I rode Playboy this evening as part of getting ready to ride Pluto. I just wanted to do walking and trotting to build up my muscles, but he had other ideas. He started cantering and then bucking. Whoa! He sure doesn't act his age.

I am so tempted to nap all day. Buddy will be here at 7 to take me out to dinner. That gives me five hours to get clean, go drop off my video, see the ponies, buy gas, come home, and get clean again. Or I could skip everything but the getting clean.

The word for the day is "lassitude".

Tomorrow I meet Buddy's mom. He assures me that I'll be fine, but I'm having some trepidation. As much as I can considering my lassitude, anyway. I'm sure all will be well.

Nope.. still no motivation to get up. This could be a problem.

I slept in until 10. It's 11 now and I'm strongly considering a nap.

What the hell, I'm an adult. I can sleep all day if I want. I can have twinkies for dinner. So there!

Today was supposed to be my first riding lesson with Amy, but it got rained out. Or lightninged out, because I'll ride in rain. I feel like a wuss because it was getting darker and darker, and we started down a steep muddy hill, and I said "I don't have a good feeling about this, Amy." I turned Belle back toward the farm. Amy called that she'd follow me. As we re-entered the clearing, her husband hollered that it was getting bad. So then I felt slightly less bad.

Now it's lightning all over, so I guess I made the right decision. Still a bummer though.

There's some kind of tummy bug going around. I thought I had a bad blood sugar crash last night, but now I think it was just the first stage of the bug. For some reason that makes me feel better. I thought I had badly misjudged my nutrition, which makes me feel like an idiot. Actually being sick means it's not my fault.

Buddy's coming over to keep me company, and I'm going to make Mel Soup. It never fails to make me feel a little better, and it's very good on a tender tummy.

Mel Soup:

1 can chicken broth
a bunch of fresh spinach
an ounce of capellini (or angel hair noodles)
an egg or two

Boil the capellini in the broth. At the same time, put half an inch of water in a small pot, bring it to a boil, and stuff all the spinach in it. In a minute or so the spinach will turn bright green, which means it's done. Add the spinach and the spinach water to the soup.

Once the capellini is completely limp, turn the soup down so it's just barely bubbling. Lightly beat the egg, then drizzle it into the soup so it threads. Move the soup gently while you do it to draw out the strands.

Serves two. Goes great with toasted pita bread and Vernor's ginger ale,
both of which I'm having tonight. Bon appetit.

I put more images in the gallery.