I love the new BSB song, it's very 'them'.  So good to see them on TV too and that Kevin has come out of hibernation at last.  He seems more of a private person compared to Nick and AJ though, who like to post all the time on social media.  I have a feeling the boys will still be around in another 30 years as they clearly love what they do and love each other.  I agree, they have aged well especially Nick and Howie.

Glad to hear Kieran won the BAFTA.  And I hope you get to go and see the show, even if you have to pay for your sister too.  I can't believe it'll cost more than the cruise, that is a lot.  But if you want to go that much, then it's definitely worth it.  I'm trying to convince Tim we need to go and see BSB in Vegas, but it's not working yet lol.

Julie, I'm glad the man with the dogs moved house, that must've been so annoying.  I can't stand when people let their dogs crap on the pavement and people's gardens, it's disgusting

The Accessibility and transportation are the two main factors. This time money doesn't really play a part, although if I did go, I'd be spending a lot and it's always been hard for me to justify spending a huge sum of money on something other than essentials. I definitely need help. It's a trip I can't make alone and my sister, although willing to go with me is unwilling to pay, which means I'd have to pay for her and my way plus boarding the animals. It would be more than what I paid for a 10-day cruise. Anyway, there's a lot of issues, but I'm still tempted to buy two tickets and then think about it later. I have a feeling if he wins the Oscar, those ticket prices are going to go up. They already did from the last time I checked. We'll see. Would it mentally affect me more to have the tickets and STILL not be able to go? Or not get the tickets and then have them be really expensive? I guess these are okay problems to have. Better than what they used to be for me, which was should I buy groceries or medicine? lol

And yes, he did win the BAFTA. Sorry, I was posting a ton about him yesterday. He was supposed to go but didn't show up because his wife has a really bad case of Covid. So, there was a lot of going back and forth about where he was and why he suddenly was a no show. Plus, there's also been an increased number of hateful tweets about him solely because he's sweeping the awards season. Much the same way people were hating on Brian. Although with Kieran, he's very much like Keanu Reeves. Everyone tends to love him, except now, people are getting annoyed he's winning, especially the fans of the other people he's up against. Namely Jeremy, so there's just a lot of hateful oh he can't act, he's just playing himself yada yada yada garbage happening. It does feel very Nick verses Brian fans coded although in this case neither is a MAGA lol

He is hands down, the favorite to now win the Oscar and completely sweep awards season. He's won 35 awards for playing Benji. The most of anyone in this entire awards season with only two major awards left. The SAG and of course the Oscar. Impressive. Okay, I'll stop talking about Kieran now.

Writing is going well. I just finished and posted another chapter. I usually do take at least one day out of the week where I don't write anything. I find that works best for me. Also, I stopped pressuring myself to feel the need to post every week. If I do, I do. Congrats on surpassing your other stories in hits and getting new comments and kudos! I pay attention to the hits the most as well. The first story is getting close to the 6,000 mark. I don't think this one will hit that, but we'll see.

The Pitt has been renewed, I'm not sure if you saw that or not! And it's also getting a lot of critical acclaim for its accuracy. I would love it to be in the talk for the Emmys!

I watched the first half of the SNL special yesterday. I knew I wouldn't get through the entire thing live. So, we watched on a delay and fast forwarded through the commercials and some of the skits. I have a feeling the boys will be growing old together. By now, it seems like it's a lifetime commitment. I agree about Nick aging gracefully. I think that's what happiness will do for you. He just seems happy now. Without really following what's going on in his life, I can tell he's happy.

Right? I would love to live in a bubble where I only hear and think about things that make me happy LOL. I guess that would be like living in The Matrix, but that doesn't sound so bad right now.

I used to have one of those clock radios with a CD player, but the CD part eventually stopped working.  I still have an old stereo with a 5-disc CD player that I've had for probably over 20 years, and it still works great!  That's all I've got though.  The last couple times I tried to buy a smaller CD player to use at school, they only lasted a year or two before they stopped working.  They just don't make 'em like they used to LOL.  I hate that PCs don't even come with CD drives anymore.  I bought a portable drive that I can plug in to my computer that will play, rip, and burn CDs.  I haven't really used it, but it's nice to have just in case.

I hope you can make it to see Kieran on Broadway!  Is your main concern money, accessibility, or both?

Yes, most of the artists at the SNL concert just did one or two songs.  The ones that did multiple songs were usually paying tribute to another artist or band that played on SNL but has since passed away.  They were all well-known songs, which made it more fun to watch artists I typically don't care about.

Yeah, the Chiefs did not have a good game, but I'm surprised Kevin didn't post anything even before the game, especially if he was actually there.  Howie is definitely the Paul Rudd of the group.  Comparing the new Millennium cover photo to the old, Howie and Nick look better now than they did then.  The others just look older, but they've all aged pretty well.  Watching Paul McCartney perform on the SNL special last night, I was thinking, I hope we'll still be able to watch the Boys performing in another 30 years.  As for Rochelle, I don't know if she and AJ will ever get back together, but it's nice to see that they're still friends and probably great co-parents, for their girls' sake.  I follow her on Instagram, and she still shares BSB stuff and occasionally likes or comments on the other guys' posts, so I know she still supports them.  We can only speculate about what went on behind the scenes, but neither of them seem bitter about it.

I have a fence in the back yard but not the front, so the neighbor's dogs would come shit in my front yard.  If I came across dog shit when I was mowing, I would passively aggressively pick it up with a plastic bag and leave the turds - sans bag - in the neighbor's driveway.  I think he took the hint because he would sometimes apologize for the dogs when he saw me outside, but he didn't seem to care enough to invest in a leash or a runner to keep them in his own yard.

Yes, I agree about term limits and age limits, too!  If there's a minimum age limit, there should also be a maximum.  Elected officials shouldn't be dying of old age while in office!

Yes, that's true about American Idol auditions.  I didn't realize that at the time, either, that everyone who made it in front of the judges on TV had already auditioned in front of other people and been put through.  It made for entertaining TV, but it was definitely manipulative.

I didn't read all your tweets yesterday, but it seems Kieran won the BAFTA?  Congrats to him!

On the fanfic front, I was happy this weekend because my work in progress, TWWBW, surpassed my previous story, MBK, in hits on AO3, making it my most-viewed work there.  I also got a couple of comments and a kudo, which is always nice!  How is your writing going?

Right? I wish I could leave a part of me behind too. Maybe sever myself from the news? That would be fantastic! I'm glad you are not bringing your work home. I know it's hard. Especially being a teacher, but for your sanity it's best to keep both your lives separate.

I'll most likely get the vinyl. I'm not even sure if I have a CD player anymore. I used to use my alarm clock. It had a CD player on top where you could wake up to that, but it was so old I finally had to get rid of it. I wish those never went away. I miss how easy it used to be to burn a CD on the computer. Everything has just gotten so complicated now that it no longer exists. It's nice seeing BSB have their moment in the spotlight again. I'm not going to pre-order this one though. I'll wait until it comes out. I'm still holding out a very false hope that I'll get to Broadway so I'm saving money for that.

I was thinking the concert was tonight instead of last night. When I went on Twitter, I saw everyone talking about it. I put it on just as Bonnie started to sing. I couldn't see myself sitting through a concert that long, but it seems like those people only did one song each and it was a popular one, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. Maybe I'll stream it in the background at some point. I watched the BSB portion at least. I love how everyone knows the words to IWITW.

Kevin really had nothing to post about when it came to the Super Bowl. From what I heard, they were losing from the start and never gained momentum. I truly believe he was probably there. He looks good with his really long hair. And Howie is the Paul Rudd of the group. The man never ages. Good to know Rochelle was there. Maybe that means they are working through their issues. I have to say it's nice being just a regular fan now instead of all in. Meaning I stopped really following what's going on outside of the music. Unless something majorly big happens, I only know what people tell me.

Ugh that's annoying about the dogs! Do you not have a fence diving your properties? We have privacy fences on both sides.

I don't know why there or no term limits for Governers and Mayors. Everyone should have a term limit. Even if they're great. I do understand why you'd want him to stick around though. Especially with your past experiences. We really need some strong ass candidates running four years from now. No one over 60 either!

I used to love the horrible auditions too until I found out how manipulative they were to those poor people. Especially the first few years. By the time they got to the judges they had passed about five other stages, so I can see why they all felt so confident going in. They kept getting through to the next round. Then you had the people who were fully aware they were awful but knew the worse they were the more of a chance they'd get on TV.

I feel the same way you do about those poor people losing their benefits. It is hard feeling sorry for the idiots who voted for him. It's really terrible that I wish only the worst for them all. Like let everyone who voted for that man have to deal with smallpox and polio and having friends and relatives 'accidentally' deported and their business shuttered and losing their jobs. They truly deserve it!

I'm so tired of being angry all the time. lol it's exhausting.

I don't think there's going to be a way to watch these BAFTA awards, which bums me out. They are showing the red carpet on YouTube but the actual awards ceremony is on BBC1, which we don't have. It's also weird being on London time because everything gets started at 9 and the awards, I think are around 2 or 3 my time. These are the kinds of problems i'd prefer to the end of democracy.

I wish I could leave part of my brain at work and not think about it at all when I went home!  I've gotten a lot better with my work-life balance since Covid; I leave at a reasonable time most days, rarely take work home, and turned off my work email notifications on my phone so that I'm not tempted to check it after hours, which has helped, but it's still not easy.

I love the new BSB song!  I wasn't sure if it was actually going to be a new song or an old Millennium reject; I'm thrilled that it's new!  They sound so good!  I pre-ordered the two-disc CD for my collection, and I'm debating on whether or not to order one of the vinyl versions or not.  Target has a cool-looking record, but it's only the one disc version, and I already have Millennium on vinyl.  I have a little portable record player I got for Christmas a few years ago and a few vinyl albums, but I can count on one hand the number of times I've actually listened to them.  I like the sound and vibe of records but not the impracticality of having to turn them over so often compared to just putting a playlist or even a CD on repeat.  I am sad that I no longer have a car with a CD player.  I have plenty of playlists, but sometimes it was fun to just pop in an album that I hadn't hear in awhile and listen to it that way.  That's cool that you have the full Succession score on vinyl (or will when it finally comes).

It's sure been a good start to the weekend!  The SNL concert tonight was way better than what I was expecting it to be!  I watched all three and a half hours of it, which I did not think I would do.  Also enjoyed watching the Boys' appearance on the Today show this morning.  I'm glad they got Kevin to come out of hibernation!  He even posted on Instagram finally.  I was starting to get a little concerned about him when he didn't even post anything about the Superbowl, but maybe he's just taken a step back from social media.  And Rochelle was there with AJ tonight!  I love to see her still supporting him and the Boys.

Fingers crossed for Kieran to win the BAFTA!

You're lucky to have such nice neighbors!  I used to have a next door neighbor that would occasionally mow my front yard in the spring when the grass started growing like crazy, but I think the real reason he did it is because he let his two dogs shit in my yard all winter and thought he would take care of it before I noticed.  But I definitely did notice and always had to watch my step when mowing it myself, so I wouldn't mow over dog shit.  Thankfully, he and the dogs moved.  I'd rather mow my own lawn than listen to him calling for his dogs all the time because he apparently didn't believe in leashes or fences.  I knew both dogs first and middle names because of how often I heard him hollering them outside my bedroom window. 🙄

Yes, I can't name a single famous singer to come out of The Voice either.  I don't watch any of those shows anymore either.  Idol became less entertaining when Simon left and it stopped showing the bad auditions.  Maybe they decided it was too mean-spirited, or maybe they just started getting too many fake bad auditions from people who just wanted to be on TV, but I thought they were funny in the first few seasons.

Pritzker is the best governor Illinois has had in my lifetime.  I could see him making a run for president in the future, but, selfishly, I hope he just stays our governor!  I didn't even realize until last year that we don't have term limits for governors; we've never had a governor last more than two terms without getting voted out or removed from office and sent to prison, so I never knew that was even a possibility!  The Trumpers absolutely hate him, which makes it even better.  Many of the houses with Trump signs in the yard also have "Pritzker sucks" signs because he kept businesses closed during the worst of Covid and mandated masks.  Oh, the horror!

I genuinely feel sorry for people who rely on government benefits and did not vote for Trump.  I have a much harder time having sympathy for the people who did vote for him.  I hope the hardship causes them to rethink their choices and choose differently in the next election.

So, BSB just kind of randomly released a brand-new song last night and from what I can tell, no one knew about it at all! That's kind of awesome of them to be able to keep that under wraps and for the fans for once, to be able to truly be surprised and delighted without people grumbling and complaining before it's released. It was a nice thing to wake up to this morning. I like it. Very BSB. A little on the cheesy side, but a ballad which is a nice change from when they initially do a first single. And you were right about the album. Coming out in July. I bought a record player earlier this year because I bought the complete Succession score, which is still on backorder from November! It was a lot of money, but I did it as a birthday present for myself. It was supposed to come in time for my birthday, but now it's coming in March. Anyway, now that I have a record player, I'll most likely buy the bigger version of the album.

Between that and Kieran confirmed to show at the BAFTAS on Sunday, it'll be a good weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for Kieran. This is a HUGE award. The British equivalent of the Oscars. Supposedly most of the time the people who win here, go on to win at the Oscars. Last year it was match for match but the two years prior it wasn't. All the years before then, it was.

Still no news about the car. 

My neighbors are awesome. Both of them have been living here for most of their lives and have older children. I think I already mentioned, one of them is a retired detective and also is the chief of the volunteer fire department. He always looks out for us. My other neighbor is just a good guy, and I think because we are both single women living here, he finds it's his duty to try to be our fixer upper. Randomly I'll be sitting on the back porch, and I'll see him on a ladder working on his roof and then he'll turn around and inspect ours. lol I have to say, I've always been pretty lucky when it comes to neighbors.

I don't watch any of those vocal competition shows anymore. There are too many of them and they all annoy me. Especially the voice which is solely designed to feed into the egos of the judges and has so little to do with the contestants. I don't think a single one of those people went on to even be slightly famous. At least there have been some famous names that can be associated with getting their start on Idol.

The news has been rough the last few days. I think I'm going to write to my congress people. A lot of my friends have been doing that, and some have gotten replies back. Generic ones, but at least their voices are being heard. You do have a great governor, Julie. Ours isn't too bad, but there are too many elected officials who are more worried about getting reelected then the end of democracy. They are going after Medicaid and the SNAP benefits program next. That's the department who helps the poor buy food and pay for rent, Steph. He wants to cut back on it which means a ton of people will lose their benefits.

We live in a hellscape.

That's so nice that you have neighbours who will shovel the snow off your path and drive.  I doubt anyone would do that here lol, but we don't really get snow so that's one good thing.  They get some snow up in the north of England and Scotland but down in the south we usually miss out.

I watched the first episode of Severance and really enjoyed it, so I'll be watching more of that later to see where it goes.  Imagine that, leaving part of your brain at the door when you leave the office (I already do switch off the moment I finish work lol)

I hope you have good news about the car Mare, what a mix up, but hopefully one that works out in your favour.

I don't watch whatever it is that Baylee is on as it's not on TV here and I don't watch those kind of shows anymore.  But I hope he does it on his own merit and not by name dropping his famous dad.  I don't know what his music is like as I've not listened, but I hope if he gets voted through it's for his own talent.

They haven't announced anything about an album release, but it's been rumored.  There was a Millennium double vinyl album with the new Millennium cover photo they took listed on Amazon that leaked a couple days before they announced the residency.  It's not on Amazon anymore and didn't have any details about what exactly was on it, but it looked legit.  That could well be the other "big surprise" they announce on the Today show tomorrow.  I hope it is!  The rumor was that one disc would contain a remastered version of the Millennium album and the other disc would contain new recordings or previously unreleased tracks.  We'll see!  So far, the rumors have been pretty spot-on, so kudos to the BSB CIA for finding stuff out.

Yes, I'm sure Baylee made it to the final round of auditions that get televised and will probably make it through to the Hollywood round, too.  Beyond that, who knows?  He does have talent, but so do a lot of other aspiring musicians.  I'll be curious to see how much name-dropping he does and how much he tries to stand on his own.  American Idol airs on ABC now, the same network that cancelled BSB's Christmas stuff a couple years ago, so it will be interesting to see how much they play up the Backstreet Boy's kid angle and involve Brian.  I agree with you about Jennifer Hudson, btw; she was one of the best that season and got voted off way too early!  Joke's on them because look what a successful career she launched in spite of them.  Other than Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, the most successful artists to come from Idol did not actually win.

AJ was on DWTS, not The Masked Singer.  I enjoyed the first few seasons of Masked Singer, but I stopped watching once they started putting YouTubers and people I'd never heard of on there.  It was more fun when it was actual celebrities.

So there's still hope for your car to be totaled!  That is frustrating that they mixed up your car with someone else's and gave you the wrong info though.

Yeah, it was the best kind of snow day!  We got a little more snow last night, enough to cover the driveway and sidewalks again after I'd shoveled, but just another inch or so.  Macomb is about an hour and a half west of where I live; I'm not sure how much snow they got, but it was probably similar to what we did.  I'm glad you have good neighbors who plow for you.  That's so nice!

I've unfollowed all my vocal MAGA friends too, so I'm not sure if they've toned it down or not.  I haven't seen your buddy David chime in as much on your recent posts.  Progress!

Looking forward to The Pitt tonight and a three-day weekend!

Severance sounds interesting and like the type of thing I'd enjoy.  I'll have to give it a go as I've got Apple TV free for another month.

I'm also surprised they decided to fix your car Mare, especially as you were hoping to just get the insurance money.

Steph, I think you'd really enjoy Severance. You should totally check it out while you have the free trial. Slow Horses is also a great show on there.

I'm excited for the Millennium residency, but I hope the rumored remastered Millennium album release is also happening so that the whole fanbase will have something to enjoy.  I've seen a lot of fans from other countries saying they don't want to travel to the US right now, even if they could afford it, which is completely understandable .  I wish our country wasn't such an embarrassing trainwreck right now.

Yes, Leighanne is absolutely entitled to share her opinions, but I'm glad she backed off from doing so, whether by choice or because Brian and/or BSB's publicity team told her to knock it off.  Either way, she showed her true colors, and I will never see her the same way again.

I agree with you about American Idol.  I'm sure Brian will promote it, as any parent would, and fans will vote for Baylee because of that.  I haven't decided yet if I'm going to watch it or not.  I used to be really into American Idol but haven't followed it in years.  I might tune in to the audition episodes out of curiosity, but I'm not sure if it will suck me back in or not.  And I have mixed feelings about Baylee, so I wouldn't necessarily vote for him just because of Brian.  It'll be interesting to see how far he gets.

Oh, I remember hearing about Severance now.  One of my coworkers was talking about it.  Sounds like an interesting premise.

I did not know the actor who plays Whitaker on The Pitt (assuming that's who you're talking about) was Australian either.  He does a good American accent!

Wow, I'm surprised they decided to fix your car for that much!  In your situation, I would have been hoping for them to total it, too.

I enjoyed my snow day, but I bet most districts are regretting calling it so early because we didn't even get half of what was forecasted LOL.  We got maybe 2 inches, just enough to cover the ground.  I went out and shoveled my driveway because I was home, but I didn't really need to.  We're supposed to get more snow over the weekend, though, so I knew it would just get deeper and freeze over if I didn't clear this round first.  I'm glad it wasn't more because I hate shoveling LOL.  I have a fairly long driveway that is part gravel, so it's a pain in the ass.

I don't know about you, but I've seen fewer MAGA comments on posts lately.  Prior to the inauguration, any post by our local news was full of ignorant comments by the MAGAt idiots of central Illinois.  Nowadays, the majority of comments are anti-Trump.  It could be that the liberals have just gotten more vocal, but it also seems like a lot of the people who were pro-Trump have gotten quiet... as if they might actually be embarrassed or starting to regret their vote.  I hope that's the case.

I haven't watched The Masked Singer since the season after Nick was on, but that would be cool if Kieran or one of the other Culkin brothers was on it!  I wish we'd get another BSB on there.  AJ's voice may be too recognizable, and Brian would never do it for various reasons, but it would be a great opportunity for Howie or Kevin to shine!

Oh, I didn't see the album release part. Just the remastered or more added on? I don't blame anyone for not wanting to travel here at the moment. We're not exactly the most welcoming place to be. I am so embarrassed by what's happening here. There's this whole section of TikTok which is called WorldTok and it's basically just every other country besides us. They spend a good portion of their posts talking about how awful we are. I don't blame them.

It should be interesting to see how far Baylee makes it. I'm curious to see if he throws his father's name out there every chance he gets or if he tries to legitimately make it on his own. Because besides the judges (possibly) or unless you are a BSB fan, no one will know who Brian Littrell is. So, he could exist comfortably just being Baylee Littrell without anyone knowing. It takes a lot of auditioning before you actually get in front of the real judges, so we'll see what happens. I have no doubt he'll make it to at least the final round of auditions. Just like the Masked Singer, you'll just have to let me know because I stopped watching that show when Jennifer Hudon got voted off. That was the final straw for me. lol

I thought AJ was already on the Masked Singer? Or was it one of those things we thought he was but then it wasn't him? I could swear he was, unless I'm thinking about the Dancing with the Stars thing. The other dreadful show that Nick chose to compete on. I didn't watch last night's episode, but I read the recap and based on all the hints, I highly doubt it's either Culkin brother. Not sure why Ken said Kieran's name. I'm pretty sure he'd rather poke his eyes out with a spork than go on that show and the descriptions didn't match his brother either and definitely not the voice too. Ah well, that would have been nice to see Mack out there. But at least now I don't have to watch. 

So, another car update! I had gotten the estimate first and then a notice saying my car was ready. When my sister called to see where she should go pick up the car, they said there was a mistake, and they hadn't worked on it at all. They emailed me and asked me to scan a picture of my title yesterday so perhaps that means they will declare it a total loss. I have yet to officially hear anything from them and I'd rather poke MY eyes out with a spork than actually call, so now I wait. It will be nice if they do give me what they estimated the damages at. I'll keep you both posted.

I was wondering if you didn't get as much as you thought because my friend, niece whatever she is lol... Julia lives in Macomb, and it seemed like they had school. She posted that the roads were slippery so be careful out there, but she didn't mention a snow day. She teaches fourth grade as well. Those are the best snow days. Where you don't have to actually shovel a ton to get yourself out. Sorry about your long driveway. That sucks! Ours isn't that bad but still, I don't envy my sister when she has to shovel. Both our neighbors are so incredibly kind that they usually take turns snow plowing the sidewalk in front of our house and the driveway. They look out for us. It's nice.

I have noticed the absence of MAGA posts too but I also have snoozed a good portion of my MAGA FB friends. What I did notice is that some of the people who tend to respond to my posts, like that David guy, just haven't been. I'd like to think the smarter ones are starting to slowly see what everyone else on the planet does. That's the only hope I have. Today is one of those days where I woke up mad and decided to make a no news limited FB day.