Sunday, July 04, 2004
Employment Update, and Dog Show Weekend
Well, I've gotten myself gainfully employed, as the saying goes. Once I really decided to start looking, it only took me a couple days to get an interview, and I started my new job in under a week. It's got some upsides: it pays OK, and the people at my new place of employment really like to have a good time. We are learning a lot of information, and daily reviews are usually some sort of game.
Fun at work, evidenced by the Jenga game we played on Friday morning.
If you really want to know how Jenga got worked into information review, post a comment and I'll put the gory details on the blog. No interest, no details. Aren't I a nice blogger?
But this new job also has some downsides: I have to be there at 8am for training (I'm not a morning person), it works me M-F (so I can't groom on Fridays), it's a temp job through an agency (but they will probably hire me on unless I do poorly), and it's a customer service call center. WAY out of my comfort zone. So, I'm continuing to look elsewhere while I train for this place. We'll see what happens.
What happened in West Virginia this weekend was one day of grooming, Saturday. We had 2 Shelties, a very poorly-constructed poodle, and Rascal and Bianca. I bathed all of them, I think, and did the drying and comb-out on one of the Shelties. What I learned this weekend was that I need to get some sort of routine, because I end up bouncing all over the dog and it's wasted steps and I forget things. I did pretty well on the combing, but left a knot because I missed a big place. Also, Valerie says that, while it IS possible to get too happy with the Matt King and remove too much coat, you really can't remove too much with the comb. I was worrying too much about taking out too much of the ruff and butt on the Sheltie, because last time I combed one out, I did take out too much ruff with the Matt King. So as long as I use the comb, I'll be OK. I also learned that I want a wide-toothed comb with a comfortable handle like the fine-toothed one I have. I'll see if I have a link to the kind of comb I bought and see if I can get a wide-toothed one to match. While I was doing my Sheltie, Valerie created a poodle out of the 'poodle' that was brought in. I've got before and after pics of that miracle, too.... I tried to post Saturday night, but Blogger was down, so I couldn't.
Cozette "Cozy" Before
Cozy After
Saturday was also me calling to request a credit on my bank card. Valerie and I made an order from American Pet Pro back on May 10th. It came reasonably promptly, but had some wrong stuff, so we sent most of it back later that week. We STILL have not gotten the replacement items. American Pet Pro insists that the fault is with UPS and that our replacement order has been going back and forth between Illinois and California. I don't care WHY it isn't here, all I care about is that they have over $200 of my money and we have one gallon of plum-scented conditioner. My bank says they will need a UPS tracking number showing that our order was sent back, and I hope that Valerie can either get that or demand credit from Pet Pro for me. I paid for the order but had it sent to the shop, so Valerie's name is on the invoice. Miserable fucktards that they are, they will never get any business from me again.
Sunday was the Huntington Kennel Club dog show. Valerie and I got there right as the day began at 8:30. We watched a bunch of terrors (I mean TERRIERS) and cracked up at the Scottie who growled all the way around the ring. Also did some chatting with some women who were grooming a couple of Malteses. Bianca would have stacked up favorably against these, except that she lives with heavy smokers and her coat is discolored from the nicotine. Malteses get TWO side-by-side topknots, for some odd reason. And it appeared that these two had paper-wrapped topknots that then were wrapped with cute bows. I thought the paper was going to come off, but seems I was mistaken. The Maltese female had a coat so white it about glowed. We asked what shampoo was used on her, and they mostly use Pantene. :-) But the white may have been helped by Crystal White shampoo... but they said not to use it too often because whitening shampoo can damage the coat and it's just as important that the coat be silky as it is that it be white.
We saw some very nice Shih Tzus in full coat, too. Those topknots are architectural marvels, for sure. Also many many many Bulldogs. There were 42 Bulldogs there, and that is just a huge number considering that there wasn't one other class with more than 15 entries, if memory serves. Poodles, but no Mini Schnauzers at ALL. Valerie saw one, but turned out to be the pet of one of the judges. A handful of Irish Setters, but no Gordons. One Dal, which came back in the afternoon, maybe for Best In Group. I didn't care for his face, but oh, well!
It surprised me very much that there were so many dogs with glaring faults. We saw a lot of Westies and Scotties with puny, wimpy, curled-over tails. Terriers are earth dogs, and that tail serves a purpose; when the hunter goes to kill whatever the terrier has driven to ground, he or she grabs the tail and pulls the dog out of the hole. A wimpy tail wouldn't be able to stand up to that, and that seems a huge fault to me. If a feature of the dog is meant to serve a purpose, and can't do that, then it seems to me that the dog should be disqualified. But what do I know? I'm just an Idiot Trainee.
BUT - I am an Idiot Trainee with incredible luck. I spent $5 for 6 raffle tickets. They were raffling off an Americana quilt, and I put 4 tickets in for that. The other bucket was for a DVD-VCR player, but also several smaller prizes. I put 2 tickets in that one, because I wanted the dog crate that was one of the 'secondary' prizes. I didn't win either of the big prizes, but my ticket was pulled for my choice of the smaller ones, and I got the crate! We waited around for a while, but the announcer was going SOOOO SLLOOOOOWWW - looking for teenaged girls in the crowd to come up and pull tickets so he could read them off for the winners. Valerie got annoyed and left, and she will be SO PISSED to know that the next ticket to be read was mine again! I chose a 33-lb bag of Eagle Pack dog food. Then I left, although I still had 4 tickets that may have won dog treats. hehehehehe
The drive home was uneventful, though I left from Huntington rather than Hurricane. There is a HUGE chunk of 52 that has 25-35 MPH speed limits, and that was no fun at ALL. Jim's mom lives just an exit or two down from where I was in Huntington, so he was able to steer me to the correct exit to get home. He stayed talking with me on the cellphone until I found the right exit and was on the way home. Thanks, sweetie!
My regular readers will be pleased to note that, even with the miserably low speed limits, I did not get ticketed. I was SUCH a good girl! Mainly because Jim warned me that the little towns were speed traps. And I did see some poor schmucks pulled over, too. Glad I wasn't one of them!
Thanks for bearing with me through this very long blog entry!
Fun at work, evidenced by the Jenga game we played on Friday morning.
If you really want to know how Jenga got worked into information review, post a comment and I'll put the gory details on the blog. No interest, no details. Aren't I a nice blogger?
But this new job also has some downsides: I have to be there at 8am for training (I'm not a morning person), it works me M-F (so I can't groom on Fridays), it's a temp job through an agency (but they will probably hire me on unless I do poorly), and it's a customer service call center. WAY out of my comfort zone. So, I'm continuing to look elsewhere while I train for this place. We'll see what happens.
What happened in West Virginia this weekend was one day of grooming, Saturday. We had 2 Shelties, a very poorly-constructed poodle, and Rascal and Bianca. I bathed all of them, I think, and did the drying and comb-out on one of the Shelties. What I learned this weekend was that I need to get some sort of routine, because I end up bouncing all over the dog and it's wasted steps and I forget things. I did pretty well on the combing, but left a knot because I missed a big place. Also, Valerie says that, while it IS possible to get too happy with the Matt King and remove too much coat, you really can't remove too much with the comb. I was worrying too much about taking out too much of the ruff and butt on the Sheltie, because last time I combed one out, I did take out too much ruff with the Matt King. So as long as I use the comb, I'll be OK. I also learned that I want a wide-toothed comb with a comfortable handle like the fine-toothed one I have. I'll see if I have a link to the kind of comb I bought and see if I can get a wide-toothed one to match. While I was doing my Sheltie, Valerie created a poodle out of the 'poodle' that was brought in. I've got before and after pics of that miracle, too.... I tried to post Saturday night, but Blogger was down, so I couldn't.
Cozette "Cozy" Before
Cozy After
Saturday was also me calling to request a credit on my bank card. Valerie and I made an order from American Pet Pro back on May 10th. It came reasonably promptly, but had some wrong stuff, so we sent most of it back later that week. We STILL have not gotten the replacement items. American Pet Pro insists that the fault is with UPS and that our replacement order has been going back and forth between Illinois and California. I don't care WHY it isn't here, all I care about is that they have over $200 of my money and we have one gallon of plum-scented conditioner. My bank says they will need a UPS tracking number showing that our order was sent back, and I hope that Valerie can either get that or demand credit from Pet Pro for me. I paid for the order but had it sent to the shop, so Valerie's name is on the invoice. Miserable fucktards that they are, they will never get any business from me again.
Sunday was the Huntington Kennel Club dog show. Valerie and I got there right as the day began at 8:30. We watched a bunch of terrors (I mean TERRIERS) and cracked up at the Scottie who growled all the way around the ring. Also did some chatting with some women who were grooming a couple of Malteses. Bianca would have stacked up favorably against these, except that she lives with heavy smokers and her coat is discolored from the nicotine. Malteses get TWO side-by-side topknots, for some odd reason. And it appeared that these two had paper-wrapped topknots that then were wrapped with cute bows. I thought the paper was going to come off, but seems I was mistaken. The Maltese female had a coat so white it about glowed. We asked what shampoo was used on her, and they mostly use Pantene. :-) But the white may have been helped by Crystal White shampoo... but they said not to use it too often because whitening shampoo can damage the coat and it's just as important that the coat be silky as it is that it be white.
We saw some very nice Shih Tzus in full coat, too. Those topknots are architectural marvels, for sure. Also many many many Bulldogs. There were 42 Bulldogs there, and that is just a huge number considering that there wasn't one other class with more than 15 entries, if memory serves. Poodles, but no Mini Schnauzers at ALL. Valerie saw one, but turned out to be the pet of one of the judges. A handful of Irish Setters, but no Gordons. One Dal, which came back in the afternoon, maybe for Best In Group. I didn't care for his face, but oh, well!
It surprised me very much that there were so many dogs with glaring faults. We saw a lot of Westies and Scotties with puny, wimpy, curled-over tails. Terriers are earth dogs, and that tail serves a purpose; when the hunter goes to kill whatever the terrier has driven to ground, he or she grabs the tail and pulls the dog out of the hole. A wimpy tail wouldn't be able to stand up to that, and that seems a huge fault to me. If a feature of the dog is meant to serve a purpose, and can't do that, then it seems to me that the dog should be disqualified. But what do I know? I'm just an Idiot Trainee.
BUT - I am an Idiot Trainee with incredible luck. I spent $5 for 6 raffle tickets. They were raffling off an Americana quilt, and I put 4 tickets in for that. The other bucket was for a DVD-VCR player, but also several smaller prizes. I put 2 tickets in that one, because I wanted the dog crate that was one of the 'secondary' prizes. I didn't win either of the big prizes, but my ticket was pulled for my choice of the smaller ones, and I got the crate! We waited around for a while, but the announcer was going SOOOO SLLOOOOOWWW - looking for teenaged girls in the crowd to come up and pull tickets so he could read them off for the winners. Valerie got annoyed and left, and she will be SO PISSED to know that the next ticket to be read was mine again! I chose a 33-lb bag of Eagle Pack dog food. Then I left, although I still had 4 tickets that may have won dog treats. hehehehehe
The drive home was uneventful, though I left from Huntington rather than Hurricane. There is a HUGE chunk of 52 that has 25-35 MPH speed limits, and that was no fun at ALL. Jim's mom lives just an exit or two down from where I was in Huntington, so he was able to steer me to the correct exit to get home. He stayed talking with me on the cellphone until I found the right exit and was on the way home. Thanks, sweetie!
My regular readers will be pleased to note that, even with the miserably low speed limits, I did not get ticketed. I was SUCH a good girl! Mainly because Jim warned me that the little towns were speed traps. And I did see some poor schmucks pulled over, too. Glad I wasn't one of them!
Thanks for bearing with me through this very long blog entry!
