Five Days Till Tax Day

I got my taxes done, so I guess I should mail the checks in pretty soon.

They're doing Latin music night on American Idol (alas, no Gregorian chants) and everybody stinks so far, in my humble opinion. Of course, Haley hasn't come out and jiggled her jigglies yet.

What's been going on? Let's see:

Florida won the NCAA tournament for the second straight year. At the moment, they are the two-time champs in basketball and the current champ in college football. As the Crocodile Gang boss said in Kung Fu Hustle, "Is there no justice? Is there no law?"

Ah, here comes Haley. Very short shorts. Can't sing worth a darn, poor thing. Can't understand a word of what she's saying.

Nancy Pelosi went to Syria and supposedly did so in "defiance" of the White House. Like there's anything the President can do to stop her. Or that there are any repercussions for going to Syria besides looking like you're kowtowing to Assad. What can Bush do? Nuthin'. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Some people were upset that she brought along a scarf in order to use as a head cover in certain situations. "You're giving in to the Muslims!" I look at it this way: the US Ambassador to the Vatican used to be Lindy Boggs. It is customary for women to wear a veil or some sort of head covering when meeting the Pope. When Boggs did so, I didn't hear anyone screaming that the United States was capitulating to the Holy See. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention.

It sort of reminds me of when Stephen Colbert ripped Bush apart at the correspondents' dinner and people said what a courageous thing he did with the President right there. Again, what could happen to him? This isn't Russia, where the "President" will have you killed if you piss him off.

For whatever reason, the final eight on Idol this season seem really weak. The trend of the contestants getting better and better each year seems to have hit a bump. I hope they ditch Latin week in future seasons. I can't think of a single Latin song that would sound good on this show.

I went to Mass at St. Matthew's Cathedral in DC on Sunday. It was packed, so I was in a little side chapel where I couldn't really see anything. It's okay, I know what happens. I've seen it before.

Anyway, I was sitting in a temporary chair setup they'd put in for extra people. An older lady sat down on the steps next to the mini-altar thingy (technical term) in front a great sculpture in the chapel. A little bit later a girl sat down on the steps as well. When we all sat down, I asked the lady if she would like to sit down in a seat, so she switched with me. I had an extra song/liturgy pamphlet, so I gave it to the girl.

Sanjaya doesn't sound as terrible as usual, maybe because he's singing in Spanish. Maybe that's the secret. Oh, he just switched to English. Bad.

At the end of Mass, I was standing on the steps waiting for people to clear out. The girl stopped by me on her way out and thanked me for the pamphlet. "No problem." Then she sort of caught me off guard when she also thanked me for giving my seat to the older lady. "Well, it just didn't seem right" for me to be sitting when she wasn't. I was actually a little embarrassed, though I can't say why (though the fact that she was gorgeous might have something to do with it). She said it was a very nice thing to do and that not everyone would have done it. She thanked me again and wished me a Happy Easter. It made me feel about ten feet tall and made me think that maybe I'm not such a bad guy after all.

After Mass I met up with my cousin and we went to see Reign Over Me, which was funnier than I expected. I wouldn't have seen it without somebody to go with, but it's pretty good. Don Cheadle is good. Adam Sandler wasn't bad. It's got the incredibly attractive Saffron Burrows, who was Andromache in Troy. We wandered over to the Hirshhorn, around the Tidal Basin, and up to M Street for dinner at Daily Grill.

I'll save the elephant in the room for my next post.