Month: February 2006

American Idol: The Guys & The Eliminations

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Catching up with American Idol …

I wasn’t impressed with most of the guys’ performances last week. In fact, I was rather embarrassed for a lot of them, particularly Bobby. Just what the hell was he thinking? I thought Ace was rather good, despite his song choice. And Taylor Hicks; how could you not love this guy? His enthusiasm is quite endearing. I hope he makes it far. But the show stealer of the evening was Chris. What a fantastic song choice! I had to watch it more than once, it was that good. He sounded so professional. The judges couldn’t have been more dead-on when they said he had a fantastic recording voice. I know he’s going to go far no matter what happens in this competition.

As for the eliminations, I was a bit sad that Brenna is sticking around for at least another week. That girl needs to eat some humble pie, no matter what the judges think. I’m not sure what they even like about her. I think she wouldn’t hesitate to backstab a person to get what she wanted, and her head is so far up her ass trying to admire herself it disgusts me. Here’s to hoping she’s gone soon. I was actually really surprised that Becky was eliminated. She wasn’t the best, but I think she was much better than Brenna or Heather. I don’t care much for Heather and I can’t put my finger on it. I wasn’t too surprised that Stevie didn’t make it. She looked defeated before she even knew she had a chance of going home. Her song choice was awful as well. I think she needs to work on her confidence and also enter a contest appropriate to her career choice. It’s called American Idol, not Opera Idol, and she was very naive thinking America would want to hear the songs she chose. Perhaps if she had chosen something more current to win over the audience first, she may have had a better chance.

As for the guys, it came as no surprise that Bobby Copacabana Bennett was eliminated. Can you say cheesy? And the Tom Green lookalike, Patrick, wasn’t memorable at all. I was rather surprised that the judges thought Elliott had the best voice ever, though. What are they smoking? And I know a lot of people who watch this show and have posted over in the AI forums are bitching that it’s not a beauty contest, but look around you. Most pop stars are good-looking and talented. That’s just how it is, and I’m sorry to say, but Elliott is deficient in the looks category and that’s going to hurt him. I’m not too fond of him ever since Hollywood week when he refused to get out of bed to practice with his group.

I am really looking forward to this week’s competition!

** DANCING WITH THE STARS SPOILER ALERT (DON’T READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED YET) **

By the way, I was so happy to see Drew Lachey win this competition. I hadn’t watched any of it, but I turned on the finale tonight and was hoping he’d make it. I feel he’s been stuck in Nick’s shadow for so long (through no fault of Nick’s, of course), that he deserved something that was all about him. I felt a little bad for Nick seeing him in the audience without Jessica. I don’t know which of the rumors, if any, are true, but I’ve read that they both cheated on one another. Judging from the Newlywed’s, seems to me Jessica wasn’t very sharing in the bedroom, so I think she was naive to think her hot husband wouldn’t look for it elsewhere. Plus how could you put up with that kind of stupidity? Everyone says “Oh Jessica must be smart, look at all the money she is making.” Uh, no. Look at her daddy. He is the reason she is rolling in dough. If it was up to her, she couldn’t reason her way out of a paper bag.

Papa Murphy’s, we barely knew thee

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As we dropped off our rental at Blockbuster this morning, I happened to notice a Papa Murphy’s next door. If you’re not familiar with them, they create a pizza from scratch when you go in and then you take it home and bake it in your oven. We decided to give it a try for dinner. So imagine our surprise when we walked in this evening and learned they were closing for good tomorrow! Apparently that particular store wasn’t profitable enough, so they shut it down. We took our pizza and cheesy bread home and thought it was just our luck that we’d find this new place the day before they were going away. Luckily (for us), the pizza wasn’t that impressive, so I guess it’s not a huge loss. I really felt bad for the employees, however. I hope they find other jobs soon!

Idol Drew

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If you haven’t already wasted an hour and a half of your life, do not, I repeat, do not see Date Movie. It was completely awful. Scary Movie (1, 2 or 3) it is not. It tried, but it just couldn’t pull it off. I really like Alyson Hannigan, so a part of me is embarrassed for her and disappointed in her for choosing to do this movie. I can’t say enough horrible things about it. It had only a few amusing moments. Most stuff was over the top gross to the point I was losing my appetite, which really sucks when you’re chowing down on melt-in-your-mouth movie theatre popcorn.

The same evening, I popped My Date With Drew into the DVD player and was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Even Joe, who had no intention of watching, got sucked in. It’s a very cute movie. I really liked the guy who has a crush on Drew Barrymore. He was just so nice and down to earth and you were really rooting for him to get his dream date.

So on the tv front, which of the American Idol girls (since I’ve not yet watched the boys compete) do you like? I thoroughly enjoyed Paris Bennett’s performance. She has got it going on! I was so floored by her, I can’t begin to explain it. I also like Katharine McPhee a lot. I think they are the top two singers. Kellie Pickler is adorable, but I don’t think she’s talented enough to make it all the way. Oh and I really really want to see Brenna Gethers get voted off right away. I cannot stand that girl. She thinks way too highly of herself and I’d rather see someone more down to earth and appreciative have their dream come true. I am very confident that this year’s winner will be a girl because the majority of the guys just lack that superstar quality.

Red Meat Substitutes

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One of the things we’ve done over the past few years to help maintain weight loss is switch to lower-fat foods. So instead of full-fat milk, cheese, or meat, we buy the leaner versions. Cheese made from 2% milk really isn’t bad, and I can no longer stand whole milk, so the transition hasn’t been too difficult.

In addition, about a year and a half ago, we started buying Butterball turkey bacon and polish kielbasa. Surprisingly, we actually prefer them to the real thing and the best part is they are half the calories. The polish sausage in particular is very juicy and tender. You really wouldn’t know it was turkey unless someone told you. We also tried Jenni-O ground turkey once, but that didn’t go over nearly as well. Joe didn’t mind it, but I couldn’t stand it.

This week we tried two new items: chicken franks and Boca burgers. Yay to the chicken franks, boo to the Boca burgers. I had a feeling the chicken franks would taste just as good as a hot dog (when comparing it to something that isn’t all beef, mind you), so I’m not surprised we liked those. I’m disappointed in the Boca burgers, however, because I really love cheeseburgers and wanted to stop eating red meat almost entirely and now that’s not going to happen. The funny thing is, we didn’t mind the taste of the burgers at first, but then we noticed that with each subsequent bite, a funny aftertaste grew stronger. By the time the burger was almost gone, we could hardly eat it anymore.

So I guess it’s back to the drawing board. I just learned from the Butterball website that they make ground turkey, and since we’ve had such a good experience with their other turkey products, we might try that if we can just find a grocer that carries it.

Tis’ the season to spend the tax return

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Whenever tax season rolls around, we jump at the chance to file as quickly as possible. This year was no exception. This week both our state and federal returns were automatically deposited to our bank account. Seventy-five percent of that money went toward paying off my Jetta (yay for no more car payments!), and the rest went into our money market and the kids’ savings accounts.

Having that extra cash in the bank made it a lot easier for me to finally convince Joe to go out and buy the guitar he’s been wanting for the last two years. We headed over to Guitar Center this afternoon and I was shocked that he didn’t even hesitate on the purchase. I know how he is. He never likes spending money on himself, but after the thousands I’ve spent in camera equipment, and our new plasma HDTV, what’s $300?

Once the initial excitement wears off, I think I’ll get a chance to play it too. Not that I know how. I’m not sure I have the discipline to learn either. But maybe I can become good at copying popular songs like my brother, who has owned the same guitar for a few years now. My brother’s refusal to learn anything by The Cure infuriates me, but maybe I’ll have better luck at getting Joe to do a Robert Smith impersonation. ;)

What do you plan on doing with your tax return?