Work Stuff

I don't write much about work on this blog, so thought I would share a bit about a couple things that have been going on.

I just got back today from a three day DOL conference in Seattle that was called a Transformational Forum. The full title was, "Driving Transformation: Innovations Fueling Tomorrow's Workforce System. " It was one of two National Transformational Forums, the other one was held in Chicago. But even though this one was on the West Coast, we had teams from the East Coast in Seattle with us, including as far away as the Virgin Islands.

Of course I was part of the Oregon delegation, a group of about 10 people representing different parts of Oregon's Workforce System. Only two of us from the State Employment Department; myself and one of my Regional Managers went, and most of the others from Oregon were from CCWD (Community Colleges and Workforce Development) the other major player in Oregon's Workforce System.

I have to admit that it sounded like a typical DOL extravagant production, complete with Orwellian sounding handlers called "Thought Leaders" The DOL conference I attended this summer in Kansas City was like a Broadway Production complete with theme music (It's a Beautiful Day) for the Secretary of Labor, every time she came on stage. This one was not near as elaborate, and where the Kansas City meeting had over 3000 people in attendance this one in Seattle, probably only had two or three hundred.

And somewhat surprisingly this one was quite productive. Mainly because we had many hours together as a State Team to plan and strategize. Even though we are all from the same state, being from different organizations, we seldom have this kind of opportunity.

We will be continuing this type of thing during the next few months and this meeting will probably be the springboard for some significant changes in Oregon's Workforce system. It coincides with several change initiatives that we already had in progress.

At the end of the conference, as a reward each state team got a toy "Transformer"....your Federal tax dollars at work.

Seattle was very pretty during this time of year with much of the downtown area decorated. I didn't have much time to explore much but we did all go out to dinner one night at an "Asian Fusion" restaurant. I asked WHW, what the term "fusion" meant when part of a restaurant title, and she said that it meant "that it was expensive" ....she was right.

Well I was also going to mention that I had breakfast last week with the Governor, well me and about 40 other people. I've been appointed to a Steering Committee to The Governor's new "Re-Entry Congress", a group of Agency Directors, and others who will be looking at a variety of ways to eliminate multiple bureaucratic barriers put in the way of ex-offenders when leaving the many state prisons. In Oregon, in the last 10 years the prison population has increased by over 90%, yet almost all of the rehabilitative services that prisons used to provide have been eliminated, and the funds put into the construction of new institutions. Nationally the pendulum is now swinging back a bit toward rehabilitation, some of the impetus towards that direction is actually being provided by some conservative Christian groups, that and the realization that we are pumping out thousands and thousands of inmates back on the street every year, usually in much worse condition than when they entered, and often with no resources other than $25, and no address, no skills, and many other barriers. A condition that the system has created, and that many of us with full cognitive abilities, would probably have a hard time being successful in.

Oh, the breakfast was good too.

Well that's enough work stuff for one time....I'll get back to dog news soon.

The Many Faces of Brandon

We took these pictures of Brandon on his Fourth Birthday, last weekend.

Thanksgiving at 80 lbs.

Sailor wishes you all a happy Thanksgiving, and he want you all to know that he's now up to 80 pounds, or at least he was a few days ago. Yes he had another vet visit (that's the only place we know of that has a scale big enough to weigh him.) He had the Vet visit because he had a Guido bite under his chin that we had to have it checked out. It was ok, not infected or anything. This may be one of the last times that something like that happens. Most of the time they seem to be getting along fine, and besides that Sailor is now taller than Guido. He's outweighed him for several weeks.

So we had a very nice and restful Thaksgiving. We went out to eat this year at a very big buffet. Lots of Turkey, stuffing and all of the other goodies. I'm just as stuffed as I've ever been on Thanksgiving'and we did it with out all the work that usually goes with it.

Well, back to work tomorrow for me, and a hard day of Christmas shopping in store for WHW. Hope everyone who may read this had a great holliday.

Four months and 72 lbs

We took Sailor for his last distemper shot this weekend. The Vet checked him over, and he's doing fine..and he's up to 72 pounds...That's about a 20 lb increase in the one month that we've had him. While we were there we also had an identity chip injected in him, and after that, we took him to the dog wash place and gave him his first official wash job. (Actually when we first got him we washed him in the laundry sink once, but we can't do that anymore.

When we got home we found a small pool of blood in the living room. we were quite concerned for a while, until we then discovered a tooth on the floor as well. He lost his first baby tooth (as far as we know it was the first.) Not sure if the tooth fairy visits pups.

All in all Sailor is doing fine, and Guido is doing better as well. We have finally dared to leave them together during the day, and everyone seems to be in one piece when we return.

Sailor has tremendous bursts of energy and he runs around the house and bites and chews everything in sight...and he also has lots of times when he sleeps like crazy...He pretty much sleeps throughout the night now, although he usually has to get up once or twice to go out side..but at least we haven't had any more accidents for a while...knock on wood.

We've put in a couple of his most recent pictures with this post.