The Weekend Update

Speaking of weekend update, did you hear Tina Fey is leaving SNL?  Tragic. 

Today I have to work. It's Sunday.  Isn't that WRONG.  No, really, isn't that WRONG?  So far today I have done nothing but laundry, drink okay home brew coffee, and referee the puppy and the cat.  Sometimes it feels like Animal Planet around here.  I couldn't try another church today because in just moments I'll have to roll in to work.  I can tell you right now, that barring some horrible, flaming plane crash, or world leader's unexpected death, tonight's lead story will be the start of Camp Cowher.  Welcome to Pittsburgh.

Back to the church thing for a moment, then back to the Steelers, K?  So, last weekend I tried this charming little Baptist church down the street.  Not for me.  I knew within the first moment I stepped into the sanctuary.  Am I a horrible, judgmental Christian?  Sorry... I just knew when I didn't see a drums, or even a guitar, or even a KEYBOARD for that matter... that it wasn't me.  When the Minister of Music said we were going to be singing "The 1st verse of Hymn 33, then the first 2 verses of Hymn 131," I knew I was in trouble.  Let me start out by saying I think Hymns are BEAUTIFUL.  And I love 19th century literature... there were many brilliant minds in that time.  That type of song is just not for me, that type of setting.  I'm a more modern "worship" kind of girl.  Not that "worship" is just singing, it's the way you live your life.  As Louie Giglio says, we're all worshipers, we're just not all worshiping the same thing.  So, the church search will continue next weekend.  Whew.

Now, back to the Steelers.  Saturday morning I went down to the Strip District.  Non Pittsburghers, think European market meets rural farm market meets the streets of NYC.  It's so great.  Live bongo playing, fresh bread baking, mom and pop shops selling things with no tax.  If it's $4.00, it's $4.00.  No credit cards. Some checks.  I love it.  There's fresh bread, fresh coffee, fresh cheese, superb chocolate (I think, I didn't partake in that).  Brokaw and I walked around for the better part of 2 hours, I came home with a Steelers jersey, a loaf of fresh asagio cheese bread, some perfectly ripe peaches, and some homemade doggie treats.  I also enjoyed a freshly squeezed cup of lemonade for $2.00, yeah, $2.00.

So, the Steelers jersey... this is a big commitment for a Pittsburgher.  Which jersey do you support?  Now, I was instructed to think long and hard before purchasing the jersey.  You're going to wear this for every game.  Possibly, for years.   You need a jersey with staying power.  You don't want someone who's going to get traded (Randle El) or arrested (Holmes).  Ideally, you would wear a jersey of the player who most accurately portrays you.  Sorry Big Ben, if I ever did ride a motorcycle, I would wear a helmet, before I had a near death experience.  So..... drum roll.... I got #86.  Hines Ward.  Superbowl MVP, awesome smile, always poised and grateful, I heart Hines.  I will sport his jersey this season. :)  Go Ward!!

Okay, I'm almost off to work.  A couple of updates.  Brokaw's bark seems to be a little better.  Giving him a pill everyday has its challenges.  We went to Petsmart Friday night and bought a new lockup.  We'll see how that goes tonight. And I think I've found a solution for his reading problem:

 

The 8th worst city

Recently I read an article in the Post Gazette that Pittsburgh ranks 32nd out of 40 in the best cities for singles.  Bummer!  About a year ago I found out there are only 8 men to every 10 on the PLANET, and now this.  Another challenge.  Great. 

Last night Brokaw's cute little hoarse bark started to sound a little sad so we ended up making a Wednesday night trip to the vet and I left feeling really bad.  Bad Dana.  Bad pet owner.  Brokaw has an ear infection!  Swollen lymph nodes are making the bark hoarse.  Poor puppy.  So he's on an antibiotic and we have to lay off the walks for a few days.

One more crazy Brokaw story, then I'll stop.  I'm sorry if that seems like all I write about anymore... I can't help it.  I will try to back off.  Okay, so Monday when I got home from work, the puppy greeted me at the door. (I always put him in a crate when I leave in the morning) I thought perhaps I didn't close the top part.  Tuesday, same thing.  That day, however, I double checked the crate before I left.  Okay, so yesterday I put him in the crate, went downstairs to leave for work, then I realized I had forgotten my cell phone.  I ran back up the steps just in time to see McGuyver himself busting out of jail.  Seriously.  The 4 month old puppy reached up to the top of the crate and with uncanny ability, as if he had thumbs and the dexterity of a cardiac surgeon, moved the lock and opened the top door of the crate and climbed out.  No big deal.  No struggle.  So I'm pretty much going to have to call Alcatraz and see if they have an opening for doggie daycare because this guy needs maximum security.

In other news, (ha!)... work.  It has been a while since I have had a day that really felt like "fun" at work.  Lots of stress, uncertainty, you get it.  Yesterday was fun.  It was the last day of July Sweeps (that's a ratings period, if you don't get it, think of final exams or midterms), which is always a relief.  My friend Ashley did this story about myheritage.com.  If you haven't checked it out, do.

www.myheritage.com

You can upload your own picture and it will scan your face and determine which celebrity you look like.  Ashley took a few pictures of people in the newsroom and we were having so much fun with it.  Then we scanned pictures of our anchors for the 5pm news, it was a great TV moment.  Fun.

Oh, my results:

Rachel McAdams

Random Ramblings...

So... I'm mad at myspace.  It's all slow and frustrating.  Not feeling like my space at all!

This morning I ate banana pudding for breakfast.  And I wonder why I'm gaining weight.  Does banana pudding count as a fruit?  Seriously, it was made with fresh bananas.

Today when I woke up, I was still asleep.  I meandered along, coffee didn't penetrate my sleepiness.  I felt asleep until about 1:00pm.  This made my work day difficult, since I need to be full throttle, starting at about, oh, 7:30am on the confrence call.

My weekend update:

I rented "Must Love Dogs." See it. It's cute.

I also finally saw "The Devil Wears Prada." It was fabulous. SO much better than the book! Rare instance, but true.  See it too.

I hung out with my friends Gretchen and Jason.  Gretchen got a little toasty. :) It was funny.  And we were both having a fabulous hair night.  See?

A friend of theirs was "re-releasing" himself back into the dating scene.  Hilarious.  T-shirts and everything.  It was a great time.  I wish I could have stayed longer.  I need to get to know these guys!  Guys. Hello, it's been a while people.

I'm still secretly holding out hope that Jason will hook me up with a hot doctor.  I'm thinking something like this:

or   

So, Jason, get on it. Stat.

In other news... Brokaw was a psycho puppy tonight.  Running around like a wild man.  And he had ADHD at puppy kindergarten tonight.  He has the cutest little bark though, it's all hoarse.  When he's hoarse, it's cute.  Rita Cosby though, she's just foul.  He's been all over the bottom shelf of my bookcase tonight.  The bad news is he's chewing up my books behind my back as I blog, the good news is, apparently he's a huge C.S. Lewis fan.  So he's hyper, but cute, and deep.  I like.

I'm totally digging the country music fest on TV tonight.  It's so... American.  Does that make sense?  It makes me want to be in my sister's backyard, chillin by the pool, listening to Kenny Chesney.  Seriously, that backyard is one of the greatest places on earth.  The only thing that would make it even greater is if Kenny Chesney were actually there.  But then me and my sister would pass out and Jimmy's such a big fan that he would probably keep jamming out to Kenny and we would just be lying there on the ground, dying, singing "Summertime" in our unconsciousness.  I heart Kenny. Boys, take note: this is how a man WEARS a pair of jeans:

Today is a special day for me.  On this day, July 21st, 10 years ago, was the start of a life changing relationship.  A relationship with Jesus, my God, my prince, my comfortor, my Father.

It's crazy to look back and realize that it's been 10 years.  10 years.  10 years since I realized who I was and who God is and how we fit together.  Of course, I didn't realize it all that day.  It was just the beginning.  You know the stage of a relationship where you're holding hands and everything is new and exciting, it was that.

It's not that now.  But it remains. The hand holding.  The guiding.  The inspiration.  The love (more coming from His direction than mine).  Yes, I wish I was more faithful, that I had more to show for my 10 years.  But think about that.  If that were the goal, would I really be following Him?  It's not about me.  It's about Jesus.  Today I celebrate Him.  What He has done for me.  What He has done for all of us. 

Ahh... Reflection is a beautiful thing.  I am so thankful.

Feed me!!

Good Evening

Wow. Aren't you lucky.  You have me morning and night. I had a minute so I thought I'd share a couple more things.

1. I just made fabulous pork chops on the grill for dinner.  Yummy.  I don't know why I dreaded pork chop night as a child.  Quite delightful.  And corn on the cob and salad and lemon herb pasta.  It was enjoyable, as lunch will be tomorrow.

2. I wish I had Kelly Ripa's hair.   Can I just come out about that?  Every morning, I get to work at about 9am, just as "Regis & Kelly" is coming on the big flat screen that greets you at the TV station's door.  So yay.  The first thing I get to see is a life sized Kelly Ripa head of beautiful blonde hair saying "hello, good morning, even on your good hair days, you don't look like this!" Yeah, thanks a lot.

I had a bit of a hair dye nightmare this weekend.  I'll share before and after pics soon.  Hairdye and Pizza on a friday night, I felt like I was back in college!

Oh, and the autopsy results are in.  That woman was officially killed by her pet wolves.  Ouch.

Mornin' Y'all!!

It's hot in the Steel City these days!  Whew!

So, I never have time to post in the evening... here I go at my first attempt at a morning post.  Now, I am a very busy girl in the morning, so there's a 40% chance this won't make any sense.

I like mornings though.  The bed is so comfortable and soothing.  The coffee is fresh and hot and aaahhhhh.  I love breakfast.  And the puppy is really cute and excited but not an an uncontrollable way win the morning.

Okay, enough about mornings.  Let me catch you up.  This weekend I went to the Goo Goo Dolls/Counting Crows concert -- so much fun!!  And the lead singer for Counting Crows (I'm not a giant fan, forgive me, I don't know his name, even though I've been singing Counting Crows songs for more than 10 years now "Mr. Jones and me...") was really funny!

Side note: Courtney, remember when we went on that trip to West Virgina with your dad & Susan and we forgot all of our CDs except Counting Crows?  We had every song memorized by the time we got home.  Not that we owned that many CDs at that point because they were still new, but I'm pretty sure we had Pearl Jam and Radiohead. Ha.

Local news is funny sometimes.  Yesterday was a case in point.  There are the things you always have to cover that are so quintessentially "local news."  Fatal Fire.  Heat Wave.  Stick a thermometer in a car and watch it heat up "over the 90 minutes."  Okay, so we did all of that.  No biggie.  Oh -- but yesterday, a story I have NEVER covered in my measly 7 years of experience. A woman was mauled by a pack of wolves. Her wolves! 11 of them.  It was so WEIRD.

In other news... Brokaw is in his 2nd week of puppy kindergarten and his doggie trainer says he is a "puppy prodigy," "the cutest puppy in the world" and a "genius", respectively.  But we all already knew that right?  Gifted, folks.  The puggle is gifted and talented, give it up!

I still haven't seen "The Devil Wears Prada," and I'm bummed about that.  Note to self: must see soon!

Okay, more coffee, the shower, and the 7:45 segment of the Today show is calling!  Have a great day everyone!

You know what they say...

If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.  Not much to say.  I was a big complainer all week.  I hate traffic.  I hate bills and taxes and having to go to the post office for any reason.  I hate my eyebrows.  And my roots.  I hate periods.  I hate finding out through myspace that my ex-boyfriend has a girlfriend.  A stupid truck threw a rock up on my BRAND NEW SUV and now I have a star in my windshield.  I hate that.  I hate eating spaghetti four nights in a row just because there's so much.  I hate the rain.  I'm sick of writing stories about Ben Roethlisberger.  Glad he's okay, I'm still a fan, but enough is enough.

There you have it, my week in review.

FF> Today I am much better.  I had some sleep, took Brokaw to the vet and paid a visit to the pool at the YMCA.  Do I still get Y points even though I technically didn't go inside?  Isn't the feeling of the sun burning your skin fabulous?  It's probably the actual feeling of melanin cells turning cancerous, however, it's invigorating.

Oh, I also learned this week that I've been spelling WEIRD wrong my entire life.  My BFF, who happens to be a 2nd grade teacher and a spelling and grammar whiz, filled me in.  Hey -- I think it was my actual 2nd grade teacher who taught me "I before E except after C."  Apparently that doesn't apply to the word weird.  To that, I say, hmm.... WEIRD.  Someone should hunt down Mrs. Perry and tell her that!

That's My Boy!

Puggle On Tour

Brokaw Made New Friends, Big & Small

 

My Mom Fell in Love

Jimmy's Got the Moves

My Sister was the Hostess w/the Mostest

Two Cuties

He is the Coolest 4 Year Old Alive

Papa Charlie, Wesley & Brayden

We cleaned our plates

The Cuzzins

Mom & Chris

My Little Brother & Big Sister

The Brown Boys

Mmmm... Cake

The Birthday Girl & Her Descendants

Happy 7-0 Granny Nora!!

Return of the Mac

Hello everyone!  I am back from my trip to Virginia.  The good news is I practically saw everyone on this planet that I am related to.  The bad news is I spent about 24 hours in my vehicle.

I will never again refer to my morning commute as a "traffic nightmare."  No.  Driving on I-95 on July 4th weekend, however, constitutes using the term traffic nightmare.  Look it up on wikipedia, and I'm pretty sure you'll see me, and thousands of other people, sitting on the interstate. Going about 5.  Yeah, 5. Five by the way, is also the number of hours it took me to get from DC to Richmond.  Yeah.  It normally takes about an hour and a half!!

Okay, so enough complaining.  It's over, it was worth it, I get it, blah, blah, blah.

Granny is doing better.   Her birthday bash was short, but fun.  Brokaw was a big hit with everyone.  My mother and her sister are both still alive and well, as far as I know, and oh yeah, have I mentioned lately how much I want to be like my sister when I grow up?

Pictures coming soon.