tuesday night sum-up

Idol is getting better and worse! It's funny because when I post about Idol, I actually have to go to a website somewhere to see the contestants, because I can't remember them all! The ones I most always forget are Kellie, Lisa, and .... I seriously just forgot! Oh, Ace. The reason I don't forget Bucky is because I just want him to go home so bad! I mean, he did better last night since he was doing country, but he's still just bad - not at all deserving to be even in the top 12. I really hope he goes home tonight, although it could be Lisa. I can't believe she attempted a Kelly Clarkson song. Really.

So my faves of last night (in no order) were Mandisa, Taylor, Elliott, Katharine, and Paris. Same ones as always.

Oh, no. I just clicked over to the Idol website and saw that Shakira and Wyclef Jean are performing tonight. Now, I like Wyclef, I wouldn't consider myself a fan, but he's all right. But I HATE SHAKIRA!!!! I would honestly rather listen to Bucky than Shakira. I think she sounds like a goat part of the time, and a bad impression of Jessica Simpson the other part of the time. Ick!!!!

Back to my faves. Huge props for Mandisa singing a Christian song! Go Mandisa!!!! She is totally taking this opportunity to share her testimony and it's awesome! Taylor was great, as usual. I rather like it when he dances around and gets into it, but I liked what he did last night. Elliott was awesome, he's just got so much soul! His song was fab. I didn't think Paris looked like a little girl imitating Beyonce - I thought she gave Beyonce a run for her money! And Katharine did well - she can definitely sing, but her high range is starting to annoy me because she lets it get nasaly. Not her head-voice high range, but when she tries to use her chest voice up high. I think she's probably doing a blend of head and chest, which is the proper way to sing so she won't hurt herself and will be singing for a long time. But I think she needs to watch it on the nasal stuff.

So, for Meg, here are my bottom three:

Definitely Bucky
Definitely Lisa
Toss up between Ace and Kellie

I'm so sick of the "look" Ace gives at the end of every one of his performances. He first did it on "Father Figure" and it worked, but then everyone talked about it and he decided to keep it up. It's old. And Kellie is such a cutie, but she's not good enough to stay around for too much longer.

Man, I sound like I work for the show or something! I WISH! LOL

Brian got contacts today. He looks cool! :-)

happy birthday, brian!

Today was Brian's 32nd birthday. Yes, folks, for 3 months we'll be the same age - and then I'll turn into the older woman again.

The day went on as usual, with Brian working and me doing whatever it is I do. But tonight we went to a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater! We were served dinner while some people acted out a little play - and then we all had to try to solve the mystery. It was fun! Two of the actors were especially hilarious, so I really enjoyed them. But overall, the show was very cheesy - right up Brian's alley! ha! There were NINE people at our table, and I suspect these tables are supposed to seat SIX people, so we were squished in there pretty tight. All of the other people at our table were on vacation. Go figure!

Not much else is going on. My parents are coming to visit next week and I'm SO excited. Tomorrow night, after work, Brian's company is having a little "welcome back" party for a guy who has been battling cancer and is returning to work. I'll go to that with B, and then we'll go to Barnes and Noble, our favorite date place. We were supposed to go tonight, but the dinner theater didn't let out until after 10, so there just wasn't enough time.

Idol tomorrow! Yay! I'm still APPALLED that Kevin went home instead of Bucky. Well, we know who's going home this week! BUCKY!!!! If not him, I may lose my faith in all humanity.

bottom three

I forgot to post this last night, so I'll post it real quick before it comes on tonight! Here's who I think should be in the Idol bottom three:

Bucky
Kevin
Lisa

And Bucky's GOT to go home!!!!

God is good, all the time!

Today my mom had her back surgery. She has been in excruciating pain since September, with no relief except from narcotics, which she's getting really tired of taking. It has taken numerous doctors to figure out exactly what the problem was, and she's gotten lots of run-around from both doctors and insurance companies. The whole thing has been VERY discouraging.

Finally, a family friend recommended a doctor and pulled some strings to get Mom an appointment. He couldn't believe how long she had been living with the pain and agreed to see her ASAP. I think that was around 2 weeks ago.

She came through the surgery just fine! It didn't even take an hour. Dad just called me, and the doctor said everything went exactly as he expected, and even though she just came out of the surgery and isn't even fully awake yet, she can go home in 2 hours. 2 HOURS! Amazing! God is faithful and true.

You know, God is not just the God of big things, problems, etc. We don't have to call on Him only when things are rough. Sometimes I forget this, I think we all do, but He is so ever-present, even in the little things. Here are just a few of the many things I'm thankful for today:

*I got our Florida license plates today. Our cars officially live in Florida! It cost $380 (total for both cars), but I didn't have to wait long and it was nearly hassle-free. I was at the DMV for less than an hour, so I can't complain!

*It's strawberry season in Florida and fresh strawberries were on sale at Publix today, a 16-oz. carton for $.99! I bought 5 cartons so I can freeze some. We'll be having strawberry shortcake tonight!

*Last night I discovered a fairly easy way to get the soap scum off of my glass shower door.

*Brian and I are healthy and happy.

*I am an official freelance writer, and I've been making some extra money this month playing the piano at Winter Haven Church.

*IT RAINED TODAY!!!! Only for about 5 minutes, but I'll take what I can get! I can't even remember the last time it rained, not that I'm complaining, but my grass is brownish and the pollen is horrible!

*On my way home from the store today, a tree fell on the road in front of me. Scary, but it didn't hit my car! I think that was Providential timing!

*And lastly, Idol is on tonight!!!! Yay!!!!

what a wonderful weekend

Brian had an awesome first week at work. He is really enjoying it there and it's a smaller company and more family-like - it reminds him of VV. On Friday, Brian's office took all the employees and spouses to see "V for Vendetta." I must say, I didn't know what to expect, and it was AMAZING! Great story and fab movie. Brian has read the comic book, and he was anxiously anticipating the movie. It was great and we hadn't been to that particular theater, and the chairs leaned back and were SO COMFORTABLE! We'll definitely be going back there.

After work on Friday evening, we headed to Ft. Myers to see Nan and Pops. Yesterday was Nan's birthday and Pops' was a week ago yesterday, so I baked them a strawberry cake and we spent some time with them. On Saturday we went out to the pool - it was around 86 degrees outside and the pool was 91! It felt sooooo good. Brian and I both got a little pink. I guess our skin will eventually get used to the hot Florida sun!

As we lounged around in the pool, we discussed how much we like Florida. It's nice to be able to run down to Ft. Myers and be there in 3 hours. We are enjoying the weather so much, I just can't describe. I love wearing my sandals or flip-flops every day and seeing the sun. I love how the grass and trees are green year-round and there are new flowers blooming by my front door today. I love the cool breeze that smells of orange blossoms. Now if we could just transport our NY friends down here, we'd have it made.

Today I played piano at Winter Haven Nazarene Church again. It was a great service and as always, I LOVED playing with the band! Next week we're doing John Lennon's "Imagine" and at the end of the service, we're doing MercyMe's "I Can Only Imagine." This week I'll be writing some charts for the band. This gig is seriously satisfying my desire to get back into music, and not just teaching it. I feel like I'm back in Nashville and it's wonderful.

On the way back home from church, we found a short cut. Isn't it always fun when that happens? It's just been an all-around fab weekend. Now we're here in my scraproom; Brian is on the couch with his laptop and I'm at my computer, and the cats are around us. Bliss.

This afternoon I've got a bit of work to get done for some freelance writing I'm doing, and tomorrow it's back to the grind. LOL For me, it's back to keeping the house in order and making healthy meals. I'm also going to start pursuing getting some piano students this week. I'm bored and I miss teaching, plus the extra money is always nice!

boy, was i wrong!

I had predicted that the bottom three would be Kevin, Bucky, and Melissa. And my true OPINION was that it should be Bucky, Kevin, and Kellie, but I knew that the voting public would NEVER put Kellie in the bottom three (yet).

So imagine my surprise when the bottom three turned out to be Ace, Melissa, and Lisa! To be honest, I wouldn't have been sad to see any of these three go. But I knew as soon as they said Lisa's name that Melissa was going home. I truly believe she is a better singer than Ace, Kevin, and Bucky. But - the votes are in.

Brian would like to go on record as saying, "Oh, snap," when they started out with Ace in the bottom three. :-)

I just really need to know WHY Bucky is still there!! As soon as they announced he was singing "Superstition," I just about lost it. He absolutely butchered that song! And it's such a great song! Anyone remember when R.J. Helton sang it in Season One?

In my opinion, Tuesday night's top four performers were Taylor, Katharine, Paris, and Chris. Mandisa also did great, and I thought Elliott was pretty good, too. I felt like Katharine FINALLY showed her true self - we hadn't heard that voice since the preliminary auditions. And Paris finally chose a great song and rocked it. Taylor just makes B and I smile, every single time he's on stage. And Chris was pretty amazing on Higher Ground.

I've gotta agree with Randy - Stevie Wonder songs are really hard to sing. I mean, who can compare to Stevie?

PS - Hi, Jill! It's great to hear from you! You'll have to find out whose parents go to church with your inlaws. I can't figure out who it could be! Let me know! Hope all is well with you!

summer summer summertime

The air is sweetly scented with orange blossoms and we are enjoying some of the best weather ever! Today has been a grand day - Brian started his new job and had a wonderful time, and I got back to my regular schedule. I got a lot done today and managed to cook a healthy meal tonight, complete with a healthy dessert!

We're thankful for Brian's work and for this early summer. Soon I'm going to begin work on a garden.

Tonight I finished reading "Marley and Me" by John Grogan. It was a truly wonderful book. I would recommend it to anyone! It's seriously laugh-out-loud funny, and if you're an animal lover, you are most definitely missing out if you haven't read this book. Just a warning though - get out the Kleenex for the last few chapters. I was reading it in the bathtub and bawling like a baby! Thanks, Denise, for lending me this treasure.

Idol tomorrow! Can't wait!

spacejase, this post is for you!

OK, I have to make a little clarification. Not ALL guys look bad with long hair, in my opinion. But most of them do. What I can't stand is that scraggly, looks-like-it's-never-been-washed-or-combed looking hair. As I was typing my last post and Brian was reading over my shoulder, he said, "But what about Jason? You like HIS hair." This is true, and I even mentioned to Brian that maybe I should put a little note about that in the post. But I didn't, and now look what has happened! LOL Jason, dude, your hair is cool! Don't cut it! :-)

For those of you who are wondering, following is a picture of our beloved and dearly missed friends, Jason and Alicia. They moved to California at the same time we moved to Florida, from Albany. This was taken around last May, I think, at Rob Gallerani's birthday party at Kobe Steakhouse. Of course, this is Jason and Alicia PRE-lasik, since they are both spectacle-free now!
Speaking of you, Jase, I hope you picked my correct top four AI contestants!! My top four, not in any order, are Mandisa, Taylor, Elliott, and Katharine. I also like Paris, but she's been making really bad song choices, so she's not in my top four. I'm harsh, I know. Hope you win the big bucks, J! :-D

While we're on the subject, I was very happy with who went home on Thursday night, except for Bucky. I don't like Gedeon either, but Bucky should've gone FIRST!!

Anyway, let's get on to our day at Islands of Adventure on Thursday. We had a spectacular time. We started out the day with the Incredible Hulk coaster - it was awesome! You start out going up a hill inside a tunnel, and about a third of the way up, you just get LAUNCHED the rest of the way up the hill and straight into a hair-pin loop! It's fab! I took some pics of the coaster from the other side of the park. I lost count of how many flips and loops there were, but I LOVED it!



We also rode the Dueling Dragons, Fire and Ice, two steel coasters that start off side by side and then take off on their own courses, intertwining and coming within a few feet of each other three times during the ride. They were both GORGEOUS rides - so smooth and just relaxing, despite all the loops and corkscrews, etc. I liked the Fire Dragon better - I just thought it was a little smoother.

We rode the Spiderman ride four times! It was so cool! And Brian loved it - he's not big on thrill rides, too bad he married me! Ha! I drag him on all the coasters. But he was loving Spidey - you get in this little car and put on the 3-D glasses and your car gets jolted all around and stuff while a scene plays out. At one point they blow wind on you and the screens on either side of you rush downward, so it looks like you're flying straight up. Then you do a nose dive - but not really, it just looks that way and it's SO COOL - a simulated 400-foot drop, and you get caught at the very last second by Spidey's web. Awesome!

It was a wonderful day - hot and sunny - we wore shorts and got a little sun, and we were still hot! We rode other rides, but those were our favorites. We also had a funnel cake - yum! - and saw a cool show about Sinbad rescuing the princess from the evil witch or something. The stunts were amazing and it was nice to rest our feet for a little while.

Yesterday we headed down to Winter Haven for me to play at Chris' church again. It was great. Man, that band is just so tight! They are so awesome to play with. The service was wonderful. We got home late this afternoon (I noticed on the way home it was 91 degrees!!!!) and cleaned up a bit and rested, then I made a big pot of chili and one of Brian's friends from EA came over for dinner. They're in there chatting about games, comic books, movies, etc. B starts his new job tomorrow at n-Space and we're so excited! It will be great to have things back to normal.

Oh, and if you want to see the rest of our silly photos from Universal, click here.

it's just idol chat

The girls weren't so hot last night. Mandisa was my favorite by far - she was definitely the best singer last night and like Simon said, she was in a different league than the others. I believe Kinnik is definitely going home - nearly her whole song was sharp and it was actually painful for me to listen to. It seriously hurt my ears!

Tonight I'm blogging while watching the guys. I must say that I'm over Gedeon. The clip before his song with the painting put the last nail in his coffin for me. I've never heard a person sing runs more slowly. Seriously! Black people are famous for being able to flip their voices and do runs really fast (think of Stevie Wonder, Brian McKnight, etc.) but Gedeon just sings them so slowly, he drags them out, it sounds wierd.

Chris is good. I like him. He had a few little flat notes toward the end of his song, but he saved it. I don't think he deserves to win, but I think he'll probably be in the top 6. I like Kevin, too - he did a great job on Starry Starry night. He has a very trained sounding voice and it showed on this song. He really has a nice voice, but he just doesn't have the stage presence. I hope he makes it to the top 12 though, because I always like the underdog. :-)

Ooh, looks like my boyfriend, Taylor, is coming up! But first I have to endure Bucky. Ugh. Seriously, I just can't even stand hearing his name. OK, started out sharp. I just think he has no business being here, he's totally out of his league. And he's GOT to cut the hair. It looks so scraggly! Of course, this is all my OPINION!! Remember.

Will, doing How Sweet it is. Eh. Mediocre. Also needs a haircut. His hair looks like my hair looked in the 5th grade when my grandmother gave me a home perm in our kitchen sink. WHY do guys think they need to have long hair??!!

ANYWAY! During the boring parts, (while Will sings), I'll tell you about our day. Today we went to Universal Studios! We're celebrating Brian's new job! We went to the Universal park and we'll do Islands of Adventure tomorrow. The Mummy ride was BY FAR the best ride at that park!! We rode it FOUR TIMES!!!! LOL! We got there around noon and got in line for Shrek. We waited for that for like 30 minutes. It was pretty cute, but I didn't enjoy the wait, so we ran over and got Express Passes. Those made all the difference. Like I said, we rode Mummy four times and each time, we didn't wait for more than about 2 minutes. We seriously walked right up and got in a car. That ride rocks! It's nice and fast and it surprises you! Love it!

We had a wonderful day. But the Mummy was the only thrill ride at this park. So I'm looking forward to tomorrow and some big, huge, fast, loopy roller coasters! Yay! I did like the Men in Black ride and the Back to the Future ride, though. I just got tired of all the ride "introductions," meaning that when we got to what we thought was the end of the line, they would herd us all into a big room and show us some 10-minute-long movie clip. I just wanted to get on the ride already!

Woo! Taylor is gonna sing! I LOVE him! And Elliott is coming up! Yay! OK, Taylor is so adorable and I just love the sound of his voice. Don't tell anyone, but my hair is just as gray as his, and maybe even more. I used to get it colored it about every 3-4 months, but now I have to get it done about every 5 weeks. :-( And the highlights are getting lighter and lighter to cover up the incoming gray!

So, Taylor just makes me wanna get up and dance and play the harmonica or something!! He is such a performer! He was great. I'm gonna rewind it and listen to him again. :-D Like Brian says, Taylor can tear it up!!!! WOO!

Here comes Elliott, my second favorite! Let's see what he does. Ooh, Bryan Adams! Awesome! LOVE this song! Elliott's not the best looking guy, but he has charisma on stage. He's doing great, and it's interesting to hear this song sung with a straight vocal, instead of Bryan Adams' raspy sound. I do love the raspy sound, but this is really good. Elliott has a lot of control. Awesome job! (Brian says he looks like Frankenstein! Mean!)

Ace. All the girls love Ace. He looks kinda funky to me when he's talking - his mouth and eyes go all crooked. I mean, he's cute, but I don't think he's all that. And you know I think he needs a major haircut. He's an okay singer. Brian saw online that some website has predicted he will win. I'm appalled at that! He doesn't hold a candle (in my book) to Mandisa, Elliott, Taylor, Katharine, Paris, or even Chris. And what the heck was that in the middle of the song? He sounded like Horatio Sanz doing an impression of Aaron Neville on SNL.

It's over, time to vote. Guess who I'm voting for! Taylor and Elliott. If I had my way, Will and Bucky would go home. But I can't predict what America will do. I'll say this - I think that the two going home will come from this list:
Bucky
Will
Kevin
Gedeon

Woo hoo! Bo Bice tomorrow night! I'll enjoy the roller coasters and then top off a great day seeing some crappy people go home and Bo Bice sing! Sounds good to me.

a new job for brian

Well, folks, the search is over. Brian has accepted a job with n-Space, a game company here in Orlando. Praise the Lord we don't have to move! n-Space has been very good to B during the whole interview process. (For instance, he got lost TWICE going to interview - two days in a row - and they didn't hold it against him! LOL) They are currently making games for the newest Nintendo system, Nintendo Revolution, which is not yet on the market. Here's an article that was in the Orlando Sentinel recently. Brian really likes it there - it's a smaller yet growing company that has a family-like atmosphere among its employees. More like VV, nothing like EA. :-)

And now I will reveal where he has interviewed over the past month! (Like it's some big exciting news!) He's travelled to Champaign, IL, Albany, NY, and Emeryville (Oakland area), CA. He's also had phone interviews with numerous companies, including companies in Raleigh, NC, Phoenix, AZ, TONS of places in CA, Seattle,WA, and Austin, TX to name a few! You can imagine how relieved I am to not be packing up and moving across the country yet AGAIN! Some of these places gave him offers and some offered to fly him out for an interview and he declined. All in all, he had a big choice to make, and many places to choose from. We're thankful that he was in such a great position. And we feel really confident and happy with n-Space.

Brian made me a delicious dinner last night - pasta with a sauce of sauteed garlic, grape tomatoes, and fresh basil - yum! I've been trying to get the house back in order after last week's craziness! On Saturday, B and I headed down to Winter Haven where my cousin Chris is the minister of music at Winter Haven First Church of the Nazarene. He needed someone to play piano for the contemporary service, so he asked me. We rehearsed on Saturday night and that band is AWESOME! I've barely touched a piano since last May (!) so it was really nice to get back into it. Plus, Chris' sister Kay and her husband Fred came to visit, too. They live in south GA and it was great to see them again!

Sunday morning's service went really well - I enjoyed myself immensely. The music was rockin'! And the speaker was Larry Dennis, the DS for the Central Florida district. He was great, too. I'd really missed being on the platform! Chris needs me for the whole month of March, so we'll be heading to Winter Haven every Saturday night/Sunday morning in March. Oh, and we stayed at the Pastor's house and they had the cutest little dog in the world! I LOVED that doggie!

So B only has this week before he starts work and we're going to try and make the most of it! We're planning to spend 2 days at Universal - I think we're going Wednesday and Thursday. I hope we can squeeze in a romantic dinner too - maybe Friday night.

MUCH less stress now that B is going back to work. Maybe I'll actually start working now, too!

Jenn - we're obviously going to be here, so you and Pat head on down!!!!
Jenni - we'll definitely join you at Disney for a day or two!!!! Can't wait!!!!

It's in the 80's all week this week - anyone else wanna come for a visit? ;-)