What's On The Shelf?

Kris Reisz recently posted a pic of his shiny new desk, and when I complained I couldn't read all the titles of the books on the shelf behind it, we discovered a mutual addiction - checking out other people's books by desperately trying to see the titles in the background of any pictures they post. After I whined, Kris was kind enough to make it easy, and post a photostream of his ShelfPorn™. Then he challenged us all to reveal our own stash.

I don't have the ambition to photograph all my shelves right now, but I did one and a half and pieced my pics together in a faux shelf, as Kris did. Since I have seven of these book cases, I figure eventually I'll photograph a few more, although one is filled with DVDs and video games from Playstation 2-3, XBox-XBox 360 (Christmas present from eldest child) and Wii. Entertainment is important in our house. You can never have too many copies of Halo, Battlefront, or Guitar Hero. (There's a damn good reason I'm not a musician...) So here are the contents of one and a half bookshelves residing in my dining room - since my laptop is on the table and I'm inherently lazy, I keep most of my need now research materials here. And if it seems a bit excessive, well... Amazon Prime is instant gratification for those of us living in remote areas. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it, like a Corgi on a treat.

As always, click the pic for the absurdly large image...

Poetry

More Poetry and War Psychology

History, Mythology, Strays

Byzantine and other history

Religion, Warfare, more History

Philosophy, Sociology, Science

some Fiction

Knitting, Printmaking, Art

Art and More Art

I haven't gotten to the psychology, architecture, adult education, more art books, and gaming tomes yet. That would require cleaning... Oh, and in case you didn't realize, there isn't a book on Corgis in sight. Imagine that...


.


.

One For The Horse Lovers

OR: Another Reason I Stunk At The Three Day Event.

To be successful at the Three Day Event, (Dressage, Cross-country, Show Jumping) you needed to have one really big weapon in your arsenal. A good horse. Considering the two main horses I rode were Lemon, a palomino-Appaloosa cross that often lived up to his name, and Fun City, a Standardbred cross with feet the size of dinner platters, a heart of gold but a ‘fraidy cat disposition, was it any wonder I often crashed and burned the first day?

In dressage, you have to look good. The horse has to look good. Together, you have to look damn good. Try looking impressive on the equivalent of a Lemony bleach blonde.

(Me on the infamous "Lemon Drop")

Fun City was a big handsome bay, but I am short legged and we looked mismatched. Not to mention getting a horse with dinner platter feet to do a half pass without tripping over himself. Which he did, once. I could sympathize. Dressage wasn’t our forté. But the big boy could jump. In the arena, out in the fields, over picnic tables and parked cars… ahem.

Lemon could jump, but hated to work at all, resulting in me spending my riding time wondering when the sneak was going to duck a shoulder and plant me face first into a jump. And I’m sure having a horse heave a monumental sigh of boredom then a monumental blast of gas in the middle of the dressage competition didn’t impress the judges either.

But some people do it right. The video shows how the combination of great rider and great horse results in magic. The horse loves her work, without a doubt. This is Danish rider Andreas Helgstrand and his mount Blue Hors Matine. Try and ignore the commentators, who didn’t know when to shut up and just let us watch this horse practically dance to the music. (Video discovered courtesy of Donna G.)

Eye Candy

This is the type of eye candy I'm talking about... None of those chocolate covered eyeballs for me this Easter. Gratuitous? You bet! (Thanks to Amelia for bringing the Spartany goodness to my attention.)