A bit about RAGBRAI . . . A big fire . . . A crazy bachelorette party

Sorry for the delayed post, everyone. It seems as if everytime I've started a new blog during the past few weeks, something comes up and I can't get it finished. I've already had multiple interruptions while trying to get this one going, but I refuse to leave tonight without getting it done. The big deal this week . . . PICTURES!

OK, I know people are probably sick of hearing about RAGBRAI. Bear with me. For years acquaintances of mine have pestered me about doing at least a portion of the ride. Of course, this is the year I should've done it . . . given the fact that the most famous cyclist IN THE WORLD was on the route. Oh well. Here is a funny blurb from my friend Dave, who teaches spinning classes at Walnut Creek YMCA (he's also been doing RAGBRAI for a gazillion years).

RAGBRAI is like the human body. Lance at RAGBRAI is like scraping your elbow. You focus on it a bit, take care of it, and move on with your life. RAGBRAI won't fundamentally change because of Lance, but his presence does cause a stir. While he was the talk of the day for a couple of days, you still had to go on with the ride, eat, shower, camp, ride, deal with hills, heat, headwinds ect. I say to Lance, 'Welcome to Iowa, and bring your ex-girlfriend too!'

I wrote back, telling Dave I think it would ROCK if Sheryl Crow showed up next year and asking if he got a glimse of Lance. Here is his response:

Dude, we were hammering to hang with the man and his posse! We had the whole train that day (see pic!). we are usually a 13-14mph machine and were doing 27-28mph just to hang! He did comment as he passed us going up a hill "Whoa, what a STACK!" (talking about our rig... I assume!). Dee, the kids, and I NAILED it to latch on to his group by the top of the hill.... so... alas... no pics of the man. At one point I asked Dee "Can you see his legs?" "OH YEAH!" was her reply. I had to wipe the corners of her mouth when we stopped in Victor! (she'd never admit to that, so don't bother asking her!!!)

This is the Mable family doing RAGBRAI. Dave emailed me this pic, but I think it may be a Des Moines Register photo. So, here's credit to The Register just in case. All I have to say about this is that I can't imagine taking three kids on a week-long bike ride/camping trip in 90 degree weather. I couldn't even babysit for that long, much less under those conditions. Well, maybe I could . . . if Lance Armstrong was there.

There are huge wildfires tearing up northwestern Nebraska. . . not a big deal to most of you, but a big deal to me because my hometown of Chadron is on fire. Literally. The nighttime picture shows the sillouette of the one high rise dorm on the Chadron State College campus, which sits on the south side of town. The other photo is also of CSC. . . the hill on the right side of the photo is known as "C-Hill" and is something of a landmark. Both of these photographs are courtesy of my hometown paper The Chadron Record. Last Friday, the southern part of town was evacutated (about 1,200 people). My middle school math teacher's home burned, along with about a half dozen others. I talked to my folks yesterday. They're in Phoenix, and more than a little freaked out about what's happening at home. Just two weeks ago, my aunt and uncle were told to evacuate their home in Valentine, NE which is just a few hours east of Chadron. Scary.

This last Saturday, a bunch of us celebrated Lynn Melling's final days as a single woman. I haven't been part of a bachelorette party for some time, and this was a good one. I will not disclose details of what kind of goofy things we forced Lynn to wear, carry and drink . . . that's her call. Needless to say, we all had a good time. I know lots of guys who are heartbroken that Miss Lynn will be officially "off the market", and with good reason. If I get permission, I may add some pics for this section in a few days (stay tuned).

As always, thanks for reading and posting comments and sending emails. My brain is fried from teaching myself how to add pictures to this darn thing (by the way, Dave Price has a little brainiac intern who helps him with this stuff . . . I do not have an intern, and I'm technologically challenged).

Be well!

Erin

Feelin' hot, Hot, HOT!

I've always said I would rather sweat, than shiver.
That's still true, but this weather is ridiculous.
It's really ridiculous when your air conditioning stops working. It happened at my house yesterday and when I came home from work last night, the thermostat read 86 degrees! My husband had been to a hardware store to pick up fans, he'd opened up the doors after hearing on our news that it was "cooling off" and when I walked in the door he was standing in our kitchen sweating like he'd been running up and down the stairs all night!
After a relatively brief discussion about sweating through the night, we locked up and went to a hotel.
I feel like a sissy.
When I first moved back to Des Moines to work in tv, the first two apartments I lived in had no AC (and the heat didn't work in the second one). For the most part it didn't bother me, until the weather got like this. However, the situation changed dramatically when I got married and started sleeping next to a guy whose internal furnace runs waaaaaaaaay hotter than mine. It seems like this is the case with most couples. Guy's always hot. Woman's always cold. The thing is, when it's cold you can always add more clothing or blankets. When it's hot, you can only get so naked.
Here at WHO, the AC works GREAT. It works so well, in fact that our 10 o'clock producer Maggie has a giant blanket on hand and she frequently walks around wrapped up in it. She was wearing it like an enormous poncho in here yesterday. There's a big old sweatshirt in our womens dressing room that I throw on over my suit on a regular basis. People think we're nuts.
I'm hoping the AC is fixed by the time I go home tonight. If not, maybe we'll sleep at the station.
And on that note, if you have the means to do so - think about donating to those in need. There are a lot of people in Central Iowa who don't have AC, and a lot of other things many of us take for granted (until they're broken). The Salvation Army is a great organization to contact if you're interested in helping by donating fans or air conditioning units, and the DM Fire Department is collecting and dispersing them as well.
Be cool!
Erin
erin.kiernan@whotv.com
And as always, thanks for the feedback. I got a lot of great comments about the flag issue... it's always a hot topic, even if you can see both sides like Casey does. Nathan, you're right about spinning AND weddings. Heather, it's always nice reading your friendly comments.

It is a SMALL world . . . Wedding season . . . Red, White & Blue ...

I'm falling way behind.
With everything.
Still not sleeping worth a darn, although Sominex sure helps.
Back on the workout train and not in (as much) pain.
Working out brings me to my first random thought: Is is a SMALL world. Saturday afternoon my co-worker Dan Winters calls me and wants to know what I'm doing. "Cleaning the kitchen and unloading the dishwasher" is my response, because I lead such an exciting life. He says, "Did you take a spinning class from a guy named Herb last week?" I respond with, "Yes. He is horrible. My butt hurt for days!" It turns out Herb lives across the street from Dan and at the time of this phone call they were sitting at AK's in Beaverdale together. Weird. My husband always says Des Moines isn't really a city, it's a big town. This is a case in point. It also happens to be one of the things I love about living here. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who . . . you get the idea.
Random thought #2: Are you getting lots of wedding invites in the mail? 'Tis the season. A lot of my friends are already married (with children), but we still have some folks we know tying the knot these days. It's always interesting talking to brides-to-be about the upcoming event. They're always so stressed. There's a long list of reason why - the cake, the flowers, the dress, the music, the food, the family . . . it's enough to make you lose your mind. If I had it to do over again, I probably would've been married by a judge in someone's backyard instead of dealing with all of the hoopla. It's tough though. As little girls, we're raised with these goofy ideas about what a wedding day should consist of and if you're not planning everything down to the tiniest detail, people seem to think there's something wrong with you! I'm sure if I'd actually had the judge in the backyard, I would now be wishing that I'd had a more traditional wedding day. Ugh. Bottom line, it doesn't matter what the heck happens on "THE DAY" . . . it's what you and your significant other do in the years that follow that will make or break the deal.
Final random thought that's way overdue: How do you feel about the Red, White & Blue? I received this email from a viewer on the 4th of July:
A tip of the hat or should I say "Salute" to Erin Kiernan for displaying the American Flag lapen pin during her on camera news casts yesterday. I have great respect for a TV personality showing her "colors". I know of no other broadcaster on local or even national TV displaying the flag on TV as she did. Bravo, Erin!
So, what do you think? I didn't give wearing the lapel pin a second thought when I got dressed for work that day. Do you think it's an issue, or not? On a similar topic, what do you think about the guy in Wayne County who's flying his flag upside down? He claims it's because he's unhappy about the way the country is being run, and upset about the war in Iraq. Is what he's doing a matter of free speech, or desecration?
As always, I'm looking forward to your comments!
Erin
erin.kiernan@whotv.com