krimimimi

You can also put it on your customized Home screen, if you prefer finding stuff that way... So. Peeve. Dentist's. Root canal. In what I am assured was a freak and seriously improbable occurrence, the tip of the drill thingie wedged itself in my tooth and broke off. (I buy the improbability, btw, because that tool actually adjusts speed according to likelihood of just that happening, thereby (generally) preventing it from doing so. Guess I'm just special that way.) Have now had my third session, with a fourth scheduled for next week, to try to excavate said tool tip. Somewhere around the hour and a half mark today, I found myself beginning to wonder if pulling it wouldn't be a better option, which says everything necessary about the discomfort. Damn thing is throbbing now. Which is also probably an indication that the actual root canal work isn't entirely done either, I fear. Not sure how much more I can take. "Is it safe?" Yes! No! Maybe? But on the upside, insurance has me covered.

Point taken, @Willow. Apologies. It was in response to and an attempt to "mirror" "high school," but although I disagree with the stance, I wasn't trying to be dismissive. (Going off the sheer length of the post, I think I took it seriously enough. ;-)) I don't believe in mocking or belittling people's pain.

@Bastet, thanks for the link. Could the salt thing be an issue with Kosher salt? I notice she used it. Like if I follow Aaron Franklin's grill recipes, I need to adjust for it, because he uses Kosher salt, which I can't buy here, and the flakes take up more room than normal salt does. (Augh. Crystaline Chem flashbacks. Salt is an example of closest densest packing... Ugh.) So in Kosher salt, there's less actual NaCl by volume than with regular salt. I think you need about 1/2 the amount if using common table salt, or 3/4 if using ground sea salt, IIRC.

Also, please stop being so down on yourself. Somebody who knows you sees something worthwhile in you and values you more than someone you think is terrific. Sweetie, that's a win, trust me. Please stop feeling guilty and just run with it.

Welp, Bastet got to this quite sensibly while I was off distracted by dinner, and has typically tackled a bunch of very reasonable concerns. @DisneyBoy, you were able to allay them, but I had a few others I think were left open. Reading your post, I realize I am the Hostess in my group of friends, in as much as we have one. If any combination of my/our friends meet as a group beyond birthdays, it's because I'm/we're doing the work and footing the bill -> the shopping, the cooking, cleaning, decorating such as it is, and the inviting. By gum, it's a lot of work, and not cheap, either. (Hadn't really thought about it, but it makes sense that "Host/ess" is a role or archetype.) So I guess I identify more with her, and that's definitely going to affect how I look at this, so please feel free to take it with a shaker of salt. But I find the notion that my guests would seriously want or expect to dictate my guest list** (beyond the occasional individual with positively wretched taste in partners *sigh*) absolutely mortifying. (**Interestingly, I wrote that before Bastet posted, so that's two people who responded in the exact same fashion to what it appears you are doing with Hostess. Food for thought.) And I'm going to apologize, but I think you're being a bit of a noodle. Harsh words, I know, and like I said, I apologize. You have every right to feel however you do (even *I* recognize that while disagreeing with you, and I mean that very sincerely), but from the standpoint of someone on her side of things... Oh, boy. You mention High School crap - and I get it, but you and BFF seem to be behaving more like Kindergarten. In adult life, not everyone gets a Valentines' card from everyone else. And let's be real, you prefer BFF to Hostess, so why can't Hostess have preferences? Just because hers don't reflect your own, doesn't mean they're less valid or she's less entitled to them. Please try not to see that as an attack, because I know it can read that way, but ask yourself if there's any truth in there. (Because I think there is, or I wouldn't have bothered writing it.) In fact, I think it's a bit sad that if Hostess is faced with a small gathering of hubby and posse, and can invite just one more person to their table, you're it***, and then you're not considering her feelings in the matter, you just boycott it, that's how little she matters in your world? That's hurtful, too, but the only feelings you seem concerned with are BFF's. (Which makes some sense, in as much as she's your BFF, but as a friend, Hostess' feelings should still count for something...) (*** From the way it was phrased, I wasn't sure if you were one of a small handful she then invited to offset the posse, or the only person, but the point still stands.) Now maybe Hostess thinks that of the small handful she could have invited instead, you are the better fit for the "posse" group, but either way, she chose you, and you chose BFF, and then are pleading your case based on inclusion. You aren't treating everyone equally, why would you expect anyone else to, or more to the point: find it so problematic when they don't? (To be clear, I don't think we need to like everyone equally, I truly believe we have a right to our preferences (which wouldn't excuse bad manners (and not saying there were any particularly exhibited here, either, btw)), but I also expect that means I won't be equally valued by all in turn. That's adult life. We don't all get a medal for participation either.) And that's really more than enough chiding. Please don't take it too much to heart. Like I said, I think you have every right to feel however you like about this. But I do disagree with your position, and I think those are valid points to consider before damaging your friendship with Hostess, which is one of the logical conclusions here. Now on to BFF... You and BFF are not partners. She's not your girl friend. She's not your wife. Full stop. She's your friend, but not a conventionally dictated "plus one." If BFF is behaving like an adult, you shouldn't have to explain why you are invited and she is not. If she needs an explanation, and isn't just trying to exert pressure, be manipulative or cause pain (sadly, some people do), she can "demand" one of Hostess, but that will probably hurt their relationship more than it's worth. If they used to be close in BFF'S eyes, however, and she still feels so close to Hostess, as opposed to just left out, then I'd take Bastet's advice about her talking to Hostess. I can understand feeling left out, I think most of us have at some time or another, but I also got a bit of a feeling that it was more along the lines of her feeling that she should be welcome where you are, more than wishing Hostess liked her more? Sorry if I "read" that wrong. But does BFF always include Hostess when you guys do stuff? (Almost certainly neither of you always include her, I'd think. Basically, you are scalene triangle of interactions, where BFF thinks you should be an isosceles.) Does BFF regularly invite Hostess for/to something/some activity? Is there parity in their relationship? Or in yours with Hostess, for that matter? Or in that between BFF/hostess and you/Hostess? Who phones whom how often? (I don't need answers, it's just stuff worth mulling over.) Some other things to consider (spoilered for the tl;dr version ;-)) : 1) Circumstances have changed since you met... 2) Physical space isn't the only concern when you're talking numbers at gatherings. 3) Alternately, is she trying to set you up with someone? 4) psst... maybe sexism?

Think you left out the Mounds bar, @Qoass, which might be something resembling fruit... Thanks, @annzeepark914, for the link. Never seen that show. Had sort of assumed she was a blogger with whom I was unfamiliar, so I'd have looked in the wrong places. Also unfamiliar with the mural of flavor, but have seen it mentioned here a few times. (Will google that next. :-)) Have a pretty extensive collection of spices, I'm sure I can substitute for it once pointed in the right direction.

Both of the gratins sounded tempting...

Ok, you guys have made me curious. Got a link? We had calamari for dinner today, because it was wet and cold enough that turning the oven on sounded like a good idea. Should be more of the same weather tomorrow, so oven baked Chinese inspired Orange Chicken is on my radar.

Errgh. Why is it that the companies who insist on spamming me to death are also the most likely to have technical errors just at the very second I go to unsubscribe? Or strange pop-ups that make it impossible to click on the button from phone or tablet somehow? What makes a company think I want to hear from them daily? More than once daily?? Are you nuts??? That coupon once a month can't be worth a completely overflowing inbox. I was ill, I was recovering. My damn inbox got up to over 18000 (yes, three zeros) pieces of unread mail. Took me a month to get that whittled down to a couple of thousand. (And let's be real, that's a ridiculous number, too. If I didn't have a white list sending mail from people I know to my phone, I'd be unreachable that way. God help you if you get a new address, though.) I am so thankful that some companies offer a "spam me less" option. Seriously, people. Get a grip and a better sense of your own importance. I'm a hair's breadth away from unsubscribing to the world. ugh. /end grump. get orfa my lawn! *snarl*

Heh. I hadn't really noticed it initially, mostly because I think he may have gotten it from our last dog, but Mr. Mimi totally sighs a lot. What's funny is that he has definitely taught it to our current pup, not initially a sigher, who now also sighs demonstratively whenever she isn't best pleased by whatever you're doing to/with/ or around her. In humans it can get annoying fast, in a dog, it just cracks me up. (That reaction just irks her more, of course, promoting bigger sigh/grunts, so it's a bit of a vicious giggle cycle. All that's missing is draping a paw over her poor suffering head... lol) I've decided the crucial difference here is that when you maul a cat (er, foist unwanted physical attention unto them), they are very likely to give you a good swipe with a seriously clawed paw. I think if more humans responded the same way, more other humans would learn to ask first and then respect people's boundaries. There's a lesson to be learned in there, I'm sure... *rowr*

Pretty sure those are the guys responsible for my not having lilies anymore. They decimated mine, and nothing I did worked (including hand removal). That bed now just has roses and mulch in it. :-(

I've got one for you, Blergh: Being thankful that there are people out there who prefer Eeyore to Tigger. Which I totally do. Might have married him, come to think of it... ;-) So, topic, um, totally grateful for that Eeyore in my life. He really makes almost everything better. (Well, between him and the dog... ;-))

That's interesting, because it irks me when they *don't* upsell. (And instead just give me the cheapass thing my insurance covers without discussion.) This is something that's going to be in my mouth and affect my smile for years to come. Changes at a later point cost serious money, or maybe the damage is done and can't be corrected. And some of the dentists just decide it's appropriate to save the 30 seconds of time and not tell me that for maybe 20 bucks out of pocket expense, I can have a nice white filling instead of an ugly amalgam one? Pfooey. I can always say "no" (if they get their hands out of my mouth), but I really like to know what my options are. Fwiw, the bluetooth connections to the toothbrushes have apparently caused a real uptick in brushing times, and are getting good publicity for improving dental health. I don't have one, so can't weigh in if it makes a difference for me, though. However, while I haven't got smart vents, I have underfloor heating, and we installed a couple of smart(ish) thermostats a few years back. While it generally counts as eco-friendly, underfloor heating takes a lot of time to make changes, so unless you go to a room a couple of hours before you plan to use it and turn the thermostat up, it isn't helpful to keep resetting them. By the same token, you won't save as much as you c/should by only turning it down when you leave a room. So we changed the thermostats, and it cut our heating bill by a third. Yes, it's one more thing to reset if the power goes out for a long time (I believe it has a capacitor that has us covered for short term power loss), but at that savings, who cares? A third, people. Bring it on!

I think Home Depots are widely spread. They have a couple of sizes of unfinished vanities. Just as a "for instance." (I googled "unfinished wood vanities.") Also, if you decide to do it yourself and want to get a very smooth finish, it pays to get a spray thingie that you can fill with your paint color of choice and spray thin coats very smoothly repeatedly until you get the desired finish. They can be pretty inexpensive to come by, and often make a big difference in the result (certainly the way I paint, anyway...). Overstock also had some nice black vanities in a wide range of styles. @Boris there is a service called bagster that offers a foldable bag that you can probably pick up at your local building supply store. You set them up and fill them with stuff, and call for pickup when you're done, and it usually works out to be cheaper than a normal skip. Might be worth checking out.

If the UK garden shows are anything to go by, most of us are having the same weird weather. (We have the same climate as central England.) Winter was mild as can be, and then spring was unusually cold, so the blooming times are all off, and a lot of the fruit trees bloomed all at once, instead of staggered. Apparently that should have led to improved cross pollination, and we can expect bumper crops this fall. But it's been too cold to put out grass seed, because it needs to be reliably above (I think it was) 5* C (roughly 40* F) for the seed to germinate, which wasn't happening, and also kept us from putting out the valves and controllers for the sprinklers, the water feature, or even just a hose nozzle. If the temperature drops, they go kaputt, and that adds up quickly. That resulted in my watering things less than I should have, and the Kerria (japonica) is showing its displeasure. But I assume it will perk up again next year, and all will be forgiven. I love that about gardening. :-)

@ratgirlagogo, Central Europe, where we have Kestrels, tits and hedgehogs, all of which I gather folks in North America do not. (Well, not the kind I mean anyway.) (But then, I haven't got bluebirds, cardinals or blue jays, so...) But that doesn't keep me from tuning in to the BBC. Hence the question about Chelsea. (The antipodes just scare me. It seems like every second animal is trying to kill you, and the weather isn't hugely conducive to cottage gardens, my garden of choice, next to modern formal.) This garden was designed by an Aussie, though (it's not all bad down under ;-)), and it's one of my favorites from the show this year. My partiality towards box definitely plays a role in that. If you can find footage of the Harrods British Eccentrics Garden, it's worth a peek (link to stills). They've used animatronics, and it's like Disney meets the Botanical Gardens. Got a giggle out of me. Some of the others I liked were the M&G garden (the pics don't do it justice), Chelsea Barracks (I'm a sucker for corten), God's own country Yorkshire (the planting did a truly great job of echoing the stained glass), the Morgan Stanley garden (more corten), and as always, whatever Kazuyuki Ishihara's does this year (less moss than usual and more acers). I find I like more woodland oriented planting, things you'd find in a cottage garden (bring on the foxgloves), box, corten, naturalistic or super formal designs. Hope you guys enjoy them, too. And looking back at my description of the tarp above, I think I'm making that confusing. When I say "sheet of plastic," I don't mean the stuff you'd make a poly tunnel cheapo (or just large) greenhouse out of. You need the opposite effect. It needs to be a solid color that keeps light out.

@DeLurker, two thoughts on that: 1) You can use the landscaping fabric (sounds like it's probably the right term for it) even if you change stuff around, as long as that changing isn't too excessive. Basically, I just cut X's or + signs (whichever) with a box cutter into the fabric where I wanted to place a plant, folded them back to dig the hole/ put the plants in, and then folded the flaps back into place to increase weed resistance. When I've moved plants, it only leaves a tiny bit more exposed than it previously was, and hasn't been a real problem. (I suppose you could work an extra square of leftover fabric into the hole (covering it more thoroughly from below), too, if you wanted.) Of course, if you do that too often, it will make swiss cheese of the thing. 2) When we built our house, we started with nothing in our yard but building site rubble and weeds. To combat that without the use of chemicals, I put down an actual tarp (not the landscaping fabric, but a real sheet of plastic) over the weed strewn area, and cutting off the light as well as reducing the water supply went a long way towards sorting that for me. Basically dead weeds prove a lot easier to pull out of the ground and weren't spreading like mad in the meantime. Seriously, it was about fifteen minutes of work getting the tarp spread and weighted down, and the actual weeding I ended up doing took a lot less time than it would have otherwise.

Hey, is anybody else following Chelsea?

He said it was an "accident," which tells us nothing. I totally asked myself that, too, but this has apparently never been Jane or Taylor's story, so we don't need to know. :-/ (If they course correct that, the autopsy will clear it up, but they couldn't have had PapaWeller too lucid, or we wouldn't have had the confusion about where she was buried. Which of course we needed.) Honestly, I think this was always going to be a gloss over point, because the minute you start getting into specifics about how or why a child was murdered, you've lost half your audience, as they mentally dash off to think about that instead of the story the show is trying to tell instead. (The obvious solution is not to throw SLs like that about lightly, but...) That only works when the episode isn't as arc-heavy as this one was. Like if we'd been told that at the end of last week's episode instead, and had a week to digest that information. (So close...) But then we wouldn't have had the WellerKids Wacky Hijinks, Weller's man pain, or his stupid roller coaster ride of fear and hopes, then dashed. Which of course then gives us the cliffhanger (that not one person here seems moved by, um, at least the way I presume was intended) of Weller slamming the cuffs on Jane. Oh noes! Actually, that's something I'm curious about. I could see a story (unlikely, yet possible) in which Jane and Weller can't get past this, and she ends up having to work with (or even against) the Cabal (who no longer trust her), while Weller and team hunt her/them down, all very the Fugitive. But those stories are hard to maintain (see the Magicians, and the divisiveness that story caused among viewers), and I doubt it will come to pass. So did anyone here watch that and legitimately worry about how these two crazy kids would ever get over this and re-connect, or was that a universal dud as cliffhangers go? (I kinda thought the real cliffhanger was how is his poor sister getting back home without the car, now that Weller stranded her...)

Thank you, @slf, for nailing what really irks me about the narrative. Jane's characterization has always seemed "off" to me, and erratic (just not in the "right" way - it didn't come across as the organic " erraticness" I'd have expected given the set up) and her story is apparently actually his. huh. Of course it is. Talk about entitled. What a douscheweasel. I swear, it's like they want me to hate him. @MissLucas, I think I snorted at the idea that Weller was more "stable" or "predictable" than Mayfair. Ta! Do not get at all why she's not a better bet, in story, beyond theoretical control/puppeteering issues in favor of Weller, that I'm still not buying at any price. @Anothermi, thanks for taking one for the team and going back to look at that. Welp, by the laws of most obvious narrative, Marcos will then actually spell his name "Markos" or be a "Marcus," or something. It won't fool the Cabal, just end up screwing with the FBI's investigation into Mayfair's disappearance/death, much like the crime scene they apparently can't report.

I'm not 100% sure I've still got all of this straight, but Cade was the guy who targeted Jane in that episode where she was referenced in some artwork. Making her a target was apparently to exact revenge on Oscar for shooting the bearded guy back in the beginning of the season, who I believe was named Marco. (Fuzzy on why that happened. I think it was because Marco began to question the plan, and Oscar killed him before he could blow things. Oscar actually explained that in this episode, but I had glazed over by then.) And according to Oscar, those two are/were very close. This episode Jane told the guy in the RV that Cade was alive and well (which she doesn't know one way or the other), and that he was after her/Oscar, and that that was the reason she snuck into his camper. (I've spewed enough negatives - time to give props for allowing the guy to spot that there was an intruder in his RV and have a system in place to deal with it.) Basically she's trying to convince the Cabal that she's still on their side. By spraying that there, she's hoping to convince them that Cade killed Oscar, and thus keep them from trying to wipe her again, as well as keep an "in" with a group of people she now seems to want to stop. Calling it now: she misspelled "Marcko" and they'll know it was her, or at least couldn't have been Cade.

I guess I was writing that while @DeLurker posted. She's got a great point about the mulch. A few years ago, I redid the planting around our parking spot, and two things made a huge difference: I put down a weed suppressing tarp (not sure if that's really a "tarp" per se - it lets water but virtually no light through, and it's hard for weeds to penetrate), and then covered it with mulch. The tarp meant that even though I didn't weed it as well as I should have in advance (life's too short), that the weeds didn't come through anyway. The mulch made it prettier and helps keep water in (which is both good for the environment and saves money). It's pretty easy to weed now. There was a small strip that the tarp couldn't cover, and that the neighbors seem to regularly drive over (scattering the mulch), and by contrast weeding that is an absolute bear. Of course, that only helps if you know where your plants are and can cut holes for them, and isn't as useful if you have a lot of self seeding things that pop up in different spots every year.

@hoosier80 - I currently have a whole string of hostas (a vibrant green variety) growing very happily in lots of sun. They are south-west facing and get thoroughly cooked by the afternoon sun, and seem to love it to bits. Sadly, I can't say for sure what kind they are, but it helps to remember that while most hostas are "shade tolerant," it doesn't mean that they might not also enjoy sun. It pays to poke around your garden center to see what's available. (Check the tags for sun-lovingness. Or whatever that's called.) They are pretty much the anchor of my garden, along with my fruit trees, but there are a couple of things to consider before opting for them: 1) In the winter, they have absolutely nothing to offer. Zilch. They're a bit depressing, really. (Stuff like Rudbeckia or Echinacea, by contrast, has interesting seed heads in winter, although they both bloom later in the year, making them less pretty in early summer.) 2) After they bloom in late spring (they are awesome in that they bloom when basically nothing else around seems to), you'll probably want to get in there and cut down the expired flower stalks, which is work. 3) They are total slug magnets. You need to get ones that are large enough to not care about the slug damage, live somewhere magical without slugs (*dream*), be willing to use poison/ slug pellets, or have a crack team of trained hedgehogs (like myself :-)) who will happily munch them up and protect your plants for you. (I jest, my hedgehogs are wild and thoroughly untrained. But still good on the slug front. ;-)) Or maybe birds? 4) Every five years or so, depends on the size you start with and the quality of your dirt, you'll have to get in there and subdivide your hostas, or they go sort of naked in the middle and get too large. It's weird, and it means work. @JTMacc99's suggestion of peonies is a brilliant idea, too. Love them, also for blooming when stuff pretty much doesn't. Objection 1) applies to them as well, but there seems to be less work on the deadheading/post blooming front 2). Also have never had to sub-divide a peony. As to weeding, we have a Fiskars weed thingie, which allows you to weed while standing, for which my back is grateful, and does a great job at getting the roots out. (That's for a picture of it. I doubt the text will help. ;-)) Not sure if that's available where you live. It has been a real help in the garden. We neglected things a bit last year, and that led to some pretty unfortunate weed spread. The other tip would be to stay on top of mowing, which gets stuff before it self sows, but that only helps on your lawn. I also have a dandelion hunt daily to make sure those are kept in check. Just ripping off their heads goes a long way to keeping things under control, and takes not much time at all, depending on the size of your garden. UPDATE Guys, we now have a pair of Kestrels!! Mating! In our backyards! *swoon* I am thrilled! Probably not coincidentally, no one has seen a mouse in ages. They have trashed a couple of my feeding bowls, swooping in for the kill, but I completely don't care. It seems like they were considering the eaves of our house for a nest (Mr. Mimi wasn't exactly thrilled about that), but wandered off. I keep hoping they'll settle here. They are beautiful! "Otoh, I expect the chili will be a problem when the hedgehogs come out of hibernation, so maybe this is the ideal time to start using it, and once the mice give up, I could lay off the chili. I'll need to give that some thought." So I used cayenne pepper (no chili flakes to be had here :-() on the bird feeders, and that definitely seems to have helped with the mouse issue in winter. If that's an issue for anyone, give it a try, it worked like a charm for us. And I poured cayenne into any mouse hole I found. But come spring, it proved problematic for the hedgehogs, as expected. I got to witness that on the webcam, poor thing. I had de-chilied the bowl, but hadn't considered that stuff on the ground would still be covered in cayenne, and the poor guy ran off sneezing. So the next morning I disinfected the ground and put down new top soil and mulch. That seems to have done the trick, and they visit regularly, for which my hostas are thankful. CRY FOR HELP ;-) Other than that, we don't seem to have an agricultural extension office here, so I joined the RHS. That's only slightly helpful, as I'm not in the UK, but I have used their website for years for plant recommendations, so it seemed fair. Still haven't solved my boxwood problem. There's a rumor that sparrows might help with the Chinese caterpillars, but if they don't that situation goes sideways very quickly, which has me pretty nervous. The local lepidopterists' forum seems to think I haven't a prayer of stopping the buggers, and recommends giving up on box entirely (that was cheery reading, much along "abandon all hope" lines) - but I still don't have a good replacement. :-( Once again - tips on alternatives or recommendations for lay person friendly forums are greatly appreciated.

Wow. I thought that was pretty bad. Really bad, actually. The show runners have just proven to me, quite thoroughly, that we see and want completely different things in/for this show. Just: ouch. On the up side, this may be what I need to get clear of this mess, so "thanks" I guess? They managed to (most probably) kill two characters I liked, while cementing the thoroughly wretched Weller going forward. SS/Weller fell back into his really annoying speech pattern - I don't. understand. how the inability. to speak. normally. wasn't an. exclusion criterion. for casting him. in this role. (That's as annoying to type or read as it is to hear.) It takes me out of everything he does. SMH. I should have felt for him. Instead I just wonder what his problem is. And compounding my dislike of the actor/his acting choices in this role is his revolting character (clearly given the "hero" treatment here, no less), with a completely squicky obsession with a (dead) little girl. @HunterHunted called it: the only thing he knows Jane to be guilty of is not being that object of his obsession. And he arrests her for it! Yuck! I'd accept "grief clouding his judgment" as justification if he'd been shown to be less prone to questionable judgment all around. (Things like having Jane accompany him on a snack food run, thereby leaving Patterson, Borden and the kid they were "protecting" very much not protected.) Basically in every episode there are examples of him both not sticking to the rules and putting others at risk with his calls, generally revolving around Jane. Sure, that gets the Secret Cabal points for spotting his Achilles' heel, but @dwmarch pointed out some of the issues of encouraging viewers to take a closer look at them at this stage in the story. (My uncle was a SEAL, as was my next door neighbor growing up. I've known a couple of others over the years, and while that sample size is clearly small, I'd have to agree that not one of them would have taken issue with acting on info from Daylight. Way too bottom-line for that.) So I'm assuming Jane is the only SEAL (or one of few) amongst them. Additionally, family drama bores me to tears, and I'd take BLID/tree tattoo guy over Weller any day of the week - as a character. (Of course, the casting doesn't hurt there either.) Despite being just a thumbnail of a character, I felt sorry for him while Jane was fighting him. I wondered how that must feel to be able to remember the relationship, and have that person face you as a stranger. Props to the actor and the writers for managing that with such thin material. In terms of things moved forward this week: 1) So Jane's not Taylor? Who cares? (Except for Weller, but the fact that he does isn't helping his character any.) People called that as soon as we were told she was Taylor, and it makes almost no difference either way. The audience never knew Taylor, only Jane (a rose by any other name...), so we aren't invested in her being Taylor. Taylor's family and her murderer are dead. So it's just more Weller stuff. Spare me. 2) Oscar's (BLID) probably toast. Also doesn't change things that much, as he wasn't exactly a well developed character (although I still would have preferred to see that happen vs. more Weller family shenanigans). I also think there was more meat to be had here having him continue as her handler, than introducing another random. 3) Mayfair has got to be well and truly dead. That isn't going to improve the show for me. 4) And I think the only other thing we achieved was exposing Reade, Zappata and Patterson to Daylight. With a suitable SPF, I expect them to be fine. No, really, how is that all that different to acting on the info in Jane's tattoos? "Plausible deniability?" Feh. It's not helping matters any for me that atm it seems like the Cabal both really really (really) wants Daylight gone, seriously: enough to kill or incarcerate the people behind it, but yet also wants the FBI to act on intelligence it generated? So, yeah... Good to know they have principles. This episode left me feeling like the show is an amorphous, poorly defined muddle. They don't seem to have a handle on the motives of the Cabal, which is a great way to crash and burn your story. They seem a little fuzzy in their definition of what makes a hero (respecting civil liberties, following the rules, or busting bad guys, all, any combo or none, please: just make a call). And the show runners consistently can't identify strong (working) characters (or actors) (Mayfair) or those with potential (BLID, his arms-dealing/mechanic buddy, or even Gaius Charles' Sgt. Charlie), propping poor ones (Weller) and poor SLs (Cade's SL) with the drama of their deaths. But all of that is just imho. Ymmv, of course, and sorry if I harshed your mellow. You shouldn't enjoy your show any less because I'm bitter. There were moments I thought this show could become something I could enjoy, and I'm just miffed it didn't, and gets renewed, while many shows I like don't. *sigh*

Your Mom sounds lovely! What a marvelous attitude. :-) Here's hoping she remains unsinged. Oh! And that would be a plus to the "crumbcatcher" moniker - it might be a fake boob, but it remains an authentic crumbcatcher no matter what. (You guys totally cracked me up with your catching of crumbs...)