Cool, Not Cool: Part 62

Cool: The weather today is unbelievable. September is almost over and I’m STILL wearing flip-flops daily.

Not cool: There’s a lot of leaves on the ground, quickly bringing me back to reality and reminding me that Fall and (yikes!) Winter, is right around the corner.

Cool: I went to the Farmers’ Market this afternoon.

Not cool: No basil or other fruit besides apples.

Cool (of me): I picked up a lady’s keys off a produce table at said Market — and ran a woman down, asking if they were hers. They were.

Not cool (of her): Not even a thank-you. Just a nervous giggle, like, “oh-my, I’m-such-an-idiot.” Hey lady, I could have found your car — and took in on a sweet joyride through the Ville.

Cool: It’s my Friday. On a Tuesday.

Not cool: My weekends probably won’t be during the week anymore — but that’s because I’ll be doing the morning show. Working 3rd shift. I know. Shed tears for me now.

Cool: I’ve already got tomorrow night’s dinner planned. Corn on the cob and Bleu Cheese Burgers.

Not cool: Tonight’s grub: leftovers.

Cool: Getting my Goodyear tires rebate in the mail. Cha-ching!

Not cool: Not being able to find a damn Associated Bank anywhere NEAR the Ville.

That’s All Folks.

My friend Jenn has a pig. No, really. She’s got a pig. In just a moment, you’ll meet Parma. She’s a cute, stout Potbelly pig. It sleeps out in the garage on a futon mattress, and when it’s winter, she gets to hop right on Jenn’s monster loveseat (I call it the Snuggler). Right now, Jenn is trying to find a job in San Diego — and when she moves, she probably won’t take Parma. Sad, I know. If you or anyone you know are looking to house a fantastic pig… Parma’s great. And no, you may NOT turn her into tomorrow morning’s breakfast. Ha. I sound like Parma’s agent. Anyways, here’s some pics of the fab pig.

Tuck & I Tackle… The NEW Zoo.

No, it’s not new, technically. It’s the NorthEast Wisconsin Zoo, in Suamico. That’s where I spent part of my Thursday last week. Tuck suggested it, and honestly, when she did… I nearly fainted. Not because I’m deathly afraid of zoos, but Tuck isn’t what some might call, an “animal” person. But maybe because these bad boys were all in cages, it would be OK. Alright, so, we waltz into the place around 1pm on a Thursday afternoon. Let me tell you. We were the oldest ones there… without a stroller. Never fear, we made the best of it. Armed with cameras — we set off, with a map in hand (don’t want to get lost… it’s a jungle in there!) Here are some of our “best” moments.

So, I made Tuck pose with this wooden wold-sculpture thing. She’d kill me if she knew I posted this picture on here. Good thing she’s not a reader of this wonderful thing I call my blog.

So, one of the most awesome things ever… is the fact that you can feed the two giraffes there. A buck buys you two crackers. And those suckers just march right up to the elevated platform there — and with their black tongues (yuck!) eat the food right out of your hand!! It’s so cool. I’m so proud of Tuck for doing it. As you can see, I caught her frantically pulling away her hand after the beast licked her fingers. Ha.

Here’s me, feeding Mr. Billy Goat. Actually, I think he’s Mr. Pygmy Goat. Either way, this little guy was aaaaggressive. He didn’t want to share the little pellets with any of his goat-buddies. Greedy little bastard. Oh well, as you can see, I gave in to his needs. I’m a sucker.

And here’s us self-portrait-ing with the stone lion. Rarr.

I’m glad I can be a 26-year-old who still appreciates a good afternoon at the zoo. Thank God for red-butted monkeys.

I Came, I Saw, I Drank a Shit-Ton.

Well, the wedding happened. No, not mine, silly. The BF’s sister got hitched over the weekend. I wasn’t in the wedding, but I was a darn good helper the day of… so, my reward (that I gave myself) — was several cold beverages after the ceremony. Apparently I didn’t eat enough earlier in the day — to soak up the three beers I guzzled — or the half-glass of champagne that I so elegantly sipped… or the three Jell-O shots I slurped. And folks, that was all before dinner. I had a blast. I made a lot of friends. Everyone, the next day, said I was so damn funny. You see, I’m not an angry or out-of-control, rude drunk… I’m just silly and happy. I paid for my silly and happy the next day, but darn that was a fun time. Here are some pictures of my “fun.” Enjoy.

Turn Down That Music!

Side note: If I have to drive behind yet another older person who has their blinker on for an extended period of time, when they are clearly NOT turning anytime soon, I’m going to run into you with my car. I KNOW it’s not because the music in your car is too loud… or because you’ve got all the windows down because it’s 90 degrees out. Seriously. Get your shit (hearing) checked. Those blinkers make noise for A REASON!!!!

And I’m pretty sure I’m only annoyed by this because it’s principle. Not because I’m always covering the brake, thinking you’re really going to turn at a moment’s notice.

*hmph*

If You Can Call it That.

It’s not too often you’ll hear me say working in TV news has its perks. Because Lord knows, many-a-day, it makes me want to poke my eyes out with a rusty nail. Buuut, some days, like yesterday, work made me giddy. No, it wasn’t Snack Day or CakeFest ‘08 in the newsroom…. I spoke with, via satellite interview… MARIO LOPEZ!! That’s right, Albert Clifford Slater. Ohhhhh buddy. Apparently he’s the new host of “Extra,” (which you can catch on Fox twice a day). He was offering up satellite interviews to plug the show, etc. So, one of my managers graciously booked it for my mid-day show. Sweet Mary, rarr. I don’t care what anyone says, I could melt — right into those monster dimples he has.

And want to know what I said to him, when I had the chance at the end of the interview (he did so with my anchors)…

I said… “Thanks, Mario.”

I know, dramatic.

Too bad I didn’t have enough balls to just scream into his IFB, “I LOVED YOU IN “SAVED BY THE BELL!!!!!”

I’m working on growing a set, because the next time…. I won’t be so timid.

We Survived.

Yahoo!! Sorry it took so long to post again — but we’re baaaaack!! New York City was an absolute blast. I want to just keep talking in exclamation points, but that definitely gets annoying, so I’ll stop. That city is a fabulous melting pot of wonderful people. My neck was swiveling so much — I think I got spasms because of it. As a first-time visitor to the city, there was so much to see and do. If I were to go back, I’d probably only stay a few days — and check out another Broadway show — or hit up a museum or something… and definitely eat and drink the fabulousness that was NYC.

You kids are lucky I’m not posting all 485 pictures on there. Ha. Talk about boooorrrring. But I will throw up (not really, but yeah…) … a few of them. Enjoy.

Here’s us on the plane at Mitchell — boy, oh boy… were we excited.

We were walking around for like, 20 minutes, and I spot a live truck. I can’t get away from news, even on myvacation! So, of course I had to pose.

Here’s us after we score sweet tickets to the Broadway show, ‘Spamalot.’ We stood in line for about an hour — and spent considerably less, thanks to TKTS.

Here’s the view from our hotel room. No lies. That’s a brick wall. And it was definitely about a foot away from the window. Talk about neighbors

If you gently let your left ear touch your left shoulder — you can view this fantastic photo. I’m ‘pinching’ Lady Liberty. Not so big, now… are ya Lady?!

Again, using that same motion — check this one out. This is the bull, on Wall Street. While everyone else was getting a picture at its head… we went the other way, to its “rear” — if you look close, there’s a set of bronzed balls inbetween our heads. Classy.

You can’t see me, because I’m taking this picture. But I have a huuuge news woody right now. That’s Matt and Meredith. We were outside, watching the Today Show. It was right before the pair turned to the crowd and waved. I sweeear they were just waving at me. Swear.

We’re on top of the Empire State building. Scary. We show how ’scared’ we are in this photo.

We visited the Great Lawn inside Central Park. It was great, and green… and I got the urge to roll around in the grass. Eric snapped a picture. Too bad it looks like I’ve fallen… and can’t get up. I’m lame. But it was daaamn fun.

We kept filling up two bottles we had, with water. We were drinkin’ a lot that day — and we had about a quarter bottle left — so, here’s Eric, rationing our water. (He’s pouring it into the cap.) All we got was a cap-full. Ha. Sure made for a funny picture. And funny like the second I put my camera away, he threw that cap-full of water on me. Way to conserve.

We walked a mile-and-a-half across the Brooklyn Bridge to get to Grimaldi’s — the bestest place for pizza, ever. Honestly, if you EVER get anywhere NEAR the place, you need to eat their pie. It’s delicious. They don’t mess around, real mozz cheese on top — fresh basil and other toppings… Yum. My mouth is drooling just thinking about it.

This was after finishing off that pizza — we walked about a block to this place that made homemade ice cream. We got some Butter Pecan scooped up (recommended to us by one of our tour guides)… and it was delish. We posed for a pic — and some nice Italian lady took it for us. That’s the Brooklyn Bridge behind us — and the Manhattan skyline off our right shoulders.

Here’s our only evidence we went to see Conan O’Brien. Oh man, was he a riot. Plus, we had good seats… plus, we made it on TV — for about a nano-second.

I saw this as we waited outside our hotel — for our shuttle to the airport. Really?! It was time to go home. I shed a mini tear. Then puked in my mouth a little. I swallowed it.