I Graduated...AGAIN!!

Not really, it is just a certificate stating I completed my program, but it looks pretty darn official. Welcome back Monday and Wednesday nights! Another decoration for the Buckeye room.



(Taken with my spiffy new camera, which I have managed not to lose yet)

How to measure success

In our world today, success is often measured by material things...houses we live in, cars we drive, toys we have, vacations we take, you get it. Tonight, I have a new definition of success. We were in a room visiting with a patient when one of the nurses, a regular, I think her name is Ann, came in and said "Mrs. X is asking for you, she just got back today and wants to see the dog". That patients remember us and ask for us, that I can use the Chelsonator to make someone's day better, is a very high metric of success in my world.

What was I thinking?

Yesterday, I blogged about how appreciative I was of Joe volunteering to haul our agility equipment back to our class facility - to show him how appreciative I was, I volunteered to do his laundry. Well, he did not come back last night like he said he would - he needed a nap too, so I thought he might forget about his laundry. WRONG! The basket was waiting for me tonight, placed nicely in front of the washer. It is now 10:10 and I am on load #2...however, I do have a bargain to hold up. At least he carried it downstairs for me. As much as I give him grief, he IS a good brother. I will even carry it up tonight so he can see it is waiting for him. What a sister.

Agility Weekend

Well, it was another long agility weekend...we got home at 5 tonight, and I think it was sometime around 9 when we finally came to, all three of us. (Joe's dog Ella is here) My parents graciously allow us to use the truck they use to pull the trailer to pull our trailer we use to haul agility equipment, and being as they are somewhere between Chicago and Frankfurt right now, Joe graciously agreed to pull the trailer from the trial site back to our facility where we have classes. He took the truck home and needed a nap himself, so El is having a slumber party here tonight. She snores loudly - like sawing logs.

Chel was awesome this weekend. We only have 2 Q's to show, but she was great - did everything her mom asked of her, including going right by a jump yesterday. We teach the dogs to "come to hand", so body and arm position is very important. When I hold my arm down at my side, that means she needs to come to my side - small problem when you need to go over a jump along the way. I pulled her right by a jump, so we got an off course. On a positive note, she responded perfectly to the command I gave her, which is very critical in tight courses, such as our jumpers run today. The jumps were very close together, but she never once made a move off course. unfortunately, she knocked one bar down - not sure why, it was not the jump I thought she would have knocked, but I will take it. Today, the weather was awful - hard rain on a metal roof, some thunder to complement it. One dog was at the top of the A frame when I huge clap of thunder sounded off...I prayed that would not happen when we ran (it was our jump height that was running) because Chel does not like thunder, at all. A couple dogs took some serious spills off the A frame and dog walk today, one of them was from our club. Dart, one of my instructors dogs, went up the A frame at an angle so fast he could not slow down and went flying off the top...thankfully, Dave was right there and literally caught him. Dart is a border collie that weighs maybe 40 lbs, but it was scary nonetheless. He was fine and finished the rest of the course perfectly. Scared the rest of us.

Well, this household is exhausted so we are going to bed. Hope this finds everyone well and have a great week!

SUCCESS!

I have successfully fixed my anti virus program!! It took another 40 minute chat session with someone in India, but it has successfully been downloaded!! Woo hoo! Now it is time for bed - it is 11PM and we have to be up for our competition tomorrow. She told me she was going to get three Q's...

I AM NOT TECHNOLOGICALLY SAVVY...AT ALL

Ugh - Kelli, I feel your pain!! It is now 12:23AM...and I have been in a chat with people from McAffee (my virus protection) for the last 2 hrs. For some reason, over the past few weeks, my virus protection has not been updating, which causes me a small degree of paranoia. The IT guys in my department regularly hack into each other's email and think its funny - so if they do it, I can only imagine what freaks are out there following this message right now...

Anyway, the chat with McAffee was actually helpful, but it has taken three hrs to get where I am. I had to send in a request - I could not call because my computer was over a year old and there is a fee for service when your computer is over a year old...I hope you are thinking "rip off" along with me. Anyway, I had to uninstall and then reinstall - there was something wrong with the McAffee site and I was not able to reinstall, but at least I know what the problem is. For that, I will be a ZOMBIE at work tomorrow.

I also finally got a new camera tonight, you need a PHD to operate that as well. I did manage to get the memory card and battery in and have started to navigate through the book. Going into Circuit City tonight was interesting too - I swear it took the people 30 minutes to check me out. During this time, phones were ringing, customers complaining, things were beeping...I was trying to be patient, but by that point it was 8:30 and I had not been home yet (met my parents at Olive Garden for dinner, they had let Chelsie out and fed her before the met me) On the bright side, I have a really slick little camera, an 8 megapixel Canon. The guy could have sold me on $100 more, but asked what I was going to use it for and said I did not need the 10 megapixel one. It is dark purple and really cute...

I am off to bed...I am sure I will be high functioning when I make it to work...later today....

My little girl is growing up...

After 6 years, I think my little girl is growing up. For our therapy work, I have to trim her nails about every 2 weeks - she HATES it. I have only drawn a TINY amount of blood once, but she still carries on like I am trying to kill her. I have found if I can lay her on my bed and lay her on her side, I can see the bottom of her feet (she has those black nails that make this even harder) and how far I need to cut. Well, last night, I took at look at her toes - and got a look of death from her that basically get "leave my feet alone". But I got out the clippers and she just laid there - only pulled her paw away once and only got up once. She came back when I called her and let me finish. I told her that if she would just hold still and let me do this, we would be done a lot faster. She ignored me and went and got the princess squeaky toy she won this weekend. Maybe we are turning a corner with this??