What Season Are You?

At least they predicted the right season for me!

You Belong in Winter

Quiet, calm, and totally at peace... You're happy to be at home, wrapped in a blanket, completely snowed in Whether you're lighting a fire or having a snowball fight, you always feel best in the winter.

What Season Are You?

I'm back!

I was MIA for a little while but I have some free time and I'm ready to post. I don't really have many new pictures, but here is a small offering. I have been pretty busy with work, but our computer has been down for the past few weeks. We decided to "nuke" it because it was acting very slow and gave us the blue screen of death (not exactly, but that's more dramatic). It did give us a blue screen, but was stuck. I called my cousing who is a computer genius and has his own business and asked what to do He suggested my brother nuke it and we start over. Right after we got it back we went back East for Pheasant opener and then I've been working since. Eric's had a big project at school so our leisure surfing time has been not very important.

We've slowly been putting the programs back onto our computer. That's kind of wierd -- I didn't realize all of the "stuff" we had on there that goes away when you wipe out your operating system. It's kind of a good feeling -- like a colonic (though I've never had one). We feel all clean and light now!

Eric's sick and we have been debating if he has the bird flu. He was cleaning pheasants this weekend and he is the only one that's sick. So we had to get on the internet today and check out bird flu symptoms. We even bought a thermometer to check for fever, but we're cleared. He didn't roll around in the pheasant poop, so I think his chances of contracting the disease are less than 0%. We were thinking, though, if it was positive, we could get a book deal and when the big pandemic strikes, Eric could run to the grocery store for us since he's already immune. But luckily we don't have to go there.

Starting my new job

I have been MIA for the past week because I've been in Pierre at my new job! I spent 2 days in town getting to meet my new team and coworkers and getting my office set up. I have a nice little cube (which is actually very spacious) and work right across from the Capitol building. I'll be going back and forth and I'll have to take some pictures next time I'm there.

Eric picked me up in Pierre on Friday afternoon and then we went to Brookings for the long weekend. We went to the SDSU Jacks game with his mom and our nephew, Anthony. He's a pretty photogenic 3-yr old. He's a lot of fun and was helping Eric do "guy" stuff (hauling decoys, etc).

Then we had the scariest near-miss I have ever experienced when we were coming back to Pierre to retrieve my car. It's hard to describe if you weren't there, but basically a car-load of high-school girls (with that stupid homecoming writing on their windows) pulled out in front of us across a divided highway. We were going 65 mph and if Eric wasn't watching them from the other side of the highway we would have T-boned them (we were in the Tundra) and there is no doubt the girls on the passenger side would have been killed. Eric locked up the breaks twice and each time the tires squealed like I've never heard. It was so scary. Luckily Eric stopped in enough time and they didn't hit us, but Eric pulled over to the side of the highway after to compose himself. My legs were rubbery and I was looking to see what the girls did. They stopped too and if I had been thinking I would have gotten out and ran the 50 feet to their car and chewed them a new one. I get kind of worked up over stuff, but I was full of white-hot rage. HOW DARE THEY??!! We are good drivers, but I don't know if I would have been looking at them from across the highway like Eric was. That's the part that makes me mad -- I am SO careful to anticipate what other drivers do...but you still can't anticipate the stupidity. Ok...I"m getting all worked up again. I could have killed them with my bare hands I was so mad at what they'd done.

Ok...sorry. Enjoy the picture!! :) ha, ha.

More Fall Fun

These were taken last week on my last few days of freedom. Eric and I went to Canyon Lake Park and took some pictures and fed the ducks. Those fowl are out of control! Then we went to Pirate's Table restaurant, which we pass by every day and I've never been to in all the 10 years I've lived in Rapid. So we went. It was nice...but not my favorite.

The Wierdest Spider Ever...

I am going to post a bunch of new pics because I have been stockpiling them. This spider lived right outside our bedroom window for about a week. Then I wonder if it died. Well, I had to take this picture from the inside because I was afraid it would jump on my face if I got to close from the outside. Do you see the face?? I think that was its butt end because I saw it eating a few days later from the other end. It must be a survival tactic.

Snap, Crackle, Pop

I don't have a picture to post this time because I've been chasing an elusive Blue Jay but today I saw him and stepped outside to get a picture and he flew away. I was just standing there and realized that the woods sounded like a bowl of Rice Krispies!! It wasn't even the wind -- it was all the birds in the trees!! I saw a woodpecker banging into the tree, there was a teeny tiny hummingbird sized bird, and then those dang Blue Jays. There are tons of other birds I couldn't even see, but they all sounded like Rice Krispies together.

It will be nice to have our very own home once we move to the prairie, but I am so going to miss the woods.

Autumn in the Black Hills

Today was a perfect fall day -- 80 degrees and sunny. We decided to go on a drive through the scenic Spearfish Canyon in the northern Hills.....us and about 300 other people. It was so packed!! There were motorcycles everywhere -- it was like a Sturgis Rally encore. We managed to find a place to pull off the road and take a few pictures. Then we stopped at the Black Hills National Cemeteary for veterans. I've always wanted to go on a sunny day with the brilliant white headstones. It really was beautiful.