Last night a friend and I checked out the Brook Lee Catastrophe at a local pub. They were terrific. They're sort of an indie rock/folk/alternative outfit, with a fiddle and, sometimes, a psychedelic vibe. If you'd like to hear some music/see some videos/check out tour dates, visit their MySpace page.
This is my favorite song by them. The video appears to be fan-made (and not that great, IMO).
Here's a bit of my latest lesson on Huey. Unfortunately, the camera died after seven minutes, so you don't really get to see the good stuff. We had a super canter going at the end of the lesson. What you see here is really just warmup. Huey's not very forward and kinda crooked.
What this clip did help me to see was: Ugh! Banging right leg when tracking right! Stop that! I don't know when I picked up that habit, but I'm going to quit tout de suite. Huey doesn't like to bend to the right, but I've gotta find a quieter way to ask. Maybe it's time for some stubby spurs.
Camilla successfully jumped Huey at four feet last weekend. Way to go, Huey!
Today is Life in a Day, wherein you can submit video you shoot today to YouTube, and it might get chosen to be included in a Ridley Scott documentary. I thought that was kind of neat.
In the next couple of weeks, Willow is going to Louisiana to do some eventing training and let some people there try her out. Maybe we'll find a match!
I thought everyone had seen this video by now, but I talked to a couple people today who had heard of it but hadn't seen it, so I thought I would perform a public service. Behold the best weather-related freakout of all time! With every viewing, I'm more amazed by this fellow's ability to go from happy giggles to full-on sobbing in less than two seconds.
Of course, in this Web 2.0 world, it wasn't long before someone remixed his ramblings into a catchy song:
Nathan Fillion is recommending "double rainbow" as the latest synonym for "awesome," as in "That song was so great, it was full on double rainbow all the way."
I had a super lesson on Huey on Sunday. He's so much less fussy with his head. I've been playing around a bit with walk-canter-walk and it seems to be no problem.
Last October I installed a doggie door for my dogs, and they love it. Last night I went to a friend's birthday party for three hours. Unfortunately, I didn't add up (doggie door) + (4th of July fireworks) before I left for the party. My little beagle Abby is usually the sort to stay put, but the fireworks spooked her last night, and I came home to just Sam, no Abby. She had monkeyed her way over the fence.
I wasn't too worried for the first hour or so. I figured she was just running around the neighborhood and would turn up on my porch before long. But by 10 p.m. I was starting to panic. She was wearing her collar with her rabies tag on it, so if someone found her all they had to do was call the vet and we'd be reunited. Unfortunately, the vet is, of course, closed for the holiday, so that wasn't going to be a very speedy way to find her. I still hoped she would find her way home on her own. I left the front and back porch lights on and slept with the front door open -- just the glass storm door closed. I scooted my bed over so I could sleep looking directly out the front door. I got almost no sleep, although I know I snoozed a couple times because I woke up hallucinating that Abby was at the door.
This morning I called the police, who also serve as animal control, and made a report. The dispatcher I spoke with was as sweet as he could be. I spent most of the rest of the day alternating between walking around, driving around, and sitting in my living room worrying.
At around 3:00 the police dispatcher called to tell me that some folks had found Abby, had decided she needed a bath, had taken off her collar to bathe her, and had then proceeded to lose her. Un-frickin-believable. Thanks so much, folks, for taking off her one form of ID. But at least then I had a new place to search, 2 MILES south of my house. Sam and I started walking up and down the neighborhood, and then hallelujah! A nice young gentleman called to say he had Abby safe and sound in his living room. Sam and I sprinted back to the car and drove over, and there was the nice young man standing in his front yard with Abby on a leash. She was so exhausted she was wobbling. That nice young man is totally getting a gift certificate.
Once home, Abby ate her dinner, drank a bucket of water, and has been sleeping ever since. I, myself, am totally crashing. I haven't slept or eaten in almost 24 hours. I feel like sticking Abby in a papoose carrier so I know where she is at all times. Both dogs are getting deluxe ID tags and microchips ASAP.
I'm back after a week in Denver for my company's annual conference. Us and 18,000+ of our closest friends. I slept for thirteen hours last night. My team and I run the bookstore, and it's pretty exhausting even when the customers are all pleasant. On Tuesday, a crazy woman began verbally attacking one of my colleagues. A different colleague and I politely asked the crazy woman to join us in a private meeting room to find out what her beef was. Thus began a ten-minute onslaught of insults and general hatefulness. I tried my best to calm her down and find out what she actually wanted. I was doing pretty well maintaining my cool, but then she insulted one of my colleagues with a nasty appearance-based epithet, and I stood up, told her I was highly offended, and tried to indicate that I was done meeting with her. At that point she started to cry and apologize profusely. I'm pretty sure she actually WAS having some kind of mental breakdown, so I've just tried to let the whole thing go. (My colleague said when the epithet was hurled and I stood up, he thought for a second I was going to launch myself at the woman, and he was trying to decide how long to let me whale on her before he interceded. Hee.)
Last year at our conference, a woman lost her mind upon finding out that we were out of her size of t-shirt. She actually did start to get physical, pushing the person staffing the t-shirt booth, and we had to call security. Over a t-shirt. I guess when you get 18,000 people together, there are bound to be a few with mental problems.
Here's Huey doing stadium at a 3-day event last week. I hear his dressage was lovely, too.
