My mother is such a piece of work. I called her on Tuesday evening and she was out. I vaguely remembered that she had something on her social calendar then, so I left a message.

Didn't hear back. Called on Wednesday, still no answer.

Finally heard back from her tonight. She was most apologetic for not having called me back on Wednesday, and then she tells me she was called to some kind of emergency meeting.

"Emergency meeting? What? Canada geese pooping up the fairway again? Do the pansies clash with the trim?"

"No, no, not the Landscaping Committee. We had to call an emergency Jury Girls meeting."

"The Jury Girls? Mom, this sounds really scary. Is this some kind of courtroom drama/Sweet Adeline group?"

Well, no, it turns out that the Jury Girls are a bunch of my mother's biddy neighbors in her retirement community who get together on Tuesday nights to drink Pink Ladies, eat cheese and crackers, and watch American Idol and then vote on their cell phones. There was some kind of foul-up in the voting on Tuesday night, so they all had to get together again for the extra episode on Wednesday night.

"But something good came out of it -- we finally got Mikalah off the show. At last!" My mother sighed with victory. Apparently the ladies have chosen Constantine and Jessica as their next targets.