Assistant handyman reporting for duty

First order of duty -- painting. Check. Well, almost check. The living room is done -- thanks to some last minute touch-ups by Elizabeth's mom this afternoon. The dining room has the base coat in preparation for the glaze -- you know, what I have no idea how to explain, but hopefully Elizabeth and her mom can do after watching The Woolie© DVD. Now they just have to add the other two coats mixed with the faux glaze that we bought at Home Depot.

Second order of duty -- becoming Mr. Raymond's assistant handyman. Not so check. I mentioned yesterday that we picked up our refrigerator from Sears. What I didn't mention is the refrigerator we bought was a couple of inches too tall to fit underneath the cabinet in the kitchen. So Mr. Raymond and I (yeah, like I'm useful) are "fixing" the cabinet -- i.e. cutting off a couple of inches to make the refrigerator fit. Well, tonight's adventure saw us take off the cabinet doors and cut off the spare inches. Now we -- err, Mr. Raymond -- have to fix the doors and make sure everything fits back into place. Anyway, I actually felt like I was useful tonight. Mr. Raymond is pretty good about that -- even when I'm not helping a bit.

Luckily, after a late late night Tuesday night, we made pretty short work of it tonight. Elizabeth and her mom finished up the painting, while Mr. Raymond and I tackled the fridge/cabinet problem after we had some -- hahaha, I left all of y'all hanging here. We had pizza for supper. We tackled the problem after eating Little Caesar's.

SOUL PATROL

Congrats to Taylor Hicks for winning American Idol. Taylor was one of mine and Elizabeth's favorites from the very beginning of the competition -- and apparently he caught the nation's eye, as well. Despite Simon's initial reluctance to send the gray-haired, soulful, dance-crazy Alabaman to Hollywood, even the black-teed tough guy warmed up to Taylor.

During the competition, it became apparent that Chris Daughtry was the best man on Idol. I still believe he should have won. However, I never stopped rooting for Taylor. His personality was just infectious, which is why he won -- despite his lack of certain characteristics you would think an American Idol would possess.

In the end, I think Taylor will be successful. He may not sell 10 million albums. American pop radio may be disappointed in Taylor. But in his eyes, in his mind and his heart, Taylor Hicks will be a success. He's living the American dream, as he says. And he will always have the faithful Soul Patrol -- his group of followers that drove him to the AI victory.

In a fitting touch, Taylor's first single is "Do I Make You Proud?" -- a song that could be viewed as somewhat cheesy. I prefer to view it as very touching. Yes, Taylor, in the eyes of all your Soul Patrolers -- you do make them, make that us, proud.