Sit, Watch Me, Stay!

For the past 5 weeks we have been attending dog training at Petsmart. We don't necessarily have a bad dog but we always wanted her to learn simple commands so that she would be obedient in front of others. Nobody wants a dog who barks at others and is running around crazy. She knows how to sit and watch me and come when called. She has been doing ok in class but there are a few too many distractions. Hopefully she will graduate next week. If anything she will graduate just based on cuteness and the fact that she is the only one in the class.

Rain keeps fallin....

Good ol' pop up thunderstorms in Summer. They never last long but they can ruin an event! I didn't have any events plan today but when it rains in Georgia everything just slows down. Especially traffic. No one seems to be able to drive carefully in the rain. I slow down and drive safely but some people just continue to fly down the road and not use their signals. Today's photo is dedicated to pop up thunderstorms. 

Artist tools.

How up to date are you with the latest tools of the trade at your job?

Do you make it an effort to welcome new tools to help you become more efficient?

Well, I've always been one to try new things. For the past few years I've noticed that several editors or artists use WACOM tablets to draw or design and even edit during several productions. I wanna be one of the cool kids too!

I've always been a mouse and keyboard type of editor but lately my mouse has been giving me the worst headache because I'm either running out of space on my desktop or it becomes unmounted from the PC. I know it might be old tech to some of you out there but I decided to try the WACOM tablet this week. At first it was awkward and I was dragging stuff all over the place. I couldn't figure out how to right click. I was also getting a hand cramp from how I was holding the pen tool.

Well, now I've gotten used to it. It seems to handle things much simpler for when I'm drawing a mask or keyframing things. I'm pretty sure I will get much use out of this in the future.

Today's photo is dedicated to all the artists out there. Keep up with the tools of the trade!

And Still I Rise!

Today we lost an inspiration and poet, Maya Angelou! She was an inspiration to all who wanted to write poetry or just be an author or an inspirational speaker. Her voice was just so pleasant to hear and she was such a profound speaker. A lot like Martin Luther King. The most famous poem that a lot of us remember is Still I Rise. She has risen today to the heavens with all the other greats. Thank you for inspiring us all and you will be missed!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is the birthday of the best mother in the world! What can I say about my mother that I haven't already said on many occasions?!? She is amazing, funny, intelligent, witty and so caring! Outside of my wife, she is my best friend! We have had so many great times together! I love her with all my heart!

Today I wish her the best of days and wish that I could have shared her day with her! I'll see you soon Mom! I love you and Happy Birthday!

Grilling! I Be Grilling!

Today was a great day to grill! Like I said the other day, I'm not the best person to grill but I was determined today to make the best grilled meat I could. After careful prep of the new grill, it turned out fabulous!

See photos below! Now I need an antacid and a loud alarm clock for the morning. Goodnight!

GODZILLA

Today's post is just about GODZILLA. I saw it and thought it was good. Not perfect. It had it's issues. It was a very EPIC movie filled with great suspense. He is humongous! I would recommend with kind of lower expectations.

You can read my review here:

http://moviereviewstars.blogspot.com/?m=1

What a day!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not really an outdoors, knows how to BBQ kind of man! However I have been taught how to do it by the grillmaster himself, my father! But over the years, I have had very little patience for it.

I told myself though that this holiday weekend, I was going to buy a new grill and try to start becoming the grillmaster. At least in burger form.

My wife has been asking me for days and almost 2 weeks to look at grills online and decide on which one to get. I procrastinated on the subject and she found the perfect one Friday night at Home Depot. It is a hybrid grill that does charcoal and gas! Perfect because I'm ready for the gas taste quite yet but I'm willing to try. So we purchase the grill online for pickup today (Saturday). Little did we know that the grill was 25 miles away from our house. It was the only one in stock.

We decided we would make a day out of it. We had pet training classes in Kennesaw earlier today and also was going to leave her there for grooming. Done! Off to go get the grill. We had a nice drive out to Woodstock and get to Home Depot. Well, we are shopping around for other things and I don't see my grill anywhere on display. No problem. I'll just go pickup it up at the customer service. They reveal it and Dana is already asking if we can take the side of it off so we can fit it better into the car. This might be a problem.

The Home Depot reps tell me to pull around. One look at my Kia Soul and they say "That is not going to fit!" I politely ask them to take the side of the grill off. Nope! They told me "We can't take it off. And if we did take it off, you wouldn't want to go through the hassle of putting it back on. What?!? Ok well do you have it in a box? We have to check but if we did, you wouldn't want to put this together. It is too complicated!"

"Well how do I get it home?? I'm not renting a truck!"

After about another hour of Dana trying to get the customer service rep to check another store close by (which they are sold out!) we decide on our own to try to shove it into the car with the grill part hanging out. Another Home Depot worker sees us and asks "Nobody wanted to help you put that in the car?" I said it is a long story but no! He very cooperatively helped us get it tied down so we could get it home. They tied it down to the bolt where the rear windshield wiper is. I told him "If he heard on the news about a grill falling out of a car onto I-575 and hitting others, that it was me and I'm sorry!" After we got it tied down, the other guy who was also helping said "I would have just taken the side off. What?!? I asked them that and they said no! He said I've done that many of times." LORD HAVE MERCY!! After many prayers and carefully driving with my hazard lights on, I made it into the driveway! It was a hot day and I was very tired! I also cut my finger trying to close this piece that fits back onto the grill.

I haven't grilled on it yet and it isn't in it's final resting place yet. I will have a further update on Sunday or Monday about how the grill faired.

LORD HAVE MERCY WHAT A DAY!

Relax!!

I said that today was going to be a very relaxing day for me! This is supposed to be part of one of the things that I wanted to do for this weekend!

RELAX!! I was able to catch up on a lot of video games that I'm trying to finish. The wife got to relax on her new patio as you can see below and it was a work day!

Next on the schedule for this weekend is BBQ, Movies and more relaxation!

The Weekend is Here!

Today was a great day at work but I'm so excited for a 4 day weekend!

I don't really have much to say but I hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend!

Family

Do you know your family lineage? How well do you think you know your relatives? Not necessarily their personalities but who they are. Like, do you know all your cousins? Do you know who you are related to?

Does your kinship involve celebrities? You never know. Today I was approached by someone new at work who thinks that I might be related to them. It was kind of funny. He just met me on Monday and saw my last name come across something and decided to come talk to me. It's possible to be related to him in some kind of way. I'm definitely going to find out.

It made me think about my family tree and just how back in the day people used to keep family tree books. It would contain all the names of the family members passed and living. I don't think people do that any more. Usually now a days family moves away and you lose touch. It is almost as if you forget who your family are.

He said to me "You never know. It might not be in the tree but it could be in the roots." I thought that was neat. Find out who your family is.

Retirement

Do you ever think about retirement? Ever wonder what it would be like to never have to work again?

I was driving to work today and I saw this older gentlemen driving this!

I thought to myself, "WOW, he must be retired!" Now don't get me wrong, there are some very successful people that could purchase this with no problem while working but it just made me think that when we retire people usually buy things or do things that they couldn't when they were working.

To be able to cruise or go on vacation whenever you want without a care in the world just seems so nice to me.

Now I know I take my fair share of cruises or vacation a year but it is all within the means of work life. It was just something that was on my mind today.

What do you think?

Listen up!

Are you a music/radio fan or a talk radio fan?

Growing up I used to listen to the radio all the time to hear the latest hot music. Well now a days the music scene is filled with a lot of garbage. I find myself switching the channel all the time. I love talk radio. If I had Satellite radio in my car, it wouldn't really be a problem.

For those of us who still drive older cars without it, I find that listening to podcasts is the new talk radio for me! Podcasts can add so much information on any subject that you can think of. Some of them are from professionals of the subjects and others are just random fans.

I find myself listening to them every morning and afternoon during my drive to work. They have been great for our road trips when the wife wants to sleep in the car and when we go on cruises and I want to just listen while sitting on the balcony.

If you have smartphone or iPod and haven't discovered them yet, give it a try. Today's photo is a brief look into the list of ones I listen to.

Gamer!

Today is a perfect day to be a gamer! It is rainy, cloudy and cold! The wife finished all her work on the outdoor activities yesterday. The dog wants to be lazy and nappy because it is wet outside. She hates the rain!

So why not take this opportunity to spend several hours on the hobby that I LOVE!! Playing video games! I have been a gamer for 30 years now! I find that they can be fun and therapeutic.

I'm cracking my knuckles, grabbing my water bottle and potato chips and popping a squat in front of the the home theater! LEAVE ME ALONE!

THANKS HONEY!

Hush........

Probably one of my favorite things to go with BBQ is a hushpuppy! The best hushpuppies in the world are made by my mom who learned from her mom. However if you go to any BBQ restaurant in NC, you will find the best hushpuppies. For the longest time I have been trying to find something similar in Atlanta but have been unsuccessful until today!

If you are in the Marietta area, you must go to Williamson Bros BBQ. They are exactly what I was looking for. Everything from the shape, to the taste. The right amount of sweetness, the right amount of onion flavor, the right amount of crunch. Perfect!

Now I want to go home and have some of my moms.

What a day!

Look at these photos below. What do you see????

If you guessed a stain, a selfie and Barbara Walters, you would be correct and probably scratching your head.

Today has been an emotional roller coaster of a day. A whole case of whoops and oops and awe. It started off with the stain photo below by dripping toothpaste on my shirt this morning. At least my mouth and clothes were minty fresh! Next I thought I was on a roll with getting all my tasks ready for the day.

Getting ahead of the game by submitting some of my promos in early but whoops..... I submitted it with a space character in front of the ISCI (code) number and it didn't get into the system correctly. However Master Control was able to fix the typo and everything was all good. Sorry Rach. STRIKE ONE!

Moving on. Let's get this great promo to air about jaywalking and a cop car accident. Well it was going along fine but then I noticed the audio track was different. Oops! I miss understood the producers' directions and used the wrong audio track. Hurry Super-Editor, you can fix it! It is only 15 mins till air. I re-cut it in 5 mins but unfortunately it missed the airing time. Dang it! STRIKE TWO! The producer got a good laugh out of it. Sorry Amanda. At least we had a backup.

I was able to at least finish her other great promo for the Tuesday Primary Election debate that airs this weekend. Good job producing.

All wasn't lost as there were some funny and awe moments. This is where the Barbara Walters and the selfie photos comes into play.

There is always free food hanging about for some sort of event or function at WSB-TV. Trust me, I'm not complaining! I was told there was ice-cream and you didn't have to tell me twice. My co-worker editor - Dave also had eyes coming out of his head from excitement! That ice cream was soooo good and a special delivery from Ohio. Thanks Steve! Before I could head back to my edit suite, he said "Let's take a selfie!" Well why not! That was the funny!

And lastly, today was Barbara Walter's last day on the View. She is starting her retirement. I can't say that I'm a huge fan of hers but I do think over the past years she has done some terrific 20/20 interviews and she paved the way for many women in news/television broadcasting. Between today and yesterday's salute to Barbara on the View, it was a great tribute. I actually shed a small tear during her goodbye speech this morning. That was the awe! Tune in tonight at 9pm on WSB-TV CH.2 to see the Barbara Walters Special - Her Story.

But hey, it's Friday! Things happen. Ended up not really being a bad day. What kind of day did you have today?

D'oh!

How many times has this happened to you?

Do you kick or shake the machine? Or do you just add more money to hopefully knock it down?

Is this a sign that maybe you shouldn't be eating it anyways?

This wasn't me by the way. I just took advantage of the situation by taking a photo.

Bump, Bump.

I've had the pleasure of working with a 1.5 great producer for the past almost 5 months at my new job. The reason I say 1.5 is because she's had a little help from a precious child being developed in her tummy. I'm pretty sure some of the producing ideas have come from him/her. I know she is very excited for the new born to get here as am I. Hopefully during our edit sessions over the past 5 months, I have been a good voice for him/her to hear.

I often wonder how women handle things while being pregnant and working and I think my new producer friend has been handling it with the best attitude in the world! She is a real trooper!

I'm going to miss having her around so much once the baby is born and seeing the bump. Good luck with these last few months, Rachel.

Oh yeah and BTW, the latest promo is ready for approval.

Thanks for letting me use you for my daily blog.

Outdoor Sanctuary

Looks like the outdoor sanctuary is coming along great! This is going to be my wife's lady cave. I have my man cave with a home theater and it's time my wife has her own space. This is going to be a way for her to enjoy the outdoors in peace without any bugs.

I sure hope she enjoys it!

Get your peanuts and snacks, here!

You never know what might happen so sometimes you need to have snacks! I'm a snacker and I'm not ashamed.

Actually I'm glad that I have these snacks because when I first started this new job at WSB-TV, I was stuck in my office for a couple of days because of a huge ice/snow storm that attacked Atlanta! Glad I have these now.

The Salted Caramel peanuts are my favorite!!

NO THESE ARE NOT FOR RESALE!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the best mother in the world! You have done so much for me and your other two sons that we could never be able to repay you back! All the love and care that you continue to give will always be cherished! I love you more than you will ever know and I wish that I was home so that I could spend more time with you today! I love you!