End of Hunt Season and Some Barn things (Summer)

Carrie decided to start cross-training Lilly with dressage.

It's investment, but at least it's not a drive. Kim's farm is only a few minutes down the road from us. Carrie thinks Lilly has the brain and the talent to be successful in dressage.

Which was well timed for the end of Hunt Season. Carrie's thinking ahead towards a summer project...or maybe something else.

Future spoiler alert: Carrie decides to put Lilly up for Sale. She started thinking about it around here. 

The idea was that Lilly was an amazing pony and by far the most marketable thing we own. Hunt horses can sell for a pretty penny and if Lilly showed she was skilled in multiple fields it would be a selling point even though she only has one full hunt season under her belt. Carrie loves Lilly, but she's not a family horse. She has her quirks and takes a skilled rider to handle. 

Meanwhile, Carrie hopes Beau will be that future high performing hunt and trustworthy family horse.  She likes projects, too, so, if Lilly sells she'd look for another project horse to train up and maybe sell along the road. Skillfully buying and selling horses seems to be one of the ways to make a small, hobby/family barn successful. 

Much more on that later, though.

For now, Carrie's very happy equine-ly. Lilly's doing great. They made it through Hunt Season. Carrie feels like a valued member of the hunt and got trained as a whipper-in. It's an aging club and Carrie's not sure how long it will continue into the future, so she's determined to live in the now and enjoy it while it lasts.

Oh, audiobooks, how I've adapted to thee (Summer)

I love my audiobooks.

From what I can gather online, some people prefer massive audiobooks. I'd define "massive" as 20+ hours, but they can go much longer than that! The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time Book #1) is 29 hours! That's a whole month of listening to me!

I tend to stick to shorter audiobooks. I recognize that 1 credit for Brandon Sanderson's The Way of Kings (45.5 hours!) is more book for your credit than spending 1 credit for All Systems Red by Martha Wells (3 hours 17 minutes), but I like the variety. Typically, I wait for sales to buy the smaller audio books (2 for 1 credit or $5 and under). 

I typically want an audiobook to range from no less than 3 hours to no more than 16 hours. I'd say the sweet spot is probably closer to the 4-12 hour range. 

As of today (7/15) I think I've finished 66 books on Audible. The longest book I've listened to is The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu at 22.5 hours. The shortest was The Dispatcher by John Scalzi at 2 hours and 18 minutes. There's a sale and I want to buy more, but I won't allow it until Shane and I finish more of the ones I already have! I might suspend my membership temporarily at the renewal date until the TBR (to be read) pile thins more.

This summer, I've gone high-tech. I got myself a pair of wireless earbuds for ~$20. I have no interest in the super expensive ones kids prefer. They cost way too much for an item that's easily lost. Carrie didn't want to buy the wireless ones when she could get 2 pairs of earbuds with wires for ~$9, but she thought I was worth the $20 in the end. They're fantastic. I can pop one earbud in, leave my phone in my pocket, and then do stuff instead of worrying about untangling the cord every time. It's easier to hide if I'm listening to something, too, which I could've used working at summer camp (but it was probably better I didn't have the temptation to be distracted!). They're been worth it so far, but I have to avoid losing them for many more months before I'll consider them truly worth the cost.

The Super Social Day

Sunday was awesome. We had plans after church, so we had to kill some time, though. Costco had groceries and books!

I let Shane browse and waited until the end to grab colds. 

Then we dropped by Andrew's house for a Youth Group board game party for the MS Boys!

I brought a lot of games for the cause! I knew they were unlikely to be used, but I felt compelled. Part of me was hoping Andrew would be interested and ask all about them! 

It looked like a grand old time. There were kids, there were snacks, and soda (I helped clean up a few spills before heading home!). It was a high energy group, so I wasn't sure how long they'd actually stay outside.

I went home afterward while Shane stayed to play. I saw everyone out on the playground when I arrived to pick him up a couple hours later.

It looked like a game of football or 500. 

Shane wasn't participating. He was trying to hide from me (and them?) on the hill.

I stood there for a while before I called Shane to get his butt off the hill and over to me (We're talking minutes and not seconds).

Shane came back acting bummed. He said people weren't throwing the ball to him. I read it as "I wasn't immediately good and the center of attention, so I got frustrated." I made Shane go back to tell Andrew goodbye and thanks for having him. Andrew yelled he was so glad Shane came and Shane's outlook brightened. 

I talked up that more positive worldview in the car as we headed to our second destination: Dylan's! Hi, Kyrie! Hi, Goldie!

John and Kelly were throwing a family party to celebrate Dylan's birthday. He was in the basement, so Shane ran straight there.

I stayed upstairs with Mason and John where we did some origami and made some paper airplanes.

While the men handled the child care, Kelly was productive with the cake! Apparently it was her mom's church cakewalk winning variety of chocolate.

Meanwhile, the nerds were happily clicking away.

We made them come up when the grandparents arrived and the party was starting!

I took some pictures, but I spent most of the day socializing. I got to hear a lot about local politics. Both John's dad and Kelly's parents were/are involved in their local churches outreach programs. 

The kids went outside to have a nerf war. They were still at it when it was time to grab Shane and head home.

We made a pitstop to appease the Mommy.

Shane and I didn't get home until around 7:30 PM! It was a busy, super-social day! Shane's got the energy to handle that easily. He was still hyped when we got home.

I went straight to the bedroom and gave Carrie her veggie sub. Pip took an immediate interest.

Carrie spent more time protecting her food than eating it!

It was a great day. It wasn't exactly restful with school and the countdown towards Spring Break happening, but it made good memories. Those helped to refresh me and give me a bright enough outlook to face another week of crazy school kids!

10 Books I DNF'd (Did not finish)

There's no rule that says: "Thou shalt finish any book once begun." 

It's important to generalize that rule from books to tv shows, video games, and meals you're allergic, to. 

There are many reasons I don't finish a book. Sometimes the book is on loan and I have to return it. Or sometimes I loan the book out! Books have been lost, packed away, or accidentally destroyed by a spilled glass. Sometimes the book comes out in a different form for better or worse (like a movie or a comic). While I've read The Princess Bride multiple times, it's a big DNF for Shane. I got him most of the way through, but Carrie couldn't wait any longer to show him the movie.

The books below are ones that I started and chose to put down. The reasons are varied, but the books and my decision to stop reading were vivid enough I could recall them here. There are many others that aren't listed here, but (for whatever reason) they didn't come to mind.

The List

Honorable Mention -  A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin. This is one of the few books I've rage-quit. I was enjoying it when my favorite character died in a way that infuriated me. This is only an honorable mention, though, because I went back and reread it later. I was able to be more objective round 2. For the book to be a series, that character had to die. It made sense based on the narrative and the motivations/machinations of other characters. This was all before the TV series. But that leads us to...

10. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin - I started this book a couple of times, but never got into it. Matt read it and told me some cool things. I followed the card game some by Fantasy Flight and knew some cool things. The HBO show came out and I knew even more cool things. But amongst all that, I heard plenty of things I didn't like. It's a brutal series and for all the great moments it felt like someone tried to write a LOTR without hope. Everyone was terrible, muck everything up, and die in a variety of ways. That was the plan. The series is still unfinished. The ending of the HBO series was met with a lack of applause and GRRM may consider it safer to die with the series unfinished than face the fans. I may reconsider reading this if the series ever finishes (well), but I wouldn't bet on it (the finishing or the finishing well!).

9. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan - I started to read the book to see if Shane was old enough and would like it. Carrie showed Shane the movie. It wasn't a bad book, but that killed my drive. If I was younger, or I had some other external motivation it may have kept my attention. I went through a Greek Mythology phase when I was in 4th or 5th grade, but haven't overly cared about it since. I did see a graphic novel version at the library. I picked it up hoping Shane would read it. He didn't, but I found where I left off the book version and skimmed through to see how it ended.

8. The White Tower (The Aldoran Chronicles: Book 1): An Epic Fantasy Adventure by Michael Wiseheart - I grabbed this book on Kindle for $0.99. 4.5 stars on 4,500 ratings. Magic is banned. Kid has magic. This had all the makings of, "Mike will like this." Something doesn't have to be original to be good....but this didn't do it for me. I like multiple viewpoints. This one bounced around too much and without setting a rhythm or pattern I could discern. It ended up being an object lesson for me about how not to handle an epic. It could be the book got better as time went on, but I kept trying to rewrite and revise it into a style I preferred. That's not a good way to enjoy a book. It was well liked, so I chalked this DNF up to "Probably a good book for the right person, but it didn't fit my taste." This might have been a good book for a much younger me. However, I've read a lot. Harry Potter wasn't my first magical school, so it didn't wow me like so many others. This book wasn't my first epic fantasy. I couldn't help but compare to other series I preferred, and I found it lacking. So I dropped it. For a buck, I didn't feel bad about it, either.

7. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky -  This was a classic. Sometimes classics are classic for reason other than being old. I read some glowing reviews about C&P. One reviewer listed it as a must read for any future psychiatrist or anyone interested in human psychology. I scanned some BookTube reviews on it and then Matt mentioned to me he'd met someone who converted to Christianity after reading it. I was intrigued. It was a big book from Russia and a difficult read, but I'd been to Russia and I'm a smart guy who liked to read so I tried it. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did if it wasn't an audiobook. There was some imagery that I figured was meant to be funny, but the cultural/temporal distance let it elude me. I found Raskolnikov's falling apart boring rather than fascinating. I wanted more happening in the real world instead of the mental world of a character I didn't like. There were some weird name changes and I decided the book wasn't for me.

6. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens - While I'm talking about classics, I hated this book. Or maybe I would have if I was ever able to read more than a few chapters. I bashed my head against this book multiple times for an English assignment and never made much head way. I can quote the opening line, but it was too much work to read and I felt no payoff. Perhaps it really is brilliant. I'm not the one to ask. I ended up checking out the movie from Blockbuster, not enjoying it, and skipped to the end. I BS-ing my assignment and probably ended up with a C or a B. I have no interest in going back to this book even if only to judge if it's as bad in reality as in memory. I doubt I would have ever picked it up if I wasn't required to. 

5. Unnatural Acts: The Cases of Dan Shamble, Zombie PI by Kevin J Anderson - Objectively, I enjoyed this book far more than A Tale of Two Cities. It got promoted on the list to keep the classics together, but it can also represent something I get sick of: preachiness. The book started off okay. The theme seemed amusing. A zombie detective was contacted by a golem who was forced to make tourist knick-knacks. There were some funny lines here and there as everything ambled along. But it was off somehow. I may have grinned here and there, but I kept feeling like the book should have been better. It missed the mark over and over again, but by just enough I hoped, "Maybe this will click for me." And then it got extra preachy. I dislike when books get too preachy or political. If it's subtle enough, presents information from both sides of a nuanced subject, and lets the reader make conclusions, it's fine. But when it's screaming off the pages? Hard pass. This rule even applies when it's something I beat the drum for. I'm a Christian and I like C.S. Lewis. However, I've only read the first book of Narnia. It was enjoyable, but too on the nose for me. I've never read the rest of the series, because of that. I won't pick up something like the golden compass which preaches against my core beliefs, because I don't want to argue with a book. Anyway, I got halfway through this book before I decided it'd be a waste of my time to go further. 

4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon - 

I first heard about this book while substitute teaching at Robinson Secondary School in NOVA. It sounded fascinating. It tells the tale of a special needs student who processes things radically different than "normal" who finds a dead dog and wants to solve the case. I got it on an Audible sale. I wanted Shane to hear about a viewpoint that was radically different from what he considered normal. It started off great. The way the protagonist thought was a major mindshift for Shane. But it didn't stay great. Shane lost interest, but that was fine with me. The story shifted in a way I didn't really want him to keep listening anyway. More things were revealed until I didn't really like any of the major players and I stopped reading. They revealed the answer to the mystery halfway through. The book never was a "solve who did it," but more of a "look at how these all cope with the main character's disability and trauma surrounding it by making poor life choices." The first few chapters are great for a "Wow! Could someone really think like that?" After that, I personally would not recommend it.

3. Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson - DG is book 2 in a series with a dedicated fanbase. I enjoyed the Wheel of Time, so I figured The Malazan Books of the Fallen could be my next epic. The biggest criticism I saw for The Malazan books was that the first book dropped you in the middle of the plot and said "Figure it out!" I have read that first book, Gardens of the Moon, twice. Both times, I enjoyed it. Yes, the criticisms were valid. Erikson drops you in to the action rather than building you up towards it, but I enjoyed the ride. I went into Deadhouse Gates ready for more and quit halfway through. It was too bleak, too slow, too hopeless, and I didn't see the characters from the first book I wanted to know more about. I've heard "it gets better once you get past book 3," but these are big books. I don't know if I want to put that amount of effort in. The Wheel of Time lagged for me around book 10, but by that point I was already so invested I wanted to work through to the final payoff. This series disappointed me by grabbing my interest and then smashing it to pieces. 

2. Along Came a Spider by James Patterson - I picked this up to experience a new detective. It got too real, too gruesome, and I dropped it like it was on fire. That was probably before Chapter 3. I like the puzzle and I like the bad guy getting caught. I don't want to know details about torture or the like. An initial scene in Oath of Swords by David Weber triggered me, but instant retribution came in the nick of time to prevent me from signing off. I went on Wikipedia to skim ahead on Along Came a Spider to see if I was overreacting and it screamed "Not for me."

1. Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie - This series was darker. I knew that going in. But it was written so well! There were characters I liked, action scenes I got into, and dialogue I laughed at. Say one thing for me, say I'm an optimist! Even when things kept getting darker, I hoped for a turnaround (a "eucatastrophe" to quote Tolkien). It was in Last Argument of Kings I figured out that was going to happen. I kept reading for a while, but eventually went online for a synopsis to confirm my prediction. Normally, I oppose reading the end of a book first. I justified it this time by saying I already finished the first two books. It saved me further reading. It really stunk to drop a trilogy halfway through book 3. I was nearly at the end! It was such a disappointment that this book shot to the top of this list. If someone reviewed another of Abercrombie's books as "Joe's writing, but lighter/less dark" I'd give it a whirl, but I haven't picked up one of his books since I dropped this one. 

Riding and Stuff (Summer)

Another Satuday, another soccer game! It was tax season and Widji's (Wee-gee's) dad asked if Shane and I could take him to the game. They were Scottsville local, so I readily agreed.

I think it was cold? We had a few games where the wind was a terror! 

It's hard to remember four months ago, but I think I gave Shane my hoodie to mark himself as goalie. I'd recommended he'd dress warmer and, shock, he didn't. I was left to freeze instead.

I'm pretty sure this is the game where I put my foot in my mouth. The ref was terrible. I had prayed for a good performance and we won handily, so it wasn't that. He just seemed confused, made contradictory calls, and kids kept looking at me hoping I'd explain what was going on (like I really know a soccer rule book!).

At the end of the game, I said something to all the kids asking me questions. I don't think I was mean, but I was honest. I agreed with them and said yeah, that there were bad calls, but refs are part of the game. It was their jobs to play so well the calls are clear and in their favor. If not, it's on the ref and not on them. Play on!

It's basically the same spiel I give to my wrestlers, only I didn't realize the ref had come over close enough to hear my talk. He was offended and we had a talk. I let him vent a little and it went well enough because I was calm and ended on a friendly manner. Truth was, I was embarrassed. I hadn't realized he was behind me at first. Bad job or not, we need refs and it's not a job I want to do. If he was a professional referee, I'd say he should be fired, but for rec league? 

But that's enough me. I took Shane and Widji for lunch after the game. They got "pizza subs" from Wawa.

We'd missed our riding lesson due to the game, and Carrie had Shane hop on Maddie instead.

I could have gone inside and enjoyed the break, but I came out to take pictures instead.

I prayed that Shane had progressed enough through his riding lessons he'd impress Carrie (It's her dream to do family trail rides).

It started off with just Carrie and Shane, but Micayla came out on Abby and Barbara arrived, as well!

Barbara went out with Carrie and observed the lesson!

I kept filming and made sure Kila didn't run into the ring to herd anyone.

The lesson continued and it went well.

Shane didn't blow Carrie away with his improvement, but he didn't disappoint her either. I pointed out that where Shane had grown the most was with his non-riding skills. He can brush, tack up, and tack down a horse versus not knowing which end was up in the beginning.

You could argue he's better at it than me now. Depending on how competitive I'm feeling I might even agree.

I think these photos are from the same day. If so, the day ended with Carrie setting up a temporary pen on the west side of the house.

Indy gets to be a yard pony. Carrie's worried about him loosing weight. She doesn't think the girls (Abby and Lilly) are preventing him from getting at the hay, but she'd rather let him have free reign eating grass to get fat and happy than worry about it!

I'm sure that you'll hear about Indy's yard adventures in the future.

St Patrick's Day and Such

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

St. Patty's Day was a big deal growing up. I'm not as good as Nana or the twins about keeping it special. I did see some special cupcakes being advertised at our local shop, though!

But to be honest, I was more excited by a different flavor on display.

Not that I agonized choosing. I bought both (and other Shane friendly flavors, too!).

Nana and Pop proudly posted themselves in green. I got a text asking if I was wearing my green, too.

Hopefully, teal counted. My eyes looked fairly green that day and I was wearing a cap to help. 

It was a teacher workday for me. I was at a County-wide Math meeting. Shane had to come along and read Calvin and Hobbes comics in Albemarle High School's cafeteria.

I forget exactly why he came along. It may have been the last hunt of the season for Carrie. He said was about to explode when the meeting ended. "Why didn't you just look for the bathroom?" I asked. Most schools are smart enough to have a bathroom close to the cafeteria. We didn't have to walk far.

On the way, we passed an open room and my ADHD/curiosity spotted something highly amusing.

There is a story behind that chair. I don't know what it is, but I would like to! Shane and I imagined a few scenarios on our way out.

We had an errand to accomplish on the way home and stopped by Snow's Garden Center.

Shane played with the store cat while I took pictures of shrubs and sent them to Carrie.

Smartphone technology and my legs allow Carrie to remotely shop in real time!

Technically, Carrie was selecting the plant for Grandma. "Do I have to hold this the whole way home?" 

"Cool!"

The plant  was for the crew Grandma hired to work on flower beds.

In a perfect world, I'd have before and after pictures. I don't.

The front yard looks nice now.

The question is: For how long? Gardens take work to maintain.

I value my blog much more highly than the garden and I'm behind on that. How often do you think I'm working on the flower beds? Whatever weeds I do pull is out of love for Grandma and not any personal drive (and sometimes because Carrie is panicking that they're going to visit and wants the yard to look better!). 

The crew did a good job from what I could tell. They worked on the back, too, but I don't think they'd gotten to it by the time I took this pictures around St. Patrick's. You'd think I could tell, but I really can't.

In my defense, I'm on record not caring about landscaping. I can look at a garden and appreciate it a moment, but then I move on with my life. As long as the grass isn't so high I'm freaking out about ticks, I'm happy.

We had one garden at our first townhouse I actually cared about and took care of. It was small. I tended the garden before I had a phone with a decent camera and had trouble finding pictures of it, but someone put the house up for sale again. The garden is still there!

The Japanese maples have grown considerably, but the rock path and pavers are all as I installed them under Grandma's watchful eye. I liked living in that townhouse.

Later, Carrie and I did a ton of landscaping at our first house. That got the urge all out of my system. 

There were the bamboo wars when we moved to Charlottesville (at least until we figured out we could give it away wholesale to fraternity houses!). People used to harvest the new shoots for food. 

Finally, Pip the kitten is doing very well. Carrie is highly amused by how much he trusts her. She can arrange and dangle him in all sorts of creative ways and he just purrs away.