Thoughts on being busted up and the bathroom

I'm on crutches this morning. Every once in a while I'm reminded that I am no longer 15 years old. It happened as I ran up and tried to return a shot from my son on the tennis court Monday evening. Just as I lunged at the ball the ankle gave way and I came down in a clump. The ankle immediately began swelling up. My son said stay there, don't move, I'll get the car.

So I came to work yesterday, with the ankle swollen. My wonderful wife Kate was kind enough to drive me in. But hobbling around on this thing wasn't too smart. It ballooned!! The swelling was about the size of a grapefruit. I went to see Dr. Nunez. This is what she said, "Stay off your feet for 48 hours, you have to keep it elevated, and I'll give you a prescription. You need crutches, and you need to get an x-ray you might just have a fracture." Of course I'm like, "Well I have to go to work!" She replied, "I am writing you a note, you can not return to work until after the holiday."

Okay so I call the boss. Is she around, of course not. I leave a message for her. She calls back incredulous. After all I'm not on dancing with the stars. The ankle isn't all that important when all you do here is talk. I have to admit I kind of agree with her more than the doctor. But the doctor pointed out that I didn't do a very good job of caring for my finger when it was broken and now it's deformed. So it's Doctors orders. But after a short conversation with the news heirarchy I agree to come in and do the two hour show from 5 to 7 am.

I always want lots of viewers, but I hope against hope that my doctor isn't watching this morning. I have to say that it is awkward getting around with this dumb thing on my foot, and crutches. But at least I'm here. I did get the x-ray, and the radiologist is supposed to review it, and get in touch with the doctor. I'll keep you posted if it's broken, it will be breaking news here on the blog.

I don't usually comment on other blogs here on my blog. But if you get a chance you should check out Derek McGinty's. He weighs in on the Senator Larry Craig bathroom story. He talks about bathroom protocol.

I would like to chime in with some features of the bathroom protocol that he missed. Men are like grown up boys, if they are alone in the public bathroom they will look down and fire all around at any target they can find. We are in attack mode. I admit this makes us look juvenile, but hey we're guys.

If another guy enters the public restroom you immediately start looking forward at the wall. Another point, if you come into the public bathroom and there is a guy standing at one of the urinals you go to the furthest urinal you can find, preferably in another state. And one more point, wide stance. Please! If there is a guy anywhere near you, you move your legs in as far as physically possible. The other thing that Derek didn't mention is that all guys know this stuff. It's instinct, it's not something passed down from father to son. So I agree with Derek, the Senator's story just doesn't add up.

Bathroom breaks

It's probably not something you think about. But give it some thought, can you just sit there for a couple of hours pounding down coffee and water without taking a bathroom break? Of course not. How about sitting there for an hour doing the same thing? Of course not.

Timing that bathroom break while you are on the air can be problematic. Especially if you are a solo anchor. Of course I don't normally give this a lot of thought, except I did this week. I am sitting on the set and I shout out at our intrepid floor director Vera Elliott. "How long is this commercial break." Vera: "I don't know I'll check." Vera is the greatest, except when she says she'll check. Time is of the essence in a situation like this. She isn't nearly as concerned about this as I am.

So what happens, Vera waits for what seems like 30 seconds to ask the director. Now you need to know if the commercial break is 2 minutes, 30 seconds is vital. I also know that the director is now fumbling around looking for the rundown. It will probably take him 20 seconds to find out that it's a two minute break.

You spend a little time doing the math computations. Can I make it to the bathroom, take care of business and get back to the set on time? The answer of course is no. It's takes me about 10 seconds to get to the bathroom. I still have to factor in the time to wash my hands before I head back. So now I know I have to make it through another segment.

There is tension in my voice now. "Vera please, tell me how long the next commercial break is!" She tells me, "I don't know how long it is!" Me: "Please, please find out." Now I am doing that familiar squirm where you cross your legs in a vice grip I will do the interview, but my mind will be elsewhere. You can guess where and why.

As the break is coming to a close, Vera lets me know that I'll have 2:20 seconds after we get to the next break so I can go to you know where. Meantime now the peanut gallery is chiming in. Co-worker Danielle who goes by the specific title of diva shouts out, "Mike you have a pea sized bladder!" Not true, I shrug it off.

Fortunately the 2:20 second break comes and I'm off. Gone in a flash, and back in time for the next segment. The viewers will never know what happened, only you the blogging public will know.

From skateboard to Bonehead overnight

If you read my blog yesterday, you know that one of the guests on our 9 am show had a skateboard with my image on it. Frightening site don't you think? Amazingly I left the station yesterday and I transitioned from skateboard to bonehead.

On the drive home I suddenly realized that my sister's birthday was the day before. I had forgotten to call Patty. Here is one of the problems with relatives birthdays. They are all on the west coast. So the time difference is a problem. Here is one of the problems with me, I forget just about everything. I'm thinking to myself okay it's way to early to call the west coast. What do I do?

The answer seemed simple enough, just send Patty a text message. That's Patty pictured with her husband Jim at a recent wedding. So I send a text message. It was short, but it got right to the point..."I'm such a bonehead, I forgot your birthday, so sorry!" So last night before I went to bed I made it a point to call her. She answered the phone and I said happy birthday and she started laughing. She asked, "Do you want to wish me a happy birthday or Jim?" She laughed some more. Finally she confessed that I was really a bonehead because I had sent the text message to Jim's cell phone and not hers. Don't you just love technology? During our thirty minute conversation she tells me she thought I was really just messing with her the day before. Because wouldn't you know it I sent her a couple of e-mails. I could have included a little note like Happy Birthday. But I forgot.

Ironically I had sent her notes to let her know that I had mentioned her daughter and my niece on the air in the morning. That is Lindsey on the left. Lindsey Bloomfield works in radio and runs into Ryan Secrest in the hallway, where on occasion they have periodic chats. We mentioned him on the air, and I mentioned my niece too. To be honest I don't know how Ryan has time for periodic chats. I also can't understand why he's such a big star, but that's another story. Patty told me that she mentioned to Lindsey that I did a shout out to her on the air, and Lindsey had spent the morning doing a shout out to my brother Larry.

Larry helped with the construction of a project in Venice California that is noted for it's Jonathan Borofsky sculpture of the ballerina clown. Anyone who has traveled to Venice knows what I am talking about, but just in case you have never seen it I've pictured it here. My brother has been instrumental in so many projects but I'm afraid he will always be remembered for this one. I'm really proud of both of my brothers, and my five sisters. They've all done some pretty incredible things. Larry though has overcome his fair share of adversity and is a true inspiration. Busted up physically and emotionally after his stint in Vietnam, he dealt with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and everything else you can throw at a person who is sent off to fight in an unpopular war in a foreign land. Sometimes I think about my son who will soon be 17, and I think that was about the age that Larry learned he would have to go off to war. I can't imagine what it must have been like to come of age in Vietnam. Well I digress, let me get back to the sculpture, and my brothers project. I think you can figure out why he'll always be remembered for this one. It was a pretty controversial sculpture when it was put in place. Some like it, others don't. Right now Larry is Project Supterintendent on the Alexan Universal Project out in Southern California. So there you have it Lindsey mentions Larry, and I mention her, and just about everyone gets a mention in my blog. I guess you can call that family cross promotion.

Next year I won't be a clown and I'll remember to call my sister on her birthday and not a day late!

I am a skateboard

I guess if you live long enough you'll see everything at some point. Today I walk into the studio to do a traffic report and Steve Greenburg the Gadget guru lifts up this skateboard and on the bottom of it is a picture of me and Andrea. So there you have I am now officially a skateboard. I ask Steve, "Obviously no one in the world would want that after you leave this station, so what do you plan to do with it when you are done with it?" He says it's mine if I want it. I figure what a great gift for my teenage son. You can step on dad, you can slam dad into the curb, it's the ultimate gift for a teen. Think of all that teenage angst lifted with one simple skateboard.

I love the 9 am broadcast because of the diversity of the guests. Today I get the chance to interview Alec Klein. He has just written a book about a public high school in New York for prodigies. But even in a school of high achievers there has to be a kid or two that is troubled. It's just the nature of the game. In this case it's a teen named Jane. She just so happens to be strung out on heroin. She eventually stops talking to Alec and helping him with his book because he refuses to give her one hundred dollars. He knows the money will go to her pusher. Overall his book is about the kids who can, and do succeed, he describes them as the leaders of tomorrow. He ought to know he graduated from the same high school. Even so you can tell he still haunted by the young girl who had so much and decided to throw it all away.

Up next I interview the Mommy Docs. They are on to talk about fevers in kids. We talk for about four minutes, and then I ask the question that every parent wonders about.
How do you take the temperature? I take my pen and wave it around and then place it under my armpit and I say, "There are a lot of ways to take a temp, this is the one that everyone knows about, but what's the best way?" I'm afraid I already know the answer, and I'm right. "If it's a baby, rectally!" They are all smiles, but they can tell by my expression that I need reassurance. "Don't worry the kid won't remember it when they get older." I think even if they do, perhaps parents could go out and buy one of these special skateboards with there picture plastered on it, so they can take it out on the board instead of the parent.

Christmas in August

The e-mail had an urgent tone to it. It's not often that Tony Castrilli one of our newsroom managers intones panic in his e-mails. But this was as close to panic as you can get. The e-mail talked about Christmas and today. What does August 18Th have to do with Christmas. Well I'll let you read part of the e-mail.

"I have a rare question for you. As you know next week is the most requested vacation week of the year other than Christmas. As we confirmed you are off on Monday-Wednesday. I desperately need am anchor help on Saturday 8/18. This is the show from 6a-8a on Saturday mornings."

Just how desperate was Tony? I won't let you read the rest of the e-mail, but trust me he was ready to deal to get me to sit in this chair and anchor and blog on a Saturday. Normally I'm up at 2:30 in the morning during the week. So with a start time of 6 am instead of 5am I figured I'd get a little bit more sleep...why not go for it. Plus I get the pleasure of sitting next to one of the easiest going guys in this business Tony Pann.

Tony is a fantastic guy. But you know what I have to tell you the whole weather team is tops here. All of them are easy to work with and I count them among my friends here on the staff.

But while I sit here my thoughts are elsewhere. I am thinking about the friends I made in New Orleans earlier this year as I helped with relief efforts there. I heard on the radio as I drove in to work this morning that people in New Orleans are bracing for Hurricane Dean as it roars towards the Gulf Coast.

Right now TonyPann says it is likely to hit Texas, but hurricanes are unpredictable So the jittery people in New Orleans aren't taking any chances. Officials don't want a repeat of Katrina. So they are issuing warnings. Repairs have been made in the Crescent City. But it is far from being ready for another big strike.

If you spend any time in the Crescent City you hear the same refraim. Please don't forget us. I have not, so my thoughts will be in New Orleans this weekend. I will worry about those friends I made who are still trying to recover from the devastation of Katrina. If you'd like to see my reports on New Orleans here are the links.

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=59181

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=59230

How many hours?

I have a close friend who contends that you only get so many awake hours in life. Here is his premise: You get an allocation of awake hours. So you can live your life cramming as much as you can into 19, 20 or even 21 hours in a day. Then you sleep for just three or four hours. Or you can lead a normal life and get your customary 8 hours of blissful sleep. As my friend puts it, "Do you want to spend all those awake hours when you are young and have energy, or hold on to them when you are old and can't even move?" Needless to say my friend Gary is a crammer. He loves to cram as much as he can into every day.

I don't know that I agree with him, but when you work my hours on occasion you have to be a crammer. You've just got to cram as much as you can into a day. Yesterday I wrapped up the morning news, picked up my wife, and set out for Delaplane Virginia.

First stop for us is the Three Fox Vineyards, voted the number one winery in Northern Virginia by our viewers. It is a charming site. Just take a look.


We sip some wine and learn about the grapes and the process of producing the wine. Next stop the historic Ashby Inn in Paris Virginia. Kate and I had been invited out for this luncheon event by the group Washington Women and Wine.

The invitation comes from Karen McMullen. She is pictured here on the left. She came up with the idea for a gathering of women and wine in 1999. The one time event has grown. Now they host dinners and lunches all the time just like the one we attended yesterday. It's easy to see why the group has grown in popularity. We had a great time, with great food, and great company. I gave a short talk and exchanged goodbyes and then jumped back in the car. We left with some new friends and as honorary members of the Washington Women and Wine group.

We are home long enough to send a few e-mails and chat with our son. The pizza delivery guy arrives, and we wolf down some food and then bolt out the door again. Wolfing down food seems appropriate because next stop for us is Wolf Trap. Yes that's right three foxes and a wolf all in one day.

How is that, an afternoon with Foxes and an evening with a Wolf. My life is a zoo. I was operating on vapors to begin with. I only got four hours of sleep Wednesday night. But this was an appointment with one of the best singer songwriters out there. John Hiatt was on stage banging away on his guitar and piano. He was also singing some of his trademark tunes. Hiatt is remarkable. I can't think of a songwriter that can even hold a candle to him. His songs have been covered by Jimmy Buffett, Clapton, Dylan, B.B. King, Willie Nelson, and the list goes on. I wish I could have made it to the finale, but sleep came calling and we had to leave. For the record when I say sleep came calling, I mean that Kate was falling asleep, not me. Heck I could still be there now.

So if my friend Gary is right about the awake time thing, chances are I shaved a little time off the end of my life, but at this point it is well worth it.

Back to work

I haven't written lately because I've been gone. I just got back from the Big Apple. It was a short vacation, if you can call it that.

I know there are a lot of fans of New York out there. If you are among them stop reading this blog now.

I just don't get it! Plain and simple, I don't get it. I know New York has a lot to offer, I just can't figure out what it is.

When I go to New York what I find is a place with thousands of grumpy people. It is fast paced, and stress inducing environment. I find that it doesn't take long before I'm just as stressed out as everyone else, and terminally grumpy.

I have traveled to lots of cities, and there is only one that I can compare New York with. It's Moscow!

I remember being there in the early 90's. I remember staring at people getting off the bus or the subway there and seeing everyone armed with a blank stare. No spark in their eyes. Just vacant faces trudging through life. I tend to see the same thing on the streets of New York.

We were in New York to pick up our daughter at JFK. Of course you won't find any kindness as you wait in the terminal for your loved one to come off their plane. People with luggage managed to bang into us repeatedly. Move this way, here's another guy with luggage...bang. Move over here...same thing...bang. The security guard came by and barked at parents, "Watch your kids, move back!!" Welcome to happy town, welcome to New York.

We left the airport and decided to get some real New York style Pizza. We ended up at a pizza parlour that was highly recommended. The guy who took our order was right out of Seinfeld. He was the Pizza Nazi. We ordered a pizza, but also ordered bruschetta. He looked at me like I had three heads. "That's going to take time, I mean like 25 minutes! I want you to know it, because I don't want you coming up here and complaining in 20 minutes. None of this where's my food! You'll just have to wait, do you understand!" . What's not to understand, the guy is a jerk.

Later my wife went up to talk to him about desserts. Here is the gist of the one sided conversation: "We're all out, you have to order cheesecake, that's all we have, take it or leave it." Customer service and dealing with people were obviously strong suits for this guy.

There is this famous speech attributed to Kurt Vonnegut that he never gave. It was the commencement address at MIT in 1997. It is still worth citing, only it was actually written by Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune. It was her ideal commencement address she would give if ever asked. In it she wrote, "Live in New York once but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft." I did one, but don't plan on doing the other. Unless staying three days in a New York hotel counts as living somewhere. It felt like a lifetime for me!

WHEN WALTER MET WAGNER

My daughters car is on the fritz. So we drove down to Charlottesville to drop it off with Buck. Courtney has taken her car to Buck's Auto for a while now. He's fair, does good work, and his price is right. We promised our daughter before she left for Guyana that her car would be fixed when she got back. So the race was on, since she returns on Sunday. Buck has promised he can get the job done in two hours.

So what do you do with those two hours? Just sit there and wait? Read a book? I have a plan. How about lunch with an Academy Award winner? I give Paul Wagner a call and he agrees to meet up with us for lunch. So Kate drives Courtney's car, and I drive mine, just in case the car breaks down on the way down there.

Paul doesn't look like Dustin Hoffman or Robert Deniro or any of the other folks that might come to mind when you think of Academy Award winners. He's thin, about my height with a shock of gray hair, a gray beard, and a dynamic smile. We arrive first and wait. After a few minutes he enters the restaurant. I jump up, and wave, he smiles that smile and heads in our direction.

Paul is a fascinating guy. He used to live and work here in the district, but he and his wife and film making partner Ellen Casey Wagner made a conscious decision to leave the city and move to Charlottesville. It was a quality of life issue. He has young kids and the move just seemed to make sense to them.

Paul is unique in that he's an independent filmmaker working in of all places Charlottesville. That's about as far from Hollywood as you can get. Paul can do it all. He's a writer, producer, director. He'll make dramatic films and documentaries. He won his Oscar back in 1984 for his documentary "The Stone Carvers."

We catch up on his most recent projects. He seems to be most enthusiastic about a documentary featuring some of the finest Irish performers in the country. He's been in the edit room trying to get this thing done. It will obviously air right around St. Patrick's Day.

You can learn so much from Paul. One of the things I like is his work ethic. He won't let his computer anywhere near his editing suite. He'll check the emails before he starts editing then checks them again when he's done. As he points out, "I wouldn't be able to get anything done if I had access to e-mail while I was working, I'd be checking it all the time." I know this is true because before we began our journey down to Charlottesville I wrote with a suggestion of where we could meet for lunch. When I called he made no mention of my suggestion and threw out his own idea of a place to get together. When I got home I was greeted by this note from Paul responding to my suggestion. It came a couple of hours after lunch.

" Hi Mike, I'm just now seeing this. Thanks for lunch, and best of luck. Best, Paul "

Needless to say he chose the restaurant, and in my mind it was just like Paul, an Academy Award winner. To learn more about Paul check out these websites.

http://www.windhorsemovie.com/

http://www.paulwagnerfilms.com/

Coming Together

A year ago my daughter was at my side as we labored over our grill. We were grilling hot dogs, burgers, and veggie burgers. The veggie burgers were for Courtney. The rest of the food was for our neighbors. It was national night out. This year the party moved two doors down to the Bailey's home.

This year I spent some time talking to Dave

Bailey. He's a reservist just back from Iraq. He told me that the funniest thing people ask him now that he is back is this. "Are you happy to be back?" He looks at me with a glint in the eye, and a smile. The answer obviously is "Duh!" But Dave takes it in stride. Plus he's lightning fast, he makes quick work of the brats and hot dogs.

Every year the highlight is when the Police arrive. When is that a highlight? Let's be honest, normally when the police come rolling up to your house it can't be good. But on this night, it's fun. Bill Baird and Patricia Gallagher posed for pictures and handed out all kinds of do-dads to the little kids. Better yet they gave them a chance to roam around in the paddy wagon. It was a fun evening, an opportunity to come together as a group, a chance to celebrate our efforts in combating crime in our area. I'd like to offer a big thanks to Nancy Davis who took these pictures. She is the person who runs our neighborhood watch. She has us in her rotation.

A BUSY DAY

I know that I have an appointment with you daily, and I let you down yesterday. But boy what a day! After doing the morning newscasts, I bolted upstairs to make some DVD dubs for a meeting I was having out at the Capital Area Food Bank.

A good friend Adam Shapiro stopped by the station to briefly meet with me and our news director. Then the race was on to the garage. Adam and I piled into the car and headed out.

The meeting at the Food Bank was slated to start at 12:30. I promised Jana Richardson I would get there early. Jana is on the Food Bank staff and she wanted to go over some things since I was chairing this meeting. I told her I would be there 15 minutes early. I glanced at the clock radio, and it read 12:23.

I managed to dodge past one of the big trucks getting ready to back up to the loading bay to get loaded up with food. I hopped out and started the sprint up the stairs. As I made my way down the hall I caught the eye of Jana. "Are they already here?" She smiled and answered, "Yes!"

We huddled in the hallway briefly, and decided on how to proceed with the meeting. Then I entered the room with an agenda and a plan. Both were gone in a matter of minutes. I had to change it on the fly because some would have to leave the meeting early. Oh well, that's what you get when you have a guy in charge who's used to ad libbing and free lancing.

The meeting was my idea, I'm trying to recruit people to help with organizing and putting on the Blue Jeans Ball next year.

So I'm trying to assemble an event committee of all stars to help out. As the meeting progresses they begin to throw out ideas, and that's exactly what I'm looking for. Some people who are willing to have ownership, to be creative, to take us to the next level.

So by the time I got home it was around 4:30 in the afternoon. I'm exhausted but excited because I think I have a great team to work with me. I'll keep you posted on the progress and the date of the event so that you can get your tickets before they start going fast. To learn more about the Capital Area Food Bank check out their site. It's posted here. http://www.capitalareafoodbank.org/

THE FUTURE

Our business is now the Crystal Ball business. I guess I understand it, if you know what the future is all about you can prepare for it, and more importantly profit from it. So everyone in our business is constantly saying this is what's going to happen, and that's what's going to happen. They all seem to think they know what's going to happen in the future. So you have all these warring factions arguing with each other. Somebody has got a faulty crystal ball, the question is who?






So last night Kate and I sat down for dinner with a guy who has one of those crystal balls. When Jerry Whitaker talks people listen. He's a close friend. We've known Jerry when he was just a working guy. I'm not sure when he was granted a crystal ball, but trust me he has one. He was a broadcast engineer back in the early 1980's. Now he's got a really fancy title.


Jerry is Vice President Standards Development at the ATSC. The ATSC stands for Advanced Television Systems Committee. It's an international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television. This whole HDTV thing they're the one's who decide on these issues. They recommend practices to advance terrestrial digital television broadcasting.







You've heard the old saying, "Oh he wrote the book on that!", well Jerry goes one better. Jerry is the author and editor of more than 30 books on technical topics. Prior to that he ran the publishing company Technical Press. I can see you now, "Okay, okay already, I believe the guy has a crystal ball, so what is he saying!!"

Satellite Radio? Thumbs down...Jerry: "Have they ever made any money?"
XM- Sirius merger proposal? Thumbs down...Jerry: "I hope it doesn't go through I still believe in the tradition broadcast models."
The Internet beating broadcasters brains in? Jerry..."I don't think so."
He sees a bright future for broadcasters as they continue to move forward with new technologies like delivering content to your phone.

Jerry: "The problem with broadcasters is they keep looking at Google, and some of these other sites." He acknowledges they are making money hand over fist. and broadcasters want a piece of it.

The problem as Jerry sees it is that Google and the others are non traditional models, and broadcasters are traditional. He thinks we should stick with their strengths. "Broadcasters will make money on their websites, but I don't think a lot. It's good to drive traffic there through your TV station. But I don't see it as a huge money maker for them."

So should I continue to blog? Wait, I forgot to ask him that question! Maybe I didn't want to hear the answer. Talk to you again on Monday.

A Legg Up

I got in my ever popular middle of the week nap yesterday. I hit the pillow right around 1:30 and was up, groggy, but awake at 2:30. I looked at myself in the mirror, but it wasn't me. Looking back at me with a confused glazed expression was a cross between carrot top and Lyle Lovett. What do you do? Is it time for the baseball cap? I ran the brush through my hair and it looked passable. By now my son Trevor was asking if I was ready to go.





We left shortly after 3pm. We had tickets to Legg Mason. The tennis started at 4pm. Trevor wanted to be there for it all. Of course traffic on the beltway got in the way of that. We arrived around 4:20. Still plenty of time to take in some great tennis.

We were like the rest of the audience, pulling for the hometown favorite Paul Goldstein. Every shot that he was able to sneak by Radek Stepanek would be greeted with calls from the crowd, "That's it Pauley". In the end he didn't have enough to pull off the upset. He went down to defeat.


Up next the flamboyant Frenchman, Arnaud Clement. . He with the orange shirt and orange bandanna. The orange was just like Sampson's hair. Once he took the orange off his game went with it. So the upset the crowd wanted so desperately would come now. As Thomas Johansson beats Clement. The guy sitting next to me says in a hushed tone, "This is the last thing they want." They being the people putting on the tourney. The last thing you want to see is the stars dropping like flies, unless of course it's Pauley getting the win.

It wasn't just talk, but tennis at the Legg Mason Tennis classic. The evening provided a little levity. The ever engaging Diane McGraw held court telling one funny story after another. McGraw a luminary in the sports entertainment industry for more than two decades.

The best story dealt with her first foray into tennis. Just starting out she was organizing and promoting a tennis tourney in New York. She admits she knew very little about the sport. "I put on a party at Studio 54" She's telling the story with a broad smile.

She invited all the heavy hitters to the party, and everything was in order. "So a couple guys walk in looking all scraggly, and dressed poorly, and I go up and say I'm sorry this is a private party and you are going to have to leave." They looked at her with a stunned expression and agree to leave. Only then did someone run up to her with a panicked expression. That's when they told her, "You just kicked out John McEnroe and Peter Fleming."

Diane laughs and talks about how she chased after them. Running out into the street and pleading with them to return. Her story made me feel good because as I watch this parade of tennis stars making their way out on to the court I had to admit I didn't recognise a big chunk of them. I kept asking my son who is this guy? Who is that? At least I could leave knowing that I could spot John McEnroe in a police lineup. But then again you have to know now at least Diane can too!

New month new changes

There are certain things you never get used to in our business. One is saying goodbye. It's hard to say goodbye to viewers when you leave a station and move on. It's hard to say goodbye to colleagues too when they move on. This morning was one of those mornings. We said goodbye to Nicole who is moving on. Tears began to well up as she said so long. The station has signed on with a new company to provide our traffic reports. Nicole will continue to work for her company Metro traffic.

It's sad to see her go, but everyone is excited with the prospect of our new traffic reports. Jay Mishkin our Executive Producer showed me recently how the traffic reports look in Tampa. You'll be impressed.

Now on to another subject: The morning routine. I'm like you I have a normal morning routine. The alarm sounds at 2:25 a.m.. I go downstairs and start the coffee, have my bowl of cereal and a DanActive. Then it's back to the den to take a look at a few websites. I'll check my work e-mail from the night before. By now the coffee is ready, I pour that first cup and head upstairs to jump in the shower and get ready for the day.

I know that my morning routine is likely to set the table for your morning routine. It's funny sometimes thinking that thousands of people add me to their morning routine. I'm right there with the alarm clock and the coffee, and needless to say I'm honored.

I love running into viewers out in public. Last night I was wrapping up dinner and heading out the door of one of my favorite establishments, Fat Tuesdays, when I heard the familiar call. "Hey Mike!". It was Phil, a longtime viewer who I had run into before at Fat Tuesday's. He's a committed viewer. He informed me, "I watch you every morning in my boxers!" I told him one day I'll have to do the news in my boxers as a sign of solidarity. Just kidding of course. But it's another reminder of why I like the fact that you can see me, and I can't see you!