Chit Chat

It's been a busy, busy week here so far. Started off the week by meeting the surgeon who's going to do my tubal next month, and schedualing the surgery itself. Tuesday Tay had a dental cleaning & found out she's got her first two cavities. But they're just tiny ones barely starting to show up, so the dentist said pain killer won't be necessary, and she's got this mini-sand-blaster that can be used instead of a drill, on minor cavities if they're caught early enough. And plastic fillings. Not those metal ones. So, that's all fairly good news, right?!?!

I was SOOOO happy to see Taylor Hicks win AI last night!!! Katharine McPhee is ok, but she really didn't seem to grow at all. Her last performances were really safe. I couldn't believe on Tuesday night how she redid two songs that had been real successes for her, without attempting to find a new song that might be as big as success. Taylor took risks all the way through, sometimes looked a bit of a dork, but always had fun and kicked @$$ on stage. Scott & I had picked Chris & Taylor as finalists right from the start, but after seeing Chris & Elliot get booted off when they did, I'm rather convinced that the show IS fixed, towards the end. Not necessarily as to EXACTLY who wins, but that the votes are scewed as to allow only certain types, for the year, into the finals. Once it appears, in the last 5 or 6 episodes, that a certain type is going to make it to the finals, the producers look back at the past finalists and say "oh, we just had a rocker in the top 2 last year, we can't allow Chris to get there this year". And as for Elliot & Taylor, I really think that it did come down to the two of them for votes, but I don't believe in any way that Katharine was a real threat. That the threat, in fact, was that Elliot & Taylor both have this bluesy, jazzy vibe, and 2 contestants so close in nature couldn't be allowed to compete in the finals. So, they booted the one with the slightly lower number of votes: Elliot. God, does that guy have an incredible attitude, or what!?!?!? Toward the end, Scott & I added Elliot to our list of who we'd like to see in the finals: Chris, Taylor, and Elliot. But back to the fixing of votes; I really think that had Kelly Pickler been "good enough" to make it to the top 5 or 6, she wouldn't have made it any further due to Carrie winning last year. Can't have 2 country crooners winning (or in the finals) 2 years in a row. I think that Mandisa and Paris were booted (or would have been booted, in Mandisa's case) for similar reasons, because Fantasia was winner 2 years ago. If voting was COMPLETELY left up to the public, and the same group of people are watching year after year, then we would have similar winners year after year, and the Producers of the show just don't seem to want that to happen. So ultimately they take a lot of the votes & scew them, to give the finals more "pop". Anyway, that's my theory. There's no other way to explain why Paris & Chris were booted, but Katharine wasn't.

The grass is finally growing nicely in the front yard, but unfortunately only in the hydroseeded area. We've got grass growing in the non-hydroseeded area, but not much at all. It's still mostly dead brown grass from last year, with clumps of green popping up here and there. The weather has been fantastic, though. Monday was drizzly, but Tuesday and yesterday were sunny and warm, and actually hit about 75. Had a patron in at work asking me the other day what the weather is like in the summer. This is his first summer here, and he didn't believe me when I said that YES, it does get up to the 90's during the summer. Not constantly (hopefully!), but 85 to 95 is certainly not UNheard of here, in the summer. Kinda odd when you consider that -45 to -55 is not UNheard of here in the winter, that's like a potential (somewhat likely) 140 degrees difference, from January to July. Wierd. Hopefully we'll get a bit of a drizzly night here again tonight or tomorrow (though the forcast doesn't look like it, really). That's the nicest way to spend summer, 2 or 3 days of nice, a day of drizzle, 2 or 3 days of nice, a great evening shower. And so on. Keeps the ground moist, without ruining nice summery days for the kids.

Not been doing much crafting as my shoulder's been bugging the heck out of me. I need to get Scott to give me another shoulder rub. I hadn't intended to crochet at all for a week after the last shoulder rub he gave me last Thursday, but one of my coworkers was attempting to start a crocheted square for a baby afghan, and what had started out as a 20 stitch-long square, was turning out to be a pretty perfect triangle. She didn't realize she was decreasing both beginning and ending of the row. So Tuesday I stuck around after work for a bit and helped her start her square over. It was kinda hard explaining to her, though. The way she holds her tension in her left hand, with her yarn woven in and out of all of her fingers, her general looseness of stitch, and the hard time she was having finding the correct angle to form the new stitch on her base chain....... *shaking head* Thank Goddess that little baby-afghan squares are good for this kind of learning. On the other hand, she's got some BEAUTIFUL little squares she's knit, some with ribbing, some with unique stitchery, and I can't figure out HOW she manages that. I knit continental style (it's easier for me, as the yarn tension is held in a very similar manner to crocheting), but just barely manage to make a knit-stitch scarf. And I can increase thanks to Carol Duval's episode about knit dishcloths, but I can't decrease. So all I've made is scarves and a shawl, with a second shawl on the circulars now. This same coworker has offered to teach me how to purl, and hopefully I'll learn how to do ribbing, as I'd love a ribbed scarf for winter. My middle sis made a beautiful one in this lovely raspberry & cream verigated. I'd love to try it in a cream & green color scheme.

Not much more chit-chat for today. I've gotta go get my roast thrown together with the veggies in the slow cooker, and finish my breakfast before I head out for work.

Have a Blessed Day!