Archive for February, 2007

American Idol – The Guys, Week 2

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

It’s the boys’ night again. Hopefully they will do much better this week than last! It’s dedication night (I realized half-way through, d’oh!) – how thrilling. And away we go…

Phil Stacey sang I Ain’t Missing You by John Waite. He’s got a very clear voice, I like it. Not sure about when he hit the high powered notes, but overall he did a good job. Simon said his voice isn’t unique – I think his style just isn’t. He needs to dig down a little deeper, but I still think this guy is gonna be with us for a while.

Up next was Jared Cotter singing Let’s Get it On by Marvin Gaye. I’m scared before even hearing him sing. He’s got some big shoes to fill by singing a Marvin song. Okay, he gave me chills, so that is a good sign. I like the falsetto, but it is a little cheesy, a little too pop and not enough sexy. This guy might be the guy to beat, though, he’s some serious eye candy and he can sing. But what is up with the white sneakers with a suit? Just, no. And Paula… “You don’t have to push.” Thank God for Simon shutting her up even if he said it was reminiscent of the Love Boat.

Okay moving on to A.J. Tabaldo who sang Feelin’ Good by The Pussycat Dolls. I don’t like how he looks for some reason, but he really sang it nice. It didn’t blow me away – it was just nice.

Sanjaya Malakar sang a Tony Bennet song – Steppin Out with My Baby. Okay what is up with this outfit? The hat, the necklace, the earrings, the ponytail. Not working for me. Oh and the singing? That sucked, too. He totallly wanted to cry after Simon got through with him and I felt bad for him, but this guy needs to go home on Thursday.

Chris Sligh, one of my favorites from last week, dedicated this song to his wife. Wait a minute. He’s married? And she’s cute! Go Chris! Okay, Chris sang Trouble by Ray Lamontagne. Once again, he did a great job. His voice is just phenomenal. He’s got some serious soul and depth. Even if he also wore sneakers with his suit, I loved him.

Nick Pedro, who is dating his look-alike, also dedicated this song to her. Am I just late getting clued in that this is dedication night? Anyway, Nick sang Fever by Peggy Lee. Remember when Paris Bennett sang this last year? And it was really good? Yeah, well, Nick needs to take some pointers from Paris. And why does the camera keep panning to the drummer being completely goofy? Okay, I totally disagreed with the judges on this one. I didn’t like it at all and they enjoyed it.

My absolute favorite from last week, Blake Lewis was up next. He sang Virtual Insanity by Jamiroquai. It was a little rough in the beginning, but OH MY GAWD, you guys!! That middle part was just incredible! Loved, loved, loved him once again. He knocked Jared Cotter right out of “the one to beat” status, that’s for damn sure. Oooh, Simon was harsh and incited a riot among the judges. And I believe Ryan wet himself there at the end. Sweet.

Brandon Rogers decided to sing Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper. It’s always a little weird when a guy covers a female singer’s song for some reason, and this song was no exception. I love this song. By Cyndi Lauper. Not by Brandon Rogers. He’s got some serious timing issues and I didn’t really enjoy his voice too much, either. A very forgettable performance, but it will be remembered because of the judges’ commentary. “Dedicated to Grams!” Heh. I agreed with Randy and Simon this time – he needs to do way better. I think he’ll be in danger this week.

Chris Richardson also dedicated his song to his grandmother. Oh boy! He sang Geek in the Pink by Jason Mraz. I’m not sure why he dedicated this song to his grandmother, but he did a good job. I liked it. I don’t know if I agree with the judges that this was the best of the night, but it was definitely likable.

Sundance Head wrapped up the show with Ride Sally Ride by Lou Reed. This was better than last week’s Moody Blues number by far. I liked it. A lot. I thought it was in the medium range of songs done tonight.

So my favorites from tonight are Blake, Jared, and Chris. My prediction for going home: Sanjaya and Brandon. – what do you think? Agree or disagree with me? Come back tomorrow for the girls!

[tags]American Idol, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul, reality television[/tags]

Know When You’ve Been Dugg

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

I don’t think I’ve ever been Dugg, but I found a cool way to be alerted if I ever am! Check this out: How to be Alerted When You’ve Been Dugg. I wonder how my host would handle it if I ever made the front page of Digg or Fark? I don’t know that I post things that would be of so much interest to either of those communities, so I’m not sure I’ll ever find out. Just in case, though, I’ve got my feed added to Google Reader.

[tags]Digg, Fark, social networking[/tags]

Washer Is In Da House!

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

When I woke up this morning, I immediately went on Lowe’s website to get their phone number so I could find out about renting a truck to get our washer home. Turns out they rent trucks for $19.99 for 75 minutes, and they’re rented out on a first come, first served basis. Since it was only a little after 8 on a Sunday morning, I figured we’d have a good shot of getting one if we went right away, and I was right.

We walked back to the appliance section to check out the washer with and without the pedestal to determine if we would buy one or not. We decided we would regret not getting one later, so we sucked it up and forked over the additional $200. Good thing we got such a good deal on the washer in the first place, huh? So, off to the front desk to sign the truck out and get our stuff home we went. As has been the case with this whole washer buying process, we hit another snag: there were no pedestals in the store except for the floor models and they couldn’t sell those since they were getting a shipment of pedestals in soon. However, another store had 8 in stock – did we want to go there to pick it up? I was trying to figure out if this was a sign to not buy it, but knew we had already made our decision, so we put a plan into place.

Rob left with the rental truck, headed to our house. I left with our car, headed to the other store. We both ended up back at the original Lowe’s at the same time, so it ended up working out just fine. Once we were back home, I asked Rob if we could switch out the dryer, too. We have a like-new dryer that’s been with us for the past 3+ years, just sitting in the basement of our old house and the garage of this one. The new washer is white and so is our like-new dryer, where as the old washer and dryer are beige and definitely out-dated. So we switched out the dryers and put the new washer in and we’ve been some laundry loving fools today! Ahhh, domestication, you feel so good.

[tags]Lowes, Frigidaire, front loading washing machine, washer/dryer, appliances[/tags]

Where’s Mikey?

Sunday, February 25th, 2007

I’ve been wondering this for a while now. I really miss Mikey! What happened to him? Does anyone know? Did Joelle lock him up in the attic? Tee hee! But, seriously, he hasn’t posted to his blog since December and I think his Flickr account went dormant some time in January. Booo. Mikey, come out, come out, wherever you are. I miss your blog, dude.

Harddrive Recovery

Saturday, February 24th, 2007

This is a plea for help. My portable external hard drive died this week. I’m not sure what happened – it just suddenly stopped working one day. I had a lot of files on there that I need. Rob has tried everything he knows how to get this thing working again, to no avail. I need to find a hard drive recovery service, but I’m scared to use just any ole site I find. Have you used a service like this before? Do you have any places to recommend? Please let me know in the comments – I’m desperate!

[tags]hard drives, computer hardware, external hard drive, portable hard drive, hardware recovery[/tags]