Oklahoma City, OK

May 26th - June 1st

Women's College World Series - ESPN

Tuesday morning came quick!

Heather and I met in the lobby and headed to the airport. We got there plenty early – but we were fearful since neither of us were that familiar with the Boston airport and it was the morning after a holiday weekend.

Thankfully, we were able to pass the time in the Red Carpet Club. My investments in the various clubs proves to be a blessing once again!

We flew to Chicago. Once there, we met up with about 8 other people from our crew and then flew on to Oklahoma City.

The others had to work on Tuesday, I did not. So I took one of the rental cars on to the hotel to get settled. Then ran some errands, got some fruit and snacks and went back to the hotel.

Once unpacked, I was completely exhausted!

I took a little nap and then met up with my friend Campy for dinner and drinks.

We went to TapWerks – a Bricktown staple. They have 212 beers on tap. And over 100 options in a bottle. So needless to say, it’s a must for a tv crew!

We had really terrible pizza for dinner. But we still had fun! Eventually Heather joined us and even more stories & laughs were shared!

On Wednesday, the set day went pretty good. It has been 6 months since I touched a Viz, so I was anxious to get behind the keyboard again!

That evening, I went to an Italian place in Bricktown. I’ve been there several times. On the way there I came across this stellar parking job. Really?

Bricktown is a district about 2 blocks from our hotel. It’s consists of bars and restaurants. A couple years ago they added a minor league baseball park. There are also canals that run between some of the restaurants.

Here is a photo taken when watching game 3 on Thursday – I am pretty sure Michigan was one of the teams. I stayed and watched for like an hour or so.


This was my 3rd time here in the past 5 years. I loved it just as much this year. The stands are packed and so is the parking lot. It’s a lot like football tailgating. RVs, tents, grills, TV’s etc. A lot of people stay out there, never venturing into the stands, so they can drink.

On to the technical aspect….. There was a snafu in 'truck' scheduling at the last minute, so the truck company had to sub in another truck.

We ended up with an "Entertainment Truck" - which means it does tv shows, concerts, etc. You would think a truck was a truck - but actually entertainment trucks and sports trucks are configured VERY differently.

So a fun little nugget about the truck we ended up with... before rolling into Oklahoma City, it did the American Idol Finals. I hate American Idol - but even I have to admit that is kinda cool :)

Here is a photo of our compound:

The tour bus on the left is one of the camera guys’. He brings it every year as the camera guy “lounge”. They take turns laying down inside cooling off, nap, etc. A lot of the camera guys & utilities suffer from heat exhaustion – so they get to rehab in there.

Behind the tour bus, is the “B” unit. Inside there is the tape room and a graphics pre-build room which also includes the clock & score unit.

The “A” Unit is behind the sat truck. That is where production & audio lived.

To the right of that, is the “C” unit where my Viz (graphics) machines were (physically) even though I worked in production. Also in the “C” unit was the RF people and the Final Cut room. (RF is the wireless gear and Final Cut is a video editing system)

To the right of that (black) was the generator.

And finally on the far right is the office trailer. Where operations were based as well as areas for the managers from the Bristol & Charlotte offices had desk space.

The crew consisted of 93 people. I believe the largest crew I have ever been a part of.

The majority of the crew did all 4 games each day. Except for ‘production’ which only does 2 games aday. (2 graphics ops, 2 graphics producers, assistant director, producer, director and technical director)

The conditions are absolutely BRUTAL for the camera guys. It’s extremely hot & humid. There are runners that bring them around towels that are soaked in ice buckets. You can see some of them on top of the building in this photo

For the camera guys who were on the “spider lifts” – they are held hostage up there until operations came and lowered them. (below)

Here is a shot of the tour bus lounge area (it had a plasma tv for us to watch in one of the belly bays)

This is production. I am very disappointed in the photo because it doesn’t do the truck justice. This only shows half of the monitor wall. The station right there in bottom right (orange monitor) is mine…

This is audio:

Here are the 2 sides of the tape room:



In the “C” Unit were the actual Viz’s. Here is a peak of what they look like (there were 3 of them)
Front View:


Back View:


Guess I never made it into the Final Cut room, sorry.

Here is where the jib lived at night

Having all these separate trucks along with tons of equipment, there is TONS of cable!


These huge shipping bins are what all the cables came in. There were tons of these bins!


I tend to keep my room pretty tidy and organized with on the road. It’s the only way I can stand being confined to a small space. However, when staying somewhere for a week while working extremely long days, things tend to get a little out of control!


But my clothes still manage to stay hung up!


The event went pretty good. I struggled a little from time to time since it had been 6 months since using a Viz. But it was also a good confidence boost because I remembered far more than I thought. Plus I had some of the best operators in the country working along side of me to help in moments of panic.

I truly love this event! The crew is such a great group of friends!
I wish I could work with these people every day.

Sunday night was my last day. Starting on Monday, there is only 1 game a day so the reduce the production team to just 1 director, 1 producer, 1 AD, 1 TD, 2 APs, 2 Viz ops. So it is tradition to have a big ‘party’ on Sunday night. Plus the remaining crew also doesn’t go in on Monday until the afternoon – so even more reason to get our drink on!

Unfortunately, the games went very long and there really weren’t any bars open in Bricktown when we got done working. We did gather at the hotel bar for a while, but that’s not the same.
Not much of a ‘party’ after all.

I didn’t sleep at all well on Sunday night.

On Monday I woke up with a migraine. I think it was stress. There were decisions to be made about the upcoming football season. I knew this was coming and I had been putting it off since I had been on the road for the past couple of weeks.

My flight home wasn’t until after 5pm, so I had plenty of time to pack, etc.
It took me forever to pack since I felt so terrible.

I was able to have lunch with my friend Shannon, which of course only made me feel more miserable! But I was determined to have a nice time with her since we didn’t get to spend much time together on this trip.

I hadn’t planned on getting a cab to the airport until around 3:30. However, I was ready much earlier and had nothing to do, so I went ahead and headed out.

When I checked in for my flight, there was an earlier flight home – YES! So I switched to that one and only had about an hour wait.

Of course when I boarded the 70 seat RJ, I quickly discovered I had the worst seat on the plane – the last row, in front of the bathroom. Non-reclining seat. To make matters worse, the plane was approximately 92 degrees. Keeping in mind that I am still suffering from a migraine. Then the icing on the cake – a rather large and sweaty man sat down next to me. We were so packed in the row that our arms were stuck together with sweat. It was so disgusting.

I was unable to sleep. I just kept my head resting on the window and attempted to enter into my migraine comatose state. It’s kinda like meditating that I do in attempts to relieve the pain.

We finally made it to Memphis and I quickly scurried to the Crown Room for some fresh AC and a glass of wine.

Upon arrival, I notice my flight was listed twice at 2 different gates. So I had the nice lady look into it and she had a rather confusing answer. There was still about 1.5 hours til my flight, so I decided to check back in a bit.

I threw all my crap into a chair and sat down and put my feet up. The Crown Room is set up like little living rooms – chairs, end tables, coffee tables, couches – it’s rare that you are able to get one “living room” to yourself.

OF COURSE, the idiot across the coffee table couldn’t possibly leave me alone in peace.
“You look like you’ve had a long international flight”
In an effort to show that I didn’t want to talk, I simply said, “No.”
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes.

“Well then maybe a rough day at work?”
(AGGHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

I said, “I have a migraine.”
Then leaned my head back again.

He asked another question, but I chose to ignore him.

About 10 minutes later he left.
YES!!

I rested for awhile and checked on my flight.

By this point, my flight was listed 4 different ways. This is trouble.
I asked the nice Crown Room lady – even she couldn’t figure it out. Neither could her co-worker. So I packed up and headed to the gate.

Apparently they had changed aircraft on us. So the flight number had changed a couple of times.

As I boarded the plane, I realized it was a “real” plane with first class.
So I turned around and went back to the gate agent and asked where my upgrade was?
She started rambling about something and punched a bunch of stuff into her computer.
It was like that scene from "Meet the Parents"

5 minutes later, I had the seat I wanted.

All good :)

Am so happy this trip is over!

Foxboro, MA

May 21st – 26th

NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Semifinals – ESPN2 - Saturday
Cornell vs Virginia ~ Syracuse vs Duke

NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championship – ESPN2 – Monday
Syracuse vs Cornell

Thursday morning was rough. I had returned very late from the Cavs game. Only got a couple hours of sleep. But thankfully, I had pretty much packed before departing on the Cleveland mini-vaca.

I flew into Boston, via Washington, DC.


This trip lasts almost 2 weeks, but thankfully, in only 2 cities.
However, since I was not flying on Delta, my luggage could not exceed 50lbs/bag. Since it was such a long trip, I ended up having to check 2 bags. Which is never an easy feat to carry 2 pieces of luggage and my backpack.

Once I retrieved everything, I set out on the car rental shuttle bus. Then lugged all my crap to a car.

The drive to Foxboro isn’t very far, but traffic is always backed up. So it took about an hour.

After checking into the hotel, I set back out to pick up some essentials for the next 6 days.

On Friday, our set day went very well.

The event was being held at Gillette Stadium for the 2nd consecutive season.

The spelling of the city was once again a topic of discussion this year.
ESPN spells it “Foxboro”, however, the town itself spells it “Foxborough”.


On Saturday, I was once again amazed at the dedication of the fans!


Cornell & Duke advanced to the Championship game to be held on Monday.

Sunday was our edit day. It’s basically like another set day. We get these on Championship events so extra time can be put into the production value of the Championship game.

Since we only worked a couple hours on Sunday, I went over to the new mall next to the stadium once we were done. It’s pretty cool. There are numerous views of the stadium from various parts of the outdoor mall.

I wandered around for a while and then had dinner at “Five Guys”. It’s good, but it’s no “In & Out Burger” !


The Championship game on Monday was pretty exciting! I have been doing more & more lacrosse each season and this is my 3rd Championship – so I’ve gotten to know the game and the teams.

Here is an excerpt from an online game recap:
Syracuse men’s lacrosse team came from behind in dramatic fashion to win the 2009 NCAA Division I Men’s Lacrosse Championship, tying Cornell on an improbable goal with four seconds left and then claiming the Championship in overtime, 10-9.

After the game, I drove to Boston with my friend Heather. I was staying in Boston so I could be closer to the airport since we had a very early flight to Oklahoma City.

That evening we had a really nice dinner at The Palms. Then had a few drinks at the bar.

On Tuesday morning, we headed for the airport around 5am – ugh!

Cleveland

May 19th – 20th

Was able to sneak in a min-vacation!

Dave and I drove up to Cleveland on Tuesday evening.

We stayed at Cliff & Boo’s. Our friends, Matty, Jonny, Amanda & Josh came over to hang out, watch TV and have a few drinks with us. Fun was had by all!

On Wednesday morning, I woke up with a stiff neck (slept funky), a migraine and possibly a slight case of the Miller Lite flu.

All bad!
I could of dealt with the stiff neck and Miller Lite flu – but the migraine put me over the edge.

A few hours and several pain pills later, I was able to overcome the migraine. But I wasn’t so sure that would ever happen!

Dave, Cliff and I watched our friend Mike do his live stream on weather.com for a while. (He is currently on his Vortex2 project chasing tornadoes for 5 weeks) So we would send him text messages while he was on the air to see if we could get him to either mention something we were saying – or – to see if we could make him giggle.

Eventually, Dave and I left and went to Panera. After some nice warm soup in my belly, I was ready to conquer the day!

We went to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Sorry, no photos inside.

It was a nice & relaxing day.

Around 5 we headed to Panini’s – a game day staple in Cleveland.


I had the turkey panini – very tasty!


Cliff & Josh met up with us shortly after for a few beers. Well – they had beers, Dave and I didn’t. We had a long night (and drive) ahead of us.

Around 7:30 Dave and I ventured over to Quicken Loans Arena for Game 1 of the NBA Finals 3rd Round – Orlando vs Cleveland.


Our first stop was to visit the QTV control room. Several of our friends work there. QTV is what you are watching on the Jumbo Tron during a Cavaliers game. Our friend, Jonny is the Director. His wife, Amanda (also our friend) is the Producer. Numerous other people on the crew are either friends of ours – or we know them from working with them over the years.

Anyway – QTV puts on one of the best shows in all of professional sports. It literally ROCKS!

A little after 8, Matty escorted us to our seats.


And we waited for the show – or I mean – game – to begin!

The show was awesome!

And then… it began…
The jackass behind me started screaming. He thought he was the coach. He was yelling so loud that my hair was literally blowing!

It was so bad, people several rows in front of me kept turning and looking up.

After he spit on me a few times, Dave wiped my head off with our white rally towels in attempts to get the point across.

Nope.

It made the game completely miserable.

A few minutes into the 1st quarter, Orlando’s Dwight Howard broke the shot clock on top of the basket while dunking a ball.


It delayed the game about 15 minutes or so while engineers swarmed the court in attempts to repair it and the “above the rim” camera which was dangling by a thread.


Eventually, they decided it was not fixable, so they rolled out back up shot clocks onto the floor


Cleveland’s Mo Williams hit a 3-pointer at the end of the first half, sending the crowd into a frenzy!


Eventually, the decibel level of the guy behind me dropped. But he was still extremely annoying. What amazes me it did he really think the players could here him?

The Cavs struggled a bit in the 3rd and ended up losing the game by 1 point.

Even so, it was an awesome night!

The drive home was BRUTAL ! But we had to go. I had a 7am flight the next morning.

Even though the trip was only about 30 hours – it was great! I was able to a game as a fan! And I got to hang out with my friends, which is even better!!

Thank you to everyone that made it happen. From a place to stay, media credentials to tickets to a ride back to Columbus!

Annapolis, MD

May 15th – 18th

North Carolina vs Duke - NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships – Quarterfinals – ESPNU

Flew into Baltimore on Friday afternoon.

Ventured to my hotel and got settled.

When I am staying somewhere for a few days, I always call ahead and order a fridge for my room for my “refrigerated prescription”. Actually, I get it so I can stock it with some fresh fruit, smoothies & veggies. Trying to snack healthy helps considering the rest of my meals on the road tend to be of the not so healthy variety!

So if you tell the hotel it’s for a medical reason, technically, they can’t charge you.
Plus, legally they can’t make you prove it.

Outside my room was the fridge. Due to my impatience, I decided I would drag it into the room. Easier said than done!

Once in my room, I discovered outlets were few & far between. So I had to rearrange the furniture to get it running.

About a half mile from the hotel was a new shopping center, so I decided to head over there for the evening.

Once I arrived, I soon discovered that the majority of the stores had not yet opened. It was that “new”. The store signs were visible from the road, but were misleading. Even so, it was a nice evening and a few of the shops were open, so I was able to leisurely browse.

The game was being played at Navy. This was my second trip here in the past 3 lacrosse seasons.


On Saturday, we had a set day. It went well.

That evening, most of the crew went to a seafood place, I opted to be anti-social and eat at the hotel. I am allergic to seafood and usually the chicken or steak at a seafood place is crappy. Plus we had an early call time on Sunday morning, so I chose sleep over going out.

I was pretty rainy on Sunday. But I was still able to snap a few photos.

For our meal break, we went to a place called “Chick and Ruth’s”. It was excellent! Super cheap too!


On Sunday evening when I went to get gas… I noticed this cemetery right in the middle of an intersection. Very strange! It was like a median.


While I was eating dinner at the hotel bar on Sunday night, my friend Erin joined me at my table for a drink. She had stopped at Whole Foods and had picked up a salad. So after she ordered a beer, she got out her salad and started to eat it.

Well that turned into an argument with the bar tender and eventually the manager. They forbade her to eat her take out, even though she was purchasing alcohol. In addition, I was eating & drinking their food. So they were getting plenty of money out of us.

The place was completely dead – I am not sure what their issue was.

It was quite funny because as they fought with Erin, they proceeded to bring me my check, even though I wasn’t finished eating. Apparently, I was getting kicked out too!

On Monday morning I flew home.

Columbus

May 11th – 14th

Claude & Smokey came to Auntie Nic’s for a mini-vacation.

In the morning time they love to sit atop their ‘perches’ and watch the livestock out front.
(Birds & Squirrels)

Auntie Nic had quite the snuggle buddy in the evening!

Chapel Hill, NC

May 8th – 10th

UMBC vs North Carolina - NCAA Men’s Lacrosse Championships – First Round – ESPNU – 2:30pm et

Have been having issues with charging my cell phone for about a week now. It is driving me nuts! It will say it’s charging but it’s really not. A few days ago, I got a new Treo, but didn’t have time to get it all set up for this trip. So it’s a gamble on whether or not it will stay charged long enough to make it back home.

Traveled to Raliegh on Friday afternoon. Totally uneventful.
Felt good to be on the road again. It’s been just over a month since my last trip.

Arrived around rush hour, so it took a little longer than usual to get to Chapel Hill.

I did however find out, just before boarding my connecting flight, that I had screwed up my travel request for Women’s College World Series coming up at the end of the month. The crewing department had emailed me and wasn’t exactly ‘happy’ with me.

So I was able to spend the last 90 minutes of my trip figuring out where I had erred. Which of course drove me absolutely nuts!

On a side note – when I refer to “crewers” or “the crewing department” – those are the people who hire me to work. Essentially, they are my bosses. For example, ESPN & ESPN Regional Television have staff crewers. However, a lot of networks sub-contract the crewing out to either local vendors (usually TV truck companies) or crewing companies.

My dealings with crewers vary from network to network. For the most part it is a person who hires me for anything from 1 day or for a contract for an entire season (ie: college football season). This person also negotiates my rate and what I will be paid for per diem & expenses.

For some networks, this person also arranges my travel. In some instances though, there is a separate travel department that takes care of those things.

Anyway – back to this trip…..
Upon arriving at the hotel, I immediately attempted to get online so I could research and fix my travel mistake.

This turned into a 3 hour saga!
The hotel’s wireless router wouldn’t allow me to connect. No one knew how to fix it.

Eventually, they gave me a bridge to connect the old fashioned way. However, it only allowed me to be online for approximately 2 minutes at time. So I could see the flights, just couldn’t select them. It was just plain silliness!

I was finally able to get everything taken care of. But I nearly lost my mind doing so.
In the process, I was unable to go out to dinner with co-workers.

4:30am on Saturday came very quickly! Ugh!

Little obstacles arose all day. From having problems with the Duet to cutting my elbow on something in the bathroom (I’m still not sure how I managed that one!)?

But the game was exciting, even though in the end, UNC won.

On my way back to the hotel, I picked up dinner. A storm was coming and I likely wouldn’t feel like going back out into the rain.

As I pulled into the parking lot, I noticed the winds were REALLY picking up. As I was getting out of my car a bunch of trees broke.

I scurried up to my room with the wind blowing all sorts of dirt & debris in my face.
(old hotel with exterior doors/hallways)

Dropped everything on the bed and turned on the TV to see what the radar looked like. Didn’t even get the chance to change the channel before losing power.

Ok. Now what?
I have 13 hours til my flight. Hmmmm….

So I did what any other idiot does in severe weather – sit in the window and watch the storm while eating dinner.

It started to get really hot in the room, so I pushed the big chair and ottoman over to the doorway and propped the door open. Knowing having the door propped open was a safety issue, I figured if someone was gonna try to come in, it would take effort to climb over the blockade.


After about an hour, I decided the lights were not coming on any time soon. So I went driving in search of candles. It took a while to find a store with power, but eventually did. Got 4 candles and headed back.


Since I needed to leave for the airport at 5:30am – if the power hadn’t been restored, I would be getting ready by candlelight. So while there was still some daylight trickling in the windows, I decided the best thing to do was to get as packed as possible for morning.

Then I was bored.

The weather had cleared so I took some magazines and went down to the pool. Sat in a wet debris covered chair and read a magazine until it was completely dark.

Went back to the room. 4 candles is not enough light to read by.

Can’t talk on the phone because it’s under 50% battery life.

Worked on a few things on the laptop and then went to bed.

I left 2 candles lit since I didn’t have the soothing comfort of a glowing TV.

Was actually able to sleep for about 6-7 hours which was very surprising!
Got up at 5am, lit the rest of the candles and at 5:07a, the power came back on. Ahhh… made getting ready so much easier!

Headed to the airport around 5:45a. Got my car returned, checked in and to security.

I dislike the Raleigh airport security checkpoint very, very, very much. The tables before the x-ray machine are no more than 4 feet long. This gives you NO time to take off your shoes, jacket, take out your liquids, laptops, etc. The TSA agents nag at you for holding up the line. Gee, I wonder why I am holding up the line? Maybe if you had longer tables like EVERY other airport you wouldn’t have long lines!!

This morning was no different. However, thanks to a 3 year-old, there was at least entertainment. She was in complete meltdown mode because she had to remove her shoes & backpack. Kicking and screaming blood curdling screams. It actually reached the point that you wondered if the child was being kidnapped. But she look a lot like her siblings and parents – so I think it was legit.

Ran into an engineer from Lyon while waiting for my flight. It was nice to catch up and have someone to pass the time with.

Made it back to Columbus by 10:30am.

What did I miss this weekend?
Nothing. As crazy as the trip was – this is what I live for. I can’t imagine my life any other way.

Columbus

May 1st – 3rd

Michigan vs Ohio State Baseball – Big Ten Network

The game on Friday was doomed from just about the time we arrived. Severe weather was on it’s way. It started raining around 2pm.

Tornado sirens started a little before 6pm and we were evacuated to the stadium bathrooms.

Eventually, the game was postponed until Saturday. Grrrr! That means a double-header!

Game 1 of the double-header was exciting! Pitcher Alex Wimmers, threw the first-ever 9-inning no-hitter game in 126 seasons of Ohio State baseball.

The time between games was cut short, making our transition of getting “off the air” after game1 and back “on the air” for game 2 a complete thrash. Some days TV is not fun!

Sunday’s game was… well another college baseball game.


What did I miss this weekend?
My friend Cliff was in town. I could of hung on the patio with him & Dave, cooking out, watching TV and drinking ice cold beer! But instead, I was a good girl and made sure I was in bed early each night.

Columbus

April 27th – 28th

Red, White & Boom! Preps – NBC4



Had a couple of meetings with the local NBC station about the upcoming RWB show on July 3rd. It’s a huge fireworks display in downtown Columbus. For as long as I can remember, NBC4 has televised it live.

A few years ago, I got involved with the project. It’s a lot of fun. Each year I am presented with new challenges, which is always a good thing!

I also did a few graphics tests over at Lyon and got to see their newest truck – “10” a few days before it was ready to roll to it’s first gig.

The tests can be frustrating every year. Like many TV stations across the country, they no longer have a graphics department. All of their graphics come from a “Hub” – theirs being in Richmond, VA.

A “hub” is a place where they make ALL the graphics for numerous TV stations every day. This way the TV stations save millions of dollars because they don’t have to have the staff or expensive equipment.

So the people who work at a station that is “hubbed” never get to interact with the people building their graphics. They send a request via email and viola! The graphic is sent back to them electronically.

I feel really bad for everyone that works at a “hubbed” station. My first reason being, I have a lot of friends who have lost their jobs because of "hubs". Plus, in any TV station across the country, I can guarantee you, the art department is THE coolest place to visit & hang out! They are always dark, music playing, cool & crazy stuff hanging on the walls and the most bizarre little trinkets places on everyone’s desk/work space.

Escaping from the circus of a newsroom to the art department for 5 minutes can revive anyone!

Back to RWB….
It’s frustrating because I don’t get to interact with the artists assigned to the project. I give the specifics to my client, who then fills out the correct forms, sends them to Richmond and a few days later I have graphics to test.

In life before “hubs”, I would sit down with the artist, he/she would give me a graphic, I would test it out on my laptop and then we would know right then and there what tweaks needed to be made.

Now the process takes much longer. And I miss out on the interaction with the artist. Typically on every project, during the course of all the meetings, I would always learn a new Photoshop trick or at minimum, get to catch up with the artist and what’s new in his/her life.

So… yes, I understand why TV stations “hub”. The money saved is astronomical. However, I am against them because I have watched so many people lose their jobs because of them. If I still worked in TV News, I likely would be jobless. I am also against them because it has made “quantity” more important than “quality”.

In looking for photos of the art departments I have worked in over the years – I didn’t have much luck! Mainly because I haven’t worked at a station since 2001 – which was before I had a digital camera. Like many of us, I have boxes and boxes of photos. So I am sure there are tons of them to share, I just don’t know what box they are in.

But I did find this one – it’s framed in my office. It was my last day at Ch. 6 in May 2001.

JR - Nic - Fritch

I also came across this one, it made me giggle. It’s from one of my birthdays. I am guessing maybe 1999? Showing a much younger Dave & Nic.


Of course in both photos, the lights are full blast and neither show the cool surroundings. (Lights were on because we were taking photos)

Columbus

April 25th

Chicago Fire vs Columbus Crew – Fox Soccer Channel – 7pm et

First REALLY nice weekend day in Columbus this year. Figures, I am working!

It was a good day though. I know I say this all the time, but it really uneventful. BUT, “uneventful” is a good thing! It means the graphics machine was working and all the rest of the crew was nice and easy to work with. Plus I got to wear flip flops - so that's always a good day!

I worked with my long time friend, Paul, who by the way is an avid “wheresnic.blogspot.com” reader.

Another friend, Melf, works for the Columbus Crew, so whenever I work at Crew Stadium, I always sit in his office on my meal break. So it was nice to chat with him for awhile.

I forgot to take photos. Maybe I will on my next game.

Chicago 2
Columbus 2

Which is why soccer is so stupid. Nobody wins!?

Columbus

April 23rd

I again worked CBJ Vision tonight. It was another exciting playoff game! This time, the Jackets almost pulled off a win.

DET 6
CBJ 5

Even though they lost, the fans were still ecstatic that the team FINALLY made it to the playoffs.

It was a great season!

Columbus

April 21st

Sookie’s parents got back from vacation yesterday and she was very happy to return home.

On April 21, 2009, Blue Jacket fans were rewarded with the very first home playoff game. What a feeling that was! It was so awesome to see the fans and their dedication to the team finally pay off!



The Arena District went all out to invite the fans out early to celebrate, with tents, heaters and beer stands.



Unfortunately, the weather was really crappy. But the die hard fans still showed up on the plaza.

And…. The score was pretty crappy too.
DET 4
CBJ 1

CTF!

Columbus

April 19th

Today was the Columbus Clippers 2nd day in their new digs – Huntington Park.

As a favor to a couple of our friends, Dave and I went to the game to observe the game operations. They had asked for our feedback on their ‘show’ and operations.

Game ops is basically the “show” you see while at any type of game. It’s everything from what you see on the “Jumbotron” to the entertainment you may see on the field/court/ice or even on the main concourse of an arena or stadium.

We have both been in the TV industry since the early 90s and have been involved in various aspects of game operations for the past 7 years for several NHL, NBA, AFL teams… and a few leagues/teams you’ve likely never heard of! Not to mention our jobs with various sports networks.

“Consulting” is something we both enjoy. Who doesn’t like free range to give your opinions?! Plus it’s nice to give back to the community that helped build who we are today.



As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Huntington Park is really nice! Granted, I have not sat in the seats yet – but overall – it’s a HUGE improvement from Cooper Stadium!



I am looking very forward to coming to a game as a fan this summer (when life settles down) !


What did I miss this weekend?
Absolutely nothing!
I wouldn't of spent it any other way!
It was SOOOO nice to spend a weekend like a normal person.