Corks pop for Feed the Child

Susan DeMarsh serves wine to guests During Pendleton Altrusa's wine-tasting event.

Pat McClintock talks about the Feed the Child backpack program.

Kylee Evans, in black, serves wine to guests.

Susan DeMarsh shows off a bottle of Purple Cowboy, touted as a tenacious red wine, was a crowd favorite. (The company donates profits to the Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign).

For more inforamtion about Purple Cowboy, read Rich Breshears' wine column ("Are you tough enough to drink Purple Cowboy?" Jan. 16, 2010, East Oregonian)

Fallen Rise rocks UHS

Part of Jeremiah Pine's senior project at Umatilla High School was to stage a performance with his band, Fallen Rise. (He plays drums). If the student body's response was any indication, Jeremiah should get an 'A'. I would encourage Jeremiah to show this to his senior project teacher — or I can, it's my husband, John.
Check out the pick leaving Anthony Thomas's fingertips. The freshman already has some great stage presence.

Sophomore Dakota Dufloth plays guitar.                   Rounding out the band are Jeremiah's sister, UHS grad Rikki Robbins, who sings vocals, 

and Trevor Hines, a sophomore, plays guitar and bass.

Full Moon rises in dramatic way

Here are some extra shots from the recent rehearsal for Full Moon Productions: A Night of Improvisational Drama. 







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I really like the drama instructor If he looks familiar from other photos   

on my blog - it's my husband, John.

Volunteers serve up Christmas spirit

************ Lori Ball-Kiser receives a hug from Fire Chief Pat Hart at the Community Fellowship Dinner.

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Hundreds of volunteers and diners enjoyed a free meal and fellowship.

Dog days of winter

Initially Lucifer seemed unsure about the snow, however, in short time Jeter showed him how much fun it could be.

Hey, I'm gonna be as big as you someday.

Well, until then, I'm in charge.

That Old-fashioned Christmas feeling

After I entered several photos for a story about the Christmas Carriage Parade (East Oregonian Dec. 6, 2009 "Carriage festival creates old-fashioned fun) - I knew only a couple would run, so I decided to post a number of them on my blog. The first few are people's attempts to stay warm as well as the Pendleton Chamber Ambassadors, who serenaded people along the parade route — getting them into the holiday spirit.

The first year I covered it there was a beautiful dusting of snow and it was bone-chilling cold. Although there wasn't any snow this year, it was still cold. But somehow, the warmth of the season makes up for the dipping mercury.

I ain't afraid of no ghosts

I had a good time covering the story of some ghost hunters at the Pendleton Center for the Arts (Who ya gonna call - East Oregonian, Oct. 25, 2009 ). I don't really believe in the whole ghost thing, but I like the adrenaline rush of being scared -- and face it, any old creaky building is at least a little bit scary.

Doug Sanders, director of the team from the International Paranormal Reporting Group, gives direction to a couple of his team members before beginning the investigation.



I wish this photo had more dramatic spider webs on the wrought iron gate - that would have lent itself to being more eerie.

James Haight can be seen through hallway windows as he writes down data in the ceramic room during the investigation. I thought I was being pretty "outside the box artsy" with this photo, but the copy desk didn't choose it to go along with the story.

When Tasha Haight was taking photos of the outside windows she paused while looking at the LED screen -- focusing on the upper left pane of the photo.

Later Doug made the comment that the way the window was, someone would have to be at least 15 feet tall to look out the window. I didn't say anything (because as a journalist I feel like I observe and record events, but am not a part of them, per se - although if someone offers to let me eat at an event that has food, well, yes then I'll take part in that : )

Anyway, my thought was looking down at the basement window from the sidewalk you can see into the room and a person standing 10 or so feet away from the window (inside) you'd be able to see them through the pane. (I know this because of the pictures I took, I could see things on the shelf across the room). I'm not even a detective or ghost buster and I could figure that one out.