Review of AMERICAN IDOL

Ok Dudes, check it out. Perhaps due to the Red Wings once again early departure from the playoffs, this is the first year that I've seen more than a few shows of American Idol. For those of you who had something better to do, let me give you a brief recap of this season's goings on.

There are three celebrity judges who make insightful comments after each performance, using, reusing, and mega reusing phrases such as Randy's "Dude, you're the bomb", or "That was a little pitchy for me" . . . Paula's "This was your best performance yet", or "I'd love to take a closer look at that scare Ace!", and Simon's "That was a bad karaokee performance", or "That was a really bad karaokee performance." I was always quite dumbfounded as to why Randy and Paula get so upset at Simon when he rips on a performance that they loved, but I figured it out while doing yard work today. (You might say dog that I worked it out). Paula is reliving her star days through the contestants. It's like watching your kid play sports. They knock someone down (an accident) and a parent from the other team yells "Get that bum off the field!", and you want to throttle both the parent and the kid who tripped over his own two left feet. So when Simon berates Bucky, knowing that Bucky will probably be flipping burgers next year at this time, no matter how good he sings, Paula, who had a (motherly) crush on Ace, then on Bucky, and then on Elliot (but not on Taylor - grey hair), tries to hit Simon. this is a little embarrassing to watch, but less so than when Paula gets up to dance. Think of your mother shaking her booty on national TV.

I liked Taylor from the start, although I'll admit the first person I was rooting for was Mandissa, after hearing that she was a Christioan singer. Mandissa is 300 lbs (mostly in the aforementioned booty) with a teffific voice, but after performing a Christian song and Simon commenting "I just don't get it" ala Tom Hanks in Big, BOOM, she was gone. I thought that Kelly Pickler was cute as a button (I'm sorry) with an average voice. If she had Mandissa's voice she would have been the winner. As mentioned before, Ace, a hunk if there ever was one, had this really neat scar. I think he got it wrestling his twin brother for the controller while watching reruns of Happy Days. Speaking of which, on the last show a nerdy looking guy is singing and out comes a person with early Beatles style hair who I tink is Chachi, but something's wrong because Chachi should be 50 and this guy is young, and it turns out he is someone called Clay Aiken. The best performer is 16 year old Paris, who will probably have the best career. Chris has an awesome voice, great stage presence, but as a rocker was a little on the dark side. Elliot has what everybody says is a geat recording voice. To me he had the charisma of a lounge singer. One of my favorite quotes was after Elliot sang somethiing like Jack the Knife, Paula, in tears and shaking, says "You mooove me." Oh dear. My other favokrite quote was after Kat sang Over the Rainbow, Simon said someting like this. "Katheryn, . . . . . . ., I'm not saying this just because I picked out this song for you but . . . . . . . this is your signature moment. You will never again in your whole pathetic life come anywhere close to this moment again. Enjoy it."

The semifanals came down to Taylor with 33.34% of all votes cast, Kat with 33.33%, and Elliot with 33.32%, so Elliot was out. The final winner was a foregone conclusion because, although Kat comes from Los Angles, which is a very big city in a very big state, most of the population is Hispanic or Asian, and they don't watch American Idol. Taylor, from the South, which carried even Bucky farther that he ever dreamed, kinda sang/danced his way out of the ghetto and into out hearts.

Hot Air Balloon Ride!!

James took me on a hot air balloon ride tonight and it was so much fun! We were supposed to go on our anniversary but with the bad weather we had to delay our ride. Another couple went with us too (they had also been delayed due to weather) and they actually got engaged on the ride. The bride-to-be's response when he popped the question was... "holy sh*#!!" She eventually said "yes". There were two balloons that went up at the same time, ours was twice as big as the other one. Our house could have easily fit inside of it. As it turns out, this was the balloon's maiden voyage...and the guy made the balloon himself (I wanted to say, "holy sh*#!!). But, then the guy said he inspects all the balloons that are flown in Michigan so we felt a little better... Anyway, the ride was great - I have always wanted to go in a balloon - highly recommended!! (Our balloon is the one above being blown up, the balloon that is in the air is the one that went with us...and the colorful picture is our view from in the basket looking straight up inside of the balloon.)

Tulip Time Through the Years

Well, today was the big Saturday Tulip Time parade. Too bad it was cold and rainy. It made me want to go through the big-blue-tub-o-pictures at Mom & Dad's house and find some Tulip Time pictures!

What I was doing Tuesday

So, I missed Mallory's birthday. I thought you might want an "action shot" of what I was doing. (This is actually a picture from a barbeque from last weekend- but bocce ball was played on Tuesday as well). If you notice, my green bocce ball is veering way far left, as it usually does. I'm terrible!!

More of Mallory's Party

We had a great time at the party!!!

Thank you!!!

Mallory's Birthday Party

Thank-you to everyone for coming to Mallory's birthday party. It was a great time!!! A big thank-you to Ceci for the great food. I don't think I'll eat for another week. Here are some pictures from the party.

Happy Birthday Mallory

Look how much I've grown!!!

Tomorrow Mallory will be turning 1, and it's time to celebrate. We will be having a party at 6:00, and everyone is invited. The party will be at Tunnel Park, if the weather is nice. If the weather does not cooperate, then we will have the party at our house. If you have any questions, give Ceci a call.

Connecting The Dots

A 16 year old kid comes into my office for a road test today. Nice shirt and pants - short haircut, good looking kid. Then his dad enters - narrow face, mustach, long thin and greasy hair, torn jeans and a long black T shirt with "MEGADEATH" on the front. I get the documents and ask for the money, and in a gravely voice he says slowly "Guess I forgot the money." He tells me he only lives a block away and trots out of the office, forgetting to take his auto insurance paper. So you know I'm thinking that maybe a few wires have at some point in time been fried. Anyway, we get through the perliminaries and start riding in the car, so I tell the dad that I always thought that the term "Megadeath" was a little odd because if someone is dead they are not just a little dead, they're dead. You wouldn't say, "Not only are they dead, but they are really, really dead", which would be the actual meaning of megadeath. Unless they are thinking that instead of just one being dead that lots have died, in which case the term should be "Megadeaths". The dad responds, "Well, I'm from the 70's you know, I use to go to see a lot of rock bands. I really never understood the term either". So we get to talking and it turns out that this guy is just a regular dad. He takes his son fishing, to a couple of Tiger games a year, and to see the Lions on Thanksgiving. Which made me think that this guy if so lucky. After Megadeath, the Lions would only seem to be a little dead.

Marco Update

Here's just a quick Marco update. The first picture is of him before things went bad, and the second was taken yesterday when he woke up for the first time in 2 1/2 weeks!! They've finally taken him off the life-support ventilator and they have him on a regular ventilator which means that he's breathing on his own for the most part. They expect to wean him off this soon, but are waiting until they've slowly taken him off the Versaid (paralyzing medication) and Morphine. He's doing well and the doctors are expecting him to make a recovery, but are cautious in making any promises. Keep praying.