It’s been a while, eh?

Yikes.  Really a long while.  Sorry ’bout that.  I graduated from tech school and never found a full-time tech job, so I really didn’t have much to write about.  At least nothing vet-tech related.  Working two shifts a month as a tech doesn’t give a person much to blog about.

Now, however, good-looking weatherman and I have moved to a new state and I finally have a job as a full-time tech.  Good-looking weatherman also has a shiny, new job.  His job is the reason we moved.  So we’ve spent the last six weeks or so unpacking, finding our way around town, checking out the new places to eat, and adjusting to our new jobs.  I must say, I really, really enjoy working as a tech.  On my days off, I’m kind of disappointed that I don’t get to go to work.

The Results Are In….

I PASSED (my national certification exam)!

What else is there to say? 🙂

E-mail from today

I got an e-mail from the folks at AAVSB/VTNE (the organization that administers the national tech exam) today. Here’s an excerpt from it:

“We hope that all of you will have received a score email or paper mail letter by the 15th of August, but more likely the 10th.”

So, in two or three weeks I should have my results! I’m pretty sure I passed, but it will be nice to know for sure and to be able to write “CVT” after my name 🙂

Hi, Fellow MckBrunchers

“Hi” is really all I have to say for now. That and it was great to meet some of you the other day! (Actually, I have lots more to say, but I’ve decided that sleep is more important that writing blog posts and editing photos. I do that a lot, hence the lack of regular posting here.)

Week 1 of my internship

I’m almost at the end of the first week of my internship. Thus far, it’s not a whole lot different than my job (I’m interning at the teaching hospital I work at), other than that I’m interning during the day (I usually work evenings/overnights). During the day there are more surgeries going on, more appointments to see, and just more going on. I’ve watched a few surgeries and helped with various exams and treatments. My favorite part thus far has been playing with the little baby goat that came in the other day. I love baby goats. Unfortunately, I can’t post a picture of it here (due to confidentiality regulations and such), but trust me when I say it’s adorable.

With that, I’m off to have some sleep. I’m not used to this new schedule and I still have three more days of work before I get a day off.

One more day…

…until I take my national certification exam. I work tomorrow and then Friday morning I’ll be up bright and early to go take my test. The test is at 8am, downtown.  I’ll have to drive through rush hour traffic, in downtown, to get there.  I can handle rush hour traffic on the freeway, but I really, really do NOT like driving downtown (off the freeway) even if it’s not rush hour.  I looked at taking the bus but it would take me an hour to get there (it’s a 30 minute drive in no traffic), which isn’t bad, and three hours (THREE HOURS!) to get back home.  I think I’ll just brave the traffic.  Saturday morning is my state test, which is supposed to be quite easy when compared to the national test (The national test has 200 questions and you have four hours to take it. It also costs $200.  The state test has fewer questions, but the questions are timed.).

It should be fun…  Pray for me (or wish me luck, leave me a note, or do whatever it is you do, if you want).  Oh, and the best part of taking these tests soon?  It means I’ll be DONE with them soon!  Yay!

Enough hair for five dogs

One thing I fail to understand about Collies (well, hairy dogs in general), is how I can brush out enough hair to make a whole ‘nother dog, yet the dog is still covered in hair and probably has enough to make three more dogs (we’re up to enough hair for five dogs now, in case you’ve lost count).  I could brush the Collie for hours, be standing in six inches of dog hair, and still have a whole dog full of hair.

Notice all that hair sitting on the dog.  I brush her and the hair sticks to her, sticks to me, and flies around.  And gets in my mouth.  Blech.

(I was going to show you a picture of the pile of hair I brushed out of this dog, but my photo-cropping program was locking up so I shut it down.  Just imagine a big pile of soft, fluffy dog hair that flies around and sticks to everything.  Or, you can just look at this picture of my big, fluffy Collie:

That’s the Collie, watching the world go by from our balcony.  She loves to sit (or stand) out there and just watch everything – the birds, the bunnies, the people, the dogs.  She’ll sit out there even if we’re in the house (as long as we’re not too far away).

A use for your rock collection

I have a decent-sized agate collection but all it ever does is sit in a box. I love looking at them (some of them are gorgeous), but don’t really want rocks sitting all over my apartment and even if I did, they would end up getting lost or buried under a pile of papers. While visiting with one of the ladies at our apartment office the other day about her agate collection, I came up with an idea for displaying my agate collection: Put the agates in a vase, jar or other clear container, fill it with water, and stick a plant in it. While Weatherman was napping tonight, I did just that. I found a little vase, filled it with some of my agates, added some water, and stuck a little baby spider plant in it (I think Pothos would probably work well, too). Here are the results:

I think it kind of looks like I pasted the vase into the picture.
I actually set the vase on the railing of our balcony and then took the picture.

Lovely agates.

A close-up of the baby spider plant.

This certainly didn’t take all my agates, but now at least some of them are out where I can enjoy them!

Latin Program Giveaway

When I was in high school, I took two years of Latin (I don’t remember two year’s worth of Latin now, though).  I would sort of like to re-learn some of that Latin.  You know, in my spare time.  I was reading at Fivs J’s today and saw a post about a giveaway for a free Rosetta Stone Latin program.  So I decided to enter myself in the contest.  Here’s some info on Rosetta Stone:

Rosetta Stone is the fastest way to learn a language and has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — and you can WIN the *all new* version 3 Rosetta Stone Homeschool LATIN program… FOR FREE! This is the first year you can get Latin in the brand new Version III update.

This is a $259 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!)
This is a computer based curriculum and Rosetta Stone will also include a headset with microphone, and a supplementary “Audio Companion” CD so you can practice lessons in the car, on the go, or where-ever! Students participate in life-like conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone incorporates listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and writing along with speaking and pronunciation lessons. For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program to allow parents to easily enroll up to ten students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, grade completed work (the program grades the work automatically as the students progress- I love that!), and you can view and print reports for transcripts. Homeschooling a lot of kids at your house? This program is designed to enroll and track up to ten students (five users on two computers) and will work for nearly all ages — from beginning readers up to college students.

To win this most excellent Latin program copy these paragraphs and post them in (or as) your next blog post, and/OR link to the contest from your facebook page and/OR email the information to your homeschool support group – Then go to the original page http://Jeneralities.com and leave a comment saying that you’ve posted about, or have linked to, the contest. Please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post. And good luck!

If you’re interested in working in a science or medical field, knowing some Latin (or Greek) will be very helpful.  So many scientific and medical terms and based on Greek and Latin words.  Knowing something about either (or both) language can really help you decode some of the uncommon words you’ll see in your studies.

(Part of) My Day in Pictures

I snapped a few pictures at work today and then after work when I took the dog for a short walk.

Out behind the kennels at work we have this gorgeous tree (click on the pictures to see them bigger).  It was difficult to get a good shot of it because of all the other trees around it.  It’s a big tree, with spreading branches.

A few close-ups of the flowers:

After work, The Collie and I went out for a quick walk.  On our way down the stairs, we saw this lovely view out the window:

Once we got outside, we saw a few deer (not one of my better pictures):

The sunset tonight was gorgeous:

I love “trees against sky” pictures:

We continued on our walk.  I know this next one is a little blurry, but I still think it looks sort of neat.  Kind of “artsy”, like I did one of those fancy edits to it:

Some Aspen/Poplar leaves:

When we were almost back home, I decided it would be nice to get a shot of the grass.  At the same time, The Collie decided to sniff the exact grass I wanted to photograph.  This happens a lot with things I’m photographing.  Many of my pictures have a Collie nose, ears, or other body parts in them.

I moved the Collie and tried again:

Those are the only parts of my day I have in pictures.  I didn’t take pictures of feeding dogs, checking dogs in and out, cleaning up after dogs, my scheduling meeting, the baby giraffe I saw, or doing an interview with a high school student (Which was quite fun!  She had to interview me about my job, the qualifications and training required, etc.).