Friday, November 30, 2001

Jen

I heart Mexican food. Just had quesadillas for lunch. It’s seriously the one food I just don’t get sick of. There were a couple of months where I just craved burritos. Whenever someone asked me what I wanted to eat, all I would say is ”burrito.” If I was talking to Pat, he would then usually say, “All you ever want is burritos.” So true.

Similar to Becky*, I’m hoping that Pat and I can rent Shrek tonight because I haven’t seen it yet. Yes, I do live under a rock.

Tomorrow is Gant’s 22 Birthday, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY G! I have plans to go to this club with my friend Aaron** from school. I’m really not into dressing up to go out and it's not really my thing to go clubbing, but it’s free drinks from 9-11 and we will be in the VIP room, so I don’t want to turn it down. Besides, if I do, I know Aaron will get all over my case for ditching him. Later, I’m hoping to party like a rockstar with the rest of ok+3 and Gant for birthday festivities.

I have a problem. That sounds funny. What I meant to say is that I ordered my Hey Mercedes CD from Vagrant over a month ago, and I still haven’t gotten it. I am missing out on a lot of rock, and I’m a bit pissed about it. I may have to tape it off someone until I get it. BOO!

*Meaning:staying in and renting a movie.
**AKA Wizzo.

Becky

......it's gonna take time, a whole lotta precious time. its gonna take patience and time....oh yeah.....to do it to do it to do it to do it riiiiggghhhttt........

Thats my hommage to George-its sad to see another one go.

So its Friday and the day is almost over and greg is heading to Purdue soon to rock out a show while I hang out with my friend beth, get a pizza, get a movie, get a bottle of wine (because we are high class, you know). way more fun after a busy week if you ask me (yeah, yeah, I'm no rock star :().

I'm tired. tired of being admired. tired of love uninspired. lets face it I'm pooped.

okay, I digress but can you really blame me? I just need to make it through another hour and a half. no problemo.

Jen

Well, I just saw what may or may not be our new office space. It's really cool, so I won't mind moving down there. When I say down there, the new space is located on the 2 floor of our building that we are in now. Our current lease runs out at the end of February, and they are raising the rent from $32.00 per square for to a whopping $48.00 per square foot. That's the price you pay to be on the 65th floor. Anyway, I do the books around here, and it really isn't in our budget. Our current office is pretty sweet. We have a kick ass view of the city, being up so high. The bad part is that it can take up to ten minutes to get all the way up here. I have to take two elevators and an escaltor. That is one of the reasons why I am always late to work. Or it could be the fact that I'm late everywhere I go even if there isn't two elevators and an escalator.

I am so hungry! Must find lunch somewhere!

Jen

I intentionally wrote it out to be an illegible mess.

What a way to start the day: chocolate chip muffin and coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts. Their coffee is just sooooo good. Staring at the bag that the muffin came in, I’m realizing how funny it is that they put the description of what to put in the bag on the bottom. For instance, this bag can hold 2 muffins, 2-3 doughnuts, or 1 sandwich. Thank god for directions! I can see the confused Dunkin’ Donuts worker now. “Should I put this muffin into this little bag that fits it perfectly or this big bag? Wait! There are instructions on the bottom. The muffin goes in the little bag!”

We had a strange and revolving group at wings last night. When a few people would leave, new people would come and replace them. It was a lot of fun, although we did get a “chicken ankle” on the wings platter. No one would touch the thing because it was so mutant-like. Leave it to Gant to finally eat it. It was not a pretty sight.

Question: After hearing from George of Champainful, I’m realizing that there had to be a handful of bloggers at the Plan show on Sunday. Isn’t that strange? We all kind of know each other on some level, and we are all in the same room and didn’t even know it. We really should have had some big blogger party . . . Anyway, am I thinking too much? Probably so. So who was there? Just curious.

I have to concentrate on work! It's just so hard because it's Friday and there are approx. 80 million things I rather be doing. At least I get a small office excursion in about 10 minutes. Excellent.

okay, he's back now. what a rock star!!!

Becky

boo on the network being down!

boo on greg for recording the entire night (and morning-aren't you done yet?)!!

yay for friday!!

Thursday, November 29, 2001

I spoke too soon.

Jen

Oh yeah, we have a new link on the side. Take a little look if you have time.

Where the hell is everyone? Hmmmm?

mack-a-lacka-shoo

so much research today. i've spent the last 8 hours figuring out the history of this one company based solely on pieces of information on the web. it's not as fun as it sounds.

beck's interweb has been down all day and so has she. it's hard to get through the day without your dose of blog. blog good. like cypro.

tonight i record. good thing i took tomorrow off, cause we don't even start in the studio until 10. i probably won't be to bed before 4. and that's if we're quick.

i hope to blog from the studio if i get a chance, so maybe i'll see you tonight.

Jen

What a day this has been, what a rare mood I’m in. Why it’s almost like being in love.

Look what I’m down to! I'm quoting lyrics from musicals. (Imagine disappointed head shake here.)

If I remember correctly, Greg had this weird roommate his first year at U of I that only listened to musicals. This guy also had a strange green polyester robe that I tried to make Greg wear, but he wouldn’t. Party pooper!

The past thee days have been very productive in the Grad school world. Even though I got approximately 3 ½ hours of sleep Monday night/Tuesday morning, my paper topic went over well. I even managed to go to yoga Tuesday night.

So, I’m sleeping so very peacefully Tuesday night, having some crazy dream and I hear “This can’t be happening!” and “I don’t have time for this bullshit!” I think it's apart of my dream, but really, it’s Gant talking out loud, really loud. Anyway, a bit later, Gant knocks on my door to ask me if we have a plunger. Still in my dreamlike state, I say no, cause we don’t.

Next day, I wake up to find a note on the toilet that says, “I’m broken.” BOO! So, like the pro I am, I go and buy a damn plunger and fix the toilet. Don't have a colossal crap if you can’t fix it. Just kidding.

Jenny like-y. Jenny want wing-y! (Hint to Becky that we are still on for Fizz.)

Wednesday, November 28, 2001

Becky

this day has been long and busy and I ate way too much food at lunch. we had a luncheon for some people who are retiring (aka forced to retire when the layoffs came about)-I bought the gift for the administrative assistant who has been here for 35 years. 35 years!! that is so long to be in one place! anyways I got her some waterford crystal stuff and it was a hit so i did a good job. yay for me.

I'm going shopping for my cat after work. I have to reward her for being the best cat in the world (seriously she is super friendly and cute and nice)!

Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Jen

Tee-hee. I'm in the grad room on the one computer we have in here, using it for selfish purposes. That's why I can't write much.

Poor Becky. Damn car. Cute car, but damn it!

Becky

I hate Mondays. Especially Mondays that turned out like the one yesterday did.

Work was annoying, I was tired, blah blah blah that's the usual stuff. I went to get a new battery in my watch after work and found out it is broken and will cost about the same amount as the watch did to fix it. boo. Then I went to the VW dealership (thank god that Greg cam so that I didn't die (literaly) last night) to get my 30,000 mile checkup. Like 2 hours later they tell me that the oil pan is broken or some BS like that but they will cover it under warrenty (yeah, that expired like 6,000 miles ago so they must have f'ed something up). still had to pay $50 for the other stuff.

Finally get the car and ready to go home and forget about the day. I pull the car out of the parking lot and while I was turning right onto a busy street THE BRAKES DID NOT WORK!!!!!! Like I know what to do in this situation!! thank god there was not a car there and greg was there to stop my car with his hands after gliding it onto a side street. double boo. air in the brake lines-whatevs, I hate it there. I wished that I was more of a bitch and got all in their faces and all but I was too upset and tired and I just wanted to go home.

Anyways, it's fixed now and we finally got home and had a nice dinner and I passed out on the couch. exciting.

Today is looking better already.

ps-thanks again



Monday, November 26, 2001

Jen

Sunday, of course, was an evening with the Plan at the Metro, along with some familiar faces. Here is my normal post-show list:
1) Ted Leo: He does rock, but I think we rock in different directions. Basically, I’m trying to say he’s good but not my thing. There is a lot of hair in that band, a lot.
2) Who was that guy that called the city of Chicago a “sea of vanillas” or something like that? Kind of annoying if you ask me. Anyway, we were told the Plan would rock our asses from here all the way to Bolivia. So very true . . .
3) As usual, the Plan kicked ass. They played mostly stuff from Emergency and I and Change. All the new stuff was really tight though. Let’s think. There are a total of 5 Plan albums, including the EP. Funny how these were the only older songs played: First Anniversary of your Last Phone Call (which rocks out way harder than the recorded version off the Ice of Boston EP), Ice of Boston (the Ok’s fav New Years Eve Song), Onward Fat Girl (which makes me wonder how they can play such an offensive (but so, so good) song, in such a PC world), Do the Standing Still, and the well-loved, Ok, Jokes Over.* This last song leads me to #4.
4) What band can quote Bootylicious by Destiny’s Child other than The Plan?**
5) We heart Travis.

There were also the strange shirtless boy and the stupid dancers on the stage (I believe Travis called them his “pips”) which Becky already covered. They get a “boo” from me.

So, I was thinking . . . what five albums would I want with me on a deserted island?*** Definitely Smoking Popes live would make the cut. It’s so hard to pick four more. Hmmm . . . .

*These, except First Anniversary, are usually played at shows. I would kill to hear Ex-Quaker or Since You Died live.
**You may e-mail me if you have an answer.
***As Becky mentioned last week.

h to izzo

i would like to point out that the pizza delivery girl was writing a screenplay not a novel. let's get these things right people. look to okplusthree for your weekly porn reviews. just kidding.

since i mentioned the word porn, i know some person is going to end up here after searching for porn and some strange word. like our earlier visitor who was searching for drunk girls. we've got two drunk girls right here.

i did miss the d-plan show. and i did spill hot sauce from a burrito all over my pants. and zach was very dissappointed in me. in the words of the simpsons, i'm a living joke.

time to pretend to work and read cnn.com instead.

oh! I totally forgot about those chicks on stage at the plan show? what was with that? it was very distracting...... there were also a few people in the audience who took their shirts off (all male thankfully)-I guess that is what the plan will do to you (?)

I have to apologize to greg for selling him out at the show last night and telling everyone about the "hot sauce incident" and how he had to stay home and do laundry. for his defense I do have to say that he was supposed to be in the recording studio...... I would've made something up but I have the problem where I am really bad at lying.

sorry!

Jen

Come on baby, was it something I said.

Rock, rock and more rock.

It’s been so long! A full 7 days without blogging! I made many attempts to get an ISP and log on from home, but alas, they failed. Pat’s friend, Mike, burned me a copy of Net Zero that doesn’t work for some reason. I even wrote a blog while I was installing the disk on Friday morning. Boo.

It was an excellent weekend/Thanksgiving Holiday. I was pretty shocked at the turnout at Gant and my impromptu day-after-Thanksgiving-gathering. What started as a few friends coming over to hang out turned into a party. I have many incriminating pictures of drunk friends.

Saturday was another recording day for the boys. Yay for free shirts! I got a bunch of photos of the new Greg in the band, so I feel ready to start the design work for the CD. I also got my ass kicked by Brian in Play Station 2 Football.* I never let him gain any ground on the field though. I also have no idea what I’m talking about because I know nothing about football.

Oh, and yet again, there was a mini-party in the studio, with much too much porn on the TV. Who has sex with their pizza delivery woman while she is writing a novel?

Later, I forced Pat to see this movie with me. I love it. Don’t hate me, please.

Back later with highlights from the show.

*It was conveniently set up in one of the rooms in the studio.

Becky

Boo for working!! Boo for getting up at 6am!! but ya gotta make a living, right?

sorry about the hiatus over the holiday-it was a busy 4 days and not a whole lotta resting going on. Jen had a KA impromptu party happening on frday night, RaxTrax is a fun place to hang out at and it was the warmest weather for thanksgiving then I ever remember, really.

Happy bday to Tina Tiner (aka annie bullock (wierd, huh?)), 63!!!!

ps-the d-plan rock as usual and travis is H-O-doubleT, even with his beatles hair.

Wednesday, November 21, 2001

Becky

Headstands!! Headstands!! We did headstands!!!

Okay, this is a monumental feat that happened in yoga class last night. First Jen and then me-we both actually did headstands (the might have been against a wall but its still hard!)! and of course there is a story involved.......

A few months ago we were instructed on how to do headstands against the wall in class. I was not very graceful in lifting up my legs, so I just kindof threw them up there to try to get started (kindof like a kid would do), and then my teacher yelled at me in front of the whole class and I was really embarrased and swore that I would never try to do a headstand again.

Fastforward to last night and we are back in headstand mode. I get into position and pretend to try and then come back down (meanwhile Jen is doing it on her own-go Jen!!), so mary comes up to me.......
Mary: Did you do it becky?
me: no, I tried but I can't do it. I need to do more work-but I can do a tripod!
Mary (in a very stern, demanding voice): try it again. I want to see you do it.
me: (whimper) okay.......
so I try and I can't get my feet off the ground, so she reached down, readjusts my head and suddenly my legs are going up and I am in a headstand! yay!!

this story is brought to you courtesy of NU Yoga-please go there and have mary teach you even if she is about tough love sometimes.....

ps: Happy birthday to Bjork! also a lovely 36! (I wonder if her and mike d. ever have bday parties together.....)

Tuesday, November 20, 2001

woohoo!! My car insurance rates actually went down!! If you live inthe city of chicago and own a car you know that it costs ridiculous amounts of money to insure it. It is one of the few reasons that I envy my friends that live in the suburbs (that and living closer to work is about it though).

If I didn't live in the city I would never have met crazy mary at yoga who Jen and I are going to visit tonight for a little stretching and relaxation!

ps-old metal power ballads are funny to talk about and all but it gets bad when the words "nothing lasts forever, in the cold November rain" do not leave your head all day!!!

Becky

Happy birthday to Mike D* (as in diamond) who turns a lovely 36 today.

Can you believe that the beastie boys are that old? I'll never forget my 6 grade graduation party where these two guys in my class came dressed at the beasties (from the License to Ill days) and put on a performance of Paul Revere and I thought that was the coolest thing I had ever seen in my life.

I know that people have their opinions about the beastie boys and their opinions about the beastie boys' opinions (and they have lots of them), but they have done alot of cool stuff and I would still list Pauls Boutique as of the albums I would choose if I was exiled to a desert islands and had to choose only 5 albums to take with me. I'll have to think about the others for now as when I made that initial list a few year ago I was listening to alot of different stuff than I am right now......

greg? jen? anybody? top five albums right now??

*is your name michael diamond? naw, mine's clarence.

Monday, November 19, 2001

Becky

pps-today in 1990, Milli Vanilli were stripped of their grammy. oh, the memories......

I still have the tape and I'll tell you that some of those songs have a pretty good beat to them!

Jen

Check out the new link on the side! Question: How can you not read a blog with a name like Air Guitar Boulevard?

Jen

Was it worth the wait?

So, what did you do this weekend?

Yes, I did go to Superchunk. This is what I think. If you went to the show knowing that their newer stuff is a bit mellower than their old stuff, and that you probably won’t rock out like you did last time, then you will not be disappointed. Unfortunately, I was not thinking this. I’m not saying it was a bad show, because it was good. It just wasn’t what I expected. Here are 3 tidbits from the show.
1) There is a new addition to the band- she may just be touring with them, I don’t know. Anyway, she plays an electric acoustic. I like it.
2) Don’t stand next to people that you don’t necessarily like even if your boyfriend does. Especially bitter ones that don’t even clap after songs and repeatedly call the show lame. Boo to those kind of people.
3) I knew there was rock in them yet! Leave it to Superchunk to do a full-on rock out cover of Born to Run, by the Boss. They invited all the folks backstage to come and dance on stage while they played. To quote Greg: “Rocktastic!”

I’m back at work this fine, but chilly Monday. I have a huge stack of papers to file on my desk. If only they* knew about the stack hidden in my desk drawer . . . Tee-hee.

I am completely and utterly looking forward to a three day work/school week. It’s about time for a holiday! Remember when you were in Grammar school? You’d get holidays like Columbus Day and Pulaski Day off from school. Now, I’m thankful that I don’t have to work on New Years Eve.

*Meaning, boss, other people in this office, etc.

Becky

I tried to blog from home, I really really did!! But as many of you would agree with, AOL sucks hardcore and kicks you off all of the time for no good reason.

It's a 3-day week but I'm sick of work already! I think I have a case of the mondays........

Nothing too exciting for the weekend, but saturday night was kinda funny..........I went to this bar call Matilda's on Sheffield and Barry which is right by the Vic (a music venue/brew and view). Well it was a total artsy/yuppie bar (you had to be 23 to enter-good thing I tunred 23 last weekend!) so it was kindof a wierd crowd. The wierdest part was there was a whole bunch of heavy metal lovin-long hair-leather jacket and chains kinda folk just chillin there. we were very confused until some other friends show up and tell us that there was a Queensryche (or however you spell it) concert earlier in the night down the street and everything suddenly made sense.

ps-happy bday to Larry King, 68

Friday, November 16, 2001

yay!! blogging from home is cool!!!

u of i basketball is also cool and kicks the shite out of gonzaga.

hey,hey,hey, it's greg. me and beck are drunk at 9:30 for no reason. we're watching the untouchables. i only have one thing to say. -edited for politeness- what's wrong with me?

Jen

I love the fact that my boss has two grandkids. I spent the past ten minutes folding dollar bills into rings for them.

Only 43% emo. Thanks for the link, Brian, and whomever you got it from and so on.

Bye

Becky

Birthday's:

Lisa Bonet: 34

Marth Plimpton: 31

Oksana Baiul: 24

happy weekend!


Jen

FYI: Dunkachino: 75 cents good, 24 cents evil.

This has improved greatly from the initial rating of 49 cents good, 50 cents evil.

Last week Tuesday, I spent about 3 hours in the library researching my Bibliography and Research Paper. Anyway, I didn’t have any breakfast or lunch, because I was in a rush the whole day. After researching, I walk past a Dunk’n’Donuts and see the ad. It’s nearly impossible for me to pass up a 99 cent beverage. All I can say is, it was damn good, but it gave me a terrible, painful stomachache.

Like a lab rat, I didn’t learn my lesson and had another one two days later. This time I had a small snack prior to drinking one. I only get a partial stomachache, therefore increasing the ratio to 60 cents good, 39 cents evil.

My recent testing yesterday brought it up to the current ratio. They are still a little too sweet for me. Eat food before drinking those damn Dunkachinos. They are lethal if you don’t.

PS. Duh, I knew Beck didn’t have the chocolate drink but the sweet-tartness of the Hawaiian Sunset. Also paruparu, if I’m even spelling it right, means weak. Kinda like Greg. He he. Kidding.

I've added okplusthree to the NormalBLARG ring. i like to think of them as the anti-atr ring. in other words we all have representative pictures posted on our sites. if you got here from the ring, let us know. we'll link ya if ya want. which reminds me, i gotta update those links. i got some new one's to add.

how's everyone's day going? mine's fine but i'm itching to get out of here. it's a weekend of rock bliss. 2 days of band practice. i should hate my band by the time it's over.

rock-tastic (i say that too much)

Becky

Yes, it's true. Gene and Jude's still have the best hot dogs and fries ever so I was not imagining how good it was when I was 8.

And for the record, I drank a "Hawaiin Sunset" and a "Grasshopper" last night, both of which were departures from my usual "King Kalani." I do have to say that they are all very Mai Tai*.

Tonight is some film noir with the Coen brothers and then on to beautiful Sun Prairie to try to make ammends with the 19-year-old-out-of-control-little-sis. So far on our plate is a dinner at Red Lobster and viewings of both Rushmore and White Christmas**. I never said that we weren't wierd or had good taste in seafood***.

Geez, I never used to do footnotes, but after you start you just cannot stop!!

*This means "good" according to the menu dictionary at the tikki bar
**I'll never understand how this movie became a favorite of a jewish family but that bing crosby/danny kaye combo is good stuff
***meaning my sister. I on the other hand do know that you can get much better quality seafood than what they serve at the red lob, but ya gotta please your fam, right?

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, BRIAN!!!!!

You are so old!!! Doh, I am older!

Sorry that I forgot. I don't mean to be a hole!

Jen

Well I've never had one of these before
And it's stronger than I thought
Someone put the glass in my hand and
Romanced by the shape it was
He said rocket fuel is the key
He called it clear and hard
and it wipes me out
and it warms me up
well I hope so
cause it's bitter cold
*

Don’t be so paruparu.

At least that’s what the translation section of the Hala Kahiki menu has to say.

Last night was a nice break from the ordinary Thursday night affair. It’s been a long time since we were last at the tikki getting our favorite beverages such as the Blue Hawaii (Gant), Dr. Funk (Greg), Pina Passion (me) and some chocolate drink that I can’t remember the name of (Becky).

Oh yeah, can someone remind me that I have a huge mouth that can, and has in the past, gotten me into way too much trouble? Thanks.

Guess who is going to see Superchunk tonight? Me! Pat got us tickets, which was a pleasant surprise. I’m not too familiar with the new album, but if they put on show like the last time I saw them, I can’t imagine being disappointed.

I also finally picked up our (Becky, Gant and my) tickets for the Plan show on the 25th. Too bad that I still haven’t gotten my CD in the mail from Insound. I want ample listening time before I go to the show, you know?

On XRT today, like always, it is Double Feature Friday. Unfortunately, the bands are Dave Matthew’s Band, which everyone should know by now that I HATE**, and the Bodeans, that gets a thumb down and one waving in the middle somewhere because they don’t suck too hardcore, but I definitely wouldn’t pay a dollar to see them. (NWAD) I have a story about the Bodeans that happens to crack me up every time I think of it. So, I’m at some restaurant with Jer*** and that stupid song, Closer to Free is on. Jer says, “God, what a cocky bastard.” Why, I ask. “Listen to what he’s saying. “Everyone wants to be closer to me.” Ahh, that still makes me laugh.

Everybody one, Everybody two, Everybody . . . ME!

*This is such a good verse from Kicked In that I had to type the whole thing.
**Top three reasons why I hate Dave Matthew’s Band. 1) Do not name a band after yourself. Boo, BOO! 2) They write the same stupid songs over and over again. 3) They are sponsored by Frat boys, I have proof.
***Ex-boyfriend and currently missed friend that now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Thursday, November 15, 2001

Jen

Three Jen's in a row gets a prize.

I swear, this is the last thing I want to write today! So, I re-dyed my hair red on Wednesday. I found two little bastard gray hairs* and decided that they needed to "disappear." I have no idea why I have gray hairs at 23. Pat says it's because I killed my hair when I bleached it for those 2 years, but I don't think that has any scientific backing.

Ok, now I'm really going for the day.

*Although my sister tries to talk me into the fact that they are blonde, and not shimmering, silvery gray hairs.

Jen

Nice pick for Song 47!!!!!

Jen

Now everytime I go for the mailbox, gotta hold myself down
‘Cause I just can't wait till you write me, you're comin' around
*

I had the best critique ever in Grad Seminar this morning! Excellent! It was also what is known as a “Lecture Day” at Columbia, which means free lunch** and a guest lecturer. All of this + fucking awesome weather = Jen in grrr-eat! mood.

I’ve been working my ass off in the darkroom the past couple of nights. It has paid off. Anyway, it’s a good thing that I’ve had my dear friend, Aaron*** to keep me company. He is absolutely hilarious, and he made our last 5 hours in the color lab go so quick. Here’s a funny little thing that happened in the elevator:

Girl (coughing): Sorry guys, I’m sick.
Aaron: Got the thrax?****

This is interesting . . . How long have I had my new computer? I’d say about a month. Have I connected to the internet yet? No. How long has Becky had my old computer? Since this past Monday. Has she hooked up yet? Yes! Why am I so slow? No comment.

I get to pick up my ring tonight from the jeweler. The new diamond and setting only cost me $70, which is way worth it for sentimental value. Too bad that I can’t do anything productive with it or play any games or music on it, but that is what Greg’s new laptop is for. Of course, there is a LARGE price difference between my ring setting and a new laptop. Unless you have the laptop that I have which I picked up for sweet $100. It has games, Word and can hook up to the internet, yet my 96 year old Busia moves faster than it can. I also think my laptop weighs as much as she does.

Gene and Jude, Bring it on. Hala Kahiki . . . mmmm. . . tikki and free pretzels.

*Is it so bad to quote Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves?****
**The more important of the two.
***Once known as Wizzo.
****Do I talk about antrax too much? Especially in dialogue form? Is my song quote also some weird thrax comment?

what we talk about when we talk about love

anyone ever read that short story? it's by my favorite short fiction author, raymond carver. i highly suggest him, just stop by my place and i'll lend you a collection or two. unless you live in australia, it might be a tad more difficult then. i just said tad. i'm a big, loser dork.

what's up with the footnote within a footnote beck? very impressive.

has anyone read the book "who moved my cheese?" they tried to make me read it here at work. it is so stupid. corporations are so stupid. someone actually used the phrase "think outside the box" in a meeting on monday. people actually say that? why do people actually say that? is that supposed to motivate me? thank god i'm outta here soon.

rock-tastic.

Becky

First of all, it is summer outside today and that is awesome! It hardly ever gets this warm this time of year and I know because I used to always want to have birthday parties outside and it was very rare.

Second of all, all I can think about right now are hotdogs from the greatest hot dog stand ever*, and how we are going there tonight (luckily for me it is .25 miles away from the tikki bar which we will also be attending on this fine evening).

Third of all, Georgia O'Keefe would be 114 today if she was still alive. I know she gets some mixed reviews, but I still like the old bag.

*I was there** once when I was like 10 and I remember the hot dogs and homemade fries to this day. plus it has gotten some awesome reviews here.
**Gene and Jude's

ps-still working on trivia but haven't found anything interesting today

Wednesday, November 14, 2001

Becky

mmmm.......chai........

Did you hear that they are discontinuing the Inc. column in the Chicago Tribune? pretty sad, I tell you.

Here's a new blog feature:

Random fact of the day: Ben and Jerry's employees get 3 free pints of ice cream a day. yum.

Celebrity birthday of the day (now that you can no longer get this info from the Inc. column): Yanni, 47

ps-I know that its raining out, but do you really have to drive 35mph? I mean really people.

Tuesday, November 13, 2001

its all coming back to me now!

well, the bowl of candy has gotten to the bottom where I spotted a small box entitled "Spiderman Candy Sticks" which are basically candy cigs and are really really good!

better than the real thing, right greg?

ps-what did the skunk day when the wind shifted?

Becky

awesome idea greg! I've heard that the only business on the internet that has actually shown a profit is porn. we can be rich!!

Meanwhile I will bust my hump here in my cubible wondering what is it like outside because the closest window is 100 ft away.

I love old halloween candy that I get for free at work, especially when its laffy taffy and contains jokes. check these out:

1) what do you call a monkey who loves to eat potato chips? *

2) Why is the sun like a black eye? **

On a different note, Mjarc, you can always come to my work and do statistics. I have been slaving over them all week. any info on how to do a balanced incomplete block sensory test would be much appreciated.

I have a computer now at home thanks to Jen and her Mom and them giving me their old computer. Blogging on the weekends may soon be possible. I remember when I signed up for my phone line and the dude wanted me to get their internet service and he did not believe me when I said I didn't have a computer at home. are you sure? wait let me check....nope, still no computer-I am on one for about 9 hours a day at work so its not a big stretch.....

*A chip-munk
**Because they are both shiners
hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe


rock-tastic

that's my new word. let me know if you think it sucks.

i have been a little bad about posts here. i'm a very evil person. and i'm going to destroy jenn for making fun of me.

the party was excellent. i was very pleased and very drunk. nothing beats having all your friends in one place. especially since i don't get to hang out with them as much as i would like.

i just ordered myself a new laptop. i got a dell inspiron with a 1 gig processor and 256 meg of ram. i hope to use it start my porn empire. one day i will be bigger than hustler. maybe even jugs.

back to work. more from me later, if jenn doesn't make fun of me.

Monday, November 12, 2001

Becky

What can I say, I know how to throw a fun party, okay? (even if I passed out on the bed before the "after-hours" ended)

Thanks to everyone who attended and especially to Jen and her punch bowl!

Monday's are busy.

ps-greg seems to like wine more than beer now if you can figure that one out.

Jen

Greg hasn't blogged in awhile. I'll be him: I am so tired. I love beer. Drinky-drinky. I miss baseball. Bah.

I’m only doing this because I want you to write something.

I’m not ashamed that I want to see this movie. As a matter of fact, I’m kind of excited. I read the books, ok? OKAY? Now all I have to do is talk Pat into going with me.

I was going to have a bitch session about hypocrites due to a run-in I had Saturday night. Then I thought twice about it because I think her friend, whom I have no problems with what-so-ever, may read this. So, maybe I’ll leave that until she pisses me off again with her fakeness.

With that in mind, I guess I’ll call it a day.

Jen

Woh, half way there . . .

I finally saw the "Living on a Prayer dance" that I have been hearing so much about. It was well worth the wait. Those who were lucky enough also saw all of the moves from U Can’t Touch This and basically all of Michael Jackson’s, History. It was hilarious.

So, Becks and Greg’s party was a lot of fun, especially the “after-hours,” which included the above.

Pat and I saw my mom Saturday night for dinner. I miss her a lot. It’s strange though, because I don’t see her as often as I used to and then all of a sudden, she’s home and it feels like nothing has changed.

The next time I'll see my mom, Ted and my nerotic pooch will be for Christmas. I have to go out to Vegas, because they aren't coming home to Chicago this year. I can't even imagine Christmas without snow. I'll have to put Chistmas lights on the palm trees outside my parent's house to get some kind of seasonal effect.

Anyway, the weekend was altogether great. There was only one real low point for me. I have this claddagh ring that my mom gave to me when I turned 18 as a special reminder of my dad. Anyway, I’m washing my hands and I noticed that the setting is broken and that the diamond in the center of the ring is missing. It’s only a chip, I mean it’s barely even noticeable because it is so small. Still, the ring feels incomplete. Sound strange?

I called my sister right away when I noticed it was missing. Of course, Pawel, my brother-in-law, picks up, and when I tell him what happens, he’s says, “oh, that sucks.” Hello? Give me my sister! Anyway, she’s a great support. I give her shit a lot of the time, but really, I don’t know what I’d do without her. Like when hell hound bit me. She drove all the way into the city to pick me up and take me to the hospital. And she hates driving down by where I live. Then she waited with me for five hours in the waiting room. I’m really lucky to have such a tight family.

Work, work, work. I did not want to come in today, but then again, what else is new? I wonder how everyone else is doing . . .

Friday, November 09, 2001

Jen

Ha, Ha! Funny story! So, I’m in the elevator and there is this bike messenger that starts talking to me. I’m in one of those please-don’t-talk-to-me-this-morning-because-I-am-running-late-and-feeling-shitty-about-it-moods, and he says:

Bike messenger: We need to catch those guys that are sending us the amtrax.
Me: What?
B.M.: You know, the amtrax.
Me: Like trains?
B.M.: No. You know, the amtrax they keep sending us in the mail.
Me: . . . Oh yeah, amtrax.

I only said amtrax because I would feel like a hole correcting the guy. Amtrax is pretty darn close to Anthrax. I can only image what the other guy in the elevator was thinking about our conversation.

Speaking of Anthrax and other terrorist situations, I was practically frisked when entering the Sears Tower to go to my favorite card shop, Rocs. They made me unzip my jacket and hold it open so they could make sure I didn’t have anything on me. Going from my building to Rocs takes, at most, five minutes. Due to the security lines in the Sears, it took me ten extra minutes. I guess it’s worth it for the extra security, right?

I just checked out three new blogs: One being Henry’s Diary (thanks to the Panaphobics), another Air Guitar Boulevard and the last being Kyle in Lo-Fi. I’ve just started looking so I don’t have too much to say yet, but check them out if you are like me. That is, at work, with stuff to do but avoiding it all costs because that would mean I’d have to do something boring and job related.

So tonight’s the party, and I’m pretty excited. No Margarita Party Ball, but lots of Margaritas. Go figure.

Happy Birthday again, guys.

I'm outta here. Not actually out of work, but blogging for the day.

Becky

Party Tonight!! Rocktastic.

Is it 4 yet?

Jen

All I've got is a photograph, but it's not enough.*

Yeah, so I did a whole lot of nothing yesterday, but that’s cool with me. I watched a lot of TV. Actually, I haven’t watched that much TV in awhile. 3 straight hours. Ugh. I felt so terrible after I realized how long I was sitting there, that I decided to clean. I needed to get up and do something. Either that or have my ass flatten out like a pancake.

After cleaning, I spent a lot of time going through old photographs that were given to me when my parents moved. For awhile when I was in high school, my step dad’s grandma, making her technically, my great grandmother, lived with us. We call her Busia, which is grandma in Polish, I think. Anyhow, she was nuts. She would “iron” clothes without the iron plugged in. She would sneak food from the pantry and when you asked her what she was doing, with her mouth full, she’d say, “nothing.” Of course, she is very old (I believe she is now 96) which gives her an excuse.

Anyway, she made my life suck for two years. Not because we didn’t get along but when you’re in high school, and your parents are out of town, you want to have friends over. You can’t do that with a 80-something-year old Busia hanging about. Or you can and just freak the hell out of her.

The point of all this is, when she moved, she left two large boxes of photos at my house. We didn’t find them until my parents started packing. We were going to see if she wanted them, but we figured she probably didn’t care about them anymore really. Maybe that’s not the right assumption, but she hasn’t asked about them since she moved out. I’m figuring that she forgot about them.

The photographs are incredible. One album is from 1932-1937. Another one is of some relative of mine, name unknown to me, stationed in Alaska in 1944. The pages are so old and fragile that they crumble between your fingers. I wore bags on my hands to keep my skin’s oil off of them. I’d hate to destroy them before their time. It was quite amazing to flip through them, looking at weddings, holidays and everyday events of people who I didn’t know and yet I had their memories.

Ok, so maybe it wasn’t a whole lot of nothing.

*Yeah, so I quoted Def Leppard. I’ll admit it, I used to like them, like when I was 7! So there.

Thursday, November 08, 2001

Jen

How did I get back down to 9th place in Fantasy Football? Oh yes, that’s right. I suck. Scooter, it looks like we are the match-up this week. Ready to go?

Gant and I made this incredible apple pie last night. I accidentally put in a little too much cinnamon . . . I have a problem with directions. I bet you are thinking, “there is no such thing as too much cinnamon!” Exactly!

The week has been pretty mellow. Lost of reading, researching and studying happened, and little real action. The weekend seems packed, especially with the B & G B-Day celebration happening tomorrow night. Hopefully, we can get some “Margarita Party Ball” action going on.

Saturday, my mom is in town on business, so we are going to dinner. I’m pretty excited to show her how much my apartment has changed, especially the new computer set-up.* It’s enough to make a proud mother cry.

My new scanner kicks ass, and I am hoping to use it to better this otherwise very interesting blog set up that we have now. Where the hell is our notebook? Sometimes it’s there and other times it’s not!

Beck- I love the Dilbert/Yoga comics. Yes, I do think you need to work in an office to fully appreciate them.

Since I’m all over the place on this blog, it may be best to call it a day. Tomorrow, the boss is out of town, so I have full blogging abilities. Let’s hope the Red Lion in Rogers Park brings some interesting tales tonight.

*Computers: what my mom does for a living. She’s a genius. Did I ever mention that?

Becky

Well, the yoga fun continues over at dilbert.com. speaking of yoga, the place that we take classes at is having a potluck dinner on saturday night so that we can go and "get to know the other students socially." I am kinda curious just to see/talk to crazy mary on a "social" level, although who knows what level she is on.

I received my first bday package in the mail yesterday-it was full of broken mugs from my dear friend nancy. I wasn't going to tell her, but I opened up the present while I was on the phone with her and I am just the worst at hiding anything including broken bday presents.

check out the exhibit on cleopatra that we are going to see here on saturday when the whole fam makes the trek down from wisconsin. it should be rocktastic.

Jen

I‘ve never been too good with names but I remember faces.

I’ve also never been too keen on last names. My last name is not very descriptive of me at all. Ok, fine, I am part polish, but that is from my mom’s side. My dad is really some Irish dude. My last name is my stepfather’s last name.

Anyway, especially with “ski” in your last name like mine, you are stereotyped. It’s just a fact of life, even though it sucks. For awhile, I was trying to think of ways to cleverly shorten it. I was going to remove extraneous letters, or just change it all together. One friend shortened it to Chan. I tried to explain to him that is sounded Asian and that it would be just like the Seinfeld episode, you know, white chick, Asian last name. He still calls me Jenny Chan.

So, moving with current trends, I am too changing my last name. Hopefully one day, I will be a college photo teacher and maybe have some works of art out there. I better cover my ass, just in case.

Wednesday, November 07, 2001

Becky

Okay, if you like dilbert you have to check out the site to read some funny cartoons about the greatest sport in the world: Yoga.

Becky

Geez, greg, what's with all of the foul language? I mean, really-I think that my sister reads this. Speaking of sisters, I think that the younger one is moving home (i.e. to wisconsin where my parents live now even though its not really "home") over thanksgiving. the saga continues.....

It's hard when you see someone that you love make so many wrong decisions, especially when they blame themselves and then your mom blames herself and then you start to get blamed because you never screwed up. how does that make sense? all I have to say, is Madison, watch out!

ps- did anyone get my song from yesterday? you know, the muppet babies theme song? I don't ever remember really liking that show, I just watched it all of the time cause nothing else was on.........

pps-no being sad about baseball! how long was the season? 7? 8 Months? only a few more to go until we can go to another game that gets snowed out!

shit, shit, boobies

i just wasted a ridiculous amount of money on a brand new lap-top. yay. i like new things.

i just had my review here at work, and apparently i successfully fooled them into thinking i'm doing a good job. they don't pay much attention.

baseball's over and i feel a little sad.

Tuesday, November 06, 2001

testing, testing. we'll see if I can remain anonymous for now. who knows where big brother is going to try to look for me......

Becky

Monday, Monday, that is I mean, Tuesday, Tuesday.

Okay, I am rubbing it in that I got a day off work, but its not like I didn't deserve it! We hung out for awhile, went to see Monsters, Inc. and had a nice dinner. A wonderful bday celebration if you ask me. (I recommend the movie to all-very clever, very cute and a fun time all around).

I know I have more to say but its not coming out! I will tell you this-I have had a song from a cartoon from our childhood in my head all day long. see if you remember it. The main verse starts off with something like this:

When your room looks kinda wierd and you wish that you weren't ther-er......

enjoy!

ps-I have to agree with the choice of Indiana, especially because it means no more Gary.....

Monday, November 05, 2001

Jen

If you have time, send Becky and Greg Happy Birthday wishes. Finally, they are catching up to me. Gray hairs for both of you!

See you in a couple of days.

Jen

I wanna live life, always be true. I wanna live life, and be good to you. I wanna fly, and never come down. And I live my life, and have friends around.*

I know, picking a band for September almost seems silly, right? There was a lot going on in that month, as you know. It’s November now, and time to get on with life.

The story: When I was in 6th grade, I had this best friend Erin, who was basically my other half. We would share everything and do almost everything together. She had a crush on this guy who loved a certain band that I never heard of before. She bought the tapes and shirts and magazines, and I was forced to listen to them. Of course, I too got hooked. So, I have to thank this random guy, whose name I can’t even remember, for getting me to listen to Guns’n’Roses. Thinking about it now, I was foolishly obsessed with them. I, of course, owned everything. I drew this collage about all the album titles that I was going to send to the band for their "best of" record. My two goldfish were named Duff and Izzy. I was such a freak.** Anyway, you have to admit that Patience is such a great song. Or what about Sweet Child of Mine? I’m not talking about that Sheryl Crow cover that sucks, but Axl swooning over the word, “mine” at the end of the song. What about Don’t Cry? The point is, they were good, even if the thought of them now is so ridiculous. Ask Buddyhead.

Band of the Month for September: Guns’n’Roses

Now for October. Becky and I were talking, and this is pretty much what she said. “ I was listening to the radio and singing along with this song that was just released. I had to think of how I knew it, and it was because I owned the album.***” I’m thinking we both bought Parachutes around the same time- I bought it because Z, put Don’t Panic on my mix tape, and I was sold. It’s one of those albums that you never get tired of listening to. It’s extremely melodic and if you ask me, one of the best new English bands**** to have radio play. So in honor of the release of Trouble to the radio:

Band of the Month for October: Coldplay.

Buy it if you don’t own it. It’s worth every penny.

There you have it.

Here are the lucky bands so far that have had the pleasure to grace our list.***** These bands were chosen due to heavy rotation in our minds, hearts and CD players. Mind you, Band of the Month does not necessarily mean the band just put out a disc or they are playing a show. Also, a band may appear twice on the list, although it hasn’t happened yet.******

July: No Doubt
August: Hey Mercedes
September: Radiohead
October: Modest Mouse
November: The Dismemberment Plan
December: The Sea and Cake
January: Built to Spill
February: Hagfish
March: Death Cab for Cutie
April: Smoking Popes
May: Pat Benetar
June: Travis
July: Jimmy Eat World
August: Rufus Wainwright


*From Coldplay's, We Never Change.
**Not like much has changed.
***I made this a bit more vague than how she actually said it.
****Much better than Travis if you ask me.
*****You’ll notice how the list starts before we were this blog was started. That’s because this list was in my head first before it became a collective, which started in March.
******I have a feeling it will happen soon. October was a great month for releases. . .

Jen

I live in a small town. . .

Z and M, if you are reading, put me down for Indiana. I was just there on Saturday, and it was enough to make me not want to go back.

We’re in Valpo, unsuccessfully trying to locate Laporte Avenue and decide to pull over and ask for directions. So I ask this couple and they look utterly confused, as if I was making up some stupid Indiana street name. They call their friend over and I ask the same question. She says, “Gosh, I don’t know where that is.” Do you live here or not? Then she says, “Maybe we should ask a police officer.” and proceeds to wave one over. Once again, we ask about Laporte Street and he also looks confused. By this time, we have half of Valpo trying to figure out where Laporte is. I look at the directions again, find out that it’s avenue and not street, and ask again. “Oh, Laporte Avenue!” like it makes all the difference in the world. It turns out the hospital is also on Laporte, and it makes me wonder how anyone receives medical attention if they don’t know where that street is. Imagine the EMS people driving around: “Laporte?! Where the hell is that?”

The show rocked Saturday night, although I was not too interested in the other bands. The boys were really tight, even though Madigan’s bass amp blew out. We also discussed CD plans and everything looks like it is coming together. Excellent.

Then, like a bunch of teenagers, we snuck alcohol into the hotel where the band was staying. Now, that was fun. I had some “sax on the beach” in Greg’s honor. It’s a real drink by Bacardi. Go figure.

I got my new scanner! Pat and I spent too much time at Best Buy Friday night, looking at everything from scanners to headphones. I’m pretty excited about my new purchase. It will make working on the DAB CD and my new idea for my photo project that much easier.

After lunch, I’ll go over the band picks by this blog. I’ll also be the only one blogging today due to the fact that Beck and Greg are off from work doing who knows what. Everyone needs a day off.

Friday, November 02, 2001

Jen

“Tricking Geeky White Kids Everywhere Into Thinking We’re Geeks Too, But We Really Just Like The Money, Coke, And Young Asian Sluts”

I love Buddyhead. If your curious about this, check out the gossip section. This is a proposed title for a new Weezer song. He he.

Here’s the address for the DAB show on Saturday night: 1705 Laporte Avenue, Valparaiso, Indiana. Go to Mapquest or something like that for directions, if you are interested, or e-mail Greg, like he blogged above. This is all the info I have. I don’t even know when the show starts. Thanks for informing the band photographer!

Speaking of Greg, Happy Early Birthday!

It looks like I won’t have time to write more like I planned. Boo. See you Monday.

i think i've said too much already

it is true that i will be doing the rocking in valpo this weekend. anyone out in that direction who might want to go, email me and i'll give you directions and info.

the eating tonight should be excellant, topped off with too many 1-liter beers at the brau-haus. mmm, mmm good.

i am totally out of it. must go home.

oh yeah, i turn too old on sunday so raise your glass for me. or spit on the floor. whichever is a better indicator of your feelings for me.

Becky

Hello. It's Friday. I am super-duper excited, yet incredibly tired at the same time. funny how that works.

Birthday fun starts tonight! Greg's P's are taking us to some fancy french restaurant although I am totally totally stuffed from the german restaurant we went to for lunch. (I am a multi-national eater today) Monday is a day off for the resting and hopefully seeing this movie.

It is so nice out today its a wonder why I am still inside in my cube (not that I am doing any work or anything).

Last night at fizz we decided that wings should no longer be referred to as having "bones" but rather "sticks" to make them a little more palatable (sp?). The waiter was a total jerk too-what was up with that?

Let me tell you more about my lunch. I love this restaurant. It is always filled with old people trying to remember the "old country". plus you get alot of food for little cash. my lunch was $6.95 and here's what I got:

1. bread
2. salad bar
3. soup (beef noodle)
4. large plate of stuffed cabbage and potato dumplings. I ate about half, boxed the rest up and left it on the table when we left.
5. dessert (pastry of sorts)
6. coffee

I might not be able to walk or sit very well now, but gosh darn that was good.

Jen

And the streets don't change just maybe the names.

This morning, I wanted to get the Band/Artist of the month thing out of the way, but alas, we could not decide on a band for October. I hate being behind like this . . . Anyway, September's band on the other hand, is an excellent choice made by the Ok. Our friends at Buddyhead love them too. Monday, I promise we will finally be up to date.

The boys are playing in Valparaiso, IN tomorrow night. Do we have any readers from Indiana? Hmmm.

Last night, Brian and I went to a book sale at the library by my house. I bought 4 books for, get this, $4.25. I bought this hard cover photo book entitled City Scapes, and three paperbacks; a book of Japanese paintings, one of Magritte paintings and J.D. Salinger’s, Nine Stories. What a deal. If you live in Chicago, go to the library on Melrose and Paulina in West Lakeview. The sale is on today and tomorrow.

After that, we continued on to wings, which was a nice break from the week. As I was telling Brian, this week wasn’t necessarily my most successful week in grad school, but definitely the most productive. I’m feeling good about it and less frightened by it.

Hmm. I want to write more but I have to do some stuff this morning- I'll be back in a bit.

Thursday, November 01, 2001

dude! I was kidding! no offense taken :) besides I am not a loser because I stayed in, I am a loser because I watched dawson's creek and felicity......

And my clothes stink.

Jen

I said there was nothing wrong with staying in!!!! I knew you had to do laundry! I am so mean. I am sorry.

hey! I might have been a loser and stayed in last night, but I did spend some quality time outside while I walked from my door to the laundry room. plus I am not wearing dirty clothes today so that is a bonus.

Jen

So take a look at me now.*

I am so wicca, it isn’t even funny. Or scary.

I went to this crazy thing in Logan Square last night. I was under the impression that it was some Wiccan ceremony**, but it was basically a bunch of theater majors parading around. I made it sound bad . . . Let’s start again. I didn’t know exactly what I expected to see, but it turned out to be a number of instillation pieces and a “parade of the dead,” if you will. It was pretty cool, although most of the time I had no clue what was going on. As I told Gant, “I have to call one of my artsy friends and have them explain this to me.” It was also so crowded. I'm glad that i went out. Last night, it was so warm outside, and I would have felt like an ass if I wasted one of the last beautiful nights of the season inside. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with staying in, just my personal preference to go out.

I had a critique today that went ok. My prof still says that I may be too conceptual . . . So? The problem with that? I feel more focused now after the critique though. I’m ready to dive in head first. The first step to that is buying a scanner this weekend.

How am I going to pay for this, you ask? The downstairs neighbors finally paid me off for the dog bite. I found a check for $300 in my mailbox. My insurance covered my med bill, so really the cash is mine. So cool. But not cool in the fact that I still have a bump and will probably have a scar. Boo to that, I say.

I have tons of work piled up since I haven't been here for two days. They do pay me for something, at least I think. I wish I was paid for blogging. That would be sweet.

*See, Beck? I made a Philly Collins reference. I love Against all Odds. You know it.
**Not like I'm into that or anything, but I figured that it would be pretty amusing.

pps- did I ever tell you that I went to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis? wierd I tell you. Interesting, but wierd.

Becky

A quick update:

Life is pretty good right now. I still have a job. I have a three day weekend coming up. Greg's bday is this Sunday (the 4th) and my bday is next Sunday (the 11th). I am having a party on the 9th if anyone is interested. It will be exciting because my sister will be there with her two dogs who will provide the entertainment.

Today I found this fuzzy black sweater in the back of my closet and thought to myself "oh, this is a cute sweater, I wonder why its back here and I haven't worn it in along time?" so I put it on with some khakis and ran out the door to work. I just looked down and noticed a nice layer of black fuzz all over my pants (trousers). Classy, huh? now I understand its status in my closet and it will return there until a couple months from now when I have forgotten again.

ps-I am not ashamed to say that I like Phil Collins (atleast some of his songs, okay?). is that so horrible?