December 2007

Missing the Barn

It has been rainy and cold this week, so I haven’t been out to the barn except last weekend. I miss it. I can feel the withdrawl sinking in. I want to go riding so much. Pretty sad when you miss your horse and feel like you’ve lost your sanity? I also feel guilty about not being out there. I’ve been worried about Stella too this week and have been trying to stay...

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Litany Against Fear

One of my favourite quotes is from Frank Herbert’s Dune: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. Related...

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No Hope for “The Last Legion”

Wow. This was bad. This was bad beyond bad. It’s like Ed Wood tried to write a movie based upon TH White’s Sword in the Stone and instead ended up with the script for “Arthur: Men in Anachronous Armor.” It’s like the movie also borrowed heavily from the left over equipment of the recent movie “Arthur” (another Really Bad Movie). Okay, they ride with stirrups and wrong saddles (saddle seat saddles! hello!). The...

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My Mom Is COOL

Mom was in Paris for the Arabian World Championships at the Salon du Cheval during the second week in December. No horse at the show, she just went to watch. It’s something she has wanted to do for years. And you know what? She did it. (Go Mom!) When you’ve gone to enough horse shows, you’ll run into people you know at almost any show. And of course, this show was no exception...

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Stella Update

I took Stella and Kiesha to the vet this morning; shots and some blood work for Stella. More as a precautionary measure than anything else. She is old enough that a minor panel would help us keep an eye on what is going on with her. Over the past few months she has definitely started to show her age — arthritic hips and just not always looking like her usual self. Stella is...

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Thoughts on Writing

Whether you knew it or not, I used to write fiction and poetry. Avidly. Like several stories a year, worked on several novels (almost finished one). I’ve always loved writing — that’s why my degree is in writing (English with a writing emphasis, technically). Ever since I started working as a full time technical writer, my fiction and poetry slacked off. In the past five years, I may have completed three or four...

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Shalom, Sabbath

On November 18, Mom called me in France and left a voicemail. Sabbath, the gorgeous bay mare that had bred to Sirdar (Isis’ sire), died. I’ve included Mom’s email below. Sabbath was by Ibn Amoura, a gorgeous stallion that I had wanted desperately to breed Isis too. I made the decision not to breed Isis because of her insulin resistance. Mom and I had worked out a deal: I took Rajiyyah, worked with...

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Sadness

I’m on a mailing list for owners of horses who are insulin resistant and/or have Cushings. These can be very serious conditions for horses if left untreated. These metabolic conditions can not be cured, only managed. Isis has insulin resistance and so far we’ve kept her well managed. We have been lucky. She had two cases of laminitis back to back (side effects of the insulin resistance) but neither episode left much damage....

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“The Seeker” Sucks, part 2

In October, I wrote a comparison of the movie The Seeker to the book upon which it was allegedly based, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper. My opinion? The movie sucked rocks and hurled chunks. I love the books and this movie was something abhorrent. Reading the comments on my earlier post made me wonder what I might find using a search engine. For example, what did Susan Cooper think of the...

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Filling in Blog Posts for France Trip

I may start filling in what happened while I was in France by creating blog entries for the actual dates with brief details of what we did. It will mean that posts will be written one day but dated another. I can include a note on the post for the actual date it was written. I don’t want to forget the things that happened. Writing them out and being able to read a...

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Sick. Sigh.

Never seems to fail. I come back from a trip and I get sick. On the flight back last weekend, the kid sitting in the row behind me coughed up a storm. I started losing my voice and getting a sore throat on Thursday last week. The coughing got worse over the weekend. I was feverish most of Sunday and part of today. Stayed home from work. Didn’t want to share the love....

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