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First of all, for those of you wondering why I put a smiley face at the end of the title… “=” is how you write “2″ in Chinese numerals.  Never say you don’t learn useful information on this vlog. 

As promised, I had Jake in to the studio this morning and we talked with Gideon Yago and Steven Lopez about cultural faux pas to avoid in Beijing.  I wasn’t sure Gideon would remember us, but he did… and was in fact so surprised that he dropped a giant f-bomb when I told him who I was (”Get the *beep* out of here!”).  Thank God I learned to edit last week.  I left all this on the post (sanz f-bomb though, sorry) so you can see a little behind-the-scenes on this one.  You can also see more tips for culturally sensitve traveling right here. 

My tip: f-bombs are probably good to avoid… wherever you go.   

Tomorrow morning I’m talking with Journalist Gideon Yago and Olympian Steven Lopez about “Olympians Receiving Training to Avoid Embarrassing Gaffes in Beijing”.  Good call, whoever thought of this. 

My guest will be Jake Fehling, Director, Media and Public Relations, USA Baseball.  AKA Mr. Page Crawford.  That’s right… the tallest couple in America will be taking over the NBC 17 studios tomorrow morning.  But before you go calling the nepotism police on me, allow me to explain why Jake makes for the perfect guest-interviewer for this…

Jake is horrendously socially awkward and constantly offends people while travelling overseas.  Kidding.  But he does travel to and from Beijing quite a bit doing pre-Olympic prep work, and because of that he, like all of us, could use a lesson in the inadvertent ways he might be offending his hosts without even knowing it. 

I think it’s safe to say we’d all like to avoid giving the Chinese people a bad (worse) impression of Americans by insulting them with gifts like a clock, an umbrella or even (gasp) a book.  Sound crazy?  Yeah, well… that’s kind of why we’re doing the interview.  Plus Jake and I “know” Gideon through mutual friends from while we were living in New York.  I’m hoping we can get some funny answers out of him. 

I know a lot of you are world-travelers.  Anybody have an overseas story that left you trying to coerce a size 14 Nike out of your mouth?  Please, do tell…

Moms aren’t generally tops on people’s “Best-Dressed” lists.  Remember the SNL commercial parody “Mom Jeans”?…

A lot of us felt like the folks at SNL kind of hit the nail on the head, but Jessica Denay is here to change that stereotype!  She’s the author of “The Hot Mom’s Handbook”, and she’s urging women everywhere to “put yourself at the top of the to-do list, and throw all the stereotypical ‘mommy myths’ out the window.” 

…  and she’s willing to help other people be succesful too.  Even when they’re her competition. 

2 lucky local high schoolers (one of whom will be competing with Natalie at the Olympic trials this summer) came into the studio today to talk join me in talking with Natalie about swimming, schools, and life:

Pussycat Doll lead singer Nicole Scherzinger is about to release her first solo album and is also getting ready for the public unveiling of the PCD’s latest project.  Click on the video below to hear all about that… and why this Kentucky girl gets homesick at this time of year.

Matt and Amy Wolff met and fell in love on NBC’s hit show “The Biggest Loser”.  They’ve lost a total of 252 lbs between the two of them, and they tied the knot last month in Charleston, SC. 

The Wolffs talked with me and Christy Andux (local personal trainer and, oh by the way…  bride-to-be! :-)) about weight loss, weddings… and everything in-between.  Check out what they had to say:

Amy Grant is a busy lady.  She’s celebrating her 25th Anniversary in the music business (5 Grammy’s later, thank you very much.); she’s mom to 5 kids in her blended family with country music superstar Vince Gill; and she’s helping to end world hunger… 1 meal at a time.  C.C. Claybrook is Amy’s biggest fan. 

C.C.’s husband, Stephen is the Worship Pastor at Crosspointe Church in Cary.  When I called Crosspointe last week to see if anyone there wanted to participate in an Amy Grant interview with me, Stephen jumped at the chance to make good on a promise he made to C.C. years ago when they were living in Nashville -he finally got to help her meet her favorite musician!

Click on the video link to see C.C.’s interview and hear what Amy had to say about parenting, feeding the hungry, and why sometimes her kids wish they were just “regular” people…

A textiles professor told me yesterday that fashion designers tend to be reserved and not very outgoing.  Not so much with Vera Wang.  She was delightful before, during, and after the cameras were rolling.  Good thing because I had an impressionable youngin’ in the studio with me yesterday. 

Check out NC State Senior fashion-stud Nina Tie word her way around an interview with one of fashion’s biggest names smoother than a cross-stitch on plaid.  I have no idea what that means.  Hence the hired gun for the fashion interview…

The answer to that question should be simple.  For anyone born post-1997 it should be a resounding “yes”.  And yet, I just failed the quiz on that show’s website (and only made it to Round 2, if you must know).  Proving I am indeed NOT smarter than a 5th Grader.  But then, there are some pretty impressive 5th graders (and 4th graders, and 3rd graders…) out there these days.  And lots of them live right here in the Triangle:

 Remember this?…

It’s moments like these that make the Olympics magical.  It’s moments like these that make you want to get up and cheer for your favorite athletes.  And now you can.  And they’ll actually be able to see you do it.    At the “Americas Cheer” website you can upload encouraging videos for all the athletes headed to Beijing.  And if you’re up for a bit of a road-trip, you can do it in person in Charlotte on April 29th. 

This morning I talked with former Olympic gymnast Kerri Strug (of said “magical moment” video above) and current Olympic Badminton player (yes, that is an Olympic sport) Howard Bach about how much these videos mean to them.  And they did it sitting outside for 3 hours in 40 degree weather.  I’d say that shows they mean a lot…