Angela

Charlie, our male Bernese, was at the vet today and had his teeth cleaned and a biopsy on two lumps in his mouth. Although, he was the first patient and has his anesthetic early, he is still woozy. And the silly pup does not lay down and stay there and sleep it off, no, he has to go and check every room in regular intervals. Then he stands there, shaking, weaving from one side to the other and meeping. 

I was so worried; the Bernese we had before him died during anesthesia and he was slightly younger. However, Charlie came through and now we all have to get through the night. The Ladies, the other two Bernese, give him dirty looks when he gets up and disturbs their beauty sleep. I think, I will stay downstairs and try to sleep in my LazyBoy. Charlie needs assistance going down the stairs from the patio to the backyard. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3004823/Try-not-judge-books-covers-world-s-worst-hilarious-Kindle-ebook-artwork-revealed.html

Here Trout points out that Black says that Jefferson went to France to marry Hemings.  

Fantastic blog article about this fuckery.

Large screen cap so linking.  

The second link is to the screen cap of Black's claim.  The statement that he couldn't marry her so he went to France to do so indicates that he fled the racism of the US to marry his one true love.  Um, wrong. 

I didn't want to get into this, but the fact that it's already hurt so many authors, authors who aren't buying into this bullshit romance story between Jefferson and Hemings is pissing me off.   Black?   Is wrong.   Flat out wrong. 

Here's my response to Trout's blog: 

"Black is wrong. Jefferson didn’t go to France to marry Hemings. In fact, she wasn’t even one of the original slaves that he brought along. 

“Around the time that he returned to Paris, Jefferson was reunited with his ten- year old daughter Polly, who had been brought to Europe via London in the care of a teenage slave named Sally Hemings. ”

Hemings wasn’t brought because Jefferson loved her so much, or felt romantic towards her. In fact, he fell hard for someone else during one of his times in France. 

“Whether consummated or not, it is clear that while in Paris Jefferson developed a romantic attachment to Maria Cosway, a young English painter raised in Italy, and fully possessed of the characteristic Mediterranean charms. ”

She was married – unhappily, but committed to her marriage. Jefferson is described as broken hearted over her. And even then? He doesn’t bring Hemings over to console him. 

When the slaves finally learned they could petition for freedom in France, they did. Hell, the only reason he didn’t lose Sally seems to be this: 

“After some hard convincing, Jefferson was able to avert the loss of two of his finest slaves, and the Hemings siblings returned to Monticello with him. Many have speculated that this was accomplished by means of a bargain involving the eventual emancipation of various members of the Hemings family.”

She apparently loved him so much that, to all appearances, the only reason she chose to stay a slave with him is that he /used her family/ as bargaining chips. Ah, well, if that isn’t love on his part, I don’t know what is. /sarcasm.

All quotes from the SparkNotes site, by the way: Link to SparkNotes as source.

But the contention that he went to France /to/ marry her is flat out wrong. He didn’t go to France because, yay, he could marry Hemings. He went there because job. And the France time? Seems like Hemings wanted her freedom and to stay there without him. I guess that sorta disproves the tru wuv theory, too. She wanted to be free; he found a way to emotionally blackmail her into staying with him, as a slave.

But, yeah, I can see how some people could misconstrue this as a romance story. *shakes head*"

And also, the contention by others that the author is black so this can't be racist?   Wrong.   And a lot of PoC were offended by this, probably because, y'know, racism.   There's a lot of internal isms: sexism, racism, etc, etc. 

And I still can't type PoC without thinking Pirates of the Caribbean.   (True story: I knew of the term people of color before I first saw the abbreviation.   But I suck at guessing what new to me abbreviations are, so I was like what do pirates/movies have to do with these issues until I googled and went, oh, that makes sense.)

PS - I am going to tack all of Jenny's books onto this post.   She called out a lot of bullshit, and I want to support her, not the book she's talking about, or anyone who sides with those who believe this book was in any way okay.   I'm also eyeing Such Sweet Sorrow. 

Most of you know that I have 3 Bernese Mountain dogs, one, Madison, who is 10 years and 5 months old (the normal average is 6 to 8 years for a healthy Bernese) and has battling bone cancer for the last 18 months. She was doing exceptionally well, responding well to all treatment and definitely having a ball (she rules our family and household like a benign queen).

Last Monday, she apparently had a fall. Now I say apparently because it was our household help who "heard" it and was quick to say that Madison was down less than 30 seconds. We had been told any longer, we should bring her to the vet. The reason I say apparently is that there were some issues with the helper and she has reasons to believe her job is being more scrutinized than before. During the Christmas break, I had found so many things which were not done, badly done or wrongly done. I had left her a list of her duties instead of letting her do what she thought was right, including the amount of time she spend shopping and how much for us. She barely finished all when she went on a 3 week vacation and only came back Monday. To me it seems that she was somehow responsible for Madison's fall or that she needed to assure us that we need her to keep an eye on thing. And Madison had not fallen since she going to weekly physio sessions last September.

Either way, Madison was her usual self when I came home as well as on Tuesday and Wednesday morning. However, she went to physio for her ACL tear (we have opted against surgery due to her condition and try to treat as best as possible without invasive measures) and she normally is more tired on physio days. Then on Thursday, she would not eat her breakfast but did eat her dinner later. Friday morning the same and I have to say the food she gets now is the very food kind she fought for, a hypo-allergic kibble her brother was on. After speaking to the vet we gave her again a different kind and sure enough, she took it. However, this morning she again refused her food. Also, while she is taking it slower these days, since Wednesday there was a progression to the worse as how she moved. This morning, she got up, walked a few steps and went down again, then a few steps and down again.

We decided to take her to the vet hospital. As soon as we separated the 3 dogs, Madison realized she was going places and low and behold, she got up with no problems whatsoever, prancing and dragging hubby to the car. And before he could get the sling to help her up, she was in.

The emergency doctor says there seems to be nothing obvious wrong and that she is scheduled for imaging and blood work on Friday (when she goes for her bone strengthening treatment) anyway. The doctor is fairly certain that no drastic measure will have to be taking in the next 24 hours.  We decided to let Madison stay at the clinic and get all the work done today and tomorrow to make it easier on her as well as if there is a need for antibiotics or anti-inflammatories, we will be a few days ahead of the game.

Also, for the x-ray and ultra sound, she will need sedation which will leave her a little unstable and at home is her rambunctious brother (although as well old with 9 years) and a 4 year old.

Please cross your fingers that it is something easy treatable with antibiotics and/or anti-inflammatories.

I always liked Dave Barry.

http://time.com/3030375/dave-barry-50-shades-of-grey/

Anyone seen this beauty:

 http://www.amazon.com/forum/top%20reviewers/ref=cm_cd_et_jump?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2Z5LRXMSUDQH2&cdPage=29&cdThread=Tx2EHT6DB4PFZKP#CustomerDiscussionsLPIT

Hi All:

Many of you know I have a small personal training studio. We have software to account for client's sessions, payments, scheduling and a certain amount of marketing data like how often clients come, where the majority live, etc.

Like most businesses, we need to focus our sparse marketing dollars. My marketing team wants to focus more on retention. Most of our incentives to retain clients are successful but there is not one vehicle were it is all documented. Long-term regular clients do get for their birthday flowers (for the ladies) and chocolate dipped in fruit (for the men), all get handmade birthday cards, new clients signing receive a Thank you card but should really be called say after 3 sessions to see how they are doing. We need to have a vehicle reminding someone to do this. When clients are at their 3rd last session, they are reminded that if they purchase a new package on their next visit, they receive one session free or in the case of group training, receive a discount. When it gets busy, sometimes the reminder is missed and then the client complains they did not know, don't have their wallet etc. but clearly still want the complimentary session.

All those incentives are spread over several employees to take care of, thank you cards are done by whoever finishes the health assessment (all client have to have one before starting training), birthday cards are done by one of the afternoon shift girls, I do order and arrange for the gifts. The complimentary session or discount is done by whoever is working the front desk.  We also give clients who go through a hard times (death in the family, major illness, loss of a pet, etc.) something like a massage or flowers/chocolates.

My marketing coordinator wants all those retention tools noted in one program, so when dealing with one client, we have all contacts other then their training documented. She is about to embark on trying to write an Excel program. Personally, I believe she is trying to reinvent the wheel. There must be something out there. Anyone any ideas?????

"Without Words" by Ellen O'Connell. The reviews all sound great, just one mention multiple villains, all after the heroine. I hate books where the heroine or hero basically jump or get thrown from one disaster to the other. The other reason I am asking is that for some reason (and I readily admit I don't know why as not all my files made it intact from GR) Ellen O'Connell is on my "Caution" list, not the never ever but still.

Charlie needs his teeth properly cleaned. That can of course only be done with anesthetic. He is 9 years old. Already older than most Bernese Mountain dogs get. And we lost another Bernese, just before his 9th birthday when he was under to get his teeth done.

Given all the drama with Charlie's sister Madison, who is doing really great despite being 10 years, battling bone cancer and now having an ACL tear, I am afraid. My hubby just spoke to the vet and the vet thinks that a) anesthetic has improved since and b) he rather do it now while Charlie is overall healthy with only a little arthritis. Charlie also had ACL surgery last year and came through with flying colors.

My daughter hates our vet. She says he will do anything for money (she had bad experience with him, treating a bunny which should have been put down a year or so earlier than when actually done). I don't care about that so much, I just want Charlie to be well. For what it's worth, I agree re the opinion re money with my daughter but I believe also he is a very competent vet.

1. Is in favor of free speech. That is why we read, and that is why we blog about what we read.

2. Is supportive of each other. That is why the defense fund set up by Jane Litte of Dear Author to help with her legal costs from the frivolous, and frankly offensive, lawsuit filed by Ellora's Cave founder Tina Engler in an attempt to prevent her (and only her, strangely, not Publisher's Weekly or any of the other publications/sites that have written stories about the problems at Ellora's Cave) from blogging about Ellora's Cave, has raised $30K in a day.

You can find it here, if you want to donate.

3. Is #notchilled.

I have problems linking; up-loader Anne Rasico is trying to rally the troops for review swapping on Linkedin Indie Author group.

And it is sad to see, how many other are thinking that this is a great idea.

There are also weird comments on 1- and 2 star reviews of her book.

edited to complete.

I downloaded this a few weeks ago and was looking forward to read it this weekend. However, when I tried, I found out it's double spacing throughout the book, making it difficult to read. 

I did not want to leave a 1 star review as I have not read the book, however I did want other buyers to be aware of the formatting. Amazon won't let me leave a review without staring.

i had given up on SPA's and thought maybe to try again if the storyline sounds promising. Well, I guess I better stick to author's I know or who have been recommended by posters and reviewers I know.

Ladies and Gents;

currently I am reading on an Ipad 2. My laptop conked out last year and I tried to do work just with my Ipad but found that when traveling for longer than a weekend and needing to work, the Ipad is too cumbersome. My IT staff came up with several options, one was to get the Windows Surface Pro. I went to the store and tried the keyboard (I am kind of picky there) and I guess I can get used to it. However, do I really need two tablets? 

Has anyone tried the Kindle app on the Surface Pro?

We are looking to hire a new personal trainer. As it is summer and Vancouver practically shuts down, it is already an exercise in patience.

However, today I got a resume from an university educated young person letting me know that (s)he specializes in the female and male body composition.

I am almost tempted to not only decline politely (we do answer all applicants regardless if they make it to an interview) but also ask what body composition (s)he does not do and why not.

After my daughter's dog, Baby, had to be put down, my husband and I tracked the artist Ron Burns down. We had seen his work at local vets and shelters and wanted to ease our daughter's pain about Baby's passing.

This is the result.

Funny enough, our daughter had looked into this as well but for us and as an anniversary gift.

At first it was supposed to be a surprise for her but then we thought she should be able to pick which photo she wanted to have immortalized. Ron Burns also offered to arrange for reproductions and before the painting comes to her it will go a special photography studio so we can get prints made. There were several facilities who helped with Baby's problems my daughter wants to thank and in addition to thank-you cards, they will receive a poster as well.

Artemis, Arty for short

Arty is a rescue from a kill shelter somewhere in California. A Vancouver pet rescue/charity brought him to Vancouver and my daughter saw him on their website. Apparently, he was already in his 3rd foster home. You see, Arty loves cats, however, cats don't love Arty. 

He came for a sleepover on the weekend and I knew once he enter my daughter's house, there was no way, she would give him up agin. The vet believes he is about 18 to 20 months, with some pit bull, husky (?, I don't see that), Great Dane and Greyhound in him.

Apparently, the camera greatly confuses him and this is the best photo we could get so far.