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.

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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.

SITS Spring Fling 2010

**Update**

I am an idiot.

Last year for SF, there was a Mr. Linky for prizes being given away at various blogs. So I thought I needed a giveaway this year. However, this year's SF is considerably different.

And I'm the last to figure it out.

I thought about deleting this post entirely, but figured since a few people subscribe in Reader, it wouldn't do any good.

If you still want my lame homemade coasters, feel free to leave me a comment. Otherwise, please pretend as though this post never existed, and let's never mention it again. Thank you for your cooperation.

Carry on.
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Welcome to everyone who is stopping by from the SITS Spring Fling!

And if you're NOT stopping by from the SITS Spring Fling, rest assured that I have not lost my mind (yet). Let me introduce you to SITS: It's a community of women (and a secure man or two) dedicated to supporting one another by leaving LOTS of blog comments.

Go check them out (after you finish reading THIS post, of course)!

Yesterday (Monday) morning I checked Twitter and saw that someone commented on how they couldn't wait for SITS Spring Fling. And I about went into cardiac arrest right then and there thinking that I had COMPLETELY forgotten about Spring Fling and did it start Monday? Oh please don't let it be Monday! Because if it's Monday, I was nowhere near prepared!

I probably need to pop a Xanax or five to loosen my tightly wound string.

So I was relieved when I clicked over to the SITS website and discovered I had a few more hours to prepare my post, since SF was actually scheduled to start on today (Tuesday).

Now you might be thinking that since I had some unexpected extra time for preparation, that this will be a really stellar blog post.

But that will be a NEGATIVE, GHOSTRIDER. So don't get your hopes up.

I'm still churning out the same sporadic mediocrity! Only this time I'm adding a giveaway!

Is there anything that can't be made more palatable with free stuff?

My giveaway for the Spring Fling is 2 sets of decorative, handmade, one-of-a-kind stone coasters (4 to a set)! That means there will be 2 winners!

(That description sounds a little like the actual stone tiles are handmade. They're not. Since I'm not a stone welder or whatever you call someone who makes things out of stone. I just decorate them to look pretty.)

Pictures forthcoming (because I understand that a pictureless giveaway practically renders the entire undertaking useless, but I only promise inadequacy. ) I pinky swear!

To enter, simply leave me a comment. I'd love for you to follow me, but I feel bad making it a condition of the giveaway. But a SINCEREST THANK YOU to those of you who do!

Be sure to head over to Tip Junkie and enter to win some other great prizes!

Happy spring, everyone!

In Memoriam

Today is an extra special Monday because I have a guest blogger! LynnAnn is not only a friend and former college roommate, but also the author of a hilarious blog called Rules. She is also a budding photographer and I envy her mad interweb skillz because she has apparently mastered Tumblr, while I cannot figure it out to save my life. About her blog, she says, "There are rules for living here. Some people just don't know them yet. That's what I'm here for."

I hope you enjoy what she has to say today!

(I may or may not have made comments in italics.)

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I've had a pretty rough day.

My aunt died and I had to find out about it from facebook. Well, not my real aunt. The lady who played my aunt on television. I'm so thankful to Amanda for providing me a place to let out my feelings as I feel weird about talking about my family on my own blog.

I'm still pretty upset about the situation and that's why my grammar is subpar today. Unless Amanda cleaned up my writing (I did, but only a little. For clarity's sake.), in which case props to her for figuring out when and when not to use a comma (I took my best guess. Where's the fun in being right all the time?).

I wasn't allowed to watch Designing Women when I was a kid. At the time I thought it was because it was "inappropriate." Now, I know it's because our family secrets were sold to the writers and nobody wanted me to find out being dysfunctional was so freaking hilarious.

Anthony, who was unfortunately incarcerated (and ambiguously gay although I guess the 80s weren't quite ready for that storyline, although we did once find out that Suzanne doesn't like bisexuals because the rest of us have to choose and so should they) is my Uncle Jr who is both a designer and unfortunately incarcerated.

Mary Jo - My mother Ruth Ann. Double name? Check. Also, she was a single mom who worked 2 and sometimes 3 jobs to make ends meet. And okay, so she never had to slop up fried chicken at a fast food joint wearing a crazy hat because my dad wouldn't send child support but that's just because she got a better job for The Shopper's Guide. Also the hair. My mom spent the entire 80s rocking a geometrically cut perm.

Charlene/Suzzane/Bernice - my grandmother. And I understand they probably didn't think it would be fair to make one person have all the crazy. I mean, it's kind of hard for us to believe my grandmother gets to have all the crazy in our family, but Lord knows the rest of us aren't asking for our share.

My grandmother once got tangled in her living room curtains and had to call the police to help her up. She also would probably sing the song BLACK MAN if we let her (you can read more about LynnAnn's grandmother, Dearie, here).


But as we learned on Designing Women, in the south we're proud of our crazy people. We don't hide them in the attic. We bring 'em right down to the living room and show 'em off.

And most importantly, Julia is my Auntie Carmen who once told a city official, "It's people like you that hell won't be hot enough for."

In real life I'm probably mostly like the Charlene in my grandmother. But I want to be Julia so bad I can taste it. I memorized this clip of Julia berating the current Miss Georgia on her sister's behalf. Honestly, I don't know when I thought I would use it. Possibly at school. My students would respond really well to that sort of in your faceness. It's inspiring though. I'll probably get started on my baton on fire lessons soon.



I know a lot of people are talking about their grief over Dixie Carter's death. But I just want to be clear that, aside from her actual family, I have probably been hit the hardest by this.

Well, except for maybe my Auntie Carmen. I mean, it's got to be kind of freaky when the lady who made you famous on tv kicks it.

Defying Entropy

Entropy is a fancy scientific word that, at it's most basic form, involves the concept that nature tends to move from order to disorder. It partially explains the infuriating phenomenon that occurs when you find your house trashed 5 minutes after you finished cleaning it top to bottom.

Or maybe I've gotten entropy mixed up with having young children. Which can also be an infuriating phenomenon.

Either way, fighting the natural tendency towards disorder can be an exhausting battle. One look at my valuable collection of paperwork piles lying all over my counters, dining table and desk is enough to make anyone want to toss back a strong drink and take a nap.

EXHAUSTING!

And finding a system that works is even more difficult. So imagine my skepticism when Jason bought me a small gift a couple of months ago.

He admitted that he bought it for me on a whim. It was a good deal and he thought it looked like it was right up my alley.

And he was EXACTLY RIGHT!

The Family Life Organizer (henceforth nicknamed Flo), created by Pam Socolow at Family Facts, is less like a calendar (although it HAS a calendar section) and more like my personal external hard drive. It's like having 500 gigabytes of extra memory, so that my feeble brain space can be freed up to remember even more important things, like the names of my children or what I'm supposed to be fixing for dinner.

Flo is divided into 7 major sections: Calendar, Contacts, Kids, Good Like, Home and Auto, Healthcare, and Finance. And each section has a durable plastic pocket to keep track of any paperwork that needs to be saved.

Each section has tons of space to keep track of ALL the information you could ever imagine needing to run your household smoothly. And even some information you didn't know you needed, but boy, is it ever handy to have at your fingertips!

But the really fun thing about Flo is the unexpected bonuses! For example, you can keep a running list of wines you like or might want to try. There are travel planning worksheets, vehicle repair logs, sheets to record the brand/color paint you use in each room of your house, and almost 300 tiny stickers to use at your discretion on the calendar pages.

The layout is clean and simple, but not too girly/frilly, so your man (or YOU, if you are the man) can use it without having to turn in his (your) man-card. Each page gives you ample space to record the information requested.

Seriously, I never would have even thought of keeping track of some of the stuff within the covers of the binder, but Pam did, and it's helping me to be more organized than I ever have been. Plus, I'm fighting the piles, which pretty much makes me feel like a super hero. Pile Fighter!

And lucky for you, Pam @ Family Facts has graciously agreed to send one (1) Family Life Organizer and Planner to one of my readers!

AW YEAH!!!

I'm going to keep this simple- to enter my giveaway, simply leave me a comment on this post. You can post about it on Twitter for an extra entry, but PLEASE be sure to leave me an ADDITIONAL comment letting me know that you have done so (and please include your Twitter name (handle? ID?). If you tweet, but do not leave another comment, you will only have 1 entry. Thank you ever so much for understanding!

*Edited to add: Giveaway will end on April 16th at 11:59 PM CST

**Also edited to add: I am in no way being compensated for this review. Because I'm so in love with this product, I contacted Ms. Socolow myself and asked her if she would be willing to donate to a giveaway, and she was gracious enough to agree. *

Good luck!