Good afternoon everyone! How are you?
Okay, so some really important things have happened in the last week and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!
But before I get ahead of myself, let’s start at the beginning. . .
So at the beginning of last week (October 28, 29) a major cold front came over from the west, through Colorado and Wyoming, and into Nebraska. In my area, it wasn’t bad in terms of accumulation, but the wind chill made it all really cold — I mean, I was cranking up the heat in my apartment so I wouldn’t freeze to death inside.
But anyway so the weather was a lot worse in the panhandle (which is the northwestern part of the state) and whenever it gets snowy, us news people do the whole Weather Conditions/Road Conditions/Traffic Updates sort of thing, you know?
So I get off work on Monday morning and my boss tells me to shoot snow video before I come into work Monday evening/Tuesday morning, right? So I do, I go outside (my hands freezing, btw) and spend about an hour shooting video of the snow falling around town — well, mostly blowing, but you get the idea. I managed to shoot some video (just on my phone, btw, which was a lot easier) from the McDonalds parking lot, too, because I was really craving some calories before work. Anyway so I take the video (which has been provided for your convenience) and put all the Winter Weather Alerts in the morning shows, which basically consist of:
• Checking Nebraska State Patrol for closures, pictures, announcements, etc.
• Checking Nebraska Department of Transportation for road conditions, closures, crashes, etc.
• Checking NDOT Road Cams for particularly bad areas
• And lastly, checking for school and business closures
Anyway so basically when weather is like that, most of the morning is consistently checking all these outlets for updates and them posting them on social media. Now the photos and such that actually go in the show? Those are towards the end of the morning so that it’s the most current information — and I constantly check during commercial breaks for new information.
So that was pretty cool, because it was my first time really covering winter weather (or any kind of real severe weather), and it went over pretty well — though my hands were freezing when I went to shoot the video.
Oh! In fact, I also made some soup because the weather was really cold — I tried this Mexican Soup recipe I found online with my little CrockPot! It was really good and it felt so good to eat; it really warmed me up. I even had some leftover avocado to eat it with!
Let’s see, what’s next. . .
Oh! So my schedule was a little wonky this past week — I got off work Thursday morning, had Friday off, and then went to work on Saturday and has Sunday off. And A LOT happened in that time, okay?
So Thursday was Halloween, right? So we could’t wear costumes on camera, so instead I wore black with these teeny Halloween lapel pins — so cute — a lot of cute Halloween/Halloween Safety/Trick-or-Treating stories that morning. So I go home and change and then drive on home. I’m home for a little bit, talking to my parents, saying hi to my pets (my kitty really missed me!), and then I go and meet a college friend of mine for dinner (the one I’ve told you about, the one that came to visit me, Weekend Friend is what we’ll call him).
So we meet up at a place that’s basically like a Panera and we eat and talk, and then we head back to Weekend Friend’s place to watch a movie. So I get there and say hi to his parents and all that jazz, hand out some candy to these adorable trick-or-treaters, and we spend some time watching a movie, right? We laugh, we talk, we have fun. . .we confess our undying love for each other. . .
. . .okay, so not exactly “undying love,” but close enough for who it’s for lol. So that was a very comfy evening 🙂
THAT was the first major thing. Then on Friday I drove around all dry going to all my doctors appointments we didn’t get to over the summer — dentist, eye doctor, etc. So basically my entire day is me filling various doctors in on my life and yadda yadda — and let me tell you that was a long day. It all needed to be done, but it was a long day.
In fact, it was even longer, because I drove back to Nebraska that evening. But it was great to see my family, see my pets, see my friend. . it was a great time overall.
NOW, onto Saturday — I reported that day, right? So my story is a kayak race in Ogallala (1 hour from NP, and they’re on MST) in the morning. I bring my coat, I go to the office, I fill up on gas, I drive down to Lake McConaughy. . .and it’s freezing. Im serious, I should’ve brought gloves because that wind chill was really bad. And these rotary club members were so nice — they gave me hand warmers, insisted I have some chili and sit in a car to warm up — just so sweet.
So this race was the Annual “Kayak Big Mac” fundraiser for the Ogallala Rotary Club; now the main idea is that everyone typically kayaks in the summer, but these people are going in November when it’s really cold. So it’s really fun, goes for a few hours, got some really good footage, had nice conversation, and then I drive back to the office to put it all together – no biggie. Really nice day, really nice story.
So that was the weekend. Now in between all this I sent two of my friends teeny parties from The Confetti Post; one for my friend’s birthday and one for Weekend Friend’s huge accomplishment. Both were surprises. Now I love giving gifts, so WF sends me a text Saturday night and is all excited like “did you send this!?” and I’m like, “Yup!” and he just loves it and thinks it’s so cute. . .
Now, going back to the cooking. So Weekend Friend is actually visiting me this coming weekend, right? Which I’m UBER excited about because I love having guests and I love seeing him. So, I wanted to try out a recipe first before I made it for him — risotto.
Now I’ve had risotto before at the Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen restaurant in Las Vegas and I thought it would be cool to try to make one (not the same one) for myself! Besides, if I got it right then I could make it for guests and be all impressive. I mean. . .who just eats risotto on a normal day?
So I made some! It was really cool, I made it on Sunday. I cook the shallots, I put in the rice, I add the broth, I finish it with Paramsan cheese — I even cook up some frozen scallops to eat it with!
AND I TOTALLY NAILED IT! It tasted so good and I was so proud of myself and I can’t wait to make it for Weekend Friend!
In fact, that’s also why I’m really excited — I literally cannot wait to see Weekend Friend again. I’ve been waiting for this since Monday and it’s only Wednesday! Now the next few days I’m going to do some cleaning, go grocery shopping and get ready to have a guest!
But anyway, those are the major highlights from this past week. I was craving Raising Canes the other day so I bought myself some; weight is doing okay but could be better recently, hopefully won’t be too bad after all the cooking this weekend (I’m also hoping to not only make him risotto, but to break in my fondue pot!); got the new Netflix ‘n Swill episode up.
But that all means the next post may be a little late, but be sure to check back soon!