Father & Son Buy Dinner for Dyess Couple

I was eating dinner at the Beehive in Downtown Abilene Wednesday night and noticed something "suspicious-looking". A father and son were sitting nearby enjoying their dinner, when they started gossiping with the waitress. Being, the curious reported that I am...I was determined to find out what they were talking about. I later found out.
Sitting to my left, a Dyess airman and his significant other were dining. The waitress much later into the meal, told them that their meals and drinks were "taken care of". It immediately clicked...the Father sitting with his son bought them dinner. : ) What was even nicer was that, I heard the waitress say..."the person wants to remain anonymous but wants to thank you for serving this country and to let you know you're appreciated!" How classy! It immediately made me smile to see people doing such selfless and kind things for others. What I was also impressed by, was that the father did it with his sons knowledge, teaching him kindness. It was one of those moments that just make your day, and seeing the look of happiness and shock on the Dyess couples face was priceless.

Medieval Times: Dallas

While we are only a couple of hours, I rarely spend much time in Dallas. However, I went to a college friend's baby shower there, and decided to make a weekend trip out of it. So, we went to Medieval Times.

This was the second time, I have been to a Medieval Times restaurant (first time when I was much younger). It was much different than I remembered...more adult-friendly, I'd say. There were still plenty of kids but I thought the atmosphere was more grown-up.

Even the exteriors of the building, makes it look like a cool place to be, and of course no one's complaining about the paper crowns. You get to play royalty for an evening. ; )

The staff (or wench's...as they refer to themselves) are really nice and the service was great.

While I didn't think the food was amazing, I did enjoy it. Any food (feast) you get to eat with your hands is fun. The meal was actually pretty filling (we ate like Kings and Queens).

And then of course, the entertainment value of the event. It's not every day that you get to see live theater that involves horses, or such skilled riders. The story line is both child and adult-friendly...making it a fun event for the whole family.

It's also fun to be silly and enthusiastic about cheering on your color. A good excuse to shout for fun.

What's neat is that there aren't too many Medieval Times around the country and yet, we've got one close by in Dallas, Texas. I am guessing many of you have already experienced it, but for those of you that haven't...it is something you should consider. Here's a link to their website if you want more information. http://www.medievaltimes.com/dallas

I'm Not Selling Anything

One of the funny parts of my day, (as a reporter) is when people assume that I am trying to sell them something.
For many of our story assignments, we seek your opinions...which means going out and finding you. Sometimes that can be in grocery store parking lots, in neighborhoods, at the park, etc. Despite the memo "Not to talk to strangers," my job requires talking to strangers. While comedic, it is also one of the best parts of the job because I get to meet knew people every day.
However, almost every day when I approach someone, by introducing myself, they start to back away or turn their heads. If they know, I work for KRBC, they could be equally fearful of being on television.
For the most part, I know that my potential interview subjects are just not in the mood for a sales pitch. We usually laugh together about it, after they find out I just wanted to talk to them.
Most times, they agree to do an interview and sometimes I can't help but to assume that they do it because they feel bad about initially giving me the cold shoulder. Either way, I am not out to bother people in the community (certainly not selling anything), merely just wanting to listen to the likes, gripes, and concerns of residents within the community.
When this happens, I can't help but to feel bad for the "real"salespeople that get shut down, when they are just trying to make a living.

Do's and Don'ts When it Comes to Strangers

Every day we run into strangers, new people that we haven't seen before. This is where some common courtesy questions come into play. Do we have the responsibility to tell people we've never met that they've got a piece of food stuck in their teeth or that they've got toilet paper stuck to the bottom of their shoe?

I'm more curious to hear what other people have to say about this subject and whether or not they act out what they believe is right.

Personally, I always feel obligated to tell people when I notice something such as those two things, because I would want someone to tell me. I think if I noticed it, I can do someone the favor of telling them, regardless of if I know them or not.

Now, I have been on the receiving end. I've had something stuck in my teeth before, had a bug in my hair, etc. and have been told about it by a complete stranger. While, it is initially embarressing, I'd rather be embaressed once about it...rather then get home and notice in the mirror (hours after lunch) that I had a piece of lettuce in my teeth, that many people likely saw throughout the course of the day. In some cases, the food or bug could already be gone by the time you look in the mirror, which means you'd never have to know if it was ever there, therefore no embaressing moment.

I just think things like that are part of our everyday life, and that it's no biggie to help a stranger out.

If you want to share your experience and how you handled it, feel free. I'd love to hear about them.

Bee Sting Free

So occasionally, reporters do stories involving bees, which often requires getting up close and personal with a hive of bees. Otherwise, it is kind of difficult to put together a story about bees (for tv) if there aren't any bees.
Today, it was my turn. An Abilene family keeps having a bee problem outside their home, and it's gotten so bad that the bees even started getting inside. They contacted me in hopes of talking about their mistakes, trying to get rid of the bees (that so many people make-as would I) and how a bee keeper is the only way to take care of a bee infestation.
Of course, when the beekeeper and myself showed up the home in South Abilene, the bees were gone. The family says within 45 minutes, a swarm of thousands were buzzing outside their home (and then like that they were gone). I learned from the bee keeper today, that this is the business of bees. They travel from hive to hive and that they are very territorial, hence why they sting. The stinging only comes as a result when the insects feel that their Queen is threatened. Visting with an Abilene bee keeper, I learned a lot about the nature of bees. It's pretty fascinating...even the family with the infested home, thinks so.
As the bee keeper is about to leave the house to go on another bee call, he notices in the distance (across the street) the enormous hive. He pointed it out to us and said it was the same swarm at the Abilene residence. So over to the hive we went. I tried to keep my safe distance because as much as I am all for good video, I wasn't looking forward to getting stung.
Fortunately, the bee keeper, Melvin Williams was generous enough to get right up to the hive with my video camera to show you the bees hard at work. Then he returned my camera, and got to work. I can tell you this much, I do not envy the responsibilities of a bee keeper. Truthfully, I was in awe of how brave he was (and how unconcerned he was about getting stung). Within moments, he captured the majority of the hive, which included the Queen...packing it in his container to take back to his place of observation. The remaining thousands of bees went everywhere, even circled around my head and another nearby man. This man helped swat the bee from my head, which then attracted the bee to him, but fortunately we both got away from the scene sting-free. I guess you'd call that pretty lucky...getting that close to bees.

Role Reversal

What many of you don't get to see is all of the hard work that goes on behind the scenes, here at KRBC. For the most part, I don't even get to see it, which is why I decided to learn about it through a little assignment of mine. Morgan Bond and I decided to take on the production booth (as the Director and Audio Operator). KRBC's "real" Director is Ruth Cost (who is awesome) and Audio Operator is Pamela Langford (and she too is awesome). Those two gals decided to give the anchor desk a whirl.


The video you're about to see is silly and not meant to be taken seriously. However, after trying to understand all that Ruth and Pamela do, I can truthfully say I have a new appreciation for their jobs. As you will see in this video, we all did a little bit of acting (to reflect each others identities here at KRBC). The little bit of sass that you see is all in good fun and we really are like one, big, happy family.


Hope you enjoy our sillyness and can kind of get the idea of what it takes to put on a newscast. P.S. I think I'll be sticking to my job as well.

Icecream Truck Comes to KRBC/KTAB

Is our boss cool or what? Every day at 2:30, the News Department meets to discuss the stories of the day and in the middle of the meeting, our boss starts telling us to go outside. And there was the ice cream truck! : ) Talk about a nice surprise.


We just completed Sweeps (rating-time), which means we've been working extremely hard to bring unique and investigative stories to our usual local coverage (not that we don't always work hard), but basically there's a little less time to breath during Sweeps months. Now, we're back to breathing and even eating ice cream!


Apparently, our boss must be proud of us, by treating us all ice cream. Thanks boss. Great surprise.