Filed under: Adventures of Jeff and Jenn
It’s seems like it’s been forever since I blogged. Well, part of that is that I have no time at all!!
I’ve started taking a CPA review course to prep for the CPA exam. Let me just say that if the exam is as tough as this class, I-am-screwed!!!
The first day of the class didn’t seem so bad. Mind you, this class meets near my office on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6pm-10pm. Harsh, especially after a l-o-n-g day at work. But I signed up for it. I feel like I’m signing up for torture. I think if I signed up for someone to pull out my fingernails and toenails one by one, it would be less painful than this. “Would you like to pay thousands of dollars for someone to confirm the fact that you know nothing?” Why, yes, that sounds like just what the doctor ordered!
The first class wasn’t so bad. I think that’s how they sucker you in. The teacher was this rather large, rather sweaty man who seemed like he was cracked up on too much of something. Let’s just say he was very hyper and energetic. I’m not pointing fingers or anything, but I’m pretty sure he was on something. After the first judgmental view I had of him, he actually was a pretty good teacher. And he tried to be funny. He went thru the book and pointed out areas that we really need to focus on, and areas that they won’t test too much on. Sounds like just the class I need.
The second class is where the other shoe dropped. There was a different teacher. Ok, I thought. How bad could this guy be? It was obvious that his drug of choice was a Coca-Cola, sitting precariously on the lectern. At least I wouldn’t have to guess what was amping this guy up. He began the class by saying that this was a very important topic. I got my highlighter ready.
And then he proceeded to READ-FROM-THE-BOOK!!! After working all day, the last thing I needed was to have someone read to me. I’m sorry, is this the English majors test that I’m gearing up for? I don’t think so. I know how to read on my own. I’ve been doing it a LONG time now!!! (In fact, I used to get paid to read books instead of watch tv. Until my dad and step-mom realized what a costly venture that was!!!) Needless to say, I love to read. What I would love even more is if this guy actually TAUGHT something that would be useful. There’s a novel idea!!
The biggest concern this guy had was how much time he was “banking”. “The second half of this lecture is really intense, so we need to make some time here”. By doing that, he ignored all questions and didn’t allow enough time to actually work the problems on our own. Instead he slapped his illegible writing up on the board and moved on. The other thing? I think this guy was one of those legal guys at the end of commercials in a past life. He talked so damn fast!!! At one point I found myself just staring at him, not realizing that actual words were coming out his mouth. It sounded like just noise.
I was slightly reassured when leaving the class. I rode down in the elevator with a few classmates. I asked them if they were as confused and lost as I was. Two of them said yes, that guy was horrible. The third student just had a look of terror on his face and couldn’t seem to muster up any words. I feel you, man!!!
After having taken classes online for the last few years, I have gotten very accustomed to doing school on my own time. Attend when I have time. That’s really the way to go. Sure, there are deadlines to meet, but as long as I have my work turned in by the due date, everyone is happy.
I’m thinking about switching back to that. This program does offer a home study option. They send you discs with the lectures on it (thankfully done by someone at corporate who talks slower and I can actually understand. And even if he says something too fast, that’s what the rewind button is for!).
This test is super important for me to pass (not to mention costly, so it behooves me to pass on the first try), so I want to be as prepared as I possibly can be.
Eagerly awaiting my lecture discs to come in the mail!!!
Our trip to San Diego was so much fun!! We had a blast. My vacation week started out with a few days around the town. I got to go out to dinner with Mrs. Kitty and our friend Val. I also got a chance to pick up my favorite nieces from school and take them out to spoil them. It was Madisyn’s birthday, so I had an excuse!! We got a few things at Claires, some DS games, and manicure/pedicures. It was quite fun! Madisyn was pretty excited to get flowers on her toes and fingers.
On Wednesday Jeff and I drove down to San Diego. We started our trip in Seaport Village. We took the Seal Tour, which was a boat on wheels that drove around the harbor, and then it drove right into the water and we took a tour of the harbor. It was really cool. We got to see wild sea lions and a navy ship that had just been christened.
We also walked around the little village and had dinner overlooking the harbor. Very romantic!
Thursday we went to the Wild Animal Kingdom Park. I was so excited to see the Butterfly Jungle!!
The cool thing about this park is with over 3,000 animals, they have a baby born everyday. We got to see quite a few of them.
Baby Chetah
We headed straight for the Butterfly Jungle. We heard that this was a great week for us to be there since we missed all the kids on Spring Break. The week before, the wait for the butterfly exhibit was an hour and a half. We didn’t even have to wait 5 minutes!! Plus, we missed the 100 degree weather!
I'm a beautiful butterfly! And from way up here, you all look like little ants!!
We also went by the elephant area. I thought this was the baby elephant everyone was talking about……
….until I saw this little guy!!!
Sooooo cute!!!
Then we went on a 3 hour safari tour. This was a totally awesome experience!! We went into several different areas where the animals all roamed freely together. So cool!!
This ostrich was coming over to check us out. "Hey, what are you looking at??"
The best part of the safari was getting the chance to feed the animals. Giraffes are my new favorite animal!!! They had 3 baby giraffes that were just brought out of the nursery the day before we got there.
"Hey, where's my leaves???"
"Oh here they are!!"
They have this long blackberry tongue that curls around your hand to take the leaf.
Coming over to see if we have more food for them
Two of the new babies. You can see the imbilical cord still on the one standing.
We also got to feed apples to the rhinos.
Twin baby lambs
We had to go back to the butterflies. Since I didn’t get any of them to land on me the first time, I wanted to try again.
This one wanted to come see Jeff!
We also went to feed the lorakeets. I made a few friends!!
We had a great time!! And took a TON of pictures!! We took too many pictures to post them all. If you want to see more, click here.
So I have officially survived my first tax day at an accounting firm. Phew!! It was quite crazy! Especially with Betty’s help. She definitely added an element of drama and insanity.
Now I am counting the days until my vacation. I’m getting so antsy now!!! I have one more day of work, and then I’m free for a week. YIPPEE!!!! Jeff and I are taking a trip down to San Diego to go to the Wild Animal Kingdom Park. They have a butterfly jungle exhibit that I’m dying to see. We’re also going to take a 3 hour safari trip in the park and feed girraffes and rhinos. I’m so excited about it!!! And, my honey being as awesome as he is, found an On The Border restaurant down there that we’re going to see. Unfortunately the one near us closed down January 1st, so I haven’t been able to satisfy my crack-cheese addiction. He’s has Map Quested directions to the closest one in San Diego, so I will get to enjoy my chicken flautas and cheese. Yum!!! That’s just one of the things I’m really looking forward to!!! 
I’ll have lots of pictures when we come back!! Stay tuned!!
Filed under: Adventures of Jeff and Jenn, blogging schmogging, gaming, happiness, home life
One of Jeff and my favorite video games is a game called Pain. It’s this crazy game where you use the character and slingshot them around town, trying to hit and damage as many things as possible. The more damage, the more points you get. It’s really sick and twisted, yet oddly satisfying. They have a new feature where you can edit the shot and change camera angles. Jeff is now having too much fun editing his game clips. It’s the film maker in him coming out!
For your viewing pleasure….
This week has been such a trying week for me at work. Things have been very tense. I didn’t do anything to provoke it but I was thrown right into the middle of it. I told Jeff that I hate drama, but it seems to love me because it follows me around.
So this woman Betty in the office has always been an instigator of trouble. She doesn’t like my boss, so I have been the go-between for them to make sure our clients are still being taken care of. Betty has always tried to be friendly to me, but it’s always been a fake friendly.
This was really confirmed this week when she told me how my boss was trying to get me fired and said some pretty hateful words to me. She also threatened me that I couldn’t say anything about what she told me and that “she has ways of finding out if I say something”. What she doesn’t know is that she messed with the wrong biotch.
Oh HELL NO!!!
I’m not one to take things lying down. Shortly after starting at this job, one of Betty’s friends was giving me a hard time. I’m sure it was Betty, putting her up to it as some sort of as an initiation. I went straight up to the woman and told her to quit being such a bitch (yes, in those exact words!!). She was so shocked and things have been just fine ever since.
So Betty tried to take her hand at me this week. Oh no she di’nt!!! (My head is moving side to side as I type this!!!) The moment she threatened me, I immediately took it to a manager. This happened on Monday, and all week I have been on pins and needles. She has caused so much loss of work because so many people are concerned about the way she behaves. Plus we were all scared that if our company let her go, she seriously would go postal. Several of us are considering taking out restraining orders. How crazy is that????? That we feel like we need a restraining order from a co-worker!!!!
Well today was D-Day. It all went down today. Betty cornered me in my office when I was on the phone. I sent a text to a co-worker to come help me out. I have no idea what she wanted because when my co-worker came over, Betty scurried away. I didn’t really want to know what she wanted because I forgot to wear my brass knuckles to work!!
All day, I was in fear for my safety. I never have felt so uncomfortable at a job than I did today. Of course, the managers had to wait until the end of the day to do something. But do something, they did!!!
Ding dong, the bitch is dead!! She SOO got fired today! It felt so liberating to know that my managers trusted me over Betty, who has been there for about 10 years. In fact, the owner of the company gave me high compliments on my bravery to come forward and my eloquence in expressing myself. He even offered Betty’s job for me!! HAHAHAHAH!!!
So tonight is the first night that I have really relaxed all week. I haven’t slept very well, but tonight I am really looking forward to a very restful night of sleep. And the wine I’m drinking right now will probably help as well!!!
The only scary thing is that she left very quietly and calmly, which is not her usual composure. Jeff was so nice to point out that these are the kind of people who come back with a shotgun. Thanks for that note of confidence, honey!!
Yesterday I had a little blast from the past. It all started with a text message from my SIL.
She asked me about a month ago where she could find someone to be the Easter bunny. Back in the day, I worked at a local amusement park as a costume character. It was really fun and a great way to meet people. I worked in the park walking around, in the kids stage show and in the nightly parade. It was a great job for a person right out of high school. The hours were great and the pay was better than minimum wage.
So, thinking that my sister was planing a party for her kids and wanted the Easter Bunny to show up, I told her that if she should just rent a suit and I would show up as the Easter Bunny. As it turned out, the event for which she was looking for a character was the grand re-opening of the store she works at. The store is a childrens’ clothing resale store, and the owner wanted a character to be there for the re-opening.
I told her that was still fine. I thought I was just going to be doing a favor for my SIL, but now I’m going to get paid for it? I’m ok with that!!
Her manager was going back and forth over what costume to get. I guess the Easter Bunny thing is for an event on Good Friday, which I can’t go to because of my regular work. So now she wanted to find a gender neutral character for the re-opening. Up until Friday, I thought I was going to be Tigger. As it turned out, the Tigger costume didn’t get there in time but the Scooby Doo one did. So here I am….
I thought the happy-face eyes were an interesting touch
This little girl in the pink shirt LOVED me!! I also kept grabbing frisbees and playing outside the store. It's difficult to throw and catch a frisbee when you can only see a few inches!
I also became that poor person you see standing on the sidewalk, waving a sign to pull cars in off the street into the parking lot for a particular store. Yep, that was me. It was definitely a change from my bookkeeping day job!!
Overall it was really fun. I completely forgot how tiring it would be though. I did know I would sweat up a storm, as Mrs. Kitty can attest to, but I forgot about how exhausted I would be afterwards. Maybe because when I did it before, I was doing it 5-6 days a week, and got into the groove of it. I actually was in pretty good shape because I would sweat everything out. I have sore muscles that I didn’t even know existed. Mostly my thighs are sore from bending down all day to be on eye level to the kids, but I’m just plain sore all over. And there was something in the head that was rubbing on my chin so my chin is all red and raw. Good times!! How am I going to explain that one to the accounting firm???? Hmmm…..
(Side note to Mrs. Kitty……I kept thinking of your help with the binder and only noticed from the pictures afterwards that I really could have used your knee-in-my-back routine to help keep Scooby from looking a little feminine!)
So tomorrow it’s back to the normal 9-6 job!!
I hope you all had a great St Patrick’s Day! My day was filled with all things green.
I started out the day like Dr Seuss….
Here I am enjoying my green eggs and ham!
The whole time, Jeff and I kept saying how disgusting it looked, but we ate it. Jeff said if he closed his eyes, it tasted just like regular scrambled eggs. I have been forbidden from posting the picture that I took of him because he had just gotten out of bed (party pooper!!!).
Then we had a mid-morning snack at work…..
(That’s my nice, organized desk!!!) Hahahahahaha!!!!
Then after dinner, it was over to McDonalds for a classic.
Let me give you a little insider tip. My co-worker brought in the Girl Scout cookies today that I had ordered. Try taking a bite of a Thin Mint and taking a sip of the Shamrock Shake. Oh lordy!!! It’s mint overload……and FABULOUS!!!!
Filed under: Adventures of Jeff and Jenn, blogging schmogging, family, happiness, home life
All good things must come to an end. Such was the case with my birthday festivities. And now that I have awoken from my food coma, I can now blog about it.
We had a great time. We celebrated for about 2 weeks, which was awesome. By Sunday night (the night before my birthday), Jeff said this was the longest birthday celebration ever!!! As it should be!!!
On Friday, my managers celebrated my birthday at work. They decked out my desk with a huge balloon, a cake, cards, and a bunch of candy. Then they took me out to lunch and took me to get a manicure and pedicure. I asked since they celebrated on Friday, did I really have to show up on Monday, my actual birthday? They said no, so I gladly took the day off!!
Over my actual birthday weekend, we had a gaming event on Saturday. As always, it was super fun. We won the game (which is always a nice bonus) but just barely!! I made a really yummy spinach and artichoke dip for everyone to enjoy. Secretly, I think that is why they tolerate me because I bring good snacks.
On Sunday, I slept in until 11am. Well, it really only felt like 10am because of the time change. None the less, it was nice to just sleep in. After a day lounging around the house, we headed out to Fogo de Chao. I was ready for my meat galore. And what a feast it was!!!
We entered the restaurant and directly in front of us was this huge wine rack.
This rack was so big that it works on a system similar to a dry cleaners. They flip a switch and they all start rotating around until they get to the bottle that they want. Very cool!!!
Then came the wonderful salad bar. I tried so hard not to eat too much salad because I wanted to taste all the different meats. Here we are at our table:
All the gauchos were walking around with such yummy looking meat. I had to try them all!!! My plate would be full, but they’d still come by and ask me if I wanted to try something. Of course I had to say yes!!!
The filet mingon was my personal favorite. It was so delicious and just melted in your mouth. And the bacon-wrapped chicken. Yum!!! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!!!
After all the meat we could possibly eat, Jeff was ready to call it a night.
We went home and were both ready for a nap!!
It was a great birthday treat, one that I won’t soon forget. Thanks honey!!
Filed under: Adventures of Jeff and Jenn, blogging schmogging, family, gaming, happiness
I have decided to try to milk my upcoming birthday for as long as I possibly can. This weekend we started the first weekend of the festivities. I told Jeff that I shall require much cake and birthday well-wishes so let’s get started. I love my birthday. He said that once I hit 30, I won’t enjoy it as much but I don’t think that’s possible. I was reminiscing a bit the other night. It seems so strange to be turning 28. I still feel like I’m 21, or 22, playing “adult” like a child would play dress up. How long do you feel that way? Until you have kids?
Jeff took me on my annual trip to Benihana’s on Sunday. I’ve been going there for my birthday for the past 5 or 6 years. I love that place!! I especially love when they take the rings of the onion and stack them on top of each other. Then they pour water (because open flames have been banned) into the volcano shaped onion and it starts to steam out. I don’t know why, but that really amuses me. I guess it’s the little things in life that I appreciate. We also had our picture taken there, which I have in a little frame. I’ve been trying to get on there website to download it but it’s not working. I guess I’ll just have to add it later.
On Wednesday I’m going out to dinner with Mrs. Kitty. I can’t wait for that. I just have to make sure I wear comfy pants. Not only so we can eat a ton of junk, but because I always end up laughing my ass off and my stomach ends up hurting from laughing so hard. Good times!!!
Saturday we’re planning a gaming event. I love getting together and letting my inner geek come out. Although according to my brother, it’s not so much an inner geek as much as just a geek. I was trying to explain the board game that we play and I was using small words but he still seemed a bit confused. Maybe it is more complicated than we think!! It’s just second nature to us now.
On Sunday, I’m finally going to get to go to Fogo de Chao. I really thought we were going on Valentine’s Day, but a birthday dinner there would be just as good. I’ve been told it’s a food coma, which made me start thinking that I’ll be going on a diet on Tuesday.
I’m not sure what I’ll be doing on my actual birthday, other than work. I was going to try to take the day off and go to Disneyland but I’m not sure who to go with. Most people have to work that day. Either way it should be a great day!!
