First off, I want to say that Randy is becoming quite the racist. I think some of his favorites could shit on stage, wipe their ass with the American Flag, and Randy would still be giving them all kinds of praise.

With that said, here are my rankings for tonight, from worst to best:

John S: Sucks. His music teacher was quite hot though. (1 point)

Camille: I really wanted her to do well, but she looked and sounded like she was about to vomit. (40 points)

Matt: He kept doing these weird voice changes, from country to blues and back. I didn't like it. (50 points)

Fantasia: I hate that song, and she was way too gospelly (is that a word?) for my tastes tonight. (55 points)

Leah: Another one that I wanted to do well, but she didn't. I love her singing ballads though and I hope she stays long enough to perform one. (55 points)

John L: Seems like a nice guy, and sings pretty well, but I cannot imagine him on the radio. (60 points)

George: Really forcing his voice to do tricks, but this was the first time I liked him at all. I still don't understand the judges obsession with him. (65 points)

Jennifer: She just sings great. Otherwise there's nothing remarkable. (66 points)

LaToya: Really good performance, but she got overshadowed by some of the later ones. Her voice kept dropping out of hearing range. (70 points)

Diana: Perhaps the second-best singer in the competition, but I worry that her voice may not be that good if she ever sings a slow song. She's also about a zillionth as cute as she seems to think she is. (75 points)

Amy: Took a weak song and made it fantastic with her voice. The best voice in the competition, and one of the best singers overall. Comparisons to Nikki McKibbin and that fat girl from season two should stop now. (80 points)

Jasmine: Just simply awesome. She should win the whole thing. I got goosebumps. (95 points)

As much as I'd like to see John S. get voted off, I'm afraid that Simon may be right this time and Leah will be eliminated. I would be satisfied if any of the guys left, though John L. is the most deserving to stay.

I've combined my Friday and Saturday reports for this past weekend for a couple of reasons. First, It's now Monday and I just want to get the thing typed. Second, Saturday was pretty much a bust, as I'll explain later.

Rich O's is having their annual "Gravity Head" festival, where they feature the strongest beers in the world, so I went in on Friday to sample some of these deadly concoctions.

Before I got three feet into the door I was accosted by CanadianGirl from work. She was upset that I hadn't been visiting her at the sample tasting lab lately. She was also drunk. (Yes, I'm talking about you. You're a very cute and friendly drunk though.) I spent a good deal of time reassuring her that my absence had nothing to do with her or the lab - I'd just been either sick or very busy for over two months. I promised to make every effort to start going to the lab again.

Also representing my work at Rich O's on Friday were CanadianGirl's hot boss(can I say that?) and CheerfulGirl, who for some reason didn't seem very cheerful at all.

Anyway, I first ordered a "Hercules" from Louisville's Browning's Brewery, and I drank it while talking with CanadianGirl's boyfriend and CheerfulGirl's husband. I also finally got to see if CanadianGirl's hot boss (can I say that?) was wearing a ring or not. She isn't.

I didn't like the Hercules. It was just too bitter.

Once the crew from work left I had a new beer from Rich O's own NABC. The 5B Brown Porter I also did not particulary like. I know the guy who invented this recipe, and I know he'll understand that just because I don't like his beer that doesn't mean that it isn't any good. More on that later.

Oh yeah, during all this time while I was choking down my first two beer I also had an Alaskan Smoked Porter on ice. It became my last, and only good, beer of the night.

I ended up in the "Living Room " area of Rich O's talking with MisunderstoodGirl, TrainGirl, and RealTrainGirl. It was pretty cool to have some of the women regulars there, as it had been a while.

On to Saturday. I've been completely swamped with work so I wasn't really sure that I'd go out at all, but the glamour and glitz of Gravity Head called to me so I went back to Rich O's.

The crowd was unbelievable. It was also unbearable.

I'd been thinking about the 5B Brown Porter that I'd tried the night before. I wondered if I'd given it a fair test, what with my taste buds still being all shot to hell from the Hercules I'd had just before it. I decided that, to be fair to my friend who'd invented the recipe, I'd have another pint and see how it stood on its own.

Unfortunately, I still didn't like it. Just too bitter. It took me over an hour to drink the thing, and that hour was spent walking from section to section trying to find a place to simply stand. There was no hope whatsoever of being able to sit down because the crowd was so thick.

I ended up going home after that one beer, and working until the wee hours of the morning.

Got a call from the bank today and was told that my refinance loan had been approved...

BUT

...the last appraisal on my house was over three years ago so I have to get a new one.

For whatever reason I'm now paranoid about the appraisal. I mean, a lot of what I'm planning to spend the money on will directly affect the home's value. Things like a new roof and new paint.

I also wonder how the appraisal person will like the demolition work I did in the basement when I got my new pool table? And how about my lovely storage room and detached garage?

Today I'm enduring what millions of others have endured over the years.

I applied for a mortgage refinance, and I'm waiting for word from the bank.

If I get the loan, the money will go to much needed things like a new roof and new exterior paint on my house.

I'm actually pretty nervous because I'm making a lot less money now than I was when I got my original mortgage four years ago.

I will also say that the loan officer at my bank is pretty cute.

To continue my brief tradition of ranking the night's performances on American Idol, I submit this list:

John: Sucked. 40 points.
Elizabeth: I love Elizabeth, probably because she reminds me of Kelly Clarkson. 70 points.
Katie: Cute. 60 Points.
George: I don't get why people like this guy's artifically low voice. Just barely better than John. 50 points.
Suzy: This girl can sing well. She should get through. 65 points.
Matthew: Easily second best of the night. I can easily imagine this guy's voice on my radio. 80 points.
Leah: Hot and very talented, and will only get better. Best of the night. 90 points.
Jennifer: I really like Jennifer's voice, but tonight's performance left me a little bored. Only 60 points.

Who I want to advance, based on all I've seen, not just tonight's performances:

Elizabeth, Leah, Matthew, and Suzy.

When I first walked in to Rich O's last night I already knew what my last beer of the night would be. I asked the bartender to put a bottle of Alaskan Smoked Porter on ice for me, since they usually keep it at room temperature.

While waiting for my real beer to chill I had a couple of NABC's Community Dark pints. There was some weird guy playing what I suppose could be called music and doing what I guess some would call singing, but my musical tastes are not nearly broad enough to appreciate the poor bastard.

Once again there were none of the women I know at Rich O's so I spent most of the night talking with CoffeeDude about things neither important nor interesting.

Once CoffeeDude left my Smoked Porter was ready so I moved to the bar and tasted that beer for the first time in several years.

Definately more smoky than I remember, but more complex also, I liked it a lot. I'm not sure if I like it as much as the Alaska Brewing Company's Alaskan Amber, but I'd have to put Smoked Porter in my top five beers. I'll definitely be having more of it, at least util Rich O's decides to stop selling it.

Not that I'm bitter about Cone Smoker being discontinued or anything.

Nope, not me.

For months I've been convinced that my 'blog software was corrupting some of my entries, and that I'd need to wait for a new release to solve the problem.

Well I've identified the real problem - located between my chair and my keyboard.

It was all my fault. My program that I wrote to display the log entries had a malformed expression, that, given the proper characters, could completely mangle the offending sentence.

I've fixed it now, but there's no telling what other bugs still lurk.

Last night I was in the mood for some Newcastle so I went to Hooters and met up with my cousin Jeff. This time I even remembered to ask the Hooters girl to give me my beer in a non-frosted glass.

Newcastle remains one of my favorite beers, and I enjoyed a couple while catching up with Jeff and admiring the Hooters scenery.

Next I moved on to Rich O's and had a Beak's Best. It wasn't too bad - better than the last time I had it. This beer is not fluctuating. It's just that my enjoyment of it depends greatly on what I've had to drink earlier. It tastes pretty good when following Newcastle Brown Ale.

Last night Rich O's for some reason was severly short on female presence. LaptopGirl was nowhere to be found, and MisunderstoodGirl only made a brief appearance. I spent the time talking with one of the regulars about his homebrewing and his plans for some bourbon char we'd picked up at my work earlier in the day.

At one point the guy went out to his truck and came back with some homebrewing sample bottles and several of us got to try his latest brews.

I don't remember much about what happened after that - except that I didn't like the cider, and all of the samples were very strong on alcohol content.

I woke up this morning pretty dehydrated as is usual when I drink stronger brews.

Last night they had this IQ test show on TV. I Tivoed it and took the test this morning.

I don't consider myself particularly smart - the smart people are the ones who fly through tests like this - I'm usually more likely to label others as stupid than to call myself intelligent.

The test was a struggle for me for two reasons. One was the time limit they gave for each question. I know I could have answered that memory question correctly if only they'd given me another hour or two to memorize that stupid yearbook information. The second excuse I'll use is that I'm a bit hungover from last night's experiments.

Tonight, when I answered the door for the pizza guy, the neighbor's dog ran up to my door, picked up a bowl full of water, swung it around, and got the pizza guy right in the face.

It was really quite funny, and I doubled the guy's tip.