Go fly a kite.

Once again, I've been slacking off on my blogging duties, but this time, with good reasons. First, for those not living in Pittsburgh, we've had some unseasonably hot temperatures in the upper 80's for the last 3 days. Second, Junior is turning four this weekend, so I've been busy with preparations for that event. Thirdly, I've been trying to allocate some of my free time to exercise, which on weekdays is equivalent to the time that I would normally spend blogging.

Even though the weather was very hot this weekend, there was also a good wind blowing, so we decided to go to Hartwood Acres to give Mark's kite an inaugural flight. I gave him the kite as a Christmas gift, thinking that it would be a fun thing for he and Lauren to do together. You see, there are two skills that run in my family:

#1. Egg dying.

#2. Kite flying.

When he wasn't dictating proper egg dying techniques, my grandfather was an expert kite flier who could attach just about any object to a roll of string and send it into the stratosphere, much to the delight of little me. Of course, no one was allowed to touch the string, so you just had to stand there and enjoy the moment. Lucky for Lauren, we broke the cycle and allowed her to be an active participant in the the kite flying rather than just an observer. As it turns out, she was quite good at it - after all, it's in her blood, you know.





It was so odd to have such hot weather when the leaves are just beginning to form on the trees.



Did you ever notice how the passing of the year is marked by certain fleeting events? For example, our cherry tree just began to bloom this weekend. The blossoms will last for about a week, and then it will be done until next spring. Last week, our neighbor's magnolia trees were blooming, but now the pedals are scattered on the street. Soon, the Lilies of the Valley will bloom and then after that the rhododendrons and so on and so forth. It's very comforting to have such order around you.

***Begin American Idol blabbering***

I have to admit that I've found the last two weeks of the competition to be fairly uninspiring. This isn't surprising since usually around this time in the competition, I've gotten to know what to expect from the contestants and as a result, I'm harder to impress. For example, last season many of David Cook's and Jason Castro's best performances happened prior to Top Six (FYI, Top Seven last year was Mariah Carey week which featured the outstanding "Always Be My Baby" from Cook and "I Don't Want to Cry" from Castro.). After that, everyone seemed to run out of steam or was on the verge of a breakdown. This season's contestants seem to be holding up better mentally, but are falling into the same stagnation. Adam's "If I Can't Have You" was good, but I don't think he can top "Mad World" at this point. Kris's "She Works Hard for the Money" was very creative, but pretty much more of the same.

And what about "The Save"? How ridiculous was it for them to save a guy who they had to put through as a Wildcard contestant? Basically, America voted the guy out TWICE and TWICE the show overrode that decision. Not only that, they save a guy who gave a marginal performance the night before, and who Simon admits doesn't stand a chance in winning! I thought the whole purpose of "The Save" was to prevent a solid performer from falling through the cracks due to the voting being out of whack. The fact is that America got it right, and Matt had no business staying another week, well enough two! And poor Anoop got the shaft because of it (I don't feel sorry for Lil because this was her week to go). And while it's true that Anoop was as inconsistant as Matt, he seemed to be hitting his stride and delivered three solid performances in a row. But, hey, at least he won't be jerked around any longer. That was painful to watch.

Lastly, a few words about Danny. I'm still unsure of their plans for Danny. For the most part, they continue to praise him to the high heavens. "Endless Love" started out fairly rough vocally, but Paula did not call him on it (In fact, Paula in particular is usually at a loss for words when someone she knows she should be praising has a lackluster performance. This is when she starts babbling about a contestant's looks or "colors" etc.). However, Simon then called him out on his lack of originality (ahem, "artistry" TM Kara) and negatively compared him to David Cook. This past week, Danny received praise from all the judges, but again Simon gave him a not-so subtle gab about having "clumsy" performance skills, which, if you read between the lines actually meant, "Danny, Adam OWNS you, buddy!" I think Danny is still pretty much a lock for the final though. Everyone I know personally who watches the show prefers him, so I think his fan base is pretty huge. It would be fun to see Kris slip through though, but I don't know if his acoustic style could hang with Adam's bombastic style.

Tomorrow...songs from the Rat Pack! Should be a good show!