Carnivore Central

There are no vegetarians at our house.

I don't have anything against being a vegetarian, except that sometimes I wonder how they get enough of the right kinds of protein. I also really feel that children should not be forced into that lifestyle, as millions of years of evolutionary eating habits can't be wrong. Once you're old enough to understand the consequences of eating a vegetarian (especially vegan) diet, and do the research to make sure you get adequate nutrition, I think being a vegetarian is no big deal.

However, there is absolutely no danger whatsoever of that happening at our house. My daughter E (age 16) likes meat. She can eat an entire rack of ribs all by herself, and was doing that at age 6. She swoons at the sight of a new BBQ place. The new Mexican place we discovered a few weeks ago has a huge carne asada plate that she can finish (side orders and all) in one sitting. Her ability to ingest large quantities of animal products can rival that of any teenage boy her age. I can eat (believe me, I can eat), but watching her do it is an amazing sight.

Which brings me to the conversation we had last week on the relative merits of different meats. We had finished eating at the aforementioned Mexican restaurant, and she was waxing poetic about meat on the way home.

E: I do like all kinds of meat.
Me: Shock.
E: But I like red meats better, really, than white meats. Definitely the read meats are my first choice.
Me: Ok.
E. But the white meats are good. They're great when you're in the mood for them.
Me: Uh-huh
E: And fish. Since we went to the sushi place, I am just craving the spicy tuna and the albacore.
Me: But fish aren't--
E: But the red meats are the best. I love a big steak. Medium rare with onions. And that carne asada was amazing. I think I'll try something else with beef next time.
Me: What about the purple meats?
E: Purple meats? Oh like octopus. What do they call it when they change to blend in with the rocks?
Me: Color.
E: I'm gonna hurt you. No, like when they blend in. Did you know that some octopus are as big as flounders and can change colors and swim just like them as a disguise? [Makes many arm-waving, swimming, flounder-like motions, looking somewhat idiotic.]
Me [watching the flounder-impressionist go on and on and on]: How's it go?
E: Ok I am gonna hurt you.

At which point I am laughing so hard that I nearly wreck the car and wet my pants. And you know how contagious that kind of laughing is, so we were both completely out of breath with aching sides by the time we got home. I realize that it might have been a "you had to be there" situation to see the complete humor, but I haven't laughed that hard in ages. I still start chuckling every time I think of it.

When was the last time you laughed that hard?

Getting Back to "Normal"

We're moving our barn practice to Moorpark on Saturday, and I can't wait to get it all done and get back to "normal" life.

I work a day job for 40 hours a week, and my daughter and I work our horse business the rest of the time, so my week routinely ends up at 75 or 80 hours of time spent doing something that is not at home. The day job is on someone else's dime (as it were), but the horse business is a labor of love. I started riding when I was six years old and I have the horse "gene". No matter where I've gone or what I've done over the course of my life, I've always ridden and trained horses. It's a happy coincidence that my daughter is also a horse fanatic, to the point that she wants to ride for a living and has aspirations to compete in the Olympics and other world-class equestrian events. Consequently, we work that much harder at all our horse endeavors, but it takes up the vast majority of the time that isn't spent at work or school.

I'm not complaining about the amount of time we work, as neither of us sits around well, but we have had a great routine for a long time, and the activity and upheaval of the last eight months has definitely thrown a monkey wrench into the works. The facility we're leaving has had a lot of problems, and we've been pulled into the drama over and over again. This, in turn, has thrown our usual routine and horse income into complete disarray. I'm sick of it and ready to leave the chaos behind. To return to "normal".

Since E (my daughter) was born, I've tried to make a concerted effort to keep our lives on a plain simple track. I grew up with a dad who was in the military, and the moving and re-establishing of my life every three years while growing up was not fun for me. So we've lived in the same place for 16 years. E has gone to the same school since first grade, and will be a senior this coming September. I've had the same day job for 10 years. Being the control freak that I am, these things have become something that I depend on a great deal. So when a large area of my life spins out of control, it makes me crazy. (Short trip, I know...)

In 2006, there was a one week period in my life where my car transmission died, my dad died, and my kid ended up in the emergency room (while I was out of town at my dad's funeral). One month later our best-loved pony had an $8500 emergency surgery. Let's just say that this was a control freak's worst nightmare, and it was brought home to me in spades how much I craved a "normal" boring life. Fortunately, the current barn situation and the moving of our horse business pales in comparison to 2006, but it still makes me just a little nuts.

I know in November, I'll look back at the summer and think what a crazy time it was and how nice it is that things are back to normal. But I feel like a kid who's waiting for the best vacation ever: six more days, five more days, four more days... The countdown to getting everything done is excrutiating. I've really tried to stop wishing my life away, but August 1st can't get here soon enough for me.

Lots of Things in My Head, But Nothing to Write About

It seems I have a million items in my head all needing to get out, but none of them feel interesting enough to say more than ten or fifteen words about each subject in total. So I'm making a list of the mental shrapnel; duck if it hits close.

1. I love horses. I hate horses. Depends on the day and the behavior of a particular equine at a particular time. Let's just say that Sunday was a "hate" day.
2. I love summer. I hate summer. Summer = my kid stays at home and does a lot of stuff around the house that we don't usually have time for. Love that part. Summer = heat. REALLY hate that part (see previous post).
3. Why is it that when you have a set time to leave your job every day that the no one wants anything to do with you until six minutes before you need to leave? This will eventually cause me to go postal, and, being a short fat woman, it will not be a pretty sight.
4. Depo-Provera was the best drug ever invented.
5. We've discovered a new Mexican restaurant called Las Fuentes (translation: the fountains). We ate close to our body weight in unbelievably amazing food on Friday night. The resident carnivore in my house (aka my daughter) ate so much carne asada that I thought she would explode. We joked about the Monty Python "Would you like a wafer?" sketch on the way home.
6. Generic paper towels are crappy and just do not come close to the Viva brand.
7. I am too cheap to pay for the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle service that lets you look at and print out any number of puzzles from current and past months. If you don't subscribe you can only print out the last four weeks of puzzles, and I never remember to do it every week or two. This makes me crazy when I want a new puzzle, and yet I can't bring myself to pay for the service. How stupid and cheap am I? Yet I pay $110 a month for Directv--go figure.
8. Fantasy football. WTF??? Who thinks these things up?
9. I finally got a new clip-on phone case for my iPhone. The old one that I bought when I got the phone in January degenerated into a piece of CRAP. Did I mention it was BAD BAD BAD? And ugly? I went to Best Buy on Sunday and got a new one that looks as if it might actually last more than ten minutes and was not unattractive. I could feel my blood pressure go down as I slipped my phone in its new case and tossed the old one in the trash. (Insert giant sigh of relief here.)
10. We're moving barns on August 1st, which is a LOT of work. But the good part is that I have a lot of friends that have offered to help, and they really mean it. It's just good for the soul to know that you have people in your life that care about you, even when you have to move. That's when the fair-weather types disappear, and the real friends are there for you.

I feel better now. Got anything to get off your chest?

Help Me... I'm Melting.........

Could it be any hotter?






I realize we live in a desert here in Southern California, but Jesus H. Christ it's hot. We live and die at our house based on the weather because we spend so much time outside with the horses. This weekend was seriously unpleasant and we did very little work during the middle of the day. Basically it was a parade to and from the wash rack, just soaking the horses (and ourselves in the process) to keep everyone comfortable. We did get a bit of breeze here and there, which only felt good if you were damp. And I believe we now own at least 50% of the Coppertone company due to the amount of sunscreen we buy.

I have a busy life with a day job as well as the horse business, so I like to sleep in a little bit on Saturday or Sunday if possible. But in this weather, we get up really early (5-ish or so) to ride and work while there is still some semblance of cool in the air. We also ride very late in the day as well to take advantage of the cool-down in the evening--assuming it isn't still 98 degrees at 7:30, which it was yesterday. At that point, you try to make the horses as cool and happy as possible (food helps a LOT in the happiness department), and then go home and stand in the shower to get the 20 gallons of sweat off your body and out of your hair. Fortunately, we have AC at home, so the evening TV time and sleeping are tolerable.

We're moving our practice to Moorpark in August, and it's always a lot cooler in that part of suburban Los Angeles than where we are now in Canyon Country. It's closer to the ocean, so we will be catching the afternoon breeze straight off the Pacific. Most people don't really realize it, but the ocean off the southern California coast is a lot colder than the Atlantic almost anywhere on the east coast. Unless you have a breakwater offshore, it's usually not too fun to swim in the Pacific Ocean here. You have your die-hard swimmers and surfers of course, but the Arctic/Alaskan current makes the water too cold (for me) to swim in, but makes for a marvelous cool breeze.

We're looking forward to getting away from the heat next month, but will be sweltering in the meantime. Drink a lemonade and think of us.

Chance Gets a New Home

We've been taking care of a horse ("Chance") at our barn, and he got a new home yesterday.

He was picked up from a feed lot in Riverside by the barn manager where we board. She gets horses there pretty regularly, re-sells them, and makes a little money. He came to the barn on Memorial Day weekend, and was nervous and full of cuts and scratches from his pasture-mates. But he had a soft eye and willing personality, and seemed grateful for the kind attention. I just liked him, and he liked me. He is also a branded American Hanoverian (in horse parlance, that means a well-bred registered horse). He was originally intended for one of my teen-aged working students at the barn, but she changed her mind after a few weeks (fickle child). So we worked with him, got him more fit, gave him good food and supplements, and found out that he's a nice horse with good skills and a solid work ethic. I spoke with a lot of my horsey-circle of friends and finally found him what I think will be a great new home. He left yesterday.

No one would ever call me warm and fuzzy. I am straight-forward and blunt, and the gatekeeper of my mouth is usually at lunch. When my child went off to kindergarten (or any other grade for that matter), I never looked back, and I never shed a tear. Come to think of it neither did she, but that's another story. So when we were getting Chance ready to leave, I made up three or four bags of supplements to send with him. He is going to be in the care of one of my previous horse clients, and she came to our facility to drop off the payment for him, and help get him loaded to go. I gave her the supplements and way too much information about him and his habits and what he eats, and how he does everything (babble babble babble). I lead him out to the trailer and he got in and they drove away. I felt like a mother who has sent her kid away with his little lunchbox of goodies, and was almost in tears.

It's funny how things strike you. I know intellectually that it's a great home with good people, and yet sending this horse off to a new life still got to me. It was so unexpected to be caught off-guard. That hasn't happened in a long time. When was the last time it happened to you?