Mindless Chatter hump day

Maxs Mom

Someday it would be fun to let Bugs and Belle run together!

I'm quite envious that you have a park she can be off leash - nothing I know of like that here but as I said moot point as all he would need is some wildlife and he'd be off.  He does however get very focused when I put his harness on or his backpack.  He really starts to single track. I'd be even more scared if he crossed in front of the bike.  And I'm a good rider and not small.  That sounds terrifying I think I'd like a 3 wheel bike and just let him pull me around the neighborhood, that I believe would be ideal.  As it is I will keep working on it and hopefully he'll get it and we can substitute some walk/jogs for bike rides.  I have an injury to my foot that will never heal at this rate.

Oh I can't run. I wish I could. I have almost no ligaments in my left ankle (4 are completely severed) so often when I am walking I fall on my face LITERALLY. Running would be very scary. I can't wear heels, and I am only 5'2", short people like to wear heels. I have had this problem since 1975. Oh well.

Another thing Belle will do, if I take her to the barn when I go ride, she follows my horse around the OUTSIDE of the ring. Wears her right out!   I do not take her if I expect a lot of customers at the barn, other horses may not be as nonchalant as Pete.

 Darn it, I was asked why I won't continue with one of the kids. I was hoping I wouldn't be asked about it, but I've been asked to explain. I wrote something, and I am asking my dad to take a look at it before I send it.

DH is still in NY until Friday.  I've been trying to get ahead at work, so that when we leave for our honeymoon, I don't have to work at all.  I can finally see my long hours starting t pay off.  I'm about a week ahead, with 9 days still to go.  I'm so excited!  At this rate, I won't even have to take my laptop with us.

 On Friday, my other horse finally came "home" so to speak.  She's been loaned to a friend for the past 8 months, so I was super excited that she is finally back with me for good.  As a reward to myself, I didn't go to the office today, although I did get quite a bit done from home today.  Instead, I took the dogs to the barn, & we all went riding.  I rode Azalea, & the dogs run alongside.  I forgot how nice it was to ride a nice, mellow mare as opposed to the spastic, high strung stallion, that I usually ride.  The ride went great, & the dogs were tired afterwards. 

This evening, I picked up my little sis, & went back to the barn for a ride.  She rode Azalea, & I rode Jinxx.  Only a few minutes into our ride, I remembered why I love that spastic, high strung guy....He's so much fun to ride!

 All in all, it's been a great day.  I'm hoping that tomorrow goes as smoothly.

 I am going (or coming, depending on where you are) to the States in 6 days!! I have the annual ABA (association for behavior analysis) conference in Chicago, and then me and a friend are going to stay an extra couple of days in LA to do touristy stuff on the way home. I am starting to get excited, even though I haven't finished or printed my poster, or finished my presentation slides. I am a little bit concerned about how the puppers will cope without me - it will be the first time SO will be left to deal with 2 dogs on his own- eek!
I might start a new thread for touristy suggestions! I'm planning on taking some time off from the conference to do some sightseeing hehe.

 As for dogs and biking- I tried doing it with Pocket on-lead once- and never again! We were biking along the road happy as larry for about 2 minutes, until Pocket decided to go on the OTHER side of a lamp-post.Let's just say, it didn't end well. On the other hand, Basil the basenji mix is an absolute delight to bike with- he runs slowly LOL.

Liesje- sanding and refinishing hardwood floors is a bit of a job- we did our hallway (which isn't that big) and it took FOREVER just to sand down the varnish to the hardwood- this was with a big belt sander and a wee hand one (I don't know the technical terms for them LOL), and we also had to sandpaper the tricky bits. It's good if you know what sort of wood you're dealing with too- we originally thought the floors were rimu (NZ native wood), but it turned out they were some weird sort of light pine which made finding the right stain a real mission.
All in all it took us at least 2 weekends to get it done, and we've decided to just recover it anyway. Doing it ourselves saved us a fair bit of cash, but it was quite draining mentally and physically.