highs and the lows

This afternoon was sunny and so incredibly beautiful that I decided to walk to Starbucks. Since I had cups upon cups of coffee this morning, I decided to go with a coffee free drink - a smooth, creamy, refreshing strawberry smoothie. Next week, I plan to start reviewing Starbucks' food section beginning with the lowest calorie item and work my way up to the highest calorie item, since I have covered all their cool secret drinks.


This past week was sort of rough for me. I had 3 bad days and only 2 good days of riding :(.
Monday:  I rode Ease (the first horse I breezed).  Although all we did was jog, it was a beautiful ride. My second horse was Mak, who is a tough horse to ride.  If you pull against him at all, he will run off with you. As we were jogging, he started to go into a canter.  I tried talking to him to get him to slow down, but that didn't work so well.  I then pulled ever so slightly on the reins.....but, we were off to the races!  He ran off with me in the field for one lap. I tried shortening my hold, but that only made him go faster. When I lengthened my hold, I was finally able to talk him back to me.

Tuesday: I had a good gallop on Ease in the field.  He was such a gentleman and didn't pull to much. I had to walk Mak around in the barn because I went to fast on him the previous day. It is very important to execute the trainers directions and because I screwed up I had to pay the price for not being able to go to the track. Out in the real world, I could have very easily been fired.

Wednesday. I jogged JC in the field but suddenly she started running off with me. I was extremely upset.  Because I'm too relaxed in the field, I give the horses too much rein. I did have an awesome ride on Ease on the track.  On my second lap, Mr. McCarron told me to let him gallop.  I softened on his mouth way too quickly so he took off me.  Fortunately, I was able to get Ease to slow down and come back to me.  I have a lot of fine tuning that I need to work on

Thursday I had a good ride on Praise in the field and an excellent ride on Sticky on the track. She barely pulled at all.  It was a great day.

Friday: I had another great ride on Praise in the field, but it was cut short because they skies opened and began dumping loads of water. I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to breeze Marble, but the rain soon let up and off to the track we went. I had an excellent ride on my big man and had the fastest breeze time:) Partially because he is one of the fastest in the barn ;).

The Sunday morning bite

It is an unbelievable 80 degrees at the moment. Since it was so warm I decided to really hit the ice coffees and frappuccinos from Starbucks hard core :). Tonight is nothing too exciting, just an ice coffee with sugar free vanilla syrup.  Because it’s not a specialty drink, I get free refills :)  Thanks to all of your generous donations, I have achieved enough Starbucks reward stars to reach the green level which gives me free refills on any brewed tea or coffee plus free syrup flavors.  I need only 12 more points to reach the Gold level :). Join the Starbucks reward program and start earning your stars to achieve special discounts :) 

Sunday mornings, I venture out to find small restaurants that serve specialty foods or are really fun and adventurous places unlike your chain restaurants. 

Magee’s Bakery is a family run business since 1956. It has a great bakery vibe and is the perfect spot to sip on some joe while biting into a moist, soft, pillowy doughnut. Everything is made from scratch. They have scones, doughnuts, Danishes, cakes, cookies, freshly made buttermilk biscuits, egg casseroles and biscuits and gravy. Magee’s is a great place to go for an early breakfast, to grab some coffee and a pastry and enjoy the morning :).  

 

Great Bagel is another fun place to go. They serve about a dozen different kinds of bagels ranging from a French toast to an asiago cheese. On their website they tell you the times that fresh bagels are coming out of the oven so you can arrive just after the bagels are finished baking to ensure a you get a fresh one every time. They have many different spreads such as onion cream cheese, salmon spread, and a good ole Kentucky maple bourbon.  You can also get your bagel with lettuce, tomato, lox, onion, eggs benedict and many others things.  This is a prime place to go if you are a bagel lover.  I went with an everything bagel with lox.  It was outstanding, but it was pretty high on the caloric end.

 

Pancho’s is my favorite Mexican restaurant outside of Mexico. It serves extremely authentic Mexican food and drinks. They serve 12 different flavors of Mexican soda and even have rice water which tastes like cinnamon milk. With every meal you get chips, 3 different types of salsa and a bowl of carrots, cauliflower and a garlic clove in jalapeno juice. Their menu is very basic with a choice of chicken or beef tacos, burritos, or tostadas. Their tacos are about 4" in diameter and only have the meat and cilantro. The burritos have rice, beans and your select meat. On Sundays they have tripe soup.  When you enter Pancho’s, you feel like you have been transported south of the border with its concrete floor, mellow lime green walls and mismatched chairs and tables.  Forget Taco Bell, Chipotle, or other Tex Mex places, because this is authentic  with awesome tasting food.  It also happens to be located right next to a Mexican market and bakery, too.

Have a fantastic week, enjoy the fab weather, and go out and eat somewhere fun!