On the Mend after Setback

Ginger developed a wound infection a week ago and had to go back for debridement and closing, again. She came home with bags of IV fluid and Amikacin, but tolerated daily infusions and injections. Although the surgeon maintained a preference for wounds being open to air, my solution was a loose t-shirt to at least keep the area from all the dirt on the floor the other dogs bring in. The area is clean and dry so maybe the staples will come out at the end of the week.

She hasn't objected to the t-shirt - probably because so much of her coat has been shaved, including legs for various IV's.

Our driveway is a skating rink and we're supposed to get more nasty weather this week. Having to be in the house 24/7 is making me notice all the painting, cleaning, etc., so it's definitely cabin-fever.

Google, Joomla

Whoa! Google said it will offer ultrahigh-speed Internet access in some communities in a test that could showcase the kinds of things that would be possible if the U.S. had faster broadband networks - interesting!

Sometimes you just have to move out of the comfort zone - in this case, static to CMS and I guess Joomla is a good option, not knowing anything about Joomla, Drupal and Wordpress. To me, just installing Joomla is mind boggling so contact with the techies at my host is a necessary first step. A client wants to do updates and changes so we'll give it a whirl.

We were spared the awful snow my kids in MD got this week - we got snow, but nothing unmanageable. Just think - in 4 weeks, they'll be having spring while we plow through the rest of winter!

For the first time in a few years, we won't be spending March in FL - Ginger's recovery involves close monitoring (not to mention the suture removal from an incision going from stem to stern) and it's not an option to be out of state in case of any emergency. Right now her appetite is back to normal but she's needing more calories to make up for the weight loss.

On the Mend!

Ginger is doing great! Her biopsy came back negative and the cause is still a mystery (although hunting dogs do get into offending weeds and grasses when they run through cover and it could be a latent result of an accident 18 months ago). She did so well yesterday eating, etc., that the chest tubes may come out today and she will be home soon.

On mobile phones - I'm still on the fence and about to go the route of developing simpler sites with basic info and linking to them - I'm not too particular about including a button for a mobile phone user. I'll think about it some more.

I just came across Russell Brown's video on using Camera Raw for corrections and it's filled with helpful information. I tried a lot in a previous image and I was able to pull out a lot more and correct some things that bothered me about it. As always, Russell is amazing!

There is hope!

Google is phasing out support for IE6 according to an article by Geoff Duncan which is making me think I might start ignoring it in site considerations. Perhaps because Microsoft has been so prominent for so long, the death of IE6 for designers is going to be much harder than NN4; however, I believe the challenges NN4 presented pale in comparison to IE6.

On the issue of adapting sites to mobile phones - still digging but nothing very promising seen. Investigation of Mobify is somewhat promising but far too expensive at this point. I know there is, or will be an answer.

Our dear Ginger is having a bad week - she developed breathing problems slowly over 5 days. First vet said it was related to infection, which was somewhat right. After 4 days on antibiotic, no improvement so we took her to Ocean State Veterinary Hospital which resulted in major surgery to clean out a horrible mess in the pleura and mediastinum. She's quite out of it because of a morphine drip to keep her comfortable because of the chest tube. Fortunately, her blood work, kidney function, etc. was great, so we are hoping things progress in a positive manner. OCSVH was the identifier of Erlichea in one of our labs when very little about it was known in this region and literally saved her life.

Keep Ginger in our thoughts -