Arts and Crafts...

There has been a "craft" that I have long wanted to try - making paper. Jayme and I had our first attempt on Sunday. She wants to make a guest book for a friend who is getting married and into artsy things and wanted to make it from homemade paper. We decided we needed some practice.

It's not nearly as messy as I thought and actually a lot of fun. We used my paper shredder remains and water to make the pulp. Unfortunately it resembled vomit. This look was not enhanced by the fact that we added it to a tub with more water in it.

Twin #1 strolls through and takes a look in the tub announcing that if that is dinner, he's not hungry. I told him that we were making paper and showed him the process. Always practical, he stated, "It was already paper before you murdered it."

Catch all...

I have been very negligent of my blog and I apologize to anyone who has stopped by only to see that NOTHING has been posted. Now to catch up...

Idol - It pretty much went the way I thought it would go seeing as Simon predicted Taylor's win, Paula predicted Taylor's win, Vegas predicted Taylor's win, and Taylor had never been in the bottom three or the bottom two. All in all, I thought the final Tuesday show was only so-so. The highlight was really Kat singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" again. Loved it. The other songs were "eh". The two original songs sucked butt. Taylor's was a bit more listenable that Kat's, but I still hope they do something to the arrangement to make it less boring before he releases it as a single. The finale night was fun. The look on the geek's face when Clay walked out was beyond priceless. Clay - man - what the hell is up with the hair?? My God, just stop it! I felt sorry for Elliot. Mary J. Blige completely hogged the song that they were supposed to sing together.

Lost - taped the huge finale night (competing with Idol) and watched it all yesterday. That completely rocked. It reminded me of the finale for the first season in that I was left wondering what they can do in next year since they revealed so much.

24 - Jack is on his way to China. "Bad Day" should be the theme for this show instead of the kick off show of Idol. It was written for this poor guy. I SO wanted him to shoot the asshole though. I was weeping at the sight of David Palmer's casket. I'm such an idiot.

Have another opening on my team at work. We just keep growing. Unfortunately, it's not at the same rate as our work so we perpetually feel like we are buried. Someday...

I left early on Thursday and took Friday off (the work will still be there Tuesday) to make a mini-vacation. It has been stellar so far. Lots of relaxation and a couple of small projects completed that I just haven't had the ambition to do after work. The one I'm most happy about is cleaning out my bathroom cupboards so I could put baskets underneath. With extra people in the house and no extra storage, everyone now has their own basket and my counter is CLEAN. I just stand in the door and admire the cleanliness.

I bought some jeans yesterday. Paula told me that my old ones were hanging off my ass. I tried on a smaller size and did a happy dance in the dressing room when they were a perfect fit. Woo Hoo. Got two new pairs of capris too. That will have to do until I can go down another size.

Summer is officially upon us. I turned on the air conditioning this morning. At least the evenings are still nice enough to sit on the deck and enjoy the breeze. Glad we are no longer in Texas where it is ridiculously hot already and has been for a while.

Vision care week...

I got my new glasses on Friday and spent the entire weekend headache free. It was glorious. I'm very happy with them - titanium frames, framesless look, polymer lenses. They literally weigh about 2 oz. and have the memory flex in them.

On Saturday, twin #2 went to the optometrist. He has been complaining that he can't see the baseball come off of the bat. He got contacts so it will be easier to play ball and we spent the weekend in "training" to put them in and take them out.

Even though he claims to see fine, I'll likely take in twin #1 soon also.

See ya later (pun intended).

Idol voting...

There has been a lot of talk this week about how close the American Idol vote was on Tuesday. First off, let me say that I was happy to hear them lay claim to 50 million "votes". Last week they said they had 45 million "people" vote. Uh...no. They have like 4 million voting a dozen times each (or some other plausible equation).

The vote they posted for the final three basically split 33/33/33 with the remaining one percent deciding it. This is a bit misleading. In reading some different forums, it appears that the phone lines were clogged for the entire two hours with a lot of people unable to get in to vote at all. That would account for the votes being almost a dead heat. It's impossible to say what the vote would have been had everyone who wanted to vote had gotten to cast one. The difference between them was apparently the text votes that came in. (Unless you're one of the American Idol conspiracy theorists who say it's all rigged...sometimes I wonder).

There were a lot of posts about how people were surprised that Elliott went home considering he had such a huge "home town" reception compared to Kat. Kat is from Hollywood. They are in celebrity overdrive there and an Idol wannabe isn't going to impress them much.

Lots of stuff...

Survivor - okay...Terry didn't win. He lost the last immunity challenge and was not chosen to go to the final two. It didn't really matter who Danielle took. They polled the jury as to who would have won if it had been a Dani/Terry final and Terry would have beat her. Everyone said nice things about Terry and respected the way he played and dominated in the challenges. I am at peace.

Amazing Race - I was excited that the hippies won. They were so infectious I couldn't help but like them and have been pulling for them since the early weeks. No matter how the frat boys tried to make it look like the hippies were playing dirty, it just didn't quite work - especially when the fratties were canceling peoples' taxis. I think they should have received a time penalty for that just like they do if you speed, don't follow the directions, etc.

American Idol - Buh bye Elliot. It was so time. He should have gone before Chris. The band drowned him out this week because he is such weak sauce. Seems like a nice guy, but it was time to go. Katharine was amazing on Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Taylor was good, but I'm not sure I agree with the whole "that was your best performance ever" comment about his second song. It was good, but I think he's done better on other songs this year. Should be an interesting finale.

Kid brag - Josh is kicking ass at his internship. Due to an MIA cameraman for the news, two hours after he started his job, he became the studio cameraman for the 5, 6, and 10 o'clock news. They were trying to find someone to pull in and he said, "I can do it..." They gave him a shot at 5 and liked what they saw. The regular guy got fired and Josh is it. He is also already doing remote footage shooting on his own (after only one day) which usually takes a week or two before they feel comfortable enough to let the interns be independent.

A Whole New Dog...

Chloe did NOT like going to the groomer. I'm sure she thought it was the vet because they have a similar office setup, there were barking dogs from the back room, and she has office cats.

She got the whole treatment - haircut, bath, blowdry, toenails. She looks so different it's like having a different dog altogether. Her hair is about an inch long all over that form baby soft ringlets. It's the the same length on top and with her cocker spaniel ears she looks a bit like a conehead right now. The part I can't get over is her feet. She had long thick hair over her feet so she looked like a Clydesdale. With all of that trimmed off, she has tiny, dainty feet.

It's good to see her eyes. They are big, expressive, brown eyes that completely disappeared before.

I think she has forgiven me...

Expanding household...

Josh, Jayme, and Zoe are moving in! They are leaving Minnesota and moving back here for internships and to finish school. Jayme's internship has a house that goes with it, but it won't be available for them until July 1. In the meantime, they are moving in with us.

I'm excited to have them coming back. School breaks aren't long enough and I always hate to see them go. I know I'm his mom, so naturally biased, but they are both such cool, fun people. I love spending time with them. It will be great to have them with us and then in the area when they get the house. I took the day off to rearrange some closet space and get things ready for them.

Chloe also has her beauty appointment for today. Should be interesting to see how that turns out. She's such a freak about even getting combed, I can't imagine how she'll hold still for a trim. They also put her in a cage and gently blow warm air on her after her bath. She HATES to be blown on. She'll goes nuts. I'll post a picture after her beautification.

Chris goes home...

I think Katharine and Chris were the most shocked of all. Chris just looked pissed, which made me a little less sad that he was leaving. He seemed to think he had it all wrapped up. I'm sure Katharine expected it to be her since she had a rougher night than the rest.

Chris will probably have a career anyway. He'll be on the radio and you'll have to wait to hear the DJ at the end of the song because he'll sound so much like the last song.

At this point, I don't think there is much doubt that Taylor will take it all. He's the only one to never be in danger.

Speaking of....Terry is looking good for Survivor. If there was anyone who had ever earned a victory on that show, it's him. He has dominated. I told Paula tonight that if he makes it to the final two and doesn't win because they would rather give it to someone who skated, I will quit watching.

It wouldn't even matter if Terry were someone I hated personality-wise. I would admit that he deserves to win. I have watched every single episode of Survivor since the very beginning and love it - with one single exception. There have been people who win a million dollars who didn't outlast, outwit, and outplay. They skated. They flew so far under the radar that they weren't noticed. That is a chickenshit way to survive anything - a game, a job, life in general. I have no respect for that. If they vote for another one of those over someone who clearly was a Survivor (and thriver), then I'm done.

Tough call tonight...

My Idol/idle thoughts:
Taylor - I thought he had a really good night. "In the Ghetto" was fantastic.
Chris - He did okay. I didn't appreciate his screech at the end of one of his songs.
Elliot - He's not my favorite, but I have to admit that he did well tonight. The second song that everyone raved about ended well, but I thought it started out a bit off. It was too low and he wasn't on pitch.
Katharine - Not her best night.

If people vote strictly on the performances tonight rather than the whole season - Chris and Katharine in the bottom two, Katharine goes home.

If they vote for the whole season - Elliot and Katharine in the bottom two, Elliot goes home.

Although Katharine is the most marketable, at this point in the season I'm thinking a Taylor/Chris finale. Not what I expected at all - not entirely happy about the situation. Chris is not my fav (sorry, Chas). He sounds exactly like a ton of others already in the market and I don't appreciate the whole pop trying to be rock (ala Creed) genre. Occasionally he screams, trying to prove he's a badass. Don't like it. When he does any style that doesn't involve yelling he sounds a lot better, but he looks bored and I know he wouldn't release music like that. Taylor is unique and intriguing. I appreciate his style and would listen to his CD.

Wow - thinking back to the auditions and early shows, I never dreamed that Taylor would grow on me. Kinda scary. Like fungus.

Dolphins...

I'm listening to the radio on the way home last night and they are talking about dolphins. Apparently researchers have proven that they have personal identities and call each other by name.

First of all - how in the hell have they proven that? Have we cracked the dolphin language? Have we deciphered the clicks to that extent? If so, how cool is THAT? How far could we be from actually carrying on a conversation with them? Which school will be the first to offer a degree in Interspecies Communication (I'm majoring in dolphin and minoring in ape).

The reporter on the radio continued to say that not only do dolphins call each other by name when two dolphins are talking, they can also refer to a third, non-present dolphin. This changes a lot of things. It means they are even more highly advanced that we thought. It means they can gossip. It means that those cute little Flipper clicks with the head toss that we humans thought sounded like giggling - it really is. They are laughing at us.

Big Love...

Yes, it's one of my guilty pleasures. Love it. The season's winding down and I'm already mourning the loss of this Sunday night ritual.

Now Warren Jeffs - real life Roman Grant - is now on the FBI's most wanted list. Very strange timing. Polygamy comes to HBO and the world's most fanatical polygamist becomes enemy #1.

Top 5 and other stuff...

Well, for once I haven't a comment on Idol. I was at a company golf outing last night and completely missed it.
On the way home I called Paula for a recap. In her opinion I didn't miss much of a show. She was disappointed with the group as a whole. Let me see if I can remember...
Chris was good on both songs.
Taylor was a caricature this week.
Kat was good on her second song but singing it from the floor was weird and distracting.
Paris and Elliot were "okay".
What did everyone out there think?

Golf was fun. It was my first round of the season. We played at Jester Park north of Des Moines. The course was actually in great shape for so early in the season and the weather cooperated nicely. I really only had one bad hole - all of my bad shots of the night consolidated into that ten minute period - and took a double on that one. Everything else was feeling pretty good.
Had a new employee start on Monday. He's going to fit in well and God knows we can use another programmer. The work just keeps coming in. (That was not a whine. I love new work. Really...)
Got my hair cut yesterday and she really whacked me. I was a bit concerned at first, but am loving it now. Much lighter. It was great not having it fly in my face while I golfed yesterday.
I'm off to work! Have a good one!