I'm alive and fine. (Duh.) Hurricane Michelle whizzed past us. I had a feeling we were going to dodge this one. After working all weekend, I actually slept through what was probably the worst part. I'm a little disappointed, because I wanted to come back to the station, climb on the roof, and check out the storm. But Slumberland prevailed.

The actual storm looked pretty much like the footage you may have seen on TV. High winds, trees blowing around, lots of rain. It was windy and raining for a few days after, and driving to work this was interesting. I was all, "Man, why the hell can't I steer? Am I THAT tired? Wait - that's the wind blowing me across the road. Ah, I see."

I had a nice start to my week this morning. An injured manatee was found and rescued because of a story I ran last week. I know I'm a dork, but validation isn't something I see very often, so it's especially valuable.

Co-Host Kim had a birthday last week, so we celebrated during the talk show last Tuesday. When I showed up for my birthday, there was champagne, cake, and other goodies waiting for me. Since I'm a competitive freak, I knew I had to top it - so I got transportation company to donate a limo.

I had her boyfriend make sure she didn't leave for the show before I got there, then ran up to the door. She was all, "What are you doing here? Eh?" So I dragged her outside and shrieked, "Happy Birthday!"

She freaked out. "Oh MY GOD!" It was great. And I thought we were going to just get a ride to the show, but nice Limo Man didn't have anything else to do, and drove us around all night. Of course, since we had a limo, we HAD to go out. We ran around and shot some pool. We tried to see some strippers, but Kim, not realizing she wouldn't be driving that night, left her wallet in her car, so no ID. Probably for the best, since I was getting pretty tired by then.

As the driver dropped me off at the end of the night, I totally tried to be all smooth and slip him a tip while I shook his hand. For the record, I completely suck at that.

I stumbled in at about 11:30 p.m. and collapsed into bed without setting an alarm or anything. Neal was already asleep. Keep in mind, I had to have a news cast recorded by 7:45 a.m. the next day.

For some reason, my eyes flew open at exactly 7:30 a.m. 'Twas a miracle, I say! I ran into work - I've had easier mornings, but I made it, damn it!

And that's all that counts.