Moving to LiveJournal

I have recently discovered that most of the problems I have with blogspot (unstable, hard-to-manage picture layout, fatal allergy to text posted in from Word, etc) don't exist on LiveJournal.

Then, I got real ballsy: I copied an entire post from here into an LJ post. Worked perfectly: images, formatting, links! And then I discovered I could back-date posts...

Yes, I'm really that anal. I copied over 30 posts, complete with comments, from this blog over to my new one on LJ.

Please consider subscribing to me there (or adding the RSS feed), as this is my sayonara to Blogsnot.

Reflections, after a breakup

This one is pretty damned personal. It's a diary entry; self-examination. Written so soon after a serious heartbreak, it's melodramatic, slanted, and self-indulgent. So sue me.

Dexter's 3rd Swimming Lesson

Oops! Here's an old draft I forgot to post, from last July.

--

FINALLY remembered both the memory card, and fresh batteries, in the camera.

Videos:

Dexter swimming at the river

Dexter THE BALL STEALER fighting with me over MY BALL!

Chasing the ball upstream

Battling the EVIL ball

Dexter is still a lapdog

So, haven't posted in a long while, and this blog has become something of an albatross... As usual, I've decided that my next attempt must be big, and noteworthy, and special, and shit like that... Bah!

Instead, it's just going to be another mushy post about my dog. Mostly.

Dexter, a Kelpie reconstruction!

Just ran across a breed with which I was unfamiliar: the Australian Kelpie.

Kelpie examples:





And, of course, my boy:

Sources:
http://www.freewebz.com/glenavon/index.htm
http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/australiankelpiephotos.htm
http://petzopedia.com/dog-breeds/australian-kelpie/

OK, maybe it's just mostly the face. His muzzle is squarer, and the ears are different, of course. But to me, strikingly similar - and the frequency of the eyebrow spots in the breed (three different dogs above, all found in the first couple of GIS pages) is striking.

My Class Handouts

Here's the most up-to-date versions of the handouts for classes I've taught.

Chaucerian English (2008-08, 1.76 MB)

Cheesemaking class (AEcademy 2005-06-18, 160 K)

Contracts, Seals, and Signatures (2000-08, (4.47 MB)

Guilds - Period Laurels and Their Apprentices (2009-08-04, 2 MB)

Les Trobairitz, Putting Women in their Proper Poetic Place (2006-07-15, 2.9 MB)

Old French (2010-08-09 through 11, 3.37 MB) (9/30/10: FIXED LINK)

Underwear I - Survey of Medieval Underwear (2009-08-01 PW-XXXVIII, 4.52 MB) (9/30/10: FIXED LINK)
Underwear II - Documentable Details (2009-08-01 PW-XXXVIII, 3.24 MB)
Underwear III - Chosen Hosen (2009-08-01 PW-XXXVIII, 2.88 MB)

[Prof. Farnsworth] Hey, everybody, great news! I found a way for Dexter to travel without puking on my lap![/Prof. Farnsworth]

He's always puked, since his first car ride (home with me, leaving Mom - very traumatic, naturally) (three times on that trip, alone).

I've tried Benedryl, Cerenia, and lately acepromazine. All worked, to some degree, but not completely. Even short trips would leave him noticeably disturbed. But most importantly, I finally took note that his drooling (which precedes his vomiting) could start even before we started moving. So, maybe it's not motion sickness at all, or maybe that's only part of it: anxiety about the trip seems to be the bigger problem.

I went off-label, on a trip where I didn't have the full dose of Cerenia with me, and gave him an SSRI. I don't in general recommend this: some human meds can misfire terribly in pets. But, in this case, I was desperate, and it worked beautifully.

Next, I considered the times he did well: traveling with Loie in the car, he would sit on her lap, and drool a bit, but (it seemed) not as badly as when he & I traveled alone.

On our last long trip (2 hrs), he was tranquilized on acepromazine. Heavily doped, he crawled from the back seat to my lap, where (at 40 lb) he really dominated that space, and crashed out. No problem driving with an unconscious doggy on my lap! The doping made him "forget his manners", and climb onto Daddy's lap. The comfort of that made him sleep.

So, on the way to Grandma's house today for a picnic (20 minutes, plus - usually - "OMG Dexter's getting sick!" time), I stroked him the whole way. No meds, just petting. He did fine.

Once there, someone fed him a few hot dog pieces, before I could stop him. Figured I'd be wearing that food on the way home... However, happily, my stroking on the way home had the same results: no drooling, and a pretty quick settle-down, lethargic state of resignment. No puking!

YAY!!!