Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away...
Dec. 18th, 2006 08:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancinghorseSwimming back to the surface for a bit. I'm not as hysterical as I usually am a week before Christmas--life is so overloaded, who has time to get freaky? We have a tree, which is not yet up, bought from the Tucson Boys' Choir (good cause and all) and sold to us by an Air Force guy just back from Iraq. He was a bit giddy to be home. It's in the storage shed at the moment, waiting to be brought in and decorated. We're European about that; tree up as late as possible. Usually the 23rd, but probably the 22nd this year.
Also, the turkey has been ordered. And I've started the baking, which is a bit reflexive--I see these dates on the calendar, I migrate like a lemming toward the kitchen. So far I've made Irish spice bread from a secret family recipe, raspberry jam cookies, and a new one, double chocolate cherry cookies. Herewith, my dispassionate and objective, totally unemotional review: ZOMG teh Chocolate OMG!!!!!!
When a cookie is excellent as dough, and only gets better as it goes through all its phases from just out of the oven to in the tin for a day or two, you know it's a keeper.
Eggnog muffins still to come. Also pies. And whatever else strikes my fancy.
Clinic preparations continue apace. We had a meeting today to go over the final logistics. After all the backing and forthing and some dropouts and no-shows, we have 44 rides committed, and I expect we'll get a few more--we have 50 slots to work with, but anything upwards of 40 is good. Today's recruit is an upper-level rider with a Friesian that does advanced movements and levade; that should be a nice crowd-pleaser. We have many Arabians and a few Lipizzans and an Andalusian, and a fair gamut of levels, which is good. I'm pleased with the mix.
Clinician's flights are booked and his tickets mailed--I got a great deal but it meant paper tickets. Much confoozlement at the postal depot, not with the spelling of his rather long and very Austrian name, but with the name of the city the package was going to. "W-I-E-N? Could you spell that again?"
Teacher has been here rather a lot in the past few days--lessons on Thursday, again yesterday and then today, and now we'll have a 10-day holiday hiatus. She's been riding Pandora, will be doing two rides on her in the clinic, and the Beeg Girl is blossoming. This morning she discovered her inner soap bubble; she was floating. I'll keep on with that until Teacher comes back.
Pook and I have been working hard. Teacher is asking me to really use my seat especially for steering, and to keep my hands very still. My inner thigh muscles were killing me this morning; that boy is wide, and I have to sit 'way deep. Homework is to watch Andreas and Kottas videos and internalize torso and hands, respectively, and also to make sure I half-halt more and work more on getting his withers up. He's been enjoying the attention--he'll be bummed tomorrow when I give him a day off.
And finally and not incidentally, the ego is back to equilibrium. No more invisible-author angst. For a while.
Also, the turkey has been ordered. And I've started the baking, which is a bit reflexive--I see these dates on the calendar, I migrate like a lemming toward the kitchen. So far I've made Irish spice bread from a secret family recipe, raspberry jam cookies, and a new one, double chocolate cherry cookies. Herewith, my dispassionate and objective, totally unemotional review: ZOMG teh Chocolate OMG!!!!!!
When a cookie is excellent as dough, and only gets better as it goes through all its phases from just out of the oven to in the tin for a day or two, you know it's a keeper.
Eggnog muffins still to come. Also pies. And whatever else strikes my fancy.
Clinic preparations continue apace. We had a meeting today to go over the final logistics. After all the backing and forthing and some dropouts and no-shows, we have 44 rides committed, and I expect we'll get a few more--we have 50 slots to work with, but anything upwards of 40 is good. Today's recruit is an upper-level rider with a Friesian that does advanced movements and levade; that should be a nice crowd-pleaser. We have many Arabians and a few Lipizzans and an Andalusian, and a fair gamut of levels, which is good. I'm pleased with the mix.
Clinician's flights are booked and his tickets mailed--I got a great deal but it meant paper tickets. Much confoozlement at the postal depot, not with the spelling of his rather long and very Austrian name, but with the name of the city the package was going to. "W-I-E-N? Could you spell that again?"
Teacher has been here rather a lot in the past few days--lessons on Thursday, again yesterday and then today, and now we'll have a 10-day holiday hiatus. She's been riding Pandora, will be doing two rides on her in the clinic, and the Beeg Girl is blossoming. This morning she discovered her inner soap bubble; she was floating. I'll keep on with that until Teacher comes back.
Pook and I have been working hard. Teacher is asking me to really use my seat especially for steering, and to keep my hands very still. My inner thigh muscles were killing me this morning; that boy is wide, and I have to sit 'way deep. Homework is to watch Andreas and Kottas videos and internalize torso and hands, respectively, and also to make sure I half-halt more and work more on getting his withers up. He's been enjoying the attention--he'll be bummed tomorrow when I give him a day off.
And finally and not incidentally, the ego is back to equilibrium. No more invisible-author angst. For a while.
