South Dakota Adventure

Now that things have slowed down on the home front I am able to write about my most recent trip to South Dakota. Wow is all I can say! What an adventure I had.

First let’s start off with camping. I haven’t been camping for years and I truly forgot house much I enjoy it. Now I’m not talking about truly roughing it (aka, primitive camping). We still have a restroom and showers however we did stay in a tent. Cooking over the fire and sitting around the camp fire, being one with nature. I don’t know, I just enjoy camping a lot. It brings my stress level down.

Here I am at the camp site next to our fire

Anyway the camp site was one of the nicest I have ever been at. The showers and toilets were clean, to my surprise. I’m used to grimy and dirty showers, ones that you don’t want your bare feet to touch the floor. But these were clean and I had no problem – in the showers – taking my shoes and socks off.

The hardest or most inconvenient thing about the camp site is that is was locked on a very hilly area. So our camp site was close the bottom of the hill and the restrooms were at the top of the hill…the incline was probably more than 10%. Anyway it was a workout having to go up, so believe me I tried my darndest not to go until I really really had to.

The cool thing about the camp site is that it was in nature and we got to see, up close and personal, a deer with her two babies.

These are the baby deer in our camp site

Momma Deer and baby deers just 50 ft from our camp site!

Then later the next day she brought more deer. They would just walk around the camp site and munch on grass. One night I got up to go potty and I tripped out the tent into the middle of a herd of deer. I think I was startled more than they were…however they did all run into the woods.

I did so much that I’m not sure I can remember every detail. I’m waiting for my BF to come back so that he can give me that map and I can actually right down what towns and places we visited. But for now you will get an overview of my trip.

Let me start out by saying – I visited Wall Drug and actually drank the water ice. Now this is a little tourist trap if I ever saw one. However it was fun and I loved the fact that I could look like a tourist and act stupid. Here are some pictures to prove it

Here is a bill board at the entrance to Wall Drugs

Here I am on the giant jackalope, yep being silly:)

We visited Custer National Park one day. That was a lot of fun! It was so pretty there….the pictures just don’t give you the true feeling of what it is like to stand in the middle of that land. Any while we were in the park we ran into a herd of buffalo. So close you can touch them. They are truly massive beasts.

Buffalo just outside the truck window

OK….I have a stupid people moment at Custer. In Custer National Park they have little pull offs for people to stop to take pictures. We saw the first heard of buffalo and pulled off behind a car that was already stopped. I got out to snap a few shots and in the mean time another car pulled up right beside up almost blocking us in…but we could have back up just a little bit to get out. Then a motorcycle pulls up right next to us which blocks us in completely. I was a little peeved because I got done taking pictures and wanted to go but no we had to wait for one of the two to move. People the pull offs were meant for a single file line of cars not two lines. Blocking people is just not right.

Another day we sent ground hog hunting….well my bf went ground hog hunting and I just sat and watched. To be quite honest I wasn’t sure how I would feel about shooting little ground hogs but it was, dare I say, fun?! Yes, I had fun….I won’t go into the details but these things are so stupid it’s almost like they are wanting to get shot. I beleive this was the only thing that I didn't take pictures of.

Unfortunately we didn’t stay to long because a lot of the colonies were wiped out by the plague. So the pickings were slim and the wind started to pick up which made the longer shot more difficult.

There is this cool little store on the way to the hunting grounds that we stopped at. It was a scratch and dent store for groceries. This place was the coolest….only because of the prices. Everything was almost half off or more. There were a few items that didn’t seem to be marked down to much but most of the items were way cheap.

For example: I picked up a huge can of Bush’s bean for 75 cents, which I will use for my bonfire this weekend. What a deal! There was also a box of raisin and spice instant oatmeal for $1.89…I normally pay around 3.50 for the stuff. My bf went ahead and picked it up for me the next time he went….so sweet! I wish we had a store like that here.

Then one day he took me to this little restaurant….and for the life of me I can’t remember the name…any way it is this little restaurant, whole in the wall, type of place and serves buffalo. Yummy! I recently have gotten into eating meat other than chicken and beef and after this weekend I am on the hunt for buffalo meat.

Anyway, I got the buffalo burger and a side salad….the best burger I have ever had. I will have to get the name later.

I was shown where my BF goes fly fishing. It seems like such a relaxing sport. One with the water and earth, until I reached down and touched the water…HOLY GAWD! This is ice water. I think my fingers almost got frost bite! Yeah, Jenni and here dislike to the cold and almost removed the thought of trying fly fishing. But with some reassurance that I can were warm wool socks and insulated boots to keep my feet warm I am once again thinking about trying.

Me infront the creek that my bf fish's at

Scenic picture....postcard worthy:)

The final site to see when in South Dakota is Mt. Rushmore! I saw it! I never thought in a million years actually see Mt. Rushmore through my own eyes. But I did and it was breath taking. I think the more interesting thing was learning about how it was built and why it was created.

Posing in front of Mt Rushmore

The stories about the workman who actually worked on it was amazing. The tools that were used was interesting. I think the coolest thing was the fact that it started out as just a thought. Really, how many of us would, number one: dream of such an enormous idea, number two: actually act on it and number three: follow through completion?

This thing took 17 years to create and the sculptor changed the look several different times…the whole story is almost unbelievable. I was the best thing to see on my way back home.

The replica of the sculpture of Mt. Rushmore

I have a traditional purchase I make for each trip I take. Some of my friends buy postcards, shirts or little souvenirs. But I didn’t want any of that…I wanted something different.

So during my first over seas trip to Paris I decided that I would purchase things that could be used as X-mas ornaments. Key chains work the best, however sometimes you can find X-mas ornaments that have the city name on it. Then when I get home I write the date or year somewhere on it.

So this time I found an X-mas ornament that said Mt. Rushmore…granted it didn’t say South Dakota but I figure we all know where Mt. Rushmore is located.

To sum up my trip, I had a great time. I have so many little story to tell but I’m looking at everything I have written today and I didn’t want to make this blog entry any longer than it already is. Maybe one day I will talk about all the little stories that went along with this trip. But for now everyone has a good idea what I did during my adventure in South Dakota.

More pet peeves

Yep another one. Now over all I think this is an odd one even for me…however I get completely grossed out by people brushing their teeth, even with that it grosses me out when I brush my teeth….it doesn’t have anything to do with the taste….I love the feeling of my teeth after I brush them and the taste of my mouth however it is difficult for me to brush my teeth and look at myself in the mirror…..I know, crazy….I never really clamed to be saneJ LOL.

So why do people feel like they have to brush their teeth at work…completely grosses me out. It never fails, I walk into the restroom (way after lunch, like around 2:00pm) and there standing at the sink is a lady who will brush her teeth for 15 minutes…..I’m talking a full, foamy brushing. After she makes sure the tooth paste as foamed up as much as it can she then has to open her mouth to get way in the back and that sound of the foam sloshing around in her mouth and rhythm of the brush against her teeth, the sound just gets louder as she digs further back in her mouth….I was sitting there holding back my vomit. Not joking….I actually started to gag. I had to plug my ear, however the visual of her foamy mouth kept piercing my mind. I had to rush the potty process and do a quick wash of the hands and exit quickly.

All I could do is go back to my desk and try to wash the image out of my mind. Yes, it really…REALLY grosses me out!

People can you please do your personal hygiene things at home…if your breath stinks chew some gum until you can get home.

Off to South Dakota

Off to South Dakota for the weekend. Taking off today and will be back late on Monday. Going to join my boy friend and camp out. I am taking my professional camera…I’m not a nature photographer but I am hoping to get a few good memorable shots.

South Dakota here I come!!!

Pet peeves

I have to talk about one of my pet peeves…well actually it is going to be two, but they revolve around the same thing…the ladies restroom. I can handle a lot of things in the restroom but there are just a few things that really bother me….ok there are really a lot more that than just two, but for today I am keeping it down to just two…anyway pet peeve number one: Talking on the phone.

Yep, it really bothers me when a lady walks into the restroom talking on the phone. It bothers me even more when the lady is in the stall doing her thing and her phone rings…and what does she do, yep “Oh! HI!” “ No no, I’m not busy” “sure I can talk”…..really?! your not busy, your not in a stall doing your business? Could you have not waited 1 minute and called them back? Do you have to be doing your thing and answer the phone….I’m in here too, can’t you hear me peeing?

Ladies please don’t answer your cell phone while you are in the restroom. Unless someone is dieing and you are waiting for the news, really it can wait….your husband, boyfriend, girlfriend or other can wait one minute….because really it doesn’t take much longer than that to get out of the restroom.

That one just drives me up and down the wall….some day’s I just want to start making farting noise with my mouth and see what they do….some times I flush the toilet 2 or 3 times just so they know someone else is in the restroom with them…do they care? Nope, never once, since I’ve been doing that, has anyone of them said “oh, jeez let me call you right back”…nope they just keep on talking. Society has turned into such a “ME” society it’s unbelievable.

My second pet peeve is why do women feel the urge to take the stall right next to you? Let me describe the scene for you. I enter an empty restroom (Note: there is no one in the restroom when I walk in) and there a total of 6 stalls and one happens to be handicap stall….so that one is automatically out. (Courtesy rule number one: never take the handicap stall unless it is the only one not occupied and there is a line) So I walk to the one next to the handicap stall, which now leaves us with four available stalls. A few seconds later as I prep the seat (I always wipe the seat down before I take a seat, it’s phobia thing I guess) another woman walks in.

She has four choices and which one does she choose….yep you got it…the one stall right next to mine. I can see her feet….really bothers me. Why couldn’t she have given me space and sat on one of the toilet down from me? So now I have to concentrate and not think that there is someone just two feet from me….it only bothers me when there is only one other person in the restroom and they opt to take the stall right next to me. The only exception to the is if there is a line.

And as I am sitting there, trying not to let her presence bother me or her gawd awful shoes that have seen better days….then it happens…… “Oh! HI” “No no, I’m not busy”……Come on, can’t I get a break from this….I no longer have any privacy…no were, it follows me everywhere! Ugh!

OK, just one more pet peeve and really I don’t need to say more than…….Lady’s please, PLEASE! Wash your hands before you leave the restroom…..GROSS!

Weekend Resume Work

Well, I have been working on my resume all weekend. This is something that I have not done for a year or so. Which I have been taught you should always keep you resume updated. Well, since I got my new position last year I never touched my resume and now that our company is going through all of these changes (aka, laying people off), oh! did I say laying people off....I mean reallocating people, I feel that I need to go ahead and get that sucker updated so that if something should happen in the near future I will be ready to hand it out. If it is done then there is no pressure and I know that it will be right and will look it's best.

So between visiting my BF on Sat and getting some stuff done in my yard, my butt has been sitting at this computer revamping my resume and boy did it need it! I am pretty much completed with it and comparing my before and after I realized I didn't use anything on my previous resumes except for the work history and education part, everything else is new.

So my resume bible that I used to help is "Resumes that Knock 'em Dead"...actually my mom gave it to me when all this stuff started to hit my company...I have been reading it for about two weeks now and figured out how my resume should look. I thought I know about resumes but I didn't realize how the resume style has changed. And it has changed a lot....my format is completely different.

There is one thing that I read that I completely believe in and that is, once you have the resume completed you need to let is sit at least over night. And I did that and this morning when I woke up, even before breakfast (which I still need to eat!) I gave it a once over and so many things jumped out at me. I grabbed my pen and started to change, well, almost everything. Taking stuff out, adding new stuff and changing the format once again! And now it looks good, of course I will let it sit and look at it again tomorrow.

Now the next step is to get my mom (who is in HR at a different company) to review it and see if she has any changes for me to make...then my resume will be gold and I will feel more comfortable because if something should happen to my current job I will be ready to move forward. Instead of rushing to get my resume together and not being able to advertise the best of who I am, I will be able to jump right into the job hunt.

Though our management has been saying that we will not be effect I have heard different rumor. I'm hoping they are just rumors but it never hurts to be prepared!

Another busy weekend

Wow for the first time I thought I would have a restful weekend. Granted I was planning on cleaning out my garage in preparation for a bonfire party I am planning next weekend, however I completely forgot about an event that was scheduled at my BF airport. It's an anniversary party...should be fun and I did say I was going to go...so off to my BF in about 30 minutes.

Here I am getting ready to walk to the car! Kinda sad that I have to take pictures of myself....they will always be head shots because my arm is not quite long enough to get a full body view....LOL.


Oh and my fence coming down....I ran out really quick this morning and took a few snaps of the holes that this guy left in my yard....some are about 2 ft across. I'm guessing that even if I took the fence down myself I would have probably had to deal with the huge holes and the cement. So looking at it this way it's not so bad.

I tryed to get the measuring tape but it didn't show up very well...I'm using my small pocket camera for these shots....should have gotten out my big camera:) Any way it's about 2 ft across

Here is were the chain linked fence used to be...as you can tell I have A LOT of work to do before this will look like a regular yard. The trash can is to the right that I am attempting to throw away all the cement. This will take a couple of differnt pick up:) The two dog houses, will be broken up and burnt.

Here is my faithful watch dog....in my eyes I would never expect her to really be a watch dog but she has proven me wrong...the guy came into my yard..she was cool with it, barked a little bit but seemed not to mind. Then he tryed to leave....she chased after him and almost bit him until I called her off because I realized her body language was not her normal nice gentle Jazzie, luckily for me she just stopped right in her tracks.

So now off to my BF's!

Fence is Gone!!!

Wish I had pictures but I didn't think about it until just now. But my ugly ugly fence it out of my back yard. I didn't think that I would be able to get rid of it without putting in a couple of hours of hard labor. But low and behold someone was interested enough to take the thing down.

So it all started last week when I posted it the first time in the "free" category of craigslist. Now if you don't have any experience with craigslist then you wouldn't know that it totally sucks and 9 times out of 10 people don't show up.

I had several interested people who emailed me and when I actually scheduled someone to come out, they did! I was surprised. It was a couple and they seemed to be really interested. They call their son to see if he could help remove the fence the following day. I was excited...it was finally going to be gone.

So Thursday came and three hours before they were going to show they cancelled and asked to rescheduled....of course, why did i reschedule because I am a nice girl. I reschedule for Monday because I was out of town for the weekend. However I would never tell them that, so I told them I had company coming for the weekend, Monday seemed to work for them. Yeah, scheduled!

Once again Monday came and went and this time no call or anything. They stood me up! That really irritates me, why can't people just be honest and say, well gee, it looks like more work than I thought and we don't think we want to do that. I would have been fine with that and I would have called the next person on the list. NOT A BIG DEAL PEOPLE! REALLY!

Anyway, so the stood me up. I thought "screw it, I'll just take the thing out myself and toss it in the garbage, and no one will get it". It is not worth my time to wait for people to not show. The following morning I decided to give it one more shot....I guess I got a hair up my A$$ or something. So I reposted that morning and got emails right off the bat. So I called the first guy on the list....good thing he gave me a phone number.

He said he could come and take it out that night....great, be at my house at 7:15pm. In the mean time my mom called and I told her what was going on and she wanted to come over. She is weird about strangers coming over to my house....I'm not real up on the idea, but i want that damn thing out of my yard.

So the guy comes by himself.....Mom looks at me and said, he is not going to get that done before the sun goes down. She was right. He got about 2/3 of it down so he wondered if someone would be home tomorrow morning so he can get the rest out. Well, um, NO - I work!

I called my neighbor to see if she would be available to lock everything up after he left and I would block my dogs in before I left. Yep, she was cool with that.

So this morning at about 7:30am he showed up and started to work on my fence....I block the doggy door and left shortly after he arrived. I can't wait to get home and see the fence gone! Even if he didn't take all the posts I can take out he remaining ones....i would say he just saved me about 2 hours of work.

That fence was going to be gone by the end of this weekend, one way or another. I'm just lucky that someone else ended up taking it down.

Peachfest

What did I do this weekend you might be asking yourself.....weeeellllll, I went to Peachfest. For those of you who probably don't know what Peachfest is it is an annual reunion for an on-line community.

It is a community that my bf is apart of and was successful in getting me to sign up for. Starting back several years ago...I beleive in 2000, of course, I'm not good at dates so it could have been earlier, a group from an online forum decided to get together and actually meet. And it was a great success, from that point forward someone from the group would volunteer to hold this "fest" and each volunteer would be responsible for organizing and naming it. This year it was named "Peachfest" because the person holding it has a 100 acre orchard and the peaches are coming into session.

It was amazing! I'm so tired, so this may actually be a short post...but when I got there I felt like I already knew everyone. Mainly from my bf reading a lot of posts to me, but also because everyone was so great. It felt more like a family then strangers getting together to meet.

We had food, drinks and a band. We talked ALOT and I got to know everyone there. We also took a tour of a mill that is being restored....now that was very interesting.

Then at the end we went took a tour of the orchard and picked some apples, peaches and pears. Fresh fruit is always the best!

Here are some pics and then I am off to bed....I'm tired and need some sleep.

This is the Mill that is being restored!

This is me in front of the Mill....pretty cool, huh?

We also went through a covered bridge. Which was a little nerve racking because the bridge has a weight limit of 4,000 tons and the truck I was in was about 3500 tons. But we made it through just fine:)

Here is the band, they were pretty good but the second band was much better. We left around 11:00pm but we heard that the band went until about 1:00am.

Of course, it was suppose to be a rain free weekend, however as you can see we did get a little bit of rain...OK so it lasted about 1 hours and the temp dropped, which means Jenni got really cold.....I'm glad that I brought pants and a jacket however even with that I was still chilled. Once the rain let up the band pick up and the the party started!


This is all of us getting ready for a group shot. Most everybody was already up there and as I was walking up I took a quick shot of most of the group....I can't wait to see the actual shot of everyone...including me:) Wasn't sure if I should get in the group because I was really part of the on-line community....but they allowed me anyway! What a nice bunch of people

Well it is rather late and I am trying to upload some pictures to another website and it is slowing my computer down by about half....it has taking me an hour just to post these pics...so this is it for now...I am off to bed!

Belly button pierced!

I know, it is crazy but I have always wanted my belly button pierced. I am just so scared of the pain so I have never done it. However, I think I am going to do it. I think I am going to go crazy and suck up the pain and just get it done. I figure this is one of the safest crazy things I could do.

Here is my reasoning.
It’s not permanent, so I can remove it. You can’t see it under clothing so it is safe for work and no one will see it unless I show it to them!

So there fore I think I am going to get one….I just have to look around for a clean and safe piercing place. I will keep everyone up dated on if I do it or not.

Craigslist - People can be so rude

I swear, people can be so rude. So I have this dog pen that is in my back yard that I want out. And I really don't want to remove it myself but I will if I have to. It will be out of my yard, one way or another before next weekend.

So yesterday I put a "FREE" ad out on Craigslist. I figured that maybe somebody who didn't have the money to buy a 20 X 20 chain linked fence maybe willing to remove it then they could have it for free. I don't know, call me crazy, but a chain linked fence is not that cheap when you don't have money.

So I am going through all the emails I had gotten yesterday from Craigslist and I run across this one:

You have GOT to be kidding me. Who in the hell wants to come work their ass off doing FREE manual labor for you, for a few dollars of cheap chain link fencing?

I'm sure you'd love it if someone did all the hard-ass work of digging up concreted-in fence posts for you for absolutely nothing, but it's not gonna happen. Even at today's prices, fencing is cheap. Why kill yourself for a few feet of used fence when you can get NEW fencing without the hassle of some bitch standing over you, worried about her yard when she's getting 100% FREE labor.

Do you have an IQ below 100 or are you just a lazy, opportunistic twat? I'm guessing.......both!

You people kill me. Get a fucking clue.

Mr. Reality

Oh yeah, Jenni's Irish side flew off the handle! All the things I was thinking and wanted to send to him. Short of looking him up on the web and giving him a call. Oh! the thoughts....so I finally settled down that Irish anger and thought about it.

Really, did I want to lower myself to his pathetic lower life form....nope...I am a much better person than that. My email address is anonymous through craigslist so if I emailed him than he would know my email address...not a smart thing.

So I figured I would do the next best thing, just give his email address out to everyone.

So here it is!

His name: Ron Evan
his email: revan3058@yahoo.com.

Feel free to email him and tell him what you think.

I figure if this guy doesn't know me and wants to make statements like the ones in his emails then he should not mind a little advertisement:)

Yeap, I feel much better now!

Stupid people report

Here is a wally world stupid people report. Yes I shop at wally world so stop laughing…anyway I got to wally world and pick up a few grocery items and head to the most available casher….some hill jack looking guy, that was loud and obnoxious. There was this lady in front of my in the process of getting her stuff scanned. She had a slight accent so she was some what difficult to understand.

With all of her stuff she pulls out a trash lid….Odd, I thought….where is the trash can. So she proceeds to explain that she is wanting. The cashier call the GM over and the GM take the lid. The cashier says to the GM as he his walking away….we can’t sell the lid separate. In the mean time the lady keeps looking at me saying “Sorry”…I just politely smile…because I find this whole thing rather weird….why would she want just the lid?

The cashier kept making remarks about how stupid the GM was and that we can’t sell the lid separate. Then the GM comes over and says to the lady, I’m sorry but we can’t sell the lid separate. The lady, out of nervousness, says that is fine and pays and leaves. So, of course, I am nosy and had to figure out what happened and why the lady wanted just the lid to the trash can…..and after some time I finally figured out that what had happened is that the lady wanted the trash can and brought the lid up to see if they had any extra trash cans in the store. The GM thought she wanted the lid and tried to see if he could sell it to her. Pour lady, not speaking English very well, probably was embarrassed and just wanted to get out of the store.

Stupid GM should have took the time to figure out what the lady wanted and maybe could have prevented her from getting embarrassed.

That is my stupid people report!

When can I sleep?

What a crazy month this is going to be? First it starts off, I have a Fest that my BF has invited me to which starts on Monday and goes through Sunday. It should be interesting.

Then next weekend I have my yard to clean up and garage to clean out….OK that’s not fun but I am trying to get everything cleaned for my bonfire party I am hosting at the end of the month. It’s time for me to start hosting parties at my house now that my bathroom is done and I finally have some pride in my house.

Then the weekend of Aug 22-Aug 25 I am going to SD. To spend some time with my BF and he is going to take me on tours since I have never travels to SD.

Now the down side is that I am low on vacation so in order to be able to take all the vacations I have scheduled I had to rearrange my work schedule to work 9 hours day and take 4 hours vacation on the days I will be out. By the way 9 hour days kill me.

Then the following weekend I have the bonfire party planned….I will have to post pics of everything I do…should be interesting.

Now during the weekdays I have one night dedicated to my personal trainer and one night dedicated to trivia night. There is also a baby shower party planned and my once a month bookclub (which I haven’t read the book yet). And then there is trying to clean up my back yard and garage (believe me it will take me longer than one weekend to get this worked out)

OK so I’m a little tire but I am loving it! I have never been so busy in my entire life. I love having friends and things to do and party’s to go to. I am in love with my life.