Troubles McSteans

This is a So You Think You Can Dance post. If you don't give a darn, you are dismissed. We'll catch you next time. So...last night's show. I was thoroughly unimpressed. Toni Basil is one of their worst judges in my opinion and I'm really getting tired of Mary's screaming so I was fast forwarding through the judging portions for the most part. Here is my take on the dancing: Karla and Jonathan: Hip Hop (Dave Scott) I'm sad to say after last week's gorgeous routine that these two offered up the weakest dance of the night. I think Jonathan is cute as a button and impressed me last week, but with the hip hop...ai yai yai. That was....not good. Karla was okay, but I wasn't even invested enough in the choreography to sit still through the whole thing. I went to let Cassidy inside towards the end and didn't feel like I missed anything. I fear Jonathan may be leaving us this week. Asuka and Vitolio: Jazz (Mandy Moore) I just cannot get excited abou...

So I guess starting next year the Oscars are widening the Best Picture race to include 10 movies . I have mixed feelings about this and will have to wait and see how it plays out. On one hand, it could make things more interesting. I did a post pre-Oscars this year about how annoyed I was that the nominees seemed to be limited to "awards bait" films released within a month of the end of the year cut off date, alienating anything premiering from January through November. I was especially irritated that The Dark Knight and WALL-E were overlooked. Having double the number of nominees could open the door for bigger movies that have increasingly been dismissed as summer fluff. I'm wondering if this development also means they are considering UP for a Best Picture slot this year. The addition of the Best Animated Feature in 2002 gave the Academy an excuse to exclude any animated film from the Best Picture race, no matter how impressive the film. This particularly irked m...

Jason is off to London until the end of next week, so we're keeping Cassidy for a while. I'm trying to come up with some camp activities for the girls (Lucy and Cassidy) but it's a little hard to do archery or crafts when you lack opposable thumbs. Maybe we'll take them swimming this weekend. We started off pretty well last night, with Miss Cassidy only waking me up once at 4 this morning for a bathroom break. That was fine other than I for some reason could not get back to sleep for a while afterwards. Maybe because I couldn't get Duran Duran's "Rio" out of my head, which is strange because I haven't heard that song in months. I was a bit worried about how Cassidy and Jeff the Cat would get along for 10 days. I brought out the baby gate for the stairs last night to give Jeff a refuge, but he stupidly refuses to stay upstairs. Cat + curiosity = dead cat. So far, so good, however. To my astonishment, Cassidy actually allowed Jeff to drink fr...

This morning I had my parents over for breakfast in honor of Father's Day and their 40th wedding anniversary, which is also today. I'm glad my parents live so close now so that we can do these things and not just send cards in the mail. My dad is great and since everyone loves lists (you do, you love lists), here's a list of 10 reasons my dad is awesome. 1. He taught me to ride my little red Schwinn 2. He would take us on 'hippo rides' in the pool when we were little (this involved hopping on his back and getting submerged when we least suspected it) 3. He took us on lots of road trips 4. He taught me to canoe and fish and to appreciate the beauty and serenity of the outdoors 5. He taught me never to give up 6. He taught me to love to watch football 7. He taught me the art of the bad pun 8. He made sure my life was VERY WELL documented 9. He taught me bravery in the face of pain 10. He gave me a kidney Dad, after discovering Ryan, Doug, and me in his cabin in M...