Transcripts For WBAL Today 20091202 : vimarsana.com

we re back with more of today on this wednesday morning, the 2nd day of december 2009. great crowd here on the plaza enjoying the view in the distance of the rockefeller center christmas tree and so much more. and again, a condition around here, the 77th annual lighting of that tree happens tonight with a star-studded cast. we hope you will tune in. it is our unofficial start to the holiday season and impossible to get a taxi season as well. yes. i m matt lauer on the plaza along with al roker and natalie morales. coming up this half hour, we re going to talk about these e-mails that have now been shared with us by that virginia couple right there accused of crashing the white house state dinner last week. let s say that the e-mails showed that there was some ambiguity and perhaps some confusion. they thought they were invited to at least a part of that evening. what do you think? you let us know when you hear or read some of those e-mails. we ll do that in a few minutes. all right. also ahead, the murder trial of american exchange student amanda knox could be coming to an end very soon. we re going to go live to italy for the latest on that. plus, despite some improvement in our economy, americans are still worried about money. so, we ve assembled our financial experts, and so, of course, they re going to answer some of your biggest concerns from the best retirement plans to handling debt when you divorce. okay, also, if you re one of those women right now perhaps staring in your closet, going, what am i going to wear to that holiday party, well, we have got some help for you. our expert who came out with a book fashion for dummies not that you re a dummy at home is here to help you out with the right choice for that party you may have coming up. great. a lot to get to. let s go inside. ann s at the news desk with a look at the headlines. thanks, matt. good morning once again, everybody. today congress holds hearing on the obama administration s new war strategy in afghanistan. defense secretary robert gates and secretary of state hillary clinton are among those who are testifying. the president announced his plans last night at west point, saying he will send 30,000 additional u.s. troops to afghanistan in early 2010, raising the u.s. military presence there to about 100,000. he also announced a timeline, saying he wants the troops to begin coming home after 18 months in july of 2011. today, commander stanley mcchrystal said that he is absolutely supportive of that timeline. this morning the taliban reacted to the president s announcement, saying the plan to send 30,000 more troops will only strengthen the taliban s resistance. only hours after the president s speech last night on the importance of stabilizing both afghanistan and pakistan, a suicide bomber targeted the navy headquarters of pakistan in the capital city. the bomber was able to get to the headquarters entrance, but guards foiled his plans to cause mass casualties. one guard was killed in the explosion. 11 others were wounded. today, iran released five british sailors whose yacht drifted accidentally into iranian waters a week ago. british officials confirm that the five are now free and back aboard their yacht, which has been towed back into international waters. iran still is holding three american hikers. in italy, the year-long murder trial of an american exchange student is expected to be soon in the hands of a jury, and nbc s keith miller now joins us from perugia, italy, with more on this. hey, keith, good morning. reporter: good morning, ann. well, the defense team representing amanda knox wrapped up their closing arguments today, urging the jury to find their client not guilty. knox entered the courtroom appearing just as her lawyers described her, squeaky clean, bright and confident of her innocence. knox, 22, from seattle, along with her former boyfriend, are charged with murdering and sexually assaulting knox s roommate, meredith kercher, an exchange student from england. the jury was reminded that 223 pieces of evidence gathered from the crime scene were tested for dna and none conclusively matched knox. it was the italian equivalent of the o.j. simpson moment in court. only, instead of a glove, if the dna doesn t exist, you can t convict. the main point is certainly the lack of evidence, yes. you need to have evidence to support an accusation. reporter: defense lawyers argued no motive for the crime had been established, pointing out the prosecution changed its theory of the crime from a sex game gone wrong to a brutal act of revenge. rebuttals are scheduled for tomorrow. then, of course, the two judges and six jurors will then get the case. we expect a verdict, perhaps as early as the end of this week. ann? all right, keith miller, thanks so much for your reporting. new developments in the case of that couple that got into the white house state dinner, though their names were not on the list. e-mails now show that a defense department official tried to get them into the dinner, but ultimately could not and told them so in a voice mail. the two claim they never got that e-mail that voice mail, rather, until after they showed up at the dinner. and a rare 5-karat diamond brought in a lot of money tuesday at an auction in hong kong. described as vivid pink, it sold for a record $10.8 million. somebody s going to have a nice christmas. it is now five minutes past the hour. let s get a check of the weather from al. and it was followed by inspector clouseau. let s check your weather, see what s going on. and we ve got severe storms right on into tonight from florida on into virginia. possibility of tornadoes as well later this morning in parts of the florida panhandle and georgia. on the radar, you can see we have a tornado watch until midmorning this morning, and we even had some tornado warnings earlier right around panama city. rainfall amounts, we re basically going to be looking at anywhere from three to five inches of rain throughout parts of the panhandle. heavier rain works ba we are off to a quiet start. it is a little on the chilly side. mostly cloudy, and then after about 3:00, a chance for rai 911 time now for today s money 911. jean chatzky, personal finance expert david bach, and cnbc personal finance correspondent sharon epperson. natalie is across the street taking questions from our crowd. good morning, everyone. we ve got an e-mail from susan in arkansas. she writes, this year my husband converted his relatively small i.r.a., about $15,000, to a roth i.r.a. should i convert my i.r.a., about $25,000, to a roth this year as well? if so, how much will this affect our upcoming tax filing for 2009, or should i wait until next year to reduce the impact on this year s tax return? jean. okay, susan, what you do not want to do is pull money out of that i.r.a. or your husband s i.r.a. in order to make the conversion. so, if you only have enough sitting on the sidelines to convert his and pay the taxes, you want to wait until next year. one of the advantages of doing it now rather than later is that if your portfolio has taken a hit and it hasn t come all the way back yet, you could have a smaller balance in that i.r.a. you roll it over when it s smaller and you give it time to grow back to where it was in the roth. but again, the basic rule is, you ve got to have the money out of retirement assets. otherwise, you re just going to lose too much by making the conversion. so leave it alone? if she doesn t have the money. if you do have the money, by all means. okay. let s go to a viewer now. janet from wisconsin. good morning, what s your question? good morning. i recently launched an internet radio show, which i broadcast from home using my computer and skype. and with the end of the year rapidly approaching, i have a few questions regarding taxes. and the first is, we recently bought a computer and microphone headset. are those expenses tax-deductible? and how about if i trademark the name of the show, is that fee something i can make up? and finally, what about the cost of professional photographers for the show s website? is that something that is deductible as well? david, why don t you take this one? i love. it janet, first of all, congratulations on being an entrepreneur, because we need more small business owners to get started in america right now to bring the economy up. well done. you have two expenditures, a capital asset and a capital expense. the hard assets, the equipment that you bought, those are capital assets and you can write those off on your tax returns. those trademark fees, the photography, that s a different type of an expense. now, here s the key you can actually write off the first $5,000 of those expenses if you do the following. you have to set up a business entity. that s like a limited liability corporation or an s corporation. not difficult to do. i know, your eyes just went, what did he say? you can go to legalzoom.com and set up an llc very easily on one of these websites. then you ve got an entity for your business, which you really should have, if you re going to be serious about this business. and it seems like you are, because here you are promoting yourself on the today show. i recommend setting up an llc. then you can take all of that as a deduction. last thing, i recommend you go and work with a certified public accountant. i m going to give you a website for a referral. if you go to, go to the american institute of certified public accountants. their website is aicpa.org. i m a huge advocate of working with a certified public accountant because once you start a business, you need to do your taxes correctly. and you ll be able to take a lot of tax deductions. the irs wants you to take those deductions because they want your business to grow, and again, you ll be the fuel that helps this economy get going again. janet, quickly, what s your website radio station? what s it called? it s called critical thinking in the real world. love it. love it! excellent. good promotion. we need more of that. now let s head across the street to natalie. all right, al, i ve got an international crowd here with me this morning. we have yanika denison. what is your question? hi. i was wondering, where s the dollar going to go within the next year and especially in relation to the euro? all right, sharon, why don t you take that one? i will take that one. where are you visiting from? and welcome to new york. we re from the netherlands. excellent. listen, i follow the dollar every day and it s something to pay close attention to. unfortunately, i don t see the dollar recovering much at all next year, particularly not in the first half of the year. you know, it s very closely tied to interest rates here, which are expected to continue to be very low. we re not expecting to see any increase in rates, perhaps not even until the second half of next year. that means the dollar will continue to be weaker, and that likely means that the euro will continue to appreciate. we already see it above $1.50. so that means we may continue to see it rise. and what i continue to follow is what that means for commodities like oil and gold. a lot of folks interested in buying gold these days. as the dollar declines, we re going to continue to see those prices rise. so, that may be one area to keep an eye on as well as you re looking for places to invest as the dollar weakens. we re also seeing a busy travel season here in new york city, because we re seeing so many people from europe like yourself coming here because the dollar is cheaper. you guys have more money now than we do. yeah. that s right, so buy us lunch. okay, we re going to take a break right now, but about we come back, more answers to your questions, like what is a cpn number? and is it better than using a social security number? then later on, money-saving gift-wrapping tips. but first, these messages. 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( gasps ) hallmark keepsake ornaments. at your hallmark gold crown store. one of many ways to find meaning inside. the sparkly flakes. the honey-baked bunches! the magic s in the mix. my favorite part? eating it. honey bunches of oats. taste the joy we put in every spoonful. now we re back with more of today s money 911. we have our financial experts jean chatzky, david bach, sharon epperson answering your money questions, natalie across the street at dean & deluca. let s get back to it. so, we ve got a question right now from natalie in the crowd. she s got jenny from nashville, right? yeah. we have jeannie and mary elizabeth, her daughter, a senior in high school. what s your question? my question is, with mary elizabeth going off to college and given the current volatility in the market, what advice do you have for a young person that just wants to start investing in the market? very good question. who wants to handle that? i love that. can i answer that? i love that question! because i believe in financial education, so the most important thing you can do your first year in college is to start learning more about money. here s what i recommend your daughter do buy a stock that excites you in a company that you re interested in. i ll give you an example. my first stock was mcdonald s at age 7. in college, it was electronic arts because i was into video games. so, find a company that you re excited about that s publicly traded. go online and buy that stock, start reading the annual reports, learn how to invest in stock. the second thing is learn how to invest automatically. if she gets a job and you re probably going to make her work in college, you re going to make her work? yes. open a roth i.r.a. for young people. you earn $50 from every paycheck, put it in the roth i.r.a. you can do that online at any major brokerage firm and she ll build a nest egg. if she saves $200 a month from her job, she could have $1 million by age 65. and then she ll be taking care of you. all right. let s go to the phones right now. we have barron calling from pittsburgh. good morning, barron, what s your question? i ve been paying back on my student loans for the past five years and i always try to send additional money every month. when i do pay more on my loans, should i be writing another check with my payment that states apply all to principal ? sharon, what do you think he should do? well, congratulations, barron, from my hometown of pittsburgh, for putting that extra money towards your student loan. that s a great idea, and you re doing two things by doing that. of course, you are decreasing the amount of time it s going to take you to pay off the loan, and you re also lowering the amount of interest you re going to pay over the life of the loan, the amount of interest that you re paying. what you need to do, though, is if you want to decrease that balance you re already doing it by sending that extra payment, but you want to make sure it s not applied to the next month s payment. so might be good to put in the memo section apply extra to principal, . they may already do that but you want to make sure. and you re already on track by sending an extra amount. see how much you re paying off, go to the website and see how much you ll be paying off on your loan and how much you ll pay in interest over that time. it s remarkable. congratulations to you for doing that. good luck. this e-mail is from tabitha in brooklyn, new york. she writes, my husband and i are going to be filing for a friendly divorce in the next few months good luck with that. he has a credit card on which i m an authorized user but i never use this card. the card is currently over the limit and is showing up as a delinquent account on my credit report. i know he s working to regain control of his finances, but i m trying to get my finances in order as well. the account is less than two years old. is it more detrimental to my credit score to keep the account open or to cancel my card on his account? you can t actually cancel the card because you re not the primary cardholder. you want to get yourself off of there. go both to the original creditor, tell them you re getting divorced, take you off of there, and then go to each of the three credit bureaus and do the exact same thing. experian, transunion, equifax should not have a problem because unfortunately they hear this all the time. natalie has a credit from the quoud. we have scott and eva from missouri here, and you ve got a question about a cpn number, right? cpn number. i want to know what you think about the use of these numbers for ordinary people for obtaining finance and credit. and you have a small business. i d like to separate my personal and business information. okay, who let s see i ll take it, natalie. jean, go ahead. first of all, a cpn number, because a lot of people haven t heard of this, is a credit privacy number. that s typically what it s called. and it s an alternative to a social security number. i would recommend just stay away. there are these numbers being sold on the internet for hundreds, if not thousands of dollars. people are using them fraudul t fraudulently in an attempt to get their credit scores back up. use the social security that you have. protect it at all costs by making sure that you check your credit reports regularly. that s all you need. all right, jean chatzky, david bach, sharon epperson, thanks so much. if you ve got a financial question, go to todayshow.com. we ll try to answer as many as we can in the coming weeks. still ahead, how you can look like this at your next party without buying a thing. first, these messages. [ indistinct shouting ] and right now for a limited time, get 0% apr financing on many of your favorite models. [ horn honks ] [ exhales ] [ sighs ] i didn t get one. we ve got more. [ male announcer ] it s not just an event. it s toyotathon! hurry to your toyota dealer today. mememe up for a visit.on! mom: so we took her to our olive garden. girl: it was really cool just hanging out - the three of us. vo: try our new manicotti formaggio with shrimp in creamy carbonara sauce. or with chicken in homemade parmesan sauce. vo: only at olive garden. morning bob. (phone ring) good morning, scott tissue. can everyone hear me? uh, just barely. great, let s get started. surprise! you guys! (announcer) now scott extra soft tissue has a new design, and it s our softest ever. and one mega roll has more sheets than four of the competitions regular rolls. wow! this is really soft! new guy. (announcer) new scott extra soft tissue. softness done right! when you can actually party at your party? with homemade chex party mix. five great recipes that wow the crowd. and you can make them in only 15 minutes. get out of the kitchen, get into the party. homemade chex party mix. and you ll get the multicard discount. and the safe driver discount. and you ll save big on the paid-in-full discount. thank you. and the anti-theft discount. and the homeowner s discount. the e-sign discount. and the paperless discount. the multi-freckle discount. i m just making sure you re listening. and, not to mention, the multi-policy discount. would you like one great big bag or two still pretty big bags? getting the discounts you deserve. now, that s progressive. call or click today. and welcome back. every year during the holidays, we re lucky enough to be able to have so many children help so many children through the holiday season with our toy drive. well, we wouldn t be able to do it without the generosity of our charitable companies. and tupperware is one of them, and our friend rick goings is the ceo of tupperware. hi, rick. good to have you here. nice to see you again. thank you for all your do in donating to our toy drive. what are you doing this year? we re doing $250,000 worth of lunch kits for kids all over the country here. and you know, ann, in my role at boys and girls club of america, i ve got to tell you, i see them all over the place. we ve got almost $50 million worth of product out there from the today show toy drive. so, people don t think this matters. it matters a great deal. that is great to hear, and that s a considerable gift. thank you so much. and these are basically these little lunch boxes open up? from madagascar. these are typically for sandwich, but we have other products, i just wanted to carry one out here. rick goings, thank you very much for your generous donation and happy holiday. you too, ann. coming up, from ordinary to extraordinary, a gourmet mac and cheese the whole family is going to love. in four refreshing flavors that you can take with you anywhere. kiwi strawberry, raspberry tea, cherry pomegranate and citrus punch. a better you from the inside out. that s the beauty of benefiber. want an orange-flavored fiber that s grit free with a taste preferred two-to-one over metamucil orange? try new benefiber orange. i thought that s what you wanted? it is. it s just. you spent way too much. what? i ve been a bad girl. i ve been reading allison s diary, and i got a d on a spelling test, and i forged your signature. honey, we didn t really spend that much. chestnuts roasting on an open fire. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am lisa robinson. moments after rendering their verdict, and jurors in the trial of baltimore mayor sheila dixon shared insights as to what went on in the six but five days of deliberation. two of them said that while it was a difficult decision, it was based on the law and evidence. on every single level, i tried to find clarity, with everybody understanding what words were being used in the laws and circumstances and what is evidence. it was going to be, if sheila got away with it, why can t i? both the jurors told reporters that they were not just city residents, they also voted for the mayor. the city council president stephanie rawlings-blake expressed sympathy for sheila dixon but is preparing for a transition of power. i am doing the job i have this council president. the work that each of us do as elected officials prepares us for leadership and for an expanded role. lawmakers agreed to stay focused on the city business. let s look at the forecast with tony pann. once we get into the middle of the afternoon, we will see a chance for rain increasing. there is a good chance for rain this evening. high temperatures on the upper 40 s and low 50s. the temperature s only dropping a couple of degrees into the mid-forties. we will see becker and o clock 55. see you back here at 9:55. yeah! that, of course, is the jackson 5, one of the most popular groups of all time. so many of their songs have become instant classics. we still shake to them. now the four remaining brothers are preparing for a reunion and dealing with the tragic news of their brother michael s death, all in front of the cameras for a new reality show, and they re going to be here to tell us about it tomorrow here on today. meantime, just ahead in this half hour, after you spent all the money on the perfect gifts for your loved ones, maybe you want to save some money on the wrapping. ah. we ve got good ideas for you this morning, creative and stylish ideas to save you both time and money. all right, also ahead, fashion for dummies. you know it s not always easy to pick the perfect outfit, but not to worry, because jill martin is going to show us the classic, chic items to make any woman the belle of the ball. and if you re tired of turkey by now, how about a pasta dish for your next holiday get-together? our hot chef will show us how to make a gourmet mac and cheese that s sure parchment paper? looks like an interesting new idea. and some tips on how to network at your next holiday party. okay. you know how to network at holiday parties. you re good actually, i know how to watch a network. anyway, before we get to all that, you ve got a check of the weather? yes, we do. let s see what s happening. again, for the tree lighting, 6:00, 51. by 9:00 we ve got an 80% chance of rain when they light that puppy up. winds are going to be out of the east-southeast at about 10 to 15 miles per hour. risk of strong storms along the southeastern atlantic coast today and into tonight, rain into the mid-atlantic, and the ohio river valleys tomorrow. rain in the northeast in things will be pretty quiet all the way through lunchtime, and then later on this afternoon, we will see a chance for rain moving in. high temperatures in the upper 40 s and low 50s. and that s your latest weather. all right, al, thanks. coming up next, taking the guessing out of dressing. announcer: when it comes to fighting flu viruses, like 2009 h1n1, wash your hands and get your flu shot. regularly disinfect surfaces. and talk to your friends about doing the same. let s help spread protection against flu viruses like 2009 h1n1. doo doo doo woman: there s only one disinfecting wipe with a low streak formula. clorox disinfecting wipes. - no to fake foods. - and yes to real. yes to hellmann s. made with eggs, vinegar and oils. that are naturally rich in omega 3. with all the taste in the world. mmmmmm. hellmann s. it s time for real. thank you. what do you really want to give for christmas this year? come to your hallmark gold crown store, stocked with lots of new ways. to help you find meaning inside. the more options you have, the more likely you are to stay on track. that s why there are eight delicious kinds. of special k® cereal. because every girl could use a little variety. special k® now in eight delicious flavors. what s the difference between rough winter skin and soft summer skin? jergens ultra healing lotion delivers healing moisture 5 layers deep for softer, visibly smoother skin no matter what the season. jergens ultra healing lotion. because she s a dedicated follower of fashion this morning on today s style, wardrobe solutions for any occasion. whether it s your office holiday party, a concert or even a first date, there are some go-to pieces every woman should have in her closet, and fashion expert jill martin is here to spill. she s the author of fashion for dummies. good morning. good morning. so happy you finally wrote the book because this will help you in any occasion. and you don t have to be a dummy, but we ve all been in the situation we re staring in the closet. you ve been invited to an occasion and you re thinking what am i going to wear? so, these are how to address things through your personal style and everything s under $100. these are appropriate for the holiday office party or that holiday party you may have. we have twins here, elizabeth and katherine. elizabeth is wearing the holiday work party outfit. so you see it right here, the black with a little metallic. right, and this is under $5 and how to wear metallic to work. and you can show your shoulders. those days are over where you can t show your shoulders. and the metallic as well? this is paired with the black. this is from h&m. and the clothes from piper lime. it s beautiful to show some toe at an office party. as opposed to her sister, little more bling. so, this is a dress that everyone will remember. yes. so, why not rent it so you can send it back after you wear it? right. renttherunway.com. this is a great site. it has things like what to wear to your holiday party or if you re going to meet your boyfriend s parents. it has everything. a one-shop thing. this is great for a holiday party. it starts at $50. it s 10% of whatever the retail price is. that s great. so, it s great. they send it to you and send it with a kit as well, so if there s any last-minute faux pass i was going to say, how do you know if it s going to fit you? they ll send another size as well, plus this kit, which is great. and the earrings are also under $50. beautiful. girls, you look great. thank you. > okay, here s another one a lot of women stress over, the first date, and danielle is showing us the perfect outfit. everyone wonders what to wear on a first date. you want to be a little conservative. and our producer always wore a black top. she s engaged now, so it works. but i say white is a palette, so clean, great to have in your wardrobe, for $79. and she likes statement jewelry, so this necklace is from banana republic. which shows her personality. shows her personality, and i always think jeans are the way to go. unless you re invited to paris, like most of us aren t on our first date, jeans are the way to go. and open-toe is sexy no matter where you live. so casual and cool but beautiful and crisp and clean and not overdone. very nice. it s try, but not try too hard. exactly. danielle, you look great. thank you. now shopping, this is one that you need to think about, even though you re going shopping, you actually need to think about what you have to wear, right? right. this is really a smart shopper. to start with, the sweater dress that you can just slip on and off. right. then everyone says, well, what will it look like with undergarments? wear the undergarments. this is from commando, and there are no lumps and they re seamless and no lines. so, these are great. all under $50 on herlook.com. then spanx started to make all these different combinations, no matter what your dress is. so, that s great. the other thing is you see she s wearing a messenger bag, a tote, which will become a tote. you just take off the handle. i say, to be conscious of the environment, don t take all your shopping bags. take a littler sport sack. what you see on the table top over there is folded up into a little pouch. and then it expands into a bigger one. you see on the side there. great. so that s great to put everything in and you still look chic while you re shopping. great idea, and she s also wearing flats, too, which is always key. flats is always key. and you should still have a little bit of bling during the holiday season. very good. thanks, eve. now on to an evening event, and we re talking about concerts. temperature can really have an effect on the outfit, i would imagine, so lina is showing us an appropriate outfit. i went out on a date to a concert the other night and i said i want to wear heels to look sexy, but who wants to wear heels? these over the knee boots are an amazing investment. piper line $90. and it sets the trend. sets the trend. and if you re not comfortable, you can slouch them under the knee. these jeans are great for leggings, recession denim. they fit like leggings, and if you re hippier, you can wear it with a sweater or a leather jacket. this is pleather, under $100. and for a concert, it s perfect. now finally, when you travel and this is one i always struggle with, because you want to look like you re appropriately dressed while traveling, but you want to be so comfortable. so, what works? this is the ultimate travel outfit. first of all, the sweater wrap blanket, which kate loves. this is from talbot s for $99. you can wear it as a wrap and then a blanket on the plane. and lululemon pants, they re like area and spandex. you can wear them on the plane, to the gym. they are great pants that don t wrinkle. then i swear by these ugg slippers that you can walk around in. they re so comfortable. i live in mine. and easy to take off when going through security, right? right. and then the back is from skymall. it s a rolly bag that fits under the seat. wow. so you re chic and organized at the same time. and your back s not breaking by the time you get there. ladies, you all look wonderful. thank you so much. jill martin, great outfit choices, thank you. thanks for having me. you can read an excerpt from fashion for dummies at our website, todayshow.com. coming up next, it s a wrap. we re going to show you some stylish gift-wrapping ideas on a dime, right after this. as 6 (announcer) have pillsbury savorings at your next get together. so warm, flaky; it might be the last time chips and dip are invited back. savorings. in the freezer case. from pillsbury. of maxwell house s flavor lock lid. hear that? seals it tight. smells like fresh ground. fresh fresh fresh fre that s our favorite part. .fresh! (announcer) taste why maxwell house is good to the last drop. deck the halls with bows of holly, fa, la, la, la, this morning on today s countdown to christmas, nothing says christmas like presents around the tree. so, how do you save time and money wrapping all the gifts? lisa allbetter has some ideas. she s in style s managing editor. you re talking about money you can save. you don t have to spend a lot of money if you use something as simple as a matchbox. right. instead of a box, use a matchbox. it s a creative idea that s very chic. any time anybody gets a gift like that, they re like, oh, that s so cute. i mean, it really is high impact. but the best part is it s so easy because you don t have to fold any corners or anything. it s one piece of paper around it. the matchboxes are great for things like stud earrings and charms, and the bigger ones are good for like this little tart cheek stain set, which was featured in the december issue of in style in the gift guide. and a bigger pair of earrings like that. okay. that sounds like a good idea. so, spend the money on the gift, i.e., the earrings, the jewelry, and not on the wrapping. all right, okay, now let s talk about this. i have actually thought about this. i ve used newspapers to wrap gifts, but you ve actually used the telephone book. this is kind of an update on that. you can use any sort of big sheet of paper you have, maybe a map or an old poster could be fun. we used the phone book because nobody uses the phone book anymore to actually look things up. so, this is a great way to recycle it. we use the yellow, the white and the pink pages to make this kind of fun tower and to filling out the theme, which could be a good idea for a teen. we put on this little cell phone charm. a tower like this is a good idea if you have three smaller gifts. it sort of makes it more of an event, you know, to open them. i bought a stamp set just for the purposes and i m not sure it s going to work of making my own wrapping paper, sort of personalizing it, like you ve done here. you basically have stamps that have, for example, if somebody s name is hoda, say for example, you could use the hs here. what do you get, block paper? any paper? we have regular brown paper. you can get any kind of paper and do this. it is a great way to personalize something. a lot of us have to buy gifts for co-workers that maybe the gift isn t as personal because you don t know them as well. something like this blue bottle coffee, which is a great gift, but to put their initial on the paper sort of gives it a nice personal finishing touch. other ideas with stamps are to mix two different stamp patterns in two different colors like we ve done here and here. so you re spending money on the stamps, out you re going to be able to use them for a long time. you can use them all year. it s not holiday-specific. for kids, it must be a fun thing to be able to decorate the paper. that would be a good thing. that would be great. you talked about the coffee, and this is a way of using maybe just paper bags with stamps. right. and also maybe not just using paper, but actually decorating with a gift within a gift? correct. a bottle of wine or champagne is a popular hostess gift, so if you want yours to stand out and to give the hostess something that will last after the bottle is gone, a good idea is to wrap it in a tea towel like this or a scarf, a handkerchief would work. it s very easy and these are $16, so it s not that expensive. it s very asian in japan, they use scarfs to wrap up things. really? they re beautiful like that it s a green way to go. if you have a theme gift, like a baby gift, maybe use a little what do you call these? this is a digital key chain where you can store photos. these are dog sweaters, so, this could be oh, i see. if a dog owner wants to carry around pictures of his remember her pet. so you re basically using little things basically something you have in your closet or jewelry box you want to get rid of. it would be fun to decorate with. it s a fun way to gift-wrap the wrap part of the gift. here we have a ring, an ornament and over here we have a recycled tote. your cover of in style magazine is it this month? yes. has an interesting something going on. it s 3d. augmented reality, a message from taylor swift. i highly recommend it. it s a lot of fun. one of the things you put in front of your computer. with the web cam, it comes to life. it s like magic. lisa, you are better. you ve probably not heard that very much. up next, speaking of out of the box, making a announcer: today s kitchen is brought to you by maxwell house. good to the last drop. this morning in today s kitchen, hot chef ron sanoski is hard at work. now that you ve tossed the turkey leftovers, it s time for warm bellies with a hardy pasta dish. ron is the chef and owner of sfolia restaurant in nantucket and the author of pasta sfoglia. yes. what is that? it s a sheet of uncut pasta before we cut it into paperadelli or pepperoncini or spaghetti. we re making a different kind of mac and cheese here. we are. it s sort of a glorified mac and cheese, which is really, it s for adults and kids. everybody loves it. and it s unique. it has a traditional base to it where we bake it in parchment. and you re using a lot of different kinds of cheeses. we are. we re doing five different cheeses. i like it! let s get started. first we ll make the base of the sauce. we have brown butter and flour, which we re going to make a rue. and we have scolded milk, which we have there off to the side. bad milk, bad! oh, scalded milk, i m sorry. so, you want to make a nice brown rue, light brown rue, and we re going to take our scalded milk and add it to that. and that helps thicken the milk. okay. so, that s going to make the base of our sauce really nice and thick. and we have our base over here afterwards, and basically, we re going to add five fontino. now, can you use any cheeses? you can use anything. this is my five picks. gorganzola, montasio and then some of our own goat cheese that we make. you can use any kind of goat cheese. and you basically want to mix this in and melt it until it s nice and creamy. you want a low heat? on a low heat, yeah. and heavy bottom pot so that it doesn t burn. and after this is all nice and creamy, we want to strain it right into a separate pot. then we re going to pour that right over the top of this pasta. what kind of pasta is this? this is rigatoni. could you use something else? i would say some type of tubular type of pasta. tubular! tubular pasta. i like that. and we want to get that mixed very well. this looks amazingly rich. it is, but it s worth it. it s all worth it. so, we have our parchment paper cut right here and we have our oven preheated. and basically, what we re going to do i don t know, do you want to wrap one and i ll wrap one? sure, okay. since we re in the holiday gift-wrapping mood. we can wrap up our pasta. so, the pasta s slightly undercooked because we re going to continue cooking it in the oven. and that s about let me get i m going to show you. let me get mine here and we ll do it together. we ve got about a minute left here. okay. no pressure. no pressure. i can gift-wrap in five seconds. wow! what we re going to do is we have a double layer of parchment paper and we re going to fold that up and then crimp it. hi, john! how are you? excited about this. we re going to put it on the sheet pan and we have a couple in the oven. looks great. we re going to pull it out. for about 30 to 45 minutes. that looks and smells great. and coming out in a cute little package. and we have a nice little package there. so, you serve it like that, right in the parchment? very cool, and you keep your dish clean. this pasta is beet pasta? live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am lisa robinson. as city hall deals with baltimore mayor sheila dixon s conviction, they are also dealing with a $200 million shortfall, much higher than originally anticipated. officials say that slumping housing sales are partly to blame for the increased revenue gap. the city council did not take any action on the budget last night. welcome back. the rate is going to move in later on this afternoon. we should get through the morning and at lunchtime drive, but the clubs will be with us. high temperatures in the upper 40 s and low 50s. rain possible early in the morning on thursday. clearing up a mild and will be chilly on the weekend. thank you for joining us. we will see you back here for 11 news at noon.