Maybe there is a light at the end of the tunnel

   By the time I left for work before 8 this morning, there had been a couple hours of weedeating, and tree trimming at my house.  It is a beautiful thing.  This friend of mine is not available all the time, but what he did in a couple of hours was amazing.  At lunch, I met with someone else who is also going to do some work around here so it will catch up.  He starts tomorrow if it is not raining, and I cannot wait to see the results of a full day of work out there.

   Its amazing how just turning down the driveway and seeing how much work there is to do was putting a damper on my attitude.  Half the time I just wanted to get it bed and pretend it was not so out of control.  And yes, I could stay home more and do more, but that is equally depressing.  Maybe I have found a solution!

Work hard play hard

I worked my tail off last week--the whole week was spent running from one hearing or appointment or another.  I am not complaining, I love it that way because it puts me on the spot to learn something right that minute.  We also got some clients that have very unique fact patterns so that is very exciting.

I also spoke as the keynote speaker at a local graduation ceremony.  Ponder on that for a while.  That is quite a choice that school made wasnt it?

When you work that hard, you have to play hard too, just to keep the balance.  Fortunately there are not photos of every stage of this play part.  Thursday night, I went to see Tracy, Les, Jill and Hank, who I have not spent any time with in a year,  There is no excuse for that as I love every minute of it.  Chris and I intended to hang with our friend Bullard but he got caught up in something and bailed on us.  That left us to just hang out and shoot the shit for a few hours until it was time to go to Open Mic night that Crystal was hosting.  A good time and something different for us.

Friday I worked until time to go to the surgeon.  Got back and caught up on my manicure and pedicure needs, then joined Chris and his friends for dinner and a night out. We entertained until late. It was a good time actually. In a strange turn of events, I did not sleep til noon on Saturday, even though we stayed up late talking and acting silly.

Saturday morning, I did some work and we left for the REO concert around 2.

 This is Vanessa, Stacey, me and Christy

Adam and Christy, demonstrating her assets.

Teri is babysitting everyone else's assets---she seems confused as to why

  This was one of Crystal's first real concerts, and her first at this venue.  She had fun, I think

We all stayed at the same hotel and laughed late in the night about how funny the whole night had been. One of those "you had to be there" to really appreciate it, but it was fun. The girls headed back to town Sunday morning, and I went back to sleep.  Chris came to get me at the hotel at noon (how is that a sign of things turned on their head---he didnt TAKE me to a hotel, he GOT me from one) and we headed to the Cardinals game.  That is number 3 of the season so far and we are just a little over a month into the baseball season.

We had pretty good seats, compliments of my friends who are season ticket holders but were out of the country, And as usual, we saw half the town there. And we even won, which always makes it even better.

Finally got home--after bypassing shopping despite multiple offers to take me shopping if I wanted to go, and I got a jump on some house work--mowing, laundry, list making, etc.  There is just too much to do around here, and it is overwhelming. I am lining up people to help me with some projects, and hopefully they turn out to be good reliable solid people.

Ready to start this new week---bring it on.

I am a regular Annie Oakley

  This is one of my targets from the first day I learned how to shoot things, last Saturday.  Not bad for a rookie, huh?

Last colt of the year---6 for 6

   Squeak surprised us with an early Slybaby---as if I have to explain who he is when he looks like that.  This is the sixth boy of the year--I guess all those years of extra fillies have caught up to me.

So far he is shy, and still shocked to have been born but is enjoying his time out in the sun and grass.

Any thoughts on names? Only the first colt has a name--we have gotten lazy since then

This is gonna backfire

Why am I home on a Friday night you ask? Because I am trying to be responsible and we have had a rowdy ass week.

But really it is because Rita and I are going to self-defense class at 8 am....and in the afternoon, we spend four hours learning how to shoot!  I cannot wait.  Man after man has offered to teach me, but as with most men's offers, they never followed up and I have not learned.

This class is taught through the local community college and is taught by a good friend who is a cop.  I am already getting razzed about how bad I will be at this, but to make up for it, he is going to give a bunch of us private lessons after the class so we can get good at it.

So cross your fingers that it does not go as bad wrong as yesterday did--

P.S.   the kittens were disposed of in the dumpster and then the trash man did not come this morning.  I guess that is what I get for not giving them a proper burial.

PPS.  my lawnmower is FIXED!  Thanks Kyle!

Some days I should stay in bed

I do not know how but somehow I slept through three alarms and woke up at 9 am yesterday.  Thank goodness this was a rare day with only one 9:30 court appearance and it was not mine anyway.  I still wanted to go.  :(

Boss got some bad news at lunch.  I feel sad for him. And there is not a thing I can do to fix it.

The best part of the day was lunch with Jane.

The afternoon was not one of those where I was feeling very effective, which is a disgusting feeling.

I was all excited to get home to mow the yard, but as soon as I left work, it started raining. Since that means I cannot mow, I went to the farm to feed and found a poor dead kitty in the drive. 

Fretting about that left me time to feel guilty about not being at the gym (which I am not allowed to do til my boobs heal some), so I decided to mow at the house anyway as it was not raining hard.  First, I had to get the truck and trailer to fetch mower from farm. But the damn truck would not start.  I am scared of jumper cables, but I figured it was a sign from God that I could even find them, so I did it anyway.  Getting the truck started was truly one of the only successes of my day.

I went to the farm, started mower to load it and it runs out of gas. Fill it with gas and find another dead kitten in front yard. Pretty sure it was not there when I pulled in.  Very strange.

Then I Fell out of the truck by tripping on my own flip flops. Got up, and find belt is off mower, so it won't mow anyway. I put the loading ramps on trailer to bring it home to put the belt on in the garage, drove the mower up the ramps and promptly fell off.  There I was hanging off the damn mower, thinking this was an unfortunate way to die. And you know the neighbors were watching this mess.  

I  Crawled off the catty wampus mower, got the tractor and used the loader and chains to lift the mower off the ramps and put in yard. And by God, that is where it is to this minute.  Oh yeah, a Board broke in floor of trailer. 

I decided that since I was not going to be mowing and the tractor is out with the bushhog on it (thanks Marion!) , I should bushhog the  front pasture. Of course there are wet spots which caused me to blow mud all over myself like a cartoon. 

By then, I was losing daylight so I Finished and put up the tractor. I found the  third dead kitten between the barns and I swear it was not there when I got tractor out a few minutes ago. I parked the tractor, got down from there  and found a  fourth dead kitten sticking out from under a tarp. I Decided that I must have been in a secret horror movie and should go home. On the way out, I saw momma kitty and one live one.  Mind you I had never seen these kitties before, even though I knew they had been born....she had hidden them.  I picked up the baby and checked him out and he seemed fine--just pissed, so he scratched me  I warned them to run for their lives. 

The weird thing about these kitties is that every time I turned around, there was another one!  And on top of that, they were not clearly injured, And they were laying on their little backs, all spread eagle.  And despite what seemed like their surprise appearances--they did not just die.  

Now explain this to me?  This better not be an indicator of how my weekend is going to go or someone is going to get hurt!

Hysterical look at a serious subject

Hyperbole and a Half


Do any of you read her?  She is an absolute riot, but suffers from depression.  She has not blogged in a long time, but just released this one.  It is oh so true, in so many ways.  So many people suffer from depression, and if you have never dealt with it, consider yourself lucky.

Anyway, read this.  Its good for you

Then read some of her older stuff, not about depression and you will laugh til you cry.

Cash's 2013 colt

   Born last Friday morning--yet another boy.  This one is by Nitas Wood and these photos were taken last night during his first turnout.  I really like this one--he is built just right and moves so pretty.  I bet he does not last long before someone snaps him up

Goofiness--and a Paigeaster

I do not know why but this picture just cracks me up.  We had a busy busy busy weekend, including more than one birthday party, some lawyer stuff  and out to the country to see the Brat Pack with a bunch of friends.  It was great, but definitely took a toll on us.

I spent most of Sunday laying around, until I hurt myself. In an eating accident of all things--I burned by boobs right up with a hot pot and ended up back at Barnes today to see Dr Brandt.  He called it a good solid second degree burn and now I have weeks of recovery and have to cross my fingers that I did not mess up all this work with new scars on them. Meanwhile, it hurts really bad and I had to go back to the Percocets this evening.  That did not help us win at trivia in any way, so we had to give up our reigning champion title.  We will get it back next month though--I have faith!