Best team in baseball (for now)

It was Zack Greinke bobblehead night at The K Saturday.  But it rained all day and John was growing increasingly irritable at the thought of sitting in the cold and wet ballpark.  Still, I convinced him by purchasing a Harmon Killebrew jersey because he didn't want me to be all dressed up with nowhere to go.  We snagged two of the soon-to-be valuable trinkets despite my attire.  Hooray!

It rained all the way to the ballpark and as we listened to the pre-game show on the radio, the announcer opined that the game probably wouldn't start until 8pm or so.  Buzz kill!

Miraculously, the rain ended just as we arrived and we walked through mist to the field.  John overheard a foursome ahead of us talking about Beale Street and struck up a conversation.  Turns out, one of them is Paige Heyward's sister.  (Paige is a producer at NBC Action News.)  Random!

Joe Mauer was incredible, as usual.  Almost hit for the cycle.

It was chilly and damp but really, not bad even though I was worried that the Twins wouldn't pull it off.  The Royals had numerous chances to win the game but three errors doomed them and the boys from Minnesota prevailed in the 12th inning.

I sure love going to baseball games!

Twins in town!

I agree with Ryan Kath.  If I can't live in Minneapolis, and frankly, it doesn't look like my career is moving in that direction, Kansas City is a pretty good place to be for a Twins fan.

I've got tickets to Saturday's game.  We'll be in Section 223.  I'll be wearing Twins gear; John will be disguised as a Royals fan.

He's so scary.

Seconds after the Chiefs picked Eric Berry in the NFL draft, my son Charlie called to say he wants an Eric Berry Chiefs jersey.

Best line of the day/week/maybe month?

"In my next life, I'm going to pose for Tony's Kansas City."

--Brooke Givens, new Executive Producer of NBC Action News

A taste of RTDNA

I used my Flip to document the five days of Radio Television Digital News Association and National Association of Broadcasters convention...I hope you get the sense that there's a lot of walking!

Shepard Smith and Haiti, 18 years ago

This came up during conversation at RTDNA in Las Vegas.  I remember this day very well.  It was scary for Shepard, Cesar Aldar and Moreau.  Tom and I look so...young!

Diet update...with some temptation thrown in

My diet is now four weeks old and according to my doctor, I've lost 22 pounds.  Awesome. 

The question is how I will respond to the temptations of NAB/RTDNA in Las Vegas!  Yikes.  I have a plan, though.  Good luck to me.

I just like this

Watching Women's Basketball, Musing All the While

 It was a strange Easter for John and me--the hardest thing about being Empty-Nesters?  Holidays were so much fun when the kids were little.  Hunting for the hidden baskets, then church, then a giant meal with ham as the centerpiece. 

We had none of those.  I was on call so didn't go to church at my chosen time and then, and then, and then we didn't go.

We did take a brisk walk through the woods that are greening up slowly.  We made phone calls to our loved ones.  We had a healthy lunch.  We made a late afternoon stop in the newsroom when the weather threatened.  Skytracker was up, Gary Lezak and George Waldenberger were at the ready but it was a passing cell that didn't cause much alarm.
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This cartoon is by Brian Fairrington, courtesy politicalcartoons.com.  The iPod was released this weekend.  Reviews are rolling in.  I found Jeff Jarvis' report to be most interesting, especially after seeing the list of MSM sites who've jumped on the bandwagon.

I didn't buy one.  Yet.
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Tiger Woods will talk to the media Monday at 1pm central.  That should be interesting.  I heard a soundbite from Tom Watson on the early news.  When asked what he would ask Tiger, Watson said "How are you hitting?"  My question would be "WHO are you hitting?"

Sorry.  The door was open, I ran through it.
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Tip of the hat to Commerical Appeal reporter Marc Perrusquia.  When I lived in Memphis, I always appreciated his hard work, his sources and his incredible pursuit of the truth.  Apparently, the company we work for agrees.
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And finally, a reminder that Doh!  I forgot to graduate! from a blog I love.  I,too, got into news sans a diploma.  There are times I wish I'd finished but most of the time, I'm ok with my choices.  By the way, John McIntyre is simply awesome.  You should add him to your Favorites.

Happy Anniversary John Phillip

Twenty-three years ago, I married a guy.  At the time, he was the love of my life but who knew if it would last?  From Reno to Miami to Tulsa to Boston to Chicago to Memphis to Syracuse to Baltimore to Kansas City, John has been my rock.  Last year, I forgot to buy a card so made a list of the reasons why I'm one lucky gal.  This year, I thought I'd try again and it was easy to come up with 23 more!

1. I love your fiendish attacks on word puzzles in the newspaper.

2. I love going to baseball games with you, despite your misguided worship of the Yankees.

3. I love how helpless you are when you get sick.

4. I love that when I told you last May that we were probably moving AGAIN you didn’t flinch (much).

5. I love how gentle you are when helping my mom.

6. And for that matter, I love how much you love being with my family. OUR Family.

7. I love how you sold our Baltimore house, all by yourself, saving us thousands of dollars.

8. I love house-hunting with you in Kansas City.

9. I love the movies you pick for us to watch on Netflix. Well, almost always.

10. I love finding new recipes on the internet for us to try. And I can’t wait until I’ve lost enough weight so that we can do it again!

11. I love going to the grocery store with you, even when you wander off and get lost. Oh yeah, it’s me who gets lost.

12. I love how you’ve supported my diet and haven’t complained, not once, about the plain meals we eat now.

13. I love your annual ritual of studying college basketball for days before completing your NCAA brackets…and how surprised you are when you don’t win.

14. I love your fierce loyalty to Carly and Charlie, no matter what choices they make.

15. I love that you hate to attend social functions but always do, anyway.

16. I love how, once you arrive at said social function, you mingle and are charming and funny. Did I tell you we have to go to The Fur-Ball on May 8th?

17. I love how you helped me survive my very sad 53rd birthday this year when we had to say goodbye to our darling Dottie.

18. I love that you had the strength to stay with her the whole time because I couldn’t.

19. I love how you’re getting more interested in politics.

20. I love your patience with Billy.

21. I love how we can’t get through Omaha without some drama. But now, after all these years, we just laugh about it instead of getting into a fight.

22. I love how people wonder how/why I, a well-known bitch-on-wheels, got so lucky.

23. I love that coming up with a new list next year won’t be too hard!

Haley Has a Sense of Humor? Awesome!

Love the Local News Queen.

Check out this new blog by an anonymous TV reporter!

She's smart and sassy and I love her writing.  Sadly, I don't think she'll remain anonymous for long.  When I first started blogging, I considered keeping my name off my opinions.  I decided the effort it would take to hide my identity would be impossible to maintain.

From the Wayback Machine--March 31, 2003

Here's a look at what was on my mind seven years ago (from the first blog):

How can it possibly be the end of March already?
I've had it with "March Madness" since my two brackets are now worthless pieces of paper. I only had Marquette in the Final Four on one slip and not in the championship game. There's always next year.
I guess I hope Syracuse wins and then it will be interesting to see if Carmelo Anthony stays in school or heads to the NBA draft.
Speaking of NBA, the Grizzlies play the Lakers (at LA) in about a half hour. I will watch some and maybe all of the game, even though those west coast games wear me out. Last night's heart killer against the Clippers just did me in. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
On to the war. I thought I was outraged by Michael Moore's comments at the Oscars. Then Peter Arnett topped him and all previous.
Our viewer email was frighteningly angry. Some of those people seriously think Arnett and Joe Birch share an office except when we dispatch Arnett to Baghdad. Yikes!
I caught up on some reading tonight--I read Digital TV and enjoyed Scott Jones' advice about agents. Mr. Jones, as you know, is the founder of the newly upgraded FTV.  I agreed with almost everything in the column EXCEPT the part about market size. He believes you don't need an agent until you're in the top 60 markets. I say half that is fine. Top 30.
Of course, my postion on agents may be clouded by the fact that I'm in the top 43rd market. However, I do know that NDs at this level don't have as much wiggle room in the salary line of budgets with which to negotiate.
I also read a Sports Illustrated article on Bill Clinton and golf...and how much he cheats. It's in last week's issue, the one with the aforementioned March Madness on the cover. Unfortunately, it's not a linked story so you'll have to borrow or buy the issue to read it. Even if you don't like golf, I think you'll enjoy the perspective. The former president doesn't do "mulligans," he does "Billigans."
It's news time, I gotta go watch the 10p and then see how Lorenzen handles Shack. Or not.


posted by pp @ Monday, March 31, 2003

Happy Snowy Saturday--First Day of Spring!

On this, the First Day of Spring, a bunch of NBC Action News 5 (thank Mark, for pointing out my mistake)  staffers got up early to welcome the day by starting our morning news an hour early so that we could report on the (hopefully) last winter storm of the season.

I didn't get pics of everybody--Brandon Billinger, Beth Vaughn, Keith King and Chris Morrison were out in the snow and slush; overnight Assignment Editor Stephanie Liebergarden had gone home to sleep before I started snapping photos.

Here's George Waldenberger and Eric Schultz on the street near the station.

Videotape editing and web publishing are inside jobs.

Obviously, it's a bit chilly in the control room.

Gary and Najahe with the crack studio crew.

And last but not least, Charlie Ray, keeping it all together in the newsroom.

Happy St. Pats!

I'm not Irish...but I offer this for your holiday listening.

Excellent Movie!

It's only taken me seven years to watch this film about Stephen Glass and his made-up stories written for "The New Republic."  If you haven't seen it, grab it on DVD...and make sure you see Steve Kroft's interview with the real liar on "60 Minutes."

Me. On a Diet.

I read this today about Rex Ryan getting the lap-band surgery.  And this about Weight Watchers.  And this about how I can blame genetics for my "bigness."

See?  I can hardly write the word obese.  It's an ugly word, especially when spit out like a nasty taste by the little cartoon trainer on my Wii Fit machine.

(sigh)

I've been overweight for most of my adult life.  The only time not was during the post-divorce days in the mid-80s.  Since then it's been one diet after another.  I'd lose a little and then, eventually, gain back more.  Classic yo-yo.

I'm now under a doctor's care and following the diet she recommends.  Aside from a daily sublingual dose of HCG it's mostly protein -- steak and/or chicken and veggies.  No starch, no sugar.  No wine.  And no whining.

I started the plan when I was in South Dakota last weekend and I'm doing this for the people you see in the picture.  Mostly, it's for the one right in the middle.  Me.

/p

When I Read the Headline, I did a Doubletake

A television station in Georgia triggered a panic when it broadcast a mock half-hour report about a Russian invasion of the country.

And then I realized I was thinking of the wrong Georgia.
 
Just goes to show that for some of us, the Cold War is not such a distant memory!

Snow on the Prairie Farm

Check this out.  We are in South Dakota to see the family.  Saturday afternoon it snowed for about an hour.  Huge fluffy flakes.  I tried to capture the magic with my camera.  These were taken with a fast shutter (1/2000) and a flash. 

The images are almost devoid of color except when the flash hit something other than snowflakes.

This old schoolhouse (with a Case tractor in front) is a copycat of the one I attended for the first four years of elementary school in the mid-60s.  I learned to read via Dick, Jane and Sally in a schoolhouse like this.  One teacher, eight grades.

My dad uses it as a shop and he restored a 1951 Ford pickup in there.

These three evergreen trees are just west of the house.  The one that leans is that way because of a tornado that hit it in the summer of 1998.

The road to town is just beyond those trees

This is Millie.  She will be glad when winter is over.

Post-Olympics Hangover? Nope!

An interesting seven days.

We survived our first week off the Olympics teat and I'll be happy if our performance is indicative of the future.  We remained competitive in the early evening and late newscasts (number one last night at 10pm!).  We have work to do in the morning but I know once the team is complete on both sides of the camera, we will be on our way.

Friday was Craig Allison's last day.  I can truthfully say he is one of the most thoughtful General Managers I've ever worked with and I will miss him greatly.  I'm excited, though, for the future because our new boss is definitely engaged in the battle at hand.

KCTV is advertising for a "sportscaster."  What an old-fashioned term!  Remember when the former sports director for KCTV was on the cover of "The Communicator" in a story about how sportscasts didn't drive viewers etc etc?

From where I sit, the other stations in Kansas City have ceded sports to us.  We were the only broadcast outlet to send a crew to Surprise, AZ for Royals spring training.  That shocked me, given the performance of Zach Greinke and Billy Butler.

It's ok if they try to catch up.