Ahhhh!
I figured it out. when you press the L key to bring up the quest log, there is an X to close the window but next to it is an arrow to maximize the window. if the window is maximized, there is no quest log displayed. for some reason when Jamba is disabled it doesn't maximize the window.... and I get the quest log back.

anyway, don't maximize the quest log view and you have quests :-)