Happy Monday (and I mean it, this time).

I'll never forget my favorite sushi chef asking me how old I was.

I think I was 30 at the time. He then asked if I had kids (no). And he said to me, "tick tock". As in, "tick tock you better get to it".

The thing is, he meant it with only the nicest of intentions. I have to tell you that because somtimes when I tell people that story they are shocked. It didn't bother me at all. Actually, it's kind of funny if you picture me sitting at the sushi bar having a 'fertility' conversation with the man who is masterfully slicing up my ahi.

Speaking of sushi, you know what I positively love? The Ikura. Most everyone I eat sushi with are grossed out by it, but not me. That stuff is yummy!!! And look: apparently popular in Japan, too!!

http://www.japan-guide.com/topic/0106.html

And speaking of eggs (nice segue) let's talk about fertility. But not female fertility, male fertility.

Here's the link to that book I was telling you about: http://www.malebiologicalclock.com/

Here is an additional link for you to check out.. an 'older' study (no pun intended): http://www.ined.fr/fichier/t_telechargement/5586/telechargement_fichier_en_pesa371.pdf

So, today our executive producer Sally told me I had a delivery at the front desk. I thought it was probably for this event I emceed but guess what, it was from my wonderful, awesome, intelligent, sassy, life-loving diva posse (as seen here from a few pictures on my desk):

I had NO clue and it was such a nice surprise. Oh wait, you might be wondering what it is I'm talking about:

How cute is that?? It was a 'congratulations' cookie basket from some company called 'Cookies By Design' for two emmy nominations I received. The diva posse includes a number of us, but the glue of the group is Kris ((whose kids Tristan and Kiernan I include on this blog)).

The odd letter/number combinations on the cookies are some of my nicknames (which if you really want to know I will share with you if you email me):

sstricklen@kgw.com

Anyway, I have one heckuva week which includes flying out of state tomorrow for a top-secret overnight trip on this story I'm working on. I'll let you know when it airs so you can check it out. But with my schedule, that cookie basket was a very thoughtful pick-me-up! I love my diva posse.

For once, it really is a Happy Monday. :-)

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 1:59 PM | Permalink

I think that was the quote from one of the researchers I read earlier. They are VERY fired up about this.

I do love WebMD articles because they are reviewed and always seem to hit all the key points. Check this out:
http://www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/news/20070426/new-blood-test-for-prostate-cancer?page=1

To get involved in clinical trials going on up at OHSU (for prostate cancer and, really, anything to do with the OHSU Cancer Institute) call:

(503) 494-1080

WOW. Did you have a lot to say about the "Gym Germs" story. Most of those who wrote me or called told me about their horror stories with MRSA they think they picked up at the gym. But not everyone thinks they got it there.. I'm not going to give first names or anything identifiable but here are some snippets:

This from a person whose thinks the staph came from a pedicure:

[I] spent time in the emergency room instead, where they finally discovered that it was a staph infection, which had spread to my tail bone as a pilonidal abscess. 2 more months of procedures occured, filled with wrong medicines, allergic reactions, and so much more. I cleared up for about 2 weeks (just enough time to take
a vacation!) and in January it returned back into my toe.

This person swims at a gym, and while it's not MRSA it still sounds very unpleasant:

I swallowed a little water. Waking up the next morning, my mouth and throat was extremely painful. I went to the doctor immediately, ans was told that my throat was burned from chlorine, and my mouth had a fungus infection. It was extremely painful, and for almost a week could only eat milk shakes.

This person thinks the MRSA infection happened at work:

I almost died from it in 2003. I didn't get MRSA from a gym, I got it from my job as a bartender.

I also thought that I had been bitten by a spider. That is until I ended up with what I called my "third hip". After just 5 days my "spider bite" had grown to the size of a large grapefruit in my hip and I had another golf ball size lump in my leg. When I had a red line running from my hip down my leg that is when a friend finally convinced me to go to a Dr. immediately. (when you don't have health insurance you tend to ignore things!) Thankfully I did or I would be dead.

I was not lucky enough to recover in only 2 weeks, it was more like 2 months. I am blessed with a wonderful family and friends who had to take care of me as I could not walk or do anything for myself. I had to be taken to the Dr. 2-4 times a day to have the 4 foot long "wick" removed from my hip and repacked. ( my leg was only 1 time a day!) I was on so many different extremely strong antibiotics that I will forever have severe health issues from them.

Hey.. I got my first tram ride today and took a few photos! You'll notice I blurred out everyone's face but mine and Brian's.. just in case.

Here's the other tram popping out of my head:

And here is the tram cam we put on our morning show (hint: it's the little dark dot on the upper left hand corner of that yellow-ish looking wall)

And here is me mugging it up for the camera with the Governor.

I emceed an event for the Oregon Commission on Children and Families. It's truly an amazing organization. Learn more here: http://www.oregon.gov/OCCF/index.shtml

Click here to email Stephanie Stricklen your tips/photos/story ideas.

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 4:31 PM | Permalink

Well.. sometimes the moon and the stars line up, you know?

This was totally one of those cases.

I got a tip from the naturopath I worked with on the Oscillo story: http://awomanstime.citysearch.com/ and then I got two other emails from people and then I was talking to a woman I do pilates with who had the same thing happen to her!! Like I said at 5.. doctors say this proves that community-acquired MRSA (aka community-associated MRSA depending on who you're talking to) is around all the time, especially in places like gyms!!

This is a Rhode Island state site and a little lingo-y but there's good info: http://www.health.ri.gov/disease/communicable/providers_mrsa060705.php

Community-acquired or Commity-associated MRSA: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa_ca.html

General MRSA info: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dhqp/ar_mrsa.html

Another example of a place where this hits besides gyms: http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2007/04/26/4130996-sun.html

Email me your story ideas here: sstricklen@kgw.com

Now, onto a less worrysome topic: PICTURES.

My friends Kris and Danny have adorable kids. One of these days I have to get her to have Tristan leave me a voicemail at work so I can play it for you on the blog. It will melt your heart and make you bust up laughing all at once. This is little Kiernan (who I sort of, accidentally, in a little way, named when I incorrectly transcribed his name Kieran).

AND... Mike named his puppy!!! "TANNER".

I dunno, we had so many good ones. I've named this stray dog in our neighborhood Pickle, as in this dog is in quite a pickle Pickle. Haven't seen her in a few weeks so maybe Animal Control finally got a hold of her. She was VERY skiddish and wouldn't let anyone get within 100 feet of her without bolting at full speed.

Click here to email Stephanie Stricklen

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 12:56 PM | Permalink

It’s Sunday in Hoboken and I can’t get over the weather here. It is beyond nice. Actually a bit too hot.. but don’t take that as a complaint. Life is good.

We picked up what is probably the best sandwich I think I’ve had in a long time. I just looked this up online: http://www.vitosdeli.com/

And: http://www.insiderpages.com/b/3718004100

Seriously, I can’t tell you how good this is.

Doug wrote me wondering where I’m staying. As the sandwich suggests.. I am in Hoboken—hometown (and first musical break) of Frank Sinatra.

We’re down by the river where the view of Manhattan is amazing, simply amazing.

Here is me frontin’ in Times Square. It’s just one of those places you MUST stop by at night.

There are the people I’m visiting: Kim and Dan who used to live in Laurelhurst. They paid a LOT more for this current house (built in the late 1800s) and it’s substantially smaller, but really beautiful. The fireplace is original and the ceilings are about 10 feet tall.

We’re heading into the city to see a show!! LATER!

Oh wait: Chris writes about the practical joke: Hope you had a great vacation. I grew up in Manhattan and it is fun to visit anytime that is not summer. Man, I don't' miss those. The best joke that my hubby ever did: was to put bubble wrap under someone's car tires so that when they drove all they heard was popping. It took them a few seconds to figure out what happened.

That’s a great idea.. and harmless too!!

My friend Stacy writes: I'm a couple of blog entries late, but I had a coworker once who's desk was completely covered in all these photo frames filled with pics of family, friends, etc. One day when she was out I printed out color photos of Fabio from the web and filled every single frame with him. I also managed to get onto her computer and make her desktop a photo of Fabio and also reset her home page to Fabio's Fan Club site. Good times.

Roger had a pretty good idea too: If you have a hole punch with a catcher space or a binding machine of some sort, you can collect all of those 'holes' and then liberally spread them all over someone's cubicle. Sally had that happen to her once years ago. There was literally two inches of the stuff all over the floor of her cube
and all in the drawers to her desk. Of course, this was an office where the running joke was to trash a person's cube / office on their birthday. Sally's birthday is in February, she was still finding the stuff in August.

And Mark sent this little picture story about his cat Princess: Have a chuckle over this one. I had put my burger down on the couch and was going to get a water from the kitchen when our cat "Princess" climbed down off the couch and was going to take the burger and I took the pic just before she hooked it and ran off with it... Silly kitty!!! It was funny watching her struggle to get the top of the bun off of the burger. When she accomplished that, she hooked the burger and ran.

HA! Clever kitty.

Click here if you've been to New York

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 9:57 AM | Permalink

I am so out of town.

I have yet another week off. You’d think I was like the Beckham’s.. all jet-setty and such. But it’s actually just one of those weird timing things that worked out for me to have these two trips planned in April.

I’m on the East Coast this time. Manhattan. And it’s just as awesome as it was last year when I was here.

The Nor’easter is long gone and the weather is sooooo much nicer now than when I was last here in July. UGH.

Michael writes about the practical jokester: Haha, Steph, that's funny. You have to find out who did that!

I enjoy jokes but I'm no good at making them up. Sorry. Looks like there were a lot of photographers at your wedding.

It does look like there were a lot.. I think because that was the cake cutting. It was such an amazing day…… my friend Teresa is planning her wedding and it’s pretty exciting to see her enthusiasm. It just brings it back for me.

Mark writes about me working the morning show: Would be nice if it were warmer out so I could fall into the pool and go for a dip. Could you ask Dave to fix the weather pictures... There needs to be more sun and more warmth. The rain he's had is wearing out it's welcome over here.

Is Brenda just on vaca and you are filling in???

Yeah, Miss Brenda had some time off and now it looks like it’s my turn…. I think she was back today. I’m out of town so it’s hard to say.

Enjoy this photo of my very tortured mutt. If you think this is bad, you should have seen our Christmas cards. YIKES. He’s such a good dog.

Stephanie Stricklen is not checking this email very much.

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 11:26 AM | Permalink

I just love, love, love, love, love tonite's (Friday's) 5pm story.

Love it.

It was just such a pleasure to meet Ricky and his mom.. a pleasure to chat with Mark Smith and Chris Scheller.. a pleasure to be able to tell an uplifting story that reminds me of why this job can be so fufilling ((cue songbirds and sunshine)).

Anyway~ I hope you like it too. :-)

Okay: info for you on the program/unveiling.

http://www.ohsudoernbecher.com/support/fund_freestyle.asp

Info on the type of leukemia Ricky has: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/ALLinchildren

I didn't know how big of a deal shoes are (Mark Smith is in this article): http://www.solecollector.com/news/2005/05/evnt_sc_cof_hawaii.html

If you've seen my scuffy, sensible, boring work shoes then you're probably not surprised.

About two weeks ago I FINALLY bought some black shoe polish to hide the scuffs when what I really need to do is GO BUY NEW WORK SHOES! (although I think my husband would disagree... he just hasn't learned to appreciate my idea of 'different-shoes-for-different-things' which explains why I need three pairs of black sandles.)

Dave writes with two completely awesome suggestions about how to return the practical joke favor ((see previous blog entry)): Isn’t that story about the Boeing Tram just a trip? I looked at the website and it would cost over $4 million dollars per mile. Who has that kind of money? Anyway, I read your blog about the faces being taped up all over our office. Here’s a good way to get someone back. Buy a pack of the really small restroom sized Dixie cups and fill them each individually with water. Then place them on the floor of the offenders office so that they cannot walk into their office. They’ll spend the entire day emptying the cups of water.

Or you could block off the door to their cube and fill it with packing peanuts.

Dave-- that's GENIUS!!! I also thought about heavily taping said-offender's car doors shut while they are at work but I'm afraid any tape will mess with the finish (not cool), so I'll just have to chalk that up to an 'entertaining' thought.

Joe writes about the Primate genome project: Yes, Monkeys are cute..until they start throwing things.
Now, see, I don't care who you are. That's funny.

Mike's Mystery Puppy is likely to be named.......... Toby.
I think I got about 30 name ideas from everyone which was great!!
Katie snuck in one last suggestion: Gadget.

Mark writes about me anchoring the morning show while Drew Carney strutted about in only a grass skirt and a plush-carpet chest:
I just went blind after watching Drew shake his tailfeathers! Yikes! Hopefully, I'll be able to get my vision back... It was nice to see you back behind the anchor desk (before I went blind, of course).

Raz Drew for me...

What? What's that Mark?? I can't read this because I WENT BLIND TOO! :-)

Still saving: Fat Firefighters (I think a "before and after" photo is coming)

Happy Friday. I'm out!

Click here if you love Friday's and want to tell a friend!

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 10:43 AM | Permalink

A Boeing jet/tram wind powered high-speed how ya doin'... from Troutdale to Government Camp?!

I mean, the drawings look pretty cool.

http://thehighwayinthesky.us/

I just got done wiping the tears from my eyes I was laughing so hard. All over-- and I mean ALL over my desk.. I *just* discovered someone has come in and taped little faces over my pictures. And I just keep finding them ((I have a ton of stuff on my desk)).

Example from my wedding photo:

And:

I'm still laughing............. Click here to give Stephanie Stricklen an idea how she should return the practical joke favor.

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 7:39 AM | Permalink

2:45am: alarm goes off.

3:00am: coffee is finished ((and I had the LEADED stuff which I usually skip)).

3:50am: drive to work.

4:45am: apply spackle to face.

5:00am: showtime.

8:15am: answer emails.

9:30am: shoot rhesus macaque monkey story.

11:30am: frantically write.

12:25pm: blogging now.

12:45pm: write breaking news health story.

1:30pm: leave for top secret, unrelated shoot... story airs tomorrow at 5pm.

4:30pm: go home.

I'm wiped. But I'm BUSY and it actually keeps me awake!!

OHSU link to primate genome story: http://www.ohsu.edu/ohsuedu/newspub/releases/041207rhesusgenome.cfm

Link to another press release from the NIH: http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/apr2007/nhgri-12.htm

Picture of the phojo I worked with today, Kurt:

Hey.. I think Mike picked a name for his puppy!!! EEK.. it's 12:30 and I have to get this other web-story written... Gotta jam.

Click here to email Stephanie Stricklen who thinks monkeys are pretty "cute".

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 12:21 PM | Permalink

I'm soo back from vacation!!

And I'm way out of time. I wrote this huge blog but (as it has done three times before) the program I use to upload it just crashed and nuked the whole thing. So, the vacation photos, fat firefighter update, and 'name that mystery puppy' contest will have to wait. I soo don't have time to redo all that.

BUT, I have to tell you about my conversation with Joey Harrington's dad!! I called him to see if Joey had the same thing as LaMarcus. Turns out he DID have a similar heart condition that actually is in the same class of heart disorders that involve the top chambers of the heart.

But, it wasn't specifically WPW. However, back when Joey was in his rookie year (at the ripe old age of 23) he had the exact same treatment. Doctors inserted a catheter into his heart and used radiofrequency ablation to nuke his "extra connection" effectively solving the problem. And Joey's trade today to the Atlanta Falcons is proof that this type of condition isn't career-ending.

Here, you can read about it yourself: http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4785

And: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000151.htm

Okay, one photo: "Mike's Name That Mystery Puppy" contest. Here is that little cute furball with Mike's daughter Katie:

Laura writes: I couldn’t help but notice the WSU Cougar Pennant in the background on one of the pictures….so how about Butch? In honor of Butch T. Coug!

And David suggests: My, what a beautiful puppy! I suggest he be named Thor. Have a great day!

LOVE 'em!! Gotta scoot. It's 5:03pm and I'm on in a little bit here.....

Click here to email Stephanie Stricklen

Posted by Stephanie Stricklen at 4:49 PM | Permalink