Queenkv’s Brainpickings

Viva my weekend.
I’m taking it easy for these last days of being 29-years-old.

originally uploaded by queenkv.

Last month, we ended up in Lodi after the Stockton Asparagus Festival. An air-conditioned wine tasting at the Lodi Visitor’s Center helped revive us. The festival was fun but we were wiped out from walking through 100-degree weather and [...]

I stumbled on this video about a senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com from Laughing Squid. I think he’s insane.

I wonder how he treats tornadoes, flash floods and potentially life-threatening conditions in his weather forecast. I wonder.
weather accuweather.com

Mark, Daisy and I waited for the space shuttle Discovery to fly over Topeka about 15 minutes ago.
We waited near Burnett’s Mound (site of the 1966 Tornado). It was cold and too damn bright to see shuttle hurling towards Earth. However, we heard two sonic booms pass over us. The pass over didn’t rattle doors [...]

So…something like 60 mph winds, thunder and lightening kept us up until 2:30 this morning. It was quite incredible to watch violent weather in Kansas. We heard the tornado sirens go off — but our weather dude kept saying there are no tornado watches/warnings for Topeka…
Still, our neighbors picked up their two cute poodles and [...]

By Tuesday, it felt like a long week.
Floods, tornado, displaced residents and more add up to a crazy news week in Topeka. One the phone with some network folks in Chicago, they told me: “All the news in your region. You’re hogging it all.” I told her I wouldn’t mind spreading the love.
Really.
Last night, Mark [...]

It’s going to be a crazy day in the newsroom…I keep running into more pictures, video and stories of how this weekend’s tornado ripped Greensburg apart. As a journalist, it’s like hitting the gold mine for news. As a human being, my heart aches for the people down there.
On my digg profile, I linked [...]

On Saturday morning, I could not stop watching local and network news — showing how an F5 tornado could destory a Kansas town.
read more | digg story
Kansas.com put together this amazing photo album on this weekend’s tornado damage. Aerial photographs show the devastation that occurred when a large tornado struck Greensburg, Friday night.
Good luck [...]

Happy Cinco De Mayo! I went to the gym this morning. On the elliptical machine, I tried watching re-runs of America’s Next Top Model. But I kept flipping back to CNN and MSNBC. I couldn’t take my eyes off the overnight Tornado videos out of Oklahoma.

Another one destroyed a Kansas town near Wichita last night. [...]

Last night, we went into severe weather mode in the newsroom. My boss warned us we could be in for a long night. So I made arrangements with day care for Daisy to spend the night. Daisy and I love the folks at Dog Day Afternoon. They are so helpful, especially with Mark in Berkeley.
Still, [...]

Well, our little weather adventure lasted about an hour. It looked like dusk at about 3:00 pm - yesterday. Then the rains died down and the sun popped out. We saw a rainbow over I-70.
On Thanksgiving - we spent part of the afternoon on the phone with our families in Cali and NY. Folks [...]