Celebrity News by Kristen--American Idol Edition

Volume 1: Issue 7
Doing My Part to Keep Bloggy World Informed

**Disclaimer: I have nothing personally against any celebrities mentioned in "Celebrity News by Kristen". It is only for fun and only opinions. Please do not sue me.

I apologize for being remiss in delivering you "Celebrity News" the past couple of weeks. Maybe you hadn't even noticed. I quite honestly haven't had the energy to do it, and I haven't even been keeping up very well on the celebrity gossip lately. If I don't know what's going on, I can't very well deliver the news to you, eh? Truthfully, the CNbyK posts take a lot of time between finding the pictures, uploading them, arranging them on the page with the text. I like doing it, but may not commit to doing it every week from now on. Only when I feel something burning that must be reported. OK? And maybe on Tuesday, or maybe on Friday, like today. So I guess that means you'll just have to tune in every day just in case I decide to do it or not. :-) This week, I bring you a special edition of the News featurning...what else...American Rejects Idol!!

SANJAYA MALAKAR

Whaaaaaaaaattttt????? Whaaa-hutttt?? Stop voting for this guy! Stop voting for this guy! Stop voting for this guy!! What is the appeal? Will someone please explain to me why this girl guy continues to make it through week after week after week?? Sorry, that was mean. But the hair, people, the hair!! I have nothing really against long hair on guys, but I have to agree with Ryan Seacrest on this one. Or was it Randy. No, I think it was Simon; it's hard to tell the difference between Sanjaya and Paula sometimes if you're just looking at the hair. But beyond the hair, the talent to be at this level is just not there. I do not like the way the set up and the eliminations are done anymore before we get to the final twelve. There didn't used to have to be an even number of guys and gals and now, to make it fair, we have to have six guys and six girls in the finals. Forget the fact that quite a few much better singers may have been sacrificed in order to keep the numbers even. Nothing against the guy personally, but I find it extremely hard to believe that he is one of the 12 best singers in the country right now. Give me William Hung any day. At least the guy has a personality!

HALEY SCARNATO

Simon said on Wednesday night when she sang, "I don't even know your name. While that was, in my opinion, extremely cold-hearted and rude (but that's our Simon isn't it?), I have to agree with him. I remember the girls name now, but when the top 24 started a few weeks ago, I don't remember seeing her at all in the auditions, in the Hollywood round or anywhere else. For me to get excited about the contestants, I feel like I have to know something about them and feel some sort of connection to them, or they have to stand out in some major way (*cough Chris Daughtrey), and she just doesn't. She has a lovely voice and she's a very pretty girl, but she certainly is no Sabrina who got sent home last night in favor of Haley. How many times must the judges and Seacrest remind everyone every episode and every year that if you want to keep your favorites in, you have to vote and not assume that they are safe! I think this was what happened to both Sundance Head and Sabrina in their demise. People voted like crazy for Sanjaya and Haley assuming they were out, and neglected to vote for the ones they thought were safe. I hereby vow to vote til my fingers bleed from here on out for my personal faves, who happen to be......

BLAKE LEWIS
Ahhh...Blake! Like a breath of fresh AI air. I have to admit, when I first saw Blake in the auditions, I thought to myself, 'Is this guy a joke?' The beat-boxing was a little wierd to me. I initially thought he was like one of those people who comes into the audition room and does their wierd thing just to get their 15 seconds of fame. But as I continued to see him move on in the process, he really grew on me. He's different. I like different. I get tired of hearing the same songs sung by the same voices by people who look the same. Blake sings current songs by current artists and presents them in his own unique way. I think Blake will do very well and I can even see him being in the top three. Give it up for Blake!

CHRIS SLIGH

Chris ROCKS! There's not much about this guy I don't like. He's not even afraid to take on Simon. Like Blake, I think he'll make it pretty far. I lurve him.

CHRIS RICHARDSON

At first I thought he was real cocky. He compares himself to Timberlake, and you all know how I feel about good ole J.T. I black-balled the poor sucker at first simply because of his self comparison. Seems pretty inflated to stand up there in front of the country and announce to everyone out there that you are just like one of the most famous male pop singeres out there. But as I watched him more and listened to him more, I got to like the guy. I honestly don't think he'll get as far as the other two I mentioned above, but I think he'll be there longer that Mr. Sanjaya. (Unless people forget how to use their phones and vote!) Do you sense a theme to this post? Just vote people, OK??

GINA GLOCKSON

Three guesses why I like her? Maybe it might have something to do with the fact that I think she resembles one of my co-workers who is way cool but I don't think it has much to do with that because I just caught the resemblance last night. If you guessed because she's different then you would be right. The chick sang Evanescence last night. What more do I need to say? Takin' on Amy Lee! Go girl! You ROCK!

Those are my favorites. And the majority of them are guys. It always seems to happen that way for me and despite the flack the boys are getting from the judges this year, I still prefer them over the gals. Despite Ms. Gina, the girls all sound strangely like every other female pop or R&B star out there and they sing the same songs every other AI contestant has sung. To quote Simon, "They bore me."

I somehow doubt that a guy will win this year, which means that my current trend of never picking a winner will continue, but alas, they are who I like. Hey, last year I was going for Chris Daughtrey and although he didn't win (for which I still think there was a conspiracy going there...same as the Clay/Ruben year), look where he is now. He's huge!

As for the rest of the top 12, they're all OK and I think they all deserve to be there but I could do without them, too.

And that is it for today's edition of Celebrity News by Kristen. I will try to return next week with more highlights of AI, or maybe some other exciting news. Maybe Britney will get out of rehab or something, or maybe someone will wear real fur and get people's panties in a bundle. If not, AI it is. :-)

There is a CNbyK related poll on the side bar. Vote. If you want.

A Stinky Week...But There's a Poll

So, this has been a stinky week. Stinkier, even than the feet on the bus (but not by much). A few other crapa-licious things have happened this week besides my freakin' car breaking down but I have no desire to re-hash them. So, instead, I'm going to try to focus on a few cool things happening this week.

• I'm taking my kids to Monsters, Inc. on Ice tonight. They have been counting the days for about a month and a half now and it's finally here! To say that they are giddy is an understatement.
• Tomorrow night (as long as they are feeling better), my brother Kevin and his wife Sema are taking my kids to our local ice skating/swimming pool center for ice skating and swimming. They want to take them. By themselves. Without us. I love them. They rule.
• The top 12 on American Idol are being revealed tonight. As long as my favorites stay in, then this will be a "cool" part of this week. If any of my favorites leave, it will just add to the stink-ocity.
• My car is in the shop as we speak getting fixed. Which means no more bus (until the next time my car breaks down). --as a side note here: I do hope everyone realizes that I was joking about the "Save Kristen's Car and Sanity" relief fund. No one really send me money please. That would only make me feel more pathetic.
• I now have buns, abs and thighs of steel thanks to all the walking and pushing of approximately 85 lbs (double stroller and 65 lbs of kids). Who needs a gym?!?!

And now, for fun, I thought I'd throw a little poll in here. One of the remaining female American Idol contestants (as of last night...not counting tonights results) shares Care Bear's first name. Which contestant is it? (You are not allowed to vote in this poll if you already know her name...Sorry! But how fair would that be?!) :-)

Which Remaining Female AI Contestant Shares Her First Name With Care Bear?
	Antonella
	Gina
	Lakisha
	Melinda
	Stephanie
	Haley
	Sabrina
	Jordin
pollcode.com free polls

Happy Voting!!

Adventures In Bus-Riding

How many people have ever used public transportation (i.e. the bus) raise your hands? Great! Now, out of those of you who have ridden the bus, how many of you does it scare the crap out of? (Raise your hands again!)Fabulous! Then we feel the same way! My car is broken. Again! I'm not going to get into all of the stinky details about what happened to me last night on my way home from work when my car stalled right in the busiest intersection of town smack in the middle of rush hour and I had to walk up and down a strip mall for an hour and a half between calling my mom multiple times on King Soopers pay phone and going back to check on my car to make sure it didn't get totalled while sitting right in the entrance to a very busy super-market. And then I had to wait until I hoped someone showed up to pick me up and figure out what was going to happen to my car. I'm not going to get into all those details. I'll just cut to the part where I had to turn a typically four hour work day into an eight hour hassle of mammoth proportions because of (dum dum dum....) Riding the bus to work and back!

Around a year and a half ago, I had to ride the bus on a regular basis because of another broken down car that was way too expensive and not worth it to fix. I got used to it then. Now? Not so much. I would do just fine thankyouverymuch, if I never had to ride the bus again.

Why must buses....

• be so utterly stinka-rific and odor-romic. Shouldn't there be some kind of "code of bus ethics" that state before getting on the bus you must own a shower and know how to use one on a regular basis (or at least own a stick of deodorant), and have changed your socks within the last 3 days.
• attract such "scary" people. I am not judgemental. I'm really not. But in one day, I saw enough body piercings, tattoos, trench-coat mafia, piercing glanced, foul-mouthed teenagers to last a lifetime. They don't necessarily scare me as in "Crap! They're gonna steal my purse." More like, "Crap. I have teenagers coming up in a few short years!" Hey, teenager! I really don't care to hear about that doobie you smoked last night or whether it was "kind bud", "Schwag" or the in-between variety. No really. I'm not even interested in hearing about that new imported beer you tried. Can someone please show me a bus with sound-proofed, enclosed seats? Or at least play some music on the bus? I'll even take musak! Anything, PLEASE! I just wanna get home!
• make people think that just because you're riding the bus, too, that there's some "secret code of bus riders" that allows (particularly the male species) to think that all females are fair game. No, I wasn't riding with my husband. But I guess that guy who felt the need to sit on the bench with me while waiting for the bus confused my averted eyes and extreme interest in looking at my shoes for a "Yeah. I want to be ogled and stared at for the next fifteen minutes. Go ahead and hit on me" signal. Even completely ignoring his patting the seat next to me and giving me the, "You come here to me" look didn't dissuade him. The fifteen minute ride from college town to my town was quite pleasant as I felt his eyes on the back of my head the entire ride.
• have such unbelievably uncomfortable and ugly seats! I mean, if people are going to be spending a large majority of their time in these horrific contraptions, the least they could do is spend the extra dime to make it more comfortable. Or at least pretty. Hire a bus interior decorator, for cryin' out loud. Bright blue seats with purple and pink upholstery does not a pleasant bus ride make.

I would sooner walk than take that thing again. My girls, who had the priveledge of riding with me on the way up to work found a great adventure out of the whole thing. Maybe I should try to look at it through the eyes of a four and a two year old. NAH! I just need my car back.

**To donate to the "Save Kristen's Car and Sanity" relief fund, contact me via email. Paypal is accepted.**

If It's A Fat Squirrel, Then It's OK.....

The weather around here this past weekend was wonderful. It almost gave me the illusion that spring might be on it's way. I know it's just an illusion though. I'm sure we'll be plummeted with snow a few more times before spring officially arrives. And then all of a sudden it'll just be summer. That's how it works around here.

Feisty has been sick all weekend. She and I took advantage of the beautiful weather for a few minutes and sat on our deck in the backyard and got some fresh air. There was a squirrel...a fat squirrel....climbing up our tree. I wondered to myself, "Is this the same fat squirrel from last summer?" Let's go back about 9 months....

It was summer. Mike was off of work for a few days, so he was charged with watching the kids when I went to work. When Daddy's in charge, just about anything can happen.

I arrived home from work at the end of the day to find the typical mess that my house becomes when I leave it for 9 hours in my husband's hands. The kids were running around enjoying the beautiful summer day. Feisty attacked me the second I got home begging for a peanut butter sandwich. I obliged and went to go make it for her. The peanut butter was sitting on the counter and she helped me make the sandwich and then ran off to play again.

Within minutes, Mike flew into the house grilling me on what peanut butter I had used to make the sandwich. "Well...the peanut butter sitting right there on the counter....DUH." I responded.

Panic engulfed his face. "A SQUIRREL GOT INTO THAT PEANUT BUTTER TODAY!! The kids had a picnic on the deck and I left the peanut butter out there and a squirrel was eating out of it!!"

Before panic hit me, my first response was, "Well, then, it's perfectly logical, isn't it, to bring it back in the house instead of throwing it away, huh?" When you're hit offensively, you respond defensively, right? At that point, I panicked. I flew to the refrigerator to find the oh-so-handy magnet on our fridge for a 24/7 1-800 to call to talk to a registered nurse.

When I finally got ahold of a nurse, she asked me a multitude of questions that truthfully, I couldn't answer very well.

"No, I don't know how much peanut butter she has eaten. I made her a sandwich. I didn't know I had to watch my daughter like a hawk when eating a peanut butter sandwich."

"No. I don't know how much of the peanut butter the squirrel ate. Does it matter?? A potentially rabid creature had it's head stuck in our peanut butter jar, that's all I know. OH, and that my husband thought it was a good idea to bring it back inside instead of throwing it away."

"No, I don't know if the squirrel is rabid. I don't have a degree in Wildlife Biology."

"No. She doesn't seem sick right now. But she ate it like, six seconds ago."

She suggested I call the poison control center.

I called them. Same questions. Same answers. Not a whole lot of concern. "Call her primary physician" they say.

Third phone call to the primary physician, just trying to find out if I should be soon expecting to see my daughter foaming from her mouth.

Primary physician is out of town for the weekend. Call the on-call doctor in his place.

The on call doctor finally calls back. Same questions. Same answers.

"Keep an eye on her. If she's going to get sick, it'll be probably in the next four hours. If she starts to vomit, don't try to stop her. OH, and by the way, was the squirrel rabid?"

"I DON'T KNOW!!!!"

"Well, was the squirrel skinny and appearing agitated, or was it fat and appearing healthy?"

"Oh, for crying out loud. HONEY! WAS THE SQUIRREL FAT OR SKINNY AND SCARY??"

Mike: "I think it was fat. You know that fat squirrel that always hangs around in our tree."

"It was fat."

Doctor: "Ok, then it probably isn't rabid. Your daughter should be fine."

Moral of the story: Don't worry if your child consumes peanut butter after a squirrel has his head in your peanut butter jar as long as the squirrel is fat.

Don't bother calling poison control or your on-call doctor. Just make sure the squirrel is fat. That's it!

The ULTIMATE Blog Party!!

Ahhhh yeah! The day(s) we've all been waiting for. The Ultimate Blog Party has arrived! And thank you so much for stopping by ours! Our party is going to be a family friendly party. Sorry; no booze, no strip poker; there will be music, but it won't be too loud. I have small children and neighbors, yo. But I do promise you this: It will be fun.

My lovely daughters, the ultimate party girls, will be your hostesses with the mostest...es today. We have worked very hard getting ready for you today, so come on in, take your shoes off, I'll take your coats and we'll get this party started!
(The sign in case you don't fluently read "pre-school" says "Eat Cake And Play")

I hope you enjoy the music we have playing. Let the DJ know if you have any requests. I'm sure he'll be accomodating. He has about every CD imaginable, so I'm pretty sure he'll have what you want. Unless it's country music. Don't ask for country music. You might be "bounced" out. Sorry.

Come on in and make yourselves at home. We have plenty of spots for everyone to sit and relax and take in the atmosphere of the party. The decorations are compliments of Care Bear and Feisty. Besides being the ultimate party girls, hostesses with the mostest...es and fabulous dressers, they are also quite the decorators. We decided to go with a pink and yellow theme. They just weren't "feeling" green.

("Welcome" and "Thank You" signs)


Don't be shy. Get up and mingle. Introduce yourselves and get to know some new people. I know I can't wait to meet everyone here and attend your parties as well!

I'm sure you're hungry, so let me tell you what's on the menu for this evening.

TONIGHT'S PART-AY MENU!!
We'll start with, of course, some Hor's d'oeuvres. What good party doesn't have those?? (umm..anyone at this party know what exactly that translates to mean??) Anyway....here's a pretty good hors d'....whatever recipe:

Hors d'oeuvres

thin sliced (package) ham

fat dill pickles

cream cheese

Spread slices of ham with cream cheese; wrap around dill pickle and slice into 1/2" pieces. And that's it!

So how about something to drink? We've got all the soda you can imagine (Coke, Diet Coke, Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, some red looking Mountain Dew stuff), we've got iced tea, coffee, hot tea, or how about some punch? Who doesn't like punch. (And no. It isn't spiked. So don't ask).

Punch Recipe

Make a molded ring to keep the punch cold. To do this, make up some of the punch the day before and freeze it with slices of oranges in the bottom of the ring (my oranges did not show but you can put some of the clear liquids in the bottom and freeze the oranges in that first). You can then put the punch in some at a time and let it freeze so the orange slices don't float. Then when you turn over the rign and float it in the punch bowl, the decoration will show.

Ingredients:

• 1 gallon of orange juice
• 1 liter of 7-Up
• liter of ginger ale

Mix the liquids together and just before you serve, put in and mix 1 pint softened orange sherbet.

Anyone like scones? Ah, sure you do! Try some of these!

Tea Scones

2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp. salt

6 tblsp. butter (or non fat sour cream)

2 eggs

1/2 cup cream or milk

Sift dry ingredients into bowl. Cut in butter. Break eggs into another bowl, reserving a small amount of egg white. Beat the rest of the eggs. Add eggs and milk to flour mixture. Knead on floured board for 30 seconds. Pat and roll out 1/2" thick. Cut dough into 2" rounds with a cutter. Place 1" apart on buttered cookie sheet and brush with reserved egg white diluted with 1 teaspoon water. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.

Now that you've sufficiently stuffed yourself with appetizers and drinks and are feeling bloated and heavy, how about we do a little dancing to work off those calories and get hungry again for dinner. What do you say?




Pea! You look fabulous dahling! Where did you learn those moves?? I must have the name of your dancing instructor!


I can't keep up with you guys. You keep dancing, keep that DJ busy, and I'm going to go check on dinner. Just in case you're curious, this is what we're having!


Flank Steak with Marinade

• 2 flank steaks
• 1/2 cup apricot brandy
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup salad oil
• 2 tblsp. lemon juice

Mix all ingredients and cover steak. Marinate several hours or overnight in fridge turning occasionally. Bring to room temperature, drain, reserving marinade and grill six minutes on first side. Turn and grill five minutes on second side. Slice meat on a diagonal. Heat and pass the marinade. Beef Kabobs can be used with this marinade also.

And for dessert:

Chocolate Pudding Cake

• 1 cup buttermilk baking mix
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup + 3 tblsp cocoa
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 2/3 cup hot tap water

Grease an 8" baking pan. Mix together buttermilk mix, 1/2 cup sugar, milk, vanilla and 3 tablespoons cocoa in the pan. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and the cocoa in a bowl; pour evenly over batter. Pour hot water on top.

Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

I hope you have your appetites back because it's time to eat! Oh, stop! Forget about your diet for one night! How often are you going to be a part of the "Ultimate Blog Party?!" Eat! Now! Thanks!

Well, my kiddoes are starting to get tired, but they've been dying to play some games with you all evening. They even set some out for you. And when they go to bed, all us adults can play "Scene It! Friends Edition". You know you want to, but prepared to get your booty kicked cuz there is not a bit of Friends trivia I don't know!

Well, Care Bear, being the ultimate Candy Land champion beat you, as I knew she would and the game of Friends was great fun!

Whew! I am soo tired now and the kids are in bed. I know you have a lot more parties to get to, so I suppose I will let you all get on your way. I hope you had a great time at our party. I know we sure did!

I really hope you come back and visit sometime. We party all the time, party all the time, party all the time!! :-)

See you soon!

"The Bright Flash"

Written by and told to me by Care Bear last night when she was supposed to be going to sleep:

THE BRIGHT FLASH

One night, there was a bright *FLASH* that came down into a little girl's house. It was really bright and shined in all her windows. She thought it was a really bright flash, but it might have been stars.

"What is that really bright flash, Mommy?", the little girl asked.

"Well, honey," said the mommy, "I think it's just the stars."

"No, mommy. I don't think it is the stars. I think it's Jesus' eyeballs looking down on us. That's what the bright flash is."

THE END

The Ultimate Blog Party!!

Janice and Susan over at 5 Minutes for Mom are hosting the "Ultimate Blog Party" the week of March 2-9. It promises to be a great time with tons of prizes being given away at the end of the week! Head on over there (you can click on the button in my sidebar or at the top of this post) to get details! Should be a lot of fun! Don't Miss Out!