On The Air

Thanks to all who watched us yesterday on NBC4 at 4 and who participated in the live web chat. That was definitely a first for me as "the expert," although I've done plenty of live online chats. (When AOL was just a few thousand members circa 1991, a bunch of us Prince fans used to gather online Sunday night to talk into the wee hours, those were the "good ole days" of the Net for me. Give me a shout if you were part of that early adoption tribe.) NBC4 gave us a nice link from here. The transcript of the web chat is posted here. Apologies if any of my answers were incoherent or incomplete! You know that scene from Broadcast News where Joan Cusack is running around with the tape to get it live on-air? Well, my experience yesterday was pretty close to that -- between the live shot outside the studio digging in the dirt with Veronica Johnson, hustling to clean that up, running up to the studio, getting re-wired with a mike and answering the live chat questions while they set up lighting and cameras for a second live shot inside the studio with Veronica. For the outdoor shot I did not have a mike until literally two seconds before the segment started. I think we at least appeared calm and collected while on-air. The staff was great and, by the way, Veronica is a real gardener at heart. Read her last few blog entries here and you'll see she walks the talk. Word on the grapevine is she is also an excellent photographer so I'm hoping to talk her into entering the next Washington Gardener Photo Contest. We did get to discuss the opening reception details for this year's Washington Gardener Photo Contest Art Show on the air and we are expecting a big crowd for it tomorrow night. Now off to put the finishing touches on the show itself.

The latest Washington Examiner is now out with week #2 of "The List." We are providing the "Home & Garden Top 5" list for this every week. Read the Examiner article online (March 22 edition - page 29), or grab the print version at the red street boxes around town today - the List is on page 29.