Looking On The Bright Side (as usual)

K, so Norman Gentle didn't get through. And I doubt they'd bring him back for the wild card. The good thing is I was prepared for this and had already made my peace with it before the not-so-dramatic results show which pitted him against Eyeliner.

And yeah, I will admit....Eyeliner IS totally Edward..... Edward Scissorhands. Ugh. I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of his black fingernail polish in the future.

Red. Even though I liked her and thought she'd make it I was still surprised that actually came true. Happy though. Definitely better than any of the other girls. And I like me a little rock edge.

CutiePatootie!!!! Come back kid of the night! I was excited that he made it because, like I said, I had never really seen him before... then there he was all cute and stuff.... and he was good..... and.... and.... I wanted more. So thank you America, for giving me something I didn't even know I needed. Thank you.

As for me, Gty and I are being spontaneous for the first time in our entire marriage. He realized, last Saturday, that he had these airline credits that were going to expire on March 1st. Well, we couldn't let them go to waste sooooo.........

.....we decided to go down to


....and hang out with


.....and see the


We even got the expensive tickets, you gize.

We'll be there for a grand total of about 30 hours. Home Saturday night. It's gonna be a whirlwind trip.

A big shout out to StandsFive for offering to take the kids!

We owe you, like, big time.

PS We're totally crashing Tony's bday. Lollerz.
PSS Look for my new AI podcast. It'll be hitting an iTunes near you very soon.

My Take: Group Dos

Could the judges be any more awkward? ::said like Joey doing his Chandler impersonation::

Could Paula's hair look any worse?

Is it bad I voted for Norman Gentle 60+ times?

Are the girls still terrible? Yes.

Hair Flip: I honestly have nothing to say on her. I never really liked her to begin with and this performance did nothing to change that.

Dueling Pianos: I actually didn't hate his song choice as much as the judges did. I still like him. I wish he could have his piano in front of him. I think he's in trouble.

Legs: Wow. Didn't know they made shorts that short. She suffers from the No Exposure Syndrome and sucking. Double threat.

Nick: Can't emphasize my love for him enough. He didn't know who was gonna show up but he knew And I am Telling You was gonna be there. Lollerz. I'm a big fan. Anything to shake things up is good in my book.

Red: I can't believe she is 16 years old. Oh wait, yes I can. She can't carry on a conversation to save her life. She must be a texter. I hear these teenagers are losing the ability to communicate with people face-to-face. Anyway, she sang one of those "go-to" songs I was talking about. Alone by Heart kills every time. If you CAN sing it... do. Never fails.

CutiePatootie: Adorable. Love the song he sang (Michael Jackson's Man In the Mirror, if you didn't know). He also suffered from the No Exposure Syndrome. And the Leaning Toward Forgettable Syndrome. A good singer tho.

Tattoo 3/4 Sleeve: So pretty. Interesting voice. Hate the tats (can't get over them, really). And AWKWARD "dancing." It was hard to even type dancing... even in quotes. Movements is really more accurate. What WAS that? I'm about to start calling her Corky for some double entendre action.

Welder: I can't reconcile his high-ish voice with his hulking body and bald head. I love his everyman story but I guarantee I would never buy his album or even one song on iTunes. Guarantee it.

FiveHead: She needs bangs. I said it. She can sing fine, but she has no chance. Totally blah. The single mom thing is way played this season.

Momma's Boy: Disappointment of the night. I much prefer him with his guitar doing the singer/songwriter thing. This old song was a snoozer. He's gonzo.

MishOWorstNameEver: Contrary to the judges opinions, I really liked her song & how she performed it. She has a great voice. She won't make it through but I thought she was good.

Eyeliner Drama King: I shuddered at the Edward reference. That was a deliberate attempt to get votes from the easily swayed teeny boppers out there. Shame on you American Idol! How dare you compare this over-the-top, make up wearing, goob to EDWARD? Ridiculous. He can sing though. I'll give him that. But I'm not a fan. He'll get through unfortunately.

Three getting through predictions:

Boy: Eyeliner
Girl: Red
Other: Nick Mitchell

You're such a tease!

The weather is taunting us.

It's trying to make us think it's spring.

I'm trying to not believe it but it's not working very well. Case in point, I took Beebs to the park yesterday with my friend and her daughter, Sassy (Beebee's BFrenemyF).

It was 70 degrees and gorgeous.



The perfect day for some swinging on the big kid swings. They don't need those stinkin' baby swing seats anymore, btw.







Here's what's weird... aside from the swings BeeBee was uninterested in playing on the park equipment. Not a fan of the slide. Didn't like climbing up stuff. She mostly sat over by me, ate chips & drank my Sonic.

What is up with that?

Feel The Burn

So I have a couple extra pounds hanging around from the cruise and Christmas. They are nice enough pounds but I'm finding them to be extremely annoying and needy. I need them to leave. So I'm perusing the App Store as I am bound to do from time to time and I come across a free app called "Lose it!Here is the icon:


Such a cute little scale! It works a lot like The Daily Plate where you put in your food & exercise and it keeps track of calories coming in and calories going out. I put in my current weight and goal weight and it tells me who many calories I can eat a day. The nice thing about the app is it's right on my phone so I can plug in my chicken sandwich and large waffle fries right from the booth at Chick-Fil-A.

So it has tons of food to choose from. Various restaurants. Name brand foods, etc. It also has a lot of exercises listed from which you can choose. Some of these "exercises" are darts, billiards, broomball (wha?), juggling, orienteering, and snow shoveling. Here is how many calories you can burn in an hour of doing each of these things:

Darts: 87
Billiards: 87
Broomball: 349
Juggling:174
Orienteering:465 (what the ayche is THAT?)
Snow Shoveling: 291

Here is another couple that are interesting....

Sexual Activity (I chose the option of "active, vigorous" over "general, moderate" for obvious reasons): 29
Vacuuming: 145

Vacuuming burns like FOUR TIMES as many calories as active, vigorous sexual activity? SRSLY??? This can't be right.

K, I just looked up what Orienteering is cuz that burns a goodly amount of calories so I might take it up as a hobby.

Orienteering is a family of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain. Participants are given a map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points.^[1] Originally a training exercise in land navigation for military officers, orienteering has developed many variations. Among these, the oldest and the most popular is foot orienteering. For the purposes of this article, foot orienteering serves as a point of departure for discussion of all other variations, but basically any sport that involves racing against a clock and requires navigation using a map is a type of orienteering.

Um, nevermind. Way nerdy. And I've never mastered a compass.

Let me look up broomball. That looks promising... I have a broom and stuff.

Broomball is a popular recreational ice sport originating in Canada and played around the world. It is played in a hockey rink, either indoors or outdoors, depending on climate and location. Broomball is very popular in the Canadian province of Manitoba, where Saint-Claude is the Broomball Capital of the World.

In a game of broomball there are two teams, each consisting of six players: a goaltender and five others. The object of the game is to score more goals than your opponent. Goals are scored by hitting the ball into your opponent's net using your broom. Tactics and plays are similar to those used in sports such as ice hockey, roller hockey and floorball.

Players hit a small ball around the ice with a stick called a "broom." The broom may have a wooden or aluminum shaft and has a rubber-molded triangular head similar in shape to that of a regular broom. Players wear special rubber-soled shoes instead of skates, and the ice is prepared in such a way that it is smooth and dry to improve traction.

Outside North America, broomball is often mistaken for the sport of curling, possibly due to the "broom" reference in the name, although the only similarity between the two is that they are both played on ice.

Hmmmm.... looks like I need a team for that one. And an ice rink. And those special rubber-soled shoes that can't possibly elongate the leg. Sounds expensive too. And lame.

Freediving is any of various aquatic activities that share the practice of breath-hold underwater diving. Examples include breathhold spear fishing, freedive photography, apnea competitions and, to a degree, snorkeling. The activity that garners the most public attention is competitive apnea, an extreme sport, in which competitors attempt to attain great depths, times or distances on a single breath without direct assistance of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba).

Um, sounds way dangerous. But an hour of freediving burns.... ready?.... 872 calories!!! Too bad I can only hold my breath for a maximum of 15 seconds. I think I'll stick with snorkeling, getting sea sick and then barfing up everything I ate that day. It's like a healthy form of bulimia cuz it's not in your mind, ya know?

Anyway, some FOOD for thought. I'd hate for you to be thinking you were burning all these calories with the active, vigorous sexual activity when in reality you were getting fatter from all the whip cream and chocolate.

Jay kay... does anyone actually use that stuff? Don't answer that.

A Shameless Plug

Have you ever wondered what Landee sounds like when she's talking and not just typing? I have too.

Now you can find out.... and get some good American Idol talk too.

Go to iTunes.
Click Podcasts there on the left.
Search "TBB"
Select Thompson Backyard Baseball
Mine is the Morning Show American Idol.

This is big time, you gize. A nationally listened to podcast here.

You can also go here but it's not working very well for me today for some reason:

http://web.mac.com/athompson85/TBB/TBB_Podcast/TBB_Podcast.html

I welcome criticism. Just make sure you put it in a Critique Sandwich. A good thing (bread), a bad thing (cold cuts), a good thing (bread). It softens the blow.

For example:

"Hey Landee! I loved your podcast. You are so funny! Why do you say "you know" every other word? Nice take on Facebook!"

Flem just sent me a Critique Open Faced Sammich (one piece of bread).

Jespy sent me a Critique Salad.... no bread.

I have a tough skin though.

PS One thing you should know is Val is a brother of theirs and he served his mish in India. This will help you with a couple bits of mine.... yeah, you can see where this is going....

Ya Take The Good, Ya Take The Bad....

Good: Tati crying. Tati near fainting. Tati gonzo. In Jenny's face. RDJ through with flying colors.

Bad: Giant Neck over NoopDog? Bogus. He better be back for the Wild Card night. It's how Clay Aiken sneaked into the competition. Having to take one girl. They all stunk in my opinion. Buuut, really, if you HAD to have one, I think Pixie Chick was the right choice. Her lipstick just really threw me off last night.

All in all, no major casualties. My main concern was TatiFreak. If she shows up for the Wild Card I may take up drinking.

My Take: Group Uno

Turn off the reverb machine!!!

Stop showing Ted Danson!!!

Why is Neil Patrick Harris there???

Drug test Pauler pre-show!!!

Let's begin:

Spandex: Worst outfit in the history of AI. I thought she was OK as far as performance goes but I don't know if it'll make up for that belt. Her personality is cute but I can see it getting tiresome if she doesn't learn when to shut her yapper.

Greg Braddy of Braddy Bunch Fame: I promise you I've never seen him before and I've been dissecting ever episode with a fine tooth comb. Also, at the end when they were showing everyone again I had totally forgotten about him. He's like musical oatmeal.

Pixie (Alexis Grace): There was this really annoying lady in South Carolina who insisted people call her daughter "Audrey Grace." So I can't entirely enjoy Pixie onnacuzza that, but I don't hate her. She may do well but I won't be voting for her at this point. It's cool that her dad is Meatloaf tho.

Dimples: Holy cow he's cute. And I thought his wife was his mom. It's unfortunate that I detest country music so much cuz this is apprently "the kind of artist he will be." But yeah, I could eat cereal outta those dimples and be just fine.

Stevie Sixteen Years Old: Sad. She's so gonzo it's not even worth discussing her here.

AnoopDawg: Love him!! If I could guarantee he'd be on the other end of the line I'd call tech support everyday! This song was lame (I barely even remember Monica) but his Bobby Brown ditty was aws. I also love him saying "If I may..." to Simon. So polite.

Winky: Awful. Again, not even worth typing out my thoughts.

BlueCollar Oil Rigger: Bo Bice did the best rendition of that song I've ever heard so he was sub par at best. Plus, I've already told you of my feelings about country music. Intolerable. Carrie Underwood did me a huge disservice cuz now these people are coming outta the woodwork. But he's a nice guy and nice guys do well in life.

AnneMarieBoa;kdtoeano: Lame song. She looks 50 years old. I had high hopes for her too. Unfortunate performance.

Forgetty: Did you know "Rock With You" is Memzy & Gty's song? Yeah, that's right. They have a song. Totally awkward, I know. I know the judges blasted him but I liked it. Also, if I were to have a fro, I'd make it like his. Totally looks healthy and stuff.

Tatiana: Is she in a pageant? "Multi-faceted" is an understatement. This girl has so many personalities it's like she has bees in her head. I was thinking earlier today that there is no way I could hate this girl any more.... I was so dead wrong. She tried to make it look like that song had drained her of all her energy at the end. All fainty and stuff. Jenny voted for her btw. So annoying. This is gonna be like Prop 8.... making people choose sides.

Robert Downey Jr's Little Bro aka Widower: Two words with hyphens-- Fan Fav-orite. He is gonna be sooooo hard to beat this year. He has everything going for him.... sad story, cute, nice, good singer. Forget Blindy, RDJ is where it's at, yo.

So there you go. My top three? RDJ, NoopDawg and Spandex.

Fave Foto Friday: NutShell is in the Hizzouse!

Have you noticed I haven't been around the last couple of days? Prolly not. But in case you have, I do have a legitimate reason. My bestest SIL, NutShell is in town with her two kids. This is how the schedule usually goes when she is here/I'm there and this time is no different.

She arrives at some point the first day. I pick her up at the airport with a Sonic drink waiting for her in the cup holder.
We stay up chatting until 2am.
We wake up late the following day (or get the boys to school & go back to bed as the case may be).
We spend all day wondering when we are going to shower as we go from subject to subject and can't pull ourselves away.
We get 1-2 Sonic drinks per day.
We make sure the kids are still alive at least hourly.
We stay up until 2am.
The cycle continues.

It's good livin'.

The following pics are in honor of her.... the year is 2004 and she is pregnant with her first child in the month of June. We go to North Carolina to visit her & her hubby. Her legs have decided to see how swollen they can get without actually exploding.

I'm fascinated. I can't keep my eyes off these things! She coulda won a Hillary Clinton Cankle Look Alike Contest in a second. In the first picture she has pressed her thumb into her right foot.... and it stayed that way! Wha?? The second picture is a comparison shot of her foot vs. mine.



My ankles have never swollen up like this. With her second baby they swelled but not this much. Of course, the second was born in December so maybe that helped. Do your legs do this when you're preggers?

Now before you go feeling too sorry for her, the baby was born a MONTH early and it was perfectly healthy and weighed, like, 7 lbs. So yeah, that last month is the worst! Imagine the ankles had she gone to term! The thought makes reason stare.

NutShell is literally one of my favorite people of all time and her present she brought this trip has secured her spot in my Top 10 for life.

I'm telling you, that first photo is PAINFUL to look at. Painful.

She said I could take out those pics and put in pics of my kids if I want..... uh, yeah.... ok.... er, I'll get right on that.


Love you NuttyShells!

100 Days Of School

So I guess the kids have been in school 100 days? Well, like 104 now I guess. They celebrated last week in TBone's class. His teacher had him fill out a little form for some fill-in-the-blank fun. His answers are in red (all original spelling, again I'm gonna call Sylvan here soon).

I wish I had 100 Bokoogon.

I wouldn't want 100 grls.

I would like to eat 100 froot snacs.

I could never eat 100 guns.

I can make 100 caks.

I can lift 1o0 brics.

If I had $100.00, I would get my drivers lsencs and a cor.

Having 100 MOMS could really be a problem.

In 100 years I will look like this!

That's probably a pretty good depiction of him at 107 years old I guess. I'm trying to not be too offended by the 100 moms comment. I'm pretending it's cuz then he'd have 99 more moms who would want to kiss him all day long. His cheeks = irresistible.

********EDIT*******

Go here http://web.mac.com/athompson85/TBB/TBB_Podcast/TBB_Podcast.html to find the podcast of Gty directly. Thanks Kylee!!! You can also hear Kylee's analysis of The Biggest Loser after some of Judd's ramblings on J-Walking. I think I need an American Idol segment. How do I get on this highly acclaimed show? Anyone?

My Husband: Talent Hidden Under a Bushel

You're not the first person to say to Gty that he should have been a sportscaster. If you've ever said that then you're like, #12,435 last I counted.

Well, here is your chance to hear the man in action.

He has these funny cousins that do podcasts. They act like they are a real radio show and that they have tons of "listeners" who send in emails demanding certain topics be discussed and certain guests be brought on.

Gty was one such demand.

If you want to listen to this do the following:

Go to iTunes.
Click on Podcasts.
Search for "Thompson Backyard Baseball"
Gty's is "Morning Show Feat: G.R.A" and the description is "Andy wraps up the week with a special Rocky Mountain guest."

The beginning is good with some good bits regarding The Office. Then it bogs down a little in the middle with a deep discussion on BYU's recruiting this year (although some of your husbands might enjoy that). Then it really gets slow when they "would be remiss if they didn't talk Fantasy sports" for a minute (they are all in the same league) but then goes up 100 notches at the end with some TV talk.

For those of you who have never met Gty in person, this is a good glimpse into what I hear all day everyday as he paces the house talking to his buddies on the phone. For those of you who DO know the man, the myth, the legend... this will probably make you smile.

He now has a regular weekly time slot so I would suggest subscribing. Then you can say you knew him when and stuff.

(*iPhone users, superdeeduperdee easy to find & listen to while folding laundry & stuff)

Fave Foto Friday: Flem, Don't Be Mad

2 Cute
2 Be
4 Gotten

Who: Landee, Memzy, Flem

Where: Deseret Towers S-Hall, 2nd Floor hallway between rooms 211 & 213
When: Early Our Freshman Year, 1993
Why: Beutification Purposes
How: Sexily, supposedly. I think Memz is the only one who succeeded.

The Winter Blahs? No, The Winter Rahs!!!

I've been hearing a lot of buzz around the blogging world lately about how much people hate winter, hate the cold weather and how they can't wait until spring and blabbityblabbityblahblah.

I thought I needed to step in here and defend my old friend, Jack Frost.

See, January thru March is my absolute favorite time of year. I love it. I shall bullet point the reasons below:

• I love winter clothes. I bought my first pair of Ugg boots 2 months ago (I know, I'm sooooo behind the times) and haven't taken them off since. I love jeans. I love coats & scarves. Jan-Mar are primo months for this kind of garb.
• I don't need to keep my toenails painted nice all the time because of said boots. Or shave my legs consistently cuz of said jeans.
  
• Crockpot meals & soups are always on the menu. Add some homemade rolls and you've got an easy and delish wintertime feast. You make these in the warm weather months and people are like "Wha?"
  
• After all the hubbub of the holidays everyone is totally burned out and there is nothing going on. As you know, I love empty To Do lists. Jan-Mar is one big blank sheet of paper.
  
• The coldness keeps the neighborhood kids at bay. They come over every once in a while but for the most part, everyone hunkers down at their own house. Peace.
• I don't feel guilty about TBone playing the Wii non-stop cuz what else is he gonna do? It's freezing outside!
• I love cleaning out cupboards, drawers, closets, etc but I have to be motivated to do it. After Christmas & three birthdays I get extremely motivated. Too much new stuff and no where to put it. I have been taking full advantage of myself and tearing through the house cleaning out closets & drawers like an insane person. Hurts so good.
• American Idol starts.
• 24 starts.
• Heroes is back.
• No yard work. No nagging Gty to mow the lawn AND weed whack (he's good about doing one, not the other). Raking the leaves is over. No flowers to water. Rest.
• No major holidays to plan for. What, am I gonna bake Groundhog's Day cookies and deliver them to the neighbors? Mmmmm, no. Valentine's Day is IT and that is doable.
  
• I can flip the switch and turn on the gas fireplace for ambiance without feeling dumb.

So see? How could you not love the dead of winter?

'Tis the most wonderful time of the year.

Immune System Blunder

My immune system is stellar. I rarely get sick. I NEVER use hand sanitizer. I've only bought it a few times because it is on the kids' school supply list.

But, you gize, my immune system has let me down this week. After church on Sunday a little cough I had that morning turned into a full blown cold complete with fever, aching neck, sore throat, headache, etc. What the? I don't even know how to deal with this. We don't even have any cold medicine in the house. I kinda don't believe in it. I think the body should fight stuff off on its own. I guess I should have been a chiropractor or something. I did however, take some Advil & that brought my temperature down & got rid of the sore throat.

Cut to this morning.... I wake up with 102.3 fever. Gty flies out for the week. Awesome.

The Advil again works its magic & I head to Costco. Half way through Costco it starts wearing off. I start getting the chills, walking like an old woman (BeeBee says I "look like a grandma" so that's nice), and wishing I was home in bed.

My wish eventually comes true and I go home & take a three hour nap right along side BeeBee.

Aaaaand . . . . that about brings you up-to-date.

Aren't you so glad you tuned in?

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and do my feel good post about why this is my favorite time of year.