11:12 – Colin promised yesterday that he wouldn’t do that any more. We’ll see. He was born on 12 February 2011, so in little more than a week he’ll have his first birthday. As an 11-month pup, I’m sure he’s looking forward to that, although I’ve explained to him that turning a year old entails new responsibilities, among them not shitting on the bathroom floor. Barbara says that on the 12th Colin will be an official dog. I’m thinking he’ll be a 12-month pup.
I’m doing my usual serve-and-volley with edits on the biology book. As usual, they’re pretty light. No one has flagged any errors yet, so it’s usually just incorporating suggestions, fixing typos, and so on. Meanwhile, I’ve started work on adapting the forensics lab book we completed three years ago to a kit-based version. I just sent my editor a revised proposal for it. If possible, I’d like to get the revisions complete by mid-May, which means if we move on this it may be an autumn title. One way or another, the forensics kits will be ready in time for autumn semester.
Speaking of kits, I just shipped the next-to-last chemistry kit we had in stock. Ordinarily, we don’t let stock get that low. We have a dozen more kits partially built, so we’ll probably finish those up this weekend. I need to do inventory anyway, so this’ll be an opportunity to get a count on all the components and figure out what to reorder, not just to build more chemistry kits but to build biology kits and a prototype forensics kit as well. After we get biology and forensics out of the way, I also want to do a second edition of the chemistry book, this one written around a kit. Two kits, actually. One for first-year only, and a second kit to supplement that for second-year. A lot of people use the chemistry book for home schooling, and with kits I can make it much more affordable for them to do so, which in turn should increase the number of people using the book for homeschooling.
We give our dog (a blond cocker spaniel named Lady) treats when she goes potty outside. A half beef stick or a pupcorn works well. Now she stands by the back door and barks until someone takes her outside. She has a doggy door but she wants “credit” and a treat. The downside is that she will fake potty if she decides that she “needs” a treat. I will take that any day over pottying in the house.
We have a christmas bell hung on the back door – our dogs learned to ring the bell when they need to go outside. To start them, we rung the bell ourselves each time we let them out – they learn quickly.
Then if they go potty, we give them a treat when they come back in.
If there is a ‘solid’ accident in the house, we scowl dissaprovingly then take the poo outside and put it in the grass where they are supposed to go – then we praise the pups (who follow us outside)… pointing at the poo in the grass and proclaiming them to be good puppies! Then get it up like normal.
Liquid accidents are tougher. sop it up with paper towels, same drill but they have to sniff it to figure out wtf we are talking about.
To start a puppy outdoors, we took ours out every hour. EVERY HOUR. Ringing the bell, going out with them and walking around telling them to ‘go potty!” with a happy tone for 2-3 min. If they went, massive praise and a treat inside. Eventually they catch on.
We actually have a whiteboard where we track both dogs’ habits. So we know when they last went and what they did. If we see 8+ hrs with no poo, we know they need to be taken outside and given extra time. If 16+ hrs with no poo, we begin to worry (they are old, and Maggie is not healthy by any means). More than 24 and we go to the vet.
Psycho, I know. But Maggie can pee hourly, and needs to go out every 3-4 hours or there will be an accident. Steroids make her thirsty, etc. So we track things.
(BTW – I’m the Mike that was at Brians Memorial Day BBQ all those years ago.)
Our family dog slept in the laundry and was almost never allowed in the house proper – that was mum’s idea, she never liked or wanted our dog. When mum went out my father and I would sometimes let Serena into the house to watch TV with us, but when she heard mum coming home she’d bolt for the laundry. As a result we never had to worry about her relieving herself in the house.
Which reminds me of a trick to play on cat owners: Several times a day, clean out the poo from the kitty litter pan. After several days, when the cat’s
ownerservant begins to get worried, take a dump in the litter pan.Easier said than done.
Er, than dumped.
Wow. What a week. Here’s proof that there are not enough mom and pops and too many big chain food establishments.
Most have advertising signs outside, to push specials, etc. None of them use the words “
Super Bowl“. All of them say things like “Welcome to Indy and the Big Game.” Even the radio station in Tiny Town (owned by a big conglomerate) calls it the “Big Game” and not theSuper Bowl. You would think there would be SOMEBODY that innocently usesSuper Bowl— but no.Learned all kinds of stuff this week. George Clooney is renting a house a couple doors down from a woman I worked with this week. She lives in the far, far north of Naptown. (Clooney’s dad was a TV anchorman in Cincinnati, so I suppose George might know more about Indy than most stars.) A couple people working freelance on the Madonna show say it is going to be one of the best half-times ever. They are big Madonna fans, so I would expect them to say that. I cannot actually divulge what I learned about Manning this week, but let’s just say I expect retirement and will be profoundly shocked if he does otherwise.
I have never seen Indy look cleaner or better. There has been continuous construction going on since I returned from Germany over 2 years ago, but it looks like all of it was finished on-time. The monument on the Circle (center of Indy) was sandblasted, the statue cleaned and restored, and it looks fantastic. I was in an office overlooking the Circle all day a couple days ago, and could watch as people stood in line for 4 or 5 hours to get into the taping of the Jimmy Fallon show at the old Circle Theater, now home of the Indianapolis Symphony. Good thing the weather has been mild.
Meanwhile, gas prices have shot up to $3.50 overnight here. I was in Anderson for today’s job and came home through Muncie to pick up something I had delivered to the Staples there. Incredibly, the Murphy gas station at the Muncie southside Walmart was selling gas for $3.19. Needless to say I took advantage.
A lot of hype about big games as economic stimuli and suchlike, I guess. Then there is this bucket of cold water from the lefties at Salon:
http://www.salon.com/2012/02/02/the_super_bowl_is_not_a_job_creator/singleton/
But it sounds about right.
After yet another incident this AM when I came downstairs of finding the trash chewed up and strewn from one end of the ground floor to the other (and this after my bag lunch was stolen from the kitchen counter the other day), a certain three-year-old golden retriever mutt is being penciled in on my calendar for a date behind the sheds with a .22WMR round. The thirteen-year-old mutt is not long for this world anyway and can barely stand or walk anymore. After these creatures are gone, no more dogs here. Period. Only one or two cats, and they will have to compete against the milk and garter snakes for rodent vermin. Who dares, wins, I always say.
Dogs should be rounded up all over the world and fed to big cats.
Sounds like a waste to me.
During my servitude for Uncle on his southeast Asian plantations, I got to see the downtown and village markets, with really wild, to this Westerner (farang) stuff hanging up, including dog carcasses alongside the pigs and snakes.
Only country I was in over there that did NOT consume our little canine pals was/is Thailand, by coincidence or not, the only former British colony. The other colonies of Indochine were French, and of course we all know the kind of junk the French put in their gobs, don’t we.
My suggestion at this point, after all the nice commonsensical ones from concerned citizens of this board, is to get some pics and vids from Southeast Asia of these markets and show them to Colin every time he craps on the bathroom floor. In fact, why not use Linux and Gimp to create a nice colorful calendar to hang there, with a canine cadaver for each month.
After several days, when the cat’s owner servant begins to get worried, take a dump in the litter pan.
Do you cover it up when you are done?
Actually Thailand (Siam) was never colonized by any European power. Burma and Malaysia were British. All the rest were French or Dutch.
I sit corrected, and more’s the pity, having spent a year there long ago. At least they were spared the pernicious influence of the French AND Perfidious Albion, and they do not eat dogs. My time was spent up in the rural northeastern provinces near the Cambodian and Laotian borders, and meat was consumed sparingly, mostly chicken and pork, along with tons of rice and veggies. I got off the bases and lived in the villes, eating locally and hanging with the citizens, having also gone to language school and speaking a nit-noy of the lingo, along with a smattering of French for when I ran into rural Laotians and Khmers.
A nice plate of kao-pot (sp?) was seasoned rice with diced veggies, maybe a fried egg chopped into it, a few pieces of shredded chicken, and a little side dish of hot sauce and scallions, for 75 cents.
I’m pretty sure it was chicken.
Tasted like chicken.