2011 Invitational or Bust Countdown - 1 Day

Today is my last day of work for a week. Today is my LAST DAY OF WORK FOR A WEEK. TODAY IS MY LAST DAY OF WORK FOR A WEEK!!!!!

I think I'm as excited about that as anything. I've never (repeat, NEVER) taken a week off for something fun. In fact, I've never in my life taken a real vacation aside from a couple days camping. Never. Wow. Sorry kids, mama's going away with the big dog. And I'm NOT GOING TO FEEL GUILTY ABOUT IT. Whew. Now that I got that out of my system....

Tomorrow I'm off work. I've got one errand I have to run and perhaps a grocery store stop for a couple of snack items to pack. I hate to pay convention center prices on everything and if I can get away with coffee pot heated water and packet oatmeal for breakfast while I'm there, well, more money in my pocket.

I'll be packing tomorrow (if not tonight, but my son has a choir concert) as well as exorcising (to borrow a term from my friend, Lindsay) and bathing Vegas. Other than that, my goal is to R&R. And sleep early.

So here's a bit of stuff I went over today.... I reviewed all the umpteen docs they have posted for us and emailed out to be prepared. For instance, what is the layout of the building, where is agility in relation to everything else, and where is my crating space.

I also did some checking up on the judges assigned for the invitational. I've run under only one of them before - Terri Campbell. Always enjoyed running with her as judge, her courses are great - no worries there. Checked with a Facebook group designed to share feedback about running under AKC and USDAA judges and got some positive feedback for Dr. Mike Lappin. I guess he runs Goldens and his courses tend to be flowing and nice for the larger participants. So yay there! Can't really find a lot on Blair Kelly but positive feedback of being an amicable sort. Wish I could see some course maps but tends to be that those are so taboo.... I'd never really thought about it as I post course maps on my site but I know I almost never remember to mention the judges we're running under so my blog doesn't come up on hits for people searching. I guess... Anyway, someone from the FB group did friend me and send me her run under Dr. Mike Lappin so that was nice. I'll take a look at that and get a feel for the course structure, that being standard and our sometimes nemesis. The last judge is from Europe, Nalle Jansson. I'm hoping these are only indicative of international style and not what we'll see in Florida: http://www.eo2012.com/nallecourses.htm. They're not bad; they're just not conducive to giant dog speed and motivation.

Anyway... So that's that for today. I've got some wrap-up to do at work, added a few things to my lists to pack, but we're starting on the first day of our journey tomorrow by packing and finalizing the remaining details to fly out. Yahoo! I can hardly wait.