Roxy training diary month 55
December 2007

Apple watches the monitor.

Abel is unsure about the whole thing.

Dec 30.  Not quite halfway through the revisions to Strangely Carved Forms.  It's going slowly.

Thanks to singer-songwriter Jill Sobule, I discovered a pretty hilarious site called, naturally enough, D**kipedia.  It's an encyclopedia of ...well, you know.  Don't go there unless you can tolerate the word used over and over again.

Dec 26.  The revisions to Infectious Beauty are done.  Rosemary has re-read it and pronounced it "better", which makes one wonder just how bad it was in the first place.

I've started in on Strangely Carved Forms.  It needs work, but what else would you expect from a first draft that was banged out in 30 days?  I'm getting better at writing, now I need practice revising, which is a whole 'nuther artform.

Here's a first look at 2 lb 15 oz Gerard, who was born to friends of ours on Christmas Eve. 

In a twist on the Biblical version, we have here a picture of Abel slaying Cain.

Rosemary and I rented the movie "Black Sheep" and watched it tonight.  It's about zombie killer sheep, what else?  At the end, as the climactic scene played out, Roxy had enough and gave one of the mutant zombie killer sheep what-for.  You can see the sheep on the screen, and Roxy's umbrage, in this picture.

Gerard is Born

Abel Slays Cain

Roxy Banishes the Killer Sheep

Merry Christmas, Cain, Apple and Abel!

Snow Blown

Roxy Races

Annie Unfazed

Roxy Thrown

Icky Faces

Running Half-Crazed

Who Threw That Snowball?

Stupid Snow.

Dec 25.  Merry Christmas, and much to report.

Rosemary's phone beeped about 11 pm Christmas Eve, and a picture of a reddish wrinkled thing showed up.  It turns out our friends Rebecca and Mike had a baby boy, Gerard, who made an early appearance.  He was 2 lbs 15 oz and 30 weeks, so he needed a little help.  Right now he's in the NICU, but I have a lot of faith in the people there to help him out and we're confident he'll be well.  Mike will be able to come over to our house for Christmas dinner, and maybe even sneak some back to Rebecca. 

I had a setback on my shoulder last week, which has been pretty frustrating for me.  It doesn't seem to be healing as I would like.  I had switched from Feldene (piroxicam) back to ibuprofen, but that seemed to be a bad idea.  I've switched back to piroxicam and re-dedicated myself to my boring and painful exercise routine.

Many of you have asked questions about my shoulder, and I realized I never really explained it.  The physical therapist thinks it's somewhere between a frozen shoulder and an impingement syndrome.  It could be just some garden-variety tendonitis and bursitis, or some mixture of all of these.  Whatever it is, it's annoying.

For those of you dreaming of a White Christmas, just like the ones you used to know: here it is.  We got 8" overnight.  The snow started about 2 pm Christmas Eve.  As the sun came up over Mt. Ogden, behind our house, you could see the wind blowing the snow up, and they were also doing some blasting for avalanches over there (we're on the west side; the east side has Snowbasin ski area).

OK, y'all.  This last part is difficult for me, so if I get a little verklempt, you'll forgive me.  Katherine Heigl got married Sunday in Park City, just 50 miles from here, and she didn't even invite us to the wedding.  I told Rosemary, "that's it."  She's cut off.  No more phone calls, no more emails, and if she tries to text me, I'm not answering.  It's unbelievably rude.

I finished another set of revisions on Infectious Beauty tonight.  We'll see if it reads better now, but at least the timeline is cleaned up.  I removed almost all the flashbacks and removed a few thousand really really beautiful words.  Oh well.  I hope it moves along now.  I need to start on the second draft of Strangely Carved Forms tomorrow.  I've given it almost a month to rest.  Who knows if it's any good.

Dec 17.  Video of the three-week-old puppies arrived today from Olde York. 

I'm partial to right-eye-patch Cain (middle puppy), because of the way he uses his sister Apple as a stepstool to get into the mush.  She is reduced to licking his face to get any.  Meanwhile, Abel is just doing his own thing on the far left.

It's an insanely large file, so only click on the purple box at right if you have the bandwidth to support it (8 MB).

My shoulder is almost healed up.  The physical therapy is torture, but it seems to be working. 

General Fil                    Doctor Phil

Dec 15.  I have my grades turned in, so now I am officially on vacation.

It may be a little late, just 10 days before Christmas, but it's time for me to get in the Christmas spirit.  We'll start off with a picture of Wombat who lives with our internet friends Antoinette and Greg in Maryland.  Wombat is out of Tonka X Bunny.

How often do you get to see a wombat in a Santa suit?  Never let it be said the RoxyLog doesn't provide value for your web surfing dollar.

Wombat is four months old and is Dylan's grand-niece.  The expression on her face reminded me so much of Dylan, that I got a little misty when I saw this.  She's perfected the put-upon, what're you gonna do to me next? look that Dylan had from puppyhood.

Dec 13. It was announced today that your friend and mine, Ms. Paris Hilton, is shilling for a new brand of Champagne in a Can. 

It's all right, though, because some of the money is going to charity.

She's also in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize, like Al Gore's.  I bet you didn't know Paris Hilton is helping to save the planet, as well.

"I changed all the light bulbs to energy safe light bulbs and I'm buying a hybrid car right now," Hilton said, adding that she also turned off the lights at home, didn't leave the TV on or the water running when she left the home. "Little things that people can do every day to make a huge difference."

In other, unrelated, news, I ran six miles today.

Dec 12.  Today was the College's annual Christmas lunch and perhaps the last time I'll get to see my boss, Dr. Shelley Conroy, who is moving to Savannah, Georgia at the end of the month. 

Then, I rushed over for halftime of the Weber State – Brigham Young University women's basketball game.  We won, 65-54, which was the first time WSU has beat BYU in women's basketball since 1994.  BYU is a top-notch, physical team, but our defense and our guards' ball handling was too much for them.  We were all very excited by that.  The Mayor was there, but he didn't say 'hello'.  I guess we're not friends anymore.

Dec 8.  Eve X Scout puppies at 14 days.  The eyes are open and they're beginning to show a little blue and red color.  Left to right - Abel, Apple, and Cain.

For those with high-speed connections, there are two movies of them here and here. 

Dec 5.  Day 10 puppy pictures. 

Cain on the left, Girl (Apple) in the middle, Abel on the right.

Dec 2.  We received a Week 1 puppy picture from Monica.  I'm not certain, but I think the first born boy and girl are in back with Eve, while Abel is facing the camera.  Still no blue fur yet, and the eyes should be opening soon as well.

Kibo left this morning.  We have his pictures, and the memories of him trying to tunnel through the snow.  Since he was raised in San Jose, this is his first exposure to snow, and he made the most of it.

Kibo's arrival has set off a serious attack of Puppy Fever here at the House of (Formerly) Gray Animals.  Even Annie was excited to meet Kibo and had fun playing with him and was still in a great mood this morning when she played tug with Roxy.  It'll be mid-January when we get a puppy of our own. 

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Dec 1.  The first day in a month that I didn't have to write anything.  Time to get caught up on other things: the second edition of the Do-It-Yourself book; grading student papers; and the last push for finals. 

We'll be all done with the semester on Dec 14.  This has been a tough one. 

I have some things to get caught up on, even after grades are turned in.  The examinations in Pathophysiology need re-writing and I need to start on revisions for this year's NaNovel, Strangely Carved Forms. 

I'm generally happy with the way it turned out, but it's dangerous to read them before you let them sit a while, so it will be a few weeks before I know whether it's trash or not.  

I also bought a new copy of Writer's Market and need to go back to trying to find an agent for Infectious Beauty. 

Rosemary went with our friend Tracy to get Tracy's new puppy, Kibo.  Kibo is a Norwegian Elkhound out of an artificial insemination from Tracy's deceased champion Impi. 

He seemed a bit shy at first, but within minutes he came out of his shell and was playing with the older dogs.

They seem pleased to have a puppy around, which bodes well for the arrival of Unnamed Dog about mid-January.

Temporary Little Brother

There's a Lot Going on Here