Swan Lake & Spearmint

Yesterday Hotness and I took my aunt out for her (early) birthday present to see "Swan Lake" at the ballet.
It's something she's always wanted to see live and never had the chance until now.
She lives further north from us so pretty much our entire day was involved with getting ready, picking her up, driving to Seattle, and taking her back home.
We typically go in the evenings, but since this was a special treat for my aunt, we exchanged our tickets for a matinee performance.

We had a good time and she really enjoyed getting to go to the ballet.

For those unfamiliar with the story of Swan Lake, here's a brief synopsis:
Boy turns 21 and on his birthday a bunch of friends gather to celebrate. His mom (the Queen) gives him a cross bow, 'cause he like to hunt, and reminds him that he also is old enough to get married and will have to pick a bride soon. She will be holding a ball that next evening and he can pick one then.
The boy reluctantly agrees and then he sees a flock of swans in the sky, so he and his buddies take off to go hunting for them.

It's evening and as the swans land on the ground they turn into beautiful maidens.
The boy sees this and can't believe his eyes. He sends the other hunters home and dances with the most beautiful maiden, whom he finds out is the Queen of the maidens.
They have been cursed to live as swans by day, and only allowed to be human when night falls.
The boy is falling in love with the maiden and she tells him that the only way to break the curse is to pledge his faithfulness to her. About that time the wizard who cursed the maidens shows up and takes the Queen maiden away.

The next evening everybody is at the palace and the eligible brides-to-be are presented to the boy, but he's not interested.
Suddenly the wizard appears and with him is the Swan Queen.
Both she and the wizard are rather cold and rude the the boy and his mother, but the boy dances with her and can't believe that she has shown up to the ball.
Things don't seem right, as a vision of the Swan Queen appears to the boy, but he just passes it off and keeps dancing with her.

Finally they boy can't believe his good fortune and pledges his undying love and faithfulness to the young girl only to discover that she was a fake made to look like the Swan Queen and he has now doomed his true love to live with the curse forever.

The ball ends and the boy rushes out into the woods to find his love.
They dance and he begs for forgiveness but it's no good.
Although she forgives him, she is still cursed.
Finally the wizard appears and takes her away and the boy is left alone in his grief.

It's a classic in the ballet repertoire and full of beauty and tragedy.


We drove back north to take my aunt home and then headed home ourselves.
It was early evening, so we went to our neighbor's place and watched the last episode of "Dollhouse". I kind of like this show and hear it's been picked up for a second season, so it'll be cool to see how it develops further when it comes back.

After we were finished, we went back home and what should see in our yard....?

A horse!

It belonged to our neighbor behind us and had 'escaped' it's pasture and found that the grass in our yard was just yummy for grazing. Obviously Hotness was happy to have a horse to have to 'care for', after calling the neighbors and letting them know we'd horse-sit for the night, I coaxed it into our fenced pasture and she filled up the water container for it.

I went to bed shortly after that, but she stayed up for a bit peeking out the window at it.

This morning we got up and the horse was still there, just eating grass.

Hotness got her brushes out and mixed up some bran mash and went outside to have some "horsey-time".

(Why can't I ever come home and find Dita in my yard?!? I'd stay up all night peeking out the window and in the morning I'd go out and brush her hair. I don't think it's fair, I tell you.)

After brushing and feeding the horse, we went into town to have breakfast.

Then we walked to the local hardware store where I picked up some plants to bring back home and pot up.

I got some cilantro because I'm constantly buying it to use at the house. I figured it would probably cost less to just plant my own and harvest it as needed.

I also picked up some chocolate mint and spearmint.

The chocolate mint just smells good and will be good to make tea with.

The spearmint....? Well, that's for making mojitos later when it FINALLY warms up around here.

And that catches us up with what's been happening.

As soon as I get done bloggin' here, I'm going to start packing up my suitcases for my Calgary trip next week.

I take off Tuesday evening, so that leaves me with one day of work and I don't want to try and pack after I come home tomorrow night. All day Tuesday will be spent running the last few errands I need to take care of before I leave, so I hope to get the packing done today and then relax.

I hope you all took advantage of the nice weather this weekend. Hopefully it'll stay around for a few more days.

Until next time.....