Welcome to Calgary you've missed your flight!

What what's that ... i missed two flights in a row ohhhhh oh ya thats right... good great awesome... lol sooo yup i get to Calgary and have a one night lay over, which was planned. what was not planned was the less then nice hotel i stayed in (note to self, nothing comforting about the comfort inn!) get in my room and its crappy empty cold lonely and just plain unwelcoming... alarm clock doesn't work.. Desi starving ,nofin healthy to eat anywhere at the airport or in uncomfort inn. So Desi calls front desk ... speaks with man who can hardly speak any english (wtf with that by the way??) no no miss we have no other clocks... soooo you can't take one from one of the other HUNDRED EMPTY rooms for me to use? no miss... we we call you in morning... okay well can you please call me once a 7am and again at 730? yes miss yes we do that you no miss your plane... goood great awesome... Desi sleeps....

12 noon Desi wakes.. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (enter expletives here! hehe) grumpy, half starved and now crazed with panic desi is now less then impressed... no use arguing with ppl.... nothing can be helped... just want out and to get to the airport to figure out a new flight as i have now missed my 10 am flight.... Comfort Inn did offer me a complimentary nights stay to which i sorta politely (not so much) Declined ... i think it went something like when hell freezes over... and i wouldn't stay another night if you paid me!!!

Got to the airport and SURPRISE there are no other flights into Castlegar BC the last plane out ... totally full... i'm a WAIF now lol. so i booked a new ticket and decided to stay right at the airport... thank you Delta... took pity on me and gave me a sweet deal.... ahhhh now this is accommodations... Giant comfy bed... well decorated... friendly staff that can understand what i'm saying.... whew... civilization !!! whooopieeeeee!

caught my flight the next day... at one point texted TJ ( my bro for all you new viewers) and said my final fair wells.. cuz damn this was a small plane... 12 rows thats it... and lots o rust hangin out on and around the engine jetty parts? sorry my plane knowledge is lacking at best... i'm accustomed to the nice roomier jet planes... this thang was small and the seats lol ya not like a normal planes lol totally getto... but i got to Castlegar airport yippeee... but not without some serious turbulence... actually this airport i have heard this week has been better known as Cancel-gar airport as it is in the mountains and very small runway... often planes are unable to land due to in climate mountainy weather.

BC at first glance... Beautiful Beautiful Beautiful... i mean i have fallen in love with Texas but nothing can touch Canada's Beauty!

my first week in BC has been challenging challenging and wonderful all at once... i can't believe i'm here doing this!! so much fun... and the guides are great even a little crazy...

the pics... Kirkland (guide at the loge) i call him Crazy mountain man... as he hikes without shoes?!!! what a nutter gotta love him though! view on the way to one of the hikes and the lodge where i'm staying.... video also of the lodge

my butt hurts from sitting so long and typing so i promise promise to type again tomorrow and catch you all up to this week.... so many stories and pictures...

I"m getting stronger and stronger mentally physically and spiritually as this trip moves forward... Life ... Life is good!

where one ends and another begins :)

well its been awhile between blogs... i'm sorry ya'll i was either unable to access the net or more likely was just to damn tired to blog away... these last few weeks have not been without adventures... and my exit from Texas being a definite win... one to remember for sure!

well my last week in Texas was (cough) filled with well exercising yes, but perhaps some fun out in town... hehehe... the Ranch being the ranch i had the opportunity to meet all kinds of ppl and from all over the world. I lucked out and met some random Irish boys who came to the ranch to become Irish cowboys (shaking my head). They were a bucked o fun for sure. Four in total well Three and one "Jitter" as they called him... oh yes i learned all kinds of interesting things from these fine irish lads... I'm not sure i totally grasped the real meaning of the term "jitter" (pronounced jii-er by them lol) but if you ask me when i return i will try my best to explain it.

well a big thing i did absorb right away was that Irish boys can Drrriiinnnkkk... they are not messin around lol .... i must say i did a wee bit o drinking along with them for a few days but rest assured my pops words rang out in my head each morning " if your gonna be a big girl at night you gotta be a big girl in the morning" so there i was with two hours sleep, at 5 am hiking my butt off... didn't miss one class, and even threw in an extra walk to make up for the beer drinking the eve previous... I had a blast it was too funny, i have some video... all i have to say is cowboy town, beer , karaoke, two steppin classic time...

the second night we ended up at a biker party after the bar...( this was a sober night for me as i was the DD and i was also pretty partied out at this point ..) Bandera was hosting a Biker rally that weekend so the cowboy town was over run with leather wearing harley driving rough necks lol.....at any rate it was a really funny experience... we five stood out like a soar thumb... these irish lawyers and myself, all of us in our thirties and all these middle aged bikers ... awkward! nearing the end of the night the bikers were talking about the rally that was to take place that day ... and they explained to the boys that its much like New Orleans. (ya great i'm sure you know where this ones going!) There was a character bleach blonde biker (see above photo for scary biker) brought out a handful of beaded necklaces... NOTE at this time Desi was slowly slinking behind the Irish boys into the corner thinking hmm this is not going in a great direction lol....

Yes yes they taught them to hold out the beads to a girl and ask the question "do you work for beads?" to which the first biker chick lifted up her shirt and and well ya her girls out in full display to the world... blah... there were only four biker girls at this party.. and me being the fifth female (whom was now desperately trying to become one with the plaster and paint lol) of course the four gents went up to all biker girls (some of whom were less then pretty... sorry its true... ewww chubby girl boobs ewww...) eventually they all turned to me ... incidentally all at once.... the four of them looking like kids in a candy store, drunk as skunks, brandishing shinny bunches of multi coloured plastic beads, with big shit eating grins on there faces...

What was desi's reply you ask.... "uhmm no i do not work for beads, perhaps if you put some diamonds on that plastic shit maybe; but no Desi does NOT work for beads lol" I spent the next half hour repeating myself lol they tried everything... Desi never did work for beads (Don't worry parents you brought me up well!) anyway they eventually tired of yucky old dirty biker boobs and we departed some of the boys with bead still in tow. On our way back to the ranch I had to do a little stunt driving lol as a suicidal Clydesdale decided he no longer loved life and wanted to walk the yellow lines to his demise. He is lucky he lives for another day... i was going about 70 miles per hour with high beams that were no good... i did a (cough) wee swerve but was pro at it... we did get back safely to the ranch (yeah desi!) which by the way looked like the bloody "Watership Down" with all the dang bunnies running around! ( for those who are not in the know ... Watership Down... classic children's novel about bunnies if you haven't read it ... you should... sorry small tangent anyways)

In my last two weeks i lucked out with an amazing roomie... she was totally motivated and very like minded... with a super sense of humor... we spent most of our time together laughing, sweating , laughing laughing , and sweating ... with some occasional sleep... was so great i was praying for a normal fun and motivated person and i totally got one!! whew ... refreshing. i definitely found a lasting friend in this person.

I have been riding horses as much as i can and love love love it... i'm so comfortable in the saddle and am so bummed out that i won't be able to ride every day... i feel so free on a horseback!

i will miss Texas and all the staff at Rancho Cortez, it was a definite adventure! and to top it off i reached my goal that i set for myself ... yeah me!!!

THE MOST EPIC FAIR WELL TO TEXAS!!!! so i missed my plane outta Texas, but its alright, it was totally worth it! Had some car sickness shenanigans on my way to the port yo. Desi- "hey Liz, uhm i'm not feeling so well" Liz- "really that sucks dude" D- "ya i uh think i gotta puke" Liz- "oh okay i'm trying to pull over" ( totally bumper to bumper traffic) Des- "uh oh i'm not gonna make bllllaaaaahhhhhh" LOL explosion but totally projectile, on a guys windshield ... i'm puking, now puking and laughing, cuz i showered this poor suckers silver car (now silver with a touch of almonds, Pepto, and Sobe fuji apple pear water) when i started laughing it sprayed all over my white t-shirt... classic. NO amount of "Tide to Go" can help me!! Feel much better now lol lol! so i now have a five hour wait for my new flight... sitting in Texas airport sporting my new twenty-eight dollar Lame ass Texas T-shirt lol (that is probably nine bucks anywhere else)... Absolutely a Desi epic win exit from Texas... To funny Liz and i could not stop laughing... What a way to leave right lol!!!!!

the pics... irish boys this one's a wee bit blurry but haha so were they at this point lol and scary biker dude, and my new roomie Lisa a.k.a Burd or South Beach.

Snakes Snakes Snakes shoes n' snakes

HI ya'll.... so i've had a pretty good week... it rained all day today though. It also got down to 65 degrees.. and i'm FROZEN!! man i'm in sooo much trouble when i head out to the mountains in a week and a half!!! yikes who planned this trip?? go get acclimated to the heat then shock my body by heading up into the rockies! yeee hawwwww.

so a couple days ago i was walking to my room... when i was rudely interrupted by a big snake... it was funny because my roommie was just saying hmmm we should have a flash light so we can see and WHAM.... i knocked her back and said wait snake... she laughed and said "no way". She thought i was kidding... Desi never kids when it comes to snakes! it was a Rattler, so Jose and i decided to kill the rude jerk... i ended up chopping at his big dumb snaky head off... but you have to be careful cuz they can still strike up to 2 hrs after you kill them even though there stupid head is off... so i attached some videos .. we went and skinned the sucker afterwards but it didn't work so well... next one i will be a pro :) the first pic there is what he looked like with his head; if i were to under guesstimate he was approx. 4 ft long.

My new roommate rocks! She is beautiful, super funny and totally motivating. its absolutely refreshing to have someone equally as motivated as my self. the other night i played Dane Cook's Harmful if Swallowed and we laughed our faces off for hours... our abs hurt sooo much.

i finally took some pics of my hikers one pic is the before and the other obviously the after... its hard to see in the after pic but the soles are starting to come apart yeah me!!!! hiking the crud outta them...

so i'm 12lbs off my target weight loss, that i set for myself in Texas... whew i'm gonna have to bust my butt to reach my goal... but i can do it.

I've been horse back riding a lot. I'm so going to miss riding! i really look forward to that every week.

I miss you all so much, but just the same i don't want to leave Texas... i have fallen in love.

BLOG blog blog blog

Man always looking for time to Blog... hmmmm news news... new news... well as some of you know i broke my foot, in three places... I mean if i'm gonna do something i sould do it properly right? well not only did i break my foot; but i didn't go to get it checked right away. I continued to hike 8-10 miles a day and do all my exercise classes for a week before i was like... hmmmm this really hurts~! maaaayybeeee i should get this looked at lol... what an idiot! oh well i gave it five days of rest-ish, and i've been back in the game... been wearing an air cast while hiking and exercising. It was funny, today i did the obstacle course in my cast... woot woot... the poor cast isn't doing so well though the bottom is coming apart and its looking a little worse for wear... apparently they weren't meant to be hiked and exercised in, meh oh well. Once again, my body can complain, like a teenager all it wants I'm gonna keep going!

Went out the other night for a fair well night out for one of the girls thats been here for a month... i call her "Tink" she and i didn't drink at all (just water and diet pop) everyone else drank... but we had a hilarious time! in the pic up top, i have blanked myself out cuz i don't want anyone to see me yet... not much of a change to see anyway, but whatever ... the guy is Jose he works at the ranch. Tink is the lady on the right and Bambi there is the handsome buck i picked up at the bar lol.... i "borrowed" him from the Bandera Saloon and bar hopped with him... made so many ppl laugh... one group of pple were saying " well thats something you don't see everyday, girl walking with a deer head?!” hehehe shenanigans, Texas shenanigans.

The other pic is a cowboy i met the same night. He was super shy but it wasn’t hard to convince him to pose for a picture. I just love how the deer just does not look impressed lol poor poor dead mounted deer :( its amazing how easy it is to meet people with mountable deer head in your arms... easy ice breaker/ conversation starter.

so i just finished a tough long day of working out and decided to listen to the comedian Dane Cook for an hour. the girls that are here hadn’t heard his “harmful if swallowed” bit. we laughed sooo hard for an hour, are abs hurt! now i’m waiting for my three loads of laundry to wash grrrr i hate laundry... plus i accidently am washing the laundry room key right now lol i dropped it in and couldn’t find it... hehe so the laundry key is going to smell mountain fresh... hmmm nofin’ wrong with that right?

can’t believe i only have two and a half weeks left in Texas... i LOVE it here... especially right now. We finally had some rain (three days straight) and the grass is turning green there are flowers sprouting up everywhere in all colours... there is water in the ponds streams and rivers now... beautiful... especially now that its cool now (mid to high 80’s for most of the day) it only reaches 90 now at noon for a couple hours ... great breeze now love love love it.

I have a new roomie... she is Fabulous.... totally motivated (unlike my last one) she’s funny... works out hard.... totally refreshing! feels like i’m at summer camp :)

Just got a message from the BC program and they are giving me three extra spa treatments for free per week! can’t complain with that, right?!

I feel soooo good guys, physically, mentally, stronger... soooo great! i don’t want to leave but i miss you all and i really REALLY miss my silly silly doggie...

OH and (how could i forget... geesh) on my way back down from the laundry room i finally cornered an armadillo and touched it..... THEY ARE SOFT??? they look so hard, but they aren’t. they feel like an elephant skin, soft/bumpy and squishy lol poor little thing was terrified meh oh well hehehe. oh and speaking of armadillos. hahaha i was sitting on the top of the picnic table the other night watching this stupid creature come closer and closer as soon as he was underneath the bench Iiiiii STOMPED on it and that poor little bugger didn’t know where to go... he ran in a complete circle before he took off and almost ran into a post ....I am gonna miss those silly creatures!!!!!

The Adventures Continue

So the Texas shenanigans continue... i have had many people complain that my blogs have been getting "Stale" between each blog so i will make a conscious effort to update more frequently. I must clear up though, that they are few and far between not because i am lazy and don't want to ... but rather I'm sooo knackered by the eve that sleep seems to come before blog; also the internet isn't always working in order to blog... can't be helped I'm in a valley in a remote area.

well lets see where to start where to start ... well i saw some Donkey diving the other day. One has not lived until you've seen Donkeys Dive... crazy little buggers go of their own volition to!

it is common to see, at times, horses tied up outside the bars or "saloons", you see its illegal to drink and drive but not illegal to drink and ride... interesting.....

it has finally cooled down here... we've had a week of temperatures in the 90's or high 80's and we even had two hours of rain!!! so yeahhhhhh... except not so yeah! lower temps and that little sprinkle of rain has brought more snakes out and about, as well as more scorpions. Scorpions i have gotten used to, snakes on the other hand are starting to piss me off ! lol. I've never been one to fear a snake but i have developed a healthy respect for them here. In the last 12 hrs i have seen 4 snakes...

• firstly i almost stepped on an adult copperhead on my way to my room (in my sandals!!!) for those of you whom are not privy to the wonderful world 'o' snake; a copperhead is a very poisonous jerk snake! more poisonous then at rattler.
• so then we went on our daily hike and it was on that hike that i was struck at by a adult "diamond back" (which is a Rattle snake).... it turns out white girls can jump~ everyone said i couldn't have planned my jump, from certain hurt, better! The snakes are so hungry this rattle snake didn't even rattle a warning!!! which is uncommon... it just attacked! but my superior reflexes and sheer adrenalin saved my butt... i saw the bugger, yelped and jumped at the perfect time. he just missed me... then it continued to strike as i backed away... no one could believe how calm i was.... i was pretty calm ... until i had time to process it then i was thinking... darn that would have sucked! Liz (fitness instructor) laughed and said "yep, and things happen in threes so you only have one more to worry about" to which i chuckled and said ya right two is enough...
• well coming back from the obstacle corse a Coachwhip slithered its rude self right by my foot!!!!! WTF was what i thought ... and then i thought well at least the snakes are getting less poisonous as i see them!
• then hike the next day i spotted the little baby Rattler (above 1st pic) ... which the others didn't see... baby Rattlers are just as venomous as the adults for protection. so as you could imagine i was none to pleased to see his rude rude little self... Desi + snakes= Grumpy!

Labour day weekend was busy. The town had a huge parade, which was cool. we had a Day trip to down town Bandera, to watch the parade and see some of the vendors. I tried Gator on a stick... it tastes like chicken but greasier... i didn't eat it all.

I've met some really cool people here from all over the world. On friday night i went to town with a British girl i met at the ranch.. it was soooo nice to get off the ranch and see some night life. All Texans do is the two step... they don't even line dance . Apparently that is all hog wash... no Texan line dances, its apparently a stereo type... hmmmm.... any way we went out hoping to meet some cute cowboys and i ended up meeting a Russian New Yorker... he was super super cute... but essentially an angel of death lol well thats what i called him, as he works for Camel cigarettes and was in Texas to promote the product. Oh well he was a great dancer and very very sweet ... oh ya Desi had her flirt on! hehehehe

I've been helping when i can to take care of an abandoned baby cow, whom i call slobber monkey... and the other video is just some random hiking video that made me chuckle.

well sooo much more has happened and gone on but i'm tired and so i'll have to save some shenanigans for my next blog :) hope your all well ... love ya'll

Lost Maples hike

Yesterday i spent my morning stacking bails... 60lb hay bails are not to much fun to toss around, but not to worry there was only like 250 bails to stack lol... although my body is sore, it really was a great workout; i mean the horses have to eat right?! after that i went to pilates, did a core workout, pool aerobics, then a circuit class... whew hopefully i'll soon see some results! i mean i have lost weight but i don't see it... lol perhaps i'm just looking with biased eyes :)

Today we had another hike in a state park, Lost Maples. It was really weird seeing maple trees in Texas... they look so thirsty here... they do get tallish but the trunks don't get very thick. Lost Maples was absolutely positively the most beautiful place! the hike was pretty rough... 2000 ft climb again straight up (i don't know what it is with Texas trails, haven't they heard of a trail that gradually climbs up? no no they all seem to be a straight up climb!) and down was even more steep on loose rocks, little scary, but all the hiking and up and down craziness was soooooo worth it this place was just sooooo beautiful...

the first pic is the summit on the first side... the second pic is of my climb down- the top of the hill to the far right was where we walked along the top, then down around the back to the front part there where you see a white line, thats where we came around and down to the bottom... at the bottom we took a break and went for a swim. There was a pondy area with water which is soooo rare cuz of the draught ... it was sooooo hot and we were soooo tired... we took off our shirts and jumped in!!!! it was beautiful and sooo refreshing. If you stood still the small perch and bass would come up and nip at your toes and knees ...lol. the last pic is a closer look at the swimming spot... after the swimming we had a 1.5 mile hike back to the Cortez limo. In total it was approx 7 miles... 1.5 of which was straight up and 1 mile straight down....

the video is at the summit on the far side... the two people in the video are Zhanna (my fitness instructor who is from Russia she's really cool!) and Brittany a spunky girl that cracks me up... they both thought i was taking a picture hence the pose lol ...

Texas is really really growing on me... i'm feeling so much stronger and find that i'm able to do more and more... i do however miss you all!! Kimmy i wish you well this week at your wedding i'll be thinking of you and Steve... Happy Anniversary to Mommers and Pop ... and Congratulations to Chances for making his first kill!

howdy ya'll

whew, so much to talk about ... so little time.... and next to no internet signal (so this will take forever to load!)
So last Friday we went on a hike to a place called "Enchanted Rock" in Fredricksberge (sp?) Tx; and well it was allri- no i can't say it was alright it kinda sucked ... it was hotter then the hobs of hell. 1,825 ft hike straight up... and i mean straight up... Enchanted Rock is a giant hill of solid granate ... so there are no trees on that straight up hike, its all out in the open. Then we hiked 6.5 miles around the stupid rock... lol okay so the view at the top was really nice and granted i did feel like i accomplished alot but damn....

i've been baby sitting the owners little dog Sisco... he's a yorkie, has some similar behaviors to Chances but this dog has ZERO training .. and although he is super cute it makes me miss my doggy sooo much more... i only have to watch Sisco for one more day...

My mornings are usually pretty early still... i get up at 5:30 every morning and lately its to feed the livestock here; now that i'm all acclimated to the temp, and can hike during the day with the rest of the crew.. i have been a momma to a little new born abandoned caff... he's sooo cute and has this tiny little moo moo for me every morning for his bottle! he's just sooo soft and cute... i'll have to take a pic for you all to see.

I went to the Rodeo on friday and had a few light beer ... eeeewwwweeeeeee was that ever great! nothing like a cold beer on a crazy hot Texas day... the best part of the rodeo though has to be the "mutton busting" lol lol soooo funny its little kids that ride sheep... kinda like bull riding lol those poor little buggers hold on for dear life, and a few of them will refuse to let go of the sheep lol lol sooo funny, the wrangelers have to hold the sheep still and literly pry the kid, who has a kunfu grip, off the sheep lol

The pictures are of Sisco, and one of my fitness instructors. her name is Liz but i call her Lizard.. she's hardcore but totally cool...the last pic is of my comfy bed in my room. the videos were taken at enchanted rock the second video should be viewed first its halfway up the rock... sorry for the swear mommers hehehe and the second video is up at the summit.

i'll try to do another blog sooner... we just haven't had much signal here this week so its hard.