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December 30, 2006
New Stone Chips
These Stone Chips mini horses will be coming to my stable soon.
Some friends wanted to see a photo, so I'm posting it here! Stone Chips aren't made of stone, they are injection-molded plastic and are similar in size to a Breyer Stablemate. They are very cute!
Posted by Jessica at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)
December 29, 2006
Bloody Hell!
At least, that's what I feel like saying after trying to deal with the company that bought our timeshare resort over in Cornwall. Sort of reminds me of what our former customers went through when the company I used to work for was bought out by a bigger outfit.
The way the timeshare works is 1) You buy your week(s) and 2) You pay your yearly maintenance fee. Sounds simple, right?
Well, it would be if the bloody company had its information straight.
We received the invoice for the yearly fee on December 26th. It is due on January 1, 2007. The invoice says to mail a check to the address listed.
Great. We live in the United States. Now I know that the original company (the timeshare resort we purchased at) has many American owners, as they told me so when we were considering purchasing. However, this new, bigger company that now owns the Estate has many resorts all over Europe, but their membership is primarily British. They did not provide any information on directly transferring the money to their account. They just assumed that everyone would be sending in a check.
I therefore went to my bank with the intention of purchasing an international check or money order to send them. My bank advised me that this was not a practical option. By the time the check arrived in England, the exchange rate will have changed and the amount of the check might not be sufficient to cover the fee. "You'd have to send them more than you owe in order to be sure to cover any fluctuation in the exchange rate." A far more practical way, she said, would be to electronically transfer the money directly to their account. Just like we did when we purchased the timeshare from the agent.
I emailed the only email address provided on both the resort website and the bigger company's website. I emailed twice, once on December 26th and once on December 27th asking for the information to transfer the funds.
I received no response.
Remember, this fee is due on January 1.
I finally called the number provided on the invoice today. It connected me to the larger company. I told them who I was and what I needed. The woman on the other end said she would get the information for me, and put me on hold.
When she came back on the line, she told me, "I'm sorry, but we don't have that information for that resort." She added that the entire accounting department was out of office until January 2.
I asked her to transfer me to someone who did have the information that I needed. They transferred me to the resort in question. When the front desk answered the phone, I told her what I needed. She said, "I'm sorry, but everything has to go through the Big Company."
I told her, "I just talked to them. They don't have the information. They transferred me to you."
I still do not have this information, and the fee is due on January 1.
I feel like I am trying to deal with a company being run by the Three Stooges.
Posted by Jessica at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)
December 28, 2006
Christmas Marathon
Wow, Christmas was a marathon of driving, visiting, opening presents, eating, driving some more, visiting, eating, opening presents, driving...you get the picture!
First, there was Christmas Eve with my aunt, uncle and cousins. They have a really fun white elephant gift exchange that is supposed to consist of weird objects found around your house that no longer serve a purpose. Hobbits would call this the mathom exchange, they are always giving useless items called "mathoms" away as presents.
I found a horrendous set of Christmas candles (never used) in a box in the basement, so I wrapped those up. Brian found a still-in-the-box heating vent cover. It is Victorian in style, but doesn't fit any of our heating vents, unfortunately.
I ended up with a beeping key chain. Derek likes this object very much. It makes noise whenever it hears a whistling sound, or whatever it interprets as a whistling sound. (It's for people who lose their keys! Just whistle, and the keychain makes a loud beeping sound.)
Cousin Mary ended up with the same set of hideous dollar-store ceramic Christmas decorative bells that she had gotten in the exchange the previous year-her husband picked out this mathom to "steal" after the one he had gotten in the exchange was stolen by somebody else. (Three steals allowed per turn in the white elephant exchange.)
It was fun catching up on all of the news. Unfortunately, cousin Andrew was not able to make it this year, but we all signed a card for him and hope to see him next year.
Christmas Day, we went to Don and Amy's house. Amy cooked a gigantic breakfast, and then we all opened a bunch of gifts. I found out that my sister has a new boyfriend, exciting news. She promises to email photos soon.
After that, we drove to Brian's parents' house, where we had another huge gift-opening extravaganza, followed by more eating. Brian's mom made tasty chicken dumpling soup-yum!
When we finally got home that night, it was tempting to just hold off on opening the rest of our gifts, but we did it anyway.
The following day was Brian's birthday-he is 33 now!
I bought him loads of gaming stuff, so that should keep him busy for awhile!
Posted by Jessica at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)
December 22, 2006
Santa's Helper
Derek helped me fill the stockings at the barn last night!
It was rainy and muddy, and all of the horses were inside for the night. Kai's rug was keeping him toasty and warm. He was munching his hay contentedly as Derek and I came in the barn.
We talked to our friend, Cheryl, for awhile. She mentioned that she didn't think Kai was drinking his water as much as he should be. I had left my giant "force water down the throat" syringe at home, but we found another one to use, so I put some salt in the end of the syringe, filled it up with water and gave it to Kai (as recommended by the vet.) That seemed to work, as he started drinking water from his bucket again.
Derek helped me to clean the stall. There is a little manure fork at the barn, which belongs to the owner's grandson, but we occasionally borrow it as Derek loves to help me. He gets it on the fork, but usually misses the wheelbarrow, so I end up cleaning up after Derek! It is very cute watching Derek interact with Kai. (I make sure that Kai knows Derek is there, and that I am close enough to prevent any accidents.) Kai watches Derek with a very kind eye, and I make sure that Derek doesn't accidentally bump Kai with the fork.
After that, we filled up the stockings. I had bought a whole bunch of horse treats in a giant bag, and I brought smaller sandwich bags to fill with the treats in order to put them in the stockings. I held the baggies open, and Derek filled them with treats. He was very good at this, and if I told him "two more treats should fill it up" then he would get two more. If I told him "three more treats" then he would give me three of them! (That is as high as he can count right now.)
Posted by Jessica at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)
December 20, 2006
Derek's Grand Performance!
Derek was to be one of the animals in the stable during the nativity scene at the Christmas Program. They were all to sing a little song about the animals. Derek may not have a career ahead of him in musical performance...
Doodah and Papa had driven all the way from their house just to watch Derek's performance! All of the other little kids smiled happily and waved at their parents. Not Derek!
All Derek did was cry! The entire time he was on stage, his little lower lip was quivering and he was just bawling. Sometimes it was just tears and wails, other times I could distinctly hear "Mommy!" I was so sad, it broke my heart to hear him crying like that. The teachers finally gave up on him and brought him out to us in the audience.
After he was offstage, he calmed down and was able to enjoy the rest of the performance and party. Daddy had to carry him up to the stage and hold onto him while they sang "Jingle Bells." Following this, there were refreshments and a visit from Santa.(The cookies were a bit hit. Derek also wanted the last caramel apple, so Doodah wrapped it up for him to take home. It was too sticky to give to him there at the party.)
Poor little Boo! He has a cold, and wanted to stay home with me today, but I had to go to work. I can't wait to see him tonight and give him a big hug!
I should add that we captured this entire performance on videotape. Poor Boo!
Posted by Jessica at 01:20 PM | Comments (1)
December 19, 2006
Weekend news: Two parties, shopping and Kai's emergency vet call
Well, I knew it was going to be a busy weekend. We had loads of Christmas shopping to do, we didn't have a tree, and three parties were on our schedule. What else could happen?
Don't ask!
The weekend started off great. I went to check on the horses, who were both fine. (Cheryl had gone to visit a friend and was out-of-state for the weekend. I was checking up on her horse, as well as mine.)
Then we had a nice stroll downtown for a cup of coffee before we had to leave for our first party.
It was Andy's first birthday party, and we drove to Tim and Shawnna's house to celebrate. There were ham sandwiches and potato chips and nice cake and cupcakes. Derek took one look at all of the guests, and ran for the safety of Andy's room. He periodically ran outside to check up on the latest developments. Andy walked around very happily, and Derek tried to interact with him quite often. (Andy's too young to pay much attention to him right now!)
By the time we had to leave, Derek had warmed up to the party guests and was happily playing with Andy's toys in the living room. Derek was going to spend the night with Doodah and Papa, as Brian and I had to drive to Don and Amy's for the next party of the evening.
We headed off to Don and Amy's next. They had a huge quantity of food, most of it catered by a Lebanese restaurant. It was tasty!
There was a crazy gift exchange, in which the next people in line could "steal" the best gifts. I ended up with a pretty good gift, though some of the ones that were brought in were a bit odd! (A co-worker's wife ended up with a rock with a face on it!)
We did not get home until midnight.
Sunday was supposed to have another party in the middle of the afternoon, but I called them up and said I couldn't make it. It was just too much to squeeze it in with all we had to do. We found a tree, almost finished the shopping, and then headed home. I had mountains of presents to wrap.
I had everything in piles on the living room floor, and the phone rang. It was the woman at whose stable I board Kai. She said he hadn't eaten that morning and wasn't eating dinner, either. I suspected colic and went right over to check on him. He wasn't in severe excruciating pain, but it was obvious that he was very uncomfortable.
I called the vet right away (you don't mess around with colic or you will have a dead horse), and surprisingly, she was able to come right out (odd, being a Sunday night.) His temperature was normal, but his heart rate was elevated and the vet did a rectal exam. Kai hardly had anything in his intestines, and what he did have was small and hard, as if all of the moisture had been leeched out of it.
She couldn't locate the impaction, but she was pretty sure that it wasn't a twisted intestine, which was very good news.
She gave him some pain medicine, and stuck a tube down his nose so that she could fill him up with fluids. She put some mineral oil in the water. She said "if it comes out the other end, then we know that he's not completely blocked."
I spent some time walking him around until he did finally expel some fecal matter.
The next morning, the mineral oil was coming out the right end and Kai was showing signs of being hungry again. The vet came out again first thing in the morning, and checked him over. He looks like he is on the mend. I had to go out again late last night and give him some medicine and some salt to encourage him to drink more water. No grain for Kai until today (Tuesday), but he is eating hay again and drinking water. We will try adding a bit of grain this evening.
After all of this, I was exhausted and needed to sleep. Well, I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep.
Derek's school Christmas program is tonight. I hope I don't fall asleep during it! I think he will be singing Jingle Bells, Santa Claus is Comin' to Town, Holly Jolly Christmas, and Frosty the Snowman! We have the video camera charged up!
Posted by Jessica at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)
December 15, 2006
Bizarre Dream
I had a very bizarre dream last night, about weird spirits from the other side. Oooo, scary!
In the dream, Beetlejuice-type spirits were walking around among us. Most of them were obvious, but some were invisible. If you touched one (with your fingers), even accidentally, you would become one of them.
People walked around holding their hands close to their chests, and avoid doing anything (such as pointing) that might lead to them accidentally touching an invisible spirit.
If you touched one, your family had to have a funeral for you. They could still see you and hear you, but you were now a spirit, not human.
I have no idea what this dream might mean.
Posted by Jessica at 12:26 PM | Comments (1)
December 12, 2006
Feltie Vanner arrives from England! Her name is Branwen, and she was created by Laura Bond. Thanks, Laura!
Laura has made two other felties that have made their way into my stables, and I hope to commission more of them next year. (Especially a feltie portrait of Kai!)
Laura makes many felties and they are extremely popular. You can see why, as Branwen is so adorable.
Philippa, one of my Julip riders, was distraught when I sent her favourite mount, Bumblebee, to live with Laura. However, Pip has always wanted a Vanner, so Clive (her husband) bought this one for her as a Christmas gift. Shhhh-don't tell Philippa!
Posted by Jessica at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)
A very horse-y Christmas
I decorated some Christmas stockings with the horses' names on them and hung them up in the stable. Santa does visit horses, doesn't he?
Some of them already had stockings, but two old, retired mares and Kai and Gambler didn't, so I made stockings for them. Cheryl and Shannon decorated the two geldings' stalls in a Christmas-y theme. Shannon's even included a lovely photo of her riding Gambler.
The barn Christmas party was on Sunday. There was much food to be had, and the girls from the show stable had a gift exchange.
I took some photos of Kai wearing his turnout rug. It's green and is too big for him, but only slightly. It keeps him toasty warm and dry!
Cheryl, Shannon and I also did some super-secret shopping for Christmas presents for the two old mares and the gelding in the neighboring stall. That was before we all went out for a bit of dessert at one of our favourite restaurants-yum!
Posted by Jessica at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)
December 05, 2006
"I'm so very happy!"
My little Boo really warmed my heart last night. It was getting very late, and he was overdue for bedtime. But he and I had been playing with choo-choos and he wanted to continue our game.
He had told me earlier in the evening, "Mommy, come and play choo-choos with me." So there I was, on the floor pushing Gordon along, as Derek attached several coaches to "Silly Big Engine" (AKA Big City Engine, but I like Derek's version of the name much better!)
Derek made a tunnel out of his TV tray and told me that his sippy cup was a castle. The trains went through the tunnel and past the castle, over and over again. Through it all, Derek kept up a stream of imaginary conversations between the various engines and their coaches.
I finally told him, "It's getting very late. Let's go get ready for bed and I'll read you a story."
He looked up at me with a beaming smile, and said, "But I'm so very happy!"
With his adoring and delighted eyes upon me, I had to let him play for a few more minutes! We played some more, and then I asked him to get ready for bed again. Once more, he gave me the huge smile. "I'm so very happy!" he repeated.
It is moments like this that make it all worthwhile as a parent. It makes ME so very happy to see Derek so thrilled to be playing choo-choos with his mother!
We played a little bit more, and then I told him that he had to get ready for his bedtime story. This time, he said, "Okay, Mommy!" and toddled off for me to tuck him in.
He is the cutest and sweetest little boy I could possibly ever imagine. I told him we would play choo-choos again this evening, and I am looking forward to it!
Posted by Jessica at 12:12 PM | Comments (2)