It Wasn't Paulo Lies

It was para-lyzed. What a horrible ending!

Our Cocky Mouse

This morning, as I do every morning, I check our glue mouse traps for the occasional mouse that comes in our house. Guess what I found on one? That's right. A mouse "pill". How that happened I have no idea, but I REALLY want to catch that mouse!

Go Gina!

Gina did the best last night by far! And she especially stayed in the pop category they were trying to go for. Melinda and Lakisha did well again, but I didn't like their songs. I hated Jordin's and Haley's songs too. On to the guys. Phil surprised me and did an okay job. Good song choice for him with the Police. I DIDN'T LIKE Chris R's verson of "Don't Speak". I thought it was terrible. Blake, I hate to say, was just downright boring. He is a smooth singer, but a bad song choice. I also didn't like the other Chris - the smartmouth one, although he didn't really have any kind of comback last night. He just wasn't good, and I think he knew it. And then we come to Sanjaya. My goodness. I totally agreed with Simon, what else can you say. That poor guy. All I can say is, he tries. The hair was just weird. I guess he was trying to get into the punk look, but it just didn't work for him. But he will probably be back again next week. I think one of the Chris's will be gone after tonight. Of course I've been wrong every other time. We'll see.

Spring Stuff

As the weather has gotten warmer we've been getting out and about more. As Bennie wrote in his blog, we went to Stone Mountain last Saturday. We hiked the "easy" backpacking trail, working our way up to the main loop trail which we'll do hopefully in a few weeks. Just like Vanessa, we didn't see any deer on the hike at all. There was ONE small doe on the side of the road on the way there, and that was it. There was a lot of gravel on the trail that I didn't remember from before, and my feet didn't like that very much.

On Friday afternoon Bennie and I went outside and practiced our disc throwing. My arm is still sore four days later. Bennie can throw it twice as far as me. I've got to get better because we're taking our stuff to Georgia in a couple weeks to play with Justin. They have a neat disc golf course at a park down there - you just have to watch out for the FIRE ANTS!

Yesterday I took my bike apart and put it in the back of my car. I had to go to Mt. Airy to turn in my work, so after that I went over the Greenway and rode for about 45 minutes. That is a really nice trail - paved and flat, just like I like them. At one point another creek comes into the main creek, and there is a beaver dam there. Last year there would just be a slightly rounded pool at the dam. Yesterday there was a POND. It was about 80-90 feet in diameter with trees and weeds coming up out of the water, looking almost like a swamp. I stopped for awhile watching for the beavers but never saw any. The dam itself was really nice, about 5-6 feet high. I could imagine the beavers being behind all those sticks watching me watch for them and laughing. Oh well.

And one more spring bit of news. Last fall Bennie planted 50 hyacinth bulbs for me right in front of our porch. That is my favorite flower, and I couldn't wait to see them springing forth. Well, they are nowhere to be seen, except for one scraggly pink one that halfway has come up and seems to already be dying. Maybe next year they'll come around.

What A Game!

No, not the Carolina/Southern Cal game, but the Vanderbilt/Georgetown. That ending was fantastic. I love endings like that, especially when the team I'm pulling for pulls it out at the very end. Going into this game I really didn't have a preference between the two teams, until I found out about Patrick Jr. Then I wanted them to win, just to see them play Carolina. So, on to the game of the night. I'm glad I tivo'd the next two shows after the ballgame or I would have missed it. Carolina was down by 16 at one point, then went on a RUN AND A HALF to pull ahead, winning by I think ten points. And did you see the USC coach ASK FOR the technical? He killed any chances his team may have had at that point. Good luck to the 'heels tomorrow night!

Get Phil Outta There!

Phil needs to make like a tree. I can't stand him. I'm surprised he's lasted this long. I thought Melinda was the best, and again I really liked Joan Jett, oh, I mean Gina. I hope she stays for awhile. Haley was a little desperate I thought. The guys, well, what can you say about them? Blake was pretty good, but that's it. Phil was just horrible. And what's up with Sanjaya? And the little girl crying over him?? Lakisha was just average last night. And one more thing - if this was a "British Invasion" show, where were the Beatle songs?

The Bottom Three

Were guys, just like I said in my other post. The girls have it made.

Some thoughts - Diana Ross seemed to be having trouble walking in that longer than she is dress, like she thought she was going to step on it and trip. And I didn't like her singing that song ("More Today Than Yesterday). I love that song - the original by Spiral Starecase, and she should have sung one of HER originals! Also I was kind of disappointed in most all the contestants because they picked really weird songs that no one has heard of when, as Simon said, there were SO MANY other songs to choose from. I think it would have endeared them to the audience more to have sung the more familiar favorites. I didn't like ANY of the guys this week. I tried to like Blake again, but he "just didn't do it for me Dawg". Although he was probably the best of the worst. I liked Gina again. She is really growing on me. Of course Lakisha and Melinda are so far and away more talented than anyone else, but I didn't like their song choices. Jordin was better this week. And I liked Haley better too.

To change the subject, here are some sayings that are becoming overused, and I'm personally getting tired of hearing them:

The real deal.
Been there, done that.
My bad.
Peace out (or just "out").
And the weather guy saying EVERY SINGLE MORNING, "Here's what happening in your neck of the woods".

It Was BLUE Today In Chapel Hill

We lost - and that's all I have to say about that.

Idol Thoughts

After watching last night's AI I realized something. If Antonella Barba - Queen of the Internet - can make it one more time she will have it made for several weeks, because the guys will be gone one by one starting next week, and that will leave it for the girls. There might be one or two guys who will stick around for a while, but ALL the girls probably will until no guys are left. I've never seen this show so one-sided before. My two picks to leave tonight from the girls are Haley and Jordin. I kind of liked Jordin at first, but she's really gone downhill. And I didn't like Haley at all. Like Simon says, who is she? Nobody remembers. And I haven't liked Gina at all, but last night I thought she did a great job. It's about time someone did some Evanescence. As far as the guys go, Blake was good the first week, okay the second, and maybe just okay this week, but he is still the best of the guys. And, I actually liked Sundance this week with Pearl Jam's "Jeremy". And Sanjaya was better I thought, but his hula hooping didn't help his "pretty" image very much. So, we'll see what happens tonight.

How Many OT's Can One Heart Take?

The answer is 2. That's how many overtimes we had tonight to WIN THE REGIONALS!!!! I'll start from the beginning. Starmount came to play Shelby at the Joel Coliseum at 6:30. So, just as they were getting ready to introduce the players the lights were turned down with spotlights flashing all over the arena. So cool! So then they started playing. We scored first, and kept the lead most of the game, but it was close throughout. Tied at 27 at halftime. After the third we were 8 points ahead, but then they came back and were ahead of us by 3. So, with just three minutes left in the game we were tied at 45. Then Shelby just threw it around and held on to the ball, not trying to shoot or anything, just running down the clock. So with about 15 seconds left they tried to drive in to shoot, but they missed. We got the rebound with 0.3 seconds left, couldn't do anything, so it was overtime. No one scored, and Shelby again held the ball for about three of the four minutes. They tried a shot at the end again, but missed again. Double overtime. We couldn't STAND it. It was so nervewracking. So four minutes, and they shot a little bit this time. They scored twice, and we scored twice, making it 49 all. So, Shelby AGAIN holds the ball as time runs out, but THIS TIME with about 7 seconds to go we STEAL THE BALL, dribble down, and then one of our guys finds Victor under our basket and throws it to him, and VICTOR DUNKS THE BALL with about 2 seconds on the clock!!! Time just ran out, and it was over. This had to be the most exciting basketball game I have ever been to. What a finish. So, next week to Chapel Hill for the State Championship!

77 to 55

How about that score!! Last night Starmount came roaring in to the coliseum in Winston for the Western Regionals - on March 1st - how appropriate is that? It was a fun game to watch. I know it probably sounds like it was boring, being so one-sided, but there were times when West Henderson was within 8 or 10 points, and we had to step it up again to get back to our 15-17 point lead. At the end I think WH just gave up. So we won by a pretty good margin. Starmount had a crowd and a half there. They have really good fan support. An interesting note - the coach started five players that usually come in off the bench, and left his usual starters sitting for about the first three minutes. But we were up by 7 or 8 points when he put them in. So, no worries. After our game North Surry played Shelby and lost 55-54. We will be playing Shelby tomorrow night, same place. And the winner of that game with go to CHAPEL HILL next week for the state championship.

Also, have any of you noticed the farewell song on AI this year? It's Daughtry's "Home". How cool is that?