Review time! The lesson here is that nothing is as good as Planter’s peanut butter

I have let my review food items pile up, and I’m eager to get back at them, aside from my regularly scheduled content that includes complaining about the wind and comparing peanut butters against my favourite, Planters (they always lose to Planters!).

Let’s start with a win, shall we? Gummy bunnies!

My dear friend gave this to me for Christmas and the girl knows me- they are delicious! Lovely to look at in a little lucite cube, and you know Easter is my favourite holiday too 😊 And I have heard of Sugarfina (their website is SOOOO tempting. Anyone else almost buy $150 worth of gummies??).

The green is a very distinct ‘green apple’ taste, juicy, a bit tart even in a gummy, a very stiff and yet still marshmallowy chew, it is a true pleasure to eat. The other flavours are notable as well but don’t stand out as well as the green apple bunny. Not pictured because I ate all of them too quickly! 😉

Pink bunny- lightly floral taste, a bit of tartness but nothing really compared with the green bunny. I couldn’t really place this flavour either- strawberry? Cherry? What other red or pink fruit could it be? It is tasty, but indistinct.

Yellow bunny- now, in fairness to yellow bunny, I don’t like yellow candies- the citrus taste seems to be a mockery. The only real citrus-flavour I love are grapefruit, encapsulated in layers of Trident layers gum…Ah, now THAT’s a flavour! (would anyone be surprised that I have written to Trident about their Layers gum??) This one is a bit weak- I can’t really tell which citrus fruit it is supposed to be- lemon I guess? It’s mild, sweet and chewy- what more do we want I guess?

And here is the loser, well ok two losers:

But first, a word here on disappointment. I went out to brunch last weekend at Paglicacci’s, and I like that place. But when you order an extra side of fruit for your meal, and they bring you… a ramekin of sliced oranges, that are probably the second half of the sliced oranges already on your plate? What kind of mediocre half-assery is that? Gee, thanks guys. I really wanted to pay extra for maybe one whole orange. Sheeeeesh.

Almost as disappointing as the Dan-D-Pak peanut butter I bought and I HATE IT. Too dark and the texture is gritty??? and weirdly greasy at the same time. Why add palm oil in great quantities to a nut butter that is EXTREMELY OILY??? I promise I won’t cheat on my dearest Planters ever again after that mess. Uck!

Anyways, from the country that brought us Skwinkles Salsaghetti, comes…drumroll please…

Pulparindo!

It looks like fruit leather, and it smells pretty bizarre- like fruit leather that was made in a tanning factory?? Anyways, first impressions aside I like tamarind flavour, and this was ‘extra spicy’ with salt. Oooh! Ian bought it for me from the Mexican store downtown- a great place to get corn husks for tamales, and stuff like that.

So looks and smell aside, how did it taste? Well, the tanning factory whiff was kind of a red flag…The taste is very strange. Crunchy (who eats crunchy fruit leather??), the salt had a strong ammonia salt flavour, and the tamarind taste was lost in the muddle of quite offensive crunch/grit, which was in every single bite. I found it extremely unpleasant, and maybe I should have known..Skwinkles aren’t exactly top-grade stuff either.. Anyways, I strongly recommend you avoid on this one. Ian also got me the ‘mango’ flavour which I have not tried yet, and probably won’t since he ended up finishing this one for me. Oh and was it spicy? Yeah, in another really bizarre way- it tasted like ketchupy-salsa spice? Ick. Don’t go there people, there are plenty of really fun and pleasant snacks to be found- like Rancheritos, yummm.

Making progress

It’s been a really tough year and I feel like I can mark the year in ‘pandemic year’ and ‘Oats injury year’ and they both suck. However I might be seeing a light at the end of the suck. We had our third ultrasound last Tuesday and I was biting my nails worried about how it would go (he felt great, but was that enough??) and luckily it WAS GREAT! 🙂

Look at us go! First time on almost 7 months!!!

Yay!!

So, we got the all-clear to start a modified canter rehab. Canter one day, trot work the next, rinse and repeat for the next 9 weeks. After week 5, we can do continuous canter. That is great news!! We did our first canter last Wed, and then another canter on Saturday. He was golden for the canter! He was not so great about the ‘spooky corner’ which he has increasingly been an idiot about, but oh well. I did crack him on top of the head when he was getting light and running backwards and that didn’t really de-escalate, more like it really pissed him off and he got furious and bucking and rearing, hah!

So, we manage day by day and I look forward to the day we can do things again- riding lessons, jumping, a trail ride with friends… It’s been a super hard winter people. And good news too- my ratty little furball rabbit decided to start eating again! He goes off his food once every two months or so, and then it’s syringe-feed time all the time. It sucks and it is also immensely stressful. Good times…

He loves his buffet when he IS eating 🙂

More Faith lessons!

I know on Saturday I was griping, mainly because my daytime lessons with Faith all seem to be a bit of a dud- she gets worked up, angsty, balky, etc. And then Oats has started losing his shit every.single.day…and ARGH. I hate horses!!

Go Faith!

BUT Faith was a gem last night, a very good girl. We trotted a crossrail twice without stirrups- ok I tried to chicken out, hahah but the second time didn’t seem so jostly so ok! And then we trotted a few small fences and she was great. Got in crooked- fixed it. Sluggy off the ground? Add leg. It all worked out! That felt pretty darned good, and redemptive from Saturday.

Oats on the other hand… I know he’s bored of rehab and looking for trouble. Every day. A lot of trouble. ARGH. He has started having freakouts about the corners of the arena (newsflash- nothing changes. EVER. He has been in the arena for 5 months…) bolting backwards, slamming on the brakes, spooking at his reflection in the mirrors (not usually a problem), and spooking at me coughing, or blowing my nose. FUN FUN!

At least she is good! 🙂

So, every ride I have to go out with the idea that rehab takes as long as it takes. He’s running backwards? Pause the watch, deal with it, and start the watch up again when he finally gets over it. Spooking and bolting backwards? Same deal. It is FREAKING EXHAUSTING to deal with every day. I decided to start adding to his trot work last night, to deal with some of his shenanigans. Very moderate- add 30 secs to his intermittent trot work on both sides for an extra minute total, and start with the intermittent trot instead of the continuous trot- leave the continuous for the second round. For some reason the continuous seems to twig his brain off even more? And I also added 30 secs/side for the continuous trot to round it out.

He felt a bit funny on the left, but I think that was because of his inconsistent trot/head carriage. Turns out spooking isn’t conducive to either?! Ha. So he does settle, and go along pretty nicely, but damn those first 20 minutes are pretty annoying and hard to manage. And may I remind you- EVERY SINGLE DAY. SIGH. I had to cancel his Friday rider, as she is quite novice, just getting back into it, and the last thing she needs is to go bolting backwards every 2 minutes…. 😦

Future me hates me

Ha, why do I overschedule myself! (sort of?!). Had a fairly busy horse weekend, with rescheduled lessons on Saturday with Faith, rehabbing Oats, and then a long run! Takes me well into 5pm, apparently. The lesson was…Kind of a big dud. We started off really nicely, with some of the nicest trot I think we have achieved together! And then, the wheels kind of fell off. She tripped big time at the canter when we were heading to canter poles, and then did 1 little bolt, and then started getting balky/stopping at the gate side of the arena- AGAIN.

Wish this was this year. Why can’t I ride better?

She hasn’t been that bad since our last daytime lesson (what IS IT with those??) so who knows wtf was going on in little horsey’s head on Saturday? A shame, because we had a genuinely lovely lesson the past Tuesday!

Oh well, something to work on. It’s interesting, riding someone else’s horse, because I never know what I’m going to get- and it’s kind of a day-by-day adventure, ha. Sometimes good, sometimes pretttty bad.

And Oats? The past week he was a moron to rehab. Afraid of the corners, almost got me off in a big spook on Thur night, wouldn’t go into the corner, running backwards, slamming on the brakes, being super dramatic. I think he’s definitely getting fitter and all that energy has nowhere to go… I had to cancel his Friday rider because I was a bit worried she might get scared off, or spooked off. Can’t have that! He was amazingly good on Fri/Sat, and then back to being a total butthead on Sunday. Go figure?? He also was in a big snit about his hay (ok, it’s honestly terrible low-sugar hay this time. SO coarse) and he was refusing to eat it, poor guy. I can’t have him eating barn hay though, so it’s a no win 😦 I get why he hates his new low sugar hay, and I am really hoping the next shipment isn’t so awful. ARGH.

I had a LOT of tension from my bad rides on Oats last week, bad lesson on Faith, bad ride on Oats, and it just felt like…Shit. What am I DOING messing around with these miserable animals????

So, I did a yoga video on Sunday night and yawned 100 times. Seriously, my eyes were watering, tears running down my face. Apparently I *was* holding tension, who knew??? Ha. It felt good though to let it allll go. Now, to remember that in my daily ride (wanted to write Battle) with Oats every night!! Be good you little jerk.

Missing everything for a year

Just a list of gripes that I hope to overcome this year!

Riding my dear pony Oats. I hope he can recover, and we can continue to conquer at dressage shows, riding lessons, jumping, trail riding and chilling out! God I miss him so much.

My health: Multi-faceted, but I hope to have fewer relapses of endometriosis, with fewer flare-ups. So far not so good. 😦

Also health related: Get control of terrible allergies with meds and inhalers. Fingers crossed!!!!!

Travel: Somewhere, at some point. When???

Friends: When can I go for happy hour again (non drinking in Jan, but I miss them.)

Running races: A total flop this year, last year, and probably not for a long time. Sigh.

A new year? (somehow keeping it going)

I don’t feel particularly hopeful, but I guess some hope is better than no hope right? My NYE was good and a terrible disaster. I had to work a bit late, was at the stables rehabbing Oats a bit late, and then drank wayyyyyyy too much in an effort to catch up on the so called ‘good times’ featuring a party of two- me and my husband.

NOT so jolly anymore…

After about 3 daiquiris, I thought it would be a great idea to open up a bottle of really nice sparkling wine. Narrator’s overtone: IT WAS A BAD IDEA.

So I ran in the new year listening to fireworks over the sound of my own torrential vomit. Yay? And the fun continues! Not content with suffering a night of misery, I then began vomiting anew in the morning. I had to rehab Oats and it was just a struggle to sit upright without puking. I puked in my sink.

My husband drove me to the barn and tacked Oats up, while I sat miserably on a chair nearby. He did struggle with the many buckles and straps and gates and halter and chains and boots, so I stepped in. And good thing I brought my helmet down to the arena! Oats took GREAT offense to him sitting heavily in the saddle (after mounting from the wrong side…) and immediately tried to turf him off by bucking at the halt! Yikes! I had visions of my mom falling off like a sack of potatoes and shattering her humerus, so I gingerly sloshed over to him and grabbed the reins. Oats chilled, husband was ok, so we led them around for a bit and then he couldn’t get Oats to walk indepdendently, so I hopped on and sloshed away for the rest of the ride.

Proud to say I didn’t puke but it wasn’t pretty. Yeeesh.

So, that is the story of how I am taking the month off January from alcohol. It made me too sick, it is very expensive, and I don’t like how puffy and gross my face is looking recently due to my overindulging. Time to change!!!