Saturdays

I love everything about my job. Except the working on Saturdays part. I know it is only 4 hours, from 8 to noon...but you would be surprised how much shorter that makes the weekend seem. At my previous job, after I had worked there for about three years, we decided to close on Saturdays. None of the clients seemed to mind very much, and our revenue actually went up. I don't know if I will ever get up the nerve to try it at Lakeside. We are usually pretty busy on Saturdays. Maybe after I am a little more well-established. Or maybe I can get a part-timer or relief vet to work for me every other Saturday or something. The girls get one out of every three Saturdays off and either two half-days or one full day off during the week, and here I am working every day. My boss is such an ass.

Okay, enough whining.

The new hire is working out well so far. By working out so far I mean she actually showed up, was on time, and hasn't quit yet. Other than that, it is still too early to tell.

I haven't written much in this here blog lately because I have been either trying to learn Spanish or painting. Once I get on a painting kick, it usually lasts two or three weeks, and then I don't paint for a few months. This particular project has been the "over the fireplace" painting that Nancy made me do. I wasn't happy with the way the first one turned out, so I completely re-did it. maybe I will post a pic later.

I think we are going to hit up our favorite watering hole for the Super Bowl. I've got Arizona in an upset 21-17.

I paid our landscaper to do some Winter landscaping at the clinic, to try to spice up the joint a little. For your viewing pleasure (the last one is a Photoshop I did for the front page of our website, www.lakesidevets.com ):

Finally...A Keeper

After three weeks of trying, I finally found someone mentally stable enough to hire for my kennel position. She is a high school kid who seems smart and motivated. A lot of people seem smart and motivated. We'll see how I feel in a month.

I am just glad I can finally take my ad down, and I no longer have to sort out the seriously retarded from the only mildly retarded.

Poker Table and a visit from the Fam

I am not the most handy guy in the world...so my plans to build a poker table were met with more than a few chuckles from my lovely and supportive wife. Undeterred, I went forward with the planning and construction. In reality, it really wasn't that hard. The hardest part was convincing Nancy to park her car in the driveway while I commandeered the garage.

Anyway, check it out. I think it turned out pretty good. It is actually just a table topper (no legs) designed to fit on top of our dining room table.

Close up of the cool poker felt I ordered online.

Mom, Dad, Carrie, Logan, and Brynna came down to visit this weekend. We had a great time as always. We all had fun playing with all our new gameroom games. Logan even invented a game that was very complicated and involved the use of the ping pong net, two mini football goalposts, an air hockey puck, bowling pins, a rubber chicken, and a mini Abominable Snowman. He has quite the imagination.

Logan has also become quite imaginative when trying to get himself out of trouble. He was trying to "help" Pa win an air hockey game by throwing a bowling pin at the goal, scratching the table and nearly shattering our tv. But when his mom yelled at him, he insisted it was not his fault..."because if Randy wouldn't have bought the game table, it wouldn't have happened." I guess, technically, he does have a point.

Nancy also caught him using a lint-roller on the inside of our bathtub. He got mad when she walked in, because "it was supposed to be a surprise". I have no idea, so don't ask me.

Brynna is cute as always. She just LOVES her Aunt Nancy. Unless she hasn't had her nap, of course. Brynna, not Nancy.

We also took the kids to play at the neighborhood playground. They had a fun time. Brynna loved the slide and the swing...and Logan loved feeding the troll that lives in the storm sewer. Again, don't ask me.

I just realized that my Dad had quit smoking recently. We are really proud of him. He needs to be around after we have kids and need to drop them off for some babysitting for a month or three.

All in all it was a fun weekend. And the good thing about nieces and nephews is: once you're done playing with them, you just send them home with mom, M, and Pa. The house is strangely much more quiet tonight.

AAARRGGHH!!!!

Well, I finally, after all this suffering, found an applicant worth a damn. Interview- awesome. Extended interview- awesome. Called her references today...all of them go on and on about how good of a worker she is, how reliable, etc. Finally! I said.

I called her to give her the good news. She had just been in for the working interview on Saturday. When I told her she got the job, she started crying. Tears of joy, I thought. How cute.

Nope, she is crying because she is literally, as we speak, moving back to Louisiana.

At least the manager of the Cinnamonster in the mall in Lafayette, LA might get his wish. He told me that he wished she still worked for him.

Back to the drawing board.

Another Interesting Applicant

This round of employee hiring is the most interesting one yet, as you can imagine based on the previous two blogs.

A little more background on how the hiring process goes down:

The girls up front pre-screen all the applicants, and the select few that know how to fill out an application, can spell their own name, and don't smell or look like a barnyard animal get called back for a brief interview. During that initial interview, I explain in detail what their job will entail... salary, hours, duties, benefits, etc.

Those that I interview that seem like they might be a good candidate for the job get called back for a working interview, where they come in and spend an hour or so with us, meet everyone, and see how things operate. More than a few back out at this point, once we put them to work during the working interview, and they realize they are not up to cleaning up dog feces on their hands and knees. Those that appear reliable, hard-working, motivated and friendly get a background check, a few calls to their references, and then they are hired.

Well, last week we had Pete in for a working interview. He had made it through the vigorous pre-screening process and seemed like a good guy during our initial interview. I had explained the position to him, and he mentioned that he was considering going to vet school some day. he said he loved animals, grew up with tons of dogs, cats, horses, etc and was really excited about this opportunity. He was friendly enough, and seemed unlikely to be a gang member, drug user, or thief...so he made the cut.

When he arrived, I immediately put him with Jennifer, our current kennel assistant. I told her to put him to work. Well, she tried to do just that...but he would not get within 5 feet of any of the dogs. He was obviously deathly afraid of every dog in the kennel, from the 5 lb Yorkie to the 50 lb pit bull. He would not even go near the cage until Jennifer had already walked the dog outside. Then he was eager to jump in and clean. She asked Pete if he was afraid of dogs. He went on to explain to her how his mother had been killed by a pack of stray dogs, right in front of him, when he was a child. That, he said, was why he was "a little apprehensive" about dogs he didn't know.

If that story is true, I can't say I blame him. But why on God's Green Earth would you apply for a job in a vet clinic, where your entire job description involves handling dogs, when you are deathly afraid of dogs?

After an hour or so, I told him he was free to go, and asked him what he thought. He went on and on about how excited he was about the job and how it seemed like the perfect job for him. He would be anxiously awaiting my call, he said.

After he left, I asked Jennifer how he did, and she recounted everything to me. He had not gotten near one dog, let alone taken any of them outside. But on the upside, he was a hell of a cage cleaner. Of course he never mentioned his mother's gruesome death or his "apprehensiveness" to me. I guess he thought I would never find out that he had a severe case of dog-phobia.

That is why I do working interviews before I hire anyone. So, I still haven't found anyone worthy of this esteemed position. I will keep you updated. I can't wait to see what insane job-seekers tomorrow brings.

Will she ever get a job?

A few gems from one young lady's application for the kennel position. This poor girl may not ever get hired anywhere. This is all from one application. Exactly as she wrote it.

Have you ever been convicted of a felony? ____Yes _X_No
If Yes, Explain: *Tampering but not convicted*

Previous employment (Job #1, 3/08 to 5/08): Reason for Leaving: Hated the owner

Previous emplyment (Job #3, 1/06 to 3/06) Reason for leaving: Quit/ Terminated

...She did not get an interview

The Common Sense Test

Today I decided that I would put an ad out on Craigslist for a kennel assistant at the clinic. It's a part-time job that only pays $8.00 an hour, but whomever I hire needs to be reliable, trustworthy, and learn quickly. It's not rocket science, but they have to learn how to give medications, take dogs outside, feed them, clean up after them, restrain them, and do some simple computer stuff. It's a good job for a high school kid or a college student.

However, good help is hard to find. Of all the applicants we get when I put out an ad, about 1% of the applications even make it to my desk. I have the receptionist pre-screen out the sure "Nos" so I don't have to waste my time interviewing everyone. They have gotten pretty good at identifying the riff-raff and ne'er-do-wells.

I put the ad online about noon, and by 2 pm there were people coming in to fill out applications. One young man, who was roughly 18 or so, came in the front door and walked up to the front desk. Michelle was sitting at the front desk, and asked if she could help him. He said that he had seen the ad and was here to apply for the job. Michelle reached into the drawer and grabbed an application, gave it to him, and asked him to fill it out. He took the paper, sat down, and worked on it for about ten minutes. When he was done, he walked back up to the front desk, handed it Michelle, said "Thanks" and walked out the door. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Only when Michelle looked at his application, she realized she had given him the wrong piece of paper from the drawer. She had accidentally grabbed a "New Pet Check-in Form" and handed that to him instead of the "Application for Employment". I heard all the girls laughing hysterically, so I went up front to see what all the commotion was about. The young man had filled out the entire form, which included his pet's name, species, sex, age, color, breed, known allergies, previous vaccinations and current medications. Nowhere on this form does it even ask for his name...let alone his address, phone number, work history, references, education, or any other pertinent information commonly found on a job application. Nonetheless, he diligently filled it out, handed it back, and went on his merry way. I guess the thought never entered his head that she might have given him the wrong form.

We have decided that this is our new "common sense test", and that we will now hand all potential applicants a random form to fill out in lieu of the application. Those that are smart enough to realize they are not filling out a job application are automatically hired. Like I said, good help is hard to find.

On a side note, I am keeping Chuey, the 2 year old tan Chihuahua's application on file...just in case I can't find anyone better.

Christmas, Part Deux

On Saturday, Nancy and I went to Brandl and Danielle's house for the Groom half of our Christmas. Brooke and Tyler are getting so big. Despite the fact that they live in the same metropolitan area as we do, the hour and a half drive makes it hard to see them very often. So every time we do, it seems like they have grown up so much. Tyler is coming around and actually will let us hold him and play with him now. Brooke is little miss independent, and still doesn't know quite what to think of all the crazy people visiting her.

The Groom Christmas is a little different than the Wiltshire Christmas. It is much less chaotic, much more organized, and there is a much greater per capita beer consumption. We took turns opening presents, and everyone actually got to see what everyone else got. That would last about 30 seconds in the Wiltshire house. Danielle cooked up some awesome ribs and shrimp, and the twins racked up a pretty good haul of presents. Brooke and Tyler are not obsessed with any one thing (like Logan and Star Wars) so it is harder to buy for them. The one thing we know for sure is that their favorite toy is whichever one the other is playing with at the time. We scored a pretty decent haul ourselves, and again left with a car load of presents.

All in all it was a fun time. Here are a few pictures:




Nancy and I have finally finished setting up our game room. We have all this room upstairs, but nothing to really do with all that space...so we decided to make it into a real game room. Well, we had at least talked about it. I kinda made it happen when I went to Academy for some jeans and came back with a huge pool/air hockey/ping pong table and a foosball table. I can't say Nancy was really ecstatic when I showed her what I had bought. And she was even less ecstatic when she had to help me haul it upstairs. But she warmed up to the idea eventually, and now she likes it more than I do. It all started when we went furniture shopping before we moved in, and we bought a craps/ blackjack/ roulette table to go along with our house full of furniture. Then we got a dartboard after we moved in. Now with these two huge tables, we have pretty much filled up the entire upstairs. It's like a freakin' carnival/casino up there. Now we just need some nieces and nephews to come play with us every once in a while. Nancy's mom and dad helped us break it in by whipping our butts in ping pong. We also played a little air hockey and foosball. The big table is actually kind of cool. It has a pool table on one side. You release four little supports and spin it around 180 degrees and there's an air hockey table on the other side, with a ping pong table that sits on top of it. Here are a few pictures of the game room:

Blackjack

Foosball

Craps

Roulette

Pool

Air Hockey

Ping Pong

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas. We had a great time spending time with everyone. We are truly very lucky to have two such great families. Have a Happy New Year!