The new American Idol: Mark?

Yes, we are unabashed American Idol fans. I told myself I was done with it, though. After all the judge swaps, I wasn't sure I'd like it. Plus, it is so many hours a week of watching time, I felt I wouldn't have time with the baby and working evenings three nights a week.

But here I am.

There's a kid named Robbie Rosen, and every time I see him, I say, "Mark! It's you when you were younger!"

So, here you go. See for yourself.

This shirt makes me feel like I'm 5 again

I made this Ruffled Spring Top featured on Sew, Mama, Sew. I used pieces of my vintage sheet collection, and I love the fabrics. They are a bit, uh, youthful, though. That's OK; sometimes you need to wear pleated, flowery fun-ness.

The blog link above has a tutorial; this shirt can be made to any size. You fill in the blanks with your measurements and go! I keep a big end roll of newsprint around for pattern drafting (my newspaper offers them for free to teachers or whoever. They are just leftovers that they have to throw out), so I measured out my pattern pieces on that.

Sewing wasn't as fast as I expected, but not too bad. It took about 2.5-3 hours. I made several mistakes, but when don't I? Gotta keep it interesting. I definitely recommend you try on as you go, and WEAR A BRA. I had made some miscalculations, and also found that once I put a bra on, the top part wasn't what I thought it was (alright, so I was sewing in my PJs. I was so excited for a sewing day that I didn't want to take the time to shower. I did take a shower break partway through when I got pissed after sewing the top band to the garment with the body inside out). It all worked out in the end. I am considering releasing the pleats in front, since I'm looking sorta flat-chested, but I do like how they look sewn down, in concept.





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I have to have a gum graft done tomorrow. I have lots of recession and need nine teeth done over the next few years. At $1,100 a tooth, and only $1,500 total benefits per year on my insurance, it could take awhile.

The recession (of my teeth, not the economy) is due to any one or a combination of the following: the six years of orthodontic work I had done as a kid, genetics (it's always fun to blame your problems on your parents!) or brushing too hard.

I'm having one tooth done tomorrow, and I'm scared. Cuz, damn, it's going to hurt afterward. Not to gross you out, but they have to take tissue from the roof of your mouth and sew it onto your gums to protect your teeth. Fun fact: the thickness of your palate is directly proportional to how fat you are! Who'd have thought that the roof of your mouth got fat when your butt did?

I see this as a good opportunity to consume nothing by Instant Breakfast for a few days, watch lots of TV, and sew a lot. Maybe even finish those damn Spice Socks.

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The perfect summer treat:



Raspberries. Perfect ones from Costco. Do you ever wonder why all Costco produce is perfect, plump and unblemished? It is sort of creepy, isn't it? What do they do to it?

Also, I wanted to show off my fancy turquoise nail polish. Mark asked me to paint his toenails with it. Weird, huh? He initially admired them, and said, "Glambert!" This is a reference to our favorite American Idol, Adam Lambert, who easily gets away with wearing black nail polish and eyeliner. Don't worry, Mark quickly realized the error of his ways.

Why must we choose between our luxuries?

I get very lazy about maintaining the hot tub in the winter. I hate winter and avoid going outside as much as possible. Last week, Mark decided to drain it and clean it out, for the first time. I've done it all the other times it needed doing. I told him exactly what to do, and I don't know if something weird just happened or if he did something weird, but after he filled it a few days later and turned it back on, it just quit working. It wouldn't heat up and was making an awful sound.

But before we noticed it wasn't working, we did notice the satellite TV wasn't working. As soon as the hot tub was fired back up, the satellite went bye-bye. Mark finally made this connection after spending quite some time on the phone with the satellite people. During this conversation, they had him reset the receiver completely. I'll get back to this.

After he hung up, he started to wonder if it was related to the hot tub having been turned back on that day. They had both run simultaneously all this time, but who knows. He then discovered near the breaker box a plug that kept popping out the reset button. When he pressed the button, the satellite would come on for 30 seconds and then the button would pop back out. Eventually we gave up and went to bed, because without TV, what is there to do? (Well, there's knitting and reading and other things, but when you are really tired, those aren't options.)

The next day the TV started working, but I had to turn off the hot tub, which by now hadn't warmed up at all and was making an awful sound. Initially, I wondered who the a-hole neighbor was using such an annoying sounding machine. Then I realized it was us.

Back to the reset problem. Our entire recording to-do list was deleted. When we went back to reset them, it wouldn't let us set several of the shows. You can choose one-time recording or series recording. For instance, American Idol on Wednesdays let us record series, but it didn't pick up Tuesday's like it should. So we tried to set that one too, but it won't let us. It did this with about half of our favorite shows. It said that last night's Idol was set to record, but then it didn't record it.

Oh, and yesterday I waited around all day for the hot tub guy and he never showed up. So now, no TV shows, no hot tub. Life SUCKS.

p.s. hot tub guy just arrived. Life could start to improve!

Kellie Pickler aged about 30 years

Remember the young, bubbly Kellie Pickler from last year's "American Idol"? Well, she made a guest appearance last night and she looked SO OLD. Reasons she looked weird:
1. It looked like she was wearing a 1950s wig.
2. I think she quickly invested in fake boobs.
3. Her body has expanded.
4. Her dress was clearly from before her body expanded.

I tried to find pictures to make this posting more interesting, but I couldn't. And I know my tendency to stay on the computer all day instead of getting stuff done. So one more post, and I'm outta here.

Black is back

On to the second part of American Idol -- the girls.

Contrary to the boys' performances, there were actually lots of really, really good female singers. And the thing about them this year is that all the black girls were really good, and almost all the white girls were pretty bad.

By far, Lakisha Jones was my absolute favorite. She sang a song from "Dreamgirls" and tore it up. She just blew everyone else out of the water. To top it off, she seems like a humble and sweet person.

Other good contestants were: Jordin Sparks, Melinda Doolittle (though I don't think that's a real name), Sabrina Sloan, who Mark says is sexed out despite her nose, and Stephanie Edwards.

"American Idol," the judges, the contestants. Discuss.

Last night, the live competition of "American Idol" began. Let us discuss. I can't say I am overly impressed with any of this season's American Idol contestants. Last season, I had clear faves going in. So far, I've only seen the guys perform, but I wasn't feeling excited by any of them. Last year, I liked Taylor from his first audition. I liked Elliot all the way through. Chris Daughtry was also amazing.

This season, I was instantly fond of Chris Sligh, mostly because he was hilarious. He walked in, this Jack Osbourne look-alike, and they asked him why he was there, to which everyone else replies, "I want to be the next American Idol." Blah, blah. Well, Chris Sligh says, "I want to make David Hasselhoff cry." The judges looked bewildered, but then the show cuts to the end of last season when Taylor won and it shows David H. in the audience clapping with a tear running from his eye.
Well, Chris starts singing, and dadgumit, he's really good! So I dig him.

Next up, I like beat-boxer Blake Lewis. He was one of the few good performances last night. He skipped the beat-boxing, and still sounded great. During Hollywood week's group performances, his group was in perfect harmony, and Blake's beat-box sounds really made the performance stand out.

Finally, the third male contestant that impressed me was Jared Cotter. He's handsome and smooth and has a beautiful voice.

I had really been holding out for the totally precious Sanjaya Malakar. The song he chose was awful, so his performance just put me to sleep.

The problem with this first round was that pretty much all the songs were sooooooooo boring. Even if you have a great voice, if the song sucks, no dice.
Next up, the girls.