NY State Fair - a fun post! (with lots of pictures!)

Richard and I had a really fun time last weekend - we went to see two concerts (5 artists!) at the New York State Fair.  The fairgrounds happen to be about a 3hr drive from our place, so it is easy to get to.  We spent three days in NY state and managed to get in a bit of shopping as well!

Not long after crossing the border, we stopped for a snack and some gas.  I was surprised by the number of Amish people in this area! I just can't imagine living like they do in the midst of modern society...interesting stuff.  The guy that owned this horse and buggy was getting some supplies at the dollar store and the grocery store.

We swung into downtown Syracuse to go to Richard's favourite restaurant - Chipotle.  They make a delicious fast food burrito - kind of like Subway, but with burritos! We have a similar burrito place here, but it just doesn't taste as good as Chipotle.  Whenever we go to the US, we search out this restaurant and drive all over just to have a burrito!  We were in the midst of Syracuse University campus and we were surrounded by students and their families - it was fun to see all of the young faces getting ready to start school!   Go Orange!!

We then found our hotel, dumped our stuff off and made our way over to the fairgrounds.  I was pleasantly surprised about how big the fairgrounds were.  Of course, at any fair, there was booth after booth of fried food and all kinds of treats.  I have a bit of a sensitive stomach, so I was very cautious about what I ate.

It was fun to wander the grounds and see all of the wacky things that were for sale and do some people watching.  Here is a photo of one of my favourite booths from a local radio station...One of the staff posed for a photo. He was pleased with the count of 21 mullets on the first day of the fair! I'm sure by the end of the two weeks of the fair, the count would go up dramatically!

We did get some cotton candy - it's just one of those things at a fair that I need to try.  We didn't eat much, but we did take time to make cotton candy mustaches... What? You don't do that?  Come on! :-D

We fought through the crowds to get over to the track to get into the concert. I was very, very excited about this concert - we were seeing Gavin DeGraw, Train annnnd Maroon 5!  I'm a huge Maroon 5 fan and when I saw that the tour was coming fairly close to us, I knew I had to go.

Gavin DeGraw opened the show - I'm not as familiar with his music, but he was really good.  A few weeks ago, he was mugged in NYC and just recently got out of the hospital!

Next up was Train. I love these guys - the lead singer is unique and their music is fun.  I've wanted to see them for years, but never really got around to doing anything about it.  We were in the 11th row from the stage, so our view was pretty good.  Unfortunately I just had my small camera (we weren't allowed to bring in big cameras with long lenses, boooo!) so my shots aren't the greatest.  These performers also don't stand still for long, so catching them is tricky!

Patrick Monahan - the lead singer

And by about 10pm, the big act was ready to get started...I really like Maroon 5 and their music and was even more convinced I needed to see the band live after watching the Voice this winter, where the lead singer Adam Levine was one of the celebrity coaches.

Their music was excellent and the lighting and other effects were great too. It was a really good show and the best part? They sounded just as good or better live! Some bands just aren't great live, but these guys really know what they are doing.

Adam Levine

We went to another concert the next night, but it wasn't as good, so I won't bother posting about it.  Needless to say, we had a really fun long weekend and I would definitely recommend you go see these bands if you are a fan and get the chance!

I'm going away again this weekend (no concerts sadly) but I hope to have some horse posts coming up in the next few days!

A sad time

I'm back from my week's vacation with my family. I have been delaying writing a post because I just wasn't ready...   Now that a week has gone by, I feel a bit better about the whole situation...

While I was gone, our dog Max died.  It was hard to be away while everything was happening, but I couldn't have changed the outcome if I had been here.

Richard had to take care of all of the vet appointments and arrangements alone, which was hard for him.  It turns out that Max died from liver failure due to ingesting some sort of toxin.  What a bummer.  He was 11.5 years old.  Richard was up at his parent's place and they think now that he ate some moldy corn cobs. It wasn't unusual for Max to eat something weird and then vomit, so Richard wasn't worried at first.  The situation then got worse and Max was taken to the vet. The vets tried everything they could and it just didn't work out.

We are sad, but doing better every day. We were lucky to have 11 (and a half!) good years with a great dog.  I'm sure we'll have another dog some day, but we aren't in any rush.  I was joking with Richard that maybe we should get 10 dogs and 10 cats and then maybe losing one wouldn't be so bad.  We still have the 3 crazy cats to keep us company, so that helps.

Here are two of my favourite pictures of Max - the first one is just him jumping a fence and the second is of Max and his two best dog friends...all three of them are now gone...  Some days it just doesn't seem fair that pets aren't with us all that long.

I'm off to the barn this afternoon to see Dolly - I haven't been out in almost 2 weeks!  I'm looking forward to getting out to the barn regularly again and getting that little mare working!

Odds n Ends

I'm sort of feeling at odds n ends this past week or so.   This post might be a little disjointed, as I have a bunch of stuff in my head, but not enough on any one subject to write a big post - so consider yourselves warned!  :-)

In July, I leased a horse for a month, bought a new horse and sold my old horse. I was talking with horse people and emailing people about horses non-stop.  Now that everything "horse" is settled, I find myself kind of mentally tired.  I also started a new job in late June and I'm just starting to feel settled in that area as well.

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I wanted to thank SquirrelGurl for the awesome blog giveaway that she sent me!  She sent me a package of SoftPaws nail caps to try on my two wild little cats!  I was very excited when the package arrived and got to work trimming the cat's nails (I had been doing this part already) and then applied the little gel nails to their paws.  I only stuck my fingers together twice with the superglue included, so I figured that wasn't too bad!  Both cats kept the nail caps on for a few days and then I started noticing the odd one coming off. I have just been re-applying new ones as that happens and it seems to be going well.  Hopefully these nail caps will stop the reign of terror on my furniture and curtains!

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I'm spending the next week out of town visiting family (we are slipping in a little side trip to Erie, PA for some shopping...woo!)  I'm taking this week as a time to reflect on my goals and plans for the next few months.

I have a bunch of stuff going on in August as well, but it is more fun stuff than stressful stuff (I hope!) I'm going to give you a bulleted list, since I don't really seem to have the brainpower to write coherent sentences...  

• We are going to see 2 concerts at the New York State fair at the end of the month - it should be really fun.  (Maroon 5/Train and Cee-lo Green/Ne-Yo for anyone that reads down this far!)

•  I need to get riding my little mare regularly and get both of us in some sort of shape. 

• We are doing an intro to endurance clinic next weekend that will teach us about vetting and all of the medical/recovery type stuff that goes on in endurance riding. I'm expecting to learn a few things there...

• I need to buy paint and light fixtures for the house - we have a guy coming in early October to do some much needed repairs to the drywall and change out some light fixtures. Then I will be painting 2/3 of the house! Fun! (seriously, I like painting!)

•  My new Specialized saddle should be here by the 20th of August! It is ready and waiting in Texas to be shipped north. I am having it shipped to NY state and then I'm going to pick it up - it will save me almost $200 in shipping... (prices to ship to Canada are ridiculous!)

• My backyard is going to get a major overhaul. I've just kind of let things grow (or not!) and it is a huge mess.  I might do a post on that later this summer if I have some success...

 Well, that about covers all of the little bits and pieces that are floating around in my cluttered brain. I probably won't be online much in the next few days, but I hope that everyone gets in some riding and some summer fun!