i've been busy: part 2

So in my last hodgepodge post I left you with adventures at Schweitzer, and threw in some V-Day tights cause I knew Miss Summer would approve! Well I have lots more to share, so let's just rewind almost two months to Joe's Birthday Weekend in... you guessed it... Land of the Tater.

He's an Idaho boy through and through, that's for sure. Anywhoodles.. we like to celebrate birthdays (duh, who doesn't?) so we planned a weekend trip that involved festivities at the Coeur d'Alene resort, gallivanting in Sandpoint, and fabulous skiing in Schweitzer.

FRIDAY NIGHT

Joe's folks had a suite at the Coeur d'Alene resort Friday night, so we kinda sorta crashed their party. They loved it though :-)

~a few of us girlies~

~joe's folks and us~

~yup... give me some champagne and i'll give you a handstand~

~channeling my 14 year old gymnast~

~all together now... with the security officer mwahaha~

~take 2: he musta really wanted this pic b/c he asked to be our friend on facebook!~

~the silliness continues. birthday boy channeling his inner ninja, i think~

~obligatory bull statue photo op~

~admittedly aggressive~

~birthday boy in the loo. LOVE this pic! hehe~

SATURDAY

Joe rallied the troops at the butt crack of dawn to head up to Schweitzer for a day of skiing. I am NOT a morning person, especially when I've had too much to drinky (who is?) ... but I am proud to say I kept the bitching to a minimum, since Saturday was Joe's birthday and all. Schweitzer is about a 45 min drive from CDA, and after a ridiculous stop at Burger King with the most inept employees I have ever encountered, we were on our way.  

~bondi and i were in the same boat. yawns all around!!!~

~joe's bud is a 'lifty' at schweitzer.. they like to keep things entertaining~

Somehow I didn't take any more pics on the mountain Saturday, but it was an amazing day of skiing. However, some of our friends made me look like Lindsey Vonn had a hard time keeping up.. and I am not Miss Patience. However, I wouldn't have felt right about inviting them on a "ski trip" and then ditching them, so yeah. That sucked ass was mildly annoying. Anywayy....

SATURDAY NIGHT

We got a little hotel in Sandpoint and enjoyed the pool and hot-tub. Joe's folks came up and met us for dinner, and then we went out on the town. There are approximately two bars in 4 square blocks so we weren't exactly overwhelmed with options. It was a great time though... as we found a lil hole in the wall with SHUFFLEBOARD and Joe and I dominated. Yeah, I'm a big fan of winning.

~view from our $75/night hotel!~

~joe's folks and the birthday boy at dinner~

~shuffleboard!!!~

~more silliness~

~LAST pic of the night... can you tell?~

SUNDAY

On Sunday I insisted that Joe and I rent snowboards so that we wouldn't want to stab ourselves in the face all day waiting for the slowpokes could improve our snowboarding skillz... ya, well that backfired!! I have snowboarded just a handful of times and am okay, mainly cause I can wakeboard, but definitely not great by any standard. Everything was great at first, since we could all stay together without anyone feeling rushed or bored. But there's this whole edge thing on the snowboard that really didn't work out so well after I got a little cocky and started going fast... and yeah, I'm glad I was wearing a helmet because I got a *bad-ass* concussion. As in, I FELL like a slingshot onto my head and that was the last run of the day for me. Good times.

~beautiful day!~

~me and mine, on our boards~

~beer break~

Alright, that's all I got! Happy Tuesday, and check out Miss Kelsey's Wishful Wednesday this week... I may have contributed :-)

the poopy part of san francisco

We spent the weekend in San Francisco. It was mostly all sunshine and rainbows :-) Delicious food and drinkys, swanky hotel, lots of walking, window shopping, and people watching...

... But some of the trip was pretty poopy... quite literally.

I haven't decided if this is even funny or not, but it is most definitely gross. Consider yourself warned. OK, here goes...

So it all started when Joe and I were looking at renting a condo from a lesbian couple who were originally from San Fran. We asked them to recommend some "non touristy" places to check out, and they suggested Polk Street. I distinctly remember they said be sure to avoid *some part* of Polk Street, which I wrote down on a little piece of paper that I promptly lost.

Well, Saturday morning Joe and I are feeling all spontaneous and decide to head to Polk Street.

We're hip. We're cool. We're fresh. We ain't no tourists!

So we start walking south on Market Street... and walking... and walking... Now we're at Polk.

"Joe, seriously stop pulling that map out every few seconds... you'll blow our cover!!!!"

I'm so distracted by chastising Joe for his excessive map consultation that I hardly notice there are now bars on all of the windows.

We pass a smoke shop, a strip club, a liquor store, a condemned vacant  building, the 57^th homeless person, a woman with oozing open sores all over her body moaning loudly in the threshold of a doorway...

We're REALLY in a bad part of town now. WTF... There was no warning on the map that said ghetto??

And then my tummy starts hurting. Bad.

Maybe I'm just sick to my stomach from the Crack & AIDS in the air feeling incredibly disturbed by all the sadness?? Nope.. that's not it.

"Umm, Joe... I need to use a bathroom."

"Well, honey..." (He pulls out his handy SF map for the seventeenth time.) "We have less than a mile until it should start cleaning up and then we can stop for lunch and use a bathroom."

"Umm, Joe, I have about 2 maybe 3 blocks in me."

Shit! There's nothing around... Now if I just had to #1, I would happily pop a squat in an alley with the rest of the San Fran homeless population.

*When in Rome* right?

However, I do not poopy in alleys.

Joe's walking faster than me now and almost doesn't see me duck into the Taco Bell on the corner. No, not because I am craving a 7-Layer Burrito. I have to go like right meow. I ask the cashier to buzz me into the bathroom. He informs me I'll have to use the men's room because the women's is "out of order".

Whatever, I'm not scurred. I've done my thing in plenty of men's rooms before. I open the door to the bathroom and immediately regret touching the door handle.

The overwhelming stench, OMG... There are blue plaid boxers in the trash... covered in shit. There is literally CRAP smeared all over the walls and there are turds... multiple pieces of human poop... on the floor. In fact, I just stepped on a piece of poopy.

Oh, my poor UGGS!!


You have got to be shitting me!

And the women's restroom is "out of order"?? WTF. What could possibly be worse than THIS?? I mean, short of someone having an abortion in there and clogging the toilet with the fetus, seriously.

I consider running away. Far, FAR AWAY. But then I realize that I probably won't make it without my undies ending up in a garbage somewhere.

I would be lying if I said I didn't seriously contemplate pooping on the floor. Really, it wouldn't have made any difference in the level of filth. However, I play the dodge the human feces game - like Hop Skotch, only more precarious - on my way to the toilet where I proceed to thank my lucky stars for CrossFit.

Yes, I'm an excellent squatter. Not even any splash-age, (thank God!)

No, I will not touch anything in this restroom, not even a seat cover (not that there were any to speak of)...

TMI yet?

Umm okay, I'll skip the rest of the shitty details. mwahahahaha.

But for your future reference, here is a little guide I made for you illustrating the Poopy Part of San Francisco:

*Made in Paint, yes I am skilled... cuz Photoshop is on my laptop for elitists. Click to enlarge and appreciate all the glorious details.

You're welcome.

Anyway, the rest of the day was all sparkles and rainbows and sunshine! Seriously. But this stuff is not nearly as exciting as a poopy Taco Bell.

Joe's "Crab Shack" at Fisherman's Wharf.

Homeless man "fishing" for change from a trash can.

Yes, I took a picture.

Funky car parked downtown.

PS: In case you were wondering, we have since learned that it is "not safe" south of California on Polk. I mean, for future reference and all... cause we just spent two hours of our life there last Saturday. No worries, we survived. It was a poopy adventure wonderful time. I would highly recommend it. To anyone.

Wishful Wednesday - Whistler!!!

I wish I could re-live

Spring Skiing in Whistler

over and over again!!

This was a WW topic from guest blogger Tracy at The Seattle Smiths...

Disclamier 1: Lots of pictures to follow.
Disclaimer 2: It's such a great topic that I might have to sneak a couple extra Wishes in at the end.

Spring skiing in Whistler is heaven on earth. Can't beat a ski trip weekend with good friends, great snow and sunshine! We always stay in the same Stoney Creek Condominiums and cram a ton of us (and our dogs... huge plus for me!) into the place. We pack up lots of food and drinks and split everything, so it actually works out to be quite affordable. The condo has it's own hot tub and is just a few minutes from the gondolas. It's pretty much awesomesauce.

This past April was INCREDIBLE. We went up for Telus Festival, and we couldn't have asked for better snow / weather / group of people / hilarious stories / amazing fun times.

Chair lift to the top of Blackcomb. BLUE SKIES!

Here I am. On top of the world... (or about half way down, haha)

My sis, dear friend Ashley, college bud Zach, bf Joe and me..

at the top of Blackcomb

Just Joe and me :-)

My boys (sans Bondi) and me on a chair lift...

These two bad-ass skiiers were tough to keep up with!

Me, happy as a clam, on the new...

Peak-to-Peak Gondola from top of Whistler to top of Blackcomb!!!

May have just shotgunned a Kokanee.

 

Some of us girls, slopeside at the lodge.

My college roomie Lucy (the witty one, remember?) is on my left.

4:30 PM - Apres slopeside! :-)

Of course there's lots more to Whistler... chillin' in the condo, great shopping, and zillions of nightlife options from Irish bars to techno clubs. But being on the biggest mountain(s) in North America in great conditions with amazing friends... it just doesn't get much better than that.

POST SCRIPT

A close 2^nd place goes to Deep-Sea Fishing in Cozumel with Joe. It was just the two of us, the captain and the open sea! Oh, and this 36" 25 lb BAD ASS BARRACUDA that I caught! I felt bad about it, except that we ate it for dinner, and what we didn't eat we gave to the staff at the hotel.

And... 3^rd place goes to REHAB at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas. I've been twice, and I'm QUITE sure this outrageous pool party would make 1^st or 2^nd place, except I can't remember why ;-) Here's a nice bloggable picture... my others didn't make the cut.

I Forgot to Mention...

Yesterday, I came home from work and proudly announced to my boyfriend that I had finally started a blog. The conversation goes like this:

JOE: That's great honey!
ME: You wanna see what I've written?
JOE: Of course.

At this point, I was a little surprised, as I didn't expect him to actually be interested. But hey, I thought it was a nice gesture, even if he was faking it! :)

Anyway, so I pulled up my first two stories on his Blackberry and he scrolled through them for a few minutes. Then he turned to me with a puppy dog look...

JOE: Why am I not even MENTIONED in this once??? You have a whole post dedicated to BONDI!
ME: Baby, Bondi has TWO YEARS on you. He's my first man.
JOE: Wow, Jenny.
ME: OK, okayy I'll fix it.

So I delay the start of our NetFlix (best. investment. ever.) while I fiddle around on my Blackberry and add "sweet boyfriend" to my post. This takes almost 15 minutes because my BB has liquid damage and the "B" and "." keys are sticking. I consider substituting "love-slave" (no B in that!) for "boyfriend" but decide against this - do not think Joe would approve. Joe is getting noticably agitated, so I remind him that he's the one that "wanted" to be in my blog.

Well now, Mr. Joe, you have your own post, all to yourself!! And here's a picture for good measure:

OKayyyy, so that's not such a great picture of you, but it's dang cute of Bondi!!!

But seriously, my boyfriend Joe is wonderful and I feel very lucky to have him in my life. He takes super good care of Bondi and me. Here's a couple better pics of the two of us in Cozumel last year, sans Bondi:

That's all for now. Yayy for *almost* Friday!