Beaumont, TX

February 13th - 15th

Texas State vs Lamar CBB – ESPNU – 9pm ET


I rarely ever fly Continental. Figures that within 12 hours of them losing a plane in New York, I am scheduled to fly on Continental.

Oh well, what can I do?
I try hard to never let that kind of stuff bother me. If it did, I couldn’t do my job.
Plus I know air travel is much safer than travel by automobile.

I will say though, the plane they lost was one of the reasons I try not to fly that airline – the Dash 8 is a prop plane and those really freak me out. Since most of my flights are ‘commuter flights’ that is the aircraft I would typically end up on.

When ever I am on a prop plane though, I stare at the propeller the entire time just waiting for it to stop rotating.

Anyway, back to this weekend.
Another trip to a warm region. On Thursday it was in the mid 70s and not a cloud in the sky. On Friday, as I arrived, so did a cold front. 50s-60s and rain! The humidity level was still pretty high – it felt great to soak in the humid air :)

I flew into Houston (on a regional jet) and then drove 1.5 hours to Beaumont.
The flight was fine except for as soon as I boarded, the smell of the bathroom was wafting up the isle. Whatever the potion is that is used in airplane bathrooms is so nauseating to me.

I got a little freaked as they bumped passengers and then started moving people around on the plane due to weight & balance issues. I never like weight & balance issues. I have actually gotten off a plane before because of that.

It usually means there is too much cargo and that the cargo is more important than the passengers, which is never a good thing.

The drive to Beaumont was rather bleak. By the looks of the ravaged vegetation, blue tarps on roofs and piles of debris, this area was still recovering from Hurricane Ike.

My hotel was kinda icky and was right on the edge of I-10. Thankfully there was a dehumidifier in the room that I ran at night to drown out the sounds of semi’s barreling down the interstate.

On the way to the arena on Saturday, I had extra time so I attempted to find some sights around Beaumont – this is all I found.

The Port of Beaumont

The game was a showcase of some really bad basketball.


Fun Fact: It was the first time a regular season Southland Conference game was played on the ESPN family of networks.

Lamar was a very gracious host – handed out various shirts and hats to the crew, which always goes over very well!


My day was rather hectic, so I never had a chance to go inside the arena and check it out.

It started pouring rain after the game. So bad that just getting from car to the front door of the hotel got me soaked to the bone. Even my hair was dripping.

Sunday morning, I had a leisurely drive back to Houston.

On a side note, not everyone gets to go to China three times in one year!

Okay, so I drove thru China, Texas going to/from Beaumont.


What did I miss this weekend?
“The Menu’s” played at the Frog Bear on Friday night after the Jackets game. Boo!

Cincinnati, Ohio

February 11th – 12th

St. John’s vs Cincinnati CBB – ESPNU360.com – 7:30pm


No snow fell on Tuesday night – yah!
However, on Wednesday, we had wind gusts of 60 mph for most of the day and night.

As we prepared for the game, the tornado sirens went off numerous times.
The truck was shaking back and forth from the wind which is something I had never experienced before. Kinda scary! Thankfully, the driver had left the cab attached to the truck as that stabilized us more.

At one point in the afternoon there was a double rainbow and it was quite pretty over the dark & ominous sky.

Soon after the game started, the campus lost power. Our truck took some sort of hit too as we lost the switcher for a couple of minutes.

The announcers explained to the viewers that the past 3 weeks had been rough on the crew – from the snow/ice/snow storm to the snow storm to now this week the wind storm. One of them said, “Our poor crew is out in the parking lot in the equivalent of mobile home.” Which is true – I never though of it like that.

I spent another night at the Marriott Kingsgate.


On Thursday morning I again woke up sneezing and went thru a box of tissues on the way home. Hmmm… I have stayed in this hotel for years – and now 2 weeks in a row I have had issues. I wonder if they have changed laundry detergent or something?

The drive home was miserable due to my dripping nose.

Santa Ana, CA

February 6th – 8th

Old Spice High School Basketball Showcase – Nike Extravaganza! – ESPNU – 8pm & 10pm ET

Ahh! A trip to Cali in the middle of the winter – how awesome is that!? I even suffered thru a 6am flight out on Friday just so I could have the afternoon to soak in some warm weather.

Nope! It ranged in the 50s-60s with tons of rain & mud slides!

The crappy weather did allow me to get caught up on a lot of emails on Friday afternoon – which is always a good thing.

And the weather couldn’t stop me from the other wonderful feature of California: In-N-Out Burger!


I typically only make it to California about twice a year and when I am there, I pretty much only eat In-N-Out Burger during my stay.

On Saturday, we had a double-header at Mater Dei High School.


Their facility was recently built with television in mind as it is pre-cabled. Wow! A lot of colleges don’t even invest that kind of money into their facilities.


You will never guess what I had for lunch?

I didn’t get to check out the inside (of the arena) as much as I had hoped. I am always super busy for double-headers and never have time to just explore. I did snap this though on one of my trips to the bathroom.


I didn’t play high school sports, even so, I can not imagine traveling across the country to play in a game. There were teams in this tournament from as far away as New Jersey.

At the end of the night, Stephanie wanted a Diet Coke for her drive to LA; so we decided the only place that would probably have Diet Coke would have to be In-N-Out Burger!
Since I was there and have no upcoming California trips, I figured I had to go ahead and have one more burger.

Cincinnati, Ohio

February 4th – 5th

Notre Dame vs Cincinnati CBB – ESPNU360.com – 7:30pm

More snow fell on Tuesday night again this week!
The roads were clear until a about 10 miles outside of Cincinnati – so not that big of a deal.

Our game was at US Bank Arena in downtown Cincy. Apparently they hold this matchup at this arena because Notre Dame fans will travel to Cincy and this arena hold more than Fifth Third Arena.


I left on Wednesday morning with $3 – no need to stop and get cash as I rarely use it anyway.

When I got to the parking garage there was no attendant so you had to use the machine to enter. You guessed it - $4!

Thankfully, I was in my own car and the machine also took coins, so I was able to come up with enough money. To make matters even more interesting, the gate when up and came back down in a matter of 5 seconds, so I couldn’t get in. I sat there staring at the gate wondering what I was gonna do because there was a line of cars behind me and I had no more money. The guy behind me, thank God, must of worked nearby and had a swiper card to get in & out of the garage. He saw what happened to me and kindly got out of his car and swiped me in.

The last time I worked at this arena was for the 2004 Conference USA Men’s Basketball Tournament. I am quite confident the bathroom at the top of the ramp has not been cleaned since then. It was just as disgusting today as it was 5 years ago!

On a positive note, there were no pigeons this time. That was the other enjoyable factor back in 2004. The TV trucks park under a bridge… up above the trucks, literally thousands of pigeons live on the bottom of the bridge. You can kinda see the pigeons in this photo:


It rained pigeon poop non-stop for the week. This photo of the ground doesn’t really do it justice.

The smell was horrific and was obviously very unsanitary for us. The truck guys put up a series of tarps that allowed us to get in & out of the area under cover. But it still was so disgusting!


It was so bad that the truck company had to sue the city of Cincinnati because the poop ruined the paint and the trucks had to be re-painted.

Anyway, I was relieved that the pigeons weren’t around this time.

The only thing that happened was the team busses parked next to us. They wanted to leave them running to keep them warm. Well, that didn’t end up being a good idea. The exhaust filled into our truck’s air conditioning and none of us could breathe. It triggered a horrible asthma attack for me. Eventually, we got the busses moved, but I had trouble breathing the rest of the night.

On Thursday morning, I woke up sneezing and went thru an entire box of tissues on the drive home. I was miserable!

Worthington, OH

February 1st

Back by popular demand – a kitty update!

Today, Smokey experienced snow for the first time.
At first, he was a little scared….


But then he loved it!

Claude slept thru Smokey’s caper.

Cincinnati, Ohio

January 30th – 31st

UMass vs 10 Xavier – College Basketball – ESPNU – Noon ET

Much improved in the weather department!


There was more rain and snow over the past 24 hours, but the roads were fine until just outside Cincinnati.

I drove down on Friday afternoon - about 22 hours after I had just returned from Cincinnati.

Uneventful evening as I had to get up at 4a.

The game on Saturday was good.


I just kept thinking I was at UC since I had done so many UC games this season.

Had breakfast with some of the crew at Buskens. It's a locally family owned bakery; the breakfast was fabulous!

Drove home after the game. Big Saturday night – asleep on the couch by 6:30!

Cincinnati, Ohio

January 28th

Georgetown vs Cincinnati – College Basketball – ESPN360.com – 7:30pm

White death!
That’s what we joke about when it “snows” in Columbus because we typically never get more than a dusting. However, if you listen to the local media, you better get to the store for canned goods and batteries!

On Tuesday night I worked the Blue Jackets game – and yes – the roads were a mess on the way home.

So on Wednesday morning, knowing I had to be in Cincinnati at 1:30pm, I got up a little earlier than I normally would to check on the weather.

Guess what - this time, they were right!

Pretty much the entire state had been hit hard with 6 inches of snow, couple inches of freezing rain, then a couple more inches of snow. Everything was closed!

I checked the University of Cincinnati website and yes indeed, the campus was closed. However, the game was still a go! Well… it was a go, but the school wouldn’t confirm it with ESPN until Noon. Since I couldn’t wait until them to leave, I had to go ahead and head out.

It takes me about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get to Cincinnati, but considering the alleged road conditions, I allowed myself double that. Worst case scenario is I get there early and go hang out at Panera and have some coffee.

Here is what it looked like as I was leaving the neighborhood:

Not the greatest, but not so bad.

It got worse with every mile.


That is what it looked like for 100+ miles. The average speed was 35 mph.
Not fun!

Cincinnati, as well as much of the area I was traveling in, was under a “Level 3 Snow Emergency” – which means you are not allowed to be driving and risk being arrested if found on the streets.

But, ya gotta get to work!
Ended up taking all the time I allotted – about 3 hours & 20 minutes.

It was by far the worst conditions I have ever driven in. But I remained patient and just took it slow.

The game went well and I stayed the night at the Marriott Kingsgate (my Cincinnati ‘home away from home’)

On Thursday morning, I worked out, had breakfast, etc and then decided to head home around 10am. Assuming, rush hour was over and the roads were good and cleared.

Apparently, the state of Ohio hadn’t heard about the storm yet (24 hours later) as I-71 was a solid sheet of ice from mile marker 3 to 40. It was horrible!

The ride home got better after mile marker 40 and ended up taking about 2.5 hours, so not the end of the world.

Champaign, IL

January 23rd – 25th

Wisconsin vs 24 Illinois - College Basketball (CBB) – ESPN2 – 4pm

It took pretty much all day on Friday to get to Champaign, IL. Flight options are limited, so I was stuck with a 4 hour layover in Detroit. However, that allowed me to catch up on some emails.

This weekend was a reunion of sorts – Amy, the other graphics operator that started the football season with me, was the other operator this weekend. She did Viz and I did Duet. (Some higher profile CBB games have 2 graphics operators on them still)

Jason, my football AP, was also our AP for this game. So it was very nice for the 3 of us to work together again!

On Friday night, Amy and I had dinner and spent some time catching up.

Since the alarm was going off at 3:30am, I was in bed by 8:05pm Friday night. I was so obsessed about falling asleep, that I didn’t until well after 11pm. Ugh!

Game day went really well. Other than we had to be in a 5am for a 3pm game. Ugh! That part wasn’t fun!


But it allowed for Amy, Jason and I to take a real lunch break for once. We went to this place called “LePeep” – it was fantastic! It’s a lot like a “First Watch”.

Over the years, I have stayed in some of the worst hotels in the entire country while visiting Champaign. The “Historical Lincoln” was cross between a Scooby Doo Haunted Mansion and the set of the movie “The Shining”. I believe that was during football season of 2004.

There was carpet, velvet & tapestries EVERYWHERE!

I actually sent a complaint into the ESPN Travel Dept. begging them to never book this hotel again. It was winter time and I had to leave my window open in order to breathe. The ventilation system was so outdated that it was as if there was lit cigarette in my room the entire stay (or maybe it was the ghost in the corner smoking?)

It was a nice hotel, when it was renovated back in the early 80s!
Just so creepy now!

It defienately added entertainment value for our crew and gave us something to compare future hotels with. (See, 5 years later and I'm still talking about it!)

Then there was this other one – I don’t remember the name – maybe “America’s Inn” or something ? I think it was during the 2005 football season that we experienced this gem.

It’s feature was the sign at the check in desk:
“If illegal drugs or activities are conducted in your room, you will be asked to leave without refund. If you don’t leave, we will call the police.”

NICE!

Actually, if I remember correctly, the Illinois football team was doing so poorly at the time, the coaches made the team stay at the hotel the night before the game as punishment.

ANYWAY, back to this trip!
I am happy to report that Champaign has a brand new hotel!
It’s called “I Hotel” and it is located 1 block behind Assembly Hall.
Great hotel!! Just a lot of nice little touches.

This one was my favorite
(yes, actual books)

Happy National Squirrel Appreciation Day!

January 21st

Happy National Squirrel Appreciation Day!

These are the little squirrel (sugar) cookies I made to honor the holiday.

Columbus, OH

January 17th – 18th

Again, this weekend I was “on call”. No other Duet ops got sick or had travel emergencies, so I got to stay home.

I flew mom up for the weekend and we pretty much never left the house. A lot of cleaning got done!

BREAKING NEWS….. at approximately 10:52am on Saturday, January 17, 2009, the final bag from China was unpacked! What’s the rush? It had only been sitting on the guest room floor for 5 months!

Birmingham, Alabama

January 15th – 16th

South Atlanta (GA) vs LeFlore (AL) High School Basketball – ESPN2 – 9pm

I stayed in Cincinnati on Wednesday night after the UC game and flew to Birmingham on Friday morning.

The game was played at Bartow Arena – UAB’s basketball arena.


It’s always difficult doing a high school game – be it football or basketball – due to the lack of information available. Most high schools are not accustomed to dealing with being on TV; so do not know how desperately we need information on the school, team and players. Not to mention the fact that most schools do not keep stats or at least accurate stats.

Even with the challenges of doing HS sports, I always enjoy doing these games as we are there for a reason – one of the players is going to be tomorrow’s star. So that part is cool – getting to see them when they are still a kid.

But the action was not on the court – it apparently was outside the arena – in the parking lot just 50 yards from where the TV truck was parked. After the game, the play-by-play announcer was mugged at gunpoint.

On Friday morning, unbeknownst to me, it was “Be Evil to Nic Day.” All small things, but all annoyed me in a huge way!

First it was the woman in 3C – I was attempting to put my roller board in the overhead bin and it was not fitting “wheels first” as it typically does on that model of aircraft. So I flipped it around to “handle first” and again, it didn’t fit. (By putting getting your bag to fit wheels or handle first, you don’t take up as much room; thus allowing room for more bags; a kind gesture to fellow passengers)

While I was doing this, the woman in 3C was giving me a once over; apparently she didn’t feel that I was first class material. So she proceeded to snear, “It’s not going to fit.” I looked at her and said, “No shit!” She was instantly appalled by my response which made me giggle!

On the flight, I had a much needed nap as I only had gotten 3 hours of sleep.

As I was waiting to get off the plane in Atlanta, the guy in 2C reached into the overhead bin and started to take down my bag. I said, “Actually, that is my bag sir.” His head swiveled around and he said, “Well THAT is where I put MY bag. You must have moved it when you put yours in!” And he being the gentleman, that he obviously was, he shoved my bag back into the overhead bin.

I replied with, “No, I did not touch your bag.” He said, “Yes you did!”
I reached up and grabbed my bag and said, “Whatever dude” and left.

He had made such a scene that when I was on the jet bridge a lady came up to me and said, “Be thankful that guy isn’t your husband – what a jerk!”

Then in the elevator in the Crown Room, this old couple started talking about me as I am 8 inches from them. Seriously, it was an elevator for 4 people and the old man whispered
“Will you look at the size of that bag!”

The old lady said, “That is what is wrong today with carry-on luggage. People taking such large items on the plane”
I just stood there with my back to them, attempting to be nice – I am angry at myself for not saying “I CAN HEAR YOU!” Cuz that is what I was saying in my head.

I attribute all 3 scenarios with me being discriminated against. The 1st two things happened in first class, the other in the airline club. As I usually do on early morning flights, I was wearing a sweatshirt and comfy pants, no makeup and less than perfect hair.

Basically, I look homeless, but I am comfortable! All these people didn’t feel that I belonged in first class or in the club – when indeed, I do! Subconsciously, I think I dress worse when I know I will be in first class, just to annoy people.

And yes, I have an enormous backpack that weighs 37 lbs. I may not be able to walk by the time I am 40, but I have everything I could possibly need to do my job. I also carry my roller board suitcase – which is also typically packed until ready to burst. The more crap you have in your bag, the more mad the TSA agents get when they search your stuff. (But that’s another one of the fun games I play – I’ll save TSA stories for another day)

Anyway, to anyone who complains about the amount of stuff I carry on a plane I have a simple response – “I challenge you to live my life for one week and see how you pack afterwards”

I guarantee you, after you are buying underwear at WalMart at 1am because an airline lost your luggage and you have to be to work in 5 hours, I bet you won’t check your luggage next time!

Ok… so back to my trip home.
On the flight from Atlanta to Columbus, the guy next to me passed out after 1 bloody mary.

He sat hunched over the entire flight. I just thought it was funny.

Cincinnati, Ohio

January 14th

University of Cincinnati Basketball

It actually snowed last night in Columbus! So it took me an extra 30 minutes to get out of town since the roads inside of I-270 were actually pretty bad.

Other than that – nothing to report.

Waterloo/Cedar Falls/Cedar Rapids, Iowa

January 10th – 12th

College Wrestling – Tape Delayed for ESPNU

Flew into Cedar Rapids (I think) and then drove to Waterloo. For some reason, I was confused all weekend as to where I was. I think it was because our hotels kept changing during the week and I also originally thought our event was at Iowa, but it actually was at Northern Iowa.

Anyway, it was insanely cold where ever I was.

On Sunday morning, the front desk clerk gave me directions to the UNIDome. She said to get off at the “Hudson exit and the dome will be a couple miles down on your left.” So that’s what I did.

However, the road was a dead end. Hmm… I know I didn’t pass a huge dome!

So as I was turning around, I saw “University Ave.” – well I knew that had to lead to a college campus I assumed it would be the one I needed.

Eventually, it was. I eventually came to “Hudson Street” – and what do ya know, the UNIDome was on it, on my left.

Apparently the hotel clerk left out one minor detail…. There is an exit for Hudson (a town) and then an exit for Hudson Street. (I needed the street, not the town)

I was about 40 minutes late to work, but it was okay. It took a couple hours for the truck to warm up enough to turn on the gear.

On Sunday night, I was able to hang out at the bar with a few of my long time freelance friends. It was a lot of fun to catch up with them!

I only had about 4 hours of sleep on Sunday night and wasn’t feeling all that happy about the early flight when I woke up on Monday morning.

The night before, a co-worker and I had decided to sit together on our flight from Iowa to Cincinnati. (It’s better to be squished in together with someone you know)

Unfortunately, the seat next to me was taken and he had the one across the isle. He went ahead and sat next to me and when the guy came up and said, “I think you are in my seat”, Mike said, “I’m on the one across the isle, do you mind switching? I met this girl at the bar last night.”

I laughed so hard and said, “that doesn’t really bode well for you considering I haven’t even brushed my hair yet today.” (Sadly, it was the truth)

When arriving at the gate for the flight to Columbus, I ran into a client. He did a double take when I said hi – he obviously didn’t recognize me wearing sweats and unkempt hair.
Glamorous life I tell ya!

Sorry, no photos this weekend. I honestly forgot.

Cincinnati, OH

January 7th

Providence vs Cincinnati – College Basketball – 9pm ET - ESPNU



It’s nice to be into hoops season. As I have mentioned in the past, college basketball is my favorite sport to do.

Uneventful evening.

Bay Village, Ohio

January 5th

Dave and I went to see our friends in Cleveland to celebrate Christmas and to watch Ohio State play Texas in the Fiesta Bowl.

Cliff & Boo made a fabulous dinner for all of us! Oh my goodness, it was so delicious!

At halftime, we did our “Secret Santa” gift exchange. There are always prank gifts involved and most everyone is in on the joke.

The biggest one this year had to be Dave’s gift to Matty…..
Dave came across a laser disk while shopping at a used record store. So he bought it as a joke. Then when telling one of our friends about it, our friend said, “I have a laser disk player that you can borrow. It’s never been out of the box. But I have to have it back.”

So… poor Matty opened the laser disk first.


Then the laser disk player…



Matt & Cliff

It wasn’t until later in the night that Dave told Matty he could keep the laser disk, but he needed to take the player back.

Okay, not funny to everyone else, I know. But the NTACs have their own unique sense of humor that no one else really understands.

Anyway – Boo is always cold. So one of my gifts to her was the Snuggi – you’ve all seen the terrible TV commercial for it. “Blankets are okay, but they slip & slide”





Another one of the gifts was a toy Jonny had played with during breakfast one day. Apparently, Jonny was mesmerized by this toy and couldn’t stop playing it. Cliff had gotten it for him. And again, Jonny stopped everything and played with the toy for about 40 minutes…


And then we heard… “guys… guys… get the camera guys…”






It was such a fun night, even though the Buckeyes lost. Dave and I miss these guys so much! Long gone are the days of hanging out every weekend (when most of us lived in Columbus).

Oh well… I guess it just makes the few times we do get together even more special.

Amanda, Jonny, Cliff, Boo and Matt – you are the best!
(Bettes & TG too!) Looking so forward to our NTAC vacation in July!!

Columbus, OH

January 3rd

Happy New Year!

This weekend I was “on call”. No other Duet ops got sick or had travel emergencies, so I got to stay home.

It was very nice! I haven’t had a weekend off since July 17th.

I got to get a few things done around the house, watch the Blue Jackets win and actually went and saw a movie – in a theatre! “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” - which by the way, is worth the 2 hours & 40 minutes. Excellent movie!

Dayton, Ohio

December 31st

After 18 weekends of football, one needs a break!

Dave and I pondered many mini-vacation options – and it came down warm & sunny Daytona! Err, I mean Dayton!

Why Dayton you ask?

When we were having a hard time coming up with a destination, he decided to see where our favorite cover band, “The Menus”, were playing that week. They had a package deal at the Dayton Marriott on New Year’s Eve for a room, dinner, concert, open bar, dessert, etc. And the rest is history…


Nic & Dave

For those who have been reading the blog since last summer, you are familiar with “The Menus”. For those who are new to the blog….. "The Menus" are a cover band from Cincinnati. The set list varies from The Beatles to Jethro Tull to Boston to Blood, Sweat & Tears to Neil Diamond and anything in between!. They are entertaining from start to finish. The lead singer has about 15 costume changes during the show – all of which are outrageously mismatched and leave you wondering why?











Dave starting seeing their shows in Columbus in the late 90s, me shortly there after. In recent years, we started going to Put-In-Bay during the summer to go camping and see them play at The Beer Barrel Saloon.



It was on this recent trip that we realized the fans have gotten OLD! (We of course have not aged since first seeing them perform) Seriously, the majority of the people on New Year’s Eve were in their 50s & 60s. If they still handed out awards at the end of their shows (something they used to do), I would of easily won “youngest fan”.



We had a great time! We got our money’s worth on the open bar, BUT, we challenged each other to a glass of water between every drink. It worked – no hangover!


I even wore big girl shoes for the occasion! They had heels and everything!









About 2 hours into the night, Dave had the best suggestion ever – “why don’t you go upstairs and change your shoes.” Music to my piggies!


It may have seemed like an odd place to take a mini-vacation or spend New Years Eve – but it was a perfect match for us!