Willy and I wanted to say a special thank you to Kimberly and Jack of the Your Carolina show on WSPA - the Greenville CBS affiliate.  They were super nice to me and Willy Nilly when we were on their show this morning - way nicer than I usually am to someone who pops up from behind my couch and interrupts my conversation.  Willy’s lucky that gamble worked out okay for us.  Anyway, when we were on the show, we told them all about Curiosi-Tea, Hones-Tea, Integri-Tea, Infideli-Tea…

There was a lot of tea.

And, you know kids, as I stood there waiting to go on, with Dr. Phil playing on the screens in the background, it made me think about how many influences all you kids out there have, bombarding you all day.  Do you know what bombarding means?  It means that information and opinions and ideas are always surrounding you and flying all around you and landing on your impressionable young brains! Youch!  And you kids have to be careful to make sure to DUCK when bad opinions and mean ideas come your way, right?  Whether it’s glorified namecallers like Dr. Phil or "democracy at work" in the form of Iowa Caucus voters… it’s your Responsibili-Tea to sort out the icky, make-people-feel-bad ideas from the fuzzy, make-really-good-decisions ideas.

Of course, sometimes it’s not so easy to tell the difference.  It’s not so easy to decide what you believe, with all those ideas buzzing around your head.  So take some quiet time, clean up your brain just like you clean up your room… and tell your parents to take this little online quiz.  If you’re confused about their results, just tell Annie… and she’ll help you sort it out!

Happy Iowa Picks the President Day!!

P.S. - Did you know that today is also Alaska’s birthday!  That’s right!  On this day in 1959, Alaska became a state!  Did you know that Annie once did a three day dog sled trip through the Alaskan tundra?  That’s right!  It’s amazing what you’ll do when you’re 17 and full of fresh fish and what I can only assume was some sort of Aleutian version of Peyote!  Memories.