Well?

What do you know about that?

Peggy thinks I'm too locked into hands and feet with my watercolors, so I've slipped back into FOWL for a while. I let this one dry over night and get up this morning to touch a few things up. That is when it happens.

Peggy, who is into acrylics and oils, used to watch the late Bob Ross on TV. Some of us remember the pop-artist for the fun phrase, "happy accidents." 

Well as it turns out I have one of those this morning, a happy accident. Ironically it has nothing to do with my painting.

I don't operate well in the morning without coffee. So even before wetting a brush, I pause to go through the coffee makin' routine.

 

 

This little snapshot is loaded with information, but please focus on the bag of coffee beans. You should probably know it was full a few minutes ago.  You see I am getting ready to pour a few beans into the grinder.

 

 

 I do that whilst looking at my painting over my shoulder. (for the record one should not attempt this at home.)

 

 

It is a little out of focus, but this is what three quarters of a pound of coffee looks like on a kitchen floor.

 

 

Here's a little tighter shot.

 

 

Here's a shot of "most" of three quarters of a pound of coffee swept up.  So what do I do with it?  Just throw it out?  

 

 

Here's a shot of three quarters of a pound of coffee, that's been on the floor, being poured into a colander. Move over spaghetti.

 

Just run a little water over that three quarters of a pound of coffee, that has been on the floor, and it will be just like new.

 

 

Just to be safe we'll apply the fire hose level of force.

So what's the happy accident?  You know how when you're trying to sell your house? Realtors tell you to have fresh chocolate chip cookie odor enticing would-be buyers? And, THEY say, ALWAYS have a fresh pot of coffee brewed?

 

Well there is no way I got all those loose beans. So that  coffee aroma is going to be there IF and WHEN we ever try to sell the house.  Isn't that a happy accident?

Oh, and I find a small piece of celery in with the beans in the colander? Celery that might have clogged up the garbage disposal trap? Now that's a happy accident.

Oh, and I don't know what it means but Peggy just tells me she's found a coffee bean on the stairs twenty feet away from the kitchen.  Now that must be a happy accident of some sort.

Fine Whine

That's my branding logo for our Media Support group. What do you think?

Well never mind. What I really want to talk about is yesterday. At the risk of being the poster boy for Phil Graham's "Nation of Whiners," I have to share with you the events of the day.  AND? TO MY CREDIT? I laughed with and at myself all day long.

Peggy is out of town, so any crises that arise, I'm on my own.

So while we out of town for a week...last week?  Word is it was hot and dry here at home for those seven days. We don't even need an official report.  That is because our lawn looks very much like the Mojave Desert.  I guess I forgot to set the sprinkler system. 

Well, I remedy that as soon as we get home, setting the automatic system to run for an hour on every station every third day.  But you know what I discovered early yesterday morning? The system isn't working at all.

(Apparently I actually HAD set it when we left town.)

But THAT means I haven't watered for yet another week.   So I immediately vow I'll get someone out to work on it. 

I thumb through the phone book, reach for the phone, start to dial, and.....POP! And POP is followed by darkness and total silence in that order.

The POWER goes out.  And you know that power decides to "take a powder" on a day when temperatures are predicted to be very near or at 100 DEGREES.

And this power outage comes just after I've gone to the market to buy a bunch of fresh fruits, veggies and TV dinners.

(I've covered enough of these stories to know it takes about 12 hours of outage to wipe out the stuff in the fridge.)

Well, anyway, since I can't call the sprinkler guy, or the power company because my phone is out?  I set off on the daily mission of hunting down my cell phone.

I find it.   I am about to dial when I get the little warning beep that it too, the cell, is about to take a nap.  

I'm now totally incommunicado and set off on the long list of predictable faux pas that go with an outage. I try to turn on the TV to see if there is a massive accident somewhere, followed by trying to warm up some coffee in the micro wave, followed by trying to use the remote to let the deck awning out for a little shade, followed by trying to turn on the fan in the "persons room," followed by trying to electronically open the garage door (because I need to drive around in my car so I can charge up the cell phone.)

Well in time I make contact with my neighbors whose cell phones are doing just fine.  But the news they give me is not fine.

Deb Kwit says to me, "they said  the power'd be back up at 12:15 (noon fifteen) but now they are saying it's going to be at least another four hours. "

Well it has already been four hours, so I either have to tough it out or take some drastic action.

My drastic action is to manually open the garage door, plug my Cell phone into the cigarette lighter, and head out to take care of some errands. 

With errands complete I note on a local town thermometer the unofficial mercury reading is 98 degrees.  So in my new role as "man of action" I choose not to return home and watch all my groceries melt.  Instead I'll go to the show.  It is air conditioned.

(I see Hancock starring  Will Smith.  It's a pretty hokey plot but he really is getting to be one of the more believable performers in any role he steps in to.  That's all I'm going to tell you 'cause you may be on the way there now.)

Following my strategic venture into the movie theatre I note I am parked right in front of a bar and restaurant. Well why not "belly" up to the bar and get a fish sandwich and a COLD beer in a nice air conditioned environment. 

(Peggy hates fish so I try to gorge myself with as much of it as I can when she's out of town.)

Well I finally give into responsibility. I hop into the car hoping I've driven enough to charge my cell. I get home and push the remote button to open the garage door?   Oh, yeah, no power.

So I do all those manual things necessary to gain entry.

(I wonder if anyone under 20 would know how to manually gain entry?)

Well to my surprise the power, in fact, IS back on.  Half the lights in the house, two TVs and a laptop are all noisily active. Buzzers are going off.  I set about to re set all the clocks.

(Isn't it nice that with cell phones we don't have to call somebody to get the exact time for clock resetting? That is of course if our cells are charged.) 

Well with these tasks complete, I remember that I've devoured one of those mini watermelons in the morning 'cause I don't want it to succumb to the heat.  I've left cut up rind in the sink and then hit the go button on the garbage disposal to get rid of it? One more task that requires power.

So it was time to revisit that failed mission.  Well it rumbles into action, powerfully cranking away on the hide of this sweet fruit.  Everything seems to be back on track.......but.........

WHAT'S THIS?

 

I hate plumbing chores.  Turns out it isn't the watermelon rind stopping up the sink "per se."  It is actually a twig from a bunch of grapes that defies going through the trap...hence trapping everything else that wants to get by. That in course has nasty water full of rotting flora rising to the lip of the sink. It stops just short of over flowing. "The Sink is more than Half Full." (Take that Phil Graham!)

Oh, yeah....I'd grabbed those grapes to east because I thought they too would succumb to the big melt down.

So once again, Phil Graham,  I really am not waiting for the next "shoe to drop."

I just think it is a pretty funny (weird funny) day.

And how about this for anti-whiniing.

"The student becomes the teacher."

A former student of mine, Psalm by name, is a wise role model for those of us befuddled by such circumstances.  Once a year she just freely shuts off all her power for a week. She does it she says so she'll appreciate what she has, and gain confidence that if need be, she can live without it.

I'll never be that wise.

Way Out West

That's Steve McLaughlin up there. He's quite a guy. In addition to being my age, we share interests in painting and music.

He was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic Water Polo team in the Rome games in 1960.  He didn't get much time in the pool, but he can log it. He was there.

He speaks at least three languages. First there is Montebelloan, his native tongue. (Montebello is a suburb of Los Angeles in between East L.A. and Pasadena.) Then there is English, a discipline he honed at L.A. State. The third lingual mastery is Mandarin Chinese, one he had to learn being responsible for building IBM facilities in Shanghai. (He is just retired from being in charge of IBM's world wide construction for 30 years.)

That's his wife Nikki up there, a life long friend of Peggy.  Nikki is a retired legal secretary, who plays the ukulele and some mean tennis. Seems like her San Jose team is always playing for some national title somewhere.

They have four grandchildren.  (That's a vital statistic that will have greater essence later.)

They are part of a three theme trip to the San Francisco Bay area for a week.

 

 

That is my sister Brenda with the dark hair sitting next to Peggy.  Brenda is an artist who lives in the Oakland Hills near Berkeley and Montclair. We showed up for a reception at a showing of Brenda's work in Piedmont.

 

Oh! Brenda has four grandchildren. (They are a pretty vital statistic in her life.)

But here comes the third reason we were Way Out West.

This is my stepdaughter Rhonda.

 

 

Here's her husband Mark.

 

But you've likely already figured out the reason for and major joy of our visit.  All these  people are pretty cool, but WE got to spend a week babysitting little Maren Noel Muschanow. WOW!  

 

(So far she is an only grandchild.)

She is six months old now, AND I HAVE A NEW AND ABIDING RESPECT FOR PARENTHOOD.  If you ever just want to do a little exercise in FOCUS?

That's it.  Nothing clever or deep in this posting. Just thought I'd let you know what we've been up to. Ta!

(Yeah, I changed a diaper.)

 

True or Consequences?

Okay, Peggy let's put them all through a little TRUE or FALSE or maybe test!

This is Elena Brown's favorite piece of sculpture?

True:____

False:____

Not on your life. I got invited to Elena's going away BBQ last week. She is shipping over to Chicago for two months on an alternative journalism fellowship. She did a piece recently in 5280 magazine "blasting" Denver's Public Art.

 

 

It's Robert DeNiro hanging out with Mindy MacInnes outside his penthouse apt.

True:_____

False:_____

Nah! It's Robert Dominquez who Mindy helped get a job at ABC setting up affiliate liveshots. This Robert is also a writer, poet and standup comedian.

 

This is Karah Britton.

True:____

False:____

Yeah, it's her. Karah Just graduated and she is heading for Hollywood pretty soon. Very talented actress.

 

There she goes now!

 

True_____

False____

Maybe? Could be? You never know!

 

 

 

This is Met Report's sports anchor and reporter Evan Luthye.

True_____

False____

I guess not. Here's the real Evan who just made his network debut on the Home and Garden Channel helping Mom pick out a house.

 

 

 

These three guys, left to right, Scot Lundblad, Dan Williams and David Liebling all have network gigs during the Democratic National Convention.

True_____

False____

"Natch!" You may have to look that up in your idiom history book.

 

These four former students, Amora, now a Judge show producer in Texas, Jasmine, Public Affairs and Promotions, and Catering and Assignment editing in Denver, Ray, who works the desk at the Rocky Mountain News, and Heather, anchor reporter in New Mexico.....just love and respect me beyond measure.

True:____

False:____

"Nuff" said!

 

This is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing "America the Beautiful" atop Pikes Peak.

True_____

False____

Nope! It is the announcing class all pretending to be Demosthenes with rocks in their mouths reciting "I am The Very Model of a Modern Major General" aria from "Pirates of Penzance" (which hadn't been written yet in Demosthenes day) over the roar of Cherry Creek instead of the Aegean Sea. Honest, that is what they are doing.

 

Just yer former Denver Bronco dancer chattin' up a perpetual sports intern, boring the "heck" out of a little Idaho farm girl.

True_____

False_____

Yeah, really is. That's Keela Harris now working on a Master's degree in Education,talking to Dustin Carrol who, rumor has it, is sleeping in the garage at KMGH. Keela and Dustin appear to be falling short of entertaining former Met Report anchor Angie Jeppeson who moved here from Idaho and has a new baby.

 

 

Anybody you know?

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

True:_____

False:____

Must be trick photography!

 

 

"PAUL YOU GET IN THIS HOUSE RIGHT NOW BEFORE YOU SCARE SOMEBODY TO DEATH!

"OKAY!"

Photo Lineup

As you can see class, it is clearly a fallacious myth that "Polly wants a cracker." She obviously much prefers a Brazil Nut. 

Tired of Sudoku and The New York Times Crossword Puzzle? Well here's a fresh challenge for you. What do you say. Let's get INTERACTIVE!

Now for this week's MetNet Pop Quiz we will work with a set of matching. Merely match the picture number with with the appropriate letter, name and description. If you don't pass this quiz? Hang your head in shame!

1. ____

A.  Reece King, slick, talented, glib co-anchor of the MetReport this last year. Here is a little inside joke that those close to Reece will get. Sorry about the rest of you. " Yes Santa Claus, there is a Virginia!"    (Bonus clue? "Is that a Rolex or are you just happy to see me.")                                   

2. ____

B. Jeff Maher, reporter for KOB, Alburquerque. Got to spend a week on board an aircraft carrier profiling New Mexican service men and women. (Bonus clue? "Any Eye Witnesses see what happened here?")

 

 

3._____

C. Michelle Griego, reporter/anchor for CBS 4 in Denver. She is a charter member of the MetReport on campus. She once anchored a news show for kids in Denver. She is one of the few people to ever come right out of college and get an on-air gig in a major market. She let me babysit her new daughter Geeana while she spoke to two of my classes. (Bonus clues? I touched her up with photo shop, but believe me, she does NOT need it. "Make sure you wrap your story up with some HOT pictures.") 

 

4. ____

D. Brittany Dack, a young mountain woman very talented in front of cameras and microphones. She is mild mannered in the deceptive mode of Cat Woman. She is a skilled kick boxer.  (Bonus clue? The gravity of the situation appears to be pulling all her hair to her right, your left.  NO, your other left!)

 

 

5.____

E. Tasha Orr, actress, radio host, reality show assistant producer and now selling mortgages on the internet from her home in Las Vegas. She has just  returned from London where she saw her newborn niece. (Bonus clue. She is standing next to that same OLDER MAN.)

 

 

 

6.____

 

F. David Liebling, the voice of GOD. I think he'll be taking over for Charleton Heston soon. David is doing freelance voice work in Denver. (Bonus clue? He might have red hair.)

 

 

7.____

 

G. Jonathon Snyder is a truly versatile man whose future holds many creative opportunities. Right now writing for, promoting, and playing in his band is the leading priority. (Bonus Clue? To protect his identity, I sketched him.)

 

 

8.____

  

H. Andrea Reliford can and will do it all. She is currently employed by Comcast as a programming manager. She also shoots and edits freelance, and I'm still hoping she tries some things on camera where she shines. (Bonus clue? She loves subdued light, salt and pepper, and takes lemon in her iced tea.)

 

 

9.____

I. Ellese Laner, a transplant from Trinidad, the city not the Island. Every once in a while you find some hidden talent in a student that just explodes when it finally gets out. She did a lot of anchoring and reporting for the Met Report this year. She has a wonderful sense of humor and limitless energy. She is fun to be around. (Bonus clue? She is not last, at least not quite last. She might have all her teeth.)

 

 

 

10.____

 

J. Tara Schwartz, a former cheerleader; a former anchor, sports reporter, reporter, photographer for the Met Report;  and now gainfully employed as an assignment editor at KMGH TV. I'm pretty sure Paula Vargas and I will be including Tara in our Bi-Annual therapy sessions. (Bonus clue? She will let almost anybody give her a hug)

 

 

11.____

 

K. Karissa Gallero, knew this TV business before she got out of high school. She finagled an internship with a bureau reporter her senior year, and during that time frame got to do it all. (Bonus clue? "You take the pictures, I'll drink!")

 

 

12.____

L. Matt Kay, super photographer, editor, working for Go World Productions. He is still beaming from his trip to Egypt to absorb the ambience of the pyramids. (Bonus Clue?  How do you get snockered on bottled water?)

 

13.____

M. Melissa DeBaca, a marvelous young screen actress.  She has been in a bunch of Independent Films, while recreationally waiting tables at a popular family restaurant. (Bonus clue? She might have red hair too. And, hey, I think she's got the wave down perfectly.)

 

 

Answers.

1.   M  (Melissa DeBaca)

2.   F  (David Liebling)

3.   A  (Reece King)

4.   J  (Tara Schwartz)

5.   B  (Jeff Maher)

6.   K  (Karissa Gallero)

7.   E (Tasha Orr)

8.   D  (Brittany Dack)

9.   G  (Jonathon Snyder)

10.  L (Matt Kay)

11.  H (Andrea Reliford)

12.  I (Ellese Laner)

13.  C (Michelle Griego)

The Eyes Have it!

Okay Peggy, let's give them a little quiz.

Which MetNetters do you know by sight? I'm going to throw this little pop quiz at you once a week for a while. Play along for the heck of it, build an album, be able to say, "I knew her/him WHEN!""

WHO ARE THEY?

1.

2.

 

3.

 

 

4.

 

5.

 

 

 

6.

 

 

7.

 

 

8.

 

 

9.

 

 

10.

 

 

11.

 

 

12.

 

 

.

 

 

13.

 

14.

 

15.

 

 

 

16.

 

 

 

THE ANSWERS:

1. Sadie Hughes and her husband Jason at the end of their outside wedding ceremony in Broomfield. Sadie recently left her anchor/reporter job in Saint George, Utah. She has some job possibilities closer to home.

2. Tara Kish, now working at Martini on the Rocks radio, here in class on a rare occasion she was sitting long enough for me to sketch her.

3. Mindy MacInnes left, and Melany Fehrenbach right. They are standing in front of ABC offices in New York where Mindy has just been named Operations Manager for all Hard News at ABC. Melany, producing radio and TV commercials for Crispin, Porter and Boguski, was in New York at the time and they DID LUNCH. NOW THAT is MetNetting.

4. Melissa Garcia, anchor and reporter in Abilene, Texas. We had a "random get together" before she headed south. Just saw a piece she did on gas prices...fantastic job.

5. Tamisha Harris with OLDER MAN. Tamisha is currently dancing, teaching dance, and "making a buck or two" modeling until she can fully spread her wings. And when she does spread her wings? SHE WILL FLY.

6. Andy Buck, photographer and editor at KUSA. His work is quickly getting recognized in award circles. We've known all along he is a great story teller with that camera.

7. Steve Piesmann, program coordinator for Comcast TV. We were sharing some high trans fat chips in front of this health food store, here...just practicing recognition of irony.

8. John Romero, anchor and reporter at KCWY in Casper, Wyoming. I think "Juan Tan Romero" is losing his tan up there in snow and wind country. John loves news and it shows. Watch him anchor on line on the weekends, report during the week.

9. Walter Allen, Wyoming anchor of the year in 2007 at KCWY in Casper, Wyoming. He is talking to one of the intro classes. Students love his wit and wisdom. I'm pretty sure the redhead in this picture was looking beyond both those traits.

10. Amy Ferguson and Rosie Stringer, 2007 co-anchors at the MetReport. Here they are celebrating the completion of a show. They've both just graduated. Rosie is getting hitched this summer. Amy is putting the finishing touches on her resi-tape.

11. Geoff Sawtell, editor and director at KUSA. Those are two professions he mastered at the MetReport. Thankfully he stuck around campus a few years to keep the show honest and award winning.  We've finally let him out of jail.

12. Elisa Vasquez, former editor at KUSA. She was a reporter, anchor and pretty much everything at the Met Report.  She started doing talent work in her pre teens...and now after sampling one end of the business, she is off to Albuquerque to pursue that acting dream.

13. Tom Livingston tossing down some H20 in front of that health food store. Tom, the FATHER of the MetReport, started his professional career in Casper, Wyoming. Then he took some time off to be "stay at home dad." Now he is BACK running the Northern Colorado bureau for KGWN in Cheyenne.

14. Paula Vargas, assignment editor at KMGH. I snapped this shot on one of our bi-annual mutual therapy sessions. Anyone who has ever tried to make a living at an assignment desk knows what I'm talking about. If you've yet to hear Paula Laugh? Your life is incomplete.

15. This is Heather Burke, anchor/reporter at KBIM in Roswell, New Mexico. She reports regularly for the parent station, KQRE, in Albuquerque. Here she is heeding my standup advice, that the term standup is an oxymoron. I don't even want to picture what would have happened had she just stood there. Heather, in less than a year, has won just about every award the Associated Press hands out in New Mexico. You can generally see her work streamed or packaged on line at both stations.

16. This is the lovely Stephenie Davis in one of her new roles in life, modeling. She is also going to nursing school in Portland, Oregon.  She was inspired by the nurses who saved her life when she contracted Crohn's disease.

Well this is just a start. Don't feel slighted if you're not here yet. If you've been within ten feet of me while I was sporting my camera, you're in trouble. Thanks for bein' you!