I had another really full weekend, one of those times where you need a weekend to recover from your weekend? :-) I managed to cram in: book discussion group at a bookstore, going to the movies, going to a hot air balloon festival, attending a graduation party and a horse show, riding my bike on a 20-mile ride, AND spending a few hours catching up on tv shows with friends. In addition to the usual horse duties. Whew! I am amazed that it all went off without a hitch; the timing was pretty good. And thank heavens for caffeine.

Friday night I went to Rollie's

( teen book discussion group meeting )I have more of a review of these two books on my goodreads.com page.

Saturday around noon I went to see ( Night At The Museum 2: Battle at the Smithsonian )

Went straight from the theater to pick up my friend Amy and drive an hour and a half down south to ( see the 2th annual Coshocton balloon festival )


This mosaic was made entirely of bottlecaps and lids! cool huh?


A first for me: seeing two identical balloons go up simultaneously. They eventually drifted apart, but for a few minutes they were a tandem. Very nifty.



I love it when there are enough balloons in the air at the same time that they make cool patterns. And I also enjoyed seeing some new balloons that don't come to Ravenna, like the black "Pancho's" balloon at the right. Some of these balloons came from other states or from down in Cincinnati, and so forth, according to the announcer whose every fifth word I could just about understand. [Cue sound clip from Charlie Brown: "Mwuh wah wah mwah mwah"]

So that was Saturday's events. On Sunday, I crammed another 4 things in to my day. First was a ( horse show )




I took some shots of my friend Sandy's friend Becky as she handed out ribbons to winners, so that Becky can use them in her judicial campaign; one of them happened to be our horse Baby Girl ("BG," registered name She's a Calamity) who won her class. :-) So I wasn't just there to enjoy my horses but also as an unofficial campaign publicity photographer, in a way. That was different! And the two meshed in this shot.



This is PrimeTime Player ("Primer" around the barn), an Arab who is leased by a young girl at the barn for showmanship classes and riding, but who is being ridden here by her owner (I think). He was just gorgeous to watch.


And this is Tanya, the horse, with Lisa, the rider, after they won a ribbon. Another Arabian, and I just love this head shot of her, even though the composition's not the best. Beeyootiful.




I went from the horse show up to Cleveland Heights (45 min drive) to ( ride my bike )

Here's my teammates charging over the bridge at the Shaker Lake park.


And this is the cutest little Canada gosling, enjoying the snacks at the lakeshore with his parents.

So, to wrap up, which I always seem to have the hardest time doing in these things, I got in a good ride, we had homemade fruit smoothies afterwards, then I drove home to clean up and attend a high school graduation party for the teen daughter of a library colleague, whom I've watched grow up these past several years as she attended teen programs and then got a job working at the library. These occasions always get me to remembering my own high school years, ugh, bittersweet as that can be. Then back home to feed horses, then over to Karen's house where I collapsed on her easy chair to watch the final three episodes of Dollhouse with her and Diana. Wow! Great ending to a great season, but it's going to be hard to wait til fall for the resolution! (Anyone out there watching it too? We need to talk. Wasn't Alan Tudyk amazing?!)