I've actually managed to find time to view a couple of movies that I've been meaning to watch off the netflix list.

Alright - I thought this movie would be really stupid. And it was, but it was also really funny. I'm sure there are many of you who will disagree with me, but the damn movie was funny. I think they did a very authentic representation of NJ cops. I recommend it for a night where you might end up watching reruns of Friends instead. It's worth renting. I even thought the menu on the DVD was amusing.

As for music - I got the new Fiona Apple album. I'm still giving it a few trial runs before I decide whether or not I like it.

I also got Iron and Wine Woman King. I did not like this album upon first listen, but after listening to it again, in the comfort of my home, I do like it alot. A whole lot.

I watched the american version of the office.

This guy:

Doesn't quite do this guy justice:

It just isn't as funny watching the American guy put a stapler in a jello mold. And the boss isn't as believable as a complete jackass as Ricky Gervais. I will say that this American version is okay - better than I thought it would be. It's probably hysterical if you haven't seen the BBC version. My loyalty lies with the original but I'll probably watch it, since it's on after another of my favorite shows - Scrubs.

Posted by jen at 05:38 PM |Comments (6)

So I know I haven't been as diligent with the blogging as usual - but I have a good excuse. I have a cold.

You know how supposedly Eskimos (Inuits?) have 100 words for snow? I have 100 words for snot. I'm sick a lot - I don't usually get the blown out, flu-type sick, but I'll just get a runny nose for a week, or a sore throat - but only in the mornings. You get the idea.

Well I actually am sick this time, but I have too much going on at work to call out. I had a client visit today. I got through it with some "severe cold" pills. I'm doing pretty good now - flying the high that is cold medicine. Man I'm tryng not to be whiney. Bleh.

Chris was nice and made me a PB&J sandwich. There is no weight watchers when I'm sick. Sorry gut - you'll have to wait a few days to shrink.

Posted by jen at 08:14 PM |Comments (2)

I never made it to the other knitting group on Thursday. My schedule's too crazy and I ended up working late so I couldn't go. I really do want to check it out, but it doesn't seem to work out ever,so I'm wondering if there's some reason I never make it! Anyway - there's always next week.

I started a few baby projects. One baby girl sweater and one baby boy blanket. Both are slow going right now since I'm working so much, but here they are:

The baby blanket is made out of LionBrand Homespun Baby. It's the diagonal pattern from the Lionbrand site.

The baby sweater (doesn't look like much yet) is knit in once piece and seamed up the sides. It's Lionbrand babysoft.

Yay knitting.

Posted by jen at 10:54 PM |Comments (0)

So I'm back from another busy weekend. My posting on here has been a little sporadic due to craziness this weekend. I'll start with Friday.

We went up to see my friend Jackie on Friday because it was her birthday recently.

Here we are in Vegas on a sunny day (it's miserable here today).

So anyway, we went up there and had dinner and ended up having a few beers at the bowling alley but not bowling, because 1. we're old; and 2. I hate bowling, and 3. Jackie has a mild case of malaria (not really, but she is really sick). I spent much of the evening telling her that 27 is when you start feeling old.

Now I am sick. But I'm at work with deadlines looming. I was having a dream about lima beans this morning and couldn't get up, but now here I am...with a mild case of malaria myself. Bleh.

Other things I did this weekend:

Shawn and Amy came up again for Saturday. We had some beers and hung out on Saturday.

Sunday was the big Easter egg hunt at Chris parents. Take 9 kids and pump them full of sugar. Add one crazy tiny dog. Shake it up. Pour into a chilled glass. You have a chaos cocktail. Actually, there was minimal crying and fighting amoung the kids this year. They had a ton of candy and I ate my weight in yummy food.

Then we came in and watched the season finale of Carnivale. It was so good! I can't wait for next season. I was a little disappointed in the confrontation between the two main characters, but oh well.

Okay, back to work - my nose is running.

Posted by jen at 08:46 AM |Comments (3)

The day is dragging by today. I can't wait to get out of here and go eat some of my mom's food for dinner. I've been ravenously hungry today. Did you ever have one of those days where you feel like eating lunch immediately following breakfast, and then eating a snack after that and then eating lunch #2 - you get the idea.

Sometimes I blame this. I have this and it acts up once in a while, making my heart beat really fast, and my stomach super hungry. Then I go to the doctor and s/he gives me medicine and I feel better. Or it could be that I'm incredibly bored and SO HUNGRY.

So I'm sitting here daydreaming about food. The snack I eat that grosses Chris out the most is fat free cool whip (out of the freezer, not fridge) on graham crackers. It's like a fake ice cream sandwich. He says I'm eating plastic. I also like to eat fluffer nutters. MMMMM! Haven't had one of those in a while. And sometimes like Carrie Bradshaw I'll eat a stack of saltine crackers with jelly. God I'm just making myself more hungry.

Posted by jen at 03:48 PM |Comments (4)

Tonight seemed like a good night for some retail therapy. Tomorrow is my nephew's birthday and I had to go out and get him a present. I opted for the game store gift card. The kid loves him some video games and who am I to argue?

Along the way I managed to pick up some great clearance deals from Banana and then used a gift card from Christmas to pick up the ultra cutest denim jacket ever from another mall store.

I am also in love with these:

But can't justify the expense. But damnit I love 'em.

I have an obsession. They're my obsession...who do you want me to be to buy these sneakers for me???

Other than that the week is creeping on like any other week. Tomorrow - to my mom's for the nephew's birthday. Then Thursday I'm going to check out another knitting group that meets by my house. We'll see how that goes.

Posted by jen at 11:50 PM |Comments (5)

We registered this weekend. No one told me that registering would be this much fun. It's like crack. I think we registered for too much stuff and people will think we're a******s for asking for such expensive stuff, but you only get married (hopefully) once and I've been to a million showers and purchased gifts so...We tried to register for stuff in a variety of price ranges so people didn't have to break the bank.

Anyway, that's our china pattern up there. I'm sure you're so thrilled. I won't bore you with any more details.

This weekend was pretty good. Friday we had some peeps over for dinner. I made a pork tenderloin, asparagus, and mashed sweet potatoes. Saturday we had a late lunch and walked around town, and Sunday we registered and I taught my friend Lisa how to knit. Other than that we were lazy asses all weekend.

I'm not sure how my knitting lesson went. She was knitting and purling, and doing stockinette and garter stitch by the time she left. She should be able to make a nice novelty scarf now.

Thanks for all your comments on the last post too. Chris was making gagging noises at you guys saying I'm cute. He's just jealous. Just for that I'm gonna post more cute pictures of me on here from now on.

Posted by jen at 10:14 AM |Comments (6)

Here it is:

I don't know if the picture does it justice to show you just how big this sweater is on me.

Bleh.

Posted by jen at 11:02 PM |Comments (11)

So one interesting side effect from me having to approve your comments before they go up is that they don't get emailed to me anymore. I'll work it out. But if I haven't emailed you back from your comments recently, it's because of that.

Last night Chris and I checked out the two story mega bookstore by our house and I bought this book:

I consider myself a small small microscopic step above a "beginner" but all of her other baby knit books involve cables and fair isle and I just don't feel like concentrating that hard on a garment that a baby will probably wear once and then promptly puke on.

In other kniting news, I finished the sweater. I am putting together a package to this woman:

Because she is the only woman I know big enough to fit in it. The damn sweater is huge. HUGE! I knew it would be once I finished the body, but I figured I'd just keep going. It's so large. I'll take a picture of it tonight, but I'll need to find Chyna so she can model it.

Posted by jen at 08:40 AM |Comments (3)

I knew this day would come eventually - spam comments.

I'm getting some spam comments on this blog, so starting now, the first time you comment after this post, I will have to approve you before it shows up. After that, your comments should show up automatically.

Sorry to hold up the process but it prevents you from having to see online (insert service here)'s comments mixed in with yours.

Posted by jen at 08:53 AM |Comments (5)

So here's a few facts about the new place:

- Our pet spider seems very happy here. Much much happier than at the house in Trenton:

- There is a TCBY approximately one mile away. Chris and I enjoy the TCBY. (Oh yeah Weight Watchers people - a kiddie size TCBY yogurt is 1 point - bring on the yogurt.)

- My plants are just as sad here as they were in Trenton, but I'm hoping to do a better job at taking care of them. From left to right there's a Christmas cactus, an orchid, and a sad, sad, spider plant.

- The cooking in this house is really good. I don't know if it's the fact that my commute no longer sucks the life out of me, or the electric versus gas stove, but we've been making some good stuff. Tonight I made two recipies out of this book:

The potato florentine soup and the lemony tofu. The soup was really good and easy to make and the tofu is really really good. I've been trying to figure out how to make tofu and this is a good recipe.

But isn't this a knitting blog? Yeah it is, so I'm gonna go knit so I have knitting to post about.

Posted by jen at 08:20 PM |Comments (7)

Drawers of spices, Baskets full of knitting,
Sleeping on mattresses made out of springs,
These are a few of my favorite things...

Ah - and the move is complete and we have furniture! Yay! I'm so excited.

We had a few friends stay with us over the weekend. Our friend Shawn and his wife Amy came down to stay with us while they visited with friends and family in the area. And JT came down as well. He recently moved to New York, out of no where, for a job, so he stayed over to help with the move.

Here's JT and Chris involved in their favorite form of male bonding - the XBox. That's the night before the big move, when I also took this picture of my sweater:

Continue reading "Couches with cushions, and chairs good for sitting"

Posted by jen at 09:52 PM |Comments (5)

You covet furniture.

I love this shelf.

I will buy this shelf.

I spent an unhealthy amount of time today deciding if I wanted to buy some yarn online. I decided against it. I really need to know what my next project is before I buy supplies for it.

I went to knitting last night and had a really good time. I got a lot done on the sweater and will post some pictures soon. I also cast on for a diagonal knit baby blanket when I got home for one of the ladies having a baby.

Okay - gotta get back to work.

Posted by jen at 04:07 PM |Comments (4)

Kings of Leon's new Album Aha Shake Heartbreak is rockin. I like Slow Night, So Long and The Bucket. It's chair dancing time at work, people.

Posted by jen at 09:56 AM |Comments (3)

Well everything seems okay so far on the cable front. We got the Tivo working last night and the internet was back up. My faith in the common man has been restored. I think it's kind of sad that I've been lost without the service, but once you get used to rewinding the TV so that you can prove to your boyfriend that Heather B from the first Real World really is in that virus protection software commercial, its hard to go without it.

Now we just have to set our phone up. We're trying this service. I'm a little skeptical of this whole phone-through-the-internet idea, but hopefully it will work, work well, and save us money.

On the knitting front, I joined the sleeves to the body of my sweater last night, just in time to work on it at knitting group tonight. I'll also be going to a new knitting group tomorrow night, closer to my house. It also looks like a friend of mine who I haven't seen since high school, but who I have met back up with in cyberspace will be having a baby any day now and I really should knit something for that baby, since I love babies, and I like knitting for them...Any favorite baby patterns out there??

Posted by jen at 08:42 AM |Comments (3)

Our cable/internet has been spotty at the new place lately, so I meant to reply to all your comments last night, but it had to wait til this mornning. And I haven't been able to read your blogs except here and there when I can steal five minutes at work. Damn cable.

Last night I did check out the grocery store I will be shopping at in my new neighborhood. The verdict - pretty decent. The whole store is being run by rock-and-roll teenagers. I think that's awesome. But I was thinking that when they look at me they probably see someone who falls in the same "adult" category as their parents. Because let's face it, 27 is OLD to a 16-year-old. I was thinking "hey man it was only a few years ago (okay almost 10) that I was in high school cutting school and hanging out and being a rebel. But alas they probably think I'm in a knitting group with thier mom. And I probably am! Ha!

Posted by jen at 09:05 AM |Comments (3)

I liked everyone's comments about my mom and about your moms! All of our moms seem to have a lot in common, it must be the generation. My aunt did ask me today if I lost some weight, which is good b/c she is guilty of some poking of her own. And thanks for all your comments about how I don't have to lose weight. I feel like I do, not really b/c of how I look, but because of how I feel. I don't like spending a ton of time trying on different outfits before I go out b/c everything is too small or doesn't fit right - so I really look at this as an opportunity to expand my wardrobe!

Alrighty then. We moved our ASSES off this weekend. Well really we've been moving little by little all week, but this weekend we moved everything over that we could fit in our cars and my sister's SUV. So we basically have everything here but furniture. It's interesting not having furniture. We went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff (except, of course, for the main things we went there for) and also got some of those fold out camping chairs. Mine has a built in foot rest. Really it's the lap of luxury until we get our furniture over here.

As you can tell we have internet and cable! Yay! So I can watch Carnivale tonight!

Other than moving stuff, I also went to a Beef and Beer this weekend. Do those exist outside of South Jersey? Well if they don't I'll explain that they're usually held in a VFW, they're usually a charitable event that you buy a ticket to (mine was for the Lymphoma Society) and they serve roast beef sandwiches and Miller Light. I had the good forutune to have our Beef and Beer deejayed by some middle aged man who had a range of music from the Bugle Boy of Company B to the latest Destiny's Child single. Wacky. I must say I've never really boogied down at a VFW before. There's a first time for everything!

Posted by jen at 08:40 PM |Comments (3)

This is my mom.

She's a very nice mom - even if she did poke me in the gut and tell me to "lose some of this." It was actually really funny. My mom cracks me up. I think I get my sense of humor from her. If you met her you'd probably think she's quiet and tiny and cute. And she is. But she's also funny and sarchastic. She says things like "oh Sugar" instead of "oh shit" and says "darn." Her biggest insult is calling someone a dork. She's the kind of person that its still shocking if she calls someone a bitch - because she only says it when she means it.

Anyway - I didn't want anyone to get the wrong idea about my mom. She's super cool.

Posted by jen at 11:12 PM |Comments (10)

Saw this link via Yarn Harlot's blog...

Knit to Warm Mongolia

Seems like a good reason to knit some more!

Posted by jen at 02:09 PM |Comments (0)

Ah the joys of moving. I was afraid that I was going to have to live without cable and internet for two weeks. Yes, it's the ultimate sign of laziness when you're afraid of losing cable. We had to shut it off at this house to get it turned on at the new place. But alas, even though our cable box doesn't work, we somehow still have cable and internet. I hope I'm not jinxing it.

The move continues. My back is better, thanks. Our goal is to move out all the boxes and crap that we can so that the only thing to move on moving day is actual furniture. This made us realize that we have very little actual furniture. Which, in turn, makes me want to buy furniture. But I'll save for the wedding/house fund instead.

Speaking of wedding I think I'm going to join Weight Watchers at work. I did it at my last job and liked it. I find it embarassing for some reason. Oh well. I need to lose some weight for the wedding and I'm going to join weight watchers. There, I said it. I'm going to sit in a room with some ladies and eat less every week because there's the frightening scale I have to get on. Now most of you knitting bloggers, I've noticed from your pictures, are thin and probably don't need weight watchers. Hmmm. Too bad I can't lose weight by knitting.

Posted by jen at 07:19 AM |Comments (7)

The pattern for the sweater I'm making is called "topsecret" and it's from Knitty. Yeah.

I wish I was talented enough to make up patterns! Maybe in a year or two!

:)

Posted by jen at 08:51 PM |Comments (0)

In a momentary lapse of sanity this morning, I decided to shovel the sidewalk. I actually like shoveling when there's only a few inches on the ground. I normally sit on my butt all day at work, so to get up in the morning and shovel can kind of feel good. This is not to say I enjoy all forms of phsyical exertion, but being out in the cold in the morning and shoveling is kind of nice. So I decided to shovel the sidewalk.

Then tonight we decided to move some stuff into the new condo. Unfortunately all we've packed are books and other heavy objects. So to make a long story short, I think I hurt my back. I am now on the couch with the heating pad which only adds to the grandma persona that the knitting can give me sometimes.

Speaking of knitting - this weekend we went down to Chris' parents house and I had a chance to knit in the car. Here's a picture of the Topsecret Knitty sweater so far. I layed it on top of one of my sweaters to gauge my progress.

There's Chris fighting with some wires. It's all part of this very complicated moving process.

Posted by jen at 10:16 PM |Comments (7)