Survivor, or the ups and downs of power duo Todd and Amanda

This will be fast because I need some precious sleep to prepare myself for another busy day of saving lives, but I'd better say something now or I never will.

I liked the reward challenge. For example I find it fascinating that everyone gave their arrows to Courtney. Did they anticipate she would hit their names for them? Todd rocked out, which again at this stage always impresses me. Boring Denise wins, and continues her uninterrupted string of bizarre decisions. Of course you pick Courtney. But don't say "I don't want to pick PG" so she can hear you. Just say "I have to pick Todd because he did the best at the challenge and he almost won." No one can argue that logic. Well, PG would, but who cares. Instead, like before, she makes it about picking favorites. I suppose this is a remnant of being last chosen in grade school when you really do pick your teammates based on who is popular and nothing else. Too bad that working in a school environment she hasn't ever progressed beyond that.

I don't blame Amanda for being disappointed, but really, you already have photographs of yourself flying kites from the Great Wall don't you? I was hoping she would say "Oh, yeah, I did that last year already, it is so passe." But instead she acted all wounded, which made my love for her shed a tear of its own.

Todd is getting a bit too chummy with Courtney. I mean, at this point I'd want her at the end too, but you are starting to pick up some of her horribleness, and you need to knock that off dude. Them cooties are clearly contagious. So while I was hating him complaining about the food, and talking about the food, and talking more about the food, I did have to love him for talking about getting rid of Amanda. Of course I'd sort of rather she win over him, but every time he works it I have to love it.

The reward challenge was great. Denise deserves to go home now. There is no way she would win if I were on the jury and had anything to say about it. You eat whatever horribleness Jeff puts in front of you, or die trying. Only losers give up. PG, for as much as I think she is, like, you know, like, stupid as dirt, fought another hard battle. But my darling Amanda pulled it out, which of course makes me love her even more, as well as being a huge relief that she wasn't going home already.

Amanda finally started talking about getting rid of Todd, but then she didn't do anything about it, she just allowed PG to bear the burden. Lame. Fight your battles. I am very concerned for her at this point. Denise, whom I'm sure is a respectable and nice person in real life, is just completely unsuited for this game. I'd love to see her have to pick between Todd and Amanda, not for the game, but just to pick who was the coolest. I think her brain would explode, like a robot trying to find a rhyme for orange.

So Amanda missed her chance. The next challenge will be crucial for her, or else they will get rid of her. I'd love to see her manipulate it so Todd goes, but I don't think there is a way. Anyhoo, a real win for me is a Todd/Amanda showdown in the end. I love the way Todd went on about how everyone hates him. Am I just blind, because I really haven't sensed that from anyone. I mean, I'm sure they resent his power, but partly in a good way, where you stand up and say, yes, I was in control, and I owned this game, and that is why you have to vote for me because I outwitted you all. While Denise surely loves hearing him talk about everyone hating him, it isn't a seed I'd want to be planting in the jury's head, I think that was a foolish thing to say at Tribal Council. Amanda has good outwit cred too though. Even though she folded this week, it was still her that got rid of James, and was the source of Todd's power and decision making for a long time. Plus she competed in the "compete or eat" challenge, which is what sealed the deal for me with her.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. If Todd goes up against Denise and Courtney I will cry from boredom. I wonder what this jury will be like. I get so annoyed with the ones that get haughtily mad or self-righteously dramatic or the ones that are clearly aware that this is their last moment ever to be on TV and so want to make a big impression. (Yes, I'm talking to you Alex!) Not that the questions need to be softballs, but keep your misplaced emotion to yourself please.

I'll try and watch Monday night after work.

Christmas fun and more love of Kathy Griffin

I'm sitting here making some of the finishing touches on my Christmas present to my family, which is at such a level of awesomeness it will make them all weep and and be amazed that they have never received a gift that was so spectacular and wonderful and they will realize I am forever their favorite and they love me more than they ever have and all other gifts they receive will pale in comparison to my excellent taste and creativity. So if you are giving a gift to someone I am closely related to, then all I can say is, SUCKER! Too bad for you that they are going to like my present way better than yours! Neener neener!!! Bwa-ha-ha!!!

Other than being awesome, I am just being tired, because I've spent every waking moment of every day off I've had in the past two weeks working on, er, stuff, and now I've got four days of work in front of me and I'm a little pooped. We are having some fabulous Albuquerque company on Friday night, and I'm going to barely be able to say hello before running off to bed again after work which is totally crappy. Ah, well. Yesterday was actually a great day at work, despite having two patients break down in tears. One guy said "I really hope I just die tonight. I believe in God, and I know suicide is the worst sin, and I can't wash away all the good I've done in my life with that, so I just hope I die in my sleep. Tonight." I didn't say much, because, what DO you say, but also he didn't want me to say anything, he just needed someone to listen. But other than the abject depression, I'm getting much better with my actual work load and don't feel so incompetent anymore, which you might realize is a huge plus in my overall sense of happiness.

Other nurses, how many times have you done this: After work, just as I was about to start eating dinner, I suddenly realized that in my long note I wrote that I had a patient on Aspiration Precautions, when she was really on Airborne Precautions (to rule out TB). It is a dumb mistake, I don't even know how I remembered that I'd done it. But now I'm all annoyed with myself. Stupid! Stupid!

We just got some cookies in the mail from my parents-in-law, and also some honeycomb candy which is one of my favorite things ever. When I lived in Singapore they had it in candybar form, called a Violet Crumble, but I've only found them here on rare occasions in specialty stores. Of course, thanks to all the work I've been putting in on my sweet Christmas gifts, I haven't been to the gym in almost two weeks and now I'm eating Christmas cookies, it is all a bad scene at my house. Come January I'm going to be eating better and gymming more often, I swear. Well, maybe not eating better, but I do like the gym. I have a sick gym, so it is actually fun to go. Plus if I go at the right time I get curious VH-1 reality TV to watch while I'm kicking butt on the elliptical or treadmill, which is sometimes painful but other times delicious. Once Kathy Griffin was co-hosting "The View", and that was like Christmas had come early. If I ever win the lottery, I will totally use my winnings to arrange a dinner date with her, I think she is just crazy-awesome-funny. I don't get all fanboy crazy over many celebrities, like any of the celebrities I met after Boheme usually sent me into a spiral of awkward silliness (I just smiled sheepishly at Nicole Kidman, couldn't even approach Placido Domingo, and I totally insulted Dame Maggie Smith, but by accident I swear!) But Kathy Griffin seems like she would be just a normal person, not a star you had to watch out for. Besides, if I said something stupid or insulting to her she might make fun of me in her act and what could possibly be better than that?! My friend Susie is friends with Chloe Webb who is also someone I would die of embarrassed happiness if I got to meet, but I think I missed my chance with that one by moving to DC. ::sigh:: I'm not even going to discuss my friend who was tragically killed in a blog duel recently, who at one time was allegedly given heartfelt love by a somewhat tipsy Allison Janney. She is probably just a liar anyway. (My friend, not Allison Janney.)

I'm definitely watching Survivor tonight, but I probably won't get to blog about it until Tuesday, when I will also watch Sunday night's finale. Sorry to be so late with everything, especially with the finale and all, but work is work. I think most of you mock me for it anyway, but I know I can't expect all of my friends to be as enlightened as me on every subject, especially when it comes to areas of my most excellent taste. Enjoy watching Law and Order spin-off #4, or whatever it is you silly anti-reality watchers enjoy.

The Tree

Heh, leave it to Andrew Sullivan to gift me with all the delicious viral videos that I've somehow missed in years past...

Four things

1. I had a rare weekend off, but spent the entire time working on Christmas presents. Which was fun. Just didn't get much done in the relaxing department, and this next week it seems like I'm working a lot. One day I get to shadow our wound/ostomy nurse around for the day, which should be totally cool. Gory details to follow.

2. We saw Golden Compass. Oh, how I wish the religious controversy were, you know, true. They spent a lot of money on special effects, but in trying to make the religious nuts happy (which they obviously didn't do) they stripped the book of any, you know, actual meaning. The biggest reason I enjoyed the books was it made me think, I just thought it was an interesting premise. With the movie, well, there is no need for thinking. They tried to go all Lord of the Rings epic, but left out the story. Also, Nicole Kidman's monkey should be beautiful like she is, not mangy scary. Beautiful scary. There are some inherent difficulties in telling the story I guess. I didn't really like the way they visualized her reading of what the compass was telling her, but I admit I can't think of a better solution. Daniel Craig and especially Nicole Kidman have extremely difficult characters to portray, and I thought they did a good job telling the current story as well as setting up their progression to come. The girl is good anyway. And you can't go wrong with Sam Elliot. The most interesting thing about the movie is that when we saw it Saturday afternoon, and at a big popular theatre, well over half the audience was comprised of small groups of men in their thirties. Who knew that was their audience? ::grin:: The best part is the song over the closing credits, if you go you must stay and listen. The girls name is Lyra, and the song goes something like this: "Lyra, Lyyyyyyyyy-ra, her soul walks besiiiiiii-de her", only they pronounce "her" like "ha" to make it rhyme. I would pay money to see Dionne Warwick sing it on the Oscars.

3. Last night we went to a reading of a new musical. It wasn't very good, but live theatre is rarely totally without merit, and it is a work-in-progress after all. It really makes you aware of how hard it is to write a musical. Before it started this guy walks in, and both David and I see him, and it is that glint of recognition where we know we know him but don't know why, and we are struggling with that impulse of whether or not we should wave and say hi, and then I realize - it is Eric Schaeffer, the artistic director of the Signature Theatre. We can be such nerds sometimes. But he really does look like his picture!

4. Do you think my fantasy of having an Obama/McCain race is at all possible? I'm tired of all the bickering and fighting, can you imagine how with those two we could actually debate the issues they disagree on instead of just the usual self-righteous mud-slinging? McCain has really disappointed me in the past, but I still think he is the best the Republicans have to offer in the way of hope. (I still like a lot of what Ron Paul stands for, but I'm reluctant to get totally on board with anyone that ideological.)

When Survivor is good, it is finger-licking good

Is it me? Am I getting too old/jaded/whatever? This season of Survivor is just not keeping me as deliriously happy as seasons past have, and I'm having a hard time with that. The formula is still good, Jeff is still reliably authoritative, I still get chills every time he says "Previously.........on Survivor." I even still enjoy all the B footage of snakes eating bugs and stuff like that. Casting seems to have done their job, I mean when we first started there was an interesting array of people and personalities. The wrestler, the former male model, the Christian who said "I'm not very religious" but still felt sick inside performing a welcome ritual in a Buddhist temple. I mean, that crap is like, pardon the expression, manna from heaven for us reality TV fans.

But somehow this season just has not gelled together for me. From the weird special effects, to the lame team trading, somehow it has just been a little off. Which isn't to say awesome television hasn't happened at all. Todd has been thoroughly enjoyable from the beginning, and I still stand by my love of Amanda. Courtney is awful, but in that way where kidnapping victims come to love their captors I'm starting to enjoy her which sort of freaks me out but there it is. But somehow I just don't care as much this time around as I have in seasons past. Eric is nice but boring, PG is mean but boring. Somehow the stakes just aren't enough for me this time.

Anyhoo, this is all me saying that my chocolate frosted brownies stayed in the oven a minute too long and are a little bit dry. I'd still rather eat the slightly dry chocolate frosted brownies than just about anything else. I'm just saying.

So the episode. They are all giddy about getting rid of James, which they should be, because that was awesome and he could've beaten any of them. Jeff starts explaining the reward challenge, and says "you will be in teams of two" and I groan out loud. Teams? At this point in the game? Team challenges do not belong anywhere after the merge, so why do they keep doing this? I'm totally annoyed. Then Jeff says "Eric, you will be teamed...with your sister!" Well played, Probst.

I always love seeing which family members come for people. I always want there to be more significant others than family, because seeing who people choose as family is way more interesting than seeing who they were born with/from. Like the girl power season where the two lesbian couples were competing together? Awesome. This time only Denise brings her husband, and instantly she is my favorite. I am, however, absolutely fascinated with Courtney and her dad, who is apparently British. When told he has to compete in a silly maze, she goes crazy apologizing to him that he has to, like, do something, that "I didn't know you would have to do anything." What does that even mean? Wasn't the whole seeing your father thing a surprise? Too bad this isn't the season where the family members had to eat spiders and cockroaches, remember that one? I would've loved to see pansy British dad choking down a bird fetus.

Other than the introductory fun, the challenge is rather bland, but luckily Denise and her husband win. I'm still sort of high on Denise from her karate show, so I was pleased with her win. Then she has to pick two people to go with her. I always like to pause the TV when people have to make these kinds of choices, so I can think through who would be the sentimental choices, and who would be the strategic choices. As an outsider, if I were her I'd be thinking "who do I need to get chummy with, or who could I plot with, or who do I need close to me so they can't plot while I'm away" or something along those lines. She picks Todd and Amanda, which sort of surprises me and reminds me that Denise is kind of lame. She doesn't pick PG, who besides the fact that she sort of "owes" her, could also be a potential ally. She just picks the two power players, neither of whom are going to be swayed by this gesture. She picks Amanda, as she later explains to PG, "because she was stumbling around and feeling faint". WTF?? First of all, if the producers are holding back yummy footage of that, shame on you. Second, that reason is LAME. Be honest dear, and admit you just wanted to hang with the popular kids for once, it's ok, everyone wants that. Anyway, as far as I can tell, no game play goes on at all on the reward, they just eat chocolate and have a big Sprint plug which as usual makes me vomit it is so clearly about product placement and nothing else. I am however very curious about how old her daughter is, because unless she is eleven all those tears kind of weird me out. At least in the end they throw me a bone and let the losers suck chocolate cake off of their fingers. If I made a montage of awesome moments in Survivor history, that would be in there for sure.

Also interesting, was Todd's little moment of finding out his sister had a miscarriage. Apparently it is true, which totally sucks and I send my condolences. But you can't blame everyone else for being like, "yeah right." And then it happens. I love Courtney. Her Oscar speech was pure giddy, bitchy delight. I may hate her and everything she stands for, but that shit was high-larious.

The only thing particularly interesting about the immunity challenge was, what the heck happened to Eric? He was meant to be a contender, but there was just passing mention of him getting "caught up" on something, and he was suddenly in last place. What happened? Anyway, Todd and Amanda remind me again why they are my favorites, but it is PG that pulls it out, surprising herself as much as me. I may not really like her, but she is winning challenges like crazy, and I always respect that. "Outplay" does matter.

So here is where I find myself torn. I like Eric. He is the kind of guy you want to date your sister, so you know that you'll have a safe place from crazy at family gatherings. I also love strategic upsets, so when PG goes to Denise to try and get her to defect, I love the idea. But when we get right down to vote time I realize that I don't want Todd do go home, I want Eric to go home. For all his twenty two-ish insecurity, Todd has at least been reliable for fun the entire season. Eric makes goat noises and doesn't have sex. (What is Jamie going to say when she finds out he was sucking frosting from Amanda's fingers?)

When Denise votes and says "This is probably the biggest mistake I'm going to make in the game", I know it is a vote for Eric. Denise wants to rock out with the cool kids, and who can blame her? Short term, I'm very happy about it. Long term I'm getting a little nervous, because we are getting down to the end, and I'm getting nervous about the bunch we have left. Neither Denise or Courtney are acceptable as winners. PG can make a case for herself with all her recent wins, but really for me it comes down to Amanda and Todd, either of whom have earned a win. It looks like next week Amanda continues being crazy awesome and starts gunning for Todd, which is brilliant and risky, two things I love in Survivor. But still it just irks me that Courtney or Denise or both could end up in the final three. A Todd/Amanda/PG showdown would be best case scenario at this point, though I'm hardly holding my breath. That is why I love the new format of having three in the finals, because it is near impossible to stack the end with a clear winner and a clear loser like used to always happen. But I just can't see anyone voting for either Denise or Courtney, no matter how mad they might be at the leader who orchestrated their ouster. But then, Dave did beat Twilah, so you never know.

Altogether not a bad episode. I just miss the steroids the show used to be on.

The post that is all about me trying to stay awake

Tomorrow night I work my first night shift, so I'm trying to stay up late tonight to get myself ready. It is only 12:30 and I'm barely making it. I suspect I will like the slower pace of the night shift, at least the part with the fewer demands on how much I need to get done. On the other hand, I really do like being so busy I can't take lunch, because the day just goes by so much faster. I'm a little afraid tomorrow night is going to be LONG, and I'm going to resort to drastic measures such as drinking Coke or something nasty like that. (I know, you thought I was going to say coffee, but I only drink fresh coffee brewed for me by the owner of the Vietnamese coffee plantation, and even he had to douse it with half cream, I have standards you know.)

Today was a good day. I flicked urine red with blood clots at my nurse educator. Not on purpose or anything, my nurse educator is pretty rad. But I was flushing a foley catheter and it spurted when I disconnected it. Luckily she was holding a collection cup at just the right spot and it hit that instead. This is merely one example of why I wear my glasses instead of my contacts at work. You never know when a shield is going to come in handy.

It snowed today. As much as I hate everything that snow represents (i.e. coldness), I have to say that from the windows of the hospital it was really, really pretty. Then walking out to the bus it was warmer than you would have thought and again, really pretty. I think it is that I love falling snow, and snow that collects in places other than where i have to walk, as long as I'm never cold. We almost went for a walk when I got home, but it was getting mushy and that is no fun to walk around in. David got to go see the lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree tonight while I was at work, lucky dog. He said it is pretty amazing. I'll go check it out this weekend I imagine.

Dang, 12:42, I wish I typed slower. I was hoping to make it to 1am at least, but I am currently dying inside, so of to bed with me. I just hope I'm able to sleep in, because if I still wake up at 5:15, which is quite possible, then I'm really going to be messed up tomorrow night. lol

an update and a thank you

So I think I finally passed that threshold at work, where even though I am still learning lots every day, I finally had a full load this weekend and felt comfortable with that. I didn't have to hang any blood or anything terribly time consuming like that, but I still had two PEG tubes (with feedings and water boluses), a PCA, an ostomy bag, a foley that needed flushing, two bedside commodes, one who needed pain meds every two hours, one on contact isolation...well, you know how it is. But I was ok. I mean, thankfully it was a weekend so it was quieter without lots of new orders and tests and stuff. But I'm finally getting comfortable, and I like that. At one point the commode fell on the floor and made a mess, and my preceptor (who is getting bored now that I'm doing almost everything) sighed, then turned to me and said "well at least that gives you something for your blog." It always comes back to poop, doesn't it?

Thursday night I work my first night shift, and I'm looking forward to trying that out. I'm a little worried at how my body will react, especially the next day, but there is only one way to find out.

David had a great birthday on Friday. I gave him presents and we went out for Italian (his favorite) on Thursday night, and thanks to all of you who responded to my email and gave him a call or email while I was at work. He got over 60 messages, some from some very old and distant friends, from all over the country and even one from New Zealand, which was totally awesome. At one point he started singing from that Bill Finn song, "(S)He was incredibly loved, and he knew it." So kudos to all of you.

It is supposed to snow tomorrow. Not sure how I feel about that. I wish it wasn't on a work day. Also I am missing the Capitol Christmas tree lighting, which totally sucks, even though it would probably be too cold to enjoy anyway. It just gets harder to enjoy the things in this city when it gets cold. We went on a very short walk last night to look at the neighborhood Christmas decorations, which was fun but we didn't last long against that wind.

I guess this is purely an update post, instead of the more fun adventure or just funny posts. But there it is.

Also, I had a weird dream last night where I was me but also sort of Harry Potter, because there was a huge snake in the walls of my very French Quarter mansion and it was coming after us (I was with the Dursleys) and we were trying to escape and then I was hiding on the roof and was going to slice open its belly when it slithered over where I was hiding, but I woke up before that part. I have no idea where that came from.

Survivor, or the one that finally surprised me and made me super happy

I know much of the audience is probably very sad right now, but I can just take a moment to celebrate? Not even so much on the outcome, but that finally, FINALLY, we had us an interesting episode? I hate to admit it, because my love of Survivor is clear and unabashed, but I have to say this is the weakest overall season that I can remember. Even Africa had more intrigue. (Plus, T-bird!). So, on to my reactions.

I thought the tease of having the reward challenge at tribal council was a lame, even desperate move by the producers to try and make it seem like something interesting was happening when really...nothing interesting was happening. When PG won I paused the Tivo and tried to guess who she would take, who would be the sentimental choices as well as the strategic ones. She took the sentimental choices, which surprised me a bit, and made me wonder how much she had given up any chance of winning so decided just to have fun on her trip. I would have picked Todd, just to see what would happen. Or Amanda. And I'll get more to my loving worship of her later, but I am very curious as to how she comes off at camp. Does she appear to be the power player that she is, or is she just a quiet sidekick? I can't quite tell how the others perceive her.

I'm sure the reward was awesome, and is one I'd love to do myself, but for TV it was fairly dull, as most of those kind of reward challenges tend to be, it is hard to capture wonder and awe on film. The huge plus was watching Denise go all ninja for us. Like, that warmed my heart and melted my brain with giddy delight. She has been so reliably uninteresting, that watching her have a unique moment all to herself was very exciting. And I believe her when she said it was something she will remember forever, and I'm a sucker when quiet people get a moment to take the spotlight.

But on the reward, the only game playing apparently done is PG telling Denise that they could vote together and take control, and all they would have to do is get the help of...James. I am absolutely flabbergasted by her determination that James would EVER be an ally to her. They hate each other! What possibly makes her ever even dream that James would swing to be with her? I just don't get her at all.

But then it happens. Back at camp, with James continuing his "don't bite the apple" theme, how the four of them are inevitable (note, inevitable makes for boring reality television!) Amanda makes all my dreams come true and says she is ready to make an apple pie. I sort of though that Courtney and Denise might be the ones to potentially switch as they increasingly see their status lower on the totem pole than they want to be. At least Denise has seen that, I'm never sure what Courtney is thinking, although somehow she has been increasingly less annoying of late. Perhaps in her emaciated state she is simply unable to fuel her brain much anymore to get a good rant going. But regardless, it isn't her, it isn't the ever-loyal Denise, it is Amanda, the person that from the outside you would think had the least amount of desire to shake things up. Because she is in a comfy spot to get to the end, and often just getting there is what people want to do, not really thinking about what they will do when they get there. If Amanda was up against Todd and James, I think she would be in a very tough spot to win. I think anyone would be challenged to win against James. And she is the only one really thinking ahead. And for that, she gets to step up to the pedestal as far as I am concerned. Let the intrigue begin!

In her wisdom, she targets James, who fortunately loses the immunity challenge. When it comes to who I love and hate, I have to admit I have a short memory. I know James was dominating the early challenges, but really, what was the last thing he won? I'm far more impressed with Courtney, who is at least improving. But man, if I was grossed out by how thin Todd has gotten, Courtney just looks like she is about to die of starvation. You got your wish Radha, and, ick. I wonder how much muscle mass James has lost over the month. But Amanda does well, and I'm still loving her for competing last week when she could have eaten a burger instead. Eric wins, which is a high point for him in my book. He is totally likable, but I'm result oriented in my fandom, and this is something I can finally get behind him for.

Anyway, if you are still reading this, you know what happened. I loved the delicious moment when PG approached Amanda about voting for James, and Amanda was like, just let it lie, trust me, and literally gave her a wink. Heh. It was a risky strategy, particularly for Todd. Instead Amanda and maybe Denise should have gone to PG and said we want to swing with you to vote for James. PG and Eric would have gone with it, and then Todd wouldn't have been at risk. But whatever, the plan worked. Though I'd love to hear more from Eric on why he didn't vote for Todd. Had James played the Idol we would have had a tie between Todd and PG, which still would not have worked out well for Eric. But Eric is just nice, not necessarily smart.

And James. It is no secret I loved him early, and that love has been waning with each week. I'm pretty sure I would have rallied for him had he given back one of the idols to Todd. But greed always gets people in the end, and it is his own fault he became such a target. You have to win, and he just hasn't been pulling it out. In the end I was surprised by his concession speech though, I really expected him to be bitter, and he gave a great speech which admittedly makes me like him a whole lot more in retrospect.

But for me, this is Amanda's game at this point. Todd has been great, but his moves haven't been as smart as he thinks they have been. Getting rid of James was a good move for him, but he totally let Amanda take the lead, saying "I'll do whatever you guys want to do" and being all wishy-washy about it. Also his totally reactionary panic when he hears PG asked Denise to target him was not the sign of a leader. If he makes it to the end, I think he has a great shot, especially with James gone. But at this point the more he wimps out about making decisions, the more ammunition he gives to Amanda to take it from him, which of course is what I'm hoping for at this point. We haven't had many stealth players on this show. People usually reveal their strategies from the very beginning, whether they are a player (Todd, JR) or a winner (James) or a drifter (Denise, Courtney). But for Amanda to enable Todd to do everything that he has done, and then to come in at the end and take over and change up the game - that is just awesome and sweet and great entertainment for me.

So we are down to six. Does that mean next week is it? Regular show on Thursday and then finale on Sunday? It goes by so fast.

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.