No! Not Dick Cheney!

And he's mad!


















I got this idea from the cover of the recent edition of the New Yorker.
What do you think is more surprising... my pumpkin-carving abilities, or the fact that I subscribe to the New Yorker?

...Lookin' For A Moonbeam... And Our Youth

My brother Craig and I headed up to Kansas City on Friday for some old-school Van Halen. Craig, being the old man that he is, saw Van Halen with David Lee Roth in 1980 when he was in the 6th grade. Someone decided that a Van Halen concert was no place for a first-grader so I had to sit that one out. By the time I finally got to see the band, it was 1986 and Dave was long gone. Curiosity got the best of me despite my insisting I wasn't going to go


Was it the best Van Halen show I've ever seen? No. Not even close. But I'm still glad we went.

I'll say this: Going to concerts is a whole lot more fun when you have the cash to spend on some good tickets and take a comfy seat. I've seen plenty of Van Halen shows where me and the rest of the fans were merely sweat-covered sardines trying to squeeze our way to the front. Don't miss those days.


Here's the band burnin' through a classic from the first album. I tried to show some enthusiasm at the end, but Craig just wasn't playing along.


Guitar Face!

















Extreme Guitar Face!

















"Running With the Devil"
You'll see how close we were.


It was a pretty good time. Do we look like we're having fun? We're not even drunk. Not even a little bit.

Here's some more video. I got a little nervous when I walked up to the metal detector at the new Sprint Center. I kept my camera in my jacket pocket and walked on through with my jacket in my hand. The detector went off of course, so I had to step over to the "other" line. They decided it was the change in my pocket that must have set it off. I rule.

In the middle, you'll see Dave do something really... odd. All I could think while he was doing it: "If he lets go of that thing, someone's going to lose an eye."

A Milestone... Times 10

"It was a beautiful day, the sun beat down. I had the radio on, I was drivin. The trees went by, me and del were singin Little runaway, I was flyin."

When Tom Petty's soothing voice came through my ipod just before the 8 mile mark, I knew I was going to make it.

The above map shows my running route today. You can find a more detailed version, along with discovering the awesomeness of Google Map's Pedometer, by clicking here.

Those of you that know me well are aware that I took up jogging about a year and half ago. Today marked the first time I ran 10 miles. Previously, 8 miles was my best.

Some observations about running 10 miles:
1. It takes a damn long time (1 hour, 29 minutes, 44 seconds in this case)
2. It hurts like hell.

At about 8 and a half miles, my feet and knees decided to have a little talk with me. It went something like this:
Feet and Knees: "Uh.. hello up there? What the hell is this? Our contract specifies that we're finished at 8 miles."
Me: "Shut it! This is a great AC/DC song."

I feel great about finally getting to this point. I've been telling myself I was going to try for 10 for a long time now.

But here's a humbling thought: Today was also the day of the Wichita Marathon. So while I'm busy patting myself on the back over 10 miles, a whole lot of people ran 26 miles in Wichita today. I think my feet and knees would file an official complaint with the union if I tried that.

Training Day

There is a disaster training exercise going on in Wichita this week.
They knocked over a building, started some things on fire, put fake blood on fake victims and let me stand on a roof across the street to shoot video of it all.

It was good training for me too.

Family Day At The Game

Somehow, Teresa and I both ended up in Lawrence this weekend. I was there to shoot the Jayhawks taking the stick to Baylor. Teresa, (she's the chronically happy one on the left) along with the little sister Laura, were there to take part in a KU Alumni volunteer function. Honestly, I'm not really sure why they were there. She and Laura are a part of too many groups and organizations for me to ever keep track of.

They received free tickets to the game. Don't let the top picture fool you into thinking they were into it. Neither of them care a lick about sports. I think they just went there to people-watch.

Why am I not smiling? Teresa just informed me that 200 miles to our north, my Nebraska Cornhuskers were getting taken to the woodshed in a way they hadn't in nearly 50 years.

Done raining. 'Bout damn time. I hate the dorky KU vests, too.

Slow College Football News Day

Your team must really be playing pretty bad when all the mascot has to do is bother hard working photographers. Poor Larry Smith.

Maybe if Willie the Wildcat had worked a little harder, he might have rallied his team to a win. Instead, Kansas beat Kansas State in Manhattan for the first time since 1989. Bout time.

Big 'Ol Jet Airliner...

Airbus buzzed the tower today at the Wichita Airport with their A380 Super-Jumbo. Quite a site for this old Boeing town.

Here I am guiding it up to the gate.

Seriously... I was out there shooting some video and I'm just trying to get the attention of one of our reporters. This assignment, one airplane flying over Wichita without ever landing, required the following: Three photographers, two reporters and an editor. You woulda thought the space shuttle was about to launch.

Here's a link to a video I did.