After our weekly dose of American Idol, or what I like to call American-Let's-Make-A-Star-Out-Of-Someone-With-Mediocre-Talent-When-There-Are-So-Many-More-Deserving-Musicians-Out-There, Ariel comes into the computer room and informs us that she has finished voting.

Ariel: "Mom, dad, I just finished calling American Idol to vote."

Me: "Oh yeah? Who did you vote for?"

Ariel: <innocently & proudly> I voted for everyone *twice*!!

Me: <silently in my mind> "Dooh! What did you do *that* for??"

Then I realized I hadn't thought it silently in my mind and had vocalized it to our daughter. We explained to her that voting for everyone is the same as not voting at all. I think she voted for everyone twice because she didn't want anyone to get left out. So ends the lesson in how voting works and why we only vote for the people we want to win. Poor dear. She had good intentions in mind, it just didn't quite work out the way it should have.

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On a whim, I picked up the debut album Fallen by Evanescence on the way home from work today. You may recognize a couple of their songs if you saw the movie Daredevil. Anyway, the lead singer Amy Lee, is from the town we live in, and the rest of the band is from Little Rock. She has an amazingly haunting voice that sends chills down my back in one of the songs she sings. They are definitely not a group you hear every day, and I felt that since I liked their sound, that I should do my part in supporting them and hoping they make it big.

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Update on B's leavetaking: Since co-worker buddy has a great voice & is part of a bluegrass band and I think I have a somewhat decent voice, I raised the idea of the two of us recording a song together on a CD for B to remember us by. Something along the lines of "we won't forget you/you'll be missed/we'll see u again someday". Any ideas for songs would be appreciated. I thought that that would be something memorable and touching that we could give her as a farewell gift.

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Some of you remember my case mod I did a while back. Well, if you want to see how the pros do it, check out Malfunction. Holy cow - I nearly crapped myself when I saw that work of art.

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