Dancing With The Stars, 03292011

Who was the first celebrity to be eliminated this season? Do you want to take a guess? Please tell us!!! Not yet...you have to be patient a little bit more. Why?? Don't you want to know what happened first, who danced what and the scores?? Not really, but I think you will do it anyway! You got that right baby!!!! Let us talk about Tom Bergeron and Brooke Burke first. What about them? Tom is as usual... a smart aleck with Len Goodman once in a while, and Brooke Burke still posing a lot while flickering her eyes! I will admit though that Brooke had nice figure hugging dresses for the last two nights! And to think that she has several children!! That is such an accomplishment!! What is it with Dancing With The Stars on the second night? The first hour is a rerun of the first night? Why?? Plus, they sure know how to waste time on the second hour! Why do you say that? They already showed the celebrity dances, but they do it again and again before the eliminations are announced!! Well, they want to fill up the whole hour, and what is a better way to do it than to recap the dances?? Oh well.... I just thought I will mention it. Who was good this week? Romeo with Chelsea Hightower with the quickstep was good, but it seems he is trying sooo hard to be macho and a Romeo with Chelsea!! Isn't Chelsea too old for him?? Age does not matter with celebrities! That is true, and I forgot!! Ralph Macchio with Karina Smirnoff was also good with their Jive. It was fast and lots of energy!! Hines Ward with Kym Johnson in their Quickstep was also good, considering that he is a huge guy!! One thing for sure, Hines seems to be a mild mannered guy with a smile always!! Being nice is not good enough to win...you have to have excellent dancing skills! Well, all the celebrities on this season are not as great as the others from previous seasons, so I think everyone had a pretty good chance of winning!!! Except??? Wendy Williams with Tony Dovolani, Mike Catherwood with Lacey Schwimmer, Sugar Ray Leonard with Anna Trebunskaya, Kendra Wilkinson with Louis van Amstel, and Petra Nemcova wuth Dmitry Chaplin!!! Oh....oh...you already picked who you think will be eliminated early! Yes, unless they have something rolled up on their sleeves!!! Mike Catherwood with Lacey Schwimmer was the first celebrity eliminated this season. Ouch!!! He is now in the company of the lousiest dancers in the history of Dancing With The Stars!! Are these celebrities going to compete with each other to redeem their names??? I do not have a clue but they should!!! Well, until next week.....have a great day!!!!

Interesting Tidbits

Have you all noticed how the middle class is slowly dissipating from America? It seems there are only 2 classes now in America: the rich and the poor!!! That is right, baby, no more middle class!!! Is that good or bad?? That is definitely bad!! The gap between the rich and the poor is bigger today!! The rich are getting richer; look at the soaring stock market and the huge bonuses the CEO's and President's of the companies are getting! On the other hand, the poor are getting poorer, which is most of us! There is high unemployment, many foreclosures and lots of families drowning in debts! For one thing, our government have sooo much power and corporations are being catered by the government big time!! Our founding fathers must be turning on their graves for what is happening to our dear country!! The wealthy sure is enjoying the economic recovery while most of us are struggling!!! I read that facelifts for men rose 14 %. Are these the "vain" men from Wall Street?? The average bonus on Wall Street for 2010 was $128,530!!! Can you believe that??? That is ridiculous!!! Why can't this people share their wealth with everyone like our dear president said during his campaign?? While the Wall Street people get good bonuses, employee compensation has been the lowest in 50 years!! Not only that, unemployment rose in 351 of the 372 largest cities in the Unted States!!! How about sale of luxury items? That increased also! Million dollar home sale rose 18.6 %, private jumbo jet sales are soaring, Porsche sales increased by 29 %, luxury jewelry retailer Tiffany and Co announced an increase in profits by 29%, Cadillac sales are up by 36 %, Rolls royce reported an increased in sale by 171%. You and I could not afford any of these luxurious items....so who are buying these??? The rich people of course! We do not even go shopping now because of the high cost of gasoline and food!!! Thank goodness we have some TV programs that we can watch to keep us entertained!!! I could go on and on but I am just sooo disgusted with the way that our society is heading into!!! Share the wealth indeed!!! Did you all know that there are more than a million families that lost their homes due to foreclosure, and that is expected to increase in 2011??? Yikes!!! Unemployment is at a standstill at over 10 %, same as last year; half of American workers make only $25,000/ year or less?? How could you afford anything earning just this amount while an average CEO makes 185 times more money than an average American worker! No wonder Porsche has announced it is taking orders now for their first hybrid - 918 Spyder! Cost?? A whopping $845.000!!! Wow!! The old, balding men are back into the sports car trick to get young, good looking chicks!!! Yup!!! The dirty old man is back!!! What is our world getting into??? Today, there are an all time high of 44 million Americans on food stamps!!! That is really crazy!! Our once great country has really gone to the dogs!!! What are we to do?? Pray... that our government will open it's eyes to what is happening to their citizens and do something!!! They should really spread the wealth, not only to corporations but to everyone!!! After all, a happy citizen is a happy country, is it not??? May God bless all of us!!! Let us all pray for world peace!!!

Cooking Pot Pie

Why am I talking about cooking?? First of all, I am not a chef and I am just so..so in cooking!! Why do you say that? Remember: never admit to your faults or shortcomings!! Yes, ma'm! Repeat after me: I am a great cook! Okay. I am an excellent cook! Ha! Ha! Ha! I turned it up a notch!!! Oh, my gosh! I do not know about you! Well, do you have a problem with that?? Of course not, carry on.....

I think I am really getting good at it, if I have a recipe! After all, it is just like in the chemistry lab following directions, is it not?? If you want to put it that way and it will make you happy!!! Anyway, I made some chicken pot pie the other day. How did it turn out? Pretty good! Except...Oh, oh...except what? I am so used to baking all the time at 350 that I set the oven at 350 instead of 425! So, I had to cook the pie longer! What else did you do? Instead of making the sauce, I did a shortcut. What was the shortcut? Adding a little bit of milk to the cream of chicken soup! How did it turn out? I was really satisfied with it!! Surprise! Surprise!! What else did you do with the recipe? I used ready-made pie crust. There is nothing wrong with that! You are right! The pie crust was delicious! But...But what?? How come I cannot get the pie crust out of the container without breaking it? It fell into pieces and my pie was not too good looking! What did you do? When I was peeling it in the container, it stated to break into pieces!! Did you defrost it? Not really! That is probably what your problem is!! Make sure it is defrosted next time before you peel it out of the container! Will do, thanks!

Even though my pot pie is not an A + in appearance or presentation, I think it was an A++ on taste!! Sez who??? Me!!! Who else?? Ay..ya ..yay....Why can't you wait for someone to tell you whether it is good or not?? Why?? I have a good sense of taste!! Who cooked it? Me!!! And I am soooo proud of myself!!! In fact I think I will give myself a pat on the back!! Ha! Ha! Ha! Want some??? It is sooo tasty!!! Soooo yummy!!!!

Have a nice weekend, everyone!!! God bless!!!

American Idol, 03252011

Motown returns to American Idol!!! The contestants gave them their all and I am sure that the celebrities were really pleased with the performance of each of the idol hopefuls! The competition is really getting intense, and every contestant is trying to outshine each other!

Ryan Seacrest is sooo dramatic as usual... when he announced who will be on the bottom 3 and who will stay! He gets an " A +" for drama....no wonder he gets big bucks!!! Jennifer Lopez looked really beautiful last night and Steven Tyler is still the same quiet, funny looking guy, who had a birthday cake on the show last night! How about Randy Jackson? The Dawg, I think is trying to be Simon!!

I was really surprised with Naima Adedapo who sang Dancing In The Street. Her showmanship was really great! Last week, I thought she should go. This week she showed that I was wrong and she is here to stay! The other hopeful that I was really surprised was Haley Reinhart! For starters, she took out her beautiful curls and made it staight!! Is that her new image??? It worked together with a little attitude!! How about Paul McDonald? He surely looks and sounds like Rod Stewart! He can make a name for himself just because of that which is a good thing!!

Who were in the bottom 3? Thia Megia, who stepped out from her ballad comfort zone and sang Heat Wave. I think she needs to step up several notches for her showmanship and should lose her shyness!!! But she is only 16!! That is true! That is quite an accomplishment for a 16 year old! Stefano Langone is the next one to be on the bottom 3. He sings good, but his interpretation of Lionel Richie's Hello is something to be desired!! The 3rd person on the bottom 3 was Casey Abrams who is one of the judges favorites! I really do not care for his singing, but I am not a singer and a judge! It was so dramatic how they saved him. Casey started to sing and the judges told him to stopped....they used the one and only save for the season and there are still 11 people!!! Wow!!! I was shocked!!! The judges must really liked him a lot!! As a result, all 11 contestants will go on the tour!!!

Who am I rooting for to win? Pia Toscano, who I believed has the whole package...beauty, poise and voice!!! She just have to show to the world that she can sing other stuff besides ballads!!! The other contender for the title is Scott McCreery with the deep voice! I think that he will go places with or without winning American Idol!! The other one is Jacob Lusk who seems to always get standing ovations from the judges!!! There is no denying that he has a very good voice and he truly has a gift!!!

Next week will be awful for the contestants since there will be 2 that will be eliminated! That should be okay. After all, all 11 will be with the idol tour after the show ends!!

Housing Blues

The housing industry is still having many problems! One of the problem is that new home sales for February, 2011 in the United States hit an all time low , only 19,000 sold! For one thing, how could people buy a house if they are unemployed?? It is extremely difficult to find a job in today's economy! There are so many people that have been out of a job for a year now, and they simply stopped looking! Besides, I read that companies do not even want to hire people that has been unemployed for a long time! That is big time discrimination on these people through no fault of their own that they are unemployed! In that case what is the future for the unemployed people?? That is not fair...and it is sooo sad!! Something has to be done! How about the politicians that are trying to please corporate America by robbing money from the weak, like the elderly and kids by getting their private pensions or education money just to give to businesses to further fatten their wallets??? That is not right, do you all agree???

Let us talk about people that are employed. Even if they are employed, who could afford a 20% or more down payment for a new house especially if you are only earning $8.00 or $9.00 an hour?? Would you not rather spend it on food, which , by the way has been on a steady increase for quite sometime now? What can we do to alleviate the situation? Grow your own vegetable garden this spring and freeze some! I like what some cities are doing...a co-op garden for people to get their vegetables.

Home foreclosures are still on the rise. Did you know that 11% of US homes are standing empty?? Why can't the bank dispose of these homes? Because the mortgage lenders have tightened their lending standards!! Per Mortgage Bankers Association, at least 8 million Americans are at least 1 month behind on their mortgage, and a high number of Americans are "underwater" on their mortgages. There is a projection of 48 % negative equity of American homes by the end of 2011!! Did you all get the valuation of your house from the city??? There is a big decline in the home value but I am so amazed of how much the property tax remains! It was only a few dollars less!! Sigh!!! We really cannot win, can we???

Did you also know that 63 % of Americans feel it is better to rent than to own a home?? Tell me if I am wrong, but I read somewhere that is the future for the people...that the government would rather people rent than own a home! What is the reason for this? I do not know!! Does anyone know if there is a truth to what I read???

Lastly, the cost of oil continues to rise. If the conflict in the Middle East does not stop, we might see the cost of oil rising to $200!! In that case, who can still afford anything??? We need to all pray.....pray.....pray.....

May there be world peace!!! May God bless all of us!!!!!

Dancing With Stars, 03212011

Dancing With Stars, Season 12 has begun!!! I like the start of the DWTS this year - it was enjoyable to watch and it seems that there are more celebrities that have rhythm and can dance!!!

The emcees are still the same, Tom Bergeron and Brook Burke. Brook is still the same old gal that seems to pose a lot and flicker her eyelashes for the camera! How about the judges? Same old judges...with Bruno Tonioli still doing his crazy antics amidst Len Goodman's disgust! And Carrie Ann Inaba is still the same emotional woman!

Ralph Macchio, 49, aka Karate Kid, with Karina Smirnoff was the leader of the pack, earning a score of 24 with their foxtrot! Ralph can really move! Thanks for the days and hours of practice being the Karate Kid, huh Ralph? Too bad, Karina you will not be able to seduce him!!!

I was pleasantly surprised with Kirstie Alley, 60, with Maksim Chmerkovskiy... she can dance the cha cha with that big body of hers!! Wow!!! Kudos to you, Kirstie...hope you go to the finals!!! Score: 23!

Hines Ward of Pittsburgh Steelers with Kym Johnson, dancing the cha cha. I think the score of 21 is too high! You were not that good! Seems Kym did more work than you!

Kendra Wilkinson- Baskett...with his daddy Hugh Heffner watching. Her dancing with Louis Van Amstel earned them a score of 19! I thought her score was low! The judges should have given them a better score since she can dance and move her butt really well!

Romeo, a rapper actor with Chelsie Hightower. He can dance better than his father, Master P, that is why he earned a score of 19! He seemed to be enjoying himself immensely on the dance floor! Is that real or just the nerves at work?? Ha! Ha! Ha!

Chelsea Kane, Jonas star, with Mark Ballas. She is really good...young and pretty!!!! They earned a score of 21! There are some facial feature of her that reminds me of Julianne Hough...don't you guys agree??

Petra Nemcova, supermodel and 2004 tsunami survivor with Dimitri Chaplin. She is tall and needs a lot of practice! Score: 18!

Wendy Williams, talk show host and Tony Dovolani. Yuck!!! No wonder she was crying because she was horrible!!! She should go first!!!

Chris Jericho, wrestler with Cheryl Burke who received a score of 19! I thought the judges gave them a big score because they were afraid of him! Look at his size! And a wrester too? I will really give them a good score no matter what!! Cheryl, will Chris give you some bling??? Remains to be seen!!

Sugar Ray Leonard, 54, boxer, with Anna Trebunskaya. I thought he will be dancing better than that! I was wrong!!! Oh, well...Score: 17!

'Psycho" Mike Catherwood, Love Line co-host with Lacey Schwimmer. Ay..ya...yay...need I say more?? Score: 13!!!

There you are folks, the 11 celebrities who accepted the Dancing With The Stars challenge. If next week will be as good as this week, then I am hook watching it!!

Japan

The devastation in Japan is horrendous killing more than 7,600 and 11,000 still missing! It had been one week since the 8.9 earthquake and tsunami. The greatest concern now is radiation, which has seeped into the spinach and milk from a nearby farm.

There are now 500 emergency workers trying to help in the cooling of the reactors at Fukushima Dai - ichi nuclear plant. How brave are these people who volunteered to save their country and their countrymen's lives! Bless them!

The crisis led to power shortages, food shortages and factory closures triggering a plunge in the stock market. The world are nervously watching because if this happens to Japan, it can happen anywhere.

It was so neat yesterday watching the news about a plane being dispatched to Japan from the United States. The plane can detect the radioactivity of the nuclear plants without endangering the lives of the people on the plane! I have not heard any more news about this? Has anyone heard anything and would like to share to the world?

This is really sad. Soo many sad news around the globe....no wonder there are so many people that are depressed. Will there be any good news?? I hope so!

Let us all help Japan with monetary contributions, a prayer or both. May the Japanese people remain steadfast with their faith and not lose hope!!

May God bless everyone in the whole world!!!!