Emily Killian

Video from Friday's SW Conference Championship

2009-02-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

Saved video stream from Shelby City Council meeting

2009-02-16T20:16:00.004-05:00

This video wouldn't work on our new blogging platform, so I'm posting it here.

Comments from the chat room...
Welcome to the 'shelbystar' room
19:27 dunewill : 4 2 yup
19:28 dunewill : and the mayor can keep his friends
19:28 Dicky : now we should pass an ordinance to stop smoking in the cb district
19:29 Dicky : are you going to continue the broadcast
19:29 Beth : only was a handful outside
19:29 Beth : thanks Shelby Star.. this was great.
19:29 dunewill : yes thank you again Shelby star
19:29 bear : Thank star
19:29 Dicky : I would like to see the rest of the meeting
19:30 dunewill : it will be televised wed at 830pm channel 19
19:30 dunewill : twc
19:35 Scooter : Thank you Star... Well done..
19:52 tyree : anyone still here?
19:53 phil3_10 : What was the decision
19:54 phil3_10 : Anyone here?
20:06 SHELBYSTAR : The decision was 4-2 in favor of the measure.
20:07 SHELBYSTAR : Jeanette Patterson and Andrew Hopper voted no.
20:08 SHELBYSTAR : Joel Shores, Larry Ware, Chris Mabry and Mike Royster all voted yes.
20:08 SHELBYSTAR : The mayor said if it had come to a tie, he would have broken it with a no.

Debate it: Decorate or not?

2008-11-25T00:22:00.000-05:00

This white poinsettia is about as decorative as I get for the holidays. I love what the holidays stand for, but I'm not a fan of putting up seasonal decorations and taking it down a few weeks later. Seems like a waste to me. Anyone care to debate the pros and cons of holiday decorations?

Nasty stuff

2008-11-25T00:21:00.000-05:00

My roommate blogged last week about pork roll. Here's what he paid for the foul smelling meat (term used loosely). Has anyone other than him smelled - or worse yet - eaten this stuff?

Pirates?! Seriously?!

2008-11-17T14:28:00.000-05:00

The Associated Press is reporting that pirates took a supertanker loaded with crude oil off the coast of Somalia. Seriously?! There are still pirates out there... and evidently they can take over ships much larger than Jack Sparrow. The story said they took it for ransom, which makes me wonder if large cruise ships are next. Imagine the ransom money they could collect from a boatload of tourists' families...

Read the story here.

Paving in Fallston

2008-11-08T13:51:00.000-05:00

They're repaving N.C. 18 in Fallston. Its a minor inconvience now, but the road will be much nicer when crews finish.

No time for lunch?

2008-11-04T13:38:00.001-05:00

Evidently people are voting instead of eating. Sub Station II was practically deserted at lunchtime.

Gas for $2.19 a gallon!

2008-11-02T18:21:00.001-05:00

I drove through Shelby and upper Cleveland County on Saturday morning. The cheapest gas around was $2.37. The price in Catawba County was $2.25. Sunday evening, I bought gas in Hickory at $2.19 a gallon. I can't remember prices being this low in a long time (even though they're higher here than they are two counties over).

I took a photo with my cell phone camera to prove it.

LOL dogs: Capshun this

2008-10-29T02:17:00.000-04:00

I can haz mashed potatoes frum da kfc?

For those of you who haven't seen the Lol Cats and Lol Dogs, you're missing out. Star photographer Brittany Randolph set up this one with Gracie and some potatoes.

Try your hand at captioning the photo a la Lol Dogs in the comments section.

Plz to have capshun? Thx.

IMG00073.jpg

2008-10-29T02:13:00.002-04:00

Pumpkin head Gracie really is happy to wear her costume. She knows it makes her cuter and, thus more petable.

IMG00071.jpg

2008-10-29T02:13:00.001-04:00

Gracie chills out in her pumpkin hat after pet therapy at Cleveland Pines nursing home on Tuesday.

Lulu and Gracie have learned to change channels

2008-10-28T01:03:00.001-04:00

Lulu wasn't in the mood to watch Conan. She evidently prefers Craig Ferguson.

Free stuff for readers!

2008-10-27T13:51:00.000-04:00

I received an e-mail that cracked me up last week from a marketing company. They were representing a company called Toilet Tattoos that makes toilet seat decals.

Of all the things to send to journalists for possible publication.

I got a good laugh out of it, then cruised through the company's Web site, http://www.toilet-tattoos.com/, which has all of the decals for sale - holidays, potty training stickers, cute designs. In all fairness, the designs were pretty cute, and if I were one to decorate for holidays, I'd consider it. They definitely are a conversation starter...

So for my blog readers' benefit, I also requested samples to give away.

So here's your chance.

Want to win a cute toilet seat decal?

The first three people to comment on this blog post will win one each. Just make sure to include a way for me to contact you and your name. Employees and independent contractors of The Star or Freedom Communications and their immediate families aren't eligible to win. Sorry!

Raining something larger than cats and dogs

2008-10-13T20:08:00.000-04:00

This has been a year of seemingly near-death experiences for me.

Over the summer, I shared my almost deadly experience with a jar of beans with readers, but that story pales in comparison to my adventure earlier this month.

We have a regular group of people who get together on Wednesday evenings for a time to relax and watch television, gossip about community goings-on and to share a meal. Every now and then, we'll take it on the road, so in early October, we decided to go to Maggiano's in Charlotte because I had a $10 off coupon.

It happened to be rainy and driving there made me very nervous. We pulled off the side of the road to make sure everything was OK after hearing a strange noise.

Actually, we did it twice. We were all a little spooked.

What are the odds, in the middle of a drought, for it to rain cats and dogs on a Wednesday night?
Well, it was evidently raining significantly larger animals, too, as you'll see.

We arrived at the restaurant, had a wonderful meal, then walked a few steps over to the Cheesecake Factory and ate dessert. We finished around 11 p.m. and began driving back in the rain.

At which point, I should introduce you to our trusty navigator, Kathryn. She has Google Maps on her BlackBerry.

Unfortunately, she reads them upside down, backwards and sideways.

Our other passengers include Justin and a giant bag of dog food on the other side of the back seat.

The navigator missed a turn.

Then we missed another.

And then she told us to take a right instead of a left, maybe even a left instead of a right. We stopped for gas, asked for directions and got going in the right direction. While we were turning around, Justin attempted to become a backseat driver, or so I thought. Cranky after getting lost and stressed out in the rain, I retorted, “I do have a license, you know.”

Immediate regret (and an apology).

We make it to Matthews.

It’s still dark and rainy, but we’re almost to I-485. We round a curve in a mixed residential-business area and bang — we hear a gunshot from close range, the back window busts and glass flies everywhere.

Scared, I begin calling 911.

“Um, ma’am, I think our car has been shot into,” I tell the operator.

Calm at first, I start shaking on the inside as I pull off at a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away, far enough that the shooters won’t chase us, I think.

We stay in the car until four police cars with K-9 officers in tow come blaring into the parking lot. We all get out and the police begin investigating.

One walks over to the back “shot-out” window.

“Um, ma’am, was this fur here before?”

Fur???

Deer fur.

Embarrassment pelts the three of us and we start laughing hysterically.

It’s not funny, but after the scare we’ve had, it’s hilarious.

And it’s an experience the three of us won’t soon forget.

And the irony of all this is that I started working on a Web page for shelbystar.com that focuses on deer-car crashes only days before my incident.

As if BlackBerries aren't addictive enough

2008-10-08T11:53:00.001-04:00

There are some days when I'm glad to be both a Verizon Wireless and a BlackBerry addict. Today, the Associated Press is reporting that RIM, the company that makes BlackBerry, will have a new version out soon - and that its touch-screen is better than that on the iPhone.

Here's what the AP story said:

NEW YORK (AP) _ Research in Motion Ltd., maker of the BlackBerry, is taking on Apple Inc. with a touch-screen phone that puts a new twist on the technology.
RIM is known for its e-mail-oriented phones with large keypads. With the new model announced Wednesday, the Storm, RIM is for the first time giving up the physical keypad in favor of a large screen, just like the one on Apple's iPhone.
But RIM has listened to users who find the iPhone's glass screen awkward to type on because its virtual buttons provide no tactile feedback. The Storm's whole screen is backed by springs, and when pressed, it gives under the finger.
The long-rumored Storm will be available from Verizon Wireless in the U.S. and from Vodafone Group PLC overseas before the holidays, the companies said. No price has been disclosed yet.
In an unusual twist, the phone will work both on Verizon Wireless' network and on Vodafone's, even though they use incompatible technologies. Like a few other Verizon Wireless handsets before it, the Storm will be equipped with radios to handle both networks, making international roaming a possibility. The iPhone, carried by AT&T Inc. in the U.S., can already roam internationally.
The addition of a touch-screen phone to the BlackBerry lineup, the mainstay of e-mail-addicted executives and managers, is a testament to the effect of the iPhone. RIM's share of the U.S. smart-phone market has stayed above 50 percent, but the iPhone has clearly helped expand that market.

Here's how it works, according to AP:

As a Web browser, the Storm more closely emulates the desktop experience than the iPhone does. That's because the screen can distinguish between light touches and firm presses. A light touch can move around a cursor, while a firm press activates a link, much like moving a mouse cursor has a different effect from clicking a mouse button, said Mike Lazaridis, RIM's co-chief executive.

Coverage is harder in the digital age

2008-10-04T00:35:00.000-04:00

Photographer Jeff Melton thinks I have a pair of cursed shoes. Every time I wear them to work, there's some sort of big fire, wreck or other event that spells out bad news for people in the county.

The first time I wore them, there was a murder. Since then, I've forgotten all the places those ill-fated shoes have taken me.

But lately, even without the shoes, bad things keep on happening in Cleveland County. The past two weeks have been prime examples of that. I've been to a fire that displaced a family near Boiling Springs, a fatal wreck at a dragstrip, and tonight I went to a bad wreck near Polkville.

For the record, I have a love-hate relationship with these types of events. I hate them because they make me nervous beyond words. I don't know where I'm allowed to stand and who I'm allowed to talk to, much less who I even need to talk to. Like many journalists, if these types of events happen at night, they keep me from sleeping.

On the flip side, I love them because it's always a challenge to get the information I need to make a good news story.

It's also hard to piece together information from so many people - some of whom might not be telling the exact truth. Some of them politely refuse to give information. Others aren't nearly as nice. It's hard to balance not bothering emergency workers as they help victims, clean up messes and investigate what happened.

But in the digital age, it's even harder to know what we should and shouldn't get on video.

Tonight was a prime example.

On the Web, I posted a video of the two cars and of people cleaning up the scene. While I was on the scene, I got footage from a distance of the helicopter that was getting ready to take a patient to the hospital and of the outside of an ambulance holding a patient.

For the record, most journalists try not to get footage of actual patients if they don't have to (which is what I did by just getting the outside of the ambulance).

At any rate, an emergency official asked me to turn off my camera for a while before the helicopter took off. I did so without a second thought. It was the right thing to do.

It was also the right thing for that person to ask me to do so, and I appreciate that person letting me know - because I don't know of a single journalist who a) would not have wanted footage of that, and b) who would have known that you're not supposed to get footage of a helicopter taking off.

With all that said, we all want to do the right thing, and emergency officials should have no qualms about telling journalists the rules, especially in the digital age. And in a lot of cases, we simply don't know what our boundaries are and need direction. Just do it nicely,as the worker did tonight, because we're just doing our jobs, too.

Sigh of relief from the battle-tested Flamingoes

2008-10-01T00:05:00.000-04:00

Remember back to the scene in Gone With the Wind when Scarlett is on her knees in the dirt hollering that she will never go hungry again.

Now transpose that to an ill-fated and pink-clad bunch of baseball players and insert the words, "I will never play fantasy baseball again!"

For those of you who follow my blog, you've heard me whine about the inevitable fate of the Flamingoes, my ill-fated fantasy baseball league team. I joined in this year and set a goal of coming in ninth place. There are only 10 teams, so I thought that wasn't too lofty a goal.

Unfortunately, the Flamingoes caught the bird flu around late May and suffered through the loss of three pitchers, two outfielders, an infielder and a utility player or two.

All within three weeks.

And that isn't something you can come back from, as my poor pink friends found out. No matter how hard I tried to doctor them, they kept dropping dead.

Soriano. Peavy (he later came back). Some dude who broke his wrist. Another who practically shredded his ankle. One guy missed games as a penalty for brawling. And the list goes on and on.

But even after all that, I received a glimmer of hope today.

Yes, I'm still the loser out of the bunch, but it turns out that my team had the highest batting average in the league. Small consolation, but it just might be the turnip that keeps my proverbial Scarlett in the league next year.

And I already have a goal: Just beat one person.

Not too lofty, right?

New tech-ey stuff

2008-09-29T18:38:00.000-04:00

I recently updated the Firefox browser on my work computer, subsequently wiping out some of the extensions I regularly use and wreaking havoc on settings. For some reason, the download went awry.

So I installed Google Chrome, the new browser from (you guessed it) Google. I also downloaded Flock, which touted itself as being a "social networking" browser. But after trying them both out for a couple weeks, I decided to try my luck again with Firefox, which has been my favorite since the first version came out.

So I reinstalled the newest version of Firefox and transferred my favorites back. I then went about trying to get all the same extensions I had before, with mixed success. But I also came across an extension I didn't have from before. It's called Last FM and works a lot like Pandora.

Don't know what Pandora is?

It's a Web service where you enter in artists you like and it finds music by those artists and similar artists. You can give the music a thumbs up and it'll play more like it. A thumbs down will make it come up less often. You can also see what your friends are listening to on Pandora. For example, my roommate likes to listen to Jazz, while my friend Jennifer has a Pandora station for Timbaland. Personally, I have a "Classics" station that has some of my all-time favorite songs and artists in it - from the Rolling Stones to Sugarland.

At any rate, Pandora is great.

But this new Last FM is better, simply because I don't have to go to a Web site to have access to it. It's at the top of the browser window.

Clever.

And convenient, too, which is why I can go from Miranda Lambert to John Hiatt to Nelly Furtado to Timbaland - all without having to hit a button. (Unless I click on the heart button, which marks the song as track I love.) And, unlike my iPod, I don't have to purchase the music.

And that makes me like it even more.

Want to catch up? Go to the fair.

2008-09-25T23:31:00.000-04:00

This week and next, I'm practically living at the fair. And while I don't mind making two, three and sometimes four trips over there a day, I've learned a few things since my first trip over there as an intern for The Star in 2003.

Everything over there was new to me that year because, despite having gone to Gardner-Webb for three years, I had never been to the yearly classic. I interviewed a man who made fried candy bars. He made me taste one and it was so sweet I nearly went into a sugar-induced coma. And for several years since, he's been there.

That same year, I met Joe Roberts. He sells peanuts with the exchange club. Five years later, he's my next-door neighbor.

This year, I've seen several people I've done stories on in the past - the Buff family (their son, who was in elementary school, started drag racing) and Lt. Wayne Thomas from the Sheriff's Office (he's in charge of Project Lifesaver).

But my familiarity with people in the community pales in comparison to Jeff Melton. I've walked around the fairgrounds with him for two days now and I can't even count the number of people who have hollered, "Hey Jeff!" I swear he knows half the county.

And the half he doesn't know probably knows him.

Maybe 20 years from now I'll go to the fair and be greeted like Jeff is. Because being remembered fondly by people year after year is a very sincere form of flattery.

IMG00049.jpg

2008-09-20T21:40:00.001-04:00

Here's a really bad cell phone photo of my Saturday night at the Eric Church concert at Crawhads stadium in Hickory. Tickets were free, so we couldn't complain.

Carl Edwards' pink princess loving fan

2008-09-17T16:49:00.000-04:00

I worked on a story this week about Emma Mitchum, a 4-year-old who is now a Carl Edwards fan. She's a sweet little girl with a form of spina bifida, a condition that didn't allow her spine to grow properly. It subsequently affects several of her other body systems, but Emma doesn't seem to be bothered much by it.

And now she has a giant racing trophy, which was donated to her by Carl Edwards after the Emerson 250 race just over a week ago.

Two things hit me as I worked on the story.

1) Carl Edwards seems to have given her the trophy without a second thought. I really do think that race car drivers are some of the kindest souls when it comes to doing things to help out kids (Victory Junction Gang, etc.)

2) As if Emma isn't cool enough on her own, she is now a 35-pound dude magnet. She has a trophy signed by Carl Edwards!

Here's a link to the finished story.

Scientific guinea pig

2008-09-10T14:51:00.000-04:00

While at the Society of Professional Journalists' annual convention in Atlanta, I opted to take part in a study about journalists and their views. Here's the explanation of the study, as e-mailed by David Cuillier, assistant professor, Department of Journalism, University of Arizona, the person administering the survey:

"As I mentioned at the outset, our goal in this study was to examine how personality measures are related to journalists' views, and factors affecting those views. Specifically, the central question to this study was how thinking about death influences a person's attitudes toward journalism ethics, outgroups and the government."

The first few questions on the survey were pretty mundane... until we were hit with two open-ended questions about death, followed with questions about the government, our feelings toward people of Arabic descent and our ethical beliefs and feelings.

The study basically will look at terror management theory in psychology. Other studies show that people primed to think about death were:

"more likely to express negative attitudes toward outgroups (e.g., other countries, other races, criminals), more favorable attitudes toward government leaders (e.g., supporting the president more), and overall hold their cultural worldviews more dearly (e.g., more religious, charitable, ethical). The idea behind the theory is that over time humans developed these self-esteem-boosting psychological defense mechanisms to deal with the unpleasant thought of inevitable death. Death-thought triggers in these experiments have included a variety of primes, some very subtle, including reading a news story about a murder, being reminded of 9/11, seeing a photo of an elderly person, or seeing a mortuary sign."

The study applies to journalism because of how frequently journalists are exposed to death. Can those thoughts of death trigger unfair coverage?

Possibly.

"In another study, journalism students primed with death injected into their news stories three times more biased or libelous facts toward outgroups (their rival university) than students in the control group. What is interesting about this line of research is we can prevent these effects from occurring through boosts to self-esteem and reminders of tolerance. In the story-bias study I found that when I reminded death-thought participants about ethics and tolerance, they did not
inject any more bias in their stories than those in the control group. Therefore, on deadline while working on stories involving death, journalists might want to remind each other about ethics and tolerance to avoid subconsciously adding bias or libel against perceived outgroups."

A little more about the questionnaire:

"In the questionnaire you filled out, you first answered questions about your values. These served as masking questions to prevent participants from guessing the purpose of the study, which could affect answers. The second part of the questionnaire was the key experimental condition question. In half of the randomly distributed packets, people were asked to describe how it would feel to physically die (the experimental death-thought condition). The other half of the participants were asked to describe how it feels to experience dental pain (the control condition). Both are unpleasant, but one regards death."

"Then, everyone filled out the mood questionnaire to measure how everyone felt. This serves as a check to see whether any differences noted in the death group were caused by feeling angry, sad or fearful. Typically in this research the death group feels no different than the control group, indicating that any detected differences in attitude are not a function of fear or anger.

"You then answered questions about your attitudes toward Arabs, sex offenders, criminals, and immigrants, which is to detect whether people become more hostile toward outgroups when primed to think of death (previous research with non-journalists shows this to be true). Also, questions about the government and President Bush will determine whether those in the death group held the government and its leaders more positively. Previous research has shown people
primed with death will express significantly greater support for leaders, specifically President Bush (it is difficult to say how journalists will come out on this because some may see the government and president as "outgroups," given journalism's watchdog role, so support for the president may actually drop in a death condition). This finding could have interesting implications for during times of war or mortal conflict. For example, some people criticized the press for wearing flag pins and failing to aggressively question the president after 9/11. Could the reminders of death from 9/11 affected journalists' attitudes toward the government, as it did for non-journalists? Questions also were asked to measure your attitudes toward ethics, moral relativism and idealism, to see if the thought of death causes journalists to see the world in more black and white terms, as found among journalism students."

I should get results of the study in the next few weeks. We'll see how the group did.

Ellenboro Fair

2008-09-09T19:26:00.001-04:00

Star photographer Brittany Randolph rides the carrousel to get kid pics

Atrium

2008-09-08T17:35:00.000-04:00

The Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) conference was held at the Hyatt in downtown Atlanta. Here's what the atrium looked like. The balconies above are where guests' rooms are located. Meetings were held downstairs.

Braves baseball

2008-09-08T17:14:00.001-04:00

Braves catcher Brian McCann walks toward the plate before an at-bat during Thursday's night 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals. Although my seats weren't as good for taking photos this sime around, they were much closer to home plate, as you can see from the protective netting a few rows ahead.

Gone With the Wind

2008-09-08T17:14:00.000-04:00

Gone With the Wind: The hotel I booked was located on Margaret Mitchell square. In case you're not a book nerd like me, she's the woman who wrote the classic novel-turned-movie.

Canine raiders

2008-08-21T13:02:00.000-04:00

After a few stressful weeks for our group of people working on the American Legion World Series project at The Star, I decided to thank the group for their hard work with a homemade lasagna dinner on Tuesday.

I put the lasagna in the oven at lunchtime. Before I left, I bagged up the trash and sat it beside the fridge, with the intent to take it out in the afternoon.

But the dogs took care of it before I had the chance... except their version of taking it out was really taking it out of the bag... and scattering it across the floor. Here's the ransackery that welcomed me home.

Legion ball

2008-08-16T14:28:00.000-04:00

In case you've been hidden under a rock or been on vacation this week, you've missed out on The Star's coverage of the American Legion Southeast Regional baseball tournament. We've done a lot to keep our readers interested in what's going on, whether they can make it to the games or not.

We created a sub-site in may, www.legionworldseries.com with lots of features we thought fans might like.

Live streaming video of the game: http://www.legionworldseries.com/cam/
Stories about the games and people who make them possible: http://www.shelbystar.com/sections/american-legion-world-series/
A place where people can root for their team: http://www.legionworldseries.com/talk/
Live streaming audio: http://216.249.100.85:8080/wohs
A place to buy photos from our photographers: http://shelbystar.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=572005
An interactive, zoomable view of historical photos: http://www.legionworldseries.com/zoom/
A downloadable program: http://www.legionworldseries.com/r_program.pdf
Legion photos from the past and from this summer: http://www.legionworldseries.com/photos/
Video from the games: http://www.legionworldseries.com/video/

This has been a huge project for us online, but it's also a huge project in print, with a program for the Southeast Regional tournament, an upcoming program for the World Series and a daily section that wraps around the regular paper. The efforts of more than 10 people go into this each day, and I hope everyone is enjoying the coverage so far, as well as the games themselves.

Any thoughts on what we've done or what we should be doing?

Where's Lulu?

2008-08-04T15:38:00.000-04:00

Little Lulu was unfazed by me going through old clips. I've been cleaning out my old clip file and getting rid of junk clips that I know I'll never use. Although the de-pack-rat-ization is going slow, little Lulu is enjoying it.

Watch her disappear!

Thanks to Star copy editor Adam Fenwick for taking and e-mailing the photos to me.

Flower photos

2008-08-03T16:03:00.001-04:00

My flower garden has done well this year, while my three tomato plants have floundered.

Domestic failure and a near-death experience

2008-08-02T00:23:00.000-04:00

I've been asked by several people to blog about an incident at my house Thursday night.

I blogged earlier in the week about my canning triumph with tomatoes. That same night, I went ahead and broke beans and put them in the fridge so I could can those as well. I waited to do it until Thursday night, when I got home from work. I cooked them partially, then put them in the jars, as instructed by my mother. I packed them in, added the right amount of water and salt and put on the lids and rings. Everything is going well.

I put the jars in the pot with some water and a lid. I cook the four jars for the prescribed amount of time.

When they're done, I take off the pot lid and.......

BOOF!

Boiling hot green beans, steam, liquid from the jars and glass shrapnel assault me.

I blank out for a moment from shock, then work my way through the broken glass and green bean explosion. I'm barefoot, so this is much slower going than I would prefer. Once in the living room, I race to my roommates' bathroom because it's the closest and use someone's towel to get the steaming hot liquid off my face and arms. By now, I'm panicked because I realize I'm burned.
It's shortly after midnight and I'm by myself. My mother is at her house, asleep for hours. I have no one to ask for advice.

So I call Maureen, one of The Star's copy editors. When I call her, I'm in shock and still can't form logical sentences. My face is still burning. On the phone with her, I get a washcloth and run cold water on it, then put it on my face to draw out some of the heat.

A few minutes later, I'm getting more and more hysterical because by now I realize that I could have been killed by one of the jars that exploded in my face or that I could have received third-degree burns.

I pick chunks of bean out of my hair.

Moments later, both of my roommates, Hugh and Adam (both also copy editors at the paper), walk in. I'm crying and hysterical. I am one hot mess. They look stunned, but rush to my aid and begin cleaning up the mess while I go to Wal-Mart and stand in line for 10 minutes just to buy a can of spray aloe.

By the time I made it home, the two of them had everything cleaned up, with the exception of a few bean chunks here and there and a couple hard-to-reach shards of glass. They were both heroes.

Needless to say, it took the three of us a while to settle down last night, but when I woke up this morning, the burns were all better, with the exception of a few places around my eyes and one on my forehead.

With all that said, I escaped the ordeal rather unscathed, despite the trauma, but may never eat green beans again. As for the beans, one jar miraculously survived... and sealed. Amazing.

Beginner's luck?

2008-08-01T13:02:00.000-04:00

Atlanta's catcher, Brian McCann, recently suffered a concussion and has to take some time off from playing. He's my fantasy catcher, so I added the best catcher available, according to stats and made the best of an unfortunate situation.

But it turns out that I made the wrong choice. I should have gone with the Braves' Clint Sammons.

Here's what happened:
Atlanta called him up from Triple-A Richmond on Monday.

Thursday night, the rookie not only hit the first homer of his major league career, but he also drove in three runs, had three hits in all and scored twice.

Not bad for his first time out of the stable.

So I added him to my lineup today. I'm willing to take that risk. After all, I'm in 10th place again. What do I have to lose? I'm just hoping that his first outing wasn't "beginner's luck."

Would you buy a paper...

2008-08-01T12:53:00.001-04:00

Would you buy a paper from this new mobile marketing tool?

Tomato canning

2008-07-31T15:04:00.001-04:00

My family had a few extra tomatoes over the weekend, so in a moment of domestic triumph, I brought them home to can. They turned out well, and should last me through a batch or two of homemade spaghetti sauce.

Wondering about the yellow ones? I mixed them in the jars because they're my favorites.

Leno's loss is Conan's gain

2008-07-21T18:17:00.001-04:00

I read in the AP news feeds that Jay Leno's last "Tonight" is May 29 and O'Brien takes over the slot June 1. From what I read, I might not miss out on him for long, though. It appears that he may jump ship to another network.

While I prefer his intros over all the other late-night shows and will miss his wit, I think he'll land on his feet... or possibly on his wheels, considering the number of cars he owns.

But what will he do in a role where he might not be one of late-night's kings? Who knows? Possibly make cameo appearances elsewhere? Maybe help out with scripts somewhere? That seems beneath him, so it's hard to tell where he'll be. Anyone want to venture a guess?

All of it seems a little strange, though, because Conan's numbers are being eroded by Craig Ferguson (whose intros are also better than Conan's in my opinion). Plus, Ferguson's accent and self-deprecation only add to his charm. Meanwhile, Conan's hair is still atrocious.

All this is based on NBC's four-year-old promise that O'Brien would succeed Leno. Sounds to me like NBC put all their eggs in the same Conan basket.

But all the switchings don't end there. Jimmy Fallon may take over O'Brien's former spot. I seriously doubt I'll be checking that one out.

What I'd like to see is a Leno-Jimmy Kimmel combo. I might actually watch past the intro jokes if that were the case.

What are your thoughts on all the late-night comedy drama?

Belated Father's Day present

2008-07-20T22:23:00.000-04:00

My sisters and I finally were able to celebrate Father's Day for real with my dad this Sunday. We bought four tickets (one for each of us and one for my father) to a Braves game and gave them to him on Father's Day.

So we trekked to Atlanta Sunday morning, shot through the World of Coke, discovered Barg's red cream soda (now my new favorite) in the tasting room there, then headed to Turner Field for what turned out to be an ugly loss for the Braves (my dad's favorite team). The score ended up being 15-6. Clearly, the Nationals won.

Overall, I think my dad had a good time even though he missed catching a foul ball by only a few inches. He would have had it if he hadn't accidentally hit Olivia's head while trying to snag it away from Erin's head. It turned out that the guy sitting directly behind me (with an infant in his arms) got it... but only after it bounced off dad's hand.

Here are a few photos from our seats. We were sitting fourth row from the bottom, just past the visitor's dugout. Erin is on the left, Olivia is in the middle and my dad is on the right. It was the hottest and possibly sweatiest I've ever been, but a lot of fun for the Killian clan.

All-Star game

2008-07-16T07:49:00.000-04:00

I caught the last few minutes of the All-Star game Tuesday night by accident as I waited for a peach cobbler to finish in the oven.

I caught the 13th inning at a 3-3 tie.

Sounds to me like a pretty evenly matched team.

It finally ended in the 15th inning with a sliding play at home plate.

Too bad my fantasy catcher, Brian McCann, couldn't get the guy out.

Actually, that might not have been so bad. My cobbler was done in the 14th.

Movie blogs continued

2008-07-11T18:21:00.000-04:00

Thought I'd continue my last post with tidbits on the last few we've seen.

"Sex and the City" (There's enough estrogen on this one to last about a year and a half.)

"Don't Mess with the Zohan" (a lot better than we thought it would be, although some things were played up a little too much. It would have been better when I was in high school.)

"The Hulk" (surprisingly good for a dude-fest, but it's a little too obvious that you're being set up for a sequel)

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Indiana Jones + aliens = Major bomb)

"The Love Guru" (It's a good thing the movie was free. It's on the list of top 5 worst movies I've seen. It doesn't even stand a chance for getting a cult following.)

Movie binge

2008-07-11T17:48:00.000-04:00

I think an apology is in order for my recent lapse in blog posts. I've been extra busy with planning for our coverage of the American Legion World Series that's coming up in August.

I've actually been meaning to blog about our recent movie binge for the past two weeks. Over the past few months, I've been going with a friend to the movies (she gets tickets for free, so we're not out of anything if they're bombs.)

We saw "Baby Mama" (Passable, but I probably wouldn't watch it again), "Made of Honor" (chick flick, but it had Patrick Dempsey in it, so I couldn't complain too much), "What Happens in Vegas" (Pretty good. I like Cameron Diaz, but don't particularly care for Ashton Kitcher, so it was a wash), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (A fre bits were a little shocking, but it was an OK film).

(Continued in next post.)

Sunday afternoon entertainment

2008-07-03T12:06:00.000-04:00

I've been meaning to post these photos all week, but just now got a chance. They're of our "wagon train" Sunday evening. After I got off work, my family called and asked me to ride along in my cousin's new toy. Here it is:

The little girl in the photo is my cousin's girlfriend's daughter. And in an interesting sidenote, her name is Emily Renee like mine. She was surprisingly OK as far as kids go.

Flamingo update

2008-07-03T10:47:00.001-04:00

The Flamingoes continue to bite the dust at 10th place in our league, thanks to the aid of yet another sub-par pitcher. Brett Myers, a first-round draft pick in 1999 by the Phillies, was remanded to the minor leagues.

His win-loss record is 3-9.

Boo, hiss.

So we've now picked up Mark Buehrle, who is 6-6.

We'll see what happens.

Fantasy baseball update

2008-06-23T09:21:00.000-04:00

I blogged last week about my fantasy baseball team - the Flamingoes. They've been in the dumps lately, but had an amazing surge on Sunday. They jumped 3.5 points, which was great news for me, but it still secures my spot at glorious No. 10. Jon Jimison blogged about how bad his team is doing a few days ago, and Randy Capps, also in our league, is hovering below the halfway mark in standings. Perhaps it's some kind of Star-affiliation curse. (I'm just glad it doesn't involve a goat.)

But it did give me the idea of putting my roster on here and solicit advice on who to cut, move, etc.

So here ya go. Any advice is appreciated. (And as far as I know, it's not against league rules.)

Catcher = Brian McCann (Atlanta)
1B = James Loney (LA Dodgers)
2B = Orlando Hudson (Arizona)
3B = Garrett Atkins (Colorado)
SS = Derek Jeter (Yankees)
Outfield = Carlos Beltran (Mets), Jermaine Dye (CWS), Jacoby Ellsbury (Boston), Vernon Wells (Toronto)
Utility = Stephen Drew (SS, Arizona), Dustin Pedroia (2B, Boston), Joey Votto (1B, OF, Cin), Adrian Beltre (1B, Seattle)
Pitchers = Bobby Jenks (Chicago), Brett Myers (Philadelphia), Tom Gorzelanny (Pittsburgh), Hideki Okajima (Boston), Aaron Cook (Colorado), Jesse Litsch (Toronto), Jake Peavy (Padres), Dave Bush (Brewers)
Pitcher benched for fighting = Edwin Jackson (TP)
Pitchers on DL = Chien-Ming Wang (Yankees), Rafael Soriano (Atlanta)

Silly when wet

2008-06-22T21:32:00.001-04:00

I don't know how many of you have dogs - or how many of you bathe them for that matter, but I like to keep mine pretty clean. They're normally bathed every two to three weeks, depending on how long it takes them to get stinky.

So Sunday I donned shorts and a T-shirt, broke out the doggie shampoo and set to work with Gracie and Lulu in the shower.

Once I finished toweling them off, they each did their post-bath crazy runs.

Don't bathe your dog? You probably have no idea what the crazy runs are. Have one? I'm sure you've seen them take off like a bullet, bouncing and shaking, running into furniture, playing with each other and being silly. The crazy runs usually entail barking, someone inevitably skidding across the floor on wet feet and a lot of general silliness.

Here they are after a pause in the crazy runs (encouraged via cookie bribery). Lulu's the blonde and Gracie is the black and white one.

Baseball hates me

2008-06-18T12:07:00.000-04:00

I agreed to join a fantasy baseball league in a moment of weakness earlier this year. Randy Capps, a former sportswriter here, was begging for more people to join. So before knowing the work - and now the angst - it entails, I agreed.

It sounded logical. I like baseball. I played softball for years, so I know the rules. It's a solid sport. I like the uniforms. I'm competitive.

So I joined.

I've regretted it ever since.

My team, which I dubbed the Flamingoes, hovered in fourth place through May in a league of all males - many former or current sportswriters. I was proud of my little pink buddies.

Since then, I have plummeted to a solid 10th place. I'm 10 points behind the guy in 9th place and more points than I can admit behind the league leader.

And it's all because of injuries. I've had a total of 8 guys on the disabled list in the past three
weeks. One guy has even been on it twice. I also had a pitcher suspended for fighting.

The guys call it fantasy baseball, but that's a misnomer. It's really nightmare baseball.

So here's hoping for a healthy few weeks.

I'd really like to say that one random chick (get it, Flamingoes, chick) from lifestyles beat at least one sports writer.

A stellar morning in the Killian household

2008-06-17T09:59:00.000-04:00

Unlike most of my posts, this one won't have a photo. You'll see why.

I woke up to the usual morning whining of one dog or another, let the girls out for a little run in the backyard and started getting ready for work. Then I got the hiccups. Not so bad, except they were the hurty kind. I finished getting ready and let the dogs back in, put food in their bowls and made a smoothie for breakfast.

But when I went back into the living room to lock the door, there was a gray, hairy, bloody lifeless thing in my carpet that turned out, on closer inspection, to be a baby rabbit... with its tongue sticking out.

Revulsion set in. So did the heeby-jeebies.

I turned around to go get the shovel out of my foyer closet and saw a scattered brown mass on my rug.

Doggie diarrhea.

Which to clean up first?

I decided the dead thing would have to go first since it was creeping me out.

As for the poo, I just couldn't bring myself to take care of it yet, so I dumped the rug outside and I'll hose it off this afternoon.

Can anyone top that for a morning?

Lasagna

2008-06-15T09:59:00.000-04:00

I spent the day Saturday doing some of my favorite things - sleeping and being lazy.

But I also tried to get a few things done around the house. I managed to get part of my spare bedroom painted and watered the plants in my flowerbed (worthless, considering it later rained), and did some laundry and cleaned a bunch of clothes that I don't wear anymore out of my closet.

I also took some time to make lasagna (I make my own sauce for it, too). One pan will be eaten now and the other goes in the freezer until my friend's birthday, when we'll use it to celebrate. (Said friend reads my blog, so for now she will go unnamed.)

Rain... finally!

2008-06-15T09:55:00.001-04:00

I've been wondering lately if this summer is going to be like last summer... bone dry and weatheringly hot. It has definitely trended in that direction, but last night's rain (albeit only a little) was refreshing.

Here are pics of it from my house.

My, my, my...

2008-06-12T14:21:00.000-04:00

There's a Kenny Chesney song that I heard recently that sums up this afternoon.

I don't know many of the words, but what I do know is "My, my, my, my key lime pie."

I made two for our monthly Design and Dessert sessions where we talk about page design.

We'll see how long it lasts in The Star's newsroom. An hour after cutting, one entire pie and half of another is gone.

And if anyone is wondering, real key lime pie (like mine) is not supposed to be green.

Something is amiss

2008-06-09T19:50:00.000-04:00

Something is amiss with the thermometers at banks around Shelby.

At 7 p.m., one bank's sign on Lafayette Street read 100 degrees.

Less than 5 minutes later, another on DeKalb read 93.

What's up with that? Both were equally in the sun, so I know shadows didn't play a part.

Oh, happy day!

2008-06-06T14:35:00.000-04:00

It's national

doughnut day.

I heard it on the radio this morning and took it as an excuse to eat doughnut holes (and share them with the newsroom, too).

How wierd is this?

2008-06-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

I'm blogging from a hotel room in South Carolina tonight after attending a workshop all day today. I left Shelby around 7 a.m. and drove until about 10 a.m., when I arrived at the conference center. After a long (but really good) day of meetings, I drove to my hotel, checked in, took a glorious nap (as you'll recall from my New York City entries, I love doing this) in a fluffy bed (I also have a thing for featherbeds).

I woke up three hours later, then went to the mall across the street to do a little walking around. I bought Gracie a new collar because she keeps breaking hers. (This new one is guaranteed for life, which will probably com in handy, considering she's been through four collars in three years.)

Around 8:30 p.m., I went down the street for dinner at a Chili's. I placed my order and started looking around the restaurant while I waited on my food, looked up and saw someone who looked really familiar. The first name registered with me as Matt. I couldn't remember the last name to save my life. So when my waitress came back, I confirmed that the waiter was, indeed, named Matt and had her send him over.

Turns out, it was Matt Tryon, who graduated from Gardner-Webb a semester before I did. What are the odds of that happening? (For those of you who know him, he's in grad school for advertising/PR.)

Anyway, I was really glad to see a familiar face and get to catch up. Yea Matt!

Saturday evening part two

2008-06-01T20:45:00.001-04:00

Keeping the hay away from the cows is a challenge when the barn we're unloading into is located inside their fence. It takes a bit of creativity to keep them away from the trucks and trailers we're unloading. Once we're done, we close off the barn with gates so the cows don't pilfer it overnight.

he cow standing by itself in one photo was really bent on getting some of the fresh bales and had to be shooed away several times. He's even licking his lips in the photo.

The two women in the last photo are my mother (left) and my aunt, who were taking a break after we brought a load back to the barn.

I also had a bit of a surprise when I carried a bale from the trailer to the stack in the barn. When I sat it down, a snake's head and body were coming out of the bale... I dropped that one and backed away a few steps before I discovered that it was really dead and that it had evidently been hit by either the mower or the bailer. Its eyes were still open, so I made the boys take care of that bale. It was too freaky.

How I spent my Saturday evening

2008-06-01T20:39:00.001-04:00

You guessed it... hay season continues.

This time was a lot easier because part of the field was shaded and we were using a much more open barn, so it's easier to breathe through the dust.

The first photo is of a load of hay coming out of the field. (I'm taking it from another truck.)

The second photo is of my cousin Jeremy, who is going back over the field to glean any leftover hay and turn it into a final bale or two.

The third photo is of two loads of hay waiting to be put into the barn.

Although the work is hot and heavy, it feels great to go inside when it gets dark, take a shower and just sit. It also makes you appreciate iced tea, air conditioning and cold showers.

How I spent my Saturday off

2008-05-31T16:21:00.001-04:00

I volunteered this morning at a Star-sponsored Black Achievers event. Here's a photo from that.

I continued painting outside and made yet another trip to Lowe's. I love the store, but I hate the stoplight at the Pizza Hut where I have to wait to turn left. It holds forever! Here's that light.

Blogging backlog

2008-05-28T00:56:00.001-04:00

I meant to blog a few things last week, but I ran a little short on time. I'm going to dump all those random things into one blog. Yay for you, dear reader!

MASERATI: I drove in to work one day last week around 8 a.m. and got behind a Maserati on Lafayette Street. I'd say that's a pretty rare sight in Cleveland County.

NEHI: I took Lulu and Gracie to the groomer last week for baths and haircuts. On the way back, I stopped in Polkville for a peach Nehi. Can you guess which convenience store had it in a glass bottle?

The groomer I use is between Lawndale and Polkville. Here's what it looks like inside Animal Trax. I also checked out several new businesses in the upper Cleveland area and got a lot of story ideas, especially for the food page.

Want a sneak preview? One of those ideas is a new barbecue place in Fallston, which opens today (Wednesday). That's hopefully coming in next week's Star.

That's all for now. I'm sure I'll have more ramblings ready for you in a day or two.

Hay season

2008-05-27T10:57:00.000-04:00

I got behind a tractor this morning.

Not all that unusual, except it was one of about 9 million on the roads this week.

Yes, it's a bit of an exaggeration, but it's a definite sign that hay season is here.

(As if the scratches on my arms, bruised and skinned knee, sore muscles and farmer's tan lines weren't a dead giveaway.)

At any rate, don't be surprised if you get behind a bailer or mower, or even a trailer full of bales in the next couple weeks.

If Cleveland County farmers are anything like my family, they're making all the bales they can, because you never know when you're going to have a season as bad as last year again.

It's impossible to haul hay and look cute.

There isn't a right thing to wear... you can sport jeans and a long-sleeved shirt if you don't want your skin to get ripped up. But if you do, you'll practically roast. You can wear shorts and a tank top and stay cool, but then you have to deal with the flying hay, dust and all the scratches and cuts the sharp hay pieces can dish out. There are middle-of-the-road options, of course, but with them, you end up with a farmer's tan line (such as mine, which was caused by a T-shirt, baseball cap and jeans).

There are really only four must-haves (other than equipment).
ONE: A pair of shoes with good treads. Loose hay + truck bed = slippery.
TWO: Allergy medicine. It's imperative to load yourself up with Benadryl, Zyrtec, etc. If not, you can find yourself having a hard time breathing for days.
THREE: Water. It's hot and sweaty work.
FOUR; Perseverance. After 100 bales, you feel tired, hot and sweaty; after 300, you want to die.

Bloodline update

2008-05-20T11:15:00.000-04:00

Word came out today that there were tons of people clicking on the story about Nashville Star hopefuls Chad Duncan and Travis Powell.

Concerned that the duo had made the show and I missed it, I gave Travis a call. As it turns out, they were in the top 75, but did not make the show.

The two have, however, played at the recent Merry Go Round Festival in Shelby and will play at Mi Pueblito's on Thursday (5/28).

Here is their MySpace page.

The case of the missing M&Ms

2008-05-14T13:37:00.000-04:00

I like to keep a candy dish on my desk, if for no other reason than to be one of the "popular kids." We all have high-stress jobs and there are a lot of people in the room who really like chocolate. Here's what Star newsroom staffers did to a bowl of M&Ms... in less than 24 hours. I have a limit of six M&Ms a day, so it wasn't me!

The bowl was originally overflowing. The first photo is of it after about 4 hours. The second is after 24. There are currently three M&Ms left... we'll see how long those stragglers last.

Puppy-sitting

2008-05-12T15:19:00.000-04:00

I puppy-sat over the weekend for Eddie, a lab-poodle mix with loads of energy.

The entire time he was awake, his little legs didn't stop moving... he'd even run during his sleep sometimes.

He didn't really slow down until we were on our way to drop him back off at home... at which point, he took up residence in the back window of my car.

So to the person driving the Jeep behind us, apologize for all the dog booty you saw between Hickory and Shelby.

Garden help needed

2008-05-12T11:30:00.000-04:00

When Julie Young moved to Hickory last year, she asked me if I would take over her role to coordinate what goes on at the PSN Seeds of Hope Community Garden.

It's a really cool project - anyone can cultivate a plot and have fresh veggies all summer - and it's time to plant now!

With food prices rising and more and more people becoming obese, a little garden work and more veggies should help people on several levels!

With that said, we need lots of help, especially at this time of year.

Here are some of our needs:
More people who want plots
Plot markers
Help tidying up
People who would be willing to donate money to the project
People willing to help do fundraising
People to help with the cultivation of a community plot
Equipment, including a storage building
Signs for the garden

Lastly, I need someone to step up and take over my part of the project. I have a lot of other community obligations and I can't keep up with everything at the same level as last year.

Anyone interested in any of these things should e-mail me at seedsofhopeshelby@gmail.com.

Seen and heard in upper Cleveland

2008-05-08T17:16:00.000-04:00

I go to upper Cleveland County on a fairly regular basis and today I stopped by a few of my favorite Fallston places, along with one new favorite!

I started at Ginger's Gardens, where I was looking for a Mother's Day present for my mom. She'd sold the thing I had in mind, but I saw a lot of other cool possibilities... plus it was a nice day to walk around outside past the flowers and ponds, etc. they have set up. Here are two pics I took on my Blackberry while I was there.

Then I went past the new mobile Dairy Queen that's been setting itself up near the pharmacy and jewelry store in town. I bypassed the DQ in favor of trying out the Sweezy House, the new restaurant that opened there earlier this year. I had meatloaf, potatoes and green beans, in addition to sweet tea (of course!). I also ordered dessert to-go. Although the meal was great, the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake (which I believe is homemade) was WONDERFUL! There aren't any photos of it, though. It was too good to last long enough for a photo.

From there I stopped by Ashe's outlet between Fallston and Shelby on N.C. 18 (Fallston Road) and found out that they'll probably be closing in about a month. While I was there, I got a great deal on a featherbed. King size originally from JC Penney... $13! That's what I call a shopping triumph.

That's all for now... hopefully I'll be able to do more of these over the summer... it's kind of fun to give out the dish...

Wedding rehearsal photos

2008-05-05T22:52:00.000-04:00

Despite a few bad moments, my cousin's wedding on Saturday went off rather well. Here are a few pics from the rehearsal. I didn't take very many though, because it's hard to take photos and learn how to be the maid of honor at the same time...

At any rate, here they are:

(CAPTIONS: Cousin Jeremy, my sister Erin, my cousin Molly and my sister Olivia and my uncle giving away my cousin Mandy to her fiance Stanley)

Doggie pics

2008-05-05T22:46:00.001-04:00

I had to grill some food today for a photo shoot that will go with an upcoming Food page on grilling. While I was outside, I took a few photos of the food on the grill and also took a few of the dogs, who were being remarkably lazy today.

Despite the relatively comfortable temperatures now, here's a look ahead at what the dog days of summer will look like at my house.

Washer woes

2008-05-05T15:59:00.000-04:00

I had bold plans to wash about six loads of laundry on Sunday... I had a lot of clothes and sheets and stuff to catch up on, plus it's time to wash the dogs' beds.

Unfortunately, all that had to go undone.

The knob that turns my washer on broke off.

Laundry rebellion!

I tried using a wrench and pliers, but to no avail.

So I'm resorting to my college laundry solution. Take it to mom's house this weekend.

Happy Mother's Day, mom!

(I will not, however, have her do the clothes for me... but only because I'm the good daughter.)

Snake crisis

2008-04-29T11:42:00.000-04:00

OK readers, I need your brainpower here.

My neighbor came over this morning and told me that he saw a snake crawl up into a crevice at my house yesterday.

It evidently killed a bird and spent about 10 more minutes eating eggs out of its nest, I assume.

I'm concerned about the presence of the crevice, which is on my to-do list of things to fix.

I'm also concerned about how to safely remove the remaining bird from the pair.

But I'm even more concerned about the possibility of a snake getting into my house. I'd like to keep it away, but don't necessarily want to kill it.

Any thoughts or solutions?

I'm ssssseriousssssly creeped out.

A day's work

2008-04-28T15:18:00.000-04:00

Today was Drew Brooks' first day at his new paper. My friend who works there e-mailed me a photo of Mr. Brooks learning his new ropes.

Fat girl in the city

2008-04-22T23:20:00.001-04:00

Here's my column for Wednesday's Food page:
NEW YORK — It’s a city with good tastes. In fashionable clothes, shoes and accessories. In arts, music and culture. And yes, even in food. New York City is known for its own unique style of pizza, cheesecake and has more varieties of ethnic cuisine than you can count on both hands (and both feet).I returned Tuesday from my trip to the Big Apple (see, there’s even food in its nickname) and decided to share a few of the things I tasted while I was there.

PRETZELS
My first culinary stop was at a pretzel and hot dog stand a few blocks from the southern edge of Central Park. The smell of the cart and the hot dogs cooking on it was incredible. The pretzel, however, was disappointingly hard and too salty. That wasn’t a good culinary start to my trip, but things quickly got better.

PIZZA
My second culinary experience was with New York-style pizza. Known for its wide, thin and foldable slices, it is usually hand tossed and light on sauce. Slices are often folded in half and eaten. The crust has a puffy, bread-like, outer edge that quickly tapers down to a very thin middle.Our pizza was that exact description. My recommendation is to try the pineapple kind.

DELIS
I chose to eat at a deli for lunch the next day and chose one of literally about 100 varieties of sandwiches. The deli had several homemade breads, rolls and bagels, among a variety of meats and other fillings. My choice of an Italian sub was a tasty one, although I could only finish half.

PROGRESSIVE DINNER
Upon the suggestion of someone who used to live in New York City, my friends and I decided to do a progressive dinner one night, and started with appetizers in Chinatown on the lower part of Manhattan. We chose Nyonya, a Malaysian restaurant that served an amazing chicken satay and peanut sauce and roti canai with a red curry dipping sauce (see descriptions above). This was by far my favorite part of the culinary trip and I could talk for an hour about it (but I’ll spare you the details for brevity’s sake). We followed it with gnocchi in an Italian restaurant in nearby Little Italy and ended our meal with frozen yogurt and fresh fruit from the Red Mango in Greenwich Village.

Although I had a few more food experiences, these are my highlights (and, in case you were wondering, all the calories were offset with all the walking!).

I hope you enjoyed the food tour of New York City.

THE DISH
Roti canai (pronounced “chanai”) is a type of flatbread found in Malaysia. Roti means bread in Hindi, Urdu, most other North Indian languages, and Malay.The dish is composed of dough containing ghee (clarified butter), egg, flour and water. The dough is kneaded, flattened, oiled and folded repeatedly. The dough is finally flattened and coated with oil and cooked on a skillet. The ideal roti is flat, but fluffy on the inside and crispy and flaky on the outside.
Real frozen yogurt should taste like yogurt — sour and tart and totally unlike soft-serve ice cream.

ON THE WEB
Red Mango: http://www.redmangousa.com/
Restaurant review for Nyonya: http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/nyonya03/

I'll have actual thoughts and observations on the trip in an upcoming blog.

Final NYC photos

2008-04-22T23:14:00.000-04:00

The first photo is from the top of the Statue of Liberty, the second is at Ellis Island and the third is in Battery Park and is what is left of a statue that once stood at the World Trade Center site. It was damaged in the Sept. 11 attacks and was moved to the park as a memorial.

NYC photos 5

2008-04-22T23:09:00.000-04:00

The first two are of the outside of the Statue of Liberty. The third is of the original torch and the fourth is looking up Lady Liberty's skirt.

NYC photos 4

2008-04-22T23:06:00.001-04:00

The first photo is a cute sign on the side of a building as seen from the top of the Empire State Building. The second photo is of a water taxi passing in front of the Statue of Liberty. The other three photos are the view from our boat as we headed to the Statue of Liberty.

NYC photos 3

2008-04-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

The first two photos are at Rockefeller Center, the third is of the Chrysler Building as seen from the top of the Empire State Building and the fourth photo is part of Manhattan from the top of the Empire State Building. Of note, I stayed about three blocks from said building.

NYC photos set 2

2008-04-22T22:28:00.001-04:00

Photos are of a bridge from the air (I thought I knew which one, but was quickly corrected by someone who actually lives there), where I landed at LaGuardia airport, My "bed cave" from the first night in the city and Rockefeller Center.

NYC photos!

2008-04-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

I'll have words to go with these soon. For now, here are some photos from my trip. All four of these are taken from the plane. The last one has Central Park in the center.

Pet therapy photos

2008-04-14T12:26:00.000-04:00

Gracie and I went for pet therapy at the Kings Mountain Life Enrichment Center on Thursday. Debbie Vaughn was kind enough to send me photos of Gracie interacting with participants there.

The first photo is of Gracie letting a participant rub her. The second is her giving a lady "five" (with a flower hat on her head). The third is Gracie sticking out her tongue in front of the camera while a participant rubs her. She made herself right at home beside him.

NKOTB are back!

2008-04-03T15:16:00.000-04:00

I have often doubted my mother's judgment when it came to saving things from my childhood. There are boxes of stuffed animals, old report cards and crappy third-grade artwork.

But there are a few things that may come in handy very soon. Thanks mom!

New Kids on the Block is, indeed, getting back together, and I have memorabilia straight from the '90s.

Here's the announcement.

The photos? Yep, they're all things of mine that my mom saved... a "Step by Step" VHS tape, a mug and a doll (which, incidentally, married Barbie about once a week when I was young... he was way more muscular than Ken). I'm not sure which one he is, but I do know that his rat tail goes all the way down his back. Incredible!

And yes, in honor of the occasion, I'm drinking out of my neon-orange-straight-from-the-'90s-tumbler today.

Funny doggy pics

2008-04-01T16:05:00.000-04:00

Education Reporter Cherish Wilson introduced me to this site. It's funny doggy photos with captions. It made me giggle... plus after seeing a few I'm beginning to think like them... but I'm trying to resist the urge to spell that way... you'll see why.

I couldn't wait to post this one in Copy Editor Maureen McGee's honor. Her stepdog is a Corgi (Becca, aka Porkchop and Becca-Bacon).

see more loldogs are funny dog pictures!

Mishmash of things...

2008-03-31T22:33:00.000-04:00

1) Bloodline finally sent me their Nashville photos. Find them online at http://shelbystarprojects.com/bloodline/
2) Anyone using Pandora? If so, add me to your friends list (emilykillian@yahoo.com). Here's the link.
3) I visited with Rodney Roe at Synergy Studios today... It was my first time in there and I was pleasantly treated to a tour of the studio and introduced to several of the artists there. I was also able to get several good news tips for future stories for myself and one for business reporter Drew Brooks. Plus, it was nice to get out of the office for a while. I'm going to try to make these types of visits happen more often. Here's the gallery's Web site.
4) I also had lunch today at Sub Station II in Shelby. It's one of my favorite fast places to eat because of its staff. I really enjoy seeing the people who work there joke around and interact with each other. Just in case you want it, here's the Web site.
5) Don't forget to add The Star on Facebook and MySpace.

That's all for now...

Forecast and Hanna property

2008-03-28T19:21:00.001-04:00

I got an e-mail from Tommy Forney a few minutes ago. He asked me to pass this on.

Wondered if you could blog that the REMAX/SELECT Balloon rides are
canceled because of the weather forcast. All other planned events at the
new Hanna property put on by Shelby Parks and Recreation will go as planned.

Kite Flying, Games, Music, and Wide Open Spaces. Hiking, Mountain
Biking, Guided Nature Walks. Hay Rides to view the property. 10:00 AM
to 2:00 PM.

Bloodline update

2008-03-28T11:53:00.000-04:00

I got an e-mail update from Bloodline this morning.

The guys will send photos from Nashville shortly.

Here's what Chad wrote:

Everything went great in Nashville. There were about 6000 people that auditioned on Friday, of which we estimate about 50-100 made it thru to Saturday. For National auditions on Saturday, there were about 75 finalist from Nashville, Pittsburgh, New Orleans, Tallahasse and Charlotte that auditioned. They will pick 30 total from the National auditions held in Nashville, LA, Washington and Austin to come back to Nashville and then cut it down to 10 to start the show. We think that our audition went well, now we are just hoping for that call-back!

We also wanted to thank you for the publicity. We have had some great responses and we appreciate all of the support. Also, we have been booked for the upcoming Merry Go Round festival April 26. We are very excited about these new opportunities which without your help might not have been possible. Thanks again and we'll be in touch.

Chad & Travis

Want to get in touch with them? Here's how:
We now have a Myspace page, http://www.myspace.com/bloodlinemusic08, that is in its building phases. We are planning on cutting a demo next week as well as other things to put on the page. We have updated that page with photos from Nashville.

Our email is bloodlinebooking@gmail.com where anyone can get in touch with us for booking info or just questions.

Puppies

2008-03-26T14:09:00.000-04:00

I puppy-sat for a while last night for Eddie, a poodle and Labrador retriever mix who just couldn't seem to stop moving. He finally crashed around midnight...

My Gracie and Lulu each reacted so differently to a puppy being in the house. Lulu was a little standoffish (perhaps she remembers what happened the last time a puppy entered her domain... that's how Gracie came into the picture).

Gracie, on the other hand, thought he was too sniffalicious. Although they sniffed each other and tried to play, it's hard for a 45-pounder to play with a puppy without the puppy getting hurt. And this was really only her second lifetime encounter with one.

But overall, I think the three of them had a good time. I know Eddie did.

Here's a photo of Eddie (who paused just long enough for this photo... there were about 80 others with a blurred, moving Eddie). Lulu is the blurred one on the right. She's checking him out from a distance.

Nashville Star update two

2008-03-24T12:09:00.000-04:00

Our two Nashville Star hopefuls don't know this yet, but I got a call a few minutes ago from Allen Langley, who is organizing a local event later this year. He's interested in contacting them to be headliners for the event. So even if they don't make it on the show, there are lots of possibilities out there for the cousins. If I get any more information on the event, I'll post it here.

Irony

2008-03-23T22:08:00.001-04:00

I walked to Taste-T Friday night to grab dinner and saw this basically sticking out of a hole in the wall.

Look at the street names... kinda funny, huh?

Speaking of funny street names... I'm working on a package about some of the more interesting streets in Cleveland County.

Nashville Star progress report

2008-03-23T14:55:00.000-04:00

I had a voice mail from Travis Powell of Bloodline last night.

I'm going to try uploading his message to the page on shelbystar.com on Monday.

I will give readers a rundown of what Travis had to say.

They arrived at 11 a.m. and finished around 5:30 p.m.
There were about 6,000 people for open calls
About 75 auditions (including Bloodline) were able to skip Friday's auditions
The audition was set up much like "American Idol" and there was a panel of judges at a table
Those judges didn't give feedback and it will likely be about a month before Bloodline finds out if they made it through.
Powell did say, however, that the audition went well.

That's all I know for now. If there are more updates, I'll post them here.

In the meantime, make sure to go to the page and check out the videos, podcasts and more that are already uploaded. And also take a minute to wish the guys good luck. Here's the link: http://shelbystarprojects.com/bloodline/

An interviewing first

2008-03-18T18:27:00.000-04:00

I've been doing reporting now since 2003 and I had an interesting "first" today.

I interviewed cousins Chad Duncan (left) and Travis Powell (right). We went outside to take a photo for the paper... only to discover that we were locked out.

When these two guys said they were entertainers, I didn't take it to heart until this little episode. Anyway, this was the first time I've ever been locked out of an interviewee's house. Yay for the three of us. It's quite an achievement.

Find out more about the interview in Thursday's Spot section. I'll also have a video of the two performing and possibly an "outtakes video" as well. We'll see.

Amazing meal

2008-03-03T11:54:00.000-05:00

I've been out of town since last Wednesday... spent a few days in High Point, Greensboro, Raleigh, Cary, Hickory... needless to say, I've done a bit of driving...

At any rate, while I visited my sister in High Point, we went out to eat at a restaurant called the Claddaugh (? spelling)... The meal was amazing. I had lobster ravioli and Erin had chicken marsala.

Lulu goes a little bunny

2008-02-21T17:20:00.000-05:00

Lulu's new pet therapy outfit... she's clearly thrilled.

Gourmet cupcakes in NYC, anyone?

2008-02-21T15:42:00.000-05:00

I found another source of info. on New York City insider information and I'd like to add a gourmet cupcake to the things I intend to consume.

Here's why.

Yum.

Odd news

2008-02-20T11:39:00.000-05:00

I cruised through the AP wire for a few minutes today and found some interesting stories...

DVD protects South Carolina firefighter from being shot; no, it wasn't 'Bulletproof'

WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) _ A South Carolina man is thankful for a DVD that ended up taking a bullet for him.

Colleton County Fire and Rescue Director Barry McRoy says he was leaving a Waffle House restaurant in Walterboro on Saturday morning when two men ran in fighting over a gun. Police say a bullet hit one of the struggling men, shattered a window and then hit McRoy.

The bullet hit a DVD McRoy was carrying in his pocket. He suffered a bruise but didn't realize he had been shot. As he told a police officer what happened he noticed a bullet hole in his jacket, the shattered DVD case and a piece of the bullet.

"I was saved by a DVD," McRoy says. "How lucky can you get?"

One man was arrested on assault and battery and gun charges.

The DVD was nicked. It was a gift from an employee who had recorded a TV show about fire extinguishers.

Couple in Colorado uses a fake $100 bill to rip off Girl Scouts, wiping away a day's earnings

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (AP) _ A pair of con artists ripped off a Girl Scout group when they exchanged a fake $100 bill for cookies, police said.

The unknown couple handed over the bill Friday night at a supermarket, telling the girls it had been washed when asked about why it looked so strange.

"It felt and looked wrong and it was a quarter of an inch shorted than a $1 bill," said Jil Hennessey-Seabolt, the cookie director for Junior Girl Scouts Troop 2121. Hennessey-Seabolt said the Girl Scouts gave the couple $93.50 in change after the purchase.

The exchange eradicated the Scouts' earnings that day. The money they raise in the sales goes to camping trips and to area charities.

"Something like this isn't fair when it happens to adults, but when it happens to kids who work so hard, it's so frustrating," Hennessey-Seabolt said.

The story does have a happy ending, though. A resident donated $100 to the Girl Scouts.

Florida pastor challenges married couples to have sex everyday for a month

YBOR CITY, Fla. (AP) _ A southwest Florida church issued a challenge for its married members: Hanky panky every day.

Relevant Church head pastor Paul Wirth issued the 30-day sex challenge to take on high divorce rates.

"And that's no different for people who attend church," Wirth said Sunday. "Sometimes life gets in the way. Our jobs get in the way."

The challenge doesn't extend to unwed congregants, however.

A 200-pound English mastiff in Michigan to be honored for donating blood 20 times

HOWELL, Mich. (AP) _ He's donated blood 20 times and is being honored by the Livingston County chapter of the American Red Cross.

Not bad for a 200-pound, 2-year-old English mastiff who answers to the name Lurch. He'll receive the chapter's "Pet's Best Friend" award at an event here Thursday.

"We're doing something different this year," executive director Diane Serra said. "We're honoring Lurch because he's actually donated blood."

Lurch's owner, Joni Melvin-Thiede, said Lurch donates blood for other canines about once every four weeks. His blood has helped dozens, including saving one dog who got into some rat poison.

"You really don't end up knowing which dogs he helps, but his little picture goes on each bag so the person that gets it will actually know it."

Besides being cooperative with nurses, Lurch is also friendly with his housemates: four pugs, seven cats and the occasional litter of kittens. There's also an American mastiff named Lucas, who teams with Lurch to eat about 200 pounds of food per month.

"Mastiffs are just like 200-pound pugs," Melvin-Thiede said. "They're just as friendly and just as goofy except they have a couple more zeros at the end of the weight."

Spot on steer's side looks like state of Michigan, could save it from slaughterhouse

SPAULDING TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) _ One steer's unique hide may save it from someone's dinner table.

The animal is named Michigan, and for a good reason — the brown spot on its side resembles the state's mitten shape.

The pattern on its other side is shaped like a "U."

It's one of 30 cattle on Jacob and Georgia Kessler's family-run farm in Spaulding Township, about 80 miles northwest of Detroit.

Cattle from the farm are eventually sold for beef. But the owners are willing to sell the steer for promotional or mascot use instead of shipping it to the slaughterhouse.

Boys seeking buried treasure with metal detector in Florida find live grenade

PACE, Fla. (AP) _ An 8-year-old boy and his friend found a live, World War II-era hand grenade while searching for buried treasure with a metal detector.

Sidney Mathis and his friend had found nails, bolts and a toy car by sweeping the detector over a field near their home Thursday. But it was their other find that alarmed Sidney's father, Chris Mathis.

He arrived home Thursday to find the boys about to put the grenade into a bucket of water. Chris Mathis grabbed the grenade and dangled it outside the window of his sport utility vehicle as he drove away from the apartment complex.

Mathis had second thoughts.

"I hit a bump and that's about the time I realized moving the grenade wasn't the brightest thing to do," he said.

Two members of an Air Force explosives unit from nearby Hurlburt Field in the Florida Panhandle took the grenade and destroyed it Friday morning.

This auction makes a lot of cents: 301 rare pennies sold off for $10.7 million

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) _ A penny saved is not necessarily just a penny earned: One man's collection of rare American cents has turned into a $10.7 million auction windfall.

The collection of 301 cents featured some of the rarest and earliest examples of the American penny, including a cent that was minted for two weeks in 1793 but was abandoned because Congress thought Lady Liberty looked frightened.

That coin and a 1794 cent with tiny stars added to prevent counterfeiters each raised hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the Dallas-based auction house Heritage Auction Galleries, which held the sale in Long Beach on Friday night.

Heritage Auction president Greg Rohan said the auction was the biggest ever for a penny collection, with hundreds of bidders vying for the coins. Presale estimates valued the collection at about $7 million.

"It was a fabulous night," Rohan said. "Every major coin collector of American cents was either there in person, bidding online or on the telephone."

The coins came from the collection of Burbank resident Walter J. Husak, the owner of an aerospace-part manufacturing company. Husak became interested in collecting at age 13, while visiting his grandparents who paid him in old coins for helping with chores.

There were 168 successful bidders, and the auction gallery got 15 percent of the total.

Barking up the wrong love tree... or not

2008-02-18T16:31:00.000-05:00

OK... so we all know the eHarmony experiment was a bust. If I were a more adventurous (and more desperate) girl, I'd try this doggie-friendly online dating site. I'm not going to, but it could have potentially offered a fun foray into the world of people crazier than I about their pets.

In other doggie news, I went to PetSmart and the new Petco in Hickory over the weekend. I prefer PetSmart, both in pricing and product selection, paws down.

While in PetSmart, I bought a bunny hat for Lulu and Gracie to wear at Easter at Cleveland Pines during our pet therapy visits. (As if the bunny dress and ears weren't embarrassing enough for my girls.) I'll post pics soon of them wearing part of their regalia.

Maybe I am crazy enough to try that site... or not.

NYC, here I come!

2008-02-16T15:05:00.000-05:00

I've finally made reservations for my trip in April to the World Journalism Institute's Alumni Conference.

I'm starting to plan out what I'll be doing in my off-time from the conference.

I'm heading up there early in the morning on April 17. My goal is to check my bags at the hotel (which I have yet to reserve - location will depend on what else I do that day) and goof around doing touristy things that day and during the day on April 18. Then the conference starts the evening of April 18. I'll do all the conference stuff, more touristy things and be back to work the next morning.

I'd like to solicit recommendations for things to do... so if you have any suggestions, let me know!

So far, I want to do/see the following:

Either a Yankees or Mets game (they both play the 17th). My preference is for the Yankees (because I'm a fan and they'll be playing the Red Sox), but I'll settle for the Mets (because it's their last season in the old stadium)

Dylan's Candy Bar (I saw it on an episode of Kimora Lee Simmons' show and I've been asked to bring Allison Flynn, assistant lifestyles editor, back a souvenier) http://www.dylanscandybar.com/
The Empire State Building (because I didn't get to go there last time)

H&M (because there's not one around here and I didn't get to spend much time in there last time I was in the city)

Broadway show

Ground Zero

Central Park (and the zoo)

Statue of Liberty

Buy soup from the real "Soup Nazi" of "Seinfeld" fame and visit the "Sex in the City" Magnolia Bakery, which really does exist. http://girlfriendsgetaway.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/new-york-city-unusual-and-crazy-fun/

Fabric district (my mother will be jealous)

Any other must-sees? Let me know what you recommend in the comments section!

"I found my true love"... baloney

2008-02-14T15:15:00.000-05:00

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know today is Valentine's Day. I'm not overly sentimental, so I have no problem with the fact that I don't have anyone to spend the day with again this year.

But those darn eHarmony commercials won't quit playing on TV. "I found my true love"... "I married"... blah, blah, baloney.

So as an avid procrastinator who really needed to do some housework, I decided to fill out their magical matching survey and see what happened. (Actually, I thought blogging about horrible dates and weird dudes would be a funny diversion, too.)

But as it turns out, there's a reason why I'm single. After completing the 4,000 question (or so it seemed) test, I have absolutely zero matches. Evidently I'm quite repulsive. So much for that groundbreaking experiment... Good thing it was free.

First baby of the season

2008-02-13T16:47:00.000-05:00

My sister e-mailed me a photo of the first baby of the season. It's a low-quality cell phone pic, but I'm sure Sheena (the mama horse) is still proud...

New menu

2008-01-25T00:59:00.001-05:00

I've been meaning to blog this for more than a week now... but I guess late is better than never.

When I talked to Hunter Naman out at 5East for my story on salad dressings, I asked when he was going to change his menu again (he does this every now and again)... He actually had a new one at the printers and hit some of the high points of the new one.

Balsamic chicken wrap
Added desserts - apple pie and bourbon pecan pie
Jumbo roasted prawns
Roasted duck breast
Risotto
Turkey burgers

No, my dryer is not broken

2008-01-10T19:00:00.000-05:00

I have two stories to share.

One is sad. The other is mildly amusing.

THE SAD: I am a bad dog mom.
I got home late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning and gathered up a load of laundry to wash as I got ready for bed. Evidently, when I went into the laundry room, both of my dogs followed me in and then went out the doggie door in the garage. But I only saw Lulu go out. So when she came back in, we both headed back the hall to go to bed. I noticed Gracie wasn't in the bedroom, but assumed she had gone into the living room and gone to sleep in her crate (which she does on occasion).

I didn't sleep well, but I thought it was because I'd had an eventful day. But when I got up this morning, Gracie still wasn't in my room. She wasn't in her crate, either.

And what is a good dog mom supposed to do then?

Panic.

So I panicked. I ran out into the back yard looking for her. She wasn't there, so I ran into the garage, where the happiest dog ever (also possibly the wettest dog ever because of overnight rain) bounded through the door. She had evidently spent some significant time outside this morning, but I could tell that she'd slept on her pillow out in the garage at least part of the night.

No wonder I didn't sleep well. My baby was in the garage, wet and cold.

At least she didn't threaten to call the ASPCA on me.

That was the sad. Now on to the amusing.

Photo Editor Jeff Melton and I have been working on an illustration for my column on Sunday (which is about finding the right pair of jeans to fit your body). After a few minutes of brainstorming, we decided it would be cool to string up a makeshift clothesline in the studio and use clothespins to hold the jeans on the line.

But after stringing it up, one pair of jeans made it sag so far that we quickly realized the studio was not the right spot.

A day later, Jeff and I found ourselves outside, at the very front of The Star. The line fit perfectly between the columns at the front of the building. (Jeff's idea, by the way) The sun was shining perfectly and the wind was blowing (an added bonus we hadn't expected). As we were hanging the jeans on the line, one woman going through the parking lot asked what we were doing. My explanation: Sunday Lifestyles.

Moments later, a police officer came rolling through with a prisoner in the back of his car.

"You know, my dryer works at home," the officer yells from his window.

We cracked up.

Because before then we were so focused on what we were doing that we didn't notice all the people driving up and down the road staring at us.

So, if you were one of those people, I have an explanation: Sunday Lifestyles.

Better than a vacation

2008-01-07T01:01:00.000-05:00

I don't think I've had a better weekend than this one in a long time. I'm usually out of town on the weekends, but ended up staying in Shelby. My intentions were to work on some minor house projects, do some much-needed cleaning and maybe cook a meal or two.

Instead, I watched two Netflix movies Friday night ("Bounce" was absolutely wonderful, while "Dog Park" pretty much took a nose dive). Then Saturday I slept until lunchtime then cruised around the Internet for a while, made a few phone calls and discovered that there's a watch-it-now feature that comes as part of my Netflix subscription. So... continuing in my laziness, I watched "A Good Woman," (also a wonderful film) then two Ron White comedy shows (both were quite funny), then completed the first half season one of "30 Rock." (Here's the show's Web site) The incredible laziness continued on into Sunday and I finished the rest of the season.

For those of you who know me, the fact that I watched that much TV will probably come as a shock... and an even bigger shock is that I'll probably start watching "30 Rock" episodes regularly.

So, with all that said, my weekend was better than a vacation... though I do feel a little guilty about slacking off...

Just in case you're wondering, I did get a few household tasks done... and I blogged.

Miss Scarlett is no lady

2008-01-03T18:15:00.000-05:00

A few months ago, Lifestyles Land was given an evaluation copy of an upcoming book called "Rhett Butler's People." The book, based on Margaret Mitchell's classic "Gone With the Wind," is written from Rhett Butler's perspective (hence the title).

I'm going to try not to spoil the plot, though, so parts of this will be a little vague.

In Mitchell's original, Rhett was always my favorite character, so I was overjoyed to find out that this book was all about him. Before I started it, I had seen several ads for the book and a New York Times Book Review issue that gave it what I interpreted as a thumbs-up.

My conclusion after reading it is that it might not have been worth all the hype, but I do, overall, like it and would recommend it to "Gone With the Wind" fans. They do, however, need to be cautioned that it repeats part of the original (as it must), which is a little annoying. The book is written using everyday language and I'm confident that anyone who has read the original should be able to read this one without any problems.

Although the book explores the personalities of Rhett's people - Belle, Tazwell, etc., the development of Rhett's father was a lacking in my opinion, while the development of Andrew and Rosemary are perfect. How things end with Andrew and Tazwell are great, though.

The ending is a bit bittersweet, which I liked and the reading itself went by fairly quickly, which I also liked.

Overall, the book gets a thumbs-up from me, despite its flaws. It's a good read, but don't come out of it expecting it to be as good as the original.

Here's a link to the book's Web site.

The best redneck Christmas ever

2007-12-31T19:42:00.000-05:00

I spent some time the other night with a good friend of mine from college who happened to be in town. We had a lot of funny moments, including these three:

He went to visit family that he didn't know that well. Upon pulling up in the driveway, he was greeted by more chickens than he saw the entire time he was in the Peace Corps, along with plastic deer that were riddled with bullet holes. But they weren't the only thing with bullet holes - his distant family's mobile home also had them. Upon entering, the Christmas tree was Dale Earnhardt and the background noise... yep, they were watching a Jeff Foxworthy special on CMT.

The other odd thing I will relay is that there really isn't an un-awkward way to hug in a car.

And... chocolate-covered espresso beans are not meant for canine consumption. My dogs stole them from my mother's Christmas gift. They were all four OK, but were literally bouncing off the walls for hours.

Kitty problem solved

2007-12-29T13:48:00.000-05:00

After putting out a plea for help with the kitty meowing at random times inside my house problem, the solution was oh, so simple.

All I had to do was turn off the volume on my computer's speakers.

Turns out, someone on my IM list has a cat's meow sound when they sign in or out of IM.

So much for putting tuna out in my garage...

Anyway, I felt like a doofus, but I sure am relieved to not have a cat stuck in my home.

Kitty crisis

2007-12-28T10:41:00.000-05:00

It seems like every couple of days, something will go wrong at the house...

One of my dogs will conduct a successful trashcan raid or rip the stuffing out of a toy and scatter white fuzz all around the house, or something will start leaking or an appliance will squeak... just about any of these things disturbs the domestic tranquility...

But here's a new one.

We keep hearing a cat meowing.

It started last night and has continued into the morning. Every few hours, a meow or two. But I can't figure out where it's originating. Obviously from a cat, but I can't tell if it's somehow stuck inside my house (although I think the dogs would have taken care of that problem), inside the garage, which is enclosed and hasn't been open since Saturday, or outside somewhere. Each time it happens, I go to all the doors and check to see if I can see anything... but I'm not having any luck finding this misplaced kitty.

Anyone have a suggestion on how to 1) Find it and 2) Get rid of it?

Post-Christmas chatter

2007-12-26T14:31:00.000-05:00

It's the first day after Christmas and "Lifestyles Land" is back and in rare form. We're tired and cranky and some of us would actually rather be here than at home.

Although most of our Christmas celebrations went off without a hitch, I think we've all taken about as much insanity as we can possibly handle.

Allison (Assistant Lifestyles Editor) has dealt with noisy kid toys and pondered why a barn her son received doesn't have a place for the sheep, which were included in the set. She was, however, super-excited about the stuffed Yoda her husband bought her and the slightly off-kilter magnets her sister gave her.

Cherish (Reporter) announced that she got the most fabulous set of pots and pans ever. (FYI, I'm more than a little jealous.)

I, however, was quite excited over the gift of a Belgian waffle maker. Yay! I tried it out on Christmas morning... my first attempt stuck to the maker and came out in little fluffy chunks. This, of course, was at 7 a.m. (not the best time of day for me) and had a little freakout moment. My sister, who got one last Christmas and who is, by now, an old pro at making them, notified me that I didn't use enough nonstick cooking spray. I'll know that for next time...

My mother also did me the kindness of purchasing a new dining room table and chairs for my house... I was a little concerned beforehand because mom's style is very ornate, while mine is a little more "Pottery Barn," but she did a great job picking it out and I like it. (BTW, thanks mom!)

At any rate, I think all of us in the corner had a pretty good holiday...

Until next time, enjoy your own gifts!