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All of these pictures were taken with my iPhone.

more animals

I’ve had a bad day, or this wouldn’t be so funny.  Check out I Can Has Cheeseburgers for more cute animals with silly captions.  It’s one of my favorites sites, and I don’t start my day without it.

I must be nuts, because I'm looking for another horse.  It has been fun leasing Classi, but the summer is almost over, and she'll be going back home.  So, I have scraped together every last penny I can find, and I'm in the market for another pony.

Last night I looked at another Saddlebred. He is a 6 year old gelding, 17 hands, and he's used as a lesson horse at another barn.  D & M had him for a week's trial, and yesterday morning, someone called the owner and made an offer for him.  I had first dibs, but I had to make up my mind in a hurry.  I hate that.

First glance at Nemo didn't make any impression other than thinking that he's freaking huge.  He's bigger than Harley, but a lot more gangly.  M pointed out his flaws, including how parrot mouthed he is.  We saddled him up and she got on first, so I could see how he moved.

He is certainly not an object of beauty, and as she put him through his paces, M told me what she liked or didn't like about each of his gaits.  He canters downhill and is kind of clumsy.  Then she complained about how slippery my saddle is!  I told her it would give her better balance, which is what she tells me when I say it's slippery.

Then it was my turn to take Nemo for a spin.  He is huge!  I really had to stretch to get my foot in the stirrup.  He didn't move too badly going the first way, but when we turned and went the second way, he got kind of scrambly.  It felt really weird, like he was trying to trot and canter at the same time.  After a few times of that, I decided that he isn't the horse for me, and I told M to have the boss find me a nice Morgan.  There was one at the show on Saturday that caught my eye, but he is sadly way out of my price range.  I still have lots of time, though.  My goal is to find something by the end of the year.

Since I am on horsie hiatus until Monday, here's a quick post of life to the moment -

My new hobby is playing with my new HE washer and dryer, which Dean seems to think is really weird.  If you are going to spend that much money on appliances, you should enjoy them.  I haven't had a new washer or dryer, ever, and it's a little exciting having my own stuff, instead of someone else's hand-me downs.  I purchased the GE Profile washer and dryer, in the champagne color.  That's another thing he doesn't like about them, but I argue that if they are going to be that expensive, they should at least look like they are made of gold.  And since he told me to get whatever I wanted, he can't really complain.  I would suggest that you not purchase appliances at Lowe's - they were such a pain to deal with.

Jen and I had a good time at Anime Expo, at least until Jen got sick.  We went to lots of panels, Jen took a bunch of pictures, and we walked, a lot!  We were even able to play DDR without waiting in a huge line.  I don't know if that means the game isn't as popular, or we hit the arcade at the right times.  Travel days sucked, though, and between the bomb scare at LAX and all of the flight delays and plane hopping, I am not looking forward to flying again.  It's awful, and the airlines couldn't care less about their rude employees or lack of service.  I was joking that pretty soon they will charge extra for you to actually sit in their uncomfortable seats on the planes.  I wonder what the surcharge for that would be?  50 bucks, or else you have to stand in the cargo area and hold onto a railing the entire flight?  Or they will start charging for you to use the scary restrooms.   Yeah, now there's a thought.

Oh, and I still don't have my PC back.  It's supposed to be finished by Monday.  Somebody is never allowed to touch it again!  Good thing I have a laptop, or I would have torn my hair out...

Major thanks to Beckz for admitting, publicly, that she enjoys my blog.  Thanks for giving me the "I Love Your Blog  Award"!  It makes me happy that someone other than my parents tune in to my horsy adventures and that she doesn't think that I've lost my mind (unlike some other people!)  Beckz helms I Will Jump Sweet Jumps, and she's brave enough to jump her horses!  I'm a firm believer that what goes up usually comes down with a crash, so I have generally avoided trying that little endeavor. 

I would like to pass the award on to my favorite Great Danes,  Kaya and Luna.  These pretty girls know what's important in life, and they are quick to enjoy themselves at the beach or the in their backyard.  They are also very photogenic, so it's worth a stop by their blog, The Adventures of Kaya and Luna.  Keep up the good work, girls!!

I have been suffering from incredible pain since yesterday.  The whole left side of my mouth feels like a horse stepped on my face.  I went to the dentist today, and thankfully, nothing has abscessed.  Instead, my lower front teeth have shifted again, causing a lot of pressure on the teeth.  The shooting pains are a result of my bite shifting.  The dentist ground down one of my teeth, and adjusted my bite block, but he said that my teeth might hurt for another week.  Crap!  I can't even eat!

Well, with a wind chill advisory and temps hovering at about 3 degrees (-22 with the wind chill!), I decided to stay home this morning and not venture out into the cold.  Almost everyone was going to the tack sale in South Lyon today, anyway.  D was going to be at the barn to shoe some horses, but he told me to come if I wanted to.  I thought it might be more fun to sleep in and then read all day.  I didn't think hand warmers would have made much of a difference today.

There's another academy show tomorrow morning, so Jen and I are having a slumber party in Okemos.  We ate at a new place in Novi, Pei Wei, before heading out.  The food was a little on the expensive side for what you got, and not very remarkable.  Jen ordered the Spicy Korean with beef, which was really chewy, and I ordered something spicy with tofu. Can't remember the name of the dish - sorry.  It wasn't too bad, but there wasn't much to it.

We're both tired from a busy week, so we're going to read some manga and settle down for an early night.  My day included spilling uncooked rice all over the floor in my office, tripping over the rice cooker and spilling partially cooked rice all over the floor in my office, and Brad acting like an incredible a$$.  I ended up slamming my chair into him when he was standing behind me, his only goal to irritate the living crap out of me.  He succeeded.

Today's lesson was canceled.  There was no power at the barn, and with the blustery weather, M thought a lot of people wouldn't show anyway.  It was so cold when I got up this morning!  From 47 to 10 overnight - Michigan sucks.  The wind was blowing fiercely, and the back door was frozen shut.  It was like 15 below with the wind chill.  Now we can all wait for the snow that's supposed to make Friday's morning drive into work a nightmare.  How fun!

Since there was no lesson, I dragged Jen to the mall so I could spend some gift certificates and check out the new addition.  It was over-rated, and I ended up saving most of the gift certs.  Better luck next time.

Well, I've been sick the whole week.  So sick that I left work early three days, and finally dragged myself to the clinic on Tuesday.  I have another sinus infection!  Antibiotics, nasal inhalers, and decongestants had me feeling a little better by Thursday, but I wasn't feeling well enough to ride (duh) and actually used common sense and canceled my lessons until Friday.  Naturally, there was a show this weekend, and as I had already paid the entry fees, I was going no matter what.  It really sucks to feel like crap and try to perform at a show!

Hopefully, now that I'm feeling better, things will really get back on track.  Blondie is going to have her shoes put back on tomorrow, so we can start looking forward to the non-academy show season.  I'm really excited about it!