Do you mind a little travel?

I've moved my blog to a self-hosted one at www.stephanieskordas.com. And hey, have posted some new stuff. Please come on over and check it out.

Now with my own domain ...

I'm setting up shop on www.stephanieskordas.com. Would you mind popping over there? You'll still find all my Inkslinger goodness.

I'm still tweaking some things, but I invite you to come over, kick the tires, suggest things you'd like to see.

I've got a big glass of sweet tea with your name on it...

You know how LinkedIn shows you how many people have looked at your profile and how many times you turned up in search results on your home page? It's a stat I've looked at often in the last few months during my job search.

Tonight, I checked it out, and it said 6 people had checked me out in the last 7 days. When I clicked on the link to check out the possibilities, I was pretty surprised by the top 5 results. Take a look:

1. Greg Bowman, a co-founder of Linking Greensboro Live, whom I've met in real life at a huge networking event this summer. I'm looking forward to the next one. We're linked.

2. Chris Brogan, social media connector and thought leader, co-author of Trust Agents, a new book which I've just finished reading and recommend highly. We're linked.

3. Sarah Palin. Interestingly enough, I must know someone who knows her. We're second degree connections.

4. John McCain. Huh, same deal. We're second degree connections. Who knew?

5. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA! The President of the United States is searching for meeee.

So I know I'll be getting that LinkedIn invitation any day now ... or maybe he'll contact me via Twitter. He's a very social media savvy President, you know.

Talking to fill the silence

If you've ever been interviewed by a journalist, you may have experienced a tactic designed to keep you talking. You're answering, you're answering, you finish -- and silence. The other guy doesn't say anything, doesn't ask the next question, just looks at you expectantly. So you start answering again. And maybe putting your foot in your mouth.

That's talking to fill the silence. Don't fall for it. It's one of the oldest tricks in the book.

How I wish some folks caught in the media glare would get that: Jon and Kate Gosselin, SC Gov. Mark Sanford, maybe even Katherine Heigl. I'm talking about you. There comes a time when the rest of us just do not need to know anything else about your personal lives.

Honest.

But there may come a time when your company or organization faces this interview tactic. Remember, answer the question and then stop. Here are some other tips for facing the media:

• Don't blame
• Don't repeat a negative
• Don't volunteer tough topics, especially when you don't really know the answer

To be fair, the Gosselins and Katherine Heigl are considered to be celebrities and their representatives apparently believe in the old adage "There's no such thing as bad publicity". Their tendency to spill is most likely less about being caught by an interview trick and more about the quest for fame.

And your organization probably isn't raising sextuplets and divorcing, mysteriously disappearing from important governmental duties or starring in a summer movie. So you don't have to talk about those things.

Photo credit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/carolynwill/ / CC BY 2.0

Guest Post at The BeanCast

My dear little blog, I've neglected you shamefully. But today offer you this tidbit: a link to my guest post about social media on The BeanCast.

More soon, I promise.
Mwah,
Steph

Silver Anvil and Silver Lining

I've learned a lot about being grateful this year.

It's been a good news kind of year for me. (Well, with the major exception of having my PR agency position eliminated. That was very bad news.) I earned my APR designation from the Public Relations Society of America in January, won an award from my local PRSA chapter and started doing social media workshops for executives. In February, I gave a presentation about social media for nonprofits as part of the Council of PR Firm's effort to give back to communities across the country. You can see that slideshow on my LinkedIn profile.

In March, my position was eliminated. Total grey clouds. A sudden tornado or earthquake. Unanticipated. But there was a silver lining. A week later I learned my campaign was a finalist for a Silver Anvil and then a week after that, it was also a finalist for a Silver SABRE award. The SABRE went to another campaign, but the Silver Anvil went to the campaign I led in June. Want to see it? Just click here.

April and May were busy with freelance work. That's something new for me: being my own boss, having a very tiny commute downstairs and saving all that gas money. So far June has brought the opportunity to visit the beach two weekends in a row. I grew up living near the beach, but hadn't been back in years. I was too busy at work, remember? Since I'm currently my own boss, I gave myself those vacation days.

I'm job hunting like crazy, but also taking the time to appreciate all the good things in my life. My friends are on the lookout, contacts I've made through work, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are giving me leads and great support and there's a little extra time every day to just be myself and clear out the cobwebs.

So if you are working full time and busy with your career like I was, remember to take a little time for yourself. You might have had layoffs at your office or at another branch and might be feeling scared that your turn is next or trying to do your job plus the additional responsibilities of a former coworker. You might just be running yourself ragged. But do what you can to replenish and recharge. You'll feel better at work and at home.

When Fame Bites

Is your brand ready for fame? Fame in all its incarnations: from glory to gory? When you put yourself out there you may think that a little fame is exactly what you're seeking. But as fast as your personal brand and reputation can be built up, it can all come crashing down.

I'm thinking about this as the headlines swoop by for "real" people caught in the reality of a 24/7 news cycle. You've probably been reading about them. Jon. Kate (and their Plus 8). Nadya Suleman, now forever known as Octomom. Susan Boyle - the Scottish singing sensation and internet darling. Their backgrounds are different, but the cycles are frighteningly similar.

For Jon and Kate Gosselin, it took a couple of years to ramp up their notoriety. It started with a special on Discovery Health when their twin daughters were about four and their sextuplets (3 boys and 3 girls) were about 18 months old, and then short season episodes until TLC took over the show as ratings climbed. Expanded seasons of their TLC reality show, book tours and appearances on Oprah, Dr. Phil, the morning news shows followed until the huge promotable event (could it really be just last August?) of their renewed wedding vows at a resort in Hawaii. Less than six months later, we have nonstop coverage of alleged infidelity, child labor law complaints and rumors of divorce. There's a saying that no publicity is bad publicity, but this family might differ.

For Nadya Suleman, it started with a medical miracle: eight babies surviving birth in a California hospital. A story like this is usually slam dunk positive news. But the tide turned quickly, when it was revealed the single mom had six other young children, no job and no real place to live. Now there are reports that Suleman has signed a contract for a reality show. Oh, and there's an Octomom Vs. Kate Gosselin gossip fight. When did we first hear about Nadya Suleman? Just six months ago. January 2009.

When it comes to Susan Boyle, the cycle turned even more quickly. Her amazing audition for Britain's Got Talent became an instant hit on YouTube. (Yes, I'm linking you there because it's still one of the best videos ever.) How's April 11th strike you? Weeks later, backlash because she got the tiniest of makeovers. And then she was caught on camera cursing paparazzi, and there was even doubt that she'd be able to perform on the final show. But she did, bravely, and came in second -- with class. That was Saturday night, May 30th. Now we're hearing she may have learning disabilities after being admitted to a clinic for exhaustion. That was Sunday, May 31st. Just seven weeks ago, the only people who knew Susan Boyle were her neighbors and friends in Scotland. Seven weeks.

You may think these examples don't apply to your business or your spokesperson because you don't represent a reality show. But the speed of the Internet coupled with the word of mouth amplification we're seeing through social media could make you an overnight sensation -- of the good or bad kind.

Remember Motrin Moms? How about the KFC grilled chicken coupon? Burger King's Facebook "unfriending" campaign? These campaigns hit sour notes within days.

Fame usually comes with positive connotations. When it takes a wrong turn, you're headed straight for notoriety.

Have you had a brush with fame or notoriety? How did you handle it?

Three reasons to visit Alltop.com

I started following Guy Kawasaki on Twitter months ago, after I had visited his website Alltop, a website that aggregates blogs based on their topics. They call it an online magazine rack. Interested in scrapbooking? Visit scrapbooking.alltop.com. How about personal finance? (personal-finance.alltop.com). Maybe you're a huge Carolina fan? Unc-chapel-hill.alltop.com is the site for you.

Three reasons to visit the site:

1. There are so many topics, with new ones created all the time. They are updated 24/7 so there's always something interesting to read. I have found personal and professional inspiration here.

2. You can create your own personal Alltop. Find the blogs on the topics you're interested in and create your own personal mix of news, chat and comments. Plus it's really easy to share links and more with your social network. Mine is alltop.com/stephskordas.

3. Inkslinger is now on pr.alltop.com!

I'm sure there are many more reasons you'd visit Alltop. How are you using it to find the best conversations and topics?

Mary Janes Longing, the Happy Ending

We interrupt this important social media and public relations commentary with breaking shoe news.

Some of you may remember my longing for a certain pair of Mary Janes last summer. No? Let me refresh your memory.

Caught up? Okay. So, even before the economy crashed and my position was eliminated, no way was I paying $189-$229 for that pair of Mary Jane espadrilles. I kept my eye on them, looked for sales at the end of the season. Nothing.

But look what I found today! At Payless!

Don't you just love a style inspiration? And don't you especially love that these cost $14.99 instead of $229? Yeah, I thought so. Just save me a pair in 8 1/2, okay?

And some big linky love for Bargainist, which told me about Payless' big summer sale, which led me to the espadrille section and the objects of my affection.

Measuring Social Media

When I worked for a public relations firm, measuring the ROI of social media was critical, but difficult. These communications tools were new, measurement guidelines seemed to contradict each other and new advice popped up daily. But we still had to explain to our clients why we thought creating a Facebook group, a blog, a Twitter profile or a YouTube channel would help reach their business objectives. So we measured what we could.

We measured how many followers signed up for their Twitter feed, how many comments posted to a blog entry or how web traffic ebbed or flowed when we had blog posts, tweets and status updates linking to a particular page. Good numbers, right? But while the numbers can represent one kind of success, the real measure of social media is engagement and relationships.

As I explain to executives, university students, nonprofits (whoever asks me to talk about one of my favorite subjects), social media is about sharing, connecting, conversation, a dialogue. So does measuring the number of Twitter followers show engagement? How about when you take the auto-follow bots out? Of course not. It's time for real social media measurement.

That's why I'm so exciting a social media measurement guru is coming to the PRSA Tar Heel chapter's monthly meeting next Tuesday. KD Paine has been measuring PR and communications for two decades. I started following her on Twitter a little while ago, reading her blog and catching some of her presentations from other communications conventions. Here are the explanations I've been looking for. Let me link you to two:

• Measuring the ROI of Relationships (presented at SOBcon last weekend, found via Twitter)
• PR Measurement Interview with Katie Paine (Online Marketing Blog)

On Tuesday, Paine's talk at the Greensboro-High Point Airport Marriott is called "Yes You CAN Measure Social Media". For a nominal fee, which also buys your lunch and allows you to network with other communications professionals, you can soak up all the smart measurement advice Paine can dish out. Register here.

There's a Chinese saying: "May you live in interesting times." It can be both a blessing and a curse. But as public relations professionals we are living through VERY interesting times. Not only is the economy doing its rollercoaster ride, but we are watching print and broadcast journalism change before our eyes, bad pitches held up to public ridicule, and the whirlwind 24/7 news cycle spin even faster through social media's instantaneous updates and live feeds.

Social media is a new communications tool with a big impact on our profession. Know how and when to use it, and how to measure it when we do, can help us. And we CAN measure it. Look for me at the Marriott on Tuesday!

It's such an honor to be nominated ...

You hear celebrities say that all the time in the mad rush up to the Gold Globes/SAG/BAFTA/Academy Awards ceremonies, and you wonder if they really mean it. Well, I may never walk the red carpet outside the Kodak Theatre, but I can tell you it's an honor for your work to be nominated for an award.

Two weeks ago, my agency downsized and I held one of the positions that was eliminated. The week after that, I learned the campaign I led was a finalist for the PRSA Silver Anvil awards. Even though I won't be going to the ceremony and may never get to actually touch the award, I can tell you the honor feels like an Oscar already on my mantle.

And just this morning, the same campaign was named one of five finalists for the Silver SABRE award. I'm really overwhelmed. There are judges in New York who are impressed with my work.

I won't turn this post into a Sally Field moment:




but I'm awfully pleased and excited. It'll be hard to wait for May 12 and June 4 to find out what happens at the awards ceremonies. But I don't think it will be as hard as finding a new job in one of the four states with the highest unemployment due to the economy.

But they say those big movie awards usually open doors for those who win and sometimes for those who are just nominated. I wonder what this will do for me in these uncertain times?

Social media for nonprofits

Here's a presentation I gave in Raleigh a month ago about how to sell social media to your board and staff. We had a great group -- about 100 nonprofits from across North Carolina.

Raleigh Workshop: Selling Social Media 2 15 09

View more presentations from Council Pr firms.

How to get great customer service

As a rule, I generally get good customer service. It's not perfect all the time, but more often than not, I get the help I need. My friends have always asked how I do it, so I thought I'd share the information that has helped me. Here are my top 5 ways to get great customer service.

1. Be polite. Along the lines of "You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar", being polite to the person taking your order, helping you with a return or explaining that it will take six tries to fix your home PC (this really happened to me!) will get you further. You may be caught in a frustrating situation, but raising your voice or cursing will only alienate the person who has the power to help you.

2. Ask for what you want. Do you want store credit or cash for that return? Do you think your PC should replaced under your extended warranty? Did your favorite restaurant change the menu, removing your favorite lunch dish? Ask them to help you out. Try these magic words "It would really help me if you could ..." or "What I'd really like to see is ...".

3. Know the rules. Sometimes you may think you're getting a bad deal because you don't know the terms of service. Even though the sign on the shelf says the razor blades are on sale, the circular actually says you need to buy two packages to get that deal. So berating the cashier won't help you here. Knowing the rules also will help you when you do have the right information, and the cashier or representative does not. Asking for a manager here can also help you out.

4. Take good notes. Especially if you are dealing with something over the phone. Write down the name of the person you are talking with, the date you talked (even the time!), and summarize the situation in a note. Write down any case numbers or incident numbers. If you have to call again, you can reference that call and the representative may be able to find that conversation in their computer system. Be prepared to recount your understanding of the call, and be sure to politely but firmly correct any misunderstandings on the other end. Their notes might be different than yours. If you reach an impasse, ask for a supervisor.

5. Turn your adversary into an ally. If you start a confrontation, you'll just reach the stone wall of "I can not help you with that at this time." (Which may have you wondering -- then at WHAT time can you help me???!! -- but don't say that out loud.) Take the position that you're both in this together and you both have the same goal: reaching an amicable solution to the problem, especially one that's in your favor. Use some humor. Listen when they explain the situation. Repeat back to them:

So you're saying that my extended warranty allows you to try to fix my PC three times? But I have had six visits from a technician.

Oh, I see -- you count the number of parts shipped to me and not tech visits. So if this last one doesn't work?

Oh, so what you're saying is that if this last part does not fix my problem, you will send me a replacement PC at no cost to me? I understand your system now.


Good luck. Do you have any tried and true customer service tips? Let's share them in the comments.

Personalizing your news

Through RSS feeds and good aggregators like Google Reader, you've long been able to send a variety of blogs, news sites and other web content to one place to read at your leisure. If you haven't done it yet, you're in for a treat. Unless you're not a news junkie like me.

But a favorite aggregator source of mine just took it one better. If you've never heard of Alltop, it's a place that aggregates blogs and RSS feeds under topics. I bookmarked Alltop PR, for example and even had a great shortcut on my desktop where I could scan dozens of blogs and other news about my industry.

Now there's My Alltop. You can see mine at www.alltop.com/stephskordas. And that's just one of the things that makes this service so timely. You can share your link with others. Alltop started the ball rolling by asking some of the well-known social media folks out there to create their My Alltop and share it. You can find your favorite guru and check out blogs and sources you might never have encountered otherwise.

As a former journalist, I find myself haunting news sites on the web the way I used to stand over the UPI and AP machines. (Oops, just dated myself!) We used to get the news by teletype, printed at certain times of the day. And if you missed a feed, you'd have to call the local AP office and ask for a refeed or just fill in your newscast with some other roundup. We called it "the wire" -- as in "Did you check the wire for the state roundup?" Later, we got the wires via computer in the newsroom. And when I left the newsroom, I called the Internet, the wires, for quite some time. Fully recovered now though.

So, how do you like to get your news? In a paper, delivered in the morning? On TV scattered throughout the day? Or on the internet -- where you search it out?

Technorati sez:

Post this here:

Technorati Profile

Drinks First?

So my computer needs a tattoo. Actually, my motherboard needs a tattoo. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried, right? My home machine has been out of commission for almost a month now, and thanks to my extended warranty, I have faith that it will be up and running again soon.

But a tattoo? What's the protocol for getting your motherboard a tattoo? Does it need a wild night out with the hard drives, the CPUs and the memory to sustain enough libations and pressure to encourage it? Will the external hard drive keep the photos of this inky moment in time forever as blackmail? Will the RAM even remember telling the motherboard "Aww, come on, it doesn't hurt!"

I mean, we're talking a motherboard. What will the kids think of mom getting a tattoo?

And what about me? I'm a "to each his own" kind of girl but have never seen the allure of getting a tattoo personally. I grew up around a military base, where lots of leathernecks sported tats, but in a generation where "Miami ink" meant buying a cool pen at the beach. Now I'll have a tattooed wonder inside my home office. I'll have to hide this from the tween.

I picture this tattoo as a red heart, or maybe a rose with "Mother" inscribed upon it. The kind of tattoo that Popeye the Sailor Man would have picked to show his love for Olive Oyl.

When my new tattooed motherboard arrives in the next few days, I hope it lasts inside my computer the way an actual tattoo lasts upon your skin. Permanently.


Image from protectorr's photostream on Flickr.

Coveting Chic Technology

How I’ll be HP’s Cupid for an HP Vivienne Tam Special Edition Notebook

So Cupid only has a bow and arrows to make people fall in love, but I have a love of writing and the World Wide Web at my fingertips. My husband and I have long been HP users – we started with printers back in the 1990s, and then I bought the coolest HP scanjet (the vertical one that’s see through? Love it! I’ve seen it on CSI too.) and now we have an HP media center PC. I love it, but rarely get to use it.

Did I mention my husband was born on Valentine’s Day? And that he is a PC gamer? With a lot of games? Each year for his birthday, I get him the game he’s dying to play and he goes off to bond with the computer and his military strategy game. While Valentine’s Day is important to us, I like to celebrate it more as his birthday. It seems more fair that way. I don’t have to buy him a present on my birthday (which is the anniversary of an event that ended World War II, but that’s beside the point), but he feels obligated to buy me one on his.

So if I won the HP Mini Vivienne Tam Special Edition Digital Clutch, he would be so off the hook. He would be free to hog the PC downstairs, while I could take my beautiful peony-strewn digital clutch anywhere. I could surf the web from my daughter’s homework spot at the kitchen table to help her with her studies. I could take the HP Vivienne Tam Digital Clutch up to the baby’s room to download lullabies for my MP3 player to soothe her to sleep, or play soothing videos when she wakes up in the middle of the night. Both girls would learn that technology is beautiful as they admire the sleek lines and bold floral print.

I could take my darling digital clutch to my room and indulge in a little me time as I catch up with friends and family with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. I’d tell all my fellow Twittermoms about my cool HP digital clutch, and maybe, finally, I’d be able to use the computer at night and attend tweetups and chats that are right now out of my reach because my darling husband’s left flank is sneaking up on a squadron of enemy fighters and that strategy he’d been putting together for days would fall apart if he stopped, or my tween has to attend to her Webkinz before they all become sick from unhappiness or whatever happens to those digital pets.

I could take it on business trips and impress my clients and strangers in the airport – especially those folks who are huddled around the one outlet at the gate, trying to get enough juice to keep their dwindling laptop batteries charged while I surf the web with plenty of battery power in this fashion-forward and technologically chic digital clutch. And since it fits right in my handbag, I would never have to pay those extra bag fees or juggle a laptop bag and purse again. If I were in New York very early in the morning, I would go stand behind the fence at the Today show and just hold my HP Mini Vivienne Tam Special Edition Digital Clutch up in the air instead of one of those signs about it being my birthday. You know all the camera operators would zoom right in on me for that.

I would tell EVERYONE that I am online and HOW I am online and finally my New Year’s resolution to stay in better touch would come true because I would be able to finally get the digital pictures off my camera and uploaded to the web via my HP Mini Vivienne Tam special edition notebook so my girlfriends and I could talk about everything that’s going on with our lives since we all scattered to the four winds. I would infect them with desire to have their own darling HP Vivienne Tam Digital Clutches, and their husbands would see the light – how adding one tiny little piece of technology could make a home run happier and healthier because let’s face it, the saying is true: If Mama ain’t happy, ain’t NOBODY happy.

In closing, a brief limerick:

There once was a girl from Carolina
Who thought that there’d be nothing finer,
Than an HP Vivi Tam Digi Clutch
She would use it so much,
As a Facebook Fashionista, Diva web surfer divine-er.

Happy Last Year of the Aughts, or Double O's or Zeroes!

I'm feeling pretty optimistic about the New Year. I know all the media and the economic news shouldn't make me feel this way, but I'm thinking a positive outlook is the way to go right now.

And there's something to celebrate. This is the last year of the first decade of the new millennium. So we're nine years in and we haven't figured out what to call this decade. We called this decade the "early 1900s" the last time it happened. Should we dust it off with a smidgen of an update and refer to this long trek through terror, war and economic uncertainty as the "early 2000's"?

It doesn't have the same ring as the "nineteen hundreds" does it? The "two-thousands" just doesn't have the same historical weight to the term to me.

Then there's the Aughts, which is what people in the "early 1900's" called zeros. Professor Harold Hill in "The Music Man" is supposedly a member of the Indiana Music conservatory's gold-medal class of aught-five. (05) But he was lying about that. So should we trust the aughts?

I've heard some people propose the "double-o's". Like 007. Bond. James Bond. So last year would be double-o-eight? This year is double-o-nine. Licensed to chill.

And then there's the Zeros. Which brings me to this:



There's nothing like Schoolhouse Rock to put things in perspective. Where would we be without zero? My hero. How wonderful you are.

7 Secrets About Me

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.

Christmas near and far

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!

I don't have any earth-shattering thoughts right now about humanity and the world, but I did want to share some fun stuff from the last few days. I got to take a trip to New York City on business, and there I got the answer to a question I had been pondering. I know NYC is famous for its Christmas store windows and overall decorations and festivity, but I wondered -- how the heck do you buy a Christmas tree there?

Here in NC we have lots of Christmas tree lots that spring up all over town, plus some of the big box stores have stacks of them. But I'm talking Manhattan. Where do you put up a Christmas tree lot?

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.