Girls Graduate

Laci and Barkley graduated from obedience school! But then, again, Petsmart lets everyone graduate!

Nevertheless, their mommy and daddy were very proud of how the girls performed.

When East meets West

Last night, I got to hang with my little cousin Spencer.  This was a first encounter for both of us.  Although, under some usual circumstances I believe we are in love.  He's quite the cutie.  He may have spent most of our visit bashful hiding behind Scott, but I think he had a good time, too.  Connie brought him a lion from MGM.  Which he has named "FarquAAAR".  This could change as names do.  Spencer seemed please with the lion and I'm sure it will fit in nicely with his other jungle-themed pals like MONKEY.   Unfortunately I took no pictures, so you'll just have to imagine the scene with help from my day after doodle.  I wish Spencer and his family a speedy recovery and safe journey back to NYC.

Rodney's New Toy

Since everyone is showing off their new toys, WII Fit, Philly home, horse and foal, I thought I would show you my new used tractor.  It is a New Holland T33D.  All I know is that it is much smaller than my old tractor.  It has 33 horsepower, three cylinder diesel engine with 4 wheel drive.  I did cut down a fairly large tree tonight and used it to pull the tree to the woods.  It seemed to get the job done.

Officially a homeowner

As of 5:00 p.m. on June 23rd I became a permanent Philadelphia resident because I now pay property tax. My closing finally went through. I still have mixedfeelings about it. There was so much paper flying around and so many numbers going around that I still haven't quite figured out what happened. A lot of emotions involved as well, which I think I had done a pretty good job of staying calm about other than the frustrations of renting the apartment. I do know that I got a pretty sweet deal and a pretty sweet house. I had a good team of people helping me out that offered a lot of encouragement, council, advice, support and help and want to thank them all very much for making it happen.
Come to Philly! Now there's more to see than just the Liberty Bell (though most people never really go see that anyways) Oh yeah....anyone know how to fix a refrigerator?

Gay Rodeo

We went to the gay rodeo on Saturday.  It was really really hot.  The weather that is.  We got to see a bunch gay pants a goat and many just fall on their ass.  Connie has been wooed by the gay Polo team!  She may head out to the polo fields to check out a practice or two.   She says she's in it for the fashion, but watch a year from now Derby will be of the past and she'll be in the Advocate again- this time representing girls in polo.

Wii Fit

Nothing makes you feel better about yourself than a machine that tells you that you probably trip a lot. Meet the Wii Fit. Luckily it hasn't called me fat just uncoordinated. I woke up at 7:30 am this morning after stalking our local target online and stood in line to get my hands on one. Connie is so competitive that she stripped just to try to get a better Wii Age than me. A Wii age is the combination of your BMI (weight/height) and balance. Since we both struck out at the balance part we arrived at around they same age. 45!!! I guess I have some practicing (training) to do. The balance part is pretty hard- but I find the yoga super interesting because you can really see how one side of your body is more balanced that the other. It makes you really concentrate on your core. Connie isn't here to take a pic of me on the stupid thing so here's a pic of this girl looking pretty silly.

7 Things I've Learned This Month

Though nothing is set in stone yet. It looks like my grants will go through and I will close sometime next week. The more exciting part is that today I found a tenant for my apartment. After almost 2 full months of showing it to complete strangers everyday a sophomore Uarts student and her dad came and saw the apartment and put a deposit down for her and a roommate.

The beginning of the story starts off with postings on Craigslist and tours starting as early as May 6th. Let me just mention that this apartment is awesome. The location is amazing and the rent is very very reasonable for the location, size and amenities. I am really going to miss it. But for some reason no one wanted to take it, even when I opened the move in date to be anywhere from July1 - August 1.

There was this crazy girl who put down a deposit and was going to sublet to a roommate she was going to find on Craigslist to try to make money off them. I allowed her to come into my apartment 4-5 times to show potential roommates and even offered water and food. In the end she backed out because she decided she wanted a dog. The landlord wouldn't give her the deposit back until I found a new tenant to secure the lease. This put me in an even tighter spot. She then filed a complaint about the landlord to the attorney general and better business bureau and was calling me everyday to see if I found another tenant. How stupid and annoying can you get?

Well, finally it's resolved - sort of. I still have to pay all of July's rent which I'm just chalking up as an additional closing cost. In total I received 235 emails about my apartment responded to 95% of the once and 75% of that 95% a second or third time for follow up. There is still follow between some people that needs to be taken. Also bear in mind that mind that my landlord does not use email.
In conclusion here is what I learned:
1) Craigslist is amazing............but a total pain in the ass.
2) People that use craigslist are usually retarded..................or someone you already know.
3) I will never become a realtor.......................because it's a total pain in the ass.
4) No matter how good it get's there is always something better out there...............or at least you think so.
5) Not everyone is willing to walk 3 blocks to do laundry................in fact I am the only person I know that is willing to walk 3 blocks to do laundry.
6) Not everyone shops at IKEA! It was very surprising that people asked me how I got furniture up the stairs and I would say I bought it at IKEA took the box upstairs and put it together and that's the same way I'll get it out idiot.
7) Hire movers......I still might not take my own advice on this one but in the distant future when I do move again no matter how much stuff I have I will hire mover. The headache of moving can only be topped by the physical pain of carrying boxes and furniture up and down 3 flights of stairs about 400 times.

Baby Number 3 (and our new Mr. Mooney)

Yes, we do seem to post a lot of pictures of horses. But that is our life at the moment. (Hey, at least Kyler's in this one!) This is how we do our part to simulate the economy - buy horses while the market is right.

This is horse number two: Mister Peppy McMoon. So far he "goes" by Mr. Mooney or Mic. He's grown on me pretty quickly. A bit skinny, which is easy to fix, but he is very easy going and in the two times Kyler has ridden him so far, he has been quite broke. Slightly thrown off by ditches and bridges, but not for too long. He is quite the opposite of our first purchase. Suave is currently locked in the box stall in order to heal up the hole in her side from trying to jump the fence and getting impaled.

Our final addition to the curly ranch this summer (at least new baby-wise) has also arrived. He is filling out nicely and quite curious. Everyone is excited that a paint baby actually came out of the paint mare. Since Beth started this trend already, if anyone has good names for him, throw them out. (Kyler was able to think of good names for the other two foals, but nothing has come yet for this one.) His mom's name is Miss Demeanor (and we hope he doesn't inherit her cantankerous personality). In case you can't tell from the video, he does have one brown eye and one blue eye. I had to take the picture from his 'good' side because the blue eye kind of creeps me out.

No House for Me.....yet!

Booooooh. My mortgage paperwork has been delayed. Though very frustrated because it's going on 11 weeks since I put an offer in, I'm learning that mortgage delays are not uncommon. As my Realtor says, mortgage processors take 48 hour lunch breaks and I am also applying for a city and state home buyers grants, and we all know that city and state employees don't exactly hustle. Luckily my lawyer has already paid for himself by solving a title discrepancy and no one has rented my apartment (another headache on it's own) so I don't have to worry about having to find a transition home. I still hope to close by July1 and have my first BBQ on the 4th. Wish you all could come.

Derby Dolls in this months Advocate

So, at the beginning of May, I was asked to be part of an article in the Advocate about gay women in roller derby. They took some photos and then did an interview with myself, teammate Krissy Krash and retired skater Kasey Bomber. The magazine just hit newstands, and the pictures turned out awesome! I am on the table of contents, giving the finger with my sad, broken middle finger, and there is a spread of all three of us as well. I think the picture of all of us was supposed to be the cover, but then gay marriage happened and we got bumped.

Here are the pictures, and if you get a chance, check out the article in stores!

All photos by Megan Quinn.

The good news is that my finger is on the way to healing - I finally got to take the splint off, I just have to wear it when I play Derby. We have a big tournament next weekend, and then I get two months off! I am so excited for hiatus you cannot imagine...

We also got a write up in the LA Times last Friday - it is a good article, and there is an accompanying slideshow with audio. I was supposed to be in what was going to be a large photo essay, but the photrapher said they had to cut the size. Oh well - you can't be in everything!

http://www.latimes.com/la-me-outthere13-2008jun13,0,2416515.story

Friday the 13th - The Wedding!

This is one wedding I will never forget. I was hired to do the flowers by a friend of Jessica's for June 13th wedding (yes a Friday) a few months ago. All began as usual with the bride and the groom coming to my house to look at wedding photos of flowers and wedding decor. As the months passed little things kept happening that made me a little concerned about the wedding. Things such as the bride couldn't decide what kind of bouquet she wanted. Frilly flowers or simple ones. Big bouquet or small, etc. I usually like small swatch of each dress so that I can match the ribbons. Repeatedly I asked the bride to provide these. The only swatch I was able to secure was the one for the bridesmaids. Finally two days before the wedding a torn envelope shows up in my mail box with only 2 crystals and no swatches. The envelope had been damaged in the mail and so the crystals were lost and so were the swatches. Oh well, we made some other accommodations. On Tuesday I went to pick up the flowers at the market and most of the flowers were ready and packed for me, but when I asked where the roses were they said, oh did you order them? I had ordered 125 roses. But no roses. So I went in the back and found the last 5 packs of cream colored roses. Unbeknownst to me the roses were large long stemmed roses that one would usually use for a large floral bouquet, not boutonnieres.

Finally, after many hours of fretting with roses growing bigger by the minute, I finished all the bouquets and floral work. Jessica and Connie have now arrived to attend the wedding and are willing to help me transport all the flowers to the wedding . We get up early to pack up both cars. We leave around 11:20 to arrive by 12:30 at the wedding hall. As we are going down the road, Connie calls me on the cell phone and tells me that I have a flat tire. I ask how bad it is. She says pretty low. We barely make it to a gas station on up the road. It is pouring cats and dogs and we are trying to put air into the tire to see if we can make it to the wedding. How am I going to get these flowers to the wedding all the way in ST. Louis? I ask a guy to help me put the spare on. He says no, but that there is an auto repair show across the road. We go there and ask the guy if he can fix our tire. I tell him that this is an emergency and that we have to be at a wedding within the hour. Thank goodness he agrees to fix it. I'm drenched, Connie is starving and hitting the vending machines, and Jess is trying her best to keep me calm. Finally, we are on our way again. I felt like I was in a Julia Roberts movie trying to get to the wedding! The wedding went off without a hitch, the flowers were beautiful, and the bride was happy.

Word of Advice - Do not get married on Friday the 13th!

Senior moments

I can't believe that I bought cards for Rodney's bday and Caryn's anniversary and forgot all about the dates I had to send them. I apologize!! I guess my age is starting to show. I'm forgetting words, places, movie names, etc. Can't believe this is happening to me, although my friends are all in the same mode. It's not alzheimers, guys, it's computer overload.
Love you all,
Gram

Rodney's Birthday!

Hi all,

Rodney has reached the ripe old age of 59.  Yes, he's very excited because he says in 6 months he'll be able to legally withdraw money from his IRA.   Well I guess that's something to look forward to.   

As you can see he doesn't look a day over 58 and is still fit and trim as ever!   Look forward to Rodney's next big run at the TNT 1/2 marathon walk.  He's trying to get up the energy to begin walking again.   No easy feat!  (or on the feet!)  

Stay cool!   

Spencer photos

Now 21 months and starting to form some words and phrases..

Naming the baby

The mother, Black Ice ---------------------->

Had a first baby ( a cria)

That we named Black Lace

Then Ice had another cria that we name Ice Tea

Name the new baby!

Hi guys,

Here is our pretty little girl!  Yes, another girl.   This makes 5 for 5.   But we need a name for her.   Her mom's name is Black Ice and her dad is Macaroni.   She is pure white and has no other markings.   I usually like to keep the line going on the side of the Mom unless the dad is well known.  

So help me out and send us your best ideas.

 

Trying to establish goals

I have been really busy with work lately. Between babies and layoffs my department keeps shrinking. So I'm doing several jobs these day which has not inspired me to draw much in my free time. Earlier this spring I started taking a character design class on Tuesday nights to give me some structure and a reason to draw. I have a short I want to board about a little girl and a unicorn. So lately I've been drawing lots of pictures of unicorns and I thought I would share one.

Another painting...

I haven't been able to participate in any of the shows in the studio where I paint, so I figured I would play around with our super-low-tech digital camera (the 21st century equivalent of the old pinhole camera) and see if it works. The image is a bit color distorted, but I can recognize it... Hopefully I'll be able to show the real paintings sometime soon...

About our game last night...