Six down, Five to go.

Sheryl Crow steps in as the Assistant Mentor this week. Let’s hope she’s better than Will. I. Am.  James is singing Closer to the Edge by 30 Seconds to Mars. Jarad Leto’s band. Exactly. He sounded great with Sheryl, but onstage? Not so much. And I hate it when men in sleeveless shirt raise their arms exposing grodie underarm hair. Yes, I’m twelve, what about it? I thought it was boring. Stephen says he kicked its @$#, JLo says he’s ready for stadiums, and Randy says something, but to be honest, I zoned out. More importantly, my MOTHER says it was good. Blah, blah, blah – solid B.

Here comes Jacob. He’s singing a Jordon Sparks song, really? Three seconds in, my Aunt Fay asks, “Is every one of them gay?” She’s never seen an episode of AI, but the girl has my vote to replace Stephen. No one in my house likes anything about his performance. JLo says he has great showmanship, but his song choices are inconsistent, Randy says he’s one of the greatest singers on the stage but it was sharp and corny, and Stephen says he needs to find his niche. I hope by “niche” he means “exit”. My vote, D.

Lauren decides to sing Carrie Underwood. Carrie UNDERWOOD. Mom says it may be good, but she doesn’t like it. Then she yelled at the TV, “She’s in it to win it!” My living room is way more entertaining than AI tonight. Stephen says something, and JLo says she ate it up. Not what a chubby girl wants to hear. Despite the opinions of those around me, I’m giving her an A-.

“Who’s that guy in the long hair?”  I REALLY think my Aunt Fay needs her own blog.

Scotty is singing one of my favorite country songs by Montgomery-Gentry.  The Zollicoffer visitors liked it, Stephen said he danced with the devil, JLo said he owned the stage, Randy said he felt like he was sitting at Scotty’s concert, and the ubiquitous “HIITWI.” If anyone is playing a drinking game around that phrase, they’re half lit by now. I think there are better karaoke renditions all across America every Saturday nights. Average at best – C.

Haley is doing a Lada GaGa song called You and I. Singing an unreleased song is risky, but it’s PERFECT for her. I LOVED it. JLo slams her, Randy calls it too risky and DOESN’T say she’s in it to win it, dang I was going to do a shot, and Stephen says she sang great. Let’s see, Jimmy tells her to sing a song that no one knows, and the judges trash her. Is it me or is AI trying to get rid of Haley? I smell a conspiracy. Best of the night so far! A plus and I’m going to vote for the first time just cause they aggravate the snot out of me.

James has a breakdown so we are spared Jimmy and Sheryl’s mentoring. It has it’s moments, but most of them were bad. I really hate the judges. Haley kicks butt and they can’t say anything good, but James was “emotionally perfect.” What the WHAT? I’m emotionally perfect, can someone give ME a record contract? C MINUS cause the judges suck.

Jacob’s 2nd song is Love Hurts by Nazareth. Sheryl shows him and the rest of us how it SHOULD be done. I’m not optimistic. Better than his first song, but still not loving it. Stephen says he got lost in the song, JLo says he brought it home, and Randy says it was very nice. At least I think that’s what they said, my ears are bleeding. B- cause I’m feeling generous.

Unchained Melody is Lauren’s 2nd choice. I dig the retro hair and dress but the song is ssllloooowwww. JD hates the dress, my mom says she’s dragging it out, and Aunt Fay is wondering if we have Dancing with the Stars tivo’d. JLo keeps it short and sweet and says it was beautiful, Randy says she sings like a bird, and Stephen says he could listen to her all night. They all agree “there’s nothing to judge.” Then maybe the three of you could go the heck home! Fine, but nothing to get all excited about. Solid B.

Scotty does You Were Always On My Mind. Man, I miss Elvis Presley. And Willy Nelson. Scotty always makes me thing of all the OTHER people who sing way better than him. I’m outvoted. Aunt Fay wakes up to ask, “Who’s that guy? I like him.” Mom grabs the phone and actually votes, JD says it was a great song choice. Do I even have to listen to the judges? JLo calls him well-rounded, (say WHAT?), Randy loved it, and Stephen says America loves his voice. Ahhh, look at his sweet grandmother. I won’t be sucked into the Scotty vortex no matter how cute she is. Solid B for BLAH.

Okay, back to Haley and House of the Rising Sun. I think the idea of starting off acapella is a good one, but again, I’m in the minority. Aunt Fay asks, “Isn’t she just hollering?”, then adds “I didn’t like it at all, but what do I know?” JD says the growls are disingineous, and Mom agrees with them. What the HECK? The judges actually like it! Randy says it’s the best performance of the night, Stephen orders sweet and sour chicken, and JLo says she used her anger to a great performance.  Another A for Haley.

Best for me, Haley and Lauren. Worst, Jacob and Scotty. Surely Jacob’s luck has run out. But as Aunt Fay says, “What do I know?”

Randomness

I was out of town when Will and Kate got married, but I managed to get up early enough to see them kiss on the balcony. It reminded me of another wedding almost 15 years ago with a beautiful bride and a sweet groom who’s receding hairline didn’t mar his handsomeness. But that wedding was short on ugly hats, and long on cattle. That’s what the Royal Wedding was missing, the sound of lowing cattle in the field next to the church.  That and common sense when it comes to millinery.

Of course, the spotlight was off the royal wedding once Osama Bin Laden was killed. Lucky for Princess Beatrice, now there’s some OTHER photo to search for.

Osama’s photo is supposedly gruesome, but let’s face it, it can’t be as bad as hers. It might seem as if I’m taking the death of OBL lightly, but after a day of thinking about 9/11, Nick Berg, Daniel Pearl, and all of the men and women who’ve died because of the plans he put into place, I’m ready for some levity. And I’m basically shallow.

So while everyone else is consumed with how they found him, I’m wondering what the heck they did all day. The man had THREE wives living with him, and NO television or internet. I have no doubt that his wife pointed him out. She was probably like, “He’s the cheap loser in the corner who won’t pay for cable!” And I don’t know a lot, or anything, about Pakistani people, but if they were willing to pay a million dollars for that “mansion”, I’d like to introduce  them to a sweet little ranch house with an in-ground swimming pool. Barbed wire included.

Enough of my foreign policy views, let’s talk life here in the good ole USA. Gas prices are over 4 bucks a gallon and bacon prices have risen 7 % this year, and both are expected to continue to rise. Which means the party is at MY house, byob. No, really. Bring your own BACON! I’m lucky that I work from home, so commuting is not an issue, but the gas thing still hurts. Which is why I’ve been trying to get my husband to purchase us a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

How cute would we look on this?? I’m totally serious and my husband will do just about anything for me that involves spending and vehicles, so I think by summer we’ll be tooling down the street with the wind in our hair.

Well, two out of three of us anyway.

Lifetime Movies

Moon has been underfoot for the past two weeks, as in “No one goes ANYWHERE without me!” Bathroom? She needs to go too. To the mailbox? She can help with that. As much fun as it sounds, it can drive a mom mad. It’s not her normal behavior, so I finally got her to tell me what was going on. Seems that school was over early one day so they decided to show a movie. The classroom took a vote. While Moon voted for a sweet movie about puppies, the majority went with a Goosebumps tale.

Awesome. How long is it going to take to get this out of her head?

Why does Hollywood even make scary movies? Why do parents let children go? When I was TEN, my parents sent me to the movies with my cousin, Joanne. My much older, and much wiser cousin from Michigan where girls wore short-shorts and SMOKED. What did she take me to see? Tommy!

I’m sure she told my mother it was a musical. I had nightmares about that toilet for YEARS.

Now I have nightmares about my own toilet, but that’s a whole different story.

Monday Is Here. Again.

This is going to be rambling and will probably end up nowhere, but I am still catching up from my week long visit to “learning.” My brain hurts.

I think Mondays should be like the 13th floor in a hotel – non-existent. But then again I pretty much feel like all work-days should be eliminated. Which is why, with the entire Christian Leadership Alliance bookstore at my disposal, I chose this:

I can’t decide, should I do one hour for four days, or just suck it up and do the whole four hours at once? I’ve only skimmed it so far, but it has a great tip – check email twice a day ONLY. That would be roughly forty times fewer than normal. The thought is that when you check emails, you get caught up in OTHER people’s projects, or lives, which leads you to forgo your own “to-do” list and waste time. And by “other people” I mean “BOSSES”.

I might waste time. Earlier today I started thinking about what I’d wear to the Oscars if I were ever nominated for anything, and realizing that I probably won’t be able to convince Michael Kors to donate a dress, searched online for off-the-rack gowns. Forty minutes is not too long for dreaming, is it? Then I spent another 15 trying to figure out how to download the images so I could show you, but I gave up. Let’s just say it was at Neiman Marcus and I’m going to need $6,000 dollars. Plus shoe money.

I also might have wasted some time watching The Celebrity Apprentice. Man, those girls are harsh! I could so win Celebrity Apprentice if I wanted to. And if I happened to be a celebrity. Maybe with all the time I’m going to save by just working four hours a week, I can figure out how to be famous.

What did you think I was going to use my extra time for, cleaning?