Life in a nutshell

I'm sitting here listening to "Gravity" radio, a station I made on Pandora. The music that flows from my speakers makes me feel creative, which is why I've been listening alot to it at work.

Work has been very busy lately. It's that time of year in television. This is the time when we are scrambling to prepare all of our new programming for launch in September, so it's only a few weeks away. We are bringing an onslaught of new programs to our station. Because of that, I have to make launch promos in various lengths to let viewers know the show is coming and what day it starts and what time it will be on. I do this for each show on each station. I'm also updating the existing promos for the shows we already have so that everything has a fresh look. I could go on about creating ID's and menuboards, but that won't mean anything to most of you so I'll just skip that mountainous chore description and move on.

Since I've posted last, life has kept me busy. I took my first trip to Las Vegas at the end of July. I went by myself. It was a work trip. The FOX network (not FOX News...those are two entirely separate entities) flies all of the promotions people from each of their affiliates to a conference each year to prepare us for the new fall season. Last year was in Orlando. Never again. This year in Vegas, we all stayed in the Bellagio. You might recognize it from the movie "Oceans 11" when the guys are watching the water show at the end. My room was quite possibly modeled after the rooms in the mansions in Heaven. Holy Cow! What a nice place! I've never stayed anywhere that nice in my life. I flew out on a Tuesday morning to Chicago (which is the opposite way to Vegas) then turned around and made it to LV. Temperature was 112º at its hottest. I went out one day to walk the strip and see the sights. The next day, I went out at night. Much better, but creepier, but crazier, but more exciting. What a place. I spent 3 nights there. The most I spent on dinner was $74!!! Saying that, I suggest staying away from Caesars Palace. I'm not made of that kind of money and feel really uncomfortable spending that much. I don't spend that much to feed my family! Granted, I had money budgeted for all of this, but still, that's just riDONKulous.

During the conference, the network gave away a free trip for two people to fly to Vegas for two nights and get two dinners as well. Skip to the end...I WON! Yes, I found the hidden flashlight! So, now I'll get to take Sara there. We never were able to afford a honeymoon after we got married and now, 15 years later, we finally get do something that closely resembles a honeymoon. Can't wait. It'll be a fun trip for the two of us.

We took a day trip back to Kansas City a few weeks ago to finish up our Worlds of Fun/Oceans of Fun vacation. We went to WOF in July, but it was so cool that weekend, we couldn't see ourselves playing in the water all day at OOF. So, we found a 100º day in August, right before school started, grabbed Andrew's buddy Caleb, and met Sara's sister and kids and spent a long day there. Pretty relaxing. I just kind of lounged around in the pool and observed all the people who don't have the "I really shouldn't be wearing this in public" gene as well as the people who's "I look really good in this" meter is broken. Really people, take a look in the mirror before you walk out of the door. And the rest of you, you should probably trim those barbs on your feet called toenails. Seriously, you might cut somebody in the wave pool. yuck.

On our way home from KC, we stopped at the legendary Hi Boy by Royals stadium for hamburgers. It'd be a hard choice between that and Freddy's for me. They're both so darn good!

I've been riging my bike every morning about 5 miles. I hate it, but I know it's good for me. Soon, with it getting darker in the morning, I'll have to start walking again. I'd rather ride, but I don't want to become the morning candidate for roadkill star of the day so I'll safely remove myself to the sidewalk for a pre-dawn jaunt. Or, I suppose I could change my bike route to a safer route. That's a thought, but it can be difficult to bike once it starts snowing. Honestly, I love taking a walk in the early morning while it's snowing or just after a snowfall. It's just awesome to me. Love it.

So, that's been life in a nutshell. I've been out of touch with most of the blogs I follow, I've obviously not been keeping my current, but the desire has been there. It's just that time has failed me, or maybe it's time knows I'm needed somewhere else at the moment. Either way, this blog will continue, and it's always in the back of my mind. I think several times during a week that I would love to write about this particular situation in my blog. If blogging could only be telepathic. Until the next post, be well, and thanks for checking in. I'll check in on you when I can.