Never A Dull Moment

Fall is in full swing out here in Cali!  And by full swing, I mean zero change in weather, temperature, or foliage color.  Sigh.

That is one thing that I really do miss about living in the mid west (bet you never thought you'd hear me say THAT, eh?) - the fall.  I miss the crisp air, hoodies, the bright leaves, cider and doughnuts, and football (Cal Poly isn't exactly a huge football school...I think I saw 3 people in the stadium one time, but they may have been watching a soccer game.).  Instead I guess I'll settle for palm trees and our warm season and enjoy the 80 degree temps by soaking up some sun on the beach.  I even celebrated by buying a new bathing suit yesterday.  Happy fall to me!

Luckily, the fall is keeping me plenty busy here so that I can't dwell on my "I-tried-to-have-a-pumpkin-spiced-latte-but-it-felt-really-weird-because-it-is-so-warm-outside-and-now-I'm-slightly-depressed" feelings.

Let's start with tarantulas.  Yes.  Tarantulas.  Translation:  big ass spiders.  EVERYWHERE.  Including in my kitchen.  Not cool.  The dogs were pretty excited about him though.  This is after I set him free outside.  Or maybe its a girl?  I don't know.  I was more interested in getting it out of my house than sexing it.

I let my stylist convince me to dye my hair.  This is a HUGE step for me.  I was a hair dye virgin.  Terrified of doing anything to my locks (which is silly because I rarely shower and wear a hat 98% of the time).  One of those completely unfounded and irrational fears that I have, not unlike riding the ferris wheel.  As Landon said when I asked him what he thought "Its dark."  What a guy response.

One of our best broodmares somehow punched a 5 inch deep hole in her head and paralyzed half her face..... weird (she is doing great now and the paralysis has partially subsided, which is awesome!)

Cal Poly hosted the first horse show of the year, and the Cal Poly Equestrian Team (I coach them) tied with UC Davis for high team for the day.  I really do love this giant group of goobers :)

We had a huge 110 year anniversary celebration (complete with giant party and flowing wine....) and the annual Cal Poly Bull Auction.  This event is pretty cool and brings in some of the best auctioneers in the world.  And the best part is that Laura came into town and stayed with me for a few days :)  Aaaand we totally forgot to take any pics together.  Fail.

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The day before the aforementioned event, I was asked to take a few shareholders on a trail ride.  The day started off beautifully, with a great ride looking out over SLO.

I took along my faithful ranch dog, Gunner, who is now 8 months old.  Here's the down side to this situation:  Gunner has yet to get kicked by any kind of animal.  The sheep are afraid of him.  The steers are too gentle to mess with him.  The horses ignore him.  So he has no respect for the large feet of any livestock.....

So he got stepped on by one of the horses during the ride and had one of his front toes ripped pretty much off.  I knew it was coming at some point in time, but I would really, really have preferred that it did NOT happen when I was riding a green broke 3 year old horse at the absolute furthest point away from the ranch with a group of shareholders that I was supposed to be babysitting.  So I just scooped the bleeding pup into the saddle, said a prayer that my horse wouldn't kill me and that the dog would be chill, tied my reins in a knot and looped them around the saddle horn so I could hold the 45lb dumb-***, and headed home.

The dog was total dead weight in my arms, and so limp that I was worried he was going into shock.  No, no.  He was just SO HAPPY to be carried and held that he was in a blissful coma (please note his look of anxiety and tension in the above photo for proof).  What a goob.  Everything went off great and his toe is almost all healed.  Just another adventure for the record books.

Later that week it rained for the first time in 7 months.   Meaning that Gunner saw rain for the first time ever in his life.  And he kind of freaked out.  I took a video.... you can hear him growling at it and barking at it.  But I can't get the video off my phone..... new fangled smart phone devices that I don't know how to work.  So you'll just have to take my word for it.

I got to travel down to Pomona with our Thoroughbred Enterprise students to the October Barrett's Yearling Sale where we sold two of our colts.  We raise Thoroughbred horses at Cal Poly and then sell them as yearlings as racing prospects.  Its pretty cool that the students get to be so involved in this industry.

And this morning there was a beautiful SUNRISE RAINBOW!!!!  What??? Who starts their day off like that??  It.  Was.  Awesome.  God is so good :)

Love,
ap

A Month's Worth Of Pics

Sooo..... its been almost a month since my last post.  If I wasn't so insanely overwhelmed at work right now, I'd be a little embarrassed about that.  Good thing blogging isn't my true calling, or else I would totally be a failure at it ;)  ha.  A lot stuff happened this past month, so I'll concentrate on just a few of the main things in one giant picture blog (let's face it; y'all don't read half of what I write anyway, eh?).  Ok...... hang on to your top hats, because here we go!

1.  Adam came back to CA with me from my NC adventures.  Shenanigans ensued.  Theme of the week:  eat a lot of insanely good food and see a lot of wild creatures (wine tasting, hiking, surfing, horseback riding, lots of great seafood, a Braves game at AT&T park including Chipper's last at-bat, a drive up the PCH, Adam bought a horse at our sale, we visited a Triple D restaurant, and we didn't see any snakes also occurred, but they were all on Adam's camera, so I don't have those pics).  Quote of the week:  "This is awesome."  Also, we saw these guys up close and personal, but Adam has all the pics of them.

2. Lauren D. came to visit!  Theme of the week:  sunsets and farmer's markets.  Quote of the week: "Oh, the Pacific Coast Highway, eh?  You can buy the best blueberry weed in the world on that drive.  But don't smoke it while you're driving.  Now take my figs (literally) and go to the cheese man and he will hook you up."  Adventures galore.  We hung out in what I have now deemed "Davys style," which included morning hikes for L, a lovely lunch together, and afternoon excursions.  I would like to personally thank her for introducing me to figs.  They are now a staple in my farmer's market purchases every week.  Also, we got some action in at my favorite karaoke dive bar, the Merrimaker.  Seriously y'all.  If you look up dive bar on Wikipedia, there is a picture of this place.  Legit.  Check it out.

3.  Went to visit Landon.  Theme of the weekend: "I am so freakin happy to see my boyfriend and just hang out."  Had a lovely time hanging out with his friends, going to his church, and taking a trip down to the gulf where we ate some great food and played with my new waterproof camera.

4.  Life in general happened.

Oh, and classes started.  I'm teaching 4 of them this quarter, which is why I'm so delayed on the blog.  Promise to try to be better :)

ttfn!
ap