Fods, I love waking up and reading what you Fiends have been up to in the night!! This is something I do even before TEA, kid you not. (Well, to be honest if I had someone to bring me tea, I’d read you with tea, most likely snorting it in the process…) But there it is every morning, Bengals all over the bed, and Fiends on the Blackberry.

Not a bad way to wake.

I’ve been thinking a lot about fitness this week, and think I need some Fit going on in my life. It’s that really hard time of year when it is dark all the time and grey, and cold. I don’t want to go out, and when I am home, I want me some couch, and for dinner, the only thing in this town someone will bring me, PIZZA.

Horse started me thinking on this last week, and oddly enough, Kat Von D and her co-horts in her shop. I really want to go out to LA in the spring and get my first tattoo, I know what I want for a tattoo and now I know where I want to get it. Any of them can do it for me, I’ve been watching the show, and quite like them all, they make people so happy. They have this really great, friendly, cuddly, loving, anti-snob attitude going on. Could almost be the Midwest. I like them. A lot.

But back to my point, and I do have one, I want to be really fit and feeling strong and good when I get it. And it might help with this whole Winter Dark Ick Sleep Feel Like A Pudding thing that seems to be once again creeping in.

That’s what I am thinking about this morning. And begging the question, the First Tattoo? Freaky Venus, first Bengal. More than anything this year, in a year when a lot has been going on, it’s the Bengal rescue and work that has been most important, and I always thought that when I found something important enough to me, that I would want on me and with me for the rest of my life, I would get that first tattoo.

Found it.

Love and fitness,
Lorraine

Not sure how well these Horsie pictures turned out tonight, still learning about this camera, you are going to have to wait until Miss Kitty comes for some really GOOD ones, but these are fun.

I am not actually having a baby, tho it looks like it, I have managed to get my shirt caught up over the saddle horn, like a dork! Tonight was Western saddle again, I go onto English on Thursday, hurrah!

I learned something new from Horsetrainer Mel tonight, I was having a nice little canter, and she called out what to cue, to go from canter to trot, which I figured would send me careening in all directions, only the horse got it before I did and went to trot, and there I was posting along nicely! I was never so surprised! Rommy is so smooth, so perfect, I did it a couple times!

Here we are after the workout. Anyone who says the horse does all the work, is NOT a rider. We are spending a lot of time trotting and posting around the ring. I can go twice around, rest a bit and do another two, rest MORE, then turn around and go the other way, and do it again. I manage half an hour. I will get fit!!!! Don’t need no stinking gym!!!!!!!

Scritches and rubs with the curry comb, which is I suspect , Rommy’s favorite bit. Carrot time would have to be the first….

Horses are magic. That’s all there is to it. It makes me so happy to be riding again, I never realize how badly I miss being around horses until I get back to it, and feel so lucky to have this chance to ride such a horse, (not to mention getting help from one of the best teachers going, MEL!) Not sure I can move now, and am really sure it will hurt tomorrow, but is so way beyond worth it.

I will leave you with a lovely shot of me using my Horsies mane for a new hair extension look. Always fashionable, that’s me!

Love and Winter ROmance,
Lorraine

I had some things in mind today, but they have been a bit pre-empted by a comment I read a couple hours ago from Spacelaw saying Dread Val had been in her car for two days trying to reach her home in California. She is having trouble trying to get home because everywhere near her home is on fire.

Can’t be good, I thought.

I called Dread Val, and spoke to her and she has indeed been trying to reach her home for two days. All the roads leading to her home have been blocked, and she had to drive some distance last night to spend the night with a friend. She is again trying to reach her home today. Driving the streets in her yellow Mini, hoping she can get there.

The mandatory evacuation order is in place in her neighbourhood, 1/8th of a mile from her home. I said “Let’s be clear on this 1/8th of a mile thing, as in, we could sprint there, or hit it with a rock”

Yesssssss, said Dread Val, that’s about it.

She is very worried about her dog and her cats. It is possible if she cannot get there, that her Mom can go and get them. She just, at this point, wants to be let in, grab them, and a few things, and get somewhere safe, but doesn’t know if the fire and police will let her.

Kind of puts a lot into perspective, doesn’t it?

She asked could we keep up with the good thoughts, and that it meant so much to her that we were worried and thinking of her and sending good things via the universe. She is going to keep in touch with me, and I will keep you posted.

I can’t imagine driving around, in a Mini no less, hoping and hoping that you could get to your house, before it and all you owned burns forever and hoping at least, you can save your pets and one or two other things. I think it would very clearly crystallize exactly what is important.

Here’s love for Dread Val, and any other Fiends in the path of this horror.

UPDATE! This just beeped via text: Passing the hills on the south and east side of my house, black, scorched and smoking”

Love and Prayers,
Lorraine

One of our Fiends, Marylin, The Cat Coach, is sad tonight about a Bengal Friend of hers. Can you nip over to her blog and give her some love and support? I will let her words tell the story…Our thoughts and hearts are with her.

Yet another long day today, and I think I am not going to make the shows in the Cities, seeing as how the Cities are more than an hour away, and “early” figures into my waking up in the morning, but I want to hear from everyone who got to the Lojo show. (Or anywhere else fun tonight)

One thing that happened today, besides the chicken soup making and lemon and honey and ginger drink making , was we noticed, yes, we had harvested the honey (Fancy bee talk for Stole the Stuff) but had neglected to extract it, and there it was sitting in the basement, beginning to leak. Oops.

We have an Extractor, as you can see, it’s that big silver thing in the picture above, and tomorrow the Birdchick is coming out and we are going to test it for the first time, but we decided to use the old bucket and cheesecloth method for the uncapped comb.

I’ll explain. If the bees cap it nicely it will keep for yonks. But if it is not capped, it can turn into Mead or crystals soon, and we didn’t want to mix the two. We have more capped than un-capped. We had two supers (bee talk for little boxes) and one brood (bee talk for big box) harvested.

I got out my fancy honey scraping tool and went thru all of the frames and pulled out anything with open comb and scraped away. This is very messy. Sticky too. Now I have these….They will drip thru the night, and we will have honey.

The lighter and darker honey is simply what sort of pollen the bees were having at the time. Here’s a closer shot of our golden bucket.

This next is a nice picture (amazing what a girl can do with a camera with a view screen!) of some capped honey, with a wee bit of un-capped in the upper corner.

The Bee Area is a Mess. Old hives and frames and empty hives everywhere. Dripping buckets, and a thin layer of Sticky all over everything. Tomorrow we learn to spin the extractor, which I know will BEE interesting, because like ALL bee equipment, for reasons known only to the Secret Order Of Bee Equipment Manufacturers, it does not come with any instructions.

Love and Honey,
Lorraine

This is the “Fods, it has been a long week and it ain’t over” post. I am really tired and have big plans to do not too much of anything but catch up on Bengals and reading.

Here’s the good news for the day! My camera battery came! It is now charging and tomorrow I will have a camera, with a battery and a view screen! I will be able to SEE what I am taking a picture of! Ah, they joy of it! Who knows what sort of pictures will come from this! (I am thinking Bengals and Horsies are going to figure in heavily)

But even better, Miss Kitty is coming to visit in a week, and SHE will be taking pictures and making little movies, she tells me, now that we know how to post them on You Tube and embed them in blogs.

No Horsies for me until Monday, the way this weekend is panning out, but considering how sore I still am, that might not be a BAD thing…I will get fit. And I will not break any bones in the process.

Still hoping to get down to the Cities Friday night and see some Lojo at The Acadia. She is having her cd release party, and there is going to be some great music. A Lojo show is a place where anything can, and most likely will happen. Trust me. She rocks. I taught her everything she knows.

(Susan, pass that onto her for me, yes, hee-hee…)

I am trying to think of some more adventures for you, but the only thing I seem to recall is that in French, the word for Lawyer and the word for Avocado are the same. HOW they decided that I am not sure we will ever know…

Makes one think…

Love and couches,
Lorraine

Tonight ended up being rather different than I had expected. Life throws you alot of things that are un-expected, but in some cases, it throws you something wonderful and you end up blogging from cloud nine.

I (finally!) got the time to go and see Horse trainer Melissa, and start the re-learning to ride process, in hope of getting good enough to participate in the sport of Bareback and Bitless”, (which is NOT some kind of strange sex, but rather where one rides sans saddle and bridle) and also to learn to ride sidesaddle, and jump, all of which I have been wanting to learn since I was about five.

Getting there was like trying to find Brigadoon, the fog was so thick, I said to Melissa “Is this the first TEST? I can find the place, you share your ancient Horse Knowledge with me???”

And once I did get there I felt like Dork Princess wandering around the barn (Ok, “barn” doesn’t cover it, HUGE honking heated indoor riding arena with stalls and plants for goodness sake) calling out forlornly…Let me in..let me in….

A nice lady let me in, and she and a gentleman and another nice lady (I knew they were nice as I had met them before) and welcomed me. Really welcomed me. They were really nice. Too nice. They, have you ever heard the expression “Smiled Toothily”? They Smiled Toothily…Come they said, Melissa has your horse all ready for you….

And there was Melissa, with one of the most beautiful horses I had ever seen. Black and White Pinto, half arab, half saddlebred. (One can tell) Tail and mane braided up so they would not trail on the floor. Ok, I’m in love. THIS is your lesson horse????

Not exactly. I hadn’t been on a horse for a long time now, had a bad incident that scared me for a long time, but getting on this horse was like coming home. SO smooth, so easy to ride, responded to every cue instantly. This is what riding can be, I thought. I know I have never been on a horse this good before.

The nice people watched, and cheered me, and Melissa called out tips, and I rode, western tonight, as it has been a while, as I said. The nice gentleman said he had a camera and went and got it and took pictures for me.

Then Melissa said “She for sale your know”

HA! I said, I don’t know as much about horses as you do but I sure do know I don’t have that kind of money lying around. (think 1000’s and not under 10)

Well, no, says Mel, but you could lease her, she needs the work…..

Leasing around here means one pays for board or a portion of it and in exchange, rides whenever one likes, without being responsible for any vet bills or feeding or anything, as long as one is acting reponsibly. And this far out into the country, a lease is often very reasonable, as there are always horses needing work. I’ve done it before, but never with a horse of this caliber….

Not being able to think of a reason this sounded like in any way a bad idea, I now have a horse.

Meet “Winter Romance”

Adventures indeed.

Love and Horsies,
Lorraine

Bon Soir, my Fiends..Or Bon Jour for those of you just waking. Or Hey There for those of you who aren’t sure.

French got kind of funny tonight. Learned the “re” verbs. No, I am not going to give examples, it would only hurt us both. But it did get kind of funny. Le Prof, who is a Saver of Cats and so, cool in my book, helped myself and another Student, us being the two who, er, uh, sure aren’t getting it QUITE as quickly, mostly due to missing classes due to other commitments, tho I think we are more entertaining.

(none of them know us, or this blog, except Le Proff, so I feel comfortable sharing, they are all fine people)

But the sentence would be something like “Do you generally win or lose at tennis when you play?.”

Obviously, this is not a one word answer will do sort of question, and one is meant to answer ” I win at tennis most of the time” or some such thing. I would get frustrated and say “I crush them like bugs and then drink the blood of my enemies”

Another one I liked was “Does your cat jump off the table when you come home?” and my answer “NO, they leap from the re-fridgerator onto my head, yowling like banshees!”

Fortunately, Le Proff knows I am also a Saver of Cats, so I think I am cool in her book.

Moving on, I need Someone to help with Something if anyone cares to and has the time. Any PG Wodehouse readers out there? I have a manuscript by a new author, which may be good, but I am not well enough read in Wodehouse to know, it written somewhat in the style of Wodehouse type humor, but again, I don’t know enough to tell how good it is.

Anyone want to read and critique? It is no one you know, nor is it MY book, so you can critique (to me) as you will.

Hera sent me a picture of the nails she did on me when she was last here. Did on me just drawing by the way. I love all the scratches on my hands, do you think I had a new Bengal???

Love and Tired,
Lorraine

First of all, of course, Many Happy Returns of the Day to my Boss! Happy Birthday Boss! I am sure Boss will be very glad to see this, as if he can see it, it means he is now home, and not going anywhere for a while. A Good Thing.

Mads showed me the COOLEST thing tonight, it is a thing called Table Music or more correctly, a Retrograde Inversion Canon. This one was a piece by Mozart for two players, only, it is one page of music, the first person plays it right side up and the second reads it upside down and it is a perfect duet! Some more explaining Lojo is having her cd release part on Friday night at the Acadia Cafe. I think it is very close to the 400 Bar a bunch of you were talking about going to, to see someone whose name I have forgotten, as in on the same block. I think I am going to nip down and sit in for a song or two with Lojo, and then perhaps nip over to see this band whose name I have forgotten, but recall I thought sounded like a good idea at the time. Lojo’s show is no cover, and I am hoping she will let me play on the one song I love.

(yeah, forgot that name too, what is this , the Senior Moment blog tonight???)

Finally, just noticed Malena has posted a vid on her site that literally made me snort serious tea. The women can be truly funny. It’s kind of “Sarah Silverman does Rabid Pit Bull” funny….

Fods, I am even later and farther behind tonight than I was last night getting to my gig! So if brevity be the soul of wit, I have some soul going on this evening, as it were….

Or something.

I am dashing off for some more Adventures in Rock, and one hopes it will be fun. I am hoping that the Trip of Grandmothers comes back, but I am not sure they could top themselves after last night. First set will be a slow one, I am thinking, as I am tired, and the weather is doing it’s cold and snow thing, can’t imagine people dashing out, tho I am hoping the Twin Cities Fiends come down.

I think tonight we should help Spacelaw with her Namo story and kick around the theme of “Good girls going to Hell” We are not sure where she is going with this, as she apparently took herself odd to bed, with or without whiskey, but I am certain we can find out in a few hours when she gets up in, (for her) morning.

Love and Hell,
Lorraine

I had a lot of things to say tonight, and was going to go off on any number of delightful rants, but looking at the clock I see I REALLY need to go and get ready for this show I am doing. Soon. Very Soon. And by get ready, I mean I am going for “Clothes and Dry Hair” end of story….(tho I do wish I had earrings, rats. They seem to have migrated all to another house, so I will just be another un-adorned fiddler rocking away..Jewaless)

Ought to be a fun show. I am ready for some fun, and our very own Max Randy seems, er ready, as well, and some Fiends are coming. All good signs for a fun evening. I will let you know when I get home this evening…

Stacy sent me a picture of her Adventures in Hair Dying At Home (Not generally the best plan!) and it is so amazingly wonderful, that I simply had to share it…Stacy, your hair looks fine, really, I see no problem there, it is actually the expression on your face that keeps sending me into yowls of laughter, which isn’t easy to do when one is alone….

I think you should use it for your new, what are we calling them? Not Avatar…Well, little picture thingie.

Love and Hair,
Lorraine