Training Challenges

So, as I've probably posted on this blog before, Grace is in agility training. Well actually, both of us are, since I've never done agility either, other than fun classes with Quigley when he was younger. Anyhow, we started classes in the late fall and have been going weekly pretty much since then (with a few breaks for holidays and stuff).

One of the things that Grace and I have been working on is weave pole training. When a dog competes in agility, they have to weave through 12 poles, set in a straight line, roughly 20" apart. Seeing a dog weave well and quickly is an awesome thing . . . but it takes a while to learn, because the dog always has to enter with the first weave pole by their left shoulder. We're learning using a method developed by Susan Garrett called 2x2 Weave Training. It works very well and it seems to really cement the concept of weave poles in the dogs' minds. I have been very happy with it for Grace, as she has been progressing quite nicely through the stages of training.

Until last week. I have a set of PVC weave poles that I made, and I'd been keeping them at the training centre due to the weather (can't train outside in the snow!). I brought them home last week and set them up in the backyard. Grace looked at them as though she'd never seen them before. Now, I know that you have to take a step back in new situations, to facilitate learning, so I went back several steps to make things easy for her. Even with the poles set in a channel, she acted as though she'd never seen them. Of course, that frustrated me, as she had been doing so well.

Tuesday night at class, she was reasonably decent with the weave poles. The instructor told me to persevere with practicing at home, because many trials are on grass. Well, she has gone through the poles a few times . . . but after going through correctly 5-10 times (with tons of praise and reward to reinforce it), she starts running around them, or blowing them off completely.

Hence the title of my post. Training, while something I love immensely, is occasionally really, really challenging. Really challenging.

Job Specifics

Okay, now that everything is hammered out, I can finally share the details about my new job at Syncrude :) This is a position change within the company - I am not changing companies.

I will be working on the SAP project (to install SAP as our base system on top of Windows) starting on May 11th. Rather ironically, I will be returning to the trailer that I worked in 2 years ago, and maybe even to the same office! I will be a Project Manager Analyst, or Project Coordinator. I will work as a liaison between Syncrude and Exxon for the project, and will be familiar with both sets of systems. SAP is a program that includes all aspects of the business from purchase to pay (ERP, if you're familiar with the industry term), so it is going to be a MAJOR change for employees at Syncrude. It's a huge project, and I will get lots of exposure, so it's a great opportunity.

Wish me luck on my new adventure - it should be very interesting!

The Frisbee Fairy

On Saturday, after being out of the house all day with three of my nieces, I came home to find the red frisbee back in the yard. The dogs are thrilled, especially Farley, since he adores that thing. A friend told me that the frisbee fairy had taken it for regularly scheduled maintenance, and that occasional disappearances can be attributed to her. Who knew????

Revenge Is Sweet

Remember the "Shhhhh . . . In Disguise" pictures? Well, those glasses were from my 8 year old niece's birthday party . . . all of the kids wore them.

Yesterday when i got home from work, I found Farley chewing on a flesh-coloured piece of plastic. Ooops, there went the nose. In the basement I found the remnants of the charmingly fuzzy eyebrows and mustache. Sigh.

Farley says revenge is sweet :)

Change Is Good

Today I got some good news at work. My rotation in Internal Audit is drawing to a close, and my boss and I have been discussing my options for where to go next within the company. It's been an ongoing discussion for a few weeks now, and we've been talking about plans and possibilities.

A couple of weeks ago my boss called me about a really exciting opportunity within my company. I talked to a few people involved with the potential job, and sent in my resume. Well, I was either shockingly charming or my resume is brilliant, because today they called me to invite me to join the department :) YAHOO! I'm really happy about this, because it's a heck of an opportunity for me, with lots of room for personal and professional growth.

I can't say a lot about the details until everything is hammered out, but suffice it to say that my spring re-birth and changes are coming about.

Shhhh . . . I'm hunting wascally wabbits

Farley . . . . incognito.

Adventures in Kelly-Land

Yep, life is always an adventure, right? At least it seems that way with my life.

Yesterday I was playing frisbee with the dogs in the backyard, enjoying the weather and sunshine. The dogs were having a great time running around too. Unfortunately, as I occasionally do, I threw the frisbee into the neighbours' yard. Not the uber-friendly, pleasant neighbours - no, that would have made life too easy. It was the cranky, solitary, unfriendly neighbours. No worries, though, as it didn't appear that anybody was home.

I went to the front of the house, opened their gate, and made my way through the little corridor to their yard. I was about to go around the house when I heard a chain jangle. A dog chain. Now, I had no idea that they had a dog (it's very quiet, I guess), so I had no idea if it was friendly or not. Scratch the idea of going through the yard - no longer feasible.

So I took the old dog Farley into the fire lane and cruised behind the houses. I could see the frisbee, just inside the fence. No skinny sticks to try and shove through the fence boards to try and manipulate the frisbee in any manner. But a lovely big, old tree. Good for climbing, or at least hanging onto while you get yourself over the fence. It wasn't pretty, and I can guarantee it wasn't graceful either, but I got myself over the fence and into the tree. I dropped into the yard, grabbed the frisbee, and climbed the tree to get back out. Action over for the day, I looked for Farley. His concern for his owner was overwhelming . . . I guess he figured I was gone, since I had disappeared, so he had started to make his way further down the laneway, checking out the good smells. His devotion is underwhelming LOL

I did learn two valuable lessons though - 31 year old bodies are not meant for climbing trees, especially when they're out of shape, and stop throwing the balls, frisbees and other toys over the damned fence!

Absolutely unbelievable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

This just goes to show that you truly can NOT judge a book by its cover! This woman is totally unreal . . . her voice is angelic!

Interesting discovery . . .

Well, as those of you that have met him know, my young man Jack Jack is a pokey puppy when it comes to eating. No matter what kinds of things I've added to his food (canned food, baby food, gravy, supplements, etc) he has always been a slow eater, and he rarely finishes his meal. He's not a fat dog - in fact, he could stand to gain at least a pound - even though he eats 2 cups of food a day. That's twice what the other two eat!

As I do on every holiday, I took some of our meal and added it to the dogs' food. Last night they got some mashed turnips (my mom and I love 'em) and some cooked carrots, cut into small pieces (by my 4 year old niece, who started biting them into pieces when the knife wasn't cutting easily - OMG we laughed at that!). Well, to my shock (and great happiness) Jack Jack was the first one finished eating! I couldn't believe my eyes!

To see if it was just a "one of" occurrence, I gave them all the same thing tonight. Again tonight, he sucked down that meal like it was going to vanish if he didn't hurry. It's so awesome to know that he has a favourite food, although I'm kind of surprised it's turnips and carrots. But whatever, at least now I know what to tempt him with!

Taxes

Normally I have my taxes done as soon as all of my receipts come in. But for some reason (perhaps being so busy I can hardly think!) I have been slow to do my taxes this year. I know I'm getting money back, because of my investments and donations, so there's no rush to have them done for any particular deadline. Anyhow, today I sat down with Intuit's QuickTax program and did my taxes.

I put everything in, and clicked on the review button, to see how much I was getting back. I almost passed out when it told me I had an amount payable in the multiple thousands of dollars!!!!!!!!!!! My mind was reeling and I felt sick to my stomach, trying to figure out how I would pay that. I called my mom into the room, and she very kindly (and without as much laughter as I expected) pointed out that I'd forgotten to fill in some boxes. Once those boxes were filled in, I realized that I was getting a refund. Phew!

Thank goodness for my mom, or I'd still be in shock, and looking for quick ways to make money.

Milestones

So, on March 23rd I "celebrated" 5 years of being employed at the same place. Normally that wouldn't really seem like much of an accomplishment, but in this day and age of job changes, it's not bad. When I sit back and think about it, it certainly doesn't feel like I've been there for 5 years. It feels like I just started a couple of years ago. The time has gone by quickly. Of course, for half of that, I was working on my MBA, and most of that time is a blur.

I got a nice, hand-signed letter from the CEO of the company I work for (http://www.syncrude.come) and I get to choose a milestone gift from Birks (the jewellry store). Not everything is made by Birks, but I guess they handle the awards. Because I also have 5 years of safe work, I get to choose an award for that as well. The choice for that was easy, as there are only 9 awards to choose from. I picked a really nice Victorinox Swiss Army Knife/Tool set. Choosing from the awards for 5 years of service is tougher. Still, how nice to have a choice . . . many companies don't offer gifts.

No other real milestones to talk about today . . . it's been a beautiful spring day, with warm weather and blue skies. I spent half of the day with 3 of my nieces and my mom, and I spent the other half of the day grooming my monsters (the youngest two). Can't complain, that's for sure!

Happy Easter to my blog readers, and thanks for reading my rants, musings and weird notes.

Easter Rebirth

On a similar vein to my "Spring Glee" post, today I am writing about Easter rebirth. The topic is timely, given that Easter is on Sunday. The timeliness isn't really a coincidence (come on, I can't get anything past you guys!) . . . more because I really have not a lot else to post about right now.

Obviously, the holiday is celebrating the death and subsequent resurrection of Christ. The ultimate rebirth. But there is always rebirth taking place around is, in big and small ways.

It's springtime, so the grass, trees, shrubs and flowers are coming back from their deep winter sleep. Slowly (well, slowly for us here in the Great Filthy North), the snow and mud are going and the bright colours of spring are taking over. The hibernating animals (including me!) are waking up and going about their springtime rituals. Working off the winter fat and stretching limbs and joints. I see it in the dogs, too, who are happy to be outside for longer than it takes to pee.

Even in my own life, rebirth is happening. Things are changing. It's exciting and daunting, all at once. Change is always a little bit scary, but totally necessary for life to progress in a natural way.

Find some time to think about rebirth and how it is touching your life. And happy Easter, Passover, or whichever holiday you choose to celebrate.

Springtime Glee

Okay, so anybody that knows me realizes that glee is probably overstating things a bit LOL With that out in the open, I am thrilled about the new, warmer weather. It's been at least 6-7 degrees outside, and the sun has been shining. Today, late afternoon, some cloud cover rolled in, but otherwise it's been gorgeous outside. The dogs and I have been spending a bit more time outside, getting our fair share of Vitamin D.

The only downside to spring is the requirement to clean up the yard. There is several months' worth of soggy dog poop out there, and since they're my dogs, I have to clean it up. Yucky, gross, ewwwww! But it has to be done, so I chip away at it, day by day.

Still, even that gross task can't dampen my new spring spirits. Hope you're in good spirits too!

Music Choices

Lately I've been downloading some new music for my iPod. As my friends know, I have what could be called eclectic tastes. My friends will understand my most recent music choices, but others might not.

~ Britney Spears, "Circus" . . . not what anybody would call a mature or classic music choice. But the songs have a really catchy beat, and hey, I've never claimed to be mature! I especially like Womanizer and Circus.

~ Cirque de Soleil, "O" . . . what sounds like a blend of Bollywood and French, the music is haunting and mysterious. It also brings back incredible memories from my recent trip to Vegas. I have my best friend to thank for sharing the CD with me!

~ The soundtrack to "Slumdog Millionaire" . . . definitely very Bollywood, but also with underlying dance/techno tones. The Oscar nominated songs (Jai Ho and another one whose name I can't remember) are really memorable and make me want to sing out loud.

~ Taylor Swift, "Fearless" . . . a really nice follow-up album to her debut album. More twangy country songs, but with her innocent, pretty voice. I do recommend it, but not if you don't like country music. Even her nice voice, the twang could be TOO much for you.

What's new on your iPod? Please recommend some catchy tunes to me!

On The Road

Ya know, there's nothing like driving for four hours and entertaining a kid. Granted, she's a really well-behaved kid, but still . . . I listened to a song about gummy bears over and over and over again. It's a techno song (or something like that) and I think I'll be hearing the beat for days on end, in my waking and sleeping hours.

Thankfully, my best friend made up a snack bag for my niece, so she had things to eat. She got a lot of mileage out of the goldfish crackers - at one point she was pretending they were boots and finger puppets. I really don't quite remember ever being that creative. She really did a great job entertaining herself, for the most part.

I have realized that my music choices on my iPod are not always appropriate for 4 year olds. My niece is now telling everybody that Britney Spears' "Womanizer" is her favourite song. Great. Double great LOL Mix into that some Mamma Mia as well as this Gummy Bear song. The excitement was overwhelming!

Anyhow, I'll be back on the highway on Thursday . . . taking my niece home and heading out to another dog show. After that I might be all dog showed out.

Monsters vs. Aliens

First of all, I wanted to clarify that while I'm heading to Pomona, CA in July, none of the dogs are making the trip with me. It's almost impossible to fly dogs into California at that time of year due to the temps, and I would rather just sit back and enjoy the show than have to worry about grooming and nerves and everything else. So Farley, Grace and Jack Jack will be staying with my parents while I travel. Thanks for the vote of confidence though!

Tonight I went to see the latest Disney Pixar release, Monsters vs Aliens. I was lucky enough to be able to see it in 3D. Now, I may lead a very sheltered life, but I have never seen a movie in 3D before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. Let me tell you, it's COOL! They give you these glasses (not the blue and red ones that you use to read 3D comic books - these are grey), and it just makes everything pop right off the screen! I really enjoyed that aspect of it.

The movie is filled with laughs and grown-up humour. We went with a 4 and a 5 year old, and I'm pretty sure that 85% of everything was a bit too mature for them. Maybe more. Personally, I thought it was hilarious (highlights include Seth Rogen as a blob of jelly and Stephen Colbert as the US President). The cast is excellent, and full of stars. I laughed a lot.

If you enjoy Disney and/or Pixar presentations, I recommend seeing this one. Don't go in with high expectations of the plot or character development - it is Disney after all. But do expect a fun movie that is entertaining for kids and adults alike.

California, here I come!

I have been debating for months about whether I should attend the American Spaniel Club (ASC) Summer dog show in Pomona, California. On one hand, this show is finally close enough to home that it won't take all day to get there (the show moves around the country every year, to different host zones). On the other hand, California is hotter than hell in July, and it's also not cheap. I have gone back and forth on this since last year, with no real decision.

Well, as you can tell from the subject line, I've made my decision. I'll be heading to Pomona, CA (which isn't too terribly far from LA) in July 2009. My good friend (Jack Jack's breeder) convinced me that it would be a wonderful trip for us to do. We'll be meeting the owner of Jack Jack's sister Barbie, who now lives in Australia. We'll also get to see some fantastic dogs. AND (this really, honestly was the selling point) we're going to Anaheim on the Monday following the show, so I can go to Disneyland. When my best friend suggested that, she KNEW I'd say yes :)

Despite the heat and having to save like a fiend for this, I'm super excited. Only 104 more days to go!

Heading Home

Well, the glitz and glamour of Vegas will soon be a memory. As I type, I'm sitting in McCarran International Airport, waiting for my flight. It's been a great trip - I've been able to connect with old friends as well as meet new ones (well, sort of new - we've been e-friends for a long time). As with my last trip to Vegas, there has been lots of sightseeing, tons of shopping, and a healthy dose of shows.

Wednesday night we saw "O" by Cirque de Soleil, and were blown away by that. What an incredible performance! The music is enchanting and the athletics and artistry are mind-blowing. It was well worth the price - my two friends and I enjoyed it immensely.

Thursday was a less hectic day than the previous three were, but we walked a few miles (well, maybe not a few, but it felt like lots!). We meandered through the Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage, and took pictures. My "new" friend's nephew and brother-in-law joined us, so that was fun. It was nice to spend some time with them. After they left, we went for lunch at a burger place (although, oddly enough, none of us had burgers). We roamed the Forum Shops for a bit - had great fun at FAO Scwartz! - and then headed to Paris, where we had supper at Mon Ami Gabi. What a fabulous little restaurant!

Last night we took in the Donny & Marie (yes, of the Osmonds) at the Flamingo. The showroom is set up like a lounge, with tables, so that was cool. It's a pretty intimate venue . . . we could almost reach out and touch them! The show was a blast, and I know my one friend was in heaven that we were there at all.

This morning was all about checking out of the condo, getting luggage organized, and getting to the airport. Now comes the boring part of vacations - the travel. Fortunately I think I can watch "Slumdog Millionaire" on the flight, so that should pass the time.

Tomorrow it's back to real life . . . no richer, and maybe not a ton wiser either, but at least just a little bit more relaxed!

Vegas Days 2 & 3

So we are definitely enjoying Las Vegas . . . the weather is nice and hot (roughly a 60 degree difference between home and here!), and the sky is such a vibrant shade of blue. The hotels look awesome against the bright sky.

Yesterday started with some shopping at the Fashion Show mall that's just across the boulevard from the Wynn and Encore. Then we went to the Venetian and spent some time at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was so cool! The wax figures are very lifelike, and I even got to marry George Clooney :) Wedding pictures to come LOL We wandered around the Venetian a bit, and managed to find a lucky Liam (leprechaun). We got gold coins - chocolate ones!

We had supper at Margaritaville and watched a Micheal Jackson impersonator . . . that was kind of scary. Who'd want to impersonate him?

Then we went to see Phantom of the Opera: Las Vegas. It's basically the Coles Notes version of the Broadway show . . . 90 minutes of fast and furious singing. The falling chandelier was scary, since we were sitting right underneath it, but it was a great production. We all loved it.

This morning was a lazy morning, which is perfect for a vacation. We slept in and lazed around. After lunch we went to the Premium Outlets and did some shopping. Not much, but we did do plenty of window shopping. Now we're chilling in the condo until we head to the Bellagio to see O. I can't wait, it's supposed to be amazing.

Tomorrow we are seeing Donny & Marie Osmond, and I think we're hitting the Secret Garden at the Mirage. It should be a great day!

Vegas Day One

We're doing well and having fun. My cold has progressed from the painful stage (thank God!) to the snot-filled head stage. I can't breathe, and have to blow my nose every 5 minutes, but that's better than the pain. I picked up some great drugs at Walgreens that are helping. We also found rootbeer freezies!!!!!

Yesterday we went to Mandalay Bay and went through the Shark Reef . . . that was okay. I did get to pet a stingray, which was cool. We had lunch at the House of Blues. We went into the Luxor (the pyramid) and managed to get lost. We exited through the scuzziest stairwell I have ever seen. Maybe the seedy side of Vegas? We did the MGM Grand and looked at the lions there. I got some great pictures. We gambled in Mandalay Bay, the Luxor and MGM Grand. I'm down $30 . . . and I still haven't found any machines that are more than $1. I'm looking.

We went to M&M World and I got the cutest hoodie for my niece. I also got her a bag of orange M&Ms. No sugar-free ones, sorry! We went to the Coke store, which was very cool. We walked to Paris and walked around there for a bit. Then we were tired. Nicole's sister drove us to Fremont Street (old Las Vegas) and we watched the light show there and spent about 1/2 hour there. Then we came back to the condo and had supper. It was Pizza Hut, and the crust was SOOOO disappointing. Oh well.

Not sure what the game plan is for today, but I'm sure it holds many adventures for us!