YNN Launch

Last night was the launch party changing News 8 Austin to Your News Now (YNN). It was a lot of fun, here's some highlights:

We drove up to the event with the Gomez's.
Mark is a weather reporter at Russ's station.
We've driven together to quite a few of these events.
So now when we drive together it's like reuniting with family!
They're such a lovely couple!

This is Russ's boss thanking everyone. I really love Russ's boss.
He is one of those people that are just good through ang through.

This is the band they had play, The Run Tides. The lead singer is also one of Russ's co-workers.

Eddie,  a co-worker of Russ's. The music was pretty awesome.

Because two singers are better than one.

Especially when one is from the audience.

At some point in the night I started taking these pictures.

Us & an air vent

Now our faces are more weird looking.

Then we turned pink (I think it was the lights).

This is the sign outside of the party at the Long Center in Austin.
It looked pretty cool from the road.

Russ taking a picture.

I Heart News 8 Austin

My husband is a news reporter. Which you may think is "cool" or "interesting". But my gut reaction? "yuck". On our first date I gave him an earful. I told him that he was benefitting off of human suffering, he exploited people at the worst and hardest points in their life, and that his profession caused much of the 'fear-mongering' in the US.

Russ took these harsh comments with grace. And I was quickly humbled when our waitress congratulated him for being the National Television Student of the Year. Turns out Russ was really good at his job. And he didn't do the news the way most reporters do. He was very respectful of people.

Okay, okay, so there was one time we got in a HUGE fight because it was flooding in Cedar City and he started filming people bailing water out of their basements while I went and helped them bail water.

And on more than one of our dates he said something like, "There's a hostage situation, I have to cut this short". He does go and chase the news sometimes.

But the way news is reported is largely dictated by the news station. I was super nervous when he interviewed with News 8 Austin and I found out that they were a 24 hour news station. I thought for sure this meant that Russ would be leaving all hours of the night (and day) to go cover stories.

But I was wrong. News 8 is very community-oriented. Sure they report the ugly stuff. But there's a LOT of positive stories on this News Station.

For example, this story about this adorable Santa Claus who doesn't have grandchildren(s).

Or this story, which is part of a season series of music. I guess it makes sense given that Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World. We're got a lot of music happening!

Today as I watched after my run, the news anchor mentioned that the station will be showing Christmas performances all Christmas day! Um... yes, I will be tuning in. I love live music, and I love Christmas music!

Just had to write out my love for News 8 Austin. Oh, and as a sidenote, I love all the reporters on there too. I don't mean to sound like an old lady who think the people on tv are her family, but I like turning on the station and seeing who's working. "Jennifer Borget is working!" or "Marc is on today! I though he only worked weekends". Best of all, "Hey, that's my husband. He's doing his nervous smile."
Ooh, he's on right now.

Coming up on the blog:

• Christmas Eve traditions
• News Year's Resolution... so much promise, so much that didn't happen
• Momma Bear descends on Central Texas
• Baris- the Best Italian Restaurant I've ever been to

Austin City Limits (Part 1)

I just wanted to share the stories I did during the festival this year. The shows turned out really well and you should just follow the links to youtube and then to news8austin.com and watch the shows but I digress...

Day 1, before the rain...



Day 2, Raining buckets (look I'm soaked)
(FYI this is one of my favorite stories)



Day 3, Mud (although you can't tell from my story)



Pictures and words coming soon...

Snake Farm

It was one of my favorite stories (you'll have to google it) and a
song I can't get out of my head (google that too). Friday night the
Snake Farm caught fire. My all time favorite quote from a fireman,
"we're being hampered by monkeys."

Fall back

Setting the clocks back is always much better than what happens in the
spring. This year I thought it would be a good idea to watch them set
the Caldwell County Courthouse tower clock back, I was right. It was
way too fun climbing up to the little room that holds the clock. If
you get the chance go to news8austin.com and check it out.