Pour yourself a big bowl of Timbits!

And settle down to read my newest review: Tim Horton’s Timbits Birthday Cake Cereal!

Now let me say that I am a BIG fan of enterprising companies that seek to innovate, with ‘synergies’ yeah I hate that word too with Post Cereal, ‘Beyond Meat’ burgers and the like- we all learn by trial and error. And while I really did enjoy the sugary goodness of the most ridiculous cereal product I have tried since Count Chocula, it also led me with the feeling of ‘we can do it, but should we?’

It’s more smell than taste in my mind. Americans are so fond of their ‘funfetti’ (sprinkles, also known as Hundreds and Thousands in AUS), and that is all that came to mind when I sniffed the mega-Costco box that Brent so generously procured. Straight up fakey birthday cake. If you, like me, enjoy eating frosting out of a can then this is the cereal for you! However strongly the sugary notes that wildly assault your nosebuds, they really don’t translate that much to the mouth. The top notes of the cereal, eaten by hand like any purist, are birthday-cake Timbits. The aftertaste? None. Like a ghost in your mouth. We are left with a vague sensation of eating a crunchy, light as air corn puff. Corn also features prominently.

I actually went down a weird rabbit hole about this in my mind- do flavour scientists do this one purpose, so one eats more of a hyper-palatable food? Is this better with milk?

Maybe?

But, like the peanut- butter flavoured whiskey that I just learned about online (it’s called Skrewball…???), maybe this one isn’t really meant for our world anymore. I might change my mind if I tried the chocolate Timmie’s timbits cereal, but maybe not. I still think the peanut butter Cheerios are better. Also the sheer size of the box is insane. Nobody really needs that much of this cereal! I would rather eat a doughnut. And let’s face it, calories for calories….I think the doughnut wins.

Life & Living it

Wow, the long weekend just flew by! It was busy and yet I had plenty of time to sit on my patio and drink rosé, one of my favourite summertime drinks. Thursday/Friday, my friend was staying with me while she attended to some errands in Victoria, and I also had my jump lesson on Thursday, and my dressage lesson on Friday…Which is a long-winded explanation about why I missed YET ANOTHER run club run on Saturday morning. I’m currently pitching 0-2, soon to be 0-3 (I am missing another one this Saturday, argh)… At 8am, I just don’t have it in me.

Proof that i did indeed makeup my missing runs…

Instead I stayed up to visit with my friend and we drank a bottle of wine and a bunch of Caesars. Worth it. I had a killer headache all day starting from waking me up in the middle of the night though, ouch. Hubris. Oh well, at least my lesson went really well and OATS HAS A COUNTER CANTER you guys! Feeble and tentative, but it’s happening!!!

Oh well! I had an insanely busy day on Saturday anyways, I guess leading in from the theme of last week: Busy every day. Had to run a saddle I was trying back out to the ass-end of Deep Cove, ran to the grocery store on my way back to the barn, rode Oats in the field for a brief 30 minutes, ran the 16km I missed that AM, went to the liquor store, another grocery store, and then gas and then home.

PHEW. This mad scrambling was also going on because my husband’s parents were coming over to our house for dinner, and I had thought we agreed on Sunday, because I knew my Saturday was going to be nuts, but they got confused and came on Saturday instead?! Yikes. So, start scrambling!!

Love my smoothies of summer! 

We had a really nice visit and shocker, the weather cooperated for once. Then Sunday was dedicated to my leisure: A super fun ride where I practiced a few of the elements we learned on Friday, including trying out our counter-canter a few more times. It was good, not easy and not perfect, but cool to start trying and practicing. Whee! Then I came home and went on a run along the ocean, and also got into a yelling match with some idiot who let his dog off-leash, where it cut me off suddenly and made me trip and almost eat dirt! And it was a big dog too, I could have been hurt badly by this. IDIOT!! It’s always these men that do stupid things, and then act surprised when you get mad at them. Assholes.

Anyways, the run was fun, hot and sweaty, my favourite!

And then Monday (ah, Monday…I love long weekends) was Canada Day! I celebrated by riding my pony in the field again, chilling out and going to a friend’s bbq party, where I also overindulged my inner glutton and was literally sweating all night thanks to my over-eating tendencies. I hate myself sometimes!!! UGH.

Now it’s rainy and Oats has his lesson day today, so no rides for me.

Go Get Ahead: Happy Birthday to ME!

Ah, yes the old birthday. I found streaks of white hairs this year- wha? I’m too young for this shit!

I had a lovely birthday though and enjoyed it several ways: Riding my horse on Friday night, to come home to a dinner of seafood and cake by my husband. Going for a looong hike on Saturday with great weather, my husband and my dog. Dinner with my in-laws which was delicious and great company! Can’t complain about that 🙂

How Gidget hikes- in a backpack, ha. 

And on Sunday, I had a dressage lesson with Oats (mixed reviews on how the ride went. Our canter needs help, god! But our trot was super awesome!) and then I zipped out to Greenhawk to buy myself (ok let’s be real here, it was for Oats) new boots and some MSM. And completely forgot WHY I was at Greenhawk to begin with…So I have to go back now. Shit!!

And then I was off to enjoy some ceasars and mini golf with my buddy! A fantastic day and a great way to cap off my holiday – birthday haha.

Had a good ride on Oats yesterday, alternated between riding in the field, to the outdoor, back to the field. It was hot hot hot! I looooove summer weather.

 

Obviously an expert: Weekend recap!

Another weekend, another fun-friends-filled-fueled-good time!

Good friends, good times!

This weekend was brought to me courtesy of drinks with an old friend and my boss on Friday (with moules et frites happy hour, and Angry Orchard ciders. Yum). Then on Saturday, I dragged my patient husband out to the barn, where he moved poles for me while I rode. It was a good ride, fun and fairly non-eventful.

We then ran a bunch of errands, gave some apples to my parents, and went on a 7km run in the pouring rain…

Because I got totally soaked, I decided to forgo my shower and blow-dry my hair. Why the fancy? I had a surprise birthday to go to! I left early to make sure I didn’t get lost on the way (I am super terrible with directions, like, can’t figure them out for the life of me) and last time I went to a surprise party, we got lost and showed up as the birthday girl was coming for her surprise party?! So yeah, I didn’t want to ruin yet another surprise party!!

Got there in plenty of time with my meatballs in tow. Lots of friends came and our friend was VERY surprised. YES!!! A success!! I ate so much good food, oh man…moose chili, mac and cheese, potato bacon soup, meatballs, salad, cheese and crackers tray, lemon squares, nanaimo squares, cheesecake bites (OMG!!) and the crowing achievement of the night: A Lighthouse cake featuring marzipan icing, Grand Marnier mousse, chocolate cake, orange and raspberry filling. SO GOOD. I ate wayyyy too much…Everything in moderation right? Including moderation? I had at least three of everything!!!

THE cake. So good!

I got home around 11pm, perfect because the clocks went back, and I had tons of time to get up in the morning for my 17km run *(I wasn’t planning on running that far, but it was such a beautiful morning, the sun was shining off the ocean, it was warm out, so I ran to the lookout point along Dallas Rd).

A gorgeous day, and a lovely day for a run. It made me feel glad to be alive, lucky to be able to run/ride like I do, and content for now, ha, with my life. For a few hours, it felt like everything was as it should be…

Came home, ate breakfast and then zipped out for a ride. Oats got to meet my friend’s Happy Birthday balloon (he was afraid at first and hid behind me, and then got brave hahahahah), and then I had a fun ride where I was going to do some homework, but saw a bunch of cute jumps set up and wheee jumping instead.

Came home later, and joined my husband and Gidget in goofing off in the tennis courts trying to get a good rally going.

A great weekend. I am spoiled with so many fun things to do and great people to do them with!

What more could a girl want?

That’s right, yesterday was my birthday! The big 3-1 for me~

Celebrating at the barn with a big delicious cake! Thanks Sarah C, you’re the best!

In all honesty, things I have been focusing on overshadowed my b-day- my lesson with Jane Stone on Thursday that I was alternately looking forward to and worried about, my race on Saturday, Rock the Shores on Sunday, and oh, my big upcoming international trip.

So yeah, lots going on eh?

More presents than I deserve!

But regardless, I had a GREAT birthday! (well, except for the having to be at work part. That part sucked). I hauled ass home from work, ran my dog out, threw on my riding clothes, wolfed down a Clif Bar and immediately got stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. SIGH.

I asked to have our semi-private lesson in the big field when I learned that the girls had so nicely put the jumps out there. A chance to work on my weaker skills at home? Even though I had previously fallen off at the Derby jumping in the field? SURE! Let’s do it. I knew it would be a challenge for me, because of my anxieties.

As it turns out, all my worries and fears were…for naught! Poof!

Jane was very understanding about what I have going on, and we worked it, man! I was really enjoying the lesson, we tried jumping a cavaletti to warm up, normal at first, and then some terrain-work, and then set to land flat and head slightly downhill. Success!

And then we started working on a small course, and it went super fantastic. Oats was so keen, I was loving it. We had a few bobbles- getting straight to a fence and him getting disunited, but it was fine and we worked with it.

I got a lot of confidence out of the lesson and felt so positive about it. Go us! Jane was very complimentary about our horses (who were perfect) and my position~ yay!!

My second birthday cake- made by my husband! Menagerie on top provided by my sister.

And the cherry on top? A birthday cake at the barn accompanied by good friends and a Palm Bay. Yum!!! I even had more cake at home baked by my husband, who make an amazing cake that I immediately wanted to eat more of, even though I knew it would make me sick….

It was a good night.

Yep I had cake and more cake with wine instead of dinner last night. So sue me, it’s my birthday!!! 🙂