"I like to call it my redneck trailer."

I have to give props to my friend, Robin, who let me know about this fantastic photo opportunity in beautiful Belle Plaine, Kansas.

This colorful trailer is filled with a plethora of musical characters that twirl and turn while playing a symphony of holiday tunes. The woman who created this contraption told me that she refers to it as her "redneck trailer." Aptly put.

Unfortunately, tonight was the last night to view this dazzling display (it was actually a few nights ago but I begged the woman to turn them back on for a photo).

We might have to shovel snow. Again.

More snow might be falling on us again very soon. (For those of you who live in warmer climates, Wichita got a record-setting 6.6 inches of snow this weekend.) The good news is that I've gotten pretty darn good at shoveling the stuff.

Below is a video I made late Saturday night of me clearing the driveway to get my car into the garage and off the street. I condensed about an hour's worth of work down to one minute and made the job look easy - it wasn't.

Christmas - Part Deux

I celebrated Christmas again tonight with CRG's family and my brother who flew in today from Tennessee.

Santa looks a little crazed in this pic.

Me and my bro.

CRG with his sisters and dad, CRG senior.

CRG shows little CRG how to operate Squawkers McCaw, the talking parrot. Lil' CRG squawked as loud as the parrot when he opened it, "THAT'S WHAAAAT I WAAAANTED."

Below is some footage I shot of the talking toy. I know I've seen his cousin on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney World.

Frajeeeeeelaaay - It must be Italian!

I did Christmas with Denise's family on Saturday. My favorite gift was "A Christmas Story" ornament she gave me. It's my all-time favorite holiday movie and TBS starts running it for 24 hours beginning tonight at 7 p.m. CST. It's hard to believe that the main character in the movie and I are now the exact same age. I actually saw this movie as a child in the theater and it's not really Christmas until I see it at least three times.

I made a video of our Christmas using my Canon G9 and the time-lapse feature with the built-in camera on my computer. After the excitement of her fire truck wore off, Lexi discovered her image on the computer and fell in love (with herself).

Piggy Toes

I had a day off of work on Thursday. So, I hosted a pampering session for me. It consisted of: a facial, a fun lunch with Carrie, followed by a pedicure. Pampering yourself is hard work and I was exhausted at the end of the day.

I made a short digital film about my long digits. My pedicurist, Thao, painted the poinsettia as a holiday toe-treat for me. It wasn't at the top of my gift list, but it's certainly festive.

I was very naughty

I was sifting through ye old archive of photos this morning when I stumbled upon this Christmas classic. Wichita Police Officer Diehl snapped it on Dec. 25, 2006.

I worked last Christmas on a story about a single mom and her family. They were burglarized a few days before Christmas. The thief robbed them of their presents and even their holiday ham. So, the fine folks at the WPD raised money and solicited gifts for them. Even the big guy in the red suit made a guest appearance. It was a joyous occasion for all.

The next time the woman ran into the WPD wasn't nearly as merry. A few days after Christmas, she led a few police officers on a medium-speed chase around the city. Can't remember why she was running away from them but they weren't too jolly when they finally stopped her.

Santa Sings Shalom

CRG performed last weekend at a fancy-shmancy Christmas party. He played holiday standards as well as our favorite Hebrew song, "Oseh Shalom."

He also managed to sneak in the theme from the movie "Schindler's List." I know that sounds like an odd thing to play at such an event, but it worked. Nobody sang along, but it did sound festive. Odd, I realize.

I joined him for a few tunes playing the darbuka (hand drum) alongside him. We did a pretty jazzy version of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman." I know, sounds weird but somehow we pulled it off.

Bucky makes a great Spice Girl

I performed last night at the Orpheum in "A NewsRevuesical: Christmas on the Fringe." It was kind of like a Gridiron lite but with just a few people from Gridiron (me, Ted and Bucky) and not as many rehearsals. We had a good crowd and it was fun to work with new people.

I wish I could've taken more photos. Our costumes were great but, sadly, you won't see too many here. I didn't have too much time to linger in the wings in between struggling with elf ears, turkey legs and my Tina Turner wig (I played her in "We Are The World").

Bucky as a Spice Girl. Does it get any better? We must do this skit in Gridiron so we can see this costume again.

Senor Stumpe and the "Fly By Night" band.

CRG surprised me with a dozen roses in my favorite shade of pink. I felt like such a diva. I had my own dressing room with a leather chair AND a devastatingly handsome man armed with flowers.

We ARE the world!

I'm doing some research for a Christmas show I'm in on Saturday and I've stumbled on quite a gem. Wow, it instantly takes me back to 1985.

We'll be spoofing this song and I play one of the singing celebs. Any guesses?



I hope to perform this song with CRG and his musical friends soon at his annual holiday studio party and you know there will be a video. (This year I hope not to pass out at the party.)

a blog about log

I've had a busy birthday weekend that included two parties and one log.

Log is a creamy Dairy Queen ice cream cake made with soft serve vanilla ice cream, chocolate cookie crumbles and fudge. The best part is that all of this goodness resembles a log. I adore it.

On Thursday (my actual birthday) CRG surprised me by giving me a Canon PowerShot G9 and showing up to Larkspur looking very dapper in his new pinstripe suit. The camera is amazing (and so is the suit, honey). "To call this thing a point-and-shoot," said Carter, "would be a gross simplification." He's right.

In addition to shooting awesome stills, the G9 shoots great video, too. Here's a short film I shot of the log at a party Denise had for me and all of my little friends last night.

these elves continue to crack me up

I can't seem to get enough of a good thing. I photographed the Chadwicks the other day and showed them my elfin creation. Of course, they loved it.

"Again. Again. Again." said Cooper again and again. His excitement is what encouraged me to turn them into elves.

Sorry Joanna, the music will drive you nuts. I hope your mute button works.

the secret to putting up a tree in under one minute

The trick is to take thirty minutes of video footage and fast-forward it 5,001 percent.

Here's a quick video of Denise and her family putting up a beautiful pre-lit tree in a hurry (well, that's how it looks when you fast-forward it 5,001 percent).

The smokin' song was made by yours truly (later tweaked by Carter Green, studio mogul) using loops and instruments in GarageBand. I'm pretty darn proud of myself. It's festive and fun. It's not the first time I'm using it. I used it in a fashion video I made for Kansas.com. No use in letting it sit on the shelf until next year getting dusty. Play 'em if you got 'em.

a very green Christmas

I put out a few holiday decorations last night and had some fun decorating Carter Green in green lights.

What more could a girl ask for?

My birthday is still several days away and I've already received two exciting cards in the mail. One was from my dear friends at my neighborhood hardware store and another from my great friends at Victoria's Secret.

Sexy lingerie and power tools, really, what more could a girl want?


The cutie-pie in the picture on the bottom is my niece wearing a punk rock wig. We encourage the children in our family to be rock stars at a very young age.

It still tastes great and it's really filling.

One of my favorite gadgets is a FoodSaver that Denise gave me several years ago - or maybe it was her mom who gave it to me. I can't remember who it was since those two women have purchased just about everything in my kitchen.

It's a vacuum sealer that sucks out all of the evil air surrounding food products and makes it possible to freeze things for a really long time. For lunch today I ate chili that I made and froze two years and one day ago. And it was just as good as it was then (I think).

I enlarged the photo to show you the date. No trick photography was involved.

This is elfin awesome!

My friend Rhea sent me this link. It's so simple to turn yourself into a dancing elf, well, even an elf could do it. Click here to see us doing a holiday jig.

Jaime and The CRGs Times Three

I went to Wichita's famous Town & Country for dinner a few nights ago with Carter and his children. All three of them have the same initials, CRG. A little music broke out out and we formed a band called "Jaime and The CRGs Times Three."

Please enjoy our first music video followed by some fabulous behind-the-scenes footage. Good stuff.

A fiesta in the sky

The sunsets over Wichita have been stunning the past few nights. I shot this little bird party over Party City last night.

The sunset was just as pretty tonight and I shot some video that I'll share in the future. That footage will go in my movie about my beloved car. It turned 200,000 miles today and I could not be more proud.

KU fans come in all antlers

I went to Botanica tonight to see the pretty lights while the rest of the city watched the KU-Mizzou game.

I spotted a festive volunteer who listened to the game while overseeing the children's craft corner at Illuminations. "I think we met our match," she said seconds before Mizzou scored its second touchdown. I think she was right.

I have mad knife-sharpening skillz

Roasted chicken is a great accompaniment to snow. I fired up the oven and invited Team Scruffins over for lunch. Not surprisingly, we made a short film about our culinary adventure.

Global warming followed by cooling and then warming

It's so weird. I wore a short-sleeved shirt last week and it felt like summer and this morning we had snow on the ground. It's not gonna last very long. It's already melting and so are my dreams of doing a time-lapse piece of sledders racing down a hill today (I'll have to wait on that one). Oh well, I'm sure there is more to come.

Five-star Sudoku Saturday

Saturday was a five-star Sudoku day (that's the most difficult puzzle we publish in the Eagle). It normally takes CRG around thirty minutes to tackle but whipped through it in under one minute. Ok, he got a little help from the power of time-lapse photography.

leaves + bubbles = a very good time

My brother Doug and his family visited me this weekend from Texas. My giant backyard full of leaves was a great playground for the littles. Thankfully, nobody twisted an ankle by tumbling into the giant holes left by my friendly neighborhood moles.

Now I know it's Thanksgiving

One of the things about working on Sundays is that I go to a lot of the same events each year: powwows, motorcycle toy rides and other annual celebrations. The Sunday before Thanksgiving is always the Word of Life Church's annual dinner celebration (I know this because I've already covered it four times). It's open to anyone who wants a free meal.

My favorite part of the dinner is when Rev. Moore is finished praying over the meal she always says, "Now first the WORD," and the audience says in unison, "and then the BIRD." I chime in, too since I know the saying and it seems like the holiday thing to do.



Here are a few food photos that will prepare you for Thursday.

Mmm...pumpkin pies. Rev. Moore usually bakes a bunch and said that this year she left it up to Miss Sarah. They look pretty delish.

Now that's a lot of gravy.

And that's a lot of stuffing.

pretty colors

Went to the Arb yesterday to soak in some color and a few glasses of wine.

Sister Stella Dora Mary Carrie St. James Lexicon White Dog acted as our tour guide.

Liberace Lexi

Lexi and Denise came to the lab Saturday morning for biscuits followed by a jam. I thought I was recording many valuable minutes of Lexi rockin' out on the drums, the piano and the darbuka, but I wasn't. Note to self: it's NOT recording when the red light is blinking.

I did manage to capture a few seconds of sound and then lil' Liberace had to take a potty break.



There was a time when Lexi couldn't sit on the drum throne alone (check out the video below taken in July). She still struggles a bit with the other throne but gets a little help from her Dora potty seat.

Sister Stella Dora Mary Carrie St James Lexicon White Dog's acting debut

My canine friend Sister Stella Dora Mary Carrie St. James Lexicon White Dog (the Carrie is in honor of my friend Carrie, St. James is me, Lexicon is Lexi Lou and White refers to her papa, Kenny White) is in her first You Tube video. She works as a therapy dog at Wichita Collegiate School and they have used her in a public service announcement condemning the use of SparkNotes (the 2007 version of Cliff's Notes).

I must use her in the next Scruffins Multimedia project. She's a natural, although her voice is much deeper than I had imagined. She must be eating food laced with lots of hormones.

welcome our new addition

We brought home a beautiful bundle of joy this weekend. We couldn't be more excited.

Hoppatous of Love

My cell phone rang at 8:30 a.m. and before I looked at the caller i.d. I knew who it was. My friend Joanna had asked me to take care of her kids when she went into labor and she'd be the only person to call me at that early hour. I saw her last on Thursday and predicted she'd be having her third son very soon. I was right! I haven't heard from her since 11 a.m. so I'm not sure just how far along she is.

The boys have been great. One is napping and the other one is sitting next to me on the couch and we are enjoying the crazy antics of Scooby-Doo.

Here's some video of Team Scruffins putting them down for a nap. Sometimes I feel like life is a musical and I'm lovin' it.

I brought sexy back

CRG and I went to our friend Uche's cd release party last night at America's Pub. I hadn't been there since Joanna's bachelorette party in 2000 and I'm happy to say that the place has changed dramatically for the better.

We had to get stamped for reentry and I assured the bouncer that I was gonna bring Sexy back. I better he hears that a lot.

Here's some video from the party. Uche asked CRG to play "Second Chances" with him. CRG recorded the cd and his mad guitar skillz and harmonizing voice are all over the record.



After Uche's party, we headed over to our friend Nick's place. After we got past the unwelcoming mat, he was very receptive and we had a fabulous time.

mmm...fish tacos

Check out this video here that I made of Jason-Paul Febres, a chef at a new Latin restaurant here in Wichita. I predict that Jason will one day be on the Food Network.

It was "Take Your Boyfriend To Work Day (actually, evening) Part Deux Day" and CRG came with and assisted in the production. He also assisted in chowing down some yummy fish tacos.

Mucho thanks to Travis who helped me tackle my very first Final Cut Pro editing project. Final Cut is a monstrous editing program that I'm psyched to learn more about. The good news is that there's plenty to learn.

Take Your Boyfriend To Work (and make him work) Day

CRG joined me this morning on an assignment covering the opening of a traveling September 11 exhibit. He recorded audio for a slideshow that you can see here.

It includes a local bagpiper (that dude is EVERYWHERE) and two girls singing "I'm Proud To Be An American." The song isn't the best performance you'll ever hear, but as CRG points out, it's better than listening to Lee Greenwood. The girls didn't know all of the words and one of them sang "where at least they know my name" instead of "where at least they know I'm free." I don't know how she got so confused because she seems too young to be a fan of Cheers.

That's him clowning around with my Zoom recorder.

He looks a tad more professional in this shot.

It's useful AND ornamental

I hope that one day I'll make a video this good. I never saw anything like this in sex ed.

R.I.P. Mr. Coffee

I woke up this morning excited as always because that's when I get to drink COFFEE. I turned on Mr. Coffee and nothing happened. No red light. No gurgling noises. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Poor thing has left us and is now in the great grounds in the sky. Below is his obit.


WICHITA - Coffee, Mr., 10, passed away, at breakfast on Sunday, October 28, 2007. Burial followed immediately at the family's trash bin. Mr. Coffee was born in China in 1997. He brought joy and excitement to his family at least once a day. He was always strong and never complained, however, at times he was bitter (not his fault). He recently played a starring role in an independent film called "Coffee Cadence." He is survived by millions of siblings and one daughter, a French press of Wichita. In lieu of flowers, please send Starbucks gift cards. To share a memory or leave an online condolence please visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sG5snN5OlcI

we love coffee

We made this short video yesterday morning. The funny thing is that we actually had to make our coffee before we could create a video about making coffee. We just could not function without it. What? Us? We have no problem. I sware.

I heart stalking Carla.

Check out my friend Carla’s blog here. Her site meter recently hit 10k and to celebrate she’s asked her readers to send in photos of us stalking her blog. We’ve been friends since college and she now lives in her hometown of Hartford, Conn.

Carla is a Wonder Woman (she even has two tattoos in homage to the other Jaime). She’s an incredible person, fantastic photographer and proud mama of two adorable monkeys. Her blog includes it all.

She went to my father’s funeral with me two years ago in Long Island, New York and I always giggle when I think about that day. I know it seems strange to laugh about death but it truly helped me at the time. A week before the funeral Rabbi Lawrence Shuval asked me if I wanted what he called “a mound of earth” at the gravesite so we could each take our turn and cover the casket. I said no to the mound. He also asked if I wanted to identify the body and I said no to that, too.

Carla and I get there and someone who is not a rabbi (he actually looked like the devil smoling in the cab of a hearse and sporting a satin Yankees jacket with a matching cap) opens the casket and asks me to identify the body. I start to bawl and Carla jumped forward and said, “Yep, that’s him.” She had never laid eyes on my dad before that day.

We got to the gravesite and a mound was waiting for us. I turned to the funeral director and said, “I didn’t want a mound of earth” and I bawled some more. Carla stepped in the middle of us and looked like she was about to start swinging, “she DIDN’T want the mound.” I said it was OK and I’m glad I did. What I didn’t know is that it’s a Jewish tradition to toss dirt on the casket and all of my relatives would’ve been dissappointed.


Carla shooting a self-portrait at her wedding with our friend Mary (who still looks great). Connecticut, 1999.



Carla's youngest monkey, Georgie. Poor thing had bonked her face. Upstate New York, 2006.


Me shoveling the "mound of earth." New York, 2006.


Hamming it up with the bride and groom at a wedding we shot together. Mexico, 2006.

And finally, beer for breakfast (it's the Central American way). Costa Rica, 2007.

this falls in the trick category

My friend Ted has a sick sense of humor (if you've ever been to Gridiron, you already know this). He recently sent me a Halloween greeting that's pretty darn funny. Click here and don't forget to press stomp.