My first pictureless post

So I figured I would give those readers and update on the blog as it has been pretty barren for several days now. We're slowly moving into the new house as the upstairs is done and I haven't been able to update the blog. I HAVE, however, been taking pictures each day, so I will have some very picture heavy posts in the coming days. I know you're all on the edge of your seats...so take a break and grab a donut.

Bugs and Birthdays and Big Storm Damage

A praying mantis I found on the side of Megan's Grandparents house while we were there celebrating her birthday last Sunday. Ever time I got in front of it to take a picture it would stop walking and look right at me as if to ask, WTF?

Now I think the picture below perfectly represents a 21st birthday. You can visualize a whole day/night in this picture. She was still awake in this picture, but who could tell anyway...and not for long.


These pictures are from Junction City in Perry County. They were hit pretty hard. These pictures are of our Satellite truck we sent there for live shots in various shows. These pictures don't even scratch the surface of the damage there.

Some more weekend related pics

Bathroom progress report: The toilet is no longer in the tub, the tub surround is being placed, and the vanity has made it's way into the bathroom...it's not quite upright...details...
In case you happened to see the picture of the baby pumpkin plants taken within the first couple days of this blog, here's an update. The pumpkin plant I chose to rule them all, (a.k.a. the one I actually planted), has become a monster beast, laughing in the faces of all those other unworthy pumpkin plants, (a couple are in the pots). If Mark decideds he'd like them, here they wait...crying for him to release them from their pot prisons.


The rest of these pictures are from my Nephew's B-day party on saturday. He's a big, bad 4 year old now. My sister found this baby baby kitten in the middle of the road the other day as well, and is trying to pawn her off on me...or someone...anyone. Any takers?

Oh, and there was some fun water battles at the part between my Dad and Xavier. Guess who got a face full of water?

Imagine the Jaws theme here...

Da Dum....

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Da Dum
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da dum
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Oh hell with it
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AHHHHHHHH!!!! It's.....ORANGE!!!!!

A couple days...a few more pictures

This was the room as of last weekend. The carpet job was kinda sub-par. Fortunately that was remedied on monday.
Here is the wall I tore out on the other side of the main bathroom. I had to paint all around the area with KILLZ to try and eliminate some undesirable odors. It's seemed to do the job so far.

Since I've missed a couple days here and there, here are some pics for wednesday. A on/off button the a monitor and one of our editing keyboards, (they're very colorful). How often do you see a button like that in an extreme closeup? Not much I'm betting.
And finally, here was the room as of wednesday night...I think. After work I wanted to see how everything looked, and it looked much better. The edges looked alot cleaner and the room overall is no longer "sub-par." I'd say using the elementary school grading scale of "O" for Outstanding, "S" for satisfactory, and "U" for Unacceptable, the room is now a solid "S+". In addition, my roommates wife, Marcy, gave me her seal of approval on my color choice in the bedroom. She said that blue looked "very nice." Oh yea, there's those art skills at work! Of course, I have yet to post a picture of the area formally known as the "Red Room." It WAS painted a dark red, and the trim and part of the ceiling was done in a "Chocolatey Quick" type of brown. I chose a color I thought would be motivating...you'll have to let me know what you think when I take a picture of it. To put it simply, when you're outside of the room looking in it's direction from down the hallway, you THINK there are alot of lights on in the room. That's how freakin bright the wall color is. hmm...

Excuse me Officer, I had to snap a picture for my blog...

Excuse my weaving fellow freeway drivers...I had to snap a picture for my blog. I technically took this picture monday night on my way home from work. I went in early since lately we've been scheduling more reporters than photogs. lately. Of course, since I have a couple vacation days coming up, none of it was OT, just strait pay. woo...hoo...

David Wayne and I got to spend over 4 hours at city hall today. It was torture. We were there because there was this new bicycle helmet law proposed, and "someone" thought that a council made up of all democrats was going to heatedly debate over the topic. Apparently, someone hasn't been to a council meeting here....EVER. I'm sure that there was some disagreements at some point, but heated?? This is a council that seems to turn every meeting into the city's most publicized circle jerk. I don't know how many "Thank yous" and compliments were flying throughout the room over those 4 hours, but I practically had to break out my Cardigan sweater and Choo-Choo train and welcome people to the neighborhood. "I'd just like to thank councilman blah bla-blah for telling us about this." "I'd like to thank other councilman blah bla-blah for thanking me on that" "I'd just like to thank both councilmembers blah and blah for giving me the opportunity to witness them thanking each other for blah bla-blah freakin blah." Now imagine over 4 hours of that bullcrap. Then, once everyone during the voting got down to the last flippin' votes one councilman made us sit through the most painfully pointless statements of the night, (which consisted of him telling us how toddlers should NOT be riding their tricycles in the street....NO Freakin' CRAP!!!!), we had the have yet another councilwoman go on for 10 minutes about why SHE was going to vote yes...after everyone else already voted yes. WE. Don't. CARE!!! Just freakin' vote already!!!

Ugg. I need a nap.

BUSTED.

This is what I come home to prettymuch everyday. Too bad the picture can't convey all the snorting and figiting. We've got him almost to the point where he stays off of the gate, (yes that is a baby gate), but sometimes he gets overly excited and stands with his front paws on it. And we also see one of my two cats, Izzy, planning her strategy to get on the other side of the gate while avoiding the dog's wrath.
As I figured, he had to chew up something. Levi relapses once every couple weeks, (at most), and chews something that isn't his. Actually, he just fell off the wagon recently, (not alcohol), when he chewed up some of my sandal. He was several weeks strong!! Why?!!
Yea, so I forced him to pose next to the casualty, (look at that guilty face...hehe, he knows...). It was the cardboard box my new shutter control came in. It WAS kinda cool as it HAD all sorts of interesting Chinese stamps on it. Apparently that's where my shutter control came from...I had no idea idea the auction said "China", but it still cost me less than $10 after shipping. I didn't scold him too much as it WAS left on the floor, which as most dog owners know makes it fair game for a good gnawing on. Whenever an animal in the Distelzweig household gets "sick" on the carpet and we clean it, we mark the trouble spot after we clean it to avoid any sock mishaps. Yesterday Mr. Levi puked...twice in about 10 seconds...in two separate places of course. Megan cleaned them up, marked one danger zone with the bottle of resolve, and the other with...you guessed it, the Chinese delivery box. Nuff' said. Bailiff, take him away!

Megan cleaning the grout off the tiles after I laid it all out...oohh yeea. I'll admit I was alittle nervous about the whole "grout" thing after seeing a tv show on the HG channel where some dude let all the grout dry too long and he couldn't wipe it off his tiles. So they had to tear out all his tilework and start over. Considering we used every single tile we had, (Cause we're awesomely resourceful...we even made use of broken tiles in the boxes for cut pieces!). Just to fill you in, we used 6 full boxes of 12"x12" tiles, (12 to a box), plus 5 tiles my parents had left over...like I said...awesome.
At any rate, here's the pseudo-finished bathroom floor! I'll have to wipe it down again tomorrow, then seal the grout starting on monday. What can I say, we rock. Big props to Nate on saw duty who came through with all the cuts!

Bathroom Tile Flooring Bonanza!!

We laid the tile flooring in the bathroom today! I forgot to snap a picture, so say tuned...but not really. When I say stay tuned I don't mean I want you to sit in front of your computer screen waiting patiently for me to post the pictures. That would just be crazy talk.
It took us ALL DAY...sort-of, but it's going to look AWESOME! We get to grout it tomorrow. I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm "nervous" about it as it's supposed to be pretty easy, but I'm never grouted before, (I've laid tile one other time...so that experience along with the help of my roommate helped.) I also had plenty of advice from my Dad and Brother-in-law on the subject. So hopefully all goes according to plan tomorrow morning!

Does anyone else think the term "Laying tile" sounds dirty? Like, So I took this girl back to my apartment last night, and we Laid Tile....oh yea ;)I received my new shutter control in the mail! It has a lock on it so I don't have to hold the button down the whole time. This starry night exposure is after roughly 10 minutes. I'll get it right eventually, but I wanted to get the earth rotation shot...so here's the first.

Catchin' up with a Courthouse

So our story yesterday took us to Washington Courthouse. Not much there except a...Courthouse. The story wasn't that fantastic, so I'll spare you the details. The intern, Emily, was with us and asked odd, yet intriguing questions as she tends to do. This trip, she asked why people would build a town here. Ya know, for as simple a question as that is, I couldn't really answer it. I said, "well why does anyone settle anywhere?" She replied, "Water." Good answer, so I couldn't really tell you why there's a town here. It probably had something to do with some dude's wagon breaking down in the area some time ago...and instead of fixing it and moving on, why not start a town, build a courthouse, and name the town after said courthouse. Heck, lets throw our nation's first presidents name in front of it...sounds more official. I have no idea what I'm talking about. I think our intern should do some research on the town and answer her own question...for all of us.
Other than that it was a normal day. Oh yea, I bought some wine. Riunites Lambrusco(sp?). I have to say it's decently tolerable. I think I'm going to have a glass right now! Chao.

Super Funky Hippies gone WILD!!!

A serious police situation erupted downtown Monday afternoon! Columbus was on Red Alert! We were at DEFCON 1!...or 5!...whichever is worse! I'm not sure! What was the source of all this pandemonium??
These bad boys...and girls. Hippies. Well, I'm not sure if they were "Hippies", but my definition of "Hippy" has slowly morphed over the years. It used to be almost anyone who donned a tie-dye shirt and sandles, (at the same time), while going on about their hemp...whatever. That was deemed a hippy...in my mind. That definition has sort-of morphed over the years to encompass those individuals who fear or actively hate on the "establishment", as well as have a serious aversion to soap and water, (these hippsters were RIPE!).
To give you some background, apparently they started what they termed was a "peaceful" protest in front of some company wanting to open a new coal burning powerplant. About 100 of them showed up to this protest, (I bet the smell was AMAZING). Well, according to some of them, a couple of their "brothers and sisters" were pepper sprayed and tased for NO REASON WHATSOEVER!! UNPROVOKED!! Like, Dude! She was totally complying with the officers and they tased her 3 times!! Coal KILLS!! Aren't you glad you DIDN'T use Dial?? Don't you wish NObody did?

yea.

Police make a habit of tasing people for NO reason...it gives them a rush. Actually, if I heard right, the CPD officer manual clearly states they actively tase all Hippies on site...or smell...whichever. Anyhoo, this other picture is of a scanner at the desk. Since I can't quite keep all my posts timely, and since the hippy pics were taken on monday, the scanner counts as my tuesday, July 8th, picture of the day. So eat that!

Ultimate Geek Car

That's what one website dubbed the Delorean, and I have to sort-of agree. At the same time, the Delorean is probably one of the most recognized obscure cars ever to grace the earth. I wonder what would have happened had the Back to the Future Trilogy featured a Pinto, or random volkswagon. The Delorean is so cool in itself that people remember this car long after seeing the movie. Plus, how many cars can you say would inspire some photogs to dress up like Doc Brown from the movie to pose with said model vehicle parked in our parking lot a couple nights ago. Apparently this Delorean belongs to the Litton family, (Jason Litton is a Director here at the station), and it's a fine representation of this car species. I wonder how many people ask to pose with this thing when it's out and about?

The air tastes so good.

This blurry picture is of my cat singing along to Guitar Hero Aerosmith...or just yawning. I haven't decided which. I missed a post yesterday, but hey...I was sleepy. I should have taken my camera with me to the family gathering at Memaw's house, (my grandma), but I forgot it after walking out of the house and didn't realize I had, (I intended on bringing it), until after I was halfway there. Oh well. It was fun. My bro-in-law Dave set off some small fire-crackers, and I had to tell Memaw's new miniature pincher who the boss was a couple times. She was apparently abused as a puppy and has some real trust issues. Hopefully she'll get over them. If she hadn't had her little muzzle on, she would have made a nice bloody snack out of my hand a couple times. The main concern, of course, wasn't my hands but those of the lil' ones running around. Dogs can bite me, (or Try...), but mouths off the kids...
I snapped this photo this morning in my messy apt/basement of my dork of a dog trying to eat the air exhaust from the microwave. I tend to make alot of noodles for lunch, and everytime I do this goofball makes his way to the microwave so he can sniff and lick the air. The air smells like food, so I guess it's not too much to think it could taste good...although it can't be very filling...can it?
This pic was snapped by Mr. Andy Long while we were at the Clinton Obama debate in Cleveland last winter. This was during Amy Basista's and my live shot. Behind her was a live set for Chris Matthew's show, (not visible), and later I shot a live shot of her and Patrick Preston interviewing Tim Russert, (pic to come). Pretty cool stuff...too bad most days at the station couldn't be THAT interesting...

Guitar Hero Pajama Rockin'

Megan rocks out some Guitar Hero Aerosmith...on the hard setting. I can barely play medium.
This action shot looks alot less action-y as a still...
Awwww yea, that's more like it. She's playing EXPERT during this shot.
No, those aren't my shorts hanging off a pull-up bar in the background...but yes, I am using a cat scratching-post as a speaker pedestal.