Charged with neglect...

Well, I should be.  Poor blog!!  I can't believe there aren't dandelions and crab grass popping up in the corners over there....well, I guess that's one advantage of a blog over a garden!!  But my blog doesn't smell quite as nice as a garden.  Sorry, this analogy is just getting goofy.

Big news is that WE ARE FINALLY OUT OF CROZET AND COMPLETELY MOVED TO BLACKSBURG!!  I realize that might not seem like such a big deal to everyone else, but seeing as it was a horrendous move weekend PLUS THREE ADDITIONAL WEEKENDS of moving and cleaning, both hubby and I are just relieved.  There was one sad moment of leaving, but unfortunately the exhaustion and relief were too overwhelming for me to get very sentimental.  Honestly, after having to pull posts out of the field, hubby mowing the yard twice and getting attacked by bees (subsequently ending up on prednisone and antibios) and mice re-appearing in the kitchen for me to clean up after, well, we weren't exactly feeling the love.

So what are we up to now, you might be wondering?  Well....still plotting how we might get our hands on the little yellow house!  Yup, it's still on the market, and we've been in town long enough now to have paystubs, so the banks will believe that we are actually employed.  (Also for those of you parental types out there, we've done our budgets and confirmed we can afford the house on the reduced-student-income.)  Of course now that we're ready to get back down to serious loan application business, our realtor and the loan dude go out of town for a week.  Pooh bah!  We're also watching things carefully to see what happens to loan rates with the new gov't rating....I've heard everything from doomsday-the-economy-will-collapse to -eh-things-might-go-up-a-bit.

Slight tangent - does anyone else feel like going to D.C. and smacking some congressional idiots around?  We could carpool!!

House hunting aside, we're pretty settled into our little apartment, and are really enjoying it....it only takes the two of us to take it from messy and dirty to neat and clean in 2hrs!!

Is it sad that I base my happiness in a place on how quickly it can be cleaned??  Maybe we should be staying the the apartment.....

All the furries are good, except for Dax.  Simply, she's lame again.  It's pretty clear that the steroid injection didn't work at this point. I really wish there were a special font for displaying frustration and disappointment, but there's not so you'll just have to take my word for it.

I've had time to mull it over, and have a plan.
1) Continue to very lightly ride her once a week to keep her brain in the right place....she's sound walking and moving straight and very light work isn't making things worse.  I'll give her bute (horsey ibuprofen) when I do ride as a just in case.
2) More clicker training!!
3) Beg for other horses to ride at the barn to keep my hiney in shape.
4) Work with the vets at Tech about possible options - second steroid injection?  Stem cell injection?  I need to find out what they think and what things would cost me.  As I understand it, I get a pretty significant discount on annual vet care (i.e. it's free) but this goes well beyond standard care.  BUT there's no rush on this since she's pasture sound.  I'd like to work on this for the next year, but it's going to depend significantly on the house situation.

If it seems like I'm being optimistic, it's because I am!  Being pessimistic doesn't get much done, and it's easier to be hopeful when generally everything else in my life is pretty darned good!

I'll leave you with some pics of the apt, taken during move-in.  More soon, I promise, but not tomorrow as it's my dear hubby's 37th birthday tomorrow!!