Podcasting, Baseball and Idol (SPOILER 'Chelle!)

(NOTE: As promised, Michelle there is an Idol spoiler in here, so if you haven't watched Idol yet, you may want to stop reading right now... Then again, you could scroll down slowly until you see me mention Idol then stop reading...) :-)

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Apple came to the office today to train a group of tech folks on how to use Garage Band to create podcasts, and show us how podcasting can be used at various levels in schools. When a group of friends get together, many of whom like to joke around and have fun, most of the learning comes from the side-bar conversations and the general goofiness of the day. Though I have laughed a few times over the past week and a half, today I had a very hearty laugh that went off and on for a good couple of hours. I needed it badly. Admittedly, much of my own incompetence and shenanigans contributed to the fun we were having, but just about everyone was laughing at each other and themselves at one time or another.

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Speaking of laughing, on Boston Legal the other night, when Jerry said he had a song that he couldn't get out of his head, we rolled on the floor as the first few bars of the BL theme came out of his mouth - and, of course, we sang right along with him! By far, one of the funniest openings to an episode yet! :-)

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Tyler had baseball practice today, and Emily had her first practice today! FINALLY! :-) She is her brother's sister. She kicked dirt, danced around, and generally played around in the field. Because her practice started after Tyler's, Tyler and I were a little late getting there, but we saw Em field a ball and hit a ball (in addition to her playing around). It brought back a lot of memories of Tyler playing around. There is nothing like watching little kiddos learning how to play baseball... :-)

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For the record, we did watch idol last week. We made predictions and watched Phil and Chris get voted off. I have no idea what happened to the paper we keep track of that on, as you can imagine, our minds weren't really on what we were watching....

This week, we made our choices (which I will share in a sec), and then watched the results tonight. It wasn't really a surprise, though in a way, I was disappointed (but just not surprised). Our chart (they sang twice, thus the two votes each):

Idol Singer	Dave's Vote	Shan's Vote
Melinda	Yes? Yes	Yes? Yes
Blake	Yes? No	Yes? Yes?
Lakisha	Yes No	Yes Yes?
Jordin	Yes! Yes!	Yes Yes

We were not surprised that Lakisha was voted off. Like I said, I was disappointed. I think Blake should have been voted off. I love the beat-boxing, but there is a time and place for it. He did too much of it in the 1st song and there should been NONE of it in the second song. He sang the 2nd song wonderfully, but he should have left the beat-boxing out... Then again, what do I know? :-)

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The first day back at the office was a little weird. Despite the fun I had at the podcasting training, I was still in a daze of sorts. I got lots of hugs and talked to several people about Dad. Maybe it's denial, maybe it's shock, maybe it's something else, but in some ways, it still doesn't seem real.... I mean, my Aunt and Uncle still look to me like they did when I saw them last, or for that matter, when they did when I was a kid. I know, crazy talk, right? But seriously. I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that my Uncle is 57. 57?? That can't be right... I won't say how old my Aunt is - she knows how to fly standby on a moment's notice and there is NO WAY that I am going to risk getting my butt kicked any time soon.... Time really does fly by...