My college roommate, Michelle, and her husband bought a 1988 Suburban this summer to use to haul their vintage 1960's camper to Michigan on vacations. I can't imagine Michelle driving anything bigger than a Jetta or a Volvo S-class. But, drive the "burban" she does! I spent the evening with her, Jim, and the kids this past Saturday when I was in Lexington for Octoberfest. We cruised town to Kroger in the Suburban and I have to say that there is a natural aggressiveness in Michelle's ability to drive something that maneuvers like a big tank. I mean, I can drive a big truck, but my truck drives like a car, compared to the BBB.
Fellow drivers in and around Lexington, beware...
My new favorite quote?
"I close my eyes, and I kiss the frog. Each time finding...the more boys I meet, the more I love my dog."
Like the song says, "Well, we're movin' on up...". Yes, Eddie and I are moving up to Novice this weekend at the Octoberfest Horse Trials. It's not a full-on USEA recognized event (that will happen next March), but it'll be a good first outing at our new level. Bigger and better, right? We shall see...
It's been a rainy few days here in Tennessee (thank you, God) and I've just been needing a little pick-me-up. Some Gary Lightbody love should do the trick! I about died when I read this excerpt from his tour blog on their official web site. I am convinced that GL is my destiny, but come on man...if you're going to make it in my world, you can't be afraid of spiders. Or dogs. Or horses. Or pot-bellied pigs.
"On a car journey from Sydney to play a show in Newcastle our driver and guide Rory, a genial and erudite ex-army man passed on his vast knowledge of the surrounding landscape, its history and its wildlife. After four days of feeling safe in Sydney (I was told on a trip here a few years back that no spiders lived in the city as ‘they’re more scared of you than you are of them’) Rory calmly answered my tentative inquiries about what things out here in the wilderness might bring about my untimely death. “As we’ll not be stopping out here,” he says, “there isn’t anything to worry about” (phew, says I). If only he’d stopped talking right there. Then he told me about the very real danger that lives in the place I’d just been feeling safe in for the last few days: the Sydney Funnel Web Spider (SHIT, says I). It’s a spider ONLY found in Sydney. Contrary to whatever liar told me there were no spiders to worry about in the cities this is one of the most deadly in the world and it lives in nearly every garden in Sydney. The place is teeming with them. Of course this is where Rory lets me have it good and proper while he has me up against the ropes and woozy as a nineteenth-century aristocrat’s daughter at a poetry reading. Before I passed out I recall him saying it had the ability to jump three feet in the air and very often the reason someone is bitten at all is because they try and step on the wee bastards and the spider, using the gift the devil gave it, leaps into the air and bites the fella on his mancakes. Bang! I hit the floor of the car. When I came to again and Rory stopped laughing he hit me with yet more tragic stories of insects and animals chasing folk (and catching folk) that would make you want to seal yourself inside a suit of armour forever. Although knowing me I’d end up sealing something nasty in there with me. I should calm down though. It’s really not that bad. For all my fears, we're yet to see so much as a moth with a funny look in his eye in all our trips out here, and all that said we’re having a wonderful last tour of this record. Australia has always been great for us and the gigs so far have been a hell of a lot of fun. Thank you all for coming and being such a great crowd."
Next Wednesday is Halloween, and I'm really trying to talk my friend Erika (who I also work with) into dressing up. She's being belligerent and balky, but maybe if I could just find THE RIGHT costume, she'd get on board. Anything to make the work day less...Wilburish...is good with me!
I don't think I'll be choosing the Princess Leia option, though, as I did when I was six years old. I love how the whole long, straight blonde hair stringing out behind the mask seemed to pose no problem for me as part of the costume. Geez, mom. You could have at least pulled it back into a ponytail or something. With the contrasting hair, it's so clear that I'm NOT REALLY Princess Leia. What gives?
Sorry, Becks...I know I've been neglecting you lately.
In all fairness (after Friday's blog entry), I should also post this adorable photo of me and Kelly sled riding a few months before I went to live in Vail.
Back before she and Randy moved to Charleston, we did other things than just frequent SEC football games, intoxicated to the hilt -- although, I'd be lying if I led you to believe that there were more snowy sled rides than blurry football games. :)
OMG. I found this picture the other day and couldn't help posting it. It is basically humiliating, but hilarious all the same. This is me and my friend Kelly in a decidedly NON-SOBER state at Neyland Stadium a few years ago. Klassy, with a "K", aren't we? And, if you think that random people in our vicinity didn't get accidentally poked in the head about a dozen times with that huge foamy finger, then you would be wrong. It's kind of large and unwieldy, so difficult to control, in certain (drunken) situations.
I do believe that Kelly's equally trashed boyfriend (and now husband), Randy, had his finger over the lens when snapping this fabulous image. We were a struggling mess, and I was obviously doing a great job of getting my "Britney Spears" on.
Tomorrow is the Tennessee/Alabama game, so I thought I'd honor the occasion with a trip down memory lane, back to those foggy, Jim Beam-filled days when I frequented Neyland Stadium every home game Saturday during graduate school. I think the last time I actually went to a game there was when Shane and I attended the TN/GA game together (or, was it the TN/Bama game? All I remember was Charlie Daniels sang at half-time!) right before he moved to Louisiana. Fortunately for Shane, I was nowhere near the same horrifying state of grace at that game as I was in this lovely photo. Ah, well: we live and we learn.
When I lived in Vail, I tried lots of new things: eating fried squid, mountain biking and hiking the ski slopes in the summer, going to Rockies' games, shopping in Denver, being a mom, skiing everyday for 3 months, and roller hockey. The last of these items seems a bit out of place for me, and rather unusual for someone as HIGHLY uncoordinated as I am. But, as this picture will tell, try it I did. I wasn't really that great at it (there's a good reason for those knee pads), but I had fun. I was good with the stick and the shooting, but terrible with the skating and ball/puck control. My friend Ned took this picture when we were out playing one day in Eagle Vail. I love the "No Slapshots" on the wall in the background...because, as you can clearly tell, I'm a pretty hard core hockey player and wicked slapshots are my game.
My friend Jennifer sent this picture to me last week. She was stuck in traffic in Richmond, VA, and looked up to see the shining beacon of the Tennessee "Power T" calling to her from several cars away.
We are EVERYWHERE.
This is the British band "Ben's Brother." They just released their album Beta Male Fairytales this past summer, and they are fabulous! They have a MySpace music page if you want to sample any of their songs. You have probably heard them, and you don't even know it, if you've seen the new Dentyne Ice commercial (the animated one where the princess kisses the frog and he turns into a prince, etc.). It features their very popular, unrecorded song called "Stuttering." That commercial plays every night here on the CW, during "Family Guy" episodes. So, I know you jokers have seen/heard it.
So, I competed in my last outing at Beginner Novice last weekend and had a wonderful time. Eddie and I finished in 3rd place in our division, on the lowest score we've accrued at a recognized competition, to date (37.9). We also broke the 40 mark for the first time at a recognized show in dressage, and finished on that score (37.9), with no additional penalties in either of our jumping phases.
The cross-country was pretty big for BN, with a numbered combination at 15a and 15b, the first time I've had a combination on a cross-country course. We sailed around and made it look easy, which has put us in good standing to go into our move-up to Novice the weekend after next at Octoberfest in Lexington. I'm really looking forward to that, and I hope to go into that with some good momentum after this past weekend, and I hope to leave Octoberfest with some positive momentum heading into
the winter and spring events next year.
This coming Saturday, Erika and I will be doing a 5K run/walk (and by "run/walk" I mean "walk/walk") in the Race for the Cure series that is going on all over the country this month. We have a donations page online that friends/family/and co-workers can access to donate money to this cause and to our "walk/walk" effort. If you're interested in giving $5, $10, $15, $20, then you can access our page here.
I've not done a Race for the Cure walk before and I'm looking forward to the exercise, the opportunity to participate in a good cause, and the chance to help make a difference.
So, Eddie Spaghetti and I are off to Nashville this weekend to compete in the Middle Tennessee Pony Club Horse Trials! This is our last official outing at beginner novice (stop laughing, Kelsey) as we are entered in our next competition at Novice level, at the Kentucky Horse Park in two-weeks' time. I had a great time at MTPC last year and I look forward to another good go this year as well (this picture is of us on cross-country there in 2006). Plus, it's rare that I get to attend an event where so many of my TN friends are also competing or are just in town to hang out and chill. See you guys this afternoon!
...and, we all know what that means. Another rousing and dramatic episode of Grey's Anatomy!!! Jennifer, be sure and set your VCR!!! I know how much you love it. I bet you just printed this picture of Meredith and McDreamy and stuck it on the wall of your office. In fact, I know you did. :)
I'm not much for watching network television (I've never been into the CSI craze and I don't enjoy reality shows). I have digital cable (with tons of movie channels) and I have DVR, with all my favorite shows and movies at my disposal, so why would I ever have to watch regular tv...when Grey's isn't on, of course? But, every-so-often, there comes along a really cool new show.
Last week, I watched "Pushing Daisies," which I'd heard good things about before the season even began and I had already set a series recording on my DVR to record the pilot. It is one of the neatest shows I have ever seen. If you haven't seen it, you really need to check it out. It's on ABC, on Wednesdays, at 8:00pm (Eastern). So, that means it's on tonight. Go home and turn on the tube, people!
To be quite honest, it may have been me who took the picture of Papa Smurf. I was pretty obsessed with smurfs, at one time in my childhood, and I was sure that they lived in the big puffball mushrooms growing beneath the pine trees beside my neighbor Lindsey's house. I know this because I saw one, one time when I was sitting there, hovering, just waiting for a little blue pointy hat to emerge. Seriously. You know you believe me.
Ok, this picture I found at my parents' house cracked me and Melissa up something crazy! Apparently, one of us loved Papa Smurf sooooo much that we felt compelled to take his picture when he was on t.v. one day. I accuse Melissa of taking the picture, and of course she accuses me of taking it. Too, too funny!!!
Oh, beat up!!! Good golly... Saturday was fun.
Shane, this post is allllllllll for you, since you won't answer your phone (although I don't blame you, as I probably wouldn't answer either were the tables turned).
Can I just repeat it, one more time? Tennessee 35, Georgia 14.
Tennessee vs. Georgia.
It is finally fall, no matter what the thermometer says!
This past weekend, my sister and I were at my parents' house for some fun family festivities (as discussed in my previous post, re: Big Bertha and the boat). This year, for our company holiday party, the organizers have asked all the employees to provide pictures of themselves in a much younger, childhood incarnation. They are creating a slideshow of everyone's pictures to project during the dinner and people are encouraged to guess who the various photos are (with some sort of prize attached to the winning number of correct guesses). I flipped through the old family photo albums looking for a few of myself, and I came across some fun pictures of me as about a 5 or 6 year old. I was really cute then. Alas, I can no longer be characterized as "cute." Anyhow, here is one I found of me and Melissa. I liked it, because you can tell what an awesome big sister I am. I am the nicest ever!
By the way, check out Melissa's bangs. Stylish!!!
Well, it's been a hot and dry one here in Tennessee this year, but the bonus is we are still out on the lake (and in the water!) up to October, now. This past weekend, my friend Erika brought her husband and daughter up to my parent's house at the lake in Bristol. My sister was also in town, so we all went out on the lake and had tons of fun on the tube. I think there are probably a number of people at Wilbur Smith who would have paid good money to see me and Erika getting thrashed around on that thing.
Note to self: just because she's my mother and she loves me doesn't mean that -- when given the opportunity (lots of wake and choppy water) -- she won't rip that boat around and fling innertube passengers left and right like there's no tomorrow. I feel battered, bruised, and abused. But, it was so much fun! I can't wait for it to be summer next year, now!
My college roommate, Michelle, and her husband bought a 1988 Suburban this summer to use to haul their vintage 1960's camper to Michigan on vacations. I can't imagine Michelle driving anything bigger than a Jetta or a Volvo S-class. But, drive the "burban" she does! I spent the evening with her, Jim, and the kids this past Saturday when I was in Lexington for Octoberfest. We cruised town to Kroger in the Suburban and I have to say that there is a natural aggressiveness in Michelle's ability to drive something that maneuvers like a big tank. I mean, I can drive a big truck, but my truck drives like a car, compared to the BBB.
