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

next

we got confirmation this morning that we have to be out of the house by the actual end of june. june 30th is the day the family comes back.

so if you know of any places we can set up shop for relatively cheap (or free!!) please let us know!

could be an interesting few months.

almost weekendend

to document the weekend that was i took not enough photos.

first up with tamara's 21st champayne breakfast. there was lots of funny food and fun people to talk to. i only took two photos - tamara is in neither.

cathy and grant

me and mickey

in the evening was zoe's hens night at darling harbour. there was dinner, drinks and some dancing. again i took some photos - zoe is in none of them

a bit of lightning storm came through when we were waiting for others to arrive

my sister and me

and it was cool to be in the city for earth hour. well done to those who took part

then today was the swans vs port. yay for the swans!! a mighty win.

debs, lachie and me

and only about 40 mins til i pick up howie. so that's good fun.

round 2

i like watching afl when the swans aren't playing. it means i can appreciate the game without stressing about which team is winning. if i paid more attention to my tipping i might stress more. but i never remember who i tip - ignorance is bliss.

meanwhile, not being a girly girl means that today sucks again. i have no idea what to wear to zoe's hens. 'going out' is poopy.

verdict

ham: vet is very happy with how he is progressing. the antibiotics seem to be working. he's happy the swelling has gone down a lot (if not completely) in the affected foot, and isn't too concerned about the patches on his other feet. continue treatment as is, and add a couple of hours dry time a day

pineapple: has a small case of shell rot. the vet dug it out and has begun an antiseptic treatment. was happy that there is no rawness under the rot, and that the bone is seemingly unaffected. so each day a dose of antiseptic goes into the hole left by the rot, followed by a few hours dry time.

glad they are both mostly ok. they are cute.

freitag

excitedly it's friday. i'm looking forward to this weekend. there's a 21st, a hens night, a swans game and the return of a husband.

i'm taking the boys to the vet again this morning. ham seems to be ok, but has patches on all his feet now :s And pineapple's shell is a bit funny. So hopefully vet man can solve all problems. And make me feel better too.

ticks and crosses

one good thing about howie being away is getting to cook things i want to eat and can't normally because he doesn't like them.

tonight's dinner was yummy roast vegetables. there was eggplant, capsicum, onion, potato, and onion. i've never cooked with eggplant before. and i might have fish on friday night.

bad things about him being away is that i have to put out the bins and do the washing up. plus i miss him.

lifts

i'm a good wife and a good sister being awake right now.

hmmm

things are a bit much at the moment. not very enjoyable.

big black dog

yesterday i had the boys outside for some sun. they were happily walking around in their little pen when i heard a rustling from around the side of our house, near the front steps. i couldn't see what was making the noise because of the plants in the way. but i kept an eye out. and lo and behold our neighbours ginormous black dog (i'm not sure what breed it is, but it's big and barks at anyone who goes near that house) walks out from around the side of the house. hello!!

my first thought is "he might eat the boys!" and i've seen pictures of turtles who have come off second best after an encounter with a dog. not pretty. so i picked both the boys up and put them in their tub.

then i'm worried the dog might eat me, so i kind of ask it to come with me back next door, but am slightly glad that it doesn't come near me. i start going next door, but then think the dog might double back and see the boys in their tub, and look at it like it's a big breakfast bowl of turtle weetbix. so i took the boys back inside to their tank.

then off next door to knock on their door and say, 'hi i'm jenny from next door, your dog has escaped'. and it was action stations. the little girl and her dad are up and out of the house, she with the dog lead, he with their SUV. the dog (monty is his name) was called and whistled for, but he wasn't interested and continued around the corner of the street.

as the girl ran down the street, paced by her father in the car, i decided my work here was done and went back inside to see the boys.

lesson is, chicken wire fencing isn't all that effective in being a barrier between a big black dog and anywhere he wants to go.

rainwalk

today sam, deby, lachie and i went on a bushwalking adventure in glenbrook. sure it was rainy. sure it was cold. but it sure was fun.

driving fun

heading off - lachie and deby

sam and me. us girls were clever and brought raincoats

enjoying some shelter

and the red hands cave

eating lunch at jelly bean ponds

lachie getting into it

deby getting decked

splashes!!

a very fun adventure for an easter saturday.

time is up

well, i just found out that we will be leaving this house at the end of june. that makes me sad and a bit scared.

the owners are coming back to reclaim what is rightfully theirs. although it would have been nice to be here for a few more months or years, i guess it was going to happen anyway.

so we will have to start looking for a new place sometime. i'm a bit concerned that we're going away for three weeks in may, which is three weeks close to when we need to move out and three weeks when we won't be able to look at places.

i will be sad to leave this house. i am sad already. it has been an amazing first home for us. i'm not sure we'll ever have anything like it again. not that i ever actually want a house this big, but the three bedroom version with some grass would be nice.

oh how i hate change.

What Do Retired People Do to pass the time of Day?

"Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their days interesting. Well, for example, the other day the wife and I went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for about five minutes.

When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said, "Come on man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?"

He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him a dumbass. He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn tires.

So Mary called him a sh*thead. He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote.

Personally, we didn't care. We came into town by bus.

We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age."

no teddies

coles didn't have any generic tiny teddies today. very disappointing. i know woolies would have, but they don't give me fly buys, so i don't give them money.

perspective

work was a bit stressful today. lots of stuff to get done in not much time and a lot of frustrations. tomorrow won't be much better i hazard to guess.

anyway, to blow off some steam, after work today we again took advantage of movie money and saw vantage point

i didn't mind this movie. it had the right level of suspense for me. although i picked the baddie from the start. it was much better than a lot of the reviews i read. and i'm also glad for a resurgence of 90 minute movies. two hour long ones are annoying.

social eating

we had good meals today. not because of the food, but the people.

firstly, i love breakfast. so that one was because of the food, not the people, coz i ate it by myself.

secondly, we had lunch with sam at wahroonga park. he and howie had burgers, and i had a yoghurt and dried fruit. we also played some flash games at home afterwards. nerds.

thirdly, we went to a surprise afternoon tea for colin and mavis' 40th wedding anniversary. there were a lot of older people, and a lot of little kids. there was lots of food, but also a few people we haven't seen for a while, and some we have.

fourthly, after church cathy invited us over to her newish place for dinner. so howie and i joined her, grant and anthony. we brought dinner and i cooked it up. there was frivolity and rudeness, and hopefully good food.

each was fun and it was good to catch up and hang out with peoples.

now i am very sleepy.

please read on

as i was coming home from doing some TEAR work yesterday afternoon, i decided to buy a book from the shop under railway square to read on the train home. i've walked past a few times and wanted to go in, but hadn't yet. so yesterday i did. i looked around for something i might recognise, or something that might look like the kind of genre i like. i ended buying a $4.95 copy of The Mentor by Steve Jackson.

i read it the whole train trip home and then a bit last night while i waited for howie to come home from his GNW adventure. i read a bit more before i went to sleep.

and now i only have 26 pages to go in a 481 page book. these fast paced books are like double edged swords. on one hand i want to read them as fast as i can to keep up with the story and find out the ending. on the other hand, me doing that means it's over in less than 24 hours. hmmmm...

anyway, back to it!

pooasonic

well look like we shall shortly be $913 out of pocket.

westview says it's the lamp in our projector thats busted, which isn't covered in the warranty. so we have to pay for the new lamp, installation and a service of the machine. poo, bum and wee.

stupid panasonic misrepresenting the truth about how long lamps last. and not giving complete information in their manuals.

stupid westview for not calling us for a week, so we had to call them to find out the news. i hate westview. stupid them for charging at least $100 more for a lamp than we could get elsewhere.

stupid dust for being everywhere, especially where we live.

so that's a bit of a bummer. everyday projector might become more of a special event projector - DVDs, good TV shows, worthy playstation/wii games. not so much for the news or filling in time shows. not that we watch heaps of TV anyway.

good thing we got a free TV the other week. we'll have rearrange our lounge room a bit to accommodate both. at the moment there are cables everywhere, and i always trip over them.

pros and cons

i think i've decided it's better for us to catch the train into work at TEAR.

it's good because:

- it's public transport
- i don't have to drive in peak hour or semi-peak hour traffic
- it means we have a 20-30 min walk from central to glebe and back again which is good for our bodies

it's bad because:

- i think it's more expensive for the two of us to buy our tickets than to drive in
- the walk can be hot and tiring, or very wet if it's raining
- we have to wake up much earlier
- my thongs tonight ripped some of the skin on the bottom of my toes

but those four cons seem to be outweighed by the three pros

wishing for bad eyes

similar to howie's post, and also for reasons of not shutting things (doors on this occasion), i got to see an old lady sitting on the toilet at work yesterday.

nice.

fatty

after finishing work today, hubby and i took advantage of our screen savers an saw a film.

and that film was run fat boy run

i like simon pegg. and i like dylan moran. and i didn't mind this movie. there were funny bits. the little boy was cute.

development

we had lunch today at the parentals for my aunt's birthday.

at the moment there are a lot of piles of dirt and big earthmovers over my parents back fence. the old places that were there have been ripped down (there were maybe three or four buildings scattered over quite a large block). in any case, the site is being developed into 12 new homes. which is a bit of a poo for my parents, but you get that.

i took a couple of pics as we had a look at the progress

menu

we shall ignore what was for dinner last night and lunch today, and share what tonight's dinner shall be

Nibbles
Crackers and dip
Rice crackers

Main Course
Romano Chicken with side serving of (modified) Fattoush

Dessert
Pancakes with choice of: lemon juice and sugar, maple-flavoured syrup, cookies and cream icecream

Supper
Doritos and salsa
Skittles

Beverages
Water
Coke
Lemonade
Creaming Soda
Beer
Tea
Coffee

surely red

sure felt like it was raining much much heavier than this as lachy, howie and i just drove to cherrybrook for some dessert purchasing.

i couldn't see or hear a thing

this and that

i got a little freaked out giving ham his injection today. coz i really don't want to hurt him or give it to him incorrectly. so i had a 'moment'. but we got there in the end. and he still seems to be alive and happy.

the next few weekends are pretty busy with lots of family and friendly events. i'm looking forward to seeing people and having fun and laughter and good food. people are good things.

prawn visited us a little bit ago. he came bearing gifts - a new phone for howie and skittles for me! oh yeh. good thing i'm a good sharer. we played buzz and howie and i were supremely dominated. however, we reckon anything less than a four player game doesn't count, so james still hasn't won one legitimately. buzz is so hit and miss.

now we're having fun playing with howie's new interim phone.

taking after my mum

everytime i'm doing a spot of pruning in the garden i always convince myself that i'm not allergic to a particular native bush right alongside our front path. i'm not exactly sure what it is - not a grevillea or a bottlebrush, but something like that.

i go ahead and cut off the evergrowing branches of leaves and flowering buds, knowing that soon i'll have to pick them up and put them in the green bin. i gather them together and carry them to the bin. and sure enough, everytime i end up with red itchy and stinging rashes on my hands and arms. i can feel it happening as i do it. even as the leaves fall and brush past my arms and legs.

when will i ever learn.

edit: i think it is actually a grevillea. a grevillea robyn gordon.

comedy

sam lent us adam hills' DVD. i'm having a good laugh. i like adam hills. have for many years. i'm glad his DVD is funny.

thanks sam.

hi raj!

apparently my dentist sometimes reads my blog. i'm glad i've only ever said nice things about him!!

meanwhile, today we got our signed cricket shirts. it's handy having connections in high places. for $65 (the price of the shirt) we have all 12 signatures of the aussie team. shame they suck so much at the moment. also handy that we have connections in the picture framing business. something for the pool room.

projector holiday

we have to take our projector to get checked out because it's doing strange things. at this stage it's under extended warranty with domayne, but if it ends up being all the lamps fault we have to cover all the costs. here's to electical problems please!

the big pain in the butt about it all is that we have to take it to westview at castle hill. i hate that place. they are so slow and not helpful.

the upside is that someone donated a TV to work, and work doesn't need it, so we're allowed to take it. howie's decided though that we won't be wasting our digital tv, so he'll be moving a lot of cables.

camp turnbull

this weekend, because we couldn't attend another camp, sam, howie and i ran camp turnbull. and it was the coolest.

it all began saturday morning at the godly hour of 11am. after some sitting around, catching up and decision making we headed out the door.

and rita took us to wahroonga park, where we had all manner of meat. howie had a chicken burger, sam had a beef burger and i had grilled fish. there was also a night of jazz in the park being set up. so we observed that for a while too.

on the way home we stopped at woolies to stock up on supplies

we then watched three kings, because it is a tops movie.

after the movie it was time to visit a park and play on equipment. our park of choice was first fleet park at west pymble. there's lots of metal equipment.

from there we went back to our house and played some card games. then it was off to hornsby to catch a train to woy woy. oh yeh, woy woy. and we got some gourmet pizza. it was actually very yummy.

we then got out of there pretty quick smart. we had the choice of a 7:58pm train or the next one wasn't til 9:20pm. it was an obvious choice.

we then had the 'somethingist' train trip back. first the first half of it we had fun amongst ourselves. and set ourselves the challenge of moving our feet for the whole trip home. as you do. then things got a little less comfortable as a grouop of 14 year olds (or younger) joined us and were smashed off their faces thanks to cones and grog. their colourful conversations left the second half of our trip less fun. but we did keep our feet moving the whole way back. go team!

once back home we watched lano and woodley's the island. good times. they are funny boys.

then sam bid us farewell, and we all pretty much went to sleep at 10pm. camp tires you out!

then this morning, we were back into things at 11:20am (delayed 20minutes because howie and i had to go to the chemist for his ezcema).

i didn't feel like driving to the mountains for a bushwalk, so we decided if you can't go to the mountains, then cowan is your next best option!

so we ventured to cowan, via beecroft.

it wasn't a long walk, because we wanted to come back for pie. so we walked for maybe 40 minutes?!

we then stopped near some water and mangroves to eat some jatz and lolly bananas. then it was time to head back. it was a bit hot and sweaty climbed back up towards cowan.

but we made it back - yay!

we then crossed back over cowan's tracks

and it was time for the short drive to pie in the sky!

and it was good. i had beef, howie had chicken and corn and sam had lamb, honey and rosemary. we are the people of many meats.

then it was back to our house for some coke for the boys and the watching of the terminal. although halfway through howie was too tired, so he went to bed for a nap.

but it was a good weekend. sam is fun. and it is fun to hang out with him. so hooray!!

whoa woy

no offence to juicy, but i don't want to have any of my kids live on the central coast. oh my word.

i'm not even sure if i want kids at all now.