Tazewell Today

     Bills been talking about his home grown tomatoes on air for months!  Finally they matured into beautiful, red fruit.  Trust me….Bill lovingly nurtured his tomoatoes. 

     Being the sweet friend Bill is, he brought in some for us to taste test.  Needless to say, we had a good time during the show with them.  We did everything from marking the tomatoe we wanted by licking it….to finding pecular poses with our tomatoes.  Take a look at these photos. 

     My favorite is “Tomato Head Bill.”   Which one is your favorite?  Mmmm.  Juicy!

     Again, just another fun day on the TODAY show set.  Now I can’t wait to eat my tomoto.  Woo-hoo!!!  Thanks BILL!!  Check out Bill’s blog to track the growth and his tomatoes and other interesting topics at On The Rehdar.

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     One of the many things I love about working with our meteorologist Bill Reh is his sense of humor and his ability to feel free to express himself.  For example Bill loves his holiday ties.  When Christmas is near he’ll don his Charlie Brown Christmas tie, or how about the tie decorated with colorful Christmas lights.  Or, if it’s 4th of July he has to be patriotic…nothing less than red, white and blue.  Since Bill recently bought new ties he’s been trying those out so we may see less of his “interesting” ties in the near future.  However, he’s still pulling on some of his “interesting” socks.  Whenever he gets tired of the usual blue or black dress socks he’ll pull on his argyle. 

     Everytime he wears them we talk about his choice in socks.  And everytime we bring it up he asks, “Oh, are these not in style anymore?”  As we chuckle he says, “Well, I don’t care.  They’re perfectly good socks.  It matches my tie, doesn’t it?”  We share laughter and shake our heads thinking, “Oh, that’s our Bill.”  We wouldn’t change his free spirit for the world.

     But wait!  It gets even better.  Check out Bills socks in this picture!  My co-anchor Donald decided to join him in the “interesting” sock challenge.  OK, OK, in Donalds defense, he was about to head out to a cycling event right after the broadcast.  So, he wore his racing socks.  I tell ya….those are my partners.

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    While you were more than likely fast asleep, snuggled up in your sheets on 4th of July morning…Donald, Bill and I were going through our normal routine of waking up to the sound of an alarm clock at 2 am…driving into work with hardly a car in sight…then once at the studio preparing to anchor the morning news. 

     At 5 am on the dot…our floor director Rhiannon instructs “stand by.”  I take one last glance in the mirror to make sure my hair isn’t sticking out and one more sip of coffee.  Donald glances down to make sure he’s standing behind the piece of tape marking where he’s to stand.  Bill is feverishly typing up his weather graphics for the show.  “In three, two, one.”  The show open is potted up.  We’re on.  “Hi there, thanks for joining us for NBC17 Today.”   That was just the beginning my friends of a wild and crazy ride.  Keep in mind it was a Friday morning and at that point we were already on our second cup of highly caffeinated, dark coffee (not Bill, he doesn’t drink coffee) AND it was a HOLIDAY!  The madness started early.  Trust me, commercial breaks are ALWAYS “interesting.”  Here are some behind the scenes pics courtesy of Erica Bustamonte. 

     Check out the pic below.  Bill and I were just having a normal conversation (as I use the word normal loosely), but little did we know Donald was giving us bunny ears. 

     And, how about my co-anchor Donald Jones’ tap dancing?  When he was a child he wanted to learn how to tap dance, but never took classes.  To this day, ever so often he’ll grace us with his wanna-be-moves (smile).  Take a look.  Oh, make sure to check out the facial expression of our floor director Rhiannon.  Also, check out Donalds socks!  After you watch the video I’ll explain why he was wearing those.

     Not bad, huh?  It almost sounded as though he was wearing tap shoes.  As for the socks, on a regular workday he wears dress socks, but after the newscast he was heading out to a cycling race.  You can read more about it on his blog Donalds Daily Draft.

    
Here’s kind of a serious moment.  Bill is at the weather wall during the newscast.  In the next picture Donald and I are waiting our turn.  If you look closely at the third monitor behind our heads you’ll see Bill on TV.  Then, Bill joins us at the anchor desk so we can chat about the weather before we toss to traffic.  Ah, just another day at NBC17 Today.  What a great job!

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     I was on vacation last week so I have a lot to catch up on!  Where did I go you ask?  Well, it was kind of a hodge podge.  I’ll get to that in a moment, but first…isn’t it outrageous how much it costs to go on vacation?  Everything from airline tickets (never mind paying to check a second bag or paying for an isle seat) to paying for gas if you travel by car!  This is insane!  I mean, come on!  People are struggling to pay for gas to travel to and from work never mind going on a vacation.  Sad.  We spent about 200 dollars on gas alone just to travel to the beach and back (includes a little driving around while there).   

     That’s where we went for the second half of our vacation.  The first half of the week I spent up in beautiful Manitoba Canada.  The weather there was absolutely divine!  No humidity and in the mid 70’s…and the daylight lasts FOREVER in the summer.  The sun is still setting at 11 pm!  So, you can imagine how for a child it’s wonderful when your parent says, “be home before it’s dark.”   By the way!  Yesterday was Canada Day (July 1st)…so I hope all you Canadians out there had a wonderful holiday.

     So, back to how expensive it is it travel!  Are you giving up a trip away from home due to the economy?  If so, what are you doing instead and do you feel cheated from your well deserved “break away from it all”? 

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     Hopefully you were able to see Raleigh Little Theatres “Intimate Apparel” several months ago.  If so, then you know I acted as Mayme in that play.  Now, the ultimate honor…I was recently informed that I was nominated for a Cantey award…”Best Supporting Actress.”  What is a Cantey?  It’s RLT’s version of an Oscar.  Cantey is named after RLT’s founder Mrs. Cantey Venable Suttonand and has been awarded every year since the 1949-50 season.

     What an honor to be selected out of 11 plays.  The awards dinner is set for Sat. June 28th!  I’ll keep you posted.  Best of luck to the other three nominees.  For a list of all 2007-08 nominees head to www.raleighlittletheatre.org.

     TONY UPDATE:  Our eyes were peeled to the Tony Awards last Sunday since my brother-in-law Paul Tazewell was nominated for Best Costume Design of a Musical (In The Heights).  He got beat out by Catherine Zuber for South Pacific.  Congrats to Paul…what an honor to receive such a recognition.

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     Yesterday evening I had the honor of representing NBC17 at the Rolesville Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.   Embarq hosted the event held at The Factory in Wake Forest.  Along with help from my fellow co-workers we showed off NBC17’s new rolesville.MyNc.com website channel to community  members.  I met so many wonderful people and after mingling through the expo I learned a lot about different businesses in Rolesville.

     BTW…be sure to watch the Tony Awards Sunday evening at 8.  My very talented brother-in-law Paul Tazewell (an amazing costume designer) received his 3rd Tony nomination.  This year it’s for  Best Costume Design of a Musical for Broadways “In the Heights.”  Last year he was nominated for The Color Purple…and prior to that Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk.  Good luck Paul!  We love you and are so proud of you!!

http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/nominees/index.html

http://ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=25200

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   Imagine waking up at 2 am to head into work for 3 am.  Yes, you read right…2 am!  Well, that’s what Donald, Bill and I do Monday through Friday.  That said, we usually try to catch a quick nap in the afternoons to rejuvenate for the remainder of the day.   

   Yesterday I blogged about travelling to Canada for a quick weekend.  Let me tell ya, that trip hit me hard in the afternoon.  My tired body (combined with triple digit heat) hit the pillow like a rock!  My normal 45 minute nap turned into 5 and a half hours!  I can’t remember the last time I napped that long.  So, how do I feel today?  I feel like having another 5 and a half hour nap.  AHHH!!!  How about you?  Do you find you want to sleep through this heat?

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    I went to Canada this weekend and WOW was the weather a shock to the system!  After one day of extreme heat in NC (nearly 100 degrees….105 with the heat index) I headed north to Canada where they were experiencing abnormally COOLER temps.  I arrived in Canada this past Sat. at 12:30 am and the instant I stepped outside my breath was taken away.  It was as though I jumped into an ice cold swimming pool and forgot how to breath for a moment.  Imagine going from 105 degrees to 38 degrees!  Ouch!

   Well, after a day of getting use to a high of 54 degrees in the great white north, I returned yesterday to Raleigh where I was greeted with 101 degree weather.  Yet another shock to the system!  Oh, COME ON!!  Are you kidding me?  I thought, “Here we go again!”  According to our meteorologist Bill Reh we should expect low 90’s in a couple of days.  It sure is sad when we think of the 90’s as relief from the heat.  So, if you can’t stand the heat…you may want to consider Canada? 

   How did you beat the heat this past weekend?  Oh, BTW gas prices in Canada average $5 a gallon!!!  To Canadians, our $4’s a gallon sounds pretty good.  Sad isn’t it? 

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     You may remember several weeks ago Bill Reh passed along Friendship Bread batter to me.  After following the instructions very carefully for 10 full days, it was time to bake my bread.  OOOOOO, was it ever good!!!  Of course I brought in one of the two loaves for my co-workers.  I ended up using brown sugar since I didn’t have enough white sugar.  To be honest, I think that added to the recipe.  I also sprinkled brown sugar on top which tied it together.

     Anyhow, as the instructions go, I had to pass along some of my Friendship Bread batter along to two people.  I chose my producer Carey (she wasn’t too excited about that) and our NBC17 Today Reporter Shirley Min.  She REALLY was not excited about that.

     Anyhow, their 10 days have come and gone…this is all that’s left of Shirley Mins bread.  And Carey went over the top by adding caramel and cinnimon toppings!  Mmmm.  Everyone devoured hers before I got a chance to take a picture.

     They did a great job!  Woo-hoo!

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   I had a flashback during the newscast while we reported on the 81st Annual Scripp’s Spelling Bee.

   As the words rolled off my lips, my mind wandered off to 3rd grade when I got elimated from a spelling bee.  It was early on in the bee and obviously to this day the sound of  “THAT” word brings back terrible memories.  I vividly remember my teacher saying, “Spell color.”  I thought to myself, “What an easy word!”  I quickly responded “C-O-L-O-R.”  She said, “No.  That’s incorrect.  Go sit down.  The correct spelling is C-O-L-O-U-R.”  Huh?  We lived in South Dakota…the U.S. version is generally COLOR!  That’s what we were always taught!  The British version is COLOUR, but NOT IN SOUTH DAKOTA!  I thought to myself, “What was she trying to pull?”  I wish I could have looked at her book to see how it was spelled.  To this day I still believe she intenionally tried to sabotoge me.  I think she gave me that word knowing that she would say the opposite of what I said.      

   Neadless to say, everytime I write the word COLOR, I second guess the spelling.  How were you taught to spell it? 

   I wonder if my former teacher in South Dakota is reading this?

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