Tidbits and Tea

It's so warm here, Wes & I washed our cars yesterday!! I never wash my car. It's probably been 8 or 9 months!! As a matter of fact, this is the second time I've washed it since we've been here. (We've been here almost a year.) It was terribly dirty!! Having a clean car isn't really a priority for me. I do keep the inside clean and maintain the engine and all that, but I don't care much about the outside. My car is white also, so it really shows dirt... Anyway, we had fun.

PETE CAME HOME YESTERDAY!!!! He's done with training. He should start work on Monday. The four of us went out to eat last night. We took them to Gilligan's, a local seafood place. Sunday, we are going to the Festival of Lights. One of the local county parks creates a really huge display of Christmas lights. It's set up as a 3-mile drive through the park. They also have a radio frequency you can tune into to listen to Christmas music and info while you drive through. Some of the displays are locally inspired, like the Cooper River Bridge and the historic houses and plantations. We've never been, but we've heard it's really great. We got a free pass from the station. (I love free stuff!!)

I've been REALLY busy at work this week... We just redesigned our graphics. It's been a bit hectic, but I think we pulled it off pretty well. They look really good. We went on air with them Wednesday afternoon. Thursday morning was my first taste. I came in early, but was still behind because the producers were taking their time with scripting. They were having to do a lot more work though, so it's understandable. After that show, the morning crew had a little Christmas party. We did the secret santa thing. It was fun... Ryan, the other director I work with in the AM, got my name. He's the one I work with most. His girlfriend works at World Market, which is my favorite store. We've talked about how cool that store is and I told him once about my favorite Christmas candy they sell. That's what he got for me. It was great!! I picked our Live shot guy/Photographer's name. I didn't have a clue what to get him because he's always out of the station and never in here goofing off, so i didn't know what he liked. I ended up getting a cool Best Buy gift card. The one I picked out had a ticker that you could customize with whatever message you wanted... I thought it was cool. Here's a pic of all the folks I work with in the AM:



(Back l-r) Brandon, Johnny, Danny, Johnathan, Jason, (standing 2nd row) LaSandra, Ryan B., Kristy, Marcos, Amanda, Jenny, Brad, Garren, (kneeling) Ryan S., Bill, ME, (In front) Bobby.

It's a little fuzzy, but you can make it out okay...

Tomorrow night, Wes and I are going to his station's Christmas Party. Their party is at a nice restaurant on one of the islands. (James Island, Johns Island... I can never remember which one is which.) My station doesn't have one, but they did give us a $45 certificate for a Ham at Honey-baked (for Thanksgiving actually), a $50 Gift card to the mall nearby, and a nice fleece jacket with the stations logo. That's great, but a party would be nice too. In Birmingham, the station threw a party with really good catering, and gave everyone a $100 gift certificate (one year it was Target, the next it was a 100 dollar bill)

A few weeks ago, Wes & I went to the Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island (about 35 mins away). It's the only Tea plantation in North America. It was really neat. Of course, it's not harvesting time, so we couldn't watch anything happen, but we got a personal tour of the factory and got to sample some tea. (I'm not a tea drinker, but it tasted pretty good.) We were the only ones there for a while. They grow and harvest tea leaves for their brand "American Classic" tea. They make black tea and flavored teas as well. We got some to keep and to give as gifts.