cold dead fish

There was a time in my life when I didn't like sushi. Hard to believe, huh? Well, my parents didn't eat it, my siblings didn't eat it, and I don't even remember having friends who talked about eating it. The idea of eating raw fish just didn't appeal to me.

And then at some point, I was talked into trying it. And I discovered I didn't hate it. As time went by, I ventured out on my own. At first, I started with the more general stuff - salmon, tuna. And then I started to like the more exotic stuff. And I also started to care more about quality. Now, I'm sort of a sushi snob, but not even as much as the husband, who only started eating sushi about 8 or so years ago. He's a serious snob and won't go to a lot of places. I'm still willing to try some places. But I have discovered that if I have less than first-rate quality sushi, it's so incredibly unsatisfying. The downside is that really good sushi isn't exactly cheap, and the more I have sushi, the more I'm interested in the less ordinary stuff. But it's all so worth it.

And just to get this out of the way, sushi and sashimi aren't the same thing. Sashimi is just the (generally) raw fish/seafood/whatever - no rice. The pieces that include rice are sushi. I love sashimi, but it's even more expensive, especially since without the rice, you don't get as full as fast, so you end up ordering more. We splurge on sashimi on occasion.

I still like salmon and tuna, though I'm not generally a fan of smoked salmon, as far as sushi is concerned. But I also love yellowtail and albacore. I love toro (fatty tuna), and I've also had yellowtail toro, and oh my goodness, is that amazing. A friend turned me onto giant clam multiple years ago, so that's a favorite as well.

I also love masago (smelt eggs - the little tiny orange ones) and ikura (salmon roe), and a friend and I discovered a combination some years ago at a restaurant in Japantown in Los Angeles called tres huevos - three eggs. In one of the sushi cups, it's filled on one half with masago and the other half with ikura, with a quail egg yolk (it's too slimy for me if you include the egg white as well) in the middle. It's a little hard to describe, but I've managed to get a few sushi chefs to duplicate it for me. Yum.





Back in my early years of sushidom, I would generally order the combination, and it usually came with uni - sea urchin. I tried it once and discovered I didn't care for it, so it was something I never ate. I would always give it to the one friend who also liked sushi - my sushi buddy. As I got more into sushi, I got tired of ordering combos that came with things that I didn't like (uni or eel - I don't object to the taste of eel really, it's just my thing about snakes that makes it hard for me to eat eel) or didn't think was worth the space in my stomach (ebi - cooked shrimp). I started either ordering a la carte at a table or just sitting at the bar and ordering individual things. A few years ago, the husband and I were at a sushi place, and we had been chatting with the sushi chef (one of the reasons I like sitting at the bar - it's a much nicer experience when you get a great sushi chef who's also personable). He was suggesting different things to us and then suggested uni to me. I told him I'd had it and didn't care for the taste. He said I just hadn't had good uni. He cut off a piece and offered it to me. What the heck, I figured, and tried it. It was actually quite good. He said that the freshness of the uni really made a difference. I suppose it could also be possible that my tastes have changed and matured over the years as well, but freshness does make a major difference when it comes to sushi and sashimi. I decided to order uni at the couple of regular places I visited, all places where I trusted their fish. And I've now come to really like the flavor of uni. My sushi buddy friend was amazed the first time I told her about it, and she looked at me pretty incredulously as I ordered it and ate it!

I'm also a fan of sweet shrimp - raw shrimp. I like shrimp in general, but ebi is just boring. Sweet shrimp (again, freshness and quality are really important) is delicious. At some places, they also fry the shrimp head, which I love as well.

I've also discovered that I love raw scallops, much more so than cooked scallops. It just has a different flavor and texture when it's raw.

I was also introduced to monk fish liver some time ago and discovered I like that as well. I've seen the preparation and presentation of it differ in different restaurants, and I don't necessarily prefer it one way or the other.

One of the major things we were introduced to is Spanish mackerel. We were at our favorite restaurant with one of our favorite chefs, and he suggested the Spanish mackerel. I told him that I didn't care for mackerel. He said no one likes mackerel and that this was different. We trusted his recommendation - and boy were we glad. I find mackerel to be the epitome of "fishy-tasting" but Spanish mackerel is more of a white-fish texture (like red snapper or halibut). We only ever order it as sashimi to savor the flavor. Mmmmm.

One of the other discoveries that I had made on my own is herring roe, which the husband refers to as little yellow surfboards. It's not something I've been able to find in many places, but I did discover that Kabuki Restaurant in Pasadena added it to their menu a little while ago. It actually comes with a little bit of the fish and some of the roe, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I'm also a fan of spicy tuna hand roll (I like it with gobo - the little marinated carrots - and masago) and salmon skin hand roll.

I will also on occasion order miso soup and/or seaweed salad - I love seaweed.

On the matter of California rolls, let me tell this story:

The husband and I had taken two of my nephews to sushi. The older one, we'd taken before. The younger one, he'd never had sushi before and I didn't think he'd like it but I figured he could have other stuff there, and he ended up liking pretty much everything I ordered and had him try. I had also ordered him some regular food, to make sure he had enough to eat, and he'd chosen vegetable tempura and teriyaki chicken. We sat at the bar, and because it was busy, we would occasionally have to wait for the sushi chef, which was ok because we like watching them make other orders. As we waited, my younger nephew would have bits of the cooked food. I asked my older nephew if he wanted some as well, and he said no and just sat and waited. I finally figured out that he had learned to handle the sushi dilemma - you have to manage the room you have in your stomach. You can only eat so much, so you have to make sure that you don't waste stomach space for things you don't really, really want. He said he could get tempura and teriyaki chicken elsewhere, but not so with sushi. He was perfectly fine with just waiting patiently until we had a chance to order more sushi.

That's how I feel about California rolls. They're made up of krab (fake crab made of flour and water mostly), avocado and cucumber, wrapped in rice and seaweed. Yep, no fish or seafood at all. My question is - what's the point? It's mostly a waste of space. I have on occasion had a bite or two if someone else wanted to order it, but I never order it myself. I've only got so much room in my stomach. Why would I want to occupy any of that precious space with that? I've heard people proclaim how much they love sushi, and they talk about how they love California rolls, and that's pretty much all they eat. Ummm, yeah, well, as far as I'm concerned, that's not sushi. And yes, I've gotten yelled at for having and expressing that point of view, but hey, too bad. I figure California roll is ordered by people who 1) want to pretend that they like sushi because it's cool or hip or whatever but don't actually like raw fish (which is mostly what sushi is made of) and/or 2) want to go for the inexpensive stuff.

There are a couple different places that I go to on a regular basis, and one of these is called Tokyo Wako. It's a combination teppan steak place and sushi bar. We've never been to the teppan tables, just to the sushi bar and the side bar where you can get cooked food. They have great tempura (shrimp and vegetable) and they have awesome udon as well. There are four locations - Arcadia, Pasadena, Ontario and Long Beach. We've been to 3 of the 4 locations. They have very fresh fish, and the service is great. They don't have too many of the exotic items, but it's generally a good selection. They can be very busy, which limits your time with the sushi chef, but if they're not quite as swamped, there's more time to chat and for them to make off-menu items.

Here's their main website.

We've gone through a number of different sushi chefs that we've liked, but unfortunately, many of them have left, and we don't know where they went. There's still one chef we know from our early days, so we go to visit him occasionally since he works at a location that's not very near our house.

If anyone knows where Jimmy and Jun went, I've love to know.

The Great Grape Juice Lego Experiment

In my first entry of this blog, I mentioned having purchased some Lego kitchenware. Well, I finally did try grape juice with the two molds.

Here's the ice cube mold, with one of the grape juice Lego cubes on top.





The grape juice didn't quite freeze as much as water does - even with being in the freezer for two days, it was still quite watery on top, and the blocks were a bit difficult to get out whole. Because of the nubbies (what are they called anyway?) at the bottom that form the top of the Lego piece, some of them would break off or get smooshed coming out of the mold, all the more so because the blocks weren't frozen solid. Cute, and still tasty, though.


I decided to also make a grape juice Lego in the bigger mold that I bought.





That one was fun but again didn't quite freeze all the way. It's a pretty hefty block.

The next experiment will be actually baking in the bigger mold. The husband likes angel food cake, so I'm going to make angel food cake Lego bricks.

television round-up - "Desperate Housewives", "Heroes", "The Big Bang Theory", "Back to You", "Kitchen Nightmares" and "Survivor"

"Desperate Housewives" - This week was a pretty light episode overal. I'm not sure I entirely get the deal with Susan and Mike's dad. I mean, yeah, ok, genetics and all that, but before she starts to worry about whether Mike and his dad have passed along any homicidal or psychotic genes to her unborn baby, maybe she ought to think about the seriously neurotic genes that she's passing along to the poor child. But then, look at Susan and her ex-husband, and Julie turned out ok.

I did love the bit with Bree and Danielle at the end. The scenes at the Halloween party pretty much continued to set them up as adversaries, but it was pretty sweet when Bree was encouraging Danielle to hold her newborn baby, and you could see the conflict in Danielle's eyes, and the worry on Bree's face at the very end when Danielle was leaving.

Gabrielle is so fickle about Carlos and Victor. At least Carlos finally had the nerve to leave Edie. But now that Victor knows about Gabrielle and Carlos? Guess we'll find out.

And then, we find out that Lynette's cancer is in remission. The whole storyline with the possum was actually quite nice. You knew something was wrong, but you weren't quite sure what. It wasn't until the night of the party and the conversation between Tom and Lynette about the possum that you're told what exactly is going on. And Lynette sobbing at the end.

But on a lighter note, I loved it when Lynette's trick-or-treating kids saw "Frankenstein" holding up the new baby! ;)


"Heroes" - There were parts of this week's episode that I liked, but it was losing me with all the popping around that Peter was doing. Great, *yet* another time period.

When Hiro was talking to Yaeko about Kensei, I kept expecting him to say, "There is still good in him. I have felt it." Shades of Vader much? But at least Hiro is back with Ando, and the look on Hiro's face when Ando had to tell him about this father was heartbreaking.

I liked the resolution of Matt's story with his dad and how that saves Molly. I also liked the stuff with Niki. And we found out who Adam Monroe is. I had a feeling that the explosion wouldn't be the end of him.

Apparently, at least one of the creators/writers of the show realizes the mistakes that they've made so far this season, so that bodes well for the future of "Heroes" - after the current writers' strike is over, that is.

Here's the article.

The teaser for next week's episode better be right. I expect ANSWERS.


"The Big Bang Theory" - Another stellar episode. Another one where we had to stop the DVR and go back so we could watch a scene again. I loved the Chinese restaurant episode. Chinese waiter dude is like the only working Chinese actor in Hollywood, if you don't count Chow Yun Fat and Jet Li, and you won't find either of them pretending to be a waiter in a Chinese restaurant. (I think this is the same guy who was in the Chinese restaurant episode of "Seinfeld", one of like two episodes of that show that I saw. I think I also saw the "we can't remember where we parked our car in the parking structure at the mall so we have to wander around everywhere looking for it" episode. But I digress...) I loved his retort when Sheldon was talking about "where he comes from": "I come from Sacramento," and then the look of utter embarrassment on Sheldon's face as he tries to hide. As Sheldon listed off what they usually order (steamed dumplings, general so's chicken, beef with broccoli, shrimp with lobster sauce and vegetable lo mein), and he then asked what was wrong, my response was "you're ordering BORING food!" It didn't get any better when either Leonard or Raj suggested ordering soup instead, and what would they be ordering? Won ton soup. Puhleeze.

I loved how anal Sheldon was being about not being able to divide everything evenly since Spock was with his new girlfriend. When Raj suggested cutting the fourth dumpling, Sheldon's response was that it's then no longer a dumpling, "at best, it's a very small open-face sandwich". And when waiter dude suggested "accidentally" dropping the fourth dumpling, and Leonard said, "No one will know," Sheldon was emphatic about "I will know."

I loved Penny's look when Leonard made her promise not to gnaw the meat off their bones after Leonard's and Sheldon's earthquake supplies discussion. And what the heck was up with Raj still munching on a sandwich in the kitchen? Too funny.

But the best bit really was when they were playing Halo 3, and Penny was kicking the crap out of Sheldon on her first try. Leonard: "Penny, you're on fire." Penny: "So is Sheldon." And then Sheldon tried to walk away, but Penny convinced him to come back - only so he could witness her nuking him. Priceless.


"Back to You" - It was an ok episode, nothing too spectacular. It was funny watching weather girl practicing with station manager to say that weird name, and her repeated failure to do so, and then the later payoff with the little girl saying the same thing like 3 times. The casting of Charisma Carpenter as the boy's mother was inspired - the husband and I chuckled that the son's name was Xander. Oh, and Mr. Investigative Reporter having to instead cover the birth of the baby hippo was probably funnier to me than most people.


"Kitchen Nightmares" - I think all of the restaurant owners/managers are vying for "most pigheaded restaurant person of the year". What amazes me is that this is the second person who has run a restaurant and admitted that they didn't care about the quality of the food. In the first case, the person just cared that the food was sent out. In this case, he just cared that it was "unique". Nothing about the quality. Umm, ok, great "concept" for operating a restaurant.

We couldn't figure out the whole "this restaurant will probably close down in 6 months" thought, followed by "we can franchise!" Yeah, franchise serving frozen food? Blech.

And I couldn't believe that the sign for the restaurant was advertising the wood-burning pizza ovens - that they weren't even using! What, you figure having them as decoration was enough?

Apparently, the makeover didn't last - Sebastian apparently went back to his "20 flavors combination" utterly confusing menu. Here's the link to the menu. I'm mildly curious, but I don't think I'm curious enough to actually go and try it.


"Survivor" - Tonight was a fun episode. The constant flipping by Todd was interesting, but it did make sense, even though Amanda was confused by it. Who would have thought that Courtney would *ever* have been able to win a challenge? She must weigh like 4 pounds. I don't think there's ever been anyone skinnier than her on a Survivor. When Jeff put the immunity necklace around her, it was bigger than her and probably heavier than her. The husband and I applauded loudly when Jean-Robert was kicked off. The look on Todd's face as he was trying not to bust out laughing was priceless. It was also fun to watch P.G.'s face as she began to realize that she wasn't being kicked off that night. Jean-Robert was still delusional though. In his farewell speech, he talked about him being the biggest threat. No, dude, they really didn't like you and only kept you around because they needed the numbers. And what was with being a poker player and being used to using strategy and stuff and then just being a big lumbering oaf who just kept threatening people?

But you know something happened to Denise. First, she wasn't picked by either side for the reward challenge. And then she was the only one who voted for P.G. because "her tribe" didn't tell her what they were doing. You could see how mad she was. It'll be interesting to see how alliances might change next week.

Say what?

Things you'll never hear:


Announcer: Michael Vick, you've just been indicted for dog fighting. Now what are you going to do?

MV: I'm going to Disneyland!


Announcer: Britney Spears, you've just lost custody of your two children. Now what are you going to do?

BS: I'm going to Disneyland!


Announcer: O.J. Simpson, you've just been indicted for a boatload of things. Now what are you going to do?

OS: I'm going to Disneyland!


Announcer: Michael Eisner, you've just [blah][blah][blah][blah]. Now what are you going to do?

ME: I'm going to Disneyland!

expensive hand-me-downs

Most everyone is probably familiar with hand-me-downs. If you had older siblings, especially of the same gender, you probably got clothes that they used to wear when they were your age. Girls could probably wear some boys stuff, but I'm thinking in general, boys didn't wear girls stuff. It's also fairly common in cases of babies and other little ones to get clothes from other than siblings. A baby's mother might be good friends with someone whose child is growing out of clothes and passing those clothes along. Generally, people don't pass along dirty or stained or worn-out things, but they're still used.

But what if the used item is fairly expensive? Let's say someone passes along, oh, I don't know, a $2,000 purse? Or maybe an expensive jacket. Or an expensive piece of jewelry. Or something else that's fairly expensive. It's just not something they're using anymore, so they're still passing it along. Is that still called a hand-me-down? I just think of hand-me-downs as being fairly inexpensive stuff. I'd have trouble calling a $500 leather jacket a "hand-me-down". And it's not an inheritance, per se. So what's the word to use?

Cars are no longer "used". They're now "pre-owned". Hmmm, wonder why they don't use the term "pre-driven". Doesn't have quite the same ring to it, does it? (OK, tangent here - I heard this in the last couple years - if a woman gets married for a second time, she's not on her second husband or having a second wedding - she's an "encore bride". Umm, yeah, ok, whatever floats your boat. But I digress...) So are clothes "pre-owned" as well? "Pre-worn" just sounds icky.

Of course, a fairly good business of "vintage" stores have cropped up on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles where they sell clothes that other people don't want any more. They're in decent condition, and they're much cheaper than if you bought it new. So, ok, maybe vintage works for clothes, but I'm still looking for that elusive word that means "expensive hand-me-down".

Daphne's Greek Cafe - a great fast-foodish chain

I can't remember the first time I tried Daphne's. I'm pretty sure it was at someone else's suggestion. But it's a place I love now. The menu still kind of confuses me because for some reason, it's not totally clear to me what's included with various things. I have on one occasion ordered something, only to have it come with way too much stuff.

I usually order a kebab plate - chicken and beef. You get one skewer of each, and you get rice pilaf, greek salad and pita bread. Sometimes, I'll order the vegetarian combo plate, which comes with a mixture of various items (like spanakopita, grape leaves and hummus), plus salad and rice. I love Daphne's salad dressing, enough that I bought a bottle to keep at home. I recently tried the half chicken plate, and the chicken was very tender and tasty. On the kebabs, I tend to like the beef a bit more only because they're a bit moister and easier to get off the stick. The cooked chicken tends to be a little drier and fairly difficult to get off the stick whole. In the past few months, I've also come to really like their lemon chicken avgolemono soup. I love the lemony flavor, and even in summer, the warm soup tastes good because they usually have the dining area nicely cooled with air conditioning. We've also come to like their "just the dips" appetizer.

At Daphne's, you order at the counter, and if you've ordered a drink, they'll give you your cup, which you can fill/refill from the drink station. You are also given a number, which you put on your table, and then your order is brought out to you. Each table is set with a paper napkin, real knife (the butter kind, not the steak kind) and a real fork. Your food is brought out on a real plate. When you're done, you just leave your items on the table, and they clean it up for you. It's fast food, but with more flavor, a little more of the niceties and better food. I've always encountered very friendly and helpful people working at Daphne's, and they're generally very quick at clearing/cleaning tables. They are opening more locations all the time, and while there is a location not terribly far from work, parking is an issue there, so I don't go nearly as often as I'd like to.

They also have a rewards program that keeps count of your expenditures, and you get discounts and other offers emailed to you.

Here's the official website.

television round-up - "Desperate Housewives", "Heroes", "Law and Order", "Survivor" and "The Big Bang Theory"

"Desperate Housewives" - This show has some of the most clever arcs and bookends that I've seen. There is often some kind of theme that is presented in the opening narration and then revisited in the closing narration, with the action in between highlighting that particular theme.

The previous week's episode was about pests. It started with how pests of the bug and rodent kind are what drove Bob and Lee to Wisteria Lane, only to encounter a "pest" in the form of Susan. Teri Hatcher is terrific in her role of the well-meaning but poor-execution neighbor. I know, I'll save their dog - right after I hold it hostage in the garage without knowing there's open yellow paint in there. And of course, she has no idea how utterly ridiculous she sounds in explaining that she knows all about gay people because she watches a lot of cable.

And then we saw the return of Bree's former mother-in-law, who is trying to buy her way into her grandchildren's good graces while simultaneously trying to circumvent their mother. I'm not finding her antics nearly as funny as I might have a year or two ago. I lurk on a board where there's a lot of discussion about problematic relations with various family members, especially mother-in-laws, and the kinds of things that Phyllis was saying and doing were textbook of the kinds of attitudes, tricks and passive-aggressive moves that the people on that board talk about all the time, so rather than finding that kind of stuff amusing, I find myself getting irritated and mad on behalf of the people on that board, and I'm hoping that Bree can see right through it. I loved the ending, though, that while some pests can be a nuisance, others are downright dangerous, as Phyllis has just showed up at the convent where pregnant granddaughter Danielle has been stashed.

This week's episode had a lot of interesting developments and some really great moments. One of the things I really like about this show is how some of the relationships are portrayed, and how they really involve realistic situations that people deal with fairly sensibly but not always perfectly. I love the friendships that have been built among the four women (I don't think Edie counts) and how they support each other, and yet, each is (or at least was, since Lynette's secret about her cancer is out) still keeping a secret from the others for various reasons. I love the dilemma that Susan was caught in between doing what's best for her and Mike (voting for Katherine, who has vowed to get rid of Bob and Lee's art sculpture fountain, for Homeowners' Association president - and had they previously said that Wisteria Lane had an HOA, because I don't recall hearing anything about that before) or voting for her very good friend Lynette. In the end, she votes for Katherine, and Lynette gives her a hard time about it, but Susan calls her on making her choose between her friend's children and her own husband. Lynette finally realizes how unfair that actually is, but she also explains what the treehouse means to her kids, which melts our hearts along with Susan's. I also liked in previous episodes when Lynette was going to her chemo appointments and she couldn't figure out why good friend Gabrielle wouldn't go with her - until Gabrielle admits what it was like watching her father die and not being able to show any emotion about it, and how difficult it is seeing Lynette in a similar position and not knowing if she can survive not showing any emotion about that. My favorite scene of the friendships, though, was from season one, I believe, when Lynette has just had it with her unruly kids that she has no idea how to handle, and she's sitting in a field/park against a tree, crying, where Susan and Bree find her. Lynette finally admits to how hard she's finding being a mother, and when Susan and Bree tell her they felt the same way, she's so relieved because she thought they were perfect parents who didn't feel any of that. They agree that you're not supposed to say how hard it is, but that as friends, it would help so much if they did. The other relationship I really like is that between Lynette and Tom. They have the most "real" marriage on the show, I think - it's not perfect, and they've certainly had their ups and downs, with Lynette's almost/kinda affair and Tom's out-of-nowhere daughter from a previous relationship, not to mention said daughter's psycho mother, and then there was the work tension when Tom worked for Lynette at the ad agency and then when Lynette worked for Tom at the pizza place. They had scenes last week with the trepidation that Tom felt trying to make love to Lynette after she took her wig off, revealing her bald head, and Lynette's attempt at role-playing by getting a new and different wig, which got out of hand, and then the realization that Tom's place with regard to her cancer had never been addressed. These are all situations where real issues are addressed and resolved realistically, and people learn to forgive each other. Hmmm, all of these situations involve Lynette - but then, I do think she is the most grounded of all of them. Maybe that's why Felicity Huffman won her Emmy - for portraying a real woman.

It's interesting to see the change in Bree, especially with regard to her children. She was the one with the perfect home - but she was completely oblivious to the fact that her husband was having an affair and that her children had turned out to be monsters, much due to her own behaviour. It was refreshing to hear her admit that she knew she'd done a horrible job with Andrew and Danielle and that she was hoping to get a second chance by raising Danielle's baby. This week, it was fun to watch her and Orson trick Danielle into doing what they want (thanks to Andrew's advice), but at the end, when Bree softened a bit towards Phyllis and offered to perhaps let her babysit on a weekend, part of me screamed "no" inside, that she was just giving Phyllis the opportunity to wreak more havoc. Yep, I think I've been conditioned.

I'm finding myself not that interested in the whole Gabrielle and Carlos thing or even the Gabrielle and Victor thing. And I'm not really sure the point of bringing back John this week - maybe just to show Carlos the parallels? But I still don't understand why John is trapped. Yeah, there's a baby on the way, so he would still need to do what he needs to do about that, but why stay with a shrew of a wife who thinks she did you a favor by letting you "marry up"?

However, I *loved* last week's bit at Bree's baby shower when the server brought a tray of food around and offered it to various people. We watched along with Edie as the waiter offered crab cakes to Carlos, then Gabrielle, then Victor - and Edie made the connection that the familiar smell she couldn't identify on Victor was the smell of the genital crab medication that she herself had to use, and the travelling crab cakes showed her exactly how Victor had gotten the same affliction. Bravo for that bit of writing. This week, Carlos tells Gabrielle he's going to break it off with Edie, but I thought he was stuck because of the off-shore account. I guess we'll see if that accountant he hired can actually do anything.

And I'll say it again - I am absolutely loving Dana Delaney on the show. As much as I love Alfre Woodard, I never felt her character went anywhere, whereas Dana's Katherine has hit the ground running. She provided a great foil to Bree in the Homemaker of the Year running, especially with the pie competition. This week, she was a great adversary to Lynnette in the HOA presidential election. And she's got that smile down pat - that smile that both says everything's fine and I'm trying not to scream or kill you. We've been learning little by little about her, but I'm dying to know what happened in that room involving Dillon's father and what Katherine's aunt's part was in it. Not to mention why Dillion doesn't remember anything about being on Wisteria Lane. And then there's the whole matter of Chicago. I loved when Bob and Lee said they knew all about it and basically used it as a blackmailing point. I'm still interested enough in the suspense not to mind it, but I'm hoping they reveal bits and pieces at a time, because I need some kind of payoff, even little ones.

Oh, and I loved the comments from one of the older neighbors about Bob and Lee, so that not everyone on Wisteria Lane was 100% accepting of the gay couple that had moved into the neighborhood. But seriously, that art thing was awful. It didn't fit in at all. Ugly, out-of-place and obnoxiously loud to boot.


"Heroes" - I loved season one, and I'd been liking season two, but this past week is the first time I've been kind of bored and consciously waiting for the episode to be over. I hope they're not falling into the same trap that "Lost" fell into in their second season. Season one of this show culminated in bringing them all together, but season two has seemingly scattered them to the four winds. Hiro has been banished not just to another place but another time, and he's now with completely different people - the gaijin hero Takezo and Yaeko, the woman they're both fighting for. I've enjoyed the Cyrano story to some degree, but I also hate that since Hiro's father died, Ando is reduced to doing nothing but reading restored scrolls. Meanwhile, Peter is in the same time, but on a different continent and unaware of who he is, also now with completely different people, including his new Irish girlfriend. Claire and her father are also in a totally different place, with totally different people, including Claire's new I-can-fly boyfriend and cheerleader group at school. Mohinder is now undercover at the company, but with the problem with Molly, you're sometimes not sure where he stands. There's the new head of the company. There's the twins with the power of life and death. There's the girl in New Orleans who immediately learns everything she sees. (Oh, by the way, when she and cousin Micah revealed to each other that they had powers and wondered where they came from, especially since Micah said his mother and father both had powers, I was yelling that they needed to ask Uhura what the heck was going on, cause you gotta figure that she knows.) There's newbie I'm-made-of-electricity girl who works for the company who is tracking down Peter. Horned-rim-guy, Claire's dad, is traipsing off to other parts of the world with the Haitian trying to track down the lost/missing paintings. There's Matt's dad, who is not the Daddy-dearest he initially posited himself to be. There's the picture of the original group of "superheroes". And there's that mysterious sign. And we have been given zero hint as to what happened to Peter and Nathan and Sylar from the end of last season and how Peter and Sylar ended up who and how they are at the beginning of this season.

One of the biggest mistakes that the "Lost" people did was bringing on the Tailies and completely abandoning the original cast in the process. "Heroes" isn't quite doing that, but it keeps adding more and more players and opening more and more questions, and unlike last year, they so far have provided zero answers. Having continuous smaller payoffs worked really well. Here's hoping they haven't forgotten how to do that.


"Law and Order: SVU" - The episode about the doctor who created/instituted "benign" torture methods for prisoners was ok, but it was one of those that was entirely too political for my taste. It did touch on the hippocratic oath aspect of the story, but I thought there was entirely too much about the war. I have my own opinions about the use of torture for certain purposes, which I won't go into too much here. Basically, I don't object to torture when it's used in the right situations. The dilemma comes in knowing when the right situations are.


"Survivor"

last week's episode - I liked Sherea sometimes, but she got too cocky. Her farewell speech was a bit weird. Delusional much?

I'm really surprised that in the immunity challenge, the thousand-year-old egg was considered worse than the balut, at least based on that it came after. The chicken hearts would have been easy to eat because I love them anyway, but I'm not sure I could have eaten them fast enough. I might have been able to eat the small turtles - depends on the texture of the first one I tried to eat. I didn't realize they were that small until one of them was popping them in her mouth. With how terrified I am of snakes, I don't think I could have picked up, let alone eaten, the eel, especially since their heads were still on them. I would have absolutely refused to even attempt to eat the balut. (I couldn't even watch most of that segment.) I didn't think they usually came with actual feathers. And I love thousand-year-old egg. I think it's usually made from a duck egg. I love it in porridge.

this week's episode - It took almost a year for the payoff since when Yao-Man created the fake idol last time, no one found it and tried to use it, but this time, it was too funny watching Jamie present the piece of wood as an immunity idol to Jeff. It was great watching Todd and James trying to control their laughter. And how funny was it that Jeff threw it into the fire! You know that when Jamie said on camera that she wasn't as dumb as they think she is, that she was doomed. I loved that the immunity challenge was done at the camp itself, with Jeff coming to them. I don't think they've ever done that before. Maybe they figured that they'd all be too drunk from the wine to go anywhere. And since the challenge was just about answering questions anyway, it wasn't a problem doing it there.

I was laughing really hard when Todd was calling Courtney a bitch. Yep, both she and Jean-Robert need to go soon. They can spend all kinds of time together when they're sequestered on the jury.


"The Big Bang Theory"

last week's episode - I can't tell you how much the episode made me laugh. Some of the writing on the show is absolutely brilliant. Clever and quick. However, I was completely distracted by the fact that when we visited where Penny works, that is so *not* The Cheesecake Factory. I could swear the show was supposed to be set in Los Angeles, and then they also talked about Bob's Big Boy. The Cheesecake Factory is so not a little sandwich place. That seriously bothered me, and it changed my perception of Penny a little since The Cheesecake Factory is a much more upscale place, so her working there is different than where we saw her working. Why didn't they just come up with a random fake restaurant name? But there were so many great moments: Leslie's line of "come for the breasts, stay for the brains" in response to Penny's comment about her being a woman in that field, Mr. Spock beatboxing, Leslie's comments to Leonard about her real reason for staying after to practice, Leonard completely fumbling with his instrument, what Penny and Sheldon overhear Leslie saying from behind the closed door (BTW, why did Leonard still have his shirt on the next morning?), the flash-frozen banana that Leslie makes to break and put in her cereal (but seriously, she can't possible eat that - the banana bits would still be rock hard), Sheldon's line about Souplantation - "you can't grow soup". But my absolutely favorite bit is when Leonard is questioning what Penny meant by he and Leslie making a cute couple, and Sheldon's retort is about Leonard and Leslie manufacturing a couple - "Mr. and Mrs. Goldfarb - aren't they adorable?" We laughed so hard at that line that we had to rewind, partly so we could hear it again and partly because we missed what came after.

The stairs bug me though. I think I've figured out that they live on the fourth floor, and I get that the broken elevator is really a device so they can have a conversation as they're climbing the stairs, but watching them walk in the same redressed set as their conversation continues is just bugging me.

Oh, and we figured out that the end card blog is a two-card thing. "Two and a Half Men" has new cards as well.

this week's episode - I didn't find this one nearly as funny as last week's but it was still fun to watch. How many shows get to work in the Doppler Effect as an integral part of their storyline? I loved the bit about them all dressed as The Flash. Sheldon's comments about a costume parade and contest were just too funny. And Leonard's interaction and intellectual put-down's of Penny's ex-boyfriend were just a riot. Poor Leonard, though. Penny kisses him, but he has to be the good guy and tell her that she's probably doing it because she's mad at her ex and because she's been drinking. She tells him how smart he is. "Yeah, I'm a frickin' genius," he sarcastically replies. You feel for him, wanting to take advantage of her, but he just can't do it. It's funny that Sheldon is the overly-geeky one, but Leonard is almost in denial about his geekiness some of the time, especially when it comes to Penny.

So, apparently, gay marriage can be legal

Gay marriage is only legally recognized in a couple (2? Hawaii and Vermont? Or am I making those up?) of states, but there is apparently a loophole around that.

I know a situation where there was a married couple, and after many years, he came out that he had always really felt like he should have been a woman, and a lesbian at that. No, it wasn't just a pickup line. He eventually had gender reassignment surgery, and he legally became a woman. His/her wife decided to stay with him/her and make a go of it.

So I wondered - hmmm, if he was married before, but now he's a woman, doesn't that make the marriage null and void since he's now a woman, married to another woman, and since gay marriage isn't legal in California, his change from being a man to a woman should have voided the marriage contract. Nope, apparently not. It seems that marriage only looks at the genetic nature of the individual, so since he is still genetically a man, he is still legally married to the wife, never mind that he's now legally a woman.

What, these kinds of questions don't occur to you all the time?

The Beowulf Express

I've never read "Beowulf". Yes, I took a lot of English classes and read a lot of stuff, but while I've read a lot of the classics, that wasn't one of them. Deal with it.

I will admit that the only thing I really knew about the Beowulf story was what I learned from watching that particular episode of "Xena: Warrior Princess". Hey, I loved that show! But, I knew that they took liberties and really just used classics as source material/jumping off points. So, the story kind of interested me. Point in its favor.

I had heard that it was being animated in a similar style to "The Polar Express", which I didn't see, but I saw enough of the trailer and such to know that I absolutely HATED that style of CGI/motion capture animation. But, no, no, this won't be the same. It's similar, but it's been improved, so the freakish look of Tom Hanks' conductor has been fixed. OK, grudgingly, quarter-point in its favor.

The film is being directed by Robert Zemeckis, who I don't completely follow, but he hasn't totally lost me, so ok, point in its favor.

One of the writers is Neil Gaiman. Serious point in its favor.

Anthony Hopkins is in it. Point in its favor.

John Malkovich is in it. Half-point in its favor.

Robin Wright Penn is in it. Point in its favor.

And then I saw the trailer on television. And the animation looks completely awful to me. Forty bazillion points against it.

OK, now admittedly, I understand that things can look different on TV. I'd really like to see footage from the movie on a big screen, and they may be showing them, but we've not seen many movies lately, so we might just be missing it. But the animation that I saw looks awkward and just wrong, like the animation you got back in the older days of video games, when they couldn't quite get the look of human faces right. That was fine for a video game. And even video game developers have been striving to get the look to be more realistic, more like what you'd see with live people. And they're going to release a movie that looks like the video games of yore?

So I can't decide if I'll be going to see it. Now, I know I've got a couple weeks yet to make up my mind, and I might just go and see if I can get over the look, but I'm pretty sure that having animation that I hate will seriously affect how much I like a movie, just as I will probably like a movie more if the animation is good but the story is lousy.

I seriously hope this isn't the future of the art.

Trick or Peep!

In honor of Halloween, I thought I'd show what's available from the wonderful Peeps people for Halloween. I don't know about the "Spooky Friends" thing, but I love the pumpkins, and the ghosts are cool. The cats, well, I don't know, but they're cocoa flavored, and having had the cocoa flavored bunnies at Easter, I'm definitely a fan.

I'm not sure that I'm getting any for Halloween, though, since I still have a ton of peeps left from Easter. Yes, I mean from this April, six months ago. Yeah, like the Peeps are going to go bad or something.

Maybe I'll get some at Christmas time. I can't remember if they have Thanksgiving ones. It's not included on the holiday list on the Peeps site, so I'm thinking not. However, something in a picture did intrigue me:





What's the little gingerbread cookie Peep on the left? Is that the thing they say is available at Christmas as something like a "cutout"? Hmmm, I may have to investigate come Christmas time. And I so don't remember the blue bunny Peep.

Happy Halloween! Have fun hanging with your Peeps!

Here's the Peeps page on the parent company's (Just Born, Inc.) website.

And here's the official Peeps website.