Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

FOX Broadcasting, 2008

On the results show last night for American Idol, the bottom three came out as I'd predicted, with Ramiele Malubay, Kristy Lee Cook and Brooke White taking stools on the side.

Ramiele and Brooke seemed pretty shaken up, especially as it was Brooke's first time. But Kristy Lee took it in stride. After all, she's been there many times in the past. Not just in the bottom three, but in the bottom two. This time, she even brought up a sign to put on her stool that said "Kristy's Seat."

Her fans managed to save her once again, so Ramiele Malubay was eliminated. No doubt, her uneven performance of "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind?" the night before had sealed her fate.

Ramiele had a lot of trouble composing herself, crying through her farewell montage of scenes of her on the show. But host Ryan Seacrest gave her a pep talk, telling her that she should be really proud at how she's done and celebrate her experience on the show. At that point, all the audience members stood up and gave her a standing ovation.

The other female semifinalists had already joined her on the stage as moral support for her final performance. She actually pulled it together and did, I felt, a better version of the song than the previous night. If she had thrown caution to the wind and performed with the sort of emotion she did last night, it might have been a different story.

More importantly, if she had ever truly believed in herself, she would have been a force to reckon with. Long after the other finalists had worked out their fears about performing on the big stage, she still seemed hesitant, reluctant to trust that she really had the stuff. Last night she proved it, and hopefully, she now knows it.

More on American Idol:

Musings on American Idol Season 7

On Sunday this past weekend, we had a fairly quiet day. I did some work in the morning and then took Una f0r a walk. For dinner, The Gryphon and I wanted to try something different, so we drove to the Silk City Diner (caution: link has music) on Spring Garden.

We had first heard about the diner when we saw a short film at the Philadelphia Film Festival, a documentary about the diner closing. Then we found out a few months later that it had reopened under new owners. Guy Fieri from the Food Network featured the reopened restaurant on his show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.

What appealed to us about this diner was that, under the new owner, Mark Bee, the restaurant is offering an eclectic American menu, with creative dishes and attention to details like plating.

We started by splitting an appetizer of fried green tomatoes, since neither of us had tried it before (another one I can now cross off that list of 200 things which I posted a while ago). The Gryphon also had the duck soup. The fried green tomatoes were delicious: crunchy on the outside, complementing a crisp inside with a tangy, citrus taste, topped with a spicy sauce.

For my main course, I had the Pan Seared Crispy Salmon with Goat Cheese and Pesto Risotto and Roasted Tomato and Zucchini Ragu. The Gryphon ordered the Honey and Ancho Chili Glazed Ribs Sweet Potato Mash, Corn Bread, Cole Slaw. I found the salmon to be succulent, with the tomatoes and zucchini playing nicely against it and giving it a Mediterranean feel. The risotto was a nice blend of savory and fresh, thanks to the pesto.

Lately, I've been slowing down my eating and enjoying each bite more. It's advice I got from watching Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin on TLC. The advice is good for many reasons: it teaches you to really enjoy the food you're eating, and because you're eating slower you are better able to judge when you're full.

The Gryphon said his ribs were good but could have been a little crispier.

For dessert, we shared the chocolate bread pudding, which looked like two brownies stacked on top of each other with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. But The Gryphon told me that was the perfect consistency for bread pudding. Once you got a fork-full, it melted in your mouth.

On Monday, I had to take Luke to the vet. When I'd gone on Friday to pick up some prescription food, I'd told them he'd been experiencing diarrhea, and they recommended I bring him in.

So bright and early Monday, I had to chase him around the house to get him into his carrier, and I petted him with one hand through the grill on our way there. When it was finally time for us to enter, they weighed him and clipped his claws, and we waited for the vet.

She asked me questions about how he'd been doing, how he'd been eating, if he'd been throwing up, if there was a chance he might have gotten into something and eaten it. I told her that he'd had an allergic breakout about three weeks ago, and I'd administered the prescription medicine used to reduce the swelling.

During the examination, she noted he had some hardness in his abdomen, and she wanted to do an X-ray. They took him away again, and then while they were developing it, he sat on my lap in the exam room, nuzzling into my arm and trying to hide.

When she returned with the film, the vet took Luke off my hands and we all went to look at it together. She pointed out that the small intestines were darker than they should be, which would indicate additional gas. Basically, he was suffering from gastrointestinal distress, probably a side effect of whatever had given him the allergic reaction.

She also noted something that's unusual for a young cat. He has hip displasia, meaning that his back hip joints don't have much of a cup to sit in. She said it's nothing to be concerned about, but that we should make sure to keep him at a healthy weight, because obese cats tend to have more troubles with such conditions.

Finally, she gave him an injection to provide some immediate relief and prescribed a probiotic, which will reintroduce live active cultures into his digestive system, similar to humans eating Activia yogurt. The medicine comes in packets of powder, which get sprinkled on his food. I was a little concerned about whether he'd eat it, but he seems to like the taste of it.

By the end of Monday, he was seeming more like himself, in a better mood and less irritable. I noticed he spent a lot of time cleaning himself and seemed a lot better groomed than he had in weeks. He happily ate all his food and then came to me, purring and wanting to be petted.

This just goes to show that even if you notice a small change in your pet's normal routine, it's worth speaking to your vet.

Copyright 2008 by Alyce Wilson

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