Thanks to my co-worker, Mark Tosczak, I’ve been tagged in a meme. Which is different than being tagged by a mime, I’m sure. So now I have to come up with seven things you don’t know about me.

1. I have ridden an elephant. I got to be honorary ringmaster of the Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus when I was a TV news anchor. I was thrilled and terrified at the same time. That elephant was so tall that I had to duck to get into the tent. And they are very scratchy. I loved it!

2. I’ve met Vanilla Ice. I interviewed the Ice-ster during his 21st birthday party, 2 weeks after Ice, Ice Baby was released and was racing up the charts. He was in Wilmington for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2. He was “celebrating” and rapped all his answers. Between the slurring and the rapping, I couldn’t understand anything he was saying to me, so turning that video into a story later was a big challenge. On a cooler note, I also got to interview Melissa Etheridge a few years later. I understood everything she said, thought she was amazingly cool and the story was very easy to put together.

3. I have sat out a Category 3 hurricane on the porch of a motel in Carolina Beach. It was Hurricane Bertha, and three news crews from my station were stuck at that hotel when the bridge back to the mainland was closed due to winds. I knew something they didn’t. Carolina Beach flooded during an afternoon rainstorm in those days. Luckily none of us were seriously hurt, but a photographer was injured when he was struck in the forehead by flying shingles. Hurricane Fran, a couple of weeks later, was worse. But that’s another story.

4. My hubby and I were born in the same hospital six months apart, but grew up on opposite coasts due to military deployments. We’re both Marine Corps brats. It’s an official term, and one we’re both proud to hold. We came within a day of never meeting when he was offered a job at my TV station, which I pressed the news director to extend. He took it. The next day he was offered a job at a much, much bigger TV station, but he’s honorable and stuck with my small market station.

5. I have seen ball lightning. I know it exists. It happened during 1989’s Hurricane Hugo, when I was foolishly standing on Carolina beach at midnight, holding a cell phone antenna in the air so I could broadcast back to my radio station, which had nonstop coverage. It was at the exact moment when Hugo made landfall to my south, I believe. The wind all of a sudden became a wall, sea spray blew into the power transformers on the pole and they started exploding. I saw ball lightning (different from the transformers exploding) and immediately whipped that antenna down and simultaneously crouched. I crouched over so fast I actually strained my back. Then I cautiously made my way back to the radio station’s Isuzu Rodeo, which was parked on the OTHER side of the exploding transformers, which continued to blow and shower sparks down on me and the DJ who was escorting me. My breathless report once we got back to the truck earned me a spot on the CBS Early Show the next morning, where I was interviewed by Harry Smith.

6. I collect flamingos. Not in a scary weirdo way. They are delightfully tacky, but I am picky about which ones I collect. Basically, I have some coffee mugs, a few stuffed animals, a pin or two, Christmas lights/ornaments, a bath mat (present from my hubby) and a sweater. My criteria: they have to be both cute and tacky. Mostly cute.

7. I read voraciously. All the time. Like when I’m blow drying my hair. (Which may explain why I look the way I do. I don’t mean to brag, but I also did this as a TV news anchor, when good hair is a must.) I have some books autographed by the authors, which I treasure. I don’t usually lend my books. I’m starting to get better about this though. I like mysteries the best.

8. Bonus secret. I’m hooked on Animal Crossing for the Wii. I find fishing at night strangely soothing. Plus I have new areas to chat about with my tween. We talk about the people who live in our town, gifts we’ve been given, milestones we’ve achieved. We’ve been sending each other messages through the town’s mail system too, which is always fun.

So now I have to tag other bloggers I know. This is the tough part, because most of the bloggers I know have already been tagged. I’m gonna have to think more about this part and do some tagging later. If I don’t post this soon, I never will.

The mad dash to the holidays are here already. Anyone else ready to ask Congress for one more week in December? I sure could use one!

Why right here, in front of the Starbucks at 66th and Columbus Avenue, of course. Best of all, you can’t see the sign from here but:

They even bring it home for you. Free. I didn’t check out any price tags, so I’m not sure how prices compare, to be honest. I was just tickled that you could pick up a peppermint hot chocolate AND your Christmas tree, right here.

So that was last Friday, and after an adventurous trip home that included missing my flight, flying to Raleigh instead, renting a car (all the computers were down NATIONWIDE and they were renting by HAND), and driving home late at night, I made it. My presence was really important because we had big doin’s Saturday.

The Christmas parade! That’s my tween in the pink coat, holding the banner for her dad’s news station (where I used to work too.) And behind her, the big Nutcracker balloon the News2 crew was guiding down the street.

That’s my hubby at the extreme left. They had to help the Nutcracker recline to make it under the light poles and street signs at the corner, before letting him rise back to vertical. I didn’t get to see this, but they also ran around in circles under him so the Nutcracker twirled down the street! Tween says that’s when the crowd really cheered — even louder than they did when they threw candy.

And then later this night, Disney on Ice! I’ll spare you the pictures, but we had a great time. As expected the toddler was enthralled until intermission and then she was DONE.

I’m learning how to make web banners. For those of you proficient, I take my hat off to you. Considering I have to kick my dear hubby or tween off the computer to get any time to fiddle around with them, I’m pleased with my progress so far.

So, above, my third web banner ever. My darling tween painted a vibrant picture of birch trees in autumn which inspired me to use a colorful snippet from it as the base. Thanks sweetie!

And more props to The Pioneer Woman for her tutorials too.

My office had a little Halloween party and costume contest. The party involved all of us, the costume contest was truly just little. Four of us dressed up. I submit for your viewing pleasure, me in the winning costume.

Can you see it? Snow. If you look closely you might see the snowflakes in this photo … maybe around the UPS truck? I promise you they are there.

Even the New Yorkers we met said snow in October is unusual, even a 5-minute snow flurry.

I love visiting the city, but every time I do, I realize I don’t have quite enough black in my wardrobe.

I was sad to read today that the Little Rock anchorwoman who’d been attacked in her home died yesterday from her injuries. Here’s the story. The story quotes police who say the attack was random. My heart goes out to her family and friends.

When I was her age, I was a news anchor in a small Southern town. Luckily, nothing like this happened to me or my fellow anchors and reporters, mostly single girls who were living and dating. We had to consider our privacy and either pay extra to have an unlisted phone number or ask our roomates to put the phone in their names. And this was before Google and cell phones, digital cameras and Gawker-like sightings. It was like hiding in plain sight. I can’t imagine how much tougher it is to do today.