Distill My Heart

Distill My Heart is a horse at Woodford Reserve Stables. For those of you who don't know, Woodford Reserve is a small-batch bourbon. It is, I believe, the official bourbon of the Kentucky Derby. Oddly enough, though, the Early Times Mint Julep is the official Mint Julep. Even more odd is the fact that the Early Times that is sold in the U.S. can't even be called bourbon, by definition. It's whiskey. Something to do with the aging process. But I digress. Woodford Reserve is a distillery that makes bourbon. They also have a small stable with 2 thoroughbred horses. One, Angel's Share, is still racing (and kicking equine booty). The other, Distill My Heart (love that name!), has started breeding and just gave birth to a little girl on Monday! She's so adorable! She looks just like her mommy! So adorable! Just had to share...

Oh. We "cooked" our first meal in the new apartment last night. We had spaghetti and meatballs, with salad & Texas toast. We're still settling in, so we wanted something quick and easy. With our work schedules, most of our weekday dinners are q&e meals. Hopefully, we'll get to the point where we can cook and/or prep on weekends and have decent dinners during the week!

The Faux-Hawk?

Aye caramba. If Sanjaya doesn't go this week, then he's got a good chance of winning the whole kit & kaboodle. Chris R still seemed kinda whiney. Haley was still hot, but not very good. Chris S is still having trouble with song choice and sticking with the beat. But Sanjay has just gone off the deep end. I think he finally lost it. He has realized that there's a good chance that it doesn't matter what he does, he'll get votes, so he's just going ape-shit. I don't even think he was trying to sing well last night. Also, I think he put a lot of people off with the bizarre hairdo last night. Gina did really well. Phil kicked butt. Jordin did great for a 17-year old. Too bad she's on American Idol and not 17-Year Old Idol. Lakisha & Melinda killed, as usual. I have heard that if Sanjaya wins, Simon will refuse to come back next year. I don't blame him. I probably won't be back, either. I would be hesitant to return if he even makes it in the top 5! He better go tonight.

Anyway, enough Idol for now. The Big Move was this past weekend. I have but no clue how we managed to accumulate so much stuff! It's unbelievable! We had taken over about 5 car loads ahead of The Move, then loaded a 15-foot truck and at least partially loaded 5 cars, and still have more stuff. We made two trips on Monday, one trip last night, and are going back tonight with two cars. Tonight should be the last of it. *knock wood* We'll swing by Friday night to check mail and drop off the keys, and that will be it! Yaayy! Of course, we're still trying to figure out where everything goes in the new place. But we've put away about... oh... 75% of it or so. As the place gets lived in, we'll probably wind up moving some stuff, but for now, it's getting put away.

So far, the place is great. Even though in terms of square footage, it's not leaps & bounds bigger than our old place, it feels much bigger. The kitchen is bigger. It's great having two bathrooms. We've got our new HDTV hooked up. So sweet! The new bed, queen size, is super comfy. Loving that. There are only a few downers: 1) no balcony; 2) no fireplace (not that I expect one in our price range); 3) parking's not great, but it's do-able; 3.5) Buddy's staying at his grandmommy's in Jersey until Easter (it's only temporary - that's why it gets the 1/2). He was a little stressed when we were packing and was a little confused with a new environment, so we decided to let him stay in Jersey for a couple weeks while we put everything away. By the time we bring him back, he probably won't even remember the old place! He's not too bright sometimes...

Once everything is presentable, I'll do a new video tour. Oh, I know I said enough Idol (sorry Julie), but I do have to brag just a little that I predicted Stephanie's departure last week. All the entertainment news outlets seemed to be quite surprised by it. Guess they should have asked me!

Tough Call

Pretty much everybody stepped it up this week. It's going to be a tough call figuring out who's getting the boot this week. Haley started off with Tell Him, which always makes me think of Ally McBeal. With her hot pants, halter and 6-inch heels, she looked like a bit like a street walker. A very cute street walker, but a street walker nonetheless. She did pretty good with her performance, though. Miles better than she did in the opening weeks of the final rounds. Chris R. followed with Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying. The judges loved him, but I thought he was a bit whiney and nasal. I'm sure the teen girls will love him, though. Stephanie sang You Don't Have to Say You Love Me. She sang well, but she just has a real problem with song selection. She needs to pick some more well known mainstream songs that will involve the audience. She's gotten by on her talent so far, but talent alone won't carry her through to the end. Blake rocked the house with Time of the Season. Perfect song choice for him. The beatboxing worked perfectly with how the original song goes. Lakisha did well singing Bond. Not my favorite performance, but she's still incredible. Thought Phil did well with Tobacco Road. I wasn't familiar with the song, but he sang it well and had a lot of fun with it. Up tempo, good beat. I wasn't familiar with Jordin's song, but to paraphrase Ricky Bobby, she made that song her bitch. Loved Simon's comment on Sanjaya's performance of The Kinks. Agreed completely. I though Sanjaya did better than he had been doing, but he simply has no place in the top 12. He really shouldn't be there. He's not even in the same league as Phil or Gina, who aren't in the same league with Lakisha and Melinda. It was painful, but not as painful as it could have been. Gina did pretty well singing the Stones. Not sure how the performance will play with the teen voting audience, though. Chris S kicked some bootay singing She's Not There. I was shocked and disappointed that Chrissy didn't know that song. I even downloaded the original and played it for her. She just stared blankly then shrugged and said, "Sorry." *sigh* Anyway, the Chris we all know & love is back. Melinda finished strong with As Long as He Needs Me. I don't care for the vibrato in Melinda's voice, but she is, I think, probably the best singer on the show. She's going to be hard to beat.

As far as who goes home, check the title of this post. Sanjay should go home, but as we've already seen, that probably won't happen. If not Sanjaya, I would say Chris R should go home, but he'll probably get the teenybop JT fans voting for the SexyBack lookalike. I'm hoping Phil doesn't go because I thought he did pretty well. I'm actually going to go for the upset and say Stephanie's going home tonight, but really, it's anyone's call. I think Melinda, Lakisha, Chris S, Jordin and Blake should absolutely be safe after last night, but beyond that it's anyone's guess. And even those, who knows?

B-B-B-B-Bonus!!

Well, we went to sign the lease for the new apartment, and the property manager was there. They were actually just finishing up cleaning up the apartment, so he asked if we wanted to move in that day! Now, we needed a money order for the prorated first month's partial rent, which I had already gotten, and I didn't want to pay extra to move in early, so I said, "Well... I only have the money order for the rent as of Wednesday." He waved me off and said, "I don't care about that." So he changed the move-in date on the lease, added a discount for the time between Saturday and Wednesday, and we got the key! Yay! So there's still a few things, like the move-in checklist, to take care of, but basically, we're in! WOO HOO!

So, we took over our first two carloads of schtuff last night. At my friend Katy's suggestion, I did a little video tour of the place. I'll do another one when we get everything moved in and it looks like an actual apartment. On a side note, upon loading the video to the computer and playing around a little, I found out Windows has a movie editor! So I was actually able to play around a little with the video, as you can see.

Non-Idol Update

Well, today is the first of a few big days. Today, we go to sign the lease for our apartment. We're hoping to get a walk-through, too, but it depends on whether they're done painting or not. The next big day is Wednesday (the 14th). That's our official move-in day, meaning that we get our keys. We won't actually be physically moving in until later. Not sure the exact day. It depends on how our moving goes. We're going to try to get most of the small stuff moved over the first week or so. Then, we have a truck rental booked for the 24th. That's when we'll move the big stuff. We're making decent progress on packing, but we're running out of space to put the boxes we pack!

In some sad news, my brother-in-law's father has recently been diagnosed with cancer. He has gone through a first initial round of chemo and is starting the second, agressive round next week. I believe he is otherwise very healthy (he's a doctor), so I am hoping his body will be strong enough to fight it off and withstand the chemo. Please add him to your list of people to keep in your thoughts and prayers.

Oh, more sad/odd news. Chrissy and I got an email on Thursday at work that our IT director had passed away! No one really knows yet what happened. I think he was in the low 40s and he seemed fairly healthy. I think he was out sick on Wednesday. Right now, it's mostly just rumor and conjecture.

Ok, I know this is supposed to be a non-Idol update, but I need something a little lighter after those last two paragraphs. I'll keep it brief. Sanjay and Haley have no business being in the top 12. Sabrina was robbed. Ok, that's it.

Not sure how frequently I will be able to blog over the next week or two. Not sure when the computer will be packed up at the old place and/or working at the new place. I'll try to keep up some at work. Wish us luck with the move!

The Ladies

Jordin started decent singing Pat Benetar. A few rough spots, but good performance, good energy. Same with Sabrina singing En Vogue. A few spots where her voice was a little screechy, but good overall. Antonella once again just showed how out of her league she is in this competition. Not a very good performance. She's hot and she's got a decent voice, but she's not the next American Idol. Same with Haley. Not bad, but just not in the same league as the other ladies, or even the same league as the better male performers. I kind of felt bad for Haley when Simon said he couldn't remember her name, because I thought to myself "Amy, right?" Bad song choice, too. Also a bad song choice for Stephanie, but a good performance. She needs to watch it, though, with these off-beat choices. She needs to pick more mainstream songs, or she'll lose the audience. Lakisha rocked the house singing Whitney Houston. She's a great performer. Loved the outfit, too. I think Simon's a little sweet on her. :-) Excellent choices for Gina. The outfit was good, performance was good. Evanescence was a great song choice. Gina reminds me a little of Melissa, from last season. She's a little rough, good voice, cute, not good enough to win, but works hard and gets better every week. She should have no problem going to the next round. Melinda had another great week singing W-O-M-A-N. She's getting much more comfortable on stage week after week. I could see the final two being Melinda and Lakisha. They're simply in another league above the other women and most of the men.

I was surprised Simon kinda-almost mentioned the Antonella scandal. For the most part, the entire show has kind of glossed over the whole thing, but he actually mentioned that she had gotten a lot of negative attention in the media. Again, though, I can't really argue with what he said to Antonella or Haley. I just don't think either of them has the chops to compete on the same level as the others. I think they're the ones going home tonight.

Idol

Wow. Another rough night for the guys. Blake started off rough singing 311. Not sure what his problem was. Maybe just an off-night. He'll be fine, though. Sanjaya struggled, as ususal. Sundance struggled through Pearl Jam. It could have been a great song for him, but he just seems to have lost his oomph. Chris R. did ok with Keith Urban. Good song choice for him. Jared had a very schitzo performance singing Stevie Wonder. Parts were great, but parts blew chunks. He needs to stick with the slower, soulful songs. Or as Paula said, "color" his performances. I about died when she told a black guy to put more color in his performance. Brandon definitely did much better than last week, but needs to keep it more contemporary. I didn't think Phil's song choice was that odd, but I did think the fashion choice was. Especially the hat. He did ok, though. Chris S. easily had the best performance of the night. He rocked it. Wasn't sure about the song choice, as I had never heard the song, but he nailed it nonetheless.

My prediction for tomorrow night, Sanjaya & Sundance are going home. Phil is in danger, but I think he'll make it one more week.

Surprised, but not Shocked

Well, I was right about Alaina. She was irritating me last night. I was glad she went. I was surprised at the other eliminations, but not shocked. I didn't think any of them would be in the top 5 or anything, but I definitely thought they'd make it one more week. My picks for the top 5 are Chris Sligh, BBB, Melinda, Lakisha and Stephanie.

I didn't care for Kellie Pickler's new look. Liked the singing, but didn't like the glam-whore look. Too Hollywood. Lost her small-town that was her appeal, and so the ditziness came off as an act. She definitely had a boob job. It also looked like she had something done on her face. Maybe around the bridge of the nose area.

Another Tough Night

This time, it was the ladies who struggled. The guys definitely did better this week. Gina started of singing Heart. Struggled at spots, but brought it together, did well. I didn't have any "confusion" over her identity, or whatever Simon was trying to say. I think Alaina was trying to make a statement to the judge's with her song choice, but it just came across as lacking. Try as she might, I just don't think she has the vocals to make it to the top. Lakisha, on the other hand looked and sounded great singing Gladys Knight! I did think the skirt was a little short, but I think she's lost a bit of weight since the auditions and she's probably dressing and performing with a little more confidence after Hollywood Week and the 1st week of finals. Melinda also wowed the judges with her performance of My Funny Valentine. I think she's head and shoulders above what she thinks she is and is starting to show a little more confidence. She needs to keep that up. I wish she would cut back a little on the vibrato, though. That's just my personal preference. Antonella did tons better than last week, no doubt, but still struggled singing Celine Dion. I think with the level of competition this year, she is simply outclassed (in more ways than one). Jordin didn't have her best performance of her run or of the night, and it's always tough for them when they choose Christina Aguilera songs, but I think her worst performance will still be better than Antonella's best. She's just got a naturally better voice. Stephanie sang what I guess was a Beyonce song, but it wasn't one that I knew and it reminded me of Nicole's performance last week. The difference was, even though it sounded at times like the band was playing music for a different song that what she was singing, Stephanie sounded like she nailed the vocals. Didn't like the song choice, but liked Stephanie. Leslie, on the other hand, still seems a bit awkward in this competition. She did much better than last week, and did well with the vocals, but didn't care much for the performance, the song (Nina Simone), or her outfit. I think she did well enough to go on one more week, though. Haley also did much better than last week, singing Whitney, but has the same problem vocally that Antonella does. She just doesn't have the pipes to make it to the end. Sabrina may not make it to the end either, and struggled a bit this week, but still has more talent in her hair than Alaina has in her whole body.

Overall, the guys ruled this week. The girls who struggled last week stepped up this week, but in the end, they just won't be able to keep up with the A-List. I think Alaina and Antonella will go home tonight.