How about some snippets from a week gone by and for the week ahead?

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American Idol auditions for Season 7 are already set, and this blog has them listed with the when and wheres. The first stop is in Irving, Texas, at Texas Stadium on Aug. 6 -- two weeks away.

If that weren't on a Monday, it would be worth it to drive down and just hang out. To see the circus. To be in the circus.

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Oklahoma native Nancy Miller's new show, Saving Grace, debuts Monday night at 9 p.m. on TNT. It's gotten mixed reviews at this point, and the urban, cool-kid demo seems to think this show stereotypes Oklahomans too negatively. I'll watch it with an open mind.

Four things the show has going for it are Holly Hunter, Leon Rippy and Laura San Giacomo's breasts. I'm hoping the writing is solid, and the stereotypes don't bother me at all. But, good writing overcomes everything, and I'll call it like I see it.

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Jason Whitlock of the Kansas City Star writes that Michael Vick's alleged involvement in dogfighting is actually the product of hip-hop culture. While the alleged abuse of dogs under Vick's supervision is an atrocity that everyone can agree upon regardless of race, ethnicity or age, dogfighting IS to the hip-hop culture, if you will, as cockfighting IS to the hillbilly culture.

Whitlock continues to be one of the most astute social commentators we've got, and he's a sports columnist. Go figure. Where I disagree with Jason is that he says the right thing for the Atlanta Falcons to do would be to stand by him through a trial. I think the team must let him go now; otherwise, they will face a fan backlash like never has been seen in sports.

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I can't stand Nancy Grace, but it was nice to see her -- funny even -- go after Vick on her program last week. She went hard after him, and she really drilled into former Falcons player turned lawyer Tim Green for supporting him. He wasn't so much supporting him as he was saying, "Let's have some due process here."

Fair enough, but this is the feds we're talking about here. They don't prosecute people without a case, as opposed to the Mike Nifongs of the world. Either the charges against Vick have been blown out of proportion, or his livelihood is ruined. If guilty, he'll be banned from the NFL or be forced to retire.

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I am always open to experimentation as it pertains to eating. Over the past couple of months, I would workout really early on weekend mornings, drink a bunch of water and then take a shower, eating more than two hours later and passing out as soon as I got home. It was like my blood sugar dipped just below diabetic and then the recovery effort took it all out of me.

Well, on my Yahoo! page today, I read that one should eat about 60g of carbs within the first 30 minutes after working out or risk taking up to 36 hours to recover. Now, I walk for five minutes, run for 25 and then cool down with five more before stretching and gulping a bottle of water. In the past, that's meant trips to the buffet before my aforementioned passing out.

While I eat mostly healthful foods at the buffet, I eat in a starved condition, which means I probably take in way more than I need. Therefore, over the past six weeks, I have only managed to lose three pounds.

Two weeks ago, I came down with an annoying little upper-respiratory infection, causing me to miss a couple weeks worth of workouts. I didn't even pay attention to my food intake, and lo and behold, I didn't gain any weight. Didn't lose any, but the fact that I didn't gain any made me wonder.

Were my post-workout habits really killing me?

So, today, I had a cup of ramen (38g of carbs on only 290 cals) and a small turkey-bacon sandwich, and I haven't come down with that overwhelming feeling like I need to pass out, meaning that I might be on to something.

The other part of my Yahoo! epiphany is that the article said that one could eat sugar to recover and that the only bad part about that is that there was nothing else nutritious about the food intake. Not that I'm going to eat a piece of cake after a run, but that bit of info made me realize that I must control those moments after a workout, and if it meant eating a Snickers -- well -- I would need to in order to avoid starvation mode.

Most of the time, I workout in the morning, and I often only eat a handful of nuts after the workout. By the time I get to work and get settled, it's three hours later before I have my bowl of Cream of Wheat. And while that's good for me, it would have been much better for me to eat a giant bowl of Count Chocula 30 minutes or so after working out so that I could immediately recover after running and get my metabolism moving.

Point is: I'm not convinced I know everything about food. I read labels very closely, and I stay up on all the latest wisdom from the establishment, making sure I keep up with holistic gurus like the great Dr. Andrew Weil.

But when it comes right down to it, I'm always open to a couple weeks worth of experimentation with anything. That means, I'll opt out of the Cream of Wheat when I resume my daily runs on Tuesday morning (I give myself a day off after my Sunday afternoon run) and go for a bowl of carb-filled Raisin Bran. My theory is that if I like it better (and I love Raisin Bran) and it produces a superior result, then why the hell would I not try it even in the face of general dieting wisdom that suggests that all meals should be focused on lean meats and veggies and beans.

I like lean meat, and I love me some legumes, but a quick bowl of cereal is really more my speed. And my goal isn't unreasonable. I'd like to be under 200 at the end of the YEAR. That's six pounds in five months. Surely, I'm not that worthless.

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Finally, probably my favorite subscription on YouTube is from this guy called Momo. He's a musician, a videographer, and thanks to YouTube, Momo is also a motivational speaker, talking on subjects like self-manifestation, among other things. He's a wise cat, and his voice is hypnotic.

However, the reason I mention him here is because I was watching some of the music videos he's done for Canadian artists, and I came across one who I later discovered was his girlfriend (he calls her his "partner").

Her name is Crila, and she is smokin', smokin', smokin' hot. She's like the Canadian Shakira. Check out her Web site or watch her on this video blog.