OOOOPS!!!

If you've been looking for ONE YEAR OF FIRSTS, I've moved the blog to a new location.

It's at oneyearoffirsts.wordpress.com.   (My sister just panicked calling to see what happened to me because she didn't see anything for the last week!)

I'm still alive.  The blog is still alive.  Sorry for the confusion.  Please continue to follow my progress. Another half year to go!

Day 166 of Firsts: Launch New and Improved Blog

He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery. ~Harold Wilson

I'm almost half way through this year of "firsts" and decided the blog needed a little face lift.  A little change.  A new look.  I hope you like it. 

The new official web address is oneyearoffirsts.wordpress.com but you will still be able to find me at oneyearoffirsts.com or at nbcphiladelphia.com.

Of course you can always email me at luann.cahn@nbcuni.com.  There's facebook and twitter too.

I'm hoping it's a little more user friendly and allows us to have more of a conversation.  Please let me know what you think, your ideas and what kind of firsts you are doing in your life.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow? Learning how to cartwheel. Seriously. 

So out with the old website, in with the new.
Stay tuned.

Day 165 of Firsts: A Cooking Show?

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not! ~Author Unknown

I'm a little banged up and bruised from that fabulous Mud Run adventure yesterday, so I decided to keep my First adventure in the kitchen today.
(And my husband will tell you anything I do in the kitchen is an adventure. Usually a messy one. )

The Mud Run benefited the M.S. Society and I wanted to give a little special thank you gift to everyone in the newsroom who helped me raise money for it.

Little do they know they are getting something homemade from me.  I've never made almond brittle (or any kind of brittle before) but the recipe in Susan Branch's Sweets to the Sweet looked doable.   Here goes......you can watch me make it.  Welcome to my  Haphazard Cooking Show.  (Hey, it's not easy cooking, stirring, and holding a camera. Trust me.)



It came out great!  Really lovely. No chocolate chip cookies then. 

Do you think they'd ever let someone who really knows nothing about cooking have a cooking show?  Instead of perfect dishes coming out, you could see all the screw ups. That'd be a First! Food network, I'm ready.

Day 164 of Firsts: Mud Run with Kathe's Krusaders

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels. ~Author Unknown

If you're fantasy is seeing a bunch of women run and crawl through the mud, you've come to the right place. Me? I've always wanted to roll around in the mud.  That made today perfect.

What a grueling, exhilarating experience.  I had no idea what I was in for when I signed up for the 10K adventure MUD RUN for M.S. in Newtown Square.

I was prepared to do it alone until I started talking to a wonderful group of young women from South Jersey.  Jenna Stevens called her team Kathe's Krusaders in honor of  her mother who died from Multiple Sclerosis.

Jenna, Stephanie, Melanie, Rebecca, and Colleen took me in like I was one of their own (even though I was absolutely the slowest runner) and we had the best time going through the crazy, challenging obstacles.

Just watch this video and see how we went from nice and clean to a grimey, dirty, united, awesome team. 

 

(If you didn't figure it out, I'm the one in the baseball cap.)

The run  was tough and as you see I had one awful crawl over the log. I probably won't be able to move tomorrow,  but I would do this again in a heartbeat.

I don't know much about Jenna's mom but I was thinking how proud she would be of her daughter and friends today. What a wonderful spirit they brought to the race and I'm so thankful they shared it with me. I feel somehow it was fate that we met and were united by the experience.

I also wanted to thank my genersous co-workers in the NBC 10 newsroom who helped me raise $100.00 for M.S. one day before the race.

Kathe's Krusaders rock!!! WHOOOOAAA!  A fabulous first!

Day 163 of Firsts: Roller Hockey with Third Graders

Don't go through life without goals. ~Hockey Saying

I think I've seen where hockey dreams are born.  In the playground rinks where 8 year olds skate and learn to get past the goalie. Pure joy. 

Tonight my friend and coworker Steve McCauley (he's in the pink shirt with the number 9 on it ) invited me to put on some skates and join his class at the Houston Park in Roxborough.  

You gotta love third grade boys. They were very tolerant of me tentatively skating around them. Head Coach Frank Petka does one heck of a job keeping the kids moving. 



What was really fun to see tonight was Steve, outside of our NBC 10 news room where he is key to the smooth daily operation, and find out how great he is with kids and so happy to be on skates.  You learn a lot about people when they share their passions with you.  I think that's really one of the best things I've leared about doing "Firsts" this year.  

Day 162 of Firsts: Give Out Hugs to Flyer Fans

A hug is like a boomerang - you get it back right away. ~Bil Keane, "Family Circus"

It was a sad day in the land of Philly. Something had to be done. Folks dragged into work today feeling pretty blue.  I decided I needed to do something for all the faithful Flyers Fans around me.

I put out an email at the station advertising Free Hugs.  Here's what happened.



Chief Photographer Jim Friedman was the first to come in for a hug. (He's a good hugger!) Then one of our new interns, Jen. (Sorry Jen. Didn't get your last name.) I offered the 10 show audience hugs and had many sweet, warm, takers. Photographer Bob Ertel is always a hugger.  Sports Anchor Vai Sikahema came into the office looking for a hug and I wasn't there so I went and found him later in the studio. (What a love.) Renee Chenault Fattah came up for a hug too.

But the most important hug went to intern Will O'Donnell, my professor of hockeyology. For the past two weeks he's tutored me in the Flyers song and hockey game rules.  He was inconsolable about the loss of the Stanley Cup to Chicago and didn't want a hug.  Finally, I had to give him one before he went home.

Ahhh.   I'll tell you what.  If you're having a bad day, just try hugging a few people.  Yes, they will think you're weird.  But I gaurantee you, you and everyone you hug will feel a little better.

I think this is one of the best Firsts I've done.  I highly recommend this one.  

Day 161 of Firsts: Eat at John's Doggie Shop

Hot dogs always seem better out than at home; so do French-fried potatoes; so do your children. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook

One of the fans of this blog read that I tried the In-'N-Out Burger out West.  She challenged me to try John's Doggie Shop Hot Dog "with everything" back East. By now you know I love food and any excuse to work it into a "First" works for me.

I happened to be near Chester, Pa. on assignment (home of the Doggie Shop) and decided a some crazy loaded up hot dogs might brighten an otherwise rainy dismal day.

Intern extraordinaire Will O'Donnell was game. Sam Dunne, our photog. du jour, said her palate was too sophisticated to dine on dogs.

 

Both Will and I ate two dogs a piece.  I fully expected to pay the price with some indigestion later...but nothing. My sensitive stomach did not make the slightest peep over this gastronomic indescretion.

John's Doggie Shop has been on 7th street in Chester since 1948. And I say "long live the Doggie Shop."