I first went to Romano's Macaroni Grill a couple years ago. I'd never been before, and there was one near where we were, so we decided to stop by. We don't generally go that often, partly because it's usually crowded, partly because there are other Italian restaurants that we go to, and partly because their portions are fairly big so I'm bound to have leftovers.
Romano's is similar in some ways to Olive Garden, but I think the entrees tend to be a bit more expensive, and some of the menu items are a bit more upscale. The tables have butcher block paper on them, and when your server comes up, he/she will write their name with crayons - they're actually writing upside down and backwards so that their name is positioned correctly for you to read it. OK, I've only been there when it's been just the husband and me, so the server is always on the other side of the table from us. If you're there with more than a party of 2, then some people will see his/her name upside down as well, but it will still be written upside down and backwards.
One drink that I've had there a few times is the Leaning Bellini - "our signature bellini blended and frozen with Bacardi rum, peach nectar, white wine and champagne" - it's very tasty.
My one complaint though - given the name of the restaurant, you'd think there would be some kind of dishes with macaroni. Well, if you thought that, you'd be wrong. The only thing they have with macaroni is a macaroni and cheese dish that's on the kids' menu. False advertising!
I decided to start with the house salad with the fat-free Italian dressing, and for an entree, I ordered the penne with oven-roasted chicken - "penne pasta, oven-roasted chicken, asparagus, fresh buffalo mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes, sauteed in a light olive oil garlic sauce". The husband decided to start with the small serving (it comes in a larger serving size as well, presumably if you're sharing among several people) of the mozzarella alla caprese - "imported buffalo mozzarella, vine-ripened tomatoes and basil with balsamic vinaigrette" - and for his entree, he ordered the marsala chicken ravioli - "ravioli filled with sliced chicken and Parmesan, then sauteed with fresh asparagus, savory mushrooms, smoked Italian prosciutto and a Marsala wine cream sauce".
Olive oil is available on the table, but you need to ask if you'd also like balsamic vinaigrette for your bread. We enjoyed our bread before they brought our starters.
The husband really enjoyed his caprese. Romano's version presents the mozzarella as little balls whereas some other restaurants serve them as slices. I generally prefer the slices because I think it goes better with the slices of tomato, but it looked good all the same. I enjoyed my house salad. It was more than just iceberg lettuce, and the dressing had a nice light flavor.
The husband enjoyed his entree, although he said some of the flavors didn't really seem to match what they had named the dish. I liked my penne as well, though as I mentioned before, they have fairly large servings, so I only finished a little less than half of it, and I took the rest to go. The chicken was very good, and maybe it's because I happen to really love asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes, but I thought both of those were cut too small so that you could barely really even taste the bites. I tend to like them a bit more prominently in my dishes. I had the leftovers for dinner a few nights later, and after a few minutes in the microwave, it was warm enough to taste good again, but once I was done, I was surprised at how much oil was at the bottom of the plate. I hadn't noticed that when I'd originally had the meal in the restaurant.
Our server this evening was quite nice and informative and was very sociable. On previous visits, servers have always been professional, but some have been a bit more aloof.
On my next visit, the mission will be to find an entree that isn't so big that I have to bring leftovers home.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
Happy Hamukkah!
A friend forwarded the picture to me, and she thought the culprit store was Balducci's in New York, but she wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't a made up story and the picture photoshopped.
Well, it wasn't in either case. Here's a story from the New York Daily News about Balducci's menu recommendation. Note that they had the sign on three different kinds of pork products.
I think it's funny that they blamed some low-level stock clerk for the error. OK, I've never worked in a supermarket before, but do the stock clerks make up the signs too? Someone had to go through the trouble of making what looks like a laminated sign that has the holiday and the product printed on it. And how long were the signs up, and no one who worked in the store noticed it? I would think that whomever was working in the meat department would have made a eye-ball check of the area and noticed the problem, but again, I've never worked in a supermarket so I don't know if that would be customary.
I don't really see an issue with having ham for Hanukkah. As long as it's Kosker Ham, what's the problem?
BTW, I've noticed for some time now that there seem to be two different spellings of the holiday - Hanukkah and Chanukah. I have no idea what the "correct" spelling is. I don't see one more dominant than the other - either spelling seems to be used half the time. So what's the reason behind that? Does a certain sector like one spelling while another sector prefers the other? Was there some big rift in the Jewish community brought upon by a failure to agree on the spelling? I'm going to have a ham and cheese sandwich for lunch to ponder that some more.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
hot and cold
It's been a weekend of absolute dichotomies, and I'm too tired physically and mentally to begin to deal with any of it.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
"Survivor" and "Law and Order"
"Survivor"
My husband had noticed this a couple weeks ago, but this was the first time I actually watched it for myself - they've changed the way they do the "opening credits". Usually, they just continue to show all the members of both original tribes. This go-around, though, once they got to the merge, they changed the opening credits to only show the people who were still on the merged tribe and then also the people who had then moved to the jury. (Before the merge, not sure if they took people out of the intro once they were voted out.) I think that's an interesting change, and it actually makes a lot of sense. The other people really don't matter anymore, and with no more than 10 people to show, it makes the opening credits shorter. As it was, in previous seasons, once they got toward the end, I would periodically watch the roll-call, and I wouldn't even really remember half the people they were showing.
I had mentioned about last week's episode that I thought it was weird that Todd was so mad when Denise told him that P.G. was gunning for him. So this week, he says that it would be smart for the others to vote him out, but he wasn't going to tell them that. Ummm, ok, P.G. already not only thought about it but tried to pull it off several days prior, and you got all mad about it.
The family challenges are often fun to watch, and it's especially touching to see the reunions. I noticed that Denise was the only one who had a spouse as visiting family. And it really shocked me that Courtney's father was British. With the way that she is, I just completely didn't expect her father to be English. I loved the look on his face when Jeff explained what the challenge was.
When they first showed the maze, I thought they were going to have one person talk the other through while blindfolded. I don't remember a challenge before where both people are blindfolded, and they have to find each other *and* find a particular location. That was pretty cool. Amanda and her sister with their bird-calling sounds were cracking me up. Courtney seemed irritated with Jeff's play-by-play. Ummm, that's what he's supposed to be doing. I thought it was cool that Denise won. I wasn't terribly surprised that she picked Todd and Amanda. At that point, it's about alliances. Even though P.G. had chosen her to participate in the last reward, I didn't think that necessarily obligated her to pick P.G. in return, though P.G. apparently did.
So, something else I noticed - what is with Amanda's butt? I've noticed over the past few episodes that either during a challenge or even when they're just walking around camp or something, the area around Amanda's butt is blurred. No, I'm not staring at her butt - the blurring actually catches my attention. This time, I noticed it particularly when they were getting on the boat for the reward challenge, I think. I'm presuming that her underwear or bikini bottom or whatever she's wearing is showing too much of her butt to be aired on TV without being blurred. Just seemed odd to me.
When they came back from their reward challenge, and they had chocolate on their hands that the others licked off - ewww. I thought that was kind of weird. I guess I wouldn't know unless I was in that position, but the thought of licking food off of someone's hand just strikes me as icky. I don't think I could do it. Maybe I just don't like chocolate enough.
So P.G. wins a do-or-die immunity again. In this case, I didn't think the challenge was skewed towards her like I thought last week's reward challenge was - the questions seemed a lot harder this time, and it was only because Todd missed the last question that she ended up winning.
Having to do with nothing, there was some point when Todd was doing a sort of diary entry to the camera, and his hair was just sticking up and all weird. He reminded me of a chia pet.
So Erik and P.G. try their best to turn Denise, but they fail, and Erik is voted off. It was interesting that Denise's testimonial during her vote was that this was probably the biggest mistake she'd make in the game. If she thought that could be the case, then why do it? I do think Erik and P.G. had a very valid argument. Denise has gotta know that she's fourth in her alliance, even without hearing what Todd and Amanda said with their siblings around. Unless she can win an immunity challenge, she's gone when final four rolls around. If she had voted with P.G. and Erik against Todd, she was guaranteed to get to final four since their three votes would control at the next tribal council. And she at least had a shot at final three since because if either she, Erik or P.G. won the immunity idol (and Erik and P.G. have had recently great track records at winning challenges), it would be them as final three. But she stuck with her alliance, relying on her trust, though I'm not entirely sure what that means. OK, next round, if P.G. doesn't win immunity, she goes. If she does, then Denise would go. P.G.'s win would only prolong Denise's stay by one week. In either case, her alliance wouldn't be breaking their word to her by voting her out. Once the "outsiders" are gone or at least not able to be voted out, they have to vote someone off from their own alliance, and I don't recall Todd or anyone else in her alliance promising her final four or final three.
With Erik out, that leaves four women and one man. I would actually like to see Todd voted out this week, so that would leave all women in the final four and beyond. That would be fun. I think this week is when the car challenge would be, so we'll find out who wins the car and subsequently, according to tradition, not win Sole Survivor. Maybe Todd can win the car as a consolation prize and then be kicked out.
If the women do make final four, I'd want Courtney out next. Hmm, I'd also be ok with her going next and then Todd going the week after that. I want final three to be Amanda, Denise and P.G. I'd be ok with any of them winning, though I think it would be great if Denise ultimately won.
"Law and Order: SVU"
I thought this was a bit of a weak episode, not to mention quite politically correct. OK, tribal customs for female circumcisions, and crimes being witnessed and then the black crime lord that has the whole neighborhood scared to do anything against him. But he was really a one-note character, and a red herring at that. I don't know if Method Man is a good actor, but if he is, his talents were wasted here. It was definitely not the intriguing character that Ludicrous had to work with. Turns out the black 15 year old was actually killed by the white wife in the polygamist relationship - and the surviving black husband testifies against the black crime lord to finally stand up for himself and his family put the guy away. OK.
My husband had noticed this a couple weeks ago, but this was the first time I actually watched it for myself - they've changed the way they do the "opening credits". Usually, they just continue to show all the members of both original tribes. This go-around, though, once they got to the merge, they changed the opening credits to only show the people who were still on the merged tribe and then also the people who had then moved to the jury. (Before the merge, not sure if they took people out of the intro once they were voted out.) I think that's an interesting change, and it actually makes a lot of sense. The other people really don't matter anymore, and with no more than 10 people to show, it makes the opening credits shorter. As it was, in previous seasons, once they got toward the end, I would periodically watch the roll-call, and I wouldn't even really remember half the people they were showing.
I had mentioned about last week's episode that I thought it was weird that Todd was so mad when Denise told him that P.G. was gunning for him. So this week, he says that it would be smart for the others to vote him out, but he wasn't going to tell them that. Ummm, ok, P.G. already not only thought about it but tried to pull it off several days prior, and you got all mad about it.
The family challenges are often fun to watch, and it's especially touching to see the reunions. I noticed that Denise was the only one who had a spouse as visiting family. And it really shocked me that Courtney's father was British. With the way that she is, I just completely didn't expect her father to be English. I loved the look on his face when Jeff explained what the challenge was.
When they first showed the maze, I thought they were going to have one person talk the other through while blindfolded. I don't remember a challenge before where both people are blindfolded, and they have to find each other *and* find a particular location. That was pretty cool. Amanda and her sister with their bird-calling sounds were cracking me up. Courtney seemed irritated with Jeff's play-by-play. Ummm, that's what he's supposed to be doing. I thought it was cool that Denise won. I wasn't terribly surprised that she picked Todd and Amanda. At that point, it's about alliances. Even though P.G. had chosen her to participate in the last reward, I didn't think that necessarily obligated her to pick P.G. in return, though P.G. apparently did.
So, something else I noticed - what is with Amanda's butt? I've noticed over the past few episodes that either during a challenge or even when they're just walking around camp or something, the area around Amanda's butt is blurred. No, I'm not staring at her butt - the blurring actually catches my attention. This time, I noticed it particularly when they were getting on the boat for the reward challenge, I think. I'm presuming that her underwear or bikini bottom or whatever she's wearing is showing too much of her butt to be aired on TV without being blurred. Just seemed odd to me.
When they came back from their reward challenge, and they had chocolate on their hands that the others licked off - ewww. I thought that was kind of weird. I guess I wouldn't know unless I was in that position, but the thought of licking food off of someone's hand just strikes me as icky. I don't think I could do it. Maybe I just don't like chocolate enough.
So P.G. wins a do-or-die immunity again. In this case, I didn't think the challenge was skewed towards her like I thought last week's reward challenge was - the questions seemed a lot harder this time, and it was only because Todd missed the last question that she ended up winning.
Having to do with nothing, there was some point when Todd was doing a sort of diary entry to the camera, and his hair was just sticking up and all weird. He reminded me of a chia pet.
So Erik and P.G. try their best to turn Denise, but they fail, and Erik is voted off. It was interesting that Denise's testimonial during her vote was that this was probably the biggest mistake she'd make in the game. If she thought that could be the case, then why do it? I do think Erik and P.G. had a very valid argument. Denise has gotta know that she's fourth in her alliance, even without hearing what Todd and Amanda said with their siblings around. Unless she can win an immunity challenge, she's gone when final four rolls around. If she had voted with P.G. and Erik against Todd, she was guaranteed to get to final four since their three votes would control at the next tribal council. And she at least had a shot at final three since because if either she, Erik or P.G. won the immunity idol (and Erik and P.G. have had recently great track records at winning challenges), it would be them as final three. But she stuck with her alliance, relying on her trust, though I'm not entirely sure what that means. OK, next round, if P.G. doesn't win immunity, she goes. If she does, then Denise would go. P.G.'s win would only prolong Denise's stay by one week. In either case, her alliance wouldn't be breaking their word to her by voting her out. Once the "outsiders" are gone or at least not able to be voted out, they have to vote someone off from their own alliance, and I don't recall Todd or anyone else in her alliance promising her final four or final three.
With Erik out, that leaves four women and one man. I would actually like to see Todd voted out this week, so that would leave all women in the final four and beyond. That would be fun. I think this week is when the car challenge would be, so we'll find out who wins the car and subsequently, according to tradition, not win Sole Survivor. Maybe Todd can win the car as a consolation prize and then be kicked out.
If the women do make final four, I'd want Courtney out next. Hmm, I'd also be ok with her going next and then Todd going the week after that. I want final three to be Amanda, Denise and P.G. I'd be ok with any of them winning, though I think it would be great if Denise ultimately won.
"Law and Order: SVU"
I thought this was a bit of a weak episode, not to mention quite politically correct. OK, tribal customs for female circumcisions, and crimes being witnessed and then the black crime lord that has the whole neighborhood scared to do anything against him. But he was really a one-note character, and a red herring at that. I don't know if Method Man is a good actor, but if he is, his talents were wasted here. It was definitely not the intriguing character that Ludicrous had to work with. Turns out the black 15 year old was actually killed by the white wife in the polygamist relationship - and the surviving black husband testifies against the black crime lord to finally stand up for himself and his family put the guy away. OK.
Friday, December 7, 2007
Senator John Kerry seriously needs more to do
So you're a Senator in the United States Congress. A pretty big job with a lot of responsibilities, right? There's a lot of major issues going on in the country right now. So what do you take a stand on? Football. Professional football.
Senator Kerry apparently thought that the on-going standoff between the NFL Network and major cable companies, causing several games to be unavailable to large amounts of cable subscribers, was such an important matter that he took the time to write a letter and issue a press release about it. Seriously, dude, you're a Senator, and you've got nothing better to do than say, "Come on guys, can't you just get along?" You don't think lots of people have already said that? You think adding your voice in is really going to make a difference? You think that once they got your letter, both sides were going to say, "Wow, Senator Kerry is really concerned about this. We wouldn't want to disappoint him. We haven't been able to come to terms all this time, but now, we'd better make a deal pronto." Uhh, yeah.
OK, so I was bummed that I didn't get to watch the Cowboys/Packers game. And many people are going to be bummed that they won't readily be able to watch what could potentially be the record-making game if the Patriots do manage to have an undefeated season, and their last game happens to be scheduled to be shown on the NFL Network. But as groundbreaking as it is, and as much as I love professional football, seriously, do we really need a Senator throwing in his two cents, especially when his two cents are going to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and serve ABSOLUTELY NO PURPOSE other than to get his name out there? Yeah, ok, so I'm helping to perpetuate that, but since only four people are going to read this, it's not that big a deal.
Here's an article from the Baltimore Sun about the matter.
Senator Kerry apparently thought that the on-going standoff between the NFL Network and major cable companies, causing several games to be unavailable to large amounts of cable subscribers, was such an important matter that he took the time to write a letter and issue a press release about it. Seriously, dude, you're a Senator, and you've got nothing better to do than say, "Come on guys, can't you just get along?" You don't think lots of people have already said that? You think adding your voice in is really going to make a difference? You think that once they got your letter, both sides were going to say, "Wow, Senator Kerry is really concerned about this. We wouldn't want to disappoint him. We haven't been able to come to terms all this time, but now, we'd better make a deal pronto." Uhh, yeah.
OK, so I was bummed that I didn't get to watch the Cowboys/Packers game. And many people are going to be bummed that they won't readily be able to watch what could potentially be the record-making game if the Patriots do manage to have an undefeated season, and their last game happens to be scheduled to be shown on the NFL Network. But as groundbreaking as it is, and as much as I love professional football, seriously, do we really need a Senator throwing in his two cents, especially when his two cents are going to do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and serve ABSOLUTELY NO PURPOSE other than to get his name out there? Yeah, ok, so I'm helping to perpetuate that, but since only four people are going to read this, it's not that big a deal.
Here's an article from the Baltimore Sun about the matter.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
my new best friend
I made a new best friend recently. It wasn't something I was looking for or expecting. It just happened. The potential has been there for some time, but I just didn't recognize it, so it just lie there dormant. And then, the friendship sprang to glorious life, and I expect it to blossom.
Here's my new best friend.
I happen to love lychee - fresh better than frozen, but frozen is ok too, and I like desserts and such scented of or tasting like lychee. I had a lychee sorbet a couple years ago. Mmmm, it was delicious. I also like various lychee gummy candies. So when I saw the little bottle of lychee liquer at BevMo (Beverages and More - love that place), I had to get it to try. And then it sat in our cupboard for a while. And then recently, I saw it at BevMo again when we were there on a shopping trip. And the husband reminded me that we had some at home that I'd never tried. So circumstances arose the other night that I tried it. I don't much like the taste of alcohol, and it's not too strong on that, but it's got a nice lychee flavor. So, on our next trip to BevMo, I'm going to get a big bottle of the stuff. I really want to get a bunch of little bottles as well so that I can keep them at work for when I need them, but I'm not sure I'm willing to get fired for drinking on the job...yet.
Here's my new best friend.
I happen to love lychee - fresh better than frozen, but frozen is ok too, and I like desserts and such scented of or tasting like lychee. I had a lychee sorbet a couple years ago. Mmmm, it was delicious. I also like various lychee gummy candies. So when I saw the little bottle of lychee liquer at BevMo (Beverages and More - love that place), I had to get it to try. And then it sat in our cupboard for a while. And then recently, I saw it at BevMo again when we were there on a shopping trip. And the husband reminded me that we had some at home that I'd never tried. So circumstances arose the other night that I tried it. I don't much like the taste of alcohol, and it's not too strong on that, but it's got a nice lychee flavor. So, on our next trip to BevMo, I'm going to get a big bottle of the stuff. I really want to get a bunch of little bottles as well so that I can keep them at work for when I need them, but I'm not sure I'm willing to get fired for drinking on the job...yet.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
"Heroes" - half-season finale
Overall, I was happy with the episode in that they resolved a number of things. There were some questions that I would have preferred they answer, but I have to remember that this wasn't a season finale, so it really wasn't that much more than a regular episode. It just gained more significance because there are no more episodes coming until after the writers' strike ends.
Maya - I didn't mind her in the beginning and was ready to see where they were going to go with her character, but they pretty much didn't go anywhere. She was entirely too gullible when it came to Sylar and as much as she had relied on her brother, she pretty much just stopped listening to him as soon as her infatuation with Sylar took hold. OK, so she finally found out about Sylar. I would have preferred it to be a bit more clandestine as opposed to just having Sylar holding a gun to Mohinder. And given my indifference to her, I didn't care that much when Sylar shot her. It only mattered to me because Molly witnessed it. So, I wasn't all that pleased when she was brought back to life. I would actually have preferred that Alejandro had been left to live (at least she found out that he's dead), but since he really only had a negative power to hers (it appeared that he could bring people back to life that she had killed, but there was no hint that he could bring just anyone back to life), and she doesn't need him to stop her killing power anymore, there wasn't that much that could be done with him, though I think he was the more interesting character. What Maya needs to learn is to focus her power, so that it doesn't affect everyone in her vicinity, just who she aims her power at. That would make her a major adversary indeed.
Adam/Peter/Hiro - That was the triangle where the demon (Adam) and the angel (Hiro) are basically fighting for the sole of the innocent (Peter). Adam has fed Peter enough lines to get Peter to believe him, but Peter still has his old attachment to Hiro. But nothing can get through to Peter because Peter saw Adam heal Nathan - so the only one who *can* get through to Peter is Nathan himself. Adam's been using Peter as a weapon to get into the holding facility, and it's only Nathan who can help Peter see what's really going on. Peter manages to catch the vial of the deadly virus strain that Adam drops and destroys it for good.
Elle - Her story is at least getting a little more interesting, but I think they either need to make her a better hero or a better villain. At the moment, she's waffling between the two. She seemed fallen when she was dressed down by her father, but then she went to Noah for more information, and Noah told her that her father was willing to push her beyond her limit to test her powers. However, that didn't seem to affect her devotion to her father, nor did finding that her file was completely empty. In the end, it's to win back his approval that prompts her to step in when she sees Sylar in the lab with Mohinder. I expect we'll find out more about her story later.
Niki - I was surprised when she didn't know that Micah had the power to control electronics. Thinking back on it, his father knew, but we never saw Micah telling Niki. I think I figured that during the time that passed when we didn't see them, Micah would have told her or it would have come out in conversation or something. I wasn't entirely happy with the storyline about DL's medal and Micah going back for it and Monica helping. It seemed a bit contrived and out of nowhere and served really to just kill Niki. At least, I presume that Niki is dead. Nothing suggests she would have been able to survive the blast. While I'm kind of sad to see her go, I don't think her character was really going anywhere, and they didn't seem to know what to do with her. I never really understood what her power was. Being a split personality isn't a power. Maybe it was just her super-strength, but that wasn't really all that clear. We'll have to see what the fallout is because now, Micah is an orphan.
Noah - Not really sure what the deal is with him. Obviously, Bob agreed to let Mohinder save him. But why? What purpose does he serve? Eventually, he was used to control Claire, to stop her from exposing her power, but it didn't seem like Bob had that in his mind to begin with. And Noah traded in staying with and helping the company for a normal life for his family, but I'm not sure that's really going to work. One weird thing about the scene between Noah and Bob in Noah's cell - what was with the weird camera angles? At one point, it's like the camera(man) was lying on the floor shooting straight up at them, making Bob even taller, and then right after that, the camera(man) is hanging from the ceiling, looking down on both Bob and Noah.
Adam and Hiro - We knew this showdown had to happen. Adam likens himself to God at the time of Noah's ark (which is an interesting connection since Noah, Claire's father, has basically built an ark just for his own family to save them from the company while the rest of the people are being subjected to what the company will rain down on them), where God decided to start over by destroying everything and everyone with a flood, and Hiro is appalled by Adam's god-complex, probably moreso as he's just learned from his father that sometimes, things just have to happen and you have to not try to change them. I did think it was a serious plot problem, though, when they were in the vault together and Hiro can't really figure out how to stop Adam. Why doesn't he just stop time like he did last time, take the sword and whoosh, Adam is dead? It didn't work last time only because Peter intervened, but Peter wasn't there this time to stop him. Of course, that wasn't the resolution the story was supposed to take, but it seemed like a sloppy bit of writing to me. And in the end, Hiro imprisons Adam in a grave, burying him alive for all of eternity. I wonder, though - OK, so Adam can regenerate, but presumably, he's like a human in that he needs to eat. If he's not able to eat, does his body degenerate over time and will he eventually die? Or even without nourishment, will he still be able to live? If he does live forever, one would expect that he could eventually be set free. Sure, he's in a graveyard, but 100, 200, 300 or more years later, who's to say that ground won't be dug up, and Adam set free with it?
Nathan - I'm not entirely sure I understand why Nathan decided to go public with his power. But obviously, it wasn't something the company wanted to let happen. When Nathan was first shot, and I saw the figure of the man walking away, I thought it was Sylar. But we see later that it wasn't. The husband figured out it was Noah, which seems to be the case since Angela's scene later shows that she knew it was going to happen and that she allowed it, and since Noah is a company man, he had to protect the company. I just didn't think the figure of the man looked like him.
Sylar - So we find out that he has the same virus strain as Niki, which means the company injected him. That means that at the beginning, it was the company who saved him and was taking care of him, but it still doesn't explain how he became his human body again. It also doesn't explain why the company brought him back to life. OK, so they injected him with the virus to take away his powers, but with as evil as he was, why even have him live? But, like all good villains, he does regain his powers, and you know he's going to wreak havoc again. You have to figure he's going to go gunning for Maya, as he's going to want her power. Since the title of the chapter that starts with Sylar regaining his powers is "Villains", we can probably expect his rise and to see what other opposition comes along.
Maya - I didn't mind her in the beginning and was ready to see where they were going to go with her character, but they pretty much didn't go anywhere. She was entirely too gullible when it came to Sylar and as much as she had relied on her brother, she pretty much just stopped listening to him as soon as her infatuation with Sylar took hold. OK, so she finally found out about Sylar. I would have preferred it to be a bit more clandestine as opposed to just having Sylar holding a gun to Mohinder. And given my indifference to her, I didn't care that much when Sylar shot her. It only mattered to me because Molly witnessed it. So, I wasn't all that pleased when she was brought back to life. I would actually have preferred that Alejandro had been left to live (at least she found out that he's dead), but since he really only had a negative power to hers (it appeared that he could bring people back to life that she had killed, but there was no hint that he could bring just anyone back to life), and she doesn't need him to stop her killing power anymore, there wasn't that much that could be done with him, though I think he was the more interesting character. What Maya needs to learn is to focus her power, so that it doesn't affect everyone in her vicinity, just who she aims her power at. That would make her a major adversary indeed.
Adam/Peter/Hiro - That was the triangle where the demon (Adam) and the angel (Hiro) are basically fighting for the sole of the innocent (Peter). Adam has fed Peter enough lines to get Peter to believe him, but Peter still has his old attachment to Hiro. But nothing can get through to Peter because Peter saw Adam heal Nathan - so the only one who *can* get through to Peter is Nathan himself. Adam's been using Peter as a weapon to get into the holding facility, and it's only Nathan who can help Peter see what's really going on. Peter manages to catch the vial of the deadly virus strain that Adam drops and destroys it for good.
Elle - Her story is at least getting a little more interesting, but I think they either need to make her a better hero or a better villain. At the moment, she's waffling between the two. She seemed fallen when she was dressed down by her father, but then she went to Noah for more information, and Noah told her that her father was willing to push her beyond her limit to test her powers. However, that didn't seem to affect her devotion to her father, nor did finding that her file was completely empty. In the end, it's to win back his approval that prompts her to step in when she sees Sylar in the lab with Mohinder. I expect we'll find out more about her story later.
Niki - I was surprised when she didn't know that Micah had the power to control electronics. Thinking back on it, his father knew, but we never saw Micah telling Niki. I think I figured that during the time that passed when we didn't see them, Micah would have told her or it would have come out in conversation or something. I wasn't entirely happy with the storyline about DL's medal and Micah going back for it and Monica helping. It seemed a bit contrived and out of nowhere and served really to just kill Niki. At least, I presume that Niki is dead. Nothing suggests she would have been able to survive the blast. While I'm kind of sad to see her go, I don't think her character was really going anywhere, and they didn't seem to know what to do with her. I never really understood what her power was. Being a split personality isn't a power. Maybe it was just her super-strength, but that wasn't really all that clear. We'll have to see what the fallout is because now, Micah is an orphan.
Noah - Not really sure what the deal is with him. Obviously, Bob agreed to let Mohinder save him. But why? What purpose does he serve? Eventually, he was used to control Claire, to stop her from exposing her power, but it didn't seem like Bob had that in his mind to begin with. And Noah traded in staying with and helping the company for a normal life for his family, but I'm not sure that's really going to work. One weird thing about the scene between Noah and Bob in Noah's cell - what was with the weird camera angles? At one point, it's like the camera(man) was lying on the floor shooting straight up at them, making Bob even taller, and then right after that, the camera(man) is hanging from the ceiling, looking down on both Bob and Noah.
Adam and Hiro - We knew this showdown had to happen. Adam likens himself to God at the time of Noah's ark (which is an interesting connection since Noah, Claire's father, has basically built an ark just for his own family to save them from the company while the rest of the people are being subjected to what the company will rain down on them), where God decided to start over by destroying everything and everyone with a flood, and Hiro is appalled by Adam's god-complex, probably moreso as he's just learned from his father that sometimes, things just have to happen and you have to not try to change them. I did think it was a serious plot problem, though, when they were in the vault together and Hiro can't really figure out how to stop Adam. Why doesn't he just stop time like he did last time, take the sword and whoosh, Adam is dead? It didn't work last time only because Peter intervened, but Peter wasn't there this time to stop him. Of course, that wasn't the resolution the story was supposed to take, but it seemed like a sloppy bit of writing to me. And in the end, Hiro imprisons Adam in a grave, burying him alive for all of eternity. I wonder, though - OK, so Adam can regenerate, but presumably, he's like a human in that he needs to eat. If he's not able to eat, does his body degenerate over time and will he eventually die? Or even without nourishment, will he still be able to live? If he does live forever, one would expect that he could eventually be set free. Sure, he's in a graveyard, but 100, 200, 300 or more years later, who's to say that ground won't be dug up, and Adam set free with it?
Nathan - I'm not entirely sure I understand why Nathan decided to go public with his power. But obviously, it wasn't something the company wanted to let happen. When Nathan was first shot, and I saw the figure of the man walking away, I thought it was Sylar. But we see later that it wasn't. The husband figured out it was Noah, which seems to be the case since Angela's scene later shows that she knew it was going to happen and that she allowed it, and since Noah is a company man, he had to protect the company. I just didn't think the figure of the man looked like him.
Sylar - So we find out that he has the same virus strain as Niki, which means the company injected him. That means that at the beginning, it was the company who saved him and was taking care of him, but it still doesn't explain how he became his human body again. It also doesn't explain why the company brought him back to life. OK, so they injected him with the virus to take away his powers, but with as evil as he was, why even have him live? But, like all good villains, he does regain his powers, and you know he's going to wreak havoc again. You have to figure he's going to go gunning for Maya, as he's going to want her power. Since the title of the chapter that starts with Sylar regaining his powers is "Villains", we can probably expect his rise and to see what other opposition comes along.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Welcome to Whole Foods city! (passport not required)
I have an affinity for Whole Foods Market, though I admittedly don't shop there too often. We had recently heard of a new location opening up in Pasadena (there's already a branch in another area of Pasadena) on Arroyo, which is the street that the 110 freeway ends up at, which the website touts as "the largest Whole Foods Market west of the Rockies", so this past Saturday, we went by to have a look.
Oh.My.Goodness. This place is indeed HUGE. One of the things that the builders nicely thought about is that with as many things as there are in this "market", people aren't likely to just pop in and out, so they included a three-story underground parking structure.
The main entrance lets you into the produce village. There was actually so much to see everywhere that it was like going through a mall - the husband and I had to map out what we'd already seen and what we still needed to see. I think most of the time, we went around the edge of one section and then looked at the middle stuff before moving onto the next section. The produce section alone has all manner of fruits and vegetables that you could possibly want, including a large section of organically grown produce. The seafood bar is nearby, and they have lots of different items available, lots of different kind of shrimp and even calamari steaks. They also had pre-cooked whole dungeness crab ready to go. Most of the major sections in the store have areas where you can buy prepared foods to eat on the premises. There was even a little two-table cafe near the seafood bar.
There's a nut roasting section with all kinds of nuts roasted with every manner of seasoning or rolled in some manner of chocolate or cinnamon or something else or even plain. They also do special order roasting. The roasted chestnuts looked really good. There's also a juice bar where you can order from a selection of items. In the back is a section that has clothes, shoes, lotions, vitamins and other items. Behind that is a seating area complete with a number of nice tables, a flat-screen TV set on ESPN (that day anyway) and plastic silverware as well as a microwave that you can use.
The website mentions a "Take a Break Massage Room". What kind of market has a massage room? OK, it wasn't as much as I thought it might be, like a spa or something like that. I did see the entrance to the massage room, and it looked like there were four of those "sit and rest your body and head forward" things that you might see at the mall. There looked to be a sort of receptionist, but I didn't go in to see what they actually offered. But still, given how big the market is and how much time it takes to go through the market, you might just need a massage in the middle of your shopping trip!
OK, so far, that's only been the first floor. There's a whole second floor to the market. They have one of those cart lifts next to the escalators (as well as an elevator) so if you have a cart, it can ride up next to you. There's an employee there to help people with that.
Immediately off the escalator is the baked goods section. They have all manner of bread and bagels and danishes and cakes and cookies and pies and other desserts. Many of these are made sugar-free as well. They also have a chocolate section where a multitude of flavored truffles are available, as well as other sweets, and there's even a flowing chocolate fountain. Not sure if you just choose from a selection they provide to dip in the chocolate or if you can buy things from elsewhere (like fruit, for instance) and bring it up and have them cover it in chocolate.
They also have an entire cheese section with more cheese than I've seen in one place at one time. There are a few stations where you can sample a few of them, and I did end up buying a bit of a cheese that I sampled. Next to the cheese section is a very small Wine and Tapas Lounge, which basically just had a couple of sofas put together. We had a look at the menu, and there are a few items on there. The most interesting to me are a couple of cheese plates. That would seem ideal - try the cheeses there and if you like any of them, you can presumably buy more in the store.
Next to that is the meat counter. They mostly had a huge selection of different cuts of beef, and then ground beef, chicken and turkey as well. They also had duck available. There were a number of roasts and other items which were already seasoned and prepared, so you would just have to take them home and cook them for the appropriate amount of time. They even had a turducken available and ready to be cooked! It's the first time I'd ever seen one before. (The husband and I joked that it really had to be made that way because stuffing a turkey into either a chicken or a duck was probably not going to happen. However, we did decide that if physics could be defied and you could reverse it and stuff a turkey into a duck and then stuff that into a chicken, you'd have to call it a chuckey [CHickendUCKturkEY], and given how deformed and wrong this creature would look, naming it after a killer doll would be entirely appropriate. But I digress...)
There was a dairy section, and a wine section, and sections of other boxed goods and other normal things you'd find in supermarkets. The center section of the upstairs, though, is where the really good stuff is.
There are a number of stations where different prepared foods are available. There's a salad bar that has three different sections (including an olive bar), and there's a hot food bar as well. This day, the specialty items were Indian food items, and they smelled wonderful, just like in an Indian restaurant. There's a section when you can order sandwiches. There's a section that has Japanese food - some kinds of sushi, udon, tempura and teriyaki. There's also a section with hot mediterranean items. There are also a few seating areas in that section.
Because the market is so huge and has such an amazing selection, they also offer a lot of items for those with dietary restrictions. There were whole walls of gluten-free items and sugar-free items and dairy-free items and things like that. I would expect anyone who needs to find those kind of specialty items would appreciate having the varied selection that this store offers.
I loved wandering around the store (though it was definitely a tiring effort), and I do plan to go back sometime to try some of the prepared foods, but I think the peasant in me will always have trouble doing too much shopping there. For some of the specialty items, or for something where I'm looking for better quality or more selection, I can see going there, but I can't imagine ever shopping there on a regular basis for everyday items. It's obviously more expensive there than in a regular market, and I just can't see paying those kinds of prices for ordinary items. They had fresh cranberries and whole roasted plain almonds and cashews, three things I wanted, but since I can get all of those items at other places and there isn't anything particularly spectacular about those items, I wouldn't be able to justify paying their prices for those items. I'd probably be more inclined to buy things like wine and cheese and certain cuts of meat or seafood or special produce items, things that aren't easily available elsewhere.
Here's a link to the Pasadena (Arroyo) branch of Whole Foods Market.
Oh.My.Goodness. This place is indeed HUGE. One of the things that the builders nicely thought about is that with as many things as there are in this "market", people aren't likely to just pop in and out, so they included a three-story underground parking structure.
The main entrance lets you into the produce village. There was actually so much to see everywhere that it was like going through a mall - the husband and I had to map out what we'd already seen and what we still needed to see. I think most of the time, we went around the edge of one section and then looked at the middle stuff before moving onto the next section. The produce section alone has all manner of fruits and vegetables that you could possibly want, including a large section of organically grown produce. The seafood bar is nearby, and they have lots of different items available, lots of different kind of shrimp and even calamari steaks. They also had pre-cooked whole dungeness crab ready to go. Most of the major sections in the store have areas where you can buy prepared foods to eat on the premises. There was even a little two-table cafe near the seafood bar.
There's a nut roasting section with all kinds of nuts roasted with every manner of seasoning or rolled in some manner of chocolate or cinnamon or something else or even plain. They also do special order roasting. The roasted chestnuts looked really good. There's also a juice bar where you can order from a selection of items. In the back is a section that has clothes, shoes, lotions, vitamins and other items. Behind that is a seating area complete with a number of nice tables, a flat-screen TV set on ESPN (that day anyway) and plastic silverware as well as a microwave that you can use.
The website mentions a "Take a Break Massage Room". What kind of market has a massage room? OK, it wasn't as much as I thought it might be, like a spa or something like that. I did see the entrance to the massage room, and it looked like there were four of those "sit and rest your body and head forward" things that you might see at the mall. There looked to be a sort of receptionist, but I didn't go in to see what they actually offered. But still, given how big the market is and how much time it takes to go through the market, you might just need a massage in the middle of your shopping trip!
OK, so far, that's only been the first floor. There's a whole second floor to the market. They have one of those cart lifts next to the escalators (as well as an elevator) so if you have a cart, it can ride up next to you. There's an employee there to help people with that.
Immediately off the escalator is the baked goods section. They have all manner of bread and bagels and danishes and cakes and cookies and pies and other desserts. Many of these are made sugar-free as well. They also have a chocolate section where a multitude of flavored truffles are available, as well as other sweets, and there's even a flowing chocolate fountain. Not sure if you just choose from a selection they provide to dip in the chocolate or if you can buy things from elsewhere (like fruit, for instance) and bring it up and have them cover it in chocolate.
They also have an entire cheese section with more cheese than I've seen in one place at one time. There are a few stations where you can sample a few of them, and I did end up buying a bit of a cheese that I sampled. Next to the cheese section is a very small Wine and Tapas Lounge, which basically just had a couple of sofas put together. We had a look at the menu, and there are a few items on there. The most interesting to me are a couple of cheese plates. That would seem ideal - try the cheeses there and if you like any of them, you can presumably buy more in the store.
Next to that is the meat counter. They mostly had a huge selection of different cuts of beef, and then ground beef, chicken and turkey as well. They also had duck available. There were a number of roasts and other items which were already seasoned and prepared, so you would just have to take them home and cook them for the appropriate amount of time. They even had a turducken available and ready to be cooked! It's the first time I'd ever seen one before. (The husband and I joked that it really had to be made that way because stuffing a turkey into either a chicken or a duck was probably not going to happen. However, we did decide that if physics could be defied and you could reverse it and stuff a turkey into a duck and then stuff that into a chicken, you'd have to call it a chuckey [CHickendUCKturkEY], and given how deformed and wrong this creature would look, naming it after a killer doll would be entirely appropriate. But I digress...)
There was a dairy section, and a wine section, and sections of other boxed goods and other normal things you'd find in supermarkets. The center section of the upstairs, though, is where the really good stuff is.
There are a number of stations where different prepared foods are available. There's a salad bar that has three different sections (including an olive bar), and there's a hot food bar as well. This day, the specialty items were Indian food items, and they smelled wonderful, just like in an Indian restaurant. There's a section when you can order sandwiches. There's a section that has Japanese food - some kinds of sushi, udon, tempura and teriyaki. There's also a section with hot mediterranean items. There are also a few seating areas in that section.
Because the market is so huge and has such an amazing selection, they also offer a lot of items for those with dietary restrictions. There were whole walls of gluten-free items and sugar-free items and dairy-free items and things like that. I would expect anyone who needs to find those kind of specialty items would appreciate having the varied selection that this store offers.
I loved wandering around the store (though it was definitely a tiring effort), and I do plan to go back sometime to try some of the prepared foods, but I think the peasant in me will always have trouble doing too much shopping there. For some of the specialty items, or for something where I'm looking for better quality or more selection, I can see going there, but I can't imagine ever shopping there on a regular basis for everyday items. It's obviously more expensive there than in a regular market, and I just can't see paying those kinds of prices for ordinary items. They had fresh cranberries and whole roasted plain almonds and cashews, three things I wanted, but since I can get all of those items at other places and there isn't anything particularly spectacular about those items, I wouldn't be able to justify paying their prices for those items. I'd probably be more inclined to buy things like wine and cheese and certain cuts of meat or seafood or special produce items, things that aren't easily available elsewhere.
Here's a link to the Pasadena (Arroyo) branch of Whole Foods Market.
Monday, December 3, 2007
writers' strike - the effect on primetime television
Anyone who watches primetime television either has already been or will be affected by the writers' strike. The strike means that no new scripts are being written or rewritten, so the production companies only have what scripts were completed before the strike started.
Someone on one of the discussion boards I participate in posted
this link to a TV Guide article that details how many episodes there are left of various network television shows, as of November 30, 2007. It's not yet a comprehensive list - he's still trying to track some information down. Have a look, and you can see what to expect from the shows you watch.
I had already heard that "The Big Bang Theory" had exhausted all of their shows, so I wasn't expecting any more. However, I had also heard that "Back To You" was out of episodes, but according to this chart, there are two left. That depends on whether the two episodes have already been shot or if they still need to be shot. Sitcoms were being hit the hardest initially because they tend to need more rewrites, which obviously wouldn't be going on now. If the shows were already shot, we'll likely see them. If they weren't actually shot yet, we might not, if they need any kind of significant work on the script.
"Survivor" is obviously going to be completed, as would "Kitchen Nightmares", for whatever they can produce, since those shows aren't governed by the WGA.
"Desperate Housewives" should have one left, since an episode aired last night. However, after last night's episode, there was no preview of the next episode, and there's no new show this coming Sunday, so not sure when the final available episode will air.
"Heroes" is airing their last show tonight.
"Law and Order: SVU" has five episodes left, plenty for the rest of the year.
"24" - It's already been announced that while they have completed something like 8 episodes, they're not going to run any of them until they know they can run them all consecutively. This is the show that I'm going to miss the most because of the strike.
"Lost" - I know a lot of people watch this show. I haven't heard what they're going to do, whether they're going the "Heroes" route and showing what they have or if they're going the "24" route and holding them until more can be made. I don't personally care. I've already given up on the show. Last year was the final straw for me.
I'm waiting for the return of "Law and Order" itself. Not sure if episodes were already shot before the strike started, so we'll see if it comes back in January. I'm also looking forward to seeing "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", so the same story with those new episodes.
Someone on one of the discussion boards I participate in posted
this link to a TV Guide article that details how many episodes there are left of various network television shows, as of November 30, 2007. It's not yet a comprehensive list - he's still trying to track some information down. Have a look, and you can see what to expect from the shows you watch.
I had already heard that "The Big Bang Theory" had exhausted all of their shows, so I wasn't expecting any more. However, I had also heard that "Back To You" was out of episodes, but according to this chart, there are two left. That depends on whether the two episodes have already been shot or if they still need to be shot. Sitcoms were being hit the hardest initially because they tend to need more rewrites, which obviously wouldn't be going on now. If the shows were already shot, we'll likely see them. If they weren't actually shot yet, we might not, if they need any kind of significant work on the script.
"Survivor" is obviously going to be completed, as would "Kitchen Nightmares", for whatever they can produce, since those shows aren't governed by the WGA.
"Desperate Housewives" should have one left, since an episode aired last night. However, after last night's episode, there was no preview of the next episode, and there's no new show this coming Sunday, so not sure when the final available episode will air.
"Heroes" is airing their last show tonight.
"Law and Order: SVU" has five episodes left, plenty for the rest of the year.
"24" - It's already been announced that while they have completed something like 8 episodes, they're not going to run any of them until they know they can run them all consecutively. This is the show that I'm going to miss the most because of the strike.
"Lost" - I know a lot of people watch this show. I haven't heard what they're going to do, whether they're going the "Heroes" route and showing what they have or if they're going the "24" route and holding them until more can be made. I don't personally care. I've already given up on the show. Last year was the final straw for me.
I'm waiting for the return of "Law and Order" itself. Not sure if episodes were already shot before the strike started, so we'll see if it comes back in January. I'm also looking forward to seeing "The Sarah Connor Chronicles", so the same story with those new episodes.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
"Law and Order", "Kitchen Nightmares", "Survivor" and "Desperate Housewives"
"Law and Order: SVU" - I didn't think this was as good as some of their other ones, though it did give Mariska Hargitay a chance to shine some more. The main story seemed a little more personal than they normally are, especially given how hard it hit Elliott. We don't usually get quite that much about their lives. And I'm not happy about how they never resolved the issue of what would happen to Tommy. His mother's dead, his father's going to jail for life for killing his mother, and he saw both his dead mother and his dead nanny. And now, he's probably going to be awarded custody to his biological father, who his mother was having an affair with, and who is a complete stranger to him. Think all that might scar him a bit? There had also been a build-up last week about Olivia and Kathy getting hit while in the car, and the baby's life hanging in the balance. OK, I had thought that might be interspersed a bit in the regular story, but that was just the story at the end. And while the scenes with Olivia and Kathy, and the rescue workers trying to get them out and Olivia having to do all sorts of things for Kathy and then basically taking Elliott's position while Kathy gave birth, were all good, there wasn't that much time when the baby was really in danger. By the time Elliott gets there, it's all good. I liked the hug that Elliott gave Olivia, presumable for all that Olivia did for Kathy and the baby, but I really would have liked just a simple "thank you" from Elliott to Olivia before they went back to normal. You got the look, but for me, it wasn't enough. Next week, you have the stunt casting of Method Man. I hope he's as good as Ludicrous was.
"Kitchen Nightmares" - OK, so you don't know anything about running a restaurant or about cooking really, and so you decide to open a restaurant? Ummm, ok, why? I'm amazed they were open for 18 months with the way things were going, but he was seriously in debt by that time. It's kind of interesting that even if you don't know anything about the business, you apparently can't figure out that having a "fun" working atmosphere is detrimental to your business. Yeah, you want to make it a pleasant place for people to work, but not at the expense of your customers. One of the things I don't get about a lot of these people is that they can't see some of the obvious problems with their restaurants, that they can't put themselves in the shoes of their customers and know that in their position, they wouldn't put up with certain things. A few of the people in this restaurant said it's known for people having to wait for their food. And the owner can't figure out that's a bad thing. He'd sit in a restaurant and wait a really long time for food and keep going back? It took Gordon to come in and see that their "fun" environment was entirely too loud for the customers, and maddening on top of that when you hear people goofing around while you sit there waiting endlessly for your meal? It was also amazing that there was so little business in the restaurant, but there were so many people on staff. As Gordon was counting them, it seemed to me that there were way more people working the restaurant than were eating in the restaurant.
One curious technical part for me - when Gordon was at their house and interviewing the wife, there's one scene at the end of that segment where Gordon and the wife are what looks to be in another room, and the cameraman was peering at them through a slightly open door. What was up with that?
I also found it odd that Gordon decided to take on the woman who was complaining about the food. I didn't think she was making a scene or anything, and Gordon really cussed her out. Seemed a bit odd to me.
"Survivor" - I thought this was a terrific episode all around. So the big twist was that they did an immediate reward challenge after tribal council, with the winner and two people going to the exclusive Shaolin temple. I was actually very happy that PG won that one. You could see the look on her face when Jeff announced the prize. I think she would have been crushed if she hadn't won or hadn't been chosen to go. The only Chinese contestant actually wins the most cultural award to date on this season. Interesting that the subject of the challenge was about the culture itself. Did they engineer this for her to win, since she would have had more of a background, other than Jean Robert, though they were probably all given stuff to read? I thought she was going to pick James and Todd to try to play game, but it was actually nice that she picked Eric and Denise, more so once we found out that Denise had some training in karate. It was interesting that the outcasts got to go on the reward challenge while the main alliance all stayed at camp. There really wasn't that much game to discuss, though Amanda showed that she had other ideas.
The karate demo was pretty cool to watch, but as soon as they mentioned Denise's training, I knew that was going to show up some time. It was cool that she got to demo to the kids. Being able to perform at Shaolin temple is probably going to be something that Denise never forgets, though when she thanked PG for choosing her, I was figuring that meant she would probably vote her off at the next tribal, since that's how it happens a lot.
Courtney is still bugging me. When outcasts came back and PG was talking about the reward, it wasn't like she was just volunteering. She was asked. And Courtney is going on about "her" cave. Ummm, when did she become master of the cave?
I was also annoyed at Todd for being mad at PG for trying to play the game and suggest voting him off. Ummm, yeah, he's one of the strongest players, and she's on the chopping block. Of course she's going to try to stir it up to save herself and target him. I don't get when people think it's fine when they have to do this or that to play the game (considering Todd was going to try to blindside James previously), but if the game is played on them, then they're mad and it's not right, blah, blah, blah.
So Amanda now embraces and even implements the plan to blindside James that Todd had previously advocated and that she didn't like. Maybe they just haven't showed footage, but it's about time more people are seeing exactly how big a threat James was, both in his actions and with his two hidden immunity idols.
I liked the flying stars challenge - culturally related and fun to watch. Nice that Eric came out on top. I also liked in the machinations before tribal when Amanda had to finally convince PG to stop stirring the pot and just act as if she was going home. I know it must have taken a lot for PG to believe her.
And then we got to one of the best tribal councils ever, second to one from last year, imo. Everyone played the role they needed to play, especially PG emphasizing her being voted out and being on the jury and people needing jury votes. Even after they voted, and before Jeff started reading the votes, Amanda and Courtney were looking back and forth at people, rather guiltily. OK, you're not out of the woods yet. Until Jeff has read the first vote, James can still play an idol. Stop looking and acting guilty. But even though James later admits that he was suspicious, he doesn't play either of the idols - and he is completely blindsided. You could see Todd trying not to laugh, and when it all became obvious, we were busting up at the look on his face, and his pulling his cap down, the look of sheer joy on PG's face as she realized she was not in fact going home, and the laughter of the jury members at what was happening.
And to top it off, major kudos to James for accepting his position graciously. He wasn't angry about being voted off. He understood why it happened and that it was his mistake not to play an idol. Very classy.
"Desperate Housewives" - A tornado (or other natural or created disaster) hitting the major members of the cast is a staple in daytime soaps, but it's usually accompanied by a lot more drama. Given the catastrophic nature of the disaster and the hype for the last couple weeks, I thought it was a fairly ho-hum episode. Yeah, there were a few major revelations, but they've had those without the added fury of Mother Nature. I get the depiction of the literal and figurative tornado as goes through, shredding and changing lives, but a lot of it fell flat for me.
Gabrielle and Carlos - OK, still don't really care. OK, so Gabrielle and Edie called a truce, more or less. Victor was conveniently killed by Mother Nature herself, so that frees up Gabrielle, though I thought that was a little too trite. I would have liked to have seen Victor torture Gabrielle and Carlos for a while. She and Carlos now no longer have to run, and their secret regarding Victor is now safe, but now that Carlos' millions of dollars is literally lost in the wind, they'll have to find something else to do.
Susan and Mike - Again, it's another soap staple - throw the pregnant lady down a flight of stairs. It's usually a rival that does it, but in this case, it's to show us the decline of Mike. Too bad since he's been actually a pretty good character. Didn't much care about that either, except that I wondered about a doctor prescribing pain meds to a pregnant woman. I wouldn't think she'd be allowed to take something that strong.
Bree got herself much more than she bargained for when she invited psycho-Chicago lady into her home. I also wondered why she had to take Benjamin out with a stroller when she was only going a couple doors down. She couldn't just hold him? In the increasing winds, wouldn't that also have been safer, rather than a buggy that is hard to handle and can blow away? I did love the scene when Bree inadvertently confirms to Katherine that her husband did in fact have an affair with psycho woman. Can't wait for the fallout of that.
And then we get to Lynette. She's usually the reasonable one in the bunch, but I had a serious problem with her. OK, so they're not prepared for the tornado. I understand that she wants to keep her family safe, so I can let go her basically bullying Mrs. McCluskey into letting her entire family into the basement for shelter. But after inviting herself and her clan in, she can't believe that Mrs. McCluskey won't also agree to toss out the cat? Yeah, ok, it's a cat, but it's also someone else's home, someone else who didn't invite her or her family to begin with. And then on top of that, she surreptitiously takes the cat out while they're not looking? (And that wouldn't really have helped anyway, since the cat's hair and dander would still be in the basement, so Tom's allergies weren't going to get any better anyway.) Wow, talk about breach of etiquette and courtesy! And even the ending, when Lynette is screaming because Mrs. McCluskey's house has been levelled. OK, well, she's just lost her entire house, but Lynette is the one freaking out. I mean, I would think that since the family was in the basement, that would mean they're ok.
The opening of the show said someone would lose a husband (that would be Gabrielle, since Victor's now dead) and someone would lose a friend. Who's the friend? The cat? Mrs. McCluskey's friend? Did I miss something?
"Kitchen Nightmares" - OK, so you don't know anything about running a restaurant or about cooking really, and so you decide to open a restaurant? Ummm, ok, why? I'm amazed they were open for 18 months with the way things were going, but he was seriously in debt by that time. It's kind of interesting that even if you don't know anything about the business, you apparently can't figure out that having a "fun" working atmosphere is detrimental to your business. Yeah, you want to make it a pleasant place for people to work, but not at the expense of your customers. One of the things I don't get about a lot of these people is that they can't see some of the obvious problems with their restaurants, that they can't put themselves in the shoes of their customers and know that in their position, they wouldn't put up with certain things. A few of the people in this restaurant said it's known for people having to wait for their food. And the owner can't figure out that's a bad thing. He'd sit in a restaurant and wait a really long time for food and keep going back? It took Gordon to come in and see that their "fun" environment was entirely too loud for the customers, and maddening on top of that when you hear people goofing around while you sit there waiting endlessly for your meal? It was also amazing that there was so little business in the restaurant, but there were so many people on staff. As Gordon was counting them, it seemed to me that there were way more people working the restaurant than were eating in the restaurant.
One curious technical part for me - when Gordon was at their house and interviewing the wife, there's one scene at the end of that segment where Gordon and the wife are what looks to be in another room, and the cameraman was peering at them through a slightly open door. What was up with that?
I also found it odd that Gordon decided to take on the woman who was complaining about the food. I didn't think she was making a scene or anything, and Gordon really cussed her out. Seemed a bit odd to me.
"Survivor" - I thought this was a terrific episode all around. So the big twist was that they did an immediate reward challenge after tribal council, with the winner and two people going to the exclusive Shaolin temple. I was actually very happy that PG won that one. You could see the look on her face when Jeff announced the prize. I think she would have been crushed if she hadn't won or hadn't been chosen to go. The only Chinese contestant actually wins the most cultural award to date on this season. Interesting that the subject of the challenge was about the culture itself. Did they engineer this for her to win, since she would have had more of a background, other than Jean Robert, though they were probably all given stuff to read? I thought she was going to pick James and Todd to try to play game, but it was actually nice that she picked Eric and Denise, more so once we found out that Denise had some training in karate. It was interesting that the outcasts got to go on the reward challenge while the main alliance all stayed at camp. There really wasn't that much game to discuss, though Amanda showed that she had other ideas.
The karate demo was pretty cool to watch, but as soon as they mentioned Denise's training, I knew that was going to show up some time. It was cool that she got to demo to the kids. Being able to perform at Shaolin temple is probably going to be something that Denise never forgets, though when she thanked PG for choosing her, I was figuring that meant she would probably vote her off at the next tribal, since that's how it happens a lot.
Courtney is still bugging me. When outcasts came back and PG was talking about the reward, it wasn't like she was just volunteering. She was asked. And Courtney is going on about "her" cave. Ummm, when did she become master of the cave?
I was also annoyed at Todd for being mad at PG for trying to play the game and suggest voting him off. Ummm, yeah, he's one of the strongest players, and she's on the chopping block. Of course she's going to try to stir it up to save herself and target him. I don't get when people think it's fine when they have to do this or that to play the game (considering Todd was going to try to blindside James previously), but if the game is played on them, then they're mad and it's not right, blah, blah, blah.
So Amanda now embraces and even implements the plan to blindside James that Todd had previously advocated and that she didn't like. Maybe they just haven't showed footage, but it's about time more people are seeing exactly how big a threat James was, both in his actions and with his two hidden immunity idols.
I liked the flying stars challenge - culturally related and fun to watch. Nice that Eric came out on top. I also liked in the machinations before tribal when Amanda had to finally convince PG to stop stirring the pot and just act as if she was going home. I know it must have taken a lot for PG to believe her.
And then we got to one of the best tribal councils ever, second to one from last year, imo. Everyone played the role they needed to play, especially PG emphasizing her being voted out and being on the jury and people needing jury votes. Even after they voted, and before Jeff started reading the votes, Amanda and Courtney were looking back and forth at people, rather guiltily. OK, you're not out of the woods yet. Until Jeff has read the first vote, James can still play an idol. Stop looking and acting guilty. But even though James later admits that he was suspicious, he doesn't play either of the idols - and he is completely blindsided. You could see Todd trying not to laugh, and when it all became obvious, we were busting up at the look on his face, and his pulling his cap down, the look of sheer joy on PG's face as she realized she was not in fact going home, and the laughter of the jury members at what was happening.
And to top it off, major kudos to James for accepting his position graciously. He wasn't angry about being voted off. He understood why it happened and that it was his mistake not to play an idol. Very classy.
"Desperate Housewives" - A tornado (or other natural or created disaster) hitting the major members of the cast is a staple in daytime soaps, but it's usually accompanied by a lot more drama. Given the catastrophic nature of the disaster and the hype for the last couple weeks, I thought it was a fairly ho-hum episode. Yeah, there were a few major revelations, but they've had those without the added fury of Mother Nature. I get the depiction of the literal and figurative tornado as goes through, shredding and changing lives, but a lot of it fell flat for me.
Gabrielle and Carlos - OK, still don't really care. OK, so Gabrielle and Edie called a truce, more or less. Victor was conveniently killed by Mother Nature herself, so that frees up Gabrielle, though I thought that was a little too trite. I would have liked to have seen Victor torture Gabrielle and Carlos for a while. She and Carlos now no longer have to run, and their secret regarding Victor is now safe, but now that Carlos' millions of dollars is literally lost in the wind, they'll have to find something else to do.
Susan and Mike - Again, it's another soap staple - throw the pregnant lady down a flight of stairs. It's usually a rival that does it, but in this case, it's to show us the decline of Mike. Too bad since he's been actually a pretty good character. Didn't much care about that either, except that I wondered about a doctor prescribing pain meds to a pregnant woman. I wouldn't think she'd be allowed to take something that strong.
Bree got herself much more than she bargained for when she invited psycho-Chicago lady into her home. I also wondered why she had to take Benjamin out with a stroller when she was only going a couple doors down. She couldn't just hold him? In the increasing winds, wouldn't that also have been safer, rather than a buggy that is hard to handle and can blow away? I did love the scene when Bree inadvertently confirms to Katherine that her husband did in fact have an affair with psycho woman. Can't wait for the fallout of that.
And then we get to Lynette. She's usually the reasonable one in the bunch, but I had a serious problem with her. OK, so they're not prepared for the tornado. I understand that she wants to keep her family safe, so I can let go her basically bullying Mrs. McCluskey into letting her entire family into the basement for shelter. But after inviting herself and her clan in, she can't believe that Mrs. McCluskey won't also agree to toss out the cat? Yeah, ok, it's a cat, but it's also someone else's home, someone else who didn't invite her or her family to begin with. And then on top of that, she surreptitiously takes the cat out while they're not looking? (And that wouldn't really have helped anyway, since the cat's hair and dander would still be in the basement, so Tom's allergies weren't going to get any better anyway.) Wow, talk about breach of etiquette and courtesy! And even the ending, when Lynette is screaming because Mrs. McCluskey's house has been levelled. OK, well, she's just lost her entire house, but Lynette is the one freaking out. I mean, I would think that since the family was in the basement, that would mean they're ok.
The opening of the show said someone would lose a husband (that would be Gabrielle, since Victor's now dead) and someone would lose a friend. Who's the friend? The cat? Mrs. McCluskey's friend? Did I miss something?
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