AI Recap: Top I Didn't Really Pay Much Attention

There are 5 contestants left this season of Ameican Idol and as much as I want to care, I'm actually finding it more and more difficult each week to muster the energy to press the play button on my remote control.

Last night's viewing was made more problematic since, in true Sturgmom fashion, I was frantically mod podging clipboards and binder clips at the last minute so my children were not traumatized today by their mom's non-effort leading to their lack of participation in the Teacher Appreciation Week Wednesday theme of "office supplies."

They turned out pretty cute, despite my paralyzation getting started due to the fact that I couldn't find my corner punch. And the sideways bows, which I added this morning when the boys were on their way out the door. Bow-tying skills elude me. As well as photography skills. And recapping skills.

But I've never let my inadequacies hold me back, as evidenced by this post:

Aaron: Aaron was singing while I was tearing the house apart looking for my corner punch, and I have to be honest- I didn't even consider pushing pause on the DVR. I bet I know what happened, though. Aaron stood in one place with his legs spread apart awkwardly for the entire performance. He sang it decently, albeit without an ounce of stage presence or personality. The judges praised him profusely.

Casey: Casey was singing while I was sitting on the floor completely debilitated by my corner punch deficiency. But I listened to Casey with one ear and he wasn't that great, unfortunately. Frank Sinatra is clearly not his genre. Since it's unexpected that he will ever have another occasion requiring him to perform such a song, I feel bad for him that the Sinatra theme was chosen so close to the end of the season.

Lee, Michael, Crystal: I spent the time during these performances measuring, cutting, trimming, glueing, and hair-pulling (my own). As far as I could tell, all the performances were all decent. I think Michael actually stepped it up a bit, and Crystal needs to stop having "conversations" with (AKA talking back to) the judges, otherwise I will dub her Talkbacky McGee. I always love Lee.

Harry Connick Jr. made a great mentor, although the styles of his arrangements weren't what I would call "relevant" or "current." But what do I know really?

I'm afraid Casey will be going home tonight, even if I think it should be Aaron. I was too preoccupied last night to cast any votes, so I'm just going to have to hope Lee stays in the competition by the sheer force of my will.

One day I'll look back on this and laugh

While Jason was out fishing this afternoon, I thought it would be lovely to take the children on a walk to the creek near our house to feed the ducks.

We were gone less than 30 minutes.

When we got home, my feet looked like this:


and my lone remaining shoe looked like this:


There must be humor somewhere in the situation. I'll let you know when I find it.

Until then, can someone please just assure me that Mary Jane-style Crocs really aren't in style anymore anyway?

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AI Recap: Top 6

Please raise your hand if you had no idea what Randy Jackson meant when he used the term "wheelhouse" on American Idol on two separate occasions last night.

Please raise your hand if Shania Twain night wasn't as bad as you expected it to be, despite Ellen's overuse of the Twain/train joke.

That's what I thought.

The girls and I were pleasantly surprised by the quality of performances last night, considering that the contestants had songs like "Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under," and perhaps the most cliche' song of all time, "From This Moment On," which I totally expected Aaron Kelly to sing, after his nod to Space Jam last week, from which to choose.

I thought it was a pretty decent show last night. People are dogging on this year's contestants being boring and forgettable, but I think it's at least better than whatever season Taylor Hicks and Katherine McPhee were the last two contestants standing. Can anyone name any other contestant that stands out from that season WITHOUT GOOGLING?

(edited to add: I'm amending the above statement because I did google it, and Season 5 was the year of Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, and Elliot Yamin. Instead, I'll wager that Season 2 stands out as The Most Boring AI Season Ever, with Season 5 receiving the honor of the Most Anti-Climactic Finale Ever.)

That's what I thought.

So, my take on last night's performances:

Lee: He really is the dark horse of Season 9 (I cannot decide whether "season" should be capitalized or not, so please forgive the discrepancies where sometimes I think it's important enough for a big letter and sometimes I don't). He's pulled a Kris Allen and come from being "that guy" to being one of the top contenders. I think his performance of The Boxer last week will go down as one of my all-time favorite Idol performances. I'm just so happy for him!

Casey: I thought this was a strong performance by Casey, but I disagreed with the judges that it was his BEST. My favorite performance from him this season was back when he did that Journey song (was it Journey? Man, it was so good, I can't even remember...) or when he did Jealous Guy on Lennon/McCartney night. I don't think he'll win, but I also don't think he's going to have any trouble getting some sort of recording deal.

Aaron: What do the judges see in him? Besides good vocals, he is SO NOT the whole package. I think not-as-good vocals with stage presence and star quality go farther than stellar vocals alone with awkward teen angst. I'm kind of tired of the judges kissing up to him every week.

Michael: I thought his performance was good, but my friend Katie said she felt like he was acting out the words. THEN SIMON SAID THE SAME THING, so she must have been right. It was good, but I wasn't riveted to the TV, like I was when Lee performed.

Siobahn: Wow, Siobahn's outfit was like Laura Ashley meets Harley Davidson. It was 128 different kinds of weird, kind of like her performance. Regardless of how much the judges loved her, I don't think she had the energy to pull off the kind of performance she attempted last night. And the way she enunciated each word dragged the tempo of the whole song down. Which further proves my point, in my own mind at least, that Siobahn is an energy-sucker. I hope she goes home really soon.

Crystal: I liked the bluegrass feel of her performance, even though it seemed a little cutesy for her. But I think she went a little out of her comfort zone, tried something fun, and it worked. It wasn't THE MOST AWESOME AI PERFORMANCE EVER, but it was good enough to keep her in.

My Top 3 are:
Lee
Crystal
Casey

By process of elimination, my bottom 3 are:
Michael
Aaron
Siobahn

I'd like to see Siobahn go, but I predict that it will actually be Mike.

And speaking of THE MOST AWESOME AI PERFORMANCE EVER, I have 3 that I really love (in no particular order):

Clay Aiken- Solitaire



David Cook- Billie Jean (For some reason, I remember him playing the guitar for this one. Clearly, I'm wrong.)



And Jason Castro- Hallelujah



Dude, Season 7 might be my favorite season ever...

What are your most memorable/favorite AI performances?

Housekeeping...You want mint for pillow?

A couple of weeks ago, I was all, "I'm on a roll with this blogging bidness! Look how I'm uncharacteristically posting every week day!"

And then the fire burned out.

Back to sporadically unscheduled programming.

I do have a few matters of semi-importance to take care of today:

1) The WINNER of the Family Life Organizer and Planner is comment #2, Christy! Christy, if you're reading this, email me and we'll work out the details. Congratulations!

And thanks to everyone who left me a comment and/or tweeted about my giveaway. I really appreciate it.

2) I never go anywhere without mascara (or lipgloss, but that's a mundane tale for another day when you think things ). Yet, I'm a self-proclaimed waterproof mascara hater because it NEVER COMES OFF and I hate that stale clumpy eyelash feeling first thing in the morning.

Unfortunately, Texas summers are so hot you think your skin is going to melt right off your bones. And I'm a sweater. Not as in "the garment," but as in "one who." Therefore, I've decided to give the waterproof mascara another shot. My L'Oreal Voluminous mascara just can't withstand the sweat. Or the pool water. Please suggest a fabulous waterproof mascara that will hold up beautifully, no matter if I'm swimming or dehydrating.

3) I'm hoping that AI will be interesting enough tonight that I will find the drive to recap it for tomorrow. Last week's draft post never saw the light of publish because I found that it was reading pretty much like every other recap I've written this season: Lee- great, Crystal- great, Siobahn- wierd, Aaron- awkward, Casey- cover band good, Big Mike- good, but not good enough to win. And so forth.

And a piece of AI joy has been stolen from me since I went to the "lady doctor" (as Jason loves to call it) yesterday and he told me I need to lose 20 lbs. Which means kicking the Tuesday night Oreo habit with my girls. Oh, but you can bet we'll still be armchair judging with the best of them.

Have a great day!

In which I use Haiku to retell the events of the day

Another work day,
But my body aches a bit.
Ibuprofen? Three.

Coffee doesn't help.
I still feel really sleepy
I only took some...

Light bulb in my brain!
I check the meds container.
It's Advil PM.

Fighting sleep at work.
All I want is a long nap.
Eyelids feel heavy.

Consciously trying
To act normal, but think my
Speech might be slurring.

Is this how drunk peo-
Ple feel when they try to act
Sober? I guess yes.

Workout at the Y.
Still have to make some dinner
And get kids in bed.

Ev'ryone's asleep.
I think I'll take a hot soak
In my clean bathtub.

What's that trickling sound?
Just bathwater leaking out
From under the tub.

So much for my bath.
Instead I wipe the water.
It soaks four towels.

I probably should
Go to bed really early
And forget this day.

AI Recap: Top 9 Part 2

I started this post last night, but was pretty exhausted by the time my oreo buddies went home, so I didn't put the finishing touches on it. Then, today, I was at a training all day. I had a few minuted at home for lunch, but napping took priority over blogging. Now, here it is, the 11th hour, and I'm pushing to get this done before the results show tonight, so I cannot be held responsible for grammatical, punctuational, or factual errors within the post.

**************

Was it just me or did anyone else start to think that Ryan should have just said, "THIS...is the ADAM LAMBERT show!"

Because, really? Adam got more air time than a commercial pilot last night. Adam and his ones of years of experience. Adam, with his 300 days track record. All that expertise was just overwhelming, that's what it was.

I hope they have Justin Bieber next week.

I wonder if the AI contestants this year feel like they're getting ripped off in the mentor category this year.

Anyway, the performances:

Crystal- I felt a little like I was at a gospel show at Branson, but I like gospel shows because I'm 75. So I thought it was good, as usual, if not memorable.

Andrew- Brass sections and back up singers have become Andrew's MO, and it's not working for him. And it's good that Adam told him to change the song up b/c Adam's rendition of Ring of Fire was so successful. THe best I can say about Andrew's performance was at least it was short.

Tim- Adam called it pretty, but I don't know that we'd use that word in reference to an Elvis tune. I'm not gonna lie, I watched "Turban's" performance a couple of times. It was so good! And I think Ellen said liked it because she was drunk. I liked it completely sober.

Lee- The level of raspy in his voice last night wowed me.

Can someone please shut Kara down?

Aaron- I have 5 words for Aaron's performance: cruise ship karaoke wedding singer. I'm bet he sure had fun. Simon was right on when he said it was like a high school show.

Adam-Lambert-I-Mean-Siobahn- This girl really cannot take advice or constructive criticism. And she SHOULDN'T TALK TO THE JUDGES!

Michael- While I thought it sounded just like everything else he's done every week, I liked the acoustic version. I could picture him singing that song on some kind of telethon or charity concert.

Katie- At the risk of sounding like Randy Jackson, I must say this was just a'ight for me. The vocals were good, but it was nothing special. Except that she's SIXTEEN!

Casey- Loved the ponytail, loved watching him perform, but I won't remember the song or the perfromance this time next year.

I think the Bottom 3 will be:
Andrew
Aaron
Katie

With Aaron and Andrew going home.