Did these shrink?

Hello everyone!
Can you believe we're heading into August this week? I feel like the summer has flown by, and I don't have much to show for it.
Except a bigger waistline.
At first, I was in denial. "I'm just bloated." "Michael must've put these jeans in the dryer." I think many of you know the drill. Well, it's official. A lot of my pants and skirts are ridiculously tight right now and it doesn't have anything to do with retaining water or my husband doing the laundry!
This situation is frustrating to me on a number of levels. For starters, I'm a certified fitness instructor. I know what to do and how to do it . . . I'm just not. Second, I've never really struggled with my weight. I haven't owned a scale since college. I eat whatever I want whenever I want without giving it a second thought. Finally, I just really don't care that I don't fit into some of my pants right now. Is that terrible? A few weeks ago while sitting on the set I asked my colleagues, "Have you ever started getting fat and just not cared about it?" Bachman looked at me like I was speaking Swahili, Ed was nodding his head and Murph shot back with, "No. But once I started getting fat and just didn't notice!" Classic.
Anyway, I read an interesting article about weight gain among friends. It's pretty interesting. If you feel like checking it out, here's the link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19961197/site/newsweek/
Finally some random thoughts . . .
1) You guys are really shy! So many of you drop me emails about the blog, but you never post anything here. Why? Feel free to share your thoughts. And by the way - thanks to Jeremy for the great tip about the barbeque website a few weeks ago!
2) My husband told me once that he'd heard that if you drive through downtown Des Moines at 25 mph you can hit every green light. I tried it. It worked!
3) We ran a story during the five o'clock news about pet owners feeding their cats raw rabbit meat because of all the problems with commercial pet foods. I love my cat, but I'm not going rabbit hunting anytime soon.
4) Do you read the paper? I mean, the physical paper that gets thrown on your doorstep? It's part of my morning ritual but I'm starting to realize that fewer and fewer people do this. When I was kid my dad read every page of the Omaha World Herald, starting with the sports section and I always loved the smell of the paper, the feel of the paper, the "snap" of him turning the pages . . . so maybe it's just a nostalgic thing for me.
Right now I am out of time - thanks for reading, watching and emailing!
EEK

Adventures in babysitting

Weeks ago I told my brother-in-law, Matt and his wife Beth that I would be more than happy to babysit Baby Olivia. I've done my fair share of watching little kids over the years, and Olivia is a good baby, so how hard could it be?
Harder than I anticipated, as it turns out.
Matt and Beth had tickets to the Homeshow Expo in Johnston and decided to use them Saturday afternoon. When I arrived at their house, Olivia was in a post-bottle coma. She woke up before mom and dad left, and was pretty content to just hang out on her jungle-themed blanket with giraffes and palm trees and zebras. That soon changed. At first it wasn't too bad, just a little fussing that stopped as soon as I picked her up and walked around the house. Matt and Beth had told me that Olivia likes to be on the move, from the jungle play blanket, to the bouncy seat, to the baby swing and back again. So, I tried that. No go. She just kept getting progressively ticked off. I knew she hadn't napped very long, so I tried the crib. Oh, boy. I had no idea an infant could be so loud. Did I mention that Michael was with me? When Olivia was really screaming her head off and turning eight shades of red, his eyes got HUGE and he said to me, "Whaddaya think?" This may've been about the time he went outside. Olivia eventually passed out on my shoulder and I was able to put her in her crib. Then I flopped on the couch and watched "The Godfather" and thought "I don't know if this baby thing will ever be for me." But when Olivia woke up and was all sweetness and smiles I thought, "This is wonderful." Matt and Beth brought me a bottle of wine when they came home and gave me the "It's different when it's your own baby" speech. I definitely needed the wine, I'm not sure what I think of the speech.
Speaking of babies, and not having any yet . . . check out this column in Newsweek.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19762056/site/newsweek/
I read it and chuckled, but then quickly stopped laughing as I read the comments online. Take a look and let me know what you think about the hostility expressed between mothers and women who aren't mothers.
There are other things rolling around in my brain that will have to wait for a later post.
Have a great week!
EEK
Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Happy Birthday dear Jon . . .

. . . Happy Birthday to you!
It's a big deal, turning 30.

That's what Jon Cahill did this weekend and we helped him celebrate!
The gang got together at Valley Junction Wine & Cigar Shoppe. We love this place. It feels like you're hanging out in someone's living room. Plus, Lloyd (the owner) had booked really great live music on Saturday night! If you've never been there, stop by sometime.

Jon & his girlfriend, Erin

Jeriann & her fiance', Rob

Photojournalist Brad Argo and his girlfriend, Rachel The Kiernans

The girls

A quick note about this picture. The itty, bitty blond gal on the end is our friend Elisha. She used to work with us at Channel 13, and now works in Detroit. It was great seeing her, but I am very worried about her safety after hearing some stories about living in "Motor City" . . . we hope Elisha moves back home soon!!!

Typically, Mr. Kiernan and I reserve Sundays as a day that's just the two of us . . . mostly because we don't get much "quality time" together. However, Saturday night Michael decided that he would smoke some ribs and we'd host a birthday dinner for Cahill. Cool! I LOVE ribs!

I nabbed this picture of Mike putting ribs on the smoker. He hates having his picture taken, so this was a Mission Accomplished moment for me. After this, there wasn't much to take pictures of. I mean, you put the meat on the grill, you feed the fire and watch the temperature constantly, and you wait. I could NEVER do this type of cooking. I just don't possess the patience required. You know the phrase, "A watched pot never boils..." That's me. I am a "pot watcher".

The feast . . . get out of the way!

Cahill with Burnside when she stopped over after SoundOFF

Elisha & her boyfriend, Bryce

Our neighbors, Heidi and Phil

Shannon & Dan

(By the way, Shannon makes a fantastic pasta salad!)

I'm out of time, it's nearly 5 o'clock!

Let us know about your memorable birthdays . . . we hope this is one Jon will always remember fondly!

Have a great week,

EEK

Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Rock On!

What a weekend!

I will spare you the set up and get right to the good stuff.

Joan Jett was back in the metro, so we had a girls' night and this time I got some decent pics!

Joan rockin'

The girls

The fans sitting behind us

Those of you who've been reading the blog for awhile know that I am a huge Joan Jett fan. I went to see her perform at the fair last year, and could barely see her. It was fantastic hearing her live, but disappointing not having a decent view. This time around was MUCH different. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts still sound great, she still looks amazing . . . so you may be wondering, just how different could this concert have been?

Oh . . . my . . . GOSH!
I am meeting Joan Jett!!!

She is signing the "I love Rock & Roll" album that I bought with my allowance money in grade school!!! She's laughing that I still have it, and that I'm a big enough geek to bring it with me to the show!

If Sonya & I look star-struck and giddy, it's because we were.

These folks were so impressed, they wanted their picture taken with my album.

This is Tracy Kralik and his wife, Wendy. They were at the concert celebrating Tracy's 46th birthday. Rock on!

This picture just sums up the evening. I was so tickled, I could not stop grinning. I'm still giddy. I know, I am a dork. A big thank you to my mom, who overnighted my album to me when she found out I might get to meet Joan Jett. You're the best, Mom! And, a big thank you to Courtney, who was acting like the paparazzi and getting tons of great pictures. These will go next to the picture of my meeting with Erin Brockovich (another huge thrill).

Here's to great girls' nights, strong women, and getting to meet your idols!

Feel free to share your favorite concerts and celebrity meetings, and as always thanks for reading!

Erin

Erin.Kiernan@whotv.com

Women rule the world, working the 4th, smoking

Hi gang!
I hope you had a fantastic 4th of July.
A lot of us were working. More on that in a bit.
First, an exciting announcement about our 5pm newscasts.
This is your new anchor team, or as Sonya and I like to call it "Women rule the world." Poor Ed Wilson, he will probably be out of his mind after dealing with the two of us for a few months! As many of you know, Sonya and I have known each other and worked together (off and on) for more than ten years. We're excited about doing a show together, and we hope you'll enjoy it.
This picture was taken on the 4th . . . we talked about wearing red, but I swear we did not have a conversation about it with meteorologist Megan Salois . . .

Here's Megan, in red.

Of course, we weren't the only people working the holiday. It takes a lot of people to make newscasts happen . . . here are some of the good folks spending their 4th of July at Channel 13.

Mike running studio cameras

Dave Price, concentrating on his latest political report

Scott, directing the shows.

Lee, back from shooting a story and ready to edit.

Tracy, running studio cameras.

B. Ross, doing his thing in the audio booth.

Dan Winters, writing his next award winning story.

It's nice that he dressed up for work, huh?

Finally, a number of my colleagues have been pestering me to blog about my husband's new toy. It's not a car, not a video game, not an iPhone . . . it's a smoker.



Here it is in action the morning of the 4th.

Michael is obsessed with this thing. We assembled it together about a month ago, and he's been smoking up a storm ever since. He's gets irritated when I try to take his picture when he's working the barbeque, so instead I snapped a photo of yesterday's finished product . . . a 14 pound ham!

I tease Michael about his culinary obsession, but I can tell you this much, I am not complaining about the results! This is good stuff! Plus, I feel pretty lucky that my husband likes to cook and is good at it. I know a lot of people who can't do more than throw a frozen dinner in the microwave. I've done my fair share of that, and this gig is much better!