Waiting for the Punchline

To Each His Own

2009-07-14T23:08:00.003-04:00

Around Christmas time I informed the Boy it would be a great idea to go caroling. I told him I could play my french horn which I had not played in 10 years, and he could sing off key. This, I told him, was a great way to get to know our neighbors.

Of course I was joking. I said that my true goal was to be known as the craziest people on the block so that they would all stay away. Little did I know that was going to be a difficult task.

I found out later that the house across the street is used as a halfway house for reintroducing persons who have been committed to psychiatric wards back into society. I think this is a great program, personally, because it provides a step down that some people need. Our other neighbors informed us that from time to time we may find mail missing as the residents are often sent out to retrieve mail and if they don't have any in their box, they will go to all of the neighbors houses to collect some. Which, they can have all of my junk mail if they please.

Saturday I was out heading into town when the resident of the day came out to get the mail. It caught me off guard at first, until I realized that I wasn't seeing things and that he indeed had his dark hair slicked down and was sporting a full on dracula cape. And he was owning it. More power to him.

Gaining my identity....losing my mind.

2009-07-01T19:58:00.002-04:00

When I married the Boy, I decided that I would take his last name. This was a decision I didn't take lightly as I've carried around my last name for 30+ years now. And I like my last name. But his is easier to pronounce and spell, and in a profession where a dozen new people each day are hacking your name, sometimes easier is better. But so I didn't completely lose the old me, I took my maiden name as my middle name. Simple enough.

Last week I began the dreaded chore of traipsing up to the Social Security Office to make the official change. Of course the place is open the convenient hours of 8 to 4, M-F. And of course the closest ones are half an hour in either direction of my house. But I picked one, took off early from work, and drove up there.

When I got there, there was no one in line and I was immediately called to the counter. Thinking this was going to be the quickest government agency visit ever, I pull out all of my documents only to discover I can't find my license. I had switched purses when we went on our honeymoon, but I thought for certain I had switched back. But alas, I couldn't locate it. I knew the answer before I asked, but I asked if I had to have my photo ID, and was told that yes, to get the new card I needed my DL or my passport. Neither of which I had.

Later that night, I'm out eating dinner with the Boy and relating the story when he reminds me that the weekend prior I had handed the DL to my oldest stepson so that he could look at it. So we checked the car and buried in the back seat was the DL. Thank goodness, but it only irritated me more that it was with me the whole time.

So today, even though I'm on call in the office, I found someone to cover for me so that I could get up to the SS office again before I'm out of town next week at a conference. Get there, documents neatly stacked, application filled out, and breeze right up to the desk. I'll start with the fact that the guy never asks for or sees my DL. I set it on the counter, and unless he has super focused vision, I know he didn't see it from his chair 6 feet away. Then he took my application and went through it entering all of the information into the computer. After about 10 minutes he printed the form for me to check for spelling errors and told me to sign. On the line where it said, "name as it will appear on your SS card" it said my first name, my middle name (the one I was born with ) and my new last name. Clearly not how I had written it on the application 3 times. So I had to have him correct it, which I swear took longer than the initial entry. Then he gave me a receipt and sent me on my merry way.

The Boy happened to be at that moment at the BMV in our town. Online it said you had to have your new SS card in your new name before you could get your license in your new name. But you had to have your new license within 30 days of the marriage. And since my SS card will take "at least" 2 weeks to get here, there's no way a person who takes a honeymoon and goes to the SS office will ever be able to wait until she gets the card back to go into the BMV. So he asked the clerk for me and the clerk said as long as I had the marriage certificate, proof of my identity, and the receipt from the SS office, I was good to go. Except she said something about having to have the official red stamp on the receipt, which I did not have.

So I came back into town and headed for the BMV before they closed. Walk in and get called to the desk. I tell the lady what I'm there for and she takes all of my neatly organized documents to start the process. Then she asks if I just went to the SS office today. When I reply in the affirmative, she tells me that I can't get my license today because the magical computer systems have to cycle over night. So I have to wait until at least tomorrow. Which they never told the Boy when he had asked for me 30 minutes earlier. Grrrrr.

I should have asked while I was there if the no red stamp thing was fatal. But I forgot. She had looked directly at the form and never mentioned it. So if I go back on Friday and they say I have to have some magical red stamp, I think I might really lose it.

Things that go bump in the night.

2009-06-24T00:20:00.002-04:00

On Sunday, the Boy and I prepared dinner for the kids and were in process of moving everything outdoors for a picnic on the back porch. In the process, I was stooped over the refrigerator pulling the necessary condiments, when I suddenly had a full bottle of wine drop off the fridge and onto the back of my head. Man did it hurt. I didn't black out, but I did see some fuzzy lines for a moment. And I had a tennis ball sized knot on the back of my scalp for the next 12 hours. It's gone down now, other than the tenderness, but it's just yet another example of my klutzery. Observe:

The first weekend my stepsons stayed at my apartment, I was so worried about spilling something on the carpet and staining it, that I bought them cups with twist on lids to prevent the accidental spill. In the process of reminding them to watch their drinks, I managed to spill and entire gallon of orange crystal light all over the beige carpet.

At another point, we had stopped at McD's to grab some drinks and I was helping the youngest get into his car seat. Like I normally do, I set the Boy's and my drinks on the roof of the car to free up my hands. Unfortunately we were in the Boy's car. Unlike my car, his has a moon roof, which happened to be open. So we had 2 large sweet teas fall straight through the roof and onto the leather seats. Fantastic.

And one other example, because I'm sure I've proven my point by now. I have a knobless crock pot. When we moved into our new house, we had to start using a gas oven, rather than the electric. I had the crock pot on the back of the stove (since we have no counter space) and while it was cooking, I made some tea. Except, I guess the gas flame didn't stay contained under the tea pot and instead caught the knob on fire, shooting 2 feet of flame up into the stove hood. Of course my stepsons were there to witness and every once in a while they will start a conversation with... remember that one time when you set the kitchen on fire....

All examples of a day in the life of me. Ms. Accident waiting to happen.

Back Home Again

2009-06-21T19:27:00.002-04:00

The worst part about going on vacation, is that when you return, the house is still a mess, the litter box needs scooping (desparately), the dishes that were on the counter when you left haven't been miraculously cleaned by small woodland animals, and you have to return to work. While I love my job, I'm not looking forward to the stack of new work, the contested trials scheduled this week, or the number of emails and voice mails I'd have to return.

What's worse is when you have a lot of gifts people gave you before you left piled in every room of your house that need organizing. So we bought a shelf. And a grill. The boy has been dying for a grill for a while. Now, instead of cleaning house or cooking food, we're putting together new equipment. In the long run, it will help out immensely. In the short run, it just means we're procrastinating again on things that need done. Somehow, the tomorrow that I always put things off to never seems to surface.

A Blog Reborn

2009-06-20T06:09:00.003-04:00

It's been about 9 months since my last post, and I figure the gestation for the next post is now complete. Several things have changed over the last 9 months, and I can't believe reading back through the posts that less than a year ago that was my life. I'll briefly detail the changes and then hopefully start back in with some snarkiness. It can't be all that hard to get back in the saddle.

The Boy that I was dating has now become The Husband. A week ago we made it official and I gained a new last name. It's very odd to think about it, so I try not to. The past week we took an abbreviated honemoon out east and at certain points I'd look at him and it would hit me: That's my husband. I confessed to him my thoughts, and he laughed and said he'd been doing the same thing. It's just weird. I don't think I moved from calling him my boyfriend to my fiance yet, and now I can't say, guy I'm dating. And the rings on the left hand throw me off.

I started my main job late last September. And, I love it. Even though I'm trying to be back to blogging, I'm going to not blog about work because that would be inappropriate. Let's just say I'm on the criminal end of the legal spectrum. Bye Bye civil litigation.

I quit my second job (the one where I met the Boy) shortly after starting my new job. Sleep. It's way underrated. On the down side, I don't get to see the Boy as much since he's still working there. Our schedule tends to be me leaving the house at 7:30, and if I'm lucky, he'll make it home 15 minutes before I have to go. Then, if he's working his other job or in school, by the time I make it home, he's already left the house. Generally he will come home between jobs and have about a 30 minute layover. Then it's back to work at 11 p.m. while I sleep. And we start the whole thing over the next day. Hopefully when he finishes up school he can find a normal hours job. Because I'm not too fond of this routine.

We're (we being The Boy, me, and my 2 stepsons) here at my parents house getting ready to leave to go to an amusement park for a small family vacation. I think we all need the debriefer after the wedding planning and all around stress that we have. I didn't sleep much last night, so hopefully i'm not pooped at 3. It should be a good time though.

As for posts, I have one in my head that I'll get on here in the next few days. The Boy and I went to DC for our honeymoon and I navigated while he drove. I'll leave it at that for now.

I'm too tired to come up with clever title.

2008-09-25T22:53:00.003-04:00

Life is busy, if you haven't figured out. I've been off of my primary job this week, and although I promised The Boy that we would try running this week, things haven't panned out. So much for good intentions. I guess there is always tomorrow morning, but since he hasn't mentioned it since about Tuesday, I'm not going to be the first to bring it up. I did buy a good sports bra for the occassion though, in case we ever do venture out. Did you know those things cost 60 bucks. I mean, seriously?

Things they are a changing around here. I'm off work this week because I am, yet again, between jobs. Actually, this one is a good thing. A while back I was approached and recruited for a new position. Things panned out the way I had hoped and I was offered a new job a few weeks ago. The stars aligned and I said good-bye to my state job and instead accepted a different type of government job. Different, and it scares me a bit, but I'm looking forward to it. They've said they will work with me to let me keep my night job if I want to, but I'm not certain I will. For right now, I might. I'm hoping to buy a house in a year or so, and the extra money would be nice. But sleeping through the night would also be nice. So I'll probably give it a whirl for a while, and if I can't hack it, I'll go back to being normal and only having one job.

I've got to get into my night job here now. So much for my mini vacation.

Are my pants on fire?

2008-08-19T13:26:00.003-04:00

Even the casual reader here will know that I detest exercise. All forms. I've blogged before that one thing I enjoy about my second job is that I'm getting paid to exercise. So far, I've been happy with that.

Then comes The boy. See, the boy and I work the same job. Only, my tasks at the job tend to be a little more physically demanding on a daily basis. I'm not saying he doesn't work hard, because he does. It's just he gets to rotate and do different things different weeks. So while one week for him may be physically demanding, the next week may not be quite as intense. On a nightly basis, I start work and do the same task for 4 straight hours, burning calories the whole time. He has to run around and do other stuff so it's not continuous.

Anyway, last night as we're chatting on the phone on the way to work, The Boy mentions again that he's been thinking of ways that we can exercise together. He agrees that the job is exercise, but somehow thinks that once it gets routine, it doesn't do as much for you and therefore we need to supplement. He mentions that he's considering running for half an hour to an hour in the mornings when he gets off of work. I listen and comment something along the lines of, "well good for you." Until I realize that he wasn't talking about running alone. Apparently it was an invitation for us to start running together.

I get off of my second job typically around 5 a.m., sometimes later. It's a 15 minute drive home and then I usually like to hop in bed for anywhere from an hour to 2 hours depending on my morning schedule for my regular job. Then I hop up, go to work, come home and try to sleep 4 to 5 hours, but it ends up being 2 or 3.

Now, The Boy is expecting me to give up precious sleep time to go running? Have I mentioned I'm starting to question The Boy's sanity.

Spit Swapping

2008-08-19T13:19:00.006-04:00

The Boy and I and his kids paid a visit to my parents' house over the weekend. Yes, mom. I know he's a man. But "the boy" just sounds better. Anyway, on our way over, we stopped at a roadside produce stand to pick up some sweet corn. We'd had really good luck at the stand by his house, but unfortunately he forgot to check the sign and it was closed on Sunday. Totally his fault. So we had to stop at a new place we'd both seen up the road.

Stopping was probably our first mistake. I got out to get the corn, and his 5 year old (D) wanted to help me carry it. When we got up to the stand, there was a half watermelon which had been cut into little cube pieces. Immediately, D noticed the watermelon and asked for a taste of it. The stand owner happily obliged by offering a cube on his plastic fork. D, of course, was pleased and took it with no qualms. Next, stand owner, whom, so you get the picture, was toothless and forgot to put in his dentures that morning, turned to me and offered me a piece off the same fork. I graciously declined. He then offered the community fork to the next person in line, before helping himself to another piece and gumming the fork to get every last morsel.

And to think, I didn't like watermelon before.

Is this thing on?

2008-07-28T20:48:00.000-04:00

wow. Time flies when you're having fun. I almost forgot my password to this thing. It's hard to imagine a time when I actually posted to this thing daily. Now it's mostly an afterthought. I mainly keep up through the mom's blog, and even then i've been lax.

Well, if you read my last post, you're pretty much up to date on my life. Work is the same. The 2 jobs still take up most of my time. the bro got married 2 weeks ago. He seems really happy.

The biggest change to my life has been the addition of a boy. Yes, perpetually single H is dating. I won't talk much about him cause that's not my style. He knows I have this blog though and is dying to find it. So I tease him a bit with it. He's also met the fam a couple of times and survived. He even spent a weekend with them at Kings Island after knowing them for approximately 6 hours. Even right now he's asking what I'm blogging, so I should get off of here before he looks over my shoulder.

Toodles.

I've been hanging around...

2008-05-02T23:18:00.004-04:00

Yeesh, time is certainly flying by. I just looked at the date of my last post and realized it has been a whole 6 weeks since I've been round these parts. It's already May! Can you believe it?

I guess a quick update on what I've been up to is in order for those I don't talk to on a regular basis. Which is probably a lot of people since I don't talk to many people. But it's probably not many people who are reading this because I'm fairly certain anyone who once may have read this has long since abandoned the idea of it. But in case you peeked your head in here and wanted to check in, I'll oblige. And I'm not making any promises about being better about keeping up with the posting, because seriously? Let's be honest here.

I'm still working my government job and being swamped as ever. I like it just fine, but I was promised secretarial/paralegal help would be arriving last June. It's not here. I have someone who occassionally helps with my filing, but she can't even get that right and if she doesn't know where something goes, she will just create an entirely new case file for it and file it away. You can imagine how convenient that is for me when I go to my drawer and I have 4 files for the same case. So when I'm talking to other attorneys on the phone and they have the nerve to comment to me about how difficult it is to get ahold of them since they're so busy, I have no qualms about pointing out to them that I am the sole attorney for 2 counties and I'm my own paralegal and secretary. When they don't believe me, I give them details. Add that to the fact that I was in Court every day but 3 for the month of May, and you can understand why I'm behind in my paperwork and preparation for Court. It's hard to prepare for hearings when you're always in hearings to begin with. But you've got to love government work. At least it's all pretty repetitive and I don't feel like I have to reinvent the wheel every day. For that I'm thankful.

I'm also still working my second job at the company located at the airport. And, surprisingly, I still love that job. Even though it messes with my sleep schedule, there's something about it and a culture that is just difficult to explain. For the first 4 months or so, I spent most of my time feeling like a complete idiot since they don't exactly train you on what to do and mostly just yell for you to do something. But after a while I started to catch on and am now feeling 50% less idiot. They also got it in their brains to train me to drive for part of the night, which requires me to pull about 40 tons of freight behind a tug and navigate it around the place while avoiding hitting things, especially the planes. It took me a while to get the hang of that as well, since my second night out, I didn't clear a corner and managed to take out a stop sign. A stop sign that was attached to a 3 foot by 5 foot concrete barrier. But hey. It wasn't a plane. Most people thought I'd last in that job for about a month or so, but I'm going on my 8th month there and enjoying it. Plus, I've gotten used to the money. I don't tell people what my day job is unless they ask me point blank, because the stares I get from those who have found out is enough to scare them away. There's still this stigma associated with lawyers and as soon as they find out that's what I do, their first question is always "what the heck are you doing working here?", and the second is usually, "hey, can you tell me how...".

With as busy as I've been with the 2 jobs, I've not had much else going on. Another reason I love the night job is that it's paid exercise. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate working out. Always have, and I'm sure I always will. With the job, I don't have to worry about it. Plus, if I'm not home during the week, I'm not home snacking.

Also, my younger bro is getting married in 2 months. So we're wedding planning and I'm fulfilling my bridesmaidly duties. So that's another big chunk of my oh so exciting life right now.

And basically, that's me in a nutshell for now. It's not all that entertaining or worthwhile of a read, but there it is. I'm keeping busy and enjoying my weekends as much as I can. I haven't been able to take a vacation day in about a year from my main job because I've felt too guilty with burdening the other attorney in my region with covering for me. So I've been using my vacay time a half day at a time to basically sleep in when I want. Lucky for me, my offices let me flex my time, so if I want to sleep till 10 one morning and then come in and work till 7, I can. It's fabulous. Every vacation day I have scheduled so far, there has been an emergency hearing I have had to attend. But I got someone to cover for me on Monday so that I can have a long weekend with election day off. Too bad I'll be spending my vacay day and election day catching up on court orders that I need to do because I'm so far behind. But seriously, one day I'll take a vacation. Because I really really could use one.

Educational TV

2008-03-14T22:12:00.005-04:00

At dinner with my family tonight, my 3 year old niece was wearing a shirt that said "Grandpa's TV Buddy". Since Papa keeps her almost every Friday, I knew there was some truth to that statement, so I decided to ask her about it. I asked her what her favorite show was and she responded,

"Hannah Down Hannah"

What she means is Hannah Montana. Man, is that Miley Cyrus everywhere. She's even bigger than Britney was in Britney's heyday. I only hope that the pressure of stardom at such a young age doesn't drive poor Miley to explode in some teen pregnancy scandal or heroin overdose in a couple of years. That seems to be about the only way these things end anymore.

But back to the TV. I quicky found out that the niece isn't the only one who gets to pick the shows to watch on Friday. I asked her what Papa's favorite show was and she responded,

"He likes the one where the bad boys shoot people."

Apparently Papa and the niece watch a lot of Cops as well. Glad to see Papa is broadening her viewing habits and not pigeonholing her into watching only toons.

Laugh by Omission

2008-03-07T14:17:00.000-05:00

I got an email from a friend yesterday that proved that leaving out a word can certainly change the meaning of what you're saying. What she said was, "I would like a hairy ape in my shorts." After I stopped laughing, I realized she meant to say she would "look like a hairy ape". Not quite the same thing.

Also, I'm sitting in the back of court during closing arguments of a jury trial. I was 10 minutes late for a hearing so they couldnmt call me first and instead had to put me after the jury. It would't have been so bad if I hadn't have learned that the judge was looking for me in the rotunda prior to the hearing. I had called the bailiff, but I'm not certain that is going to save me from getting my butt chewed when the case does get called here in a few minutes. I've now caused the other side to have to sit here for an hour because I was late.

Incidentally, if no one hears from me in the next 24 hours, someone please find me and bail me out of jail. Please.

Can you throw them over your shoulder, like a Continental soldier?

2008-02-03T16:11:00.000-05:00

My niece is a whole 3 years, 3 months, going on 30. I say her age every time I talk about her because I'm still amazed at some of the things that come out of her mouth. I know they say I was a smart child, but there is no way I was as smart as she is. My mother will be the first to tell you that she has picked up lip reading. Even from across a short distance. She can understand what you are saying even if there are no words coming out of your mouth. Which is dangerous.

Today, she and I were having one of our random conversations. It just so happened to be about what I needed to take off before she would let me shower. She was taking me through piece by piece of clothing, starting with my socks. Surprisingly, she was letting me keep my sweats on. But I had to lose the shirt and the socks, and then "that thing", she said as she pointed to my bra. I asked her if she knew what it was called, and she didn't. So I told her it was a bra. I spared her from telling her what one of her grandmother's used to call it*, and will definitely avoid telling her until she's older what another of her grandmothers used to lovingly refer to is as**.

Once she got the word, I asked her if she wore a bra. She replied with a simple "nah", and before I could get out her ever favorite "why" question, she offered an explanatory, "but I'll have to when my boobs get big."

The fact that (at 3) she didn't know what it was called but knows the purpose and gets that she's one day going to be ~~cursed~~blessed with a chest just freaks me out a little bit. Are they teaching sex ed in daycare?

*Over the shoulder boulder holders.
**Not appropriate for this blog, but it rhymed with kitty hags.

So it begins

2008-01-29T19:13:00.001-05:00

I found my first grey hair today. Who knows how many more are hiding underneath my color treated hair.

It's all downhill from here.

*Back to hiding in the bathroom from the tornados.

I'd smile if I had control of my facial muscles.

2008-01-28T00:06:00.001-05:00

Last week here, the temperatures dipped below zero on a couple of nights. For most people, that simply means that when the alarm sounds in the morning they don't really want to roll out of bed. For me, it means that there's a good chance I'll be fighting off frost bite.

By now it's no secret that my second job entails working around planes at the airport. I'll pretend, by not mentioning the company by name, that perhaps there is still a bit of mystery surrounding it. But it's safe to say that while I'm sorta inside a building for 3 of the 4 hours at night, the massive doors on the building are open all night with the wind whipping through. Then, at the end of the night, I have to walk out to the plane across the ramp. Surprisingly, they don't exactly have shade trees planted along the way to block the wind. This week, when I'd get home, I'd be lucky if I could even open my mouth because my cheeks were so wind blown and dry I couldn't move them.

Don't worry, this summer when it's 95 out, I'm sure I'll be complaining about that too.

Peeve

2008-01-20T22:24:00.000-05:00

I realize I am going to be entirely alone in this one, and I'm ok with that.

I realize that much of fashion is tied to France. But I don't live in france. Much less, I don't watch tv in Franc.e. So when I watch What Not To Wear, it bugs the daylights out of me that thy pronounce "empire" ahmpeer. We live in the states. There's a famous building and an even more perhaps famous movie. Look it up.

On Location

2008-01-20T12:14:00.000-05:00

I've been having issues with my computer lately which have made intenet access nonexistent. namely, the battery connection won't work and the life is about 12 minutes. Since I can't exactly blog from work, blogging has been moot.

I did however get a new phone and am currently blogging from it. I always wondered why people needed the intenet on their phone. I must say, this is fun. Hope not to make it a habit.

I have a long holiday weekend, so I'm chilling (both literally and figuratively) around my apt. A little cleaning; a little reading; a lot of sleeping.

Hope life is treating you well.

Grave Humor

2008-01-05T15:32:00.000-05:00

After what's seemed like an extraordinarily long week, we finally laid my grandfather to rest yesterday. Don't worry, this isn't a sad post. Fortunately, on the day he passed, most of the family was able to visit his house and say our final goodbyes. Don't get me wrong, the funeral itself was sad, but it was also joyous, because that's the way my grandpa would have liked it.

In fact, a few times throughout the service, I got a case of the giggles. While it may sound disrespectful, my grandfather would have approved. He was faking heart pains the day before his passing just so his caregiver would get close to listen to his heart and he could startle her with an abrupt "boo!" That was just the way he was. My uncle advised the pallbearers to jostle him around a bit and maybe pretend to drop him, because he would have liked that.

The first time I got the giggle was actually while I was crying. I had managed to keep it together pretty well, until I caught sight of one of my younger cousins at the moment it finally hit her. Which got me going. Then I giggled when I had a moment remembering my grandmother. My grandmother used to love to go to the airport when my mom was younger just so that she could watch the families saying hello and goodbye and she could cry with them. I guess I got that from her. She would really have loved the intro and closing of Love Actually.

The second time the giggles struck were as the service was wrapping up. The funeral director was giving directions to the audience to get their coats and then go through a certain door. My grandfather was always full of anecdotes and one of his favorites certainly applied. He always liked to say that those who leave first get choice of coats. So when people kept asking me where my coat was (which was in the car), I kept having to say that I left first and chose the best coat and was now hiding it. Maybe you had to be there.

Anyway, life will return to normal for me tomorrow. It's been a long 2 weeks of "vacation" and holiday and funeral and I'm sure I'm going to be swamped beyond measure by the time I return to the office. Here's hoping I can keep my head about water.

Tidbits

2008-01-02T09:30:00.001-05:00

On the way to dinner in the car the other night, I was trying to keep my niece from whining so much, so I started singing along to the radio. The song at the moment happened to be "Ba Ba Ba, Ba Barbara Ann.." About halfway through, she turned to me and said, "Heidi... you sing GREAT!" If the kid knew what sarcasm was, I'm certain she would be being sarcastic. As it was, we followed that song with "Benny and the Jetts". (Which, funnily, has a great scene in 27 dresses). The next night we were out for my birthday and my niece started singing away like she normally does. Usually she sings the ABCs or the like, but we caught her singing "Ba Ba Ba Benny and the Jetts." A hybrid song, I guess.

You may not have been able to tell from my previous post, but my grandfather passed away over the weekend. Things have been a bit hectic around my parents' house as you can imagine, and I'm trying as much as I can to get things squared away at my work since I will be out for the rest of the week. Probably not the best situation to be out the whole week after I took off last week for vacation. But you have to deal with what life throws your way. And the miniscule stress I'm dealing with doesn't compare to what my mom has to face since she is the executor/power of attorney/finance person and everything.

My niece doesn't understand death, which isn't surprising since she's 3. She keeps saying she wants to go visit Papa Guy. My sister told her the Papa Guy isn't at his house and he's in heaven. To which my niece responded, "oh, that's bad mommie." Not sure what that means. Then she determined that she wanted to go to heaven too to visit Papa Guy and Jesus. I'm not sure how my sis is going to explain it at the visitation tomorrow when Papa Guy is at the funeral home.

Well, not much else to say at the moment. Please keep our family in your thoughts/prayers as we say our final goodbyes. It's tough to let him go, but we know he's not in pain anymore.

Goodbye, Papa Guy.

2007-12-30T18:52:00.000-05:00

November 1, 1919 - December 30, 2007

Happy Birthday to Me; I just turned 30!

2007-12-29T09:22:00.001-05:00

Well, the day I've been dreading since turning 25 has finally arrived. I've crossed into a new decade. And I'm still breathing. It helps that I had my mom's infamous coffee cake to help ease me into it. But I'm still not happy about it.

Here's hoping this year I'll be "thirty, flirty, and thriving" just like the movie says.

I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

2007-12-21T17:05:00.000-05:00

At my 2 jobs, I run into a variety of signs. Some informative; some not. The following are my favorites.

1. At the Prosecutor's office at my local Courthouse the sign reads:
Donate your old, unused phones here.
Hmm. Are they wanting old new phones?

2. At the parking lot for 2nd job:
Parking violations will be strictly enforced.
Parking restrictions are enforced. How do you enforce a violation?

3. My favorite requires a little context. At the 2nd job, there's a security area we go through and there are a couple of TVs mounted that give you some informative information. One of the tidbits says:
There's no better time to quit than now.
They're talking about quitting smoking, but at 5:00 a.m. after a rough night on the line, if I'm thinking about quitting anything, it's the job.

A Gift to be Simple

2007-12-09T12:31:00.001-05:00

I asked my niece on the phone last night what she wants for Christmas. Her response? "A present." Ok. Well what kind of present? "A pink one." A pink one what? "A pink present." After a little more back and forth I let it drop. I have no idea what she means by that at all.

She also wants an airplane. I'm pretty sure though that she doesn't want a model airplane, but in fact wants one of the actual airplanes she sees in the sky all of the time and loves so much. I do tend to spend more than I should on her, but $30 million or so is definitely out of my price range.

Things I've learned in the last month that I'm sure will be as surprising to you as they were to me.

2007-12-09T12:19:00.001-05:00

AKA: I make really dumb mistakes all of the time.

1. Green bean casserole does not stay as fresh on the counter overnight as it would in the fridge. In fact, if it's in a sealed Pyrex dish, when you find it the next morning and open it, chances are high that it will smell like death. Against my better judgment, I gaggingly cleaned it out instead of scrapping the whole thing and spending another 11 dollars to just replace it.

2. A recorked bottle of wine is not leak proof. When it falls over in the fridge it will slowly leak through the corkscrew hole onto everything you own in the fridge. Even if it's on the bottom shelf, it will somehow waft up to the upper shelves just to make your life even more annoying.

3. A shirt does not protect from heat as well as an oven mitt. Also, burning your nipple on a hot pan on the stovetop is the most searing pain you've ever felt in your life. Please trust me on this one and don't try it out for yourself.

Pick Me Up

2007-11-29T13:21:00.001-05:00

I've been a little under the weather this week and have been a little stressed about work. I'm trying to prep for my biggest trial I've yet to have and every time I prepare witness questions, my brain turns to mush.

I stumbled upon this old video from 2000 that I love. I remember watching the Tonight Show the night this was on. Angie Harmon is a fantastic actress, and I would watch her in almost anything. The almost comes in because try as I might, I can't stand that new show she's on now. Get her back to Law and Order stat. Or better yet, bring her over to SVU. It would be the meshing of 2 good things.

Anyway, back to the video. The following is the video of Angie's now husband, Jason Sehorn, proposing to her on the Tonight Show. It brings a smile to my face, so I thought I'd share.

Now, back to expert witness testimony prep.

Good Service is Dead

2007-11-28T13:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, I was already irritated beyond normal today due to something at work which I am not at liberty to discuss. Let's just say, imagine you were hired into a job and told that you would be soley responsible for A and B. As in, A and B is your entire job. Then a few months later, they said, oh, the person responsible for C quit, so you're now responsible for C as well. And then, after putting up with that for a while, you're told out of the blue that you now have to handle D as well, even though D alone is equal to A, B and C combined. And you won't get any more money for it. Yeah. That's how I feel.

So I stopped at McD's for some comfort food. I get to the window and the chick doesn't put the lid on the drink well enough and manages to dump it on my car door, into my car and onto my dry clean only suit. Her response? "Oops, sorry babe. " Then she says she'll fix it. Which her version of fixing it entails handing me a wad of papertowels and replacing my drink. No free hamburger coupon. No courtesy french fries on your next visit. Nada.

She did replace my diet coke with a 3/4 full glass with no ice and what I discovered when I got home was not diet coke, but was instead regular coke. And no straw. And no dipping sauce for my nuggets even though I asked twice.

You can only imagine how utterly annoyed I am at this moment. I'm not a confrontational person, but I've picked up the phone a couple of times prepared to call and voice my displeasure. Though I'm not sure it would do any good other than to get me more riled up.

The Road to Recovery

2007-11-21T21:59:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know this is an unflattering pic of Frosty again (sorry Dad), but it's his favorite position to lie in. Anyway, if you notice, he's sporting a new haircut and a built in zipper. Don't worry, he was sleeping, he's not still drugged. Poor thing looks like he's got front butt. Anyway, his surgery went well yesterday. He had to stay overnight, which didn't go well with him or Max. Max endured it by pulling out clumps of his own hair and leaving them around my apartment, as well as trying to sleep on my head and love me to death.

Thankfully, when I picked Frosty up today, they said that he's not been trying to mess with his incision and has been a really good boy. He just has a few doses of antibiotics to endure and then his internal stitches will disappear. They're also running an analysis of his bladder stones to help figure out how to prevent them from recurring so I don't have to drop another wad of cash on him in the future. Other than a bit of wailing on the way home, things have returned to normal for the most part. He followed me from room to room and laid on my feet for the first couple of hours. That included laying on my feet while I was cooking, sleeping, or standing. Good times.

Now the sucky part is that I have to pack him up and drag him to the parents' house tomorrow. And, if I had any doubts about whether I could leave Max alone here for a couple of days, those were amplified when I returned home to find Max in clumps all over my apartment. If I were to leave him alone for a couple of days, I'd probably return and he'd be bald. So he gets to travel as well.

Thanks for all the well wishes and even the offers to come over and sing him lullabies or do interpretive dances to keep his minds off things. He appreciates the concern. As a side note, it's amazing to me how many people told me I should just put him to sleep instead of worrying about surgery or the possibility of having to deal with this again in the future. Now, I've been careful not to call myself his mom or him my "baby", but disposable pets are not exactly my cup of tea either. Apparently they are for some people.

Bits and Pieces

2007-11-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

I love working for the government on election day. Bonus vacation day! K was kind enough to join me after my 2nd job and eat breakfast and then we went down to vote. We were voters 19 and 20 at our precinct. Last time, I voted with 15 minutes to spare and was only voter 220. That's sad.

Frosty did not have surgery yesterday due to a medical situation with a member of my human family. My grandfather has been ill and I went home for the weekend and could not be here to restrict his food and water. I'm keeping a close eye on him and he's scheduled now for Tues. the 20th when the vet returns from vacation. I did not realize when I rescheduled that it is the Tues before Thanskgiving, which means I can't leave them here for the long weekend. So instead, they will be making the trek to the parents' house with me where my mom's cat is less than friendly. Especially to Frosty. Poor Frosty.

My second job is looking for volunteers to work the night of Thanksgiving. Technically it will be Friday morning from midnight to 4. If I work, I get paid my 4 hours of regular holiday pay, plus time and a half for the hours I actually work. Roughly grossing $115 for one night. I need to double check with my manager that that's actually the case and it's not just straight up time and a half. If so, I am really tempted to work since we're doing Thanksgiving later in the weekend. I can also take Monday off from my law job since I've been racking up vacation days and have yet to use one. I was supposed to take the day off yesterday, but they scheduled Court. Unlike my caseworkers, I don't have anyone that can step in and cover for me for the day and let me keep my day off. So I went in anyway.

Last night at work was freezing. Our work gives us clothing including these nice parkas, stocking caps and work bibs. I made the mistake of only wearing 3 shirts and the parka last night, with my tights and jeans. I'll definitely be layering myself up tonight better since it will feel like 22 degrees at the point when I will be outside, unshielded by the wind. I think a trip to Dicks Sporting goods is in order. I just can't wait until it get to be 0 degrees.

Under the knife.

2007-10-30T21:21:00.000-04:00

My kitty has been sick for a few months. The vet and I have been trying everything low tech to see if we can make him better. Including special diet food, antibiotics, steroids, etc. He went in on Monday and they finally ran an x-ray. Turns out the boy's got bladder stones.

Basically the doctor gave me two options:

1. Surgery on Monday to remove the stones, after which they should know what caused them and how to prevent them. Pros: Fix the cat. Downside: Expensive.

2. Do nothing and let the stones just keep rolling around and cutting up his bladder, at which point he'll either get a severe infection or a blockage and die a painful death. Pros: It doesn't cost me any more money. Downside: Death.

Gee, not a hard decision. While I don't really have the money sitting around, luckily I do have a second job that can help defray the cost.

Additionally, I was planning on taking off Monday and making it a long weekend since we government employees have Tues. election day off. But instead, I get to be at the vet at 7 a.m. on Monday. The things we do for our pets.

The second-job diet.

2007-10-27T06:45:00.000-04:00

I apologize to my 3 readers for not being around much recently. About 5 weeks ago I started a second job. And call me crazy, I actually like it, despite the fact that I work it from 12:30 a.m. until 4 a.m. And, I still love my law job enough to stick with it even though the pay is crappy and I have to work a second job to keep up. Who knew?

Anyway, other than adjusting my sleep schedule, I'm actually getting more sleep and exercise now than I did before. I work my law job from 6:30 a.m. or so until 2 or 3, come home and sleep till 11, then work the second job M-Thurs (and optional Fridays) It's amazing how much I can get done in the office before my coworkers are there needing legal advice. Weekends are still free and since I'm sleeping in the evenings, I'm not spending money going out to eat or snacking all night. It's actually very much a win win-win-situation. The down side is my DVR is getting full as I've been taping shows and not able to watch them until the weekend. So I've pared down my TV watching as much as possible and am saving some shows until rerun season to even get into.

I'm sure I'll talk more about it and share all of the scinillating details later. And by the by, if anyone in the Indy area is looking for a night-time part time job (17.5 to 20 hours) with ok pay, full benefits (cheap medical, life insurance, dental, optical, and a 401k) and built in exercise, email me at hildaheidi77@hotmail.com and I'll share all the details. I really wish I had known about this while I was in law school so I could have made an extra 8-10K a year and had good insurance and not the crappy student stuff.

Also, if anyone out there is reading this blog and still looking for a law job, I may have some info on that too. The state is hiring more attorneys to do what I do, but outside of Indianapolis (locations vary by availability). Like I said above, the pay kind of sucks, but it is great trial experience and morally rewarding. You have to actually be admitted in Indiana before you apply. Email me at the address above if you're interested in that as well.

McMovies

2007-09-30T01:18:00.000-04:00

I don't know if it's available in all areas, but there's a new thing around here called Redbox movies. Basically, there's a kiosk outside certain stores that let you rent a movie for 1 buck a night. I've only seen them at McDonalds around here, but I'm sure they're elsewhere too. I was a bit skeptic at first, but then finally gave it a shot after a trip to the video store cost me over 5 bucks recently. Basically, the concept is easy. You pick your movie, insert your credit card, and then it vends the move. You return it to any location you want, and if you keep it an extra night, you pay another buck. If you keep it 25 nights, then you stop being charged and it's yours. Not that it's the easiest or cheapest way to buy a movie.

Anyway, all that setup for this comment. I saw a story on the news the other night that one town is wanting to pass an ordinance to prevent these kiosks from renting R rated movies. The argument was that since there is no attendant, any kid can come up and rent any movie without someone checking ID. I'll ignore that this presupposes that the attendants are really checking ID. Instead, I simply point out that these machines do not take cash. They only take credit card. Last time I checked, you have to be 18 to have one of those. So the only way the kid is going around renting R-rated movies from McDonalds is if you've given him the credit card. Which, you get what you enable there.

I guess the other possibility is that the kid can use a debit card at the machine. But again, if I had a 13 year old kid, there's no way in heck I'd let them roam the streets with a debit card that can drain my bank account.

I just don't see the big deal here. Aren't parents supposed to parent children and not the government? And we law abiding citizens should be able to McRent R-Rated movies instead of limiting us to G and PG ones. What will they restrict next?

Emmy Post-Mortem

2007-09-16T23:26:00.000-04:00

Wow. I did an impressively bad job and only got 3 out of 11 right. Luckily I didn't put any money on this.

While I enjoyed her acceptance speech, Katherine Heigl annoyed the bejeezus out of me this season on Greys. Appropos that she would win. And I was shocked that Terry O'Quinn took home a deserved award. Full shut out for the Sopranos actors? Did not see that one at all. Steve Carrell was robbed again, but if it had to go to anyone, it might as well go to the creator of the whole Office realm.

Did not like the circular stage. Also, did not like that they barely showed any of the nominees all night. No reaction shots, no nomination shots. It was pretty bland. Had I not known it was on Fox, I could have guessed it based on the look of the show. Blech.

Emmy Predicts

2007-09-16T14:43:00.000-04:00

With the Emmys about 5 hours away, I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't actually give a shot at Emmy Predictions. I mean, I do watch a LOT of TV. Granted, most people won't read this post until well after the Emmys. You'll just have to settle for laughing and pointing when I'm completely wrong on my picks. (Though, I have been pretty good with the Oscars the last couple of years, but that may not necessarily translate here.)

Series, Drama
Boston Legal
Grey's Anatomy
Heroes
House
Sopranos

Should win? Heroes
Will Win? Sopranos

House is a good show, but not it's best season. Grey's Anatomy suffered the 3rd season fizzle. Boston Legal, a drama? Please. Heroes, is arguably, one of the better shows on TV this last season. I didn't give it a shot until about halfway through the season, but enjoyed it when I did. It's different enough, but, unlike Lost, it actually gives answers and doesn't drag out for episode after episode. The Emmys do have a habit of rewarding the good new shows (see Lost), but the overhyped, overplayed swan song of the Sopranos is going to make this the most predictable category of the night. It's won almost every award it's been up for the past decade. And, don't forget, since it's on cable and not network TV, it's obviously better quality *eyeroll*.

Series, Comedy
Entourage
The Office
30 Rock
Two and a Half Men
Ugly Betty

Should win? The Office
Will win? Ugly Betty

My love for the Office knows no bounds. After a shaky part of the second season, (even though it won the Emmy last year), it really grew this year into the smartest comedy on TV. I don't care what you say, I'm not going to believe otherwise. The combination of the writers, the actors and the directors are all heads and shoulders above any other group on TV. But I don't expect a repeat. I have tried to watch episodes of the other shows, but either hated them (Entourage, 30 Rock, Two and a Half Men) or didn't care enough to make it appointment TV (Ugly Betty). And, in fact, the second funniest comedy on TV, How I Met Your Mother, was grossly overlooked. I expect the hype that is Ugly Betty (see previous comment about Emmys loving new cult shows) to carry it to this win.

Actor, Drama
James Spader, Boston Legal
Hugh Laurie, House
Denis Leary, Rescue Me
James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
Kiefer Sutherland, 24

Should win? Hugh Laurie
Will win? James Gandolfini

Even in it's less than best season, Hugh Laurie still shines. He is House and no other actor could pull off. He's witty, caustic, American-accented, and perfect in the role. Sadly, though he deserves to win, he's going to suffer through watching this one go, one last time, to James Gandolfini. I've watched the Sopranos. I wasn't impressed. I haven't seen 24 or Rescue Me, so I can't really comment on that. But James Spader? Again, that show is not a drama and it is not quality television. I like James Spader, but he needs to go away and give his spot to Matthew Fox or Chris Meloni, again, other grossly overlooked actors.

Actress, Drama
Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters
Kyra Sedgwick, the Closer
Mariska Hargitay, Law and Order: SVU
Patricia Arquette, Medium
Minnie Driver, The Riches
Edie Falco, The Sopranos

Should Win? Kyra Sedgwick
Will win? Kyra Sedgwick or Edie Falco

Admittedly, I don't watch any of these shows, save SVU. Mariska got her due last year and she's not going to be close this year. Kyra Sedgwick completely carries The Closer, which is highly rated by my parents and critics alike. She should pull this off, but given the exit of The Sopranos, you can't count out Edie Falco. If I were forced to pick between the two, I say Edie Falco takes it by a nose.

Actor, Comedy
Ricky Gervais, Extras
Tony Shaloub, Monk
Steve Carrell, The Office
Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men

Should win? Steve Carrell
Will win? Steve Carrell

I'm going out on a limb on this one. Steve Carrell was robbed last year by Tony Shaloub, and everyone knew it, including Tony Shaloub. Those things are not easily forgotten. I'm holding my hope for him this year. A lot of people are calling Alec Baldwin claiming that he's going to take it, but I'm not certain his off camera personality and the fact that his show is a ratings underdog won't hurt him. Plus, though I don't watch the show, a lot of people seem convinced he should have been in the supporting actor category. Monk is past it's prime and Two and a Half Men is not funny. Ricky Gervais has a small shot, but I'm not certain he's mainstream enough to swing this vote.

Actress, Comedy

Will win? America Ferrera

I'm not even bothering to type out the other nominees, because if America Ferrera doesn't walk away with this award, I'll eat my computer. This one's not even close.

Supporting Actor, Drama
William Shatner, Boston Legal
T.R. Knight, Grey's Anatomy
Masi Oka, Heroes
Michael Emerson, Lost
Terry O'Quinn, Lost
Michael Imperioli, The Sopranos

Should win? Michael Emerson
Will Win? T.R. Knight or Masi Oka

Michael Emerson's Ben is the only redeeming quality of a poor season of Lost. He's perfect in that role. But, given how Lost was shut out in many other categories, I don't expect many votes thrown his way. Michael Imperioli should have the backing of the Sopranos exit, but I don't think they'll take this category. T.R. Knight has dealt with a lot of publicity and may get a sympathy vote. I sincerely don't think the show was up to par this year, but he did have one or two shining moments. Masi Oka is the standout on a new cult show. I'm going to give this to Masi, by a nose. I've heard he's a great guy, as is T.R. so either walking away with this will be fine with me.

Supporting Actress, Drama
Rachel Griffiths, Brothers and Sisters
Katherine Heigl, Grey's Anatomy
Chandra Wilson, Grey's Anatomy
Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy
Aida Turtorro, The Sopranos
Lorainne Bracco, The Sopranos

Should win? Chandra Wilson
Will win? Sandra Oh or Lorainne Bracco

Again, I'm getting redundant, but the Sopranos could carry this one too. Sandra Oh is about the least talented of the suppporting Grey's actresses. Her performance is so one note, but for some reason, people love her. It will be a crime if either Heigl or Oh take this over Chandra, the true star of that show. At least Ellen Pompeo's smarmy performance wasn't nominated in any category. Sandra Oh should easily have been replaced with Elizabeth Mitchell, who gave an outstanding performance on an otherwise dying Lost. I'm giving the nose to Emmy darling Lorainne Bracco in this one. I just feel the record setting Sopranos will exit taking 3 of the 4 acting awards.

Supporting Actor, Comedy
Kevin Dillon, Entourage
Jeremy Piven, Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris, How I Met Your Mother
Rainn Wilson, The Office
Jon Cryer, Two and a Half Men

Should win? John Krasinski. What, he wasn't nominated? Seriously, NPH
Will win? Rainn Wilson

Ok, I think Rainn Wilson's character is so one note and over the top and really think this nomination should have gone to John Krasinski. I'm more a fan of the straight man as it were. But hopefully he'll get his due. The Emmys do like over the top performances in their supporting actor cast (see Sean Hayes, David Hyde Pierce) so I'm giving him the edge. However, I'm really pulling for Neil Patrick Harris. NPH carries that show and gives it the funny. He's over the top, but not in the same way. And for all the fear in the media that his coming out would ruin the character, NPH's Barney is the greatest womanizing character on TV. I probably care more about the supporting comedy categories than any other. I'll be OK, with a Rainn win, but since How I Met Your Mother is always facing possible cancellation, I wish NPH would get his due this year. Also, don't count out a possible repeat of Jeremy Piven. But I'm thinking he won't carry it this year.

Supporting Actress, Comedy
Jaime Pressley, My Name is Earl
Jenna Fischer, The Office
Holland Taylor, Two and a Half Men
Conchata Ferrell, Two and a Half Men
Vanessa Williams, Ugly Betty
Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds

Should win? Jenna Fischer
Will win? Elizabeth Perkins

Again, Emmy voters love cable shows. Jenna Fischer really stood out this season on The Office, but it's too much to hope that she would take this one. I also think Jaime Pressley may have a shot, because, again, see the over the top discussion from above. The others are pretty much interchangeable. As long as either Perkins, Fischer, or Pressley win this one, I'm ok with it.

Writing, Comedy

Should win? Anyone from The Office

I don't know who the nominees are, but I'm pretty sure than 2 of them are teams from The Office. And they will be well deserved.

Interested to see how I did? We'll check the scorecard tonight.

Random Bits

2007-09-16T00:16:00.000-04:00

Now, I know I have a pretty commercial taste in movies. But I do like to give other, more artistic movies a shot, even when I think it's not going to be my cup of tea. I used to watch the Sundance channel religiously and catch all of the movies that never got picked up for mass release. That will come as a surprise to some of the more refined movie goers out there who think that I only ever watch rom-coms.

I'm not really a fan of the fantasy movies. I think it shows my limited imagination as a child. Though I'm left handed, I am definitely not right brained when it comes to that creativity. I must say, I'm happy that I gave the Harry Potter movies a shot, as I do enjoy those (but not in 3-D on an IMAX screen, I must say. It gave me a hangover worse than any alcoholic beverage could have).

K and I watched Pan's Labrynth tonight. It's Spanish and subtitled for those of us who are not as fluent in our Spanish as we should be. That doesn't bother me all that much. I like a good subtitled movie. But I did not like this movie at all. The acting was ok, but I just didn't care for the random fantasy bits. And it was way more graphic than I care to watch. I got online and checked and the movie got rave reviews everywhere. Also, K seemed to really like it. I must just be in the minority on this one.

Tonight I was painting my toes and my cat came up to rub on my legs. He bent his head and did a quick sniff of the polish and immediately went into a gag reflex. It was like the cat version of one of those TV shows when someone discovers a dead body. I know cats don't like certain smells, but I didn't realize smells triggered the vomit reflex in them the way it does in humans. He settled in on the far corner of the bed and has just been glaring at me for the past 20 minutes. I'm just glad no actual vomit came with the gagging, since I've had my fill of cleaning up feline bodily fluids this week.

The element of surprise.

2007-09-14T16:38:00.001-04:00

Last night, I crawled into bed half asleep. All of the sudden, I felt something at my feet which made me start questioning whether I had just washed my sheets and didn't get them all the way dry. When I realized I hadn't, I then wondered if the sheets felt cold because of the windows being open. I decided that wasn't likely. After closer inspection, I discovered that one of my cats had left me a nice wet present. Yeah.

Now, I honestly couldn't get too upset with him. He's had a urinary infection/bleeding bladder for about 4 months and this is the first time he has ever went outside the box. Stress makes it worse. And I'm partially to blame for stressing him out. But the only reason I'm partially to blame is that my apartment complex is almost entirely to blame. As those of you who read the post from a few days ago can remember, any day now the complex is going to open my door and weather strip it. So I have to keep the cats locked up. Yesterday morning, Frosty was hiding under the bed in my room and I couldn't get to him. I didn't want to be late for court, so I made the decision to lock him in my room. I had anticipated coming home after court and working from home. So he would have only been in there 4 hours. But my 4 hour day turned into 10.5 hour day, and his little bladder couldn't hold it. No wonder he didn't run for the door when I came home.

Luckily the little present only hit the sheets and didn't soak through to the mattress. I think he was embarrassed and held it as long as he could based on the location and the splatter pattern. So I've forgiven him. Unfortunately, my the kink in my neck from sleeping on the couch has not.

Here's hoping I have no more presents awaiting me tonight.

Christmas Come Early

2007-09-13T16:48:00.000-04:00

Being a government agency, my office is scarce on supplies. In particular, the person in charge of supplies tries to reuse everything to save every dime. Ever since my first day there, I thought that it was a little bit over the top in stinginess. When I asked to order a stapler, I was told they would check around the office first and I ended up getting a janked up one that barely gets the job done. When I wanted folders with the prongs built in, they had the receptionist punch holes in regular manilla files and put clips through them as makeshift pronged folders. It was great when every time I opened the clips to put something in, the clips fell out and all the papers went scattering. Or, every time I tried to file in my filing cabinet, one folder would get stuck on another and I couldn't get anything in the drawer. I also didn't have any of the standard office supplies such as a staple remover, tape dispenser, or scissors. When a coworker left, I immediately ransacked her office and upgraded and took over the dispenser. But every time I have to cut something, I track down a pair of scissors from a coworker.

The other day, I ventured to the supply closet to get a notebook. I've asked for yellow, letter sized notebooks with 2 holes punched at the top. It's been 2 months and I still haven't seen them and have been told that since they are not on the approved order list, I can't get them. Instead, in the bountiful supply closet, I found one half used white pad of paper buried under mismatched folders. In the entire closet, there was one half empty box of paper clips, 2 binder clips (not boxes, single clips) 2 pads of post-its, 3 boxes of pens, 2 boxes of staples and a bunch of the mismatched folders. For 18 people in the office. That's it. It's really pathetic.

Today, I was at my other county which I visit less frequently. I'm the attorney in 2 counties, but I spend 90% of my of my time in County A. Today, while in County B, I was jumping between offices (because I don't actually have a station there) and ran out of paperclips. The staff directed me to the supply closet and told me to help myself. (Incidentally, they're already working on getting me the "special" notebooks, even if they have to stop at Office Max and pick them up). When I opened the closet, I thought I had struck gold. There were stacks and stacks of staples, boxes of binder clips (in 3 sizes!), pads of paper, 4 different kinds of pens, 6 or 7 extra staplers (new in the boxes), 5 scissors (new in the box), post it notes of every color and size, and much much more. They even had 30 bottles of white-out, as opposed to the 1 half used tape white out in our office. I literally gave a yelp of happiness at all of the stuff.

Then of course, I proceeded to stock up. I checked with my secretary at that office just to be sure, and she said to help myself. She also told me that if there was anything not back there that I wanted, she'd run down to the store and get it for me. How lucky could I be?

Later in the day, I was sitting at a coworker's desk using her docking station with my stash of stapler, scissors, post-it notes, white-out, pens, etc, when my director walked by. She looked at me over my towering stack of supplies, shook her head laughing, and walked on.

I'm now going to have to make sure I find the key to my desk so that I can lock up my stash from the jealous coworkers in my other county.

You can lead a witness to Court, but you can't make them testify.

2007-09-13T01:03:00.000-04:00

Several other attorneys have imparted to me the well-known addage that you never ask an opposing witness a question you do not know the answer to. What's worse? Asking your own witness a question you do know the answer to but they apparently do not. I'm not talking about run of the mill witnesses, but client witnesses where the only reason I know the information is because the client told it to me 5 minutes before walking into the court room. There are only so many ways you can phrase your questions to push the line of leading the witness and avoid the "asked and answered" objection. And, since it's my client-witness, I want to avoid having to bring up, "well you just testified" or the like because then they look like they're either lying or don't know the answer. Typically, it will go something like this: (Note, not actual testimony)

Me: After you showered and dressed, what did you do before you came to work?
Witness: I got in my car.
Me: Ok, did you do anything else before you left your house?
Witness: No.
Me: Have you eaten anything today?
Witness: Yes.
Me: What?
Witness: I had cereal for breakfast
Me: Where were you when you at this food?
Witness: At home.
Me: Was this before you came to work?
Witness: Yes.
Me: So, between when you showered and dressed and when you got in your car to leave for work, did you do anything else?
Witness: No.
Me: Well, it's my understanding that your testimony indicates you ate breakfast that morning at home.
Witness: Well, yes.
Me: So you did eat at home?
Witness: I guess.
Me: What did you eat for breakfast?
Witness: Toast.
Me: Did you not also have cereal? (like you just answered 2 minutes ago and now I have to fend off the leading objection)
Witness: Yes.
Me: What kind of cereal?
Witness: Wheeties.
Me: Um, are you certain it was Wheeties?
Witness: I don't know?
Me: Could it have been Cheerios?
Witness: Oh yeah. It was Cheerios.

Then, of course, inevitably after their testimony, they will come up to me and say something along the lines of, "Were you wanting me to say x when you asked me those questions?" and following my affirmative answer, "well I thought you did, but I wasn't sure so I didn't want to say it."

It would be much easier if I could shorten the whole line of questioning to "Did you eat Cheerios that morning?", but of course, I can't.

Daily Annoyances

2007-09-11T19:48:00.000-04:00

1. I hate those commercials for Visa where they show everyone zipping around so smoothly using their credit card only to be halted when someone wants to pay with cash. Those Visa people must not have visited the stores near me where when I want to use my credit/debit card, I have to enter either my pin or my zip code, answer whether my cashier was friendly/store was clean/visit was pleasant, enter if I have any coupons, enter if I want cash back, check yes for amount OK, and then sign. Yeah, worlds faster than handing over a $10.00 bill and getting change.

2. I was behind 2 cars today with their "In God We Trust" license plates whose drivers were doing the godly thing of littering. One was throwing trash out on the interstate, and the other was cleaning her car while in the drive-thru. She managed to throw a receipt, straw wrappers, kleenex, napkins, and the paper bag right out her window and onto the pavement under the drive up window. If I were ballsier, I would have gotten out of my car and picked up the stuff that was rolling my way and dropped it back into her car through the open windows. But then I figured I'd probably be slapped with some civil suit or charged with intimidation or battery.

3. At Wal-Mart in the 20 items or less line, the lady in front of me had 3 orders of over 20 items each. She may have had more, but I only saw her do the 3. And each one she did she used a Wal-Mart credit card, which of course meant she had to go through all the steps I just mentioned in number 1. She also was apparently working for a nursing home or something and using a corporate card. The back of it instructed the cashier to check for ID. She didn't check until the 3rd order, at which point the woman said the only thing she had on her was the card and didn't have ID to show. So the cashier just asked her if she had authorization to use the card. To no one's surprise, the lady said she did. The cashier did the responsible thing of telling her next time she needs to bring ID or a letter showing she's authorized to use the card and then let her walk away with 3 orders each totalling over $150.00. Glad she was looking out for the true card holder there.

The never-ending remodel.

2007-09-10T22:12:00.000-04:00

3 weeks ago my apartment complex put a note on my door that informed me that they would be painting our doors, which includes opening them and removing the weather stripping. Ergo, we need to make sure the pets are secure and not fleeing from the building. The note said this process would take up to 2 weeks.

We learned earlier this summer that they have no control over the paint crews. When repainting our buildings, they would paint one floor, or edge another and then come back about a month later. It was so bizarrely done.

But I faithfully locked my cats up each day for the last 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks, they had painted the outside of my door but had not returned to open it and weather strip it. Thinking that perhaps they had changed their minds, I emailed the management to check. Nope, they're still planning on doing it. Then I got a note on door a couple of days later (after continuing to lock up the cats) telling me that they would begin the weatherstripping process today. And it could last up to 2 weeks.

Of course I have no idea when they may possibly make it to my building. It could be tomorrow. It could be October 1. But now, I'm expected to be able to lock my cats up all day every day until it's fixed. Which would be fine if my cats didn't have 2 brain cells. They've wised up, and by the time I wake up in the morning, they're both in hiding under my king sized bed where I can't reach them. I've tried locking them up at 5 a.m., before my shower, after my shower, etc. The only thing I haven't tried is locking them up at night before I go to bed. But I don't exactly want to listen to them whine all night.

So now I'm officially up a creek. If no one hears from me tomorrow, I'm either still chasing them around the complex or I've gotten myself stuck under my bed.

Overheard in a dressing room.

2007-09-05T18:59:00.000-04:00

"Do you have this in a smaller size? This size two is just way too huge on me and keeps falling off."

Summertime... and the TV is boring.

2007-08-27T20:32:00.000-04:00

Inevitably, summertime offers me the most free time. It just sucks that it also offers the least amount of quality TV. I don't want to spend all night in front of the TV, but if there were at least 3 shows a week to watch, I'd be happy. I suffered through a terrible season of SYTYCD and have even been reluctantly watching my first season of Big Brother. It's nothing to write home about either.

In expanding my TV horizons, I have a few new shows which I can tolerate. The first is the ABCFamily show "Greek." It's predictable and pounds every possible fraternity/sorority stereotype into the ground. Over and over. But it's watchable. And Jacob Zachar, who plays geeky little brother Rusty, is adorkable. To give you a little synopsis, Casey (the girl) is dating Evan, head of the popular fraternity, who cheats on her during rush week, with a pledge. She also used to date Cappie, slacker president of the party fraternity and rival to her current boyfriend. When her geeky brother Rusty shows up at the same college, decides to go greek, and joins slacker Cappie's frat, Casey is none too pleased. I don't really like any of the girls in this show, but eh.

Next, a far better show, USA Network's "Burn Notice." Micheal Westin (Jeffrey Donovan, the slimy guy from Hitch) is a former government agent who is "burned" when someone turns on him. The government abandons him with no identity, no money, no job history, etc. While trying to find out who burned him, he also puts his spy knowledge to good use by helping everyday citizens get out of binds. He's dumped in a city with his gun-loving ex, his friend who's reporting on him to the FBI, and his mother. I usually abhor narration in a show, but whether it's the voice or the content, it really works on this show. If my parents aren't watching this show, they really should. It's up their alley and both of their daughters are hooked. Unfortunately they'll have to wait a couple of weeks until the US Open is over and USA goes back to regular programming.

Uno Mas!

2007-08-12T21:49:00.000-04:00

Last summer, I was in love with the show, So You Think You Can Dance. It was appointment TV at its finest. This year, not to parse my words, but it sucks. I can barely stand to tune in from week to week. They're really killed it for me.

Luckily, I do have a new summer love. It's the show My Boys. It ran for about a dozen episodes during the winter last year and I got hooked. And now it's back. It's one of the rare shows my sister and I both adore. So you know it must be good. If you haven't caught it yet, tune in Monday nights at 10:00 on TBS and enjoy. Jim Gaffigan really steals the show, though the other, mostly unknown, actors can each hold their own. Here's hoping for a successful run so we get more.

Get him a body bag! Yeeaaahh!

2007-08-12T18:40:00.000-04:00

I was watching the commentary for the first Karate Kid. Love it. Such an iconic movie. And somehow I stumbled upon this music video by the group "No More Kings" for their song 'Sweep the Leg.' It shows a washed up Johnny and the rest of the Cobra Kai's in a trailer somewhere. It's directed by the actor who played Johnny and reunites all of the Cobra Kais, the sensei, and even Ralph Macchio. It's nice that they all have a sense of humor.

Double Hottie Header

2007-07-24T23:09:00.000-04:00

MG and I decided to take in some of Indy's finer points tonight and watch some tennis at the Indy tennis tourney. It had been a couple of years since I had frequented the place. And tonight was some good tennis. First match was Roddick and second was Blake. It's very rare to get to see both of them play unless they're playing each other in the finals. But tonight was our lucky night. MG convinced me to get seats on the end of the Court so that we had a better angle at which to admire their ~~butts~~ serves. And boy, do those seats not disappoint.

Identity Crisis

2007-07-24T00:47:00.000-04:00

As of last week, I've been at my new job for 4 months, and actually working out of my office for at least 3. Now, without getting too in depth about what I do, I work for a government agency and am the only attorney in my office. There are actually 2 agencies in my office: Agency A and Agency B. Although I work for Agency A, there are only about 18 people in the entire office and we all share a receptionist. And the kitchen is smack in the middle of Agency B's end of the office, so I see these people every day.

To get the full effect of the conversation I'm going to describe, I have to give you a little background on the physical layout of our office. The offices are laid out kind of in a U-shape with Agency A on one end and Agency B on the other. The receptionist is down on our end and the only way to get in and out of her office is to walk all the way down and come in the back way. Ergo, if you're walking down to our end from Agency B, you walk by every Agency A employee's office before getting to reception. My office shares a wall with reception and in fact has a 3 foot by 3 foot window on said wall. Until about a month ago, anyone in reception or the lobby could see directly into my office while I sat there doing work. In fact, they called it the attorney zoo. I got sick of watching everyone make copies, so I finally papered over the window to enjoy my privacy.

Anyway, all of this is leading up to a conversation I had last Friday. Our receptionist was out for the day, so some of the employees from Agency B had been filling in for her. I was at the Court House and was in a bit of a rush when I had to call back to my office and speak to any one of my coworkers. Like any government agency, we have a 4 minute directory to go through to get everyone's extension. And even though we have offices, a lot of times no one is in their office and able to pick up their phone. So if you hit someone's extension and they're not there, you can't then back out of the voice mail to try someone else's extension. You basically have to hang up and call back. So instead of wading through the whole schpeal, when I called I zeroed out to talk to the fill-in receptionist. When she picked up, this is the conversation that transpired:

Hi, this is Heidi **, the attorney for Agency A. I need to talk to someone from Agency A, but I couldn't remember any extensions. Could you peek around the corner and let one of them know I'm on the line?

Who is this?

This is Heidi. The attorney.

And what office are you calling from?

I'm from YOUR office. I'm the attorney for Agency A.

Well, I need to know what office you're from before I transfer you.

I am from YOUR office. This is Heidi. I am Agency A's attorney. I'm calling from the Court House but I couldn't remember any one's extension number. I just need to talk to someone from Agency A.

And you name is Heidi... what?

It's Heidi ***.

Oh. And you're an attorney?

Yes....

And what office are you from?

By that point I was just irritated and flat out told her to open her connecting door to Agency A and just see if anyone was back there and to tell them to pick up. One of my cowokers eventually picked up and was very formal. Not having time to deal with it, I just told her what I needed to tell her. Later, I asked her about the whole thing, and she said that the receptionist finally came back and said that there was this Heidi person on the phone who claimed she was an attorney and was demanding to speak to someone in Agency A.

Seriously, am I invisible.

Then, on Sunday at church, one of my brother's friend's dad introduced himself to me. He's the type of person that is always joking around, so I just played along with him while he told me he was friend's dad, etc etc. It was only later that my mom informed me that he thought I was my brother's girlfriend. This wouldn't have been quite as funny were it not that I've been going to church with him for 15 years, was friends with his two daughters, and had been over to their home on a few occassions before many moons ago because he was also a coworker of my dad.

I'm not sure how to handle these late developments

Music of the Moment

2007-07-14T14:22:00.000-04:00

I love music. No, I mean, I love music. Really. Every once in a while I get on a kick on my computer where I have 3 or 4 browser windows open and I cross-reference several different artists. I start by either picking an artist or a compilation I love and checking out what Amazon would recommend to me. Or, if I'm watching a TV show, I'll google lyrics to see who's singing a song I love. And I'm overcome with giddyness when I find that a song I just heard on TV was from an artist who I'd heard the name, but didn't know what they sang. That probably makes no sense to anyone, but it is what it is. The way I found my all time favorite band, Guster, was when I was watching a movie ("Life as a House") and I heard a few songs that I loved. Turned out, they were both Guster songs and I've been hooked ever since.

Anyway, the library, I'm sure, hates when I go on these kicks. Because I spend hours making requests and queing up several albums which I want to give a listen. My wallet loves this because I'm not spending loads of money on CDs I may or may not love. The library is an awesome thing I tell you.

On to the music of the moment. (Click the name for the official website or the album cover for Amazon).

Joshua Radin: We Were Here
Joshua Radin is a great folksy artist. Several of his songs are duets with his real life girlfriend/actress/daughter of Sissy Spacek Schuyler Fisk. Some people compare him to Damien Rice, but I must say, having recently purchased Damien Rice's latest album, I find Joshua Radin much more enjoyable. His music has been featured on Scrbus, Grey's Anatomy, and the movie, The Last Kiss. (Thanks in part to the fact that he's a good friend/college buddy of Zach Braff. Either way, he's good.)

Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlanticism
I feel like I'm definitely late to the party with this band. I had heard their name a few times, but thought it was a very trendy, MTV age band. And it very well might be. I listened to the 2007 Grammy Nominees cd, and one of my favorite songs on their was the song by this band. I haven't made it through all of their albums yet, but most of them are coming from the library. So I just picked one of the ones I had listened to to feature here. They remind me a bit of Snow Patrol. So far, I like what I've heard.

The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
Again, I know I'm late to hop on this band wagon. I have a couple of their songs on the Garden State soundtrack. They're the band whom Natalie Portman's character says "This song will change your life." I'm not sure that's exactly true. But they are good. Again, I've only given the CD a run through three or four times while I was working, so it's not ingrained on my brain just yet. But give it a couple more rotations.

Boo.

2007-07-04T22:06:00.000-04:00

I'm around. I promise. Not much to report. I work. I sleep. I watch TV. That's about it.

Back later with more to say. Until then. Watch So You Think You Can Dance

And go see License to Wed. Sure, it's getting panned by the critics. But it's funny. Trust me. If you can overlook the miscasting of a couple of the supporting actors. It's much funnier than Knocked Up, which critics are drooling all over themselves for.

RIP

2007-06-13T17:44:00.000-04:00

A big farewell to part of my childhood. Mr. Wizard has died.

Mr. Wizard taught me things such as how to stick a pin in a balloon and not have it pop. He also taught me that if you stand on your head, you can still swallow a piece of apple.

I loved that show.

Filler

2007-06-12T23:54:00.000-04:00

Hectic. Tired. Not feeling well this past week. To tide you over until I feel like posting again, here is a little snippet I found on someone's blog. Apologies to my one or two readers not from Indiana. It's probably one of those universal lists that they adopt to fit any state anyway.

You know you're from Indiana when...

Your idea of a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor on the highway.
"Vacation" means driving through the Amanas or going to the State Fair.
You've seen all the biggest bands ten years after they were popular.
You measure distance in minutes.
You know several people who have hit a deer.
You have no problem spelling or pronouncing "Terre Haute."
Your school classes were cancelled because of cold.
Your school classes were cancelled because of heat.
You know where all the Yoders live.
You've ridden the school bus for an hour each way.
You've ever had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
You think ethanol makes your truck "run a lot better."
You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.
Stores don't have bags, they have sacks.
You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.
You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it no matter what time of the year.
All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable, or grain.
De-tassling was your first job, and bailing hay was your second.
Your idea of a really great tenderloin is when the meat is twice as big as the bun and accompanied only by ketchup and a dill pickle slice.
You say catty-wumpus and kitty-corner.
You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.
You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, beer, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows.
When asked how your trip was to any foreign, exotic place, you say, "It was different."
You consider being called a "Pork Queen" an honor.
You carry jumper cables in your car.
You know what "cow tipping" is.
You drive for three hours and the scenery outside doesn't change.
There's three feet of snow on the ground and school is still in session.
You only go to the mall once a year 'cause it takes too long to get there.
People still have Christmas decorations up at Easter.
You start saying to yourself "More than corn in Indiana my butt."
Walking through Wal-Mart with two carts full of kids is normal.
Anyone with a tan is rich.
A restaurant has an invisible wall in the non-smoking section and you believe it works.
Speeding consists of 2 miles over the speed limit.
You think you don't have to use a turn signal on your car because you don't use it on your tractor.
You build your dream house on a cornfield, and you considered it posh.
You warsh your clothes and you think George Warshington was the first president.
You're proud to be called a Hoosier, even if you don't know what one is.
You can stack hay, swim in the pond to clean off, and then have the strength to play a couple of games of hoops all in the same day.
You own a dirtbike or a ATV.
You live in a city ... and there's a cornfield in your backyard.
High school basketball game draws a bigger crowd on the weekend nights than movie theaters. You can see at least 2 basketball hoops from your yard.
You can name every one of Bob Knight's "exploits" over the last few years.
You shop at Marsh.
Damon Bailey was your childhood hero.
The biggest question of your youth was "IU or Purdue?"
The second biggest decision was "Ford or Chevy?"
Indianapolis is the "big city".
"Getting caught by a train" is a legitimate excuse for being late to school.
Everyone knows who the town cop is, where he lives, and whether he is at home or on duty.
You actually know what the CART vs IRL debate is about and have taken a side.
To you, a raccoon is simply a "coon".
The vehicle of choice in your area is not a car, but a pickup.
Someone you know is BIG John Mellencamp fan.
You've been to the Covered Bridge Festival.
You call a green bell pepper a "mango".
Sometimes, you call the toilet the "commode" or the "stool".
In the fall, one of your favorite pranks was corning cars.
You know what FFA and 4H stand for. Y
ou know what chip-and-seal is, and your high school was located on just such a road.
You go the county fair every night of it's week-long duration. You can say "French Lick" without laughing out loud.
There's actually a college near you named "Ball State."
The last "g" is silent in any word ending in "ing."
You think the state Bird is Larry.
You deny the Colts were ever in Baltimore.
You know "The Dunes" are in Indiana (not Egypt).
You know Batesville is the "casket making capital of the world."
You've never heard of "Daylights Savings Time."
You drink "pop."
You have jumper cables in your car.
Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.
The local paper covers national and international headlines with one page, but local sports requires six.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE A TRUE HOOSIER WHEN. . .

Vacation means going north or south on I-65 for the weekend.
You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a ragingblizzard, without flinching.
You see people wearing camouflage at social events, includingweddings.
You design your kids Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.
You know all 5 seasons: Almost Winter, Winter, Still Winter, Road Construction, & It's Hot.
Your idea of creative landscaping is a statue of a deer next to your blue spruce.
Down south means Kentucky to you.
A brat is something you eat.
Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new pole barn.
You go out to a tailgate party every Friday.
You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.
You find 0 degrees a "little chilly."

American Idol: Finale

2007-05-22T20:18:00.000-04:00

I don't like Jordin. I think she's run of the mill and there's literally one of her in every high school. I think they're stroking her ego tonight. She's not that good really and that first song was pitchy and shrieky.

The radio spot this morning pretty much summed it up. "Who will win, beatboxer Blake or 17 year old Jordin?" Her whole identity is in her age. At least Blake has some originality.

I may actually have to pick up the phone tonight to vote for the first time this season.

After more thought, I think I agree with the people on TWOP. Blake will put out a much better album if he doesn't win this show. I mean, look at Chris Daughtry vs. Taylor Hicks. I'd much rather come out on the Daughtry end of that stick.

American Idol: Threepeat

2007-05-15T23:41:00.000-04:00

The year of American Idol apathy is drawing to a close. I have actually not voted a single time this season. That's how little I care.

Tonight was pretty decent. Something bugs me about Jordan that I can't put my finger on. She's got an ok voice, but maybe it's the whole 17 thing. I just don't want her in my finale.

I'm pretty sure that early on I said that Blake reminded me of Maroon 5. If I weren't so tired and lazy at the moment, I'd search back through to find out when. Anyway, I agree with Simon that Blake takes the most chances and at least keeps us entertained. I wouldn't mind it so much if he won. I'd like to see him in the finale, but I have a sneaking suspicion he will go tomorrow.

Melinda is still vocally perfect. But I'm wearing thin with her. It's almost like she's too good and I get a little bored. She definitely has been the most consistently good, but she seems more like the Ruben Studdard type of Idol than the Carrie Underwood type. Meaning she'll win but quickly fade into obscurity. There's nothing unique or intriguing about her that will make me want to buy her record. I hope I'm wrong as I think Melinda absolutely deserves to make a living off her wonderful voice.

I'm just glad that we'll be done with them next week and can move on to my summer love, So You Think You Can Dance. If I had the power, I'd force you all to watch with me just so someone could talk to me about the show. Sadly, I'm powerless. So I'll just lay the guilt on you and ask you to watch it because you love me. (Insert sad puppy dog eyes here.)

The Long Goodbye

2007-05-15T23:27:00.000-04:00

My favorite time of the TV year has to be season premiere month. Least favorite? Easily this week as most shows wrap up the year and head to rerun season. I hate how most shows will leave with a cliffhanger that I won't remember come September. And I hate how every stinking commercial tauts the season finale as the most shocking thing to happen EVER. So far this year, House, Lost and Heroes have all claimed to be putting forth the most amazingly incomprehensible specimen of TV programming since the invention of TV for their finales. Which means that each will likely suck.

And along with the season finales also come the inevitable series finales. Some may come out of the blue. For instance, I love the show How I Met Your Mother. I won't find out for a couple more days if it's coming back. It's had 2 great seasons, but rumor has it that some CBS execs don't exactly love it. So until then, I'm keeping it in my DVR in case it's the last episode of that wonderful show. It sits nicely next to the Robin Sparkles episode that will not be deleted until I have Season 2 dvds.

And there's the show that's had a long eventful run but must come to an end. Sometimes I watch series finales of shows I never even watched an episode of (The OC). And I'm saddened. Or I catch the last episode of a show that I liked in the early years but abandoned long before the end (Alias, Dawson's Creek).

Tonight I had to say a tortured farewell to Gilmore Girls. It's been a long 7 years. I have a very distinct emotional attachment to the show, which I actually will not discuss here as it is a little more than I would like to share with the anonymous public. Suffice to say that I loved the show for the first two seasons. I was lukewarm about Season 3, didn't watch 4, but got sucked back into Season 5 and had to catch up on what I'd missed on DVD. Then Season 6 started the decline to what was a barely tolerable Season 7. But I watched. Reluctantly. Because when you've invested that many years in the show, you feel obligated to finish it out come hell or high water. At last, it is finished. I won't deny that I'm a bit sad at it's passing. I also won't deny that I'm thankful I won't have to stare at episode titles in my DVR for weeks past their viewing wondering if I should actually go through with watching or just read the TWOP mini recap and delete. But I made it and now say a fond farewell to GG. Don't let the door hit you on the way out. There have been much better shows to come before you (SportsNight), and there will be many to follow.

Big City Life

2007-05-12T12:07:00.000-04:00

I came home for mothers' day weekend and spent last night with the fam. My aunt and 2 cousins, my parents and my niece and I all went out to dinner and then back to the folks' house to hang. My sister showed up shortly later and we all sat and stared at each other for a while.

Yesterday was a monumental day in the Jesus Town. We got a Walgreens. We've had a CVS for a number of years, but what CVS is complete without a Walgreens less than a block away? The grand opening was yesterday, and since we're such a cool and lively bunch on Friday nights, we piled into mom's minivan for a trip to town.

If we didn't look like the biggest hillbillies in the world, I don't know who would. Since my niece gets prime seating in her car seat, I got to hang in the back with my 2 cousins (who are 15 and 17). And we went to Walgreens. On a Friday night. We're so cool.

It's funny because I was pointing out to my cousins that I know some people who don't even speak to their family and here we were entertaining ourselves with a trip to a pharmacy. I'm so glad I have a family that can dork out with me and find the joys in 5 for $10 t-shirts without feeling the need to get all gussied up and go somewhere.

My favorite part of the new store were the clearance items that said "Last chance to buy". They listed the "was" price and the "now" price and urged us to buy now before they got rid of the items. I'm still trying to figure out if the day the store opened was the "last time" to buy these items, when was the first?

Lazy Days

2007-05-08T17:45:00.000-04:00

The boys made it back from the vet pretty much unscathed. Frosty wailed like he was going to his execution almost the entire time. There was an older woman in the waiting room who kept looking at me scornfully. Then she made a big production of pulling out her tissues and rubbing her nose. Please. If you have a cat allergy, the last place you need to be sitting is in the waiting room of the vet.

Max, on the other hand, is a chick magnet. All of the assistants at the vet loved him. And he pranced around the room rubbing on everything with that "I know I'm cool" look in his eyes. The vet said I'm a very good ~~mom~~ owner because I got him to lose 3 lbs over the last 6 months. He's down to a hefty 21. Doc says I'm doing everything right and that he's just going to be a big cat. The whole time he was trying to examine him, Max was doing a dead jump from the floor to the 4 foot counter and over to the chair. The vet was very impressed with his agility. Good boy. Too bad he still has a behavioral issue which the doc may think is because he is too big for the litter box. I've now got to to use a 20 gallon tub instead to see if that helps. Big cats need big toilets apparently.

Frosty hid in the carrier and wailed for 20 minutes. When he finally got out, he kept trying to blend into the background. Under the lights he had a nasty yellowish shade going on. Doc thinks that he may have bladder crystals, but is hoping it may be an infection which will clear up with an antibiotic. I get to crush pills into soft food for the next 2 weeks. Frosty loves soft food and tubbo Max won't touch the stuff. So he'll be nice and happy for the next few days. I'll just have to remember to shut off one of the feedings on the feeders, or Max will be happy eating a double portion every night.

When the vet techs were oogling Max and how big he was, I told them that my mom had a cat who could stretch out and just about hit the light switches in their house. I'm pretty sure that stretched out he's about 3 1/2 feet. Their jaws dropped and claimed that they've never heard of a cat that big. But, what can I say, we grow them big in the Jesus House.

Sunshine Day

2007-05-08T12:52:00.000-04:00

I happen to have the day off. And I woke up this morning to discover that weather.com has lied to me once again. It had me convinced that last weekend was going to be all rainy, and it wasn't. Today it was supposed to be cloudy. Um, whatever. When I got up this morning (time is irrelevant... it's my day off), I looked out my window to a bright sunny sky. Since our pool opened last week, I decided I might as well take advantage of it to work on my tan.

Well, I'm actually hesitant to call it a "tan". Let's just put it this way, in my brand of makeup, there are approximately 20 shades to match skin tones ranging from 1 at the light end and 20 at the dark end. I'm a 2. And that's really too dark for me.

Back to the pool. I got out there and enjoyed the pool to myself for an hour or so. Then others showed up. Which, I'm not opposed to other people using the pool. It is semi-public, after all. I just didn't imagine that other people would be free on a Tuesday morning to lay by the pool. Then I remembered something. Our complex is well known for housing some high class strippers. Of course they would have the morning off.

About 15 minutes later I found myself surrounded by six strippers in their bikinis. Now, I realize that any male reader is probably thinking what a great fantasy that is. Um, not so much for us women. I haven't worn a bikini since I was about 4, and I only did so then because I wasn't smart enough then to realize what a bad idea that was. Today I was hanging poolside my jean skorts and tank, and even then I was overexposed.

Back to be being a nice shade of eccrue in the safety of my apartment.

Pop Quiz

2007-05-07T21:30:00.000-04:00

I have this wonderful tool called the ShedEnder. It was recommended to me by a fellow cat owner who knows the pain of waking up every morning with cat hair on your clothing, your pillow, your pantyhose, etc. Oh, and don't believe the ad. You can get it at Walgreens for less than $10.

The quiz: I got busy brushing this evening and these were the results. How many cats did I brush to get this much hair? (I promise this is 100% cat hair and not the dumped out part of my Dyson which I blogged on before).

Think you know?

Are you sure?

It was 3/4 a cat. The one in front below. Granted, there is a lot of him to go around, but still, it's pretty ridiculous that you can get that much hair off of one cat. And I'm not even done with him yet. He only allows me to get so far until he tries to bite my arm off. So I have to go back later.

The boys are going to the vet tomorrow. I didn't want the vet to think I was a bad cat owner who didn't groom her cats. The white one's got some issues which I'm hoping are not serious. The other one is going just to get his shots. Hopefully the visit will not cost me an arm and a leg. Even more important, I hope it's just a run of the mill UTI and not something more serious. I know I'm adamant that the cats are not my kids, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy having them around. He's only 6, so he should have a lot more good years in him.

Wordy word words.

2007-05-02T21:13:00.000-04:00

I got a couple of emails today from my friend Ags, all of which had a unique pattern. She was apparently bored and decided to write a couple of haikus regarding her day. She did them so well that I've challenged her to only write to me in haikus all week. Her response:

Of course I am up
to the challenge you describe.
Things are boring here.

It is so on. Hope she knows it applies to comments here as well.

American Idol: Deja Vu

2007-05-01T22:19:00.000-04:00

I didn't like the stunt they pulled last week with not getting rid of anyone, so I'm pretending last week didn't happen. Sure, they raised a lot of money, but did you notice tonight how Ryan thanked America for donating money and thanked the celebrities for donating their time and talents. Puhlease. I'm pretty sure my feelings on celebrity-thons are well known and would take way too long to write here. There are very few things I'm extremely opinionated on, and that is one of them.

First, since I'm ignoring last week, I'll simply direct you toward an article which couldn't have been written better than if I had written it myself. He got everything from Phil's smarmy sucking up to Timberfake's delusions. Seriously. Spot on.

Now to this week. Live blogging (i.e. dvr'd but I write before I hear the comments).

Phil Blaze of Glory
I finally figured out what it is about Phil and I. I like Phil on the chorus, but cannot stand him on verses, bridges, and everything else in the song. He's got a good voice when he's belting, but he can't find a note when he's singing at a lower volume. I didn't think this was his best performance, but I didn't hate it. Parts of the song sounded like he was singing Dead or Alive. Way too many times I've predicted that he was leaving, so I'm just giving up on that.

Jordin Livin' on a Prayer
Did you catch the "oh no she didn't" moment? Bon Jovi did. In all her excitement she told him that her mom would be so jealous and that she grew up listening to him and really turned her on to his music. The look on Bon Jovi's face was priceless. Nothing is better than having someone making you feel old by telling you that their parents loved you. It reminded me of that scene in Empire Records where Rex Manning is excited that a girl is getting his autograph until the girl says, "it's for my mom. I've never even heard of you." Ok, to the performance. She was OK. She's the second best on this show. Clearly not pushing it for the top this week. Something was off the whole song.

Lakisha This Ain't a Love Song
I always love to see what advice she's going to get that she's going to completely ignore. How could be in your 20s and not have heard Bon Jovi's songs? She knew him because she saw him on Oprah? I thought for sure she'd say she knew him from his acting gigs. I'd bet good money that my parents rolled their eyes when they heard it was Bon Jovi night thinking there was no way they'd know any of the songs, but then knew at least 2 of them. (I dare them to prove me right). Eh, Bon Jovi could be wrong. I can see her going home this week. She's been pretty underwhelming recently and I could do without her. Simon thought differently and wanted to have a spectacle with her tonight. On the other hand, Kudos to costuming for giving her a slimming down outfit that didn't look like it can only be found in the big girl's section of Sears.

Blake You Give Love A Bad Name
Ooh, he's going to mess with the song? This will be interesting. Apparently Bon Jovi isn't all that thrilled either. What's up with the hair dye? Brunettes have more fun? At the start, he sounds like a version I've heard on a jukebox a few times. Here's the thing with Blake. He does a lot of beat boxing, but he also hits the parts when he is singing. So I always give him a pass. If he were a one trick pony and the singing parts were only tolerable, I might feel differently. But I've seen other singers on this show speak parts of songs, or clearly butcher several measures of the song, but pull it out in the end. At least his non-singing parts are entertaining and aren't just slow parts which you grit your teeth and bear knowing the song will pick up pace. Not my favorite rendition of this song ever, but they're always telling these kids to make it their own. Good performance in my book.

Chris Wanted Dead or Alive
Oye. He's going to kill the theme for my favorite new show of the season (Deadliest Catch). He started singing and he still bugs the bejeezus out of me. I still feel like he's the guy that got by on looks in high school, but really can't sing all that well. You know when you're in high school and theres that one guy that sings mildly well, but because he's cute and he's in YOUR high school, you think he's Elvis or something. Then you graduate and realize there's an Elvis at every high school and there's nothing particularly charming about your Elvis. And in hindsight, you realize your Elvis isn't even all that talented, but you were blinded by the thought that you knew him and he was going to make it big. Clearly the boy is still in this thing because the current high school students haven't seen the light yet.

Melinda Have a Nice Day
Her thing all season has been to sing lesser known songs. Sometimes I wish she would sing something America is going to know. I would have loved to hear her on Dead or Alive. Can't have my way every time I suppose. Nice to see she can rock it out though. I just hope she goes the way of Carrie Underwood and wins the thing with her versatility and not the way of Chris Daughtry and gets the shocker boot.

Heading home? Man, this is tough. They've had 8 hours of voting and now 2 people are leaving. I won't venture to guess if they'll do bottom 3 or just smell ya later. It really could go any way this week, and I think we might have a shocker. My gut says it will be Chris and Lakisha, but it really wouldn't surprise me if Jordin was sent packing. Since I've blocked out last week's performances, I can't remember how I think America voted last week, so this whole week is an anomaly .

A thank you from the President? Wow, this show has stooped so low.

All in the family.

2007-05-01T01:14:00.000-04:00

About this time last year, I linked to a couple of new blogs which showed promise. They were, of course, the blogs belonging to my brother and my dad.

Yeah, I learned not to get my expectations up. After checking often to see if either of them had posted something new, I realized that it was a lost cause. Bummer, because I did enjoy reading them. I guess the men in the family are not nearly as long winded as the females.

Then, a few weeks ago, after discovering my blog, my sister decided to start her own. She kept hinting at me linking to it here. So I did so without much fanfare. I linked it on the side in the Fam Blogs section. But I didn't dedicate a post to it. I'd learned my lesson. After she brought it up to me recently, I admitted that I wasn't going to link to it until I knew she had stuck with it. And I was giving it till she got her 3rd post.

So she finally did it. It only took her 6 weeks, but she now has 4 posts up. Of course, they all have to do with my niece. Only she had first hand knowledge of most of the things, so I'm certain hers are more accurate.

So with all of the appropriate fanfare, I give you The Sis' Blog. (And in case you haven't been there in a while, yes, my mom is still blogging. In fact, she's much better at doing it lately than I am. Check her out.)

Cribs, blog style

2007-04-22T17:32:00.000-04:00

My parents have recently decided (with a little pushing from their children) that they need to redecorate their house. They live in an late 1800s home which they decorated to their style in the early 80s. And it's nice. But outdated. If you remember the 80's, wallpaper was the way to go. So every room has some sort of of country-kitchy wallpaper. Recently, with the purchase of some bedroom furniture (their first in 32 years), they have finally decided to let go of the old style and move into new. And for this, they have entrusted me. Yep, that's right, me.

Now, many might wonder what exactly qualifies me as a decorator worthy of trusting. Of course, the first qualification is hours and hours of watching do it yourself TV. How did we decorate before we had Trading Spaces, Design on a Dime, Flip that House, etc? But, more important that my TV viewing, is actual design history. Basically, they like what I've done with my apartment. Even though I'm more modern than they would ever dream of being. So we've been doing the home decorating conventions and picking out paint colors and fabric schemes for the last few weeks. Hopefully, I'll be able to take some photos and do a nice before and after for you all to enjoy.

Which leads me to this post. I realize, that with the exception of a few readers, most of you will never have the joy of visiting my apartment. So why not bring it to you via the net? Of course, this is mostly a post to commemmorate my digs as is, since eventually one day I will be living elsewhere and this will only live on in my memory. Also, if you could care less about any of this, please feel free to look away.

My decorating theme is mostly discount department store chic. You know, Target, Walmart, TJ Maxx, Meijer, and Value City Furniture for the big ticket items. The paint is all the Kilz one coat stuff from Walmart. Hey, it's what I can afford. So now, I show you, my humble abode:

First up, the Bedroom: It's kinda a Chinese inspired theme.

Bedspread set is from Steinmart. Metal thingees above the bed were from TJ Maxx and the headboard is custom made from a board and fabric I found on clearance (total cost around $16). The side table is from KMart. The gold stripe was my attempt at a custom paint job. I mistakely taped it off and painted the grey, then realized I couldn't tape the edge of the grey without peeling off the grey. So I had to paint the gold stripe by sponge brush. It took me a year to get it done.
My Chinese art is from Burlington Coat Factory.
The fan is tied for favorite piece in my room. I got it from ebay.
These shelves are my other favorite piece in the room. These were actually part of a bookshelf I bought from Meijer for $25. Only, when I was opening the box, I dropped it and the side pieces both broke. So, I decided to be innovative and bought some wall brackets and mounted them alternating on the wall (to hide the unfinished edges). Also, you may not see it, but for some reason the electrical box is in the middle of the master bedroom. My mom thinks I chose my paint color to match. I didn't, but it is a nice touch.

Next, the bathroom:

There's nothing spectacular about the bathroom, except that I picked the paint color before I ever found the shower curtain.

Next, the Kitchen. It's kinda got a french/italian chef theme:

I got these words at TJ Maxx and the wine bottle holders at Meijer.

These wall plaques are from Target. I bought 1, then found out there were 4 in the set, so then I had to keep my eye out for the other 3.
Again, there's nothing spectacular about this art, except I bought them while in law school at Steinmart because they were on clearance, and forgot I had them. I had already decorated my entire apt before I found them and realized they went perfectly with my apt

Next, is the dining area and the one reason I thought I'd fail the bar exam. I moved into my apartment on July 1 and had to take the bar exam at the end of the month. Since I hated staring at white walls and hated studying, I ended up decorating instead of studying for much of the time. And for some reason, I decided to do a unique wall design.

I did this by taping off squares with painter's tape. The taping took me about 4 days. Then paiting the squares took another 2 days, and then scoring the tape so that it didn't remove the paint was another full day. Yeah. I love the wall, but it was a lot of work. And, I mimicked it above the washer/dryer area. Then I wished I had used black instead of brown. The vases were clearance from Meijer at $1.25 a piece. Part of me wants to repaint them, part of me doesn't

And finally, the living room:

The furniture is from Value City. If I had it all to do over again, I'd buy it in black. But then, I didn't have my decorating ideas in mind when I bought it. It's ok, but black would have worked better. The shelves above the couch are my mom's favorite thing. I bought those from target in packs of 2 and then bought some cheap dishes at Walmart for about a buck a piece. It took me a month of laying these all over my floor to figure out a pattern. And then about 4 hours to map out the nail holes to make sure that it was evenly spaced.

And that's all she wrote. Yes, a long, long post. But I feel like you all know me better now.

American Idol: Lucky 7

2007-04-17T21:54:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of posting. I've been travelling for work for the past 2 weeks (over 800 miles on my car) and usually that's when I think about blogging. They should have a number I could call on my cell phone while driving to blogger and voice mail blog. That'd be fabulous.

Tonight, I'll go from the best to the worst. Cause I'm too lazy to rewatch the tape and see what order they performed in.

Melinda Trouble is a Woman
This may have been my favorite performance. She's such a chameleon and knocks it out of the park every time. They should just give her the title already. This show will be a joke if she doesn't win. I agree with Simon making her lose the astonishment face.

Jordin Broken Wing
Simon said she could win this competition. Sure she could, if Melinda dropped out. But she still rocked it tonight. I just don't think she's as polished as Melinda. Of course, if you pull for the young talent, she's your woman. I did like it though.

Blake When the Stars Go Blue
He phoned this in tonight. It wasn't his style and it showed. He's still the best guy, but it wasn't his night.

Lakisha Jesus Take the Wheel
I HATE this song, and she didn't do anything for it. I agree that she's fallen by the wayside, and I predict a shocker exit for her at some point, maybe even this week. Ryan asked her if she heard what the judges said when they didn't like it. From her short, succint "I hear 'em", you could tell she was peeved. And didn't believe them. She lives in her own world and doesn't believe when people don't love her. She's shown that week to week by failing to take advice. I am kinda past annoyed with her and could do without her at this point.

Phil Where the Blacktop Ends
I normally don't like Phil (heh, I originally typed fill). Tonight was a normal night. He's just out of his league. He had a good performance tonight, which should make him prime for leaving this week.

Chris Mayberry
Simon and I must be listening to the same show. And he must be reading the TWOP forums. Tinny is their favorite word for Chris. If he is intentionally choosing nasally, he's the only one. Most nasally people try to get away from that. He's just not good. He'll be safe this week since he hit the bottom 3 last week and his ~~deaf~~ dedicated fans will be in overdrive tonight.

Sanjaya Let's Give Them Something to Talk About
Please. He is so obviously the joke of this whole thing. For those occassional viewers who think it's funny he's still around (yes, I'm looking at you Aggie) it was a shining performance.

This week on the seal, should be Phil, Chris, and Sanjaya. My money says Blake or Lakisha hit it, maybe both. Bottom 3: Lakisha, Phil, and Sanjaya (with a slight chance of Blake). Packing her bags, in a shocking turn of events, will be Lakisha.

American Idol: Another One Bites the Dust

2007-04-11T22:44:00.000-04:00

I don't know why the show decided that even though they had too much time in a half hour results show that an hour long results show would be even better. I didn't even tune in until the last half hour. I expected that they would have narrowed it down to three by that point. Not so. Instead, they had wasted their time on several pointless tasks including Ryan going out and finding ~~plants~~ ~~American Idol Employees~~ completely random people on the street who thought J.Lo was an excellent teacher. This show does so much to stroke its own ego and the egos of the guest stars, it's sickening.

Then they got to the final 3. Can't say I'm shocked by any of them. Though I was shocked by realization that I actually didn't mind that Sanjaya didn't hit the bottom three. My detestation for the other 3 contestants exceeds any feeling that I need Sanjaya gone. More than any other time in this show's history, I hoped they'd pull an "Apprentice" and get rid of at least 2, if not all 3. After the boring performance shows we've been seeing, this show could use a boost of excitement.

Deadly Obsession

2007-04-10T23:57:00.000-04:00

How true is it that you can have hundreds of channels on your TV and still have nothing to watch? I used to hate it when I lived with antennae TV and on Saturday mornings, 4 of my 5 channels would be showing golf. The kicker was when the 5th was showing a movie about golf. The stars certainly aligned for that one.

There are some shows I only watch when I'm completely bored and there's nothing else on. A few years ago, my roommate and I could get sucked into a Real World marathon and lose an entire day to that lame vacuum of a show. It's an addiction, really. Luckily I'm over that show for the most part.

My new channel of obsessiveness is the Discovery Channel. I can watch any show on that channel and get sucked in. The last few weeks have been "How It's Made." A great 30 minute show that will detail how they make toilet paper, or mattresses, or garage doors. It's fascinating. This past week, the show has been "Deadliest Catch." It's an hour long reality drama following fishing boats during king crab season. The fisherman can make about $20,000 for five day's work. They also can die when a stray rope knocks them overboard into freezing water. Just last week they showed a Coast Guard rescue of a crew of an overturned ship. They pulled one from the water alive, 2 who didn't make it, and a 4th who was never found. The show covers pretty much everything I hate: Reality shows, cold, seafood, boats, open waters. Yet, I love the show. For a preview of what the show entails, you can check out the clip below.

American Idol: 8 is Enough

2007-04-10T20:54:00.000-04:00

Melinda
Wasn't my favorite, but she still knocks it out of the park. I think Simon was just looking for one time to knock her down. Hopefully he's gotten it out of his system. She still sings better than anyone in all 6 seasons of this show.

Lakisha
Eh. I'm over her. She doesn't agree with anyone. And she doesn't take anyone's advice. She'll be really difficult to work with in the future.

Chris
We all know how I feel about Chris. I thought tonight's performance was cheap and out of tune. So of course the judges would fall all over themselves trying to praise it no end.

Haley
Obviously she knows she's in this because of her looks. It's like a bad high school performance.

Phil
He's out of his league by now. I never thought he was good to begin with and now he's just on my nerves.

Jordan
She has a good voice, but with her more than others, all songs sound like a dumbed down version. Tonight's song seemed so slow. I feel like I'm watching a high school performance.

Blake
Like it, didn't love it. He's hands down the best guy. Though I fear he'll hit the bottom 3 soon.

Sanjaya
I don't even care. I'm tempted to even turn the TV off and not even watch it at this point. He doesn't ever put any effort into his songs, so why should I? Though the 5 o'clock shadow is really wigging me out. As is the hair. It's not as bad as I had thought it would be. Still. Please.

Overall, this night was so meh. I'm almost bored to tears. The bottom 3 should clearly be Phil, Haley, and Sanjaya. It will be Phil, Haley, and Blake. I've predicted it at least 3 times before that Phil would leave. I'll try a different tactic and call Haley out hoping I'm wrong. Though, I wouldn't shed any tears if they got rid of both of them.

From the Mouths of Babes

2007-04-06T11:20:00.000-04:00

My niece has entered this phase where she repeats back everything you say to her in the form of a question. It's like your own echo machine constantly following you around everywhere.

For instance:
Me: Get your shoes on. We're going to Mimi's.
Her: My shoes on? I go Mimi's?

She's even got the inflection down so you know it's a question. Where do kids even learn that?

Sometimes it is cute. Yesterday Mimi asked my sister if she had seen the niece's latest drawing. Only Mimi referred to it as a masterpiece. So the niece picked it up in the kitchen and ran to her mom shouting, "look at my masterpiece mommy." The kid can't say pillow correctly (she says cah-low) but she can say masterpiece. Go figure.

Earlier in the night, I'd been sitting on the couch reading a magazine while she played with something. She came over to me, got my attention, and simply said, "I'm smart, Heidi." Yeah, humble too.

Are you there God? It's me, Heidi

2007-04-04T17:54:00.000-04:00

Dear God,

I realize this is a busy time of year for you. I mean, billions of more prayers to contend with as well as all of those holiday Christians coming out of the woodwork. You know the ones. The ones who haven't stepped foot in a church since Christmas, but come out now to pray for salvation and the gift of deception to sneak past the IRS. Afterall, it is tax season.

In addition to that, there's Easter as well taking up much of your attention. And I believe this holiday is the root of my problems this week. You see, I'm not entirely sure why, but you seem to have the seasons mixed up today. Christmas is the one with the snow. Easter is the one with the blooming flowers. Which is why I don't understand why it was flurrying today. When I left work yesterday, it was a balmy 82 degrees. This morning, it was 28. Maybe you were just dyslexic today? Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. If I had a nickel for every time I've inverted my own phone number... well, suffice to say you'd have a lot fewer prayers from me asking that I be able to find some way to pay the rent.

But whatever the reason, I'm perfectly content to get back to our regularly scheduled programming. I know the saying is "If you don't like the weather in Indiana, wait a day and it will be different." I'm pretty sure it's a joke and we're not to take it literally. Then again, I'd prefer the cold to the nasty storming we had late yesterday afternoon. As my lights kept flickering, I tried to remember the last time I said "If I'm lying, may God strike me down" and hoped you weren't taking me literally on that. Because, seriously. That lightening scared me.

Best wishes,
Heidi

P.S. No blasphemy intended.

American Idol Live Blogging

2007-04-03T20:40:00.000-04:00

First, it's miraculous that I've made it this far postingwise. I just tripped on my own feet and dropped my laptop. Which it would have been bad enough landing on the carpeting, but it made a pit stop bouncing off of my elliptical machine. It knocked a few keys off of the keyboard, but so far seems to be working ok. Here's hoping it stays that way.

Blake
I still like him. Nice take on the song. I didn't think Tony's criticisms were all that helpful. They didn't exactly make sense.

Phil
Ah, Phil's toast this week. Admitting that this week is what you've been looking forward to is the easiest way to get yourself booted. You've now met your idol, got trashed for your singing, and your job here is done. I'll actually be surprised if he lasts past tomorrow night.

Melinda
Seriously, she's in a league of her own. I think everyone at this point knows that if she loses, America will have forgotten to vote. She completely knocks it out of the park each week and, like Simon said, there's nothing to criticize.

Chris
Ok, it was widely reported a couple of weeks ago that he was not exactly in the bottom two but that the producers put him there to get his fans to vote for him by thinking he was in danger. When they gave him the pimp spot the following week, I started to believe a bit in that. Tonight, he couldn't have tried harder to be Justin Timberlake. The hat? The suspenders? Boy needs to stop himself. Paula commented that he was true to himself. Uh, sure, if by being himself you mean being the biggest knockoff faker in the biz. His voice is OK, but I don't bother to listen to more than about 20 seconds because I can't stand the dude. I'm still betting he is the rumored "male diva" who thinks he has this competition all wrapped up. I mean, even his "biggest secret" from a few weeks ago was vain in that he used to weigh more. The "before" pictures looked like he maybe weighed 8 lbs more. Ok, I'll stop now, and stop using the ".

Jordan
She's good, but she doesn't move me. I have a feeling that she's going to be a surprise boot around number 7 or so.

Gina
I figured out why I like Gina. She is a dead ringer for one of my new bosses, whom I really like. So when I see her, I see my boss. I actually enjoyed the version, but I fear for her as well. She's probably bottom 3.

Sanjaya
This is what would have happened if William Hung made it to the finals. He's a joke, he knows he's a joke, except he still believes the fallacy that he can sing well. It's obvious Simon wants him gone. As do I. He's here for a while though.

Haley
I honestly forgot she was still here. She just kinda blends in the background. I love how Randy punted to Paula. And Paula punted to Simon. She is here just pretty much on her looks right now. Not much to comment about on the singing.

Lakisha
Before she starts, I hope she's gotten back some of the sparkle she lost in the past few weeks. Love the dress. Song is ok. I think she's definitely getting left behind by Melinda. She should still be top 3 or 4. If she can keep it up. I don't necessarily care for the way she curls he upper lip on some notes. And didn't like the head bob thing at the end.

Results: With the week of 9, they'll probably divide them into 3 groups of 3. One group will be the highest vote getters, one the lowest, and the middle kids. Just remember, whatever group Sanjaya gets place in, will easily be safe. I think the bottom 3 will be Phil, Gina, and Haley, with a possibility that one of them is spared in favor of Jordan. Going home? Phil.

Free the Music

2007-04-03T16:47:00.000-04:00

Every Tuesday (or later in the week when I remember), I start up my Itunes program to check out the free download of the week. Sometimes they royally suck. Other times, they're actually really catchy. And you can't beat free music.

This week's featured free single is by an Indiana boy named Jon McLaughlin. I just listened to it after downloading, and it's pretty good. It seems like his album is coming out soon, or may already be out. If it's as good as this single, I may have to check it out. So if you don't have Itunes, download it for free and then check out their weekly freebie. It's like second drink. (Bonus points for getting that remark.)

Here's his music video for a different song, named "Industry." It's also good, which bodes well for his album.

For more of his music, he has a Myspace page with 4 songs, including the two above. I actually like the song "Indiana" as well.

Footnote: According to Wikipedia, he has recently toured with Marc Broussard (whom I blogged about a couple of weeks ago) and Cowboy Mouth (who has been a favorite of mine since a friend introduced me during the summer of 1998.) It all comes full circle.

Awkward Much?

2007-04-02T21:43:00.000-04:00

I met my family for dinner last week, and was the first to arrive. While I was waiting, our waitress offered to get me a drink. After taking my order, she paused, and said "I know you from somewhere." She looked a little familiar to me as well, but I just couldn't place it. After asking my name and still not getting the answer, she asked if I worked for the court. When I explained that I was a lawyer, it clicked. Turns out she was a defendant I had evicted and then pursued for collections at my former job. I quickly tried to explain that I was no longer at that job and that one of the main reasons I was not there was because I hated doing that type of work. She seemed to buy it. And I hope it bought me a dinner without her spitting in my food.

This is why I need to live in a different county than where I work. Don't they say you shouldn't crap where you eat?

Peyton Night Live

2007-03-25T13:11:00.000-04:00

So, everyone in Indiana knows that Peyton Manning hosted SNL last night. For the most part, I think he did well with what he was given. SNL had been picking up in the past few weeks, but I thought most of the sketches last night left a lot to be desired. Peyton wasn't as stunted as other sports stars have been, and he seemed to have a nice flow. But I still wasn't impressed. My top 3 moments from last night were as follows (I'll insert the videos as I find them.)

3. The Idol spoof of Sanjaya and crying girl.

2. Seth Meyers had a line during Weekend Update that had me rolling. It went like this (paraphrased, of course): "A cat in New Jersey recently received the first ever hip replacement in a cat. The procedure only cost a couple thousand more than the standard practice: Total cat replacement."

1. The United Way spoof with Peyton.

All in all, these seemed to be mostly the only funny parts of the whole night. Did anyone else think that the opening monologue piece where they talked about the mom being a disappointment for not playing in the NFL might have been written for Peyton's older brother? Though, that would have been too low a blow since the brother probably would have been there if not for the congenital health problem. I just found it slightly odd that they didn't mention Cooper in the monologue, when he was there at the end presenting Peyton with the birthday cake.

I'm going to Kill Jim Halpert

2007-03-24T10:47:00.000-04:00

The geniuses in the The Office NBC promo department have put together a 4 minute promo featuring the love quadrangle that is Roy/Pam/Jim/Karen. The show doesn't return for another 2 weeks, but they wanted to whet our appetites. It contains about 3:30 of remix of stuff we've already seen from this season, but then gives us a 20 sec preview of what happens after Roy utters the fateful line from title of this post. Trust me, it's good.

View directly on Youtube by clicking here.
* I haven't quite figured out the intracacies of inline posting. So the video may be shifted a bit.

The Winds of Change

2007-03-21T19:48:00.000-04:00

So, I've been kinda mum about this whole topic for the last few months. Most of my regular readers know me in real life so they knew this anyway. But 2 months ago I quit my job. I didn't really discuss it on here, because at the time, I didn't really have a backup job. Not exactly the smartest thing to do. But you do what you have to do. Thus, although I was supposed to be buying a house a few months ago, I didn't. Which is why I didn't mention it again. I am still a renter in every sense of the word.

It's funny how things work out,though. Less than 10 days after I quit, I interviewed for a job which didn't really excite me. I got a bad vibe at the interview and kinda chalked it up as interview experience. And then I got a second interview. And then a third. By the time the third one rolled around, I had started to get my hopes up and realized just how perfect the job was for me. Luckily, they apparently thought I was perfect for it as well and offered it to me.

Obviously, I don't really want to talk specifics about it. I'll generally say that I feel like this job is using my law degree for the greater good. Also, there is no billable hour requirement. Which is the best thing since sliced bread. I started this past Monday, and although I've only been in training and observation, there are so many things about this job that I'm going to love. I'll get to do a fair amount of litigation without solely being stuck in the court room. And I'll be the only attorney in an office and spending my days with non-attorneys. Which will have its ups and downs. And did I mention no billables?

I've never really been a big fan of the whole "when God closes one door, another one opens." Not that I think it doesn't happen, I just think it's something we tell ourselves without really believing. But, it really rang true this time. I left a job I didn't realize I hated so much until the day I cleaned out my office, got an extended 8 week vacation laying around doing nothing but relaxing, and landed a job that couldn't be more perfect for me. So all in all, things are good. Different, but good.

American Idol: Top 11

2007-03-20T22:09:00.000-04:00

Ok, live blogging, sort of. I'm watching it on DVR so that I can fast forward through the parts that make me want to gouge my eyes out. Which may be many. I always skip the backstage stuff because I don't care what the guest performers think. But I'm typing up as I watch. Here goes.

Haley "Tell Him"
I really liked her tonight. She seems to be having fun this week. And she doesn't sound half bad. She actually performs, which will more than make up for any bum notes. Not my favorite, but she's growing on me.

Chris R. "Don't let the Sun Catch you Crying"
Something about him bugs the bejeezus out of me. I can't put my finger on it, but I'm not a fan. I think it may be the fact that I think he thinks he's better than he is. I read an interview with him last week where he talked about how much Justin Timberlake looked like him. Yeah, not the other way around. Uh, no. Also, when Sundance was ousted, there was a big deal made about how some guy in the house was cocky and thinks he has the thing wrapped up. Many people speculated Chris S or Blake, but my money is on Chris R. I'm just not feeling him. The performance wasn't too bad, and though it may have been his best performance, it's all relative. The dude is going to skate by still on his looks, so he could stand out on stage and crap in a punch bowl and it wouldn't matter. I mean, he's attempting the eye seduction thing with the camera. Ew.

Stephanie "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me"
Her days are numbered. She doesn't have the performance to stand out. She started this whole thing out as one of the divas, but she's not progressing as much as Melinda or Lakisha. At the end of the night, I don't ever remember her performance. Which isn't a good thing. I was not impressed tonight.

Blake "Time of the Season"
Even though, in theory, Blake should get on my nerves as much as Chris R, he does not. I enjoy him so. Something about his voice reminds me of some band, but I can't think of it. Maybe Maroon 5? I like the way he mixes his songs and does enough beat boxing to not get on my nerves, but to make the song unique. While he doesn't have the oodles of talent the gals do, he'll undoubtedly have a post-idol career. I really liked the song tonight. I might actually rewatch it.

Seriously, is "you've got the yo factor" this year's "dawg". Stop it Randy.

Lakisha "Diamonds are Forever"
Ok, I did watch this background clip, and Lakisha's face was priceless when the lady was singing and trying to convince her to do the other song. I like the dress, hate the hair. Not to the chorus yet and I'm bored. Wow, and a really bum note there. There's nothing about this performance that's going to make me remember it. It's giving me a very James Bond feeling. And I don't mean that in a good way. Holy crap, this is a James Bond song. I swear, I typed this up before I heard that. The judges are agreeing with me too.

Phil "Tobacco Road"
He bugs me too. It's like he's trying to be Chris Daughtry with the mike stand and performance. Dude. You're not. He's also someone who should not be bald until he has to be. This year's contestants seem like the less talented versions of the past. Phil=Chris Daughtry, Stephanie=Fantasia. While Lakisha still reminds me of Mandisa in song choice and performance style, Lakisha is more talented. Back to Phil, I was busy typing and didn't really pay much attention to him. I didn't recognize the song, and I didn't like it. I wasn't listening much for tone quality, but i just didn't like it. Simon's with me here, saying Phil needs grit, which translated by me means he's the poor man's Chris.

Jordin "I, Who have nothing"
I like Jordin. While she's easily in the top 3 most talented on this show, I think her age will be her downfall here. I like it, but I don't. It's totally not my style. Great voice and intonation. Maybe if I heard this song more than just this once I'd have a different opinion. This is a big song which sounds great, but which doesn't have the immediate recognizability like a Whitney or a Mariah song where you immediately associate it with the past performer. Nothing really to hate on.

Sanjaya "You Got Me Going"
Ok, in the early rounds, I liked him. Then he opened his mouth. Actually, he doesn't really have a bad voice, but up till now, he's bored the heck out of me. He has no performance to back up the voice. And he's all shy. If he had more attitude, I'd like him better. Right now, he's still coming in every week as the joke. At least he recognizes he's not the best singer. Ok, don't like the outfit. Whoa, what is up with the girl they keep showing that is crying. This is different, he's got a bit more attitude and performance. I don't really like the voice. It's ok. I think he had to be different, and he was. And he'll still be around for another week. What did Simon mean?

Gina "Paint it Black"
Gina was pimped early and I liked her back then. But she's blending into the background after that. She looks like she's going to try to rock something. I don't mind it. It's definitely her style. I don't think the voice is really there tonight. Sounds pitchy in some points. It's like the soccer mom version of rock tonight. Wow, Simon's with me on another one.

Chris S. "She's Not There"
I liked him before. I'm kinda getting over him. He needs to bring a song that I like better than I've liked him in a while. Ooh, he's singing a song I know and one I like. Remember when I was talking above about the guy who thinks he's got this wrapped up, I could also see this person being Chris S. (Ok, completely random sidenote. I rewatched some SYTYCD clips recently, and on one they showed a guy in the audience saying "wow" to a girl standing next to him. I think it was after the Alison/Ivan contemp piece. The dude is in the audience tonight and Chris just walked by him. In a long sleeved blue striped shirt. I'm a bit embarrased that I've seen the SYTYCD clip enough to know that.) Chris kinda bored me tonight. I don't think he made it his own. It seemed slow and soft. Eh. Simon doesn't agree with me here. Stop it with the "fro patrol" dude.

There's an interesting article here about how his hometown is disappointed that he's performing mainstream music and not sticking with strictly Christian music. Which is bogus. If they mean on this show, they should know he'd be gone immediately for singing songs that no one knows. If they mean for pursuing AI at all instead of going the way of Michael W. Smith, they should realize that if he did that, no one would know who he was anyway and they wouldn't be interviewed for MSNBC. It's not like he's coming out and singing Tupac or something. I guess I just personally have an issue with these thoughts. It's like when I was considering what colleges to go to, the fact that I was going to go to a secular college was considered bad by many in my church because it wasn't Christian college. It's like they think the only way you can be Christian is to seclude yourselves with other Christians so you're not living "of the world". What. Ever. Suck it up town.

Melinda "As Long as He Needs Me"
It's no secret she's my favorite. Since she's going last, I expect that she's going to be brilliant tonight. If this is out of her comfort zone, dang. Ok, hate when they sit on the stage. And I'm not liking her hair. I do like the casual outfit for once. Wonder if they made her ditch the Gails and are making her use the AI stylists. But like the voice. I like her better when she's more upbeat. It's like Jordin, Lakisha and Melinda all chose these "torch" songs tonight that don't really have much of a beat. She's still fantastic. If she doesn't win this or at least come in runner up, there's something wrong with America. She really doesn't ever hit a wrong note or tone.

Have they always thanked the band or is that new this season? Seriously, what is up with this crying girl? Is this make a wish?

I'm interested to know my parents thoughts on this one since these songs are their generation. So, for once, they should know most of the tunes. I know my dad hasn't liked Blake, so maybe this week will swing him.

Predictions: I think the bottom 3 this week will be Phil, Stephanie and Gina. I think Sanjaya will be saved this week. The one going home? Phil?

The best part of waking up.

2007-03-20T00:13:00.000-04:00

I can't even imagine waking up during a flight to this. Are you kidding me?

Don't you think it would be more disturbing to the economy class passengers to see airline personnel lugging a dead body through the cabin than to just let the person be? At least when he or she dies, he or she is likely sitting next to their own travelling companions rather than being uprooted and put next to total strangers.

If I ever die in-flight, I want my travelling companions to request in-flight, immediate cremation. Sure, the smell may be a problem, but at least the other passengers wouldn't be stuck looking at my dead body.

A Marked Woman

2007-03-17T04:22:00.000-04:00

Growing up, my parents had several rules. Of course they did. They were the usual: go to church on Sunday mornings, brush your teeth before bed, don't lock your brother in his toybox. Luckily for us, they never made us eat all the food on our plate or make our beds. Because, really, I was the only person who ever saw my bed, so what did it matter.

One of my parents' favorite rule enforcers was the Saturday Sack. Here's how the Saturday Sack worked. We were responsible for keeping our things cleaned around the house. I have been plagued from birth with a nasty case of disorganization. Trust me, though they deny it, it's genetic. It also comes with a side of pack-ratism. Essentially these manifest by causing me to leave things around. When I was a kid, the left things consisted of shoes and toys and the like.

When Saturday morning rolled around, anything that had not been put away would be taken by the Saturday Sack. Once in the grasp of the Saturday Sack, you couldn't get it back until the next Saturday. Which, when you're 5, is an eternity. You would think that we would be smart enough to make sure everything was cleaned up before hand. We weren't. So Saturday morning, at the first glimpse of the Saturday Sack, we all started freaking out and running around the house like a bunch of yayhoos trying to grab as much as we could. Since we had small arms, it usually wasn't much. And there were always tears when a favorite toy or book was taken away.

I will give my parents kudos for their tenacity. The beauty of the Saturday Sack was that it didn't matter what got put in there, you didn't get it back. If you happened to leave one lone tennis shoe in the middle of the living room floor, the next week at school, you wore a different pair, even if they were dress shoes. I remember one time one of my siblings managed to get 2 separate shoes taken away and had to wear a mismatched pair for a few days. Luckily, we weren't in school yet and our social lives consisted of running around the backyard and going to the library so it wasn't too embarrassing.

Another one of my parents firm rules was no tattoos as long as you live under their roof. Which, of course, only made us want to get tattoos. My sister was the first to cave shortly after her marriage. She and the brother in law made a night of it and visited the local Christian tattoo parlor (yeah, that's right) and had themselves permanently altered.

I followed suit a few years later. I can remember to the day when I got my tattoo. It was September 8, 2001. 3 days before September 11th. I, like my sister, got a religious tattoo. It's the following symbol for the trinity:

There are conflicting reports online of the origin of the symbol. Some think it's paganistic. However, I believe symbols are what you make of them, so I'm sticking with my theory. I stole the design from a friend of mine, who is a missionary and preacher's kid. I knew for a couple of years that I wanted a tattoo, and I wanted it to mean something. When I saw hers, I couldn't resist. I asked her permission first, and she agreed since she had stolen it from the band P.O.D. I sorta regret having the same one now, but we live on different continents, so it's not like we see each other every day. But I have it in the same place on the inner side of my right ankle. When we are in the same place and people notice, I feel like a tool. But I've literally only seen her 3 times in the last 5 years. So I cope.

My favorite part of the tattoo process was the reveal to my parents. I had had it for a couple of weeks, but didn't mention it to them knowing how they felt. I went home to visit them for the weekend, and decided to get it out in the open. I was getting ready to take a shower, so I told my parents. I told them that I knew they were bound to see it and not like it, so I was telling them before I showered so that they could use the time I was in the shower to vent and have the "I can't believe another one of our children is tattooed" conversations. I knew they'd have that conversation, because I sat in on the first one.

Only when I got out of the shower, I was sitting on the couch and putting lotion on the tattoo to keep it from peeling. And my dad, ever the observant one, notices me and asks, "is that real? When did you do that?" Apparently he had missed the entire conversation where I revealed it and gave him a chance to let it sink in. Heh, not surprising if you know my dad.

To my knowledge, my brother is still tatless. Though, secretly, and he would never admit it, I still think my dad thinks my tattoo is pretty cool.

Game show first.

2007-03-17T03:12:00.000-04:00

If you happened to miss Friday night's Jeopardy episode, like I did, you missed an historic event. For the first time ever, the show ended in a 3 way tie. All 3 contestants ended with $16,000. 2 of the 3 simply doubled their $8000 with the final question. The returning champion, however, wagered just enough to so that when he got the question right, he also got $16,000.

You can see the clip of the final question here.

I wonder if the returning champion didn't do it on purpose. I mean, there have been so many Jeopardy contestants over the series run, you have to do something to make yourself stand out. Surely he could have wagered 1 dollar more to be the sole winner, but what would be the fun in that. Instead, with the 3 way tie, he still gets to return next week and managed to take home his winnings from today. Plus, by making it a tie, he also enabled the other 2 to be able to take home $16,000 each, rather than going home empty handed. (They do go home empty handed or with a measly consolation prize if they don't win, right?)

In fact, on rewatch, when the returning champ turns to congratulate the guy on his left, it looks like he says "you're welcome." Before they reveal his answer, he says something to the other guys too. So if indeed the tie was intentional on the returning champion's part, I say, good form. Way to spread the wealth and not keep it just to yourself. Well played indeed.

Spoof

2007-03-16T16:07:00.000-04:00

For those that love, or used to love Grey's Anatomy prior to the "oh, no they didn't go there" moment of last night and/or House, this spoof is for you. My favorite parts: the guy playing Cristina and the Burke part.

MadTV Grey's Spoof.

Shoe flu, don't bother me.

2007-03-13T11:16:00.000-04:00

Fever: 100.2 degrees
Temp. of my apt: 70 degrees
Layers of fleece I'm wearing despite high temp of apt: 2
Migraines: 1
Times I've stopped myself from hurling: 6
Times I haven't: 1
Times I wish I'd gone to the grocery store yesterday so I had more food than milk and carrots: 5
Tmes I wished I wasn't on temporary insurance so that I could go to the clinic and not have to pay $200: several
Times I wished I were at home so my mommy could take care of me: too many to count

You go girl.

2007-03-11T23:58:00.000-04:00

Kate Walsh is easily my favorite thing about Grey's Anatomy. Love her. When I watch first season reruns, I keep wondering where she went to. Seriously.

I'm a bit torn on whether or not I like the idea of the Grey's spinoff. While she definitely deserves her own show, they're taking away my Meredith buffer and may actually lure me away from Grey's. I am consoled by the fact that hotties Taye Diggs and Paul Adelstein* will be joining her. If this is the last year for Gilmore Girls as rumored, perhaps they could snag Paul's real life ~~fiance~~ wife, Liza Weil, as a perfect addition to the show. I'm reserving judgment until I see how the spinoff is handled.

One thing I can get behind, however, is Kate's new boy toy. She has apparently snagged the younger cutie, Dave Annable, whom I began admiring on the short lived series, Reunion. Seriously, how cute are they?

And I know this is yet another TV post. I promise more personal posts are forthcoming.

*Who knew Paul and Kate went back years? I love stories like this one.

American Idol: The Finalists

2007-03-08T21:10:00.000-05:00

Well, finally, AI got rid of 2 of the bad ones. Unfortunately, they still kept one of the worst. Sanjaya will likely get the Vote for the Worst endorsement and hang around for a few more weeks. Sadly, I only got 1 of 4 of my predictions right last night.

However, I fared much better on naming the top 12 the first week of competition. I got 5 of the 6 girls right (I had Sabrina in Stephanie's spot), and 5 of the 6 guys (I said AJ would make it and the last spot would either go to Sanjaya or Chris S, who actually both made it). I'm pretty please actually. Not that I had any money on it or any pride even. I've just been bored and making predictions gives me something to do. On the other hand, lead me to Vegas.

American Idol: This seriously wasn't my best idea edition.

2007-03-08T03:57:00.000-05:00

What's the point of the "Remember me" box if it's going to make me enter my email and password EVERY single time?

I have no original thoughts on Idol this week. The boys are subpar and 2 girls steal the show every week. As my dad said last night, no matter where they finish, Lakisha and Melinda will be bigger stars than the winner this year will ever hope to be. I'd love to see a top 2 of them, but face it, one will go home around 6 and the other around 3 with Blake Lewis or Chris Sligh taking home the prize. Since so few boys have any talent, girls who vote for the cute boys who can sing have fewer options and will push those two far.

I've so far predicted 3 out of 4 who would go home each of the two weeks. I only managed to do so by picking the ones who were obviously not the worst, but obviously not the best. Truly, on this show, the ones somewhere in the middle go home early. Now? It's anyone's call. For the first time all season, I agree with the TWOP recapper. It should be Haley and Antonella to hit the road. However, Antonella is the "vote for the worst" candidate, and I think there are still enough girls in the competition to keep the votes of real voters spread out and make the votes of the sabotogers (sp?) count. (And also, may I just say, she is obviously one entitled, spoiled kid with her whole "don't compare me to the other contestants." Hey, lame-o, that's what we do on this show. Sadly, no matter where she finishes, I think she'll get the Kelly Pickler treatment of making a star out of a pretty girl who can't sing. Gotta love our society.) I think the other dead duck will be Sabrina or Stephanie. Officially, I'll call Haley and Stephanie.

For the boys, obviously Sundance and Sanjaya should hit the road. But, that's not going to happen. It's tough to know if Sanjaya's boy charm and girl hair will carry him through another round. My gut says it will. Instead, we'll say goodbye to Jarred Cotter and, dare I say it, Brandon Rogers.

Oh, holy heck no.

2007-03-05T06:59:00.000-05:00

(I must admit that my initial reaction was more along the lines of "oh the hell no", but my mother was not pleased with the reaction and I thought it best not to have it in big green letters here.)

Watching the morning news and they were discussing the opening of a new feature at the Grand Canyon. They have built a u-shaped cat walk that extends out hundreds of yards over the Canyon. While you're on it, the Canyon will be over 4000 feet below you. That's about 4/5 of a mile. If that weren't bad enough, when I saw the architect's redering and commentary located here, I saw that the floor of the cat walk is made of glass.

My favorite comments on that page were these:
"The skywalk will be built with more than a million pounds of steel beams. It is designed to support the equivalent of 72 Boeing jets and withstand an 8.0 magnitude earthquake 50 miles away, said Allison Raskansky, Grand Canyon West spokeswoman."

Really? I'm supposed to be comforted that it will withstand an earthquake that happens 50 miles away? How about the one that happens right there?

Here's another artist rendering here.

The only way you'd get me out on that thing were if I were dead and being dragged. K is visiting there this fall. Maybe she'll be a guinea pig and try it out for the rest of us.

Extreme Makeover: Exploitation Edition

2007-03-04T20:56:00.000-05:00

It's families like the Leomitis in this story that make me sick. Sure, there probably is two sides to every story, but I find it unlikely that they would be able to explain to my satisfaction how they took in 5 kids, got ABC to build them a new 9 bedroom house, and then evicted the 5 kids making them homeless. While I understand the legal reasons why they can't sue on the contract, here's hoping their fraud case flies through.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother('s cat)

2007-03-04T06:10:00.000-05:00

My brother's cat, who has lived with me for the last 2 years, has always had a problem with his weight. When we were concerned about him, we brought it to the vet's attention. The vet brushed it off and declared that he was "big boned." Actually, his words were that he was a jungle cat. Apparently doc wasn't too concerned that Max (appropriately named) was tipping the scales at 25 lbs.

Yet, despite his weight, he's a lively little sucker. A few months back, I invested in some automatic cat feeders so that I could leave for the weekend and not have to worry about him eating an entire weekend's worth of food in a few hours. Even though he doesn't need it, my cat is also treated to the diet cat food. According to the bag, for his weight, Max should be eating 1.5 cups of food a day. However, the feeders feed 3 times a day and I have them set to only feed a 1/4 cup at a time. Therefore, even if he were eating all of his own food, plus my cat's food, he'd still be under the limit.

Today, I found out that he has shed some weight and is a healthier 20.4 lbs. Not quite lean, but better off. I know he weighs this much, because he weighed himself this morning while I was getting ready. Yes, you read that right. HE weghed himself. I heard something click behind me and turned to see what it was. Max had climbed onto the scale and was sitting very still. He waited about 30 seconds and hopped off. And lo and behold, it registered his weight. I didn't think it was accurate, so I weighed him myself, and sure enough, 20.4 lbs. Apparently he's been monitoring himself when I'm not looking.

"Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you’re in diapers, next you’re gone."

2007-03-04T01:28:00.000-05:00

I've decided that perhaps the few of my readers who still come here are bored with my reliance on talking TV. Thus, I've decided to wander down memory lane and post a few posts about growing up. Granted, you may be sitting there thinking that the only thing more boring than posts about American Idol are posts about a young Heidi. You're probably right.

Anyway, I'll preface these posts by saying that I don't want anything to come off sounding cocky or self-indulged. The only way you can tell stories about yourself is to be honest. And self-depracating. And I'm certain my family will remember these stories differently than I do. Hey, it's my blog and I get to dictate reality. So we'll kick it off with a lighter topic.

Growing up in our house, my sister, my brother and I had to share everything. And I do mean everything. When I was about 5 or 6, the three of us had to share a room downstairs while my dad remodeled the entire upstairs. Which, we of course, loved. My sister and I got to share the big bed, and my little brother got shoved wherever he fit best. Mostly we spent our days tormenting each other until we got caught. Which was often.

At some point, my sister and I decided that we should teach my brother how to read and write. My sister was the oldest and spent her afternoons teaching me everything she was learning in school. I probably owe most of my early education to her since she had me writing and reading with her when she was in first grade and I was 4. I was like her own doll.

Anyway, our collective bedroom had this alphabet wallpaper with giant letters spread all around the room. When we weren't spending our time trying to peel it from the walls, we used our pens and pencils to write sayings on the walls. Luckily, my parents both have degrees in education and didn't care so much about the state of the walls so long as we were learning something. That, plus as long as we were writing on the walls, we weren't writing on each other. But I can remember teaching my brother how to write his name next to one of the big T letters on the wall. We also decided he should learn how to write sentences, so we wrote a few for him and had him copy them ad nauseum. The beauty of him not being able to read was that we got him to write dozens of times on the wall "T is a dork" or "T is a jerk." Which may not sound like much, but in our profanity-free household, those 2 sentences are the biggest insults you could hurl at each other without being severely punished. So the first sentences my brother ever learned to write were ones that insulted himself. That's learning from your elders.

Another thing we were forced to share was our one television set. We didn't watch a whole lot of TV when we were younger, but that didn't stop us from vehemently becoming addicted to our favorite shows. My sister was a huge fan of Captain Kangaroo. And we both loved to watch Indy's own Cowboy Bob. Kids these days with their cable cartoon channels will never get to experience the joys of a local celebrity kids show. Their loss.

We also were the biggest Dukes of Hazzard fans this side of the Wabash River. We adored that show and would hang out with our cousins reinacting the whole thing. My mom tells me that we used to encourage her to ramp over hills or jump ditches all the time. Luckily, she was wise to our ways and never obliged.

One show my sister and I did not agree on was The Brady Bunch. I absolutely loved that show and she absolutely hated it. The reason for her hatred was that it aired opposite her favorite show: Wonder Woman. Of course we were living in the days before cable tv, before VCRs, and definitely before DVRs. If you missed a show, as far as you knew, you would never see that show ever again. Which was a frightening thought. Of course, at the time, neither of us realized that we were already watching reruns of shows that had aired years earlier. To us, we imagined Bobby Brady and Wonder Woman living their lives at the exact moment that we were watching them. Back then, everything in our minds was live, reality tv. Unfortunately for me, my sister was older and bigger and always won the fights. So we were mostly a Wonder Woman household. Until she went to school and the TV was all mine.

As we grew older, we got a second television which we had to share. Don't fool yourself thinking that we could each watch a show on our own television. The TV in the living room was very much the parents' TV. Instead, the 3 of us had to share the TV upstairs for many, many years. Even today, my parents only have 2 TVs in their house. As pre-teens, we again had extremely diverse tastes in TV. Which made for some awesome fights.

My favorite show growing up was the Wonder Years. In fact, I'm hoping that they get the DVDs out soon so I can relive that show. I loved it so. Unfortunately, I only got to watch it every third week it was on. My parents, in their wiseness, made us alternate who got to watch. Don't think we didn't have a chart which detailed exactly whose night it was. We were obsessive about equality. I can remember specifically my excitement when I had the TV all to myself on Wonder Years night. My sister and brother had both gotten into trouble (for independent things I'm sure) and were both grounded from the television. I was in heaven. That night, I got all snuggled into my chair and anxiously awaited 8 p.m. and the start of my show. I kid you not when I say that at exactly 7:58 that night, the news cut in with the announcement that we were at war with Iraq. (The first one). And the news stayed on the entire night. The ENTIRE night. Granted, I'm sure most people cared more about the war than my show, but I was livid. In fact, most shows for the next couple of days were pre-empted with news coverage and the like. In other words, the entire time my siblings were grounded from the TV, the only thing I could watch was Tom Brokaw. Yeah, lucky me.

The moral of this story is that you should invest in DVRs early and often to keep your sanity and those of your children. Oh, and to stop going to war with Iraq and ruining my viewing pleasure.

The Littlest Consumers

2007-03-01T23:32:00.000-05:00

My dad gets the opportunity to babysit my niece every friday. They have a pretty standard routine which includes lunch with my mom and the other teachers at her work. Every friday also includes a trip to Walmart.

Now, for the average 2 year old, I'm sure Walmart isn't very notable or all that exciting. For my niece, it's the best thing in the world. She LOVES Walmart. If you ask her if she wants to go, she'll run through the house grabbing her shoes and coat and yelling "I go Malmart".

Lucky for us, she's not quite to the stage where she throws fits if you don't buy her something. Instead, when she sees something she likes, she'll comment, "I get it." You then let her hold it for a couple of minutes until it's time to put it back and move on. But if it's something she really really wants, or knows she's getting, she'll brand it "mine" and you don't dare pry it from her hands.

The other day, mom, my sister, and my niece were driving to the big city to do some shopping. On the way, we passed the Walmart shopping plaza. It sets way back from the road and is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. While driving, from the backseat we heard my niece perk up. Then she excitedly started saying, "Look, look, Malmart... Malmart." The little bugger even recognizes the building. She's going to be quite the shopper when she grows up. And I'm sure Walmart just loves to hear that.

American Idol: It ain't getting much better.

2007-03-01T00:37:00.000-05:00

I still love Melinda. I still like Lakisha, but not as much as the show apparently wants me to. Everyone else kinda bugs me at this point. I know I'm supposed to think Stephanie and Jordin are great, but I really just don't care. This show is making me really apathetic.

Unfortunately, there are more girls who should go home than there are exiting slots to fill. Off the top of my head, Antonella shouldn't let the door hit her on the way out. But after her scandal this week and increased interest in her, she's not going anywhere. And I must say, even though the x-rated pics have been shown to be fake, the ones of her putting on a wet t-shirt contest while slithering all over the WWII memorial are disgusting enough on their own. I'm starting to agree with the people who think this show is biased and racist since a first year contestant was kicked off for much less. But since Antonella is a pretty, all-american girl, it's not even mentioned and she's allowed to continue. The other three who should go are Leslie Hunt, Alaina Alexander and Haley Scarnato. Since I was ready for Leslie to go last week, I'll give it another shot and pick her. Haley turned on the tears after her critique, so I think she's going to squeeze in one more week.

So official predictions for the girls are Leslie Hunt and Alaina Alexander.

American Idol: The Tears of Boredom Edition

2007-02-28T05:48:00.000-05:00

Ok, so just last week I talked about how I was going to start recapping Idol. Yeah. Not so much this week. Maybe I'll do that when we finally get rid of the riff raf (sp?) and get down to 12. For now, I'm so bored out of my mind that I can't even bother because that would require watching the show and paying attention to names.

First off, was Paula actually coherent and constructive tonight? I had to do a double take a couple of times because I was amazed that she was making sense and saying something more than "I love you" and "you were great." She actually disagreed a couple of times when Randy thought someone was good. I'm shocked.

I watched the show tonight by starting to listen to the songs, and then FF through to the comments for most of them. There were a couple that I listened to straight through. Namely Chris Sligh and Nick Pedro. Call me crazy, but I love Nick's voice. I just wish he had more personality. Same with Brandon Rogers.

To tell you how bored I was tonight, I actually stopped the show and deleted it before I realized that I hadn't seen everyone. After the pimped Chris Richardson, I went ahead and stopped watching, thinking I had seen the final pimp spot. (Consequently, I'm sick of the show going on about how the last performer was the best they've ever seen simply because they were the last performer. I think by that point we're all just relieved to have the show over, so stop trying to pull the wool over our eyes and make us believe that the last 2 hours were anything but mind-numbing. It wasn't until I was reading someone else's recap that it occurred to me that I completely forgot that Sundance was still around. Maybe that's because subconsciously I wished he would be gone. Though, if you pay attention to DialIdol, he's pulling the same numbers Taylor did all last year. Granted, DialIdol is not scientific and can be way off especially since they use a formula for votes and busy signals and don't actually count number of votes. But still, it makes me think Sundance isn't going anywhere for a while.

My predictions for this week: In a perfect world, Sundance and Sanjaya would go. My fear is that it will be Nick Pedro and Brandon Rogers. However, since I think they're two of the best vocalists, (but not performers), I am going to pick two less likely candidates with hopes that by not naming them, Nick and Brandon will be safe. So my official prediction for the week is AJ Tibaldo and Jared Cotter for dedicating "Let's get it on" to his parents. (And who edged out Chris Richardson a/k/a Timberfake for this spot simply because I think America is under some delusion that Chris R. is (a) attractive and/or (b) can sing better than my sauce pan).

Seriously though, it's going to be Nick and Brandon.

Just what I need, another TV obsession.

2007-02-26T22:57:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'll get to Heroes in a moment. But first, I was growing extremely sick and tired of those commercials for the Black Donnellys. Every time the TV was on NBC this week, I had to see another preview. A mob show. I get it. Enough.

Lucky for me, when Heroes ended tonight, I couldn't find anything better on TV, and left the channel on. Seriously. The Black Donnellys? Fan-friggin-tastic. So good. I don't know if the show can live up to the pilot, but I certainly hope so. If you didn't catch it tonight, they're re-airing the pilot on Thursday at 10. It's definitely worth it. I really thought I was going to hate it, so don't let those thoughts dissuade you.

Now, Heroes is one spectacular piece of television itself. Unlike Lost, when Heroes says they will answer some questions, they do. They've already progressed the storyline further in half a season that Lost has been able to do in 3 seasons. At the beginning of the season of Heroes, I didn't think I would like it, mainly because comic book shows are not my thing. I don't like X-Men or Superman, or Spiderman. But Heroes I like. Do yourself a favor and catch it either in reruns or wait until the DVDs. It may be one of those shows that plays well on DVD when you can watch multiple episodes.

The Winds of Change

2007-02-25T23:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry, live blogging during the Oscars. Since it's 11:15 and no end in sight, I figured I had to do something to keep me aweak. Alan Arkin swept in out of nowhere to claim Supporting Actor. And then Little Miss Sunshine clenched Original Screenplay. Call me crazy, but as of this moment, I think the little movie that could, will. Although my predictions are already locked, and I'm not doing so hot, I think Little Miss Sunshine is going to pull it off. We'll see.

Edited to add:... But it didn't.

Was it just me, or were these one of the most boring Oscars ever? No funny speeches, and Ellen didn't perform the way I thought she should have. It was very eh.

Oscar Predix 2007

2007-02-23T14:55:00.000-05:00

We all know how much I love to make predictions to see if they come true. And Aggs requested that I voice my opinions this year. I'll have to look back through my posts to see how I did last year. I've been holding back and not reading the media's predictions so I'm not biased by that. Which seems odd since you'd think I'd base opinions on how others see the movies. But I like to pick more on gut reactions and logic. So without further ado, here they go.

Edited to add: checked last year's predix and I was 4 of 5. I missed Supporting Actress, but actually nailed Best Picture. I forgot to do director. We'll see if I do better this year.

Best Picture
Babel
Letters from Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Departed
The Queen

Admittedly, the only one of these I've seen is Little Miss Sunshine. I loved that movie and would love for it to win. However, as much as I want that, it's a long shot. It's going to be a toss up between Babel and Letters from Iwo Jima. Just as Crash swept in out of no where and won last year, Babel, the same type of movie, could do so here. But never count out how much the Academy people love a Clint Eastwood flick.

What I want to win: Little Miss Sunshine
Will win: Letters from Iwo Jima

Best Director
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

Again, haven't seen any of these. The story the last few years has been about how Scorsese will finally take it this year. From the people who have seen his movie, they weren't all that impressed. As much as the Academy loves Clint Eastwood, I think Scorsese will break through this year and take it home.

Who I want to win: Martin Scorsese
Who will: Martin Scorsese

Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

This is getting embarrassing that I really haven't seen these movies. I did see Will Smith and liked it, but didn't love it. I have always had a soft spot for Ryan Gosling and heard he is fantastic in his movie. However, he is a really long shot. And Aggs would swoon for a thousand years to see her Leo win. (That's an obsession that dates back to 1997 when she and I decorated our dorm room with the Leo blinds. They were a fantastic invention where we cut up Leo's Teen Beat photos into slats and taped them to the outside of the blinds so that you could turn the blinds and Leo would magically appear. No, we weren't seriously that obsessed, just wacky bored. But we were the talk of the floor for weeks by our impressed floormates.) When the noms came out, someone, who shall remain nameless feared that Peter O'Toole would get the post-humous sympathy vote. Her fears were negated when I pointed out that was Peter Boyle that died. This is really Forest Whitaker's to lose. I like him. If he loses this one, I will be stunned.

Who I want to win: Ryan Gosling
Who will: Forest Whitaker

Best Actress
Penélope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on a Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

I could handle any of these ladies winning, with the exception of Penelope Cruz. She bugs the heck out of me and I don't think she is a decent actress, let alone a good one. Helen Mirren has this one wrapped up, with a possible late surge from Meryl Streep.

Who I want to win: Kate Winslet
Who will: Helen Mirren

Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

Eddie Murphy has been sweeping awards season this year. Personally, I think this is a weak category. I could see either Djimon or Mark getting a surge for their work. And Dreamgirls didn't get the big nominations like they thought they would. I really want to go for an underdog here, even though my gut tells me no.

Who I want to win: Mark Wahlberg
Who will: Djimon Hounsou (Just kidding, officially I'm wagering on Eddie Murphy, but these were all getting too predictable).

Supporting Actress
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Abigail BreslinLittle Miss Sunshine
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

Abigail Breslin was fantastic in her role. Any other year and she would likely have stole this award. But people love the Cinderella story of Jennifer Hudson way too much to let her go without winning. While I'll be shocked if she doesn't win, the lack of noms for Dreamgirls may be an indication that she won't pull it off.

Who I want to win: Abigail Breslin
Who will: Jennifer Hudson

Looking back over these, it seems like there are really going to be no surprises this year. They just seem too much like shoe-ins. The only one's I think are up for grabs are Best Picture and Supporting Actor. And the latter may all be in my imagination.

3 of 4 Baby

2007-02-22T23:10:00.000-05:00

Ok, I'm very proud of my AI predictions. As I predicted, Paul Kim, Rudy Cardenas and Amy Krebs were sent packing. In hindsight, it should have been obvious that Nicole Tranquillo was going to go given her horrendous performance. But I'll take batting at .700.

All 12 of my predicted final 12 are still in. Earlier I edited to interchange AJ Tibaldo and Nick Pedro since I can't keep them straight in my head and said the wrong one. I just have this fear that it will be neither of them and Sundance will make it through. I hope I'm wrong on that.

Till next week.

American Idol: The ladies.

2007-02-21T22:22:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I’m writing this live during the show, and before the judges make their comments. We’ll see if they agree with me tonight.

Stephanie Edwards
Don’t remember her at all. Good voice, but I was bored through about the first 2/3. She looks like the really tall girl that didn’t make it through. Much better start than the guys, but she wasn’t memorable to me. Maybe it’s because she has not had screen time prior to this. Fantasia 2.0.

Amy Krebs
Who is this chick? She reminds me of someone both in name and face. Why do I feel like I know her? Ok, so she can’t make me love her. She also can’t make me not change the channel. Boring. And she was flat on her held notes.

Leslie Hunt
No prior exposure that I recall. I like the intonation of her voice, but not her performance. Something was off the whole song. Out of tune it seemed. She looks so much older than 24.

Sabrina Sloan
Again, don’t recognize her. I Didn’t care for the performance at all (apparently I’m in the minority. Enough with the runs. She’s talented, but maybe it was because I was running around the house, but I just didn’t like it. Maybe if I gave it a second chance.

Antonella Barba
Someone who was overexposed. I thought she was overrated to begin with. Not to mention, her “all boys love me” attitude. It was a weird song choice and a weird arrangement. She’s out of tune early and on the end of every line. But, Simon’s criticisms are going to goad her fans into keeping her here at least one more week.

Jordin Sparks
When she talks to Ryan beforehand, it’s obvious how young she is. I like her voice, and she’ll be safe because she’s the young girl. They have to have at least one teen in the top twelve. I didn’t like the performance. The song seemed maybe a bit too low through the whole thing. Would have liked to hear her sing something that spanned more than ½ octave.

Nicole Tranquillo
She looks very forgettable. Looks like 2 other girls who have already performed. Ok, what the heck is this song choice. Don’t like the speaking song thing. And she needs to pick a note. She’s not going to last long.

Haley Scarnato
Don’t know her at all. It was ok song wise, but not memorable. Not my favorite of the night.

Melinda Doolittle
I have high expectations for her because I loved her early rounds. Let’s see how she holds up. Ok, she’s living up to it. Great voice and performance. Does Aretha justice. This girl’s already a star without this show. She’s definitely one of my early faves.

Alaina Alexander
Don’t’ like the breathiness in her background clip. Hopefully she does something to make me distinguish her from the other 3 blondes that have already performed. Shaky, breathy start. She’s going to suffer from coming after Melinda’s dynamic performance. In one word: meh.

Gina Glocksen
I loved her in the early rounds. Wasn’t feeling it when the song started. I liked her during the chorus, but it was a tad on the boring side. And any time I hear this song, I think of good ole Bridget Jones. I thought she did well enough for the song. Still liking her.

LaKisha Jones
I like her, but she’s very much Mandisa part deux. And she was given the pimp spot. I just wish she’d stop talking about her daughter. I know everyone has their niche. She’s definitely got a big voice. But I like Melinda better. I think that depending on which of the two got the final pimp spot, they would have gotten the "best of the night" declarations.

Ok, girls were better than the boys. Slightly. Again, there are a few certain ones for the tope 6 girls, and several that it’s going to depend on voting. The guarantees: Melinda Doolittle, Gina Glocksen, LaKisha Jones and Jordin Sparks. I think the other two will be Sabrina Sloan and Haley Scarnato. Just my gut feeling.

Out this week: Amy Krebs and Leslie Hunt

American Idol: And so it begins.

2007-02-20T22:14:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I’m going to recap American Idol this year with my thoughts. Whether or not you care to read, it’s your decision. It doesn’t really matter anyway since only about 3 people read this anymore. But here goes.

Shockingly, I almost always agree with Simon. Must be that great music sense I’ve got :) . I think Paula just parrots back whatever Randy says. So I don’t really tend to listen to her at all.

Rudy Cardenas
Eh. He starts the show out, and in my opinion, is not at the level he should be at. He’s rubbed me wrong from day 1, and I can’t really get invested in him.

Brandon Rogers
I like him. I like the fact that he’s paid his dues as a backup singer. Wasn’t my favorite performance tonight, but after seeing the recap at the end, it’s obvious he did a lot better tonight than most of these dudes.

Sundance Head
Even before the judges comments, I thought to myself that he wasn’t in tune the entire song. Actually, my cat, who is a great judge of music, had his ears penned back every time he tried to hit one note in the chorus. (As a sidenote, my cat really and truly recognizes horrible music. During the early rounds, any time someone was way off key or couldn’t sing at all, he gets all spazzy and pins his ears back and looks around the room. It’s quite funny really.) I think his uniqueness has got him this far, and hope that he doesn’t unfairly scrape by based on the amount screen time he got early on. Definitely the worst performance of the night.

Paul Kim
I’m over the bare feet thing. I didn’t like him early on, and my opinion didn’t much change tonight. Not even anything to say about him.

Chris Richardson
When they showed him making the top 24, I thought, “who is this guy?” He’s got pretty eyes. I just don’t think he sings very well.

Nick Pedro
I want to root for him. The fact that he knew enough to bow out last year instead of flat out pursuing when not ready for it made me respect him a bit. But didn’t care for it tonight.

Blake Lewis
I was really starting to hate the beat-boxing and thought he was a one trick pony. I was prepared to hate on him throughout the whole competition for it. But dang. The boy rocked that song. I adore that he chose a Keane song. Something unique. Glad to see that he can sing.

Sanjaya Malakar
Ok, he looks so young. He was a much better performer tonight than I thought he would be. He seemed so shy the early rounds. And he’s got a good voice. Since most of these guys are older, he’s going to get the teeny-bopper vote. It was boring though.

Chris Sligh
I’m a softie for funny boys. He’s got a great personality and that’s going to get him far. The fact that he’s a great performer will get him even farther. I didn’t like the song choice tonight, but it was a good show. This was the one major time I disagreed with Simon.

Jared Cotter
Decent voice. But he blends in for me. Nothing outstanding about him. He kinda seems too pretty boy for me.

AJ Tabaldo
I didn’t like him throughout the early rounds. Something about him rubbed me the wrong way. Sure, he’s tried out 5 times before. Maybe that should have told him something. That said, I liked him tonight. I feel like he turned off the smarmy and gave a unique performance.

Phil Stacey
Ok, we get it. He missed the birth of his daughter to audition. I think he’s decent, but tonight something was off about his tone. I disagree that this was the best performance of the night. I think his early exposure on the show will get him a good fan base.

Overall, I’m unimpressed by the boys. I think that no one stands out as extremely talented. Which means that the top 6 boys will be determined by fan base, ergo, who got the most exposure in the early rounds. My prediction is that the top 6 will be: Blake Lewis, Brandon Rogers, Chris Sligh, Phil Stacey, AJ Tibaldo, and either Sanjaya Malakar or Chris Richardson.

(Edited prior to elims on Thursday because I can't seem to keep Nick Pedro and AJ Tibaldo straight. Both tried out previously and have Spanish sounding names. I had Nick here and after a re-read realized it was supposed to be AJ. Oye. May not sound like much to you, but as a person who gets swept up in March Madness and the like, I love to keep track of how I do at predictions.)

The two out tonight: Paul Kim and Rudy Cardenas. I’ll check DialIdol later to see if America is agreeing with me.

Seriously?

2007-02-17T05:18:00.000-05:00

In the span of 24 hours, Britney Spears checks herself into rehab, checks herself out of rehab, and then shaves her head? (Don't believe me? See this pic.)

We're way past the point where she needs an intervention.

Music of the Moment

2007-02-15T17:32:00.000-05:00

Kelly P. asked me the other night what music I've been listening to. And what Kelly P. wants, Kelly P. gets.

[New post feature: Click the CD cover to be taken to where you can buy it. Technology is my friend.]

Mat Kearney Nothing Left to Lose
Love. Every. Song. Seriously, fabulous CD. If you watch Grey's Anatomy, you've heard at least 3 of Mat's songs. His songs were used in the first two episodes of this season and at least one more episode later. The one that sticks out in my head is his song, All I need, which was used at the end of the season premeire to show everyone and as Izzy is laying on the bathroom floor. Mat reminds me of the likes of Josh Kelley and John Mayer.

Marc Broussard Carencro
This CD was recommended to me by Amazon based on my other music choices. And although I wouldn't consider it like any other CD I have, I love it. Very soulful. I can't even think of whom he reminds me. Just trust me. Great CD.

Gary Jules Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets
Ah, an oldie but a goodie. Well at least an oldie for me. I stumbled upon Gary a few years ago while browsing my favorite music cite, CDBaby. Bought the CD and loved it for a while and forgot about it. His most famous song is Mad World, which has been used in numerous movies. Heck, even my parents have heard that song. Then, my Dad wanted to find a song used on Grey's Anatomy during the scene where George's dad dies, and after looking it up, found out it was a Gary song. (Falling Awake) Although, not on this CD. As far as I know, his CDs are available for download, but you can still buy them at CDBaby. Which proves that CDBaby is still the best and Grey's Anatomy has some fabulous music choices.

Aqualung Strange and Beautiful
Aqualung was the opening act for The Fray when K and I saw them a few months ago. (Again, The Fray, highly used on Grey's). However, K and I could barely understand a word they sang all night. Not a good stage performance. Yet, a good CD.

White Trash Castle V-day?

2007-02-12T06:21:00.000-05:00

You have got to be kidding me. On the news this morning, they're reporting from a White Castle to spotlight making your reservations for Valentine's Day. They have the tables draped in cheap, red paper with fake flowers and a "reserved" sign. I wish I were joking, but you can make your reservations for Wed. night to avoid the crowd. They even have the Valentine's box to go if you can't squeeze in a sit-down meal complete with a generic card for your sweetie.

Isn't it common knowledge that White Castle universally causes gastrointestinal problems by all who injest? What a lovely and romantic way to spend the evening.

The Concert formerly known as the Grammys.

2007-02-12T00:02:00.000-05:00

Did I miss the moment when they stopped giving awards at the Grammys and instead just had performance after performance? Seriously. I was watching them tonight, and in the 3.25 hours they were on, I swear they gave out 8 awards. And half of those were R&B awards. There were a whole bunch of performances by randomly put together groups and each of those went on way too long. Maybe it was just me, but the show was bizarre as heck. I was so not a fan.

And can someone explain to me the difference between Record of the Year and Album of the Year? Is one a writing thing and one a performance thing? I have never gotten that distinction.

Late Night Movie

2007-02-09T03:06:00.000-05:00

Maybe because it's really late, but I'm watching a DVR'd movie called the Socratic Method, and I'm finding it really funny. It's a satirical comedy following 3 first year law students during their first semester in law school. There are so many true to life moments, it's giggle worthy.

No blog for you.

2007-01-31T21:49:00.000-05:00

Ok, I've been a lax blogger (again). And again.

Anyway, it's not that I don't have time to blog. Trust me, all I got is time. I won't get into it here, but those who know me in the "real" world, they know why. But I will say, I've slept better the last 10 days than I ever have in my life. The result of significant stress being lifted away. Not that I'm stress free, mind you. Just a different kind of stress, and more manageable at that.

For some reason, I read that paragraph and it seems a little riddle-y. I didn't mean it that way, I swear.

Blogging will return after a brief hiatus.

And, GO COLTS!