Time Out

Even though the stores are decked-out for the holidays and one local radio station has begun playing nothing but Christmas music, the weather here is not frightful. After weekend rain and some windy days last week, today felt more like we are moving toward summer, not winter.

So the backyard patio was a lovely place today. I'm not sure this photo captures the loveliness, but I hope you can imagine it.

This evening I only have one batch of student papers to read and comment on, so I'm grading and I'm also in my online office, which at the moment is quite quiet. Tomorrow my students will do their next graded project in the classroom. They'll be reading an article, having to find its main point, answer questions about the article, and then they will need to write an thesis statement (a main point) agreeing or disagreeing with the postion the article is proposing. It is a project much different than composing an essay, but one that tests their reading and reasoning abilities, as well as their writing ability.

Thanks for yesterday's comments regarding what's going on here with the tension between the two female pooches. Today has been fairly quiet. For the majority of the day Mitzi and Chloe seemed to have agreed on a truce.I've tried to hold and cuddle Mitzi a lot, hoping that giving her lots of attention will reduce her jealousy. We have not yet had an email response from her former owners. So that door has not closed; we just haven't heard from them. We're still hoping for a miracle -- one that would allow these two pooches to behave toward each other.

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol