Todd pics

Since I'm putting up pics, here are some from when Todd was here.

Visitor fun and the finding of the green chile

We had another visit from an Albuquerquian. Steve used to do theatre (and grew up a few houses down from my parents), but for some reason decided to go to law school. So he's doing that now. In Baltimore. Yesterday he drove down and we walked around the Mall a bit. The Library of Congress was inexplicably closed, well, the signs all said open but the front door was locked. But we took him to the Supreme Court and the Air and Space Museum and then up to the Portrait Gallery which was pretty cool. We saw like half the cast of "1776". Plus a guy who looked like a vampire, and another one who looked like Dumbledore. Also, who knew, but the faux-mohawk was also fashionable in the early 1800's.

Then we had lunch at the American Indian Museum. And guess what they had? Green chile!!! I was so excited, I thought I would never find it outside of New Mexico. Perhaps it wasn't the best green chile I'd ever had, mind you, but it still tasted good on my bison burger. People have been recommending the cafe there for a long time, so it was fun to actually go. They have some very interesting stuff, lamb and salmon and baked turnips and all sorts of stuff. It isn't cheap either, the lady in front of me in line (this is a put stuff on your tray kind of place) paid $50 for two people. But boy did her selections look yummy. Ours worked out about $12 a head, which isn't terrible but just seems a lot in a cafeteria setting. Also a plus? Fry bread. Anyway, now I can go get a little taste of New Mexico if I need it.

Then we came home and he painted a frame for our wall of "friend frames". As will you when you come visit, we always like encouraging our guests to make a little art.

We'll be going to visit him up in Baltimore at some point, he has promised to take us to good crab cakes, which I have a weakness for. Plus they have a great aquarium, so it is a no-brainer.

Laugh break

Holy crap, Will Ferrell is funny! Warning: some, uh, disturbing use of relatively mild swearing.

Survivor, or Sometimes Simple Plans are Better

Almost every episode of Survivor is packed full of tasty little treats, and if this episode won't go down in the hall of fame of episodes, it was still no exception. I consider myself a relatively saavy viewer, but even though I know better I am still dependant on the editors to guide me through, and it is funny what I forget week to week or how I change my mind about people.

So we start out with last week's recap, watching poor Frosti and Sherreah sailing off into an unknown future with the other team. Now, honestly, at this point I don't really care who wins, but rather I just think it is more exciting when teams merge with even numbers and have to scramble. Having one team dominate is just less fun. But do I like Pei Wei more than, say, Poker Man? Not really. But getting that even split for the merge is what I've been rooting for, so Aaron getting booted last week wasn't that bothersome to me.

Right away we start talking hidden immunity idol. Gay Mormon Flight Attendant still hasn't found it, so he enlists the help of Amanda. Now Amanda has been hiding in the background for a while, and it is a shame, because I just read her official bio and it is filled with so much deliciousness that I can't stand it. Her official title is "Hiking Guide", but then we learn that she is a model who wants to "develop a business within the fashion industry". She has been to China twice before to compete in the Miss Kite Of The World pageant, and was a semi-finalist. While there, she "was permitted to fly kites off the Great Wall in five-inch heels". You need permission to wear heels on the Great Wall of China? Who knew? Trying to boost her "hiking guide" moniker, it says "she has camped every weekend in Montana since she was three years old." Yes, but does she do it in heels? So now I love her. Other than her obvious hotness I don't know why, but I do. Actually I was liking her before I could picture her travelling the world to look pretty flying a kite, but now I love her.

I actually thought GMFA gave a pretty sorry story to her, his first of several poor maneuvers this episode. "I was going to wait until I found it to tell you, but I can't find it, so I'm telling you now." Luckily for him she was so excited to find out about it she didn't see how lame (and desperate) the excuse was.

On to the reward challenge. It was a pretty standard challenge without much excitement, except of course for Sherreah commiting suicide. Heh. During the challenge Pei Wei has a few moments of alone time with Sherreah and tells her they threw the challenge to save her, and that they want to stick with her and Frosti. In response to how her life was saved the previous week, Sherreah does her best to ignore her. Meanwhile Frosti won't make eye contact with them. After losing the challenge, and James is kidnapped, they go back to camp and start freaking out that they've made a terrible, terrible mistake in throwing the last challenge and decide they have to win the next one.

Over at the winning side, GMFA - ok, Todd - corners James and tells him "If you give me the clue I will save your life". Big promises boy! But it works, and little Todd boy has all his dreams come true as big manstud James is eating out of his hand. With the new clue in hand, they finally figure out where the hidden idol is. But this part is funny. Their attempts at retrieving it is so super obvious that Frosti comes over to help. Rather than abandoning their search they sort of try to shoo him away, but he doesn't, and in the end they are forced to show him the idol. Laughable. The editing doesn't really tell us if this accident helped change Todd's plans, but in the end he decides to give James the idol. Then he tells his team James is going to try and throw the challenge so that he, James, can use the idol and vote off Jamie.

I will give him points for choosing Jamie, since she is likable and allied with Eric. And on the surface the plan is clever, something I always love. But remember what I said a few weeks ago, that Todd talks a good game but is trying to hard? He had a HIDDEN immunity idol in his grasp, that could have saved HIM. Now everyone knows that they exist, that there are two, what they are. James has one, and is heading over to the other tribe where he can conceivably get the other. So now your strongest player in the game has both immunity idols? James is a short-term ally, not a long term. He makes it to the end, he wins. So while the plan itself was juicy, I thought the reasoning behind it was faulty to the extreme. At least he was smart enough to tell the entire tribe about it, winning him huge points for helping the team out, should he make it to the end with all of them on the jury.

So up comes the immunity challenge, and it is the eating contest. I always hate this one. I really think it would be funner if they had to eat like a huge Farrell's style ice cream sundae or down a whole bottle of wine so it was something they liked but then got sick on. Eating baby turtles is just not fun to watch. People would gag just as much trying to eat twenty plain hot dog weiners. But at least we have this super fun dynamic where now James is the one trying to throw the contest while his teammates are trying to win. Courney eats the first solid food of her life, and I have to give her credit that she did much better than I'd anticipated, but still loses to Jamie. (I'm not even going to get into why Courtney was sat out of the reward challenge so was forced to participate in the immunity challenge, like, smart move.) James is put up against Lunch Lady, and they have to eat dead baby birds, I forget what it is called, and frankly I don't want to remember. So James, who could probably eat a whole rat filled with maggots in one bite, is pretending to gag, while Lunch Lady, who probably serves worse in her own cafeteria, is absolutely unable to eat the thing, preferring to scream at it instead. "Get in my mouth!" or something like that. Her jedi-mind tricks fail her though, and she finally just gives up. James, meanwhile, is trying to have trouble but it is really killing him. So Lunch Lady finally gives him the baby blues, and says, quite clearly, "I'm sorry James". James sighs, picks up the baby birds and swallows them whole. Practically anyway.

Now here is my beef. Jeff has been acting all weird about the throwing of challenges, and has been coming down hard on the girls for it. Now, right in front of him, he has one contestant APOLOGIZING to the other, and yet he doesn't call them out on it? Clearly Jeff has his favorites.

What is even more fun about this all, is that it hardly matters which team wins. James is safe, so if he wins Todd can just vote off Frosti or Sherreah. Either way they get their numbers. But as James team starts winning, James and Todd keep making these incredulous and disappointed faces, which totally cracks me up. James looks downright glum when his team wins. I'm sure he was looking forward to surprising them with his immunity, but still.

So now Todd and Amanda, who seem to be running the show now that Aaron is gone, have to decide between Frosti and Sherreah. Frosti seems to be sucking right up to them, showing no signs of loyalty at all to his former team. I'm curious about him, you'd think he'd at least be trying to straddle the fence a bit. Anyway it works for now, so they decide they like Frosti better, and decide on Sherreah. Courtney, though, wants to get rid of Jean-Robert, because she doesn't like him. Todd wavers, cause he knows that Jean-Robert will betry him at the earliest opportunity, which is actually a valid concern. But Amanda is secretly a super smart model, and probably even wears glasses in private, so she still wants to get rid of Sherreah to ensure that they at least will have the numbers. And we have a gay boy/model stand off. Sweet.

I'm torn, I actually see both arguments (at least when Todd says it, nothing Courtney says goes beyond being a spoiled brat who just wants her way). I want a stand off between tribes come merge, but Jean-Robert is far more interesting than Courtney is.

At tribal council, Sherreah starts talking for the first time in two episodes, and I suddenly remember something. I totally hate her! Jean-Robert, who is still trying to peddle his "I'm coming around and working so much harder and it is so much fun it doesn't even feel like work anymore!" plan, has got to be realizing that no one is buying what he is selling. But to his credit he puts on the good face, even under direct assualt from Courtney and Sherreah. You could see his wheels turning, calculating the odds of different approaches, and in the end he chose to redirect and try to be positive, which came out a bit desperate perhaps, but for my money was way better then sinking down to their level. And his plan worked, because once Courtney got wound up she also ended up alienating Todd, who thought they had a close alliance. Whew! Get rid of her soon PLEASE!!

So the super-smart kite-flying heel-wearing camping-going model got her way, and schoolteacher Sherreah was unceremoniously dumped to the curb. Actually, it was quite ceremoniously, wasn't it? Heh. Anyway, she is finally gone so her poor students can stop being embarassed every week and can start the healing process.

Jean-Robert really dodged the bullet though. Next week it looks like we merge, which should favor him. Pei Wei and Eric and Brooke are the big targets now, though it won't take long before the in-fighting begins and James becomes number one target.

A dim ray of hope in the political melee

I haven't been able to get too excitable about the current state of politics, as by the time I get the chance to vote in a primary the decision will have already been made who the candidate is going to be. Mostly the primary debates just depress me as Obama has yet to really make a case of why he is better than Hillary (which I think he may be), and watching Romney and Rudy run from their records just seems to confirm the worst about politicians.

But stuff like this sure makes me happy. Ron Paul has introduced The American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007, which

would repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006, restore full habeas corpus requirements, prohibit the use of secret evidence under all circumstances, and end the practice of rendition to other countries to torture terrorism suspects. It also would grant standing to Congress to sue the President over any signing statement that proposes that the President may ignore any provision of the legislation for any reason.

Now I don't agree with Ron Paul on everything, there is a limit of how aggressively I want to pursue libertarianism. But it is nice to daydream that Hillary or Obama or, heck, ANY sane person running for president, would back this bill. None of them will, because polticians who aren't "crazy", are in fact power-hungry. Hillary actually spoke the other day about "reviewing" all the power-grabbing policies of the Bush/Cheney administration, which is a step in the right direction, but she of course stopped short of actually promising to give up any of the new powers Bush has invented for himself. It is hard to blame her, how many politicians willingly give up power? Only Ron Paul apparently. Of course what that means is that we the people are supposed to put our own checks and balances on the politicians, but with W's reelection, we gave them the stamp of approval they needed, and it will be hard hard hard to move this backwards now. I hope we can do it, but I'm getting all old and cynical now. ::grin::

Anyway, for today, I ::heart:: Ron Paul.

Waste three minutes, you know you want to laugh...

Survivor, or How To Take a Risk and Make Me Happy

Let's get right to it, this episode was both curious and delicious, and so chock-full of memorable moments that I am bound to forget some now. In other words, rock on.

But first, can we all raise a triumphant cheer that there were no lame special effects? This episode got back to the basics of game and strategy and I was all the happier for it.

We start off with Schoolteacher being lazy (shocker!) but paradoxically saying "I want to shake things up around here". While the rest of the episode reminded me how much I really don't miss Zoolander, honey, are you trying to make me hate you? Meanwhile James, who has generally started annoying me with his macho swagger, made me love him again by proclaiming a love for the Lunch Lady with age as their single barrier - "If I were older or she were younger, she would have to watch out" he says. Anyone who loves the Lunch Lady is golden with me, especially since it is a much more interesting love story than the 26-year-old Virgin Eric and Jamie's non-committal flirting.

But Jeff Probst heard Schoolteachers prayer, and each team got to pick two members from the other team to steal. Now let it be said that in general I really do not approve of this kind of twist. It makes things impossible for any real strategist to plan for, and instead chooses winners by luck instead of skill. But, whatever, it is still better TV than some over-elaborate reward challenge that it took the place of. And it gave me chance to marvel at the stupidity of the tribe that didn't put it together that it was a trade and not a steal. Like, duh. I thought the choices were all fairly obvious, although the one tribe (dang I need to start learning their names) that picked Schoolteacher has no idea what they've done, do they? Heh.

Jean-Robert and the Lunch Lady with a mullet were both sad to see James go, as apparently he was the sole ally to either. No one seemed particularly sad to see Aaron go, which was even more interesting. Once the switch was made, the game came out, which of course pleased me to no end. Todd announced to his confessional camera he was going to be looking for alliances with the newbies, which forced me to admit my love for him. Even if he is a bit hysterical at times, he has been the most consistent strategizer, which ultimately gets my loyalty over anything else. You go girl. Frosti and the Schoolteacher are both on notice and notch it up, and she even says "I'm gonna have to step it up around camp" - well, better late than never honey. Maybe this will be a good thing for you.

James and Aaron, meanwhile, are a bit more awkward. Actually Aaron lays out his case fairly well I thought, marking James out as a big danger once the merge comes. James, meanwhile, just isn't the kind of player that has any interest in the "outwit" portion of the game. For him it is all about "outplay", which he can totally do, and he just assumes everyone else thinks the same way. While this kind of mentality may have honor in real life, it can be a big liability in a game of strategizers. So when Pei Wei and Jamie start talking about throwing the challenge, I got very sad for him but very excited for me. Then Pei Wei and Jamie do throw the challenge, and show us they are never going to be hired to be in even a Rob Schnieder movie because they are both the worst actors ever and are giggling through the whole thing, and James is getting more and more frustrated and I am getting even more sad for him and even more excited for me. Throwing a challenge is a bold, risky move, and offhand I seem to recall it being done only twice before, once to get rid of, um, I think it was Silas in Africa, and once by the Hispanic team to get rid of the weird guy whose "love at first sight" comments made for one of the best tribal council sessions ever. Anyhoo, I ::heart:: bold and risky.

The girls, interestingly, did not tell Eric beforehand. He seemed a bit upset when they did, but was sort of trapped by his love of all things Jamie. I like him, but I'm starting to think he is a bit of a wuss. I hope he changes my mind on that soon, but I fear we may have lost him completely as he is now just a manslave under the control of Jamie's pheremones.

On to the curious part: Jeff Probst. He seemed genuinely peeved at the girls for throwing the challenge, and called them out on it all the way through the challenge. Jeff, your anger was warrented that season where the guy quit, cause that was totally lame. But this was a valid strategic move here, not just some silly girls who don't care. They are making a lot of assumptions in making this move, that 1) the tribes will merge at ten players as usual, and 2) that neither Frosti or Sherreah will defect to another alliance, and 3) that they will be able to either steal another player or win at a tie-breaker. But if that seems better odds than in watching Frosti and/or Sherreah get voted off, then I think it is a legitimate play. It sucks, of course, for Aaron and James, but luckily for me I'm not terribly fond of either so I'm just not all that heartbroken about it like Jeff seems to be. I can only guess that the producers didn't forsee that move or were just intending something else to happen, and so Jeff was caught unawares or something.

In the end I was surprised they let Aaron go when James was so uncomfortably combative about it, but I think it was best for their long-term strategy. Aaron was smart and, therefore, dangerous. James is only dangerous if, by sheer willpower, he manages to win the next immunity challenge all on his own. And even then, come merge time, he will be a huge target as well.

The other person this switch has really screwed with is Jean-Robert. His entire strategy revolved around slowly increasing his work ethic so that people would like him more and more for trying harder. With the switch, now he is really on the defensive about it, with his entire team mocking him for it. In their eyes he is only working hard now because he is trying to save himself, which rather devastates his entire strategy. At the end of the last episode I admit I was starting to feel more fond of our resident poker player, and I started wondering if there was some weird kind of inverse relationship between how much people liked him and the size of his pot belly. But things aren't looking too good for you bro.

And I still don't like Courtney.

More internet fun

Fast forward to about 2:40, which is when it gets funny.

Another reason why the internet is awesome when you are bored

Tell me this test isn't the freakiest coolest thing ever. No surprise I'm predominantly a right brainer. I actually thought it was a scam at first, but after a few minutes I was able to make her change directions back and forth just by looking off to the side a bit. Try it, and I guarantee you will waste a good ten minutes marveling at it. I freaking love the internet. (Hat tip, Andrew Sullivan)

Stuff, and why every movie needs a little TLC

Our houseguest left this morning. I'm currently waiting for a tow truck, sadly we left a door open or something and the battery died. Even more sad is that we got a jump and drove the car into Virginia where it cut out while we were driving. Of course my angels were with me and we couldn't have gotten stranded in a better place, a nice quiet safe residential neighborhood with ample street parking that I could coast into. Then we walked down to a theatre where we had tickets for "Merrily We Roll Along" at the Signature Theatre. It was an interesting if ultimately unsatisfying show, but we wanted to see it because it so rarely gets performed, and we brought Todd along as his birthday present. The good news is that, now having seen two productions at the Signature, which is one of the top theatres in the area, we see that David would be very competitive for getting acting work here. His job at the school is proving to be much more stressful that ever anticipated, so he is mulling over other options, and that would be a fun one.

I had to work the next day, so after the show we just got towed back to our house. When the tow truck gets here today I get the joy of hanging around the Toyota dealership while they inspect and tell me I need a new alternator, etc, and get an unexpected hefty bill. Ugh. I don't even have a book. ::sad face::

What else? We saw the movie "Across The Universe", and saw our BFF Tiffany listed in the credits having cast the movie. We saw her name on the Rent movie too, but that game will never get old, it is so exciting! I wish I could remember all the stories she told us when she was actively working on the movie, but that was a few years ago and I couldn't quite recall the fun stuff she had told us. (Like the main guy she discovered somewhere in England.) But still, I thought the cast totally rocked out. I don't really know the Beatles music all that well, so really only recognized maybe a quarter to half of the songs. But there are some pretty amazing visuals. The movie owes a lot to "Moulin Rouge", but still stands on its own merits. Julie Taymor is on crack in a totally different way from the way Baz Luhrmann is on crack, I don't know how people come up with stuff like that.

Maybe I'll post some pics later, but with Todd we took a tour of the Capitol Building, which is gorgeous, and went inside the Library of Congress, which is gorgeous. We went to our favorite Italian place near Dupont Circle and I had grouper with mango sauce and this risotto that was out of this world. We nixed the sushi last night because we were too tired to travel, and went to a local Thai place instead. Then we came home and watched "Pushing Daisies". I love that show! Weird and quirky and funny and satisfying. Plus, Kristin Chenowith singing "Totally Devoted". I hope they let her sing like all the time, that would make me sooooo happy. (But she does need better hair.)

It was like 90 degrees and humid on Tuesday, and today I think the high is 64, I can't believe how fast it cooled off. But it is fall I guess. I just need to go buy a pair of sweats to wear over my scrubs to get me to work.

Well, the tow truck should be here in the next half hour or so, so I'd better get ready to go. ::sigh::

Survivor, or At Least Six Reasons Why This Episode Rocks

Survivor was unpredictably back on form early with episode number 4. So why don't we explore the ways that the show provides me with smiles and sunshine?

First of all, lunch lady speaks. Finally! Not only do I realize that, yes indeed, that was a mullet hiding in the background, but she has a rockin' lunch lady accent too. I don't even remember what she was saying, I was just so excited to see her given some screen time. Her demographic is often one of my favorites (think Deena or T-bird), but is often one that gets booted early, so seeing her speak I was almost afraid that she was about to get voted off. Fortunately they tweaked their formula a bit this week, so the ending surprised even me.

Can we just admit that watching Skinnier Than A Machete gear up in Chinese gladiator garb is plain old-fashioned funny? The challenge was silly, but entertaining enough. Though clearly no one ever took Gravedigger aside and reminded him that if he dominates too much it puts a big fat target on his back in another few episodes. I mean, I'm all for him winning, but the jock adrenaline thing where you have to throw things afterwards because you are just so "pumped up" only draws unwanted attention. I go back and forth with liking him or not, but without developing some people skills right quick I don't think we are looking at a final four player here, which is too bad.

And yes, I am obligated to report there was more foolish editing going on. The thing is, this is Survivor, I don't need anything that fancy. I really hope Burnett reads this blog and takes the Director of Photography or editors or whoever dreamed up this foolishness and reminds them of the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid!

But the deliciousness more than outweighed the foolishness. I was annoyed with Schoolteacher Who Is Making Her Kids Proud With Her Laziness, because give Zoolander the damn shells back already. We all know Zoolander is a dick, but acting like a three year old is not the way to win over any fans, especially me, but more importantly your fellow tribe-mates. Still, when Dave was kidnapped to the other team, I was sure that was disaster for him, that his tribe would plot while he was gone and realize how much happier they are without him. But then a few things happened.

One, he had to give out a clue to the hidden immunity idol so had to get some game going, which of course is my favorite part. As soon as they picked him I said "He will give the clue to GMFA" because, you know, gay guys stick together. And he did, which makes Todd the only person on that team who even knows the idol exists. Now that he has three clues I hope he puts it together. Clearly it is harder to figure out without a camera to point us directly at it, but still, sooner would be better than later boy. Back at the other tribe, instead of plotting against Dave they were being sad that they now had to, you know, actually work now. And schoolteacher is still being lazy, so I thought that was that. The best part though was when they were talking about Dave and they said "He is probably over there kissing all the girls". WTF??? I couldn't tell which of them actually said that or I would mock them. Not that my TV gaydar is perfect, but still, he wants to bring some shells back to his grandma?

The other person to get some rehabilitation editing this week was Poker Man. I'm sorry, I don't care how much I hate you, if you can speak Mandarin you get huge points in my book. And, crazy enough, his strategy appears to be working, at least a little bit. If his crazy scheme actually works, he is going to win me over yet. And skinny girl is so lame, she complains that he yelled at her to WARN HER FROM BURNING HERSELF. How dare he try to protect her? I am going to be sooooo happy the day she is out of my life.

The best part though was the fisherman family. I want to go fishing with birds that catch fish but you tie a string around their neck so they can't swallow them but they are still trained to come back to the boat so you can pull the fish out of their mouths! That was freaking awesome!!

At tribal I was fully expecting Lazy Schoolteacher to go, mostly based on Dave's redemption via editing. As much as he annoys me, I was ok with this because he was doing some plotting and stuff. But they threw me for a loop, and the former model had his final close-up. I hope the tension goes with him, because that kind of crap really is just annoying and cheap. But this is the point where people usually really start getting some game, as long as one tribe doesn't just dominate, so things should be getting better and better every week. Just imagine the smile on Todd's face next week when he sees Dave gone and realizes the gay wedding is off and he is free to make an alliance with a stronger player than a headstrong former model.

Finally a good excuse for why I've been blog-absent

David and I have had a houseguest this week, in the form of our friend Todd from Albuquerque. So been having lots of fun, and I will attempt to catch up on my blogging tomorrow after he leaves. The one bummer is we've had some car trouble, so I'm not sure how long that will take me to deal with tomorrow, but I'll do my best to catch up. I've also watched no TV this week, and I'm not even sure we will watch Survivor tonight, although being smart he is a fan to so we just might if we make it home from dinner early enough. I think we are going to try and find sushi, which I haven't had in DC yet, so hopefully that will work out, as sushi = yummy goodness for my tummy.

But for now running off to a few hours of class before we all meet up again later.

Survivor, or The One You Will Probably Forget By The End

I've maintained from the beginning that the first four episodes of any season of Survivor are all but write-offs, just a chance to start to get familiar with the people who are going to be the real players while still giving the poor saps who go first a chance at their fifteen minutes. This episode held true to this formula, and I'm afraid did so without much excitement, save for one laughably odd editing decision.

Thus we are treated to more squabbling, whether over Zoolanders attempts to brow-beat his entire team into slack-eyed submission or Poker-Man and his incredible strategy of annoying everyone to death. I realize most people have little control over whether they snore or not, but they do have control over whether they think that all teammates of the opposite sex are in proximity only to be your personal blankets at night. Ick!

I won't even go into the challenge details, because mostly they were pretty ordinary. Challenges where they have to beat each other up always bore me a little, because people like James are obviously going to dominate, so there just isn't that much intrigue. Zoolander stripped down naked, which I might have appreciated more as a strategy had Rich Hatch not already gone down that road. Also, why is it always the kinda smarmy people who get naked like that? Ultimately it didn't do him any good either which I was glad for, although the girls on his team pulled it out in their rounds and won the game. The other challenge was a bit more heartbreaking, at least for fans of the waitress. I was tempted to make excuses for her pathetic attempts at wielding a machete that probably weighed more than she did to chop through wood and seven ropes, because the later challenges like "Stand on a Pole" will probably be more up her alley. But I didn't, because she still has to pay for mocking the monks. So ha!

The best part of the challenge, and I say that tongue-in-cheek, was that as each person whipped their machete through the air to cut down a hanging bundle, the camera went into freeze-frame with sound effects mode. Burnett, dude, are you kidding me? That kind of iMovie cheese has got to go. I mean, like I said, the episode was pretty bland and I know you were just trying to give me something to hold on to. And in that respect it worked, it was the most memorable thing in the episode. But please, for the love of all things awesome, please promise me you will never, ever, do that again.

In the end, three people seemed vulnerable: Lazy Poker Man Who Snores, Waitress Who Weighs Less Than A Machete, and Sister Christian. Personality wise it was a hard decision between Poker Man and Waitress. But the team blindsided me, and decided the biggest threat was Sister Christian, who found out that there were other Christians on the other team, and they worried that the Christian brothers and sisters might someday start an Inquisition and get rid of all their pagan asses, so they preemptively sent her off to Heaven early. I was totally bummed by this move, because I am positive that she would have provided far more quality television that Waitress can ever hope to do. But I couldn't blame them, since I'm sure we all remember what happened when the "trustworthy" Boy Scout Troop Leader Lady decided to play dirty in Panama and voted off my man Andrew.

Sister Christian's goodbye speech once again confirmed that she was a rockin' contestant, as she didn't act all pissy and wounded. The goodbye speech is always a window into the real person, rather than the persona they adopt for the game, and it can be quite revealing into who is awesome and who sucks. She was awesome. She was a little crazy and weird, but that is far preferrable to many of her other whiny bickersome teammates.

And, are they ever going to introduce us to the lady who looks like she has a mullet although I don't think it is literally a mullet? Has she said more than three words on camera yet? She reminds me a lot of the truck driver that was on the season that the Mormon girl almost won who lasted until like the final five yet remained near invisible the entire time. Are some people really THAT boring? Even the one girl who Gay Mormon Flight Attendant has an alliance with was mostly invisible, and he was hanging out with the obnoxious waitress most of the episode.

Three episodes down, and two of the most interesting players are gone. Chicken was annoying, but you could make a case for him being interesting too I guess. I just look forward to less bickering and more delicious deviousness. And one of them better find that "hidden" immunity idol soon, or I am going to go out of my mind.

Rant

As a determined optimist, can I just rant a minute against all the people in the world who seem to be conspiring to make me a cynical pessimist?

The reason I love sports, and the Olympics, and the Tour de France, is that it is awesome to see people push their bodies beyond what I am willing to spend the time and effort it would take to do it myself. Exceptional atheletes are inspiring, to see people push through pain and fatigue to acheive physically amazing things. So guess what? I think steroids SUCK. I am SO of hearing about sports stars using steroids. Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, Jason Giambi: boring. I had a great time at some Yankees games when I lived in NY, and the year we had the subway series was ridiculous fun. But my interest has waned considerably with each new revelation of how many of them cheat. Then it was Floyd Landis being stripped of his medal for "winning" the Tour. I think he is still contesting that, and I'd love to give him the benefit of the doubt, but boy is it tough. Now today I hear that Marion Jones, my super-hero of the Sydney Olympics, has admitted that she was using steroids too, and this pisses me off more than I can say. I was invested in her and this is a betrayal of my trust and admiration. I watched the Sydney Olympics from start to finish, I knew all the atheletes, I watched all the events, and I loved her. And now I find out she was cheating the whole time.

Let me be clear, if someone wants to take steroids, I could care less. But don't try and pass yourself off as someone who doesn't. If there was a steroid league and a non-steroid league, I'd be totally fine with that. I'm sure I could get some momentary fascination from steroid users seeing just how far they could push themselves. But for me, I'm more interested in the personal story, and I'd still look to the non-steroid users for the bulk of my attention. I want to admire people who are otherwise just like me but that can still do these amazing things because they work hard at it. That is impressive.

I'll never forget the South Park episode about steroids. Athletes doing steroids are just like Cartman pretending he is retarded to compete and win in the Special Olympics. I'm mad at you Marion, you suckered me, you suckered your fellow atheletes, and in the end you suckered yourself.

I suppose the same thing has happened with politics. In 2000 I followed all the primaries closely, trying to make an educated decision about who I really thought was going to be the best president, not based on party affiliation but who I really thought would do the right thing. (My choice then was for McCain.) This time around I just can't get into it. I hate how politically cynical I've gotten, but I can't seem to help it. People who hated Kerry because he was a Massachusetts flip-flopper now love Romney, which rather baffles me. Guiliani was a decent mayor for NYC, but he is a bully, and while perhaps that can at times be an advantage in NYC, my feeling is it would be a disaster for our country, especially following the current administration. I like Hillary more than I don't, but I know she will only heighten this period of ultra-partisanship we are in that I hate hate hate. To me Obama is the only one who really seems to have the potential to have a healing effect on our country, but so far he has been far too subtle to get me all that interested. Also, since I don't live in Iowa or New Hampshire I realize it is moot what I think at this point anyway, other people get to make the decision who the nominee will be. All I do is get to vote on the bottom line next November.

I wasn't around then, but you always hear stories about how inspiring John Kennedy was, how he got people excited. I want to be a proud American, I want to have a President the entire country can rally behind and be proud to have as the face of our nation. Bill Clinton was inspriring for me, but not for everyone. Will we ever get a President again that everyone can love, or are we just going to bounce back and forth between partisan labels every few years for ever and ever? With all the Sean Hannities and Ann Coulters and Michael Moores out there who make their living off of partisanship, is there any way to turn down the rhetoric, or are we just bound to get more and more divided? This just sucks!

The end.

work and play and more reasons why casting matters

Work is good. I'm learning, you know, stuff. Sometimes it is hard to get myself out of that all-American desire for instant gratification, so accepting that it is going to be a while before I'm one of those nurses who seems to know absolutely everything about everything is at times difficult. But every day brings a new challenge or a new idea for me to ponder, and there is no substitute for experience.

Our friend Todd is coming from Albuquerque to visit us, he gets here on Sunday. The cool thing about Todd is that unlike certain people who keep talking about coming to visit, he actually IS coming to visit. ::nudge:: So that should be fun. Also I have four days off in a row which is a nice treat. Tomorrow we are going to repot some plants. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or embarassed over how excited I am to do that. lol

Oh, and did anyone catch "Pushing Daisies"? "Amelie" is one of my favorite movies ever, so I was loving the tone, and I thought "Wonderfalls" was one of the best-written and totally-underrated shows on TV, so I was loving the story. But when Swoozie Kurtz aimed the shotgun and said "I can hold my breath a loooooong time" I almost gave myself a spontaneous pneumothorax I was laughing so hard. Once again I think Tivo may be the best purchase we've ever made so I could pause (and rewind) and savor the moment without missing anything else.

Things that make me laugh

I have to give a shout-out to some very funny peeps who are making me laugh like a fool. A few years ago, they heard about a musical theatre festival in NY that, in a Kevin Bacon-y way that doesn't actually involve Mr. Bacon, was started by the super-awesome Tim Jerome who was in "La Boheme" with me. Anyway, they had two weeks to write a show for the festival, and they wrote a show about themselves writing a show for the festival. They named it [title of show]. High concept, hilarity ensues. David saw the original production at the festival and loved it. But these guys and gals didn't quit, instead they reworked the show and had an off-Broadway run that was extended once, twice, a hundred times, something like that. In any case, the show is funny and inspiring and did I mention funny, and even if you aren't a musical theatre nerd like me you should go buy the cast album and enjoy.

Mostly I'm just impressed with them, because rather than just enjoying their fifteen minutes, they have really stuck around and are making things happen for themselves, and you gotta respect that. Plus, the aformentioned laughing like a fool.

In any case, in addition to their [blog], they have also started an online video series about their continued adventures. If you are or know a musical theatre nerd, check it out.