2012

If anyone can pull off an equestrian Olympic experience like no other, it would certainly be the English.

Good thing I'll have my passport in "6 to 8 weeks...12 weeks maximum"! :)

I love this man!

Ok, we already know he can sing, he can play the guitar, and he can write. But he also does this. He's the best.

On towards New Years...

Christmas is over, so it's on to the next fun, festive holiday: New Year's Eve!!! I don't know for sure what I'll be doing, but this really sounds like fun. Plus, it's for a good cause. Therapeutic riding programs are worth every cent. And, I'm not just saying that because I'm a rider. I've seen the looks on those kids' faces when they get taken out of a wheelchair and put on the back of a horse. In this season of giving and receiving, that thought is certainly something I will hold on to as this year fades away and the new year quickly approaches.

(And, yes, I admit it...that's a picture of Katie Holmes in the movie "First Daughter," but I love her purple ballgown!!!)

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and I'm at work. :( But, not for long! Have a Merry Christmas everybody. Happy Holidays!!!

The good ole days

One of my favorite holiday memories is eating benne wafers from Charleston. We used to stock up on these like crazy when we were in South Carolina in the summers, and they lasted through the winter into the holiday season. I don't even want to know the fat and calorie content in these things. How bad could some seeds, sugar, and butter be? I guess you only live once.

Ahhhh....

There is a new organic/green day spa that opened recently in Mt. Pleasant, SC that I'm dying to go to. I don't know if I'll make it when I'm down in Charleston for New Years, but I'm certainly booking the ENTIRE DAY there after the bridge run in April! Even if I walk the 7K, I will need a lemon verbena foot treatment and lemon verbena hand treatment, as well as the seaweed bath and an arnica muscle and joint massage. A little exercise and a lot of pampering goes a long way!

Home Improvement

I sure could use someone like Carter around my house for the weekend! :)

So. Freaking. Hot.

Blue

This is so sweet, and so true. :)

So Sad...

I guess this was bound to happen at some point.

I've been good this year, Santa!!!

In case any of you are wondering what to get me for Christmas...you can just get me this. :)

Agony

For the past 2 weeks or so, my digital/dvr cable has been buggering up and I have been mean, irritable, and nasty on a regular basis due to this unacceptable occurrence. Anyone who knows me well knows that I heart my dvr very, very, very much. Unfortunately, it is the dvr that is failing my digital cable set-up, so I'm going to have to dismantle the whole shebang and take it back to Comcast and exchange it for a brand new box. This won't cost me anything (except my time and inconvenience) but it's so annoying. I have been beside myself, as I've now missed 2 new episodes of "Pushing Daisies" and last week's ultra suspenseful "Grey's Anatomy" since -- although they have recorded on my cable box -- they won't play back. Stupid, infernal technology!!!

Holiday movies

Inevitably, Hollywood comes out with some great movies around the holidays, and this December is no exception. I can't wait to see The Golden Compass (as I've read all of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, as well as Pullman's Sally Lockhart novels). What I really am dying to see, though, is Atonement. I read the book several years ago and thought it was fantastic. Ian McEwan is a wonderful author, and I'm shocked that - although I had every good intention of doing so - I never got around to reading any more of his works. But, Atonement is certainly considered far and wide to be one of his best. I don't remember every detail, so the movie will still hold some surprises for me. I do remember enough of the characters and the plot to keep me connected, so it's a perfect book-to-movie viewing in the making. Plus, Kiera Knightly and James McAvoy are both lovely actors, so I'm sure the movie is sensational. I'll have to get downtown to the new theater here in Knoxville and see it soon!

The Holly-days

It's the Christmas season, which means I hear all manner of not-so-witty holiday jokes: "Happy Holly-days," "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas," and "Tis the season to be HOLLY." HAHAHA...I've heard them all. Believe me you clever beast, I'VE HEARD THAT ONE BEFORE. Anyways, tonight is our annual Wilbur Smith holiday dinner. I'm looking forward to it, basically because I like most of the people I work with. And, because I'm friends with several of the people that I also happen to work with, and it'll be a great excuse for us to all socialize at the same time, in the same place. I just hope my dress works out ok. It's a wrap dress, and as of right now, I can't quite figure out if it wraps and ties in the front, or if it wraps and ties in the back. I guess we shall see...Falalalala-lalalala.

"A good book and a warm bath..."

Everyone who knows me well knows that I'm really big on bubble baths, and reading. Reading AND a bubble bath is simply divine. I did 85% of my reading for my Master's degree in the bathtub. I could sit there amongst the bubbles for hours, just lost in a story. Lately, I've been reading a wonderful book called Anybody Out There? by the Irish author Marian Keyes. It deals with a subject that is one of my most paramount fears, but her treatment of the story and her characters is phenomenal and touching...not scary at all. The synopsis on the back cover of the book says:

Bestselling author Marian Keyes has delighted readers with the lives, loves, and foibles of the irrepressible Walsh sisters and their eccentric mammy. In this, Life in the Big Apple is perfect for Anna. She has the best job in the world, a lovely apartment, and great friends. Then one morning, she wakes up in her mammy's house in Dublin with stitches in her face, a dislocated knee, hands smashed up, and no memory at all of what happened. As soon as she's able, Anna's flying back to Manhattan, mystified but determined to find out how her life turned upside down. As her past slowly begins coming back to her, she sets out on an outrageous quest—involving lilies, psychics, mediums, and anyone who can point her in the right direction. Marrying life's darker bits with wild humor and tender wit, Anybody Out There? is a strange and wonderfully charming look at love here and ever after.

I'm really enjoying this novel and I was pleased to find out it is one of a series about the Walsh sisters (Claire, Rachel, Maggie, Helen, and Anna) and I can't wait to read more of them when I'm finished with this one!

Boot Camp

This is a picture of my new trainer, Melissa Roberts, at Runaway Farms in Kingston, TN. I have been searching for someone to help me get Reece ("Icy Reception") started for a while now. My main consideration was the training style and experience of the trainer, cost (obviously), and location. I had spoken to a couple of big name international event riders, both of whom are impressive rider/trainers who were kind to even offer to take on my horse, but one is in Southern Pines, NC, and the other is in Lexington, KY. And...both were out of my price range. Besides the cost, the location isn't terrible, but I would like to be involved in some of the training rides and take some lessons myself (and I don't want to be separated from Reece for an entire month!). It was important for me to find someone close enough that I wouldn't just be dropping him off, then picking him up again, having been completely removed from the situation.

So, my sister suggested I contact a local East Tennessee rider who has ridden hunter/jumpers, competed in 3-day eventing, and does primarily dressage now (focusing on retraining "problem horses" through flatwork, and starting off babies/greenies). She is eager to help me with Reece, although she insists she's not sure how much more she would be able to start him with the jumping than I might be, but I'm more concerned with his dressage just to get him going for me. I just can't put in the time that he needs for a good start. She is also going to take Eddie for the month of February and do a dressage "boot camp" with him for 4 weeks before I start my event season at the end of March. If Eddie would take dressage as seriously as he does cross-country, then we might have a bloody chance at actually winning something one day! Anyway, I'm really thrilled to have found this trainer to help me out. Reece is going to her on December 29, and Eddie on February 2. Hopefully, by next March, I will have two "new" horses, ready to get going and get out there. We'll see!

Chicas to the front!!!

The reunion of all reunions. Go girls!!!

Come in...and pull yourself up a chair (like Chairy!)

I'm kind of excited about this. It says it's "In Production" but doesn't look as though it's expected to be released until 2009. Let's hope Paul Reubens can keep his pants zipped and stay out of the slammer until its all said and done!!!

Be Alive

One of my very good friends and I have planned to take a cruise (with several other people and anyone else who decides to join in between now and next fall) to Belize, Nassau, Cozemel, and several other Caribbean locations in November of 2008. I love to travel and to visit new places, but I seem to devote all my time and energy to my travel for eventing competitions...and never really any travel just for fun. So, when a friend says: "Let's go on a cruise somewhere really cool next year and get a bunch of people together and just have fun," then I say: "Count me in." I have no time to do that, and no money either, but like my friend Robby says, "Life is not a dress rehearsal."