BHB

When I heard that Mark Ballas and Derek Hough, two professional dancers, were putting out an album, I was skeptical, to say the least. But then I heard them on t.v., and I was pretty impressed. Their band's first album, BHB (that's Ballas Hough Band) is out now and well worth a listen.

For one thing, these guys can sing. Their voices, together with that of the lovely Emily Grace, form a nice, smooth harmony that's a pleasure to listen to. The album is an eclectic mix of styles and every tune is a catchy one. This is great workout (or dancing!) music. I could definitely see them performing "Do You Love Me" on Dancing With the Stars, while some of their pro friends danced along to a cha-cha. Or "Longing For" performed with a sexy rumba.

I'd have to say my favorite song is "Devastated." I find myself humming it long after I've turned off the music. Of course, if you visit Amazon, you can listen to samples of all the songs and decide for yourself which one you like. I'm even going to leave the link in my sidebar for a while so that when you can't get that song out of your head, you can come back here and order it. You're welcome.

Spring is springing

Here it is Friday already! I lost two days to a migraine this week, so I'm playing catch up on all my work and school with the kids, etc.

I did however manage to watch AI this week. I think the final three should be Adam, Allison and Danny. But that's just my opinion.

And finally, I've noticed things starting to turn green outside, so here is my tribute to the season:

Ode To Spring

The trees are budding, the birds do sing,
Both signs that it will soon be spring.
We have enough to do inside,
But soon the mower will need a ride.
The grass will grow at alarming speeds
But not as quickly as the weeds
Which pulling never rids us of.
(Those have thorns! You’ll need a glove!)
My eyes will water, my nose will drip,
What a lovely little allergy trip!
We can turn off the heat,
Air out the home,
And the children outdoors
Can finally roam
Until way after six.
They’ll bring home loads of ticks.
We’ll search them each night.
And the cat, what a sight!
He brings in ticks and burrs.
We remove them. He purrs?
No, he scratches and bites!
The ants will invade
And we’ll buy lots of Raid
Then the flies will appear
(with so many farms near)
And we’ll swat them all summer.
Oh, yes, it’s a bummer.
The stink bugs increase (they got here last fall
And we still haven’t gotten rid of them all)
The garden will grow us some squash
But the groundhogs’ hunger they won’t quash,
So the little rascals will eat my food
Never once thinking it might be rude.
All the things that spring brings
Have me feeling not fine.
Wonder if anyone else feels like
I do online?

When everything goes right

Usually, when there is something to be done, Hubby and I can count on it taking at least twice as long as we think it will. Whether it's fixing something on the car, building a shelf or digging a hole, we always seem to get into trouble. A tool breaks. A battery dies. Whatever.

This weekend, we went to one of our rental houses to fix a few things for a tenant. And I'm happy to report that absolutely nothing went wrong. We fixed her front door latch so she doesn't have to slam it anymore. We fixed her bathroom fan which wasn't running (and no wonder, as much dust as was caked on there). And we fixed the loose boards in her deck. All in less than two hours!

Sometimes it just feels really good to have everything go right!

Time travel for dummies

Recently, the story line on LOST has become somewhat confusing to some people. (Okay, maybe not so recently for a lot of people). However, I as always am here to help you because this is truly one of the best shows ever and if you're not watching it, you're missing out.

So first, go grab seasons 1-4 and watch them. Then watch season 5 online. Go ahead, I'll wait.


Done yet?


Okay, so this whole time travel thing has people upset. "What happened originally?" they want to know. When Sawyer wasn't there to save Amy, what happened? The answer, of course, is that Sawyer did save Amy. That's the way it happened. If you don't believe me, think about her baby's name: Ethan. Was Ethan around before Sawyer went back in time? Yes. Could Ethan have been around if Amy died? No. Sawyer always showed up to rescue her.

Still confused? I can make this simpler. Don't think of the timeline as a whole, think of each person's life as a timeline. Like this:

Sawyer is born -> Sawyer sees his parents die -> Sawyer grows up to be a con man -> Sawyer goes to Australia, returning on flight 815 -> Sawyer crashes on the island -> Sawyer goes through lots of bad stuff -> Sawyer goes back in time -> Sawyer saves Amy -> Sawyer becomes a member of the Dharma initiative -> etc...

Now Amy:
Amy is part of the Dharma Initiative, married to Paul -> The Others show up and kill Paul -> Sawyer shows up and kills the Others -> Amy goes on to marry Horace -> Amy and Horace have baby Ethan -> etc.

And of course Ethan:
Ethan is born in 1977 -> Ethan leaves the island at some point to become a doctor -> Ethan recruits Juliet and goes back to the island -> Ethan pretends to be a survivor of 815 -> Ethan is found out and kidnaps Claire -> Charlie kills Ethan.

You see, each person's life only flows forward. Even though part of Sawyer's life is lived in 2004 and part of it in 1977, he's still always moving forward through his own personal timeline. I hope I've cleared that up for you all. Go forth and enjoy LOST!

AI Season 8

So, the new season of American Idol is in its second week of the voting portion of competition. I remember last year all the talk about "the best season ever." Well, this season has last season beat by a mile. Maybe two miles. I have been blown away by the sheer talent on the Idol stage the last two weeks.

Last night, I think the real stand-outs were Danny and Anoop. Not coincidentally, these two have been favorites of mine from the beginning. I have to say I didn't really understand the judges fawning all over Matt after he sang. Yeah, it was good. Better than Danny? I don't think so. Michael, unfortunately, is going to end up in the bottom two/three. And Adam was just, well... Adam. Not his best, but you gotta give the guy props for being original! Kris and Scott were both good enough they won't be eliminated yet.

On the girls' side, Allison was amazing, Lil was okay, and Megan was sooooooo much better than last week. They're not going anywhere. I think the one in danger here is Alexis. Strangely enough, Brooke White did a better job with that song last year, and she's not as good a singer as Alexis. I'm still not sure what I really think of Megan. She has that bizarre voice - it's like, it's not that she can sing, it's just that she can sing different than other people. I'm not sure if that makes her good. And if she picks another song like "Rockin' Robin" she will be gone faster than you can figure out what her tattoos are supposed to be.

So, in conclusion, my picks for the final three this year are Adam, Danny and Lil. I could be wrong - it's happened before - but that's the way I see it right now. What do you think?

Kiss

Take a political thriller, add a mystery, mix with a thriller, combine it with a romance, some sci-fi, and blend it all with suspense and you get Kiss, the new novel by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy.

Kiss tells the story of Shauna McAllister, who wakes up from a coma and can’t remember the last six months of her life. She’s told that the man standing by her bed is her boyfriend, but she doesn’t remember dating him. She’s told she caused the accident that left her in the hospital and her brother in a vegetative state, but she can’t recall what happened. And so, desperate for any details to fill in the missing pieces, Shauna begins searching for answers.

What she discovers is that her coma, her medications, or something more mysterious, has given her an odd new ability. And she quickly learns that this new ability can be the very thing she needs to find the keys to what caused her accident and who was behind it. The only problem is living long enough to put all the pieces together.

I enjoyed the plot of this novel, the non-stop action, and I especially liked the sci-fi twist of Shauna’s newfound talent. I think all of the elements of this novel work well together to create a story that will have you on the edge of your seat until the final scene.

Why?

My husband asked me this morning why I haven't been blogging. I guess I don't have any one good answer for that. The short answer is I haven't had anything I felt like blogging about. It's not that nothing is happening around here, just that I haven't felt like writing it down.

I guess the things that are heaviest on my mind are not things I feel like discussing in a public forum.

I've also been busy trying to revise one of my NaNo novels into publishable form, which admittedly takes up the majority of my creative energies. And it seems the more I revise, the more I see that needs to be fixed. I'm giving myself a deadline of the the last day of March and then I'm calling it done.

In the meantime, I will probably be talking books and television a lot because I don't have to think too hard about those things.