Stella & Roo Episode 1: Rufus Gets Hosed

Contrary to popular belief, not every Wisconsite calls people "hosers." In fact, I have yet to hear the term of endearment up here on the frozen tundra.

Rufus saw more hosers down in Ohio. (These pictures are from back in August...hence the sunshine and lack of fluffy white snow)

The biggest hoser looked like this:



Hey little-human-that-smells-like-playdough, whatcha got there?



Rufus has finally realized that the water tastes better coming out of a hose than it does the faucet. I probably should be thankful Rufus hasn't figured out that there's even better tasting water in the Giant White Porcelain Dish With A Matching Lid.



Little Lexi Loo had no problem sharing in her Waterworld fun.



Also, Rufus got a marriage proposal.



He said no. He's saving himself for Winnie.

Rufus and Stella are were settling in nicely up here in Wisconsin until the snow came. Stella tried to revolt and Rufus tried to revel in it. We are in an apartment so Roodypoody has to stay on a short leash and can't frolic in the snow as well as he used to. It kinda goes something like this:

FROLICchokeFROLICchokeJUMPchokeLOOKSADLYBACKATMOM

Pictures to come when I actually remember to take them.

In the meantime, here's Rufus with his toy in our apartment hallway...does it look familiar?

For Those of You Who Didn't Already Know...

The poochies and I have crammed all of our junk into UHaul boxes and settled into our new apartment in Madison, Wisconsin. Now, I'm just waiting for my hubby to sell the house and join us. I will begin pecking away at the computer keyboard this November when I participate in NaNoWriMo again. My new job is keeping me busy and pretty soon, it will keep my busier, but this year, I'm dedicated to writing 50,000 words in 30 days.

Other exciting news: in 6 months, I qualify for an interest free loan from my employer that I can use to purchase a computer. Hello MacBook Pro, love of my life! That means tons more pictures of Stella and Rufus. My hiatus from the wonderful world of photography was partly due to our old Mac Mini deciding to run superslow and me receiving a PC for school. (I quit school, by the way...teaching is not in the cards for me, no sir!) The PC crashed constantly and I didn't bother downloading my pictures to Andy's MacBook because I'm weird about keeping all of my picture files in the same place (currently on the mini) and Andy is weird about organizing his files and his network and all that junk, so I just took a break. When I get my MacBook, though, I will have all of my pictures in one place, I will no longer have to share a computer, and I will be able to download and use GIMP again! Hooray! In the meantime, I may venture out to take some pictures of Madison...it's beautiful right now with all of the leaves changing color.

Get one! (or two or three!)

Who would have thought, "Hmmm...antique silver spoons...I know! They'd make great fashion rings!"?!? Plus, buying one helps the Gulf Coast...



BUY ONE HERE

Hey Peeplz

It's Rufus.



Sorry my lady is such a lame-o and hasn't updated you all.

Not much going on, except...well, I've been banned from having a doggie bed in my doggie crate.



Not even my get-away-with anything face could save me.

The snow was pretty deep this winter. Check it out...I about froze my weiner off.



But the fetch was way worth it.



When I gave my dad this face,



he wrestled with me and we had good timez.



Sadly, I must report that Stella gets the Beeyotch of the Month award. Check this out:



What kind of dog needs both bones AND my stuffy!?!
Don't worry. I beat her up later.



Oh yeah, and this past Christmas, my lady gave my cousin Yogi Valentino a doggie Snuggie (TM).


(You tell anyone about this lady, and I keel you!)


(And I am FOR SERIOUS!)

Seems I'm Not the Only One

With one year of teaching middle school (almost) under my belt, I am finally able to return to some semblance of a normal life. I just recently checked back in with blogger and was relieved to find that I wasn't the only one neglecting the online community of fellow dog-and-photography lovers. Lots of "I'm baaaacK" posts out there...

We've got lots of catching up to do. Like Rufus has started drinking--I mean, STEALING--coffee, and Stella's turned into quite the bully and had her first experience with diapers. There's way more than that, but I don't want to give it all away.

See you soon...and way more often!

Back on Track

Phew! Technology for Educators is over. *sigh of relief*

Back to Stellabutt & RufusDoofus...

I'm proud to introduce...

(Puffs out chest & waits for drumroll)

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE TOY I MENTIONED EARLIER!

(ZOMG! MOMSAVEME!)



Chill out, Roo. Stella's a big baby...what's she going to do?

(BITE ME!)



Oh, geez, Stella!

(Fine, meaniehead, you can have it anyway)



(I've got a bigger, better toy to play with anyway...wink wink)



This toy has lasted more than two weeks. That's gotta be some kind of record or something. Srsly.

Back to the future...

Here's the question for class: As emerging technologies continue to affect education, there is little question that the role of the teacher will change. Imagine yourself teaching a class in the technological future. How do you think your role would be different from the typical teacher’s role today?

Here's my answer: Although I agree that technology changes education almost daily, this prompt also makes me think of what Dr. Osborn pointed out at the beginning of the course-namely that if you compare hospitals 20 years ago to hospitals today, the addition and use of technology and therefore, the machines you find in hospitals today is vastly improved and different. However, if you compare schools 20 years ago with schools today, there is little change in the amount of technology we use. In the future, if money was no longer a brick wall standing in the way of financing tools for education, I feel that my role would change in the following manners:
1) I imagine part of my day would be spent using technology to correspond with students who stayed home either for health issues or because they are distance learners.
2) I would also have fewer actual books and rely more on e-books or digital copies of books on computers for students to read.
3) Parents could instant message their concerns and correspond using technology rather than the phone.

Rufus and Stella update: We have reinstated the rule of the tie-out because Stella and Rufus both decided that running away in the morning while I was frantically trying to leave for work was a good way to get dad out of bed early. Dad=not so happy about that.