This may take a while, so how about we go in chronological order? On Wednesday night Harbourfire, who I haven't seen in a while, played New Music Wednesday at the Seahorse. (I'd been kind of wondering what was up with them, until I ran into Sam the keyboard player at Tribeca a few weeks back and learned one of the Robs was in Australia for a while. It's summer over there. File that under "life is tough.")

( New Music Wednesday: two hits and a miss. )

So. As Meat Loaf used to say, "two out of three ain't bad." Overall it was a spiffy start to the holiday weekend!

I was able to take Thursday off to get a few things done.

(1) I tried to get tickets to Leonard Cohen, and was unsuccessful.

(2) I was supposed to get a parcel from UPS, but they never showed up. I just learned there was something wrong at their end so they'll be making their last delivery attempt today. I guess that means I'm making a UPS run tomorrow morning. Have I mentioned that I really, really prefer to get my mail in the mail?

(3) I was also planning to bake chocolate chip cookies for Evan's birthday party at Tribeca that night and, thank God, managed to pull that off without screwing it up. I use the recipe from the Crisco package, except that instead of measuring the chocolate chips I just dump in the entire bag. It's amazing how that extra shot of chocolate cheers things up.

( More on this and other birthday parties behind the cut. )

The third set actually ended a few minutes early, which is unheard-of and may have had something to do with the increasingly rowdy enthusiasm of the audience. Or possibly it was time to make another run at the birthday cake. At any rate, it looked like everyone relevant was having a pretty happy birthday.

It being Good Friday by this time, I figured it was time to go home and lie low for a while, because the weekend wasn't over yet!

Well, of course I spent a big chunk of the weekend at the barn. I was (and am) a little gimped up for mysterious reasons--one day last week I noticed my right leg (I nearly wrote "right hind leg"--okay, it is the back of the leg) hurt, and I've come to believe I may have pinched a nerve or something. The only explanation I can think of is that at some point when I was zooed on NyQuil last week I may have gotten into a twisted position trying to avoid a cat and stayed there too long. The leg is fine as long as I either have it bent (I'm in no pain here at the office) or am bearing weight on it (once I get moving I walk out sound, and can even stand on one foot to put a sock on) but it's darned painful when I try to bend down or get into the driver's side of my car.

( But! I am not entirely lame! )

So: less accomplished than might have been wished, but I could not ask for a nicer little horse. Win!

Saturday got off to an excellent start, what with the sleeping in and the riding lesson. But wait! There's more!

I had nearly forgotten that Gloryhound & the Skyhawks were playing a set at Monte's Bar and Grill over in Dartmouth, opening for an act called the Hip Replacement, which with a name like that you will not be surprised to learn is a Tragically Hip tribute band.

I haven't been to an "away game," so to speak, in quite some time, and I don't know Dartmouth at all, so I sort of took it as a navigational challenge.

( As challenges go, this one wasn't bad. )

And when I stood up it turned out that, after sitting sideways in my chair all evening, that pinched nerve had sort of unpinched and I was perfectly fine.

Or at least I was all the way home and until I rolled over at some point in the night and tweaked it again.

But aside from that, definitely a good evening!

And, to round off the weekend, I should note that I joined latsyrk, her husband, my brother, and his friend for Easter dinner. I made cornbread muffins and helped with the vegetables. The idea was not to make the pregnant lady do all the lifting and carrying. Of course, having a complete gimp as a kitchen helper probably wasn't ideal, but what are you gonna do?

It was a very nice meal.

Which I should not think about now because I'm hungry and have to stop for groceries on the way home. However, now we're all caught up.

I have posted a few examples of quite nice sale photos. This one? Not so great.



This is an actual photo from an actual ad, and it seems to me it would do more harm than good. It's taken from such an awkward angle that the poor little horse looks jug-headed, neckless, and swaybacked. The best you can hope for in this case is that the horse doesn't look anything like the photo. (Although you can see a speck of his hocks and they frankly do not look great.)

They're not asking much for this horse, but he looks like he's worth a great deal less, trust me.

Give that they had someone to hold him (it looks like the photo was not take at arm's length the way drunks take pictures of themselves in bars) there's no excuse for taking a picture this bad, and certainly none for actually putting it up in the ad.