1931 Was A Long Time Ago

I left work Friday night and headed straight to Monroe. The drive from uptown Charlotte to Monroe sucks. It really sucks at 6:00 on a Friday. I wasn't feeling particularly well for some reason. About 5:30 pm, I felt a bit vomitous. Enough so that I actually went to the bathroom at work in preparation for a vomit session. This may not be weird to most of you, but I haven't puked since 2002. Before that, I hadn't puked since 1997. I reckon I have a strong stomach or something. Anyway, I staved off the sickness. It lasted the entire way to Monroe, then went away. I don't know what it was.

Oh yeah, I was headed there for my Aunt Agnes' 75th birthday party. It was a small affair in the basement fellowship hall of her church. All it took was some potato chips, peanuts, cake and punch to get rid of the nausea.
Aunt Agnes is as alert as she ever was. She's 75 in number only and shows only one sign of slowing down. She doesn't drive at night. Other than that, she's not changed anything in her life. She's my dad's half sister which I suppose makes her my half aunt.
My dad's side of the family is pure Union Co. They all go to church every Sunday and sing in the choir. My cousin Scott isn't a minister, but sort of is. I'm not real clear on it, but he's licensed to do weddings and funerals and spends a good part of his week visiting folks in the hospital. I enjoy hanging out with this side of the family because they are so damned funny. When they all get together with my dad and tell old stories, they all pee themselves laughing. It's funny to see Dad get that cracked up.

My cousin Wayne is one of the most entertaining people I know. He's 56 years old and we're pretty sure he might be gay. He was married once for nine months. He told me a story Friday night about a date he went on thirty years ago. He took her to a gospel sing, which is a very, very, very southern christian music show. My yankee friend Ryan Nation affectionnately refers to it as, "Jesus Country Music." Anyway, she got mad because the folks in the church at the gospel sing stood up and started speaking in tongues and doing all sorts of crazy dances. Wayne said he didn't understand what the big deal was and thought it was a good place to take a date.

Wayne may not be gay, but he did take home the red and green birthday balloons because he likes those colors.

Good News!

I still haven't found my camera, but Jim Travers is letting me use his until he goes to Ireland in a couple of weeks. Wow, what a hell of a guy Jim Travers is. He had to delete some questionable pictures from the camera's memory card before he gave it to me. I wonder what those were. Hmmmm.

A Welcome Addition to the Panther's Bandwagon

Ya'll remember my cousin Lee and his wife Andrea and their new baby boy Joshua. Unfortunately he'll be raised a tarheel fan, but there is some good news. He's also a Panthers fan! He'll fit right in hating the Falcons in the heart of Georgia. He'll be saying 'Atlanta Sucks!!!' in no time.


Here's Lee teaching Joshua how to bust a spleen.

My Sister Doesn't Suck

Not only did she take pictures at the wedding, but she also didn't lose her camera. Only an asshole would lose their sweet Sony T7 digital camera. I'm going to give it until the weekend. It's killing me.

Anyway, the wedding was spectacular. Two of my oldest and closest friends fell in love and went and got married. Shawn and Jenny FINALLY started dating for real four or five years ago and he proposed about a year ago. They wrestled with the idea of having the wedding on Shawn's family farm for several months and eventually decided a church didn't fit them. Not because they hate Jesus or anything, but because the farm fits both of them so well. Their families(and Pete Kaliner) spent literally hundreds of hours in the last several months getting this farm ready and it showed. Everything was so well thought out and nothing went wrong. It was amazing.

I spent a little time with Jenny the night before the wedding, and I was with Shawn much of the wedding day up until the actual wedding. Both of them were completely themselves. Not a hint of nervousness was leaking from either of them. Their families, too. I realized that they weren't nervous because the two of them getting married was absolutely right and I couldn't be happier. It's ridiculous how wonderful Saturday was.

If you lost the heads of The Lady and I, this was the view from the top of the hill at the farm. The ceremony was right here. Whatever direction you looked, you could see a good portion of Stanly County and the greater Oakboro area. The song Christy and I put together went well I suppose. Everyone said it was good, but I don't know anyone there who would have told me it sucked. Actually, Pete would have told me it sucked, but he only asked me if I'd ever sang at a wedding before. Hmmm, perhaps it did suck.

I'm glad they are married. Saturday is one of the better days I've had.

An Uptown Bachelor Party, A Wedding on a Farm, and a Big Assed Pig

All of this and more as soon as I find my camera!!!! It got lost in the shuffle somewhere Saturday night. I think it's at home. I've only done a quick search so far. I apologize. It's been a very busy and wonderful weekend.

Working Outside Isn't All That Bad

I headed out to Weddington today to shoot a well digging machine at a new elementary school. I'd never seen a well digging machine before but I suppose it was about what I expected. It's basically it's own truck. You drive it, park it, raise it up and dig wells.

This is Gregory. He's 77 years old and had been digging wells for 42 years. I asked him why and he said, "It beats digging ditches."

Luck

Sorry folks, I'll no longer be posting about any houses I may or may not like. The one I was looking at tomorrow has gone under contract in the last two days.

Dammit.

I've Forgotten My Camera

Two days without my camera. I'd write about something, but without pictures it's not as interesting.

I can say that the weather is picture perfect. The beer league softball team I play on has it's last game tonight. If we win that one, we play another. If we win that one, we play in the championship game.

I've got to finish up the song for my dear friend's Shawn and Jenny's wedding this Saturday. It's about halfway finished. Jenny's sister Christy wrote down a ton of thoughts about them and I'm trying my damndest to put some of those down into a song that makes sense. It's been a lot tougher than I thought. I'll have it done, though.

I've been weird the past two days. I'm not sure why. I was very annoyed yesterday at little things I normally don't care about. Today, I've been real anxious for no apparent reason. I hate it when I'm like this.

I also found a house I really like. I'm looking at it Friday.

Don't Be Alarmed

Atlanta may suck and I most certainly do, but my cousin Lee does not suck. He snapped this picture of myself and Joshua Sunday so this perhaps frightening moment was captured for all to see. He's only six days old here and I was a bit nervous to hold him. Lee told me to hold him like a football. With the jersey I was wearing I'm surprised I didn't catch him like a punt and skip a pass across the field.

Since I've Nothing Interesting For You to Read About

I'd head over to Bronis' blog. He's 'stuck' in the Bahamas covering the death of Anna Nicole Smith's son. Really interesting stuff he writes about over there. He's there with a lot of odds against him covering that story, yet he continues to get great stuff beating all of the networks.

Atlanta Hoses Me Yet Again

It wasn't really a bad trip to Atlanta. Traffic wasn't awful. Thanks to some help from my pal Wes, The Lady and I found the wedding shower. Whilst that was going on, I drove around the greater Decatur/Tucker area and found a great pub for football viewing. Then we had cocktails on the roof of the Westin which was really nice. Sunday we went and visited my cousin Lee and his wife Andrea to see their new son Joshua. We got to hold a human that was five days old. Quite humbling. After that we traveled to Fox Sports Grill to watch the Panthers lose via trickery on both sides of the football. I had a lot to blog about. Then I went to upload the pictures off of my camera, and the files are corrupt. I'm sure it has nothing to do with Atlanta, but I'm going blame it on Georgia's crapital city.

We did have a nice weekend together, even if it was in Atlanta.

If you don't have satellite radio, I highly recommend it. I've had Sirius for more than two years and it has been no less than life changing for me. My favorite thing about it is the new bands I hear on some of the channels. These are bands I likely would never hear of if it weren't for Sirius.

Reading the Amps 11 magazine Wednesday I noticed that two bands I wanted to see were both playing Thursday night. Starsailor was playing at Amos' and Reverend Horton Heat was playing at Visulite. I've heard Starsailor on Sirius and thought they were decent, but I really liked the lead singer's voice. It's got that 'aching' quality that I think adds a lot to music, like he honestly believes what he's singing. I've seen Reverend Horton Heat three or four times and they always whip ass. When the play here it's typically a good crowd and they never suck. However, they are here every three or four months it seems so I decided to go see Starsailor. When I walked in, I realized I may have made a mistake and hurt some friend's feelings. I know that choosing this show ever the Rev dissapoints some folks I know. The entire Wilson family probably thinks I'm gay, and so did I for a few minutes after I walked in. There were about 75 people there. I was likely the coolest guy up in there, and I'm not really all that cool. It was at that point I decided to start looking for things that would make the concert less gay. The lead singer had on a sweet ass t-shirt that said, 'In Keef We Trust' compete with an artistic rendition of Keith Richards, so that was cool. Also, I found out that the band got their name from an old Tim Buckley album, so that's cool, too. Anyway, despite the weak crowd, they were extremely loud. I like lound bands. I think the majority of bands should double their volume at all times.

Starsailor was solid. They didn't suck. I'll still be accused of being gay since Rev. Horton Heat was playing around the corner. Oh well. At least I got a sweet picture of this dude's bald mullett.

I'm off to Atlanta. I'll let ya'll know how it was.

Meet Two of My Favorite People

Say Hello to Kelvin and Cynthia. They are on the right with the clean apple pie plates. Kelvin used to work with us and has since moved on to WSOC. His wife Cynthia used to play on our softball team. They are two spectacular individuals. They met whilst serving in the US Navy years ago. This weekend they are heading to Myrtle Beach. They aren't going to drive or fly. They are going to freaking RIDE BICYCLES!!! They aren't doing this for fun, but they do enjoy it. This is the fifth year they have done the Multiple Sclerosis Bike Ride to Myrtle Beach. They leave Monroe Saturday morning, ride 97 miles Darlington where they'll spend Saturday night. Sunday morning they ride and get it on down to Myrtle Beach 88 miles later. Since mom has MS, we always give them a good bit of money for their pledge total. They dropped in to see the folks last night and cheer mom up a bit since she's not doing super. Mom was very glad to see them. They brought her a goodie bag full of things from last years bike ride including one of those Lance Armstrong bracelets, except for it's red and the cause is MS.

It was good to see them. There needs to be more Kelvins and Cynthias in this world.

Don't Worry, Firefighters Know How to Rescue People From a Sewer Line

Over at what used to be Midtown Square they are building a big assed Target/Home Depot/residential extravaganza that the developers are getting some seriously huge tax breaks on. Anyway, contractors were fifteen feet below ground laying a sewer pipe when two of the workers were injured badly enough that they couldn't get out on their own. So 30 firefighters show up and rescue these guys like they had been going down manholes for years. It was pretty impressive to watch.

A Rescue, A Visit, and A Tough Choice Between Rock Shows

Two dudes stuck in a 48 inch pipe, a heartwarming visit from two fantastic people, and I may be gay because of the band I chose to go see last night. All that and more later this afternoon. I've got a very very important press conference to get to at the airport about a lounge opening.

Work Isn't Usually This Boring

It's been dreadfully slow today. Well, perhaps dreadful is a strong word. I've had a wonderful day of internet surfing and I took a full, sit down one hour lunch break. I had nothing to blog about this afternoon to kill time so I went for a walk around the block and stumbled upon this billboard overlooking Carson Blvd. That's right folks, Woodies Are Showing!After 36 hours of sock drenching rain, the weather is especially beautiful today. I'm looking forward to the fall which starts next weekend. I get giddy. It's damned embarrassing.

Truck Parking Only

Brad Broders is still the new guy around the building. The young reporter hails from Mint Hill and I've known him for several years. He also takes good natured ribbing quite well. When he doesn't fill up the tank in his news unit, he understands that the photographers will rip him for it for weeks, and he's alright with that.


I got back from lunch today and his personal unit was parked in my truck's spot. I haven't seen talent do that in years when our main anchor did it a few times. Of course, we photogs ripped him for several minutes about how important he must be to be able to park under the hangar. His hair must be really important to park under the hangar. I'm glad he doesn't mind being picked on.

Gas at Wal-Mart

Went to the brand new and shockingly pleasant Super Wal-Mart in Belmont this evening. I bought a CD for The Lady and quickly wondered who the hell buys compact discs anymore? Anyway, I paid, walked out to my trusty satellite news gathering unit and was on my way to a filling station to top off the tank when I noticed a gas station in the Wal-Mart parking lot. I'd never seen one before so I rolled over there to see if they accepted my trusty Wright Express gas card and indeed they did. It was $2.56 a gallon which was a pedestrian three cents less than the competition in town.

Evidently Wal-Mart is doing so well that they don't care if you steal gas. It is nice to be trusted.

I've Got a New Second Cousin....I Think

I don't normally get all excited about friends and family having babies, but I'm tickled to tell you that my cousin Lee's wife Andrea gave birth to Joshua Lee Hauser at 3:51 this afternoon! He's 7lbs, 3 ounces and and a Manute Bol like 19.5 inches. Mom, Dad, and Joshua are doing great.
These are the first pictures of his birthday. Lee's done a great job of updating family through the entire process. They went to the hospital last night and induced labor this morning. Ouch!
Lee has been through a ton of things over the years, and I've never seen him as happy as he is now since he married Andrea and now with Joshua. His good heart is now fully displayed and I'm happy for him.

The Lady and I will be burning up 85 towards Atlanta this weekend to go see them and she's got a wedding shower. Pictures of the new family member to come!

I'd Rather Work In the Yard Than at Work

Mom isn't doing great physically. Mentally, she's frustrated but very well. She's got Multiple Sclerosis and it's currently rearing it's ugly head in the form of a good, old fashioned relapse. Thanks to steroids and physical therapy, she hopes to be back on her feet full time in three or four weeks. She hates being sick this time of year because she loves to work in the yard. So Monday morning she sat in the driveway, gave me orders and I went to work on the birm next to the driveway.
She and Dad have put a ton of work into the yard over the years. I spent a couple of hours yesterday moving some plants, trying to do a decent job. I used to do landscaping in high school so I don't completely suck at it. Notice Tim showing his ass in the driveway.

Old Friends Doing Well

Candy is one of my oldest friends. We met in the high school chorus ten years ago and used to be real close. I'm not sure why. I was your typical church going, no alcohol, no smoking, no drugs, no sex having 16 year old. She was your typical non church going, drinking, smoking, drug using, very sexually active 15 year old. For some reason we got along great and hung out a lot. She taught me a lot back then. She helped me realize that a lot of the weird people at school that had bleached hair, weird makeup, and wore 311 t-shirts before 311 was cool weren't bad people. In fact, a lot of them were great people. Those were good days.

Ater high school, Candy and I sporadically kept in touch. A random phone call here and there. I always knew she worked at City Chevrolet running marketing or something, but I never stopped by to say hello. A few months ago I got a random email from her. Evidently I'd been deleting emails from her band, The Situationals. I didn't know that was her band, but I'd gotten on their email list somehow. It was good to get back in touch.


She's doing great. So good in fact that she's officially changed her name to Candice. She's with a nice guy who seems to be treating her well which is a nice change for her. She's been with the band for quite a while and they had their CD release party Sunday night at The Spot. The band really sounded pretty good, and I'm not just saying that because she's the lead singer. I didn't stay for too long. I had several beverages at the game and by 10:00, they were taking it's toll on this 27 year old body. I didn't take these pictures, but a big thanks to whoever did.

Atlanta Sucks

It's nothing personal against Atlantans, but more than half the time I roll down there, something bad happens. I've been involved in two car accidents in my driving history. One was in Atlanta, the other was in Charlotte on my way back from Atlanta. I've seen the Panthers lose in Atlanta, and been to some bad restaurants. However, there are some fine people there, none of whom play for the Falcons.
We got started with some good tailgating. Burgers, veggie burgers, and a couple of brats were involved along with a ton of domestic beer in cans. The crowd behind the station included Jim Travers, Mark Campbell, his son Rhannon(sorry Mark if I misspelled his name,) soon to be married Lori and Phillip were there, The Lady, my sister Anna, and her friend Yagnesh. Anna went out Saturday and bought herself a sweet Julius Peppers jersey making her brother pround in the process. Tailgating was good.

Tailgating was the high point of the afternoon. The Falcons came into Bank of America Stadium and beat the Riddel coaching shorts off of us. Our defense reminded me of 2001 and George Seifert. Jake wasn't throwing the ball well and even if he was, he had no time to throw it. I hate the Falcons, but my seats for the year are terrific. Sure they are 28 rows up in the upper deck, but the view is fantastic. Makes me not mind the long walk.
Shortly after we sat down, I heard someone shout, "Butler!!!!!!!!!" I turn around and it's my old pal Mike Boteilho with his wife Lenise(I think,) and his parents Bob and Nancy. Mike and I were tight in high school for a couple of years, then came the rest of life and we don't keep in touch any longer. The last time I saw Mike was at a Panthers game two years ago shortly after he'd gotten married. He and his family are true Panthers fans. They had season tickets the first year we had the Panthers and they played in Clemson. They also stay until the end of the game despite the score. It was great to see them.

Losing certainly isn't a reason to stay away from the Gin Mill for a post game beer. Typically a loss means a bad crowd but it was slammed after the game. I hate losing. I really hate losing to the Falcons, but football is beautiful, and Sunday was a great day to be an American.

I Should Have Gone into Advertising

The Lady and I were in Harris Teeter Saturday night preparing for Sunday tailgating and she spotted this new campaign for the Matthews based supermarket. It would have been better if they actually painted their thumbs green.

Fighting with Helmets

Frank Garcia was an original Carolina Panther. He started all but five games in the first six season anchoring the offensive line whilst letting Frank Reich, Kerry Collins, Jack Trudeau, Steve Beuerlein, Jay Barker, Steve Bono, Jeff Lewis and Shane Matthews shove their hands under his ass to get the football. Garcia always played hard. He's slap defensive tackles on the sides of their heads after plays just to piss them off. He pissed many of them off enough that they'd punch each other in the face despite the helmets. Garcia was never skeered to talk trash and mix it up with the opposing line. He lives in Charlotte now and was at Cans(huh huh, Cans)last night for a football special on WCNC. We need more offensive lineman like Frank Garcia. Oh, and he was giving a thumbs up, but since I let a news anchor take the picture, you can't see it.

We've got three trucks here at work that were built by Frontline Communications. Bryan Morgan from Frontline is currently touring the nation's top 60 markets showing off their new trucks which are built on a Sprinter Chassis. I saw these a couple of years ago at the NAB show and they whip serious ass.
The Cabin is sweet. Compared to your normal news truck, it's freakin' HUGE! You can stand up straight in the cab. If you don't believe me, just look at Jim Travers' demonstration. Notice he's not wearing a yellow shirt.
There is so much room in these trucks that Bryan and I figure you can fit no less than a dozen hookers in there with room to spare. Unfortunately, if we get one of these trucks, it will likely be in no less than five years. They only cost $180,000 with microwave equipment. Maybe I'll buy one of these instead of a house.

If Only I was a Fed

We get some good viewer tips in the newsroom. Here's why. For some reason, when you call information in Charlotte and ask for 'the news station', they always direct them to our assignment desk. If you ask for Channel 9 or Channel 3 news, people get us. I suppose that's because we are listed under News14Carolina, and the other folks are listed under their call letters. Anyway, a viewer called us today and said the FBI was carrying a bunch of stolen stuff out of someone's house on the east side. We roll over there, and sure enough dozens of feds were carting things out of two houses next door to each other. Each of them had big assed storage units full of shoes, televisions, shoes, freezers, microwaves, a few plasma televisions, and a bunch of other things you could sell for a bunch of money. Evidently these folks were buying these things with rubber checks, or stealing them from delivery vehicles. They are now in prison. The Feds weren't saying much(big shocker) but we should know more tomorrow.

Nathan and Beer

I'm really enjoying this blog because it lets me tell you about people I just met, or people I already know. I love people. I really do. Even people that suck are interesting.

The Lady had a hankering for a beverage Monday evening after work so we stopped in at a place called Big Ben's British Pub over in Myers Park. I've never eaten there, but the beer is quite good. They've got a big assed patio with a bunch of tables out front.
We got there about 11 and there were four people at one table, then us at another. Nathan came out to see what we wanted to drink. All he did was ask for our order and you could tell he was a good person. I'm sure he was ready to shut down the bar, but he seemed genuinely glad we were there and made us feel welcome. Nathan is the kind of guy that makes me glad to be alive just so I can meet him, even if it's only taking our order and bringing us beers. Genuinely warm people make life great.

Alan Arkin and a Beauty Pageant

Sunday evening we traveled over to the new Ballantyne Village Theater. This theater is great. It's brand new, and they sell beer than you can take into the movie with you. All they show is indie flicks, which is fine with me as long as they don't suck. So far, I've seen two movies there that didn't suck. Thank You For Smoking, and on Sunday, Little Miss Sunshine. Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, and Alan Arkin are in the cast which meant I'd almost certainly like it and I did. I like Carell from his early days on The Daily Show and now on The Office. I like Alan Arkin from tons of old flicks, and my favorite days of Kinnear were when he hosted Talk Soup in the early 90's. The movie is about a nine year old girl who's not way pretty that competes in a beauty pageant. The entire family takes a road trip and The climax in this movie is pee your pants funny and involves white people doing goofy dances. Go see it, you'll like it.