (not bad, but come on!)
One guy suggested dinner in San Mateo but never responded after I sent my full photo and asked what time. Conversations with some others ended after one or two responses. I'm still conversing with a couple of guys but it won't lead to anything. It sure didn't lead to a date for Saturday night!
The thrill and the hurting.
One guy suggested dinner in San Mateo but never responded after I sent my full photo and asked what time. Conversations with some others ended after one or two responses. I'm still conversing with a couple of guys but it won't lead to anything. It sure didn't lead to a date for Saturday night!
The thrill and the hurting.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Representing the West Side
This past weekend I went to New York City to visit my sister. There wasn't really any special occasion other than that I got a cheap ticket (less than $300 on Virgin America!) and I had a free weekend.
Molly lives in the Bronx in a nice quiet residential neighborhood at the end of the 6 line. Her roommates are very nice and her living situation reminded me of being back in college -- the good parts -- living with friends.
In a nutshell, our agenda was:
Friday - arrive at JFK; endless subway ride to Pelham Bay; pizza at Villa Barone; walk to City Island; ice cream
Saturday - the Met! including brunch in the Trustees dining room (oh la la); subway down to the chapel at ground zero; shopping for a new bag at Century 21; walking to Chinatown; back to the Bronx for more Villa Barone and ice cream
Sunday - met Molly's friend James for lunch at a diner; bagels at H&H; Natural History Museum; back to the Bronx for leftover Villa Barone and ice cream (yep, three nights in a row of Barone pizza and ice cream - can't beat it).
Monday - wake up at the crack o' crack; limo to JFK; fly back to SFO....
All in all a very fun trip. It would be nice to see Molly more often but then again, maybe it would be like Christmas fudge - not so special if you got to have it all the time? Nah.
Molly lives in the Bronx in a nice quiet residential neighborhood at the end of the 6 line. Her roommates are very nice and her living situation reminded me of being back in college -- the good parts -- living with friends.
In a nutshell, our agenda was:
Friday - arrive at JFK; endless subway ride to Pelham Bay; pizza at Villa Barone; walk to City Island; ice cream
Saturday - the Met! including brunch in the Trustees dining room (oh la la); subway down to the chapel at ground zero; shopping for a new bag at Century 21; walking to Chinatown; back to the Bronx for more Villa Barone and ice cream
Sunday - met Molly's friend James for lunch at a diner; bagels at H&H; Natural History Museum; back to the Bronx for leftover Villa Barone and ice cream (yep, three nights in a row of Barone pizza and ice cream - can't beat it).
Monday - wake up at the crack o' crack; limo to JFK; fly back to SFO....
All in all a very fun trip. It would be nice to see Molly more often but then again, maybe it would be like Christmas fudge - not so special if you got to have it all the time? Nah.
Monday, August 06, 2007
Debut
Well here it is... my debut post. "Wait," you're saying. "This isn't the first post here." Ah, but that first one wasn't by me. It was by a friend who created this blog for me last June and invited me to talk about my thoughts or whatever.
Well after just over a year, finally I have some thoughts. And they're all EVIL. Well, most of them are, anyway.
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