“You haven't lost your smile at all, it's right under your nose. You just forgot it was there.”

Ever wonder how another person sees the same events you do? Well I do -- regularly :) hahaha and at Cedar Run I realized that while Nicole and I were living the same event, we were having very different experiences of it - and knowing how well she can write, I've asked her to contribute to the blog! hahaha so for the first "guest post" ever on Here There Be Dragons, see below. And *my* take of the same day is directly below that. hahaha but yeah I've always found it interesting to try and find out how other people see things. It's amazing what a difference the focus can make - things they'll vividly recall that I didn't even notice and vise versa.

For those of you who dread calling tech-support, our resident IT expert sent out this excellent tech-support site. Will save multiple hours on the phone w/ India if you use it first: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=my+computer+broke+need+fix

I am so unbelievably sore today. Wrenched my neck @ CR on Sun (silly baby move -- Si found something to shy away from, complete non-issue except it crunched my spine). Rode anyways of course. Perfectly fine on Monday, Tuesday all good till the very end of the night just as I finished teaching I turned wrong and *ouch*. Tues night there was no sleep cause every time I fell asleep I woke up hurting. N worse couldn't move :( Had to literally use my hands to roll my head over so I could change position. That whole "the human head weighs 8 pounds" thing is not so good when the neck muscles fail :( booo. Today I can move but it just hurts. All day. Not so bad as to cause any problems, just obnoxious. No fun at all. Ugh ok end of rant.

Was teaching a lesson the other night in a school environment. Reasonably good young rider, ready to put her horse on the bit but of course no idea how to do so or what's involved (barn is primarily *shudder* hunter or up/down -- I'm the only one who teaches dressage or xc, much to the amusement of my students :) -- so I get on horse to see if *he* knows what's involved. Yes, yes he does -- but in the 5 mins I was on him you should've seen the audience that gathered... General commentary was "we've never seen him do *that*" before!" which, given that he clearly knew what was expected w/ only a minor reminder is kinda sad. But I hop off and put student back up and sure enough w/in 5 mins or so she has him beautifully through, has a new appreciation for how much leg is involved, and a huge grin on her face "this is FUN!" hahaha and later confided to me that she really didn't want to ride that horse and had been going to ask for a change but was now really happy about it. hahaha and those moments are the reason I teach. Sooooo good to see that lightbulb turn on :) Now the interesting part will be seeing what happens *next* week.

I'll tell ya w/ the weather being what it is, I need more of those moments. Constant rain is really starting to get to me! If I were ok w/ this, I'd be living in Vancouver. Whole point of putting up w/ winter here is supposed to be amazing summer! Sheesh. Mother Nature's clearly not holding up her end of the deal. N could you have a talk w/ her please? >;-P N judging by people's status messages on FB, the rest of the world is starting to feel the same. Did find it somewhat disconcerting listening to them reporting about the drought in the States though. Could we split it? Send them half our rain and take half their sunshine? Please?

Vacation in less than 2 wks. Not that I'm counting down or anything >;-P

So when even the pro photographers are teasing about the size of the grin on my face when I'm running XC is that a good sign or should I be concerned? You'd think the novelty would've worn off by now eh? hahaha Andrew got a great head-on shot of Si and I running through the grass @ CR and it's pretty clear that both of us are having a great time (yes I ordered it -- for now it's here: http://www.photosbybailini.com/g2/main.php?g2_itemId=97733 if you're interested :)

Walking in search of lunch this afternoon and there was a group of people emptying the garbage. 6 or 7 people all w/ rubber gloves on and armed w/ collections of garbage bags and brooms were going from bin to bin emptying the city garbages and keeping each other entertained (that whole many hands thing). So when I was speaking to the shop-keeper, it turns out they're from the local half-way house. Was making a huge and instantly noticeable difference to the walk though. I was pretty impressed anyways.

Ok so that's enough disconnected babble for now. Have a good one :)