Picnic tomorrow!

Nightshade--see the seeds?
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

I'm sitting here thinking of Ed, my oldest son who is doing his first marathon tomorrow and wondering how he is feeling. I'm not going to call him to ask because I know he is probably either dreading it, or worrying about it.
I love you Ed, go and do the best you can. I wish I were there to cheer you every step of the way and to help you when you finish.

Tomorrow hubby is joining me and my galfriend and we are going on an all day jaunt to Wildcat Mtn. [probably ride a marathon!] I am soooo looking forward to going out! The weather promises to be gorgeous and the colors are fantastic!

It's late...

Virginia Creeper
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

But my 'schoolwork' is done for the week and I'm diving into next week's work. It really is a work at your own pace sort of thing. But by the weekend of my next endurance ride I don't want to have the pressures of unfinished work hanging over my head.

Spent the day traveling to the Madison VA with hubby to have something checked out that the triage nurse thought was urgent. The 'Excess' doctor didn't think it was so, and the blood work came back with no problems.
Soooo....everything appears to be fine and normal.

Now if it would just quit raining and we could have some Indian Summer!

Off to slumber land.

All that remains

Remains
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

I took a long walk when I got home yesterday to clear my head of 'databases', moodiness, and to get those body parts moving. Morris, the brave, came along and hid behind me when squirrels scolded him.
Brave dog.

I went back to where I'd found a deer that had died last winter and was pleased to find a nice clean skull. One more treasure to add to the outhouse decor.

Of course carrying it back through the woods was not bad. It was just when I set it down and forgot to pick it up again that there was a problem. I didn't want the mares to crush it by walking on it, so I ran through the woods all the way to the creek bottom wondering where in the devil I'd left it.

Smarty pants. I took out my little digital camera that is strapped to my waist in a carrier... and paged through the last few photos.
Then I remembered where I'd left it.

Oh it was a long long climb back up the hill, I ran when I could ... actually jumping logs and having a blast. As a matter of fact, I didn't even feel bad or hurt anywhere!

In fact I felt wonderful and very pleased with myself.

Best Friends too...

The Man
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

Not often can married couples honestly say they are 'best' friends. Oh you can be a 'couple' or 'married to the ol' lady'...but to have a true friendship is something extra special.
Those who have IT know exactly what I mean.

Sunday afternoon hubby and I went for a ride in the autumn light. I was so tickled to have him accompany me on a leisure ride. He did manage to leave some of the pressing work he had to do in the shed [building tie stalls for 3 mules were are putting into saddle training] and come along. It was one of the mo' betta afternoons.

One of those moody days

One of those moody days
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

Off and on it threatened rain, but we never actually got any bad weather just fantastic clouds. I slept in until very late today! Almost noon, which is unheard of around here.
I NEVER sleep in that late. Nope can't remember a time I have since moving here.
This afternoon I worked outside helping clean up the old wood pile and doing odd jobs. Hubby has been super busy getting things ready for winter.
He is building three tie stalls in the shed for the younger geldings to stay while they are in training this fall and part of winter. I am looking forward to working with a new mule this year.

dumb and uninteresting today, but that is what it was....

And to all ... goodnite...

The sun dips behind the ridgetop
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

With my homework finished for this week I breath a sigh of relief. Tonight we had a spectacular sunset.

I'm so glad to see the sunlight again! I think I'm growing webbed feet. Of course when I started today's 'blog' I thought I had so many clever things to say. Now my mind is a blank. [ah--I heard that--and no it is not always that way!]

Too much time on my hands???

I know I shouldn't be doing this at work, but alas there is nothing else to do today and I need some comic relief! So what is the solution? Look for something fun and interesting to read...something not too obnoxious...and I found it in OFF/Beat--Here.

Of course it would be a story about Wisconsin. Gotta love us, yah know?

Hmmm, better get my textbook out and study some Excel spreadsheet formulas before my mind wanders too far......

Well of course I've been playing around with Flickr toys again. Couldn't resist making a magazine cover.
My news is fairly lame this week ~ I've mostly been working on Excel spreadsheets. This means going through approximately 200 pages of textbook and doing 7 assignments to turn in. I've found the new Excel to be incredibly more useful than the '95 version I had to use when I worked in Insurance.

Tonight I'm taking a break from homework and going to watch a DVD and let my mind clear itself of formulas, absolute values, and cell formatting.


[Impressed you with those big words, eh?]

High in the saddle again!

High in the saddle again
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

Here are the stats.
25.9 miles in 4 hrs and 9 minutes. Average speed: 6.3 mph.
15.6 miles in the first leg with a speed of 6.87 mph
10.3 miles in the second leg with a speed of 7.24 mph

Vet checks:
All A's
[impulsion, attitude, muscle tone, heart rate, respiration, soundness, gut noises, no soreness...]
What does that all mean? It means we rode well, we did well. We finished and that means~
We won.

Especially since I had shoulder surgery on June 23rd and on June 24th it was a superhuman effort to lift that left hand above my waistline.

See where that hand is now? Hard work on my part and Badger's part --- we accomplished an awesome goal.

And THAT is what it is ALL about.

Busy Weekend

Famly Photo
Originally uploaded by Xena~.

Well here goes, I am heading to the Northern Kettle Moraine unit to ride my first LD [Limited Distance] Ride of the year.
I've worked so hard to achieve this goal. One non-invasive surgery on the left shoulder and then one orthoscopic surgery on the very same shoulder.
Horror of horrors, I had more than 4 weeks of summer riding that I missed out on. Hours of Physical Therapy, pain, frustration, anger, more frustration....
Until I demanded to go to riding, promising my surgeon that it would MAKE me do so much better.
I took to 'conditioning' Badger [my mule] by riding him every other morning before sunrise in the hills and timber near our home.

The sunrises were incredible and the sites were something else. I know next year that I will be using the same training!

Well happy hoofing.
Next post...I hope to tell you how I did!

To finish is to Win

Back to School

Somehow I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I am right now. Oddly enough going through a software textbook that wieghs in at 8lbs in 6 weeks is a pretty daunting task. Although when I look at the work I realize there is quite a bit to learn and I know much of it already.

How interesting that part of today's asignment is filling out a resume..hah! That should go nicely with the application I am filling out for VMH [Vernon Memorial Hospital].

Take strides forward as often as you can! The job is similar to what I am doing now except at the Health and Wellness [fitness] portion of the hospital.

I find it interesting that one of my physical therapists called home to hubby to tell him about the opening so I could apply.

Now I could use a little bit of luck.

Quiet weekend

Here he is! Dennis~what a face, what a character! 6 months old and full of smiles and facial expressions. He is not like his sister at all. ;-) Grandkids are so much fun to have overnite except when they don't sleep. Then Grandma gets to be up with them.
I guess I wouldn't have it any other way. I see the smiles on 'grandpa's' face and know it is worth it.
Our weekend was quiet and un-newsworthy. Rain, cold, rain, and more cold.

I sure hope it gets nice for my first endurance ride of the season this weekend.

A day without sunshine!

Here it is Saturday and I just turned in my first assignments and took my first test. Ariel is staying over, it is cold, rainy, and yucky.
Dang we had to turn our heat on today!
I hope this is not what is going to be the start of a long cold winter.

Thursday I escaped on Badger for a couple of hours of riding PeeWee's land. It was picture perfect gorgeous. We went down into the back valley. At one point Badger had o jump a downed tree...
totally cool, I loved it. We cantered and galloped, trotted and weaved ... and just generally had a blast.

Yesterday I had Morris in at the vet for an 'ER' visit. Morris has been coughing so hard that he was well -- getting sick. Doc thinks it is 'seasonal' which may mean he has allergies? Oh goodness a dog with allergies. So he put Morris on Prednisone [steriods]! He seems much more comfy now.

Tomorrow it looks like we'll be riding with the 'kids'...I hope. Then it is on to week #2 of school which I hope to get a start on Sunday nite. I wonder why so many of my classmates are having such a hard time with these two simple assignments?

Crickets sing...

I had an interesting Labor Day. I went out in the morning to hike in the light rain and look for fungus to take pictures of.
I found a 'ground bee' nest. Since Morris the dog and I didn't disturb them [I tied Morris up]--I was able to observe them and wished to heck I'd had my long lens on my camera!
In the afternoon we went for a drive and ended up at the Amish community in Cashton were we visited with Chrissy M. and his kids in his tack shop. We stopped by Lester's. His brother was there and when he said he had to go to a BBQ I volunteered to come along.
He gave us the time and directions. I was floored. But we didn't go and settled on winding our way home.

As evening settled I watched a beautiful sunset and listened to the evening grow quiet ...
and the crickets began to sing.
The moon rose.

And I smacked myself in the head with my hand...I'd forgotten my son's wedding anniversary!
doh...

Rainy Days are for...

Rainy days are for creativity...I think. Well that is what I am doing. Playing around in photoshop to make some artwork and reading my textbook on Microsoft Windows XP and Office 2003. I've loaded the software and am now going through it to see what is new and different.

I start class to learn what is contained in this 8 lb book starting on Wednesday.

I think if I can do photoshop and learn it by trial and error, I can probably handle this class...

Imagine my surprise....

Well you are probably tired of this by now but I just have to explain how strange it is to have someone walk up to you in a grocery store and tell you that they saw your 'dad' on TV last nite.
Of course the History Channel had a small segment and some snippits from the interview my nephew did with Dad a few days before he died was included.

You should have seen the woman's face when I explained that my dad, Tom Rogers was dead [should I say deceased?--heck I don't know which is politically correct]. She said that he looked alive to her!

Okay, so like I went into the canned food isle and starting throwing Starkist Tuna cans at every shopper.

OK.
I didn't.
But I thought about it.

I find myself wishing I still had some of those 'dumb' things dad brought home. Today I acquired the Pillsbury Doughboy doll [one like I put in the closet]--at a rummage sale. I apologized to him profusely. He'll now have a special spot near my computer where he can oversee what I do.

Heck, I did name my dog, a Jack Russell Terrier: Morris the Cat. Yep, I put it on his registration papers. I wanted to name him Charlie the Tuna, but hubby said he looked more like a Morris.

Thanks dad, once again you tickled my funny bone.