Photos from Rolex

Bella's New Show Halter

End of Week One Back From Vacation

Well, the work week is almost over (5:00 p.m. tonight), and I'm surprised it went by so fast. I did leave the office early on Monday afternoon because I could not keep my eyes open because I got home so late.

Today I have my annual review. Something everybody loves to go through. A co-worker sent me an article about annual reviews, which, in essence, said these reviews are worthless, and only stress out all individuals concerned. I concur. With all the cut-backs this firm is having, it will be a minor miracle if we get any increase at all - if we do - 2% - maybe?

Dave is going to a 20-year Hubble Space Telescope reunion today at Goddard. Since he will be late, Sara is picking me up at the Dorsey Station tonight. Here's crossing fingers and toes that the blankety-blank train is on time tonight. It's a Friday, of course, there will be something to go wrong.

Sara runs in a mud run tomorrow in Gaithersburg, so we are going to go and cheer her on. Afterwards, Dave is attending an event with MetLife as the official photographer. So, we can't dawdle too long at the run.

Sunday I have a riding lesson, then off to the Sheep & Wool Festival. I'm taking several knitting patterns with me so I can see if I can find the wool to make said patterns. Of course, there will be plenty of wool, it's just that I have to the THE wool that calls out to me. Oh, I have to take my almost-finished sweater so I can get THE buttons for it. It's never ending, you know.

I have so many knitting/sewing projects, the list would be several pages long. However, I have made a commitment to finish the second mitten of the latest pair, block them and another pair of mittens, and block a sweater.

The temp today is going to be warm, so I'm thinking about going outside and run. The only problem is my leg still isn't right. Not sure if I should go to the doctor about it. I hate going to the doctor no matter what the problem. I finally went to the dentist, and that was a wrong decision, because now I have to have a tooth pulled on Monday. See? Don't go to the doctor/dentist; they only tell you bad news.

There is a small market outside Union Station now, and I stopped by the bakery stall and bought some raisin/walnut bread. It's ssoOOoooo good. I'm going to have to lock it up so I dont eat the entire loaf today! And it was only $3.00 - I think that's a great price. Other places would charge $5 or more for a large loaf of bread like that.

Ever Onward.

Brief Re-Cap of Rolex Trip

Wednesday a.m. finished all my packing, and I did amazingly well and did not over-pack (for a change). I even had room to expand my suitcase for my purchases at Rolex. Yay. We met Aileen at the airport, flew to Louisville, KY, got the rental car and we were off! Lexington, here we come.

As we usually do, we went to the grocery store to get food/drinks for lunches and one dinner. We did quite well in our choices for foods. Sara even came up with the idea to make a parfait for our lunches. We used Greek yogurt, strawberries and/or bananas, honey and granola. It was delish! We took sandwiches made with whole grain bread, drank a lot of water during the day. We did have our splurges, but all in all, we did well in the food department. Aileen make a nice chili and I made corn bread (out of a box), which reminds me, the Cop in a Box is no longer at Liquor Barn in Lexington. He was transferred to Louisville to a new Liquor Barn store. The employees told me that they don't expect to get him back, either. What a disappointment, and speaking of disappointments, Breakfast Boy stood me up for the Rolex week. Man! This entire affair is over now! No second chances for him.

OK. So, I digressed!

Thursday and Friday we got the rain that we expected, but fortunately, was not a torrential downpour and we did have covered grandstand seats for the dressage and the stadium jumping. But first, shopping......

We all hightailed it to the "Clever with Leather" tent, and I bought a halter(with pink, soft leater lined inside for total comfort for Bella with "The Diva" engraved on a nameplate and a belt for me with "Diva's Servant" engraved. We must know our place in life, right? Sara bought Satchmo a halter with "Kill 'Er Tomato" on it with orange, soft leather lined inside for him. These horses are so spoiled.

Aileen bought Bella a new turn-out halter - bright pink and a lead line - purple/pink for her. Bella's old halter is so cruddy looking, that it just can't be cleaned. Bella made out like a bandit with two halters and two leadlines!

My other have-to-have purchase was body lotion that I had bought last year. I stocked up on it this weekend, and in our usual manner, gave the sales person a run for his money. I don't think he will ever be the same! When he said to me, "When we get old, we all start to wrinkle....", I told him I was offended and didn't want the original purchase of the lotion that I had just bought. Poor guy had to suffer through the three of us..... He did survive and he did earn that commission!

We watched a good bit of dressage on Thursday and Friday. One poor woman's horse was not in the mood to do his dressage test. He was spooky when he came out, spooked at the camera, spent most of his time going sideways than straight, never got rounded, had his head up on the air the entire time. The rider did not excuse herself, but ploughed through the test. Her error score was 91! Poor thing. She did make it through cross country, but retired herself early Sunday morning from the stadium jumping. Just not her year this year or her horse's.

After getting my feet soaked on Friday in the rain, I bought some galoshes so that I could walkd around Saturday and not get wet feet, again. Aileen also bought a pair, but Sara had a pair of waterproof boots that she brought with her. So, Saturday morning we all dress up for wet weather, wet ground, and no sun. Even driving to the horse park we were sure the weather was going to nasty. Of course, after we got out of the car and started walking towards the cross country course, the rain stopped and the sun came shining through! It was nice to have sun, but I had to unlayer myself from the sweaters, sweatshirt and rain coat I was wearing. (Good thing is, I did dress in layers!)

The three of us got along well. It's very scary how we were all on the same wave length the duration of the trip. Food was not an issue, what to do at the horse park - no issue, when to leave - no issue; what to eat for dinner - no issue.

The only issue we had was with SouthWest Airlines and the weather in Baltimore. The rain we did't get decided to move northward and hit Baltimore area just as we were going home. We started in Louisville (late), flew part way to Baltimore, (mostly in circles), got diverted to Norfolk to re-fuel and sat and sat and sat and listened to the baby scream its lungs out that was behind us. We finally left Norfolk at 11:30 p.m., got into Baltimore at 12:30 a.m., got our bags, Dave picked us up, and now I'm at work feeling like a zombie.

Of course, MARC train, in all its gloriousness, was late this morning, too. I took the late train so that I could get another hour's sleep. Sheesh! Trains and Planes - don't want to discuss them any more.

I will leave at 3:30 p.m. today and catch the 4:13. All I can say is it better not be late! I'm tired of public transportation that doesn't go anywhere.

Pictures to come.

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N! IN THE SPRING TIME

I'm outta here in 30 minutes, then off to Kentucky for the big Rolex Three-Day Horse Event.

See you when I get back, maybe.

Eventing at Legacy Stables - SUCCESS!

Crap! I just deleted everything I typed.

So, here goes again. Legacy Stables Eventing show was yesterday, and of course, the weather couldn't cooperate and be as nice as it was on Saturday. Why? Because it's show day, so that means weather has to be really crappy. The temperature wasn't so bad, it was the wind that really went right through us. Anyway, we loaded up the horses, put the last-minute things in the trailer, and off we went.

Sara and I were in different divisions, so when we went to walk our courses, we parted the way after the first jump. My course was just a big loop and most of the jumps were logs. There was one vertical with leis around it, and some railroad ties stacked up. I'm thinking, This is easy. Just point Bella in the right direction and I'm good to go.

Sara's course was much longer and she said that some of the jumps were questionable as to whether Satchmo would freak out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Our dressage tests were different, as well. Sara's score was one of the best dressage scores she's ever had. My dressage score was as good as the score from two weeks ago, so it seems as if everything is falling into place for me.

Our statdium jumping course was the same, except my jumps were 18" and Sara's were 2 feet. I did a nice quick trot around the ring, and Bella was a good girl. Pointing her in the right direction and keeping her straight was my job. Oh, yeah, lots of leg right before the jump.

We both jumped clean on our stadium jumps. Onward to cross country courses, and we had to wait and wait and wait and wait. Apparently, the jump judges had to move from one course to another, but it seemed to me there could have been a better way. Every other portion of the show was ahead of schedule, but then we had to sit and wait until it was the official time for the cross country courses to begin. That meant I had over an hour wait to go. Sara had about 45 minutes to wait. Maybe they didn't have enough volunteers, but this last part was poorly administered.

Sara took off and did her course; we saw her go down the hill, around the corner, then she was not visible; we then saw her come up the hill, over a few fences, then she disappeared again. We waited and waited, and finally saw her coming back to the start gate with Satchmo in his cooler. By the way she was walking, Cathy and I decided she didn't have any refusals or got eliminated. She went through clean! She was very happy.

Finally, at 3:00 I was able to do my little 18" course. Bella was so excited. We did the loop, we went clean, too. After I untacked Bella, we got both horses back onto the trailer so we could see what we had done with our dressage tests.

When doing an event, the dressage scores reflect error scores; I had a 36.5, which comes out ot a 63.5% score. My one and only competitor's score was 44, which relates to a 55%. Whoppee! That means I got first place for all three parts of the event! A Blue Ribbon - My first in Eventing.

I don't know exactly what Sara's error score was, but I think she had a 63% score on her dressage test - A PERSONAL BEST FOR HER! She tied for second place, and Satchmo was very proud of himself.

Sara's personal best in eventing with Satchmo - a red ribbon.

My personal best in eventing with Bella - a blue ribbon.

The pride we had for ourselves - priceless!

Finally Friday - 5 Days to Rolex

So, yesterday I went to the gym in the a.m. and did abou 20-25 minutes of lower body strength training; at lunch I went back down and because I wasn't too sure of my leg, I did 40 minutes on the elliptical at a low resistance. Amazing how fast one can go with little to no resistance. Today I am officially giving myself a day off. Don't want to get burned out, so a rest day is good. Tomorrow I'll probably take Romeo out for a long morning walk. It will be good for both of us and I'll get it over sooner rather than later.

Time to start making my packing list for Rolex. But, I have to go to the store and get some shorts. The ones I have kind of fit, but if I eat anything, I will be so uncomfortable in them. I prefer looser fit if I'm walking around all day at Rolex.

Tomorrow is riding lesson at 4:30 and cleaning up Bella a bit and packing up the trailer as much as I can - chairs remember chairs.

Ride times are posted: Sara: Dressage 11:58; Stadium Jumping 1:35; Cross Country Jumping 2:35. Me: Dressage 12:19; Stadium Jumping 2:00; Cross Country Jumping 3:00. There is a gap in between, but Sara goes, I go, Sara goes, I go, Sara goes, I go. Then, we are done and have to wait around for scores. Maybe ribbons????

Went out to lunch with Betty to Bravo!Bravo! Had my usual veg omelet. It is really good and somewhat good for me. Went to Dress Barn afterwards and was able to get 3 pairs of shorts and 2 blouses for my Rolex trip. This was a nice alternative to exercise today. I felt really good about my day off. Now, I don't have to worry about going to the mall tomorrow for shorts. I can spend more time working on my packing list and packing. I can, at least, pack my new shorts and shirts tomorrow. Thinking I will take one checked bag and one carry-on, which will probably be a backpack that I can carry around with me at Rolex.

Exercise Galore!

This morning I went to the gym before work. Did 5 minute warm-up on ellipitcal, then I did inside and outside thighs with ankle weights and with machine, windmills with ankle weights, some crunches with weights on tummy. Now that it's 12:30, it's time for me to go back down and do cardio. My plan is to do wight work 2 mornings a week, then cardio at lunch time. The other 3 days will be either full cardio or a combo of cardio/weights. Must do something to get this old metabolism working.

Closing date for the Legacy Stables show is today; hoping to get ride times by Thursday or earlier. Not sure why I torture myself. I did the dressage show a few weeks ago there, and didn't have any nervous problems. Already, I'm getting myself all pent up for the upcoming show. I'm always afraid I'll do poorly, then I do. Have to change that mode of thinking, that's for sure.

Not much else. Just trying to stay on track with eating, drinking water. And filing....

Brookside Gardens, etc.

Saturday Dave and I went to Brookside Gardens to take photos of - you guessed it - flowers! I saw a large bee making the rounds of flowers called "violas" - bright yellow with black lines in the center. Anyway, I was obsessed with the bee and tried to follow him around; it wasn't easy, but I did manage to get a few shots of him. See......

The proverbial To Bee or Not to Bee; it is not a question.

More flower pictures of the day:

Blood Banana

Sunday Sara and I went cross country schooling in preparation for our show next week. Bella is in season and just loves Satchmo. Satchmo has no interest in Bella, but she keeps trying. We got the the cross country course, and it was all I could do to make Bella move. All she wanted to do was follow her man around the course. Good thing he won't be around she we're in the ring and in the field doing our courses. She was sooOOooo bad!

Dave and I found our Scotland pics and finished putting together our book from our trip in 2007. Fortunately, the company was having a sale, and we bought the book for only $28. What a steal. We have about 80 pictures in the album; can't wait to see it!

Back to work today, and now that I've gotten the important things done, it's time to do some work-related things. Chinese visa applications to the Chinese embassy, put some guests who are coming on Friday into the Workspeed, so the security people know they are coming, and the never-ending filing.....the bane of my existance.

Weekend Fun

Looks as if we may go to Brookside Gardens to take some photos this morning. It's chilly out now, so a jacket is in order. Fortunately, it is sunny out. Will make a report later of our adventure!

Had to rip out the new sweater I started - again. This much be rip-out month for me. I'm still staring at my "chunky" sweater debating when to pick it up again and finish the button bands. I'm almost done, but this "easy" sweater has given me more trouble. Every time the instructions say to increase stitches, it takes me three rows to do so. When I did the button band and put in all the increases, it looked like a ruffle, not a button band. I'm thinking I will increase what I think looks ok. Anyway, Yarn Harlot says it's ok to increase to what you think is appropriate for something like this. I've done it on other sweaters, why am I obsessing over this one? Don't answer that.

More later.

Still No Praise for the MARC Train

Last night Dave was coming home from Philly, but I still wanted to get on the early train so I could get to BWI Amtrak station and then go home and take Romeo out. What was I thinking? The train started out on its usual run, got past Riverdale, College Park, and Greenbelt. Just outside Muirkirk here comes the dreaded announcement, We are following a freight train and have to go slowly, if not stop at some point. WHAT? Are these people insane?

So, onward we go chugging along until we get to Savage. After that we pick up speed and I get to Dorsey when? 6:30 p.m. when the LATER train is supposed to get there! Unbelievable. I'm tired of taking the early train and getting to my destination at or later than the later-scheduled train is supposed to get there. I'm ready to retire.

If only Baltimore salaries were comparable to DC's. Alas.....not going to happen.

Went to the gym this a.m. since I went out to lunch with a friend. I decided I wanted to do the exercise that would burn the most calories, and that was running. Started out with a 2-3 minute walk, ran at a 10:40 mile, kept bumping it up until I was at a 10:10 mile and then to a 10:00 mile. I did have to walk a little bit in between, but then I bumped the speed up to a 10-minute mile speed for the duration. It was hard, granted, but I need to push myself in order to burn more calories. Hitting the 60 mark has not been kind to me. It takes longer to burn few calories, so my plan is to run faster, use heavier weights and make the most of what I'm doing. It's the only way. Otherwise, it will be downhill fast.

Work has been a big run around and put out fires all day. I'm exhausted, and I'm not sure what I've actually accomplished except annoying myself.

Tomorrow Dave and I may venture in DC for the Japanese Celebration that is happening. I think the Cherry Blossom 10-mile race is tomorrow, too. Could be too many people to even try. That's the problem with going to events that the entire world comes too. Having to fight the crowds which makes the trip less than enjoyable.

No Praise for MARC Train

So, yesterday I decided to leave early to catch an earlier (ha!) train to get home and take Romeo outside for a walk. Dave is out of town, so I wanted to get home so the poor puppy wouldn't burst! Here's the story: I leave the office, get to Union Station, the 5:16 train track is not posted; finally posted, but when we get to the train, the doors are all shut, we see no lights on in the cars. The conductors finally open the doors, still no lights. We sit and sit and sit and when the announcement is made (whatever it was), the car I'm in has no loudspeaker capability! Well, that's very smart. So, we sit some more. Finally, I see people leaving the train, but as MARC protocol usually is, the later trains (even if the earlier one is not going anywhere) do not leave until the earlier train does. Duh!!! Makes sense to me. Not.

While sitting on the 5:16, I called Sara and asked her to take Romeo out for a piddle since he's been by himself since 5:00 a.m. Hence, the reason I wanted to leave early!!!

Finally, I got off the train and asked the conduct what was going on. He told me that the Express Train at 5:51 will be leaving on time on Track 15. I'm on Track 7 - far north end. (Those of you who do ride MARC know that far north end means "South Riverdale"). I make the trek practially back into the station, walk fast (no running allowed on the platforms) to the 5:51, which is getting more crowded by the minute. The only saving grace is the 5:51 is an express and the people who get off at Riverdale, College Park and Greenbelt can't take that train.

I get on the train, and lo and behold, car 7793, which has been stiflingly hot for the past month has cool air running! I'm so surprised! I guess they finally listened to other people's emails, too. I told many people to send emails to MARC so they get the message that something is wrong. I must send a strongly worded email to MARC today about yesterday's fisaco, but I digress.

More and more people get on; the train is packed out, but we do leave somewhat on time. As we are chugging along, we get an announcement (the loudspeakers actually work on this car) that there is a switch problem at Riverdale, so we slow down to a crawl and to a stop,the conductor gets off, has to switch manually, then after we pass, switch it back or something equally ridiculous!

We crawl and crawl and crawl some more. As we pass the people at College Park, they look incredulous as we just pass them by. I'm sure that they have no idea what is happening because there is no way to find out unless you happen to have a Blackberry. Which I don't. Finally, after Greenbelt the train picks up speed; we make all the stops, which take much longer because of the large amount of people packed onto the train.

The train pulls into Dorsey at 7:00 p.m. I started my trip home at 4:45 p.m. and I still haven't made it home! I get home, take poor Romeo for a much-needed walk and make dinner for us both. Fortunaly, there was some leftover Chinese chicken and rice from the night before. I did make some eggplant and asparagus and had some sherbet for dessert. By now, it's after 8:00.

That's my wonderful trip home, once again, on the MARC Rail System.

Since I was still suffering from this cold/pollen thing, I fell asleep just as AI came on. Good thing I recorded it! Woke up at 9:30 p.m., went to the bedroom to fix my clothes and took another Benedryl. Right now, I feel ok, but I know I still have the effects of the Benedryl in my system. Once it wears off, we'll see.

Exercise: I did get on the elliptical yesterday for 30 minutes at a very light level. Better than nothing, and I hope it helped move this cold thing out of my system.

If I feel ok, I will go outside and do some running/walking before it starts to rain. Tomorrow I will have to go to the gym before work since I'm going out to lunch with a friend of mine.

Riding: Must send in my application for Legacy Stables HT on the 18th. However, we are going XC Schooling on Sunday at Loch Moy. Have printed out two sets of the documents they want, plus coggins for the horses. This training is getting expensive. Looking at it realistically, though, no training, no improvement. It's only money, right?

Knitting: For some reason these past few days, every knitting project I've touched has turned to crap. I was working on my bulky sweater, was increasing for the button band, it looked like a ruffle instead; tore it out. Started working on a really cute blue/white sweater with "dancing ladies" on it; the pattern is all screwy - will rip that out. So, OK, started working on another pair of mittens (white with the very brightly hand painted sock yarn); had to rip that out; so decided that I should make the same design that I already made (since I kind of know what I'm doing there). Success! I'm on the ribbing and so far, it's looking nice. Whew! About time, already.

Pollen is our Enemy.

Let's see.......Weekend summary.....

Saturday Dave and I met Sara and her friends to watch them rock climb. We met them in Ellicott City, then walked a short way to an area for climbing. Unfortunately, the rock face was too big for their ropes, so after deliberations, they decided to go somewhere else. Dave and I opted to go to the grocery store to stock up and get food for Easter dinner. What a thrill that was. The rest of the day was quiet.

Sunday Dave came with Sara and me to go cross country schooling at a new place. It is fairly new; the wood still has that "new" wood smell to it. The field was huge, the jumps were good (although not enough smaller jumps for beginners like me). Sara and Satchmo had a great time; Bella spent her time looking around and seeing if there was any grass she could eat. What else is new?

Sara made the announcement that since Satchmo was such a good boy, she had no excuse not to do the Legacy show on April 18. I have been looking for a place to go schooling this weekend, but it isn't looking too well. Many of the places are having shows or clinics or are too far away since Cathy has to be somewhere after our lesson. Thinking it might not work; will have a lesson at her place.





If you want to see determination, look at this picture. Never give up! Never surrender! Ok, it's not the best picture, but I certainly was not giving up.

After the schooling we went home, Sara came over later and cooked her meals - dumplings and BBQ chicken. She bribed Dave with dumplings as payment to use the grill. It worked! Promise Dave food and you are ok.

I had a half a leg of lamb, which turned out to be the best buy since it was only the three of us at dinner. We had lamb, scalloped potatoes, salad, asparagus, and apple pie for dessert. Not too much food, although I did have my share of the dumplings!

Went t the oral surgeon yesterday, and unfortunately, I have a tooth that has to come out. Bummer. Can't think about it now because I have things to do until the end of April. It will have to wait until May before I can make an appointment.

I am feeling really lousy; must be the pollen or I have a bad cold. I've never been affected like this with the pollen before. Stayed home yesterday since I had to go to the dentist, but decided to stay home, again, today to see how it goes. For someone who hardly takes time off, I think I'm due a day or two off. As a result, no exercising because just walking from the living room to the kitchen is enough to wear me out! Climbing up the stairs to the loft is like running a marathon these day!

Ha! More Yarn Delivered

Last night when Dave picked me up, he told me I had a box delivered and muttered something like, It's probably more of that damned wool! And, he was right. Beautiful bisque and navy blue to make a sweater with "dancing ladies" around the bottom of the sweater. My list of projects includes: mittens with a white/brilliant colored sock yarn; mittens with alpaca butter/light grey; and this new one, dancing ladies on a sweater. I am almost finished with a sweater from "Fitted Knits". When I looked for the yarn, I found out it was waay to expensive for me, but I did find some cheaper bulky yarn, which isn't perfect for the size 15 needles I'm using for the body of the sweater, but I am making it a size larger so everything, so far, is working out perfectly. I am on the second sleeve ribbing and after that I have button bands (left and right) and a ribbed collar to add to the top of the neckline.

I decided to test out my knee and went outside to run. The day was gorgeous, but dodging all the people visiting DC to see the cherry blossoms was not so gorgeous. I got into my pace, trying not to knock down all the tourists who decided at a moment's notice, it's time for a photo op! Not when I'm running, please. Just get out of my way! Thank you.

Ran to the Lincoln Memorial, around the top circle, back up 17th Street and right into Subway to get a Veggie Delight - 6" with honey oat bread. It was very good or I was really hungry because I wolfed that baby down.

I'm sorry to say today is only Thursday and I have to go back to work tomorrow. Rats!

Sara and I are going cross country schooling and Dave is coming to take photos. I would like to see what I look like when I do jump - position, etc. Of course, the jumping is on a horse; I'm not out there running around like a lunatic jumping over fences! ha ha ha ha.... I slay myself.