Time to announce this week’s winner! Drum roll please…. And the winner is Carolyn M from Massachusetts! Wooo! Your book will go out in the mail later today. Right after my dreaded meeting with the tax guy. Hope you enjoy (one of us should be having fun, right? 
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Tune in Monday to find out what next week’s giveaway will be!
Okay, so I managed to sort through all my receipts and put together a somewhat coherent report on the state of my deductions and expenses. And I managed to write all the pages I was supposed to (no claims as to their wit and brilliance, but hey…) So I figured I had more then earned the right to plop down and revel (wallow?) in an evening’s worth of reality television. I am bowing to the TiFaux Gods for making my night of Tom Bergeron and Cookie Dough ice cream possible.
So here’s all the MAC and more…
First up, American Idol’s Boot-Your-Butt-Off Show. This crew is kind of fun. And Ryan is kind of cute. Even the judges are being somewhat coherent and helpful. (I said somewhat, don’t go crazy on me.) So I was interested to see how America would vote. (Warning, if you haven’t watched your tape, I’m about to name names.) On the girls side, we said good-bye to Stevie and Becky. Now, neither surprised me in terms of their singing. But I was surprised that Becky’s supermodel looks didn’t get her enough of the guy vote. Maybe those Maxim bikini photos with her twin sister should have leaked a few days sooner… Ah well. I might have chosen others to go first (yes, Brenna, I’m looking at you) but I’m okay with those. On the guys side, we said goodbye to Fun Bobby (who was channeling Jackie Gleason as Barry Manilow the other night or something, and honestly, it frightened me) and I was very okay with him going, mostly for fear he’d go for Wayne Newton as Elton John next week. Unfortunately we also said goodbye to Patrick, who I thought was pretty decent and had a good voice. Maybe not final 2 material, but certainly better than a week one boot, or even a week three boot, and certainly better than some of the other guys (yes, I’m looking at you Bucky.) I said at the time he sang, that he picked the wrong song and had the double whammy of going first, and eleven songs later, no one would remember him. In this case, I hated that I was right. Looking forward to next week!
On to Survivor… Shane was actually not insane this week (that we saw, because you know he’s still crazy cuckoo pants.) Cirie continues to grow on me. And though Casaya does not have my love as a tribe, I can’t help but smile when they win things because, on the surface, La Mina should just be smmokin’ those guys, but every challenge so far has been really really close. I’d rather bunk with La Mina. And not just because Terry is all kinds of hot, and it’s great to be able to say that and not be accused of cradle robbing. (Yeah, I know, Austin, cute AND a writer? But almost young enough to be my son. Sigh.) And given both tribes relative state of starvation (how cruel is it that all those fish are jumping around and they can’t catch one…and when they do catch fish, they’re the poisonous puffer kind?) was I the only one scratching my head when the reward challenge wasn’t food, but toilet paper? Are you kidding me with that, Mark Burnett? I thought it was hilarious that the winning tribe immediately chose to store wood in there. Now, I’m not a Bobby fan thus far (a shame that) but despite his less than gentlemanly way of saying so, couldn’t they all have taken advantage of the luxury at least once, THEN stored the damn wood in there? Just sayin. In the end, buh bye, Ruth Marie. The right choice, I think, though I liked her well enough.
Now on to the grande finale of the evening…Dancing with the Stars final dance off show. Almost! Psych! Was anyone else as surprised as I was that they tossed in that final round of judged dancing on Sunday night’s results show finale? From the looks on the dancer’s faces, they weren’t too thrilled about it either, but I was really glad to hear it. I love that the audience is involved and we all get to vote (except I couldn’t get through once last night!) but giving us half the vote makes it more popularity contest than dance contest. I was happy to see them bring it down the final three, as the math is more in favor of a fair result that way but it was still going to come down to whose fan base was bigger, not who performed the best. By giving the judges that one last edge to alter the final totals…yes, I was a very happy camper indeed.
On to the performances…
I thought Samantha Harris did really well, gumby knees and all. I’m glad both hosts found out first hand what the celebs have been going through. Cheers to Tom and Sam!
Jerry and Anna – they chose the right first dance and I did think that was the most ballroom dancer Jerry has looked all competition. The second dance, while cute, was a bit of a letdown. I thought the wigs were fun, but they were distracting as the dance went on. I kept thinking they’d take them off and it bugged me. The routine wasn’t as exciting as it could have been, but they had a blast and it got the crowd going. I especially loved Jerry’s backstage “persona” giving Anna a hard time about “Daddy’s talking now.” Funny. I was glad he got higher scores, he deserved them. And still deserved to be in last place. Sorry, Jerry!
Stacy and Tony – I heard Stacy injured her foot in rehearsals a few days back, so I was interested to see how she would do and she definitely came through like a trouper. I thought their first dance was really sharp and I even thought I saw them acting like a real pair for a change. There were glimpses, okay? But Tony’s choreography seriously let them down in the second song. It was slow and so incredibly basic. I used to compete back in the day in disco (stop laughing) and that was basic even for me. Which isn’t saying much, but I was only eighteen, so it’s saying something. And yes, the part of me that is small and petty was happy to see them falter and give my team a chance to take over first place.
Which brings me to Drew and Cheryl. I thought the singing on their first song was seriously messed up and very, very distracting, but they pulled the dance off really well. It’s one of my favorite dances of theirs and I enjoyed the reprise a lot, but boy did the singing bug me. Now the second dance? THAT, my friends, is what the free dance is supposed to be about. Given how good they’ve all been this season, I was so disappointed up to that point. (Am I the only one who would have killed to see the free dance routine Louis could have created for Lisa? You know it would have been killer!) I heard Drew was nursing a groin injury from their rehearsals and when I saw all those lifts in the rehearsal footage, I could see why it had happened. Thankfully, he too, hung in there and put on a great show. I loved their cowboy dance. Loved it. I thought the song was great. And Cheryl’s choreography was top drawer. I wish the judges had given her more credit. ANY credit. She really deserved a very big pat on the back for putting that show together. You da bomb, Cheryl.
So…now it’s anyone’s game, I suppose. Jerry stepped up, Stacy faltered, Drew stayed the course. I hope my guy wins the Glittery Trophy of Excess. We find out Sunday!
Have a great weekend, everybody. (And keep your fingers crossed my DSL issues are resolved by then. I’m hot chocolated out.)
Tags: Writing by Donna
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