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!