Presenting...

So, I gave five, 1-hour presentations yesterday.

It never ceases to amaze me how tired I am at the end of days that I do a lot of presenting. I can be all over the place and be fine, but talking for five hours straight almost kills me.

Not that I don't LOVE doing it. I presented on How to Have Difficult Conversations and I have to say -- it was a pretty good presentation. The learners seemed interested and were engaged in the session so that's got to be good. I did have a 2nd year staff member tell me that of all of the training sessions she has been to this one was her favorite and she learned so much.

Not to toot my own horn, but... toot toot!!

I'm just sayin...

Anyway, the presentation was based off of a couple of books I've read, but my favorite is simply called "Difficult Conversations" and is amazing. Everyone should be REQUIRED to read this book -- it just makes sense.

I have to say, I'm pretty proud of this one!! :)

A special place in Hell...

So, my last post was about becoming the alpha dog to my puppy. If you read you'll probably realize that I don't really believe in hitting dogs. They don't understand it and it has no meaning in their world other than it hurts and makes the human seem like a bully. The dog learns, but there are better ways. So I pin my puppy on her back to show her who is boss. With patience she is learning. I've had this belief for a long time, but it was reinforced this weekend.

My parents rescued two Maltese mix dogs from the humane society a few months ago. A girl Molly who is 7 and a boy Dixon who is 4. Both of them cling to my mom like she is their world and both are hesitant to go to anyone else -- even my dad. Molly is cute, but Dixon is so freaking adorable I just want to hug him all the time. He looks like a cross between Gizmo (from the Grimlins) and an Ewok (from star wars). We suspect that they've been abused, but have no facts. When my folks got them they had been dropped off at the pound about three days earlier -- supposedly the product of a divorce. they were dirty and matted so they had clearly been neglected. It was so sad.

I have a puppy (see all earlier posts) and when she met Molly and Dixon she wanted to play with them. However, they do not want to play with her so she taunts them to try to get them to chase her. It's really cute and funny, but gets annoying. Especially because she does not know when to stop.

On New Years eve I saw the absolute saddest thing I have ever seen in my life. Sassy was tormenting Dixon and Molly again and my dad got frustrated and slapped a fly swatter down on a table really hard to startle her and yelled at her. he wasn't close to her and didn't try to hit anyone -- it was completely harmless, but when he did that, Dixon dropped to the ground, covered his head with his little paws, and started shaking like a leaf. I wanted to cry. My Dad immediately went over to him and he cowered even more.. dad picked him up and I swear I've never seen a dog shudder so hard... dad took him into the other room and just cuddled and petted him until he calmed down. It was sooo sad. It was very clear that he had been beaten before.. he reacted just like a human does when they are used to being hit.. covered his head and cowered... we were all almost in tears at the knowledge that he had been abused... poor little guy!

He did calm down and realized that dad wasn't going to hit him-- would never hit him...

Needless to say they've put away all fly swatters and little Dixon is currently, probably, the best fed dog in the state.. :)

There is a special Hell for people who abuse helpless animals.... I hope whomever did that to Dixon gets it back 10X...

The Battle for Alpha Dog...

So, I just finished battling my puppy for alpha dog status. She seems to think she is in charge and it is my job to jump at her whims. Lately her whims have been to stay up all night playing and keep me up with her.

After a week of no sleep this has GOT to stop. So in to battle I went.

I pinned her down. She struggled. She stopped and laid there. I still held her pinned. She struggled again. I didn't let go. She laid there. I didn't let go. She struggled... and so it went. A friend of mine who is a dog trainer told me that it's important to hold her long after she stops struggling. If I let her up right after she stops then she is choosing when to get up. If I continue to hold her then I'm choosing when she gets up and exerting my alpha dog status.

So, like the well organized drill sergeant that I am, I set a time limit. She had to go 10 minutes without struggling before I'd let her up. The first go around she lasted a minute and a half. Restart clock. Second time she lasted a minute. Restart clock. This went on for an HOUR. Finally I decided to cut the time down to six minutes. She's just too ADD to lay still for ten minutes. FINALLY she stayed still and laid there until I let her up...

The jury is still out on whether it had any effect or not...

Wish me luck, I have an out of control puppy!!

Best Day Ever..

So, I don't mean to brag, but I have the best friends and family in the WORLD!!

I know, I know, you think yours are better, but you are WRONG....

My birthday was yesterday. I started the day off by coming in to my office which was fully decorated with balloons, streamers, and (for some really ODD reason I can't yet figure out) Dora the Explorer signs and balloons. It was pretty funny.

Last night a group of my local friends and I went out for dinner.

Brief Back story:Now, I don't think I've ever shared anything about my bosses' boss, who we will call Edna, but she thinks she is a fashionista but, well.. she kind of dresses like a 2 year old picked out her clothing. She also happens to have caught on to the poncho fad that was popular about four years ago AND NEVER LET IT GO. She has ponchos in every color, length, design, etc possible. It's kind of like a running joke in our office. End Back story

So, Thursday night Jess, Shiggins and I decide that we want to make a funny so we went to Jo Ann fabric, bought some Asian inspired, kind of hideous, fabric. We cut holes in the middle of them and turned them in to ponchos. We got all fancied up and wore the poncho's out do dinner with our friends for my birthday. It was legin -waitforit- DARY! We were late getting there so we walked in and like nothing, took off our coats and sat down. Ben noticed first and started laughing, then Rex noticed and was laughing so hard I was afraid for his health... (Rex is my boss) and then he dared me to wear it to work next week -- I'm gonna do it! So we had a great time last night.

Today was my party.

Since I did absolutely nothing to celebrate my birthday last year and it sucked, I decided to throw myself a party this year. We had a "Meltdown" theme which meant that everyone had to bring a dish with some sort of melted ingredient. Fun, right? Really just an excuse to make fondue. So my parents and sister came down early and we went to a late lunch then we got things ready for the party. It was a hit and so freaking much fun! The main crew didn't leave until 1:30am -- it had started at 7pm. Ben came dressed in a dress shirt, tie, and overalls in a nod to Barney Stinson on "How I Met Your Mother." Adam and his wife even came -- I was excited they were able to because I don't see or talk to him enough.

Anyway, I got all the dishes done and the trash sacked up so I can sleep in tomorrow -- EXCITING!! But it's almost 4am so I'm off to bed to dream about the best birthday party in a loooooonng time!!

Crazy Dog

So, apparently it snowed last night...
I had heard flurries, but we usually hear that 10 - 15 times before it actually leaves any actual snow on the ground. Boy was I in for a surprise when I went to take Sassy out this morning!

So there was a light covering of snow on the ground. I bundled up and took Sassy out this morning around 6am. She took two steps out onto the front porch and stopped and just stared at the ground. She walked over to the railing and stuck her little head between the rails sniffing at the snow on the edge of the porch. She then turned and looked up at me, her liquid brown eyes clearly demanding "What the heck is going on?!" So I walked to the edge of the porch and tried to get her to go down the steps... she dug in her little feet and would not, for any reason go down those steps. So I walked down the steps and tried to coax her into following me... she just glared at me... I thought she was on the verge of saying, "You've got to be FREAKING kidding me, Mom, I'm not walking in THAT."

So I had to pick her up, carry her down the steps, and set her down in the grass to get her to go potty.

Crazy dog.

Then after I got ready for work we went back out so that I could clear the snow off my car. I used her long lead and tied it to the railing on the front porch. I do this when I'm loading the car to go somewhere so it's not new to her. I tied her to the porch and went down to the car. I kid you not, she plopped her butt down on that top step and just watched me clear off my car. People walked by and she didn't budge.. normally she runs up to everyone who passes, so excited to see other people that her entire butt wags -- not today -- she wasn't budging off that porch...

Crazy dog.

When is helpful too helpful?

So, I FINALLY have some help in my office... my friend Jessica is now the other Assistant Director in the office. It's great because it's nice to have someone I already know is cool and that I get along with. It's also extremely nice to have someone to hang out with who does not work for me. :)

On the other side, it's hard to know the line between helpful and too helpful. Where do I draw the line -- how do I determine what I need to share with her and what she needs to learn on her own?

Back to work....

Well, I've been out from work since last Monday. Why is it so hard to think about going back? I love my job and have been miserable at home alone all week... I guess it's just the daily grind that I hate not my job. Poor Sassy isn't going to like it though.

I don't have a lot going on in my world these days.. the most exciting thing was I keep getting these awful conservative nut job emails from a good friend of mine -- who happens to be a conservative nut job... yeah we don't talk politics much because I want to punch him, but he likes to get me riled up. His latest was apparently in Vermont someone is trying to interpret the constitution as saying it's our DUTY to bear arms and that anyone who chooses not to should have to pay a $500 fee. He is trying to make me argue with him, but the concept is so idiotic that I have nothing to say... THAT is how exciting my life is.