NO SHOES ON THE CARPET!

So I know I’m a few episodes behind on this.  I think I’m the worst blogger ever.  I’m ok with that, though.  Life has been pretty busy lately and its hard to blog when I’d rather be making people swim with the fishes on Godfather for the Wii.  However, Sarah and I did find time last night to watch the finale of TC6.  Somehow I made it through the entire day without hearing it from anybody else or seeing it in the news but I did try to avoid the entertainment news.

What a great season of Top Chef, definitely one of the best in my opinion.  The final four consisted of Jen, Kevin, Micheal, and Bryan.  Jen was eliminate in the final elimination challenge which wasn’t really a surprise.  To have beat the other three would have required somebody to have an off day and her to be her best.  However, I think that any of these four could have won any of the other seasons of TC.

The finale got off to a rough start for my pick, Beardie (aka Kevin), as he drew two of the most pathetic chefs as his sous chefs, Preeti and Ash.  Bryan picked up Jen and Micheal picked up Eli which are major pluses for them.   However, as the saying goes, its a poor craftsman who blames his tools.  You’ve got to work with what you got, even if it is two pitiful sous chefs.

Kevin ended up flopping on his pork belly which should have been his strongest.  That pretty much knocked him out of the running and he ended up in third.  The brothers both cooked their asses off with only minor mistakes and it could have easily been either one.  However, the top prize went to the younger brother, Micheal, who was brought to tears, which is quite shocking.  Actually, he says he was just acting to show America that he has a sensitive side too.

So lets see who guessed it right.  Nobody.  Beardie was the overall favorite but not a single person picked Micheal to win, however, four of us did put him into our top 3.  Only one of us picked the top 3 correctly and that was Sarah, so nice job!  Bob, Jen, Kate, and Steve managed to only pick 1 of the top 3 while everybody else had two.

• Brandon: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Sarah:  Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio, Bryan Voltaggio
• Kim: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Bob: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Isabella and Jen Carroll
• Kate: Kevin Gillespie, Ash Fulk, Mattin Noblia
• Jen: Kevin Gillespie, Eli Kirschstein and Jen Carroll
• Steve: Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Ron Duprat
• Katie: Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Michael Voltaggio

Yellow=Gold, Grey=Silver, Olive=Bronze

At last, Carla2(Robin) is gone.  She won’t suck out into the finals like Carla did.  Also, it was pointed out that I never included Sarah’s picks.  She wisely went with both brothers and Beardie, who I also think will be this season’s fan favorite.  Beardie can do no wrong.

TC:LV 5 remain

• Brandon: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Sarah:  Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio, Bryan Voltaggio
• Kim: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Bob: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Isabella and Jen Carroll
• Kate: Kevin Gillespie, Ash Fulk, Mattin Noblia
• Jen: Kevin Gillespie, Eli Kirschstein and Jen Carroll
• Steve: Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Ron Duprat
• Katie: Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Michael Voltaggio

While one of the funniest episodes of Top Chef to date (and arousing thanks to Padma and Natalie Portman), ended with disappointment as Carla #2 sucked out one more week and Michael I got served with dismissal.  Maybe Bravo is keeping her around because of her “i survived cancer and look at me now” story.  She certainly doesn’t have the culinary skills that any of the remaining chefs have; none of them have the skills that Beardie has.

• Brandon: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Kim: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Bob: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Isabella and Jen Carroll
• Kate: Kevin Gillespie, Ash Fulk, Mattin Noblia
• Jen: Kevin Gillespie, Eli Kirschstein and Jen Carroll
• Steve: Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Ron Duprat
• Katie: Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Michael Voltaggio

Top Chef Season 6 Remaining Cheftestants

Ok, lets catch up on some things as its been over a month since my last post, which is sad.  My last post was about Top Chef: LV so we’ll start there.

Since the last post, we’ve added two more people to our Pick ‘Em List, Steve and Katie; both of which didn’t go with the clear favorite (Beardie).  We’ve also had a few people lose a choice or two.  The competition is finally almost clear of all the unTop Chef chefs and it will start to get a little interesting here on out.  How long can Robin really keep Carla-ing?

• Brandon:  Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Kim:  Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Bob:  Kevin Gillespie, Michael Isabella and Jen Carroll
• Kate:  Kevin Gillespie, Ash Fulk, Mattin Noblia
• Jen:  Kevin Gillespie, Eli Kirschstein and Jen Carroll
• Steve:  Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Ron Duprat
• Katie:  Jen Carroll, Bryan Voltaggio, Michael Voltaggio

My money is still on Beardie

What else is going on besides TC: LV?  Lets see, bowling has started.  I am only torturing myself this year with one league instead of 2, which appears to be working as I’m about ten pins over my average for last season.  Of course, its only been six weeks or so and I’m already ready to be done with it, only 26 more weeks.

V0lleyball is over for the year, thank god.  We decided to hang it up for the year and not play the fall league after going an abysmal 1 and 29 during the summer session.  That’s awful.

The Cardinals decided not to show up for the playoffs.  The Blues are back and playing decently, if we could only stave off the injuries, we’d have a shot at a good season.

We’re coming up on that time of the year again when the best rock show of all time returns to the Pageant.  If anybody would like to join us for El Monstero, we’ll be going on the 19th this year.  General admission again, which means we’ll be lining up by noon, maybe earlier this year.

Farmaid was fun and marked the 3rd time in as many years that I was able to see Dave twice during the summer.  This time it was just Dave and Tim and they had an amazing set.

This past weekend, Sarah and I drove to Columbia for the Mizzou homecoming.  No we didn’t go to the game, just to tailgate.  We started around 10am and wrapped it shortly after 7pm.  There was plenty of food, booze, and beer pong and we a pretty good time.  I got to meet a lot of Sarah’s Phi Mu sisters and by the end of the day, I was pretty chicked out.  Made it home in time to catch the end of Bob’s Testicle Festival and recharged my man batteries, as Sarah likes to say.

Ok well thats a start.  I’ll see about updating this more.  I lead a busy life these days.  At least I’m not the most outdated blogger of the group and my posts dont just consist of my twitter updates.

Yeah I know, I don’t ever post anything anymore.  I’m sorry.  Life is busy.  Get over it.  However, now that Top Chef has returned, we have something to talk about.  As we did with last season, we will follow the cheftestants through the contest.  Now that all the slackers have watched the first episdoe and reported their top 3 choices for Top Chef, I present to you, the Season 6 Cheftestants.

Jen Eliminated Week 1

And your winners are:

• Brandon:  Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Kim: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Voltaggio and Jen Carroll
• Bob: Kevin Gillespie, Michael Isabella and Jen Carroll
• Kate: Kevin Gillespie, Ash Fulk, Mattin Noblia
• Jen: Kevin Gillespie, Eli Kirschstein and Jen Carroll

Obviously there are some clear favorites and some wild cards (Ash).  Isabella is my dark horse that may suprise us all if he stops coasting on Michael V’s steam.  There are clearly a few chefs who are way behind some of the talented chefs, Jen Z being one of those who lag behind as she was eliminated in week one.  Normally, I would list who I think the week chefs are but some get eliminated in the following weeks, which haven’t seen by all yet.  I do think though that the cast this season is light years above season 5’s cast.  Carla, with her weird eyes and uncanny ability to coast to the end.