Thursday, December 13, 2007

The depressing part about my job

SUNCREST, Wash. - That's how I write a web story. Every little web entry I type starts with a town and an AP (Associated Press) style of state abbreviation. Tonight I was sitting at my desk and I heard a call come across on the scanner...."House Fire". I knew it was bad when I heard it. I knew the fire was bad and when the fire crews got on the scene and said what they saw over the scanner, I knew it was very bad. But none of that is reportable. I refuse to report scanner traffic. I have a code and a duty to my viewing public not to report anything unless it has been confirmed. Unlike other media agencies in this market who shall remain nameless. I don't care if I get scooped as long as my credibility remains intact.

I told my morning producers before I left that I felt in my gut that this fire was a fatality. I told them not to report on that until it was confirmed because it was just my gut. But I knew someone died in this fire. Listening to the scanner and talking to the Sheriff's Dispatch, who told me when I asked if anyone was inside that house, "I can't discuss that with you." I knew at that moment that someone was dead.

We were the first ones to report that there was a fatality from the fire. All because of my tenacious desk skills. But that doesn't' make me happy. I got the scoop, and I was correct, but somebody's father, or brother, or son died. It just makes me a very sad that MY GUT...can tell me when someone is dead when I'm miles away from said incident. That's not a skill that I ever hoped to hone. But I honed it, and I'm very good at it.

I found a niche and something I'm good at. I'm a good journalist. It just hurts a lot sometimes that I'm a little too good at my job. I've seen dead bodies in the field and I've sent others to get the story on dead bodies and the bad things that people do to each other. I just wish that the badness in people and the world would just stop. Because I don't want the badness to hurt anyone I know ever again.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays
CS

P.S. On the plus side I pitched really good Christmas light story and it was our 10pm lead.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

I love turkey day

I had Thursday off so I was able to spend it with Morgan and Ella for Thanksgiving. I got up early and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving parade with my daughter. I watched it with her last year, but this year she really seemed to enjoy it. Here's a picture of her all dressed up for the holiday.



After the parade we watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special. Then we went for a walk around the block. We've been looking to buy a home, so we've been going to a lot of open houses lately. Every other house we would walk by on our little walk Ella would try to pull me to the front door saying "ouse, ouse, ouse". She really likes going to the Open houses on the weekends, sometimes it's very difficult to get her to leave.

When we got back home we watched videos on the computer and Ella danced. I've got the only Two-year-old who digs ELO. Her favorite lately is the penguin waiter scene from the movie Mary Poppins. She's never even seen the movie, I just stumbled across the clip on YouTube one day and she loves it.

After that she was pretty tuckered out and was asking to take a nap. She went down right before the thanksgiving meal was ready, so Morgan and I had to eat without her. She got her portion later though.

Morgan made a very delicious Thanksgiving meal. I'm still working on the leftovers. I made myself a turkey quesadilla when I got home from work last night.

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Later,
CS

Sunday, November 04, 2007

Fall in Spokane

It's fall in Spokane and all is right in the world. We no longer live in Toledo, Morgan and I are both very happy, Elliott is a happy healthy 2-year-old with endless amounts of energy and the McRib has returned to McDonald's. Life is good.

Here are some pictures of what has been transpiring this fall.



It's still warm enough for Elliott to do one of her favorite things, go to the park. She's pretty much fearless and will try anything. Here she is tackling the rock climbing wall.



Here she is posing for Morgan. She looks so sweet and contemplative sitting there amongst all those leaves in her little poncho. After this shot was taken she began to eat a stick. Stick's are a good source of fiber.



Here's another shot of her among the leaves. She's wearing a little thermal apple dress that Morgan made for her. Morgan's selling custom made dresses just like it over at her Etsy shop. She also made this really cool little baseball shirt with a robot embroidered on it. Morgan's really gotten into hand embroidery this fall and has been making a bunch of really cool things.




Last week we went to the John Finch Arboretum just west of downtown Spokane. Remember when I said she was fearless? Elliott decided she was going to just start climbing the biggest freakin' rock in the place. Okay, I over exaggerate, it wasn't the biggest. But still it was pretty darn big and when she got to the top (with me right there behind her the whole time) she just tried to walk right off the side.



She also tried to get into this stream many times. I let her put her hand in it. She would immediately pull it out because the water was too cold and then she would wait 2 seconds and put her hand right back in again.



A few weeks ago we went out to a pumpkin patch. Elliott loved it, she absolutely loves pumpkins. Who knew? She just ran around from one pumpkin to the next, patting them like she was patting someone on the head. She would get so excited and over stimulated that after running around she would just start jumping in one spot up and down with a huge smile on her face squealing with delight. She did that about 5 times. It was not a pretty sight when it was time to go. She did not want to leave that pumpkin patch. She still pats the three pumpkins we have outside the front door whenever we leave or come home. She gets very excited to see them and says "Pum Pum! Pum Pum!" She's pretty silly.



Halloween was Wednesday and Morgan made Ella this little pirate costume. She made the shirt, jacket, hat and skirt the day before, all for under 5 bucks. My wife is very talented, God I love her.



Here's the little silly posing. The reason she's making that face is because she's saying "Cheeeese" for the camera.

I leave you guys with a video. Elliott loves to dance. She'll run to the computer and go "Dee Dee" making the sign language sign for dance. Lately she really likes to dance to "Grace Kelly" by Mika. Here she is getting down. The song has a little bit of an intro so its about 30 seconds in before she starts getting down. Please don't think I'm too bad of a parent for letting her jump on the bed. Oh yeah the camera work is shaky because I'm jumping around too. Enjoy.



Later,
CS

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Dog Nutz


So we were going to the mall last week and we saw this personalized license plate reading "DOGNUTZ". I'm fairly sure that the message the owner of the car was trying to convey was that their family is crazy about dogs. Yeeeahhhh.......that's just not the image that comes to mind when I read DOGNUTZ.
Or maybe I'm way off base here maybe they wanted people to see their plate and immediately think of canine testicles. Who knows, maybe DOGBALLS was already picked by another driver. At least they had a "worst president ever" sticker on their rear window.
Later,
CS

Sunday, October 14, 2007

2 years goes by too fast

Friday was Elliott's birthday. It's amazing to me how much she's grown. She's recognizing numbers and letters now, and is making great improvements with communicating verbally. I'm so sad, my little baby is now a toddler. She's growing up way too fast.

Here she is on the day she was born.



And here she is last year on her first birthday.



Now here she is at this years birthday party.



I told her to quit growing but she continues to defy me. Curses!

Before I go, as a bonus here's a video of her demonstrating her coloring and animal impression skills.


Well That's It for now, Later

CS

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Get to bloggin' you lazy bastard!

Hello....Hello.....is anyone still there? Geez, springs over, summer came and went and now it's fall. The whole time I didn't blog about any of the stuff we saw or did. We'll lets see if I can get back up on the horse.

We went to Grandview, WA because my grandma Covert had a heart attack on Thursday. It was pretty scary. Here's a picture of her and Grandpa with Morgan and Elliott that I took when we went to see them this summer.


She seems to be feeling much better, and they released her from the hospital last night. I just hope she takes it easy.

Some sad news though, my brother and sisters' grandma Nichols had a heart attack and passed away. It's been a bad weekend. My sister Kimi said that she had not been feeling well for awhile. I hope my siblings are doing okay, I always thought their dad's parents were really nice people.

On a lighter note
While I was in Grandview Morgan and Elliott got to meet my cousin Brandy for the first time. Elliott was uber cute and Brandy was thoroughly impressed (even if she did scoop up some dirt and eat it). I haven't seen Brandy for about 5 years, and I got chastised for not keeping up with my blog. So I decided I better start posting again. Sorry cuz.

We are all still really enjoying ourselves in Spokane. We had a great summer and did a lot of cool things. Elliott is talking up a storm. We're still working on complete sentences but she can piece 3 or 4 words together every once in a while.

One thing that she really loves is going to the grocery store. I don't know if you all have kids out there, but most grocery store cashiers now give kids stickers when you're at the check out stand. Elliott loves getting stickers at the store. She starts asking for them as soon as we get in line. We can't drive by Fred Meyer's with out hearing a little voice in the backseat going, "Steek, Steek, Steek".

Lately she just takes them off the paper and puts one on each cheek. Today the cashier at Freddy's gave her four instead of the usual two.


That's my silly little sticker covered girl. I can't believe that she's going to be two-years-old on Friday. Everyone is invited over for punch and pie!
That's it for now. I'll try to be more vigilant in keeping up with the blog.
Later,
CS

Monday, May 28, 2007

I Lied To Lois Lane

So I never have been to a comic book convention before. I have made it a point not to go to one ever. I love comic books but I generally don't like hanging out with other people (there are exceptions) who also like comic books. The ones that go to the conventions usually take geekdom to a whole new level. But this Saturday I broke that rule and went to the debut of the Spokane Comicon. I wasn't going to go, but a producer at the station told me that the actress that played Lois Lane in Superman the Movie was going to be there. I'm not going to mention her name because I'm scared she'll do a Google search for herself and if she stumbles across this post she'll sue me for talking about her.

When I heard that this actress was going to be at the Comicon I thought that this was something I couldn't pass up. I mean how hilarious would it be for me to get my picture taken with her. Well we got there, and I introduced myself to her, when I told her my name she said "Oh that's fun". Morgan, Ella and I walked around the Comicon for a little while, it was pretty small. Ella was not happy she wanted down from her pack. I came across the table of the guy who's doing the comic book sequel to Clash of The Titans, called Wrath of The Titans, and he said "Oh I have baby books". So I bought Ella her first comic, one with extra thick baby book pages. It's called ABCs, for Superheros and it's even personally autographed for her. After that she was much happier.

Anyway Mar....uh...the actress walked back to her table and so I walked up and asked for her autograph and if we could take a picture. She looked at me and said "Now you know that's 20 dollars." I was taken a back a bit.

CS: "Oh...no I'm sorry I didn't realize, I'm sorry. So for us to snap a picture of you with our camera that's 20 dollars?"

LL: "Yes for 20 dollars you get an autograph, one of these photos I have here and you can take a picture, it's a whole package thing."

CS: "Oh, I see. I'll have to go hit an ATM I didn't bring that much money with me."

I lied, I had no intention of coming back and paying her 20 bucks. We went to Sonic and had burgers instead. The whole thing just left me feeling really sad for her. I pretty sure if before he died I got the chance to meet Christopher Reeve, he wouldn't have charged me 20 bucks to take a photo with him. Sad just Sad. So that was my first and last Comicon. But I did get to lie to Lois Lane.....sweet.

Later,
CS

Sunday, May 06, 2007

The Force is Strong with her.

Ella met her first Storm trooper yesterday. We went to downtown Spokane and he was hanging out in front of comic book shop.





I've always said that the force is strong with Ella, and it's gotta be true. Just look at the way she got that imperial bastich to kneel down to her. She's got midi-chlorians a plenty. I'm going to start plotting to use her to take over the galaxy now.


Later,
CS

Ella's Thirsty

So we went to Costco last week and got a big box of the Costco version of Gatorade type of sports drinks. Ella decided she was low on electrolytes and went to the closet to get all of them.

It's a week later and even though I've put them in the basement, she still seeks them out. And forget trying to drink one around her. Unless I give her a bottle for herself she steals mine and takes it to the fireplace and pretends to drink it.

Later,
CS

Thursday, April 26, 2007

The Reason I Finally Snapped

When they ask "What was it? What was it that made him finally snap?" Oh and they will ask dear friends, they'll ask "Why did he do it? Why did he go down south to La La Wood and do that terrible thing to those nice show biz types? We always knew he was a ticking time bomb, just ready to go at any minute...but what could have finally set him off?"

Well my brothers and sisters you tell them that it was this.

The King, ELVIS AARON PRESLEY SINGING A FREAKIN DUET WITH CELINE FREAKIN DION. It's like somebody said, "How can we insult every sensibility that Chuck Suede has. How can we shat on him down to his very core? Oh wait...we can take his hero...The King and make him preform on live television for millions to see, with the recording artist (and I'm using the word "artist" ironically) that he loathes more than anything else in this world".

WHO SIGNED OFF ON THIS?

I have no hope for the future. It was crushed tonight. If the whole show wasn't' for charity I would be calling for an all out boycott on American Idol....Oh wait a minute on second thought...I am calling for an all out boycott on American Idol....who's with me?

I will try not to do harm to anyone that has any family that cares about them....But I'm not makin' any promises! I reckon they knew what they were getting themselves into when they made this monstrous decision. And you gotta reap what you sow. Now reap it!

Later,

CS

P.S. I wonder if they let you blog in prison?

Saturday, April 21, 2007

The Landlord


Even though I think that this video is funny as hell, I would never teach Elliott to say these words.
You do that and it's "B!#ch, B!#ch, B!#ch!" Coming out of her mouth in the grocery store for the next two years, with everyone looking at you ready to call child services.

Still funnier than hell though.

Later,
CS

Saturday, April 07, 2007

We Made It!

Well we made it. We are finally here in Spokane and all settled in. I got here a week ago and Morgan flew out with Ella a week before that to find us a place to live. She got us a great place on the south hill with 3 bedrooms and a finished basement. Plus we are only paying $650 a month so that rocks.

The journey here was a quite the adventure. First we lost a loved one about a week before Morgan left. I am said to say that the Dancing Hamster is no more.


I'll miss the little guy.

Elliott would help out by repeatedly packing herself into a box several times a day.

I don't know why she thought that we were going to ship her as freight.

I hired a couple of college guys who work down at the Rocket Inn as bartenders to pack up the truck. I'm an old man now and my back likes to go out at the most unfortunate times. They did the job for 50 bucks to split between the both of them and 32 cans of Natural Light.

The truck was the first big hurdle. When we picked it up I thought it was a little small, only 16 feet. 2 years ago I drove a 26 footer when I moved us to Toledo. When they started loading the truck I thought we were going to be okay, but as we got about half full I knew we were in trouble. I had to figure out what was going to be left behind and it really sucked. For the rest of Saturday, Sunday and the first part of Monday (the day I was supposed to leave at 9 in the morning) I was packing and re-packing the truck all while trying to clean the apartment and get it all pretty for the landlord. A lot of stuff got set out on the curb for the taking and for trash. The couch went really quick. Just a couple of hours. Same thing with Elliott's old baby stuff and the vacuum cleaner. The good thing about Toledo, is that no matter how much garbage you curb, they will take it.

Right before I was getting ready to leave I saw garbage starting to fly out of next door neighbors' garbage can. Trash would just fly up in the air and then hit the ground like in a cartoon or a cheesy horror flick with little creatures. Then after about a minute out jumped the biggest fattest squirrel I've ever seen holding half a loaf of bread. Here he is with a chunk of bread sitting on the fence.

Funny, I always thought it was raccoons getting into the neighbors trash and trowing it everywhere.

I finally got on the road at about 1pm on Monday. I took off down Interstate 80 wearing my "driving long distances in a truck" cowboy hat and my Smokey and the Bandit t-shirt.


When I stopped in Indiana to get gas, I ran into trouble. Morgan had given me my credit card (that I never use and that has a zero balance) for lodging and gas. Well it was rejected. Turns out I had the old card, the one that expired in 2005. Like I said I never use it, I have no idea were the current card is. Well I knew I was in trouble without that card. I'd given Morgan all the money in my bank account so it was empty, I had enough cash for a few days but not for the whole trip so I was not happy. Thanks to my buddy Tim from the station in Toledo everything worked out. Morgan mailed him a check and he put it in my bank account.

At least I know I wasn't the only one having a really bad day at the gas station that day.

I walked up to the guy putting the caution tape on the pump and said "Hey...uh....sombody scratched this thing". He just stared at me.

So after the gas dilemma I spent the first night in Rockford Illinois. Day two, I crashed in Mitchell South Dakota. Day three is when things went to hell.

The day started out simple enough. I hit the road early and was making great time. I even planned to make a couple of stops because Morgan told me that we probably wouldn't be able to move into our new place until Friday afternoon.

South Dakota is pretty much nothing but Billboards for attractions along Interstate 90. And they all start about 200 miles away or more from said attraction. So I had been seeing a lot of billboards telling me that I absolutely had to stop at Wall South Dakota and go to Wall Drug. They have a statue of Dinosaur at their Exit.


I wasn't particularly blown away. It just looked like a little western town that had paved roads and electricity.


The chapel for weary travelers was kind of cool though.


As I got closer to the South Dakota/Wyoming border it started to rain. When I crossed over to Wyoming I hit a few snow flurries. Then about 40 miles in the snow started to come pouring down. I shifted into a lower gear and just white knuckled the steering wheel because I was in the freakin' mountains. Lots of steep winding roads.

I was planning on trying to get to Billings Montana that night, but I decided to turn off and get a hotel room in Gillette South Dakota and just stay for the night. When I got to the exit for the motels in Gillette there were signs with flashing lights before the exit telling everyone that the freeway was closed because of snow (they have like railroad arms that come down and block the road so people can't get through) and everyone needed to get off the freeway at that exit. I later found out they closed the road about 2 hours before I got there. So every hotel room in Gillette was taken.

After I freaked out and screamed at the top of my lungs for like an hour, I got back on the freeway and started heading East. I had Morgan look up a hotel in Sundance Wyoming on the Internet, I had remembered passing one there earlier. Sundance was about 61 miles from Gillette and I was now driving in blizzard conditions on the freeway.

Yep that white sea in front of me is the interstate. I was now driving about 5mph.

Morgan called and booked the hotel for me. Good thing too because it filled up fast, with truckers and old timers on vacation going or coming back from seeing their kids.

Sundance Wyoming, population 1,180. Where the Sundance Kid got his name. I was stuck in that hotel for 3 days. Just me and the cat and hundreds of Truckers and Seniors. I watched a lot of TV.

To add another Item of suckiness to my stay was the fact that the hotel was like 2 miles out of town, and the only thing close to it was a BP gas station with a little mini mart. So since I had no way to get to town since my truck was blocked in by Semis, I ate Hot Pockets for 3 days. Also you can only by beer in grocery stores and bars in Wyoming so I couldn't even get a freakin' beer while I was stuck there.

They opened the road back up on Saturday and I drove all day to get to Spokane. I missed Ella and Morgan so much. It was driving me nuts having to hear her voice on the phone while I was stuck in that hotel room.

Well I'm here now and I really like Spokane, and so does Morgan.

We went to the park earlier this week and went up on the Radio Flyer that's there.


Here's what it looks like from a distance.

The handles a slide.

I started work on Wednesday the 4th and I really like the new station. It's huge and I have so many resources at my disposal. Plus it's not a union shop so I can actually touch all the equipment now if I want or need to .

Well, I better get back to my girls.

Later Gators,

CS

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Kiss Toledo Goodbye

We're Moving To Spokane!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Theodore Geisel!

Ella would like to wish The Cat in the Hat a Happy 50th birthday!
Thanks for everything Dr. Seuss!

Later,

CS

Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Couch Potato

Here's my little baby totally enthralled in something called "Go, Diego! Go!" (BTW they changed IMDB and I'm very upset. I hate the new layout.). I just don't get it. Give me "The Electric Company" any day.


Doesn't' she look big? She looks like a 3 year old. Who'd guess she's only just over a year? I shall weep now. I keep telling her to stop growing, but she defies me at every turn. Silly little defiant baby.

Later,

CS

Poopie Baby...Not Really

I forgot to post this with the last entry. Ella was walking around in her little cute mobster track suit. She says "Baby" a couple of times, and then she gave me the sign language sign for "Poopie". She was fibbin' though. She just had a wet diaper. Silly baby.



Later,
CS

Monday, February 19, 2007

Fugetaboudit!

Elliott has decided to go into the protection racket. Here she is ready to go out with Paulie and Bobby on a collection run. She'll break your kneecaps, so don't mess with her, capiche?

Actually her great grandma and grandpa gave her this little running suit, but I watch way to much HBO.

I'm not sure if I'm Italian or not, (who knows I have no Idea what my heritage is. I know I have some Jewish and some Cherokee in there somewhere), but one thing I do know is that Ella loves her spaghetti.

Magnaccia, magnaccia, little one.

She actually seems to celebrate the pasta goodness.

One last pic before I go. Here is my darling sporting a sweet mullet and looking like a hippie chick, with a cute little pink dress over a pair of dungarees.

Too cute!

Later,

CS

Friday, February 09, 2007

Snow Days

Well we knew that the 40 degree temps weren't going to last, but we did get all the way to the end of January. But classic Ohio winter smacked back with a vengeance last week and is still striking as we speak. It was a little warmer today and yesterday. How sad is it when your saying "Thank God we got back up to 17, it's so much warmer now. I was freezing".

Elliott went outside and got to play in the snow for the first time. Here she is bundled up in her little pink snow suit.

Morgan took the pictures when I was at work, so I didn't get to see her in the snow first hand. Morgan told me she would not walk in the snow. She would just reach down and touch the powder then laugh.

Later,

CS

Sunday, February 04, 2007

Reaching For The Stars

We'll little miss Elliott Anne has decided to freak out her Daddy more and give him something new to worry about. Check this picture out of her in the rocking chair.

Pretty Cute huh? There's just one problem. SHE GOT UP THERE ALL BY HERSELF! Ella has decided that she likes to climb. She already discovered that she could get up on the coffee table last week, that was freaky enough. But now with her conquering the moving rocking chair I'm pretty much a nervous wreck.

I was playing with her a little while ago and she walked around the little green tunnel we got for her. Since I was down on the ground I couldn't see her when she walked around the tunnel. Next thing I know Morgan yells "Ella No!" I jumped up off the floor to see this.

That's right she climbed up on some boxes that we packed up and sat in the corner.

We have now moved them to a room where she does not have free reign.

All this to worry about tacked onto the fact that she likes to put bags over her head and walk around the livingroom. Silly Baby.



I swear I'm going to build her a suit made out of bubble wrap. I was kidding about it before, but it seems she leaves me no recourse.

Later,
CS

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Ah Crap! Get a Sense of Humor and Watch Some TV Wouldja!

You know this whole thing could have been avoided if more people would watch one of the greatest shows ever 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' But now because of a bunch of panicky jackholes one of my favorite TV shows is probably going to get canceled. If you don't know what I'm talking about Check This Story Out.


I mean com'on you yahoos....who wouldn't now that's Err the Mooninite? "Silence nerd! Prepare for a moon spanking. Now you drop those sweatpants right now!"

And the whole campaign ran for two weeks in half a dozen major metropolitan city's before this without any incident. Damn wussy Boston yutzes...I thought youse guys was suppose'd to be tough over around Southie.

Now they'll probably pull the movie. Freakin' D-bags.

One funny thing about it, Sheppard Smith on FOX said early on when they didn't know who left the magnets, that the whole thing obviously must have been the work of pot head college students (I'm paraphrasing but I challenge him to deny that's what he meant. He used the words Pot Smoking and College Students when talking about who could be behind it.) Schmuck. Guess he's never heard of Viral Marketing.

later,

CS

Monday, January 29, 2007

Ah Jeez!

Elliott loves her Sesame Street. C'mon who doesn't'? My only question here is, why are Oscar, Elmo, The Count, Kermit and Ernie all in the Bathtub together? (not that there is anything wrong with that.) And why is there an owl and a cow looking at them through a window? I mean c'mon man.....really?!?!


Later,

CS

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Reflection

Well here it is. The first post of the new year. I realize the month is almost over but I've been a little busy. With the arrival of the new year I have to stop and reflect upon what was the most significant event of my life during the year 2006.

2005 is a no brainer, the most significant event of that year was becoming a father when my lovely little Ella was born on Oct. 12th of that year.

I love that little girl so much and it's just been incredible watching her grow up and start to develop her own little personality.


But as for what was my most significant event of 2006, what one particular accomplishment that meant the most to me last year. Well, I'd have to say that it was giving that beer to that goat....that was awesome! Eating that pig brain sandwich was a close second though.


Before I jet I'm gonna throw some pics of Ella your way. Morgan went and got some portrait photo's taken of my little girl. She was way cute, as you can see for yourself.


For Christmas we got here this little tunnel. She really loves it. She'll just take off and hide in it when I start chasing her when we're playing, just laughing her head off the entire time.



Well I'm gonna motor.

later,

CS