Just a short blog to thank Patrick Hammer for filling in for me while I was gone.  I’m a little miffed at the fact that it took four auditions and almost 14,000 miles in travel for me to get the job as host of Twin Cities Live.  But for Patrick, it took about three seconds to figure out that he’d be a great fill-in.

I’m only teasing.  Not long after Twin Cities Live got off the ground, we began to realize that the day would come when Rebekah or I would either be sick or on vacation.  So we needed to figure out who would fill in during those shows.  Several people seemed very fit to do it, but I thought Patrick Hammer would be great.  It certainly wasn’t my call, but Rebekah and I both offered up suggestions.

I had spoken to Patrick in the halls only a few times, and I had seen him do the weather on 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS Morning.  In both cases, he seemed to just be kind of a fun and happy guy.  I think that works on this show.  But he wasn’t going to be the host until he did a test run with Rebekah.

For the test run, I was in our control room, with our executive producer Mandy Grosser.  It was obvious that Patrick would do a great job, about two seconds into his test.  So he got the gig.  I think he’s filled in for me on five occasions now, and done a great job.

So thanks Patrick.  Keep up the good work.  But not too good.  Or else I’ll have to start brushing up on my weather forecasting skills.