Okay, not quite a million. More like 25. But it explains why I hate talking on the phone outside of work. I am headed to Italy in February to cover the Olympics and I called just about every business, association, trade group, and Portland notable I could think of to see who is planning to attend the games. If you know anyone, drop me a line: sstricklen@kgw.com.

Torino will be my third Olympics and I finally feel like I have it figured out. It's not like anything else I've ever covered and to be effective.. truly effective in turning the quantity of coverage that KGW wants, you have to know how to play the game over there. Of course, I'll blog about that come February so I will spare you the details until then.

Wow. It's 4:56pm and I'm on in about 25 minutes. I need to go put on another coat of spackle (makeup). Same deal as yesterday; I'm fronting the health segment. If I get out there and the producer drops a story I'll go grab it and clip it into this blog.

This photo is for Joe who wrote me saying he gets a kick out of the behind the scenes stuff I write about. So, Joe.. it doesn't happen too often but occasionally my boss makes me cover a story that's totally different than the ones I pitched in the morning meeting. Sometimes I'm all for it, and sometimes I'm not. But, I try to keep a good attitude and do the best job I can. I keep this glittery DIVA crown on the top of my computer and have thought about wearing it to the morning meeting when I know it's going to be one of those days. Notice I said "thought about wearing it". I don't think my boss would find it very funny.

And those weird white beads you see came in the mail a few years ago from a company wanting me to do a story on them. Google "fertility beads" if you're interested in learning more. I have all kinds of stuff like that on my desk.