Good gravy.

On Thanksgiving, my mom gave me my grandmother's gravy boat. While I'd like to think that she was passing the mantle of womanhood from one generation to the next, it was more like there was no chance in hell that my mom was ever going to make gravy again.



Counter clockwise: My dad, my paternal great-grandmother, my maternal grandpap, my maternal grandma, and my maternal, I mean my mom. Gravy boat is front and center. Wishbone salad dressing at about 11 o'clock. Pink Pyrex in the center, competing for attention against gravy boat. And to my dearly departed Pap: Put out that cigarette will ya! It's going to be the death of you. Trust me on this!

Kidding aside, this gravy boat holds many great memories for me. I remember it gracing my grandmother's table for every important holiday meal, and then after she passed away my mom became its keeper, or what I like to call, "The Gravy Boat Master." (That makes me the new Gravy Boat Master, but you can call me GBM for short). I believe that it's a piece of Fiestaware, but the odd thing is that my Grandma didn't have any other Fiestaware. I guess that's why it stood out so much. I often wonder where it came from. Maybe it was a consolation prize for submitting a recipe to Good Housekeeping. Maybe she cashed in her Green Stamps. Maybe the local bank gave it to her for opening a Christmas Club savings account. The mind staggers with the possibilities!

On a related note, I didn't realize until I scanned this photo that my grandmother owned pink Pyrex! After I saw the bowl in this photo, I started to notice other pieces of pink Pyrex in my baby photos. I have a couple of pieces myself, but I wish I had Grandma's originals. She was so cutting edge!

And speaking of "Good gravy!"

***Begin American Idol blabbering***

Words cannot begin to express how disappointed I was in last night's installment of American Idol. In fact, I think that the episode will go into the history books as the absolute worst ever. The performances ranged from mediocre to downright horrific. And I have to say that I've never felt as uncomfortable watching the show as I did when Stevie Wright and Casey Carlson performed. Poor Stevie, she showed so much promise! I guess the pressure got to her. And Casey's song choice alone was atrocious. When are these girls ever going to learn - never choose a song where you have to change the gender of a pronoun repeatedly. It just doesn't sound right!

Speaking of song choices, the conspiracy theorist in me refuses to believe that these people actually chose those songs themselves. Why on earth would Jackie Thon pick an Elvis song (Or chose to wear shiney spandex and giant hi tops, each poor fashion choices on their own, but together? Ewww!), or for that matter, that Elvis song? Out of the historical Billboard Hot 100 charts, young ingenue Casey chooses The Police to showcase her singing talents, and not some pop-y girly song? I would not be surprised to find out that they were limited to a very short list of songs. And while I have plenty of Michael Jackson and Police songs on my iPod, their songs, when sung straight, are so overplayed on this show. One of the things that I enjoy about Idol is when the performers introduce me to a song that I've never heard before, like "Innocent" which was performed by David Cook last year.

The performances that I did mildly enjoy weren't enough to get me to pick up the phone and vote. Anoop sang well, but he did nothing for me. Steven Fowler and Brent Keith came off angry. In the context of the last night's trainwreck, Tatiana sang pretty good, much to the outward disappointment and confusion of the judges (Hello? Why did you put her though if she wasn't that good?!). I was pleasantly surprised that Alexis Grace did so well. I'm not actively rooting for her yet, but if she continues to pull it off, I will.

I'm also really missing the instruments. I hope the contestants are allowed to use them (You know Scott McIntyre will. Given his disability, I wonder how well he can work a stage? Goodness knows Castro couldn't and he could see perfectly!). I think that the use of instruments really helped Idol evolve last season.

Lastly - and you knew that this was coming - what can you say about Gokey? Again, within the context of the trainwreck, his performance was one of the best of the night. But how about that over-the-top reaction from the judges! He deserved praise, but "Sold out arenas"? Seriously? It just seemed so fake and scripted, like they were trying too hard to make a decent performance into a "moment". Why don't they just run a scroll across the screen that says "VOTE FOR DANNY! YOUR NEXT AMERICAN IDOL! DID YOU HEAR THAT HIS WIFE DIED?"

Oh, I'm so going to get it for that one.