So last night was the second annual chili cook off. Last year, my friend Jen had it at her house. There were twelve entrants or so last year. This year's competition was a lot more close - only six entrants and one winner to be chosen. I used my tried and true recipe and built off of it. And alas, my chili lost once again. Damn it. Oh well. Chris says it was the best, but he has to say that even if he doesn't think so.

So to drown my losing chili sorrows (not really) we went to the North Star Bar to see our friend Dave's brother's band play, GardenState. I've never seen them before, and I thought they were really good. This band and this band also played. I thought they were all pretty good. The bands are all relatively local, PA, NY, NJ.

It was good to do something spontaneous. We didn't plan on going to the show...Chris and I are 27. That's not that old. But it's old enough where we spend most of our time working and talking with our friends about work, and how we wished we didn't have to work so much. You end up feeling old after those conversations, so it's good to go out and get a little (a little?) drunk with people you don't hang out with all the time and rock out a little and not talk about work at all.

And then tomorrow night - Arcade Fire at the troc. Yeah - that's a lot of going out. It's good to feel like I'm back in college at night - bad to feel like I'm back at college when I'm waking up for work at 7am.

We also got the apartment. We should be moving in March! Yay us!

Posted by jen at 05:38 PM |Comments (3)

I was thinking on the way to work about how every day is about choices. Like I can choose to wake up and do my pilates or I can choose to wake up early and then sit on the couch and read Star Magazine (oh Brad and Jen, you're so rich and sad). I can choose to make my lunch or choose to eat chick fil a at the mall like I did yesterday. I was basically thinking about how I, we, whatever, have more control over how our day goes than we may think...or something.

So anyway - I'm choosing to try and make my Friday rock. I am doing a little of what I call "chair dancing" at work. That's where you turn up your music a little (not too much, don't want to piss anyone off) and then when a good song comes on you shake your ass. But since you are sitting, really you're just sweiveling your chair in rhythm. Yeah...Anyway.

This has been the busiest week ever with Chris and I both working a lot. When I'm busy like that I feel like I have no control over anything. Oh, how did I end up forgetting to pay that bill? Oh yeah, I worked til 11pm. Why did we eat out 4 times this week? Oh because we both worked so much I never went grocery shopping.

We did manage to progress on one thing. We are on the verge of signing a lease for an apartment closer to my work. I can't see anything really coming between us and the lease, but for some reason the lady hasn't called me yet. Anyway, I can't wait to move. I started purging clothes and junk and throwing it all out (donating the clothes) last night. That's one of the few good things about moving. It's a great excuse to throw stuff out.

All in all the next two months should be quite pricey - moving, wedding deposits, vacation (I'm going to Vegas), double rent one month, the crap you need to buy for a new apartment...So I need to figure something out. If only I could get tips for my chair dancing. I should put a tip jar out.

Posted by jen at 08:32 AM |Comments (1)

So busy, no time to blog. No time to read your blogs. So sad! Will post more later - have to get to meetings!

I have so much going on at work right now. The good news is that I didn't have to fly to Boston today, like I was supposed to. Thank God, because I definitely would've been stuck there in the snow storm. Not that I don't like Boston, but I can't afford to miss any time at work right now.

Anyway - that's boring. Better get back to work.

Posted by jen at 08:45 AM |Comments (3)

The Philadelphia media hit the biggest goldmine ever this weekend. A huge snow storm and a championship team. I'm sure they were peeing their pants at two such fortuituous events.

Oh yes, the blizzard of '05. We spent the weekend watching TV, doing laundry and going "oh shit" every time we looked at the snow piling up. That's a picture of the way our porch looked on Sunday, about 1.5 feet of snow. We dug ourselves out and actually, it was pretty warm outside while we were shoveling and cleaning off our cars. I had to go to work today despite the snow, and despite our cars being relatively stuck. But oh well, what can ya do?

The other big news story:

Oh yeah - I bet you didn't know I was an Eagles fan. Chris and I were season ticket holders for two years until we decided we liked watching football at home. I'm a big fan and I'm so happy they won. I watched them lose the championship game a few years in a row.

Anyway - that's the extent of sports related content you'll see on this blog! As far as knitting, I'm still making progress on the sweater...yay. I wish I could just stay home from work tomorrow and knit all day. Wednesday I have to fly out to Boston for the day and I'm afraid of getting caught in another snow storm. Damn snow.

Posted by jen at 09:20 PM |Comments (3)

I am only half paying attention to this movie and Rosario Dawson's accent is still irritating. That is by far the worst fake accent I've ever heard. Worse than when I do a fake French accent that sounds faker than Pepe Le Peu. She is the Pepe Le Peu of...well I don't even know what kind of accent that's supposed to be.

Since we're snowed in today. I watched a bunch of television. I watched What Not to Wear, which I really like. I wish Stacy and Clinton would take me and tell me how to look fabulous. But then there's the makeover show funded by Satan himself...

The Style Network's How Do I Look? This show is much bitchier than What Not to Wear. It's like the snappy speaches Dixie Carter's character on Designing Women used to give. Just bitchy for the sake of being bitchy. Man.

Posted by jen at 09:09 PM |Comments (3)

I decided to make a keyhole scarf that may be a gift for someone...

Chris affectionately calls it the cornhole scarf because he loves to say things like cornhole. And that makes me laugh because it makes me think of that movie Saving Silverman when the coach tells the boys to not get cornholed or something. I can't remember, but it was funny.

I also cast on for the topsecret sweater from Knitty. Using Bernat Illusions yarn. It's amazingly close to the color of my couch. When I wear it, maybe I will blend right in. It took a while to get the freaking cast on right. I kept twisting it because that yarn is so nubby.

And then there is this:

I bought this yarn from my friend Arlene to make some scarves at Christmastime. I never got around to it. I was hoping to make a nice seed stitch scarf out of it. The yarn's called Sinsational and it's fabulous. That's right. Fabulous.

Oh yeah, lots of stuff on the needles.

Posted by jen at 07:52 AM |Comments (5)

How did I get involved in this? I am now a part of www.myspace.com if anyone wants to be my "friend" on there.

Just search for me by email - biglug.jen (at) gmail (dot) com. Ridiculous. Oh well...yet another way to waste time.

Posted by jen at 02:32 PM |Comments (4)

I heard a blurb on NPR this morning about how blogs have been getting people fired when they talk about work, so I'm vowing to only talk about work in a generic way...but anyway...they got me a space heater for my office, since it's frigid in here. Yesterday was my first day where my fingers didn't freeze up on the keyboard. So of course I spent all of last night thinking "Did I turn off the heater?" I was trying to remember the exact moment when I turned it off so I could convince myself that I did. Meanwhile I'm picturing the building going up in flames, me pulling up to work and it looking like that scene from Office Space when the building is on fire. Needless to say, when I pulled up this morning - no flames, no fire trucks. I turned it off, just like I thought I did.

I also obsessively check the oven to make sure I turned it off. I ask if Chris locked the door every night (when I'm not asleep before him). If I lose something, I berate myself for it and then look everywhere, and yet continue to do things like put my ipod in my knitting bag (why? Who knows). It's amazing that I can be so inconsistently anal about stuff. I'm incredibly anal about all the things above, and yet my car's a mess, I can't remember to water my plants, and I often pay bills late because I forget about them, not because I don't have the money. Just like that guy at my last job said I AM a walking contradiction. Damn! Actually I think I become obsessed with certain things because I'm so likely to do them. I spent years of my life with my mom asking me where something important was just so she could tell me she found it somewhere else.

Mom - "Hey Jen, where are those earrings I gave you?"
Me - "Uh, in my room"
Mom - "No, they're right here, in my hand because If found them in a coffee cup."

You get the idea. She had a point.

So I took some knitting picutres this morning, but didn't have time to get them off the camera. I'll do that tonight for all to enjoy.

Posted by jen at 09:04 AM |Comments (4)

I woke up this morning to this:

That's Chris' car in the snow we got last night. I'm generally not a big fan of snow, but I'll deal with this. It's not even really snow. It mostly melted by noon. Although right now it's f-ing freezing outside.

When I came home from work I decided to spend some time with an old friend:

I am a real sucker for marketing and bought the Winsor Pilates tapes off of an informercial one night. Well I actually bought them off the website, but it was the commercial that convinced me. I actually like these tapes a lot. I stopped doing them for a while, but this is part of me getting back on the wagon and part of my "Stop Being a Fatty in 2005" campaign. Not that I'm a fatty, but I certainly feel like one after the holidays.

This weekend was pretty low key. We spent it laying around watching TV. We watched Shaun of the Dead, which is really funny. And we also managed to watch the Eukanuba Dog Show. Yeah, I know that it's kind of weird and dorky to watch a dog show, but I really like them. One of these dogs almost won:

I keep thinking this dog must be like "I have no freaking idea what's going on, Man! Would someone please get me a barrette! A banana clip, ANYTHING?" I always wanted one of these dogs because I loved Barkley on Sesame Street.

Posted by jen at 09:53 PM |Comments (3)

Okay, here's one of those 100 things about me lists. I made it a while back, but it sat in my blogger account as I tried to figure out how to post it...

******Updated!********

1. In my dreams I am Lorelei Gillmore - either one
2. I also have snooze button dreams in between hitting snooze in which sometimes I have to hit snooze to disarm a bomb, or to win a contest, or to turn off the oven
3. Before I go to bed every single night I ask my fiance husband if he locked the door - every single night
4. If someone really, truly repulses me, I almost instantly end up picturing them naked
5. Every Christmas I watch National Lampoon's Christmas vacation at least 3 times.
6. Every Christmas I also watch the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story
7. I eat a banana almost every day
7. I adore office supplies
8. I am a mac person more than a pc person
9. I could listen to the Wilco song "jesus, etc" a million times
9. I love Project Runway
10. I get celebrity crushes
11. My TV boyfriend was Zack Braff until Star Magazine connected him with Mandy Moore My new TV/Movie boyfriend is Wolverine.
12. I am addicted to Star Magazine
13. At the bar I drink Cosmos, vodka tonics or (gasp) Malibu Baybreezesmargaritas or tequila shots.
14. I also drink beer, most any kind but coors or budweiser
15. I am was a bar smoker
16. I am a omnivore
17. I am was lactose intolerant
18. Therefore I love soymilk and especially a Venti Soy Latte from Starbucks
19. I'm willing to spend $5 on coffee
20. If I was going to be an indie darling I'd be Jenny Lewis, Jenna Malone or Zooey Dechanel (sp?)
21. Last halloween I was a sock puppet sexy Virgin Mary
22. I am getting got married in September 2005
23. My new last name is hard to pronounce
24. I may hyphenate My husband and I honeymooned in Napa and San Francisco
25. I have a butterfly tattooed on my shoulder
26. My former coworker called me a walking contradiction
27. I am positive that I have no idea what he means
28. I've been engaged before - obviously it didn't work out
29. When I was younger I thought I'd be a poet for a living
30. Instead I work in the multimedia field as a producer/project manager
31. I have a pet tarantula named Peter Parker
32. I have one sister who is 10 years older than me, and no brothers
33. I'm .75 Filipino and .25 German.
34. I used to dye my hair with kool aide
35. I have too many pairs of shoes
36. I also have too many lipglosses
37. I am girlie
38. I drive a VW Beetle
39. When I got the car people told me they "figured it was mine"
40. Before that I drove a 95 Honda Civic
41. I love to bake
42. I love even more to hear people praise my baking
43. I started knitting in April 2004
44. The first tape I ever bought was Cindy Lauper True Colors
45. The first concert I ever went to was The Cure
46. My only two brushes with fame were meeting Joe Piscipo and meeting Kelly Bishop
47. I've been to New Orleans four times in one year for work
48. I've been to 11 12 weddings
49. I have one nephew ten nieces and nephews
50. I love fall
51. I belong to an organic farm every summer and get fresh organic veggies
52. I have a soft spot for anything to do with someone's dad being sad or lonely
53. I cannot watch older people eat alone in a mall food court. It makes me sad for some reason George W. Bush on television because he makes my blood boil
54. I sing outloud in the car all the time
55. I like commuting because I can really listen to CDs I have a three minute commute to work
56. I have been called "down to earth"
57. I am incredibly sarchastic
58. I bond with people by making fun of others with them making jokes.
59. I am trying to be a reformed gossipper
60. I've been "trying to get healthy" since 1999
61. I do yoga and pilates sporadically I have been doing yoga regularly since October 2005
62. I was born and raised in New Jersey
63. I spent some time "down the shore"
64. I've had the same best friend since 8th grade
65. I absolutely hate hi-fives
66. I also hate Billy Joel, Moby, and Emeril Lagasse
67. I do not work well in a group I am trying to be accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative.
68. I have had a lot of fun blogging and meeting bloggers
69. I love to buy presents for people
70. I've never seen the Sound of Music
71. I am a bad speller
72. I am a jack of all trades, master of none
73. I watch American Chopper America's Next Top Model
74. I had a crush on the "fonze" when I was little
75. I used to eat a lot of cookie crisp
76. In middle school my best friend Kate and I started a 'zine called Bloody Mary
77. I make a mean chicken pot pie
78. I used to think Michael Jackson said "Show them hot monkey" instead of "Show them how funky" in Beat It.
79. I used to pretend I was Madonna when I was little
80. I was one of the weird kids in high school
81. I was also in plays and musicals
82. I thought I wanted to be a theater major
83. I ended up being a radio/tv/film major
84. I have a get together every Christmas with five girls I shared a suite with in college
85. When I was little I liked to watch the show Double Trouble
86. I don't like the feeling of grass on bare feet
87. Ants freak me out
88. I can't stand the feeling of a fork scraping against my teeth
89. I never had braces, but have worn glasses since I was 5
90. I like to listen to KEXP internet radioNPR
91. I joke that everyone's in love with me I used to have a job in 2004 that made me crazy stressed out and totally changed my personality.
92. I am a morning person
93. I used to host an annual Halloween party
94. I stopped when they got lame
95. I am addicted to coffee and diet soda and splenda
96. I dislike Labrador Retrievers (but like dogs in general - sorry lab people!) except for my friend's dog Anna who has grown on me, but I still wouldn't get one.
97. I like cats, but am allergic
98. I love hot and sour soup Malai Kofta (sp?)
99. My favorite cartoon is Home Movies the BoondocksATHF
100. I like making lists

Posted by jen at 03:07 PM |Comments (12)

Thanks peeps for well wishes. I definitely have a cold. I have it on the upper right side of my head. I've decided to get through work by drinking massive amounts of coffee and taking Tylenol Sinus. Oh yes. I'm am officially cracked out.

I am working at lightning speed in order to complete all my work and then try to go home early and sleep. Mmmm. Sleep. I didn't do so well at the sleeping last night. I kept waking up and blowing my nose, coughing and then sighing very loudly. I guess I figure if I can't sleep then Chris shouldn't sleep as well. Well that's what my brain tells me at 3 in the morning when I'm waking up b/c my nose is running. God there's nothing quite as hot as a girl with vicks vaporub smell and snot on her face. MMM MMM! I feel like Monica from that episode of friends when she's sick and Chandler won't sleep with her. Remember that one?

Posted by jen at 11:34 AM |Comments (5)

I'm gonna start out this post like so many I've read from people lately ...I feel sick.

Oh man I have that bad taste you get in your mouth when you have a sore throat. I woke up and my neck felt all fat and swollen and I had a sore throat. I made the mistake of going to the store and getting these ass flavored lozenges. They work when I'm sucking on them, but they taste BAD! I'm not sure which is worse, the sore throat taste or the lozenge taste.

I'm faced with the dilemma of feeling bad, but only having worked at my current job for less than a month, therefore, unable to call out. So I'll probably spend much of this weekend sleeping and knitting.

Knitting meetup tonight! I kind of bailed on the felted clogs - I have half of one done and can't bring myself to make the other. Maybe I can work on it tonight. As I spread the germs...uh, love...at knitting group.

Posted by jen at 03:06 PM |Comments (4)

Despite the fact that I was up to my eyeballs in stupid copy edits to make last night for work, I made my way to the grocery store. (Which is conveniently next to Jo-Ann Fabrics, so I could buy some craft crap I needed)

My new job is a lot closer to home and the grocery store and all so now when I get there, it's of the hour that a lot of other people are there. There are moms with their kids and women with their begrudging boyfriends. I happened to witness a whole lot of bitching at the store last night.

One exchange went like this.

Mom: I don't trust these kosher symbols! If it's not kosher they're going to make me take it back.
kid fidgets and scowls
Mom: STOP FIDGETING! HELP ME LOOK FOR KOSHER SYMBOLS!!
kid lays on floor of store
Mom: (Even louder than before) GET UP OFF THE FLOOR! GET UP OFF THE FLOOR! WE DON'T LIE ON THE FLOOR IN STORES! GET UP!

Whoa man. That kid's mom was a BITCH! I wanted to give the kid a knowing glance that said "someday you can trash the house when she goes away on vacation to get back at her for this." But I was afraid of the mom as much as he was. She was already giving me dirty looks.

Then there was the lady with her boyfriend who was arguing with him that she doesn't like bumble bee tuna she likes (more shouting) "CHUNK WHITE ALBACORE TUNA! CHUNK WHITE ALBACORE TUNA!"

Man, people loose their shit in the grocery store. It's so funny! I know of at least one occasion when I got in a fight with Chris at the grocery store and I'm still embarassed about it to this day. We were that couple. Ew.

Posted by jen at 09:03 AM |Comments (5)

First, here is the picture of Mary-Frances' scarf that I couldn't find the file for...

So...The yarn is Patons Classic Woll Merino in "worn denim." The scarf is the pattern from SNB Nation - the Basketweave Scarf.

I got together with my girlfriends from college this weekend for our annual Christmas party. I can't believe I've known these ladies for 8 years. We drank a LOT of beer and ate a lot of food. The theme was home-made gifts, so of course I knitted them gifts. My friend Julie took another route and made us pet rocks!

I gave out some handknit gifts to all the girls...

Caryn got her handknit hat, shelly got her ribbon scarf, lisa got a mohair scarf, jackie got some woolease and fun fur mittens and julie got a fun fur and cotton black scarf.

I think everyone liked their gifts. I hope to put up some details and the pictures in my flicker gallery.

I had lots of fun with my girls. We've known each other forever and make fun of each other and laugh a lot when we get together. And we're all very different. Sometimes when I think about it, it amazes me that we're all friends.

Anyways, gotta go watch the season premiere of CARNIVALE. I like that show a lot even though I have no idea what's going on!

Posted by jen at 08:47 PM |Comments (2)

So I talked about some knitting pictures...

I took a picture of the basketweave scarf I'm working on for my friend Mary-Frances. Actually, I don't think I've mentioned to her the yarn or pattern I ended up picking for her (it's not a gift, so I can tell her ahead of time.) I can't remember the brand off the top of my head, but it's a merino blend. Anyway - I can't remember what I named the file, so I can't find the picture on my server. Damn. I'll have to post it tonight.

So, here's a needle case I sewed the other night.

It's a little sloppy but it works. It holds all my needles neatly in one place. The picture is blurry!

I saw the movie "The Secret Lives of Dentists" last night. I thad a couple of my favorite actors in it - Hope Davis and Robin Tunney (even if she only had a small role). It was interesting. Dennis Leary was even tolerable in it. I would reccommend watching it on the Sundance channel like I did or renting it on NetFlix. I think Hope Davis is pregnant in it, but they try to hide it, or I don't know if it's supposed to be part of the story. They do a lot of waist up shots.

Which reminds me of other favorite movies starring these people - Cherish, Next Stop Wonderland, Daytrippers. I have to re-rent those and watch them again.

Posted by jen at 10:28 AM |Comments (0)

That there, my friends is Rodney Yee in my favorite yoga position - Warrior Two. One of my new years resolutions is to spend more time with him. I have some of his yoga tapes and I was doing them pretty steady for a while - but stuff got in the way. I've actually been doing yoga on and off since middle school - never in classes, mostly by myself and at first by using this book. So anyway I gotta get back on the mat. I'm okay at it. I want to get better so I'm going to try and do some yoga - spend some quality time with Rodney - every day. I know I've written about Rodney before. Its weird.

I guess I'm kind of into that holistic crunchy stuff. I eat a lot of veggie burger type foods - a ton of soy. I'm soyariffic. Some think I'm vegetarian, but I'm not. I eat meat. I'm Filipino. I'm not sure you can be a vegetarian and be Filipino - it's illegal or something.

Anyway - some more resolutions:

• Eat less crap (I could go into more deail, but do you really care?)


• Quit the social smoking crap


• Stick to the budget Chris puts me on (Don't think I have much choice in that one)


• Write the great American novel

I have some knitting photos for tomorrow - but my camera's about to die...Gotta get back to watching my least favorite actress - Jennifer Garner - on Alias.

Posted by jen at 10:08 PM |Comments (4)

So this is how I sit at home when I blog - laptop on my lap. I was pondering if this is frying my eggs, in other words, if having your laptop on your lap has an effect on your reproductive system as it might be for a guy...Oh well, I'll have to start using the coffee table.

Chris got a gameboy (advance...sp) for Christmas and it's his new favorite toy. This is what he's usually doing when I'm blogging or whatever on the computer.

This weekend was pretty low key after new years - I baked a bunch of macaroni and cheese, the baking of which was prompted by my friend having a baby. See I wanted to make something that she and her husband could pop in the oven since they're uber busy with said new baby. Chris' mom's recipe for mac and cheese is enough to clog an artery just by looking at it, but boy is it yummy. I even ate a little despite my stomach's disdain for dairy.

Tracy's baby is adorable, but super fussy so they're stressed out new parents. Hopefully the mac and cheese will bring them some comfort amoung the crying.

Posted by jen at 07:54 AM |Comments (5)

Won't you join me in my new home? Come on over people and read me here! Here at my new website.

Oh it's exciting that Chris bought me this website for Christmas! Yay! I'm "bigtime" now!

So last night was quite a night filled with drinking, dancing, and even some highly amusing confessions from friends. I, however, have no photographic evidence since I forgot my dang camera. Which is a shame 'cause I looked HOT! (hee hee)

But basically we went to one of those "pay $30 and drink til your face falls off" things at a local club (and I use the word club in the loosest sense of the term).There was a DJ and I just can't help shaking my ass when someone plays Justin TImberlake and so I danced and I tried to get our friends to dance with me and was slightly successful.

Some hightlights from the night:

• If I am not mistaken, at some point a friend of mine, fueled by alcohol, basically told me he was in love with me. He told me in a very John Hughes, I'm Andrew McCarthy, you're Molly Ringwald, I'm totally serious, kind of way. It was funny. I'm sure it's going to come back and bite him in the ass since I've told everyone else. They'll make fun of him mercilessly. Aw, I mean, who ISN'T in love with me? From that last statement you can see I am quite in love with myself.


• One of our gay friends told me that if he was with two women that would be like being with a man. i.e. two women equal one man for him. Good to know.


• Chris gave our friend Mark the "people's elbow"


• Four of us girls climbed into bed with our friend Phil who was passed out. So passed out, in fact, that four girls jumping on his bed giving him wet willies didn't wake him up.

All in all, a stellar new year. Tonight we're gonna catch up with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Oh! My good friend Tracy had a baby on Thursday - Cassidy Ann(e). What an adorable name. I like Tracy so much that I don't even care that she totally stole my baby name for when I have a baby. (Well she didn't know it was my name. That's part of my strategy.) I can't wait to see the baby.

I gave up on the lace scarf I was working on, ripped it out and now I'm doing a basketweave pattern instead. I had to concentrate too hard on the lace!

Anyway - happy new year to all!

Posted by jen at 02:37 PM |Comments (5)