Well, hell.
See if I ever try to pick an American Idol winner again. Syesha and Carly had the best performances (plus maybe David Cook), and they both ended up in the bottom two. I even voted three times for Carly. First time I've ever actually voted.

And she's been kicked off.

Guess I have to root for David Cook now. *sigh*

Live-blogging American Idol's Andrew Lloyd Webber night
This is the second Andrew Lloyd Webber fiasco I've live-blogged. So turn your eyes to this post for some background information. Suffice to say that the 15-year-old theater geek in me still loves some ALW. I've not really followed his career post-Aspects of Love, though I did see Sunset Boulevard on Broadway. Anyway, I'm not familiar with his newer stuff. So I'm wondering what they're going to sing tonight.

My coworkers and I have been talking about it. We figure someone will sing "Memory" from Cats, someone will do "I Don't Know HOw to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar, and the girls might fight over who gets to belt out "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina" from Evita (they may at least know the Madonna version).

7:00pm: here we go!

Earth Day, Schmearth Day. Get to the cheesiness. I'm glad that they're doing a fuller band, complete with strings. Nice. I would hate for the usual band to attempt these songs.

Just for the record, I was totally a Michael Johns girl. Right now I'm kind of rooting for Carly.

Yay, Andrew Lloyd Webber montage! Did Ryan Seachrest just say "the-ah-tuh" in a British accent?

Hey! The Venetian! I saw Phantom there in January!

Randy says it's the toughest night of the season. Hmm. I might agree, as much as the judges have made fun of musical theater voices. His songs are not easy to sing. I'd like to see one of these contestants tackle the operatic stuff at the end of "Think of Me."

First Contestant: Syesha Mercado. Crap. I don't really care for her. Holy crap, she's singing a song from Starlight Express. Where are her roller skates??? She's not doing that bad, actually. Her hair is cute. Girl has some boobies! Randy liked it. Paula liked it. Simon? Thought it was sexy and liked it. My verdict? Yeah, not bad at all, and she really sold the song.

OK, it's a commercial break. Jason Castro is going to sing "Memory." Jesus. I'm going to publish this every commercial break and then go in and edit it.

So, back again. The publishing took a little long, so I hope that doesn't continue all night. So, "Memory," a song sung by an old lady cat... now will be sung by some hippie dreadlocked guy from Rockwall, TX. I believe that one of us called that one.

Second Contestant: Jason Castro. Wow, what's up with that outfit, dude??? Andrew Lloyd Webber is funny right now, and Jason is a dumbass. What's up with that pussy mustache, dude? Anyway, here we go. DAMN! They cut the first verse, my favorite. Someone kill me now. The way they chopped this song is breaking my heart. NO! The final verse should be powerhouse! ARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Randy didn't care for it and thought it was a bad song choice. Paula liked the choice. Boo. Simon? Hilarious. Didn't like it. HAHA! I am laughing out loud. My verdict? I want to kick Jason's ass and shave his head. I hope he goes home after this. He should. What should he have sung? Something from Joseph - would have been more his speed.

Third Contestant: Brooke White. Not cool to sing a song written for the Evita movie. That’s silly. I love that ALW said she didn’t know what she was singing about. I’m kind of tired of Brooke. Here she goes. HOLY CRAP! She started over! Can you even do that on Idol???? That’s not going to be good for her. You can tell she’s nervous. There are better songs from Evita than this. Wow, her voice is sounding really, really bad. Randy didn’t like it. Paula is mad that she stopped. Simon didn't like it either. Maybe she would have been better if she hadn't freaked out. My verdict? Boo... crappy choice and she forgot the words.

Next contestant will be David Archuleta. I wonder what his song choice will be... I'm sure it will be a feel-good ballad.

Fourth Contestant: David Archuleta. Oh my god, he looks 12. Victor just said "Are you sure he's not 12?" HE'S SINGING "THINK OF ME" - ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????? Is he going to do the opera stuff at the end? No, of course not. ALW called him "Little David." Hilarious. Here he goes. Oh no, it's the "caring and sharing" acoustic guitar version. I want to drive nails into head. NO! BONGOS! NO NO NO NO NO NO! My ears! My ears are bleeding! The little girls are going to be all over this. He's going to be our next American Idol. I hated the way he ended it. My life is over. Randy liked it - "it was the bomb." Paula thought it was "absolutely perfect." Simon? Didn't really like it. My verdict? I agree with Simon... except I also wanted to throw things at the TV.

Why is Paul Stanley there? Inquiring husbands want to know.

Fifth Contestant: Carly Smithson. “All I Ask of You?” I’m glad ALW nipped that in the bud... it would have been terrible So, she’s singing the theme to Jesus Christ Superstar… we figured she’d sing the Mary Magdalene ballad from that show instead. But I can get behind this. Here she goes… Messing up the words a bit, unless it was intentional… Uh oh, is there going to be a fatwa on her for asking “Could Muhammad move a mountain, or was that just PR?” Not a bad performance… much better than another awful ballad. The crowd liked it for sure. Randy liked it. Paula liked it. Simon? Really liked it! My verdict? Yay for Carly!

So, one left… what is David Cook going to sing? He’s going to have to go balls out to top Carly’s energy.

Sixth Contestant: David Cook. He’s going to sing “Music of the Night.” I’m glad that he’s an ALW fan and has done musical theater before. Let’s see what happens… My husband wonders why no one did anything from Les Mis or Miss Saigon. I had to school him. He says he wasn’t a gay man growing up in Arkansas, like I was. Ha ha ha. Anyway, back to David Cook… he’s not doing that bad! I think he could do a more theatrical version, but maybe the judges wouldn’t like that. You know what? I’m digging it, to use Randy’s phrasing. Oh no, the end was terrible. Terrible, but very David Cook. Randy loved it. Paula loved it. Simon? Didn’t care for it, but thought it he made the most of the song. My verdict? It was pretty good, except for the end.

Somewhere along the way, we have broken my blog. I’m logging on to my provider to see what’s wrong… Oh wait, it’s back.

Either Brooke or Jason will go home. I think the night belongs to Syesha or Carly. David Cook did the best of the guys. They’re recapping right now, and the David Archuleta song made me gag a little again.

It was interesting to see how they used ALW’s songs this week. I can’t wait to discuss at work tomorrow with other musical theater nerds. MUSICAL THEATER NERDS UNITE!

Weekend Endorsements
We had a fairly busy weekend. We saw two movies at the theater, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and My Blueberry Nights. I enjoyed both, although I wanted to gag Natalie Portman in MBN. I just don't care for her as an actress, and the fake accent she put on was so annoying. I thought FSM was hilarious, particularly the Paul Rudd character. I told Victor that every movie needs a Paul Rudd cameo... it would just make everything better.

We also took Murphy to Dirty Dawgs on Oak Lawn for a bath. It's a do-it-yourself dog wash, complete with blow dryers, scented sprays, and grooming tools. I usually just wash him in the tub, which is exhausting and nerve-wracking for both of us. He hated getting the bath at Dirty Dawgs (especially the blow drying), but it was so much easier than doing it at home.

I'll not mention about how he tried to run away from us by escaping from the dog park.

This morning, we went to sunday brunch at the Tipperary Inn for full Irish breakfasts. Even though they forgot to give us the grilled tomato, it was very yummy. We had never been there for brunch before, and I really enjoyed it. It looks like their summer hours aren't going to include brunch, so I guess that it will be a while before we have brunch there again.

Tonight, we're having a Mexican cookout with fajitas, chicken, sausage, avocados, yummy tortilla chips, and palomas. That, coupled with the epsom salt bath that I just took, will make for a great ending of a good weekend.

Not nice!

I got dive-bombed by a bird this morning, right outside my front door.

I usually put my hair in a bun for the drive to work (helps control the frizz), and this morning, a mockingbird dove down and hit me in the bun. I'm pretty sure the bird has a nest in our ornamental tree next to the front door. I see and hear it in there all the time, and I think that I can hear little peeps coming out of there too. In fact, I can hear the mockingbird in there right now. It's loud enough that I can hear it through the window, and I'm across the living room from it.

I'm all for nature, but come on! It's not nice to hit people on the head first thing in the morning.

House envy
I've been kind of obsessed with Apartment Therapy lately. I used to visit it occasionally a few years ago, but there wasn't really much for me there. These days, I have been getting so much inspiration there! Even though we're no longer in an actual apartment, we still have a small dwelling and a small budget. I've been feeling restless lately with our decor; I think it's time to shake things up a bit. So I've been looking at AT's home tours to get ideas. They're currently in a Small Cool contest, where people send in picture tours of their small apartments and people vote on whether they like the decorating and whatnot. So there are a lot of great apartments to look at right now. They also do home tours of houses, too... I wonder if I could ever get on there. It makes a nice break from getting inspiration from various TLC and HGTV shows, which eventually kind of all blend together.

Also, our house has so much IKEA stuff... I'd like to add in a few other pieces so that it doesn't look like walking into an IKEA showroom. If I'm in Dallas this weekend, I want to hit up some garage sales and a couple of architectural salvage places I've been hearing about. I'm also in the market for some new stuff for our walls. We've been living with the same framed vintage poster prints for too long now, and I'm ready for something new.

It's also time for us to get our crap together for our own garage sale. We have so much stuff stored in the garage that needs to go, and I want to weed out some old paperbacks. Victor and I both also have a ton of clothes and shoes to rehome. Once we can get the garage cleaned out, we can work on finishing it out a bit more to make it more usable. I'd eventually like to have a little fridge out there as well as a workbench or two for any silly projects I'd like to try. Plus, some improvements to the garage (like the light that my dad and I installed) can only help our resale value, right?

...in more cute pictures of Murphy. Why? Because he is so cute, especially when sitting still. Not so much when he's running all over the house...

It's a beautiful spring day here in Texas. I wish that spring lasted forever here. I know that all too soon we will head into the interminable Long Hot Summer, which is really no fun. Maybe if I had all summer off to go swimming, I would enjoy it more. Should we tear up the fish pond and put in a pool? Nah... pools aren't for lazy people... they require too much work. So it's mosquitos and terrified goldfish for me.

We haven't really been traveling much lately, as Victor is working on something Very Important at work and doesn't have much free time. We did go down to Austin a few weeks ago, which was lots of fun. I had kind of forgotten why I love that city so much, so it was a nice reminder.

We have been sticking to home a lot during the weekends, working on the yard. I've got a decent flower garden going, with irises (left by the previous owners - thanks!), petunias, bluebonnets, shamrocks, and some other kind of pink flower. I think I might add a few more things in this weekend. We're also trying our hand at container tomatoes, strawberries, and herbs. Wish us luck, because our thumbs aren't very green yet.