Three things I've missed in the last 24 hours

1. Cal Ripken on David Letterman
2. Chris Daughtry on Craig Ferguson
3. My fleeting youth

I found a gray hair this morning. It’s my first. I should have just called in sick. Normally, I have blonde highlights in my hair, so if I did have a gray hair, you probably wouldn’t be able to see it. Well, my hair has been pretty dark as of late, so it stuck out like a sore thumb. I was blowdrying my hair like normal and the light hit it just right. I didn’t rip it out, as it might just be my eyes playing tricks on me.

How long do you think it’ll be before there are clips of Cal and Chris on YouTube? I’m pretty pissed I knew nothing about their television appearances. Way to go with the publicity! Not that it matters. I was out like a light by that time last night. As a matter of fact, my friend Amy texted me around 11:30 because Cal was hawking bats on QVC. Got that text this morning. Yep, I normally turn my phone off when I go to bed on school nights. Weekends, not all the time. Granted, I don’t have a land line so I should probably keep it on at all times in case there’s an emergency, but I haven’t gotten there yet. Anyway, I had gone to the gym last night and to make up for my Applebee’s mishap, I was on the elliptical for an hour, and the treadmill for 30 minutes. My legs feel like they’re going to fall off. I came home, made a quick dinner, packed my bag for tonight (dance class) and fell into bed. I forced myself to stay awake for Top Chef, which was only an OK episode (in my opinion).

The Quickfire Challenge was for the chefs to make a snack food, and they had three condiments to work with - Mayonnaise, Italian Dressing and BBQ Sauce. I was shocked at how many of the chefs were big fans of mayo! I can never remember what they make, but the mohawked guest judge chose Sam and Marcel as the winners. Oh yes, there were two winners. This is because the Challenge was to have two teams, each of whom is going to open a restaurant in less than 24 hours. Sam chooses Ilan and Mike; Marcel has Elia and Cliff. You can tell Cliff was none too pleased to get Marcel, but such is life. The boys name their Italian restaurant Lalalina (after their significant others - YEP, Ilan is straight.. I never was real sure until last week when he started bitch slapping Marcel with the virgin talk… gay men don’t do that) and the other group goes with MEC (their initials) for their upscale diner. Honestly, I was surprised they went with the diner concept, and that Marcel was so very open to it. I would think he’d want a foam showcase, but maybe he’s grown up. Cliff decides he wants to be up front, even though Elia has experience with it and expressed a great interest in doing it (HELLO FORESHADOWING) Anyway, the boys were nervous, as they’ve had Elia’s burgers and apparently they are to die for! The designers the groups were given didn’t really do too much, or at least waited until the last possible minute to do.. well.. anything! Elia got to see a side of Cliff she didn’t like when he continuously raised his voice at her. Not a good sign. Anyway, the customers came in and most chose Lalalina because “they can get a burger anywhere.” Um.. not THE BEST BURGER!!! Cliff kept the judges waiting way too long when they showed up at MEC and left a very bad impression on them with his “front of the house” skills. They thought the food was ok, but I think it could have been better had Cliff served it in a timely manner. The judges then head to Lalalina and are surprised to find the Italian restaurant doesn’t have a wine list. BIG no-no! Like.. Clay Aiken/Kelly Ripa no-no! Then, there is an olive pit on their table. Yeah.. the judges are insanely impressed at this point. Apparently Ilan wasn’t the best choice for front of the house either, as his skills didn’t impress the judges one bit. At the Judges’ Table, they can’t come to a conclusion over who won. It seems they’re all just trying to stay afloat and no one is really trying to win. So, the Judges bring each team in for a little pow-wow before they decide who will go home. Once they bring both teams in, Elia is sent out of the room first for taking a risk on the diner idea, and doing a lot of the work. Ilan and Marcel soon follow.. not necessarily because they did a good job, but mainly because they prepared the only dishes the judges found appetizing. So.. Sam, Cliff and Michael are on the chopping block. I’m pretty much thinking it’s between Cliff and Michael as Cliff was just horrible at everything he did, and Michael didn’t seem to do anything. His big flaw was not using up his entire budget at the supply store, although I don’t think you can blame him for that. I mean.. once the guys tell you they can’t afford wine, why would you buy wine glasses? Really, it seemed like Michael was getting in the way more than anything else, so it was his time to go home. I think he knew it was coming. I mean, the only real good dishes he made were when he was drugged up! But hey.. he made Top Chef history and he always had a smile on his face. Next week looks to be a STELLAR episode, as it looks like two people will be kicked off to bring us down to the final 3 in Hawaii. That is, unless they pull a Project Runway and use a decoy. It seems the rest of the group might do something a little mean to Marcel (shocker) and the episode looks to be a juicy one. I am already counting down the minutes!

Time to fake some work. Gossip and other such things will come along later this afternoon…

PS - Happy Birthday to my friend Craig... Love and miss you lots!!!