Too good to forget

It's nutty what I obsess about sometimes.

All day today I've been thinking about the macaroni
and cheese dish I made yesterday. MAC AND CHEESE!
Bro Ken and I had asked the folks and Bro Steve if
they wanted to come over for Memorial Day and have a
barbecue, and be on the patio, depending on the
weather. Mom has a really hard time climbing the step
into my house so when it's nice we're always outside.

It rained Saturday. It rained Sunday. And Monday
dawned pretty nice and got better throughout the
afternoon. I called them and they said they'd really
rather stay at home and not trust the weather to stay
nice (how can I blame them?)

So we decided to take dinner over there. Ken started
barbecuing his ribs at about 11:00 am - a couple of
racks at a time at a couple hours per session, so he
got those done about 3:00. FOUR racks of pork ribs -
we have LOTS of leftovers. I decided to make
something else meaty that Dad could eat because he
can't really gnaw on ribs anymore - I think he's just
never adjusted well to his dentures...so I made mac
and cheese with loads of sausage. Oh, man, THIS WAS
GOOD! There was quite a bit left but I left it over
at their house for them to munch on today. And my
mouth has been watering for it all day - I'm obsessing
on my sausage mac and cheese. Salivating over it.
And I left it over there.....

I also made a salad with lettuce, cabbage, grated
carrots, sharp cheese and grape tomatos which was
really good but I'm not fantasizing about it. Baked
beans? No excess saliva. Corn on the cob? Nope.

Just the damned sausage mac and cheese.

Quake and Volcano - Oh, My!

This sounds pretty familiar: The huge quake in Java,
that killed and devastated so many, may have
destabilized Mount Merapi and NOW there's the
possibility of having to survive an erupting volcano.

This is just what the scientists are speculating might
happen here if the "big one" hits the Cascadia fault,
creates a huge tsunami, and perhaps weakens one or
more of the mountains in the Cascades. Some of them -
St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Hood, South Sister - are
currently showing signs of rumbling.

I just can't imagine what the people in Java must be
thinking. They're dealing with the aftermath of the
horrible earthquake and they're looking at the
mountain as it spews and spits and they probably
wonder just how much more they can take.

AI: One last thing

Hey, here's something I forgot in my recap of the AI
final.

David Hasselhoff was in the audience and he was crying
buckets of tears at the end. What is he? Taylor's
boyfriend or something?

OK, that was snarky, I know. But TEARS!?!

AI: Idols and Idols (and Taylor Hicks)- An Ending

Well, I had no intention of watching the finals show.
In fact, with "Lost" winding up its season with a
2-hour finale at the same time plus a catch-you-up
show at 8:00, my plan was to just stick with the one
and ignore the other because I did not want to see 2
hours of crap-filled filler just to have Taylor
announced as the winner.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I switched over from
"Lost" during a commercial at 8:14 pm and saw Paris
singing a duet with Al Jareau. What? Al Jareau is
here? Then, Ryan introduced Chris - and he was
singing with Live! Man, oh, man, that was good -
what's going on here?

It appears that I missed the first song of the night,
which was current AI, Carrie Underwood, singing with
Kat and Taylor. I imagine I didn't miss much.

Then, for a little humor, we had Wolfgang Puck and
Kellie Pickler in a little thing called "Puck and
Pickler". Which basically played on the fact the
Kellie is pretty ignorant about exotic food, as am I,
and can't always pronounce it or believe that people
actually eat it (again, ME). So, when Puck introduced
her to escargot from the menu, she couldn't believe
people actually ate snails, and then a plate of them
appeared in front of her and she was shocked to be
told to eat one. Which she pretended to do but was
grossed out and spit it into her napkin and placed it
under her chair (hah! me exactly). They followed
later in the show with another little vignette about
lobster, which she knew about and might have even
eaten, but they placed two live, crawling-around
lobsters on the table and she freaked (again, ME).
Her food reactions are so in tune with me and mine
that I have a great time watching and understanding
her where other folks might not. When it comes to
food and what you will and will not put in your mouth,
Kellie and I are cosmic sisters.

Anyway, on to the music. Following Pickler and Puck,
Meatloaf came onstage and sang with Kat. Now, I'm a Meatloaf

fan from way back and even I thought something was off about the

performance - I think it started in the wrong key for him and then he

added bunches of vibrato which I didn't like - but it was great seeing him. The song

just didn't work for them. I heard later he was upset about the performance.

Ryan then introduced a new stupid part of the show - the
Golden Idols. He said they would award a few that
night, and started with Outstanding Female Vocalist.
These were culled from the best of the worst of the
auditions. They showed a few of the "nominations" and
then awarded it to Princess Brewer, who thought she
sounded like Aretha Franklin and auditioned with
"That's What Friends Are For." And sucked the big one.

Ryan then moved on to Outstanding Male Vocal. There
was no shortage of worthwhile auditions (snark.) but
nobody could forget Crazy Dave Hoover jumping around
and singing "Bat Out of Hell." Crazy Dave was there
and leapt around the stage to accept his award. yawn.

The male finalists, all wearing black, sang a montage
of "guy songs." "Taking Care of Business", "Tobacco
Road", "Don't Stop" - Bucky! was as sweet and
beautiful as ever - Kevin and Ace were just there,
Elliot looked and sounded great, Taylor even sang well
- when these guys sing together they really do sound
better than any of the previous seasons' group
sing-along mixes. Chris was awesome also. I was
thrilled to see Bucky! who, you know if you've been
reading this, is my favorite. Not so much for his
singing which is good in a honky-tonk-bar kind of way
but he is so sweet, he has such a lovely smile and he
seems so genuine that something about him just tugs at
me and makes me smile when I see him. (sorry, I can't
help it. It's out of my control.)

Next, they showed a new Ford Pimpommercial, one that
combined parts of all the previous ones, and featured
Kat and Taylor sitting in a drive-in theater in a
convertible, watching the season's pimpommercials.
When they returned to the stage, Ryan had Kat and
Taylor up there with him and he surprised them both
with keys to a brand new Mustang convertible. yawn.

Golden Idol: Proudest Family Moment.
This was a pretty nice one, because it showcased
three nice things: Elliott's mom who has always been there for him and
whom we've kind of gotten to know over the past
several weeks; Chris' wife, who has been so supportive
of him; and Kat's dad, who loves his little girl so
much and has cried gallons of tears on national TV.
And the winner is, Elliott's mom.

Ryan asks E-Mom to introduce her baby, Elliott, which
she does, and Elliott comes on stage to sing "One." A
few bars into the song Mary J. Blige slides on stage
to join him and it's awesome, except she kind of hogs
the song but I don't think he cares - it's nice to see
Elliott so Happy - he's just beaming. She was kind of rude to him.

Cut to Lost: the end of Reckoning - me to the TV as
Michael is thrown out of the bushes to Jack and Kate:
"Don't trust Michael! Leave him in the jungle!
Aacchhh!!!"

Carrie is next, and she's fresh from her wins the
night before at the Country Music Awards: Best New
Female Vocalist, and Best Song (Jesus Take The Wheel).

She's absolutely gorgeous and sings her new single,
"Don't Forget to Remember Me." It's pretty good, but
all I can think of is how bored Simon must be - he
hates country music (or at least that's his story).
At the same time, he must be very proud of Carrie and
her accomplishments - in only one year.

Golden Idol Award: The Randy Jackson Award for Public
Speaking.

This was won hands down by Rhonetta Johnson, who
appeared to us in auditions in a white miniskirt,
silver tube top, silver go-go boots, and possessing
the biggest potty-mouth in the history of history.
They presented her award to "her"* via satellite, made
some jokes, she got mouthy and they "lost the
satellite feed." She was unnecessary. She's very
crude and AI is giving her 15 minutes of undeserved
fame. *I think it was a look-alike but it was hard to tell.

Back to music: Taylor comes out and starts singing
"In The Ghetto." A few bars in, he's joined onstage
by Toni Braxton and they sing it out together. This
combination worked less well than some of the others,
but it was OK.

Next, the Girls do their medley of "girl" songs: "Man,
I feel Like a Woman", "I Am Woman", "Natural Woman",
"I've Every Woman" - it was all pretty good. This was
Lisa, Melissa (who?), Kat, Kellie, Mandisa and Paris.
This was really good, they all sounded great,
especially Mandisa who is awesome, but still needs someone to dress her.

Golden Idol: Best Impersonation of Another Artist

This one was pretty funny: It featured Kenneth ? when
he auditioned in Cher's voice - or what he thought was
Cher's voice. Hysterically funny the second time too.

Seth Strickland, who thought he was a dead-ringer
white-boy for Michael Jackson during the Thriller-era,
but who couldn't remember the words, couldn't sing and
dance at the same time, and kept saying "Oh, Crap"
when he couldn't remember where he was in the song.
You just can't make up this stuff.

The next nominee was Michael, who had fixed his hair
and dress to resemble Clay Aiken, and was proud of the
fact that he "sounded" like Clay too, except he
didn't. At all. Poor Michael was severely deluded,
but he sure liked Clay. Oh, I almost forgot - he's
the one who, when he realized how badly he was doing,
told the judges "I'm nervous as hell and I gotta go
pee." HAH! So they let him go pee, to the
accompanyment of the Chariots of Fire Theme, and he tried again
and was just as bad.

And the winner was, of course, Michael aka "Clay". He
came onstage to receive his "award" and Ryan asked him
if he would like to sing one of Clay's songs - "Don't
Let the Sun Go Down on Me", and he was excited and
started right in. The kid seriously thinks he can
sing, I think, and he closed his eyes and started
crooning - they let him get just a couple of bars in
when the curtain opened behind him and a newly-coiffed
(longer, dark hair) Clay Aiken stepped out and started
singing with him. The audience went crazy, Michael
opened his eyes wondering what was going on, took a
few seconds before he realized the attention was no
longer on him, turned around, saw Clay, and screamed
and yelled and jumped around. He was almost beside
himself with excitement. It was very genuine and so
touching that, even though that whole maneuver is so
hackneyed and old, it was awesome and made me a bit
teary-eyed. Michael just kept singing (sort of - he was
shaking very badly) with Clay, until Ryan finally
brought him a stool to sit on before he fell over, and
Clay pretty much took over the song, but Michael's
face was just awesome to watch - the tears were
rolling, he was shaking and awestruck and the look in
his eyes was just magical. In fact, it was Michael,
not Clay, who made that moment shine. It was Magic of
a kind we're not privileged to see very often. Some people

thought it was hokey - I think it was sweet and rawly emotional.

Bert Bacharach was next - he and the Finalists sang a
(long) montage of a bunch of his songs, but then
Dionne Warwick came out and sang with them. The
Bert/Dionne relationship goes way, way back and it was
fun watching them interact again. This was
quite a long segment but it was pretty good. She sang
"Walk on By" and with the group sang "That's What
Friends Are For." I've never been a big Dionne fan so this was just OK for me.

Plus, there was a real clunker note at the end from Dionne.

Lost: What's with the statue? Huh? It's only a leg
from mid-calf on down and there are only 4 toes. It's
on the beach - Sayid, Jin and Sun see it from the
boat. Oh, man, this is definitely something we won't
see again until next year.

Golden Idol: Male Bonding
A reprise of the 3 cowboys from the auditions (Garrett
and the other two I don't know). They came out, AI
called them the Brokenote Cowboys (ha ha.) and they
sang "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be
Cowboys." It was actually pretty good and kind of
cool to see them because they were all (especially
little Garrett) a big part of the auditions.
(The way the rest of the night had gone, I was kind of
hoping Willie Nelson would pop out from behind the
curtain while they were singing, but he didn't).

Ryan's back on stage, and he says "OK, down to
business - no more guest stars. Let's hear it for
your finalists!." Audience starts whooping, the lights
start flashing, the music rises, camera points to the
closed curtain and........two scantily clad dancing
girls come out. What? They gyrate for a few seconds
- point to the curtain (ala The Price Is Right) and
out comes...........Prince. The crowd explodes and he
sings two songs - "Satisfied" and another. That Ryan
is such a trickster.

OK, down to business again, really, this time. Ryan
calls out Kat and Taylor. 63 MILLION votes Tuesday
night ("more votes than a Presidential election" or something),
Taylor wins. Who cares.

Kat is gracious and lovely, Taylor is overwhelmed and
when he gets himself back together he sings his new single, the
title of which I forgot already but it's the one he
sang Tuesday night, the typical AI ballad.

I never wanted Taylor to win. But from the first of
the final 12 and I saw how he never finished in the
bottom 3 or the bottom 2 and his popularity grew, I
knew he would win. I resigned myself to it when Chris
was voted off, then Elliot was voted off.

Taylor annoys the crap out of me with his spazzy
moves, his fetal-back dancing, and his various tics,
but the fact is that he comes across as always being
upbeat and pretty joyful just to be there. And he
loves to sing. I think he's basically an ass, but
America voted him as their next American Idol, so now
they have him. Enjoy!

AI: Fetal-Back Will Win

Well, the writing is certainly on the wall for Kat
McPhee - she lost. She just doesn't know it yet, but
she'll find out tonight.

From the time of the auditions, I have not liked
Taylor or his spazzy mannerisms, or his one-note
voice. But I knew, and it became clear as the season
wore on, that he would win. It's something I don't
understand, but people seem to be enamoured with him,
with his gray hair (for fuck's sake) and his singing
and "dancing."

Last night, the final night, the most important night
in the lives of Taylor and Kat so far, somebody
decided that Taylor would win, and they'd make sure of
it by screwing Kat and giving her an unsingable,
boring song to sing in the finale.

Now, I must admit that neither of these two were my
picks to win AI (Hello, Elliott and Chris!) - the fun
times of the Carrie Underwood/Bo Bice rivalry are
gone, and Taylor and Kat just don't have "it",
whatever "it" is.

I don't know, I'm rambling now because it is all so
meaningless to me this year and the final "ballad" was
so gouge-your-eyes-out-boring that no one who sang it
would have a hope of winning - so bye-bye Kat, you got
screwed, the writing's on the wall, tonight's just a
formality to nail your coffin shut.

I just want to say one more thing: Who is handling
Kat? They are surely not working in her best
interests - Black Cherry/Red Horse (whatever the hell)
and Over the Rainbow were good the first time but she
should not have re-done BOTH of them, and certainly
not from the goddamned floor. And then the sheer
horror of that ill-chosen "My Destiny" song.

Blech, it's Taylor's show to lose tonight.

I knew AI would be indescribably horrible so I mostly
watched Stephen King's "Desperation" last night and
just switch-oed to AI. Which one was more
"indescribably horrible?" The singing competition or
the horror movie? Well, in my book, the entire
essence of Taylor Hicks, and Kat singing the "My
Destiny" song (or whatever it was) beat Stephen King
in the stomach-turning.

Cruise Ramblings

In some ways I wish my vacation was coming up sooner
than December, because it seems too far off. When the
cruise comes up and people ask "when are you going?"
all excited like, and I say "December" it seems like
years away. I know it'll be here soon - I'm already
trying to get ready by buying stuff ahead of time
because after July there won't be any summer-type
items in the stores.

My BIG problem is that I have to guess what clothing
size I'll be wearing in December. I'm sticking to
buying clothing in the 20-22-24 size range because I
THINK that's where I'll be but what if I don't get
there? I'll have a bunch of summer crap in those
sizes but won't be able to fit into them. What if, by
some miracle, I lose more than I think I will and
those sizes are too big by then? Yikes, I'll
literally have nothing to wear. Unfortunatley (or
fortunately), I guess I'd have the option of taking
clothes too big for me and be able to pig-out on the
ship. Or I could stop trying to lose weight when I
get down to 20 and just hold it till after the trip,
but I'd kind of hate to do that - I might not be able
to re-motivate myself. I'm not looking at that being
a real problem, though. In the real world, you know.

I got another dress on Saturday - I ordered it from
this cool mail order company I found that specializes
in larger sizes. I got it in a 22-24 - it's lined
georgette, in a very pretty blue with a muted white
print, flutter sleeves, a v-neck in both back and
front, and an asymetrical hem. It's very cute, but
seems a little big. But, what do I know, I haven't
been that size in years.

I guess I'll take a couple of dresses with me - Maime
says we're dining in the dining room for dinner at
least a couple of times. Left on my own, I'd probably
just eat casual and buffet for every meal. So, I've
gone from taking no dresses to taking at least two,
and from "absolutely no" swimsuit, to two. Just in
case. But I'm still making no commitment to actually
wearing a swimsuit - they don't take up much room in
the suitcase so I'm just putting them in. That's all.

I now have 5 dresses.
The blue print one.
A seafoam green print
A lovely white one.
A basic black
A peacock blue/green print

I've lost my mind.

Project: Slowly But Surely

I weighed in again today - I just realized it's been
less than a week since my last weigh in (last
Wednesday) so I'm very pleasantly surprised:

Another 5 pounds gone!

33 total since April 4. Yay!!!!!!!

On a side note, if you haven't tried that new KFC bowl
yet with the mashed potatoes, corn, chicken, and
gravy, try it! It's DELICIOUS!!

I have no idea how many calories or grams of fat are
in it but OMG, if you like that combination, which I
do, it's absolutely delicioso.

AI: 55 Minutes of Filler, 5 Minutes of Actual Show/TAR

Damn, one whole hour to make a 5-second announcement!
I didn't watch it, it was on against the season finale
of The Amazing Race and 60 minutes of excitement and
adrenelin vs. 55 minutes of filler - no contest!

I did flip to AI during commercials to see if any
progress had been made and here's what I saw:

filler, sucky stuff, homey stuff, filler, sucky stuff,
homey stuff, and on and on.

FINALLY, they announced the vote. Ryan pointed out
how close the numbers were : 33.68%, 33.26%, and
33.06% - can't get much closer, that's for sure. Then
he announced that Elliott got the 33.06%- the least
amount of votes - and was out.

Tears flowed and Elliott had his "Bad Day" homage.

I'll miss him.

That leaves inconsistent Kat or spazzy Taylor as the
next American Idol. Can't say either is my choice.

ON THE OTHER HAND, BJ and Tyler won TAR!!!! Now, they
WERE my pick from the beginning. I've continually
admired how they stayed relatively calm, picked up
each other's spirits, actively enjoyed talking with
people all over the world and learning bits of all
different languages. They were consistently polite
and were superb players and I don't think they left
any Ugly American skidmarks as they raced around. The
frat boys were just skeevy and rude most of the time.

The funniest thing? Eric and Jeremy were visibly
pissed off when they came in second. Talk about sore
losers - they didn't even try to hide their hatred of
coming in second. Third place Ray and Yolanda, on the
other hand, were just as happy and lovey-dovey as
could be.

AI: This is Where It Gets Serious, America"

Ryan can be such a dick sometimes. Three contestants
left and NOW it gets serious? What the hell is he
talking about?

Anyway, each contestant sings 3 songs tonight. The
first round of songs were chosen by Clive Davis, the
second round by the judges, and the third round by the
contestants.

Here goes:

Elliott is up first. Clive chose Journey's "Open
Arms" for Elliott. He does a pretty good job - he
excels at big songs and has a good voice for Journey
songs. Pumpkinhead Randy, of course, has to point out
that he was in Journey and Elliott's rendition was
just OK. Simon thinks he needs to loosen up and not
be so nervous.

Kat: Clive chose "I Believe I Can Fly" which is so
overdone it needs to leave the stove. She gave it so
many vocal gymnastics and riffs and trills she lost
the melody. It wasn't very good. Girl is gorgeous in
a lovely blue dress.

Taylor: Clive got Bruce Springsteen's permission for
Taylor to sing "Dancing in the Dark". I thought he
was OK, but I still CAN'T like Taylor. He grabbed
Paula onto the stage to take the Courtney Cox part,
unfortunately her dress top wasn't nailed down with
double stick tape so we almost had a wardrobe
malfunction. Simon: "Taylor, you were just OK; Paula,
for your age you were fantastic!" hee

Judges Picks:

The contestants' local mayors or governors read the
judges picks - this was pretty damned hokey.

Elliott: Paula's choice for Elliot was "What You
Won't Do For Love." Good choice for Elliott - he has
a good R&B tone and the song was right in his range.

Kat: Simon chose "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" for
Kat, and she sang it beautifully. It was simply gorgeous and
understated - she did not over-sing the song, and that
allowed her natural voice to shine. The judges all
agreed that this was her performance of the season.

Taylor: Randy chose "You Are So Beautiful" for Taylor
because he has a "Joe Cocker/Ray Charles vibe". Duh!
He's patterned his whole style after them, with a
little Winwood and McDonald thrown in.
His performance was OK. He has a nice voice but I
just hate his mannerisms.

Contestant's Picks

Elliott: Elliott chose "I Believe To My Soul" which
is apparently a Ray Charles song, re-sung by Donny
Hathaway. I've never heard it before - it's very R&B
but the problem is that it's not a well-known song. I
agree with Simon when he said that may go against him
because the audience is not familiar with how the song
should sound.

Kat: Kat chose "I Ain't Got Nothin' But The Blues".
She said she wanted to choose a song where she
wouldn't be compared to other contemporary singers,
but the first thing Randy said (he did this
deliberately, I know) is that she wasn't Ella
(Fitzgerald) so it was just so-so. I think that was
pretty mean. She did a pretty good job on the song, I
thought, and she looked lovely in a black dress.

Taylor: He chose to sing "Try A Little Tenderness"
and I think he butchered it. The judges seemed to
like it though. The ending was horrendous. BTW, I am
so tired of him yelling out "Soul Patrol! Soul
Patrol!" when Ryan is talking to him.....

Should go: Taylor, cause I hate him. But I think he
has a lock on the final two.

Will go: Elliott

Damn.

Project update - 28

Well, now.

It's been a week today since last weigh-in and I just
felt I had to do it. Sometimes it's hard waiting two
weeks or so. I think I'll just do it when I feel the
need.

Anyway, I've lost another 5 pounds.

That makes 28 total since April 4. Here's how the
goals are coming along:

Goal #1: Find the scale. DONE

Goal #2: Lose 20 pounds. DONE!

Goal #3: Get out of the 3's. Not there yet.

AI: I Admit It, I Was Shocked

Chris is gone? Chris? How is it possible? He was the
only one left who has even a shot at a successful
post-Idol career, he was always "on", he has a
distinctive style and he's GONE? I see only two
potentially successful careers from this batch of
Idols - Paris and Chris. And they're both gone.

So, anyway, we go back to Graceland, where Queen
Priscilla gives the Idols a little tour through the
trophy rooms and, I have to admit, that was very
impressive. Huge rooms filled with gold and platinum
records and Elvis stuff. Princess Lisa Marie came out
and gave them a golf cart ride through the grounds.
They all went to see the grave. It was pretty cool
actually to have the tour given by Priscilla and Lisa
Marie.

Group sing of Elvis songs - better than usual.
Ford pimpmmercial - highlight was Kermit the Frog

Melissa Rivers, Rebecca Romijn and Jerry O'Connel in
the audience. Rebecca earned my ire forever when Ryan
was talking with her and she requested Taylor to sing
"Jailhouse Rock." Aarrgg! He did, of course,

When that one-note torture-by-Taylor was over we
finally got down to business. Ryan divided the four
Idols into two groups of two.

Elliott and Taylor
Kat and Chris

He excused Elliott and Taylor - they were to top two
vote-getters.

That left Kat and Chris - of course, I was getting
ready to wave bye-bye to Kat because she deserved it
after the past couple of weeks, but Ryan announced
that CHRIS was gone. She was in shock, he was in
shock, and I was in shock.

Now, I have only one person to vote for. I hate
Taylor and Kat is not consistent enough. That leaves
my favorite from the beginning - Elliott.

Go Elliott! I'm throwing my votes your way next week
even if you suck.

Which he won't, he never has yet.

Project News: Weigh-In

Oh, man. I have to remember to double-check how I set
the scale - I thought I'd lost a whole bunch of weight
but I had the little thingy in the wrong place. BUT,
it's still good news.

Since May 1st, last weigh-in, I've lost another 6
pounds!

23 pounds since April 4.

I think that's pretty good.

AI: They're Off To Graceland to see the Queen

Tonight's show is an "Homage to Elvis." According to
Ryan. I think we'll have to wait and see about that
"homage" part. There are no throwaway contestants left, just
Taylor, Chris, Elliott and Kat. So they all really
have to do their best on each song from now on,
because it's going to be harder and harder to
distinguish between who should stay and who should go.
Kat? Did you hear that? Each! Song! Must! Be!
Perfect! Oops, she wasn't listening.

So, off they went to Graceland, to be greeted by
"whatever happened to" Priscilla Presley. She should
sue her plastic surgeon - she used to be so pretty but
now her face is so taut you could use it as a
trampoline. The price of vanity, I guess.

We meet Tommy Matola, who'll act as coach this week.
They play around Graceland for awhile, and then it's
off to work.

First up on stage is Taylor. He's singing "Jailhouse
Rock" and he prefaces it with the ominous (to me
anyway) phrase "we're going to have some fun tonight!"
Oh, crap, that means he's going to dance. Which he
did. He sang from the audience, did the fetal-back
dancing that drives me crazy, he sang too fast, didn't
enunciate well and just generally butchered the song.
I HATE what he did to that song and he looks so spazzy
when he sings like that - somebody should tell him
that his dancing is horrendous! Somebody besides
Simon because he obviously doesn't listen to Simon.
Gag!

Taylor's second song was a little better: "In The
Ghetto" is a slower, more emotional song, and Tommy
told him to lay off the dancing and just sing the
song. Thank God. It was much better but I just CAN'T
like him. Randy said the second song was in the right
key and the right song, and he should record that type
of song - record?!?!? Simon agreed. Taylor then pumped
his fists and said "Soul Patrol! Soul Patrol!" and
just wiped out any good karma he had just gained.
SUCKED!

Chris: Ryan asked Chris about all the gifts the fans
have sent - food, cologne, and hybrids (boxer briefs)
and I don't know why thay had this stupid little chat.
Chris' first song was "Suspicious Minds" and he was
great. He has an excellent voice for these songs - I
could have done without the sunglasses he wore but his
singing was right on and he sounded fabulous. Elvis
songs are a good fit for him.

His second song was "A Little Less Conversation" which
is not one of my favorite Elvis songs but he was OK on
it - he kind of rocked it up a bit at the end. It was
really pretty good. My favorite part of the song is
the part about "...satisfactioning me" - funny, huh?

Elliott: My man, he's the best, I hope he wins.
Elliott's been my pick from the beginning (along with
Chris) and I'm so happy he's still here and he just
keeps getting better and better. Tonight, his first
song was "If I Could Dream" which I always thought was
called "Tell Me Why" and it is such a gorgeous song.
It starts soft and ends big and is one of those songs
where the impact stays in your head long after the
song is over. Elvis used it as his concert closer
song for good reason. Elliott sang it so beautifully,
it gave me goosebumps. Well Done, Elliott!

His second song was "Trouble"- one of Elvis' more
bluesy songs. Oh, man, Elliott's version was AWESOME.
AWESOME!!! Randy and Paula both said they thought
his "If I Could Dream" may have been his best
performance ever, but then they heard "Trouble" and
changed their minds - his version was just plain
AWESOME! Simon said he came out fighting tonight and
he deserves to go through to the next round. HE
DESERVES TO WIN! His vocalization on this song was
just fantastic.

Katharine: Kat didn't come out to play tonight. Her
first song was "Hound Dog" mixed with "All Shook Up."
Tommy said she has an incredible voice and range but
we didn't really see it on this song - it was really
fun, very dancey, but she got a bit out of breath and
just did not bring the goosebumps. It fell a bit flat
emotionally. Simon thought it was a bit manic, and it
was.

Her second song was "Can't Help Falling In Love" which
is one of my most favorite songs of all. Tommy hit
the nail squarely on the head when he said that
"vocals come easy to her so she forgets what she's
singing about." She got into the riffs and
vocalizations of the song but never conveyed any
emotion. This is an emotional song and even Elvis
sang it softly to give it more impact. Her version
was way too big. Even Simon said "you gave me apple
pie and a gallon of cream, when all I wanted was apple
pie." Exactly.

Bottom 2: Taylor and Kat

Will Go: Unless a miracle happens, Kat.

Always in danger - Elliott. But I just can't see him
going out after tonight's performances which were the
two best of the night.

Project Latest

Tomorrow is May 10th - my last weigh-in was on May
1st.

I plan to hit the scales again tomorrow. I'll let you
know what happens.

The highlights of last week were a large chocolate
bar, Chinese food (twice), refried bean/sour cream dip
and tortilla chips, and a full bacon/egg breakfast.

I really need the weigh-in to make sure I haven't set
myself back.

Cross your fingers - I'm scared.

I bought a new dress for vacation - about 6 sizes
smaller than I am now. And (I didn't tell Maime yet) TWO
damned swimsuits!

Aarrrgg!

Trip Planning

I can't believe I haven't babbled on the blog about
the upcoming trip! It's all I seem to do lately -
talk, talk, talk, about cruising. Anyway, we did it!
We have a deposit down on a cruise out of New Orleans,
hitting stops in Mexico, Guatamala, and
Belize. Which takes care of two of my travel goals at
once - return to New Orleans and go to Belize.

Did you know that Belize used to be called British
Honduras? I didn't - in school it was always British
Honduras, then I didn't hear anything about it again
and I started hearing about some country with the cool
name of Belize. But I didn't actually put the two
together until I read it in a Caribbean ports book
that Maime picked up.

Maime, BroSteve and I are doing this in December,
which is just hitting high season apparently in that
area of the world. I'm just hoping, fingers crossed,
on-one-toe, that we can get out of HERE, and don't hit
any snow storms or anything on the way to NOLA. I
don't want to take any chances of not being able to
make the ship - eeks.......

We plan to hit NOLA a couple of days before sailing so
we can reunite with friends and see stuff we've been
missing. BroSteve has never been there and has been
kind of afraid to go because of the hurricane coverage
so we want to show him that it's a really beautiful,
fun place. We plan to stay an extra day or two
afterwards also. I'm looking forward to chicory
coffee and beignets - I know I didn't spell that right
- at Cafe du Monde. And the French Market. And
Jackson Square. And all that stuff.

My plan is to shop and sightsee my way through 3
countries in December. Can't wait!!

Oh, and EAT!

Maime informed me we're dressing up at least one night
- this ship doesn't really require it so it's
voluntary only. So, in deference to her feelings, I
actually bought a dress.

AND THEN, she said "oh, we don't necessarily have to
go in the pool, but we're going into the hot tub."
I'm like "what?!" She said, yes, and she has already
bought her swimsuit top and will buy the bottom part
next payday. So, I bought a swimsuit. I told her
that just because I have a suit does NOT mean that
I'll wear it. That all depends on what happens once I
scope out the ship and the people.

Now I have to break it to BroSteve that he has to take
at least one nice outfit and swim-trunks. He's going
to just look at me.

I wonder if he'll wear shorts? Annual year-round
temps in this area are 75 to 85 degrees. I'm wearing
shorts.

AI: Buh-Bye, Paris

45,500,000 votes! Can you imagine? How many votes
are cast in the Presidential elections? Of course,
most of these votes are multiples, but still, that's a
heck of a lot of phone calls.

Anyway, we met everybody, rah rah, filler stuff, then
the kids did the obligatory suck-fest sing-along song.
It was even worse than usual this week because it was
some kind of "we are the world"-vibe song called
"Together We Are One" or something horrendous and at
the end they brought out a complete choir to sing and
lift our hearts...bah.

Flashes of Melissa Gilbert and Carmen Electra in the
audience.

Obligatory Ford-pimpmercial. Theme: Driving through
Hollywood makes you turn weird. Or something.

Ryan went down the bench: Taylor, you are safe
(drats). Chris, you are safe (yay!!). Paris, you're
in the bottom 2 (saw it coming).

Paris got up, handed her gum to Ryan (hee!) and sang
the "Kiss" song, She bounced into the audience and
Ryan had to rescue her mic cord. It was pretty funny
watching him try to keep her cord behind her and not
get in her way while she tromped around the stage.

That left Kat and Elliott.
Elliott, you're in the bottom 2. (Me: Oh, No! not
Elliott!)

Elliott sang "On Broadway" - not my fav song of his
but it was OK.

You know what I like? I love the way Paula gets into
the music and just lets go and enjoys herself. She
can't hide the fact that she loves music - that's why
she's so transparent about the judging. If she loves
it she dances or cries or it in some way moves her.
If she doesn't like it she just sits there and then
tries to think of something nice to say. She stood
and danced all through Elliott's performance.

Anyway, Paris and Elliott stood with Ryan, then
"Paris, you're out." And she sang us out with "Be
Without You" from last night.

Paris is bubbly and has an infectious laugh and a
gorgeous singing voice, but she's too young when
compared to the rest of the more seasoned performers.
I'd like to see her in about 5 years when she has a
bit more experience under her belt. I have no doubt
she has the chops to make it big in the music
business, but she's a little kid right now.

AI: The Year You Were Born and Billboard Charts

Oh, how clever. The decided to start having 2 songs
from the kids (it was either that or go to 1/2 hour
and THAT wouldn't do!) so we had two themes last
night: Songs From the Year You Were Born and Top of
the Billboard Charts. or something

I was doing mundane chores before it came on - doing
the dishes, in fact, so I came in a bit late and
missed the first performance. Which was Elliott,
which I didn't know then, but figured out through the
process of elimination. And it turned out he sang "On
Broadway" which is a song I pretty much loathe so I
didn't really care anyway.

The night was a typical Idol mixture of
wretched and wonderful performances. Nobody put
together two good performances, which makes me wonder
what the hell is going on - somebody needs to help
these kids pick good songs!!! If they are getting
help, by now I'd be checking to make sure there were
no backroom deals going on.

Anyway, on with the show:

Paris: Paris' first song was "Kiss", which is a song
I always thought was called "You Don't Have to be Rich."

For this one she was wearing a white-with-
black-trim blouse and black capris, her hair was all
curly and cute and she looked very casual-chic. She
sounded Ok on the song, less screechy in the upper
register than usual. It was just OK. Hey, did she
say Prince was the God of Minnesota? I'm not sure I
heard that right.

Paris' second song was "Be Without You" (or is it
"Me") a song apparently by Mary J. Blige, but I don't
know because it's that convoluted, hipster,
screw-the-melody, r&b type of singing that makes
little sense to me. I HATED this song. HATE. Her
singing was again OK, but a bit nasaly. Hated the
ending. I also hated the camo shirt she was wearing.
Who dresses this girl?

Next up was my man, Chris. Chris' first song was
"Renegade" ("oh, mama, I'm in fear for my life from
the long arm of the law...." Styx) I always thought this
was a pretty cool song, and Chris did not let me down
- this was EXCELLENT! His key change at the end of
the song was fabulous. Chris nailed this song, the
judges loved it, the audience loved it, I loved it.

His next song was just a bit less successful. He sang
"I Dare You". The judges called him out on his
strained voice, and he admitted he's been practicing a
lot - they cautioned him to slow it down. The song
was overshadowed a bit by the director's choice to go
overboard with the flames and the red lights on the
stage, but the song was still pretty good.

Elliott: OK, his first song was "On Broadway" which I
missed but which in recap sounded pretty crappy. His
second song was a beautiful ballad called "Home." I
believe this song has been covered by Michael Buble -
of course, Elliott fits right into Michael's genre so
that just figures. It was a very tender and sweet
song and Elliott just excels at these types of songs.
He should be safe tonight but I bet he's definitely
towards the bottom.

Katharine: Kat's first song was "Against All Odds" and
it was arranged by someone who wants her out of the
competition. This song is one which she should have
nailed in her sleep, but someone screwed with it, took
it out of her range, changed the key so it was too
high and just generally fucked with it. It was a very
meh performance. They did clear up the mystery of the
wardrobe malfunction last week - she didn't realize
she had lost a button and the dress was open higher
than it should have been...hence, panty flash. This week she wore a
sleeveless black dress - with no buttons. She looked
gorgeous as always.

Her second song was much more entertaining. I don't
usually like singers to sit on the stage and sing
because it's just weird, but Kat sang the whole song
on her knees. She was accompanied by two men playing
box drums, she sang "Black Horse & Cherry Tree" and it
was a superb vocal. Perfect song for her and in the
perfect key. BTW, she was barefoot and had green nail
polish on her toes. Ryan had to point that out for Simon. The only drawback to the
performance was that sometimes her movements looked
just like she was humping the floor and that was so
not attractive.

Taylor: I just CAN'T like Taylor, which means that he
will probably win this whole stupid competition.

First song: "Play that Funky Music" which is probably
one of his staple songs in real life, and it sounded
like it - I agreed with Simon when he said it sounded
like a "horrible wedding performance." The audience
seemed to love it - he's probably a shoo-in for the
title, but I just don't like him at all (that is, his
singing style and mannerisms). Oh, God, this song sucked.

His second song was "Something" by the Beatles, which
is a gorgeous, tender song. He was OK on it, I
suppose, but I hated the way he fucked with the ending
to put his own "Taylor-stamp" on it...meh. I had to
laugh when Simon said after the performance, "It's
hard to remember with all your barminess, that you're
a very good singer." Barminess - hee!

My Bottom Two: Paris and Taylor
A More Realistic Bottom Two: Paris and Elliott (or
Kat)

Should go: Paris
Will go: Paris -
unless Paris' fans have been energized by her dismal
ratings of the last couple of weeks - then it'll
probably be Elliott)

Project News

Ok, it's May now, so this morning I thought I should do
a final April check.

Another 2 pounds gone. So the April total (from April
4 to 30) is 17 pounds.

I don't think that's too bad - especially since I have
basically been eating what I want - just more salads
and smaller portions. And water.

Next, we'll see what May brings.

April 4 = 346
May 1 = 329

I can't wait to get out of the "3's"!!!!! I really
don't like that number.

We have a guy here at work who for the past year or so
has only eaten every other day. One day of fasting
and one day of binging. Is that healthy? I'm not
sure - he's lost weight and looks great but I'm just
not sure it's a smart thing to do. I think it would
be really hard. Although, it probably is not a bad
idea to just have a day of water and liquids once in a
while to clear out the system.

My stomach gets too rumbly - I don't think I can do it.

It Could Not Have Been Better

This was a most gorgeous weekend. I took Friday off
and sat outside on the patio for most of day. I read
books, drank iced tea, watched the birds (and the
squirrels) at the bird feeders and the birdbaths, and
chased a neighbor's cat away. Then I did it again on
Saturday, until the rains came.....Sunday was
beautiful and warm again.

Went to dinner on Friday night with Jer - Salvadore
Mollie's (however you spell it) which I like because
they have such delicious pork dishes.

I have to check a birding website to see what kind of
bird has a black and white striped head - we seem to
have a lot of those. Also saw little brown wrens,
Scrub bluejays. Stellar bluejays, lots of robins. I
should probably get a little backyard bird
identification book.

We had woodpeckers of some kind the other day - they
loved the suet, but I didn't see them this weekend.