"Mom?"

I left work and immediately went to ride Archie.  We had a pretty good, albeit short, ride.  I want to say that it was about seven minutes walk, four trot, and half a lap of canter in two-point, both directions.  He was good.  :)

After riding, we went to a pizza place about five minutes from the apartment.  It's called Your Pie and I particularly enjoy it because they've got a wheat crust.  It's like the Subway of pizzas - they make it in front of you, so you get to specify all the toppings and how you want it.  They also serve beer and have live music on Thursdays.  It's a nice little place and I'm glad we live near it.  The weather was phenomenal, so we sat outside and listened to people talk. ("Well, how long have y'all been together?" "Do I include the time we were divorced?")

I convinced him to watch a movie, under the guise that we could work out afterwards.  Hah.  We watched the Darkest Hour, where electricity- and human-eating aliens attack, set in Russia.  It was pretty entertaining.  And, afterwards, of course we didn't work out.

Brand-new dressage girth.  All fluffy and shit.

Got up and took care of everyone and headed to the barn.  I decided to add a little variety and pulled out the dressage saddle.  I'm going to have to get something more substantial to go under it if I continue to ride in it, because it was just barely putting pressure on his withers.  It was a pretty decent ride.  Forty minutes, about two miles.  Since I was in the dressage saddle, I sat the canter.  I then took him off the property and blew his mind a little.  We went back on the dirt road, but instead of coming back the way we came or following the road to lap the property, I cut through a little opening in the trees and we ended up in someone's front yard.  Whoops.

What's funny:  same tank top I wore to the gym (I swear I washed it!).

After riding, I cleaned up and we went to Five Guy's Burger and Fries.  It's a heart attack on a bun.  I get the cheese veggie and it's seriously one of the best things I've ever eaten.  It drips cheese and mayo and onions and veggies.  We talked about eating there last Saturday and this Saturday, I demanded it.  After gorging on that, we went to our local Gigi's Cupcakes to try their new cheesecake.  It was good, but it certainly wasn't a cupcake.  I bought a cute little gray and pink shirt to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  I asked why they were selling them and it turns out that the owner was recently diagnosed.  :(

I would have supported even if it weren't cute.

Hubs accompanied me to the Humane Society to take my photos.  There were a shitload of animals.  The room that I normally take my cat photos in was occupied by three semi-feral black cats (who I also had to photograph!).  So, lots of in-cage photos, which I hate.  There were a few cats that really stuck out:  Battle, a big black kitty with war wounds; Abby, a 7 year old Persian; Buttons, an 11 year old white and brown tabby; and Opal, a gray and white kitten.  Battle was curled up in his litter box and I just started petting and loving on him and he turned out to be the biggest lover ever.  Giant purr.  Abby had a distant personality - not timid, necessarily, but hesitant to open up to us.  Once she did, though, she was a sweet heart.  Hard to photograph that face and not have it appear a little menacing, though.  I was loving on her and Buttons starting slamming into his cage door, motor roaring.  It was impressive.  And Opal climbed up D's shirt.  

Someone dropped off their 5 y/o Mastiff.  They blow.

We went home and rode the bikes for about fifteen miles.  Some sketchy areas - I got yelled at by some guys standing on their porch.  My lower back was killing me for the first half of the ride and D explained that the bike stretches your back, so I must have been really tight.  Yay, arthritis!

Outside Wild Wings.

Dinner was outside at Wild Wings with a drink to follow at Congress Street Social Club. The photos sort of tell the story.

Started the day with gym time.  D made our workout plan based on a book by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It was twenty minutes of cardio followed by all upper body work.  Incline and decline bench press, dumbbell bench press, other random shit with weights, some crap Arnold came up with, etc.  I was sweating by the end and I forgot my heartrate monitor.  Le sigh.

I have triceps!  And something in my mouth!  And a really straight back!

We met D's cousin and her fiancé for a late lunch/early dinner at Paula Deen's Lady and Sons.  They were in town on vacation and we had planned on taking them somewhere touristy, but the fiancé begged to try Paula's.  How could we say no?  It's touristy and good! It was, as ever, so much good food that we all waddled out of there.  

D and I ran a few errands, vacuumed and washed my car.  They finally cleared the road to the barn, so as soon as my car was dry, I headed that way.  I opted to not time anything, though I did have CycleMeter running in the background.  The chick who owns the big bay, Duke, came frantically up the barn spewing something about her cell phone.  Either she set it somewhere and the BO's retriever grabbed it and destroyed it, or she left it on the top of her SUV and drove off.  I made a point to look when I was leaving, but that was about as much as I offered to help.

We did our laps in the pasture and then I took him on the road.  I haven't taken him really off the property in about a month, so he was all wide-eyed and spooky.  I walked him up to Bell's Landing, which is a dock about a quarter mile from the barn.  On the way back, we encountered Duke's owner in her SUV (See, bitch!  I don't need you to ride my horse!) and then a wild herd of spook-worthy bicycles.  Poor guy was jigging most of the way back.  As soon as we got nearer to the property, someone started shooting guns.  And he held his ground.  :)

All of the craft plans I had?  Not done.  Not touched.  Last portrait class is tonight and then life will resume.  Workout/run tomorrow, workout/ride Wednesday.