Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad

TWIT would like to wish a very happy 50th anniversary to my 'Rents.  Yep, fifty years ago today they were married.  And just five years later, I came along.  But I digress.

In an age where half of the marriages end in divorce, being married for fifty years is quite an accomplishment.  I truly admire any couple that has been married for fifty years. It may sound cliche or sappy, but my parents said one thing they've done for the past fifty years is to never go to bed mad -- at each other or at me.  I asked them tonight if there have been any nights when they had to stay up late or never went to bed at all because they were mad and they said no; they always worked through whatever made them mad and were able to get a good night's sleep. That's advice we can all use. 

 

Link Of The Week

I've mentioned before how much I have an obsession with pens and basically anything office-supply related.  But in addition to that, I also have a fetish for purses and any kind of bag - backpacks, messenger bags, briefcases, you name it.  It would be okay if when I bought a new purse or bag I got rid of an old one, but unfortunately I never do.  I could probably open my own purse and bag store.  But I digress.  This week, I bought a new backpack at a very cool site that has thousands of purses, backpacks, suitcases, messenger bags and more.  It's simply called ebags.  Check it out at http://www.ebags.com and buy something. You can't have too many cool backpacks, I always say.

Sentimental Saturday

It's been a weird Saturday for me.  I've been very sentimental all day long.  First of all, I was up at 7:30 this morning.  That in itself is weird enough, given the fact I usually sleep in until 9:00 or 9:30.  I didn't sleep well last so I was ready to get up this morning; I was worried about a friend who had a tree fall on her SUV last night during the bad storms.  I just heard from her a few minutes ago, and there was no damage to her SUV, thank goodness.  But anyhoo, I was up early and decided to use my time wisely and went for my daily bike ride this morning before it got hot and before the storms came.  It was one of the nicest bike rides I've had since I started.  I purposely didn't bring my iPod and instead of listening to music this morning I thought and reflected. 

I first thought about my friend who was nervously waiting for her landlord to saw up the tree that was on top of her car so she could see if her car was damaged.  I can truly empathize with her on that one.  About ten years ago, I was at school in my first semester back as I was working on my Bachelor's Degree, and a tornado came through and blew down a gigantic tree on the campus.  The tree landed on my Blazer and 6 other cars.  The Blazer was at the body shop for almost three weeks getting repaired. But it could have been worse.  I vividly remember the night and morning after the tree fell, still not knowing the extent of the damage on my car.  I was a nervous wreck. 

As I rode on, I started thinking about myself, and how lucky I am to have parents and a best friend who love me unconditionally.  I know that sounds sappy, but I spent quite a bit of time this morning reflecting on that.  Then later on this morning, I thought about how lucky and blessed I am for my health, as I was thinking about a dear friend who is not only going for chemo treatments right now, but who is having to go to the hospital every day for two weeks to get antibiotics to treat an infection she has as a result of the chemo port in her arm. 

When I got back home from running some errands earlier, I laid down on the bed to take a nap, and even though I felt exhausted, I couldn't sleep; my mind was still racing and I was thinking too much and still feeling sentimental.  ThenI decided that wasn't such a bad feeling after all.

Flashback Friday

                                                     

Anyone that knows me knows I love my electronic gadgets. I keep my cell phone and iPod in my purse at all times; if I forget them at home on a rare occasion, I feel as if my umbilical cord has been cut.  But I haven't always been that way.  In my early adult years, I could not have cared less about electronics.  And in my teenage years, things like that were the farthest thing from my mind.  I guess that's a good thing because back then, there weren't too many electronic gadgets out there.  There was one very cool gadget, though; I never had one, but it was very cool nonetheless.  It was Merlin, the Electronic Wizard.

Merlin was a handheld electronic game made by Parker Brothers in 1978.  It was the earliest and most popular handheld games, selling over 5 million units during it's initial run.  It remained popular throughout the 1980's.  Trying to compete with the Game Boys and other handheld games, Milton Bradley recently re-released Merlin.

Merlin was created by Bob Doyle, a Harvard PhD. and inventor who had previously worked for NASA.  Merlin was a rectangular device about eight inches long and three inches wide, and resembled a big red touch-tone telephone.  The play area of the game consisted of eleven buttons, and each button contained a red LED light.  Four game-selection and control buttons were at the bottom of the unit, and a speak was at the top.  Merlin's simple buttons and lights supported six different games: Tic Tac Toe, Music Machine, Echo (similar to Simon), Blackjack 13, Magic Square (a pattern game) and Mindbender (similar to Mastermind). 

Like I said, I never had a Merlin, but a friend at church had one.  She would bring it to our Sunday night youth group activities, and she even let me borrow it a few times.  It was fun, but it didn't make me want to save up my allowance and baby-sitting money to go buy one.  Actually, after I played it for about 15 minutes I was bored; not unlike I am with video and electronic games today. 

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The Modern Day Mecca

All my life I've read and heard about people who've travelled to Hollywood, Nashille, and New York City to follow their dreams of being a star.  I had no idea that Louisville was the new mecca for reality TV until today.  Our illustrious Mayor For Life announced that in the coming weeks, not one but two bigtime reality TV shows will be holding auditions right here in Louisville.  This Saturday there will be auditions for the new season of "The Biggest Loser." (Note: I'm very bummed because I wanted to try out for it, but this season they want a pair of people and I couldn't find anyone that would be willing to commit to doing it with me.) Then as if that's not big news enough, the announcement was made today at a press conference in city hall that there will be two auditions in Louisville for the next season of "American Idol."  Nope, I'm not trying out for that one, either. 

When I use the term "mecca" I mean that people from all over the country will be coming to the 'Ville to try out for these two shows.  The 'Rents said on the noon news today, they showed some singers and dancers from the Broadway cast of "Cats" who were planning on coming here to audition for American Idol.  Imagine that - people who are already Broadway stars coming to Louisville for a chance to be on American Idol.  Who would have thought?

Biggest Loser Update

It dawned on me today that I've been remiss in giving any Biggest Loser updates.  So here it is.  I weighed today on the official Biggest Loser scales in the HR office at work, and as of this morning I've lost a total of 39 pounds.  Just one more pound to go and I can have my pancakes.  I had them at the 30 pound mark and Mom said that she would fix me my beloved silver dollar pancakes for breakfast when I lost the next ten pounds.  I plan on having for breakfast early next week.  I didn't get to ride my bike last week while I was sick, but I started back this Monday evening and my goal is to ride it every day this week.  So far, so good.  Who knows? I might even be able to have my pancakes this Saturday or Sunday if I can keep up the riding this week.

Thanks again for your support and encouragement.  It means so much. 

Nashville Star - Week Three

I was expecting another train wreck with this week's episode, but I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised by some of the contestants and their performances.  Week three was "Pop Goes Country" night, where the contestants chose a pop song and had to "country-fy" it.  The show opened with all of the contestants doing a big production of Madonna's "Like A Prayer." There were pitch problems all over the place.  A line in the song really stood out - "Let the choir sing" and that's what the show's producers should have done.

Gabe Garcia - sang "Living La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin.  Made the song his own; excellent version and arrangement.  Great vocals and stayed on pitch even with a bunch of girls dancing all around him.  Seemed a bit more at ease this week.
Pearl Heart - sang "Love Shack" by the B52's. Never thought I'd live to hear a bluegrass version of "Love Shack" but it rocked. Great harmonies; stayed on pitch.  Outfits were very cool - dressing like performers instead of karaoke singers. Lead singer still needs to come out as front person.
Alyson Gilbert - sang "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tiffany.  Bad song choice. Song arrangement was bizarre; wasn't country enough.  Needs to be stronger on the high notes - off pitch. Needs to be consistent from week to week. Didn't look as spastic as the first week's performance, and has developed good stage presence.
Ashlee Hewitt - sang "You Drive Me Crazy" by Britney Spears. Voice is still too breathy and too meek; I had the sound turned up loud and couldn't understand a word she sang.  At times was yodeling instead of singing; seemed very uncomfortable.
Coffey - sang "Umbrella" by Rhiana. Too much vibrato; trouble staying on pitch.  Too many vocal gimmicks - tried rapping and even some beat box. But got the audience involved and they went crazy.  Looked a bit uncomfortable and awkward on stage; needs to loosen up on stage.
Laura and Sophie - sang "Pretty Young Thing" by Michael Jackson. Excellent harmonies; made the song their own. Swapped lead vocals was a cool addition to their style; still seemed a bit uncomfortable on stage. The show's stylists should be shot for picking out their matching prom dresses tonight.
Shawn Mayer - sang "Bye Bye Bye" by NSYNC. Good arrangement; good strong vocals. Smiled more tonight. Cool move to take off guitar and move the mike stand out of the way. Could have done without the choreography, though. Made the song her own.  Not my favorite contestant but was an excellent performance.
Melissa Lawson - sang "True Colors" by Cyndi Lauper. Great vocals and great vocal control. Best performance of the first three weeks; took control and showed she is an artist.  If she can keep this up she'll be the winner.
Justin Gaston - sang "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper. Great arrangement - made the song country. Vocals were stronger tonight and more in control. One of the best performances tonight.
Tommy Stanley - sang "Maniac" by Michael Cimbiello.  Was not country; was almost identical to the version in "Flashdance." Looks and acts awkward on stage; too stiff.  Performance was too junior high talent show.

Last week's voting found Justin Gaston and Tommy Stanley in the bottom two.  Unfortunately after an awesome performance this week, Justin got the boot.  Too bad he didn't perform like this in the first two weeks.

It was a tie for the winner of this week's Performance That Made My Ears Bleed: the previously mentioned opening number of "Like A Prayer" and a performance by the group Danity Kane (a group of five Pussycat Doll wannabes.) 

 

 

 

 

Mullet Watch

I'm very surprised that the mullets haven't been out much this summer.  Of course, summer officially began just two days ago, but you know what I mean.  Hopefully we'll be spotting more of them in the months ahead.

TWIT's #1 mullet spotter, my faithful reader JMc, brings us accounts of not one but two mullet sightings. 

"I saw a fem-mullet at Wal-Mart in Fairdale.  It was frosted on a late 30’s to early 40’s hostess.  She had on a white top and some type of black tight pants that exposed the ankles.  Not ruling out some sort of spandex, but real close.  She looked scary and very intriguing at the same time."

His second was spotted at the K-Mart on Dixie. "Thin hair all around; the mud flap was kind of curly past the collar and the side burns were shaved off up to the ear hole."

Mullet count: 11

Link Of The Week

I'm always on the lookout for new music sites, especially ones that have lyrics.  This week I found a site that not only has lyrics to just about any song you can think of, it also has MP3s of the songs, too.  Before we go any farther, let me give an Official TWIT Disclaimer:  TWIT does not urge or condone illegal downloading of music; what you do online with your computer is your own business.  That having been said, please check out the cool site at http://www.S-MP3.com.  They even have the lyrics and the MP3 of one of all time favorite sings by Artificial Joy Club, "Sick and Beautiful."  Check out the song and let me know what you think.

Rest and Relxation

I've had a pretty bad cold this week, and for the past three nights I've went to bed as soon as I got home from work and ate a bite of supper.  I have to say that it's the most rest I've had in a three-day period in years.  I feel better today - just a little tired and still a bit congested, but I feel way better than I did this week.  This has been the most relaxing Saturday that I've had in ages, too.  I've done nothing - the most activity I've done was go out to the carport and back the BMW out into the driveway so our neighbor could pressure wash the carport and garage.  And I hope that will continue to be the most work I do today.  In fact, I'm not even going to work any more at the computer and I'm going to sign of now until tomorrow.

Flashback Friday

                                              

When I was a kid, my second home was at the Jones' house.  I thought it was so cool that they had a refrigerator and a freezer down in their basement.  In the freezer, Mrs. Jones always had a ton of the awesome Pop Ice frozen treats.  In case you're having a mid-life moment and don't remember, Pop Ice treats were simply frozen flavored popsicles in a tube instead of on a stick.  They were cheap, so our parents could afford them no matter how much (or how little) money they made.  Anyhoo, Mrs. Jones always had a bunch in her freezer just for me; mainly because I was the only kid in the neighborhood that was allowed to go to her house to play.  She was my second grandmother, and treated me like a princess.  She knew I loved Pop Ice so she always had a freezer full of them for me. 

Now that I'm all grown up, the circle of life has come back around.  Last summer, the 'Rents watched our neighbors' grandkids two days a week for the summer, and after the first week or two, I noticed that our freezer had an abundance of Pop Ice treats.  Mom made a comment about how much the kids loved them, and how they didn't care that they weren't an expensive treat like one you'd have to peel for from the ice cream truck.  Interestingly enough, the grandparents of the kids they watched live in the house that the Jones' lived in.  Like I said, life comes full circle.

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Flip-Flop Update

I'm very  happy to report that the mis-routed flip-flops were redirected back to Louisville late last night and were delivered this afternoon.  But after all of the travelling it took for them to finally get to me, I might have to send them back.  I tried them on and they're a tad too small.  But unfortunately they don't sell them in half sizes. So I either send them back and risk getting another pair that are way to big and floppy, or I keep these and hope that they're stretch a bit.  It's not like my feet and toes hang over the edges of the flip-flops; they're just a bit uncomfortable between my toes.  But I have to realize that it's been over twenty-five years since I wore flip-flops, so they're bound to feel a bit odd on my feet.  And it's not like I'll be wearing them all day, either;  I'll still be wearing my New Balance tennis shoes to work.  So I'll probably bite the bullet and keep them.  After all the trouble with getting, I guess I'd better.

So Much For Big Brown

As you know, I love to buy new, trendy things.  It's no secret that I can't resist the latest thing.  A couple of weeks ago in the Saturday newspaper, I read about some very cool flip-flops that are on the market.  At first, I was able to resist the urge to order them immediately; mainly because I don't like flip-flops because I broke my ankle as a result of wearing flip-flops.  That was over twenty years ago, so I decided to give them another try and vowed to be more careful this time.  So last week, I shopped around online and found a pair at almost half-off the retail price, with free shipping.  You can't beat that deal with a stick. 

The day after I ordered them, I received an email saying that they had been shipped, and they gave me the UPS tracking number so I could check and see when they would be delivered.  All week long I'd been tracking them.  Yesterday, even though I was getting a cold and felt terrible, I was still very happy when I saw that they had arrived in Louisville.  I just knew they would be delivered today.  This morning before work, I checked the tracking number, and imagine my surprise when I saw that they had left Louisville and were now in Lexington.  I checked again a few minutes ago, and from all indications it seems the cool flip-flops are on their way BACK to Colorado.  I'm confident that they will get to me some time, but this really bums me out.  What can Brown do for me?  They can get me my flip-flops.

Nashville Star, Week Two

Let me preface by saying I was disappointed in the first week of Nashville Star.  This week didn't get any better. I had high hopes that all of the contestants would put on their game faces this week.  Boy was I wrong.

Laura and Sophie - sang "Rocking To The Rhythm" by the Judds (probably one of the best duets in the history of country music.)  Had a little bit more stage presence this week, and paid attention to the audience a bit more.  Love the harmony, but slurred the notes; their moves on stage seemed almost robotic.  I felt like I was in a junior high school talent contest.
Ashlee Hewitt - sang "Ring Of Fire" by Johnny Cash.  A Taylor Swift wannabe. Vocals were too breathy.  Whispered her way through the song so I couldn't tell if she has a good voice or not. Had one cool move when she slung her guitar behind her back as the song modulated to a higher key.
Justin Gaston - sang "Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's. Voice was very shakey and weak; for a minute I thought he was lip-syncing. Needs more control over his voice. Has no business in this competition.
Alyson Gilbert - sang "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. Would rather have heard a country song but she made the song her own. Didn't over sing like last week; has calmed down a bit. Major improvement from last week.
Pearl Heart - sang "Who Says You Can't Go Home" by Sugarland.  Lead singer seemed very scared on stage; needs to take control and be the lead singer. Harmonies were OK, but needs to make the song mean something to the listeners.  I still felt like I was watching a junior high talent show.
Tommy Stanley - sang "Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy" by Big and Rich.  Too much stage presence; definitely overkill.  Yelled too much; was on pitch but spoke instead of singing. Bad song choice, given it was written and performed by judge John Rich. Made me very nervous to watch.
Gabe Garcia - sang "Who'll Stop The Rain" by Credence Clearwater Revival. Great vocals. Smiled and paid attention to the audience.  Seemed more at ease. Great pitch. Best performance this week.
Shawn Mayer - sang "He Stopped Loving Her Today" by George Jones.  A bad arrangement. Sounded like Whitney Houston trying to sound like George Jones.  Couldn't hear the original melody. Was borderline sacriligious. 
Coffey - sang "Waiting On The World To Change" by John Mayer. Once again, bad song choice - not country. Too much vibrato; a little flat.  Concentrated on playing the guitar too much and should have paid more attention to vocal strength.
Melissa Lawson - sang "Natural Woman" by Aretha Franklin.  So-so performance; vocals were strong except got a bit off-pitch on high notes. Seemed to think about the song too much instead of just feeling the song and singing.  Seemed a bit too cocky.
Third Town - sang "Mountain Music" by Alabama.  Once again, it was another junior high talent show moment. Sounded like Rascall Flats impersonating Alabama.

Last week's voting found Melissa Lawson and Third Town in the bottom two, and fortunate for us Third Town got the boot. Host Billy Ray Cyrus made a comment about them performing in Vegas. I honestly don't think they'll make it that far.

There were quite a few contestants in the running for this week's Performance That Made My Ears Bleed, but the award for week two goes to Shawn Mayer.  She attempted to sing what most people believe to be the greatest country song ever written and it was a train wreck.

File Under: Something You Don't See Everyday

After we park in our usual end parking spot at church, we have about a block walk from the parking lot to the doors of the sanctuary.  We love the walk - we like to look at the big old homes across the street, and it's a very pleasant walk.  Being in the heart of downtown Louisville, you're really never sure what or who you will see as you walk.  We've never encountered any homeless people asking for handouts or anything really out of the ordinary.  That is, until yesterday morning.

We were walking on the sidewalk and had almost reached the steps going into the sanctuay when I inadvertantly kicked something with my shoe while walking. We all three heard a clicking noise as my shoe kicked the object, and I glanced back to see what I had kicked.  Imagine my surprise when I turned around to see my Dad crouched down in a baseball catcher's position looking at what I had kicked with my shoe: it was a denture plate.  Yep, dentures.  Actually it was just one plate, and we didn't turn it over to see if it was the top or bottom plate.  But it was someone's false teeth all right.  Now that's definitely something that you don't see everyday - be it in the city or the country. 

We discussed this in the lunchroom today, and a co-worker/faithful reader brought up a very good point:  wouldn't you notice sooner than later that you had in deed lost one of your denture plates?  It's not like when you lose an earring, you might not notice it's missing until you look in a mirror or reach up to take the earring off.  One a related note, a few feet past the denture plate on the sidewalk, Mom saw a silver hoop earring.  Coincidence?  Maybe, but I don't think so.

Link Of The Week

The other night when it was raining and I couldn't get out to ride my bike or walk, I decided to do the next best thing - I searched online for articles about bike riding to lose weight.  Yes, I realize it's not really the next best thing, but indulge me here.  Anyhoo, I came across a very cool site, and spent an hour there reading page after page.  It's simply called eHow.  You can find out how to do practically everything - from how to make a dirty martini to how to bike ride to lose weight or how to change the spark plugs in a car.  Visit at http://www.ehow.com and see how you can do something.

A Waste Of Time

I just wasted two hours of my life -- two hours that I will never ever be able to get back.  From 2:00 until 4:00 this afternoon, I watched two episodes of the reality talent show "Can You Duet?".  At least the second episode I watched was the finals, but still, it was a waste of time.  If you're like me and didn't have a clue about "Can You Duet?", it was a reality talent show similar to "American Idol" and a dozen other reality talent shows.  The gist of this one was to find the next big country music duet.  And let me say based on what I watched in the two hours, I am using the term "country music" very loosely.  The only really country couple (a cute and talented husband and wife duet) made it to the final three duets only to get the boot.  The runner up duet, two young guys, yelled their way through most of their songs.  The winning duet was in deed the better of the ones I saw and deserved to win, but they weren't what I classify as country. 

I'm probably being too cricital, but being a musician myself and being a person who pays her hard earned money for CDs and concert tickets, I know what sounds good and doesn't sound good.  It's not that the duets I heard on the show were bad - they just weren't country.  In fact, there's not much true country these days.  But that's a whole other point for another journal entry. 

Anyhoo, unlike "American Idol" and other shows, the viewers didn't get a chance to vote for their winners - the three judges (Naomi Judd, songwriter Amy Mayo and a guy who said he taught Keith Urban to be a star) were the ones who decided who won and who got the boot.  I agreed with their comments and decisions for the most part, but still thought that the viewers should have been given the chance to vote for the winning duet.  After all - they're the ones that will be paying for concert tickets and CDs, not the three judges.

Flashback Friday

                           

Those of you that know me know that I have a pretty good memory for details. I can remember in detail clothes and toys that I had as a kid, as well as items that were in our house.  Yet today I often can't remember where I put something that I just had in my hand ten minutes earlier.  But I digress.  I remember everything about the living room in our home.  We didn't go there much; we entertained either in the family room or at the kitchen table.  But we did have an official living room.  It had a very nice coffee table which held Dad's very nice German stereo, and had a matching olive green and gold couch and a chair, and also a very cool rust colored crush velvet chair.  Back in the day, those colors were the rage.  In a corner over an end table was a very cool gold crushed velvet hanging light.  Unfortunately for me, it was not a hanging oil lamp like you see above. 

Mom and Grandma would never buy the extremely cool hanging oil lamp, no matter how much I begged for one.  "It will break and get oil all over the carpet" was always their reply.   Loretta, a good friend of the family, had one hanging in her living room, and whenever we would go visit her, that was the first place I would go.  I remember standing there for what seemed like hours, just staring at the lamp as the little beads of oil dripped down continuously.  And I don't remember Loretta ever saying "That lamp broke and got oil all over the carpet."  But that's beside the point. 

Just about every hanging oil lamp I saw was the same - they all had an almost-anatomically correct naked lady figurine in the middle, and the light bulb was above her head, shining down on her like she was on stage.  She was surrounded by the wires where the little drops of oil would drip down.  I never thought about it until now, but I'm guessing there was a tiny pump of some sort to pump the dripped oil back up to the top of the lamp so it could drip down the wires again.  Anyhoo, the lamp was cool and it bummed me out that we never had one.  The gold crushed velvet lamp just wasn't the same.

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Gas Price Update

It's been a horrible, horrible week at work, and today was absolutely heinous; if I'd had to stop on the way home to get gas, I would be curled up in the corner of the house in the fetal position instead of typing a journal entry.  Today, gas in the 'Ville reached a record high of $4.15 a gallon.  Yet on my way home from work today, most of the gas pumps I passed were full.  I guess people were waiting it out, hoping that the prices wouldn't rise before they could fill up.  But like I've said before, we don't much choice -- either pay the price and get gas or don't. 

I never thought I would see gas at over at over four bucks a gallon, but after today, I think it's a matter of weeks before we see it at five bucks a gallon.  I can truly say it's impacted my life.  Before, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a new CD or a book, or drive across town a few nights a week;  now I don't. And I don't run around to different stores or other places in the evenings; I stay home or ride my bike.  I even rode my bike up to the Dollar General Store the other night instead of driving the car up to Krogers to get something.  So other than driving my car downtown on Saturday nights to the Bats baseball games, there's not much more driving I can cut back. There's no easy or safe way I could ride my bike to work, so I'll just have to contine to drive everyday.  I'll just pay my bills, put gas in the car and hope that the gas prices will stabilize soon. 

File Under: WTF?

Antarctic base gets condom haul before winter

16,500 prophylactics arrive for 125 scientists, staff before darkness sets in

Reuters

updated 4:46 a.m. ET, Mon., June. 9, 2008

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - One of the last shipments to a U.S. research base in Antarctica before the onset of winter darkness was a year's supply of condoms, a New Zealand newspaper reported Monday.

Bill Henriksen, the manager of the McMurdo base station, said nearly 16,500 condoms were delivered last month and would be made available, free of charge, to staff throughout the year to avoid the potential embarrassment of having to buy them.

The base only has a skeleton staff through the long winter.

"Since everybody knows everyone, it becomes a little bit uncomfortable," Henriksen told the Southland Times newspaper.

About 125 scientists and staff are stationed at McMurdo base, the largest community in Antarctica, during the winter months when there is constant darkness.

The first sunrise will occur on Aug. 20 and McMurdo's population will start to increase again in September when supply flights resume, peaking at more than 1,000 during the summer period.

My only question about this is I wonder what the ratio is of men to women? 

Nashville Star, Week One

Last night marked the premier of the new season of "Nashville Star", the longest-running reality show on TV.  At the end of the season, one lucky and talented performer will win a recording contract and the opportunity to sing at the Summer Olympics.  For the next 11 weeks, I will be giving my review of the performances as we count down to the big winner.

Charley Jenkins - sang "I Like It, I Love It" by Tim McGraw.  Had good audience participation; had a big voice, but sounded and acted like a Garth Brooks impersonator in a bar. 
Tommy Stanley - sang "Walking In Memphis" by Mark Cohn.  Excellent song choice, as it is one of my favorites.  Good stage presence, but yelled too much and oversang and lost the melody.  Concentrated too much on the guitar and not on singing.  Props for being in the Navy.
Gabe Garcia - sang "All My Exes Live In Texas" by George Strait.  Stayed on pitch; great voice. King George would have been proud.  Will definitely be in the final two, but the judges will soon tell him to get some more stage presence. 
Coffey - sang "Drift Away" by Dobie Gray.  Another favorite song of mine, but the vocals were too Whitney-sized; should have remembered that this is a country music competition; trying to be a Cowboy Troy wannabe.
Justin Gaston - sang "Drops Of Jupiter" by Train. Good voice with control, but vocals were a bit shakey.  Should have picked a country song.  But he has the looks and people will vote for him just because he's cute.
Alyson Gilbert - sang "Suds In The Bucket" by Sara Evans. Too much stage presence - too theatrical.  Over-sang the song.  Tried too hard to prove her talent. The funniest part of tonight's show was when one of the judges said she was a Martina McBride wannabe, especially since she sang a Sara Evans song.
Third Town - sang "Elvira" by the Oak Ridge Boys.   A Rascal Flatts wannabe.  Good crowd participation, though, but a bit too much stage presence. They acted like they were in a middle school talent show instead of trying to win a recording contract.
Melyssa Lawson - sang "Something To Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt.  Would have preferred a country song, but nailed it.  Very powerful voice with control.  Will be in the final two, and could possibly go all the way. She has the will to win the competition.
Laura and Sophie - sang "Stand By Your Man" by Tammy Wynette.  Were on pitch with tight harmonies, but need to get the audience involved.  Major props for singing this song in the competition, but need to show more energy on stage.
Pearl Heart - sang "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks.  Shakey vocals, but had good tight harmonies.  Need to watch the high notes.
Ashlee Hewitt - sang "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat.  Bad song choice - was like singing in your bedroom instead of singing on stage trying to win a record deal.
Shawn Mayer - sang "Piece Of My Heart" by Janis Joplin.  Tried too hard - we don't need another Janis Joplin; sounded like a karoke version.  Needed to choose a country song.

The judges voted and Charley Jenkins was the first contestant voted off.  I wasn't all that surprised, but I was disappointed that the contestants didn't come out with guns blazing on the first week.  I was expecting to be blown away by all 12 of the contestants but was very disappointed for the most part. 

Each week I will announce the winner of what I call the performance ahat "Made My Ears Bleed."  The first winner was not one of the twelve contestants, but instead Taylor Swift for her performance during the show. 

That Was A Close One

Today's big news was not the rising gas prices, the Presidential election, or even the flooding in Indiana an other states; it was about the raw tomato salmonella outbreak. Today, McDonalds and other restaurants announced they had stopped using raw tomatoes because of a possible salmonella outbreak.  Other restaurants that have also stopped using raw tomatoes are Burger King, Outback Steakhouse, Taco Bell, KFC, Long John Silvers, A&W, Red Lobster, and Olive Garden.  Wal-Mart and Winn Dixie reported they had pulled the suspect tomatoes from their shelves.  The CDC reported that cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vine still attached are safe for now and are not thought to be the source of the salmonella outbreak.

It's just my luck.  Just when I start eating raw tomatoes almost every day, they take them away from the stores and restaurants.  But at least my beloved grape tomatoes are still OK to eat without worrying about getting a fever, diahrrhea, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after eating them.

Link Of The Week

I don't watch a lot of regular TV, but I do love to watch any cooking show.  I've loved them since I was a kid and watched "The Galoping Gourmet" with my Grandma.  Now that we have the Food Network, I can watch cooking shows 24/7 if I wanted.  I also love to check out recipe and cooking sites online.  This week, I found a very cool site that has recipes and videos that show you how to make the recipes.  It's free to watch or join, and you can check it out at http://www.cookinglovers.tv/.  Go ahead - watch it and cook something this afternoon. 

A Sad Weekend

I'm very bummed this weekend.  Ordinarily I would have been looking forward to the first weekend in June, but not this year.  This was the weekend of the first local Catholic church picnic, but due to mergers between parishes, we no longer have St. Clements Catholic church's picnic on the first weekend in June.  They merged with 3 other local Catholic churches, who will also no longer have picnics. 

St. Clements picnic was the unofficial first picnic of the season for the southwest part of the county.  It started on Thursday evening with ride night for the kids and on Friday they opened up the game booths for the adults and the place would be packed when the picnic ended at midnight Saturday. 

The local Catholic church picnics were a blast - you could eat some brats and have a cold beer while visiting with old friends that you normally only see during the picnic season.  You could even win some money or very cool things at the booths, too.  A few years ago, I won a very cool pink sequin hat, and Mom won a country ham.  You can't get much cooler than that.

This year, the only picnic I'm looking forward to is held next weekend.  I enjoy that picnic so much because they have quarter bingo that is played inside in the rectory kitchen in air conditioned comfort.  At least I won't be sitting out in the heat and humidity as I spend money. 

Flashback Friday

                             

                                

A New Way To Burn

A couple of months ago, a co-worker told me about something very cool that he discovered.  He was experimenting with CD burning and downloading songs to his MP3 player when he stumbled upon a new way to make a CD with music.  He said that instead of burning the CD as the usual "music CD" he instead burned the CD as a "data CD" and was able to put over a dozen albums on the burned CD.  (Note: I'm sorry, but I still have to use the word "album" when referring to a regular store-bought CD.  I'm old school.)  He gave me the CD to listen to and I'll be darned if there weren't over a dozen albums on there.  So tonight, I tried it to see if it would work.  I was experimenting by copying all of the songs on my desktop computer to a CD so I could download them to my small MP3 player that I use for bike riding or walking.  It worked fine.  Instead of being able to get 80 minutes worth of songs on a CD by burning it as a music CD, I got 60 songs on it by burning it as a data CD and only used 1/3 of the 700 megabytes worth of space.  I took the CD to the Blazer and it played just fine in the CD player, too.  So give it a try the next time you want to make a copy of all of the music on your computer but don't want to use a bunch of CDs.  If I can burn the data CD successfully, anyone can.  

It Must Have Been A Wild Night

After the clouds lifted and the sun came back out after supper, I decided to take a bike ride to hopefully get rid of the hot dogs I had for lunch today.  It was hot and humid, but I was determined to ride tonight.  It turned out to be a hot but uneventful 7 mile ride, which suited me fine.  But I did notice something odd on the bike path: I counted 7 broken Budweiser bottles on the three and a half mile stretch.  One or two broken bottles wouldn't have been out of the ordinary, but I had to dodge seven during the three and a half mile area from my house to my turn-around point.  I guess somebody really got their drink on. 

And in case you might be wondering, I was able to dodge all of the broken glass without getting a flat tire or wiping out.  That's one for the record books, faithful readers.

My Project For The Summer

At the Bats game on Saturday night, we were talking with some of our neighbors about the Kentucky State Fair in August.  The people we were talking with have entered tomatoes, canned okra and other culinary items in the fair for the past few years.  The more they talked about it, the more it made me want to enter something in the fair.  But there's only one problem:  I don't cook.  But I was very quick to assign entries for everybody else.  I told the friend I was with that she needed to enter the Spam cooking contest, given the fact that she loves Spam; I told her she needed to make her awesome stuffed mushrooms with Spam instead of sausage.  I'm pretty sure I have her just about talked into it. 

When I got home later that night, I started in on the 'Rents.  I told Dad that he needed to enter his very popular Margarita cake.  He agreed without too much coercion.  Then I went to work on Mom.  After looking at the Kentucky State Fair website, I decided that she needed to enter her world famous bourbon balls.  Once again, she agreed without too much coercion.  But then my thoughts came to me; what could I make and enter in the fair?  After looking over the culinary contests again, I changed my strategy and decided that Dad needed to make Grandma's Italian cream cake and I would make his Margarita cake.  I think we can do it.  Of course, I'll have to practice and make a few of the cakes between now and the middle of August.  I'll keep you posted on my baking progress.

Come On Baby, Light My Fire

                             

I thought this was going to be a peaceful evening here at The Compound.  I had just gotten home at about 8:00 from a 7 mile bike ride, and was relaxing on the couch watching today's episode of my beloved "All My Children".  Out of my periphreal vision, I noticed some commotion two houses up, and turned to see some firemen, clad in their official coats, pants and helmets, walking very fast up our neighbors' driveway to their back field.  I got up to look out the door toward the street, and the picture above was the view from our side door. 

At first, I wasn't alarmed; this weekend is the annual Crusade For Children, and this week, volunteer firemen from all over the area will be going door-to-door collecting money for this very worthy cause.  But I didn't see them carrying the rubber firemen's boots that they use to collect the money; they were carrying axes.  Mom and Dad went outside to see what was going on, and imagine our surprise when we saw a pretty good sized fire in the back of our neighbors' property where the husband was burning pieces of what used to be their little red barn (that my father helped him tear down today, I might add.)  To make matters worse, one of the firemen was the neighbors' son.  And did I forget to add that the fire chief (aka the son's boss) was back there, too?  Note: there was a second firetruck, out of range in the above photo, and the chief's SUV. 

Of course, the first thing I did was grab my camera so I could document the drama.  As I was out on our side porch taking pictures, our neighbor's wife came down, cussing her husband with every step she took, and grabbed our extra long garden hose and lugged it up to their house so they could connect it to their hose and be able to get some water back to put out the fire.  The fact that our neighbor was illegally burning didn't bother me near as bad as the fact that the firemen didn't have a hose long enough to put out the fire. 

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Link Of The Week

As  you know, I've been eating healthier, exercising and have been steadily losing weight since the first of February.  In doing this, I've become a devout food label reader and pay more attention to the calorie content in what I eat.  I came across an interesting site this week that has to do with counting calories.  The current popular trend is all of the pre-packaged foods in 100 calorie packs.  I found a site this week that shows pictures of 200 calorie portions of foods. If made me think.  For instance, you could eat a  pound and a fourth of broccoli that would be 200 calories, or  you could have 1.2 ounces of peanut butter at the same 200 calories.  It wouldn't be a hard decision for me, given the fact that I can't stand broccoli.  Check out the site for yourself at http://www.wisegeek.com/what-does-200-calories-look-like.htm.  Happy calorie counting.