American Idol CD Reviews

I'm an American Idol junkie. I started watching during season 3 and my favorite was Jon Peter Lewis (JPL), who finished 8th. In fact, teh Hobbit Harem started out as a fan site for JPL. The forum has taken on a more general flavor now, but we still seem to have a soft spot for our little hobbit.

Another contestant during season 3 was John Stevens. He was only 16 when he appeared on the show and he had a rough time on the show, but he ended up finishing 6th. His debut CD, Red came out this week and I picked up a copy of it at Wal-Mart. First of all, here's the bottom line. I really liked it. IMO, not a bad performance on the CD. John is basically a crooner and most of the songs on the CD were remakes of the classes (e.g., "Come Fly With Me", "The Shadow of Your Smile"). One of the more interesting choices was Maroon 5's "This Love". He slowed it down and I thought he did an amazing job with it. I liked the arrangements of the songs. It seemed to me that they were going for a minimalistic approach, which I thought really let John's voice shine. I caught a little flack from two of my co-workers as this isn't my usual genre. I've convinced them, though, to borrow the CD after I've added the songs to my MP3 player.

This season, my favorite was Bo Bice, a fellow Alabamian. He's basically a throwback to 70s/Southern Rock and was quite different than the typical American Idol contestant, with his long hair, tattoos, and clothes made by his Granny Madge (with love). The first time that I noticed him was during the first semi-final week's performance. He sang "Drift Away" and I thought that he was pretty good. The next week was when he absolutely floored me. He sang the Allman Brothers' "Whipping Post". I had never seen anyone own the stage like he did during that performance. A long haired Southern boy, singing "Whipping Post" on American Idol? What's not to love! I was on the Bo love train! I'm sure that I'll have more of my bo-session in other entries. Since he finished 2nd, he put out a CD single last week, "Inside Your Heaven / Vehicle". "In Your Heaven" was the song written for the top two this season. Musically, the song is a mess with its insipid lyrics. However, Bo makes me love the song, despite its faults. I just love the sound of his voice and it was really neat to hear the song for the first time on the radio. The other song on the single is a remake of "Vehicle" by the Ides of March. Richie Sambora (of Bon Jovi) plays on the track and the result is smoking hot! Bo may appear on a Carlos Santana CD this year and his debut CD should be out in the fall.

Truck update

Two "exciting" days of playing telephone tag. The lending company has a blue million divisions and I think I talked to them all. One person insisted that there is no such thing as a mobile home title and that all I should have received was a lien release statement. I'm beginning to wonder if I even received this at all. I've checked all the usual places and quite a few unusual places.

I did find the month that I paid off the loan and the check number. I also found the loan account number and an old statement. I called the number on the statement and they gave me another number to call. Unfortunately, it was after 5:00 Eastern time on Monday, so I got to try this again on Tuesday. I'll have to admit that I almost lost it then. I was trying to not sit there and cry because I was still at work.

On Tuesday, I finally got in touch with the division that had my mortgage. They're going to send me copies of the paperwork on Thursday and they gave me a phone number that the car dealership could use to verify that my mortgage is paid off. I went to the dealership and picked up the rest of my paperwork. I told them what had happened and offered them the phone number. The finance guy just said to bring in my paperwork when I got it so that they could make a copy of it. Sorry for all the storm and fury. I just tend to obsess when things are fricked up like this and I have to have someplace to obsess over it.

I just go from one thing to the next, disaster/complications-wise.

I got the insurance check from the totalled Neon this week, so yesterday, we went car shopping. We found a truck (2001 Silverado) that we could both agree on, at the right price. It was more than the insurance check, so I was going to use the insurance check as a down payment and finance the rest. My credit, though, must be teh suck.

I think we were there for three hours, waiting to get financing. There were three people in front of us. The loan for the Neon was still showing up on my credit report, and I couldn't think of a way to prove it on a Saturday. I did have the letter from the insurance company stating that the car was a complete loss, so they copied that.

Next, they're wanting to see the title of my mobile home that I paid off in 2003. Of course, I don't carry that with me, so they want me to bring it in on Tuesday. I signed all the papers and they let us take the truck.

I get home and immediately start searching for the mobile home title. I've looked in all the usual places where I keep important papers, and it's not there. My son tries to help me look, but he doesn't know what a title looks like, so he keeps showing me papers which aren't it. I'm stressing, so I'm snapping at him.

I do find the date that I paid off the loan and tried to call the finance company. Of course, being Saturday, no one is in in the right department. I'm not sure I can even find the account number for the old loan, so I'm not sure how much they can help me.

I'm still stressing today. After I get done with the grocery shopping and the laundry, I'm going to start searching some more. My son tries to calm me down by saying that the car dealership people aren't assholes and that they won't take the truck back, but I think that he's being naive and that yes, they would. They're a business.

I think the reason that my credit is bad is because I went through a period of severe depression a few years back. There were periods where I was so depressed that I couldn't even get out of bed. I didn't go to work for two weeks, and I'm lucky that I didn't get fired. My boss was semi-understanding, but he still put a disciplinary note in my file. During that time, I didn't do a very good job of paying my bills, so late fees and penalties added up and I'm still trying to get everything back on track now.

Wylie update

"Milking" Wylie's ear to get the fluid out is just as disgusting as I thought it would be. Also, I'm not even sure that I'm doing it right. I'm sorry if this is as disgusting for you as it is for me. Fluid comes out, but the swelling in her ear doesn't seem to be going down. The vet suggested wrapping her ear back against her head with an Ace bandage if she was shaking her head too much. How much is too much? I wonder if her head shaking is what is causing the fluid to keep accumulating. I may have to call the vet to see if I'm even doing this right. On the good news front though, I've been managing to get her to take her antibiotic OK. She takes it with no problems if I wrap it up in a piece of bologna.

I feel like my life is a bad country song

My son was in a pretty bad car crash on June 2. He turned left off a side street onto a residential street and another car (ironically, some of our friends) hit him head on. My son says that the other car was speeding, but I don't know. He had to go to the hospital via ambulance. He was pretty banged up on the head, arms, and legs. The airbags deployed (thank God), but I don't think he was wearing a seat belt. One of the nurses in the ER mentioned that he thought my son had been drinking, but his blood tests came back clean.

The car was totalled. The insurance company paid off pretty quickly, but now I'm afraid that they'll up his rates to the sky or drop us.

Maybe this was the shock that he needs to get his life back on track. I felt like I aged 40 years that day. He's grounded from driving until further notice.

Yesterday, when my son and I got home, he ran into the house to get some clothes to spend the night at a friend's house. The next thing I know, he's about in hysterics. The left ear of my furry child, Wylie, was swollen like nothing I've ever seen before. Of course, it's 6:45 and the vet closes at 7, so we make a mad dash to the vet. As we're waiting for the vet, my son is freaking out that Wylie is going to die. We've lost two other dogs since my son was born.

It turns out that it was an aural hematoma. Wylie's was swollen a lot more than the picture in the link. The vet recommended surgery, so we left her there Friday night so that they could do the surgery first thing in the morning. I picked her up this afternoon and the swelling has gone down a lot. They put a drain in her ear and I have to "milk" her ear twice a day to get the remaining fluid out. My son is really squeamish and I'm only a little less so when it comes to blood and bodily fluids. In two weeks, she goes back to get the drain out. Final vet bill: $288.