pick one : jenny/jenga/jentle/jengi/itchy/jk

open house thing

for a few years now i've been concerned that once you finish high school, and you hit the 'real' world of uni or work which is a huge time of transition and in-your-faceness, suddenly the church no longer caters for you. ok, that might be a bit of a harsh statement. but all through school you have a weekly event, besides church, you can be a part of with youth group, and suddenly when everything else in your life is changing, that one thing is also no longer available. unless you're heaps involved in the church or a small group, there isn't any other weekly thing to be a part of.

so we have a thing here at our place on friday nights for young people to rock up to and hang out, come and go as they like, and we just bum around chatting, eating, playing board games or pool or playstation or wii, or watching DVDs. like an open house, but only for year 13s. and not directly affiliated with our church or work. just something that is safe and hopefully fun which people can come to if they want to.

so far we've had eight or nine different young people come over the four weeks we've been running it, with anywhere from one to five or six young people on one night. but the numbers aren't important. if one person finds this a helpful thing to be a part of, then it's worth running it.

and we have fun as well, which is always a bonus. like last week we went to maccas coz there was just four of us. i hardly go to maccas nowdays so it was a treat!

it's a bit funny though having no idea if anyone is going to turn up. like tonight. maybe husband and i will play some card games.

rpa

i like watching RPA, although i don't really see much of it. i don't like seeing operations and cutting people up and all that. not my thing. but i like the stories. well the happy ones anyway.

but it confirms in me that i could never be a nurse or surgeon. not that i was planning to be.

heavy duty

we took ham back to the vet this morning, as it's been four weeks since we last saw him and we've almost run out of the iodine stuff we've been bathing ham in.

the vet was very happy with how the wound is healing externally - it's just a scab now, with no ulceration. however, he had a poke and prod and ham flinched whenever the vet moved his middle toe. so there is a chance the infection has moved to that joint. and that isn't so good a thing.

so the new plan of attack is an antibiotic injection every three days, totally 15 injections. which is a little scary, but ham seemed to be ok with it when the vet did it this morning.

the good thing is that he doesn't have to stay out over night in the box anymore, and is free to swim all day and night.

we'll keep monitoring him closely, and giving him the injections, and see how it's all looking in two weeks.

play bouncy rabbit!

today, for some reason, howie and i were amusing ourselves as we walked from the car to the office, and from the office to westie, by singing and quoting lano and woodley.

they are funny boys. i'm enjoying their DVDs more and more each time i watch them.

the songs are so fun to sing. there are a few which are particular favourites of ours at the moment and we have a good time mucking around with. they're also great for stress relief.

it's a shame they said goodbye. but they had a good run.

morning fresh

my husband is a good one. he's doing the washing up for me.

little buddies

well they aren't so little anymore, but still incredibly cute and still have their own unique personalities

ham is more adventurous and inquisitive - he loves climbing and attempting to escape - he's a little monkey!

pineapple is happy just to stay put for the most part. although for the first time ever on friday he climbed out of the pool and had a walk around on the grass. we were very proud. he's also a bit more timid around people. he doesn't at all like being picked up, and has good claws for letting you know his objection

they're such good little buddies.

brickpit

this evening some fun was to be had.

howie, sam, debs and i decided to have a good night out.

we started with some good dinner in, with left overs that prawn had brought over for lunch - he'd come over the completion of his die hard education.

then we headed to brickpit park for some spiderweb and flying fox action. we had to wait our turn for those because of all the little kids around.

so we amused ourselves on the swings for a while

then we upgraded to the spiderweb

before having a lengthy turn on the flying fox

as you can clearly see, the sun shines out of sam's bum. we all knew it.

we took turns lying on the ground under each other flying. yeh, we're pretty hard core

after the frivolity of the park, we headed to manly for some icecream

we figured we'd all had our twinnex shots so we bought a tub of icecream and some spoons from coles because we're all povo. it was yummy.

and then we headed back home ways.

it was a much fun night to cap off a much fun day.

babelfish

i got my laptop stand today - should be good for ventilation and posture etc.

it did carry a few notices on the packaging though:

~ Adjusting to the stable and fixed angle, placing the notebook after assurance
~ Don't jam the finger if the angle is altered and adjusted
~ Please shopping using when the notebook isn't fixed stably
~ Don't drop and strike intensively, for it is possible to cause damage
~ Don't set beside the fire
~ Long-time placing is prohibited
~ Don't use in the airflow and dusty circumstance

handy hints indeed

1GB

because iPod shuffles are now only $65, we ordered one today for me - particularly thinking of long plane trips and walking adventures.

and i got the (product) red one, because you might as well spend the same amount of money and have some of it go to a good cause.

and i got to engrave it for free

zoe and tom's wedding

1. said yes to being an usher, with howie, at their wedding
2. got a bargain from our op shop - a brand new $150 dress for $15 - to wear to the wedding
3. organised the wedding present

only a month and a half to go.

family dinner

tonight i crashed a family dinner that i wasn't initially invited to. james was going to my parentals place to have dinner with the family, which was cooked by debs herself. and i invited myself as howie is at the comedy store having been rejected for family dinner. i persisted. and good thing coz dinner was yummy.

now i'm hanging at home with ham. i'm a bit worried about his foot again. it's a bit too swollen for my liking. i might call the vet tomorrow.

catch of the day

i bought a laptop stand this afternoon. for improved posture and improved airflow for toffee. and it was pretty cheap so that's all good and fun.

sunday summary

this morning after some homely duties - mostly looking after the boys - we had sam, debs and james over for some lunch and wii. howie's mum is also here for a few days so she joined in the fun.

we played tennis, bowling, a bit of baseball and boxing as well. i ripped up the bowling - woohoo! and sucked at tennis. wii is good fun. and sam has been good enough to let us borrow it for a while. so hopefully we'll get to refine our skills and build up our arm muscles.

then sam and i went to church, he was my substitute husband as howie was feeling a bit sick. was good to see a few faces i hadn't really seen for a while.

hoping for a good sleep tonight and a productive day at work tomorrow. hoping that stuff comes through that needs to so things can move forward.

feeling a bit funny at the moment. tummy might be a bit angry at all the crap i ate today. who knows.

welcome!

penny and andy had a little girl last night at 10:31pm - mikaela rose. how wonderful!!

working 9-5 ... pfft

i'll soon choof off to my mega work day, 7:30am-9pm. not sure i'm quite up to it, but hey. i get to drive to lithgow because a couple of people pulled out meaning we don't need a bus now. bit annoying since i already paid for the hire of it.

had an awful sleep, as to be expected on the night because one of these events - i've been to almost 30 of them, and i've had crap sleep the night before every single one. lots of dreams, lots of waking up, lots of looking at the time.

hopefully today will go fast, and god will do stuff. then i can come home and crash.

meanwhile, husband and mother-in-law are having lunch today with cousin-in-law in the city. bit bummed to miss out on that, but what can you do.

this evenings thoughts

it seems that ham's infection has stabilised - it's not getting worse as far as we can tell, and it's not really getting any better. the vet said to keep going with current treatment for another two weeks and we'll see how he's going then. he seems to be coping with it all pretty well. he is still eating and swimming around. i think he's being very brave.

valentines has almost been and gone. i'm not big on valentines day, and good thing other wise i might end up very disappointed every time february 14th rolls by for the rest of my life.

glenn robbins 'out of the question' is a bit b-grade. but i like ross noble a lot, and he's on it tonight.

i'm looking forward to it being sunday. it's arrival means saturday is over, and that another wii day has dawned! hooray.

and unrelatedly, sometimes people are so predictable.

sorry

i must echo the posts of everyone else in being glad of this mornings apology which came from the mouth, and heart, of kevin. i probably can't say anything that hasn't already been said. it is well overdue, and i am glad to see so many australians standing in solidarity over this moment.

in the spirit of year 6 parliament, "here here mr prime minister".

early!!

my husband is a good one. he just submitted three articles that aren't even due until tomorrow.

this working from home business seems to be good for him!

may it continue.

congratulations!

yay!! mickie b and al are engaged!!

tyred

after last week's superb flat tyre effort, i am off to epping motors this arvo to see about a new spare, but also the possibility of another four new tyres. joy upon joy at the expense that might shortly be coming my way.

injected

yes indeed the vaccine injection did hurt, and my arm is aching. but the bonus is that husband is making our lunches for today because i'm a one-armed invalid.

prick

i have a doctor appointment tomorrow morning to get number three of the three cervical cancer vaccines. i am not looking forward to it. it is a painful injection. not a good start to the week.

sweet and juicy

i just ate the best grapes. yum!

gnw's back

tonight was GNW. oh boy was it good.

we trained it in to central and got some maccas for early dinner (because oporto was closed). only small meals so we didn't have to pee heaps.

we got to the abc pretty early (like an hour early) and expected it to be like other studio audience experiences where you get your name marked off and join a big queue already formed in the foyer. this time we walked in and the place was empty. so we went and sat on the couch. we noticed, as the minutes passed, that more and more people were lining up outside the front door. and that the front door would only open for people with passes. i put two and two together and realised we'd gotten in because someone was leaving at the same time. score!

so we stayed on the couch and watched the security guys set everything up. never once did they ask us what we were doing. secure.

a bit after 5pm they were about to open the doors and had set up the checklist near the front door. a guy yelled at us "are you for gnw" and we said yep. then we got up and he told us to line up. so the two of us lined up. while everyone else was still outside. a security guy asked our name and gave us tickets. and the doors still didn't open. we went straight to the head of the queue and that would be our home for the next 1.5 hours.

we were then gradually joined by a few hundred other people. there was a lot of people knowing people pushing in type business. didn't really impact us since we were at the front. but felt sorry for others who got ripped off.

there were a lot of people in black with black hair and red streaks. and also a lot of nerdy types. funny.

i did well being patient for about 1 hour. the last 30 mins was painful.

but it was (almost) all worth it once we were allowed through. howie and i got seats at the front in the middle. which was tops even with the odd camera in the way.

some of crew talked to us because of our spot - warnings about loud explosions and camera people at our feet.

then there was paul. oh he is such a hottie. and funny. there was lots of laughing just with him there.

but soon enough he was joined by mikey, and then claire. and soon after that by frank woodley, craig reucassel (he is cool), cal wilson and pat cash. some american guy also made a lame cross promotion cameo - but i'm not into supernatural so i didn't give a stuff. now if it had been wentworth miller - oh boy.

but i digress.

the show was good. and funny. and long. time in the studio ended up being about three hours. but there was much laughter in that three hours. it was good to know it's back. and it's pretty much the same. so monday nights are going to rock. i look forward to who else will be on it.

hopefully we'll go to another taping. but part of me doesn't want to because we'll never score front of the line and front & centre seats again. why spoil the dream!!!

so hoorah. see if you can spot us! monday 9pm channel 10

bert's in training

we got bert a job today

but as i put the photos onto toffee from my camera these two came up - i have no idea what they are or where they are from or when they were taken.

bizarre.

so far no one has come over tonight. although lachy's coming after work. yay lachy! and nevertheless i am not disheartened.

la porchetta

we have today off after a work thing last weekend and about a thousand hours of TEAR work for howie this week. so after a lengthy sleep in, we randomly decided to have our valentine's dinner today for lunch. so we drove up the F3 to west gosford and got some la porchetta goodness into us. i had a yummy vegetarian fettuccine and howie had a hawaiian pizza. nice to see we experiment a bit in our dining... pfft. anyways it was nice, very filling and we had fun. i think howie was glad it was much much better than the old la porchetta at mt colah. as was i, but i already knew it was.

after lunch, we visited domayne next door. we both hate domayne but it was still nice to look at all the apple stuff. we discovered that 2008 office for mac comes in a home & student edition now, instead of just student & teacher. how exciting! so we will probably purchase that because you can have it on three computers under the same roof. and it isn't too expensive, compared to plain office for mac which is over $400 more, and it will make work life a bit easier having the real deal instead of stupid appleworks. of course, we didn't buy it from domayne because that would be stupid. we'll get it from apple.com.

now it's time for the cricket and some sitting around. i really should do some gardening but i can't be bothered. maybe tomorrow or sunday.

with a y

i don't understand how, if i write someone an email, which i end with my name and email signature, which again includes my name ~ which for the record is J-E-N-N-Y ~ they can then send me email after email addressing me as Jennie. I am not Jennie! I am Jenny!!!

in other news i had a dream last night that GNW was spectacularly unfunny and disappointing.

and furthermore, it is way too early to be awake.

should i stay or should i go

yesterday afternoon howie and i were talking about this house we're in and wondering when we'll hear from the owners about time being up.

i must have thought about it more in my subconscious beyond that conversation because this morning, as i glanced at their mail, for a fleeting moment thought we had at least another year to go in this great place. then i realised it was in a dream last night that news had come to us that they were staying overseas for another year. bummer.

maybe it was a prophecy.

although i'd prefer a prophecy to involve them selling us the house for dirt cheap.

the moment

i'm hanging out at work tonight while howie runs an info night for one of our youth programs.

so i'm getting a few bits and pieces done while i wait.

we did a big clean up today. this office can be so disgusting and i get frustrated that it feels like because i'm the girl i'm the only one who does anything to keep things tidy such as vacuum. so i tend to boycot doing any of that stuff in silent protest of those feelings.

anyway, there were a gillion (ok, maybe three) cockroaches today which is probably part gross office and part weather related. so i sprayed a lot and vacuumed. that felt rewarding.

then howie started clearing up his desk (which is no small task) and collected all his things up to make his area more of a communal workspace since he'll be here less than half of the week.

it's a bit 'something' all these changes. one part of me is excited for howie because he loves TEAR and really wanted this job. one part of me is excited for me to get some new opportunities and experiences with a different organisation. and then there's the part of me that hates change and wants things to stay the same. to see my husband every day at work and be across the desk from him doing things that we both know how to do.

ah well, it's all good.

it just means at the moment i feel a bit like i'm in limbo land. this next five months our time is divided and i'm not sure how it will look.

i guess, no i know, that i need to give it to God, to trust Him with it all, and be drawing closer to Him through it. sometimes easier said than done.

yep.

winner!

wooohooooo we are going to the first GNW recording this saturday.... it better be good. oh how i love paul mcdermott.

and hopefully we're going again on march 1st too.

surprise

it was very exciting to see erin tonight - such a good surprise!! hopefully we shall see some more of her!

i was correct in my prophesy of my performance in ticket to ride last night - i came second/third (depending on how your score it). and i fully lost at the london game. ah well. you have to lose to realise how sweet victory is.

unwakefulness

i think too many early mornings and nights of dodgy sleep has caught up with me today. i feel exhausted. my body and my mind. i had an hour nap a little while ago and feel less refreshed.

we have a one day weekend this weekend, and the one day will be full of houseworky type stuff. not much relaxation for us. maybe next weekend!

although sam and joshy are on their way over for some ticket to ride. i fear tonight be the end of my victorious ways!

the man!

go to google

type in 'find chuck norris'

click 'i'm feeling lucky'