We saw Bob's favorite show, Les Mis, at Mac-Haydn Theatre Sunday night. It was great! Best performance I've seen (& of course way better than the movie). Show continues July 31-August 4. Highly recommended!

The transition period as a pet guardian is not my favorite. It almost goes without saying that the end of life care and eventual mourning are very difficult, but introduction of a new pet into the household has different challenges. Neither Teddy nor Rosie were especially trying. Teddy had to learn stairs and Rosie had (and still has) to be crated for meals, but that was it. Harry is afraid of many things. He seems to have never been exposed to music, television, various other noises, mirrors, stairs, walking on a leash. The stairs part is a significant issue in a three story house!

He wants to sniff Rosie and Teddy as much as possible. This isn't a problem with Rosie -- it took maybe two sniffing episodes and she let him know who was Head Dog. Teddy is a different story; he isn't a skittish cat who runs away, and he also doesn't hiss, swat or bite. He seems to believe he exists on a higher plane: "I'm Theo the Lion and my regal aura should suffice." Today as I am (attempting) to work, all three animals want to be with me, of course. Yesterday I worked in the living room on the laptop, but today I decided to use my desktop in the third floor office. Rosie and Teddy are in the bedroom next to the office. This is how they always spend the day while I am working. Harry has learned how to go upstairs at this point (but not down), so he is up here as well. It's not easy to focus when you have to say "No" and "Stop it" every five seconds! (And waves of "how I miss Sam" intrude.) Fortunately things have settled down at the moment, I just checked and all three are happily sleeping in the bedroom. One step at a time...

One Beagle +

 One Beagle =

Two Beagles!

Welcome to your forever home, Harry.

PS BNL @ Tanglewood was awesome!

Boo horseracing! Boycot Saratoga!

"When it rains it pours" has been this summer's mantra, although in literal terms we've gone from nonstop rain to nonstop heat & humidity. The cliche works for my life right now, though. Sam...my lifelong "best" friend's mother passed away on Sunday...my mother had surgery on Monday. (She's doing well.) I resumed my routine yesterday, after sleeping in (til 10) for the first time in weeks. I have some teaching-related tasks that I need to accomplish but it's all very do-able.

We had Sam cremated on Sunday at Breezy Nook Pet Crematory (highly recommended), I created a tribute album on FB, performed the sad task of putting away his "things." He lived life to the fullest, even though he only had eight years. But he is no longer suffering. It is hard to believe that two months ago he was his powerhouse self. He remained vital until about three weeks before he died. His death was peaceful, more so than any of my other pets, but the last couple days were tough. He passed away in the yard, with Bob and I sitting with him. I was petting him.

Bob has been encouraging me to look for the next dog. It doesn't take much pushing of course, as I know I won't wait long, but so far I have not made a major effort. I know it will be a male dog, and about 25 pounds. It is too difficult physically for either of us to get another large dog. I don't think it can be another senior, even though Rosie is a treasure. But Edna died in 1999, Ande in 2010, Sophie in 2012, and now Sam in 2013. Four pets in 3.5 years has tested both of our endurance, and Rosie is 9. So while we don't want a puppy, this dog must be "young enough."

We went to the Troy Pig Out on Saturday (it was HOT), took Rosie with us (she was a big hit), and General Joe's BBQ took second place in ribs and 11th place overall!

This weekend we will head to Samsonville. Seems like forever since we've been there. Tuesday: Barenaked Ladies at Tanglewood!! Can't wait.

Sam passed away today. RIP Sam-Sam. What a fine dog you were.

I think you can tell from this photo how ill he is, but you can also tell he is happy. He was riding in his wagon in this picture. Pretty cute, eh?

In other dog-related news, I plucked a tick off Rosie just now. Ugh!!

Added; in gardening news, there is a snake living in the composter.

My beautiful roses

Sam has always had four favorite things: 1) going for walks; 2) playing fetch with a toy; 3) barking at activity on the street; 4) gobbling down food in his bowl. We've always joked that he is "bipolar Sam;" he's an extremely sensitive dog with very high "ups" and very low "downs." He's either really, really happy, or really, really sad.

Cancer strips away so much, and it was breaking my heart that his favorite of those four, and the one he has still been able to enjoy, was being taken from him too. So I came up with a tentative solution...a wagon! We can pull him along on his regular route in the cemetery, taking him out occasionally so he can sniff around and mark his territory. But the rest of the route he can ride, and he won't get tired out.

I found the nifty wagon above at K-Mart, and risked $85 bucks (because sometimes my bright ideas don't work out so well). Well, this one did! He loves it. The first time, he was a perfect angel -- and experienced one of his high ups that lasted the whole night. We even saw another couple with two dogs, one riding in a stroller, and Sam got to bark at them. The second trip (yesterday), he tried to jump out twice (once successfully), but it was OK. This is making him happy again.

(First) Fourth of July tomato on July 2.

The foliage from the potato I planted died a couple days ago, so I decided to throw it into my compost and dig in the container to see whether there were any potatoes. I didn't expect to find any, and was surprised to discover one attached to the roots -- it was grape-size, and I thought "awww." Surprise turned to shock when I poked around in the dirt...

It seems I continued my non-posting. It's hotter than h-ll tonight, and as a result, my sleep expectations are low. And so, I write. Bob managed to put an A/C in the kitchen today, otherwise it would be more beastly than it is. It really isn't a good idea for him to do this, as it pushed his lifting restrictions and heaven knows he doesn't need any more problems that lead to yet another surgery.

He's been helping Sam too, also pushing the lifting restrictions -- although luckily Sam is still pretty agile. Sam has cancer, his prognosis isn't good, and the last three weeks have been a worry-filled blur punctuated by four vet visits. But tonight I am happy because I got Sam to eat.

I finished all my planting. We had too much rain and the nights were cold, not good for tomato plants and seed sprouting. Then we plunged into a heat wave, which is where we are now. My remaining gardening task is fencing and mulching, which I have to get done before the critters discover the seedlings.

Classes are going well. I have more to write on so many subjects but I will leave it for some other day, perhaps even tomorrow.

I've been remiss in writing here. I've been "summer busy," but I've had no absence of things to write about: I went to Animal Advocacy Day on June 4 (it was awesome), held the first webinar for my class on June 5 (met expectations), planted a ton of flowers & vegetables (still have more to go, as rain interrupted the plan), got my other class ready for access (although it doesn't start until June 24).

This horrifyingly sad incident took place, generating a flurry of heated dialogue on FB, raising some "thinky" questions in me about topics such as forgiveness and moral obligation. Writing about them here in my little corner (rather than in contentious FB) has been in my mind, but I doubt I will get to it. Not just due to being "summer busy," but because I am preoccupied. Sam is quite sick, I will very likely write more about that, but not right at this moment. Please have a good thought for him, though.

Yay.

First FTF class for the blended learning summer course was last night, and it went well. Technical glitches are not unexpected, so I’m not surprised that I couldn’t show the webinar link in class last night. What I didn’t expect was for Java to be the barrier, I thought I might have trouble with camera or sound, but would be able to show chat at least.

Not that I don’t know the classroom machines have protection so faculty and students can’t install programs. I know that, which is why I told classroom tech support weeks ago what I planned to do last night so they could have the PC ready.

I reported it to them today so they could do the upgrade by July 10 and they told me to get there really early to test it in advance (I guess in their opinion 30 minutes wasn't enough time yesterday) and then suggested I bring my own laptop because that would probably work better! My contact in that office is nice ‘n’ all, but "Are you kidding me?"

I’m always seeking to try new techniques in the classroom. I want to engage students so they are not dozing off, texting, or blowing off class entirely. The office that focuses on teaching improvement sends a lot of email invitations to workshops and webinars that showcase innovative strategies. I toyed with the idea of applying for one of their incentives late last fall, and if chosen that would have meant “flipping my classroom.” After thinking about it, I decided not to bother. The incentive was an ipad (which I didn’t care about), but more influential, I didn’t want to make the afternoon section of my foundations class different from the evening section, the way I had when I piloted the hybrid class design in 2008.

I was still curious about the idea of “flipping my classroom,” though, so I signed up to watch a real-time streaming video of a panel discussing their experiences. It convinced me I had made the right decision, as I do not care for one of the required aspects of “flipping my classroom.” Students complete a multiple choice quiz on the reading before class, during class they complete a discussion activity or case study in teams, then they take the same quiz again, after class. The quizzes are designed to be difficult, so that students don’t do well the first time they take them.

I could envision 100 angry emails after every quiz, with students disputing the outcome or demanding a re-do. No thanks!

What I like about the model is that all lecture, reading, slideshows are completed outside of the classroom, and that students use almost all class time to work on a case study, project or discussion. The in-class activities have to be appropriately designed; they have to be straightforward, so all teams can work on the same thing. Reportedly, students love the in-class dynamics – provided there are no slackers on the team (for some reason recommends team size is 7+, a number I consider to be unwieldy).

I’m using both ideas in the blended class. (Except not teams of seven; teams of five.) No time will be spent on chalk & talk, or at least very little time will be. And the webinars will always have the same format and goal: students come prepared with ideas, discuss them within team, share them with all class.

I’ve written that I teach undergraduates. My last time teaching graduate classes was in 2004 and 2005, when I took over the now-discontinued Urban Education program. It consisted of three undergraduate courses for the Urban Ed minor, and two graduate courses for the certificate in Urban Ed. Aside from those two courses, before he retired, I occasionally substituted for a faculty member in his classes for my department.

So I’m thrilled to have gotten the blended grad class summer assignment. It’s not that I don’t enjoy teaching undergrads. I do, very much. But as the distance between my age and being a young person increases, the challenge is to be sure that distance isn’t reflected in my relationship with students. It isn’t always easy. Every semester more students bring devices – laptops, tablets, smartphones (cell phone saturation has been 100% for a while) – into the classroom, and there seems to be no etiquette regarding texting and social networking. Not to suggest that this behavior is absent among elders, I notice it in faculty meetings as well. But we know we should be paying attention and that it violates a social norm. For undergraduate students, it is the social norm.

The solution is not banning devices, policing the room, or making useless exhortations (not that all three approaches aren’t tempting). The question is how to bring them into class in a productive and meaningful way.

We watched Cloud Atlas on Saturday night. There's not a lot to say about it that isn't a spoiler. It has a lot of characters in six different time lines, and the theme is reincarnation, with some characters always being good, others always being good, and only one, Tom Hanks; character, showing growth, starting out bad and ending good. It was very long, nearly three hours -- too long. Hey film editors! Learn to cut. Otherwise, it was interesting and kept my interest.

The other extreme from my last post. RIP St. Patrick's.