Happy Snowy, Sick Birthday To Me!

I'm pretty sick today and wasn't sure I was going to post anything, but I haven't had a day without a post in so long, I just couldn't do it.

Here's the most important stuff to me right now.

I've got a cold: coughing, runny/stuffed up nose (not sure how that can happen, but it does) and a sore throat. I actually took some of the night time meds and took a nap sitting up in my chair this afternoon. I managed to get in about 3 hours of sleep!

It's been snowing all day long. We've gotten about 6 inches of snow, but I haven't been out there to formally measure it. I cleaned off the porches (front and back) earlier today and there was around 2 inches; then I went back about an hour later and there was another 3 inches out there. I'd say we've gotten around another inch since then, We don't normally get just snow. Usually we get freezing rain and/or sleet mixed in with our snow, so this is a nice change.

Here's the view out my back porch this afternoon.

Oh, and to top it all off...it's my birthday. Sort of. I'm a leap year baby, so I don't have a birthday this year. I celebrate on the 28th of February. I've always said that I was born the last day of February, so my friends usually celebrate on that day. My family, however, celebrates on March 1st. My mom says that if it hadn't been Leap Year, I would have been born March 1st, but as far as I'm concerned I was born in February, so I'll celebrate in February. It doesn't help that my CG'pa's birthday is also February 29th. They were all used to celebrating on 3/1 with him, so... Anyway, they're all over at the CG'parents' house having a birthday party while I'm home. Don't feel sorry for me though...I always hate having to go to those things...even my own birthday party.

AI - Results Show For 2nd Round

Fast forward through terrible singing.

Allison Iraheta makes it. I’m glad. I thought she didn’t really well, especially for her age. I even listened to her sing again.




Kris Allen makes it. He did a good job, but he shouldn’t have beaten Anoop in my opinion. Just the luck of the draw as to what group a contestant was put into.



FF through montage of old seasons.

Brooke White shows up. Forgot she even exists. She’s promoting her first single. Had to FF through it because it was less than stellar.

Norman/Nick goes down in a blaze of glory and Adam Lambert makes it through. Still didn’t like his version of “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”. But I’m not at all surprised that he made it.



I’m glad Allison made it, I’m not surprised about Adam, but think Kris made it through because this group lacked talent.

This awkward dancing at the end of these shows are my favorite part so far. They show the next 12 contestants dancing and it’s pretty HI-larious.

AI - 2nd Round of Top 36

Jasmine Murray (17, Mississippi) – I didn’t care for her. I don’t think that she did very well. Randy said she was pitchy. Overall the judges were disappointed in her performance.

Matt Giraud (23, Michigan) – He’s the dueling piano guy. I think he should stick to playing the piano. I’m not sure he is meant to get out from behind the piano. He wasn’t terrible, but there was this weird vibrato/shakiness going on in his voice, and he got completely off key several times. The judges didn’t like it and said that it was not the style that he should have been singing, but that he had talent.

Jeanine Vailes (28, Washington DC) – She sang “This Love” by Maroon 5 and I think she looked like she was trying too hard. It didn’t look natural. Her voice wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t like the arrangement and it really wasn’t different enough from the original to seem like she “made it her own.” Paula just said that she had great legs, then passed it off to Simon. Simon said it was terrible and that it was the wrong song for her. Apparently her legs were the only thing they liked.

Nick Mitchell (27, Connecticut) AKA: Norman Gentle – Norman’s back! I really like Norman. I can’t believe that he’s made it this far with that persona, but he is really good. He’ll never win, but I sure do enjoy watching him. And Nick can sing. Simon doesn’t want him to go any further. Randy said it was entertaining. Kara said that at least he was memorable.

Allison Iraheta (16, Los Angeles) – She sang Heart and did a good job. She’s not the best singer ever, but I think she chose the right song for her voice and style. Her performance seamed genuine and not over-done. I’m amazed that that smokey-voice is coming out of a junior in high school. Randy said she was the best so far. Kara said she was great, Paula said she could sing the telephone book (whatever that means because I’m sure I wouldn’t want to hear anyone do that). Simons said she was the best by a clear mile.

Kris Allen (23, Arkansas) – I think his voice is okay, better than some from tonight, but I think he looked like he was trying too hard. Kara said the end was better than the beginning, but still not his best. Paula and Simon liked it, although Simon said Kris wasn’t the best, but that he was proud of him. Randy mentioned that he was able sing without the guitar.

Megan Corkrey (23, Utah) – I like her voice and I think the song was a good choice for her, but she kept doing this weird little dance. I actually think the dance was sincere, but it was still weird. All the judges liked her.

Matt Breitzke - Big, bald, welder. I’m not sure how I feel about him. Interesting voice. Stays on pitch. Still…I’m reminded of a really good karaoke singer for some reason. He didn’t really make the song his own and that might be why. Simon liked Matt, but not the song. Randy said the performance was boring. Kara said it fell flat. They just didn’t like the song, but think he’s a great singer.

Jesse Langseth (26, Minneapolis) – How many times can they mention that this chick is a single mother? I didn’t like her movements/”dancing”. I thought it was awkward and uncomfortable. I used to like “Betty Davis Eyes”, but I didn’t really Jesse’s rendition of the song. Randy said it was okay, but not exciting. Kara liked watching her…not sure she was watching the same performance that I was. Paula said she was captivating. Simon said she was forgettable.

Kai Kalama (27, California) – This is the guy with the crazy hair; even the stylists couldn’t do anything with it. Terrible facial expressions and creepy movements that I’m pretty sure he thought were sexy. The singing was sub-par. Simon said it was corny.


Misha (18, California) – This is the girl that was cut last year, but has been given a second chance. I didn’t like her version of “Drops of Jupiter”, and I thought she kept going into this weird yodel note…similar to what country singers do. Paula actually started the judging on this one. I didn’t know that she could come up with her own opinion without listening to others first…Paula didn’t like the song choice. They want her to loosen up and sound her age.

Adam Lambert (27, Hollywood) – This is the overly dramatic guy. Weird Elvis lip stuff going on. I don’t like his voice because it’s a little screechy. I’m sure the tweens love him because they think he’s cute. Paula was on her feet…seriously? I didn’t think he was that good at all. Simon said there parts that were excruciatingly bad and parts that were brilliant. Randy loved it and said that he was a current artist…I would agree with that, but I’m not into current. Kara said his vocals were outrageous. Once again, let me point out the screechy part…

I thought this was a pretty unspectacular night. How about you?

No More Raccoons...?

I finally caught the raccoon (Houdini). I heard the trap snap shut around 9pm. I went out and checked and sure enough...there he was. I knew I had to act fast because he had already escaped twice. I called my CG'pa and he came right over.

Houdini...finally caught.

I won't go into details (my dad made a point to mention that it was not raccoon season and that is why he set the female free. I don't believe that is why, but...). CG'pa said I should re-set the trap because there were probably more. I really didn't want to believe him (I mean, I caught both the male and female, right?), but I went ahead and set the trap anyway. I woke up this morning to discover that something had gotten into the trap (food was gone), but the trap hadn't tripped. I've re-set it again for tonight and we'll see.

What would you do if you caught a nuisance like Houdini?

This Is Not Quite A Raccoon...

So I didn't catch Houdini last night, but I did catch a problem maker...the opossum that's been getting on the back porch. He's awful friendly with Houdini because I saw them having supper together...on my back porch.

Here's the opossum...ugly little things.

I heard Houdini eating some early breakfast this morning while I was doing my morning veg session in front of the TV (so about 5:30am). He ran out when I got up off my chair to take a look. That's when I noticed I had caught an opossum in the trap. I'm guessing I'm not going to have anyone suggest I keep him as a pet!

I had to call my CG'pa and have him come and take care of the opossum so I could re-set the trap tonight. I didn't ask for specifics, but I know that the trap was sitting in front of my house (empty) when I got home.

I really hope this doesn't go on much longer!

Raccoon: Still At Large

I woke up at 1:00 AM to some noise outside, got up and discovered I had caught the coon. As I'm sure you can tell by the title of this post...that's not the end of the story.

I took the coon and trap off the back porch and moved it to the front yard. There's nothing there for the coon to get at, and that way my CG'pa could come and get it easily. I also took some extra precautions considering he had gotten out of the trap once before. I put a piece of metal through the front of the trap door and into the ground as well as a long metal piece through the trap right above the door. There should be no way that the coon could get out...right?

Wrong...I woke up to find the trap exactly as I left it, except there was no raccoon. He had dug a huge hole next to the trap, and I couldn't figure out how he could have gotten out. Both metal pieces were exactly where I had put them. At that point I decided to call him Houdini.

It wasn't until I got home that I could take a really good look at the trap.

Here's the trap as it looked in the morning.

I discovered that Houdini had chewed through the trap. Now, my dad says that Houdini just found a hole and made it bigger, but I know the largest "holes" on that trap were the few places where one wire was broken and two of the squares had made one larger rectangle. Now there are 5 cross wires in a row that were broken? Sure...Houdini did it. There's another spot on the other side where the wires are bent pretty bad as if he had tried to break the wires there as well.

Here's the hole that Houdini made.

Anyway...my dad fixed the trap. I asked for a gun, but he is convinced that Houdini didn't chew through or break the wires. I couldn't have killed Houdini myself, but I was going to try to convince my uncle across the road to do it for me.

Do you guys have any suggestions?

Single Saturday...Sort Of

I totally forgot about Single Saturday. It's new and I've been wrapped up in the whole Raccoon Invasion.

I'm thinking that being single has contributed to the raccoon issue. First of all, part of the problem probably has to do with the fact that my back porch has trash on it. This isn't food trash, but still... I no longer have a truck (had to get a vehicle with good gas mileage) and so I have to go the extra mile to get a truck to take non-burnable trash to the dump (yes we burn trash and yes we have our own dump... it's the country remember?). I'm sure the trash has helped bring the raccoons up to the house. I had a trash bag with cans (non-burnable) in it and I usually rinse them out, but now always; I'm sure that didn't help. I'm sure that if I wasn't single, I could have convinced my significant other to haul off the trash by now.

Also, I am sure I could have convinced my significant other to shoot the raccoon by now. I just can't look an animal in the eye and pull the trigger. Turkeys maybe (they're ugly), but nothing with hair or fur.

All in all, unless I was dating/married to a weenie, I think this whole raccoon fiasco would have been over by now. As it is, I just had to shoo the thing out of the house again not 30 minutes ago!

Raccoon Invasion Video

Check out the video of the raccoon coming into my house. The kitchen lights are on and I'm standing right where it can see me, but it comes in without much hesitation. I actually had to clap my hands and yell at it to get it back out of the house. As of Sunday night, I still haven't been able to catch it.

FYI: You may notice that I actually have a cat door and a dog door. I used to have a dog, but she lives with my mom now. I closed up the dog door and bought a cat door. The cat door is now broken, so I opened the dog door back up and that is what the raccoon has been using most of the time. It has managed to peal back the duct tape on the cat door and get in that way as well.

Here's The Raccoon!

I gave you a glimpse of the raccoon adventures over the last two days. I didn't have time to do much more than that. I've not been home much the last few days. Last night I was at a David Crowder concert. It was awesome and I plan on posting pics of that tomorrow.


I had set out the live trap Thursday night and had no luck catching the raccoon. At this time, I thought there was only one. I had set the trap, baiting it with marshmallows (known to be the best coon bait), and had, what I now believe to be, the boar (male) coon get in, eat the marshmallows, trip the trap and manage to get out again. I reset the trap, but no luck the rest of the night.

Here's the live trap...baited with marshmallows.

I reset the trap before leaving for the concert on Friday night. I didn't expect much, but had a small raccoon in the trap. When I first saw it, I thought it looked much smaller than the one that I had seen in the house Thursday night. I now know that I had seen the male earlier, but caught the female.

This is the female that I caught Friday night.

I actually felt bad for her when I was looking at her in the trap. My dad came and got her the next morning, but he has grown soft over the last few years and decided to release her back into the wild. Last time I went through this (over a year ago), dad released the coon too close to the house (about 2 miles) and it came back. This time he took it over 20 miles away. I'm not sure exactly where he released it, but it shouldn't come back.

I knew I had the coon caught and wasn't worried about anything last night, but woke up to a mess around the cat food dishes, and muddy footprints leading toward the cat door. Crap! There were two of them...should have figured on that.

Tonight I was sitting in the living room and heard crunching in the kitchen. This time I was pretty sure it wasn't one of the cats. Sure enough, I look around and it is a big boar coon. I got out the camera and went to take a picture, but it ran back outside. I got the video camera and positioned myself to catch it as it came in through the door. I got video of it coming into the house and then eating. I finally decided to put down the video camera and get some stills. It ran back inside, but came right back in. I was able to get some pics. I hope to post the video tomorrow.

He looks right at me as he comes in through the cat door.

At this point he's really not that scared of me.

Oh, and there is also a huge opossum that is getting onto the back porch, but at least he's not getting in the house (I have opossums and armadillos around the house all the time). I'll deal with him later. As I type this, they are both out on the back porch eating some cat food that spilled. I had put some outside while I drove to go get the trap again, so he wouldn't get into the house while I was gone. I'm hoping that the raccoon will soon go investigate the trap and I'll catch him. I'll definitely keep you posted.

Have you ever had anything like this happen to you, or does this stuff just happen to me?

Raccoon Still At Large

Nothing new on the raccoon front. I set the trap out last night, but the stupid smart thing managed to get out of the trap. It tripped it twice.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. I may have to stand by the back door and wait for the him to get into the trap and trip it, then put something across the entrance to keep it from being about to get out.

I got the trap from my CG'pa and he said that it wasn't working right and he had planned on trying to fix it. I think he had been testing it out on his cats because he said he caught a few of the cats in it, but they had managed to get out. Seriously.

I took some pictures of the trap, but didn't get them loaded onto the computer yet (I got home late last night) plus I'm at work right now (he-he). I'll try to load them tomorrow. I'm going to a David Crowder concert tonight and won't have time to get back on to add them or write more tonight.

If you have any great suggestions about the raccoon...let me know.

Can You Help Me Out?

I did an interview at Blog Interviewer and would love for you to vote for my blog. There is a $50 prize for the blog with the most votes. While I don't expect to win, I would like to be able to have enough votes to raise my head high! You can vote once every 24 hours...so don't forget to go back. I have placed a link in the middle column of my blog for your convenience!

Thanks in advance!

Raccoon Invasion!

Last night I discovered I had a raccoon coming into the house through the cat door...again!

Wednesday night I heard a crash and the tinkling of something falling across the kitchen floor and when I woke up the next morning and walked into the kitchen to check it out, I found out that the cat food dish had been knocked over. I just thought the cats had fought over the food or something.

Last night as I was sitting in the living room, hanging out on the interweb, I heard one of the cats eating some food...then they knocked over the trashcan that I use to store cat food. I got up and started yelling. The "cat" backed out of the trashcan (luckily it was almost empty) and ran toward the cat door and freedom. It wasn't until the "cat" was halfway out the door that I realized it wasn't Bella (she's all fluffy and a grey/brown, so I thought it was her), but that it was a raccoon!



I spent the rest of the night trying to keep that thing out of the house. It would start to come in and I would chase it out. It kept going under the back porch. I ended up putting some old food mixed with cat food out on the porch so it wouldn't come back in the house. I have to go by my Dad's and get the live trap after work so that I can trap it. I'll leave it to your imagination to decide what I might do with it...

I'll keep you posted and write more about this later; I just wanted to put in a quick note about the new drama in my life. Hopefully I will get pictures to verify my story.

AI – Winners of the 1st Round of Top 36

We get to find out tonight who makes it through to the next round. I often fast forward through much of these episodes. I just want to get to why I’m watching. Let’s forget the foreplay here; I’m already ready.

I’m not really sure what the point of this is since there is a “Wild Card” week (still don’t know what that is) and that means no one goes home. I guess it’s just to find out who is for sure in the Top 12.

How they got here…fast forward.

Cheesy song to start us off…fast forward through half of it.

Re-cap of last night’s show…fast forward.

Talk to the contestants…thought about fast forwarding, but decided to give it a listen.

Going to the Top 12
• Alexis Grace (FF through song)

• Michael Sarver (FF through song…mad Anoop goes home)

• Danny Gokey (Woop, woop!)


I think Michael made it because he’s a good ol’ boy. He’s an okay singer, so I’m not too bent out of shape, I just liked Anoop better, although he didn’t do too hot yesterday.

Tatiana was shocked, but took it better than I thought. They kept panning towards her during Danny’s song.

Carly Smithson and Michael Johns showed up to do a special. I watched part of it before fast forwarding. I liked them both, but that as last year.

Looking forward to the next round of 12. We’ll see if I blog about that round as much. It took me two days and around 3 hours to watch the last round because of pausing to type up my blog post.

Do you think the right people got through?

AI – 1st Round of Top 36

Top 36

AI…we’re live now! Well, they were, but I watched it an hour late (Tivo) because I was at a basketball game.

The contestants get a minute and 20 seconds.

They are dividing the 36 contestants into 3 groups of 12. Only 3 will go through to the next round, the girl with the highest votes, the guy with the highest votes and whoever has the next highest votes. Then those 9 will compete. Then the next 3 spots are given out on the wild card show. This is a little different from previous years. I’m wondering exactly how they chose these groups. I already see a few of my possible top 10ers in the same group. Maybe wild card night will get some of them through.

Theme: Hits from the Billboard top 100 since the charts began. I wonder if they really got the rights to all those songs.

Tonight’s contestants: Jackie Tohn, Ricky Braddy, Alexis Grace, Brent Keith, Stevie Wright, Anoop Desai, Casey Carlson, Michael Sarver, Ann Marie Boskovich, Stephen Fowler, Tatiana Del Toro, and Danny Gokey.

FYI: When I say “Judges”, I am almost always talking about Randy, Kara and Paula. Simon is always on his own and so I will often talk about the judges and Simon.

Jackie Tohn (28, New York) She’s got that smokers voice. She sang “A Little Less Conversation” by Elvis. I was disturbed by her outfit…especially the pants and shoes, but then the 80’s are coming back (that’s a whole other post!). I think she tried too hard and ended up sounding like she was yelling. Randy and Kara liked her excitement, but said the vocals weren’t the best. Paula loves her, but she loves everyone. Simon said she “played the clown” and the adjectives ungangly and gimmicky were used. I agree with Simon.

Ricky Braddy (26, North Carolina) I don’t remember him from the previous rounds. Don’t remember what he sang. Good voice, maybe a little kitschy. The judges liked him. Paula mentioned the fact that he hadn’t been “featured” in the last 3 weeks. Simon said he had a great voice, but not the star quality (too shy).

Alexis Grace (21, Memphis) “Never Loved A Man” by Aretha Franklin. I think she could have done without the background vocals; they were as loud as she was and covered up her voice when they were used. Good singer; we’ll see if she’s good enough. The judges loved her and said she had come out of her shell. Simon said she was the best so far (out of three) and might be the “dark horse” of the competition.

Brent Keith (29, Ohio) “Hick Town” (country song, so I don’t know it) Haven’t really seen him either. He kept losing the low notes, and you couldn’t hear them. He didn’t really sing them, but spoke them. I think they were out of his range. The judges were a little ambivalent in my opinion. Simon said he was forgettable. I, once again, agree with Simon.

Stevie Wright (17, California) “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift (who I don’t like). Stevie had a terrible start. I think the song started out too low and she couldn’t really sing the first few lines. I don’t know if she was really nervous or what, but her voice was really shaky throughout. It sounded like bad karaoke to me, and there’s no chance she’ll be back. You can always tell when Randy’s going to give a bad review by how he starts out. “Yo…see…” He also uses the “wow” in a bad way. Randy also brought back the “Not hott” from previous years. The judges didn’t like her, Paula said the song was too low, Kara said that Stevie was having an identity crisis. Simon said she was terrible.

Anoop Desai (22, North Carolina) He’s the Indian guy that I think is a top 10er. “Angel of Mine” by Monica. I just don’t think you expect a voice like that out of him. I’m not sure this was the best song. I would have liked to see a more exciting song. Randy thought he was a little sharp, but still a “fan”. Kara didn’t like how he performed the song either, but likes Anoop. Simon said he had “massive likeability” going for him.

Casey Carleson (20, Minneapolis) “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police. She might have tried too hard to show good stage presence; there was a lot of weird winking going on. I think she sang this song like it was a totally different type of song…and she was off-key. It was a little “pageanty” to use one of Simon’s words. Randy didn’t like it and said it sounded like Karaoke. Kara said everything about it was wrong. Paula said it didn’t work for her. Simon said she couldn’t have picked a worse song. Everyone said that people should stay away from Police because they are too iconic.

Michael Sarver (27, Texas) He’s the rough neck on an oil rig…not the Jeff Foxworthy kind. “I Don’t Wanna Be” Not a good start. Bad Karaoke. He didn’t make this song his own and he really did look and sound like a drunk frat guy up there singing. It was painful. Randy and Kara said it wasn’t his best performance, but I think they should have been rougher. Paula took the easy way out of course. Simon said if he gets through it’s because people like him and hopes that America gives him another shot.

Ann Marie Boskovich (22, Nashville) “Natural Woman” Her voice was a little shaky at times. She tried to put her own spin on the song, not sure it was to the best effect. The judges didn’t think it was the best song choice for her. Simon called her a hotel singer.

Stephen Fowler (26, Cleveland) “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson Before he starts, I’m wondering if he will remember his words. He has a good voice and plenty of what AI looks for in contestants. Randy and Kara said it was the wrong song for him and didn’t showcase his song. Simon said the whole thing was atrocious and corny.

Tatiana Del Toro (24, San Juan) “I’m Saving All of My Love For You” Whitney Houston (a crazy, singing a crazy’s song) She’s back! Please let this be the last time we have to see her. The new haircut makes her look less crazy. She seemed much calmer during her interview. I wonder if she saw herself on TV and decided to take it down a notch or 500? I hate to admit that she can sing, but she can. I can only hope that she’s driven America as crazy as she has me and that she doesn’t get the votes to stay in for another round. She didn’t disappoint at the end with a typical “Tatiana look”. The judges said that she was really reserved tonight and that she surprised them with her abilities, although it wasn’t perfect. Simon called her out on the carpet and said she was a drama queen. I am now convinced that she decided to dial down the crazy from now.

Danny Gokey (28, Milwaukee) “Hero” by Maria Carey (love this song btw). Of course they save the best for last. If Danny doesn’t win this, it’ll be because something big has happened to prevent it. I didn’t know until today that Danny is a church music director…one more reason to love him. I think he was able to make the song his own, especially considering that it was originally sung by Maria Carey… The judges are in love with Danny. Paula’s on her feet. Kara is slamming her fist on the table. Simon brought us all back to reality. He said it was good, but said he wasn’t buying the hype.

I want both Danny and Anoop to go through from this round. My female pick would have to be Alexis Grace because Casey Carleson chose such a bad song for her.

You Can't Win Them All

I was talking to a fellow co-worker today about one of our custodians at work. This lady is just not a happy woman. She walks around with a perpetual frown and I've only noticed her smile and laugh at one or two people. She hates me. No, I'm not exaggerating...she HATES me. I don't know why...I don't know what I did to her. I spent the last two years trying to be nice to her. I thought I would win her over with my kindness. I always went out of my way to say good morning and smile at her...didn't work.

This might bother me more if she didn't seem to hate the majority of teachers at the school. (Oddly enough, she likes one of the coaches. I've asked him what his secret is, but haven't figured out the key to his success yet.) This woman is fairly grouchy to everyone she comes into contact with.

She has a granddaughter that tags along with her a lot while she is at work. I've been super nice to this girl for 3 years now (and she's not the easiest girl to deal with) and it doesn't seem to get me anywhere with her grandmother. In fact, this lady had the nerve to tell me that I had never liked her granddaughter and that I was treating her bad...What? I even gave her granddaughter a Christmas gift one year. Now I'm just avoiding them both because it seems to be the best defense at this point. Anything I say is misconstrued and turned around in her mind. I seriously wonder if she's not "touched in the head" as they used to say in the old days.

There's just no pleasing some people.

I've decided that I should add her to my prayer list. I can only imagine how unhappy she must be all the time to walk around looking and acting the way she does. I also need to pray that I won't feel so negative towards her.

Maybe one day we'll be friends...Then again...You Can't Win Them All!

Do you have someone like this in your life?

My Housekeeper Is Back!

I've been tidying up the house a little tonight in preparation for my mother to come and clean it.

So you may be wondering how I managed to get such a sweet deal. I used to pay Mom to come every other week to clean the house. She's retired and has a sterile house; I work and am too lazy to clean. I pick up; I don't clean. A little over a year ago, my mom quit. It wasn't anything formal, just my brother and his family moving back to our hometown. They had to stay with Mom and Dad for a few weeks until their house was ready and so Mom was too busy to clean my house. She just never started back up again.

This is her first week back at "work". The deal has gotten even sweeter. I no longer have to pay her to clean. Nope, we're doing it in trade. She cleans my house, I color her hair. Now some people think that she's getting the bad end of the deal, but I buy a lot of the supplies for the hair coloring (everything but the actual color) and then you have to remember that she's not paying $80 when I do the coloring. I know how to foil (in fact, I foil my own hair), and so her hair looks just as good as the local small town beautician. I also cut hair, but she's not been brave enough to try that.

I think in another life I could have been a beautician. I enjoy it. There is one major drawback that keeps me from ever seriously taking up the profession...I'm too lazy to stand on my feet everyday. That and I don't like to touch strangers. I guess I'll just stick to doing my friends' and family's hair.

Would you trust a family member to cut your hair?

Crazy Church Night

Church was a little odd tonight.

First, our pastor (who also happens to be my brother) decided to have a prayer night instead of us having a sermon. This constituted us discussing praise, confessions, thanks, etc and praying for each with a few prayerful songs in between. Now this would have gone a lot better if it wasn't for the family of visitors we had.

It was obvious within the first 5 minutes that they had never been to church, or at least the 3 young kids had never been to church. The three youngest kids were all sitting by themselves in the row in front of the parents. The 4-5 yr-old girl was talking out loud the whole time and no one made her stop for the longest time. Finally, she told her mom to "shut up" right during a silent prayer. This is when her dad took her out of the sanctuary, kicking and screaming (literally kicking and screaming). You could hear her screaming the whole time they were gone. We were hoping she was going to the nursery, but in no time she came back into the sanctuary all proud as punch. My guess is she gave her dad the slip and he just gave up and let her go. He followed her back into the sanctuary, and the little girl still wasn't made to sit with the parents.

At one point, the pastor was asking the congregation for things they were thankful for and the oldest girl (9-10 yrs?) raised her hand. Now her brother (8-9 yrs) had already been giving a lot of reasons why God was great earlier, so my brother calls on the girl thinking she had something to be thankful for. She asked if she could use the bathroom. I'll give it to my brother, he handled it well...just told her yes and then told her where it was. You could hear some chuckles throughout the congregation.

The little girl continued to cause problems throughout the service. Toward the end the little girl and the boy were all over the place...in the aisles next to them and never sitting down. In fact, the pastor had to ask the congregation to look at him while he was trying to tie up the service. It was pretty bad.

I felt bad that I was lacking the patience needed to deal with these people. I prayed both for patience and for the family. I know the parents had to be embarrassed (obviously not embarrassed enough to take the kids out like a normal person would, but still). I found it really hard to get much out of the service, which was unfortunate. They were sitting right in front of us though...

In the end, the mom went up to my brother and asked for assistance. Of course they did. Come to find out, they had called and wanted a ride to church because they didn't have a car. I think they sent the church van after them; they were staying at the local dump motel. Now, our church doesn't hand out money. They are a part of a ministerial alliance with other churches in town. People have to go to the ministerial alliance to get assistance. This way people can't go from one church to another getting money from all the churches in town. It's really a good set up. My brother did end up giving them some dear meat out of his freezer. He said if they were really hungry they would eat it and if not, they could just throw it away. I doubt they eat it. They are from California and probably think venison is nasty.

Let me know what you think about all this.

AI - Hollywood Round Four

This post is a little late. I started watching AI, but then had to go to bed (it was 2 hours long...) and just now managed to finish watching this episode.

“This year we’ve changed everything…many will have to sing for their lives” Really Ryan…their lives? There seams to be a lot of death on AI this season.

Contestants are kept in a holding room until the judges call them in to deliver the news. Some of them are told they made it, and some are forced into “sing offs” with other contestants.

Top 36
• Anoop Desai (Indian Guy) – Top 10er
• Von Smith
• Adam Lambert
• Taylor Vaifanua
• Jasmine Murray
• Arianna Afsar
• Casey Carlson
• Megan Corkrey
• Mishavonanna Henson
• Stevie Wright
• Joanna Pacitti (always forgets her lyrics)
• Kendall Beard
• Alexis Grace (single-mom sob story)
• Lil Rounds
• Scott Macintyre (blind guy) – Top 10er, may win the whole thing because he’ll get a lot of votes
• Allison Iraheta (16 year old)
• Danny Gokey (half of the BFF boys) – Top 10er, probably Top 4 at least, could win the whole thing if he doesn’t screw up.
• Matt Giraud
• Ju’Not Joyner
• Jorge Nunez
• Brent Keith
• Stephen Fowler (who fowled up his last audition by forgetting the words, but good voice) – Possible Top 10er if he can remember the words
• Nick Mitchell AKA: Norman Gentle (and they want NORMAN!)
• Jackie Tohn (soulful “smokers” voice)
• Tatiana Del Toro (super annoying laugh, high drama) She came into the room with her high-pitched voice in full-on freak-out mode. Simon asked her if she could for once try not to be annoying. She had one of Paula’s bracelets on and then said she was so upset the ring had been sold out so Paula gave her the one off her own finger. I wouldn’t have given that crazy girl anything. Simon just said Paula did it to promote her jewelry (he he). I can’t believe she made it. I don’t care how good she can sing. I may have to kill myself if she makes it very far. No one seemed very excited that she made it.
• Jeanine Vailes
• Kai Kalama
• Alex Wagner-Trugman
• Anne Marie Boskovich
• Kristen McNamara
• Jesse Langseth
• Nathanial Marshall
• Matt Breitzke
• Michael Sarver


Sing Offs
• Cody Sheldon (amateur horror film maker) vs. Alex Wagner-Trugman – Alex wins

• Jenn Korbee vs. Kristen McNamara (was in one of the groups that had lots of drama) Simon kept saying they should keep the attractive blond (Jenn) and the others said they should keep the one that could sing (Kristen). I kept thinking that eventually these girls would see this episode and maybe those weren’t the nicest comments…but it is AI. – Kristen makes it through, but Simon makes a big deal about how he disagrees with it and the girls tell her she has to do an image over-hall.

• Frankie Jordan vs. Jesse Langseth It seems like they pitted two “soulful” singers against each other, and hated both the girl’s songs. – Jesse gets in

• Jackie Midkiff (uhh…not sure we’ve seen him before, but he can sing. Kara thought it was a mistake that he had to do a sing off) vs. Nathanial Marshall (super dramatic and emotional with facial piercings) – Nathanial gets in. Not sure that was the right choice. I think they chose the one that had more flair over the one with the voice that was “normal”.

• Matt Breitzke (bald welder) vs. Michael Sarver (Rough Neck) once again, I think they pitted two contestants with similar styles and are just going to let the best through even if both are betters than others that got in. No duplicate sounds for AI… Oddly though – Both get in. Surprising change.

I’m a little surprised that Jamar Rogers (other half of the BFF boys) didn’t make it, although I never thought he would win it. I liked the spin he took on Hey There Delilah…maybe the judges didn’t. Everyone was shocked that he didn’t make it. AI did a really sad, slo-mo farewell.

I will try to pick my top 10 soon. We still haven't seen enough of over half the top 36 to make an educated guess.

Now it’s time for why I really watch American Idol. Bring it on! What's your favorite part?

Snowy Sunday Morning

Just thought I'd share with you what I woke up to this morning.

Snowy Sunday Morning

I wasn't expecting snow. Somehow I didn't get the memo; I thought it was only supposed to snow in northern Missouri. Now I have to go out and clean off the car before I leave for church. Luckily, it is only snow and there's a little less than an inch of it.

National Single Awareness Day

Isn't today the perfect day to start my new weekly post: Single Saturday?

Yes...It's national Single Awareness Day... Otherwise known as Valentine's Day.

Luckily, this year V-Day is on a Saturday. This is a great day for both those that celebrate V-Day and those that celebrate SAD. For all you lovers out there, Saturday means a full day to bask in the joy of your loved ones; you can go out and not worry about having to get up for work in the morning. For all of us celebrating SAD, we don't have to go to work today and see everyone around us getting deliveries from their significant others. No bouquets of roses, none of those annoying Vermont Teddy Bears, no boxes of ch0colate. This is awesome for all SAD celebrators.

Now, we did have to see some of that on Friday, but not to the same degree that we would have if V-Day had been on a work week.

I work at a high school and there are, of course, a lot of deliveries to the kids. They call the kids out of class about 10 at a time to go to the gym and get their deliveries. It's a little ridiculous because that means that we get nothing done 7th hour because there is an announcement every 2 minutes where the secretary lists the kids that are now supposed to go to the gym. Everyone knows who got a delivery and who didn't . Can they contrive a more demeaning way of getting the deliveries to the kids? I guess we could have an assembly and have the "winners" come up front for their prizes.

In previous years I have sometimes spend SAD with other SAD celebrators. Unfortunately (for me) my BFF got married last year and so I had no one to celebrate SAD with. I spent the day at my Dad and Mom's with the rest of the family: Brother, SiL, Niece, Nephew L and Nephew J. Also, we had my dad's cousin's two kids there. Five kids five and under. CRAZY! I had to come home and take a nap! After my nap, it was time to get on the interweb and see what had been going on while I slept. I loaded new pictures to my photoblog (see those here). Then I decided to watch Run Fatboy Run (love Simon Pegg movies). A chicken burrito later, and now here I am writing this post. A fulfilling SAD.

I decided to Google SAD and found out that there is a website devoted to SAD. You can visit them here. I didn't know anyone else called V-day, Single Awareness Day, but I guess I'm not that original. Oddly enough, this website says they now celebrate SAD on Feb 15th. I'm still going to celebrate it on V-Day.

If you are single...How did you celebrate SAD?

Happy 100th To Me.

No, I am not 100 years-old...it's my 100th post...Yay!


I'm excited that I have made it to 100 posts. I am still loving to blog and really think this will be a long-term relationship. I have several steady readers (both those that "officially follow" me and others that I know stop by on a regular basis) and I would like to send a shout out to all of you. Thanks for reading my blatherings; I know I can get verbose at times. I hope, however, that I am at least entertaining at times.

One of my goals for the next 100 posts is to refine my posts. I'm thinking about starting a weekly segment about being single...maybe Single Saturday. I know I haven't really focused on that, even though it is part of what this blog is about. I think that has to do, in part, with the fact that almost everything I do in life is affected by my being single, so I just don't think to say the words: "because I'm single".

I would also like to increase my readership. As I write this post, I have four "official" followers, but would like to be able to reach double digits by my 200th post. Maybe some of you could help me out there. (I've already managed to reached double digits on my photoblog, Views From A Small Town, even though it is newer than this one... but everyone loves pictures!)

Here's hoping that you keep reading (and hopefully, enjoying) my random thoughts and musings. Thanks so much for being a part of this.

I'm Giving Up On Lost

I've decided to give up on Lost. There are 5 episodes just sitting on my Tivo and I have no desire to watch them. I loved the first season and season two was okay, but since then I have been watching Lost just because I had already invested so much time in it. Not anymore. I'm kicking it to the curb. I am spending less time watching TV these days (mostly because of the internet) and something has to give.


I'm probably going to have to go through my season passes and delete a few more of those passes. My Tivo is getting full and there's just not time anymore to watch the all the shows that I used to keep up with easily. Plus, I have a new venture brewing (I'm not ready to divulge my plans just yet) and so I am going to be working through a lot of online tutorials in order to prepare myself for this new adventure. Yep. It's time to pare down. I wonder what else will have to go...

AI – Hollywood Round 3

“Last night of Hollywood…Do or die.” Ryan may be a little over the top here. I’m not sure anyone is going to die…will they?

Ryan keeps calling this “hell week”. It’s been a little bit like hell for me, but somehow I don’t think that is what Ryan is talking about.

There have been so many contestants and so little time to see what they are made of. I blame AI for this. They end up focusing on just a few people, spending the majority of time with those few and then showing everyone else in a montage at the end of the show.

Tonight we are seeing a few new faces. Not really new, but ones we haven’t seen in the last two days of Hollywood. Don’t worry though, we still get to see Jamar and Danny, the best friends. Both are good singers, but we have been seeing A LOT of them. I think Paula may have a crush on Danny. You should have seen her face. She looked like a pre-teen at a Hanna Montana concert. I am picking Danny as one of my front-runners for this competition though.

My guess is group 1 tonight was the 4-yes group. The contestants were split into four groups after the judges went through them deciding who had it and who didn’t. I’m guess that group 2 was one of the maybe groups.

The instruments came out tonight. I was expecting someone to majorly suck, but no one that they aired did bad…on the instrument.

Tatiana was in group 2 and she blew it! This girl is certifiable. This was the one time that she did not sing multiple songs trying to get the judges to pass her through (they showed a montage of this and it was pretty funny, if a little pathetic). Of course, since the judges don’t say anything to the contestants after they sing, she was in 7th heaven, believing that she was awesome. She actually left the stage twirling and singing her sentences. Yeah, she’s nuts. I sure will miss her after they boot her off at the end of the show…

Then there’s some mix up with the group numbers (amounts) and Tatiana was pulled out of her group with no explanation. They do this big cliff-hanger before going to commercial; which group was she going to, the one that makes it, or the one that goes home?

Norman Gentle came back tonight…Yay!!! I missed him last episode. I just don’t think Nick can help it. I’m not sure he’s comfortable being himself. I’m not sure anyone has gotten this far acting like a clown. He goes into room 4 and the rest are probably worried that his presence does not bode well for them, something that is probably confirmed when Tatiana shows up as well.

The judges go into room 2 and act like they are going to send that room home, but then tell them they are staying. I hate it when they do that.

Tatiana of course freaks out when the judges come into her room. She’s jiggling like my 3-year-old nephew when he needs to go to the bathroom. Kara tries to calm her down when Tatiana starts crying…they haven’t even told the group if they are going home or not. Ends up that they are going on in the competition. I just can’t believe Tatiana made it over some of those others. This must be a ratings thing.

Once again, the guys seem to be doing better than the girls this year.

I’m looking forward to picking My Top Ten List, but at this point it is hard to say because they’re not showing us all the contestants and you never know who might show up in the next few episodes. I have a list started, but as of now only have question marks by the girls on my list. We just haven’t seen enough of them yet.

Michael Castro went home tonight; we really didn’t get to hear Jason’s (#4 from last year) brother that much to know what he really sounded like. Leneshe Young (homeless sob story) also went home, but Norman Gentle got through! Yay!

Randy says this crap about this being the best year yet…the most talent…blah, blah, blah. I believe someone says that every year.

Do you think this will be the best American Idol season yet?

Lazy Kids

I’m actually not frustrated with any kids right now or in the middle of a rant, so I think this might be a good time to reflect on Lazy Kids (LK).

LKs are very frustrating for a teacher. First, you need to keep in mind that teachers are expected to have some sort of success rate, and this could become worse under the new President’s regime. It is dangerous to put teachers in this situations because one of the results is “dumbed-down” lessons, lessons designed to help students pass the class with ease. While I think it is important that truly bad teachers are removed from the school systems, sometimes we need to really look at who is at fault for a student’s poor grades.

I may step on some toes here, but I believe that the majority of student problems go right back to the parents. I am not talking about students who try but have difficulties in certain subject areas. No, I’m talking about LKs and other problem students, but for the purpose of this post, let’s focus on LKs.

Lazy kids are a product of lazy parenting in my opinion. (yes, I know I don’t have kids of my own, but I do see over 100 kids walk through my door every school year.)

Here are two of the major parenting problems I have seen that lead to LKs.
• Indulgent parenting – these parents usually let their kids have whatever they want. Sometimes that comes in the form of things, but more often it has more to do with indulging a kid’s behavior. I know of multiple parents that come in and blame the teacher, the administration and other kids for their own student’s bad choices. What are you teaching your child if you do this? I am reminded of a recent case, in the news, where cheerleaders were thrown off the cheerleading squad for texting pics of themselves in compromising situations, yet the parents sued the school for punishing their kids. Seriously! My father always told me that if I got in trouble at school, I was getting it twice as bad when I got home…needless to say, I behaved.
• Absent parents - These are parents who don’t seem to take an active roll in their child’s education. If your child comes home with poor grades, you need to be calling the school and finding out why. If you get a call or a note from a teacher that says your child is not doing the work in the class, sleeping in class, or any other number of LK behaviors, you need to act fast.

Kids need to be held responsible for their actions. If you have a ten-year-old who’s teachers say they are lazy, it is your job to do something about it. You should be the motivator in your child’s life, not the teacher.

If you have a 10-year-old that is lazy and doesn’t work very hard in school, then you will have a 16-year-old that fails (or almost fails) most of their classes. UNLESS…YOU DO SOMETHING! Take everything away. There should be no privileges until they get their grades up, start doing the work and paying attention in school. Kids don’t have to have a cell phone, we didn’t and our parents managed just fine. Kids don’t have to have a car. It may be more convenient for you if they have one, but they don’t need it. Jobs are a privilege so kids can have spending money, and they take time away from studying. If your kid is having trouble juggling everything in their schedule, then the job has to go (then there’s really no need for a car). And…unless your kid is going to get a scholarship for their extra-curricular activities, they can go too (hence the extra part). By the way…if their grades are bad, it doesn’t matter how good they are on the football field; even if they make it to college, they probably won’t last. Sorry, but that’s the truth.

Schoolwork has to come first. Everything else is second.

Also, don’t assume all of your kids can be raised the same and turn out the same. I have a friend who is a teacher as well as a parent of a LK, yet has other kids who are top of their class. The parents assume that they raised the kids the same, so the LK must not be their fault. Yes…it is. The “good” kids just don’t have the same tendency to test boundaries. Dig a little deeper and you find that the LK’s “punishments” never really last. The LK gets kicked out of the house (he’s 18 and let me tell you, he deserves it), he comes back within a week, and every time the parents say that this time it will be different. You have to follow through with your punishments or they mean nothing.

And back the teachers up. Don’t agree with your kids or try to make them feel better by telling them that they don’t need algebra in the real world (I know you don’t, but don’t tell them that). Don’t tell them that you know Shakespeare’s difficult, so you don’t expect them to do well. I hate that. I have parents that I am sure tell their kids something very close to that, but they are just giving their kids permission to fail. If my students’ parents ever came and asked me, I would gladly tell them that I thoroughly explain the entire plot of Macbeth as we go. I also give the kids the questions and answers to the test during the review the day before. They don’t even need to understand Shakespeare to do well. Seriously…it’s not hard. Maybe you should check in with the teachers every now and then just to see what’s going on in your child’s classroom.

Like I said earlier, I’m sure I’ve stepped on a few toes. However, it is the parent’s job to prepare their students for everything the teacher is trying to teach them. Teachers cannot do their job, if the parents won’t do theirs.

Let me know what you think. Do you know any LKs or Lazy Parents?

More Bad Weather?

There's nothing like living in the Ozarks when it comes to weather.

We just finished a major winter storm with ice/sleet/snow. See pictures here. The last of it is finally gone (except the stuff that was piled up in parking lots). We have been experiencing 50-60 degree weather for the last few days and it has been really nice. And that's just like the Ozarks...30 degrees one day, 65 the next. Nothing like sledding on yesterday's sleet in today's 60 degree weather!

Well, we may be in for our next big storm. No, it's not ice, sleet or snow...it's tornadoes!

The latest weather said that the worst of it should be slightly to the north of us, but it is hitting between 9pm and 2am with winds up to 80 miles per hour!

So here's my decision...do I stay at home, or go spend the night at my parents' house. I do not have a basement. There is no adequate shelter for damaging winds. I'll even admit it...I live in one of those horrible tornado magnets...a mobile home! I have spent multiple nights, pacing the house, praying to God that I survived the storm. Even a small storm sounds terrible inside my house.

It probably sounds like a no-brainer...go to the parents', but I HATE having to spend the night anywhere but at my own house. I can't sleep in any other bed than my own. Plus, I won't be able to watch what I want on TV or be on the internet (okay, those might sound a little petty).

I guess I will just hang out here and wait to see where and when the storm is going to hit. I'm watching the news right now, and will keep my eye out for changes. The parents' house only a mile down the road, so I can literally wait until the last minute.

Wish us all luck!

Everyone Loves Chucks

Everyone loves a good pair of Chucks...Even cats!

Okay, maybe not everyone, but I know I do! These are my old, comfy Chucks. It looks like Noel likes these Chucks too, although maybe not for the same reason that I do. This is not the first time that she's slept on my chucks because I've found cat hair on them before.

Do you have a favorite pair of shoes?

Why My Kindle is Going to Bankrupt Me

I love my Kindle. Let me say that again…I LOVE MY KINDLE!! I love my Kindle but it is going to bankrupt me.

How you might ask? It is too easy to download a new book…anytime…anywhere. I already have my Amazon account set up and so all I have to do is click Buy on any book I want. $6 here, $8 there… It’s starting to add up.

In the long run my Kindle should actually save me money. Books are much cheaper in Kindle format, especially if you are purchasing a brand new book. Titles are never more than $9.99, even when they are $20 on the shelf. Most classics you can download for free on the internet, or really cheap on Amazon (less than a dollar).

Sometimes, however, I pay more for a title in Kindle format than I would if I bought it used on Amazon. Take the series I am currently reading. They are costing me $6 on Kindle, but can be bought used for around a dollar. With shipping, that usually adds up to somewhere around four bucks. However, I like reading books on my Kindle and I have some OCD issues when it comes to reading a book that other people have read. I don’t know what kind of germs might be on used books. Gross.

The big problem is accessibility. One night I downloaded the next book in the series I am reading at two in the morning. I don’t have to wait to go to the story or wait for an online purchase to arrive in the mail. In less than one minute, I have a brand new book ready for me to read. I love that! And that is what is going to bankrupt me. I am buying more books than I would normally buy.

On the flip side… I spend well over a hundred dollars at Barnes and Noble alone every year. I have a membership and when I get in that store, I am libel to spend close to a hundred dollars on books that just speak to me. “Take me home” they say. I don’t know how many coffee table books I have bought over the years that I won’t read. I find them in the bargain aisle and just can’t walk away. I don’t even have a coffee table anymore. I think I’m going to let my B&N membership run out (I really only use it on Starbucks a few times a year now that I have my Kindle), and try to stay away from the bargain aisle!

So, I don’t know… You tell me.

Gran Day

Today was a "Gran Day". That's what we call Saturdays in my family because my brother and his family, along with myself, spend the day at my Mom's (aka: Gran).

We started out the day going to a local discount grocery store. I love going there because you never know what you will find there. It's like an adventure to find great buys. Today, I bought more Tide and also found some Pantene shampoo in bulk. I'm not sure where they get this stuff, but they put it in their own generic jugs and then put a tag next to the jugs telling you what brand the product is. I also buy Downy there in large quantities, but didn't need any today. I have regular detergent and softener containers that I then fill up with what I buy at the discount store. I plan on doing the same with the Pantene. Here's a picture of what I am talking about.

Good Buys

I also got some good buys on Kashi cereal and TGIFriday eggrolls. I usually buy my Starbucks coffee beans there (less than $4 a bag!). They are usually just going out of date, but I put them in the freezer and all is good! You really have to check dates (I never by mayo or salad dressing there), but on some things you can push the use by date (the Kashi cereal was a month out of date, but will be fine) and lots of things are just getting close to the date. Some products have slight damage, and that is why they're there.

I spent the rest of the morning hanging out with the kids and relaxing. The kids were especially relaxed today (no running around screaming), and spent some time just sitting on the couch watching "kids shows" as the Niece calls them. They don't have TV at their house (only videos), so they enjoy getting to watch TV at Gran's.

Nephew J is really starting to chatter a lot, but it is funny because he only has a few real words, but you can tell that he really thinks he's saying something. He was needing to be entertained a lot today, but it was cute.

We still have some sleet that hasn't melted, but it sure is doing so fast. Today was another 60 degree day, and the ground was turning to mud pretty fast. My road is practically a quagmire. There's not that much gravel left on it, and there are a lot of low spots that collect all the run-off from the sleet melting.

Muddy Roads

Hope that everyone had a great weekend. Let me know what fun things you did this weekend.

My Pet Peeves

• I hate it when people say anyways, that is not a word...there is no S, it is anyway.
• A new one that is starting to drive me nuts is libary. Also, no such word. Some of my students say it that way, and I've even gone to the board and spelled it for them libRary. They say it's the same thing. I tell them one is a word and represents the room full of books they are asking to go to and the other is not a word and doesn't exist. (I couldn’t believe it, but I saw a 60 Minutes reporter say this on O’Reilly the other day)
• On my 25 Random Things post, I already mentioned my problem with the whole desert island thing.
• People who don't wash their hands when they go to the bathroom. Check out 25 Random Things for more info.
• I have a lot of pet peeves that have to do with bad driving. Number one is people that drive in the left lane of a 4-lane road. You aren't in England…get over. The left lane is just for passing and now I'm going to have to pass you on the right...which I'm pretty sure is a no-no. I also really hate it when people tail-gate…Brake Check!!
• I hate that lots of people pronounce Alzheimers as Old-Timers (Altimers). I even heard someone in a commercial for an Alzheimers support group pronounce it Altimers. Come on.
• Blue tooth earpieces. I am tired of being in an aisle at Wal-Mart and thinking some lady is talking to me, only to turn around and realize she’s got one of the earpieces in (usually covered with her hair, which is why I didn’t notice it in the first place). You are not that important! Truck drivers need it; use it while you’re driving…you do not need it to go shopping.
• Students who sleep in my class and then are all indignant when they have a 12%
• I hate it when characters in movies and TV shows walk into a house and NEVER shut the door. What’s up with that?
• I hate it when characters in movies and TV shows drink coffee out of cups that are obviously empty, even thought they just bought it. This used to drive me crazy when watching Gilmore Girls.
• I can’t stand it when people feel that proper English is not important when they are blogging or commenting on a blog post. No expects you to be perfect, but you should at least capitalize words at the beginning of a sentence and proper nouns. (Check out my post about this and more blogging issues).
• LOL – I think it is WAY over used and no longer has the same connotation. I don’t think people are really laughing out loud when they write LOL, especially if they use it after every sentence.

I am sure I will think of a bunch more as soon as I post this. Be on the lookout for Pet Peeves vol. 2

AI – Hollywood Day Two

I was hoping to have some group pictures to add to this post, but...

Group Round = Drama!!

There were several major Drama Queens. Tatiana really stuck out with how she was going back and forth from one group to another. Ridiculous. I really can’t take much more of her laugh. She went back to her original group, and they made it through, but I wish they would stop doing montages of Tatiana laughing because I have about had it.

Then there was the drama with both the Diva Group and Team Compromise (who, ironically, could not manage to compromise). Bikini girl went MIA on the Diva Group and they had to track her down. Apparently she was too tired to perform. She finally shows up…majorly late. BTW: What is the hippie girl (Rose) doing in the Diva Group? They totally screwed her chances to go through farther. She should have picked a group with something closer to her singing style and I think she would have made it at least another round. Team Compromise never did seems to get it together, with a lot of blaming of the other members. Simon called them out for sabotaging each other when they were singing backup.

I’m not sure why we have group round. It seems like most of these people want to be solo artists. Also, the other people in their group can really screw them. They have to pick who they want to be in a group with and usually don’t even know them well enough to be able to make good vocal and stylistic groupings.

The group White Chocolate was fairly awesome. They really figured out what all their strengths were and went with it.

The group (The Rainbow Coalition?) with the two best friends in it sang a capella and they did such a great job.

David Osmond didn’t make it in a group? I wish they would have shown that. The Osmonds are all about group singing. In fact, during his first audition the judges commented on him singing a group song instead of a solo song.

BTW: Nick showed up (no Norman) and he made it through even though his group wasn’t any good.

I wish they would have shown Little Castro (can’t remember his first name) because if the rumors are true, he doesn’t make it to the top 35 and I would like to have listened to him sing. They keep showing him as one of the masses that made it through, but no solo TV time.

75 made it through to the next round.

AI – Hollywood Day One

First round was unbelievably uninspiring and boring. I guess there are too many people to get through to really focus on much. Can’t wait for the real challenges to start. Because of this, I am going to make a few remarks without much explanation. If you saw it you will know what I’m referring to.

New twist this year…Idol Boot Camp (stylists and vocal coaches). Barry Manilow?

Kara, “That was hott.” Catch-phrase?

Nick=Norman. AI made us think that we were going to get Nick, but then we got Norman. It was nice for a little comic relief. I still can’t believe that he made it through…again. He really can sing though. It will be interesting to see if he drops the act or not. And… if he is still a good singer without the act to inspire him.

“Friendship” montage. At least it was a little tongue-in-cheek because there’s no way these people are friends yet.

Bikini girl. She was molesting Ryan again. She still couldn’t really sing, and this time she didn’t have the bikini to help her. Simon is being way too easy on her; I wonder how long he will let this go on.

104 go on to round two, even though we only heard about 20 of them sing. Wednesday is Group Round. Bring it on.

Also, let the product placement (and mini commercials) begin!

Spending Time With the BFF

Because we didn't have school...again, I invited myself on a shopping trip with my BFF and her mom. Yes, I invited myself, but to be fair, I have been given an open invitation to do so. We had a lot of fun. I bought a new purse. I've been looking for one for over a year and finally found one I liked. I'm still not sure about the color (it's a grey-green), but the BFF liked it. I also found some cheap sunglasses like I wanted. I had also been looking for this style of sunglasses for a year. Both pairs of my good sunglasses had broken and the superglue wasn't holding, so I guess it was definitely time for a new pair.

The new purse. It is really big! Just like I like them.

On our way to the “big city” we stopped by a McDonalds in an Amish heavy town. This is the only McDonalds I know of that has a place to tie up your horses. It’s not as impressive in the picture considering they piled all the sleet up around it. The Dollar General across the highway also has a tie up.

Amish Parking

We had lunch at the Olive Garden because the BFF really wanted to eat there. We all had the Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks…yum. I love the salad and breadsticks; I’m not sure why they are so good, but they are.

Right before leaving for the trip home, we stopped at Barnes and Noble. I love that place. I usually don’t get out of there without spending a lot of money, but I managed to refrain from getting any books. I did look through some photography books, but couldn’t find one that I liked more than the others and decided to wait. Maybe I’ll get one used on Amazon or just look through tutorials on the web (although I really want a book to thumb through). I told myself I wasn’t going to buy any books because I’ve already bought 5 books on my Kindle since Christmas. I did, however, treat everyone to Starbucks. Starbucks is part of what makes B&N so wonderful.

When we got home, the BFF and I went to visit our friend who had just gotten home from the hospital from having a baby. The new addition was pretty cute.

Shortly after I got home, I noticed Bella playing with something. She was batting something around on the living room floor. I went over to investigate and this is what I found.

Yep, it’s a dead mouse. Welcome to my world.

Tuesday

Still no school on Tuesday. I needed to make a grocery shopping trip and pick up a present for my nephew’s birthday (he’ll be three) and I knew that the BFF needed to go to the social security office so I asked her if she wanted to go together. The BFF needed to change her name on her SS card because she was married last summer. We got there around 3pm, but the SS office had moved. I had to call the CG’ma for directions and it was still hard to find. Why do they hide places like this?

By the time we were done with the SS office I got a call from Mom telling me that a friend (high school bff) had to take her daughter (under 2 yrs) to the emergency room for breathing problems. We were right next the hospital, so we stopped by, and I’m glad we did. I felt so sorry for them; it has to be really scary having to take your baby to the emergency room. I’m praying for them, but also for my niece and nephews because they were all in the same nursery together on Sunday! Hope the virus doesn’t get passed on.

After a fun trip to Wally-World (Wal-Mart), we were going back to my Mom’s house to wait on the BFF’s mom so we could all watch Mama Mia together. Girls’ Night!

I love going to Wal-Mart with the BFF. It is so much more fun to shop with someone else than it is to shop by yourself. We tend to make fun of random items.

Girls’ Night was great. The BFF and I picked up some Little Caesar’s on the way home from shopping and Mom had made a chocolate sheet cake. It was fun just to hang out and watch a movie.

Good food, good fun and good friends!

What do you like to do with your best friends?

Satellite Update

Just an update on my satellite situation.

This morning as I was sitting and reading, all of a sudden the idea came to me that my satellite might have been knocked around when those 4 inches of sleet fell off my roof in giant sheets. Although I only had 2 pages left in my book, I threw it aside and ran outside to check. YES! One of my satellites was sitting askew. I came back inside for a coat and a wrench and set the receiver to the satellite strength test signal (where it screeches at you in increasing decibels until you get the satellite pointed in the right direction). I started fiddling around with angling the satellite in what I thought was the right direction.

Success! I heard the high pitch screech and knew I had locked on to a signal. I went inside and turned to a local channel. Wrong. I had locked onto a signal, but now I was getting ESPN on the channel where I normally pick up CBS. Weird.

I put on another layer (man, it was cold out there) and went back to trying to search for a signal. It took awhile, but I managed to find the right signal (it was a lot further east than I remember). YES!!! I have local networks back and will not have to be without them for 3 weeks. I called DirecTV and canceled the "upgrade" that I had scheduled.

I actually feel a little stupid for not thinking of the ice falling onto the satellite earlier. For some reason, it just didn't occur to me. I had thought that all the ice had already fallen off of that side of the house already, but should have realized it because of how close the satellite is to the house.