I do a lot of long walks now as my legs are injured, and on my walk this weekend I came across a ‘free’ table and it had books, toys, random stuff and this beauty: A horse head cake pan by Wilton!
So of course we made a cake!! I love it.
Ha, the title seems grim but totally isn’t- I found it and found it amusing! I don’t think I am out to ruin anyone’s life, unless they are really not into horses, rabbits, dogs or running. Then maybe I would be ruining their life!
My friend Sarah made cupcakes- she is a professional eh??Â
Anyways, this Valentine’s Day sees me taking the day off the barn, to enjoy a movie with my husband. I was treated to a LOVELY Valentine’s day cupcake at work (yesss!). We had protestors outside this morning, which was fine. I respect the right to representation, and they were polite and calm.
Though it may not seem like it, I have also been doing a TON of riding. The vibe is still…Challenging…right now, and I was in full rant mode about some things I learned about my fellow riders (not my stablemates, other folks who I know), and the theme for this week is twofold:
At least four people I know this week (god, if not MORE), are stuck in this weird hamster-wheel of logic. If you do the same thing all the time with the same people who are treating you badly, or it’s a negative environment, or whatever…You are going get the same results. Over and over. Rinse, repeat. And then complain/whine/etc loudly and repeatedly how you are the wronged party. HAH!
I would honestly laugh if I wasn’t also concerned about the animals involved. Jeesus.
Otherwise? Oats has been good, if a bit unremarkable this week. Last week felt pretty good, accomplished, this week…not so much. Not bad, he’s still my best baby, but just kind of lacklustre. His jumps last night- we moved our jump lesson to next Wed as my trainer was sick- was just ‘eh’ all around. Obviously I need lessons! Stat!!
A red velvet cupcake at work. YUMMM
Long weekend coming up, and boy, I think I need it, and a lot of others too!
Happy V-Day 🙂
Jalapeno M&Ms!!
I know, weird eh? I found these at this nice candy/ice cream shop in Cowichan Bay last weekend when Ian and I stopped there for a treat after our hike up Mt. Tzhouhalem. We got some ice cream and spotted these. They were WAY overpriced at $3.60, but I couldn’t resist and apparently the bag is bigger than a regular bag of m&ms, called a ‘sharing bag’ and contained three servings (riiiiight). This is a product offering in a line of unique ‘International’ flavours- there is Thai coconut, British toffee flavour and Mexican jalapeno flavour.
Let’s get this one thing out of the way- m&ms are overpriced and overrated. Ok I said it.
But, I also like them and a lot of people do (peanut or peanut-butter only, please. Stay away with your Smarties type ones). So these ones, how did they fare? Pretty darn neat actually! The jalapeno kick is almost impossible to detect at first, and then with a subtle heat, it grows on you. Eat more, and it gets significantly spicier! What a cool concept for a pretty boring brand. I do recommend these, they’re not so hot, but they’re quite fun and a real novelty. Not a bargain buy at all, but unique and fun to eat.
Anyways, the jalapeno m&ms were more fun than the rest of my week, which included having a lawn chair collapse underneath me causing me to fall underneath my freaking horse on Monday, and then breaking a chunk off my back molar on Tuesday that means more fillings for me…yay. ☹
Stay tuned for my other candy purchase reviews from the same store… Mango-chile Nerds, Guava Nerds!
So this was a loong and very fun weekend for me! The only (big, ugh) fly in the ointment? I’m still very injured – and I can’t run at all without shooting shin pain stabbing me every step. It aches every day, all day. It stabs when I try to run. I am not loving it.
Ugh this sucks.
I did get to enjoy a lot of amazing friend time this weekend (spent the ENTIRE day on the beach, paddleboarding!!) and had a blast!
I also treated myself to a new swimsuit top, RockTape for my injury, flower headbands (what can I say, the film Midsomar inspired me…), and happy hour and a movie with my husband, AND I finally went to Red Barn and he made me a sandwich in the last 5 minutes of his time there. Success! I had many lovely rides, and even when I knew I wanted to get in a fight with Oats about contact (ugh, he was so heavy!) I pulled out an older trick I used (towel under the arm used to stabilize contact) and we had some truly excellent rides. His trot is to die for!
I also harvested, dehydrated and ate seaweed, from the beach near my house on Dallas Rd. Crazy eh?!!! Yum!!! There were, however, two horrifying bugs in it with literal pincers. YIKES. I ran away screaming and Ian had to handle the washing and processing of my harvested seaweed. UGH!!!
Yummm!!
I also made these delicious blackberry popsicles! SO easy, good for you and delicious! Yeah!! (photos to come, I ate a bunch too quickly) I also included granola. 🙂
We attended the Global Run Day festivities at our local Frontrunners downtown yesterday and had a BLAST!!! We went for a 5k shake-out run, and then back to the store for tacos and beer, by La Taqueria!!! It was so good 🙂 And the best part? Costs nothing!!
The event was sponsored by Saucony, and they had a rep there to demo shoes, and bonus- swag items like hats, bags, stickers, beer cozies, bottle openers and some prizes!! Can you believe it?
My swag!!! And I had a great beer too- Sun Setter peach/wheat.Â
I had a great time 🙂 I 100% recommend!
I love Easter, it’s one of my favourite holidays. I think because the candy is my favourite, it give me a chance to complain at length about how Cadbury’s is ripping the people off by shrinking their Cadbury’s Crème Eggs year after year and now using these weird plastic packages, I love Peeps and now Reese’s entered the fray with their Reese’s Eggs AND who can forget the big Reese’s Bunny? I pointed it out to Ian this year and hinted heavily that this was ‘the best chocolate bunny money can buy’…I never said I had fine taste!
Also I love rabbits, so there is that too!
But this isn’t quite an Easter candy review, though the white chocolate does give Reese’s a pretty pastel-like look, and I think it looks nice, like little snowballs or something? I took a photo of one I had bitten into, and it looked like a squashed cockroach, so you’re not getting that pic, ha. They smell delicious, a little bit fakey (thanks to the white chocolate), but they are actually pretty darn delicious! I am not a white chocolate person, but I AM a candy person/Reese’s girl, so beggars can’t be choosers, haha.
The taste is pure Reese’s, albeit sweeter than the traditional. You can eat them by the handful, which I like. I don’t like being forced to moderate my candy consumption, like why I kind of dislike dark chocolate. Let me eat you by the fistful already!!!
If you are interested in something new, I would rate these as slightly lower than the traditional mini Reese’s, but higher than Reese’s Pieces in terms of taste value. Two thumbs up! Thank you to my friend who knows what I like best!
This race was rescheduled from a really bad snowstorm we had a few weeks ago, in Feb. And they definitely chose the right weekend to reschedule- it was cold, but clear and sunny yesterday, making for a really nice race experience.
Ok I’m a blur but I weirdly kind of like the effect? It looks really cool! Plus the girl behind me placed second in our age group, so how good is this timing? 😉
This race used to have a pretty notorious set of hills on it, and a slog-slow finish through a playground field for the finish. They re-did the course last year after a car accident forced them to change the course last-minute, and people liked the new course so much that they kept it! Yay! That means the course is MUCH faster, fluid and now allows for a real sprint to the finish. I like it a lot more this way, haha.
Note- there are still some rolling hills, but they aren’t even remotely comparable to what it used to be…
I was going to use this race to see how well I could stick to a under-4:30/km pace. Last time I kind of struggled or didn’t take it really seriously, so I thought I was ready to meet the challenge appropriately. And I did! I got kind of caught up at the start, and my gun/chip time have like…8 seconds of elapsed time. Hah. Oh well!
They had the best cupcakes! So cute.Â
I came off the start fairly behind, but worked to steadily close the gap. I was pretty happy with my consistent pacing (in a bit of a headwind the entire way out…) with some Km’s at 4:30 but mostly under. I worked hard in the first half to maintain.
At the turnaround, I had been passing people pretty regularly. The turnaround was good, I felt fairly strong and able to keep my pace really moving. I caught up to a few runners, ran a ridiculously fast 1km at 10km- like 4:14?? HA. I could NOT keep that, and the runner I’d been matching blew past me. Ahhh hahaha. Oh well!
Came up fairly strong for the finish, and my eyes were watering like crazy! I was pleased with my time, and felt like it was probably one of the most competent 12ks I’d run. My stomach cramped up horribly after though, UGHH and I didn’t feel great for the rest of the day/evening. Ugh.
A big thanks to the volunteers, VIRA and Bastion Run Club for putting on a lovely race. The snacks, cupcakes and treats were amazing. I just loved them! And because this is a smaller race, the fasties didn’t show up and I got first place in my AG, and was 9th woman finisher with a time of 52:41 chip/52:49 gun. 🙂
It was chilly for Gidget too!Â
We’re firmly entrenched in a deep freeze here in the normally very mild climes of Vancouver Island. And I hate it. So much. I would honestly rather have rain (an unpopular opinion, but rain doesn’t make my fingers freeze walking home, and sit at my office cubicle, freezing my ass off, my pony very stiff for riding, feet frozen, frozen water buckets…I could go on).
Ian syringe feeding the patient.
I wanted to cry walking home I was so miserable- and yes, I was dressed warmly with a winter jacket, hat, gloves and scarf. And I was miserable!! I spent all day freezing and then had a lousy walk home, and then walked my dog, and then went to spend more time at a freezing barn. Luckily the activity at the barn warmed me up and my ride, while painful and frozen, wasn’t too long and I was able to get some chill out of my bones.
Still!
I had a very nice weekend when the weather was good, just before it took a real turn for the worse…Oats in particular was feeling lovely on Sunday, so smooth..Good..Just, amazing. I love his flowy movement! I felt so lucky to ride him Sunday and just enjoy him for his fantastic gaits. I did a lot of running on the weekend, it was pretty mild out except turned cold on Sunday.
Doing good work here.Â
Went out for dinner (Dine Around Stay in Town is on right now!) to the Livet. A new restaurant to me, and I really enjoyed the $30 menu that they were offering- it was fantastic and a really decent deal too, for the level/quality of food (charcuterie starter, crispy rockfish main and chocolate-banana bread French toast with currants for dessert). YUMM!!
And best of all, the animal drama that has been plaguing me for a few weeks is starting to resolve, thank Christ. My bunny is on the mend, and eating really well and drinking water too. Phew!!!!!!
On to this week, in which I try just not to freeze. Oats gets ridden by an adult amateur on Tuesdays, so I have Tues/Wed off now. I am going to a hockey game on Wed now too, with a friend! 🙂 And maybe another dine-around event on Friday with my other friends? We’ll see!
The adventures of Mr. Oats 