First, there was horse chores. Second, there was TKD.
After TKD, I visited a wrestling friend who coaches lacrosse. He had some gear for Shane to borrow.
Shane really liked the gear. He was so excited about 'armoring up' for lacrosse he wore the helmet to the recycling center (our next stop!).
I told Shane we were going by 5th Street Station next. He kept asking about food the whole way and I said, "Maybe we'll get something there."
What he didn't know was that Carrie was waiting for him! They went to a SPCA fundraiser at the Alamo Drafthouse. They had lunch and watched a ton of funny cat videos together!
Meanwhile, I slid over to Panera for lunch. Then I drove north to attend Prezcon.
Prezcon is a board game convention. I've known about it for years and been curious, but never attended. This year, I decided I'd take a look.
It's funny how going to something brand new can make you a little nervous. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but adventure called!
There were lots of tournaments for popular board games with scheduled heats. If I were to go again, I would be interested in those. However, today was a scouting mission. I paid $30 for open gaming and then wandered around. There was a game library and tables downstairs.
There weren't a lot of tables open. Most people were already involved in games. Maybe my timing was off, but it's probably easier when you come with a group or meet people in the scheduled games.
There was a sign for someone play-testing a game they designed. I took the plunge and said I was in.
It was a hidden movement game with one vs all. A team of people were people and one person controlled the dinosaurs trying to eat the people.
Naturally, I played the dinosaurs!
It was a fun time! However, it wasn't Carrie's style of game and she's my 'game group,' so it won't hit my wish list any time soon. I wish the guy the best, though! I understand that desire to create something and it takes a brave person to put themselves out there for criticism.
I found a silent auction and used games for sale area afterward, but it was already highly picked over. There were some things I was curious about, but they turned out to be expansions or parts of systems I didn't own. That meant I saved my money and walked away.
There was an auction underway, as well. If there was something I wanted, I didn't stick around to find out.
I probably could have stayed longer, but there were things that needed to be done. I stopped by Lowe's with a bunch of old batteries to recycle and was told "rechargeable only, please."
Then I dropped by Play it Again Sports. Shane's going to try lacrosse this spring (if you didn't already figure that out), so I needed to pick up gear. He wasn't with me, so I had to guess at sizes.
Gas and Costco were next! It was an eclectic shopping list today. Carrie wanted corn oil to help put more meat on Kitty's bones and I got enough Irish cream for a year's worth of Irish coffees and cooking.
And milk. We were low on milk.
I made it home in time for some cleaning and horse chores.
She is the only cat who tolerates, nay, likes Loki.
It was slow developing, but they actually play together some. She will bat at him and hop off a chair to chase him, no growling and claw-free. Loki's happy to run around any chair she's perched and on she doesn't bolt.
In an incredibly gross display of bonding, I've seen Loki lick her butt clean. I corrected him and they both looked up at me. I kid you not, she rolled onto her back and he kept one eye on me and went back to licking.
I'm hoping it was a one time thing.
Loki has grown considerably from the summer. He's over 20 pounds of fluffy and hyper. Like the cats, he is very interested when anyone lies down on the couch. Only he's likely to run back and forth across your chest and cause a ruckus by invading feline space.
Loki's a big fan of chasing cats in the house (when they let him). Outside of the house he wants to pace cars. It terrified me at first, but Loki seemed afraid of the road when I had him leashed as the school bus came up. Loki's done a great job of recognizing the fence is his boundary. I don't know how much of that is from my yelling and how much is from his own inclination. He's actually run away when I've been in the barn and I've found him running back and forth up front whenever I remember he's out there.
Basically, I trust him not to get himself killed.
That trust took a ding, recently. When I'm with Loki, I take him out near the horse jumps so there's a long runway of unbroken fence. I take him away from the entrance to the driveway and away from the west end where the fence changes to (uncharged) polywire. Loki likes to get a headstart on the cars and I've been worried about what he'd do if he got too far ahead of them and ran out of running room.
I was getting the mail and I watched Loki duck under the fence into the ditch as a car went by. The car honked and I started yelling. Loki may have gotten within four feet of the roadside before he turned around. I gave him a stern dressing down (he peed) and took him right into the house.
Later, I realized I had dropped my phone when I went into action mode.
Hopefully, Loki learned his lesson and won't go for an encore performance.
We've got five outdoor 'pets' on property.
Annie is the newest addition to our personal herd. She is Nib's half-sister (same stallion) and a real beauty. She's very gentle and curious in nature. She will walk up next to me and sniff at my hair, shoulders, or whatever when I let her out at night. I don't know if she's still growing or if it's due to being half-Friesian, but her blankets fit oddly. Her neck is higher and her back is a little shorter.
She's low on the dominance totem pole and our most skittish horse. Carrie's started to train her and she was terrified of the arena gate for the first several sessions. She's eager to please and has progressed quickly.
Carrie loves her. She braided her mane and was giving her some butt scratches in this photo.
Right now, we have a very laid back and positive herd on the ladies' side of things. Annie's the one who's taking a nap in the photo.
She's got a few other quirks worth noting. She will stretch her legs out and contort herself to avoid ever having two hooves on the stall mat. She eats more than any horse I've ever seen without blimping out and foundering.
I have to be careful with her, because she highly dislikes her blanket and anyone touching past her shoulder line. If I don't watch her, I'm likely to get bit.
Maddy is the final member of our herd of mares. She's a great little pony who gets along with horses and people alike. We recently found a leaser who likes to ride her, so she's a contributing member of the family. Carrie, Shane, and I have all ridden her.....and so has Jenny, Gay, and Sophia! She's a trooper.
Lately, she stands and expect scratches whenever she's let out of her stall. He lip quivers and she'll toss her head gently whenever an itch
Maddy has one unfortunate tendency: She poops almost every time she's stalled. I don't know if she wants her stall to fill "lived in" or if she's acting out her displeasure.
And then she steps in it.
I've come up with little nicknames for each horse, and I figure if Maddy had a tribal name it'd be "She Who Steps in Shit" shortened to "Poop-hoof" or "Shit-stepper"with her friends.
Thankfully, her piles are pretty small (when not kicked and spread all over).
Samwise (aka "Sam") would like to be with the ladies, but he's in the other pasture. Sam is Carrie's ride. He is the most flatulent horse I've ever heard or been downwind of. He toots with pleasure as he walks by me into his stall and he toots enough in his stall I'm always checking for phantom piles.
And he does it under saddle, too! Carrie calls it "his rocket booster."
Sam's the biggest horse on our property. He's got some cold-blood stock in him (Clydesdale) and Carrie calls him a "Heinz 57" overall. He's very food driven and always acts like he's starved when it's time for dinner. Shane watched him eat once and said he didn't chew. "He inhaled his food!"
He's been on a diet. It must be working, because I haven't heard Carrie call him "Apple Butt" for a while.
I often call him "Steady Eddy" and/or "Old man." He's turning 22 years old. His owner, Heidi, says he's got a thing for the ladies, so no co-mingling allowed! He liked to cozy up next to the polywire when Nibs was in her 'private lot.' He and Sam both tried to shimmy closer to the mares the one time they escaped.
Overall, Eddy is a mellow fellow. He knows what he likes and he's predictable (Hence, "Steady."). He has his quirks, though. He likes to pick up his food bowl and flap it around. It reminds me a little of prisoners rattling cups on their cell bars in movies, but there's more of a comedic effect with the plastic bowl flopping up and down as he bobs his head!
Loki is still afraid of all the equines. In this picture, I was surprised he came in the barn to greet Heidi, at all!
He made sure not to get too close! It's probably for the better.
Our last horse, Nibs, is away learning how to work for a living. She's at Dragonfly Eventing learning how to bear a rider.
She's doing really well at it, too! She gets along famously with people.
Alas, she's still having trouble getting along with other horses. We wonder how much of that stems from being an orphan. Unless she has a miraculous change of attitude, we may decide to put her up for sale. She's beautiful and extremely capable, so she should be able to find a good home where she's valued. She got along famously with Sam, but despises Eddie so she can't pasture with the boys.
Someone with more fields and horses than us could find a working herd situation much easier. Sonya first stuck Nibs with Gizmo to learn some manners (she did) and then moved her to another herd of mares when Gizmo needed to help with a problem pony.
And that's everyone!
.....for now.
You never know with Carrie. I hope that we get more boarders rather than new pets. Carrie's posted some ads and had some people contact us, but nothing that's stuck. That could change based on what I'm hearing, but who knows until it really happens.
Thursday was the winter sports award banquet. It started with food at 6:00 PM, so I had time to go home, move hay, and then pick up Shane. We arrived a little after 6 PM and all of the Bojangles was gone. We were able to get a couple of slices of pizza and cake, so it wasn't all for naught!
I handed Shane my phone, so that I could talk. He was absorbed for the rest of the night. I sat behind him when we moved to the awards at 6:30 PM.
We only had three wrestlers show up. One left after food. The coach passed out the team picture and of the 10 kids and 1 manager who were in it, 5 stayed on the team, one became a manager, and the manager became a wrestler. We'd had more wrestlers the first week who weren't in the picture, but they all disappeared after pissing in a cup or losing at a scrimmage.
Two highlights from the night:
1) Coach Winfrey pointed out some stains on a banner in cafeteria. They were 10 years old from a food fight in his senior year. "It was taco day!"
2) One of the wrestlers who showed up was a ginger like me. He was in 8th grade and had little impulse control. I was bored and tired and ended up "letting my ginger show." I'd been good all day, but looking back we were too loud.
We had one more wrestler show up at the very end. He was our senior, so it was good to see him.
I'm still planning on coaching next year. I hope there's more of a team to coach, though! Maybe I'll be able to start a middle school program like I did in Charlottesville.
I had to stay after school for a CPR and First Aid training. As a coach, I was required to take it in case anything bad happened during wrestling season.
That's a little screwy since the season was already over, but it should help for next year. It's a good class for anyone to take.
The high-tech dummies were neat. There was an app to grade you and everything.
Class got out at 6:30 PM. Carrie asked me to pick up a pizza from Wegman's on the way home.
At some point, I saw something on the internet I wanted to try (famous last words?).
Carrie had a whole bunch of garlic in her last Imperfect Foods delivery. Shane found the process ticklish.
He was the first victim. Then Carrie and I did it ourselves.
I don't think I ever tasted it. If I did, it was faint enough it didn't overrule the salsa I had an hour earlier! My nose was stuffy (because my life), but I think my hands smelled garlicky later. Only Carrie applied the garlic, so maybe it did travel some.
Carrie signed up for Imperfect foods. It's a service that delivers cheap food that would have been thrown away for cosmetic reasons.
And it's inspired her to cook more! I'm all about this!
We've had chicken fried rice, stuffed spaghetti squash with a Mexican inspired filling, and Japanese curry.
Yes, Shane has eaten all of it!
He's way braver with foods than I ever was.
Carrie made him a quesadilla out of the filling instead of serving it in a squash, but he liked mine!
I'm hoping for many more meals. With wrestling over, the sun staying up longer, and me starting to catch up on everything, I feel like there's more energy in the house. Maybe it's partly because we're all eating better now?
The only downside to more cooking: More clean-up. I need to finish catching up with the school work and blog, so I can get on that.
Shane and the Cartwrights all played in Sunday School together again. The kids all wanted to play Minecraft together again, but the schedules didn't mesh.
So we found ourselves at home. Shane was dancing on the trailer in the front yard as Loki paced cars. I don't know who was watching who (They were both in their own worlds).
Meanwhile, there was cleaning to do. Carrie washed all the pillowcases from the couch, there was a backload of laundry, dishes, you name it. Shane sort of helped.
We finished the cleaning before our visitor for the day arrived! Henry was happy to see Loki.
The first stop on Shane's agenda was the walking machine! "The limit is 5," Shane said.
So Henry immediately tried to push it to 6. Shane called him out on it, Henry looked at me, and then backed it down!
The funniest moment was all Loki. The dumb dog tried to run across the treadmill in front of Henry. It swept his feet out right from underneath him! Loki hit the conveyor belt feet up and Henry had to jump over him as he was swept away!
Loki spilled off the back end, hopped up, and started barking at the treadmill. He was ok!
I asked the boys if they wanted me to try and call the neighbors for some group fun. Shane was all for it, but Henry declined.
Instead, Henry wanted to build a fort. Shane thought that was a fantastic idea and they set right to it!
I moved them away from the barn, because Heidi was riding. I told them they were welcome to shop around for materials after she put Eddy back up.
They decided to play on the hay and build their fort there instead. You can do a lot with a tarp and some rebar!
Henry was ready to play Kirby by the time Carrie started to cook dinner. He requested spaghetti and cheesy potatoes.
You can tell both boys are only children by the way they bicker. It's good they get some practice dealing with other kids outside of school!
Shane and Henry have a funny dynamic when they're over here. Shane is excited to have a friend and is extra goofy and dramatic. Meanwhile, Henry tries to play the angel. He corrects Shane's behavior when it's in front of Carrie or I and acts like chores are the coolest thing in the world.
I like to think Shane's learned a little bit of circumspect. Henry just says exactly what he's thinking. "These potatoes aren't as good as last time."
Carrie's eyes popped! "They're exactly the same!"
I pointed out it was the pairing. Some foods go really well together. The last time Henry had cheesy mash it was with BBQ. Situation saved!
Molly came to pick Henry up after dinner. One of these days we'll invite Henry to spend the night and see how that goes.
