Already December....How did that happen?

“If you wrote me off, I’d understand it
Cause I’ve been on some other planet.
So come pick me up…I’ve landed.”
-Ben Folds

Yeah, I know it’s been a while. A long while. Sadly, there isn’t much new since the last post. Work has been absolute madness and I still haven’t painted my kitchen. (I am closer to taking before/after pictures, tho…which I still promise I’ll post…)

Let’s see…Work. Back in October, we were pulled into a new project for a “Major Camera Manufacturer” promoting their digital SLR camera. We’ll call them MCM for short. Essentially, they had a bunch of money to spend before the end of the year, and needed help spending it. Enter LMC. Unfortunately the turnaround time on this project was insane. And every time MCM gave us feedback on anything, it was filed under the category “Things that would have been helpful to know a week ago. Or even yesterday.” Fortunately the program is up and running, seems to be going really well and the client is happy about it. As an amateur photography enthusiast, I admit it’s been fun to work on a product that interests me and I have learned a lot about photography (digital in particular)…I guess the silver lining makes the headaches worth it…

What else. Theater… I spent the fall working at Mariemont Players on their production of Dearly Beloved. I stage managed a wonderful production of Murder of Crows there last fall, and when the director of that show asked me to stage manage this one, I jumped at the chance to work with him again. The only drawback was work – the fall is busy anyway and after the MCM was added into the mix...let’s just say I took a really long nap when the show closed. Anyway, the production was a lot of fun, audiences loved it -- and when MCM required a trip to NYC for training in the middle of the show's run, Delta got me home in plenty of time for the performance that night!

What’s left… The house. It’s coming along. All the boxes are unpacked (or hidden in the basement, but we don’t need to talk about that…), curtains are up in the guest room and my bedroom (I made tie-up shades for the guest room and roman shades for my room)… I bought a new ceiling fan to replace the tacky monstrosity currently hanging in the dining room and I have zeroed in on a paint color for the kitchen….but haven’t had the guts to go get it. It’s called “warm brownie” – sort of a yummy reddish brown. It’s really dark. I love it and I’ve been aching to paint something brown – a few of my friends are all for it and a few have hinted that I might be crazy to paint a small kitchen dark brown. Yes, it’s only paint… But cutting around all the appliances and cabinets is going to be enough of a pain that I know I wont want to redo it if I hate it. (Yes. Painting before cabinets/countertops/appliances were installed WOULD have been smart. But if I’m having trouble picking a color now that the whole kitchen is in front of me, imagine how I would have done it with a 1-inch square of countertop material, a brochure indicating the cabinet color and the faint memory of the appliances I ordered.)

I think that’s about it. See? It’s been months, but nothing has really changed… I promise not to stay away so long next time…

Weekend in Cinci

And it's just another story
caught up in another photograph I found.
- Jamie Cullum

Had a great weekend with my oldest and dearest friend Robin. She lives in Florida with her husband and three kids (who I have to thank for letting me have her all weekend!), but hitched a ride back up to Ohio with her dad on Thursday to spend the weekend with me. They arrived in time for dinner and she flew home Sunday.


Oddly enough, we’ve both developed an interest in photography since we’ve lived apart. In fact, Robin has started up a photo biz in Ft Myers, specializing in shooting kids. She does nice work, which you can see here (www.robincornett.com). We spent a good bit of Friday hanging out behind our camera lenses – until my camera decided to conk out on me. Eventually we worked our way over to a camera shop where we determined it was just the battery. Usually when I have a dead battery, it simply wont take a picture. But this time, just to be weird, it died mid picture with the shutter wide open and blinked error messages at me – even when I turned it off altogether. But it did give me the chance to play with Robin’s digital, which (the film snob in me has to admit) pretty much rocks. I am not a fan of butterflies (anything with wings, for that matter), but when you’re not worried about wasting film, trying to get a good shot of one is a fun challenge. I got a few and threw away about a million. Robin posted our whole day (and labeled who did what) on flickr. http://www.flickr.com/photos/littler_chicken/





We had dinner Friday at the Dilly Deli and then headed to the movie theater in Mariemont Square to see The Bourne Ultimatum. Unfortunately, Paul Greengrass thought it would be cool to shoot with a handheld camera while chasing Matt Damon all over Europe…Robin thinks that’s enough to make a person sick, so we bailed mid movie. I’m guessing it had a mostly happy ending, but I’ll wait until it comes out on DVD to find out. We ended up sitting outside of Starbucks for a while, enjoying the music of one of Dilly Deli’s musicians. The weather was perfect – cool with a nice breeze. (of course it’s supposed to hit 90 again by the end of the week….so fall’s not here yet)

Saturday we had a pretty lazy start to the day, which was nice. We had a leisurely breakfast at First Watch and ended up at a fabric store… How do I make this a short story? She has (and I ordered) a really nice camera bag that has an interchangeable cover. You can order a bunch of covers online for $40-$70. Or you can make your own. For much less. Which we did. And I confess…I sort of want to make one for every day of the week.

We hosted my parents and her dad for dinner Saturday night – made (what Robin called scrumptious) pork with apples and roasted red potatoes with fresh lavender and rosemary from my cousin Kelly’s garden in Seattle. Robin and I cant get together without making chocolate chip cookies, so that was dessert.

Then I took her to the airport Sunday morning so USA 3000 could deliver her back to her husband and kids. It was wonderful to have her here.

All About Two

Celebrate we will
Because life is short but sweet for certain
We're climbing two by two
To be sure these days continue
-Dave Matthews Band


After my last post, I heard from my mother that she was disappointed that I didn’t start off with a movie line/song lyric. Apparently I sent a precedent, so I promise I wont disappoint again. Maybe I don’t promise, but I’ll certainly try…

I know I haven’t posted much of anything lately… Life has been busy, I’ve been out of town (was in Vegas…that’s another post for another day…), work has been busy, etc. All the typical excuses… Anyway, someone emailed this to me and I thought it was kind of fun.

1. Two Names You Go By: Hmmm..the obvious ones, Jen and Jenny. Tho Stacey at work calls me Jennerator and my best friend Robin sometimes calls me Jofer.

2. Two Things You Are Wearing Right Now: Khakis and a black shirt. Pretty much the usual.

3. Two Things You Want In A Relationship: Honesty and Friendship

4. Two of Your Favorite Things to Do: Enjoying long dinners with good company and good wine, Sightseeing with a million rolls of film in my backpack

5. Two Things You Want Very Badly At the Moment: for my house to be completely unpacked and clean and a new camera bag

6. Two Pets You Had/Have: Maverick and Fred

7. Two Things You Did Last Night: Finished unpacking and did laundry. I’m fun, aren’t I?

8. Two People You Talked to Last: Molly and Robin

9. Two Things You're Doing Tomorrow: Robin is coming to visit tomorrow! So I will be making homemade pizza and enjoying it with Robin and her dad (who is dropping her off en route to Dayton). But I have to go to work first.

10. Two Longest Car Rides: Denver, Colorado, and Orlando, Florida

11. Name Two of Your Favorite Holidays: Christmas (because everyone gets together) and my birthday (because there’s cake)

12. Name Two Favorite Beverages: Diet Coke and really cold orange juice with no pulp

Not much, but...

Slowly but surely, I’m making progress on the house. I spent most of last week trying to clear out some of the chaos (check out the pic from the day I moved in…ugh) so I could have my family down for lunch. My mom and dad hosted most of my mom’s family for the weekend (which was so much fun and so good to see everyone). Everyone who had made it to Dayton by Friday morning headed down to Cinci for lunch and to see the house. I did manage to get the place presentable – I wont mention how many boxes were stuffed in the closets…

The biggest news on the house is that the kitchen is mostly finished and mostly functioning. The appliances and countertops arrived last week and the rest of the electrical work was done this weekend. I’m still waiting on a small cabinet to arrive – it had to be special ordered to fit in next to the dishwasher. Also need to make up my mind on the light fixtures and paint, but I’ll get there…

I’m noticing a trend as I go through my pictures of the house progress… In the middle of a roll of film, I head outside to get some shots of the flowers that are coming up. Perhaps it’s my way of making sure there’s something pretty in the roll of film – amongst all the pictures of holes in the walls and torn up floors! Anyway, there’s a planter next to my driveway that has been blooming all summer – there were poppies before I moved in, pretty white daisies a few weeks ago and now these black-eyed susans. There are plenty of weeds too, but I confess I don’t quite know what’s what, so I hesitate to pull anything just yet.

Fly Count

Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything.
-The Karate Kid

Bugs are not my friends. I don’t want them in my house. When I was a kid, I’d wake my dad up in the middle of the night to kill a spider in my room. I wouldn’t go near them. Irrational, yes. They have more legs than I do. Maybe that’s the problem.

Tho I still don’t love bugs, I really think I’ve grown when it comes to bug-killing. I’ve become quite a master, if I do say so myself… I usually have multiple cans of Raid accessible from any corner of my residence so I don’t have to take my eye off a bug before drowning it in poison.

However on Friday night, I realized that my can of Raid was still at the apartment. And I needed it. The guys had been working in the kitchen all day and I’m guessing they’d left the door to the garage open because I was inundated with flies. No, they wont hurt anything, but they’re annoying -- and without a fly swatter, they’re hard to kill.

As a public service to my fellow bug haters… Should you find yourself in a situation where you need to kill flies and you have no bug spray at your disposal… Use hair spray. I found that if I sprayed a fly with hair spray (I was unpacking the bathroom when the Fly Battle started) it disoriented it enough that when it landed, I could smack it with a shoe. (I know, this probably falls under some form of animal cruelty…)

By the end of the night, the Fly Count was up to 13. Seriously. The next day I let two more in while I was bringing in a couple boxes. So that’s 15. And there were three more swirling around the garage door, just waiting for me to let them in the house… So we’re up to 18.

I think word has gotten out to the Fly Community not to mess with my house, cause I haven’t seen one since Saturday.

New Blog, New House

A bit of earth,
She wants a little bit of earth,
She'll plant some seeds.
The seeds will grow, The flowers bloom,
Their beauty just the thing she needs.
-The Secret Garden

As much as I enjoy reading the blogs that my friends write, I thought I’d start one of my own… I won’t pretend that I’ll always have something interesting to say…but has that ever stopped me before?

So the big news on my end is that I just moved into my first house. It’s a 2-bedroom, brick Cape Cod in Anderson Township. (For those not familiar with the neighborhoods around here, it’s near Riverbend; and for those not in Ohio at all, it’s about 11 miles southeast of downtown Cinci)

After what feels like a massive amount of paint (there’s still some to do), it’s starting to look like mine. (will post extensive before and after pictures at some point) The family room was a nightmarish shade of pink and the bedrooms were just a dingy, dirty off-white. The dining room is still on the to-do list, as is the bathroom. The big project is a complete remodel of the kitchen. I don’t know how else to say it – it was just ugly before. I’m putting in (or rather, having my friend, realtor, contractor and all-around construction guru Jason put in) new cabinets, floor, light fixtures and appliances. So far, the floor and cabinets are in and they look great. (again, will post extensive before and after pictures…)

Only one glitch so far… Yesterday I arrived with my parents and the movers to find that there was no running water. Apparently the guys had to turn off the water in the house to install the sink base. And, thanks to the age of the house (and therefore the water valve in the basement,) the valve failed to turn the water back on. So Water Works was to come out, shut off the water at the street and allow Jason to replace the valve. But they never showed. I spent the first night in my new home without water and had to shower in the morning over at the apartment. Good thing I still had the keys. Water Works still hasn’t arrived, but Jason used his own “only in emergencies with water shooting out in all directions” street key to shut the water off to the house and his guys are fixing it now. Not exactly an inspiring endorsement for Cincinnati Water Works…at this rate, I’d be without water all weekend. Amazing.

The place is in absolute chaos at the moment. Save for a path from the front door through the family room, there are boxes everywhere. Many headed towards the kitchen – which cant be unpacked just yet. Once the kitchen is finished up, anything else on the Beacon Street To Do List can wait until I get around to it. There are a few other cosmetic things I’d like to do with it, but nothing that’s too urgent – so in the meantime, I can just enjoy my new home (which I’ve already made a New House Resolution to keep neater than I did my last apartment…)

Oh, and there’s a cage in the basement. It’s very “it puts the lotion in the basket.” Story is that the previous owner raised parrots at some point. I’d love to turn it into a dark room; I’ve always wanted one. It would take some work and some drywall, but it could be done. Expensive hobby, I know…and I’m slowly coming to terms with the fact that I’m the last person on earth who still shoots film, so perhaps that’s money that should be spent to go into the direction of digital… So for now, the cage will just remain in the basement as the best conversation piece I could ever ask for. And in the meantime….for any unruly visitors – that’s where you’ll sleep!