Engagement Pics!

 Like what you see?

Well, I was going to post our final engagement pictures here...

but ended up putting them on an album on Facebook.

It's easier and faster to do it this way...so click here and tell us what your favorites are!

Don't worry - you DON'T need to be a Facebook member to view the pics.


PS We're also on our photographers website.  You can check that out by clicking here.

Valentine's Weekend

The best part about having Valentine's Day on Monday this February was the chance to celebrate all weekend long!  Not only that, but this year was amazingly special because I actually have a valentine who I'm madly in love with!

I was lucky to get a rare Friday night off so Erica and I hit up Carytown.  We ate a nasty, overpriced meal at Double T's BBQ...then finally saw Harry Potter in the Byrd Theatre.  Good movie...and even better because it was only $1.99 a ticket!  When Erica arrived home that night, she found tulips had been delivered while we were out :-).




Saturday Erica put on a beautiful dress, I zipped up some nice slacks, and we visited Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Believe me - we have never and don't plan to ever spend anywhere NEAR what this place costs for dinner...but I won a $100 gift card from work so we decided to try it out.

WOW!  Talk about fancy!  As soon as we were seated our "server's assistant" greeted us and offered four different kinds of water.  They then brought us warm potato crisps and delicious bread with fresh whipped butter.


I ordered a $50 New York Strip (cooked in butter) with a salad and scalloped potatoes (an extra $16).  Erica ordered stuffed chicken breast with creamed spinach ($35).  We also got cheesecake.


The bill came to $104...plus we left a $25 tip (what we normally would have spent for the two of us at any other restaurant).  The food really was incredible but we both felt sick the rest of the night because it was so rich!  

We ended up going back to Erica's and watched the movie Fireproof.  If you haven't seen it, you should.  The acting is a little goofy but the film has a great message: Never leave your partner behind.  








After church on Sunday Erica came over and I cooked her dinner.  We enjoyed lemon pepper chicken, Ukrop's macaroni and cheese, rolls, beans, and cookies for dessert.

On Monday we both had to work and I was hoping to visit Erica on my dinner break...but Mother Nature ruined that plan.  The wind kicked up around 3pm and over 13 brush/house/apartment fires broke out over the course of the next seven hours.  I was sent all over the place to report on the fires.


Fortunately I had a quick break and was able to stop in at my house.  Erica was here helping a roommate prepare a valentine's dinner for his girlfriend.  When I walked into my room, I was startled to see Erica had cleaned it, vacuumed it, and left this on my bed:

It made my day!  Three of my favorite things TOGETHER:  Scrabble, Cheez-Its, and Erica!  What more could a man want?


I felt bad I had to dash out the door to get back to work...but Erica was very understanding.


All in all, we had a very eventful holiday weekend and hope to celebrate Valentine's Day over the course of several days for many years to come!


P.S. We got our engagement photos taken today.  The photographer took over 300...so we are sifting through and picking our favorites.  I'll post some of them here...but the picture at the top of this entry if a preview of things to come!

Criminal Wake-Up Calls

Gilpin Court is one of Richmond's most dangerous neighborhoods.  It's government housing (the projects) and this is not the place you want to be.  It's sad to admit but we often don't cover shootings in this area anymore because they are so common. 


Recently I woke up at 4am on a freezing cold winter morning and and spent the next five hours in Gilpin Court.  My photographer and I followed cops as they tried to find unsuspecting criminals wanted on outstanding warrants.  


It was definitely an eye-opening experience.  


I can't describe everything we saw and witnessed...but it was something else!  


Here's the story we aired last night.  One day I hope to show you the footage we couldn't put on TV - it's pretty wild!