More dancing

My friend Rick (check out his BLOG, newly added to my list on the right) sent me this video on Thanksgiving, and I've been meaning to put it up here. This might not have the polish of my hero Matt's videos, but you can't deny that dancing just makes the world a better place.

One way to turn spare time into something freakishly delicious

Catherine, consider yourself double dog dared.

Thanksgiving and Christmas and birthdays and, yes, some TV

I had to work on Thanksgiving, which was actually fine because besides the whole time-and-a-half thing, I like working weekends and holidays where there are fewer doctors running around making my day busier by ordering lots of magnesium and potassium and blood and new PCAs. Oh wait, they did all of those things anyway. But still, it was quieter than usual. As an added bonus, David came in to shadow one of the techs in the morning. He was on a different floor, but I'm still trying to convince him to come work at the hospital so we can take vacations together and stuff. I think he liked it ok, but he hasn't really made up his mind yet what to do, his school just gave him this big award and are talking about promoting him because they love him so much. I agree he is practically perfect in every way, but I wish he would apply all that grace and goodness in the hospital instead. But I digress. As a third bonus, the hospital gave us a big free meal with all the trimmings, so David and I were able to go down and eat together. Of course, taking a break meant I was behind in my work for the rest of the day, but it was worth it.

When I finally got home that night David had a nice dinner waiting. But he didn't have time to do desert, so we were totally ghetto and went to the only place that was open, 7-11, and got some hostess donuts. They were horrible, but it was kind of funny which somehow made them taste better.

Yesterday we did a little Black Friday shopping, not much, just ran to Target. I had wanted to get him something for his b-day next Friday, but the thing I thought I wanted turned out not to be what I wanted once I got there and saw it. But the day after Thanksgiving is for more than just shopping. When we came home we pulled out all the decorations and started hanging lights! I love Christmas, it is my favorite thing. We got a bunch of new lights and other supplies at Target, and now we have lights in all but our bedroom windows, and also outside around our railing and doorway. We had on the Amy Grant christmas album, and had some egg nog, and the cinnamon candles were lit, so it was a veritable party for our eyes and noses and tongues and ears and was totally awesome in every way. Now we just have to get a tree, I'm hoping a lot opens up somewhere close, we have a few ideas of where to check. Then we will really be set, I love the smell of pine tree in my house.

I also have to confess that apparently I'm not as much of a Survivor addict as I thought. The last episode was one of those recap episodes, but even though they promised "14 new scenes never seen before!!!", I just couldn't care to watch. If no one new is going home, the stakes just aren't interesting enough. And for as much as I love Survivor, I love Christmas even more.

I will say the new Project Runway is fun, because they are all so super talented and super weird all together, and they say things like "Life is too short to wear a bad outfit". But the best TV is still "Pushing Daisies", I can't praise it enough. Every episode has at least one moment where we have to pause it because we are laughing so hard. Plus more singing this week. This is the one show where the writers strike is going to hurt me because I will miss it so much.

This is kind of a random babbling post, but sometimes I'm a random babbling guy. We are going to a play this afternoon. Then I work tomorrow. Lots of fun in store.

Reasons why my parents are totally awesome

1. They took us to Costco, because my belly is a slave to those frozen Chicken Bakes, and if we don't have any in the freezer life just seems sad. (We were down to just one, but we bought two more boxes so should be good until they come visit again. I know, we could just go to Costco ourselves, but somehow it is just more fun with them, it is a mystery of life I don't question.) Also we got a huge poinsetta, and you know what that means:

2. It is Christmastime! But that is a whole additional realm of awesomeness that deserves its own post next weekend when we pull out the decorations and treat all our neighbors to some Christmas cheer that will fill their previously empty lives with holiday goodness and joy.

3. My dad is getting weirder as he gets older, but in more interesting ways. Actually, he read my mind and had a super-brilliant idea for a Christmas present for David. But, while everyone in my family has been long-aware of his savant ability to absorb vast quantities of random trivia, on the way home he started busting out with the foreign languages. Yeah, maybe I can say "hello" in like six languages, but he can say "Everybody loves a Saturday night" in Ethiopian. Then he said something equally as random in Swahili, and then Russian. I don't know how he does it. It almost makes me forgive him for watching Fox "News" in my house.

4. While my dad was watching either Fox "news", or maybe a western, (who knows, he changes the channels so fast it just looks like a blur to us mere mortals), we took my mom on a walk to the Capitol Building. Along the way we had a nice discussion about...the pros and cons of circumcision. (Full disclosure, having watched a couple in the hospital, my take is that I'd never, ever, do that to a son of mine.) But sometimes I'm just amazed at the topics of discussion that come up.

5. We went to dinner at the Banana Cafe, and I had the best steak fajita I've had in a long time. My mom's plate was garnished with plantains, but I was the only one who liked them so I made myself sick eating those too. It was a really good meal, highlighted with cute stories about my nieces and nephews. ::melancholy sigh because I miss all of them::

6. This morning we got both that Texas sliced bread and some cinnamon bread so we can make french toast for breakfast! I know, this post is turning into all about food, but still, I am typing here waiting for my parents to get up so we can eat. Breakfast is the best.

7. My parents admitted that they don't really like Guiliani, and for all the right reasons. Sweet.

8. I'm not sure what we are going to do today, maybe go to a movie or something. We were going to have early Thanksgiving dinner with my aunt and uncle, but they got sick. ::sad face:: Get well soon!

9. I don't really have another thing, but I'm sure something else fun will happen today, so I'm anticipating nine reasons why my parents are totally awesome. For the record.

Survivor, or the one where I wanted to see Eric and Amanda fall in love

I find myself not having a whole lot to say about this episode. So why don't I just go through the players that are left.

Todd - he is still in control, though how much of that is because of him and how much of that is because no one on his alliance has challenged him yet, I'm not sure. He gets this smug look on his face sometimes that he needs to be careful no one else sees. But if I had to pick today, I'd probably choose him to win (as my favorite player, not as a prediction.)

James - Every time he opens his mouth I like him less. I admire his strength, but I just can't root for someone who talks that unintelligently. He is so condescending. Yes, PG is obnoxious, but talking louder than her doesn't make you right. I'm boggled that they aren't worried about his TWO IMMUNITY IDOLS. They are fast losing opportunities to get rid of him.

Denise - I like her, but pretty much only because of the hair, the accent, and the fact that I always love underdogs. Her and Courtney both are riding the coat-tails, I imagine at least one of them will make it to the very end, and then will get no votes from the jury.

Courtney - what i just said. Her "relationship" with Frosti was, at least, interesting, which is more than I can say about anything else she has said or done. But she is a self-proclaimed New York bitch, she will vote our her plaything just to prove she can.

Eric - Just a nice guy. He is dealing with a bad set of circumstances, so I can't really come down too hard on him, but all he is is nice. While I very much disagree that he would automatically win if he made it to the end, I do think the threat is real and he won't last much longer. Which is a shame, because I think he and Amanda would make beautiful babies together. (Sorry Jamie!)

PG - I'm not interested in her. She whines, she cries, she is overall annoying. I think they've been editing out her lameness for a long time (remember how annoying she was in the very beginning?) She might be a good pick to take to the end too. For someone who is smart though, she is sure playing a very dumb game. Maybe she had good reason to be mad at James when he basically gave up on the reward challenge, but what was she thinking when she said "I can't believe you ever accused me of throwing challenges!" Um, maybe he did that because you DID throw a challenge?

Amanda - I think I've decided she is my favorite. She has long been the sole voice of reason to Todd. Plus she is totally hot, and nice, plays well, and is overall very well put together. When she opted to play instead of eat I looked at David and declared her my favorite person of the season. I don't know if she'd be able to beat Todd or James in the end, but she is who I'd most want to have dinner with.

Frosti - I always liked him, though he must have been boring because the editors largely ignored him. Between him and Eric I think he was the bigger threat, so he is who I would have voted for tonight. His losing speech was lame and bitter, which I always always hate. Too bad, otherwise I might have remembered him with a lot more fondness. Also, he liked Courtney and is so messed up in the head he thinks he "isn't in her league". Poor, stupid kid.

I always love the "you can eat instead of compete" challenge, because it can really have consequences. Cockiness can always come back to haunt you. If Amanda makes it to the end the fact that she played when she was in no danger of going home could totally sway some undecided votes in her favor. And remember, though James has two idols, he didn't earn either, they were both given to him by Todd. I'm sure, or at least I hope, things get shaken up, but otherwise I do feel like we are heading towards a Todd/James showdown.

I'm not even going to speculate on what the undisclosed "twist" was at the very end. Lame that it was just a tease for two weeks in a row, I find that way more annoying than fun. I'll assume it isn't another tribal council though, because we see Eric and PG (didn't we?) in the scenes from next week. But as long as it doesn't involve members from the jury coming back, I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever it is.

Oh, and usually I don't pay attention to the opening credits, but this time they only included the people in the merged tribe plus the jury. Is that something new? I don't remember that in previous seasons. Not that I care at all, but that was a much better decision by the new editors than the fancy slow-mo action of the first few episodes. Heh.

Take your argument, add humor and mix with a video camera

Because no one explains contradictions better than the Daily Show writers...

Things I want to say

Thing #1. Working three days in a row sucks for me, but is awesome for my patients. Continuity of care really goes a long way, by the third day I practically could have taken care of them blindfolded, which meant I had more time to give backrubs and hold hands. So that part was good. But boy was I pooped! Actually it was the night after the second day that was the worst, knowing I had to come back again. The third night I was actually a little wired knowing I'd finished my first long weekend and now had four days off to look forward to.

I also had another "trouble" patient who gave me absolutely no trouble at all, except for getting caught smoking in the bathroom. But he was having a simultaneous attack of both the shingles and acute gout, so even though I made him promise me he wouldn't do it again (using the whole "there is oxygen in the room and the entire floor could explode!" line of reasoning) I still could understand him wanting to get a little relief any way he could.

Thing #2. I'm still trying to talk David into coming to work at the hospital as a tech. He came home with another big bruise, which actually doesn't bother me because he will bruise if you look at him too hard, but still I'm taking whatever ammunition I can. He still has these nasty looking scratches down his hands which make me angry everytime I see them, even though I know his kids are challenged and can't always help it. Everyday he comes home and tells me about yet another random person he barely knows in the school who comes up to him in a hallway and tells him they are hearing really good things about him. Which means that not only is everyone noticing his awesomeness, but they are talking about it amongst themselves. Yesterday someone came to his room and started handing out mysterious envelopes to all the adults. Someone got spooked and asked "What are these about?" and another girl said "Don't worry, David got one so it must be about something good!" But as much as I know he deserves the compliments (I have no doubt that if he stayed there long enough they would make him principal, he really is that awesome at what he does), I wish they would stop so he'd leave sooner. As long as they keep stoking his ego it is making my job of getting him to quit all that much harder.

Thing #3. I made the mistake of watching Leonard DiCaprio in "The Beach" on television yesterday. As much as the second half of the movie is totally lame, it still made me super nostalgic for my own days of adventuring through Thailand and Cambodia. I want to take a nice big trip so bad, and I know it is realistically going to be a while. Not only do I need to get my student loans paid off, and the intention is to do so in far less than the ten years they give you, but our next vacation is pretty much set. My little brother is doing a semester internship thing at Disneyworld, so we are going to drive down next spring and see him and his girlfriend (who also got the internship) and the parks all at the same time. With any luck more family will be able to make it too. But we aren't going home for the holidays (I don't want to end up a statistic of someone who was stranded in an airport for three days, and you know those stories are coming, even the airlines are predicting that), and while several of my family members have made it to see us here (in fact my parents are coming again this weekend) I haven't been to Idaho to see his family in, what, a year and a half now? Plus his sister just had a new baby and we are both dying to see the little tyke. (Christine, if you are reading this, isn't it about time you emailed out some pictures???) So that is a trip that is going to have to happen, probably next summer/fall sometime.

But I'm dreaming of Machu Picchu. Or even Paris. After Christmas my preceptor is leaving for South Africa to do a two week gig teaching local nurses how to care for HIV/AIDS patients, so I'm hating on her with jealousy right now. I even literally had a dream that I took her and my manager to Singapore, and in the dream was so excited that I got to share with them the smell of equatorial Asia. (There is a smell, it smells like, well, green, and even though you can only smell if for like five minutes when you first get there, it is one of the most powerful and fricking awesome smells I've ever known.) I also want to go back to Asia, I want to take David to Cambodia and, especially, Angkor Wat. I want to take cooking classes in Thailand (banana pancakes!) and go on an elephant trek and ride the Meekong through Laos and go to Halong Bay in northern Vietnam. I don't need to do the whole "find myself" tour again, that was what my last trip was for. Now I just want to have the adventure, and to share it with David. ::sigh:: For Christmas all I want is lottery tickets. Strike that. For Christmas all I want is winning lottery tickets. (It is best to be specific when you visualize.)

Thing #4. Skip this thing if you aren't a musical theatre nerd, but I'm in that in-between stage with my dreams, where slowly I'm having fewer dreams of being on stage and more and more dreams about being in the hospital. But the other day I dreamed that I'd gone back to LA and was putting on an encore performance of "Crazy For You" that I did 1996. During the show I looked out and saw Elmarie Wendell in the audience, and I got all super excited, and as soon as the show was over I ran out in the parking lot to find her, and I couldn't find her (but I did tell Tracy Lore that I'd be right back to talk to her) but finally I saw her and then I woke up as I was running up to her. I once did "Gigi" with Elmarie, and unless you are a nerd and know her from the original cast album of "Little Mary Sunshine" she played the landlady on "Third Rock From The Sun". How she found her way into my unconciousness twelve years later is a total mystery, but I think it is totally fabulous that I am having fanboy dreams about Elmarie Wendell. I'm a total nerd, and I love it.

Thing #5. How crazy is it that the Hollywood writers and NY stagehands go on strike at the same time? I'm curious about the stagehands, of all the Broadway unions they are undoubtably the strongest. But it is interesting watching public opinion. I think the stagehands have it crazy good compared to anyone else, so my sympathy isn't as strong as, say, it was for the musicians when they went on strike when I was on Broadway. But while I have more sympathy for writers, who I think should get royalties for internet usage of their work, I'm going to be very sad when they run out of episodes of "Pushing Daisies".

But can I just pick a bone here? All the sudden everyone is shouting the sky is falling and how we are just going to be overwhelmed with reality TV. And I ask, what the heck is wrong with that? If we get a lot more, of course much of it is going to be crap, but there will be some cream in there too. I have no interest in watching the lowest-common-denominator type of reality TV either, making people eat bull testes or get drunk and make out with each other. Too easy, too boring. But what isn't fantastic about watching real live people use their smarts to win a challenge, or to find the fastest way of driving from Amsterdam city to some outlying farm (yes I am watching Amazing Race and yes it is awesome as usual), or singing, or dancing, or whatever it is that they do really well. Real people are far more interesting that watching yet another person get killed in spectacularly bloody and perverted fashion and then watch Gary Sinise find the bad guy. Yawn. I don't want to watch more fake lawyers, or fake doctors, or silly sitcoms. The fact that I think "Pushing Daisies" is the best new show on TV since, well, "Wonderfalls", must tell you a little something about my tastes for the odd and the clever and the interesting. And scripted TV is rarely odd or clever or interesting. Maybe the first season of "Lost", mostly because of the whole deserted island thing, which I thought was way more awesome than the monsters and ghosts and unending conspiracies that the show has now embraced.

I have more autobiographies on my book shelf than anything else. Real people are awesome. Not "Girls Gone Wild" people maybe, but I'd rather watch a fabulous person remodel a house or cook a crab-cake hot dog or whatever then watch the latest rip-off of "LA Law" or "St. Elsewhere" or "Hill Street Blues". (And though I'm too young to know, I'm sure those were all rip-offs of something else themselves.)

Of course, I'd rather go scuba dive off of the Galpagos Islands than watch TV, but we don't always get our first choice.

Anyway, that is enough Things for today. David will be home soon and we are going to go on a nice long walk tonight, because it warmed up and we want to take advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.

Survivor, or the one I had to blog live so apologies for the lack of cohesion and insight...

Hey boys and girls. Yours truly has to work the next three days (I know, right?), so I'm gonna try something a little different here and blog this episode live. If I wait until Monday I'll be like last week's immunity challenge except that I'll be the one who won't be able to remember anything.

Previously...on Survivor. "Jamie played an idol while a shocked Jean-Robert looked on." So they are confirming he didn't know about the idols. Interesting. Oh, yeah, he just said it. I didn't realize until right now just how bad he has screwed himself with his strategy. If James of all people thinks you are too stupid to be trusted with the knowledge of the idols, well, I'd say you are pretty far down the river at that point.

Does anyone else think it is embarassing that whats-his-face Carradine is making these totally lame Yellow Book commercials? However I am totally up with the new singing Mazda commercial. Singing is always, and I do mean always, good.

Um, whose toe is feeding the local insects?

HA! My fellow blogger Fletch just laughed out loud when James called Todd the Stewardess. Heh.

Dang, Lunch Lady is still stuck in gradeschool and didn't get picked for the challenge! That is totally lame. And, what a surprise, Courtney fails spectacularly! That was so lopsided it wasn't even fun. However, on the bright side, it does give Eric and PG a chance to chat up Courtney. I don't see Lunch Lady betraying James anytime soon, but Courtney will bail on her team to vote out Jean-Robert in a second. I wonder if Jean-Robert will try anything with Todd and Amanda?

Why are they giving out clues to the idols when they are already found? Just to screw with Jean-Robert? I'm ok with that, but still. Oh wow, Amanda wears glasses! And she is even hotter! I always think almost all Survivor girls are totally hot, and then they show up at the very last show in too much makeup and always look like hookers. Hopefully her modeling background will help her from the curse of the rouge.

Sweet, sweet game playing. Lunch Lady starts playing, and I love every second. More, please.

Shut up and hold the phone. Did Jean-Robert just take down the same non-idols that Jamie played? Did he not see Jeff throw hers into the fire? This season is plain crazy. But at the same time, what is he supposed to do? He can't just anticipate that the idol has already been found, he has to try something, but this is just ridiculous.

Todd: "I would love to see some craziness at camp". I agree! Curious that they are thinking about getting rid of PG before Eric. So they want James to not win immunity, which my Survivor-sense tells me means he wins. But balance, hmmmm, you never know. But I bet Lunch Lady goes down first, sorry sweetheart. These kinds of things usually favor the light girls, but I just have no faith in Coutrney. Yay! Lunch Lady isn't last, just second to last! OK, I love James' cartoon struggling voice. Heh. And he is out, so much for my special intuition. So it is up to the little people. And Courtney pulls it out. I still hate her, but I will give her props for that.

Voting out James is smart, but still risky. Todd will totally go for it, because he is all about playing hard regardless of the consequences. But will the Amanda sitting on his shoulder let him get away with it? I can't wait to see if she comes out with a halo or a hooked tail. I also can't believe Todd let James keep both idols. Dude, ask for it back! Waiting for him to offer it is a strange, passive-aggressive strategy for someone who is playing so hard.

Oooh, this is just too good to be true. J-R pretends to have it, and Eric blows the secret! And a confrontation between J-R and James! This is turning too fast, I can't keep up with the wheels that are turning now. This is completely my favorite episode so far. Todd is so wishy-washy I can't tell what he wants, but I give him credit for saying the game is "fun". Amanda doesn't really talk much, but I really do imagine that she is the closet smart one of the group, because she can sure call Todd out on his crap. And my beautiful Jamie doesn't look so wholesome anymore. ::sigh::

Oh, the delicious levels. James looks pissed and scared, which is enjoyable. Todd looks smug, which I also find enjoyable, because if no one except Amanda ever calls him out on it then he deserves to win because he has been nothing but obvious the entire game. I find it super foolish that they kept Denise out of the loop and told her to vote for PG. Now she knows she is on her own and will flop, but I suppose they were afraid she would've flopped tonight if they'd told her. Still, she will be on the jury, so still super risky.

I give JR credit for not getting pissy in his exit interview, though he clearly has very little awareness of how he is really viewed, because i don't think anybody voted him off because they thought he was "the best player in the game". I still worry about his threat to Todd, and worry that his final tribal question will be uncomfortable.

James still has two idols. Is he beatable at this point? He's been warned people are going to vote for him now, and now that the balance challenge is done, he could still win a lot of challenges. I think he is a boring win because he is so strictly an "outplay", but maybe he'll grow on me. (And even if I prefer "outwit", "outplay" is still valid and I couldn't complain.)

I'll probably think of more to say as I'm falling asleep, but I need to get started on that falling asleep part, because 5:15 comes all too soon. I'm not looking forward to three days in a row, but having the same patients day after day helps a little. But this was a good episode, I'm sated for another week.

More proof that cable news sucks

This is just random, but I was reading an article about news shows and it said that the primetime Fox News programs get an average of 1.5 million viewers. CNN is in second with about half that. For as much as we hear about CNN and Fox News, it amazes me how few people actually watch them. Don't the top TV shows have like 20-30 million viewers? I mean, we are a nation of 300 million people and the top rated cable news show only gets 0.005% of the population to watch? I know there are lots of options for watching the news (I myself read the news, televised news always just makes me angry with their low-brow stupidity), but still, those numbers really surprised me a lot. I wonder how many people watch "The Daily Show"?

Things you should do because my friends totally rock

I have a couple of totally fabulous friends who amaze me in so many ways, but this particular couple rock my world by always finding new ways to make some art on their own instead of waiting for someone else to give them the opportunity. Anyway, they entered this short film contest, and have made it to the finals, with judges like George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Orlando Bloom, and Rihanna. I'm talking Rihanna people! If Rihanna loves them, you know you will too.

So you really should go to current.com, check out their video and vote for them, because while George and Orlando got to pick the finalists, we get to choose the winner. You have to register to vote, but it only takes like three seconds. It actually seems like a cool website, but I was in a hurry and didn't really check it out too much, any anyway my plug here is just for my friends 60-second movie. If the link doesn't take you to the right spot after you register, just search for the Alliance Ecospot Contest. Their film is called "Small Steps". You are allowed to watch and even like the other spots (I thought "Support Good Hot" was funny), but I'm sure with your good taste you will realize that my friends video - and they are your friend by extention - is by far the best, so vote for them. Or I'll get all Mean Nurse on your butt.

Also, another friend of mine (and probably of some of yours) has a totally awesome CD out of children's music. Her name is Suzie Tallman and the CD is called "Let's Go! Travel, Camp & Car Songs". So if any of you are Grammy voters, make sure you give her some consideration, because not only is she plain old totally rocking awesome as a person, but the girl can sing. (I especially love her because the first time I saw her was in a production of "The Secret Garden" and she is a dead ringer for Rebecca Luker which fooled my brain almost every time she walked on stage.) If you have kids, even if you can't give her a Grammy, you still will want this CD for car trips. (Don't tell my sisters or their kids, but they are both getting it for Christmas.) You can order the CD here. Remember when you were a kid and you would sing "Going On A Bear Hunt" and it was super fun? Don't you get all warm and fuzzy remembering that? Well, pass on the good times to all the children you know so they can get happily nostalgic about it when they are all old like we are. Do it for the children. You don't hate children, do you?

Tales from work, or Yes, I do have a life outside of watching reality television

There is the stereotype that nurses are subjected to a lot of poop. So far, that really hasn't been my experience. Until yesterday. I won't go into details, because I love you all to much, but yesterday I saw far too much poop for my liking. Enough said.

Otherwise, work is going ok. I still feel overwhelmed with the amount of information I'm expected to know, and still can't always take all the little details and extrapolate them all into the big picture. But I'm getting much better with the details, which for now is progress enough. Also it has been suggested to me that I am a "people person". Who knew? Maybe I am just a pushover or something, but patients that are mean to everyone don't give me any problems at all. Yesterday a doctor with about eight med students in tow huffed over to me and said "Are you the nurse for this patient? She is completely non-responsive, she won't even answer simple questions! What is wrong with her?" And I got the extreme satisfaction of looking her square in the eye and said "She is tired, and doesn't want to talk to you." Don't get me wrong, I work with a lot of fantastic doctors, and even if the med students sometimes exude more fear than I do, well, that is all part of learning and I think they do a great job. But sometimes they just get so caught up in the guts and glory that they forget there is a real person attached to the disease who might object to being rounded on by multiple teams and asked the same questions over and over and over again.

On the other hand, I've gotten attached to another patient, a woman with cancer that has caused a wide array of other problems. For a while it seemed like she was getting better, but now it is weeks later and she is struggling. She has had other nurses assigned to her the last few shifts I've worked, but I try and stick my head in the door before I go to say hi. She is such a sweetheart, but it is all wearing on her. I just hold her hand for a minute, and try to make her smile. I wish there was something I could say to make things better.

Oh, and also yesterday I got to try my hand at being Mean Nurse. I had another patient who was having a rough day, perhaps a reaction to some medications, but she was very tired and wanted to rest, but was expecting a lot of visitors. She couldn't bring herself to tell me not to allow her family to visit, but she kept dropping hints. So when the family arrived and started trying to force her to get up and walk, or to eat more of her lunch - all with the best of intentions mind you - I got to step in and save her and kick them all out. Perhaps it was less of a stern body slam out the door, and more of a firm encouragement with a smile, but still, for me that is pretty darn Mean. ::grin:: The patient rested quietly for the rest of the afternoon, and later that evening was feeling much better, and though she never mentioned her family she kept thanking me for allowing her to rest and get better. She was delightful, and I'm sure she will be gone before I get back to the floor on Friday.

And daylight savings rocks. Besides the extra hour of much needed sleep, it is so much nicer going to work with a little bit of sunshine. It probably won't last much longer, but I'll cherish it while it lasts.

Survivor, or why real-time reality is just better

Let me just start by saying, and I don't want to equivocate here, that I totally love my Tivo. Gone are the days where I'd program the VCR wrong, or forget to put a tape in, or worse yet put the wrong tape in, and have part of some priceless old family videos get taped over by Gervais getting interviewed on "The Today Show". (::sigh::) Now I can just sit back and know that my Tivo is going to get all episodes of "Pushing Daisies" and "The Daily Show" and I can watch them whenever I get around to it, work schedule non-withstanding.

But I have to say, there is something about Survivor that is different. I'm not even sure what it is exactly, but whenever I watch Survivor more than a day late the energy just seems to be lacking somehow. Like everyone already knows what is going to happen except me, and I'm just playing catch up instead of playing real-time. That is sort of why I've never bothered to try and watch any of the Survivor: Outback episodes, the only season I've missed (because I was actually camping in the Australian Outback when it aired). From most accounts it is one of the best seasons, full of excitement and stuff, but since I know who the winner is, I've just never had much interest in catching up with it.

This weeks episode, which I just watched, was a little like that. Not that I knew what was going to happen, but it was still one of those episodes where I guessed Jamie was going home after the first five minutes, and then despite some honest-to-goodness fun and plotting along the way, still played out much as expected and just wasn't as exciting. Anyway, that probably says more about me than about the actual episode, but there it is.

So rather than recap the whole episode, I'll just cover my favorite parts. The best moment was, of course, Todd talking about Courtney: "Deal with it...bitch." I think that sums it up for me. Also Todd seems like a little kid to me, and made me think of my post from a few days ago where Pearl said much the same thing. Which of course = me howling with laughter.

Let's see, I think that was about it for the especially good parts. The whole not-an-actual-immunity-idol was totally unsatisfying for me. This season the editors seem to be going out of their way to make people look stupid via editing. I actually thought Jamie was playing very smart with the info she had. Her little "deal" with Todd about saving her and she would give him info on the other idols would have been a great move under different circumstances. She wasn't stupid like James kept saying she was, she was doing a good job with the information she had. Last season when the Four Horseman used their idol, but on the wrong person, it was like TV-heaven because they were so cocky and watching their smiles crumble was as delicious as my mothers homemade sour cream enchiladas with New Mexican green chile fresh out of the oven. But Jamie, while hardly the smartest player the show has ever seen, was still playing a good game, made some smart moves (think Leslie) and could hardly be called cocky. So it all just seemed inevitable, which was sort of boring.

James remains likable, but his less-than-sharp wit means he'll never be in the league of Terry or Tom or even Ozzie, at least for me. Amanda is solid, but still hasn't been given much to do other than provide a bit of wisdom and strength behind Todd's power plays. I still love the wild and reckless way Todd is playing, because at least he is playing, but like I said from Episode One, I'm worried he is just going to play too hard, and the previews for next week seems to bear that out. Jean-Robert's plan also seems to be unraveling though he himself is loathe to admit it. His attempted bulling of Todd about the jury was perhaps on point but also annoying. If there is anything I hate more then walnuts in otherwise delicious cookies, it is a sanctimonious and bitter speech from the jury. Sadly, I think he is right about Courtney, whom I expect is going to make it to the end as the person that no one votes for. Good for James for calling her out on her lack of New York "street smarts".

Another curious Jeff-move, but why didn't he ask if anyone wanted to play the immunity idol? The original intent might have been that is was hidden and that it might surprise people, but surely he watches the tapes and knows that everyone knows about them. Well, Jean-Robert seemed surprised, but surely he knew James was trying to throw the challenge last week, so I didn't really get that either. Anyway, hardly important, just curious.

Also, I was bummed that Frosti won immunity, just because I was curious which way he was going to fall. But since he knew he was safe, he really didn't have to scramble so just went with the easy path. I wonder how long that is going to work out for him. However, if he really does like Courtney, I might find it hard to like him anymore. Fun fact from his bio: he's been on tour with Madonna. Are any of these contestants media-neophytes?

So them's my thoughts. Deal with it...bitch.

Survivor delay...

Hey folks, I worked today, and again tomorrow, so I won't get a chance to watch my Tivo'd Survivor until tomorrow night, which means no post until Saturday. Sorry, I know how much that depresses so many of you. ::grin::

On the other hand, I've decided that "Pushing Daisies" is my favorite show since "Wonderfalls".

Running to bed now, I'm exhausted and need to get my dream on.