For me, this is my favorite phase of Idol, because each contestant sings two songs a night from here on out. Tonight they’re singing a song from the year they were born as well as a current top 10 song. Which means they’re singing one song that I know and another song that I’ve never heard. Off we go.

Elliott Yamin –
“On Broadway” – A George Benson song seems like a pretty obvious choice for him – and I like that he tried to do a little something different with it. His vibrato got on my nerves a little bit…I think he spoiled me with last week’s performance.

“Home” – Nice. Eh. A little boring. But he’s good regardless. David and Simon made the exact same comment: “I’m not so sure I would sing a song that says, ‘I wanna go home’ at this stage in the competition.”

Paris Bennett –
“Kiss” – NO ONE should sing this song besides Prince. NO ONE. The end.

“Be Without You” – Her mouth was moving, but all I heard was blah blah blah blah. Apparently, according to the judges, she did a good job with the song, but it’s not my bag.

Chris Daughtry –
“Renegade” – David and I both loved this song when we were little. I loved it again tonight. His version of this song would actually be a great single now, and I thought his performance was really, really fun. LOVED the instruments dropping out at the end, too.

“I Dare You” – Please quit screaming at me. I didn’t do whatever it is that has made you so angry.

Katharine McPhee –
“Against All Odds” – Okay, only one of my most favoritest songs from the 80’s (which isn’t saying much, since I’m not a big fan of 80’s music in general). But I didn’t think Katharine sounded good on this song. Randy would say “pitchy.” David said, “cruise ship performance – wouldn’t have gotten her through auditions.” We didn’t like it very much.

“Black Horse and the Cherry Tree” – I hope I got that title right. I’ve never heard of it before. Very, very fun performance. She totally redeemed herself from that first song fiasco. She seemed much more comfortable – and now I want to hear the original version.

Taylor Hicks –
“Play That Funky Music, White Boy” – I like any performance where Taylor starts off saying, “Okay, y’all, get up!” BACK IN HIS ELEMENT, HE IS. I smiled the entire way through this song – and will immediately be searching out a clip on YouTube.

“Something” – Now y’all, this is dangerous territory, because Taylor is singing the Beatles, and I think I’ve made my feelings about the Beatles very clear. Honestly, I was bored.

Best of the night: Chris’ first song
Should go: Paris
Will go: Paris

Well, well, well.

TWENTY-FIVE years.

Look how adorable y’all were. Not that you’re not adorable now, because you are, of course.

By the way, I deeply apologize for the picture quality, but I took a picture of your wedding picture when I was at Mama and Daddy’s this past weekend, and it didn’t turn out as crystal clear as I wanted it to. Or even just regular ole clear.

But it was either this picture or the one from Sister’s office Christmas party a few years back, and well, I’m just sayin’. :-)

Nonetheless.

Happy Anniversary!

Or, as we like to say around here: Harropy Arranorvarosarary! ;-)

And may there be many, many more.

I really tried not to get my hopes up about AloneFest ’06 because there’s that point where expectations get out of whack with reality, and I didn’t want to be all hyped up and then be bored out of my mind, wondering why, why did I ever agree to let David and Alex go out of town at the same time, why would I do such a foolish thing, why.

But, oh, my friends, AloneFest ’06 did not disappoint.

I decided yesterday morning that I wasn’t going to get a salon pedicure because I didn’t want to spend an hour feeling like I had to make small talk. If I was having a day out with the girls, I would’ve been all for it – but the point of the day was not to socialize. The point of the day was to be totally, completely, and gloriously alone.

And it was glorious.

Once David got on the road yesterday afternoon, I sat on the couch for at least two hours – reading blogs, sending emails, enjoying the silence. And then I cleaned, and ate sushi, and watched television, and took a bath, and gave myself a pedicure, and slept like a log.

I did miss my people – I did – but I was so grateful to have a little “me” time.

I think D. was more excited for my “Mamacation” than I was. He knows my personality better than anyone, so he gets that while I’m mostly an extrovert, I have just enough introvert in me that I sometimes need to be away from people in order to really re-charge my batteries. Only I’m NEVER by myself. I think that’s the hardest part of motherhood for me…the fact that there is little, if any, “down time.” It’s like being a doctor who’s on call 365 days a year. Without the six-figure salary.

Anyway, to fully cement my nerd status, I took some pictures of the lively festivities at my house last night. Wanna see? Good.

First I got my sink just like FlyLady likes it. I like to run scalding hot water in each side, then add some Mrs. Meyer’s lemon verbena or lavender all-purpose cleaner. Makes the whole house smell yummy.

Then I ran some more hot water. For me. With a combination of my favorite Bath & Body Works soap and some great Arbonne stuff that my friend NK gave me. And I know, I know that InTouch is tacky. I’m sorry. I was alone, and I had a big ole bubble bath, and I wanted to read some celebrity news. By the way, did y’all KNOW that Jessica is wearing her wedding band on a chain around her neck? She is. Very Carrie Bradshaw-ish, if I do say so myself.

Afterwards I adjourned to the den, where I fixed myself a BooMamapolitan. That would be diet Coke. On the rocks. Neither shaken nor stirred.

I kept my standing weekly appointment with Jack Bauer, who didn’t get very far last night in his attempts to Save The World From Peril, but he did knock a guy out by elbowing him in the neck, and that was pretty cool.

And while I was watching Jack, I gave myself a pedicure. I actually took a picture of my feet so I could show you the results, but then I decided that was gross. So you’ll just have to take my word that my toes look cute.

So that’s about it, I reckon. D. and A. will be home later this afternoon, and we’ll get back to the business of our normal routine. I’ll move from AloneFest ’06 to ToddlerDetox ’06, because A. will be rotten after three days with grandparents (which is fine – spoiling is their job).

But it was fun, y’all. It really was.

Things I must remember to tell D.

Or I guess he could just, you know, read them here.

Why talk when you can blog? :-)

1. As proof of what a loser I am, I actually watched an episode of House Hunters that I’ve seen at least five times. Yes, it was my first night alone in over three years. Yes, I watched a re-run. And even worse? I enjoyed it. They got the house in the woods! They got the house in the woods!

2. Last night? By sundown, I had locked every single door in our house – deadbolts and all – and set the alarm. (Most of the time we forget to even lock our doors. Country living spoils you that way.)

3. 24 wasn’t very good. Mainly because nothing happened. Except that there’s an evil co-pilot, but Alex would have been able to call that particular plot development if he had been watching. Which he wouldn’t have been. Being three and all.

4. I took out the garbage! And fed the dogs! Do I get some sort of prize now?

5. A bath is much more relaxing without a toddler running in the bathroom, screaming, “OH! LOOK! MAMA! BUBBLES!” Or on top of that, a toddler pointing at my chest, saying, “Hey, Mama – what are THOSE?”

But most importantly? I missed my boys. I really did.

D: “So, what are you going to do during your alone time?”

S: “Oh, I don’t know. I want to clean, and watch TV, and work on my new blog banner.”

[pause. then -]

D: “NERRRRRRRRD!”

S: “Yep, you got it.”

So here’s how I ended up handling my blogroll.

I put in all the addresses I subscribe to via a feedreader, and the list was, oh, a mile or a mile and a half long.

Give or take a hundred or so yards.

I decided that it’s better to keep it short and just rotate people on and off the blogroll – that way the list doesn’t get too overwhelming. Since I already have a LBY blogroll in the sidebar, I made a point to include folks in the new “roll” who aren’t in the study. Except for a couple of people who are in both, because I wanted to have 10 listings, because I’m OCD.

So there you have it. And as I run across new blogs I enjoy, I’ll add those, delete some, and basically keep a running list of stuff I think is fun.

I may not always agree wholeheartedly with some of the authors of the blogs I list – and odds are that you might not, either – but I do enjoy reading other people’s opinions, and I think we’re all grown enough to handle that.

At least I don’t overthink the simple stuff. Or anything.