American Idol Contestant - Adam Lambert

When Adam Lambert first tried out on American Idol, I wasn't surprised when he said he was in the cast of Wicked. He totally looks the part. The other night I went ahead and pulled out my Wicked Playbills (you know how I've seen it twice at the Pantages in LA, right?). Guess what I found - Adam Lambert had been in both of them! He's listed as part of the Ensemble and the understudy for the character Fiyero. But wait, there's more! He was actually Fiyero when we saw the show in November 2007!

I found a video clip of Adam "Dancing Through Life" in Wicked on stage. Take a look:

American Idol Performances

Responses on the fly -

Jasmine - Eh.

Matt - I thought was fantastic!!! Not sure what the judges had stuffed in their ears.

Long Legged Black Girl - not good.

Nick Mitchell - I'm not ready for Sanjaya #2. I swear I will boycott this shiz until that fool is off of my TV!

Allison Iraheta - OH MY GOSH! I was not expecting that to come out of that! "She blew it out da box, yo!" Fuhntastic! Let's just get rid of the horrid red hair...

I think Paula was high tonight.

Kris Allen - If you want to make the world a better place then you better step it up an make that change... He has potential.

Megan Corky Tatoo Girl - What's with the twisty twists? She could probably pull it off.

Oh my word, that Subway commercial with the dancers. ...that's so totally me.

Matt, The Welder - Well done! Judges...whatever!

I'm sorry but compared to Kara, Paula looks so drugged!

Jesse - I like Bette Davis' Eyes! I like her! I would like to see more from her.

OOHHH, I want to see this new KNOWING movie!

Andrea Boccelli...I mean, Kai Kalama - CHEESY! Pack your bags brotha man. Back up singer indeed.

HOLLA AT THE NEW JULIA ROBERTS MOVIE!

Mishavonna Henson - Pretty darn good! How can we have so many to choose from this week and barely any last week?

Can anyone explain the significance of the Heigh Ho song in the Hershey Kiss commercial? Each time I wait the castle or Mickey to appear. So random...

Adam Lambert - He forgot his eye liner tonight. I think he is a very strange performer. Good performance tho. Ummm and whoa, his parents and he don't look like they go together!

Alright kids, let's see who stays and who goes tomorrow. Knowing how STUPID America is, we'll probably end up with Sanjaya #2 in the top 3. ...and I will BOYCOTT!

Until next time, Turner OUT!

Cantankerous Canker!

Saturday night we went to see Confessions of Your Mom Going Shopping (which was super cute BTW). While I was in the theater watching the movie, I could feel the start of a canker sore. I don't remember biting my tongue but maybe I did. That little bastard has grown to half an inch and it hurts like a mofo! It's right beneath my tongue near the side, perfect for rubbing against the neighboring teeth. It hurts to talk. It hurts to eat. IT HURTS and I want it to go away!

Monday, I also woke up with a stiff neck. Lovely. By the time I got to work, my canker sore had flared up and my neck was out. Don't worry, it gets better! Around 10:00 I felt something was not right with my tummy. As if the cantankerous canker and stiff neck weren't enough! I left work soon after and couldn't get home fast enough. I sat on my bed for about an hour pondering the situation. I knew what had to be done. Whatever was in there wanted out! After 2.5 barf sessions, it was out and I was in bed for the remainder of my day. I'm thinking it was food poisoning but not sure. I'm still waiting to see if something is still about to rumble from down under. Stay tuned.

House of Mouse, Part TEACUPS!

House of Mouse, Part Un!

Over the long weekend, aka ValentiMe's Day weekend, a small group of us struck it down to Disneyland. If you only knew what the planning and discussion process was prior to our final decision...yeesh! We left Friday after work and stayed until Monday. Here are some pictures from our time together.

We were the first ones at the gate Saturday morning.
From left to right: Lindsay, ME!, Dustin Bankston of the Bankstons, TL, and Ariane.

Main Street. Good thing we got a picture of us with the castle in the background...oh wait, you can't see it!

Cheese! Our Splash Mountain photo. Lindsay was afraid of the water.
Oh, and be sure to ask Loren about his new friend.

We stayed at the Hollywood Tower of Terror for a few minutes and this is what happened...

Ariane REALLY wanted to go on the Winnie the Pooh ride, so we did. Here we are in a honey pot...

"Feel the rhythm. Fell the rhyme.
Come on everyone it's bobsled time!"




Dustin is driving his rocket like it's a horse.
Loren is intent on arriving at his destination.
Lindsay is driving with her foot.
Oh, and P.S. in the rocket behind Dustin was the most adorable kid!

House of Mouse, Part Deux!

Here I am in my space rocket...

Teacups...

TL, Ariane and Lindsay singing "We're all in this together..." in the Innoventions place...thingy...attraction. Don't worry, I've got video!

Disneyland is really quite magical. Here is the front with Mickey sportin' a birthday hat next to Mickey balloons. I want to do this in my front yard!

Dustin, Ariane and TL so excited to go to the park that they were jumping with excitement! Love it!

Here was our first park intermission. We had been there ALLLLL day long and we finally needed to break for a meal at Millie's (where I had a FANTASTIC salad BTW). As you can see everyone is QUITE tired. Ariane was resting up for round two.

If you haven't heard, coming to the waters of California Adventure, is Disney's World of Color (Click here for more info). It's supposed to rival the waters of the Bellagio. Stay tuned!

but here's where it's not so magical, the water has been drained so they can do the necessary work...a bit depressing but necessary for the greater good!

House of Mouse, Part Trois!

Disneyland is very magical! Here are some more pics that I though captured some of that magic. Sit back and enjoy!

Disneyland EXTRA!

The Grapevine was closed on Monday due to bad weather conditions which allowed us two options: the desert (Hwy 58) or the coast (Hwy 101). We chose the coast. In doing so, we stopped at our favorite cupcake joint in Beverly Hills, Sprinkles! As you may recall, this has been one of Oprah's favorite things. Most of our gang hadn't been. I had, remember that one time I was there and I saw Collier Strong (aka hair/makeup dude from Project Runway).

Anywho, this time we were patiently standing in line, making sure the door to the shop remained closed. They are VERY sensitive about this as it dries out the cupcakes if the door stays open. While standing in line, a very familiar face (to me) walked up and stood behind us. Is that Hank? None of my people knew who I was speaking of. When I overheard his conversation on the phone "Hi, this is Hank..." I KNEW IT!!!! Don't mess with me and my head full of useful knowledge! Another real live celeb in our midst! Here's the picture we calmly snapped while in line as Lindsay strategically placed herself in position. Do you see him behind Lindsay looking at us? Click the picture for a zoom. What a day!

P.S. For those of you who don't know who Hank is, he was married to Helen Hunt. He is several voices in The Simpsons (BLEK!), voice of Bartok the bat from Anastasia ("That fell right out there, sir") and more. Click here for more info.

P.S.S. It took us 12 hours to get home that day due to weather and traffic. We drove by everything else we had previously discussed visiting if we hadn't gone to Disneyland - Solvang, San Luis Obispo, Hearst Castle, Paso Robl...just kidding!

And the Grammy goes to...

Jennifer Hudson!!

I had no idea the Grammy's were on last night. Apparently my girl JHud was nominated for:

• Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (Stolen by Alicia Keys. That girl ALWAYS wins!)
• Best R&B Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals ("I'm His Only Woman" w/ Fantasia)
• Best R&B Album

Don't worry, the Grammy went to Jennifer Hudson for her album "Jennifer Hudson"!!!!

Baby girl all growed up! I found the footage from her Grammy performance. Here you go!

Girl had a hard year so just watch it! (Be sure to pause the blog music below in the right hand column before playing the video below.)

Little Rascals

Jenny has moved to CA while Jason is back in Kuwait. Marissa was in town last week. All the kids were together. Talk about combined powers...YIKES!

Here's one with Landon, MayMay and Bubba. So cute!

Here are the Little Rascals eating Grant's birthday cake.

ARB Turns Three!

Our very own American River Branch turned three in January! Can you believe? Those of us who have been there since it's inception can't really believe it either. That's another year we've spent in a YSA ward/branch...but that's another issue.

Anywho, here are a few pics from the party. As you will most likely notice, it was a superhero themed party. We had some great 'heroes' in our presence:

Here we have Jenn D (Super camera girl (?)), Lindsay (Jem, truly truly truly outrageous!), Errin (Batgirl), and Ariane (American River Branch). Their powers combined were quite overwhelming!

Here's Clark Kent (c'est moi!) and Super camera girl:

BTW - Don't you just totally dig my new glasses? I do!

...and another Clark Kent. Copycat...

Here we have Becky (Pink Power Ranger), Shana (Rogue, X-Men), et moi (Clark Kent):

Here's American River Branch and Clark Kent, off to save the world! Don't worry, her hair lights up so we're safe to travel at night!

Shady O

Is anyone else concerned that several of Obama's appointments have withdrawn because of their shady pasts?

Tom Daschle - Appointed to head of Health and Human Services. Failed to pay taxes for a limousine service provided to him by an investor. Innocent mistake? Perhaps. He has since paid the taxes. Also, Reporters have documented his work for health care interest groups.

Bill Richardson - Appointed as Secretary of Commerce. Alleged pay-for-play schemes in New Mexico.

Timothy Geithner - Confirmed as Treasury Secretary. Failed to pay taxes while working at the International Monetary Fund. He has also paid the back taxes but really? We're going to have somebody like this in charge of the national tax system?

Nancy Killefer - Appointed as Deputy Director at the Office of Management and Budget. Tax issues with household help.

This is who we could have working for us and running the country for the next four years? It's corruption from the top to the bottom. So far The Chosen One hasn't done a very good job at picking staff or making vOery good choices. That $900 billion stimulus package is full of crap! There's nothing stimulating about it! This could be it people! America could never be the same again! Hunker down and get your food storage ready because you'll be needing it!

Good Night Irena

I received a tender little story via e-mail a few days ago. It was a story of Irena Sendler, told by Glenn Beck. Take a few minutes and watch...