Transcripts For WBAL Today 20100315 : vimarsana.com

it is the 15th of march, 2010. you re looking at some of the aftermath of the series of just wild storms actually, one big storm that went through the northeast and along the east coast over the weend. there was flooding, power outages. sadly, some deaths associated with this storm as well. a and, actually, it s not completely over here in the northeast. we ve got at least another day d al is going to be telling us more about it. this was a classic nor easter, and it did the kind of damage we usually expect from a tropical storm or worse. that s right. there have been hurricane-force wind gusts and it s not done yet. as you said, it s slowly making its way up the coast. just off the jersey shore right now. why wasn t it called a hurricane then? because it wasn t tropical sustained winds? it s a cold core pressure system. not a tropical system. look at you, you really know your stuff. not really. i just pulled that out made it up, actually. very good. it worked. matt lauer, meredith vieira, al roker and natalie morales. just ahead, much more with former child star todd bridges. he wrote a very revealing autobiography. even as he was gaining fame on that show, he was being abused at home by his dad. when the show finally ended in 1986, he tumbled in a life of drug addiction and crime. he has written a powerful new memoir, called killing willis, the name of his character on diff rent strokes. ask away today, we ll give you a look at my routine in the morning. you are unbelievable, by the way. not for that. i don t know how you get up and do that first thing in the morning. first, let s get a check of the top stories from ann curry who is over at the news desk. good morning, ann. good morning to all of you this morning and all of you this morning. in the news this morning, flooding is still a big problem in parts of the northeast, following a weekend storm that dumped more than seven inches of rain in some places. the storm is being blamed for at least eight deaths now. power is out for hundreds of thousands of homes. federal safety investigators say they are so far unable to explain or replicate the problem a california driver said he had last week with his toyota prius. james sikes said he had trouble stopping his prius and the car accelerated on its own to speeds of more than 94 miles an hour. national highway terrific safety administration says it may never know what s happened. toyota is announcing the results of its investigation today. harry reid s wife is out of the hospital this morning. landra reid suffered a broken neck, back and nose last week. she underwent surgery friday. president obama heads to ohio today to press his case for health care reform. white house press secretary robert gibbs predicts the house will pass a reform bill this week. actor peter graves died sunday of an apparent heart attack. in his career of almost 60 years, graves is best remembered as agent jim phelps on tv s mission impossible and for his film role as a pilot in airplane. peter graves was 83 years old. for the second weekend in a row alice in wonderland held the top of the box office, taking in $62 million according to early estimates. green zone was second and she s out of my league was third. a mystery in the town of somerton, arizona, when officials opened a time capsule containing memorabilia. it was supposed to contain an old bottle of brandi. when they opened it, they found the old videotapes and magazines but the brandi was gone. i ve never been in that town. that sounds like our director, joe michaels, has been there. buried in the time capsule. videotapes and magazines and a missing brandi, dead giveaway. we ve often said he has been in a time capsule his whole life. whoa! okay. all right. good luck on that the next hour. let s get a check of the weather now, mr. roker. all right. as we ve said, we ve got this storm system that will not get out of here. right now, it s along the new jersey coastline. look at some of these winds. 25-mile-per-hour winds off long island, 22 off the boston shore line. again, as we get up into portland, maine, 31 mile these are sustained winds, 31 to 32 miles per hour, very slow-moving system. wind forecast over the next 24 hours, you can see those windses especially out over nantucket, 30 miles per hour and breezy from atlantic city on up to portland. airport delays, big problems during the day today. major flooding continuing the next couple of days from virginia up through maine for river flood warnings and rainfall amounts anywhere from off and on rain showers will be with us again today. cloudy skies, and temperatures will be on the cool side. upper 40 s and low 50s. and that s your latest weather. meredith? al, thank you very much. playing older brother, willis, on the hit 70s and 80s sitcom diff rent strokes could have been a different life for todd bridges. he has written a book killing willis:from diff rent strokes to the mean streets to the life i always wanted. thank you for having me on. the physical abuse you suffered from your dad, the sexual abuse you suffered at the hands of a publicist. the fact that once the show was over, you slid into a life of drugs, addiction, cocaine and crack and eventually ended up a drug dealer when you found yourself broke as a way to get your hands on more drugs. i think people will be surprised to realize that you have actually been sober for 17 years. yeah. i think there s a perception out there, todd, and i don t know who perpetuates it. it s the news media that perpetuates that. don t look at me like that. i don t mean you. but that i just got out of jail yesterday or i just got sober yesterday because they keep showing these stories over and over again of something that happened years and years ago, but they play it like it was yesterday. and the public s perception is this guy just got out of prison yesterday. it s like, you know and also their perception of me is that i m this career criminal, which i only have two convictions in my whole entire record. what are the convictions? drug possession and carrying a gun. that s it. that was from that last time that was from 1992? yeah. when the police stopped you and you had just scored drugs for a girlfriend. yep. right when you were trying to clean up your act, too. yeah. you were addicted to meth. you re trying to clean up your act and you try to use marijuana to clean it up is not a good thing. that s not really doing it? no. you were sent to jail, to prison actually. prison, yeah. for 90 days and you made a decision after that that this time you were going to get clean and sober. how were you able to do it at that point, when you couldn t before? for me, i was sick and tired of being sick and tired. the last time i remember going to court and saying to myself, i am so done with this lifestyle. i am so done with chasing this addiction. i am so done with having not liking myself. i want to feel happiness again. i want to be excited. i want not to feel the pain anymore. and it just so happens when i went to see the judge, he had a circumstan circle with a triangle on it on his desk. he was in recovery himself. what does that signify, circle of a triangle? that s aa. so, he has somebody who had gone through it? he has somebody who had gone through addiction also. he said you re going to go to jail or go to rehab. it s your choice. i didn t want to go to jail so i was like, i better go to rehab. i got in there, i wasn t happy with it at first. i was very angry. even though you want to clean up, you really don t at the same time. once i cleaned my life up, i realized it s okay to be upset. it s okay to be angry. and it s okay to have disappointments in your life. but the great part about recovery is really learning how to have forgiveness. you should be dead. yeah, i should be. but because of god, i m still alive. and because i have a true testimony, and the testimony is that there is life after death. your co-star, dana plato from diff rent strokes had a turmoiled life and she overdosed at the age of 34. yeah. you called her three days before she died. what did you say to each other? dana, there s a program out here i can get you in. she said i don t have the problem like you do, todd. she was in denial? yeah. she died three days later. that was unfortunate. i wonder what your reaction was when you heard about corey haim, who was also a child star. i tried to help him, too. my reaction he died last week for those who may not know. what happens with child stars, someone dies, we pick up the phone and start calling one another because we are all connected somehow to one another by individuality. my phone call came from scottie schwartz. do you remember who he was? the kid in the toy. my call came from him. he goes, hey, we lost another one. i was like, what do you mean, lost another one? i turn the tv on and saw what happened. you said you tried to intervene in his life. yeah. when and how? i trieded to get corey to basically stop taking prescription drugs and take care of his life. when was this? i did two coreys two years ago. their reality show. yeah. i stayed in contact with him and tried to get him to understand there was a way out. he wasn t ready to stop. sometimes people are ready to stop and sometimes they re not. but the thing about it is, you have to have in your mind as an addict that you re ready to stop and you want to get your life to move on. the problem is that other people perpetuate my addiction further than i do. i ve stopped it but you ve still got people who say i m addicted or people who are still making comments about it. it s true. when we re introduced we re introduced as former child star, ex-drug addict but it only carry that is with me. people don t say that about robert downey jr. they say robert downey jr., drug addict robert downey jr. is doing this great movie. no one says that about him. you write in your book, the hardest things about your recovery, you ve had to struggle to get your career back compared to actors like robert downey jr. or drew barrymore. i have to be honest about the fact that i think there is a racial divide in the industry that makes it much harder for blacks to get a second chance. and also because we get smeared by our own people, too, than just the other side. that s the reality of it. it s the truth, the ugly truth and no one wants to talk about it. it s that hidden secret you don t want to talk about, but let s be honest. let s be fair. you think that s why people keep mentioning your name and say ex-drug addict? of course. child star gets in trouble, my name comes up when everyone else has had the same problem at my age, you know. there s other child stars who have been there. why don t their names come up? or why are you not holding them responsible for their when they did something years ago? i m not saying it s racist, it s wrong. but it s happening to me. something is weird about it. by the same token, you take responsibility for the things you did. i certainly do. i do not blame anybody else. i made horrible, stupid decisions in my life. i ve done a lot of dumb things but my question is, how long are you going to make me pay for it? that s my question. you have two children, 13-year-old daughter, boea and 9-year-old son. he s an actor. do you worry about him? no, because he has two parents that love him. we play games and ride bikes together, it s always better to have a father whose there for you and tells you he loves you than a father paying the bills but is distant from you. i want you to read the last paragraph, if you will, of this book you wrote. the last paragraph? last paragraph. at this point with 16 years sobriety, we re growing up to be strong independent young people, i have six days of happiness and the seventh day is turmoil. as i fight my same inner fight with working on trying to find myself or forgive myself for my past but that s okay because i know that even the bad days don t last forever and that with god s grace and a whole lot of patience, we will get to the end we re supposed to be. what i mean by that is, you need patience for yourself but also the biggest thing is you need forgiveness for yourself. until i really forgave myself is when i could forgive all those around me and all those people that had done things to me. i forgive the guy who molested me. i forgive him. that was hard to do. i forgive him, because he did such a heinous act on me, it wasn t my fault. i understand that. i forgive my father for things he did to me but most of all i forgive me. that s the toughest thing. i want people to learn how to forgive themselves. nowadays when someone yells out at you whatchu talkin bout willis? i smile. it s the biggest catch phrase of all time. how can you really be upset about that? i hear it i just laugh. when i was broke and didn t have any money and you would say that, i probably didn t like it. i don t want to hear that. because, you know, you don t want to but now, leak i said, my life is so different today than it was even yesterday. and every day my life increasingly is getting better because i m taking responsibility and that s the thing. as long as you take responsibility for your actions, your life will change. todd bridges, thank you so much. this is my copy. i m going to take it back. you got it. the book is called killing willis . reporter: you got it. still to come, how to make one meal that will satisfy everybody in your family, even the pickiest of eaters. braces? engaged? puppies? broken? alternator? study where? fender bender? leaking where? it s kaput. kaput? 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[ female announcer ] ask your rheumatologist about simponi™. just one dose, once a month. hey, do you guys want to make some easter eggs? girls: yeah! okay, ready? we are going to dip on three. all: one, two, three. dip. wow, that one s pretty. ( laughter ) i m going to make mine for the easter bunny. yeah. it s the memories you make. dip in that one. that really stick. look at how beautiful. childhood is calling. we re back with one of the stars of nbc s drama trauma, centered around amy garcia, plays a tough rookie helicopter pilot. amy, good morning. good morning. good to have you here. good to be here. i have to show this. not only did i didn t even start the interview yet and this is what she s giving me. how did this happen? this happened on set. uh-huh. i was doing a scene where my ex-military boyfriend gets in a fight and it was scripted that i just stand there. right. the cameras are rolling and i just got involved. i pulled one actor off of another and they loved it and they said keep doing it. and we did it 12 times and i didn t realize on the first take i broke my finger. so, by the end of those 12 takes, you were in a lot of pain, i can imagine. yes, and it was black and blue and swollen. at least with a team of first responders around you, you got immediate medical attention i would imagine. right. i started giving myself medical attention. i was like, i need a splint and if i could have some ibuprofen. you knew what you were talking about. how is this show different from other medical dramas we ve seen? it shoots in san francisco only so it s more like a film. on the embarcdadero, on the beach. it s action packed. very rare to have a medical show where you re hanging from a four-story crane inside a $2 million helicopter. it has action. such a sweet little thing when i see you here, yet your character is quite the opposite. you re an iraqi war vet, and you re tough when it comes to dealing with your co-star. yes. i love this role. i get to be, you know, smart, sexy, punch em, wear this flight suit. it s very rare for a latina to have this role where you re just this tough girl who gets to be in the boys club. good for you and congratulations. one of the few latinos in prime time. the true diversity of the cast. we love that. thank you. so nice to meet you, on the uninjured hand. catch an all-new episode of trauma at 9:00, 8:00 central time here on nbc. with kathie lee away, hoda welcomes a special co-host this morning. jason priestley from 90210. we ll catch up with him coming up in a bit. first, these messages. when i go for a jogpens e (woman 3) it actually happens to me when i sneeze (woman 4) it happens to me too (woman 5) sometimes it just happens (announcer) 1 in 3 women experience light bladder leakage, or. .lbl poise liners are specifically designed for lbl so they protect better than period only liners learn more at 1in3likeme.com love to see kids spirits shine. superstar and mom, martina mcbride and sunnyd shine on sunny taste. sunny spirit. sunny d. brings out the best in kids. shine on sunny d find martina s shine cd in stores now. i make my efforts count. so i switched to the freestyle promise® program. a unique program that gives me. the support i need, free. free access to a certified diabetes educator. so i can ask about diet and the insulin i use. i got a free meter. and test strip discounts. so i can spend more on what i really want. i count on the freestyle promise® program. make it count for you! only the freestyle program gives you discounts, support, and more. enroll today. should we order panda blossom, panda moon. how about chinese at home with new wanchai ferry? you can make it in just 14 minutes mmmh, orange chicken. great. i didn t feel like going out anyway (announcer) wanchai ferry. restaurant quality chinese in your grocer s freezer let s go to last night s highlights. there s mom and dad cleaning up. and there s the meatloaf. yuck. look what sometimes happens with the ordinary bag. it slips, oh, bingo, it falls in. mom was mad. mom should have used glad forceflex with the new stretchable drawstring that grips the can and stays in place. plus, it has the stretchable strength of forceflex. that s all today for glad tv. both: don t get mad get glad! that s all today for glad tv. why do women like you love activia light? sometimes i have no choice but to eat on the run. and to eat whatever happens to be around. heavy greasy food that s hard on my diet. and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. activia light, with bifidus regularis is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. mmmm. the new taste is better than ever. and with only 70 calories activia light helps make it easier to watch my weight. it helps me feel good and look good too! activia! enjoy harry potter? oh, yeah. we ve got an inside look at universal resort s wizarding world of harry potter and kerry sanders. what are you looking at, buddy? we re inside honeyduke s. you ve read the books, scene the movies. you re all part of this. i got you some birdie botts. hope you don t going to the vomit. this is not me. this is the book. tastes like vomit. oh, he did. kids are going to love it, right? anyway, gruf read the books, you know what this is. you ll be able to walk in, come down to zonko s joke shop, pick up your boxing telescope and basically the things you have experienced. doing a little math here, if you were 10 years old when the first book came out, you re 23 years old, which means you re getting ready in a couple of years to start reading the books to your kids. part of an extraordinary opportunity for kids and their teachers. ann, you know a lot about the extraordinary opportunity here. that s right, kerry. we ve got the wizarding world of harry potter that open this is spring. for your kid s class, there could be a pretty fun detail. go to our website, todayshow.com. you may find out how your class could actually be chosen to go and see this. wonderful. that would be kind of cool. thank you to kerry sanders. thank you, kerry. is that train go iing anywhe? hogwart s express? just steam. to your imagination. you ask, we answer. inside look at our morning routine. after your local news and weather. are you ready? you taste foods you ve never tried. i want to bang on the drum all day you swim with animals you ve only seen in aquariums. and somewhere out on the high seas, you get your first water wedgie. i don t want to play i just want to bang on the drum all day [ ship horn blows ] why do women like you love activia light? sometimes i have no choice but to eat on the run. and to eat whatever happens to be around. heavy greasy food that s hard on my diet. and my digestive system. so i eat activia light every day. activia light, with bifidus regularis is clinically proven to help regulate your digestive system. mmmm. the new taste is better than ever. and with only 70 calories activia light helps make it easier to watch my weight. it helps me feel good and look good too! activia! live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. as our recent rain storm comes to an end, many are keeping their eyes and dams and rivers. at the conowingo dam, a 16 floodgates are set to open. residents should expect road closures through to 13 did anything over 14 opened floodgates means flooding issues. steer clear of large bottles. the coverage continues on our website, wbaltv.com. in addition to dramatic pictures of the weekend flooding, the interactive radar allows you to track whether to your own street. a pair of maryland college campuses are dancing after learning that will be heading to the n.c.a.a. tournament. marilyn s appearance was expected, but morgan state s big win punch of the ticket at the 15th seed. now let s look of the forecast at 20 penn. > with tony pann. showers off and on through early tonight at least. there should be some additional minor flooding problems in a few areas. high temperatures in the upper 40 s and low 50s. early in the morning on tuesday, there could be some rain. in the afternoon, i near 55. st. patrick s day, a 56 and dry. close to 70 to close the weekend on sunday. we will have another update at 9:55. - are you chronically ill and can t work? 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no. no, no. it s not like you re circus fat? yeah. oh, my gosh! actress kirstie alley has had well-documented battles with weight, as well as paparazzi and tabloids. also reviving her acting career, she will be here tomorrow on today to tell us how her efforts are going. meanwhile, just ahead, the latest in kitchen products, designed to make your life a whole lot easier. today s jenna wolfe is showing us what she found at the international home and house wares show in chicago and some of these devices are quite unusual and hopefully will make our lives easier. interesting. yeah. also ahead, the the most common question we get asked on a daily basis. for example, what time do you guys get up in the morning? we ll share our answers in a moment. i ll give you a look at my routine. and your leg. we all don t get up as early as al, i can tell you that. if you re sick of being a short order cook to match your family s different tastes this sounds familiar you re lucky, these two sisters have a recipe that pleases the whole family. first let s check the weather. as we look ahead for today, we ll see sunshine out west, clouds in the pacific northwest, storm system moving slowly out of the northeast, bringing wet snow in new england, windy conditions as well, sunshine around the gulf. that low pressure system tomorrow in texas moves further east in the gulf. you ll look at windy and wet weather in the pacific northwest, sunny and mild in the southwest and on into southern california, sunny and cool. finally in the n we are going to continue the trend we had over the weekend, seeing rain in the forecast, off and on the showers. temperatures on the cool side. and that s your latest weather. al, thank you. thank you. coming up next, the latest and greatest kitchen products coming to a store near you, right after this. i think it might be broken. or maybe it s trying to tell you something. yeah, but what could it be trying. oh, i left my 401(k) at my old job. and i left a jacket on the back of my door. but i think the line is talking about my 401(k). leave a 401(k) behind? 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have you ever climbed a rock wall in the middle of the ocean? or tried something really wild? why not? it s all possible in the nation of why not. royal caribbean s floating nation where you are free to do anything you want. which may be nothing at all. royal caribbean international. call 1-800-royal caribbean or your professional travel agent today. this morning on today s home, great finds at the international home and housewares show in chicago, featuring exhibits from 43 different countries. today correspondent jenna wolfe is there with host of house smart, lou manfreddi. 2,300 square foot of products that i don t understand. lou, you were great. this is your background. you know this stuff. you picked out a couple of good we wanted to domesticate you. that s never going to happen. making juicers all about natural. not electric. no, all hand done. look, you put the cut oranges in there. you squeeze down. squeeze down. $24.99. this is bright colors. i love it. it s a great way to keep it natural and keep things fresh in the home. okay. great. we re going to leave that there for one second because that was perfect. allergies is a 4.3 million kids have allergies in this country? it s amazing to me. a problem with a lot of those kids is that they can t eat the same things that their friends do. hamilton beach came out with a two-serving two bowls of ice cream, rice milk, coconut milk. if you have dairy allergies. whatever the allergies are. put the base in the freezer a few hours, put the ingredients in there. in less than six minutes, two bowls of ice cream, 30 bucks. kid goes to the ice cream store, kids with allergies walk around like this. i ve got my own thing. i ll plug it in. outdoor living and outdoor eating is the big trend. food storage. look nice when you re going there. this is from pinnacle. red set is $50. what does this do? put food in here. it will either keep it cold or warm for up to six hours. you can take it outside, do your thing? it looks really nice. nice colors. easy to keep clean. wash it there. it s not dishwasher safe but ease toy keep clean, stainless steel inside. i like this. this is cool. how many sandwiches? 45 billion sandwiches consumed every year. how many are soggy by the time you get to the place you re going? i feel like an infomercial. i know. my 13-year-old daughter hates a sandwich. put your wet food in there. flip this over. take the bread. close it up in here. nothing gets soggy. this is a prototype. it will be under $20, available in the summer. this is the great way if you re trying to save money by not going out, especially the office or kid. your daughter can take this to school. sure. and trade it for a fruit roll-up. don t tell her that. that s what they do. i know. this, you love. i m excited about this. silicone, this is not only a trivet but it s a hot pad about $6, easy to keep clean. fun colors. beautiful colors. poacher is what you re excited about. it s this little silicone two-piece set. $7. put a little olive oil inside there. stick in the water. drop it in hot water and poach your eggs. the water is warm. slide it out. you re eating healthy and it s dishwasher safe. i can take this on the plane with me. i ll put this over here. salt and pepper, you re good to go. these are cute. fun thing, rock n roll. here is a little spatula, looks like a guitar. right. these are your sing along tongs. you never close your eyes i m not going to sing barry m manilow anymore. this is from a company that makes all recycled products, something for breast cancer awareness, to donate. great. dishwasher brushes, potato peelers. and they re fun. to make cooking in the kitchen fun all here. it may actually get me into the kitchen, which is mission accomplished, job well done. this is called a carrot peeler. you peel carrots with this. i get the sarcasm. international home and housewares show and you displayed pretty neat products here. if you can get someone like me in the kitchen, you ve done your job. you got it. lou, thank you very much. back to you in new york. jenna and lou manfredini, thank you. a look at al s morning routine, and it is early, coming up right after this. hey bets, can i borrow a quarter? sure, still not dry? i m trying to shrink them. i lost weight and now some clothes are too big. how did you do it? simple stuff. eating right and i switched to whole grain. whole grain. [ female announcer ] people who eat more whole grain tend to have a healthier body weight. multigrain cheerios has five whole grains and 110 calories per serving. multigrain cheerios. try new chocolate cheerios with a touch of delicious chocolate taste in every bite. wellbeing. we re all striving for it. purina cat chow helps you nuture it in your cat. with a full family of excellent nutrition. and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. there s a full serving of vegetables in every manwich. announcer: surprise. every manwich has a full serving of wholesome vegetables. manwich. meat your vegetables. of wholesome vegetables. can you believe how fast kids grow these days? and since 90% of bone strength is developed before adulthood. it s so important that they get enough calcium every day. that s why there s new danonino. danonino! unlike leading kids yogurts, danonino has twice the calcium of milk, ounce per ounce, with vitamin d. so it s power packed for healthy growth. and its rich creamy taste is. yummy! so they can start building strong bones today. for stronger bodies tomorrow. new danonino from dannon. power packed to help kids grow. sir? finding everything okay? i work for a different insurance company. my auto policy s just getting a little too expensive. with progressive, you get the name your price option, so we build a policy to fit your budget. wow! the price gun. ah! wish we had this. we d just tell people what to pay. yeah, we re the only ones that do. i love your insurance! bill? tom? hey! it s an office party! the freedom to name your price. only from progressive. call or click today. natalie pops up at the end. hold on. wait for it. and there she is. i m like, hey. ask away, the questions you ask like how do you put up with ann and natalie? that s not the question. that s not the question. first up, the answer to the question i probably get asked more than all the others. right. i don t know if there s so so much questions. a lot of people go hey, willard. we are related. al is my son from a previous marriage. are you always this happy? no, basically i m an ax murderer. just killed a family of four before i came in. so, the question everybody always asks is, what time do you get up? i usually get up somewhere between what i think is 2:30 and 3:00. what? i had no idea that meredith got up at 2:30. 4:10. 4:10. my answer is you don t even want to know. i get up. i take care of my toilette. put on my running shorts and t-shirt, come downstairs and i fire up the treadmill. and i ve got to make calls to first the weather channel. hey, sherry, how are you doing? morning, al. find out what i m doing for the wake up with al show that starts at 6:00 am. and then i call our meteorologist at the today show. hi, megan. another big storm system that might impact the d.c. area. so, for the first weather, let s show the eastern half of the country. i think meredith has the most trouble getting up, getting started. i think meredith might be the least natural morning person. the only reason they may be right is that they ve been doing this job for how long? how old are they, that they ve been in this thing? so i finish up on the treadmill, towel off. i get a couple of ice packs. 55, people. it s coming for you. i go make kninicholas lunch. leila does not want daddy making lunch so i make nicky s lunch. then i ve got this green drink. it s this thing called fizio greens. it s kind of like a super powder. it looks like something like the runoff from moss and the garden that s been pureed and put into a glass. that s good eating. i m up so early even the weirdoes aren t up. you know, they ve gone to bed. what s the point of being strange? there s nobody out here to see it. you see a lot of people, you know, leaving hotels or leaving apartments clearly dressed for the festive iities of the eveni before. walk of shame? hmm. no, i guess i didn t realize that s what they were doing. sometimes we just go by and honk the horn at those people and wave to them. good morning, all. am i going to clash with mr. lauer today? good morning, everybody. we ve got another big weather weekend shaping up. and look who s back. all coming up tomorrow morning on wake up with al. good-bye, everybody. good-bye, good-bye! al roker, studio, please. al roker, studio, please. i wake up and i m up. i m a morning person. it s a very wholesome lifestyle. can you not go out and burn the candle at both ends when you have this job. this job makes you excited to come to work, even at that hour. i m off caffeine, so i don t. i m high on life, that s what i like to say. high on life and the today sho show. and we re done. i m exhausted just thinking about what you do. i know, exactly. and after this broadcast, you ve got the rest of your day, which is not a slow day. i ve got a field trip i ve got to be to. yeah, be super daddy, too. at the museum of natural history. you should see under here. no, you don t want to see that. tomorrow on today we ll find out what meredith will be doing because she will not be here at today. up next, how to please your family s picky eaters. first this is today on nbc. this morning on today s kitchen, hot chef, pleasing the entire family, even the pickiest of eaters. it s frustrating to prepare a meal only to have someone say i m not eating that. sisters jewels and jill elmore are here to tackle that. their new book is called the family chef. good morning. good morning. i struggle with this every mealtime. i have a a 2-year-old and jill has a 2 1/2-year-old. you ve tested their recipes on them? every one of them. great. you re making lula kabobs, the adult variation as well as for our toddlers and infants? right. one way to do it this is really easy. we did some of these ingredients, onion, tomato paste and parsley, sirloin and spices. today we used ground sirloin but you could use lamb as well. okay. so we did that and we made grilled them? and made them into kabobs for the adults and then sort of made these little meatballs for kid. mini meatball. that s it. i m making a bulgar pilaf. kids usually go for bulgar? they do. it tastes like rice, same consistency and it s healthier, better for them. it s a great way to add nutrition to the meal. stir in some spinach. bulgar cooks pretty quickly, too, right? cooks quickly. stir in the spinach. let it finish cooking with the steam of the that you re cooking the bulgar in will cook the spinach. so it doesn t get completely too soft. exactly. back here? it gets you know, for you, i think, the bulgar can be sort of like this. if you want to chop up the spinach a little bit smaller, you can. that looks great. really healthy meal, too. what do you like to serve this with? just a little tomato. we ve done something really simple because that s how we have to cook when we come home from work. we re tired. just like everybody else. exactly. this is a little cucumber sauce. is that like a yogurt base? love that. we put that on the lamb. or in this case ground sirloin. right. and these are just some onions and we put a spice called sumac to spice them up a little bit. definitely the adult version. this is the adult version. my kids, the onions, they would be like, no way. this is making it more simple for the kids? right, for kids. so, this is great because it s like a sandwich. little pita pocket. we ve made them into little meatballs. if the kids are in the kitchen, you sort of have them help make the meatballs. it s a little fun for them. and they re more likely to try it. more likely to try it. you can add a little bit of the y yogurt sauce to moisten it up. yogurt sauce, that sounds yummy. hi, guys. really quickly for the younger ones youngest set this is for a little baby. i might chop up the spinach a little smaller for this and mix this all together with the lamb that s just been cooked really well and really fine. and add a little bit of yogurt so it moistens it up for them. looks good. looks delicious, by the way. the book is called the family chef, jewels and jill elmore. we have a special guest. look who s here. i have a hunky co-host for me from 90210 are you ready for this train? the train wreck? are you ready? yes, i am. you are. we re going to have a lot of fun. jeff daniels is on. lot of terrific segments. we ve got you. jason priestley. subbing for kathie lee, who is away. have a great time. first, your local news and weather. live, local, latebreaking. this is wbal-tv 11 news today in baltimore. good morning. i am mindy basara. baltimore city police are investigating the twin discovery of an infant s body in the park. the body was unearthed at druid hill park. police have yet to release the identity of the child or how it died. however, the cases being good morning. things will be just like over the weekend, although the rain will not be as heavy. off and on rainshowers are likely through the day. the could be additional minor flooding problems. high temperatures below normal. there could be made early in the morning tomorrow, that it will clear up near 55. st. patrick s day looks dry. close to 70 by the time we hit the weekend. see you back here for 11 news at noon. 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