Doll Diaries: Hello, Boys

I think there's a good chance Lily's going to blow a gasket. Julie and I have been very bad.

You may remember from last week that Felicity won a cute Eriskay Pony at auction. Lily wasn't thrilled about it, since the pony's stats don't quite make the cut and since we already have a Eriskay in the herd. However, she didn't make a fuss because Felicity says she's only staying temporarily.

Then this past week while Julie was playing, our buddy - the one who always seems to be selling awesome horses - was online. This time, she was trying to sell 3 stallions: two Alter Reals and one Ardennais, and she was having no luck. Julie knows that I have always liked the Alter Real artwork, while she loves the Ardennais's. The two Alter Reals were dark bay and liver chestnut; the Ardy was brown. All were +6/6 and had impressive stats.

Only a few days remained in January, and we hadn't caught any wild horses we couldn't part with. Hence Julie decided to buy one of the Alters to surprise me with as our January horse. She chose the liver chestnut, mostly because she knew I'd love his markings and that he came with 3 colorful avian companions.

I was tickled pink, as you can imagine, when I logged on later and discovered him. Lily wasn't so happy. To quote her: "Just wait. Now some month this year we will find more than one awesome wild and wish we had that spare slot."

But the story doesn't end there, and you can probably guess what happened next. I was playing HI2 a day or two later (Pepsi was riding my new still-unnamed Alter Real, naturally), and that same buddy was online again. Still nobody was showing any interest in her Ardennais. According to her (and she's probably right), draft breeds are just not very popular on the game, at least not the solid-colored ones. I think this is so sad! *Goes to hug Della, Jenga, Eureka, and Coppertone (my beautiful draft mares).*

Our buddy had resigned herself to the possibility of short-selling the Ardennais at auction. The very thought made me cringe. What a horrible waste that would be!

Time marched on, and February dawned in dramatic cold-and-snow fashion. On Friday night, Groundhog's Day, the poor Ardy still hadn't been sold, and our buddy was out of patience. So, I made a stop at the bank, traveled to her ranch, and bought the big guy for Julie. I'm sorry, Lily, but I couldn't help it. He deserves to stay on the game, and just think of how fun it will be to take him jumping with that strength stat!

Julie and I both felt pretty guilty about blowing so much cash in such a short span of time, so she, Felicity, and I each took a turn mining in the mountains to start making a little of it back.

We all found lots of sparkling gems, but Felicity and a very nervous Quickstep had the best luck above ground. They found 3 Lost Dutchies (and two wilds) in short order.