omg sun

A rare sunny day yesterday! And the bees left Huey alone, too.

Not in the video was a little hop, skip, and a jump Huey threw in during warmup, much as he always does, but for some reason this time it tweaked my back. I didn't notice too much as I continued to ride, but when I got off all the muscles spasmed at once. Fun! I didn't sleep well at all last night, and when it was time to get up this morning I actually had to crawl to the kitchen to feed my dogs. Luckily everything is limbering up as the day goes by. Ice and naproxen sodium.

I volunteered at the roller derby last night (luckily they had me selling tickets, where I could sit the whole time), and at some point my volunteer partner, who was handling Will Call, said, "Hmm, there's someone on here named Captain Tightpants."

I practically ripped the sheet out of her hands, and yes, there it was: 4 VIP tickets reserved for Captain Tightpants. Now, I just happened to know that Nathan Fillion was in town yesterday supporting Arcimoto, a local electric car manufacturer. He owns an Arcimoto. So I thought to myself something coherent like "omg omg I'm gonna meet Nathan Fillion omg omg." But then I got hold of myself and asked the volunteer coordinator just exactly how that Will Call got put on the sheet, and she shot down my hopes and dreams, telling me that it was the ECRG (derby league) who set aside the tickets and invited Nathan via Twitter, and there was little chance he would actually show. Yet another dream, dashed on the rocks of harsh reality.

Nathan, next time you're in town for an Arcimoto gig, call me? K?

Videos from Marseille

Aren't my nieces just the cutest little girls ever?

Bad blogger

Apologies for my extended absence! The Marseille trip took up the last part of March, and then last weekend I once again got to hang out with rock stars at the Bright Eyes concert in Portland. So much fun! We also visited Portland's Japanese Gardens, a must if you're ever visiting.

I just found out today that Aron, the magnificent schoolmaster I got to learn on when I lived in Lubbock, died today. He was 27. He will always be very special to me.

For your viewing pleasure, here is Lola doing her best trick. She does it whenever she wants to get my attention, and it works every single time.

I had a super lesson on Huey Thursday. We got him the most collected I've ever had him, and he stayed loose and listening. I was having a good ride on him today, too, until an angry bee attacked his head twice. It freaked him out (understandably) and he may have even had a light sting somewhere around his ears. I kept riding, and he was doing his best to be obedient, but he was rattled about the bee. I didn't blame him. But when he just about took both of us down by tripping big in the middle of a canter, I decided enough was enough. We came so close to going down -- there was mud on my saddle pad, on my shirt, and I even found a little spot on my face. Camilla saw it and thought for sure we were down -- and then suddenly we popped back up! No injuries, thank goodness. We'll try again tomorrow, and hopefully Mr. Bee will be elsewhere.