Friday, December 31, 2010

The mysterious empty box

So if you saw my previous post of Twitter parties, you may have been skeptical about whether or not I am actually getting the prizes. I can tell you that in the last two months since I started going to Twitter parties, I have recieved exercise pants, several toys, coupons for food and diapers (a whole box of diapers for free, woo!) , and gift cards. The largest value thing I won was a $100 gift card!

I do have to mention, though, that I had my first bummer experience. I won a toy. It looked cool, and I was curious about how it worked. They sent me a message saying I'd get my prize in mid-December (I think I won it at the end of November). I went to work on Christmas Eve, and when I returned home, my husband told me that FedEx had dropped off a package for me. From his description of the box size, I figured it was the toy I had won. But when I got home, all I found was an empty box!

To call it a box was being nice. It was actually a giant piece of cardboard, folded in half, and the three open sides were taped shut with packing tape. I'm assuming it's difficult to find a box in the size they needed, but I figured it was possible. Maybe not! Anyhow, I looked at the return address and decided that the toy had indeed been in the "box" at one point. I was a little bummed out, but mostly amused at how both the delivery guy and my husband could have the box without realizing that it was just cardboard and nothing else.

My husband called FedEx and they were really nice, said they'd get a claim started and that someone would call early the next week. They called the following Monday morning (impressive!) but we were sleeping so they left a message saying they just needed to know a little more information about the problem. So my husband called them back, told them that no one had noticed that it was just a tapey slab of cardboard until I got home and looked at it. At that point, they basically said that due to the way it was packaged, they were denying the claim and to talk to the people who sent the package.

I got on Twitter, contacted the people, and they got back to me fairly quickly (nice!) and they asked me to send them a message about what the problem was. I told them we had called FedEx first and what they said, and that all I got was an empty box. They basically told me that they sent the prize, that it wasn't their fault that it wasn't in the box, and that they had no replacement for it because they already gave out too many prizes already.

Basically, I am now the proud owner of a big piece of cardboard. I just hope that whoever got the toy is happy! I'm not mad, not even disappointed really, just boggled about why it's no one's fault. One of my friends did point out, however, that it's my fault for accepting an empty box. So there you have it. It's my husband's fault. :) But like I said, I'm not mad, it was just a prize, not anything I paid for, and nothing I am entitled to.

So there you have it. My sad box story. But I promise, I do get the vast majority of the prizes that I win! Don't let this scare you from attending Twitter parties and entering Twitter contests!
-duckyone.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

This is cool!

I don't really have anything funny or exciting to post. I just thought this was a cool video- beer being filled up through the bottom of cups! People say there's a magnet thingy in the bottom to make it work. I don't care how it works. I just think it's cool.



I don't even drink beer and that's making me thirsty! I wish they had those when I worked in restaurants, it would have made my work day slightly more entertaining. What do you think of this machine?

I hope you all had wonderful holidays. I had a nice, relaxing Christmas, and a not-so-relaxing day after Christmas taking back 100s of returns at work. (I'm not exaggerating either, I easily took back over 200 returns on my own during my shift, and there were several other people working the returns counter too. We easily took back over 1000 returns that day, and that's a lot considering I live in a relatively tiny town.) Tell me how your holidays went!

-duckyone.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Reality tv week of 12/12

Last week was the final week of The Amazing Race and Hell's Kitchen. But both were so predictable and noneventful that it took me this long to get around to talking about it! Sorry!

*The Amazing Race: The final 3 teams raced back to California, where put together part of a parade float and had issues finding cabbies to take them to their final locations. Of course, this is the one episode that ended up all glitchy on my DVR, but it was so boring that it didn't really matter. Nat and Kat, the doctors, were the winners. Woo. Hoo. The host announced that popular teams that didn't win would be back for next season to try again. They showed clips of a lot of this season's teams, which is pretty midleading because most of them won't be on the next season. The final cast for the next season hasn't been officially announced. However, even though Team Jumba was shown on the teaser, I am pretty sure they didn't compete in the new season. Bummer! That would have been really cool.

*Hell's Kitchen: Russell and Nona were the two finalists. Typical final individual challenge was the two cooks making 5 dishes in an hour and having professional chefs judge them. It was a close challenge but Russell ended up winning that. Then, old castoffs came back to make up the chef teams for the two finalists to make it through their final dinner services. Nona had issues when Boris made something wrong like 3 or 4 times- she told him to cook something for 5 minutes, and even after that he kept cooking it for 4! Russell had problems trying to get Vinny to do much. Vinny wasn't actively trying to derail him, but he wasn't trying too hard to help Russell win either since he felt that Russell was the cause of him going home before the final 6. In the end, Nona won the season and the chance to work at an awesome fancy restaurant, and Russell vowed that none of the other chefs that season would ever work in the same city as him because he'd say bad stuff about them till they turned tail and ran away. Stay classy, Russell.

So anyway, now I have no reality tv to watch, so I guess I won't be doing these for a while. ucky you guys!
-duckyone.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

I don't want your stupid vacuum!

So I was watching tv and getting ready to change Curly Girly's diaper tonight at 8PM, and my doorbell rang. Who would possibly want to see us at 8 at night? I peek the door open, and I see a guy standing at the door holding a box of baking soda. That's all the tipoff I need to know it's a Kirby salesman, from the Kirby dealership a few streets over. How do I know? They have the same predictable shpiel every time they knock on the door.

1. They offer you a free product. Today apparently it was baking soda, but in the 3 years I have lived here they've been here no fewer than 5 times and have also offered paper towels and tissues.

2. They offer to clean your floor for free.

3. Once in your door they take forever to show off their vacuum, they say that their vacuum gets up way more dirt than any other by taking a white circle and vacuuming against it so the carpet dirt goes onto the pad for you to see it more easily. My husband made the mistake of letting them in once and they also vacuumed part of my mattress apparently. GROSS! At least they put a clean white circle down, I guess.

4. They try to sell you a ridiculously overpriced vacuum. (I've read about people being charged up to $3000 for these stupid things.) Once you say no, they pretend to call their boss to get the price knocked down. I've heard the price being knocked down to as low as $600, which is still way more than I ever want to pay for a vacuum.

So here's what happened tonight.

*ding dong*
Me: *opens door* *Curly Girly has taken off her diaper and is running around naked and shrieking*
Kirby dude: Hi, I'm here from *insert random initials of some company here* and I'm here to do a survey on cleaning products.
M: You're here to sell vacuums, and I'm not interested. Sorry.
KD: How did you know? Has someone been here before?
M: Yes, several times.
KD: Ok, bye.

So I shut the door, grab a diaper and wipes, and manage to wrangle my daughter and am attempting to put on her diaper when I hear a knock at the door. Freshly diapered kiddo runs around some more and I answer door. There's a different guy, with the baking soda at his side like he is hiding it.

Me: Still selling vacuums, huh?
Kirby dude 2: *fake innocent face* What? Was someone here before?
Me: Yeah, like 30 seconds ago. Oh, and don't bother knocking on the one next door, my neighbor just moved out. (*That was true, neighbor moved out.*)
KD2: *runs off*

How dumb do they think I am? It may have been dark out, but my curtains are open because my Christmas tree is in the window, and I could see their car, lights all on, pulled up in front of my building. Do they think that since I wasn't fooled the first time that I might get a case of the stupids in a mere minute and be gullible when the second guy bangs on my door? And who thinks it's a good idea to try and clean a carpet and sell me stuff at 8PM? If anything, it's not easy to see dirt in your carpet at night, so their demonstration wouldn't be as effective. Anyway, it's just plain rude. Lots of people are eating dinner, having family time, or putting children to bed at 8PM. I've looked it up online and I am not the only one that this has happened to. Not even close. There are hundreds of stories of Kirby visiting at all sorts of weird hours, not telling why they are there at first, or claiming to be taking a survey when they aren't, and being charged way too much for a vacuum. Inside Edition even did a story on it a few years back.



I'm thinking of getting a No Soliciting sign for my door. Not that they'd pay attention to it. There was one on our last apartment's door and people would just come on in and bang on doors anyway.

And just so you don't think this is a Kirby hating post, it isn't, even though I am annoyed at them right now. There are also these college aged kids trying to sell magazines, saying they need a certain number of points to get to go on a vacation to Hawaii or somewhere equally nice. Usually I see their nametags or magazine brochure and I'm like, "I know you're selling magazines, I don't have money, sorry. Bye!" and close the door. The last guy actually said to me, "Don't you want to help me go to Hawaii?" Well, sir, no, no I don't. Why should I be pressured into buying a magazine I don't really want so you, who can apparently afford to go to college when I can barely pay my bills, can go on a fancy vacation. In fact, that $20 I spend on a magazine I don't want makes me $20 shorter for any vacation I may want to take some day. Or, more realistically, $20 short on gas money or my electric bill.

I live in a small "city" where most of the town doesn't have much. It's a nice place, but a lot of people are barely scraping by and a lot get government help. Kirby picked a dumb town to try to sell $3000 vacuums.

Sorry, but I just had to vent about this. I just get so annoyed when these people come to my door over and over and don't take no for an answer. I am especially annoyed that they tried to trick me. They didn't even do a good job at that. Lame.
-duckyone.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Just wondering...

Why on earth is Jeopardy! filmed in HD? Is it more entertaining if we can actually see the contestants' drippy nervous sweat? Honestly, I don't see the fascination of HD- as long as I know what's happening on the TV, I'm good. I don't want to feel like I'm right there in the show. Anyone else?
-duckyone.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Reality tv week of 12/5

There's only 2 shows I watch right now, and they both end next week! I tried to watch Skating With The Stars, but I just couldn't get into it. (I do hope that Brandon Mychal Smith wins though, I did see that he was sick this week and the judges rated a video of his rehearsal and were pretty harsh!) Anyway, here goes!

*The Amazing Race: The teams went from China to South Korea this week. First they had to drive up to the border near North Korea, which is sort of scary but I guess not too bad if they were able to film a reality show there. Then, they had to go into the demilitarized zone and go rafting down a river. From there, they took military vehicles to a US military installation (Camp Casey, I think it was called), where they had to match some symbols to a soldier's headband, and then the matching soldier kicked through a board revealing their clue. After that they had two choices- speed skating (or should I say "speed" skating) or deliver big ginseng roots. Then they had to go to a park to find an airplane statue, and from there was a temple that was the pit stop.

Nick and Vicki were behind because of the 6 hour penalty they took last leg, and at first it looked like the playing field would be evened because there was only one flight that day to South Korea and the other teams had to wait for it. Alas, Nick and Vicki were mere minutes late for the flight, and had to wait 9 hours for the next one! They also had an extra penalty challenge for being last on a non-elimination leg, which involved washing a ginormous tank. They realized once they missed that first flight that they were done for, and they weren't even shown throughout the majority of the episode. They were shown at a montage at the end and they looked like they had a lot of fun, because they knew they couldn't catch up and just enjoyed themselves. Brook and Claire got to the pit stop first, but had a penalty because they took a taxi during a point where they could only walk or take public transportation (did they learn nothing from Team Jumba?), and that cost them first place and the vacation prize that came along with it. Jill and Thomas (the only man standing) got first place, followed by Brook and Claire, and Nat and Kat.

I've heard that next week's episode takes them back to the US to sunny California! And the previews said that there will be an announcement regarding next season. I wonder what it could be? And who do you think will win this season? It's hard for me to tell at this point!

*Hell's Kitchen- The final 4 were spared last week, but this week the field was cut to 2! The challenge this week was to pick two flags and make a dish combining those two country's food styles. Trev got Mexico and China, and despite all the hot peppers he put in there, his dish was called bland. Russell's dish was slammed as well (France and India, and he clearly focused on French). Nona, who got Greece and Italy, was also met with disappointment. Jillian, who didn't have enough time to cook her beans for her Spanish/Thai dish and had to make rice instead, was panicking about her dish but ended up winning the challenge! The reward was dinner with Chef Ramsay and her family!The losers had to move furniture out of their apartment and then prep for that night's dinner service.

The dinner service moved fairly smoothly, and each contestant had their turn running the pass (aka being a little Chef Ramsay), and the show's sous chefs were sabotaging them by making stuff wrong on purpose to see if they were paying attention. Nona did well at calling out orders but didn't realize a wrong side had come up. Russell had trouble calling orders but watched the food like a hawk and mistakes didn't get past him. Trev was being ignored by his fellow contestants but noticed the incorrect food. Jillian was hollering her orders like Chef Ramsay would, swearing and all, but she missed a mistake on a main dish. After the service, Chef told them to discuss who should stay and who should go, but that didn't matter, since he had pretty much made up his mind. As soon as the final 4 came out, Chef sent Trev home. After that, he gave the other 3 the chance to say why they should stay. Russell was announced as the first finalist, Nona the second. I was shocked! I thought for sure that Jillian would have made it through. At this point, I hope Nona beats Russell because Russell is so arrogant!


One more week of updates and then I have no shows to watch! What will I blab on about next?
-duckyone.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Reality TV week of 11/28

Another finale this week, and one less show for me to talk about! Here we go!

*The Amazing Race- the 4 final teams went to China this week! Hong Kong to be more specific. They raced out of the busy city to a cave, and right back into the city to Majesty Chinese Restaurant to a challenge that looked fun but ended up not being so much so! The restaurant was filled with tons of happy people eating and singing karaoke. However, this detour involved one team member finding a piece of fake food among a giant buffet table full of yummy looking dishes. It would have been easy if they could merely poke around for it, but no! If they poked a food, they had to eat it. This led to members on two teams (Brook and Claire, Nick and Vicki) eating so much that they had to run to the bathroom to be sick. Honestly, that is probably one of the grosser challenges I've seen. They didn't show the grossness, but they really could have not played the barf sounds for us to hear.

From there, teams raced to a statue of Bruce Lee (cool!) where they had two choices. They could take parakeets and deliver them to a boat whose number matched the cage's tag, or they could ride a bus through the city and look for 3 signs that stood out (they were in English, and one of them said "Pit Stop" right on it) to find out where this leg's pit stop on it. Nat and Kat (the doctors) were first, winning themselves a vacation. Nick and Vicki finished in last due to Nick being overtired and competely shutting down. I know shows have creative editing, but Nick was really being a jerk here. Vicki had just eaten until she puked and then got on a boat, and was just as tired, but couldn't do the bird challenge herself. Nick decided to give up and nap on the boat. The team took a 6 hour penalty to skip the challenge and finish the leg. Luckily for them, this was a non-elimination leg, but they have to take the 6 hour penalty and an extra challenge next leg. It doesn't look promising for them.

*Hell's Kitchen: This was a really non-dramatic episode! The final 4 had to cook a dish in 1/2 hour, and Chef Ramsay tried them and told them exactly what was in each one just by taste- it was amazing! From there, the real challenge began- Chef had made a dish for them to try and them gave them half an hour to recreate it! Trev forgot to put his carrot puree on the dish, which was a bummer since he got it right and the others all used yam. Russell and Nona both got the main meat, veal, correct. Nona got the closest to the original dish and won a day of pampering. She chose to take Russell instead of her "buddy" Jillian, for strategic reasons. Jillian was upset and discouraged, which Chef Ramsay noticed. He took her to his office before the dinner service for a pep talk.

The pep talk must have worked because Jillian pretty much had a perfect service! Nona messed up the risotto twice but that was easy enough to fix. Russell hit a snag on the fish station when he sent up a dish of raw fish once or twice. Trev was doing excellently on the meat station, but he was overwhelmed and would forget how to cut the meat or what to send up, causing Chef Ramsay to send him to the dining room to cool off for a minute, and he plated the meat himself, which was not something he'd normally do. They finished the dinner service easily, and Chef congratulated them but sent them to pick the bottom two. Russell and Trev were sent up and each pleaded their case. Chef Ramsay surprised them all by sending no one home, AND letting them visit with their family members for a little while! Expect two chefs to be sent home next week and lots of drama judging by the previews!

*America's Next Top Model- This week was the finale! The final 2, Chelsey and Ann, went to a photo shoot for Vogue Italia at the beginning of the episode. They were supposed to be natural but still model-y, and both girls did an excellent job. Next it was off to film their Cover Girl commercial, which luckily for them involved filming the acting first and recording the voices later, with no pesky memorizing needed! After the commercial, the girls were surprised with having some family members visit them. Chelsey's parents came, and Ann's parents and little brother came. All the parents were amazed at how beautiful their daughters were and how well they were doing. And the girls got another surprise when they were told their families would be front row at the final fashion show!

The final fashion show was a fairly straighforward thing, not like some of the stranger ones (remember the screaming brides one?) of seasons past. It was the typical chaos backstage, with poised models coming out to walk anyway. Previous contestants Jane, Kayla, Chris, and Liz were back to walk in the show, as was last cycle's winner, Krista. After the show was the final judging, where they showed the commercial and Cover Girl photos, as well as video from the fashion show. Both girls were criticized quite a bit on their walks, their commercial, and their photos, to the point where I wasn't sure what was going to happen! After the girls went to await their fate, the judges got pretty loud trying to decide who would win. Chelsey had the most obvious model aspirations, the most knowledge of the industry, and the most engaging personality. Ann had 6 top photos this season, which is a record, and despite being 6'2", had a body that fit the clothes really well. Chelsey's photos weren't as strong, and Ann was really shy and not the best at walking the runways. So who won? The judges picked Ann and her awkward beauty to be America's Next Top Model! Finally, someone that I wanted to win actually won! The girls that I have wanted to win in the past 3 seasons all came in 2nd place, so I am glad to see my favorite win this time!

Well, that's all for this week, and the list of shows I watch will be down to 2 next week! And I think both of those will be over in two weeks. What will I watch then? Yipes!
-duckyone.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Twitter Parties- don't miss out!

 I have recently found out about Twitter parties, and since they are a lot of fun and beneficial, I thought I would share the info with you! I have won prizes going to these parties, and I am all about using Twitter to my advantage! Plus, what's better than a "party" you can go to without leaving home! I can participate in these parties while still spending quality time with my daughter. Nothing wrong with learning things and winning stuff in between singing Twinkle Twinkle and changing diapers! This is just a brief overview so if you have questions, feel free to ask and I will try to elaborate! I am still a Twitter party newbie but I have learned a lot.


 What exactly is a Twitter party? It's a scheduled time where a host on Twitter moderates a "party" for an hour or two, and attendees chat, and possibly answer questions or trivia. The party host announces a hashtag (the # sign followed by a word) so that you can follow the party.

Why on earth would I sit there chatting on Twitter for an hour for no reason? Most of these Twitter parties are sponsored. Do you know what that means? PRIZES! The prizes can be little things like coupons, and range all the way up to bigger things like cash, gift cards, and even computers! And of course, you learn a lot of information about the sponsor, so if you were interested in the company sponsoring, you really learn a lot!

Is it really worth it to go to a Twitter party for a small chance at a prize?
I think it is. Some days, especially now that it is a the holiday season, there are so many Twitter parties that I have to pick and choose, and still end up trying to go to two in the same hour! It gets hectic but I do learn a lot, get to chat with people like me, and if I win something, then that's just a bonus! But since I know you are wondering, yes, I have won several (!) prizes just by going to these parties. I started in October and won 3 prizes, and I've won 6 in November. And in case you were wondering, the biggest thing I won was $100! I've also won clothes, a book, toys, gift cards, and coupons. And the odds of winning at one of these parties can be pretty good depending on the number of prizes and the number of attendees. I've been to parties where there are 40 prizes and 60 attendees- not bad odds at all when you think about it!

Do you really receive the prizes that you win?
As long as the sponsor does what they promise, then you really do get your prize. I've received all 3 that I won in October, and 1 out of the 6 so far that I won in November. But the first one I won was on 11/17, and it takes time to mail prizes out, so I am not too worried about getting all of the other ones! I have heard stories of sponsors not fulfilling prizes, but those stories are few and far between, and I haven't had any experiences like that yet.

Sounds cool! How do I get in on this?
I first heard about them from someone that I followed on Twitter who went to a lot of them. But I will tell you now, start by following @TweeParties. They list parties going on almost every day, and they have an e-mail newsletter that you can sign up for. The tweets @TweeParties sends out have a link to the party information. For most parties, you do RSVP, which usually involves commenting on a blog entry or filling out a short form with your twitter name and email address. Some other good names to follow (people who host a lot of these parties) are @ResourcefulMom, @DadsTalking, and @BarefootMomma, although there are others. Sometimes a company will hold a party on their own- @Chuggington holds a party with Chuggington prizes every Thursday.

Any tips?
1. Follow the rules. Go to the links that the party hosts provide and read the rules. Sometimes you have to RSVP. Sometimes there is a site to look at or video to watch ahead of time. Some have trivia, some are merely chats with questions about your opinions. Sometimes winners are random based on RSVPs or questions answered, while some are first correct answer. Make sure you are following the host of the party so you can see what's going on!

2. Make it easier to see. Go to a site like Tweetdeck.com or Tweetgrid.com. These sites allow you to enter in the hashtag of the party so you can easily see the tweets of the host and all of the other attendees. I usually attend parties from my iPod and so it's harder for me to see what's going on, but it's not impossible.

3. Go to the ones that interest you. Some days will have so many parties that you can't possibly go to them all, and do you really want to learn about something you don't care about or win a prize that is of no use to you? I have been known to go to 6 Twitter parties on a busy night (2 an hour for 3 hours!) but they were interesting stuff, and there were other parties that night that I didn't go to. It would have been too confusing, and some of the parties are of no interest to me. Sponsors don't really like it if the attendees don't care what's going on.

4.Be polite. Do I really need to say this? People should know this already! But I have seen a little bit of rude-itude going on- people insulting the hosts or making irrelevant comments and the like. My blog followers are nicer and smarter than that though, aren't you?

5.Ask questions. Hosts are usually very nice and easy to talk to, and will answer your questions. And if they party is going so fast that they don't see your question, usually another attendee will see it and help you out. I've seen people ask about if they need to RSVP or how winners are chosen at nearly every party I go to. Nothing wrong with asking!

Ok, it's an obscene hour of the morning when I should be sleeping, so this is just a quick beginner's guide. If you have any questions, ask away! :) Good luck, I hope you learn lots and win lots!
-duckyone.

Reality week on 11/21 (better late than never, right?)

I am really behind on this, so goodness knows I'm fuzzy on some of the details of the shows. Alas, I am going to try and do this anyway. :) Here goes!

*The Amazing Race: This week, the 5 remaining teams ended up in Bangladesh, where they had to squeeze out a glass of sugar cane juice, and then drink it. Good thing some of them seemed to be used to some heavy drinking, because a lot of them had chugging mastered. Then they have a choice of detour- deliver 30 cans of lunches by boat to some workers, or deliver 100 unbroken bricks to a location by carrying them in bowls on their head. There is a surprise waiting for them at the end of this detour- a "Double U-Turn," where two teams can each pick another team to have to go back to the detour choice and pick again- basically, they end up doing both detours. Bummer!

Jill and Thomas were first to the Double U-Turn, picking Brook and Claire, the tv shopping hosts, to go back, saying that they were the fiercest competitors. (And if one of them can survive getting beaned in the head by a caterpulted watermelon at the beginning of the season, you know that's right!) Nick and Vicki ended up not picking anyone to go back, which was a brave move! Nat and Kat (the doctors) send Chad and Stephanie back to complete the Double U-Turn, because they were the only team behind them.

From the detours, teams had to "assemble a rickshaw." It's sort of silly, since they don't really have to assemble most of it, they just have to add the seat, bell, bicycle chain, etc. But it's enough to slow teams down and confuse them, since most of them don't know what they are doing. After that was the pit stop for this leg. Jill and Thomas finished first, winning themselves $15,000- not bad! Nick and Vicki came in 2nd, followed by Nat and Kat, Brook and Claire, and finally Chad and Stephanie, who were literally last by maybe a minute or two. Chad and Stephanie were eliminated, meaning we don't have to head Chad yelling at Stephanie and being a jerk. I'm hoping this rudeness was mostly a case of bad guy editing, since I've heard that since the show wrapped, Stephanie got pregnant and so the newly engaged couple got married early than their intended March wedding. I hope they are happy!

*Dancing With the Stars: The finale was sort of disappointing to me. None of the three remaining contestants (Kyle Massey, Jennifer Grey, Bristol Palin) stood out as truly excellent, although judges' favorite Jennifer scored a ridiculous amount of perfect 30s for her dances. I am glad that Bristol lasted until the finale because I really did see her improve a lot this season! Jennifer hurt something in her back that should have caused her to not dance, but she just took some painkillers and kept going. You could tell she was a wee bit loopy on the Tuesday episode. On Tuesday, most of the previously eliminated contestants were back, except for Michael Bolton (who was "too busy touring" to show up but I think still hates the show after Bruno told him he was the worst dancer ever on the show) and Audrina Patridge (who was sick with the flu, bummer). Their dances were more fun to watch than the finalists' final dances. Christina Aguilera was the guest singer on Tuesday, and she has a crazy good voice- her performance was pretty good but not particularly incredible.

Anyone out there would not be surprised to learn that judges' pet Jennifer Grey took home the trophy, Kyle Massey was 2nd, and Bristol Palin was 3rd. So much for the supposed Palin conspiracy to vote like crazy to make her win! I don't think she's too upset about it, it's being reported that she earned over $300,000 just for being on the show! I was disappointed that Kyle didn't win, but my favorites don't normally do too well.

*Hell's Kitchen: The final 5 had to get into kitchen trucks and serve a whole crowd of people. Gail won the challenge serving up a steak with mangoes. Russell decided to think outside of the box and serve octopus, a move that backfired and caused him to do the worst in the challenge. Gail's win reward was a makeover, the others had a lot of cleaning and prep to do. Service this week was terrible- the remaining 5 just couldn't get it together, and Chef Ramsay was so mad that he had to leave the kitchen and go for a walk to cool off, leaving the chefs stressed and bewildered. When he returned, he said that anyone who didn't make something right would be kicked out of the kitchen, causing Gail to get sent out for messing up fish and Jillian to get sent out for sending up undercooked eggs. Nona, Trev, and Russell completed service. The bottom 2 as selected by the chefs were Trev and Gail, and Chef Ramsay also mentioned Jillian's poor service. In the end, Gail was sent home. I had her pegged to go all the way, but lately it seemed like the stress was getting to her, and she did bad on fish station 3 weeks in a row.

*America's Next Top Model: This week was a "behind the scenes" episode, so we have to wait until the next one to find out if Ann or Chelsey will win. We saw a naked man get arrested on Venice Beach, Ann serving up deep fried Oreos to her housemates, and Chris have a crazy alter ego which made the girls laugh but scared the male models they invited over for dinner one week. The behind the scenes episodes are usually pretty funny, but I want to know who wins already! Who do you think it will be?

DWTS is ended, ANTM ends tomorrow, and Hell's Kitchen and The Amazing Race will be over soon...what will I watch now? What will I blog about? I have no idea!
-duckyone.