Yes it does

I wonder if a google search for Commissioner of Taxation will turn up jentopia.

Of course I had to google Commissioner of Taxation and jentopia. But y'know. Its there. What's the deal with google being so bang on the mark these days. It used to take ages for anything to update. This was instantaneous!

Now if you google '(my surname) for Commissioner of Taxation'... Very interesting.

- Jen

Funniest thing I saw on the train this week

A girl crying while reading a Danielle Steele book.

Come on. Harry Potter ok (Tony are you done with it yet or WHAT!) but Danielle Steele??

- Jen

Didn't have a camera by my side this time, hoping I would see the world through both my eyes

So now every man and his dog has gone overseas and I'm left updating my facebook on a saturday night. The updating of the facebook has resulted in great sadness. Because we haven't taken enough photos.

We kicked ourselves that we took our camera to our engagement party where it rested in my handbag. We swore when we left it in the car all day at the snow where it got lonely (and cold) in the glovebox. We lazily resisted actually taking a bloody photo of anyone at Ben and Rell's farewell and then, just to make matters worse decided to leave it behind on everyone's last night in Berrigan.

And now, now that everyone's gone and I'm left madly scavenging for photos off other people's blogs and flickrs I'm really sad I missed so many opportunities. I KNOW there are some great photos out there. But we could have got some beauties. The fireworks that went off-course in the school yard at Berrigan that made me go 'oh, so THAT'S how people lose eyes and fingers playing with fireworks'. The impromptu game of 'celebrity heads' using the back of coasters at the 'Feddie' in Berrigan. The man's classic one guess correct answer using the question "Am I'm gay". The 'celebrity' being Trent. Who isn't actually gay. The failed attempt at sleeping in the back of our car interrupted by a surprisingly persistent and determined Rell who literally dragged us back into their house, so we could sleep in their bed...not with them. The shots of Tequila with a mate of Rell's, the shots of kahula and vodka with Baz, and then with Cam. 'Hey! It tastes like coffee!'...with that sickening after-taste only a shot of vodka can deliver. Kicking the footy on the oval at Bridgett and George's engagement party.

The sad goodbye to Ben and Rell. The goodbye that almost wasn't sad until George started tearing up, which started me up, which started the man up, which got Bridgett going.

Of course now I can sit on facebook and watch them travel the world. I do this while the man is out trying to win tattslotto. Or seeing how much you can get a kilo for cats. We've got about 5 kilo of good quality cat if anyone's interested. Just email me.

We're a bit more determined to get over there now. The way our saving is going we should get over there next year sometime. Fingers crossed. I just need to be Commissioner of Taxation by then. Oodles of time.

I wonder if a google search for Commissioner of Taxation will turn up jentopia.

Someone recently pointed out to me what happens when you miss out the 's' in blogspot and try to go to jentopia. It's not pretty.

Anyway. Enough blathering and blithering. Bedtime.

- Jen

My google meme

From Zucchinis in Bikinis:

The idea is pretty self-explanatory

1. Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search:
a) Jen needs to have a session or two with a therapist
b) Jen needs a break
c) Jen needs to find a self righteous, conspicuous "I'm better than you" charitable
position so she can keep charming the sheep into thinking she matters

2. Type in "[your name] is" in the Google search:
a) Jen is famous
b) Jen is the new blog
c) Jen is a compassionate, loving, fun and caring person. She believes in hard work,
fate, karma and ultimately the kindness in human kind.

3. Type in "[your name] likes" in the Google search:
a) Jen likes to multi task during sex
b) Jen likes pictures
c) Jen likes to dance

4. Type in "[your name] wants" in the Google search:
a) Jen wants thanksgiving with friends
b) Jen wants to make friends with Brad
c) Jen wants an Alan Rickman blowup doll but is not a cannibal

5. Type in "[your name] gets" in the Google search:
a) Jen gets married
b) Jen gets creative with her outfit Big Brother 8 Pics
c) Jen gets glam for the fight

6. Type in "[your name] says" in the Google search:
a) Jen says she is going to vote to evict Dick.
b) Jen Says Ben Affleck Is a Teddy Bear
c) Jen says hi


Funny stuff!! 3(a) ....

I grew up in Australia in the 90's part 2

-You ate Smarties instead of M&M’s.
-You tried Dr. Pepper and hated it.
-Service stations didn’t need space for 4 digits on their petrol prices signs.
-Girl germs! Boy germs!
-Goosebumps.
-You had to actually call your friends rather than send them an SMS.
-Wearing a Chicago Bulls T-shirt or cap. Wearing the cap backwards.
-Paul Jennings’ Gizmo books.
-Matchbox cars.
-The feeling of wonder you got, the first time you were able to see the image in one
of those Magic Eye 3D pictures. – yeah...has never happened to me!
-The Secret World of Alex Mack.
-Talk to the hand!
-Johnson and Friends, Noddy and Humphrey B. Bear.
-You wished you had enough Lego to build those amazing cities they displayed in the
brochures.
-Slap bracelets.
-Roger Ramjet, he’s our man, hero of our nation.
-Good on ya Mum! Tip Top’s the one!
-You could buy more than enough food from the school canteen for only $2.
-Begging your parents to go to McDonald’s for dinner.
-Rocko’s Modern Life, Rugrats and Hey Arnold!
-Noni, Monica and that bald guy named George on Play School.
-Watching The Lion King and feeling Simba’s pain when Mufasa died. Disney just
doesn’t make them like that anymore.
-Soft serve cones were only 30c and they never tried to up-sell a Flake because they
didn’t have it.
-Troll Dolls.
-Thomas the Tank Engine
-You had to get your photos developed.
-Competing with your friends to see who could eat the most sour Warheads in one go.
-The Channel 9 logo had dots next to it and the Channel 7 logo wasn’t a folded piece
of paper.
-No Hat, no play.
-High five! Up high, down low, too slow!
-Watching Round the Twist and getting pissed off that the actors kept on changing.
You still loved it though.
-Cheating in Heads Down, Thumbs Up.
-Watching that game show called Vidiot. Game shows didn't have to be educational
back then, like That's Academic... that show sucks.
-Collecting basketball cards, whether you followed basketball or not.
-Collecting hundreds of tickets from Timezone just so you could trade them for some
crappy prize that you could have bought from Woolies for ten bucks.
-Healthy Harold day was the best because you got to miss class to sit in a tiny
caravan and listen to a talking giraffe.
-Playing handball with Ace, King, Queen and Dunce and making up stupid rules as you
went along.
-Chewing the crappy gum in Bubble-O-Bill's nose and wishing they could just use
Hubba Bubba instead.
-A*mazing.
-The Ferals. Rattus, Modigliana, Derryn and Mixy were cool until they started that
five minute piece of crap, Feral TV.
-Hypercolour T-shirts.
-Who Dares! Who Dares! Who Dares Wins!
-Having your very own Dollarmites account and getting really excited when you earned a tiny bit of interest.

Growing up in Australia in the 90’s was rad.

I grew up in Australia in the 90's pt 1

So I pinched this list from the group of the same name on Facebook. I only included the ones I remember..but aww!!

-You watched the ABC more than any other station. Those days are long gone.
-You made worms by squeezing your Vegemite or peanut butter crackers together.
-The best parties always had fairy bread.
-Blinky Bill, Mr Squiggle and Gumby.
-You always used to see that dried out, white dog poo on the footpath. You never see
that anymore.
-SuperTed, Danger Mouse*
-Going to the Albury* Show with a big group of friends from school once you were old
enough to go without Mum and Dad.
-Doing research for school projects by going to the library or looking up an
encyclopaedia rather than using the internet...actually I remember using Encarta ‘96
-Paul Keating was some guy that ran the country and John Howard became the only PM
you really ever knew because you were too young to care before that.
-Banana Man, Bangers and Mash and The Raggy Dolls.
-Game Boy.
-Agro’s Cartoon Connection or Cheez TV.
-Hey Hey It’s Saturday.
-Postman Pat, Fireman Sam and Lift Off (that show with the dirty, eyeless doll named
EC).
-Birthday parties at McDonald's.
-A pinch and a punch for the first day of the month. No returns!
-Playing GoldenEye on the Nintendo 64
-The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
-Arguing over which was better – Nintendo 64 or PlayStation.
-Don’t push me, push a push pop!
-Nobody made "not" jokes... NOT!!
-Who shot Mr Burns?
-Watching Captain Planet and then driving your parents mad by always singing the
song.
-That's so funny, I forgot to laugh.
-You decorated your room with glow-in-the-dark stickers.
-You played marbles and could name all the different types like blue moon, oily,
candy, red wine, galaxy and red devil. You never played anyone for your god marble.
-Seeing a small rack of DVDs in the video store and wondering if anyone ever rented
them.
-Dolly the sheep.
-Getting up early to watch the Rage Top 50.
-Watching The Simpsons back when it was funny, every night on Channel 10.
-Power Rangers becoming cooler than the Ninja Turtles, even though the Turtles will always be cooler.
-Watching South Park for the first time and being really excited by all the swearing.
-Blowing on the Nintendo cartridge before putting it in the console to make sure it
worked properly.
-Vulcan, Tower, Flame... Australian Gladiators.
-Pokemon! Gotta catch ‘em all!
-Watching Hey Dad! and then seeing little Arthur McArthur go on to star in that
famous Sorbent ad.
-Wolfenstein, Doom and Duke Nukem.
-Downloading music from Napster.
-Chatting with your buddies on ICQ.
-Going to see Titanic.
-The winner is… Sydney.
-Mighty Max and Polly Pocket. Max and Polly always got lost because they were so
bloody small.
-Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.
-Waiting for Tony “Plugger” Lockett to break that record.
-Ray Martin hosted A Current Affair.
-Zoopa Doopa ice blocks were only 20c and if you couldn’t afford it, you asked the
canteen lady to cut it in half so you could split it with a friend.
-Listening to boy bands like Human Nature and girl bands like Girlfriend.
-Barbie, not Bratz.
-The Spice Girls.
-Happy Meals were only $2.95 and the toys were simple but actually good.
-Thorpe won lots of gold medals and wasn’t so gay.
-Opposite day.
-Pogs and Looney Tunes Tazos.
-You laughed at the fat kid on the Cottees cordial ad and changed the song to "My
Dad picks his nose..."

Found out I was losing so much more than I knew all along

This weekend just gone was so much fun, but it was also really sad. Most of our friends are going overseas for at least a year and so we had a weekend of farewells and, well lots of drinking.

So with everyone leaving people have been mentioning ways to keep in touch. Facebook kept popping up. And now I'm horribly addicted.

I AM NOT GETTING A MYSPACE!!

- Jen

p.s. more on the weekend if I can scrounge some photos off someone who remembered to a) take their camera and b) didn't leave it in the car

Barbarian Barber

Well hairdresser. Can't deny she did a good job but..well I've never actually had a haircut cause me pain before. It started in the washing of the hair where the scalp massage just stopped at 'scalp'. I was actually trying to lift my head closer to her so it wouldn't hurt so much.

Then the actual cut hurt too, there was twisting and pulling and well... there could have been yanking.

THEN, just when I think my jaw is stuck from gritting my teeth so much, she brings out an actual tool of torture. I have one at home and its never caused me pain except for the couple of times I've attempted to straighten my ears.

Yes, hair straighteners are weapons of mass destruction.

Thankfully my hair looks great, John Mayer was playing in the salon, AND she paid me a compliment. Otherwise...well. I suppose the previous sentence wouldn't be in this post.

- Jen

My, what lovely teeth you have

Today has been a day for compliments. For me.

This morning in our circuit class my boxing partner stopped and exclaimed (yes, exclaimed!) 'wow you have the most beautiful teeth'. My red in the face and out of breath response was 'braces'.

I guess it must be all those regular visits to the orthodontist* That or the braces I still have on the back of my teeth. Or the two times I had braces on the front of my teeth.

THEN when I was getting my hair cut the hairdresser asked me if my hair colour was all natural (it is), because it was such a nice colour.

I believe the term is chuffed.

- Jen

*the orthodontist in ALBURY

Drooling on your keyboard may cause injury or mess

healthySnacks
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

Please don't think I'm one of THOSE people. THOSE people are the kind of people who are obsessed with Krispy Kreme, who travel long distances to get it, and who buy it in ridiculous quantities (see picture).

The second box only has half a dozen in there. We're going back to Berrigan this weekend and one of the man's sisters was dying to try KK so I said next time we come back we'd bring some. We're also going to a house party in Albury tonight so the assorted dozen can be quartered and will no doubt be devoured there.

I felt like the biggest dork on the train home from Melb Central with 24 donuts. People were looking at me, some jealously (THOSE people no doubt) and some people with the look of distaste I usually reserve for people carrying ridiculous quantities of the stuff.

But here they are and I have to say, they smell really good. Been good so far. But it IS a 3.5hr trip back. A guy I work with ate a dozen on a flight home from Sydney to Melbourne. Another one of THOSE people.

I still maintain you should never have to queue for donuts.

- Jen

Cheating on your partner good, sleeping in on weekends bad

Yes, this is what I read on the Sunrise news ticker while at the gym on Friday. Why cheating on your partner may be good for your relationship and why you can do more harm than good by sleeping in on the weekends.

I can understand- kind of, the sleeping in on weekends upsetting your body clock but the cheating on your partner? The only thing I could come up with is that maybe it makes you see how good you have it? Or had it, because you'd probably be lucky to still have a partner if you cheated on them.

Didn't get to see what they said in the segments but the cheating one would have been...interesting. Anyone see it?

- Jen

Jono Coleman you're a knob.

I don't get time to watch much morning TV these days as its usually gym, shower, inhale porridge, dive onto train by 7:52 but last week I happened to catch Jono Coleman on Sunrise where he basically gave away the ending to Harry Potter. I didn't think he'd read it but managed to give it away all the same, and then threw in a fake bit at the end to make it sound like he hadn't. I just about choked on my porridge, as I gasped so loudly when he said it.

As they should have Sunrise have suspended him. Forget about the adults, you could hardly expect every kid who is a HP fan to be close to finishing and they'd be the ones sitting there at that time of day. Why even joke about it? Sure its only a book but you don't have to ruin it.

Seriously, pretty low.

- Jen

Review: Lemon Soul

Lemon Soul - Puckle St Moonee Ponds.

Been here for breakfast quite a few times now and this was probably the only time its been as good as the first time we went. The other times we went out of convienience (its almost across the road from us) and we couldn't get a booking anywhere else. My folks were down this weekend and although Dad seemed keen on the boathouse I wanted to try Lil Kitch (also on Puckle St) but they were booked out.

So back to Lemon Soul we went. Nice coffee, nice brekkie - I had the Vegie Breakfast with a side of bacon. That's baked beans, multigrain toast, 2 poached eggs, avocado, mushies, spinach, roasted tomatoes and two cute (although not home made) hash browns. The man ordered the pancakes which were DELICIOUS, three thick, but fluffy pancakes with a mountain of ice cream and berries. Mum had the french toast with bacon, maple syrup and what I think was a creme fraiche type of thing, looked like a very generous serving size too. I tried a bit of that and it was fantastic. Dad and Shell had the garden variety 'big brekkie' which looked good.

Service was okay, but the one thing I can't understand about ordering coffee at places like that and The Boathouse is I need to put two sugars in to make it drinkable. Are my daily coffees (Cafe 201 on Spring/Lonsdale St) that little bit weaker? I usually order a takeaway skinny flat white with one sugar. Where as dine in coffees where you add the sugar to yourself, and I end up putting two in because they taste (and look) a lot stronger. So...coffee aficionados, whats the deal with that?

- Jen

This is the sound of settling

Had a really good day today (well its 6:38pm, I think I can count on the rest of the night being okay). I went to pump this morning, and survived. My 'guns' are looking gooooood. My trainer yesterday even said 'wow! you're getting strong!'. Damn straight I am. Of course my eye now is on looking 'gooooood' but not so muscly that my arms look weird in a dress. Especially a wedding dress. You don't want to look like you're going to dash from the church to the boxing ring. Ding ding ding.

ANYWAY I was getting to the rest of the day, I had to go to highpoint (groan) and find something to wear to our friend's (Ben & Rel) going away party next friday night. Its cocktail dress and its winter so I had to find something HOT....but not so HOT that I'll be freezing. You can see my dilemma.

So I didn't get to Highpoint until about 1:40pm and seriously when I found a park it was 2pm (that wasn't frustrating at all. I browsed through about four shops until I wandered into FCUK and surprisingly found a dress I loved! Took less than an hour. It wasn't until I walked into bras and things later that I thought 'wow, its getting easier to be 'JEN'). Ordinarily I would have screwed my face up at the thought of having to do all this shopping but it was while I was browsing through a bra shop that I realised - wow I've changed.

Then I bought a really nice top to wear to the engagement party we're going to next week in Berrigan (George & Bridge). It was all just TOO EASY! I've decided there is defintely something to be said for living in Melbourne (as far as shopping goes anyway).

Last night on my way home from work (in a work car) I realised I was in the wrong lane coming out of that pesky roundabout at the end of Elizabeth St and Flemington Rd and so ended up going down Royal Pde back to Moonee Ponds. Knew where I was going and everything! No getting lost for me!

Anyway have to scoot we're making lasagne tonight and its already seven and we haven't even gone shopping for the stuff yet...

- Jen
p.s. No crutches for the man, he's too much of a man for them!

Pop goes the..man's foot

Ugly foot...ugly foot..what ARE they feeding you!
Originally uploaded by trojen_hoarse

Not-my-foot. The man's foot. Apparently he was just walking along minding his own business (wasn't DANCING or anything) and bam, his ankle exploded.

Three days later when he got it x-rayed its not broken..just badly sprained. Yes - that old chestnut. Now he's sporting a LOVELY bruise right around the bottom of this foot.

Luckily he waved the foot in front of my face before I could demand to know why dinner wasn't 'in progress'.