Spring Fever

We've had a patch of ugliness lately. Rain, cold, mud.... just plain undesirable weather conditions. Today was so warm that Yogi and I went to the barn to take BooBoo's sheet off this morning. Yogi loves being at the barn. He likes that he can be off leash and run around with the other dogs. The resident dog is Bulldog. Her name is technically Diva, but we all know her as Bulldog. She's an English Bulldog who's bark is definitely worse than her bite.

So Yogi and I went for a long walk on the bridle path. He was so good. I think next week, I may try to get him to walk along with me as I take BooBoo on a trail ride. BooBoo loves dogs. Yogi just likes sniffing stuff. He was  caught off guard when the cow next door let out a serious MOO. I think it was his first time hearing a cow. He was perplexed.

If I can ever get the pics off my phone and onto my computer, I'll post them.

Speaking of spring fever.... if you're a horse person or even a dog person, you know it's time for shedding. Seriously, there's a lot of hair flying around here! I have two products that I can't live without for shedding season. For the horse, THIS is where it's at. The Epona Shed Flower. It's a simple thing, but worth $50 in my book. It's actually less than $5.

So for the dog, the Shed Flower is not quite as effective. The Furminator gets a lot of hype, and let me just say, it's so worth it. It's around $50 depending on the size of the dog, but all those ads are accurate. I have lots of friends who are skeptical about it, but I let them try it once and they are hooked. They too find that it's worth the money. Yogi looks like a million bucks when he's done. And the vet keeps asking me what I do to keep his coat looking so nice. Nothing. I just bathe him with Tresemme once a month and Furminate (yes we verberized it) him about once a week. It's fabulous.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get my horse ready to show this year. Look for updates on that and my journey back to competitive riding coming up soon!

For the love of Bunnies!

In honor of Easter, I thought a post about Bunnies was appropriate. If this makes sense to you, you may have known me in grad school. If you think I'm crazy.... well just stay with me for a minute. I might still sound crazy, but it might at least make some sense.

Note that the word "Bunnies" is capitalized. It is in fact two-fold in this post. Let me start with a story. Back in 2002, there was a show on Fox called "Greg the Bunny". The show starred Seth Green and Sarah Silverman. Great show. Sadly, it only lasted for about one season. I have no idea why. What spells HIT SHOW better than politically incorrect fabricated Americans? Here's Greg:

Okay, next. My sister is shopping for a birthday present for me. She's quite the shopper. As my grandfather would say, she has a black belt in shopping. She always finds amazing presents. I don't remember what else I got from her that year, but the best gift was a game called "Killer Bunnies". What is Killer Bunnies you ask? Gee, I'm glad you asked! It's a card game. But it is so much more than a card game. It's technical name is "Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot". Please don't confuse Killer Bunnies with its kid-friendly counter part, Kinder Bunnies. In Killer Bunnies, your bunny can and will be impaled by a stray lawn dart, squashed in a Fiat, or blown up by a grenade. Don't even get me started on the Anti Matter Raisins and Quite Irascible Diffractable Cheese Balls. You can start with just two decks. Blue and yellow. But if you're any kind of Killer Bunnies fan, you'll quickly acquire all 11 decks. Yes 11. You can also buy Kinder Bunnies and mix it with Killer Bunnies.

We thought the game may look a little lame. So we didn't play it for a while. Until one night in our apartment in Pittsburgh, my roommate Lacey, my then-fiance Dan and I were stuck without power. We hung a flashlight from the ceiling and opened the box. We added decks and Bunny addicts. It's impossible to not get addicted. In fact, when we moved recently, we made friends with another couple, Jeremy and Heather. They come over at least once a month and play Bunnies. They brought us a present the other night when they came to play. 

You can see some of the cards from the game. The present was bunny cups! These are not Kinder Bunny cups! There's Jim Beam on the rocks in the blue one and Captain and Coke in the pink one. And yes, we used the sweet straws that came with them!

It all started with a cancelled TV show.

Chasing the dream vs Paying the bills

My husband is very fortunate. He is a scientist. It is absolutely what he loves. His passion and his work are one and the same. Sure, he loves sports, is a certified mixologist and recently started home brewing, but he's totally happy in science and seems quite content to leave the sports and booze for play time. And when he's finally finished with school, his job will more than support his hobbies.

I however, very much view my career as a means to an end. I have two degrees in business. I've worked in my field here and there and was hoping to earn enough capital to buy that farm I keep mentioning. I was a victim of bad timing, the economy and some unforeseen circumstances. I ended up in a job where I was continuously looking for something else. I was over-worked and under-paid (who isn't?). My husband and I decided my happiness was significantly more important than the money I was making in my "real job". I quit that job in January.

Now I'm making a go at being a full time professional horse person. I've been doing this long enough to know there's not a lot of money in it. At least not the way I'm doing it now. In order to make the big bucks, you have to take some risks and spend some money. I'm in a new state, trying to re-establish the network I had developed at home. It's also a very seasonal business which makes it difficult during the cold months.

I get to spend time with my horse now. I get to spend more time with my dog. My apartment stays much cleaner. I get to see my husband on occasion. I'm a much happier person in general. I just have to keep reminding myself that being happy and having time to enjoy life is what I got in exchange for giving up bigger paychecks. Maybe when I'm working hard this summer with summer camp/shows/lessons and making a bit more, I won't have to keep reminding myself.

Just as today's reminder, here are some pictures of why I am happier now.

We're making progress

I like change. I get bored very easily. I need progress. I like to feel that sense of having accomplished something. I can't stand letting things get stagnant. I'm very goal driven.

I think that's one of the reasons I liked college. With each credit, I was making progress toward a degree. Every semester, I checked out my degree audit report to see how many more credits I needed. I also like to be ahead of the game and get things done quickly. I finished college in 4 years, but I had to play catch up after transferring in my freshman year.

The good news is, I'm still finding ways to make progress, now that I've finished school--twice. I recently switched jobs, which was a huge decision. I left a job that I hated, where I was over worked and under paid. But it paid the bills all the same. I am now taking a stab at being a full time horse trainer and riding instructor. The goal that drives me to sacrifice stability and better pay is my hope to run a boarding and lesson farm one day. I used to work at this farm which is a great model for having a fun, low competition, family friendly farm. I work primarily at one farm now, and was recently asked to take on another day of lessons. I'm up to three days there and I help with the farm chores on the weekend. I'm also going to be the camp director this summer. We have 8 weeks of camp, plus a prep week, which is going to make for a busy summer. With each new client, I feel like I'm making progress toward my ultimate goal of owning and running a farm. This experience is priceless.

We're making progress on another front too. We are officially under contract on our first house. This has been a goal for a while, but we weren't sure it was going to happen so soon. We only plan to live in our current location for another 5-6 years, but we're just throwing away money in renting. We have an inspector coming tomorrow. This house is perfect for us. It's super cute.... admittedly it needs some curb appeal help, but it was one of those things that we knew was going to be the one as soon as we walked in the door, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that nothing crazy happens during inspection and appraisal. Now we'll be gaining equity AND my sweet puppy will have a yard to play in, which is progress in my book!

Bua na cainte

Call it jumping off the cliff. I'm taking the plunge and starting a blog. I've been tossing around the idea for a few months now and after reading the blogs of some friends, I'm giving it a try. I had a blog once... back when Xanga first started. I don't know that I ever had anything useful to say. I don't know that I have anything useful to say now, but at least I'm aware of it this time around.

My blog is called Bua na cainte. For those of you who aren't lucky enough to be Irish, that's Gaelic for "gift of gab". And I have it. I am the woman from that commercial. You know... the one who can take an hour to tell a five minute story? Yep. That's me. My husband often asks me to wrap it up or get to the point. Being Irish and having Bua na cainte, another beneficial and logical quality might be having mastered the art of story telling. Nope. I'm a terrible story teller. It was always funnier when it happened in real life. And it inevitably sounds better in my head.

What is the purpose? Eh. It's not like my friend Abby's blog. She is a health nut in a good way. She runs a lot and tries to eat well. She writes about her ongoing quest for good health. Plus, she's a fabulous writer. It's not like my family's blog. We are spread out geographically and we try to keep up on each other's lives this way. It's not like one of my favorite blogs, Fugly Horse, either. Fugly Horse of the Day is about outing and commenting on people who don't know what they're doing with horses. People who starve or gorge their horses, neglect or torture, breed genetically or conformationally incorrect animals, or even just try to sell a horse as something other than what it is. Nope, my purpose is far less purposeful. This is a personal blog. A journal-ish. You'll probably hear a lot about horses. (I'm a horse trainer and riding instructor.) You'll probably hear a lot about my dog. (I love animals in general.) And you might hear about my family and friends (who are too far away), my husband (who is my best friend), my car (which may fall apart any day now), and my house (which I'm in the process of trying to buy). I may not have any readers, but I don't care. Like I said, it's a journal-ish.