Kyle Visits

Kyle came up for a visit from Florida and we went berry picking at Graveyard fields. It was the perfect day for it and we had a beautiful drive on the parkway once we got past the fog. Kyle was the first guest to stay in the guest room of my new house. I have more chronicles to come so stay tuned.

Katie

I finally bought a house!

I finally bought a house, for real this time. I just started moving today and it is only now that I realized how much crap I truly have. Moving was an all day event that took three strong, burly man friends to accomplish. I’ve attached some pictures of my house before I started moving stuff in. It’s a brand new construction, two stories, three bedrooms, one and half baths on a little lot that is right next to the train tracks. Literally, the train is a neighbor of mine. I’m sure in a week I’ll know all the regular conductors. Well, I’m about to go sleep here for the first time! I’ll send more pictures once I get everything moved in. A big thanks to my brawny men, Todd, Jim, and Dave for helping me move.

Katie

The Dating Game

The Asheville Brewing Company is one of my favorite places to go in town. You can see a movie on the big screen for three bucks, eat pizza, and drink beer...all at the same time. So I was on their website to see what movie was playing when I noticed a sign up for a live dating game they were going to start doing once a month. I signed up and then promptly forgot about it until I got a phone call one day.

I ended up playing in the game show and the dude who was asking questions picked me! We just went out on our "date" tonight and it was great. The guy's name is Tim and he's so cute. I can't wait to spend more of the prizes we won.

Katie

Shooting in Brevard

Dave and I frequently find ourselves running all over Western North Carolina collecting footage for promotions. On this particular day we ended un in Brevard, NC and I took my still camera along. The town is really cute, except for the lifesized toy soldiers outside one store, they were creepy.

Katie

News 13 Image Spot

This is the Mack daddy of promotions. Once a year we do a news image promo. The image promo basically promotes our news product. It’s a big deal and this year was no exception. Dave, my comrade at arms, and I ran all over Western North Carolina collecting footage, we took a news truck out and did some time-lapse shots around downtown, we went on location with our news team as they worked, we even arranged a rooftop shoot with our news talent. In this video there’s a thirty second spot, a fifteen second, and a morning image spot. Enjoy!

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llLaVK3Rktk

Promotions

Here's a spot I just did to promote a news series called: Person of the Week. It's a great series all about people doing good things in the community. This is the news promotion side of what I do.

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xJCc89i0hs

My commercials

Well, it looks like I won’t be buying that house after all. Things got hairy in the end. After I had my inspections done, we found that all the pluming and electric work had to be ripped out and redone. At first the seller was going to take another 5,000 off the price of the house, which was the estimated amount it would cost to fix the problems, but the bank didn’t want to loan money on a house that wasn’t livable because it was too risky for them. At that point the seller needed to make the repairs, but they refused. I don’t know what they will do, but it’s out of my hands now. I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Soon I’ll be out looking again. There are still plenty of houses on the market and prices are still going down. It’s still a great time to buy. So the search goes on. I’m lucky to have a really great realtor.

On a brighter note, work is great. I’m making commercials, both promotional pieces for the news and local commercials for retailers. I’ve attached links to two really fun commercials I did for a mattress store. I know mattress stores don’t sound very fun and exciting, but this owner is open to doing new and different things and he has a great local actor who writes his commercials for him. I produced these commercials and Mark Warwick is the actor in them and also the writer. Next time, I’ll share a news promotion I did.

Katie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7O3DJa-AKE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7xNLiyXdOs

Paul visits

Paul stopped by for a visit on his motorcycling road trip. We had tried once before to get to Mt. Mitchell last time he visited and like the last time we met with defeat. Before the road was washed out, this time it was too foggy and rainy to see anything when we finally got close. We beat the rain down the mountain and I still managed to snap a few pictures. Paul also helped me haul another load of bricks. Beware, if you come for a visit, I might put you to work doing manual labor :)

I may have jumped the gun in saying “I bought a house.” I should have said I’m under contract to buy a house. You’d think it was as good as bought, but in this case not so much. I’ve been going though paperwork for about a month and until yesterday everything was on track for me to close next Thursday, but in the inspection process we found some problems with the pluming and electric. The seller agreed to pay me the amount to fix the problems at closing, but the estimates came back higher than they were allowed to pay. So we had to take the money off the price of the house. Then the lender got all the paperwork and said, we couldn’t do that either the problems have to be fixed before they will approve the loan. So that’s where I am right now. I have to wait for them to fix the problems, get the house to pass inspection, and then get the lender to okay the loan. I’ll keep you updated and I’ll be sure to let you all know when I have actually “bought a house.”

Katie

Bricks!

Mom and I just finished salvaging a gazillion bricks this weekend. There was an old brick house in Asheville that’s been torn down and is going to be replaced with new green condos. Part of making the whole project green is in recycling all the construction waste from tearing down the old house. They’ve had scrap metal people come in and take the metal recycling and they’ve opened the loose bricks to the public to take. When mom read about it in the paper, she got me out of bed and we hightailed it down there with the van and started loading up. We were amazed that there was only one other person there when we arrived.

As the morning wore on, more people came and went, but only a few stayed. Most people were ill prepared to haul bricks. They came in sandals with no gloves or tools, as if they expected a bunch of pristine bricks would be stacked in neat piles along the sidewalk where a valet would take their car and load it for them while they waited. Fat chance.

It worked out really well for me and mom. People would walk down to where we were and either see that there was more work involved than they were willing to do and just turn right back around and leave, or they would daintily scoop up a few bricks and not come back. It was like we had the place to ourselves. We made five trips back and forth and now I’m going to make a walled garden in my new yard and mom has a few landscaping things she is going to do around the house. It was backbreaking work and my arms feel like wet spaghetti noodles, but it was defiantly worth it.

Katie

Rebecca is Getting Married!

For those that haven’t heard, my sister Rebecca is getting married. She met another professor while teaching abroad in China and they have decided to get married and live there together. They will spend this Christmas with his family and next Christmas with ours where they will have a second ceremony here in the United States. His name is Chun Xiao, but I call him Mr. Yang because I can pronounce that. He teaches art history and calligraphy and they met when he was taking a class that Rebecca was teaching.

I know you’re wondering what pictures of dew drops on leaves have to do with Rebecca getting married. The answer is- nothing. This was just a tomato bush that I planted and thought looked cool. If you want to see what Mr. Yang looks like, send me an email.

Katie

Photography Show at Green Sage in Asheville

My travel photography has found its way into Green Sage coffee shop in downtown Asheville. So if you’re in the area stop by and have a look. It will be up until July where it will be moved again into the Lobster Trap restaurant.

Katie

I Might buy a House!

I haven’t been posting Chronicles lately because I’ve been busy looking for a house and I’ve finally found a good one. I've put in a bid and I'm set to close on the 26th of June. The house is little (around 500sq. ft.) but it has a full basement and sits on about a quarter acre of property. It’s inside Asheville city limits, but the dead end road it’s on is quiet…except for the trains that will rumble by on the tracks that aren’t too far away. I think this house will suite me well.

I’ve attached some of the pictures that were listed with the house. When I move in, I’ll take some of my own. I’ve been waiting, and bargaining, and probably even insulting people with my low offers for months now, but it’s finally paid off with this very good deal. Since I’m a first time homebuyer I’ll be getting $8,000 from Uncle Sam and with interest rates really low my mortgage isn’t bad either. Yep, this is a good time to buy and I’m excited to finally own my own home.

Katie

Losing Weight Gaining Hope

I got a promotion! On April 1st I will be moving from the news department at the station to the creative services department where I will produce commercials and promos.

On one of my last weekends working in news, I decided to shoot a story on my own. I profiled a family who were in the middle of a journey to overcome obesity and the personal trainer who got them started. I've attached the link for the video that aired here. Enjoy.

Katie

Losing Weight Gaining Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6oU5ul3euU

More from Rebecca

Rebecca sent more pictures. She says spring is starting to bloom around her. Rebecca stays in one of the apartments in the building on the opposite side of the lake pictured here. She really likes it over there and is thinking about going back again next year. She has to return home to renew her visa, but that might only be for a short while. She’s still working on learning Chinese and says she can ask for food and people understand her, but when she tries to speak Chinese to her students they just laugh.

Katie

Pictures from Rebecca in China

Rebecca sent some pictures from China. This is the sunset on the campus she works at. She said she’s working up to getting herself in a photo, but it’s hard enough taking pictures of things. She’s studying a lot and sounds very busy, but I think she really likes it over there.

Katie

The Quiet Fluffy Stuff

The best snow of the winter has come at the very end. Even late in the morning when I finally woke up the snow still layered each and every branch. Even though I’m not a fan of cold weather, I couldn’t help but get excited to go out and tromp around in the quiet fluffy stuff.

Katie

Splashing in Puddles

First came the slush, then came the snow. We had a major snow storm that dropped buckets over the last two days. On the first day it snowed a little and it rained a little. Sam and I went for a walk and along the way we decided to splash some puddles. Never underestimate the power of puddle splashing to bring back your youth. There is something inherently thrilling about dirtying your clothes in the mud. I have to admit, Sam is a better puddle splasher than I, and I have to give my thanks to Sam for grabbing the shot of my moment playing in the mud. Next the snow.

Katie