Boris goes to the groomers

And he still looks like a farm dog!

CAPPDT Conference

Today and yesterday, I was at the CAPPDT conference at the Travelodge, Ottawa. I also had a table there at the market place to promote my services.
Speakers Friday were Bob Bailey and Jesus Rosales-Ruiz, workshop was run by Dee Ganley. Saturday speakers were Phil Arkow and Don Hanson, workshops by Edie Jane Eaton (Ttouch) and Eddie Beltran (dark field microscopy)

New Job

Started a 10 week contract at Kaben Wireless today, analog layout. The drive back home tonight wasn't fun. The queensway on a hockey night - 4th game in the playoffs at home. Total hell!

Almonte

Had a ride out to Almonte to look round the village and see the falls

Snow's Melting

And we have a little river running through the property

Tulips

It appears spring might actually be here at last. I celebrated by buying some tulips.
Gallery is here:
http://www.pbase.com/wendybeard/tulip

Lady of Leisure

So I officially finished work on Tuesday. Today I'm off to Baton Rouge for a farewell lunch - hope I'm not paying :-p
(aside: It's snowing again)

Yet Another Title!

I would have like to have made it another three titles, but best not get greedy :-)
Thursday saw Tyra and I heading down to Syracuse with Deb & Flyer to the Salt City Cluster show. It was a 4 day agility trial indoors on maxtrax - not the best footing in the world (probably the worst). Anyway, they had Standard & JWW all 4 days and FAST on Thursday and Friday. Thursday, Tyra ran in Novice FAST and Qd with a first place for her title. It was a tricky send for novice, I thought. Jump to the far end of a c-shaped tunnel. Anyway, she did it ok, racked up loads of points (71) in just 26 sec.
She had a nice jumpers run, unfortunately clipped the top bar of the triple and it fell after bouncing in the cup a few times.
Friday, Tyra moved up to Open FAST. A fairly straightforward send, but as Marcia coined it, a terv nightmare. Double, tyre, triple. There was one other tricky part to the run. The design of the course and the position of the finish jump made it almost impossible to do the send at any other time except as a closing sequence. That meant the timing of the run had to be impeccable so that you didn't run out of time during the send. Luckily our timing was good and Tyra kept all the bars up. First open Q.
Saturday, nothing. Wasn't feeling well either so couldn't concentrate. Sunday the same but she had a really nice jumpers run again. Pulled off a jump towards the end. Disappointed we didn't earn a Q but she did really well.
She was just an idiot all weekend in Standard.
Despite the slippery surface of the maxtrax she handled it really well and seemed to adapt, being a little cautious at times rather than trash the course.

First Exhibition

Last weeks saw me running around like a mad thing trying to get things organized before leaving for Syracuse Weds eve/Thurs am.
Hana called on Monday to let me know the wall was clear at Natural Pet Foods in Carleton Place and I could bring my photos to hang. I had to make sure I did it before I left as there was going to be two talks at the weekend and wanted to have as wide an audience as possible. Went up on Tuesday evening with all my plak-mounted art. Did our best to hang everything straight :-)
Realised after I left I hadn't taken a photo of the wall and that there was nothing there to say who the artist was. Went back Weds lunchtime to add a small pic of my Animal Wellness cover with photographer credit - and to take a picture of course!

Another Title!

Tyra now has her MTRDC title - wahoo!! Hoping the success continues. Only 3 standards to go for the ATChC

I AM Canadian!

We went downtown today to sit our citizenship test. Had to arrive at 8:30, which we did despite rush hour traffic on 417. Sat around for 3/4 hr while our documents were looked at. Went into a room and were given a clipboard and a laminate questionnaire. Balance clipboard on knee and answer 20 multiple choice questions. We had half an hour to do this. I was out of there in 5 minutes, max. Big surprise of the day - if we waited around they would mark the test immediately and if we passed could come back in the afternoon to be sworn in!
We both passed - Natch
So by 2:30 pm we were both officially Canadian citizens!

Meltdown

Funny how stress creeps up on you and makes you do strange things. We had an agility trial at the Quarryplex Soccer Dome in Kingston this past weekend. Not many Qs but some fairly important ones.
Tanja was recruited to run with Trudy in team. They had earned 2 Qs together at Dreamfields in November. Trudy just needed one more for her title. They had three chances to get it on Sunday. First run, both dogs not very fast, but clean Trudy wouldn't go back in the box for the exchange so that ate up time and we ended up 5 secs over time. Next run, Trudy ran first again. Same thing, wouldn't go back in the box. Finally Michelle caught her and shouted "Go, Go! Go really fast!". Well, we tried. Really stepped on the gas. Unfortunately didn't make up the delay and finished up over time again. Third run. This time Tanja was running first so Michelle wouldn't have to catch Trudy at the end of her run :-) . Well we did it! Michelle happy to have her title at last!
Next tale - Tyra and Keya were partnered in team. Neither dog had any Qs, both needing three for their title. First run, Keya clean, Tyra knocked a bar. Thought we might have been fast enough to make up the fault but didn't dare celebrate until we found out for sure. Turned out we were ~20 seconds~ under course time!! Next run was fast and clear for both teams. Batting 2 for 2 with one to go. Well, the stress was too much. The course looked brutal on paper and we were far from confident. Heather & Keya ran first - the pressure would be on BIG TIME if she ran clean - after all it was for our titles and Keya's ATChC. Stress won out. Heather crossed when she shouldn't have and sent Keya into the wrong end of the tunnel. Game over, pressure was off. It didn't matter how Tyra ran our half of the course. So we ran it with a big smile and threw in some faults of our own along the way :-)
We'll get another chance in April. Stocking up with valium in advance.

AADC

YaaaY! Finally, Tyra got her advanced standard title at Guides Canins trial, St-Lazare on Sunday.
Worth braving the weather for.

Happy Birthday to Me

And some flowers

Spoke too soon

Makes a change from snow, I said.
At least Boris doesn't care!

Rain

Makes a change from snow. YUK! Freezing rain is horrible!
At least it makes for pretty pictures on the glass.

On a happy note, the van went in for its Drive Clean emissions test today and it passed!

Camera's Back!

I got a call from Home Hardware in Almonte at Friday lunchtime. There was a Purolator delivery waiting for me there. I could only think of one thing it could be - the MK3 coming back from its repair. Incredible service. A total turnaround time of one week. Despatched one Friday and received back again the following Friday. It snowed most of the day today so didn't take it out to give it a workout - maybe tomorrow. Have to settle for one pic of next door's playhouse taken at sunset from the deck.
Actually, was busy finishing off entering expenses for 2007. Been putting it off for long enough.

Coffee at Starbucks

Networking with a potential employer - informal chat over coffee at Starbucks next to Chapters at Pinecrest. Very pleasant. Couldn't believe Chapters wasn't open - how shortsighted of them was that! I would have gone in and done some browsing. It was 9:30 am when I left and there were a few people waiting outside so presume they were waiting for a 9:30 opening and not killing time until 10

Camera Woes

The 1Dmk3 went back to Canon on Friday. They recalled it for the sub-mirror fix.
Went out on Sunday to take some frisbee pics and found that the mk2 was showing the same fault I sent it in to be fixed for in September last year. Shutter speed unpredictably shoots up too high resulting in underexposure. Not even that, but the underexposure in more obvious at the bottom of the frame. Has to be tied in with the shutter somehow and they messed up when they replaced the shutter. Looks like I'll be Canon-less for a few weeks :-(

New Bins

Paul got his new bins today. Picked them up over lunch. He told me they were Reg Holdsworth style but they turned out to be quite conventional and boring :-p