Doing my civic duty. Possibly for the wrong reasons.

Arizona has an early ballot system where you can vote by mail and not have to go to the polling place on election day. As the stay-at-home mom of a two-year old, this appeals to me greatly.

When we were out walking the dogs the other day I said to Eric "I like the convenience, but I wish I could still get my little sticker for voting." And yes, I was pretty serious.

So imagine my thrill when the balloting material came. They have my number.

Lee wins, I lose

Bummer. By the closest margin yet (25 to 26) I lost this year's American Idol Home Game. One lousy point. I put Aaron way too high - counting on the tweeners to text him through -- and Crystal a little bit too low. I figured she would go home about 4th or 5th since that's when talent usually goes home on this show.

Poop.

The worst part is, I lost the series 3-2.

American Idol, The Home Game

Life is too short to spend your leisure time doing something boring. So why are Eric and I watching American Idol this year, even though it's the most booooooring seaaaaaason eeeeeveeeeer? Because a few seasons back we spiced it up by creating The Game.

We started betting on American Idol. Loser buys Winner dinner out of their allowance money and - of course  - Winner gets bragging rights all year.

The Rules
1. Starting with the top 12 each player predicts the order the Idols will be booted.

2. After the results each week a player receives a number of points equal to the difference between their prediction and the actual week # of the booted Idol. Example: If player predicts Pitchy Nopipes will go home week 5 and Pitchy actually goes home week 7 player receives 2 points.  Similarly, if Pitchy makes it to week 4 player receives 1 point.

For math geeks that looks like this:

3. Low score wins.

4. BONUS:  Each week after the performance show players select the Idol they think will be going home based on that night's performance. In the case of an accurate guess the opposing player receives a point. Doubling down on an initial pick is permitted. This also presents a strategic opportunity for a player to hedge a bad initial pick. This rule was introduced to keep things interesting when it becomes apparent that one player's victory is mathematically assured very early in the season. Also known as the Katherine-McPhee-is-a-talentless-hack-who-ruined-my day rule.

The Results

We started this four seasons ago and it's Very Serious Business in the auntninn household. The score stands at 2-2. We've decided this year is the last year to watch because it's so boring and because Simon's leaving will render future seasons even MORE boring. So this one is for all the marbles. 

We missed half of the 12 Idol week due to a DVR malfunction. We did our picks this week. Picks are listed from winner down, i.e. first position = first place, and they are as follows:

Lynn's Picks

1.  Aaron

2. Lee

3. Michael

4. Sibohan

5. Crystal ( < ---- Note, I think she has the most talent and therefore no chance of winning)

6. Casey

7. Katie

8. Didi

9. Andrew

10. Tim

11. Paige

Eric's Picks

1. Siobhan 

2. Crystal

3. Michael

4. Lee

5. Aaron

6. Casey

7. Katie

8. Didi

9. Tim

10. Andrew

11. Paige

Because this year's Idols are so bad and picking our order was more difficult than usual we decided to introduce a random pick and see how that did against us. We'll randomly generate a bonus pick each week.

Randomly Generated Pick

1. Aaron

2. Mike

3. Crystal

4. Didi

5. Tim

6. Casey

7. Lee

8. Paige

9. Sibohan

10. Andrew

11. Katie

Game on!