Friday, I saw Wanted with Emily, Matt and Neetha. It was a ridiculous shoot-um-up movie with an unrealistic plot and a terrible script. Besides that, it was very entertaining and a decent popcorn movie. My dad would probably love it.

Yesterday, Emily and I took the pups to Rock Creek park again. Last time we threw Piggy into the water to make her swim, but this time she waded into the river on her own! Very brave dog. Turtle, who is usually the scared one, likes the water and goes in without a problem. It started raining when we were on the trail, 30 minutes away from the car. The trees kept us from getting too wet, so the rain felt nice in the heat. That night we went to my cousin Lilly's Bat Mitzvah. I haven't seen anyone from her family since my Bar Mitzvah. It was nice to catch up with them. They live just outside DC, so we will probably meet for dinner sometime. I also got to meet my Uncle Ricky's girlfriend, who was lovely. Apparently my grandmother scared away his previous girlfriends, so it is good to see him dating again.

Today Emily and I met my parents and sister for lunch. There was a quite a raucous when we were leaving, because no one wanted to drive with Lindsey (aka Miss Toad's wild ride). We ate at the Cheesecake Factory, home of the enormous portion size. I got a pizza and a side salad. The salad could have fed the entire table. When they were leaving the restaurant, my sister was suppose to take my parents to the airport. My dad insisted on driving and she did not take his request kindly. I'm glad I wasn't riding with her! Emily dropped me off at the metro on the way to her friend Rachel's house. I stopped in Clarendon to check out the new boxing gym. Emily and I use to take kickboxing classes in Orlando and we might start taking them here. Then I met Matt, Neetha and a couple of their friends at Elephant and Castle to watch the Euro-cup finals. The game was fun. We were all (except Kateland) rooting for Spain and they won!

I had an eventful weekend. Saturday, Emily and I took the dogs to Rock Creek park for a hike. I had not explored the park before, so I enjoyed walking along the river and following the paths deep into the woods. Piggy and Turtle had fun too, but Piggy was terrified when a horse rode by on the trail. Afterward, we went to Target and ate at Aladdin's in Shirlington. Always a good place for some Middle Eastern food. We also saw the movie Mongol, about Ghengis Khan. This was Kazakhstan's entry in the foreign language category of the Academy Awards. It was interesting, but seemed to miss important parts of the story. Emily thought it seemed much longer than it really was.

Today, Matt and I went to the national mall for the bar-b-q cook-off. I don't think I will go again next year. They charged us an entry fee which allowed us to look at all the advertising booths, but not eat any bar-b-q from the competition. We met Aaron at RFK stadium for the DC United game. It was fun! Our seats were decent (in the shade); after many sloppy plays and a few good ones, DC won 3 to 1. Next we are going to catch a Nat's game.

Monday I took the bus up to New York for the Venetian Snares concert. Instead of taking the Chinese bus, I took MegaBus which was only $25 round trip. When I got there, I met Aaron in midtown and we took the subway to little Italy for some brick oven pizza. The pizza was good, but we were not yet full. So we walked over to Chinatown and ate dinner again. This time I had vegetable noodle soup and he had dumplings.

The show was at the Knitting Factory. We arrived a bit too early, so we had to watch the opening acts. The first two were boring. We stayed in the bar where it was still possible to hold a conversation. Otto Von Schirack played third. I don't really like his music, but he put on a good show. He was dressed up in a funny outfit and wore a robber's mask. There was also a girl on stage with an alligator mask. He spent most of the time screaming into a microphone run through heavy distortion.

Venetian Snares finally took the stage at about 12:30. He blended all of the fast, hard parts of his songs together seamlessly. Everyone went crazy, dancing and jumping around. Aaron stayed in the club for most of the show, but eventually he retreated to the bar because it was too loud. I don't blame him. It was one of the loudest shows I have ever been to. It took 24 hours to regain my hearing.

I stayed the night at Aaron's new Brooklyn apartment. We ate breakfast at a local bagel shop, before heading back into the city. Our company (he also works for FSN) has two offices in New York. He went to the office at the UN and I went to the Brooklyn office. I was suppose to meet Paige there to help with an edit, but I had to leave before she arrived. I met Kat for lunch at an Indian restaurant called Kati. It was nice getting a chance to see her while I was in NYC.

I almost missed my bus home, because I lost the conformation number. I tried pulling up on my cell phone's internet connection, but the browser crashed every time I clicked on the MegaBus e-mail. Finally it worked as the driver was about to shut the door.

Monday I had one of my most difficult shoots ever. It was for a "Save the Tigers" event at the National Zoo. I was working with a correspondent who does not have a very good sense of time. We arrived 10 minutes after the event was suppose to start. I had to run to the tiger enclosure at the very back of the zoo, which took another 10 minutes. I was dripping with sweat by the time I arrived. The event was lead by Robert Zoellick (head of the World Bank) and Harrison Ford. Luckily they were also running late.

The press was squeezed into the narrow walkway used to view the tiger enclosure. The cameramen improvised a riser by climbing onto the wall opposite the enclosure. The wall was almost parallel to the podium, so everyone was right on the edge to get a better angle for their shot. Positions are claimed on a first-come first-serve basis, so I was stuck with horrible profile shot. The background was a bright white wall; it looked awful. Harrison Ford sat next to the wall. I had to lean over the edge to get a shot of him. The entire event was spent jockeying for position behind the CNN cameraman and between the AP guy and the still photographers. The footage was barely usable.

I spent all week working on a corporate video, only to have the assignment canceled just before it was finished. Last week I went to Baltimore to shoot an interview and some b-roll for the corporate video. I shot in the warehouse of a government contractor who makes unmanned boats. They were constructing one of the boats while I was there and I got to climb inside. It became quite obvious that it was not made for passengers. I had to squeeze in between the massive engines to get a shot of the workmen. After filming various workers on the factory floor, the company's owner took the producer and I out on the Baltimore Harbor. Luckily we took a boat that was made for passengers. I tried to get some shots of the harbor and cargo ships, but I could not hold the camera still enough.

I spent all week cutting my footage together with the interviews they had already shot (which looked like crap) and manufacturing b-roll from the FSN library. This type of edit usually takes weeks, but I had to finish the video in four days. Yesterday, the day before it was due, we got a call from the producer saying that the entire project was canceled. Apparently the Deputy Director had planned all of the materials, designs and multimedia presentations for the company's 20 year anniversary without getting approval from the Director. When he finally saw the plans, he hated the entire concept. All of the work that was put into this meeting was dropped. I still had to finish the video and send an approval copy and we will still get paid, but no one will see the finished product.

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

This Rev. Wright issue is being blown completely out of proportion. What really bothers me is that everyone is denouncing his words and adding fuel to the fire, without actually listening to his speech. I, of course, find it my duty to keep my loyal blog readers well informed. Here are some clips I filmed at the Press Club Speech. Keep in mind I arrived late, so these bites are mostly from the question and answer portion.

I went to Rev. Wright's speech at the Press Club today. I didn't find out that I would be covering the event until I got to the office this morning. By then it had already started. So I jumped in a cab and listened to the cabby's anti-Wright and quasi-racist diatribe on the way there.

The room was absolutely packed. It took a couple minutes just to get past the people squeezed into the doorway. The back wall of the room was jammed with press. A couple nice cameramen made room for me and helped me climb over the chairs to reach my spot.

Rev. Wright was in his element; most of the audience were there for the NAACP meeting. They stood and cheered after every couple sentences. The speech was interesting, but the question and answer session really got him going. Say what you will about the man or his message, but he owned that room. I may not agree with his message, but I was very impressed by the delivery.

Emily and I did yet another live video feed for the Washington Post today. It was 7 hours of people talking about the NFL draft. But we couldn't use video of the actual draft, so we just had people talking endlessly. They seemed to enjoy themselves, but I doubt we got many viewers. Why watch online commentary when you could watch the actual draft?

Emily and I spent the weekend in Florida. We hadn't been there since we moved away. It was good to see the family and friends, but I'm glad I don't live there anymore. We got in on Thursday night, after doing the Washington Post live coverage of the Pope all morning. Friday we visited the dentist (aka my dad) for a cleaning. Apparently I don't brush hard enough.

Saturday was the Passover Seder which was attended by the usual crowd - my parent's crazy friends. We took some family photos (including the one above) before the Seder. Don't you just love the expression on our faces?

We spent all weekend shooting and editing IMF / World Bank stuff. Emily has now been working for three weeks straight and me for two weeks. The press briefings were just as boring and un-news worthy as ever. But of course we did two stories a day for the SABC.

I also covered a Save Darfur rally at the National Mall. They had mock refugee tents set up to show people what it was like for the people of Darfur. I visited some refugee camps in Sudan and the tents set up here were WAY nicer than anything I saw. They were fully stocked with pillows, blankets, cooking pots and medicine. I saw none of that stuff at the camps I visited. Just flimsy, roofless straw huts with maybe a wire bed or two inside. There was no sign of help from the relief agencies.

I got kicked out of the Oval Office today. I was suppose to be filming Bush's meeting with the Singaporean Minister. But apparently they recently started enforcing the 'no jeans in the Oval Office' rule. Luckily Malcolm was there to shoot instead.

Emily has been in Portland Oregon for the last few days. She went on a last minute, ill planned trip with the SABC to Nike headquarters. Her and Manalisi (the SABC correspondent) were sent to film the Nike products being given to the Olympic athletes (Nike paid for the trip). Apparently it has been a disaster from the beginning. They didn't book Emily's flight or hotel until the day before she left. Even then the flight dates were wrong and they put her in the wrong hotel. She had Nike fix the problem less than 24 hours before she was set to go. When her and Manalisi arrived, they had no schedule and no idea what they were doing. Nike set up an interview for them, without asking or giving them any idea who they were talking to. Manalisi had no idea what to ask during the interview.

Most of their time has been spent in lecture halls being preached to by advertising executives. This would make riveting television, I'm sure. They have been barred from filming anything that would make a nice story; Emily even had to sign a form saying that she wouldn't "give away company secrets". She was not allowed to film in any of the product testing or design labs. I can't wait to see what they will scrounge together for a story.

Over the weekend, my front yard became a kids playground. It started when a group of neighborhood kids spotted Turtle and Piggy in the yard. They wanted to pet the dogs, but they were scared. Surprisingly enough, many people in my neighborhood get off the sidewalk when they see my dogs coming. Finally the kids got the courage to come into my yard. The dogs immediately jumped on them and licked their faces. One of the boys admitted that he had never held a dog before. When they realized that Turtle and Piggy were friendly, the kids played fetch and chased them around the yard. One of the boys noticed an old fashioned lawn mower between my house and the next. He politely asked if he could use it. I graciously allowed him to cut the grass while I stood around feeling like Tom Sawyer. When the job was finished, they spotted the hose. One of the boys grabbed it and doused the others. They took turns spraying each other before leaving to get changed. They promised to come back soon.

I just saw myself on CNN! I guess I was standing opposite the CNN cameraman when Hillary Clinton was shaking hands after her Iraq war speech. So there I was standing next to her holding the camera...