More Elmo genius

I'm not as fond of Ricky Gervais as I used to be after his Golden Globe hosting stints.  But this is funny and the boys love it.

Adults only post. No really.

This thought didn't occur to me until the next day after we watched the Season Premier, but if I were to try something like this my husband would be more turned on over the fact that I was cleaning the house than over the fact that I was doing it in my underwear. Sad, but true.

Big Love, part two

I meant to post this with the last post. I've always loved her voice, and this cover is just beautiful. One of the things I also read about the ending of the show was a quote from Bill Paxton saying the show was never really about Bill, but about his wives. And isn't is only appropriate that this song was reworked by a woman?

End of a good (but sometimes crazy) show

We were WAY behind on DVR watching this past month, and finally watched the Big Love series finale last Sunday night.

Wow. I'm still trying to decide if I liked the way it ended or not. I had become a little tired of the show last season, and found it getting ridiculous when Bill Henrickson ran for the State Senate and won. I really think the show got a bit too big for its britches that season, and would have preferred if they had stayed focused on the everyday issues that a polygamist family must face. But they pulled the story line together in the end and had me watching with enthusiasm this last season. I find myself pretty sad that the show is over.

The writing was good when it wasn't outlandish, and the acting was superb. And in one of the post-finale comments on the HBO page, a life long LDS member praised the unbelievable research the creators did on the Mormon church and its sometime sketchy history. I know I learned things every week about their beliefs, and found myself some weeks understanding why families follow that faith for generations. But other weeks they just seemed pretty wacky. Either way, it was a pretty out-there concept for a show, and they made it work. Anything with this caliber actors combined with thought-provoking writing is very rare on television these days.

Now we need to find a new drama to get hooked on since Mad Men doesn't return until 2012!

TV

Before I had kids, I was soooooooo judgemental when it came to parents letting their kids watch what I considered to be too much TV. I usually would not say anything out loud, but my inside voice was all high and mighty talking about me never letting my kids watch very much TV.

Oh how things change once the reality of having children slaps you silly. I started letting Gabriel watch a half hour of TV just after turning six months old. It quickly became an hour. Then for a long time I tried to only let him watch an hour in the morning and and hour in the evening while I cooked dinner. This is still my idea of enough TV for a three year old. The only time he got more was when he was sick.

Now we just sort of "let the TV time fall as it may" each day. There are those days, you know the ones? Where I don't even have the energy to turn it off. It's just comforting to know that it's on, as if there's another person helping me take care of my kid. At least Gabriel still doesn't watch anything with commercials yet. Just PBS and Nick Jr. And movies. He usually sticks with one movie for two to three weeks, so we get to know them really well before they have to step down to their replacement. Right now we're on Hercules. I could sing you all the songs if you wanted me to. They pop up in my dreams at night.

I just started letting Joel watch, especially after finding the Baby Einstein DVD's we had put up when Gabriel got too old for them. How could I have forgotten them, as many times as we watched them? Gabriel is also enjoying seeing them again, and the two of them together are just so cute. Joel only sticks with a whole half hour if Gabriel is watching with him. But it just gives me a chance to cook dinner without feeling quite so rushed, which is nice.

So my attitude towards TV has softened, and hopefully I'm not ruining my kids' imagination. My favorite thing to watch during the day now is an episode of Jeopardy, to prove to myself that my own brain is not fried. And even though I don't think he understands a word, Gabriel likes to watch with me, proving that to a kid, any TV is good TV.

Idol Schmidol

I watched the first season of Americal Idol because of the local interest of Kelly Clarkson. Then I skipped the next 4 or 5 seasons. I started watching after Jav and I were married because he was a fan. I really got into it for a year or two, then realized that even if the person I was rooting for won, I didn't give a hoot about the music they put out after winning. In fact, I didn't even like the music they put out and usually ended up forgetting their names. Also, I really had a hard time with the fact that they seemed only interested in perfect voices, and alot of my favorite singers have waaaaaayyyyy less than perfect voices Willie, Tom Petty, James McMurtry, Leonard Cohen, etc). So I had decided not to watch this year. But I ended up watching the local auditions, and they pulled me back in again. I also love Ellen, and was curious about what she would bring to the judging panel.

I realize now, though, why I like watching the show. I like hearing the different versions of songs. A couple of years ago, I was blown away by the eventual winner David Cook's version of Michael Jackson's Billy Jean (a song I don't really like much to begin with). Last year Chris Allen, who also ended up winning, did a fantastic version of Bill Withers' Ain't No Sunshine. The people running the auditions also seem to have figured out that not everyone has a "perfect" voice this season. There are so many quirky voices I can't keep up with them all.

So I will pick my favorites and wait to see what they do every week with the familiar songs (or not so familiar, as many pick current Top 10 hits that I have never heard before.) And then after a winner is picked I will forget his or her name, along with my favorites, within three months or so. An added treat is that there is local interest again this season, with Casey James from Fort Worth doing his combo rock, bluesy, alt country thing. Plus, as you can see, he's pretty easy on the eyes.

Too funny

Jav and I watched The Office episode of Jim and Pam having their baby the other night. Forget that we are so behind that we still haven't watched their wedding. I had heard enough about the baby episode to know that we owed it to ourselves to watch. All of that is still so fresh in our heads that I knew we would laugh and cry.

And we loved and could sympathize with so many parts. The frustration of Jim when he was reading about contraction spans in all the different baby books. The fact that Pam was just plain terrified to go to the hospital. (Although I didn't buy the fact that she was still trying to work even though her contractions were five minutes apart. Please.) The look on Michael's face after he peeked into the room as Pam was pushing. Which made me realize that I have never seen what that looks like, but Jav has seen it twice. I'm a little jealous about that. Sort of.

The fact that they didn't realize that they had the wrong baby (and Pam was actually nursing her) was funny. I told Jav about the night I was by myself in the hospital and the nursery kept Joel for a few hours at a time so I could sleep. When I would wake up and wait for them to bring him back, I thought about the fact that he was so new to me and wondered if I would know if they brought the wrong baby back to me. Sleep deprivation can cause paranoid thinking.

But the best, funniest part, and the part that might just be the best piece of comedy writing and acting ever to me, was the male lactation specialist. Jim's face was priceless through that whole scene. And the thing is, even though it was over the top, I can see how a female might not flinch since we are so used to exposing ourselves to male gynecologists. Plus if you're desperate to get help with breast feeding, you don't really care where it comes from, as long as it works.

It was a great episode. Now we need to watch them get married!

Kitchen zero to kitchen hero

I just finished watching "Worse Cooks in America" on The Food Network. It was a reality show in which two well-known chefs picked people who supposedly knew nothing about cooking (nominated by their friends and family) and put them on one of two teams for a 10-day immersion boot camp in the kitchen. The best candidates from each team made a three-course meal for three food critics. The winner they picked received $25,000. I was rooting for Jenny, a 21-year old waitress who decided during the course of the show that she wanted to be chef (everyone else on the show just wanted to go home and cook for their friends and family), but the girl on the other team beat her. I wasn't going to watch it, but I caught part of the 2nd episode and was immediately hooked. These people seemed real, and they REALLY didn't know anything about cooking. I think I was fascinated because I used to be one of them. It's kind of like how someone who lost lots of weight would be really into "The Biggest Loser".

But years of experience, reading cooking magazines and watching countless hours of The Food Network has greatly improved my skills. I think my best skill (this is making me think of Napoleon Dynamite) is putting foods together and knowing what flavors go well together. I'm pretty good at getting everything ready at the same time. One thing I still need some help with, though, is knife skills. I'm really sloppy, don't hold the knife right and cut myself pretty often. Central Market offers a class at least once a month on knife technique, but I think I'm too embarrassed and intimidated to take it. I've also never owned really good knives, which I'm sure would make a difference.

I've been able to make dinner most nights since Joel arrived, even though it's a real challenge. Joel has a tendency to eat very little in the morning, then he wants more and more as the day progresses. He eats at least once an hour from 5 until he goes to bed, around 8 or 9. I try to limit prep and cooking time to 30 minutes most nights. If I make something that takes longer, I have to get part of it ready earlier in the day, even on the weekend. Jav is also helping me by doing part of the cleaning up. He's told me we could do more take out, but I'm pretty stubborn about the cost and the not-so-healthy factors. Plus I want Gabriel (and later Joel) to experience simple, real flavors of food, (like how good and sweet a carrot can taste) and you just don't get that with take out. So I'll continue to work like crazy to put dinner on the table most nights, and hopefully continue to learn even more about cooking. One day I might even take that knife class.

Poignant moments

We don't have many channels that we regularly check on TV. We have a tendency to stick to Public TV, Turner Classic Movies, Independent Film Channel, ESPN (Javi, not me so much), Bravo, and TLC. That's pretty much all we surf if we're not watching something on the DVR or a Ranger game. Last night, I was checking these and happened on a concert on KERA, our Public TV station. It was Chris Botti, who is a trumpet player that is popular on "Smooth Jazz" stations, I believe. I'm not a fan of smooth jazz-it's one of the few genres I just can't get into. But I stayed with it because the female guest that came out was singing "I've Got You Under My Skin", and he had a great Big Band and Orchestra behind him, and I'm a sucker for those kinds of tunes. We found out afterwards she was Kathryn McPhee, who was a runner up on American Idol one year. The music was good, but the cheesy flirting between she and Botti drove me a little nuts and we decided to watch one of our 15 episodes that we are behind on The Office. I'm not sure why we stopped watching it last year, but we did, and now we're trying to get caught up before the new season starts.

When we finished our episode, the show was still on, with Yo Yo Ma playing a number with Botti. I love Yo Yo Ma, and think he is one of the greatest artists of our time, but the song was ending and Jav had to ruin what was left by asking, "Is that Yo Yo Ma Ma?" which is what he thought his name was for the longest time. And I think he thought he was a rapper instead of a cellist. Anyway, we were about to change the channel when the next special guest to walk out was Steven Tyler. Yep, that one. The androgynous, flamboyant lead singer for Aerosmith? And as of late has been in the news for falling off the stage during a concert? (It's tough being a aging rock star). Well, as he strutted to the front of the stage carrying his signature bandana wrapped microphone, we were intrigued, to say the least, to see what would happen. What happened was one of the most moving and surprising performances I've seen in a while, and one I won't ever forget. He sang the song "Smile", a beautiful song that Charlie Chaplin wrote the music for and used in the movie Modern Times. The lyrics are trying to get you to just smile even though your heart is breaking, so for me it ends up being a really sad song. Tyler put so much feeling into that song I can't even describe it, and his voice sounded so clear. They kept showing the front row of the mostly late middle-aged to elderly audience as he sang, and I thought, "I bet they were dreading this part of the show, but they all look as surprised as I am". When he finished he introduced his Dad, who had been one of those elderly gentlemen in that row, and I actually got teary-eyed. I have a newfound respect for the man.

My dream man

I am one of those lucky women who actually got to marry her dream man.  Now, I'm not talking about the actual Desi Arnaz, who was a cigar-smoking, skirt-chasing snake who made his wife (Lucille Ball) miserable throughout their turbulent years together.  I'm talking about the TV character he played, Ricky Ricardo.  When you grow up loving a show, sometimes it takes years to figure these things out.  But over all the years I watched "I Love Lucy",  somewhere along the way I fell in love with Ricky.  His Cuban charm, his faltering English, but most of all the way he stuck by Lucy no matter what kind of crazy trouble she caused. 

It's crazy to admit, but we ARE that TV couple.   Well, maybe not to the extreme in the show.  I have never locked myself in a freezer, or glued a fake beard on my face, or flubbed up a screen test for my husband.  But I continually do pretty goofy things and have that red-headed impulsiveness.  And Jav doesn't get so mad at me that he starts screaming at me in Spanish, but he has the qualities that made Ricky the perfect husband:  He's handsome, patient, loyal and full of that Latino passion.  Not to mention the faltering English, just every now and then.   It just adds to his overall charm.

Happy 5th Anniversary Javi.  I'm the luckiest woman in the whole wide world!

Favorite shows

Jav and I have a short list of dramatic TV that we like.  Three shows, and one of them has been cancelled.  The funny thing is, all three started with pretty crazy concepts. 

Life on Mars was about a police detective living in our present time who gets hit by a car while chasing a suspect and wakes up in the 70's.  Every episode he gets little clues about why this might be happening.  It had great acting, pretty realistic story lines, and awesome 70's music (some really deep cuts, some mainstream, but always fitting to the story line).  I can't believe more people didn't watch it and it got sacked.  We still have 3 episodes to go, and are happy that the producers at least saw this coming and wrapped up all the questions in the final episode.  (Which I hear from a little bird is fantastic!)

Saving Grace is about another police detective (this time the miniscule Holly Hunter-in a role so suited for her it's spooky sometimes), who has been living life in the fast lane for long time, and has many demons chasing her around.  So God decides to send her an angel to try and help her see the error of her ways.  Before it's too late.  But this isn't your typical all-white-clad glowing heavenly angel.  His name is Earl, he looks like a truck driver, and he loves to get wonderful things to eat and drink wherever in the world he happens to be visiting.  And he also is starting to admire (and be a bit jealous of?) Grace for her humanity and passion for life.  There's a mystery connection between Grace and a death-row inmate that we are trying to figure out (Earl is also his angel), but the acting, writing and directing is top-notch in this one too.  I especially like the female characters, including Laura San Giacomo as Grace's best (and good-girl Catholic) friend and medical examiner.

But Big Love would have to be my top choice for best drama this year.  We watched the final episode of this season last week, and now have to wait a year and a half (or some ridiculously long time for HBO shows), to continue this saga of a polygamist family living in Utah suburbia.  Who would have thought a show with this subject matter would be the most riveting and suspenseful I've seen in years?  I can't figure out why no cast member as of yet has been nominated for an Emmy, but I better see some names next time.  Everyone on the show is great, but Jeanne Tripplehorn (the First Wife of Bill Paxton) rose above this year, in my opinion.  The episode when she is facing excommunication from the Mormon church after her sister exposes her to the Bishop is still haunting me because of her desperate acting.

You have to look hard, but you can still find some good stuff on TV.  Just not on the major networks.  There they cancel anything good before giving it a real chance.  

It won't be funny anymore

We happened to catch Weekend Update on SNL last night, and saw Amy Poehler's farewell speech.  She was the only remaining funny thing about the show, so I definitely won't be tuning in until they change the cast up.  We're gonna miss her!

And who says cartoons can't teach you things?

I just learned something so cool from Curious George.  

Loosey lefty, righty tighty.  

Why didn't someone else let me in on this years ago?

The Tao of Teletubbies

My son loves the Teletubbies. 

I remember first hearing about them years ago, from parents of toddlers who thought they were strange, but knew how much their kids seemed to get into them.  I checked them out one day when I was home sick from work, and agreed that they were very strange.  A United Kingdom created show with lots of Japanese Anime leanings about 4 little aliens (?) who love to play and watch real kids play all over the world.  OK, somebody smoked one too many funny cigarettes over there across the pond.  But they did seem sweet and innocent, and I could see how babies and toddlers could fall in love with them.

So when it came time for Gabriel to start watching TV, the two shows at the top of my list for him to watch were Teletubbies and Sesame Street.  I just have trouble with Barney - not because of the dinosaur himself, but because of the over-enthusiastic and bubbly children.  They drive me crazy.  So, we started with an assortment of DVD's, with some Baby Einstein, Sesame Babies and Teletubbies.  He has since rejected all notion of the Sesame Babies, preferring to watch the grown up version now.  The Baby Einsteins still hold his attention, for now.  And I even kept one Barney video because the whole thing was filmed at the Ft. Worth Zoo, which I thought was pretty cool.   But the stars in his world are Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po.  We now own 7 hour-long DVD's and VHS tapes, which rivet Gabriel to the TV every evening while I'm cooking dinner.

Now that I'm an expert on this charming show, I can share why it's great.  They teach their young viewers about manners, saying "thank you" to each other when toys are handed off.  They teach about sharing.  They give each other hugs all the time, and I'm a big believer that you can never have too many hugs.  They love to dance.  They show real children playing and having fun from all over the world.  They also show cultural things like learning traditional dance in India or helping with chores like washing clothes in Africa.  It has taught Gabriel that there are children who may not look the same as him, but they are very like him in many ways.  Plus there are parts that are downright laugh-out-loud funny.  I'll never forget the first time I heard him belly laughing, and ran in to see him watching the part where their favorite meal, Tubby toast, sails out of the toaster and lands on each plate with an accompanying fart noise.  To a 15-month-old, that's comic genius.  

We decided to get him some Teletubbies jammies, and ended up having to order them direct from England.  They took forever to get here, then ended up being long-sleeved.  My Mom was sweet enough to transform them into short-sleeved, and we finally got to show him our surprise night before last.  Most of his reaction was saved on our video camera, but I managed to get a few stills.  They don't do his squealy excitement justice, although the last photo above caught him in mid-squeal.  

Give me weird but sweet over sugary and fake any day.   The Teletubbies ROCK!!    

Relaxing TV

  Robert Plant and Alison Kraus on  Crossroads.

Chefs going head-to-head on Iron Chef America

 Lately, all I want to watch on TV are cooking shows and music shows.  I guess it's partly because none of the dramas I watch have new shows out right now.  But it's also because I don't like to get tense during my two hours of mind-numbing de-stressing every night.  

My favorite cooking shows are all on Food Network - The Next Food Network Star, Ace of Cakes and Iron Chef America.  The Next Food Network Star is kind of silly.  They are asking the contestants to cook meals for lots of people in almost no time, and it's just a cheap way to get drama into the show.  I would rather see them have more time, so I can learn something.  But I'm hooked anyway.  

Ace of Cakes is about Chef Duff, a totally cool, rock and roll loving skilled welder and master cake designer, and his Charm City Cakes business in Baltimore, Maryland.  Each show is a week's worth of cake orders, how Duff and his staff go about designing and putting the cakes together, and the stress of delivering these fragile masterpieces.  It seems like it might be boring, but the personalities of Duff and his staff are hilarious and are really what make the show.  

Iron Chef America puts two well-known chefs head to head.  They supposedly find out the secret ingredient and then have one hour (along with two sous chefs each) to come up with 5 gourmet dishes that showcase the secret ingredient.  This show started out in Japan (I think), but I never watched it because the secret ingredients always grossed me out (stuff like octopus or fish eyes or something).  But the American version doesn't always use such exotic ingredients.  It's always dramatic, wonderfully campy, fascinating to watch, and makes me hungry at the end.  

Our music shows are Crossroads on CMT, Soundstage and Austin City Limits, both on PBS.  

Crossroads has been on awhile, but we've just recently caught onto it's greatness.  It puts two artists together, one from the country world and one from some other genre, and they sing each other's hits.  This is truly an amazing show no matter who is on it (the only one I haven't liked that much was Kid Rock and Hank Williams, Jr., neither of I can stand).  The best ones we've watched were Lyle Lovett and Bonnie Raitt, LeAnn Rimes and Joss Stone, and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.    

Austin City Limits has been on forever, and sometimes the guests can't hold my interest, but it's always good to at least check part of it out.  The recent ones that stick out in my mind are Coldplay and Juanes (a Columbian hottie whose music is even hotter).  I have R.E.M. taped but haven't been in the right mind to watch them yet.

We kept catching Soundstage while channel surfing and have decided to add it to our DVR regulars.  This is really weird to me, because both shows we watched were people I would have never thought I'd get into.  The first was Dan Fogelberg, which they replayed just after he passed away.   I couldn't believe how many songs I knew!  The same thing happened last night when we caught REO Speedwagon.  I groaned when we first turned it on, but I ended up really enjoying it.  Of course, the bad part is that I've had "Keep On Lovin' You", one of the silliest rock anthems ever written, in my head ALL DAY LONG.  But I'm kind of excited to see who turns up next.  I'm learning that as I get older, I'm a little surprised at what I'm liking musically.  

The best medicine - live and in person

If you heard someone screaming with glee last Sunday morning around 10am, that was me in the Target parking lot. Jav had just called to let me know that his sister got our tickets to see Eddie Izzard play the Majestic Theater on June 5th. I have been hoping he would do a US tour since I first laid eyes on him, just after Jav and I started dating in 2003. The first round of gleeful screaming started Friday morning when I got my Ticketmaster update and saw his name, although it was very quiet screaming since Gabriel was still asleep. I immediately joined his fan club to see if we could get the password for the Presale, and lo and behold they sent me an email later that afternoon with that very thing. Then the screaming turned into silent trepidation when they only had single tickets available for Presale. We all hoped that they had only put aside part of the tickets for Presale, but started talking about possibly doing a road trip to Austin (where he's doing three shows) if the one Dallas show was sold out. But it wasn't, and six of us happy campers will be sitting in the middle of the upper balcony laughing until tears run down our face and our dinners almost come back up.

What's all the fuss about? you may be asking yourself. Well, I think he's the funniest human being ON THE PLANET. I never much cared for stand-up before I saw him. Sandra (Jav's sister) had watched his HBO special and turned Jav and the rest of her family onto him. So Jav figured I would like him. And hearing that a cross-dressing Englishman who joked alot about history and religion sounded right up my alley. My Mom has also become a huge fan. I think he must have thought the time was finally ripe for a total US tour, after the success of The Riches on FX. The second season starts tonight, and our DVR is set up and ready to go. Eddie plays the head of a con artist family, with the excellent Minnie Driver as his wife. The first season was critically acclaimed, and I think did ok in the ratings. I'm sure he gained alot of new fans through the exposure, especially if they went out and rented any of his stand up DVD's, the set of which Jav got me for Christmas.

I haven't been this excited about a concert since I was going to sit on the floor for Van Halen in 1984.

The shift back to normal

I made a HORRIBLE MISTAKE! Our big TV shift lasted one evening. I was so miserable with no TV in our room that I didn't sleep at all Saturday night. I LIKE curling up on the bed and watching a movie. I LIKE having the cats curled up next to us on the bed. The only real problem I had was once I was ready to read and/or go to sleep I DON'T LIKE having to listen to the TV. Why all of this didn't occur to me before we paid the Direct TV service call charge I'm not sure. It almost seems like I had to have it taken away before I realized how much I needed it.

So Jav spent part of his Saturday with the service tech while he moved everything around, then we spent two hours Sunday changing it all back. What a waste of time, effort and money. But I'm very impressed that the two of us got everything working again. And Jav had the great idea of switching TV's so that he can use his wireless headphones if he wants to watch after I'm reading. (My old one we had been using in the bedroom didn't have a jack to plug them in). So the planets are aligned again, we relaxed and watched The Office last night, in our bed with Zoe curled up with us, and all was right with the world.

I'm really lucky to be married to someone with a never-ending supply of patience. And understanding. And TV/DVD technical skills.

A radical shift

Next weekend we will embark upon a household shift of such massive proportions it may feel like an earthquake has hit us. We have decided to remove the television from our bedroom (insert dramatic music - Dah, Dah Dum Dum.) I have been wanting this to happen for a long time, but never had the nerve to ask Jav about it because I never thought he would go for it. He is the one who likes to get sleepy with the TV on. I think having the TV on makes me have a much more restless night, and I would rather read to get myself sleepy. So when I was half asleep one night I mentioned how nice it would be if we moved our DVR to the living room TV and watched in there, and then the bedroom would be a much more restful place. He was ok with it!

So a week from Saturday we have the Direct TV person coming to move our DVR. We'll also be switching TV's because the color on the living room set has been going out for two years now. Then we're going to rearrange our bedroom, removing the TV armoire for good. We already rearranged our living room so that we'd each have huge comfy spaces to watch TV (before all I had was a very cold and uncomfortable leather couch.) I have been wanting to enjoy my oversized red chair since we purchased it almost two years ago, but so far it has mostly been used for cat beds. But the cats better watch out, because my butt will be taking over now. I'm sure unwinding in the living room will take a little getting used to, but I also am hoping it will lead to more reading and less TV for both of us. What it will cut out is the late-night channel surfing, when your brain has already turned to mush so much that you don't realize you need to be asleep.

I guess it could also turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes I've ever made. We'll see.

A couple of music notes

Jav and I are addicted to America's Next Greatest Band on Fox. It's a guilty pleasure, of course, but we've been surprised just how good the bands that have been competing are. Jav's favorite is a really good Eagles-type rock/country band called Sixwire, made up of 40-ish good looking guys (which is not the reason Jav likes them). My original favorite was a band of gangly 20-somethings whose specialty was Beatles-type British pop called Tres Bien. They were eliminated two weeks ago, so I had to choose a new favorite. I am now pulling for The Clark Brothers, three actual brothers who grew up on the road along with their 8 other siblings while their evangelical preacher father moved from revival tent to revival tent. I guess their main label would be bluegrassy gospel, but they play and sing with such fire and such soul that you really can't help but feel something rise up within you when they play. Both bands have made it to the finals, which are next Friday night, along with another really good HUGE big band, with horns and everything, called Denver and the Mile High Orchestra. I really hope they do well after this contest is over, because they seem like such nice guys, and because they played a smokin' version of September by Earth Wind and Fire last night, which just happens to be Jav's and my song. But my money and my heart go with The Clark Brothers.

Another show I've been DVR-ing is Crossroads on Country Music Television. This is a show where two artists, usually from different genres and always fans of each others' music pair up for an hour of talking and performing. It's always a good show, but last night we finally watched the best one we've seen yet - Bonnie Raitt and Lyle Lovett. It was true magic. The stories behind their songs were very poignant. Lyle Lovett seems like such a nice guy, and there's something so real about his music and his voice. And Bonnie Raitt's voice just gets more syrupy and perfect with age. Her guitar playing isn't too shabby either. I'll always regret that I missed her show at Bass Hall, but maybe someday she'll come back. I hope to be there if she does.

Obsession

Jav and I have become obsessed with our 2 hours at night we get to relax and watch TV with no baby or pets interrupting. Actually, make that just no baby, the pets are still jumping on the bed or meowing for food or needing to go outside. But anyway, we are so serious about this time that we spent an hour or so looking over the article in the Star Telegram Sunday about new and returning shows. We decided to pick out a couple of new ones to start taping each week. Our show count dropped now that Sopranos, Big Love and Flight of the Conchords are finished. Here's what we decided:

-Saving Grace - we'll finish out the season

-The Office, which has been a favorite for the past couple of years.

-Top Chef/Project Runway (Top Chef has 3 or so more weeks, and I'm not sure when Project Runway starts).

-Heroes. We just started slowly watching last season and are trying to figure out a way to speed up the process so we can start enjoying Season 2 once it starts. Right now we're only watching two episodes a week.

These next three will probably not all make it. We plan to pick at least one and maybe two from this list of new shows:

-Dirty Sexy Money. Another mob show, and you gotta love Peter Krauss, so we have to try it.

-Cane. This is supposed to harken back to the Dynasty days, only much better writing and acting. It's about a sugar cane plantation owning family. It has a great cast including Jimmy Smits, Rita Moreno and Hector Elizondo.

-Pushing Daisies. The critics are all saying this will be the best new show of the season. It's about a guy who can save a person's or animal's (or even plant's I think) life by just touching them. The only problem is he has to pick out someone or something else to die instead.

And finally, our guilty pleasure - The Great American Band Contest on Fox.

Oh, and we decided to start taping all Seinfelds, just because they're so great and there's a bunch I never saw midway through the run.

And just in case anyone thinks I've become a TV addict, I also try to read for a half hour after we turn off the dreaded contraption every night.