Bye Bye Melissa!!

Melissa, with curly hair

One of my great friends is leaving Sunshine Street for the Sunshine State!

Melissa Yeager is leaving KY3 and heading out to Fort Myers, Florida.

She's got a fabulous job as the investigative reporter and fill-in anchor.

She was a great leader in the KY3 newsroom...

and will be a great leader in her next!

Good luck, Melissa!!

Her last day at KY3 is just one week away.

Please send her an email to wish her well!

myeager@ky3.com

On a side note:

I followed Melissa at KJHK in Lawrence, then Topeka, and of course, we worked together in Springfield...maybe that's a sign as to where my next move will be, as well? ha!

How long does it take?

How long does it take for someone to recover after a small surgery? Anyone? I got my cast off my wrist a week ago, and my wrist still hurts. The doctor said it would be mobile after about 3 weeks, but I don't really see how that's possible. If I would have known that a little cyst removal would have caused so much pain...I may not have done it. But no offense to the guys who took it out.

A Day Late (or two)

The ice storm is nearly over, but I thought I'd post some of my pictures. If it's any consolation, I fell today and during a separate incident, I broke my phone.

Get out of my Chili!

Alright, I'm not one to really toot my own horn... but TOOOOOOOOOOT!

I talked smack for a week, but there was strategy and hard work behind the trash talk. Just like the world's champion hotdog eater...yours truly was one little Asian taking her chili cookoff seriously.

Takeru Kobayashi -- World Competitive Eater

First I tried to make the pork chili (scroll down for recipe). That was okay, but it wasn't going to cut the mustard...so there I was...starting from scratch. Oh, the agony!

Then it hit me. A theme: "Everything but the bun." It would be decadent, thick, fatty, meaty--enough to make your heart stop beating...or as Paula Dean might say, "enough to make your tongue jump out of your mouth and smack you around"...or something. I mean, I've been watching enough of Gordon Ramsay to know that you can't overcomplicate a recipe when people expect just good ole hearty chili. Yes...I decided to make a chili called everything but the bun--just as if you were eating a chili dog without the bun. Aha!

Anyway, at KSPR, there were six entries...some were healthy, others were spicy...but ALL were DELICIOUS!!

Are you still with me?

It came down to just two crock pots--my news director's and mine. My hands were sweating; my lips were trembling. My stomach was twitching. I was so nervous. Either that or I ate too much chili.

But then my General Manager called out my name, shook my hand, and said..."sorry". In a flash, the COMPETITION WAS OVER!!!! I mustered out a smile and a laugh, but on the inside I was looking around the room thinking... "oh the humiliation!" No one liked my idea! My life is over! How will I tell my mom?

But then...a second later...My GM (still shaking my hand) said, "Ha! Just kidding, because Michelle, you are the chili cookoff winner!" Actually, I don't know if he really said that because my head was spinning so much, and I just couldn't believe that I had won... I mean, just seconds before my boss' boss had ripped my heart in shreds! It went from complete humiliation to total elation! Egads!! I finally done right.

And here it is... the glory... the sweet taste of success...

I finally achieved my dreams of making KSPR history... Though there were some great competitors, it seems as if 2008 just might be my year.

Mrs. Louisiana 2007

An update for my former J-School buddies... here are some clips from Najahe Hall (Sherman)... She's doing really well in Louisiana, as you can see! She is the morning and noon anchor at KSLA in Shreveport.