astrid
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Posts posted by astrid
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I can just about smell 'em! :-)
Hey, did someone knit that chick hat? Very cute!
Congratulations; he's gorgeous. :hurray:
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A friend of mine works for a travel agency and I seem to remember her donating older and unused travel posters to a worthy cause.
Thanks again!
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Just spoke with my dh, who works with Leslie's dh. Leslie is showing some improvement this morning. The nurses have actually started pumping her breasts so that her dd can have her breastmilk, and the stimulation of the breast pump seems to be bringing her around. She's in and out of consciousness, but her 10:30 am liver enzyme levels were better than those at 6:30 am. Her condition is still critical, but there seems to be a bit more optimism than yesterday and Sunday.
The wee baby girl is continuing to do well; her father reports that she's a feisty one, so that's good news. :) My dh said that the new dad sounded a bit less frantic today than yesterday. He's relieved that they're able to give the baby mom's breastmilk.
Thank you all for your prayers and well-wishes. I know they are helping!
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I teach adult education (GED, ABE and EDP) in a drab brick building that used to be a convent. As such, it's not exactly what I'd call "Academically inspiring." I'm looking for inexpensive ways to spruce it up, and some great posters would be a help.
Do you know where I can send away for free/cheap posters? Preferably academic or motivational/goal-setting in nature? (not religious--- the public school district rents the convent from the archdioscese and the adult ed program is part of the public school district.)
Thanks so much for any ideas!
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Leslie was hospitalized with eclampsia on Friday, and an emergency c-section was done on Saturday. Her dd was born at 32 weeks and three pounds, but is holding her own. This is the first child for both. Leslie, however, is deathly ill with HELLP syndrome. Her liver and kidneys are shutting down and things are not looking good.
Her poor dh is dealing with trying to stay by his wife's bedside in ICU as well as attend his brand new, tiny baby who is in NICU. He's frantic.
If you wouldn't mind squeezing them into your thoughts and prayers, I know they'd appreciate it.
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So, how does one train a dog to do something like this? I didn't see the woman using any obvious hand signals, and if she was holding a clicker, I really couldn't tell. Didn't hear any spoken commands, although I guess it would be hard to hear in a large arena.
Can't imagine all the patience, time and treats it took to train the woman to dance so nicely with her dog!
Michelle T
Those are really complicated behaviors, but are really lots and lots of smaller behaviors strung together or "shaped" into a larger routine. I don't know about this particular dog, but a great many dogs who perform the complicated routines in musical freestyle are clicker trained. Clicker training allows trainers to "mark" and reward individual behaviors, then shape them and string them into longer, more complicated series of behaviors. The "clicking" is merely in the training phase; by the time this team hit the spotlight at Crufts, the clicker had long since been phased out.
Once the dog has the behaviors down, physical cues are paired with the command for the behavior so that the dog associates a certain body movement with the command for each behavior such as lifting his right foot, lifting his left foot, etc. So in essence, the woman "dancing" with him is really just giving him a long series of commands to which he's responding with the behavior that has been shaped on that cue. For instance, when she plants the cane out to one side, the dog is cued to circle around it. When she switches hands, it's the dog's cue to reverse direction. See how the dog always has his eyes on the woman? He's watching for a subtle cue that HE knows. Dogs are INCREDIBLY perceptive about body language. It never ceases to amaze me just how much dogs pick up on their owners' movements when I'm working with a dog and owner.
This is a WAAAY complicated series of behaviors, and the breeds who are most successful at musical freestyle (and many other competitive/working events) are those who have hundreds of years of selective breeding that makes them WANT to work with humans and look to them for subtle cues for behavior. That's part of the reason you don't often see a Great Pyrenees or a Komondor performing a freestyle routine or competing at high levels in obedience, for example. They have hundreds and hundreds of selective breeding behind them that makes them self-reliant and able to work independently of humans. They were bred to be left out with a flock for months at a time and guard it with NO human direction or interaction. Border collies, (like the one in the vidoe) on the other hand, work solely at the command and behest of their handlers. INCREDIBLY smart, perceptive dogs.
Sorry for the long ramble.....I could talk about dogs all day! ;)
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Okay, you all get teary-eyed over a video of a kid singing the national anthem. Well, I know I"m different, but this had ME reaching for the tissues. :thumbup1:Dogs have such a unique relationship with humans, and the partnership in this video is nothing short of stunning. I've seen some pretty impressive canine freestyle routines, including the Golden Retriever doing the "Grease" routine with the blonde woman in hotpants, but this takes the cake.
What amazing things can be accomplished with a lot of love, patience and a clicker!
Enjoy!
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When I started knitting, I had the same problem. Then my mom convinced me to try a Lopi sweater (I swear, I do knit more than just Lopi sweaters!) and it was fun to challenge myself with a pattern that kept changing.
When you're knitting the same thing over and over again on each row, it can get boring. My mom, who is an amazing knitter, hates to do repetitive things.
Try a felted bag! You can do it! :thumbup:
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WOW! That's a pretty lofty title! :hurray:
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Wow! I wish that i could do something like that. It is absolutely beautiful.
Laurel T.
Knitting is so much fun, and really, once you get the hang of the knitting part, the patterns are just following directions. Really..... the best advice I've ever gotten came from my mom when I was just starting to learn to knit: "Pick a yarn you love and a pattern you love, and you'll be motivated to knit the project and finish it!" She was right!
Try it! Lopi sweaters are so much fun! :001_smile:
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???? had to ask.:001_huh:
oooh yummy yarn I'll have to remember that- I'm fond of the circular 11"-15" and chunky yarn, haven't tried it with a sweater though.
You know, curling is that odd sport with brooms and large granite rocks played on a sheet of ice? Kind of like a combination of shuffleboard and chess, on ice. My dh is an avid curler.
If you like to knit in the round, you must try a Lopi sweater! So fun to knit and they go really quickly. You cast on the body stitches, join into a round, knit the ribbing, and then knit up to the armpits. Knit two arms, put the first four and last four stitches of each arm on a stitch holder (8 st. total) and then just pick up the stitches on each arm and the body and start knitting the yoke color pattern, decreasing as you go, then bind off the neck! This one was a bit different as it's a cardigan, so I did as above but purled the first and last stitches of the round, which left a "channe" of sorts up the front. Then I machine stitched two rows on either side of the center "ladder" and then, GULP, I cut it apart. :eek: Then sewed the button plackets on. It's the first Lopi cardigan I've made, and I was pretty freaked out by the cutting, but I'm pleased with the result. It needs to be blocked, but Molly will wear it tomorrow (it's cold here in CT!)
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that came out purlfect!! how long did it take?
I started it on February 29th and finished it today, so three weeks. The great thing about Lopi patterns is that they're knit in the round and on big needles (this was a size 11) so it really went FAST! Of course, it helped that my husband curled in a bonspiel three weekends ago and I had nothing to do but sit there, watch him curl and knit up a storm!
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Lopi sweaters, but I knit this one on a different yarn: Web's Plymouth Yarns in Berkshire Bulky, which is an obscenely soft wool/alpaca blend. It may not wear as well as rugged old Lopi, but heck, by the time she wears it out she'll have outgrown it, so it works for me! :lol:
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My fave one with a message, the one I would have if I put stickers on my car: If you are not outraged then you are not paying attention
This one IS ON OUR CARS! Both of them! :D
Loved the rest of them, too..... but had to share about this one. :D
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I edited the post above and deleted this photo...
Sorry for the DENSITY of my brain tonight.....obviously I"m exhausted from the last-minute push to complete that sweater!
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in time for dd to wear it tomorrow! It's a lopi, but made with a wool/alpaca blend that is just DIVINE to work with. I want sheets made out of it!
Check out my Ravelry page for details, if you'd like.
Here's a photo of the satisfied customer. (Pay no attention to her purple leopard print flannel jammies!)
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Thank you!
:iagree:
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It does not matter that a large segment of the population is not in favor (in your opinion)
No, I'm pretty sure that no matter what poll you look at, it's an unpopular war now. I'm not the only one with this opinion....I think even Rush Limbaugh wouldn't claim it's a popular war. But I don't listen to him, so what do I know? :D
A reporter trying to trip up the Vice President of the United States using a poll numbers that he or she knew could not be verified is the snarky one :rolleyes:All the more reason for the VP to behave in a bit more dignified manner. Rise above, as it were. Why lower himself, if he was so sure it was a "stupid question?" Sorry, I don't buy the "Well, he can answer however he wants because it was a stupid question" argument.
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could be...
the 2/3 is 2/3s of 10, 20, 1000? what? IME whether or not a person will take a poll can be an indication of their leanings and where was the poll offered? So it can be misleading to say 2/3's of this poll answered this way therefore that correlates to 2/3 of the US voting population. Kinda messy.
I'm not talking now, nor have I been, about the actual poll numbers or how it was generated. I'm talking about Cheney's flip answer. But I"m tiring of beating my head against a wall.
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now the positive is gone. What's that all about? :001_huh:
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Because you're expected to answer to the American people who elected you? Because it's no secret that a large segment of the population is, in fact, not in support of this war, no matter what the actual polling percentage?
I'm sorry.....IMHO, "So?" is not an acceptable answer. As I said, skip the "So?" (it's snarky) and just go on with the spiel/schpeil/shpeil? OH HOW THE HECK DO YOU SPELL THAT?! :001_smile:
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He was AMAZING! So inspiring! And it was right after the Kennedy endorsement, so Caroline and Ted were there and spoke as well. Dh and I took our dd (10.) She actually loved it!
Have a wonderful time!
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I fully understand the fallicy of polling. However, in my mind, that does not excuse Mr. Cheney from the snide comment he made, for the reasons I stated above.
Perhaps, as an elected official, people will ask you questions which you deem ridiculous or unworthy of an answer. That does not invalidate the question, nor does it give carte blanche for a dismissive reply. If he'd just left out the "so?" and answered the question, IMHO, it would have been much more befitting the office of Vice President.
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To be honest I seriously doubt that 2/3 of Americans want us to lose this war especially in light of how good it is going right now.
Can you point me to an unbiased, reputable news source (not "world news daily" or whatever that site is, and not Fox News) that paints an optimistic picture? Not being snarky.....I'd really like some good news on this front!
Spin-off on High School Reunion thread - homeschooling & your high school experience.
in General Education Discussion Board
Posted
I LOVED school. High school was wonderful, and even junior high was fun for me. I was one of the "smart jocks" who played three varsity sports and played in the band, so maybe that helped. I guess when I think back on junior high and high school, I mostly remember good friends, band rehearsals, softball practice with a warm spring wind blowing, National Honor Society banquets, going to basketball games, playing field shows during football game halftimes......... maybe I"ve blocked them all out, but I just can't remember a whole lot of negatives.
I even married my high-school sweetheart--- two proms! :001_wub:
And I guess, to answer your question, my experiences do shape my homeschool plans. Dd attended public school K-2, and we've always planned to send her back to high school.