Regis and Kelly contest

My co-anchor, Kimberly Gill and I were recently among 20 finalists with a chance to co-host LIVE! With Regis and Kelly.  Unfortunately, even though America spent 650,000 votes picking 10 people – we weren’t among them.

When the announcement was made on their show, at that instant, I was mad.  I slammed my hand down on my desk and said something like, “Dammit!”  But within minutes, I was happy.

Going into the day, I had a weird feeling that I wasn’t going to win the contest – but losing in front of our entire newsroom was hard.  Despite that, I decided to look back on the whole experience and what I found, was that it was a blast!

From the time we had the chance to even become finalists, I had adreneline flowing.  Then, we were announced as being among the 20 finalists and it was truly exciting!  From friends, to family, everyone was talking about it.

Sure, it’s over now, but what fun we had for a few days thinking about what it could have been like going to NYC and co-hosting for a day.  I’m thankful for the opportunity.

Peeping Tom

ESPN reporter, Erin Andrews was recently the victim of a peeping Tom who videotaped her naked in a hotel room – through the peep hole in the door.  Appalling, isn’t it?  What’s maybe more disgusting is that the hotel doesn’t have any sort of security to prevent something like this from happening.

Surely the ESPN crew isn’t staying in some seedy hotel somewhere.  Surely this is a nice hotel with the capability of having security cameras, right?  If this could happen to Andrews, certainly it could happen to anyone.

And who knew that you could see IN those holes in the door?  I didn’t.  Scary.

Thoughts?  E-mail me at kenworthy@wews.com or leave a note below.

Exhausted

I remember when my daughter was about 4 months old.  She got hand, foot and mouth disease.  If you’ve ever had a child with this, you know, it’s not pleasant.  The worst part is that there’s really no cure for it other than time.  So, over a Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, I got about 9 hours total sleep while she was up in pain for hours on end. 

I’ll never forget going in to work the next day.  I was working as the Sports Director at KWTX in Waco, Texas.  On the drive to work and shortly after I got there, I was having hallucinations.  I later learned that they were from fatigue!

Flash forward to this past weekend.  My daughter turned 7 and my twin boys turned 2.  Just when I thought I could never be as tired as I was the weekend when my daughter was an infant, I was wrong!  A Saturday gathering of neighborhood kids for cupcakes – turned into 10:30 pm or so with neighborhood parents after the kids were in bed.  This was a day before our planned Sunday party with the family.

Planning and preparation are one thing – then going through the festivities – another.  Exhausting is the word that comes to mind.  Ever have those weekends?  I’m sure there are many more to come as my kids are still young.  And looking back, I’ll cherish all of them – but I’m tired!

Pete – kenworthy@wews.com

Seeing Heart Disease

I just watched Good Morning America’s report on what eating unhealthy food does to your arteries.  The reporter ate something like 8,000 calories and more than 180 grams of saturated fat.  She did it with someone else.  The story showed the difference in the blood both before and after eating – it was disgusting, but eye opening.  The blood was clear before and cloudy after.  The reporter’s heartbeat sounded normal before and much quicker after eating the fatty foods.

I realize that I don’t always eat what they were eating and I certainly wouldn’t have deep fried mac n cheese followed by a bacon cheeseburger wrapped in a burrito with a ice cream cookie dessert, but watching that truly made me a believer.

In February, I started going to the gym on a regular basis.  I’ve lost 10 pounds but more importantly, feel like my heart is healthier.  Running for me was the most important.  I have heart disease in my family and for the sake of my wife and 3 kids, want to stay around as long as possible.  The story on GMA certainly helped!

Thoughts?  e-mail me at kenworthy@wews.com or comment below.

Pete