Redbird Fallout

It's been awhile since I've talked baseball on here... you knew a post was coming sooner or later. :) As pumped as I am for the approaching season, I'm not too excited at the same time. In one month the St. Louis Cardinals will be right here in the Ozarks to play the Springfield Cardinals. Fingers crossed I'll be there. But instead of looking forward to that I'm pretty worried about this season as a whole.

The Cardinals have fallen from grace since the 2006 championship season. Actually, "fallen" is a nice way to put it. I think the better term here is nose-dive. Apparently there are only two Redbirds left from the 2002 season (Pujols and Izzy). I don't even want to know how many are left from last season... depressing. Let's just say this season is going to be a rebuilding year. Hopefully we have a decent one, and hopefully it only takes one.

Taguchi, Edmonds, Eckstein, Rolen... all did great things for the Cards, all gone. And as if things weren't looking bad enough add to that list Scott Spiezio. The team released him last night because of a six-count arrest warrant that's out for him. ...This sucks.

Let's just hope we can manage a .500 season, which we couldn't even do last year. Besides that, as long as we finish with a better record than the Royals, and the Cubs don't make it to the playoffs (this year makes a century, remember?)... I guess I'll be happy.

If anything this could mean great things for the bright-eyed guys here in Springfield. Maybe I'll get to see some of the guys play here and in St. Louis all in this year. We'll see.

On a side note, I really wish I could go to Spring Training again this year. The beach sounds sooo nice right now.

No Chili For You!

I know this is a bit late, but I feel like I just have to blog about it... the Sertoma Chili Cook-off! Obviously it's my first year in Springfield so I had never even heard of the event before. My co-workers talked it up for months and I must say I did not leave disappointed. It was a pretty good time, but you can't really go wrong with beer and chili. Wait, one exception, Miller sponsored the event so there wasn't a drop of Anheuser Busch in the joint. Thank goodness for those SoCo slushies, mmmmm. Anyway, back to the chili, my favorite was McAlester's "Hot." I didn't try nearly as many as I should have, maybe 7, and I didn't try the grand champion News-Leader's either.

I'm really not a chili person. I can't say I've ever thought to myself 'hmm, I could really go for some hot chili right now.' I'll eat it if it's there, but that's about it. However, ever since the cook-off I've found myself craving some. But not just any chili, it's gotta be good and spicy. I can't wait for next year.

Obviously the highlight of the day (and one of the best so far this year) was meeting the Soup Nazi! I've been a huge Seinfeld fan for as long as I can remember, so it was clearly quite amazing to meet him. Jason and I talked to him a few different times... he served us chili, autographed some Seinfeld stuff and even took a picture with us! We were pretty excited.

Besides that, it was pretty fun watching the Chili Eating Contest (Joe was so close). And the event was also a great exposure to what is the Ozarks. Lots of interesting people there.

I've also heard there's a wing festival and rib festival later this year... oh goodness I love this town.

Just Another Manic Monday

Well, here we are again... another Monday full of awful weather. Ever since the tornado outbreak on Monday, January 7th it seems like at least every other Monday we have terrible weather. Has anyone else noticed this? Has anyone else also noticed the days leading up to those horrible weather days were bright, sunny, and unseasonably warm? I think most of the Ozarks is starting to catch on. As much as I love those 50 degree days I'm starting to loath them because I know bad things are to come. It's never fun snow. It's always this messy icy, sleet, rain mix... or tornadoes, like southern Missouri and northern Arkansas saw last week. Josh (ice) deBerge did a nice little blog about the up and down Ozark weather in the weather blog. He also explained the temperature fluctuations during today's 5:30, but I don't think he put it online. If you missed it, here's what you need to know... buckle up, the nauseating ride known as Ozarks weather will keep throwing us for some loops.

Early morning thunderstorms brought rain and sleet, which meant sloppy roads and lots of ice. Lots of ice means heavy trees which fall on power lines.

Uh oh. Even the media can't escape nature's wrath sometimes.

4:28:06... to me and the rest of the crew that means 1 minute 54 seconds to show time. Today, not so much. One of the scariest things that can happen in a newsroom did. The power went out... 1 minute and 54 seconds before the show. Fantastic. Things slowly started to come back on and get fixed. Seven minutes past the scheduled start time we were back on "air" to an audience we weren't even sure was there. Apparently we weren't transmitting over analog or digital, so maybe we were on cable? Apparently so. Besides the fact we were on black for seven minutes pre-show, the outage was pretty noticeable on set with a lack of lighting. It worked though. Going into a show 7 minutes heavy is a producer's nightmare. Somehow with the help of my news director, Brad, and our marketing director, Addie, we came out only 52 seconds heavy. Not too shabby. Considering all the challenges going into the show, i.e. no lighting in the control room for the director and audio op, I think the show came out pretty clean. Everyone was winging it in every sense of the phrase. So great job, everyone! Here's to hoping we don't have to go through 30 minutes of hell like that again!

Tuesday was super, thanks for asking

Super Tuesday certainly lived up to its name in the Show-Me State. I spent a majority of the day and night in the newsroom keeping track of numbers and producing cut-ins. For as short as those were (4:00 minutes each) they turned stressful pretty fast. Working in the newsroom was a great experience though last night. It was the first election night I've ever worked. I produced the 5:00 newscast at KOMU the day of the Talent/McCaskill election, but that was all.

I would say around 8:30 or so the AP predicted Hillary Clinton statistically won Missouri, even though there were about 1,000 precincts (out of 3,771) that still needed to report. Something in the back of my mind told me their prediction was a little preemptive. Before I left the station around 11:00 I checked the Secretary of State's website one last time to see what areas still had a lot of precincts to report, and who the leaders were in those areas. Only about 1/3 of Boone County had reported and maybe 3/4 of St. Louis County and City reported. All of those areas had Obama in a very strong lead. As it turned out he chipped away at Hillary's lead and won the state in the wee hours of the morning. The Republican race went about the same way, with Huckabee losing out to McCain after having a slim lead all day.

Now that I have Super Tuesday under my belt I'm ready for the next big thing. Bring on the Presidential election!

Beads and Barack

I enjoyed St. Louis to opposite ends of the spectrum Saturday. The day kicked off early with a trip to Soulard for Mardi Gras. If you can't make it to New Orleans for the festivities St. Louis is the place to go. The parade alone lasted three hours. Anyway, it was my first true Mardi Gras experience (it doesn't count when you're 10), and it was good times. I saw more than I needed to, but at the same time not nearly as much as I thought I would. The weather was beautiful and I had fun with all the people I was there with.

I made sure to not have too much fun in Soulard because I knew I had a big night ahead of me. The big night included presidential hopeful, Barack Obama. I'm going to be honest with you here, politics is not my strong suit. I just don't get that excited about it like I do other things. However, in the past week my boyfriend Jason has become a huge Barack Obama supporter. When I found out Obama was visiting St. Louis the same weekend we were I had to tell him because I knew he would want to go.

We were going to go as members of the "media" but ran into a few difficulties, so we were stuck in the back of the crowd. At this point in the game I can honestly say I do not have a favorite in this presidential race. I just haven't looked into everything deep enough yet. I simply went to listen to what he had to say. I figured the best way for me to get into the whole campaigning ordeal is to actually go and experience the candidates. There really is no better way, right?

Nearly 20,000 people showed up for Saturday's rally. A truly impressive number given 1) it was a Saturday night downtown, and 2) it wasn't just any Saturday night downtown, it was Mardi Gras. Besides the sheer number of people who showed up, the make-up of the crowd really impressed me. As Claire McCaskill put it that night, the room really looked like America.

I found Obama to be a great speaker with a lot of character. I just hope I'll be able to see the other candidates in the next coming months.

You can watch and listen to a little snippet of Obama's speech in St. Louis by clicking on the video above.

Look-A-Likes: Marino/Hasselhoff

Welcome to the latest edition of Look-A-Likes. Tonight's entry is inspired by the biggest (football) game of the year--the Super Bowl! I don't have anyone from either the Giants or the Patriots... I'm featuring someone much better and, who I think at least, is his look-a-like. Some of you may find this one a bit of a stretch.
On the Left: Former Miami Dolphins Quarterback, Dan Marino
On the Right: Actor, Author, David Hasselhoff

I think they look a lot alike. The big thing working against me here is Hasselhoff just looks more weathered, more "experienced", I guess, in life... aka maybe a little too much booze and time on the beach. Marino, on the other hand, has been looking pretty good on TV.

I did come across some very interesting photos of Hasselhoff in my searches... they made me giggle. I invite you to Google his name and see what pops up.

PS-Don't Hassel the Hoff.

So, so sad

I find it truly sad when people don't have a life of their own. It almost makes me want to cry, but then I realize they should be crying, not me, because they have nothing better to do than to sit around, stalk people, and call them names to make their lonely, pitiful self feel better. I just find some people so incredibly pathetic. So sad.

Tornados in January?!

I witnessed all but 45 minutes of KSPR's 12 hour wall-to-wall severe weather coverage. I know you're thinking 12 hours is a bit excessive, but trust me, if you were in the Ozarks yesterday and this morning you'd think otherwise.

The storms were filled with wave after wave of severe weather... all of which produced several funnel clouds, hail, strong winds, and tornadoes. Apparently there were at least 62 tornado warnings during the 12 hour period just in the Ozarks. I find that amazing. Last night, not so much, but right now, most definitely. The repetitiveness of each wave and its path is crazy. You can see a great preliminary photo of each tornado's path at the KSPR Weather Blog here.

(A viewer sent this photo to the newsroom.
I never knew hail could look like that!)

I spent most of the time during the severe weather in the newsroom answering phone call after phone call. I figured it out to be 7 hours straight of picking up that ringing phone... needless to say my ear hurt last night.

I'd say about 90% of the phone calls were people asking what to expect in their city. With so many phone calls I was unable to watch the weather, so I was of little help to these people. I usually told them if they're watching, they already knew more than me. I did what I could to help them since it's a serious situation, but it always came down to two things: 1. if they're not saying your city, then that's a good thing, and 2. it's better to be safe than sorry, so just take shelter and keep listening. The other 10% of calls came from people reporting damage, hail, funnels, etc., and if not that they were complaining about the coverage. These people get on my bad side extremely fast. I absolutely cannot fathom why people find JEOPARDY! or Who Wants to be a Millionaire? more important than keeping viewers safe. If you're tired of the coverage then change the channel! Don't curse or yell at me or accuse our meteorologists of over-doing severe weather coverage... all of which I dealt with last night. It may not be you affected this time around, but one day it will be and you'll be so thankful for that "long-winded" coverage.

After a 15 hour day I went home around midnight for some sleep, which didn't really happen. I knew another round or two was on its way so there was no way I was going to sleep. At one point it seemed like things were calming down, so I started to snuggle up in my blankets. Then, all of a sudden there were Tornado Warnings all around Springfield.

At about 2:45 a.m. the tornado sirens started blaring and the meteorologists started urging Springfield residents to take cover. So that I did, but not without the TV cranked. The winds started to pick up and then cable went out. That's the point when a tornado touched down a couple blocks away from the station... right smack dab in the middle of Springfield. THANK GOODNESS the electricity stayed on. I probably would have lost it if that went out, too. That minute when the cable was out and the winds were howling was seriously the most terrifying minute of my life. I've never been so close to a tornado before. I was so relieved to hear Josh, Kevin, and Natalie's voices come back on air. It was a very fast moving system so I didn't have to spend too much time huddled in the bathtub and eventually went to sleep sometime around 4:00 a.m.

Even after a long day and a lot of phone calls, both good and bad, I still feel lucky and proud to do the job I do. I get to help keep people informed and safe. Granted I'm not in front of the wall interpreting radar, but I think I helped some people last night. It's a great feeling to think you helped someone in such a severe situation. I can only imagine how meteorologists feel after a night like last night.

I'm not sure if it was the caffeine or adrenaline that's kept me going, but never at one point have I felt exhausted or tired today, even with only 3 hours of sleep. Actually I felt better today than I did in the middle of answer phones at 10:00 last night. However right now I'm starting to really feel my body tell me to get some sleep. I'm gonna do just that.

Cotton Bowl Champs!

Okay, I'll admit it. I was a little, teeny bit worried about Arkansas and McFadden. As it turns out, neither one showed up to play in the Cotton Bowl so all my worries were in vain. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact Mizzou got into such a huge bowl game (should have been a BCS bowl, but that's a whole other post), much less the fact we destroyed the Razorbacks in that bowl. It was a great time, possibly once in a lifetime, and something I'll never forget... especially since I was sober. It was just too damn cold to hold a beer.

The atmosphere in Dallas was pretty good. It really seemed like Tiger and Razorback fans took over the city, especially downtown. Everywhere you go there would be someone wearing their team's gear or driving with a ridiculous amount of team stuff on their cars. It was cool. However, one thing that wasn't cool was Arkansas' chant. It's one of the most annoying things I've ever heard. The school has a pretty cool mascot... it's original, and those wild hogs can be pretty damn scary (ever seen hogzilla?). Instead of calling themselves Razorbacks they chant "Pig Sooey." I just don't get it. Why would you degrade yourself like that?

Anyway, I had so much fun at the 4 hour long game, even though I was without a voice (I sounded like the Godfather) and it was freezing (my fingers were purple and white). I'm so glad I got to go and stay in Dallas with people I know. We saw a lot more of the city and visited places we otherwise wouldn't have known about (Thanks Blaine and Trevor!).

Tony Temple was on his game... Chase, not so much. But it all worked out in the end. Throughout all the controversy and bowl invitation disappointment I am still amazed with our season. Like Jason has said, if someone would have told me back in August Mizzou would go 11-1 in the regular season, spend a week in the #1 spot, and win the Cotton Bowl, I would have said that's kooky talk. Thank you Tigers for an incredible season. With that said, I can't wait for next year!

M-I-Z... Z-O-U!

I'm not afraid to say it

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. I just got back in Springfield a little bit ago after a 4 day weekend in St. Louis. It was oh so wonderful, and, of course, went way too quick. I got to do a little of everything in my time off... went out with friends, relaxed at home, and spent lots of time with my family and Jason's. The ride home was rough though. The weather was clear, the roads weren't too busy, and the ride went by fairly fast... I'm just such a home-body sometimes, so it makes me sad to leave.

What's also sad is it takes times like the holidays to make many people realize all there is to be thankful for. I'd like to take this time and space to express how much I appreciate everything in my life. My Mommy is amazing; Unfortunately, I don't think she knows that, but she is. For endless reasons I am thankful for her, her thoughtlessness, and her strength. My family is much more to me than their titles of "aunt", "cousin", etc. They've helped me grow and offered so much support and encouragement along my journey to adulthood. And my friends, even though I don't get to see them as much anymore, are great. I've always thought I couldn't ask for better friends in the world. As far as Jason goes, he's just perfect for me. He's tolerant and understanding, and, to put it simply, I can't ask for a better boyfriend. Besides these people, I'm just plain grateful for everything in my life... my health, my job, and all the love that's in it.

In the midst of presents, traffic, and finances I hope everyone can take some time to reflect on the good things in life. Happy Holidays.