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Farley’s Friday: How does a dog beat the heat?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 6 Comments

Farley here.

Well I’m in Florida, and it’s hot.

Early this morning I hear my humans talk about going for a run. They don’t think I’ve been getting enough exercise lately. Well, whose fault is that I ask you? And who wants to exercise in  this heat?

I’m not the kind of dog who likes to get up early, but oh, oh! I see Kristina putting on her running gear. It’s not even seven yet. Is she crazy?

Farley by the air

She crawls under the salon table and pulls my legs. I make my body go all floppy so she can’t get ahold of me.

“Let me sleep,” I whine.

“Come on, lazy bones,” she says.

“Lazy,” I bark quietly. “I’m not lazy. Do you see where I am?” I wag my tail making it thump the air conditioning vent. I’m trying to give her the hint I want to stay near the cold air, but she’s having none of it. She takes hold of my two front paws and slides me across the floor. Now she thinks I’m a mop.

I may want to stay in the comfort of my air-conditioned salon, but it’s not going to happen. I give in and follow her out the door.

Now, I know you’re all feeling sorry for me and my tough life, but don’t worry.

We run along a road and at the end of the road we find a beach on the Atlantic ocean.

There’s a sign, which usually means no dogs allowed, but I pull Kristina to it, and bark, “Dogs allowed. Must be leashed. Do you see? Do you see? Let’s go.” Flagler county is dog friendly. This place is great.

I want to hit the surf. I spring forward, dragging Kristina, and get my paws in the ocean for the first time this season.

If I wasn’t a dog, I would be laughing out loud. That lol for you humans. It feels unbelievably good to run in the surf.

Woof woof.

Farley’s Friday: What’s A Dog To Do In A Boatyard?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

I ask you, do I look bored?

Farley in Boatyard

My humans are getting their Lagoon 380 Catamaran ready for a winter of sailing, so for me it’s all hang around the boat yard and wait for them.

And what’s with the leash? I’m used to being free. How humiliating. What if one of my pals saw me?

Okay, so enough of the whining. What’s good about the boatyard?

There is a long dock I get to run on, and best of all, there are dolphins in the harbour.

“Hey,” I bark. “Come over here.”

The dolphins ignore me.

“Hey, I’m bored, Come play,” I bark.

Nothing. Dolphins just seem to swim and blow air out of their heads.

Then I get distracted by a man and a woman fishing. They guys casts the lure.

“Wait for me,” I bark. I run to their boat, but they are too far away for me to jump on board.

“Cast again,” I bark, and the guy does. Humans are so smart.

Kristina tells the guy she doesn’t know why I bark when someone casts a lure, like it’s not obvious. I wag may tail at her, encouraging her to figure it out.

No, luck. While I”m not paying attention she grabs my harness and I have to sit under our boat again.

One more week of this and we should be in the water! The boat I mean,  to me or my humans.

Woof Woof.

Lagoon 380s2 Window Covering

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 8 Comments

The fall season is here and it’s time to start blogging about cruising. During the winter months, I post every Wednesday about our cruising lifestyle, so here we go. . .

The time of year is upon us where we go through our commissioning list and launch Mattina, our Lagoon 380 S2. We usually spend about 8 days on the hard, working on areas that need to be done with the boat out of the water.

Then Mattina gets launched, and we proceed to part two of the commissioning process. I won’t rewrite what we did in the fall of 2012 for commissioning,  but here are the links if you are interested.

A Week on the Hard

A Week at the Dock

This year, I thought I’d write about some of the things we do that aren’t on our regular commissioning list but have to be one for us to keep Mattina in mint condition.

I love before and after photos. We decided Mattina needed new window coverings. The large windows on the cabins and showers provide ample light below decks and spectacular views. We all want to see out, but that doesn’t mean we want others seeing in. The winder covering on Mattina started to wear and so . . . new window coverings.

This might seem easy, but getting paint off windows is hard work and certainly takes time.

WIndow Before

WIndow After

 

But the result was worth the effort.

Now tell me the second photo doesn’t look better!

Thanks for reading . . .

Do you want to improve your grammar?

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Here’s one method on how to become more confident with your grammar skills.

Scientific America Mind (October 2013) has an article called What Works, What Doesn’t that discusses techniques that work or don’t work for learning. The second item in the article discusses the importance of self testing. The article makes the point that before reading a chapter the student should take a test to see how much they know on the subject. The theory is we learn by our mistakes.

Each year I read a different book on grammar in an effort to keep my skills strong. As a writer, I consider grammar knowledge an important tool for creating a novel.

Thinking I should test the theory put forward by Scientific America Mind, I set out on the search for a grammar book laid out with an introductory test, study information and an end of chapter test.

I found Sharp Grammar: Build Better Grammar Skills by Kaplan  follows this process.

I’m now working my way though the book, surprising myself by what I know and don’t know. If I only learn one new thing, I think it’s worth the effort. I also believe that continual practice will keep me at the top of my game in the sport of grammar. Can you ever practice too much?

What do you do to keep improving  your grammar and punctuation skills?

Farley’s Friday: A Five Dog Weekend

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 3 Comments

Farley here.

How does a Wheaten Terrier cope in a small space with four other dogs?

Nomada Dogs

I’m the wheaten in the photo. The dogs with me are a lab/springer mix, and two Australian Shepherd/Poodles mixes. Callie, the Jack Russell is below. She refused to have her photo taken with us because she was too busy napping in the pillows.

Cali Sleeping

So we were on a boat but who invited the thunder storm? Smudge (Lab/Springer) and I don’t like them. The other dogs didn’t care.

Five dogs and only a couple of snapping incidents – not by me because, as you know, I’m perfect. One of the Australian Shepherd’s snapped at Smudge. Smudge, being a lab, just ignored the dog. I hid behind Kristina’s legs. I don’t like conflict. The humans all talked about how to stop aggression in dogs. The conclusion. Someone has to the be the alpha and take control. I didn’t get whether that meant a dog alpha or a human alpha. All I know is I’m not the alpha. It’s all so confusing.

We swam, we ran, we got wet, then we had to stay on the back deck until we were dry. All the human’s got to go inside and warm up. but not us. Oh, except the spoilt one. Callie gets cold, so she got to join in side and bury herself on the couch. And you thought all this time, I was the spoilt one.

Woof, woof.

How to Keep Track of Time in a Novel

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

Time and dates can be straight forward or complicated.

  • Are you writing a novel that happens in order of events?
  • Do you jump back and forth in time?
  • Are you writing a time travel novel?

The farther down the list you go, the more complicated keeping track of timing becomes. My novels are in the order the events occur, and I can’t imagine how difficult it is to keep track of a time travel novel.

On a basic level, I use a calendar on my computer. I put key events on a day. This helps me make sure I didn’t make an error.

Things I check include:

  • day of week in a scene
  • scenes are in order
  • an event isn’t happening on a day off, a statutory holiday etc. when a person wouldn’t be at work
  • clues aren’t referenced before they happen
  • when villain is introduced
I also use a spreadsheet to keep track of the details of a scene and combined with the calendar I hope I find any errors in timing before the novel goes to my literary agent.
As an added bonus, when you complete the calendar, you should have the key elements you need to write a synopsis. Anything that helps write the dreaded synopsis has to be good. Right?

What tools to you use?

I made a calendar in Excel but is there anything better out there. I’d really like to know.

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: A Wheaten Terrier and Thunderstorms

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 10 Comments

Farley here.

I like to think I’m brave, but I get the shakes when the skies are shaking. I don’t understand the booming that penetrates my body or the flashes of light that make me squint. I tried to hide, but there was no where to go.

My human, Kristina, has endless patient. I signal to her to follow me, and she does. I check out every room at the cottage. To my amazement the thunder is in every room. I thought if I hid in the back bedroom, I could get away from it. Not such luck.

My peeps won’t coddle me when I’m afraid, but Kristina’s so smart. She grooms me. She thinks she’s tricking me by performing a mundane task to distract me. I know what she’s doing and yet, it works. She pulls the brush gently down my back in repetitive motions and I find myself calming down.

When the storm finally passes, I crash. I get so tired when I’m stressed. Sometimes a dog just needs a nap and to dry out.

Farley Napping After Storm

Woof Woof.

Leaving a job? How To Get a Dream Reference Letter

~ Kristina Stanley ~ Leave a comment

When leaving a job on good terms, you’ll want a reference letter in hand. Ask your employer for a letter. If they agree, offer to write a draft for them.

While working as the Director of Human Resources for five and half years, I was asked regularly for a reference letter.  From an employer’s point of view, I found it easiest when the employee prepared a draft letter for me.

In a busy job, with my own deadlines, I found it difficult to make time to write a reference letter from scratch. That meant I had to look up employment dates and main job responsibilities, and I had to think of the person’s best characteristics. All easy to do,but time consuming.

Employees were sometimes shy about writing the letter, maybe thinking it was presumptuous, but what it really is, is helpful.

But what do you put in your letter?

  • Job title
  • Start and end dates
  • Main job responsibilities
  • Qualifications required and held for position
  • What you were good at. This is important. Don’t be shy about saying what you did well.

End the letter with some form of the following sentence: Given the opportunity, I would happily rehire – insert your name here.

The last sentence means the company was pleased with your work and is code within the HR circles that the reference is good.

Next, print two copies with room for a signature. Put one copy on a storage device. Present both to your employer. Thank them for giving you a reference, and state that you have prepared a draft for them as a starting point.

In many cases, I signed the letters as they were presented to me. In some cases, I felt the person under sold themselves and added a few things, and only rarely did I think the person went overboard and I took a few things out.

I hope this helps you get the reference letter you need.

Thanks for reading . . .

Farley’s Friday: A Wheaten Terrier at the Cottage

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 4 Comments

Farley here.

The summer is coming to an end and that means all my peeps go back to their own lives. The kids go back to school and get too busy for me. Not to mention, they live in different parts of Canada. I get to go to the Bahamas, which is great, but I’m still sad about the pack dispersing.

I don’t understand kids. They’re always in the water. No matter how hard I bark at them to stay on land, they jump in. This time, they  took a camera.

“Get out of the water,” I bark in my frantic manner.

They laugh and swim deeper. Now I’m not sure they can hear me when they’re under water, but I bark more anyway.

They get the giggles and have to surface, but not before taking this odd photo of me!

Farley wants to swim

It gets worse. I told you about tubing, well now they want to water ski too. I make sure I get in the boat and can at least bark safety instructions. Why oh why do kids like water? It’s just too stressful for me.

Farley wants to waterski

Woof Woof.

Scene of the Crime Writers Festival: Genre Talk

~ Kristina Stanley ~ 5 Comments

This year Scene of the Crime brought us Barbara Fradkin, author of the Michael Green Detective novels. Barbara led the morning workshop at writers festival on Wolfe Island in Kingston Ontario.

Barbara Fradkin, Andrew Pyper, Ian Hamilton, Gloria Ferris, Erika Chase, Janet Bolin
Panel discussion by: Barbara Fradkin, Andrew Pyper, Ian Hamilton, Gloria Ferris, Erika Chase, Janet Bolin

Fradkin talked about the difference between cosy mysteries and hard-boiled mystery.

If you’re writing a cosy, she suggested:

  • no swearing
  • limited violence – could be off screen
  • sex mostly off screen
  • set in a tight community, village or club
  • write in a genteel pace

But if you’re on the other end of the spectrum you can write whatever you like.

I think my writing falls somewhere in the middle. What about you?

Thanks for reading . . .