windshield diaries

Thursday, October 13, 2011

letters

Dear Weekly Work Provided Lunch,

You are making my butt fat with your delicious crusty bread sandwiches. Back on the points for this one!

Dear House,

We are trying our hardest to make you as pretty as possible for our housewarming party. We promise that when we get the money we will restore you to the gorgeousness that you deserve!

Dear Puppy Fever,

Please quit it until the spring. I don't want to housetrain a puppy in the snow, and you are making it very difficult to wait!!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Blogging Buddies: Pie, Sovereign, Foggy and Juliette

Hi! I am Juliette from the Thoroughbred retraining blog, Honeysuckle Faire. I live with my husband, Brian, and our daughter, Maizie Jane, our adorable kitty, Noodlebug, and our three sweet and silly Thoroughbreds, Pie, Sovereign, and Foggy.

Many people do not know this sad fact, but when Thoroughbreds are done racing, most are sent to be slaughtered. Thankfully, there are rescue organizations cropping up all over the US and UK who are able to save the lives of some of the horses. I found one such organization, Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) out of Saratoga Springs, New York and I requested to foster two horses in December of 2008.

Racehorses know very little about being safe riding horses when they come from the racetrack. They have to be "retrained" to walk nicely on a lead, be groomed safely, be tacked up in cross-ties, and walk, trot, and canter with a rider aboard at safe speeds. My original idea was to foster and retrain two horses from TRF and help them get adopted. So in February of 2009, Sly Pioneer (Pie) and Suave Lord (Sovereign), two ex-race horses from Philadelphia Park Racetrack arrived at our farm.

Pie was only three years old and Sovereign had just turned four when they arrived, but both had already been trained to race. Sovereign had raced 26 times (!) which isn't very much when compared to most Thoroughbreds on the track. Racehorses are trained to take the bit in their mouths and go, so I started retraining them by never putting a bit in their mouth. I taught both horses to be ridden in a bitless bridle. This helps racehorses "forget" all that they learned before. In addition, long grazing and grooming sessions and many hours of good quality hay and free pasture time helps to "erase" the memories of racing. Mostly, kindness and love helps retrain these smart, athletic horses.

Of course, we all fell in love with the two big boys and we decided to adopt them as our own almost as soon as they arrived. Can you blame us? Here I am on my sweet, gentle giant, Pie, and Sovereign is following with my friend, Kathy riding him.

One evening in July of 2010 I was wondering about the pedigree of our two wonderful horses and I found out online that Sovereign had a full brother named "Found in the Fog" and he was still racing at Philadelphia Park!!! We live two hours from Philadelphia so I immediately contacted his owners to see if we could meet him. He wasn't going to race again that summer and there seemed to be no way to see him, but I kept thinking about this horse. In November his owners contacted me to see if I wanted to adopt him because they were done racing him!

Brian and I went to Philly to meet "Found in the Fog" (Foggy) and, again, we fell instantly in love. Foggy is the absolute sweetest horse that ever lived. Here I am (below) on the day I met him. He came home to live with us permanently in January of 2011!

* * * * * * *

Thank you Juliette, for sharing your story!!

We are currently seeking submissions for the Blogging Buddies series, and we would love to hear all about your pet or pets, please email us!

windshielddiaries at gmail dot com

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

it's that time of year....

...when Target has amazing dog costumes that we can't resist buying to dress up our cats...

This year, Styles gets eaten by a shark!

And Miyagi is a rebellious teenage punk rocker.

* many cat treats were devoured in the making of this post!

Monday, October 10, 2011

Bob's Diner

Recently, on a crisp, cold autumn morning we decided to try a diner we've been driving past a lot since moving into our new house. We walked into Bob's Diner, and after waiting a bit for a booth we were finally seated. At a booth right under the air conditioner. Which was on full blast. Did I mention "crisp, cold autumn morning?"

So we sat under the AC, shivering, and waited for the bus girl to take our drink order. An waited some more, then waited a little longer. Finally after about 15 minutes she wandered over.

The waitress came over soon after and took our food order. The food came out fairly quickly, and she topped off our coffee. Then we literally NEVER saw her again. No, seriously: LITERALLY.

I will give them this, there was a lot of food on those plates. But for the price they are charging, the quality should definitely be kicked up a notch. The coffee was bitter and burnt, the bacon was paper thin and flavorless, the home fries were bland and buttery, the eggs were ok...I mean how hard is it to screw up over easy eggs?

Then there was the french toast. White bread, egg wash, griddle, done. No seasoning at all. This was seriously made with WONDER BREAD. Who does this at a restaurant any more? This was more like "I'm at home, I'm lazy, but I want some French Toast" kinda French Toast. Not what a diner should be serving.

So we ate our breakfast in shocked, freezing amazement. Then waited for the check. And waited and waited. The waitress was NOWHERE to be found. Finally after 15 minutes the bus girl came and cleared our dishes. But the waitress was MIA. 20 minutes after our dishes had been cleared we were finally sick of waiting, and went to the register where we stood for a few more minutes before a different waitress came over to help us. We could have literally walked out. She asked us where our check was, and we told her that we were wondering the same thing. Then we rattled off what we had ordered, whipped out the debit card, and finally escaped.

The clientele at Bob's was mostly elderly or older folks. I'm convinced that it's because they are all still sitting their waiting on their checks from 20 years ago.

Never again. Bob's you are officially at the bottom of the list.