Last week, I lost all my notes, and so I wrote my recap strictly from memory. Turns out I was able to work about ten times faster, and I remembered most of the details. Therefore, in the spirit of expediency, I decided to eschew notes altogether again and see what would stick. I'm sure if I miss any important elements, y'all will pipe up in the comments section. By the way, let's give a round of applause to ABC.com for being so idiotic as to not include any of the scores from Tuesday night (or any week). Anyway, on with the show!

Monique & Louis

These two started the show with a waltz that I thought was fairly moving. I've never actually been moved by a waltz, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was somewhat touched by these two. Gosh, I should just stop writing now before I sound like a total pussy. Before their dance, Louis gave Monique some cryptic advice that sounded pretty much like gobblety goop to me, but she told him it was really beautiful and profound. I think the audience thought she was being sarcastic because everyone laughed. I'm assuming Monique's the sort of girl who buys inspirational impulse books at the checkout line at Borders.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Monique and Louis' waltz, especially the choreography, and I wasn't the only one. Tom Bergeron could not stop gushing about how beautiful it was. For once, he seemed completely incapable of inserting a mildly salacious joke into the mix. The good news for Monique was that the judges all loved her performance too. They thought it was touching and moving and emotional; although, Len thought the triple splits were a bit too much. Less sizzle, more sausage! After all these kind words from the judges, I thought Monique would receive high scores, but she only earned eights across the board. Kind of a rip off, I thought.

Emmitt & Cheryl

After last week's disastrous tango, Emmitt was determined to rebound with a torrid paso doble. And to help get into the spirit of the dance, Cheryl brought him to some state fair in Texas where he could take on a real life bull. And by "take on," I mean stand ten feet away and look at it. Intense! Luckily for him, being so close to bull slather did seem to reinvigorate his dance abilities as he skillfully swooshed Cheryl across the dance floor, turning her into the cape we always knew she could be. Of course, as enjoyable as this was to watch, it didn't come anywhere near Cheryl's paso doble with Drew Lachey last season when the two of them honed their inner matador to the tune of "Thriller," but that's neither here nor there. The point was that these two seemed to be on the mend from last week, and the judges rewarded them with praise. In fact, Carrie Ann Inaba, who may or may not have a wee crush on Emmitt, called him a beast. Somebody hose Ms. Inaba down!

"Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!"

"ARGH!!!!"

As for the scores, I don't remember what they were (thanks again, ABC.com), but I seem to recall that they were also mostly eights. Looks like the judges are gettin' a bit stingy with their high scores...

Willa & Maksim