Video: Spokane woman, 60, conquers Everest

Co-workers Colin Mulvany and Rich Landers teamed up again to produce this story about 60-year-old mountaineer Kay LeClaire’s conquest of Mount Everest. Watch through to the end; it’s worth it.

Rescued puppies and a quick slideshow

It’s about 4 p.m. on a Friday in the newsroom. We’ve got a reporter and a photographer back from the arrival in Spokane of 50 American Eskimo dogs from a puppy mill in Kennewick, Wash.

We’ve got about eight photos and some audio. I’m asked to put it all together in a slideshow. And I couldn’t be happier. I’ve always loved the edit process best, so when good material lands in my lap, I feel like a kid at play. Compression issues kept me a little late, but I was able to pound this one out fairly quickly. My reward was pretty good traffic over the weekend.

Click on the screengrab below to view the result at spokesman.com, where you’ll also read about how to adopt one of these dogs. See that yawning puppy? He’s saying either “click me!” or “pick me!” You might just be lucky enough to do both.

Photos from Prague and Budapest

I’ve got a lot of catching up to do on this blog.

I spent the first half of May traveling in Central Europe. Pleasure, not business. So I think I’ll ease back into this with some photos from my trip. I recommend clicking the full-screen button in the lower right of the player.

Prague

I spent about six days in the shining city of a thousand spires. I used to live there, so this trip was mostly about revisiting favorite places. But I did make it to Terezin, a former concentration camp I’d never visited.

Budapest

I’d never been to this city, and I fell in love. I almost stayed. The food, the people, the thermal baths, the Unicum. So much to enjoy. Getting there was an adventure, as a short-notice rail strike nearly left me stranded at the Slovakian border. A kind family gave me and another American a ride to the town of Esztergom, however, and told us what bus to take into Budapest. A memorable beginning.