Obvious- Love of his Frogy Ball

I watched Toy Story 3 last weekend when I was away at my sisters house.




When I got home and was greeted at the door by Hawkydog and his "Frogy Ball" I realized a critical error in watching that movie...

As much as Hawky might love (LOVE, looooove, L.O.V.E) his frog shaped ball...

I think in the future I might go back to the faceless kong balls of the past...

Dont look at me like that! I cant help it! The idea that his poor blue frog might come to life at night and that on awaking his first words might be...

"My EYE My eye!! Oh my god, he's eaten my eye!!! Holy shit, my foot too!!!" ...

I am sorry, but the very idea is just too much to bear!

Obvious Beauty

Random shots of an old barn...

The beauty and character I find in the small details of a larger picture are more obvious in some photos than in others...

The remains of a once useful tractor left to bury itself in the field of it's former glory- obvious.

The random spattering of mud on a tractor tire- not so much.




A bold shock of blue set against the greasy black of a gritty engine- obvious.

The artful geometry within the bolts of an old tin roof- not so much.

The warped boards of a old barn slashed raw and bloody by the wicked knife of time- obvious.

A random stack of clay burned bricks with their shades of copper and cobalt- not so much.


Single pane glass, an ominous sign and weathered wood- obvious.

I find the beauty in chaos and in symmetry....

... and always within the smaller details of the larger whole.

(all photos property of me please do not reproduce without permission)

Keen

Die a Thousand Deaths

Eghr! (the sound you make when you are really frustrated!) Oh how I have missed blogging! There is just too much I want to tell you all!... that is, if there still is a "you all"...

Hello?

*echo*

*considers likelihood that anyone has or ever will care about this here blog*

*shrugs*

Let's be honest, I've been talking to myself all along.... so why stop now?

So, been riding lots lately! And looooovin' it! And I've been able to ride with, like, other people! *gasp* I know, right? This afternoon I went with a new girl at the barn, Thursday I went with a couple girl friends, and Friday I went with L. (who I board off of)... in other words I've ridden with more people this week alone than I did in the entire year previously. I almost died on the ride on Thursday thanks to a certain someones (you know who you are! *evil glare*) but that is a story for another day. On Friday the ride went well right up until some very helpful people decided, rather than stand to the side of the trail and keep their dogs on a short leash, it would be a great idea to tuck themselves in to the bushes beside the trail, crouch down and be really quiet.... in other words to do their best 'big bad bear ready to spring out of the bushes and eat a horse' impression. Needless to say Princess was keeping one eye on the bushes during our ride the next day and even had a minor heart attack when the man walking on the trail in front of us stooped to tie his shoe lace. She has a memory like an elephant, my mare does! But to be fair I should say that we've now walked through that super scary gap in the fence six times without incident! *knock on wood* I love my pony:)

You know what I dont love? My saddle. My english saddle. Now, that is not to say that I dont enjoy riding English because if anything I've come to enjoy it even more and would love to continue with my English lessons in the future... but... And this is a BIG 'but' (Oh! A pun! big but/big butt) I am having a hell of a time with hauling my big butt up in to that english saddle! (I also have a hell of a time not overusing explanation marks! But we'll talk about that some other time!) The problem is two fold. First, my ass- it's big. My legs, they're short. My dexterity, is lacking. Refer to "Mounting: A failure to launch story" for more on the above. The second problem is that my horse is exceptionally round and lacking for anything that vaguely resembles a wither. Combine the above two issues with a cotton saddle blanket and you'll start to get the idea of where I might have a problem. Well, this afternoon that problem went from inconvenient to all out humiliating. S. (the new girl) and I walked our horses in hand to the trail head. S. mounts effortlessly, of course. Her horse stands still, of course. I walk my pony over to a log. I attempt to position her so that she is standing beside the log. Five minutes pass. I apologize to S. Princess finally stands still. I attempt to mount. Princess steps away from the log. The *insert expletives* saddle ends up around her armpit. I reposition the saddle. Climb back on my log. Fall off of my log. Apologize to the waiting S. who is no doubt wondering how she got sucked in to riding with a loser like me. I curse the log, my saddle, my horse, my life. Try again. Five minutes pass as I try to get Princess positioned to the log correctly. I try to mount again. I overcompensate. Princess starts steps away just as I step up. I fall forward over her wither. By the grace of god I stay on. I wish I could just die a thousand deaths and go home. Instead I swallow what little is left of my pride and carry on with the ride as if nothing happened.

The solution is that I need to loose weight, do yoga to get stronger, get a new saddle pad and girth (or a western) and go out when I have time to practice without an audience to make me nervous. But even so there is a high likelihood I will still struggle to mount Princess in an English saddle.

Or instead I could just go a head and die a thousand deaths. Yup... I think that'd be easier.

Slacker

I've been a big ol' slacker when it comes to blogging this past month! My goodness, let's see... There has been plenty to write about but no time to get it on paper (so to speak). On Sunday Princess and I had an epic battle. Basically it came down to pure and utter stubbornness- on her part and on my own. You see I said she was going to walk through the narrow gap between a fence and a gate and she insisted that she was not. An hour later... no seriously, an HOUR later I proved that either a) I suck at horsemanship or b) I am the only being on this planet that is more stubborn than that bloody mare. Or maybe a bit of both. I will leave that story to another post.

In other news I've been researching my own pedigree on ancestry.com.... I figured it was pretty sad that I knew more about Doc O'Lena's bloodlines than my own. So far it's been really kinda cool! Right now I am looking at a handwritten passenger manifest for a ship that carried my great grandmother from England when she immigrated to Halifax, Canada. I also talked to a great aunt on the phone who gave me information on family that I didnt know I had and also found pictures of my great-great grandfather and grandmother.... who were really quite startled and scary looking if you ask me.... ironically enough grandma had the given name of Mary Kay... I'm just sayin'. Anyone have any suggestions of other genealogy websites that are better than ancestry.com?

Ummm... this afternoon I went to the barn to welcome this handsome devil. The (wonderful) place where I board Princess took on a new boarder (the first since me)- a sweet four-year-old grade QH. I think (and hope) he'll get along well at the barn.

And last but not least- My kitties are still going through the rather difficult transition of being confined to one area of the house. Bitty and I couldnt handle being separated for long so I hauled an old sofa in to their room. Now I can comfortably spend a lot of time in there reading or on my laptop... which means that in turn I am not spending time with my sweet man HS. He misses me out in his allergy-free zone but I tell him he's just lucky I havent taken to sleeping in that room too!

That's all I got for now.

Peace out!
(someone wrote that to me in an e-mail the other day and I thought it sounded really cool:)

Silent Saturday

Silent Saturday

I Could Have Bought...

A few things I could have bought today instead of a $800 root canal...



This cute red dun filly.

These Lucchese boots.

This sweet Haflinger gelding.

This Circle Y reining saddle.

Everything in the above collection (I put together on Polyvore.)

FYI- As a result of today's procedure (and the resulting bill) I hereby declare that no coffee, tea, sweets, colas, and anything else that might cause cavities shall pass through these lips *points to my lips* ... at least until I find a job with dental.

Princess- The Valley Girl Version

WARNING: The following post is really, truly and pathetically obnoxious. Dont say I didnt warn you....

*insert valley girl accent*

"Hi, my name is Princess! I'm a white medicine hat paint... which means that I'm suppose to be like totally white... My Mom is such a drag! She doesnt get that white is so last season! So I'm workin' hard to become a red dun like my besty Marm...'cause her copper coat is like totally fetch!..."

"I roll and roll in the mud four times a day but those freakin' humans man! They come in and try to get rid of my dye job before it's had a chance to set so all I get left with is these big blotches of like mouse brown! MOUSE brown! OMG... can you imagine!.... Just look!...."

"I just threw up in my mouth a little.

And how do you like my braided tail! Nice, right? *shakes head in wonder* Like a braid? Really?! This isnt the 80's you know! Horses havent worn braids since... since... DJ Tanner's horse in Full House!"...

*sigh*

Oh well! I dont know what I was thinking trying to copy Marm's style anyways! She is totally obsessed with me... I mean I'm fabulous and all *shrugs* but sometimes it can get to be a bit much... I think she like creeps me on facebook and everything."

"Yesterday I just couldnt take it anymore! I went all Naomi Campbell on her ass!"

"Dont worry.. we're all good now. I ♥ Marm:) xo"

I did warn you!

The Bi-yearly Chinese Food Binge and Resulting Mayhem

About once every six months (when sufficient time has passed to fog our memories of the last such episode) HS and I decide that it would be a really great idea to order Chinese food from the local (less than authentic) restaurant. The result is always the same. Before we've even finished binging on our Almond Chicken, Chicken Chow Mein, Sweet and Sour Pork, and Chop Suey our stomachs are already staging a revolt. By the next morning it's utter meyhem. Neither of us can handle our Chinese. To make matters worse on this particular occasion, I decided to make a simple sweet dessert of sauteed apple and prunes. As Julia Roberts (in Pretty Woman) would say, "Big mistake. Big! Huge." Lesson learned.

In other news...

It's been a while since I've posted because I've been plain ol' tired and lacked the will power to sit down and write about what's been happening. So for a quick update:

HS's surgery appears to have been, at this point, a success. He is healing well and no longer in need of a full time nurse *wipes brow* ... just kidding. He's doing great and was a very good little patient.

Princess is doing wonderfully. That horse is so stinkin' cute some days I think she is the reincarnated spirit of a Golden Retriever.

The rest of my animal family is going through a period of adjustment that has been really hard on us all. HS is allergic to cats, and not just a little, but has been sucking up his reaction to them for years now... but with the surgery there was just no way he'd be able to handle sneezing. The answer was, at this point, to lock them in the living room (we have glass doors that can be closed) and to leave the balcony door open with their litter box outside. Our balcony runs the length of our house and gives them a good view of everything so there is really no reason for them to be unhappy with the arrangement... but the inherent nature of being cats being what it is, they are quite peeved at not being allowed to rule it all. It would seem they feel entitled to the lot and wont make due with a room and balcony bigger than most apartments. Bitty, my little baby, has had the hardest go of it as she is most attached to me and accustomed to following me about the house as I go about my day. A long term solution is going to have to be found but for now both HS and I have pointedly avoided looking too far in the future as there is no easy answer.

Other than that... as a result of a loooong few weeks and even longer winter, my computer chair has shrunk again. Damn that thing. There is just no winning some days.

Hope you have an excellent weekend!