"Is That Thing Heavy?"

Christmas 2005 is chock full o'memories! I had a great time with my parents. I'm pretty sure they enjoyed the 80 degree weather on Christmas day!
Of course...what happened the day AFTER Christmas... is quite a tale indeed. Before we get to that, lets remember the day of:

One of my favorites memories from Christmas was our Jones Soda taste test. Jones Soda actually makes Turkey & Gravy Soda, Pumpkin Pie Soda, Wild Herb Stuffing Soda, and Brussels Sprout Soda. Dave has a fascination with "things that taste bad", and erm... let's let the photos tell the story:

First up: Turkey and Gravy...




Wow, is someone fascinated...
Delectable!
Wild Herb and Stuffing...
Most intriguing!
Don't throw up, Dad. There's plenty of time for that tomorrow...
Brussels Sprout Soda... Green as the sprout...

Mom refused to imbibe...

Pumpkin Pie Soda... Too fascinating for words...
I had high hopes for this one!

How did they manage to make Pumpkin Pie taste like *censored* pie?

Pumpkin pie was truely the worst of the bunch with Wild Herbs and Stuffing as runner up in my opinion. Dave and Dad voted Brussels Sprouts all the way.

Now that we've visited the worst tastes of the day, how bout we take a look at the best:

This is french bread made in my home town of Frontenac, KS. Mom and Dad brought me some!! I used to eat this bread every day of my life growing up. It smells like fresh warm bread on a sunny Sunday afternoon and tastes like German salami and mustard sandwiches in my grade school lunchbox. Thanks M and D!

Hartman was a ham...


Dinner was turkey...



The Pumpkin pie was much better as a solid...

There were presents galore!

Speaking of presents... My gift to my Mom and Dad was a day cruise to the Bahamas... We were to leave the day after Christmas... and so begins:
THE GRISWALD FAMILY CHRISTMAS CRUISE!
or

CRUISEGATE '05

It's not as though there were no signs warning us of what was to come... In hindsight... we should have known...

Clue numero uno: The ship was to set sail from terminal 4. We arrive at terminal 4--along with several other confused cruisers-- to find the building has been condemed. One group said they would go in search of our ship and come back for us. I do not know what became of those brave souls... mostly because a very nice, smoky woman in a van came by to pick up passengers and take us to the right terminal. 4 has been closed since Wilma in October and the cruiseline finds it more efficient to send smoky lady back and forth to pick everyone up rather than alert passengers to the change in terminal....

Clue number 2: I am not making this up (i'll always tell you if I'm making something up:) ) While we were going through security we kept seeing people coming through by stretcher... I even joked to Mom about how that is what happens to people who go on this cruise. We had only had a couple hours sleep... this must be why clues number 1 and 2 slipped by.

Here we are, blissfully unaware, enjoying the sunrise over Ft. Lauderdale aboard the Discovery Sun Cruise Ship...

Clue number 3: The ship was supposed to set sail at 7:45AM... For whatever reason, it didn't. But hey, we didn't notice, we were having fun! We ate a gigantic buffet breakfast. Then there was a drink or two. We played Bingo! We didn't win, but we were having a blast! Woohoo! We're on a cruise!!...

...

...

Then...

...We set sail...

In the beginning... we continued somewhat smile and not discuss the elephant in the room... It must have been an elephant... I do not know what else could have rocked the boat like that. Let's just say... there was a "moderate chop" in the seas that day...

Soon, breakfast would be lost... And it wasn't just Dave's breakfast... what happened next was of what movies are made... Everybody on the ship turned green... hundreds... many of them tossing their eggs and hashbrowns all over the floors in the bathrooms, the hallways, the lounge.. It was a full blown vomitfest... It was as bad, if not worse, than pumpkin pie soda. and now for:

Clue number 4: Of course, by now, we were on to this cruiseline... They had a comedian take the stage to entertain the green crowd. His first joke? "Man, I've never heard so many strange noises before!" Then he proceeded to make barfing noises. His joke was met with complete, absolute, silence. Their comedian already had a bit about all the people who get sick on the ship!

It took us 5 hours to get to Freeport, Grand Bahama. We were happy again to be on land! Our stomachs settled down. We hopped in a taxi-- and who was our taxi driver? None other than Mrs. Crabtree herself!

Ha! .....We made it though... And what did we find out when we got to the island? Everything was closed due to the holiday! I would not make such a thing up! Shops and restaurants? Closed!

We did find a restaurant... the food was comparable in taste to Turkey and Gravy soda. We only had a couple of hours on the island because the ship left late. Probably because of all those trips back and forth to inform passengers terminal 4 has been condemed for 2 months.

The trip back wasn't as choppy... or perhaps it was the dramamine tricking us into believing it wasn't. Dave even won the trivia contest! Guess what we won?

...

Wait for it...

We won a FREE CRUISE ON THE SAME SHIP!!

Merry Christmas Mom and Dad! It was a Christmas to remember that's for sure!

MOM AND DAD ARE HERE! Today we saw the Chihuly exhibit!

// posted by AMO @ 6:20 PM 0 comments

Brrrr!!!! It only got up to 70 degrees today in Miami!! Muahahha!

Dave and I finished watching 24 season 4! I want more!! How are they going to top terrorists attempting the meltdown of all of our nuclear power plants!? It doesn't get any bigger than that, does it? We're tempted to actually watch season 5 as it airs rather than wait a year for the dvds. Though it's sooo much fun to stay up all night long watching episode after episode! You never have to wait a week to find out what happens. Oh, and isn't Chloe the female version of Napoleon Dynamite? :) Thanks to 'Cool B' for season 4!

Roar!!!

Some bits and pieces from the past couple days...

Dave and I went to see the King Tut exhibit at the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale today. It was awesome! We couldn't believe how many people were there. You had to stand forever in line just to get to another line which was the line to get in line. But it was worth it!

See the dorky "sunglasses"? I had my eyes checked today because I haven't had them checked since highschool. No problems. Still have 20/20 vision. But they dialated my eyes!! I wasn't expecting that. So I had to go out in some lovely film and cardboard makeshift sunglasses (a cousin of the lovely red and blue 3D glasses) from the doc. Niiiice.
At least it's my day off and I didn't try to sneak this in before a shift at work because my back focus was way outta wack.

Last night at work my reporter and I were on our way to a story... Yes, the story happened a block away from Sesame Street! As we realized we were turning on Sesame Street, we both burst into song singing "Suuuunny days...". Fun little moment. Awe, ya had to be there!

Here I am waiting for our 11pm newscast... It's football season so it goes on late quite a bit. The other day a guy came up to me and asked "Are you operating the live truck?" "Yes". "But... who drives it?". Oh dear. "Uhm, I do." He still seems confused and he points to my reporter "Why don't you just have him drive it?". I couldn't help but chuckle a bit and said "Why would I have him drive it?". Then, and you may not believe this part (and you shouldn't), but smoke started coming out of his ears, sparks started flying out of his eyes and nose and he kept shouting in a robotic voice "DOES NOT COMPUTE! DOES NOT COMPUTE!" and then his head exploded right then and there! It's not the first time I've heard some variation of this. I've been doing this for 10 years now, so it's not often I hear something new. One of my reporter friends told me I should start documenting them and write a book someday or make it into a movie. ha. And don't worry, I have a sense of humor about the comments. They've never upset me in the least. In fact, it's amusing. So I think I'll share my amusement with my millions of readers. ;p

Actually, I did experience a new on just a couple weeks ago. I was at a fire and a stringer came up to me and said "that camera is too heavy for you. let me carry it" and nearly grabbed it from me! I said thanks but no thanks. I've had the general public try and do that from time to time, but never someone in our field. Now, if you're a reporter and you offer to carry the tripod-- go for it! But, and I'm sure any photog who might read this will agree, nobody else carries the camera. The lame line I give to the public when they try to take the camera is "oh, this camera is worth more than me so I better hang on to it. haha.". I didn't know what to say to the stringer, other than 'thanks, but I've got it.'.

My Dad retired on Friday after working as a Supervisor at the SRS in P-burg Kansas for 37 years! His office threw him a surprise party. I know, I've totally burried the lead on this blog entry! Happy retirement, Dad!!

We've packed Hartman! Ready to move! :)

See this photo on the left? THAT is what was in my Final Cut Pro edit bay this week! I'm glad I have photographic proof of this, because what I'm about to reveal-- you will not likely believe... There is an anomaly causing a space-time differential in Final Cut bay 5. I went in there early in the morning... Then after what felt like a couple of hours of editing, I left the room-- only to find the day shift had long since gone home! Time was moving at a slower rate inside the edit bay! Could this be why people always say I look so young? Could it be it's because I AM younger due to this anomaly in my bay? I think next time somebody tells me I look to young to be doing this job I will simply explain. :)
So Dave and I have been working like crazy on a project the past 3 days. We even broke out our jib! It's just a story about our new station website... but we were told they wanted us to do something creative... We came up with this. It was sooooo much work!

Yes, the rumors are true. The owner of our townhome has decided to sell. I counted all the change in our ugly brown ceramic bowl, but it wasn't quite enough to satisfy the Miami housing bubble... so, we are moving.
Let me tell you, it's not easy to find a new place to rent when you are dealing with a tear in the space-time continuum either. But we found time to check out a place and decided to take it. It has this super cool 1970s wall radio in the kitchen that still works. I dig it! I detest moving. We really love the place we're in right now. It's totally 'us'. But I'm sure once Mr. Tuvok is put up in the guest bathroom it will feel like home.

Click on Mr. Tuvok to read what he says in the bubble. It's printed backwards on the wall so it looks right in the mirror. This is what our guest see when they look up in the mirror while doing their business. ha. And yeah... those are autographs on the carboard Vulcan... There's a story for every one of them... but I think we've discussed Mr. T enough for one day. Imagine if you were reading this blog in Final Cut bay 5? It could take centuries.

One last note though: The color bars on the wall is oil on canvas painted by Mr. Malkoff.

Dave has been bugging me to blog about our press pass collection on the wall. Anyway it USED to be on our wall. We have to move so we're packing up. boo!! Click on the photo to see descriptions of the passes. Happy now, Dave! ;)

Happy birthday, Dad!! Today is my Dad's 59th birthday. The above photo is from my wedding rehearsal back in March. My Dad is the best-- and can play a mean polka on the accordion. :) Love you, Dad! See you in less than 2 weeks!
Oh... and sorry bout this... but the following picture is waaaaay too funny not to post. The picture below was taken in August of 2004 when my parents came to visit me in Miami. You gotta watch those Miami mannequins!

Today was an exciting day at work. Air marshals shot and killed an airline passenger who claimed to have a bomb at Miami International Airport. I ended up pulling a double, but it flew by.

Here are my favorite moments from today in no particular order:

-- It was a media circus inside the airport. It was like a gigantic blob o' media hovering around security just waiting for somebody who saw or heard something at the D gates to come out. My reporter and I bought plane tickets and walked right past them all and WENT to the D gates. The exclusive stuff we got at the D gates made the CBS evening news. ;p

--Passengers crowded around me and asked : "What happened?", "Was somebody really shot?", "Why are all the police here?", "Do you know where I can find a book store?", "What is the fastest animal?". The Cheetah. Okay, I made up the part about the Cheetah. But in the midst of all the shooting related questions some guy actually asked me about a book store. Turn around and walk 50 feet, buddy.

--I considered not blogging about this... but I think I will laugh about it years from now when I go back and re-read this silly blog. So I was standing in the airport minding my own business waiting for my reporter to get out of the bathroom... A pilot approaches me.
Pilot: You look way too young to be a reporter.
Me: Yeah, I get that a lot.
Pilot: How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?
Me: I'm 30. (here we go)
Pilot: No! You can't be! You look like you're 18!
Me: (well at least he was closer than mike wallace who thought I was 12)
Pilot: I bet you get carded all the time!
Me: Even for rated R movies.
Pilot (very seriously): Listen to me, I've been flying to Central and South America for years and years. And the women are HOT. I mean THE-WOMEN-ARE-HOT! HOT!!
Me: (oh god. keep smiling. go away strange pilot man.) Uh, huh.
Pilot: Listen, They are so HOT, I don't date gringos anymore. But listen to me, You...You are equal.
Me: uh. Thanks.

Yeah... I am a psycho magnet for those of you who didn't know.

And now for something completely different! Look at how adorable Hartman is eating grass outside the front!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my Mom's 57th birthday! She's the sweetest person on earth, not to mention the best Mommy ever. :)

When I was a kid I was quite a night owl. Not to mention a chocolate pudding fiend! I used to wake Mom up in the middle of the night asking her if I could have some chocolate pudding! And every time, no matter what time it was or what time she had to get up in the morning, she got out of bed and made me my chocolate pudding.

Love you, Mom! By the way, when you're here for Christmas... could we have some midnight pudding?

Yay! for us! Tonight was the regional Emmy Awards extravaganza. Dave and I won an Emmy for a feature we did on Zero Gravity flights out of Ft. Lauderdale! Woohoo! To see our story click on the emmy.

I remember to shoot the story we had to get up at the crack of dawn. Scratch that-- we had to be IN PLACE at the crack of dawn. Let me tell you... nothing seems worth getting up before sun... at least until I've had my first can of Coke!

When we arrived they gave us these cool space suits to wear. Dave and I couldn't resist doing out best STARGATE pose!

We boarded a Boeing 727 named G-Force 1. Up until that point, I was too engrossed in shooting to really take in and think about what was about to happen. We were about to fly 30,000 feet into the air and essentially take a nose dive. It was one of those "what the heck am I doing" moments!

The plane climbed at a 45 degree angle and I could feel the g's pushing down on me. Then, as the plane 'goes over the hump' to take the dive, that's when you feel like you are on a rollercoaster leaving your stomach behind--only you don't get it back! Feeling myself float up was an exhilarating experience! There were no windows to ruin the illusion that I was on a very important space mission! haha.

Of course, we did this many times. Taking the g's during the climb, then weightlessness. As awesome as it was the first few times...the law of diminishing returns kicked in when my stomach turned...and how quickly the alternating g to zero g bacame torture! I've always been prone to motion sickness... but I had plenty of company on this flight! Still, a very cool experience and worth the nausia and the 5am-midnight workday.

Guadalupe LeChuga! There's only one of you out there who will get that reference. Should I let everybody else in on it?... nah. :) Its relationship is indirect to the above photo, anyway. Not to mention the story of Guadalupe LeChuga loses something in translation.
The picture you see is of a Christmas card that my friend 'Muno' and I have been passing back and forth every year since 1994. Inside is like a time capsule. We've written short notes, holiday greetings and a 'PS: send this card back next year' for 11 years now. I just wrote my 2005 entry tonight!