Emily and I (and the rest of her family) spent the weekend in Steamboat Springs Colorado for Jenny's wedding. Congratulations Jenn and Todd!

Thursday we flew through Dallas and into Denver. The Libertarian Party convention was in Denver this weekend and I thought I recognized someone at the Dallas airport as a potential nominee. So instead of just asking him, I got on the phone with Kat and talked about the convention while standing near him to see if he said anything. He didn't. We got into Denver around 7:00 (after a long delay in Dallas), rented a car and drove three hours to Steamboat. The sun had set by the time we got into the mountains and it became incredibly foggy through the mountain passes. At one point we could only see 10 feet in front of the car. Emily was driving and was terrified. We couldn't even see the side of the road to check how far we would fall if we went over the edge. Finally we made it to the hotel at 10:30.

Friday we went for a jog with Sara. We took a path along the river and marveled at the beautiful scenery. But the altitude and steep inclines took a toll. We made it back to the hotel exhausted an hour after we started. The rest of the day was spent exploring the town and preparing for the wedding. That night we got a huge Mexican feast and ate ourselves into a flatulent bliss.

Saturday the girls woke up early to attend a practice hair styling appointment. They were not particularly happy with the stylist and contemplated firing her. I met up with them around mid-day to attend the family BBQ. The event was held in a local community center and was scheduled to be four hours. We couldn't figure out what we would do for that long. The first hour we mingled with the other guests and met Todd's family and friends. After the food arrived, we ate and spent the rest of the time talking to Emily's sisters.

Sunday was the big day. The service was held at local botanical garden. Everyone was worried about the weather, because thunder storms were predicted. Luckily it was sunny and beautiful outside. The ceremony proceeded without a hitch (or with a hitch, but the good kind) and we stayed afterward for photos. The party was held at the hotel in a nicely decorated ballroom. Emily and I made a photo-slideshow, which played while everyone ate. They had a local A Capella rock group sing after dinner. Todd's cousin assumed responsibility for the music when the group was done and the dance floor eventually filled up.

Then came the only real mistake of the wedding. Todd's friends decided to take tequila shots. One of them pulled Jenny over, opened his mouth and raised the bottle above his and her head. The liquor poured out of the bottle and right into Jenny's eye. She stumbled around holding her eye and it took a while for her to regain vision. Eventually it stopped hurting and she was fine.

After the party, everyone headed to the bar across the street from the hotel. Emily and I only stayed long enough to have dinner. We were exhausted. That night the power went out across Steamboat. We used our cell phone alarm to wake us up at 5:30 to drive to Denver and catch the flight home.

Last weekend Emily, Lindsey, Turtle, Piggy and I went hiking on Sugarloaf Mountain in Maryland. I had just finished reading "Into Thin Air" about the disastrous 1996 Everest expedition, so I spent most of the time pretending we were on Everest. For example when there was a bottleneck on the trail near the top of the mountain I pretended we were at Hillary Step.

Most of the trials were not very steep, but there was a section where we had to use our hands to help climb. The weather was beautiful at the top. Warm sun and a cool breeze. We brought some lunch and had a picnic on the rocks. It didn't take long to complete the trail, so we drove around the mountain and hiked up the other side.

Tuesday I left for Cleveland with Martin, the US correspondent for the Polish station TVN. After checking into the hotel, we met the Polish doctor who is the focus of the story at a Hungarian restaurant. I had goulash and hot wine, at his recommendation. Both were very tasty; the hot wine was spiced like Chai.

Wednesday we arrived early at the hospital and got suited up from head to toe in surgical scrubs. Oddly enough they didn't do anything to disinfect the camera. I was quite nervous about filming the Gastric Bypass surgery, because I am prone to throwing up or passing out.

When I entered the ER, the patient had four tubes sticking out of her stomach. There was a table beside her holding long metal instruments with handles on one side and various tools on the other. The assistant surgeon inserted a small camera through the lower left hole in her stomach. Her guts immediately flashed up on the three flat screen monitors surrounding the operating table. The doctor then issued a spoken command to the computer to lower the lights. Now the room was only lit by the monitors and two focused surgical lamps.

The doctor proceeded to slide small pinchers into her stomach, move her liver out of the way and sew her stomach to 1/5th of its normal size. I felt queasy at first, but it soon passed. The surgery lasted about two hours. I spent most of the time circling the patient and shooting the surgery. Surprisingly enough, it did not make me sick to watch the doctor's video feed. It was actually quite fascinating to see them cut the small intestine and reattach it to her truncated stomach.

Afterward, we conducted interviews with the doctors and two patients who had received the surgery. We were finished by about 3:00, so we headed to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before our flight. The museum is housed in a large building, but the exhibit is relatively small. My favorite items were the Ramones collection, Michael Jackson's red jacket from Thriller and Madonna's pointy bra. Martin liked the Doors section, but was disappointed by the lack of AC/DC paraphernalia.

I spent Friday with Martin, the Polish TV correspondent. He was doing a story about Jenna Bush's wedding, so we drove to Baltimore to visit the home she recently purchased. The home is located in the Federal Hill neighborhood. I expected upscale colonial style row houses, but instead the neighborhood was a bit ghetto. It was full of bars and liquor stores. We interviewed someone who lives on the opposite corner from Jenna's new home. They said that their two homes are often peed on by people leaving the bars, but hopefully now there will be secret service to keep the drunks away.

Martin was nice to work with. He told me that people always ask him the same question, "You came all the way from Poland for this?" He either answers in Polish or (if the story is really stupid) says "yes, of course". It took us all day to gather the material for the story. We went to a local think tank where we interviewed a supposed Bush family expert. Then to Baltimore to film the house and the neighborhood. And finally back to DC to film the White House, where Jenna did not want to get married.

Nevermind - I had to take this post down. E-mail me if you want the post.

Just for fun, here is a list of my nicknames for the dogs.

Turtle:
bumpkin, bumpkarino, bumpkin boy, turt, turdie, turbie, turbie-burbie, pooper, terbalina, terble, senior poop-in-pants, poo-poo, turtalie-poo, turbalie-poo, boy, little boy, little man, nerdie, nerd-boy, scaredy-poo, turtaloonie,

Piggy:
pickle, picker, pickaloonie, pickaroo, macaroni-butt, twinkle-butt, girl, girlie, cuteums, snookums, pickle-boo-boo, nose licker, missy, mrs. pickle, missy-poo, mrs. messy-pants, barkie-pants, pickalina, pickalina macaroni, baby-girl, lickalina

Turtle and Piggy together:
monsters, monkeys, monks, donkeys, crazies, kooks, poopers, nerd dogs, pups, puppers, puppins, bumpkins, puparonies, puparenoes, puparenoses, babies, boo-boos