The Further Adventures of Geroni-Mo Burfitt

Three guesses why we call her Geroni-mo!

Anyway, our little grrrrl is growing up. She received her last set of puppy shots a couple of Fridays ago. She also received her microchip. Dr. Cindy, the vet, informed me that all of the cats she had ever microchipped had been okay about the experiences, but that all the dogs had yelped, so the vet tech and I got a good grip on her and prepared for a squeal. Dinah never even blinked -- what a trooper! Faced with a needle that size, I probably would have passed out.



Her front teeth are coming in nicely, including her canines. Thus far her bite doesn't seem to have gone off. She has a mix of puppy teeth and new adult teeth in the back, so she's definitely still teething. I offered her a frozen washcloth to soothe her gums, but she prefers to use Seamus as a teething toy.

It seems that every time I look away and look back, she's a different puppy. Most Beardie puppies her age also sport the "exploding cigar" look, where the hair on their faces has started graying out before any of the hair on their bodies. Dinah has some graying on her face and about 7 gray hairs on her tail. (I hope she stays as dark as her dad Danny, who is nearly stay-black.) Her legs are getting longer, and her head appears to be taking more of an adult shape -- her skull is lengthening and so is her muzzle. She still has a beautiful head, but it's not as blocky as it was a few weeks ago.

We started Auntie Sue's puppy class this past week. We were a bit late for the first class, so we didn't have much time to meet the other puppies and to get our ya-yas out before class. Dinah's new classmates include two German Shepherds, two Jack Russells, a Peke mix, and a Golden. Dinah took to Sue and Camille (Sue's demo dog for the class) right away. She was a little too excited and wiggly to be interested in the calm-control exercises at the beginning, but she walked beautifully on lead. She much prefers walking on my right, so we have to work on walking on the left before the next class.

This one will be a natural at agility, though. She already likes to walk on the back of the couch, and thinks nothing of vaulting over an adult dog or two to reach the couch (or anything else she's trying to get to). She would ride on the back of the rear seat of the car if I allowed her to. She can also climb up stairs, though she hasn't mustered the nerve to go down just yet.

Music News, For Once

Greg bought a new iBook G4 this past week, and he's like a kid with a new toy... because he is a kid with a new toy. All the hardware and OS limitations he encountered with his old iBook have magically disappeared with new software and OS X. He has been happily editing the tape hiss out of old performances and importing his old Finale scores into the latest verson of Sibelius. He's also thrilled to bits that OS X has UNIX underpinnings; he used to support software on UNIX in his previous life, and he loves having the control and flexibility.

His Polyline for solo clarinet has been scheduled for performance at the American Composers' Alliance's Festival of American Music in June in NYC. It will be performed on Saturday, June 10, at the afternoon concert. Lukas Foss, Elliott Schwartz, and Beth Wiemann also have pieces in the same festival, but in different concerts.

He has been busy with a number of his other pieces. Arkadia was originally scored for chamber orchestra, but he has been busy expanding it for full orchestra. He has also made quite a bit of progress on the Sax Quartet, and hopes to get a movement or two performed next semester. He'd like to get Polytriad read at BU this semester, and last night he mentioned wanting to go back to Niagara Falls for fresh inspiration, so he can make more progress on Niagara, the piece which will probably be his Master's thesis.

Not To Mention Knitting News



My third pair of socks is finally finished! Lisa will love the colors in these: blues, purple, soft green, and a little taupe. The colorway is called Bucks Bar, from Lorna's Laces.

Pair #4 is still at the first-cuff stage. It's in Trekking XXL, in a shade that looked somewhat like an orangey heather in the skein. It's beautiful knitted, but hard to describe -- maybe like a tweedy color spectrum. When I'm done with the socks, I'll post a photo and you can decide. Trekking XXL is plied with different colors, which is where the lovely tweedy effect comes from.

My friend Susannah (whom I've known since freshman year in college) sent me more lovely yarn for my birthday, including two skeins of another shade of Lorna's Laces. This colorway is predominantly robin's-egg blue and pink, and will make gorgeous socks for spring. You'll be cheered up just looking at the colors.

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