A Busy Day

(We'll call this Wednesday's post, even though it's after midnight.)

First, today's picture from Ireland.


This is DH with one of the horses we rode in Ireland. We spent an eye-boggling amount to go ride on the beach for about an hour, near Galway. We were lucky to find anywhere to ride at all, since we were there during the off season. Apparently, most of the touristy riding places close up for the winter and take the horses somewhere else. So it was just the two of us and the girl in charge of the place, and we were probably the only customers all day. It was the first time I ever rode English, and I was complimented on my posting. I have some doubts as to the sincerity of the compliment, since being nice to the tourists is probably good for business, and we were paying quite a bit to go riding on a drizzly day with no other tourists in sight. On the other hand, I'll take any compliment I get. Ignore the skeptical side of the brain. :)

In other news: We didn't make it to the Little Old Lady Lunch today, so no gossip about the police action we saw on Monday. Nothing in the paper either, so I guess the six police cars were just here because nothing else was going on around town. Instead, my parents came up to see El Burrito (and me), and to visit my mom's sister in the hospital. Breast cancer, a lymph node-ectomy and what I guess you'd call a pro-active double mastectomy. This would be the second maternal aunt with a problem. Joy joy, one more thing to worry about. So, El Burrito got to see his great-grandparents for maybe the fifth time in his life (even though they only live 30 minutes from his grandparents), met two of my cousins, and made googley eyes at a teenaged girl in the waiting room. And I got even more proof of the general crankiness and dysfunction in my extended family.

After which, we came home, my parents went home, and El Burrito had a nap while I took advantage of Ebay's 20-cent listing sale. I just finished listing the last Breyer. With any luck, my work will pay off, and some of this stuff will find a new home.

And, while we ate dinner, we watched PBS - tonight was our first chance to see the episode of Great Performances with Loreena McKennitt's concert from the Alhambra in Spain. It was an awesome, very high-quality concert, and the sound was amazing. They were offering DVDs of the concert with a pledge of $190, but that's a bit rich for my blood. Hopefully it'll be available through more affordable sources later. I can't wait until we get to see her live in Nashville next month. And I sincerely hope that she doesn't wait another nine years before her next album.