Damn, we are good cooks.

Or, more precisely, Casey is a good cook and I'm really good at buying the enchilada sauce and crumbles and other ingredients at the supermarket.

We made enchiladas last night. Big, stuffed, tasty enchiladas. They were HUGE, and we had leftovers for today. I just ate mine for lunch, and damn they were yummy. Still. I'm completely full and satisfied, yet someone just popped some corn in the microwave and the fresh buttery smell is wonderful, even though I have no desire to eat it.

So Ryan Seacrest was all serious like a reporter on the Fox Right-Wing News Channel in announcing that Corey Clark was kicked off American Idol for showing too much nipple in his performance last week. Or, he was arrested. One of those. I wonder if anyone at Fox, or at least at the AI production offices, has considered hiring some of The Smoking Gun's people to do background checks. They seem to find more stuff than their own researchers do.

Can Paula Abdul say anything negative? Last season, I made some remark about how she's as sweet as cotton candy. She makes my teeth hurt. I think she'd crumble if she had to negatively rate a contestant. Randy, Simon and Insert Guest Judge Here can all say negative things about a particular performer, and Paula will jump in with, "I thought you had great presence up there and made the song your own." They may have made it their own by singing it two beats off and out of tune, but she'll omit those details. It's good they have the good cop/bad cop thing going because some of these contestants are kids, after all, but they also are hoping to become national stars and popular performers, so they're going to need to learn to take some criticism and backlash. So as Paula blathered on about how someone last night who had a miserable performance looked relaxed or something, I said to Casey (WARNING: CRUDE ORAL SEX JOKE COMING) "She's so damn sweet that anyone who goes down on her probably comes up with an instant cavity."

Casey then mentioned (or maybe she said it before � I just want to cover all the bases so I'm not ratted out for altering facts) how in the recent Entertainment Weekly, Simon and Randy both say, "Clay's going to win," while Paula's all, "There are about five contestants I really like."

Simon was right last night, though: Disco is a horrible theme for this format. They all sounded like they were at a kareoke bar or a wedding singer. Same went with last week's "country-rock" theme which didn't even feature any Eagles tunes. I bet Simon would cheer up if they had a "British Invasion" week where they all sang songs by the Beatles and Stones and Elvis Costello or something.

Also, did you all notice how Simon's comment to Kimberley Locke, who sang "It's Raining Men," was "I thought you did Ryan Seacrest's favorite song justice" and then Ryan comes on camera and doesn't say anything to defend himself, only, "I do like that song." Dude, just come out already! Stop fooling yourself, because you're not fooling us!

And on that note, I shift over to the NCAA tournament pool I'm running, which my former roommate Bryan will win so long as Syracuse loses on Saturday. If the Orangemen win, Mia ties Bryan in points and it comes down to the tiebreaker (whoever is closest to the total points in the championship game, and Bryan's and Mia's predictions are about 60 points apart).

Lauren: Knowing people from diaries is such a funny thing � I kept saying "this Bryan person" and Heather goes, "It's a big year for him! He comes out, and then wins the basketball pool!" And so that prompts my, "Oh, he's THAT Bryan!" It's so weird to think that I've read about him through your diary and then in a pool with this guy, although I've never met him.
Me: HA!
Me: (Though, he really started coming out a few years ago, told me in September, and then began going wide with it last fall to be in contention for the Oscars).
Me: (so I guess it's been a good basketball season for him)
Lauren: hee!

And I thought of that all on the fly.