deadlightsgirl | I need a horsey icon

Don't have one at the mo', so Mal will substitute because there were occasionally horses on his show (including horse death in the pilot, which we forgive you for, Joss, grumble), plus, of course, the whole thought of riding...ahem. Right.

Poor out of shape Shadow. Haven't seen her all winter and she is cranky about it. Jeanne didn't have time to ride with, so she just coached Shadow and me in the ring for a bit, and it was really the best thing, though naturally not as fun as a trail ride. Shadow's back legs were stiff and a bit wonky, so once we settled down a bit, we mostly walked over trot poles and kept her pace down. I say settled down a bit because when I first got up on her she was full of go, and I am happy to announce that my seat and balance are still where they should be even without having ridden on ages, because I was riding her bareback and she didn't want to walk at first. Must run all the time! Brakes are for suckers! Let's see how good your legs are, Rider! Honestly, she threw a couple of turns in there at speeds high enough that they would have been cause for alarm at one time, but they were no problem, go me. We think she didn't like the saddle pad I had on her (no saddle, just a pad, since she is kind of bony right now with needing to be wormed, ouch), because she behaved much better once I took it off, chased then rode her for a bit, and then put the pad back so I could finish working her out without it hurting me. A brief ride, since the half hour we were working was enough to make her sweat, and Jeanne says she will need a few more days of that to get her back up to speed. She'll be fine, just has to take it easy for a bit.

I then went home and presented Gracie with the Mary Poppins Barbie I found for cheapies at Tuesday Morning, and she has been gloriously enthralled with it ever since. I really have to try to get her to sing her rendition of "Jolly Holiday" into iMovie somehow, the cuteness is not to be believed.

Two shoutouts, ere I go -- should you have a need for foofy baked things, here is the blog of a friend of mine's bakery (her sister's, I think), complete with photos of the yummies --

adelaidesbakery
And secondly, a hi-there-and-a-hug to the shiny and indefatigable

the_mishka , who was in my bunk at camp centuries ago, happened into me at NYRF my last year there, and we have been catching up bit by bit over IM ever since. She's the artist laureate of the Happy Group, for those involved there http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=46657718389&ref=mf

I am going to make an effort to blog more, emo shot day whinging aside, on the off chance anyone out there cares about my semi-daily Gracie-centric ramblings or similar. If nothing else, twill be a good excuse to learn to embed pictures on my entries.