Okay, we all know that Google Reader is biting the big one.  I've perused some of the other reader options and haven't found anything that really, really suits my fancy.

Except one.  And I'm not even sure how to use it in a reader format.  So who's using Pearltrees and is it functional as a reader?  (If you're a quiet stalker, I promise that I won't ask any other questions of you.)

And I've been thinking about goals.  Because my pony tried to kill me and workouts are getting stagnant and I want a fucking Master's degree, but I don't want to study anything.

Summer Goals

I'm not giving y'all numbers or anything, but when I stepped on the scale this morning I was terribly sad-faced.  I want to write about ponies and puppies, not my poor pony's poor back after lugging my tubby ass around.

I've written before about how I felt that I needed to lose about twenty pounds.  Then that slowly became 25.  A loss like that doesn't put me at a traditionally "skinny" weight (y'all should realize that nothing about me is traditional), but it gives me a balanced body without being a bobble-head and eliminates the fat-hoards that my body makes (namely, my gut).

I had started losing a few pounds (I lost five) through diet - literally counting every single calorie that I ingested and adhering to a low-calorie diet.  But this recent three-day weekend blew that shit out of water.  Pizza?  Sure, let's eat two!  PAULA DEEN'S LUNCH BUFFET?!  Why, yes, I would like a fried green tomato with pimento cheese to top my veggie burger, perfectly complimented by some deep-fried french fries.  Oh, yes, let's do the vegetable tempura and the vegetable yaki soba.  With plum Sake, of course.  And a couple margaritas.  And some beer, because I like it.  Oh, and dinner's pizza would be best served with an entire bottle of cheap-ass, sugary Arbor's Mist.  That I polish off solo, just like the pizza.  Yo.

Today, I think my body is in shock.  A bagel with low-fat cream cheese and leftover lentil soup (frozen, from the same batch that I fucked up and then wore).  And unsweetened green tea and water, water, water.  I'll let myself have a diet Dr. Pepper as my 3 PM reward for not going Office Space on this place.  Dinner will be something cooked in lightness, made from scratch and controlled.  And, slowly, I'll get back to where I was and continue the plight.  I mean, fight.  Yeah,  continue the fight.

Which brings me to another topic:  fitness.  I may be chubby (I hesitate to call myself "fat", since that doesn't help my self-esteem and isn't completely accurate), but I'm fit.  Fit as fuck, actually.  Below my bits of jiggly, I have muscles.  I lift heavy objects, comfortably and repeatedly.  I run, maybe not super fast, but I can go the distance.  Almost every single day has some physical activity, between the riding and the lifting, or even just the .87 mile walk to my car every afternoon.  While I've been remiss in attending the last few weeks, I have started taking yoga to improve my balance and the simple cognizance of my body's movement.  How many times have you been told to drop a shoulder without ever having realized that said shoulder had risen, again?

Fit, but chubby.  Stocky?  Stout?

See the quad?  See the roll? (Ps.  This is my brother, who is one of the smartest people I know.)

I think the 13.1 would have been much easier if I had shaved off some plushness.

Skinny, not fit. (See.. I have no muscle tone.)

Fitness seems to be a transitory thing.  A process.  And as a fit person who eats too many sugar-laden calories (god, we just bought two packs of Twizzler's, too), my goal now is to be less fat.  I want these muscles that I've been busting my ass over to actually show.  And I think the Archer would appreciate the loss.  Also?  My previously-obese and now-gorgeous husband just gets better-looking every day.  It's motivational.

I know the way to his heart.

Last night was a gym night.  Bicep curls, Arnold shoulder press, wide bench flies, tricep cable pulls, lateral shoulder pulls, adductor and abductor machines, and calf raises.  Random assortment of stuff that I'm relatively comfortable with.  I should have done some bench presses.

Tonight, I hope the weather is agreeable enough to ride.

Oh!  Interesting Humane Society stuff:  I suggested to the lady who bought my first Canon dslr that she ought to give photographing at the HS a try, since she likes animals.  And she did!  She went in last week and photographed a handful of dogs and she did a great job!  And last night, I got a message from one of the girls on my soccer team, asking about volunteering at the HS.  So, she's going to come before a few soccer games and work as my "assistant."  I hope I don't get spoiled, but I'm excited about having someone help wrangle cats and get dogs' attention.

I attempted to upload an app to my iPhone this weekend, only to be told that I lacked adequate space.  I have a 32 gig 4s.  And, oh, over 2,500 photos and videos.

So then I attempted to upload that multitude of media to my Mac, only to be told that I had inadequate space (3 gigs remaining - whoops).  And then I spent hours (okay, like two) moving 65 gigs of photos and videos and crap to my ginormous external drive, all so I could finish downloading an app that I haven't even opened yet.

The point of all this?  No pretty pictures for this post, because the iPhone is completely empty.  :)

So, normal weekend summation:

Archie

Fitness Stuff

On Friday, I went out to the barn to ride.  I was all sorts of excited.  And then it started thundering.  Is it one of my neurosis, or was everyone taught not to ride when it's thundering?  (It started raining about ten minutes later.)

Ps.  Ear bonnet issue solved.

Thing I'm excited about:

• Stopping by the natural foods store to get citronella oil (I've recently learned a method for making my own, however, my citronella plant needs to recover from winter before I start killing it) to make some fly spray for the Archer.
• Riding the Archer.  (Our IHSA team had a chant.  It was "RIDE THE HORSE!!", but, in our magically inappropriate ways, said like someone special.)
• Dinner with my friend K and my husband tomorrow night at a nice little spot that has good beer and great veggie options.  I haven't seen this chica in a really long time!  (Also, she just got the Skrillex half-shave and I'm insanely jealous.)
• The yoga class I took last night with another friend!  I'm like the unofficially recruiter for my friends.  I knew she got a certification in yoga instruction, and I happened to see that my gym was hiring and bam, she's got the job.  So last night was her second class and she did great.  Also:  my little arthritic lower back felt amazeballs afterwards.
• Getting paid!
• D's dad finishing up the last of his primary to-do list tomorrow.  I hate to say this, but I am excited about focusing more on getting the house settled by ourselves.
• A double-header on Sunday in soccer.  Less excited about the random running around, more excited about touching balls and burning calories.  And, most of our team should be there, which makes it a ton easier.

Ponykins is ready for some new fly gear.

Weather sucks.  Like bugs suck.  Roar.

Archie

Other Life Stuff

So the Archer had aluminums put back on Wednesday.

I rode on Friday.  It had just stopped pouring and the ground was disgusting and little tenderfoot didn't ever fully use his stride.  I was very, very concerned that I had fucked myself by demanding the aluminums and that I'll have to go crawling back and ask for the steels.  We'll see.  Groveling tastes good.

I rode on Saturday, too, after running a million errands, working out at the gym, and doing all that madness.  He was better and I think that most of what I was feeling was his reaction to the shoes.  Like maybe he has to readjust and it's a slower process for a body that's twice as old as it was when he initially got the different shoes.  He was also high as a kite and had a hard spook at something invisible.  After pushing him through our conditioning down transition ride (I think he'll be able to count to fifteen pretty soon), I pulled him into a collected trot and worked on lateral movements.  After that, the Kid was stellar.

He looks so sleepy and sad here.  :(

He didn't intentionally have Sunday off, but I never had the time to ride.  The husband and I slept an uninterrupted eleven hours (any indication of how stressed/busy/overwhelmed we've been?) and there just weren't enough hours in the day between finishing the apartment, eating, taking Humane Society photos, dropping an Outback-load of stuff at Goodwill and playing soccer (we lost).

The plan is to ride tonight and see how he feels.  I wonder how much of it is in my mind.  We also have the in-laws coming back this weekend to do more work, so, in an effort to actually look like we've done something, we're planning on cracking into some of those boxes that have taken over the garage.  I've gotten all of about 10% complete.  :)

Between donating and soccer, hanging out with my camera at Lake Mayer.

Funny story:  it tried to fall off.

Lots of beer this weekend.

Let's go back in time and I'll hit on all the highlights.

Humane Society

Archie

Good mother.  Horrible equestrian.

I should probably clean this.

Guess what's back!  FLIES!

..And ticks.

Running/Fitness/Soccer

Playing offense.  She was much, much better than me.

I will catch you, slender long-legged woman in better shape..

Hou$e

I boxed up about fifteen Trail of Painted Ponies.  I have a ton.

I've heard of "baby brain", where the kid is eating all of your nutrients (sarcastically said) and your brain just.. stops functioning to a degree.

That said, I think I have "house brain".  All I want to talk about is the house, but god forbid you say something that goes against the plans I have (like paint color, room usage, bushes planted) because I will smite you with my razor-bladed tongue.

Why, yes, I did check this out.  Even though my "style" is more owl and blue than Southern, whatever.

Which is to say that I had House Brain and forgot about most of today's plans.  My husband and I were invited (invited!) to the grand opening of a beer garden in town.  I feel like it's going to be a big function, but it eats the riding opportunity from the night.  Instead, I'm going to walk around downtown with my camera and wait for the Man to meet me.  But, missing the ride?  Not as big of a deal as it would have been last week.  Join me in rejoicing:

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS

I should really post on the weekends because I have too much shit to say on Monday.

On Friday, I did a little ride.  We've been struck by cold (and yes, I think it is legitimately cold), which means the ground is harder and arthritic joints hurt more.  So on Friday, we just walked with a tiny, tiny bit of trot.

Saturday.... Uh.  I remember the ride.  What else did we do?  Oh!  So, we were going to go to the gym so I could sit in on that pilates class I took a few weeks ago, but I remembered that there was an "ultimate yard sale" going on, so we drove out to that.  It was a waste of the $2 it cost for us to enter.

Then it was on to the gym, where I started lifting again but any desire to do anything hard had vanished.  How can I be so bone-weary for so long?  We ran a few errands and had lunch, then he went to play with his guitar and I went to the barn.

It was freezing and windy and neither of us were enjoying it much.  I wanted to stay consistent and work on downward transitions, which was fine tracking left.  Tracking right, it was all I could do just to get him going forward and not bucking or hollowing or scooting.  He didn't feel amazing, but I could push him into something a little better.  I'm sure he was uncomfortable, but I didn't want him to think that being an asshole was a good excuse for getting out of work, so I worked really hard on bending that shoulder.  As soon as I felt that we had done enough, I called it quits and fed copious amount of carrots and did a ton of stretches.  It was still cold so, even thought BO had left both the horses naked, I put his sheet back on.

Yesterday, I slept too late.  I immediately went out to the barn, but it was another frigid windy day and I wasn't in the mood for a fight.  We did an extra-long walking warm up, a single lap of trot and a single lap of canter, both directions.  Then I took him out to show him the new water pump and we walked to the road and back.  BO's ex-husband's dog, Muddy My Buddy, followed.

Since the high yesterday was only going to be 50, with wind, I put his sheet back on even though, yet again, BO had left him naked.

Then the husband and I went to get lunch and take photos at the Humane Society.  He dropped me off for our first official soccer game of the season (we won!) (okay, so they had no subs and we have a gnarly new forward) while he read over the mortgage contract.  He's getting burnt out on this housing process and then I had the misfortune of reminding him that if the house didn't meet our expectations at the inspection, we'd be going through almost all of this again.  After soccer, mexican.

This morning, I fed.  I have a nickname for BO on facebook, "CBL", which stands for Crazy Barn Lady.  Well, she has a friend who I call CBL's Crazier Friend.  The same chick who told me that bleach was awesome for frogs, that algae was a compliment to the water trough ("We had at the barn I grew up at and we never cleaned that thing.  None of those horses got sick!"), and that radiographs of her mare's leg resulted in uterine cancer.

I guess she thought that I fed Sunday morning and was all in a huff that Skinny Guy wasn't wearing a sheet.  So I left a note back.  I could have been meaner.  (I was just thinking.. this is as close to barn drama as I get.)  I was sorta in a huff that she put my horse's almost-too-small blanket over his considerably larger sheet.  Lazy.

This makes no sense, right?

My ideal situation:  rough board with a private pasture, place to keep feed and tack, and access to trails and/or a ring.  Limit the opportunity for idiots to fuck up my horse.

I'm not a big racehorse fan.  I don't sit glued to the TV, watching all the major and not-so-major races.  I don't follow who won what and when.  Mostly, this stems from not prioritizing something that I, at the base of things, disagree with.  I think any of us raising our own babies would give them the proper time to grow before tossing riders on their backs and pushing them distances.

/rant.

So, I know the "big" names in Archie's pedigree, but that's about it.  And I generally was just aware of them being good racehorses - nothing about what they tossed to their progeny or how well they bred or if they were assholes.

I've since learned that his sire, Ocean Crest, was imported to Turkey in 1999.  He'd been at stud for a year in Kentucky prior to Archer being ..made.  And he was the sire of the "Highest Earning Offspring" in Turkey from 2009 to 2010.  And he made over $270k.

There isn't much information on his mare, Tell It Over.  She grossed $17k and raced 32 times.  (Seems like a lot of running to me.)

But, going back, there are a few more names that I vaguely recognize:  Storm Bird, Northern Dancer, Nearco & Neartic, Phalaris, Native Dancer, Polynesian, Nashua and Nasrullah and Nearco (again), Princequillo (twice), Seattle Slew, Bold Reasoning, Boldnesian.  Even so:  I don't know these horses.  I can look at stats, but I don't know the history.

That's one of the things that I want to work on:  getting to know the horses whose blood runs through mine.  L. Williams credited one of those guys (Nearco?) to his propensity for being an asshole (she also figured out his tattoo!).  But who made him intelligent?  Who made him affectionate?  Who gave him those ADORABLE ermine marks on his hind socks?

(Most of this curiosity stems from a post I just read by Encore's mom.)

At yesterday's ride, after falling asleep on the couch surrounded by kittens for an hour and a half, I actually had the presence of mind to bring my little Polaroid that I use for videoing.  It's not super-duper quality, but it's sufficient.  Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to review it or edit it and the video, as stands, is about twenty minutes long.  And it isn't very wide-angle, so I'm in and out of the frame.  I did try to do transitions on screen and set it up to show the little crossrail we jumped.  Here's to hoping.

(Ps.  We lost our soccer game against my old, hateful team on Sunday.  And I got nailed in the boob.  Looking back, I should have head-butted the ball, but I'm not comfortable doing that yet.  Must work on heading balls.)

Today was too frazzling.

The most relaxing part was inadvertently sleeping in until about ten.  Then reheating leftover pizza for lunch.  Too many trivials?  Yeah.  Me too.

Today was a slam-bam, thank you, ma'am sort of day.

Lunch.  Rush to Humane Society.  Rush through about a dozen animals.  My helper today sucked.  I guess I should be grateful that I had a helper at all.

We left the HS and went directly to the gym.  He usurped me on the squat rack and I had to do lateral pull downs and some other random things until he got off it.  I fell like the squat rack has my name on it.  And my butt hurts.  :)

I realized that we were there for too long and pushed him out.  By the time we got home, I had all of half an hour to ride the pony.  This cold weather?  The Kid did not want to be rushed.  Ten minutes to groom and then twenty to ride.  Mostly walking with bend, bend, bend.  I forgot to mention it, but I raised my stirrups a whopping hole.  I lament that it was actually a hard adjustment and I finally feel sort of comfortable again.

I started riding with a longer stirrup when a friend gave me a dressage lesson a very long time ago.  She rode dressage when she was studying to be a vet tech and when I found that out, I begged until she consented.  Our scheduled worked out that she could come early one Sunday morning, which I fed for anyways.  So bottom line:  the barn manager showed up when I wasn't expecting her and wasn't super pleased when she thought that I was using an outside trainer (when I didn't even take lessons with the barn).  It was a rough morning, but I kept the long stirrups since them.

Any ways, after my mini-ride in the cold, I went to play soccer in the cold.  And then picked the husband up and ate Mexican and went grocery shopping.  I sort of hate that I wasn't able to spend as much time riding, but there's always tomorrow.  Thanks for the federal holiday, government.

That seemed to be the theme for the weekend.

Friday, I actually did get off of work early enough to get in about a twenty-ish minute ride.  It was dark, of course, by the time I finished.  BO came to feed and was carrying a stack of firewood back through the pasture to her house across the street.  She made a point to tell me that she was walking slowly with this wood so as to not spook my horse.  Just as I wanted to tell her that unless she started waving the firewood at his face, he'd be fine... her dog bolts by us, with two more dogs on his tail.  So.. Archie spooks.

After the ride, the hubs took me to see Breaking Dawn.  I thought it was phenomenal and I don't want to give away any secrets, but I will say that parts of it made me want to vomit.  Or cry.  Maybe vomit and cry.  (I sorta want to go see it again.. like, tomorrow.)

Saturday, we took the little monsters to the vet's office.  I will say that my previous employment and subsequent friendship with the staff is the only reason we were seen half an hour before scheduled appointments on a Saturday.  Saturdays suck at the vet's.  Anyways, clean bill of health, nice little monsters, absolute joy to be mauled by.

Aphrodite (who needs a nickname) watching the door.

Then it was taking the kittens home, fiddle-farting around (ie, falling asleep while a documentary is playing and waking up with my ear throbbing because D's favorite couch that we can't get rid of until we buy a house has horrible edges in the arm), and then running errands.  The normal:  shopping, lunch and cupcakes.  This was followed by me coming home and riding.  I feel for the Kid, I gave him a hard workout.  We did a bunch of trot work and then I decided that I wanted to actually lunge him.  I never lunge him.  Like, ever.  Like the last time was back in January.  But I wanted to focus on him figuring out his new, adjusted body with a better topline at the canter... without me fucking him up.  But I also wanted it to be a little hard, so we did it on the one "incline" that we've got.  The consensus is that he's funky in the back end still.  I have included video.  :)  Cross canter much?

After that, he got a nice walking cool down through the woods and the meadow.  I kept his saddle on so he could still have the effects of the saddle pad, though.

Then it was home to figure out what we would be doing for dinner and a nice, quiet night out.

Sunday, I surprised the man by saying that I wanted to go to the gym.  That.. was painful.  We focused on legs.  I've got another run coming up in two weeks, which I haven't trained for at all, so I hopped on the treadmill to pound out a mile.  My goal was to do two miles at a 6% incline, but dammit.  My legs and hips protested.  So it was a mile at between 3 and 6%.  Then we did alternating squats and calf raises.  I've never focused much on weighted squats, because Shaun T taught me so much about cardio squats, but the husband loves them.  He also likes the Smith Machine - which, if you aren't a gym rat, is this little contraption that helps hold the barbell in linear fashion, with safety stops along the way up and down.  Anyways, the best I got was two 45s and the bar.  Considering we've never really focused on it, I'm pretty pleased with 90+ lbs.


After the gym... uh.. oh, grocery shopping.  Cooking lunch.  Eating lunch.  Taking a nap.  A ten-minute bareback ride on Archie.  Since I worked the big muscles so hard the day before, I wanted something light and more controlled.  We got rained out.

Lurves my Tipperary.

Then I went and photographed about twenty-five animals.  I had assistants this time, which was both great and crappy.  They were excellent at capturing the dogs' attentions, but no one ever seemed to grasp that I need the attention on me - hands with treats were always too far over and too high up, so all the pictures look a little weird.

Sad news:  Ares and Apollo were both returned.  Apollo twice.  :(

Immediately after the photo session, I had our last soccer game.  The games are normally at four, but this one was pushed to six because of another tournament.  It was horrible.  It was cold and raining and we got our asses kicked.  Oh, I also accidentally hit another girl in the face.  I really have to work on that.  Husband came and watched and noted my improvement on the field.  I kicked balls.  :)

Can you tell that I have the feverish glow of being soaking and red-hot exercised?

The day ended by nachos and beer, cooking (and burning) my first-ever rum cake (which I think has too much rum, and that's saying something), and uploading all sixty of my photos to email to the Humane Society.  Long day.

Toasty rum cake.  Guarantee that it will be eaten. Ps.  Certainly didn't use the fine Malibu behind it - Baccardi Gold.

It's weird how events that I picture as purely positive don't affect me like events that have variable outcomes do.

This time last week, I was amping up for the half.  I was a ball of stress and anxiety and carbs.  Lots of carbs.  I was snarky and reached a level of bitchiness previously only reached at horse shows (but no where near the level of my wedding day).

This weekend, I've got just as much (okay, maybe not as much) excitement going on and I'm cool.  No anxiousness, no bitchiness, just preparation and planning and a nice hum of anticipation.

Things going on:

So I'm a few days late on this.  Mayyyybe it's taken me this long to recover.

The day before the run, I skipped out of work early.  I'd planned on stopping by the Civic Center and doing my civil duty and voting - but, the line wrapped around itself.  I'll vote tomorrow, like every other lazy but inclined American.

I vegged on the couch for a while.  Napped.  Got up at about four and rode the pony.  I can't remember much about that ride.  I think it was a distance ride and I think he was excellent, as normal.

Dinner that night was wheat pizza.  I shit you not: by this point I did not want to eat anything, much less something carby.  Ate the pizza, ate some froyo.  Watched the rest of that stupid movie and shoved down a sweet potato.  In to bed early, where I couldn't sleep and resorted to taking a quarter of a dosage of an OTC sleep aid.

Got up at five thirty, got dressed in layers and walked the dogs.  Wrapped a toasted wheat bagel with pumpkin spice cream cheese in some tin foil and grabbed a diet coke.  Off to downtown we went.

I expected a lot of traffic but the roads were deserted.  It was dark and exits were blocked and it was all sort of ominous.

We got to the parking deck for which we'd pre-paid and just hung out in the car for a little while.  I'd already taken half a Xanax, so I took 800 mg of Ibuprofen and ate my bagel with my diet coke.  Then it was a matter of attaching the tracker to my shoe and the bib to my tank top.  We still had about fifteen minutes before I thought we needed to go up, so I read a little.

When we got up to the road, it was utter chaos.  People everywhere.  I held on to the back of D's shirt and let him pull me through the crowds.  I knew I was going to need to go to the bathroom, so I thought we should start towards the line for the port-a-potties.  To get there, we had to walk by City Hall.  Lo and behold, a familiar security guard was watching the masses from inside.  She let us in and I was able to spend the last fifteen minutes or so in relative comfort.  D had never been in City Hall, so I showed him around a little bit.  No port-a-potties for this woman!

And then it was time to get in line.  I was in one of the last corrals, because of my estimated pace, so we had to go all the way towards the end.  I started half an hour after the first corral.  By that time, I'd stripped off my outermost layer and alienated everyone around me with scowls.  What can I say?  I'm a people-person.

As far as the race itself goes, most of it was a blur.  It was foot after foot after foot.  I average, on a good pace day, about 175 strides per minute.  I'd put the Foals on shuffle and just kept trucking.  Looking around only when I needed to pass people, otherwise setting my sights on the distance.  Unexpected hills.  Route took us through less-than-stellar areas.  Chunking my middle layer off at the first hill.  Thankful for sun glasses.  Picking a person and trying to catch them.  Slowing to a walk and drinking at every water station.  Gatorade when it was available.  Gu at mile eight.

At mile eleven, I started having foot pain in my left foot.

Then knee pain in my left knee.

Then pain in my left hip flexor.

At mile twelve, I was desperate.

When I saw the finish line, adrenalin took over.  I yelled for the people around me to push.  I'm not a cheerleader.  I generally don't give a shit about the other competitors.  One lady was motivated and we raced to the finish.

It took me two hours and thirty-five minutes to finish.  All my special information is here.

Afterwards, I had to immediately sit down.  By the time I got up, D had found me.  I slowly drank water and chocolate milk and a Gatorade.  There was a band playing in the park, who D was interested in listening to.  I stayed semi-passed out.  As soon as we were able, I wanted to get back to the car.  I ached in places they don't tell you about.

I spent the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday hobbling.  Inflammation of my hip flexor and my plantar fascia.  Concerns about the ligaments in my knee.  D did some sort of "Lockman's maneuver" to determine that they were strained or something.  I've been wearing my knee brace since then and feel much, much better.  Didn't play soccer last night, but went to watch.  Hopped on Archie for about ten minutes in the almost-pitch dark.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I thought I'd get more sun with the time change.  Instead, I'm getting less.  I've either got to change parking decks so I can get home sooner or I need to make myself ride before work.