On Friday, the husband and I met his aunt and uncle for a fancy dinner downtown and some drinks.  I was actually a little burnt out on downtown, given that the restaurant was a whopping three doors down from my office.  They had a spinach and arugula salad with feta and a mint dressing that was to die for.  If it's not too fancy to do to take-out orders, that might be a new lunch option.

But given that we had to look presentable and make the reservation time, Archie did not get ridden.  He did get groomed and grazed on the lush grass immediately outside of the pasture.  I think he thought it was a magical day.

I photobombed.

Mid-chew is so classy.

Weekends are getting a little difficult to navigate and plan.  On Saturday, we went to the gym after D finished rounds.  Then lunch and a little bit of shopping.  Home to settle for a few minutes before I left again to go ride.

A weird panoramic to show how empty the gym was.  Yeah, just us.

The ride itself wasn't too bad.  I haven't been working the little monster on his downward transitions as I should have been, so it was all transitions.  He told me that he was tired and sore towards the end, and threw a tantrum when I asked for a canter.  I'd actually been carrying a crop to work on my thumbs, but had it tucked under my thigh for the canter and couldn't give him the appropriate butt-smacking that popping on the front end warrants.  Booger.

Please excuse the dirty crop.  Just envision it being held like this through both thumbs, and that's my thumb-crop exercise.

We'd also been working with the trot poles throughout all the transitions and, towards the end, he had a couple of butt lurches.  I guess being more tired makes it worse.

AND NEW BREECHES!  Brand new from Dover for a whopping $20.  I forgot what size I wore.

Sunday, my husband came home from doing more rounds and a possible hip surgery to find his wife attempting to mow the lawn.  I mow the lawn.  It's mine.  I do that.  My lawnmower.  Roar.  But the grass was still too wet and it was clogging on the blades, so I assembled some workbench thing while I waited for the lawn to dry.

Lunch was Mexican followed by photographing a million kittens and seven dogs.  Some of the kittens had hit the adoption floor without being properly identified and I'm still not sure if I labeled everyone correctly.

Just one litter.

Then I dropped D off at the gym while I went back to the barn and rode.  I took him out of the pasture and walked as far on the dirt road as we could, since the guy in the cabin back there was parked between a fence and a tree.  He was actually level-headed and calm the entire time and so completely focused on eating lush grass that I don't think he cared enough to spook.  I asked for a little bit of trot and canter, but kept it easy since it was the middle of the day and hot.

The weekend ended by team-building project of Grill Assembly, our house-warming gift from his aunt and uncle.  I'm hoping that today involves some grilling!