Vacation all I've ever wanted

Ahhh vacation. I haven't really had a vacation since I started working in Spokane a year and 4 months ago. But here I am lounging on a deck in Portland not having to worry about news, live shots or deadlines.


Ahhh life is Sweet. I'll blog some more later, for now I'm just going to relax and take it easy.

Oh and BTW "The Dark Knight" was phenomenal. Everybody in that movie kicked butt. I have to say that the late Heath Ledger is rightly deserving of all the kudos for potraying one of the most fascinating and most creepy movie villains ever. I'm not pandering or anything when I say this but they should just give him the Oscar now.

Later,
CS

What day is it

I just got home from work. It's 6:44 a.m. and I went in at 2:30 p.m. yesterday. No lunch. They ordered pizza but I didn't get any. I'm home now scared to go to sleep because when Elliot wakes up I'm scared that I will be dead to the world and won't hear her. Morgan had to go to work as soon as I got here. They wanted me to stay until 7:00 but I got out at 6:15 because I told them Morgan had to be at work at 7:00 a.m. I'm really tired and kind of loopy.

Yesterday the day started out with a huge home improvement and lumber building going up in flames around 1:00 p.m. so that's what I walked in on. Then these sweeping winds hit the area knocking down power lines and trees and fires started popping up all over. The biggest one was in Spokane Valley. We went on the air at 5:00 p.m. and went off at Midnight. I sat the news desk for the rest of the night.

They wanted me to be back at 2:30 p.m. but Morgan's not going to be home until 1:30 so I convinced them to let me come in later at 6:30 so I can get at least a little sleep.

I figured I'd blog a little to try and stay awake.

The other day Morgan made Ella a dress with one of her favorite characters from Yo Gabba Gabba on it. Her new little dress sports the Image of Foofa.

She loves it.

We both enjoy watching Yo Gabba Gabba together. Here's one of our favorite songs from the show.

Later,
CS

Back in Blog

Hello Everybody. Happy 4th of July!


I know it's been months. I'm a bad blogger. I guess ever since it freakin' snowed in April and May I just really haven't felt like blogging. Morgan got after me today to post something and I've been thinking about doing an update lately because Ella is just getting so big and so vocal. It's crazy, she'll now have full on conversations with me and everything. I can't always understand what she's saying but it's a full on conversation none the less. And she loves music and she's singing all the time, I'll try to post some video of that. She's always walking around singing the themes from Sesame Street and Dragon Tales. She also likes to sing along with the Weezer's Pork and Beans when she's watching the video or even if she just hears the song on the radio. It's funny to hear this little voice in the back seat start to sing out "Ima doooo things Iwanna doooo" it's really very cute.

Work is well, I'm still interviewing celebrities from time to time. I'm going to take a vacation at the end of this month. The whole family is going to head over to Portland and the Oregon coast. Morgan and I are going to take a trip down to Southern Oregon probably while Ella stays with Grandma and Grandpa.

Well here's what everyone wants to see anyway pictures of little Elliot. First up the yearly summer progressing picture of her in the blue stripped chair.

Year One



Year Two



This Year July 4th 2008



Today we all went down to river front park. Ella and I road on the carousel. She was very excited about riding a horse...in theory. When I put her on a horse she tensed up and got really panicky, "No Daddy, No Daddy, No ride the horse." So we just sat on one of the fancy benches instead. She really liked that. Maybe she'll get on a horse next time because of all the fun she had on the bench.


I snapped this one of Morgan and Ella looking cute by the Spokane Falls.


Here are some other pictures of things we've been up to this summer.


Ella got really fascinated with dandelions this summer.


Ella has become very expressive with her facial expressions. She can usually get me to crack up with just a look or the raise of an eyebrow.

Here she is looking contemplative.


And here she is looking a little confounded.


I always tell her she has to wear a helmet before she rides a bike. Unfortunately her definition of a helmet is open to interpretation.


In May we went to Portland for Morgan's sister Katie's wedding and Elliott was the flower girl. She did a really good job, no flower girl meltdowns or anything. And for two-years-old she took her flower tossing very seriously. She didn't know the significance of what she was doing but she appeared to be very methodical about how she dropped the petals.


Ella was a big hit with everyone at the wedding.


Especially with Grandpa Bird.


Okay well that's it I'm going to Jet, I'll try and keep in touch. But before I go I'll throw in some Media Geek goodness. I haven't' seen a single movie this summer in the theatre but the Dark Night opens in IMAX in week and a half and I will be there.

Also let me introduce you to one of my newest favorite bands, Boss Hoss. They're a German cowboy cover band. They cover just about every genre of music. Here's the video of their cover of Hey Ya by Outkast. Please to enjoy.



Later,
CS

IT FREAKIN' SNOWED AGAIN TODAY!

This is just getting ridiculous, it's the middle of Frackin' April. It didn't snow a lot, but still, enough is enough, bring on spring already. Here's a couple of pictures from 2 weeks ago when it snowed.





Now here's a picture I took last Saturday when we thought that Spring had finally sprung.

See how nice it is. It was a great day. We hung out at riverfront park and there were tons of people there.

Now look at this weeks craptastic forecast.

THAT'S A BUNCH OF BULLCRAP! I want nice weather already. Stupid climate change. Well it could always be worse. We could be living in Toledo Ohio.

Even though spring has been cold and Snowy we've still been keeping busy finding things to do and ways to have fun. For Easter we took Elliott to the valley for her first ever Easter Egg hunt.


She Made out like a bandit, she got 13 eggs.


Also we took Elliott to see one of her heroes. Dora the Explorer and her monkey Boots made an appearance at the car show at the fairgrounds, so we decided to take Ella down there to see her.

Elliott was very excited, so much so that getting her to leave was nearly impossible. I seem to remember some screeching and flopping down on the floor. I should have put her in the stroller. Ah, hindsight.

Well that's it for now, everyone please think warm weather thoughts for us.

Later,

CS

Here's Another One

Yep they still have me doing this entertainment thing. Here's my interview with Tony Shalhoub about 'Monk'. I don't think I was quite as nervous as the Jay Leno interview, but I still can't break the habit of saying "uh" and "um". I stumbled a little when I was thanking him because my mind kept wanting to thank "Adrian Monk" so I had to regain my grasp on reality and come to terms that I was really talking to Tony Shalhoub.



This was pretty fun for me I'm a huge fan of Monk. Tony Shaloub's performance of the title character is absolutely perfect, both tragic and Hilarious. You as a viewer really feel for Monk and the people around him, and still you can't help but laugh at how he reacts to the situations that he finds himself in and his surroundings, like when he has to solve a murder in a junk yard or when he shook hands with a leper. The ensemble cast works perfect together, all of the supporting characters are beautifully performed by terrific actors.

I have to admit I was a late comer to the series. I didn't start watching until halfway through the third season when Traylor Howard joined the show playing Mr. Monk's new assistant (I've kind of had a crush on her since '96 when she was on Boston Common). Even though I was a Johny come lately to the wonder that is Monk, I was hooked from the first episode that I watched. Recently the show has been picked up for a seventh season and I'm happy that I get to keep watching the continued adventures of my favorite detective.

Later,
CS

The Big Story

Who would have thought that the biggest story that I've worked on this year would have started out by us killing the story because we discovered it wasn't true.

Last week I was shown this video at work that was on YouTube where a Rick Astley impersonator interrupted a women's basketball game at Eastern Washington. I noticed that the guy that made the video was from EWU, so I e-mailed him via his myspace page and asked him if he'd do an interview about the Prank. He said sure and we set it up for Thursday afternoon.

I got a call from my reporter Anthony and he said he thought the senior film student might not be telling us the entire truth about the video. The student told him that the prank happened during a timeout in the middle of the game and it interrupted game play. Anthony talked to campus security and they couldn't remember the event ever taking place.

I tracked down the down the women's basketball coach and called her at home. She told me that nothing like I described ever happened at that game between them and Montana State. While Anthony was out working on another story for a different show, the student dropped off a high res copy of the video. I watched it closer than I had before and could tell that there was some creative editing done there.

Anthony and I went to our news director and we told him our concerns. He said kill the story, and we did.

Then Monday morning the New York Times came out and this happened.



So now the story we killed becomes the story of how a young filmmaker pranked the New York Times.

The story has gone national and had all the blogs and some news sites buzzing today. The New York Times even printed a retraction today.

This business is weird.

Later,
CS

Video

Here's the video for that interview I did with Jay Leno. I think I sound like a tool. Like a nervous tool.




Later,
CS

Yep. Still the entertainment reporter

And still ugly.

Jay Leno looks good though, doncha think?

I was pretty nervous to meet him I mean he's Jay Freakin' Leno, but he was really nice and cool as you can see. It was just surreal. Here I am interviewing Jay Leno, a man who has interviewed everybody. I think I blanked out for part of the interview thinking about it.

Thanks Jay it was great meeting you.

Later,

CS

Ugliest Reporter EVER!

Soooo.....I'm now in charge of entertainment reporting. I get my own little web page on the company's site and I get to report on local and national entertainment. I've always maintained that I have a face for radio (hell I was a deejay for a classic rock station in my younger days) so I don't get the rational behind throwing my mug out there.

So much for staying behind the scenes,

Later,

CS

SNOW-POKALYPSE!

The Snow started falling last Saturday and didn't stop until around 4 p.m. on Sunday, then it started right back up again on Sunday night. It was SNOW-POKALYPSE!

I got called to come into work at 10 a.m. on Sunday because it was all hands on deck. I told Jonny 5 when he called that there was no way I was even going to be able to get my car out of my driveway to come to work without getting it stuck on my street. He said "Oh the roads aren't that bad you'll be able to make it. Just come down Monroe it'll be fine". After I hung up there were a lot of words uttered that shouldn't have been said around Elliott. Not because I had to go to work, I'm always fine with that, but because I knew I was either going to get stuck or wreck my car on the way there. Morgan wasn't happy either, "Call him back and tell him that someone needs to come and pick you up". I just grumbled (that's what I do...it's kinda my thing) and went outside to shovel the side walk and drive way. I shoveled about 5 feet of sidewalk when my phone rang, "How about if we send someone to get you in one of the stations 4x4 vehicles". This was great news because I knew the car wasn't going anywhere. You see we live on what's called Spokane's "South Hill" it's about 2500 feet up the hill where we live and the hill is pretty steep no matter where you try to drive up or down. Plus there was the matter of not being able to even drive the car on the side street in front of the house because of all the snow.

Morgan and Elliott came outside while I was shovelling.

Morgan and I traded off the shoveling duties. No I didn't make her or anything, she likes to do it. We got all the way to the driveway when the landlord showed up with the snow-blower. We let him take over.


It was 11:30 before I got picked up. Jonny 5 came in a station vehicle himself to get me because everybody was out shooting. We got 3 blocks from my house when he said, "Yeah you never would have made it into work if you had driven your car". I could have told him that, in fact come to think of it I did tell him that. As we were driving to the station, at about 10 mph, we saw car after car stuck in the snow trying to get out of their driveways and on unplowed side streets. I did a phoner over the air with the station about how the conditions were on the drive in. We stayed on the air nonstop with coverage until 7 p.m.

When I got to the station my desk was being used as a set for one of the reporters so I had to sit at one of the producer's desks. The news desk was already manned when I came in so I was just information gathering for the first little bit that I was there. Finding out about power outages, answering phones (they were ringing off the hook, something that would continue all week.), find out what events were canceled in town and what ones were still going on.

We started to hear unconfirmed reports that a jet had slid off the runway at the airport. So we sent a crew out there. Turns out it was a Southwest Airlines Jet (one of the big ones) and it did a 180 immediately after it touched down on the runway. I would have crapped my pants and had a massive heart attack if I was on that plane. Fortunately the plane was fine and no one was injured. I got a call from a woman who said that her father was on the plane, so I got his cell phone number from her and called him. His son who was sitting next to him went on the air, doing a phoner, describing what happened.


We already had a camera and reporter at the airport shooting the plane on the runway, but we wanted someone in the terminal to talk to the passengers as they got bussed of the jet. I went lenslinging down there with a reporter. We shot an interview with two women that were on the the plane and terrified. I ran the tape over to the live truck that was shooting the jet, feed it back and my reporter fronted the story live with the plane as the backdrop. He stayed with the live truck and the other reporter and photog and I went back to the station.
I don't usually don't shave on Sundays so that's why I'm looking a little scruffy.

When I got back the chief photog said, "Yeah, here's the deal. We don't have enough photogs, so you're going to have to shoot a live shot". I was back out the door with another reporter, going to the plow yard for the 5 and 6 pm news. What's different about Toledo and here is that the photogs run the live microwave trucks here. In Toledo it was a whole union thing, and an engineer had to run the live rig, it was a big pain in the ass. I don't do a lot of live shots here, I can count on one hand how many times I've shot something here and got it on live, and as you can imagine the trucks kind of are complex, not like just operating a DVD player or anything. Fortunately the 5 and 6 hit went off with out a hitch. I even got on a third time before we went off at 7pm. We got sent to a carport at an apartment complex that fell down and crushed a bunch of cars.
I was able to drive there shoot it and drive to a place where I could get a live shot and do another hit.

I ended up staying til midnight working the desk and got a ride home from a photog.

Monday I tried to drive to work and promptly got stuck in the street in the snow. School was cancelled so the little toe headed kid across the street who's about 5 or 6 was watching as I tried to get the car out. He decided to put his two cents in, "You should'a bought a twuck". I took a breath a answered back to him, "Yeah, well you shouldn't talk to strangers." he didn't say anything else after that. Fortunately a good samaritan towed me out and I bought some chains the next day. I had to use the chains until they plowed my street Thursday night.

The snow was so deep that day it came up to Elliot's waist. and she wasn't even all the way in the snow.


Morgan took a picture of this Icicle in the back yard. She really liked it, the thing was huge. The neighbor kid (different kid) knocked it down on Friday. She had words with him about it. She said he "killed her joy".

In all we had 23 inches of snow fall this week. It was supposed to snow today, but we only got a little. I'm glad, I'm over the snow. I thought we got a lot in Toledo. This is how high the snow is piled up next to my drive way.

I had to get after the same neighbor kid that broke Morgan's favorite icicle for climbing on the snow pile and knocking all the snow back in the driveway. I'm planning on yelling at little kids to get out of my yard while shaking a cane when I'm old.

Back to the Superbowl

Later,

CS

She told me that she loves me!

It's the one thing that she's heard millions of times since her birth. Morgan and I say it to her dozens of times every day. She can spout out phrases like "I fell down" or "It's cold brrrr" or "That's silly" but she has never repeated the words back to us that we most want to hear.

Today my little Elliott Anne looked me right in the eye and said "I love you". Not once but at least a half of dozen times. I'm on top of the world and can't be any happier.

The feeling is mutual.

Later,

CS

Hello 2008

Well that's it 2007 is over. Not a bad little year, there were some highs...and some lows...but there were some more highs too. All in all I'd say it went pretty well and just helped lay the groundwork for good things to come.

Christmas was great. We did the 6 hour car trip to Portland the Saturday before. Ella was not happy with that. We had great weather for the trip though, we got out of Spokane just before heavy snow hit so that was good.

We stayed with Morgan's parents and Ella was delighted, we even got her to say "Hi Grandma" in the car right before we got to the house. I don't think she ever actually said it to Morgan's mom though. Aw well, ya can't win 'em all.

My phone died on me with all my phone numbers in it the day before Christmas so that kinda sucked. I put my sim card in my old phone when I got back and it seems to work okay. Except I did lose all the numbers that I had saved to the phone and not the sim card

On Christmas Eve Morgan's cousin and family came over for the traditional "Bird Christmas Eve Party". Morgan's cousin has five kids ages 11, 7, 5, 3 and 10 months.

I have decided that Elliott will now be an only child, I hope she's happy with that. Now I just have to convince Morgan, should be easy.

Ella was pretty intimidated by all the activity. She's usually pretty much on all the time, non-stop, go go, but she was pretty timid with all those older kids running around. She finally just asked to go to bed around 7:30 p.m. "Night night? Night night song? Teeth....teeth brush". Morgan's cousin was very impressed, "How did you ever her get her to ask to go to bed on her own". My daughters brilliant, and I think she's left handed which is weird because Morgan and I are both righties.

She did start to feel more comfortable towards bed time especially when the two girls that were older than her let her watch Dora The Explorer with them on their mom's iPod.



On Christmas Day Little Elliott Anne made out like a Bandit. We'd like to say thank you to cousin Brandy for the way to extravagant doll house. She's finally got a little girl she can spoil. Thanks Brand, she loves it. And also thanks to Aunt Diane for Ponies. There are other people to thank but those are the only two that I know for sure read my blog.

The drive back the next day was fine also. We had rain all the time we were in Portland (it did snow for a bit on Christmas day but it didn't stick) but when we got back to Spokane it was pretty much a winter wonderland. Unfortunately we haven't been able to enjoy it because all three of us have been sick as dogs since the day after we got back. We all have the Coughing and the Sneezing and running a little fever. Morgan and I have got the body aches and the chills too. I'm guessing Ella also has those, she just can't tell me.

It really sucks being sick. I have to catch a flight out tomorrow morning for Jonny 5's wedding in Vegas on Friday. Being sick in Vegas should be fun.

All well wish me luck and Happy New Year everybody.

Later

CS

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.

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

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