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.