The Grass is Greener on the Other Side

At least Spot thought so. He's one of our geldings, the one that's half Mustang and Shetland. He's a gorgeous pony, but he also has the Shetland stubbornness.

Here's what happened, Dave had roped off the lower part of the property with wired tape for the ponies to graze on, but he never put the charger on it. It keeps it electrified just enough to give them a nice zap if they should try to escape. I've actually gotten zapped by it a couple times myself. Sottie, our mare we lost a a year and a half ago was famous for testing the rope to see if it was charged and taking advantage if it wasn't. I guess Spots remembered her trick and tried it yesterday, in fact I caught him doing it when I looked out the kitchen window. The next time I looked out, he was happily grazing on the other side. I tried getting him back in the enclosure, but he wouldn't go, so rather than risk him getting out of the yard, because if I chase him, he will run and had gotten out of the yard before, not a funny story in the least. Both he and War ended up about a 1/2 mile down the road in a field next to our neighbor's corn field that time. So, remembering that, I left him be and called Dave who was already on his way home.

Poor War wanted where Spots was, but couldn't figure out how to get there. Thank goodness because that was all I needed, to have both of them out.

Thinking back now, I should have done what I did the last time and got Spot's harness and lead and then got him. It didn't occur to me at the time, but you know what they say, hindsight is 20/20. I know mine sure is.

Anyway, about ten minutes later, Dave pulled in the driveway and when he walked through the gate, saw Spots on the other side of the fenced in part and Spots saw him. Dave said that Spots gave him a guilty look and when Dave went to put him back where he belonged, Spots went without a problem, the big brat. Today he has to hook up the charger before letting them back out in that area.

The next time if this happens, I'll know to go and get his harness first. I just hope it doesn't happen again, but now that Spots knows how to test the line, it probably will. I'm actually surprised that it took him this long to figure it out.

What Would We do Without Cell Phones...

The same thing we had been doing before they were invented.

Who all had a CB radio in their car? I did. I remember getting in my car and chatting with all my friends, "Breaker, breaker, 1-9." Back then it was a really cool thing to have, like a cell phone is nowadays.

My sister got a cell phone! It's about time, but like me, she'll probably hardly use it. It'll be nice to be able to get in touch with her when she's not home though. Right now I can't leave a message with my mom because she won't remember and they don't have an answering machine or voice mail, so I would have to keep calling back until my sister finally answers if I need to talk to her, or call my other sister to see if she knows where she is.

The plan I have has all the bells and whistles, except 4G LTE. To tell the truth, I hardly use the internet, but it is handy to have if I do have to look up something or just want to go up on Facebook while we're traveling somewhere. I might go for a new plan when it's time to upgrade my phone, but that all depends on if Dave wants to join and then we'll go for a family plan. Right now, after my two year contract is up, I won't have to sign a new contract unless I go with a new plan. My two years aren't up though until April of next year, but I can upgrade my phone in October if I want. If I do go with a new plan, it'll be to lower my data plan from 5GB to less, like maybe 2GB. I haven't really decided yet. I may just stay with the plan and phone I have now.

I really liked the phone I had before this one, but they don't make them anymore. That one was drowned on a white water rapids ride at Kennywood in Pittsburgh and when I turned in the claim for a new phone, they sent me the one I have now. I don't like the keyboard on it. The one on my old one was a lot easier to see the little symbols above the letters. This one is a pain, but I was able to find a cool Mickey Mouse case for it. I'm sure I would with a new one, but if I want to change it, like I do on this one, the cost of the cases tend to add up, even on EBay.

I guess I should change my case to my Steeler one since it's football season now, yes I do have a Steeler one, but I think I'll wait until the regular season starts.

A Little Back Patting

David and I went to the fair yesterday. He wanted to go because he wouldn't be able to go with us tomorrow because he has to work.

Anyway, I really didn't want to go for the simple reason that Friday is a gym day for us and I really didn't want to drive all the way up to Des Moines. David really wanted to go because we couldn't go on Thursday because of our neighbor and others, two Amish boys he had helping him and the truck driver to drive the grain to market, being there to empty out our grain bin that he uses to store his soy beans. In hindsight, we really could have still gone and as it turned out, I'm glad we ended up going. Dave couldn't go with us because he had to go into the office both days. But to talk me into it, David made the suggestion that why don't we take our gym stuff with us and if we felt like it, stop at the gym on the way home, since we could go a way where we would go right past it, so we did that.

The Amish horse and buggy in our yard as seen through our kitchen window. I didn't want them catching me taking a picture of it since I didn't know how they would react. We also set out water and hay for the horse. I told them we would put the water out, but when I went to feed our ponies, I gave their horse some hay as well. They thanked me as they were leaving.

I honestly thought that after all the walking we did, which now that I think about it, wasn't really all that much compared to what it could have been if we had gone around to see everything we could have. But, we still walked around a good ways and since we were parked way up at the end of the parking lot, walked quite a ways to get back to the car going up hill the whole way. That is the truth too, not like the old cliche about having to walk to school in snowstorms while going up hill the whole way.☺ When we got back to the car, I also realized that I forgot to put the sun shade up so that even though it was only 73° outside, the car was still hot inside.

Even after that though, we still stopped at the gym and did our workouts. The gym is open 24 hours, so that  fit in very well. I was happy because we still were able to get in our day at the gym, plus some added exercise in to boot. When we got home, we were tired, but also happy from having a good day at the fair and gym.

It's August, Time for Some Rambling

Like my new print? I bought it on a site called Fab.com. If you decide to buy something there, make sure you say that I referred you. :)

They do have some neat stuff and a lot isn't that badly priced. I've gotten some of my weird socks there.

We've finally been getting some decent rain. In the past couple of weeks, we've gotten more than we've  gotten all summer long. That's really not saying much since we hardly got anything all summer long, but along with the rain, we've gotten some much more comfortable temps. Today was only in the upper 70s and some nights it dipped into the mid 50s. Makes for great sleeping weather.

The Iowa State Fair is in full swing. I just read today that the prez is thinking of going, thrills! I wonder if they'll close it to just him and his supporters. It would be a real shame if they did. I think the only reason he may go is because Romney apparently went or is there today.

We haven't gone yet. We're thinking of going on Thursday. There's a 50% chance of rain then, it rained last year, but maybe that'll change. Our weather tends to do that. About the most accurate weather forecast you'll ever get is within 24 hours, but even that can change.

David and I have been keeping up with the gym. I can already see a little difference in that the rolls on my sides aren't as pronounced as they were before we started going. I'm happy about that. I'm planning on keeping it up and making sure that David keeps it up is a good motivator. Today I actually did the eliptical trainer for almost a full 10 minutes (I quit at 9 1/2) at a level I'd never done before. I tried to finish, I really did. I was also able to up the weight on almost all of the machines. On the leg press, I was able to do 100 pounds for a count of 30. Last week I was doing 75 and 90 on Friday. There are also TVs there that you can watch while doing the bikes, treadmill, or eliptical trainer. There's also one in back where the free wights are. I do a couple exercises with those too.

I'm proud of myself that I'm doing so well in doing everything. I even have more energy and I've been sleeping better. Unfortunately though, the manager is supposed to be there on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, but so far she hasn't been. There was a lady there the first Wednesday we were there, but it was somebody just filling in. I wonder if the owner knows, but apparently he doesn't live in town, so he's never there either. Oh well, as long as the place stays open, that's all I care about.

Sweating to the Oldies, or in My Case, REO Speedwagon

It's raining!! We're getting a really good soaking too. Thank you, God. Thankfully I got gas yesterday though. I hate standing in the rain pumping gas. Even though you're under a canopy, you still get wet. I don't know how long this is going to last but since Dave took David to work, I'll pick him up this afternoon. If I hadn't gotten gas yesterday, I would of had to this afternoon.

Actually, that's not what I wanted to tell you guys. I wanted to tell you that I joined a gym. David and I both did. We actually got a 30 day free pass, but our first day was Wednesday. David did really great. I didn't do too bad, but I did much better yesterday. Wednesday I was sore afterwards and also Thursday, but yesterday, I wasn't. I also had my IPod with me yesterday, so I was listening to REO 2 by of course, REO Speedwagon. It's one of my all-time favorite albums.

David's working today, so it's an off day for us, but we're thinking of going tomorrow, the place is open 24/7. Monday is checkup day at the vet for Jake to see how well the thyroid medication is working. The vet is in the opposite direction in the town west of us. The gym is in the town east of us. We'll probably go Tuesday and Wednesday and then again on Friday.

Through sheer laziness and not really watching what I ate, I gained the weight back that I lost last year. I'm hoping that this will give me the motivation to keep going and not only lose weight, but also to get back into shape. The fact that David was told by the doctor to lose weight is another motivation. If I keep going, hopefully he'll keep up the motivation to continue too.

Hopefully I can finally go from this:

To this :):

Heck, if I got to looking like that, it would be a downright miracle. I haven't looked that good since I was in my early 20s then kids happened and the rest, as they say, is history. :)