Fourth Week Coming to a Close

Does that mean I'm 1/2 done? Not quite, according to my math. The first course had 2 weeks (plus driving 1/2 a week, but I suppose that doesn't count.) Then the third week was 1/2 a week off followed by 1/2 a week of class, now I'm in the fourth week. But February is a really short month and I still have one in day Feb after the weekend, then March has 5 weeks! So no, not 1/2 way done yet.

If I hadn't driven here, my desire to hop in my car and head for Home would be more of a day dream than a real possibility. I even plugged "Home" into my GPS, but have no fear, that was just my way of containing the urge. Because if I wanted to keep my job I'd just have to come back.

We tested again today. My "perfect score" was ruined. I missed one for a 97%. Too bad.

The next section is all about Office programs. I'm really good at all of them. Access is my weakest- I've only used it once. And while I'm good at Excel, I don't know the full potential of the formulas and usually have to go to "help" to remind myself exactly how to do them. So I suppose I should say I'm really good at Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, proficient in Excel and familiar with Access.

We are preparing a PowerPoint to show to the class to demo our skills. Good thing I know how to use it because the instructor is having us work on it before he teaches us how to use it. However, I believe that is a valid instruction method in dealing with software because I taught myself how to use all the software I know how to use just by "messing around" with it.

My presentation is titled, "My Dogs- Who They Are and What They Do" I tell the breed, age at adoption and current age of each dog, full name with titles, what their temperament is like, if they like to play with other dogs, and a random fact about each one. Fancy- favorite thing is fetching the ball. Pie- hmmm, what did I say about Pie? Dottie- undersized for a Malinois and has a permanent bend in her tail from a break that did not heal correctly, possibly in the womb.

I also have one slide devoted to "Past Dogs." (Bloom and Blossom only and explain how much I like old dogs.)

After introducing the dogs I explain (very simply) the following activities and inform the viewers which dogs participate and if they have titles or when they are first going to enter: agility, obedience, and Shutzhund. I have a final slide on Miscellaneous Activities which covers herding (we don't participate because my dogs are no good,) tracking (technically part of SchH but covered it again) carting and dock diving. Phew.

The minimum slide number was 7 (including title page.) I'm up to either 12 or 14. I'm afraid to ask about a maximum. Even though it is a lot of slides, I will be able to cover it quickly and hopefully not get booed off before I finish. Someone might get out the old shepherd's crook and pull me away from the Smart Board. Right now the thing I can see frustrating me is we are supposed to show off our skills so the instructor wants a variety of themes applied to the slides. Yuck. I prefer my presentations to have a uniform look. It is distracting to constantly change backgrounds and bullet shapes. I don't think anything should distract from the glory that is My Dogs- Who They Are and What They Do. (Reminds me of Kindergarten Cop- "Who is my Daddy, and what does he do?"

Now I need to start emailing myself a bunch of pictures to use in the slide. I've already taken notes and answered all the review questions for this block (it is mostly practical so the actual test is very short) and I can use the first hour of class to saturate my PowerPoint with dog pictures. I'm going to try to get a video or two in there also! We get so much time to study in class that I think the entire thing could be compressed into a month. In my previous career field we had NO time to study in class.

Final thought: I finished "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown. It held my interest but it wasn't all that great. I'm kind of used to the plot elements by now. Also, I figured out an important plot element before it was reveled so one of the big "revelations" wasn't all that amazing. I must be reading too many books if I'm actually able to start figuring these things out on my own now.


Who is this dog? Is it an old Bloom picture, standing next to Fancy? Nope, its Bacon! Adopted in honor of Bloom, and so I (ahem- my Mom actually did it!) found him the perfect home with an older Lady in my mom's neighborhood.

Amazing what a nice bath and haircut will do for a shelter dog:




Sadly, Bacon and other foster dogs do not get a slide in the PowerPoint because that might be a little excessive.



This photo is called "Bob Tastes Bacon" and is too cute to pass up. Although looking closer I see it might be "Bacon Tastes Bob" but that doesn't have quite the same ring to it.