ZOOOOOOOOOBA!

Once upon a time, the Panera Bread establishment had a sweet deal. If you came in and spent over $10, you would receive a free ticket to the Philadelphia Zoo. My mama didn't raise no fool so we got ourselves to Panera Bread and had a lovely meal. This marketing ploy was absolutely win-win. I love their food and I love the zoo! And the Philadelphia Zoo is not a cheap ticket. It's $18 rather than the $10 I spent and I wouldn't have gotten a delicious meal at Panera bread to boot! So, we've had the tickets for a few months now and have been holding off on using them. I love the zoo, but I'd prefer to go when it isn't massively crowded. With orientation coming up on Friday and classes starting next week, the window of opportunity was closing in so luckily we were able to go! It was pretty much the perfect day for it; a sunny, crisp autumn day. I borrowed my mother's amazing camera and got a lot of great pictures. I go to so many shows where you're not allowed to have cameras I actually felt like they might tell me I can't bring my camera into the zoo. But yeah, it was really nice. I wish I could go to zoos like that more often. Maybe when I live in Philly I'll go more often. Not that I'll have any money. I'll have to work out a way to break in. Come to think of it, I never even went to our sad little Bridgeton Zoo this year. Damn, I need to get with the program.

ps. check out more of my zoo pictures at my flickr page

I'm too old to die

Yes, more sky pictures. I love taking pictures of the sky. Especially when it looks all crazy like this! If I posted all the pictures of the sky that I take in a month, more than half of my blog would be sky pictures.

But anyway, I had another productive Monday. Got things accomplished. Thought there was going to be a killer storm, but it was all bark and no bite. It's all good, though. Just as long as it's not storming on Zooday!

ps. Peep that rainbow!

You hoodlums

Got up too early feeling too ill to play a show that was too disorganized by someone that's too annoying to suffer. But since my recommendation to stay home for this show saved my mom $25, we decided to go out and spend it better; with deliciousness at Red Robin! Yes, Matt, I introduced my mother to Red Robin and she loved it! I think she wants to take my dad and brother now. Anyway, the sky was pretty awesome. Luckily I carry my camera around for just such occasions!

Friday night lights

Worked a half a day on Friday; went in at 5pm. Wasn't quite a half day in reality since I wound up working til 12:30am anyway, but it was definitely better than coming in at 10 in the morning and doing cakes all day!

Despite my half day status, as you can see, a lot of cakes were done. And not just any cakes, these kind of cakes are the kind we call "projects". These were the cakes that Cathy was going to work on, but was unable to due to personal tragedy. So, they would have been even better had she done them, but I tried my best.

Kristin fell in love with my fish. It came out a lot cuter than the picture. The picture I was working from was of a fish that looked a lot more realistic (probably because it was one Cathy had done!) and mine is adorable. Oh well!

And you're making that face that I like

Another day, another cake. Today was frustrating. I was having so much trouble with the frosting scan paper. Scan cakes should be the quickest, easiest cakes to make, but I have bad luck. Something always goes wrong for me. It's frustrating. Be that as it may, Laura and I made a pretty nice dent on the cake situation, but there was still tons left for Friday. It's weird that we have so many this week. Kathy said that after labor day, they drop off and they did, but then this week it was just insanely busy; probably the highest volume we've had this entire summer, I think.

After work, I hustled home and got a shower and got ready to leave for Philadelphia to see Regina Spektor at the Electric Factory. YAY! Despite my hustle, we didn't arrive as early as I would have liked and thus were unable to get anything close to a decent spot. We made the rounds, but wound up just hanging in the back for the majority of the show. Maybe I'm just old and bitter, but it irritates me when everyone in the audience sings along and it's so loud that the actual singer isn't almost hard to hear. It just shouldn't be that way. I don't pay good money to hear a bunch of Regina fans sing her songs. I pay to hear her sing them. I know I sound like a bitch, but I don't care. I just wish people could lip synch to the songs. That's what I do.

Be that as it may, Regina was brilliant. She flubbed on two songs, which was completely endearing and made me feel like less of a fuck up for forgetting the lyrics to my own songs too. I was disappointed that she didn't do "The Flowers", but I forgive her since she did "Ode to Divorce", which was the first song I ever heard by her. It's the song I fell in love with her to. haha So, to sum up, she was fantastic, the audience was lame, and I hate the Electric Factory.

I fix it, I fix it

Fresh with a case of the Mondays, I came in to find we had a hefty load of cakes for the week. This was especially bad news considering I'm not going to be at work for most of the day on Friday. Ah well. I liked how these cakes came out. I haven't done a little person thing since I did my first Elmo so I was a tad nervous to create little Kai-lan. Not too shabby, I think. Anyway, after work and after family dinner, I went over to see my little nephew, Samuel. I had a little gift for him and I hadn't seen him since his birthday. He has a lot of crazy new moves, but is STILL obsessed with watching Batman. Not the cartoon either. I'm talking The Dark Knight. Yeah, my TWO YEAR OLD nephew is obsessed with that movie. He kept asking to put on Batman all night. It was cute, but Jessie and Andrew are beyond tired of seeing it so they told him the DVD was stuck in the holder and they couldn't get it out! haha I actually got to interact with him directly a bit thanks to my knowledge of comic book character names. Obviously Andrew knew them, but I was offering up the answers to his "who's that?" questions and that started him being a little less shy with me. Which was cool. Unfortunately, I don't see him much so we don't have much of a relationship so it was nice to get him comfortable. I definitely should go over more often.

Oodles of Quetools

I haven't posted a picture of Gizmo in a while. Maybe that's not true. I'm not really sure. But he looks adorable and it's my blog so I'll post as many pictures of Gizmo as I like! It's not everyday that I get a picture of Gizmo without a funnel! Yippee!

Monday, Monday so sweet to me

I really enjoy Mondays. I get a lot done. I clean up the mess I've accumulated over the past 5 days and I run all my errands. It's usually a nice, relaxing day for me. Which is ironic. I get the Monday blues on Wednesday. haha I'm going to try to enjoy them while they last because I doubt I'll get to keep my special Mondays once classes commence. OH SIGH.

Here comes your man

I Hate Camera! from jenell o'boogie on Vimeo.

Today I had a nice, relaxing shopping day with my mother at the Cherry Hill Mall. I needed some time away from it all and it was a good decision to make. I've been pretty busy as of late and because of this I completely forgot to post two things that I think I should probably mention. For starters, I forgot to post this video that I made. I made it like a month ago. Whoops! Ah well. It's still relevant! The other thing I forgot to post was that I got into the Art Institute of Philadelphia. This news actually gives some weight to my "I've been so busy" claim. Classes haven't begun yet, but they will soon and I haven't gone to orientation or signed up for classes yet so I've been a tad stressed. Hopefully that'll all be sorted out and I'll have a better idea of what the next few months is going to look like for me. Anyway, enjoy the video. It's funny because the first shot in the video is from my visit to the open house at the Art Institute right before I applied. Time flies!

JeNell & the Yets jam on the lake

Jam on the Lake 2009 was welcomed with sun, sun, sun! Made for a really fun day despite the bees and low flying planes. We played a set around 2:30 despite some technical difficulties and were well received. A gig where we actually sell CDs! Imagine! Not to mention that throughout the rest of the day people were stopping me to tell us they enjoyed us. It was definitely a good atmosphere. We nearly didn't play this gig; glad we decided to do so. If we hadn't, we never would have been on the coolest hippie bus ever! Not only was Bono himself on that very bus (while filming his scene in "Across the Universe"), but it's also just a very awesome psychedelic bus. Fully loaded with beds, umbrellas, and a sweet antique typewriter; not to mention a super cute puppy dog! We took lots of photos in that bus. We must have looked like huge Bono fans. We were more "cool hippe bus" fans, really. No offense, Bono. I do love your work! Just not in that movie. Not that I saw that movie. I digress, it was a fun day in the sun! I want to have more of them! Stay away cold weather! I'm not ready for you!

Apology accepted, Captain Needer

Fridays are always destined to be terrible for me lately. I thought it would be a good day since we had so little work left to do, but somehow work was found! The baby cake I had done the day before was vetoed by Cookie, Head of Quality Assurance. And, fair enough, it didn't match the picture perfectly and I despite being frustrated at having to start from scratch on such a detail oriented cake, I was alright with doing so. I wasn't, on the other hand, okay with being told in such excessive detail all of the reasons why I had to re-do it. If they wonder why Cookie has made employees cry in the past, that would be why. It teetered on just cruelty. Unnecessary cruelty. But, I'm not the crying type. I've got too bad of a temper for that sort of fuckery! When she told me at the end of her schpiel to "not take it personally", I simply said, "I just don't need to have things explained to me in such grand detail." She chuckled and patted my shoulder. I wonder if she felt how tense with anger I had become by that point. Annoyance aside, I re-did it with a lot of helpful points from Cathy and then we cleaned up and were basically done by 3. So, alls well that ends well I suppose!

You have failed me for the last time

This motorcycle cake came out pretty awesome, I think. If I'm still there in April, maybe I'll do this one for my dad. We never really do anything for his birthday, but I don't think he'd mind having a cake. Loves cake. Hates cupcakes. Perfect! This other cake was my first foray into the "baby cake". Of course I've done lots of other cakes for babies or baby showers or whatever, but this was the first one I did with an actual baby on the top. It's a pretty standard thing that I'd seen Kelly do a few times, but it's a lot harder than she made it look. Would I give this cake to my baby? Sure. Would I even give this cake to my family? Yeah, I think I would. I don't think it's that bad. Unfortunately, not everyone agreed....

Life is sweet

Kristin and I whipped through a slew of cakes. We used to get two cakes each done in a day. We definitely out did ourselves.

I think that baby cake is the only baby cake that I finished without much trouble at all. I think it came out pretty cute. And it was essentially completely invented by me.

If those people didn't like it, they're stupid. So there.

BYOS

Dreams sometimes do come true and that was the case for my friend, Matt. He got a birthday celebration with pancake puppies, a plethora of DVDs, and a free balloon at Denny's on a Tuesday night! Who could ask for anything more?!

Well, maybe better syrup.

Sunday sunny Sunday

Woke up bright and early for a very UN-lazy Sunday. Played the Millville Arts, Music, and Antiques Festival at 11:30 in the morn; which is probably the earliest I've ever had to sing thus far in my career. I might be wrong, but I don't think I am. It probably wouldn't have been AS enjoyable if a certain John hadn't come! Afterward we went down to the classy Wildwood pier and was enticed all afternoon by hotties on the pier. It was hot. People were removing clothing. Nice day to go, no doubt! Somehow I managed to go home with my shirt on and without a bun in my oven. If I had won a furry monkey or gone under the boardwalk things might be different. After John had to depart, Jamie and I went to take part in an exclusive celebration of Steve Locastro's birth. It was very elite. Only his near and dearest were in attendance! So, if you weren't there, I think you know why....rickrickrickrick

ps. Happy Birthday, Ched!

The Donald Duck Club

"TGIF" does not apply to my life. It's more like ONIF; Oh No It's Friday. I really hate Fridays. Why? Well, considering I was at work from 10am to 11:30pm, I obviously did a lot more than just this Donald Duck cake. Be that as it may, this is the only cake I took a photo of. I had a really frustrating, long night and I was in no mood to pull out my camera after any of the others. I'd been more likely to throw the cakes against the wall than take a happy picture of them. So, really, by the end of the night my frustration level was a bit like Donald Duck's! Ironic.
And lame.

Alone with my caking

I really enjoyed making this king cake. I would definitely be happy to have received this cake. As far as sports cakes go, I think this Yankees cake I did came out pretty decent. I did a lot of other stuff, but I'm cutting back on my picture taking. I make a lot of standard boring cakes that I don't need to take pictures of so I'm just going to do pictures of the different ones; a highlights reel, in a sense. I'm really growing to hate Thursdays. But not as much as I hate Fridays...


ps. Happy Birthday, Matt!

What an adorable roulette table

The customer that wanted this cake called while I was in the middle of making it and asked Cathy if we were going to make the cake like the picture she sent us or was it going to be cute? I don't know what's stupider; sending us a picture you didn't like to put on a cake or expecting us to make a roulette table cute.

ps. 09.09.09!

You smell like a flower

When I tell people that I'm going to go over my friend's house to weed their mother's garden, they think it's weird. But at the time I agreed to do it, I was basically unemployed and doing just about anything I could to make some money to keep me afloat. Despite having a job now, I stuck to my word and I fulfilled my commitment. It's not an easy job, but Gizmo and I had an alright time. I just hooked his leash to a loop on my jeans and he was able to enjoy the outdoors while I worked. It was cute. Well, he was. I wasn't so cute. Especially when a bee flew in my soda, which I dropped and then ran. Luckily, no one was around to see the mess I made or the panic I was in... this is why I weed when no one is home!

Never ending cake cake cake cake...

Despite my grandmother's request for her birthday to come and go without a sound, I baked and decorated a yummy cake and some cupcakes buddies anyway. My aunt was going to be in town for the weekend to see my cousin's new baby and some family was going to be over for Labor Day so I figured I should make a little of both. A funfetti cake and chocolate cupcakes. Best of both worlds. It was no easy matter. I got home late from work and had a great deal of trouble with the icing we had bought. It was too thin. It dripped right off the cake. It was a disaster. So, I went out and bought some new icing. The cheapest I could find without any bullshit about it being whipped or fluffy. That stuff worked a lot better. I wound up just scraping down the cake and starting over with the new icing. And all throughout the night I was worrying that I was going to run out of icing. Luckily, I did not. Didn't turn out just how I wanted, but everyone was impressed nonetheless! After, I went to Philly with Matt to get some Phakeberry. It's good stuff. But South Street was insanely crowded. Possibly more crowded than I had ever seen it. Note to self: Never visit South Street on Labor Day weekend. Though, the Phakeberry place wasn't really crowded at all. People don't know what they're missing!

I just wanna take it off

Had a full day of cake decorating. Got out two hours earlier than last Friday, but still a pretty exhausting day. I made an ugly cake, a sexy cake, and a delightful cake. I really feel like that Lightening McQueen cake is an epic fail. I'm not very proud of it, but there wasn't much I could do about it. The perspective is all off. It's because of how I went about cutting it out. I was alone and I improvised. But, the mantra around there is, "if you'd been here, I would have done it your way" so that's kind of all I can say about this debacle. But then I moved onto the torso cake and my spirits were brightened. Pretty amusing to ice boobs. Not to mention to pipe up her bikini area. I had to laugh at the ridiculousness! But, at the same time, it made me grateful that we don't do nude cakes. That might be weird for me. The Yo Gabba Gabba cake I did was right up my alley. I'm becoming quite the expert on Hawaiian themed cakes and I really thought this one came out good. Every time I looked at DJ Lance's smiling face, I had to laugh. And, for some reason, this cake reminded me of my friend, Eavvon. Maybe it was because it was based off of a Sponge Bob cake the customers had seen online. I dunno! I feel like Eavvon might be proud to be on this cake with a hula skirt on! At least, I hope so...

One is the loneliest number

Over slept and got to work twenty minutes late, but it didn't matter at all because as it turns out, I was the only decorator there. I was all alone down there trying to figure out how to make this football groom cake for a while. Sometime in the afternoon, Cathy returned from an airport pick up and was surprised to see me alone. I handled things pretty well, I think. For a newbie. The only thing I didn't do was the goal posts. But Cathy showed me how to so next time I'll be fine. I also did that silly fisherman cake (per request. I didn't make that design up myself) and started another one, which was a cut out. I was really unsure of how to go about doing the cut out and I wish someone had been there because that cake really didn't come out that great...

Does whatever a spider can

Kristin and I had a pretty successful and easy going day today. Other than when Kathy came down to get a picture of a cake for this thing she was making (which she changed her mind on later anyway) and all the finished cakes were done by Kristin. It looked like I hadn't done shit. It looked like all I had done was begin this Spider-man cake. But on the contrary, I had iced all the cakes that Kristin was working on and I printed out all the scans for the scan cakes that Kristin did. All of my work went uncredited. It looked bad, though. But Kristin said that if Kathy had said anything, she had my back. Which is something important to have in a co-worker! Speaking of which, she's back in school and now won't be working Thursdays. I'm now the only one that works everyday. This is so backwards! The one that knows the least, works the most. I feel like I'm going to be taking the brunt of everything now. I guess I'll get better at my job, though. I'm just not looking forward to having so much on my plate, so to speak. Carpal tunnel, I'm coming!

ps. I'm such a boy. I think this is the coolest cake I've done so far! haha