pumpkin seed heaven

That's where I'm at, all right. My seeds are hot and toasted to perfection, much like the guy in the commerical thinks he is. I'm sitting in my bedroom with a bowl of Cocoa Puffs feeling guilty.

knock, knock, knock ... PAUSE ... knock, knock, knock

I'm sorry, kiddos! I didn't buy candy. I am generally a festive person during the holidays, but I celebrated Samhain last night. My cold has me under the weather. Tonight I plan to celebrate with a cup of tea, a good book and a warm bed. If anyone could manage to get a prescription for a Z-Pac, I'll take it.

Have a great All Hallows' Day tomorrow.

Boss's word of the day:
supercilious

happy halloween

I am a master carver. I broke two knives in the carving process. Guest Laura is responsible for the third. Good thing cheap knives are just cheap knives.

"The Spook" by Laura and the "Standard Jack" by Elie

new and improved

CHECK IT OUT

afghanistan

I'm really proud of the work that photographer David Carson did in Afghanistan. He is now back in the United States, safe and sound. Click here to see five audio slideshows filled with vibrant photos and stories.

For another thought-provoking piece, click here.

pumkin seeds, anyone?

open invitation: my house, tomorrow night, vikings, pumpkin carving, pumpkin seeds, red wine and maybe some hot apple cider

verification of existence

I am told that I can do anything because time, right now, does not exist. A friend says it has something to do with that whole falling back thing. We already had a 1 a.m. tonight so this hour of time, technically, doesn't exist. He says he'll do something crazy. I say I'll prove that this time does exist- the timestamp on this post as proof.

Speaking of verifying our existence, as a city St. Louis is doing well. The Cardinals have put us in the spotlight. A clip from Busch Stadium was used on Saturday Night Live tonight. As I drove home a bit ago, the radio blared "I'm from the Lou' and I'm proud." Yes, St. Louis, you are here and you are real.

I felt a swell of STL pride this evening, in fact. A friend and I walked down a Soulard street and saw a sign taped shoddily to the exterior of an apartment. The sign said, "party." We heard the music and turned the knob. Not too many people were around but the keg was there and available. Eventually a guy said hi and took our picture. We introduced ourselves and found out he was celebrating his passing of the Missouri Bar. The house was his and he invited us to stay. We did. Many of the folks were in costume, as it was something of a Halloween party. The Fifth Element took the cake in the costume contest, although the guy dressed as a (functioning) beer keg was also intriguing. Ah, friendly midwestern folk, gotta love 'em.

We don't need technical time to know we are alive. Right now, I exist and so, too, time and you.

aftermath

The result of Cardinals coverage and no time for myself - a sad fridge. As a side note, Pedialyte is not a staple of my diet, just leftover from a bad stomach the week before.

it is done

Tonight I got my life back- the Cards won. I had the opportunity to shoot this overall shot from near the pressbox at the end of the game using a 14mm lens. The horizontal frame was me playing as the ninth inning wound down.

Question- what if everyone ran around expressing their emotions without the help of beer and a Cards' victory? Would the world be better or worse?

la serie mundial

Wow ... I should be in bed, but, alas, I must blog. Sometimes I feel like my brain cells go to the most creative corners of my mind when I am exhausted. When I most need sleep, they don't allow it. I'm generally a person who needs my eight hours a night, but I chugged 24 ounces of some energy drink and there's no stopping me now.

Covering a World Series is a lot of fun, to put it vaguely. I've covered other major sporting events in teams before but never for a newspaper. Working for a magazine, deadlines are usually a little looser, but with the newspaper it's all about quick turnaround. For those of you not wrapped up in the world of journalism, let me give you a couple of details about our coverage. We have five to six photographers covering each game. In addition, there are two to three editors on site to look at the images and select the ones to caption and send back to the newspaper. [To give you an idea, tonight we sent back 212 images of thousands that we reviewed.] At the newspaper an editor looks at the images and decides how and where to use these images in the paper, usually in conversation with the designer. Much work goes into what you see in the morning when you open your newspaper. Know and appreciate that.

Tonight Jerry, a fellow P-D editor, L.G. and I were some of the last to leave the stadium. The ushers actually had to ask us to leave. I've posted a couple of photos for fun. The first is L.G. crossing the street with his mighty lens. The second is a shot of Jerry during the editing madness. We all feel how Jerry looks in this frame :-) The third shot is me saying hello to all of you from the Bank of America box.

Tomorrow night, wait, I mean tonight could be the big night, the Cardinals just might do it. I'm going to have to fight this energy pulsing inside me and get some sleep. Tomorrow, ugggh, today will be a long day, but boy do I realize how lucky I am to be a part of it.

delirious

What do you do after a full day of waiting for the World Series to happen when at the end it never does? You go play volleyball. Who's heard of a 10:50 p.m. volleyball game? Well, now I can say I have. I drove straight from the stadium in my collared shirt and khakis after the rain cancellation was announced. A colleague was nice enough to bring an extra T-shirt from home and, as a joke, brought this lovely GIRLS GONE WILD tank. Ah, I thought, what the heck, I'll give it a try. The results were not pleasing. I've gone wild after little sleep and work thoughts involving baseball, Afghanistan and a bit of cassava.

They say, "STLtoday sells papers!"

The hum of the rain puts my soul and mind to sleep so peacefully.

child

this is beauty • natural beauty • she's got it inside • and out • it comes in a whisper • and a shout

this little light of mine

Lighting candles at night makes me feel good and relaxed. What's your favorite scent? My current scent is called rejuvenating spa. It can be found at the local Walgreens.

redbirds

The rest of the Redbird contingent was in Detroit today, so I shot practice at Busch, which will be my home for the next three days.

cartalator

I had never been to a Target with a special escalator for carts until moving to St. Louis. Now, it doesn't sound like anything that special, but I have to admit that it makes me chuckle to watch people use the apparatus, especially for the first time. I used to be afraid of escalators when I was a wee one. In rural North Dakota, let's just say there weren't too many escalators for me to ride. In fact, I cannot think of one building in my town of about 2500 that had those moving stairs. One of my first escalator memories comes from the D.C. Metro. My family and I traveled to the Capital for my sixth birthday, and I can vividly remember staring up at the endless escalator stretching into the sky. Needless to say my fear soon turned into a joy after my dad lifted me up and put me on the beast. Then, I couldn't wait for the next ride. Funny how experience changes perception.

Boss's words of the day:
wicked cool

dork it up

Went to the Science Center today - it's National Chemistry Week. The bugs are roaches from the rainforests of South America ... yummy. Checked out the Omnimax theatre showing of "Adrenaline Rush, The Science of Risk." Neat, neat cinemaphotography. Loved a couple of thoughts from the movie ...

"You don't have to be at risk to feel at risk."

"If being on a boat isn't swimming, being on a plane isn't really flying."
[Guess who said this? A skydiver who is married to another skydiver who averages seven jumps a day.]

If I had less MAO, I'd be a BASE jumper :-)

There are a couple of other good Omnimax productions playing right now - one about Africa and another about Greece. As a member, I get tons of free tickets, so if anyone can bear to hang out with me for a couple of hours, I will reward you with an Omnimax ticket. Hollar.

friday night lights

The East St. Louis Flyers beat the Belleville East Lancers 56-21 and earned the title of Southwestern Conference champs on Friday.

"All right, all right, all right! Eastside, Eastside, Eastside!"

a nailbiter

The Redbirds are going to the World Series, and they may have made a fan out of me. What a thrilling seven games. Go Cards!

messy messes

My friends have one thing in common - messy rooms. I decided to start a collection of messy room portraits.

jasoom

Haven't had one of these for a while ...

Boss's quirky phrase of the day:
" ... that would make my heart go pitter patter."

by request

rain + pavement = wet pavement
wet pavement + lights = pretty reflections
pretty reflections + camera = bliss

I wrote a poem on May 19, 2003. These photos reminded me of this line.

" ... diffused streams of color paint the pavement ... "

lover leaves

I've never seen two leaves more enamored with each other :-)

erg

Lesson 4: Always care spare AA batteries. My baby point and shoot takes four batteries and having three good ones does no good.

one woman's junk is my treasure

Found this in a yard over by the Botanical Gardens today. A quick dusting, a couple screws and some hardware ... voila, I got me a nightstand.

tres amigos

The neighborhood boys

gringas dulces

Suggestion for Saturday late-night food: Church's, where else!

Where else is everyone so friendly? Went through the drive-thru on foot. Had a great conversation with the woman at the window. Got a sweet deal on biscuits. Met a Welch girl, Lisa, who had arrived in town from London that same night. She joined a friend and I on the curb. Asked a girl to borrow a pen to give Lisa some recommendations, and the girl gave me the pen, which was a Papermate. I was feeling the Church's love ...

The "friend" in the photo is Shannon. She gets some serious points. She suggested going to the Ani DiFranco concert last night, which was relaxing. A certain line sticks in my mind that goes something like, "Integrity wins over desire." Shannon also introduced me to Pandora, which I am now addicted to. It lets you "create" radio stations based on artists/songs you like. It's really ingenius.

Hit Los Catrachos again for horchata and latin love. Happy.

photo tunes

On the way to work today I listened to a nice mix created during my six weeks at Poynter. In case you didn't catch on, this is a "photo" inspired mix- one of the finest, I might add.

1. The Kinks - Picture Book (The Village Green Preservation)
2. Blondie - Picture This (Greatest Hits)
3. Spoon - I Turn My Camera On (Gimme Fiction)
4. Kimmie Rhodes and Willie Nelson - Picture in a Frame
5. Athlete - Beautiful (Vehicles & Animals)
6. The Who - Pictures of Lily (Who's Better, Who's Best)
7. The Cure - Pictures of You
8. The Killers - Smile Like You Mean It (Hot Fuss)
9. Jet - Look What You've Done (Get Born)
10. Weezer - Photograph
11. Filter - Take a Picture
12. Ryan Adams - Burning Photographs
13. Wilco - Kamera (Yankee Hotel Foxtrot)
14. Snow Patrol - Open Your Eyes (Eyes Open)
15. Ben Harper - Picture in a Frame (Both Sides of the Gun)
16. John Mayer - 3x5 (Room For Squares)
17. Def Leppard - Photograph (Vault)
18. Paul Simon - Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
19. Coldplay - How You See the World No. 2

Listening made me think of all the wonderful folks I met in that six weeks. Pulled a couple of images for memories sake. There's my roomie Karen on the First Amendment. One of the greatest quotes ever, said by fellow Creighton Welch, "I'm going to slip and die on the First Amendment." In Creighton's defense, it did rain a lot in St. Petersburg and that First Amendment did get slippery. The other photo is of our friend at good old Eckerd College. I am convinced he had rabies, but despite that fact, he was pretty sweet.

from the fifth floor

Forget that quote about horses selling papers. This week's news meetings blow that comment out of the water.

"Emus sell papers."
"Bushes sell papers" [as in George and Laura]
"Bushes sell emus."
"Ostriches don't sell papers."

heart and soul

You guessed it ... the cards.

tea for two

Which cup would you like? They both have a stick of cinnamon.

tonight, regurgitated

In no particular order with no particular associations:

mayfair, downtown, alabaster, plaster, mississippi, renaissance, hacks, shelf, the hill, daudi, coffee, mom, dad, chambord, 1111, mashed, spinach, coffee table, champagne, 14 X 18, bug, politics, tired, clinton, hillary, army, black, woman, obama, too late to register, cold, takoma park, sheets, hydrogen, bush, edit, green, hand, rwanda, target, tanzania, africa, pakistan, bosnia, men, potatoes, beef medallions, mole, prius, salvation, mccain, blackberry, first man, turkish, scarf, rain, delay, chandeliers, vote, heineken, queen, batteries, fashion, starbucks, free trade, la salle, frame, drill, goodwill, afghanistan, 40 percent happy, design, shaws, shopping cart escalator, good night

a thought on communication

Make the person you are with a priority. Move the conversation you are in to the front of your mind. Live in the moment and see how it makes others feel. Be present. It's tough.

dang, i'm done

Good work tonight by our staff. Have a peek at our feature that recaps the NLDCS run for the cards, Playoff Replay.

on hold

Weekend Summary:
Mizzou wins, still undeafeated
Vikes win, barely
Chiefs win, barely
Rams win

I'm happy. However, the Cardinals have put my life on hold, temporarily. My work schedule is mostly determined by their wining and/or losing. It's kind of fun and spontaneous. It's kind of annoying :-)

Up until the end of the game, when my day starts. Back to green tea and the Cards.

a night of grace

Camp fires are wonderful. One night I'll hit the Royale with a bag of marshmallows. You are all invited. Bring your own sticks.



Musical prodigy Chad, Emperor X, rests at the Royale. You can find him asleep at the Greyhound station on Tucker until his bus comes at 8:30 a.m. Good to have you in town, Floridian. Good luck on the road.

incredidogs

Shelley Holland, of Lady Lake, Fla., celebrates the first place victory of her dog, Will B. Quick, in the Jack Russell Hurdle Race at the Purina Incredible Dog Challenge at Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Mo. Holland said, "I'm weak, I'm so proud. He has such a heart!" This was the first ever win for Will B. Quick and Holland.



Anyone who knows me, knows that I love dogs. And, well, anyone who REALLY knows me, knows that if I were a dog, I'd be a Jack Russell Terrier. Today I headed out to Purina Farms in Gray Summit, Mo., to catch some of the Incredible Dog Challenge. The event was a riot, and it's not too late for you all to catch the action. It will be aired on NBC Jan. 7. These photos are from the Jack Russell Hurdle Race. Seeing Shelley hug her pup was priceless. I couldn't help but smile as I looked around the place and saw an almost 1:1 dog to human ratio. Even better was when you couldn't tell the dog from the person. While I was there, one of the greyhounds set a world record in the high jump at 68 inches. Greyhounds, poodles, jacks and more and only thirty minutes from my door :-)

I'll update my sportsshooter page soon with more photos from the day.

ode to the fockers

We won today!!!

manholes and womanholes

Most of the time, I love being a woman. Being a woman entitles me to certain joys and privileges, believe it or not. However, tonight I got smacked in the face with one of the disadvantages of being a woman. It's Friday night and it's fall. Apple cider, football and seeing your breath in the air bless this time of year. So, what do I want to do? I want to go watch East St. Louis High School play Edwardsville High School in what I am calling the "game of the century." East St. Louis is undefeated. The game is the last game at home for East St. Louis and also homecoming. If they win, they remain at the top of the conference alone. If they lose, East St. Louis would be in a four-way tie for the top spot. Yes, it would have been some good football to see.

But guess what? I didn't go. I asked many of my friends. Some weren't interested, others couldn't make it. But who cares, after all, I could go by myself, right? I was all but out the door when someone stopped to ask me, "Are you going alone?" Ummm, yeah, I thought, no big deal. I guess that's where I was wrong. Apparently going to East St. Louis alone at night as a woman isn't the best idea, I was told. As a journalist and person I put a lot of faith and trust in people. I've walked places in Costa Rica late at night with more money and camera equipment than I ever should have. I've done the same in many U.S. cities. I've always told myself that "the scary stuff" can happen anywhere, whether in East St. Louis or your yuppy backyard, and that you cannot live your life in fear. Call me naive, but I'm sure I could have gone and been fine. Ordinarily, I would have just gone, but something inside me told me to wise up. Suddenly, being cautious felt okay, at least for tonight.

So instead I went downtown to a gallery crawl on Washington Avenue. It was no East St. Louis football game, but, well, I'm safe. Still, I feel somewhat jipped. It's hard to know that if I were a guy I would have crossed the river and seen Jessie Mitchell of East St. Louis recover a fumble at the 50-yard-line with 4 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game. In the final four seconds of the game I would have also seen Jerrell McDaniel intercept a pass to bring East St. Louis to a 21-17 homecoming victory. I even missed the kicking of a 51-yard field goal. Yes, this is high school football I'm talking about! Maybe I should have taken the risk, maybe next time I will. Regardless, I'll always be a woman, and, in the end, I recognize that, live with that and embrace that.

my new friend, drop

What the hell is this? Electric bird poop? Berry juice? Yikes.

This drop rode with me to work and came home with me too. He sat right next to me on my drivers window.