Update On Cat Fiasco

So, I've had some calls for some updates on my status in regards to the potentially rabid kitty and likely my health.

Well, good news and bad news.

bad news? I may have seen Justin the potentially rabid cat a week ago, but it was to dark to make a positive identification and the mysterious cat sort of disappeared. And because cat could not be identified, they had to take precautionary measures and so now I have been vaccinated for Rabies.

Good News? Rabies vaccines are not as painful as they were before. I got three shots of Immuno Globulin in my thighs and arm and the rabies vaccine in my other arm, and then I have to go back three more times to get the rabies vaccine once more. I've gone back twice now, next monday and I will be completely vaccinated for Rabies for a year. So if I can handle potentially rabid animals with less of a risk to my health then other people. Will I? Well, I still want to avoid animals frothing at the mouth that can potentially attack me, but it is nice to have that extra safety precaution.

Also, my other two barn cats, the sane ones, have now been fully vaccinated. The vet complimented them on how well they behaved, especially considering they are barn cats, saying that they were better then a lot of other housecats that come through. I then learned that for a couple free barn cats, they are expensive in their own way. So no more free cats for me.

I'm still keeping an eye out for Justin, but I got sick of locking the cats in the tack room where they were just crapping wherever. I was hoping that perhaps they would learn to stay out of the cat trap but I have found Tim more then once eating the tuna I was using to catch the other cat. The last time he was stretched out on his back calmly waiting for me to open the door. He knows I'll let him out eventually. Crazy cat.

If I ever do catch Justin, or see him again, I don't know what I'm going to do with him. If he's still alive, he definitely does not have rabies, but if he just stays out of my way and doesn't attack people, whatever. Kind of sad, somebody was suggesting he could have been abused and reacted out of fear, which frustrates me.

If Justin ever does come back, I'll be sure to let you all know. My guess I'll see him after my rabies series is complete.

To Kill or Not to Kill

That is the question in regards to pet overpopulation.

I have been in the market for a dog for a few weeks now, and going to the pound I see all of the cats looking for a home of their own. Before I had my horse fascination, I was a cat person through and through. I loved cats, I had a cat that put up with me named Kaita as a kid that I absolutely adored. She was an outside mouser, and she was a good one. Seeing as I was such an enormous animal lover, when it was time for Kaita to be put down, my parents were worried I wouldn't be able to handle it. I went through a very severe depression at nine years old when our dog Brandy got hit by a truck. I think it was my first real encounter with death.

Eventually I got older and more mature, and although I consider myself still an animal lover, I've become a little more practical about my love of furry creatures. Right now I have three chickens, three horses, and three (sort of) cats. I want to get a dog, which I mentioned earlier, but that is for another post. This post is about my current assortment of critters.

I'm still a bit of a cat person I admit, but I have a few specifications for any kitty that wants to consider me their person. One, they are strictly outdoor barn cats. due to family allergies, and the hair issue, i just discovered that I don't do indoor cats. Two, they can't be insane. I know, I know, I'm talking about cats here. By their nature cats are insane. And after tonight, I would be inclined to agree with this assessment.

This is Tim, trying to help me sell my truck

What I mean about a cat being sane, is that it serves its purpose by catching mice (because having a barn, cats are a necessity) and being somewhat friendly to their humans. My two cats, Tim and Bob, by and large fall under this description. Yes, Tim doesn't like to be held for long periods, he mostly likes a quick scratch behind the ears, once you understand that Tim isn't a cuddly holding type cat, then you'll do just fine with him. He is overall approachable, a little shy with strangers, and just comes up for a quick pet and perhaps a chance to come inside (which he is promptly shooed back out).

Bob, when he was more of a kitten and less of a fat cat
Bob, the resident furball, is a fluffy fat kitten that is quickly approaching cat size. He has instapurr mode and is quite content with being in your lap. Of course, he's a cat, and therefore content to be independent as well, but he definitely still has a kitten mode and his favorite game is to torment Tim. I call him Bob because of his tufted ears that remind me of a bob cat.


The coolest picture of Stewie that I possess
Stewie was a cat that originally came with Tim. She was quite a love of a cat too, but when Bob was introduced, she made her displeasure known and then disappeared for a few days, reappeared, disappeared again, and did this game for a few weeks before she disappeared altogether. I haven't seen her since about September. She either got eaten, or found a new home.


I should have known, Justin acted cute, but he certainly has an evil eye here
A few weeks ago, I met Justin while hauling a horse for a girl. He was super friendly, i reached down and gave him a pat and he looked like all he wanted was a little love. I picked him up and he was just content to purr in my arms. The lady who owned him asked me 'do you want him?' Apparently, he was a barn cat with two full sisters, and being barn cats, they have a tendency to not get fixed. To prevent inbreeding, I went ahead and took him home. He was just as calm as he could be in the car, purring and perched on the back seat. He really did like people.

Of course, being the new cat, Bob and Tim appeared to have other ideas, and the cats didn't seem to get along at first. Justin liked people alright, but he didn't like the other cats. He stuck around for about four days, and then one day I didn't see him anymore. I was disappointed, he was a cool looking and quite lovable barn cat. But I guess two male barn cats was to much, and Stewie got chased away by the other two (I think Bob and Tim are gay.)

Did I mention cats are insane? Well, they are.

The last few nights I've been hearing a cat meowing, a really strange meow. I thought it might be Justin, but I wasn't so sure. Then this afternoon, I see him out in the yard, he looks nice and fluffy and fat, and it is unmistakeably him. I call for him, he looks a little skittish and fluffs his back, goes under the car. That seems odd, he came right up to you before, so I call to him again, seeing if he'll come. He doesn't.

I go feed the horses and come back and find him now under the horse trailer, meowing his strange meow. I have a piece of bailing twine, thinking I just need to calm him down and let him feel nice and at ease again. I call for him and try to use the bailing twine to get him to come out (it certainly worked with Bob when he first arrived) Justin just hides behind the tire of the trailer and meows at me, I'm about three feet from him, trying to get him to come toward me when before I know it, he lunges at me. All fur and claws and teeth, and tears me a new one.

My first instinct is to kill the cat. This is why.


About ten minutes after my encounter with Justin

I actually posted this picture on Facebook (I am a facebook junkie, the website is evil) with the caption: "Remember Justin, the 'huggable' barn cat I told you about? Well, he's got a bounty on his head, which will have a .22 round through it. And the carcass will be taken to animal control and tested for rabies. How quickly can a cat go feral?"

I got quite a few comments, most of which were in league with me saying 'Yes, Kill it!' because let's be realistic. Would you keep a cat that did this to your face? Of course, I had several people commenting 'what are you doing, go to the doctor NOW' (and yes, I did, four stitches and ten days of antibiotics coupled with a tetanus shot and they don't like to stitch cat bites because of infections).

But then one commenter, a friend of a friend, seemed horrified by the prospect of everyone gunning for this poor cat's life. Others were suggesting perhaps a more humane way to go is to have it euthanized, while Animal Control straight up told me to trap it and bring it in so they could quarantine it for ten days. Back to the cruel inhumane treatment of threatening to shoot a cat, hell, I had my .22 locked and loaded but alas, the cat ran into the neighbor's property and it was getting dark. Yes, my first thought was vengeance, on cat, shoot it and have it's brain tested for rabies. Because how this cat acted now versus how it acted when I first brought it home, it was like two totally different cats! One that was all 'give me love!' and the other all 'murder death destroy!'

Let's face facts here, whether it's by lethal injection or lead injection, this cat is most likely going to meet its fate on hell's side of the rainbow bridge. I am an animal lover, but the last thing we need is to waste time on a cat that acts like a lunatic. People were trying to make excuses for this beast, 'oh, why do you have to immediately resort to killing it?' kind of mentality, that all we have to do is understand the cat's motives and then come to an understanding.

Here's my understanding, cat. You're a barn cat, your job is to eat mice. I will provide a little extra food for you so if mousing is limited, you have something to eat. You have a barn you can make yourself at home in. All I ask, is that you don't go apeshit insane and attack me. I have no use for a cat that attacks me and forces me to get stitches and antibiotics for a catbite. Most cats, if they didn't want to be messed with, would have ran off. Not sit there meowing at me before lunging with tooth and claw. I have no use for crazy cats, there are thousands of other nice sensible cats that want a loving home, I am not going to steal the chance at one of them getting a place to live to rehome this cat, I'm not going to even bother wasting another person's time. Once a cat does something like this, they are done. Would you trust a cat that did this with your kids? What are the cat's motives? Does a cat even need a motive to be crazy? Or is it sick? Even better reason to put it down with a bullet.

I usually like cats, a lot. I really love having a cuddly cat in my arms that will let me pet and love on it as they purr in contentment. Bob (and Stewie) are like this, and Justin used to be. Well, not anymore. Crazy cat is going down!

My goal is still to catch the feline and hand it over to animal control, unless they charge me for turning the cat in, which is when I'll take matters into my own hands and make sure it doesn't get the opportunity to lash out at another human being. Which brings me to another question. exactly how long does it take to turn an extremely friendly cat into a feral nutcase?

Whatever, tuna in the live trap, let's hope that I can catch a cat.

A Note About Commenting

I like to encourage people to comment on my blog, whether they disagree with me or not, because it makes me feel good that somebody at least cares enough about what I have to say to leave a short message to me about it.



That said, PLEASE don't choose the option of Anonymous when commenting on my blog. It is annoying. Call yourself something, ANYTHING but Anonymous. You can choose the name/url option and put anything there that you want, you don't even have to put in a URL. Because I like to encourage commenting and don't want people to feel pressured into having to register for something to leave a comment. Unfortunately, allowing that option also allows for people to choose to click Anonymous. Please do me a favor and just use the Basic Name Option. If people keep choosing to use Anonymous, I'll just force everyone to register.

Bleh!

Arizona Shootings, Some Good News from this Tragedy

So some good news in all of this discourse about who is to blame for the tragedy that occurred in Arizona this last weekend. First, that it appears that Representative Giffords will survive and I wish her a full recovery and pray for the best.

Secondly, it appears that the narrative of 'blame Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, the tea baggers and all of this negative rhetoric about bulls eyes and cross hairs for causing this' is starting to fall apart. It's coming out that Jared Loughner is a lunatic. He's a crazy that did it on his own, and my first thought when reading up on his description is this guy was an anarchist nutjob.

Meanwhile, as the smear campaign (thankfully) falls apart, we are getting commentary on it from Mark Halperin on Morning Joe, which makes you go, huh?

"I just want to single out one thing. I think the media and the politicians have behaved pretty well so far. I'm worried about the anger of the right-wing commentariat," Halperin said. "Fox and George Will and other conservatives are in some cases justifiably upset at liberals, but they’re turning this back into the standard operating procedure of 'all this is war and fodder for content' rather than trying to bring the country together."

"Wait a second," Scarborough responded. "I think they would say that you have that backwards, that a shooting was turned into fodder to attack conservatives."

Halperin: "And, I already made that criticism, as well. they're right, but rather than seizing on it and turning the other cheek, they're back at their war stations. that’s not going to help us."

Really? Really? So you are suggesting when you get smeared, you just stay quiet, bend over and take it? Now that the facts are coming out this is really starting to bite those on the ass who were driving it, isn't it? And I hope it does. This was pure exploitation of a national tragedy by those on the left by politicizing it to demonize conservatives like Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. And the fact that the narrative was driven by so many in the media and on the left appalled me. And people wonder why I don't bother watching TV anymore. I don't trust a single word any of those asshats have to say.

My favorite line is from the comments at Hot Air.

'Hey, why did Obama insist he was born in Hawaii when all those birthers said he wasn't?'

The Latest Attack on Free Speech

When somebody uses imagery, many times it is figuritive wouldn't you say? It helps paint a picture by using metaphores and symbolism to help drive a message you want to bring out. Imagery has been used for centuries.

So apparently, Sarah Palin used crosshairs on several different states during the 2010 election. Anybody with half a brain would understand what was going on here. Because she put certain districts in crosshairs, did she really mean for people to take up arms and shoot up these districts? Um, no, I think it's quite clear what she was saying. She was suggesting that those districts specifically should be targeted by a strong Republican Challenger because they are held by Democrats who voted for the healthcare bill in traditionally conservative states and therefore a good possibility that if they played their cards right (oh look, another analogy!) they could win these districts

Now obviously this isn't the case, as Giffords won reelection. From what I understand she was a moderate democrat that voted for the Healthcare Bill but also voted against Pelosi (who is an idiot I must say, or a crafty woman who has no care what the citizens of this country think and has the mentality that she knows better then anyone) as Minority Leader.

First and foremost, what happened was a great tragedy, what appears to be a lone gunman shot into a crowd of innocent bystanders and took the lives of six people and wounded dozens more. He alone is responsible for his actions, he's the one that made the decision to take a gun to a public place and open fire on a woman who he disagreed with. There is nobody to blame here but this man and any possible accomplices to this murder he may have had.

What really bothers me the most about this was how quickly people were jumping to conclusions on the matter. Palin used crosshairs so she was inciting violence and now she is to blame. Don't be ridiculous, crosshairs in political imagery has been used countless times before, by both sides of the aisle. Democrats and Republicans both do it, how about this map, which I was shown originally by a commentator about this topic that was actually used by the Democrats in 2004?

I don't know, that looks pretty inciteful to me! What's more, they actually use the term 'behind enemy lines' to target states that went to Bush.

You know, I think myself and people like me can probably figure out for ourselves that the democrats didn't mean to incite actual violence in those states. Those are contested states, and any lame brain can probably figure that out.

Of course, go to any website featuring this story prominantly and Sarah Palin's alleged connection to it and you can see the insanity as people are quick to blame somebody, ANYBODY, especially if it is politically convenient, except for the actual person who did the shooting. People, the only person to blame is Jared Loughner. They list a series of acts of violence towards people who supported the health care bill and link it to Sarah Palin. You know what? I bet, if you are in public office, death threats are actually pretty common. Take a quick look, there are over 300 million people in the United States, a good majority of them are good decent hard working people. And then there are some that are a little loose in the head. You take an unpopular bit of legislation like the Healthcare Bill and I wouldn't think it uncommon after any unpopular act that some politicians get a few death threats or vandalism by some people who decide to take matters into their own hands. Are these people wrong in their actions? Yes, but let's get real here, the only person to blame here are the people who act on it. Whatever happened to personal responsibility and accountability?

Besides, with this shooting, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that Loughner even liked Palin, chances are if he got inspiration from this shooting from anywhere, it seems in line more from a regrettably titled Daily Kos article (My congresswoman is now Dead to me, in referreing to Congresswoman Giffords, no link since story has been scrubbed from the website) then from a call to arms by Sarah Palin. It is quite humorous (in a terribly unfunny sort of way) how quick people were to pin this action on Sarah Palin and put the blame on her. Quite crazy actually, that people have to jump to conclusions by trying to figure out why and place the scape goat on somebody for their own political needs.

Of course, during the Ft Hood shooting, when it quickly came out that the mastermind behind that monstrocity was a Psychiatrist that got promoted to his station because nobody wanted to hurt anybody's feelings by the obvious conclusion anybody could have made that he was a radical islamist, it seemed like everywhere you looked people were falling over themselves trying to explain to people that it was so important not to jump to conclusions. Well, sorry, this is my conclusion on that story. Now everyone is rushing to conclusions to blame this on a convenient political scapegoat and saying somebody else's imagery influenced a person to shoot into a crowd at a grocery store. Stop trying to figure out the whys of why somebody did something an accept that we all have influences in every part of our lives. We, the individual, are ultimately responsible for our own actions. There is one person to blame here in this incident, and that person is a man by the name of Jared Loughner. Last I saw, he was an adult.

People are talking about being civil in talk, but man I hear the hate flowing toward Sarah Palin on this when there is no connection. Stop drawing conclusions!

And what do I see this as? This is a blatant attack on free speech. What, anybody who says anything about using figures of speech and imagery to drive their point is now guilty of inciting violence? The means some people go to connect Sarah Palin (a private citizen I might add) to other people's actions is absolutely insane. Yes, Sarah Palin has a lot of influence, a lot of people see her as bold, fresh and a source of common sense. Other people, for whatever reason, can't stand the sight of her. Because of her polarizing nature and a few other reasons, I don't think she could ever be President, though if the choice is between Palin and our current President, I'm willing to give Palin a shot, but that aside, people are trying to paint her as a scape goat in this, saying that she has blood on her hands or what not. I call Bull. As in shit, not eye. If you want to go down that slippery slope of a person's words and rhetoric as the means of inciting action in another individual, and then holding the person accountable for their words, then i would suggest that every person that Jared Loughner knew and was influenced by during his entire life, his parents, teachers, friends, coworkers, the media, etc, is accountable for his actions. And that is simply not the case. This man made his choice, he acted upon it, and he alone is responsible.

When we stand in front of those pearly gates and St Peter decides whether or not we are going to enter into the kingdom of heaven or be cast into the fiery pits of hell, I would suggest that we will be judged according to our own actions and not given a pass because we may or may not have been influenced by the words of someone else.

Another excellent blog post describing other examples of the use of the crosshairs or bullseye imagery by politicians other then Sarah Palin. Both sides are guilty if one is.

Sarah Palin comments to Glenn Beck on this tragedy, and everyone's hasty connection of her to it. Really, where do we draw the line?

The Boyz at Hillbuzz have done an excellent job at showing the hypocracy in this incident and how the media and various people are trying to pin it on Sarah Palin. A must read for anybody remotely interested in the story.

Preparing for a Revamp

Well, other than the blog, which will probably stay right here. I'm talking about my website, which still exists but is rather neglected over at risawn.com. I'm actually planning to use the com in .com for what it's intention is, I'm going commerical.

Actually, I'm going to redub the site Risawn Studios, and am trying to come up with a nifty logo to use with it, and then I think I'm going to showcase my art and photography, and then go into freelance work and perhaps try something with taking pictures and portraits for people or what not. So it's a way to showcase my work and hopefully profit a little on the side. I would be content for this to just be a side job to make a little extra money along with any other odd jobs I do. The key being, of course, is working from home is my goal. If I can keep myself motivated.

Also, I need a new computer. My husband is a mac, but I can't picture myself buying a desktop mac with all of the software I have, and paying so much for one, when I've stuck on PC.

Meanwhile, completed my first month of P90X. Pics to come, although I'm debating on showing pictures at the end of it all.

New Years Resolutions - 2010/2011

Alright, New Year means New Resolutions, and a check to see how I did.

Knock off some states off my States I haven't Visited Yet list - Got Michigan, Wisonsin, Michigan and North Dakota. That just leaves five, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska and Hawaii.

Read and Finish at least one book a month - I used to be a bookworm, but other things kept my mind off of reading this year.

Run Bloomsday under an Hour Thirty - Ran Bloomsday, I think my time was 1:20 or something. Definitely accomplished.

Operation Zombie Plan - I completely forgot to do it. It's a joke I want to do. I have to enlist some help of some siblings or my husband. We'll see.

NanoWriMo - I did it twice successfully, this year I had other things occupying my time. November was a crazy month.

Write and Publish a Short Story - I didn't do a lot of writing this year in general, again, lot's of other things on my mind. That's a good thing probably.

24 Hour Comic - I still want to do this, best do it when my husband is not home. Because he would undoubtedly get bored with it.

Give Comic an Ultimatum - Continue it or Kill it. This will be a green regardless. Haha! It's a yellow. I didn't give it an ultimatum yet, I haven't done much with it, but I don't want to give up on it yet. It is leering towards killing it unfortunately.

Work on Social Life - still a huge homebody, but my social life is immensely better this year. We being newlyweds don't do a lot of going out on the town, but I would say I am much more social then before.

Be More Active - Immensely more active, I am still a bit of a homebody and like to lounge around the house surfing the internets, but with P90X, horses, and everything else, I am staying pretty active and feel great. Also, ran a half marathon, insanely slow, but I did it!

Employment - marriage killed the initiative to find a job, and when I did find one, I got pregnant and it wasn't a good combo. I do want to get a real job, perferably working from home because I would love to be a stay at home mom.

Concealed Weapon's Permit - Damn. Bite the bullet and get it I guess.

So how did I do? 7 reds, 1 yellow and 4 greens. Not great, but not awful, considering I had three that were writing related and 2 comic related. So, how goes this year?

1. Run Bloomsday at close to an hour - I'm trying to get back into running, I'm working at P90X and as soon as the weather clears up I'm going to squeeze in some running as well. I would like to run a possible half marathon.

2. Leadman - it's a triathlon that is ski/snowboard, bike and run in Idaho. Takes place on our wedding anniversary. We would have done it last year, but, well, marriage happened instead :)

3. Pattern Racing - I am so going to do this more this year! Take a horse and run patterns on them, and I've got a horse that is awesome at patterns! She loves to run, and I'm going to do more of this.

4. Trail Challenge, Ride and Ties - More horse related items, the Trail Challenge is just riding on a trail with obstacles and getting rated on it. Same horse as above. The ride and tie is two people and a horse racing and switching off. Trail challenge is local, ride and tie not so much.

5. Concealed Weapons Permit - I am going to do this, I am going to do this.

6. Motorcycle License - I just want one, so I think I'm going to take a class and learn how to ride a motorcycle. Then my hubby and I can ride together.

7. Finish P90X - at the end of week 3 and so far so good! Since we got the right weights, it has shown to be more of a workout then before. I've only missed one day, Yoga, two days ago, and one Ab Ripper workout, yesterday, due to lower back pain. Hopefully we can continue and finish this thing out. I feel great already!

8. Go Canyoneering - we got this slotted for this year sometime. Probably in the spring, heading for Southern Utah.

9. Start writing a children's book - I want to write, illustrate and publish a children's book. It's a time consuming process, I don't expect it to get done in one day, but it would be pretty cool if I can get it going.

10. Employment - I need a job. In this economy it isn't great. Maybe something stay at home, on my own hours. That way I can continue taking care of the house, get things organized, and if somebody comes along, I don't have to change my schedule that much.

11. Learn to cook at least one new meal every month, if not every week - I need to diversify my domestic skills, and men I learn, love to eat.

12. 24 hour comic - hold over from last year, still want to do it.

13. Get back into painting - My plan from last year didn't work. I have a studio now, so I don't have any excuses. Hmm, well, maybe one.

14. Organize my studio space - it is currently a disaster. I need to get things set up in there so I can actually use the space.

15. Get Pregnant - Depending on when this happens, this might but make a lot of my other resolutions go red.

2010 was actually a fantastic year for me. Here's to an even better 2011!

2010 - Year in Review

It's January first, and you know what that means?

I post my end of year in review questions and answers. This has become a theme for me, one that I think I'm going to try to keep up with. One that I am ditching (because I think I may have seen four current movies this year) is my best and worst movies of the year review. No point really when a former movie buff no longer really watches movies.

Anyway, onto the questions!


01. What did you do in 2010 that you'd never done before?
This is a doozy of a question, this was quite a wild and crazy year for me! Let me see, I went jeeping, got engaged, got married, went rock climbing on actual rock and not a rock wall, did Pattern Racing on Horseback, got pregnant, (had a miscarriage), went snowmobiling, among other things. Kind of an exciting year.

02. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I think I did pretty good this year on resolutions. That will be detailed in the next post.

03. Did anyone close to you give birth?
I don't think so, but as soon as I say that, somebody close to me is going to say 'hey, what about me? How did you forget me?' and I will feel like a doofus.

04. Did anyone close to you die?
Again, can't think of anyone.

05. What countries did you visit?
No countries this year. However I did see four more states, which brings my total of states visited to 45. The states I visited this year that I hadn't visited before was Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota. I did visit Minnesota in 2009, but I flew through it and am not sure if I counted it or not.

06. What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010?
I don't think I was lacking much in 2010, this has been, for the most part, a fantastic year for me. But I can think of one thing, a steady job :P Married life has not been conducive to my productivity.

07. What date from 2011 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
There is a few. March 22, the date I was engaged. April 24th, the day I got married. (yes, we had a quick engagement). October 24th, the date I realized I was pregnant. November 10th, the date I miscarried.

08. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Getting married! I didn't think this would ever happen, and it is a huge achievement for me.

09. What was your biggest failure?
I don't know if I could count it as a failure, but it was a big blow for me (fortunately, I've moved past it) but losing my pregnancy.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Should I state it again? I had a miscarraige. I've learned it can be a big deal.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
My horses, Jet and Breezy. We also just purchased snowmobiles, but they are still relatively recent (like two days ago)

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
I'm thinking next year this question needs to be rewritten. But I will say my hubby's :) He is quite an awesome guy!

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Hmm, not sure. I know a few people I got frustrated with, but I wasn't appalled and depressed by them. Another question worth rewriting for next year?
Ok, there is one person, but granted, he's six. I discovered upon this that I can't do roommates.

14. Where did most of your money go?
This year, it seems to have gone toward horses.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting Married!

16. What songs will always remind you of 2010?
Marry Me by Train

17. Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
I am doing awesome right now. I was doing pretty good this time last year as well.

ii. Thinner or fatter?
About the same. Right now I'm working out pretty regularly and feel pretty active, but a month ago I wasn't.

iii. Richer or poorer?
Financially, it's a draw. In many other ways, I think I'm richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
I wish I had discovered Pattern Racing earlier then I did, but then again I didn't have the means of transportation to get my horse to the pattern races. But this year, if possible, I would love to do it again!

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Played Farmville, Mafia Wars, Vampire Wars, etc. Browser Games are addictive and completely pointless. I've milked myself off most of them, just a handful left.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Spent Christmas Eve with my parents and family and opened a few presents, had a quite christmas morning with my husband, went to his parent's place and had more christmas, and then went back to my parent's and even more christmas. And we also had lot's of snow.

22. Did you fall in love in 2010?
This was something I didn't think would ever happen but YES! Hell froze over!

23. How many one night stands?
I have them all the time, with my husband :P

24. What were your favourite TV programs?
We didn't watch much TV, finished Lost, saw the only season of Flash Forward, and I got my husband into Avatar, the Last Airbender. But overall, didn't watch much TV

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
This is a very juvenile question. Maybe next year I will completely come up with a completely different list of questions. I did have a small falling out with somebody I knew, but I wouldn't call it hate. I haven't heard from them in months.

26. What was the best book you read?
I can't think of any books I read in 2010 other then How to Train Your Dragon (quick read, nothing like the movie). I wrote mostly, and was doing a lot of other things. Didn't have time to read.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Oh gosh, I don't listen to the radio much. There was a couple though. I'll admit to liking Kei$ha, though her music can sometime remind me of the imaturity of a 14 year old and she can sound a little snobbish. But it's kind of catchy. I discovered Parmore the year before but I really really REALLy like this group!

28. What did you want and get?
Horses, a husband, a great house out in the country.

29. What did you want and not get?
A job. I did have a small one for a couple months, but it was kind of bad hours for me, threw off my entire day, I have decided I won't do graveyards.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I didn't see much, but Inception was fantastic. I love quirky mind bending movies though.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 30. There was a blizzard, I ended up trading a snowboard for something else and then had to prep the stalls to take a couple horses for the evening. Then I stayed at home and chilled until my husband got off work.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Not losing my pregnancy. (I feel like a broken record, this was the worst thing that happened to me this year though)

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
T-shirt, jeans and muck boots. Hay sticking out in random places.

34. What kept you sane?
Horseback riding! And my husband. This was a pretty sane year for the most part.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you like the most?
Never really been into public figures and celebrities. But Chris Christy is a fantastic no nonsense politician. I love the guts this man has!

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Not a whole lot really, I kept current on politics but mostly the economy was my biggest concern. Obamacare is a disaster in the making. But I didn't really get to caught up in things this year, I had my mind on a lot of other things.

37. Who did you miss?
My husband :( He deployed three weeks after we got married, but he was only gone for four months, thankfully :)

38. Who was the best new person you met?
I've met a ton of great people this year, my sis in law Jessica could be potentially one of my best friends (if only we lived closer together!) Also one of my new racing buddies. I married into a great family. Also, many of my new 'horse' friends.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2010.
It's not about me anymore.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.
"You are the only exception."