(no subject)

Been doing a lot of wiki-surfing this morning.

Points of interest

- In resistance to integration, some Virginia school districts completely shut down their public schools between 1959 and 1964.

- "Southern Strategy"... I tend to forget that the South hasn't always been heavily Republican. During the 2nd half of the 20th century, demographics in the southern states switched from Democratic to Republican, and in New England and the west coastal states from Republican to Democratic. Yet the changing party affiliations weren't mainly due to changing values among the population, but rather due to changes in the political platforms of the parties.

- The late Senator Strom Thurmond switched from the Democratic to the Republican party in the 1960s. He was born in 1902. His first wife was 24 years younger than him, and was born (in 1926) after his first child was born (in 1925). His 2nd wife was 44 years younger than him, and was born (in 1946) a year before his first wife died (in 1947). They separated in 1991. One of their daughters was killed by a drunk driver in 1993. The wikipedia page refers to her as "beauty pageant contestant Nancy Moore Thurmond (1971–1993)"... after you die, how would you like someone to sum up your whole identity as "beauty pageant contestant"?

(no subject)

I've noticed that when coworkers greet me with a "Hi", I tend to reply with a "Hey", whereas when I'm greeted with "Hey", I tend to reply with a "Hi". It's not something I think about while doing, but I suppose this avoids it sounding like I'm just echoing back one of their words. They generally greet me by name, but I still rarely respond back with their name.

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When Zorro gets hyper, she growls at me sometimes... while darting back and forth and trying to jump at me. I think she thinks it is a game. The first time she growled at me, it scared me. I worry that if she ever gets out of the yard and does that to an Animal Control officer, they may take it as a sign of aggression.

She had some blood taken at the vet this week, in preparation for her spay-surgery next week. I don't know what the purpose of the blood-taking is, but I've begun to suspect it is to check whether she is already pregnant. Perhaps the vet does not want to be involved in performing an abortion during the spaying. That's understandable, but if so, then I wonder why the vet isn't willing to do the surgery before the dog is 6 months of age, as then the dog would be less likely to be able to have gotten pregnant.

I didn't realize that they usually cut into the abdomen to do the spay surgery; I thought that they could go up the vaginal canal like they do with humans sometimes, or just go in thru small hole incisions. But I suppose that would require more expensive surgical tools.

I write about the dog a lot; like a parent who writes about their children all the time... I hope I'm not boring anyone. It's something easy to write about. Does anyone want to see a video of her hopping in the snow? Oh, I've still got the one of her barking at the broom, too...

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Q bought a temporal artery thermometer - the kind you only need to swipe across the forehead to get a reading. I was amused by a statement in the instruction booklet: "The best place to measure temperature is the center of the heart, but this can be done only under a doctor's supervision."

Here's a non-dog video. Kittens on a Roomba!

"" (Watch on YouTube)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTxW3GWZ5hI