needschocolate

I think they were given $37,500 a the beginning to pay for everything in the house, except furniture and they were given a separate budget for the yards. For winning the first challenge, they sisters received an extra $5,000 to use toward the second room (kitchen).

I agree that spackling for the nailed on frames isn't much different than spackling if they were hung by a nail or two - assuming two things - (1) they didn't used a bunch of nails to attach the frames (2 would be enough, but people go crazy with brad/nail guns) and (2) the paint was completely cured when they nailed on the frames. I doubt that they had enough time for the paint to dry enough, which means that when someone takes off the frames they will take off some paint and, therefore, some of the wall texture with it. I recently took down a shelf and big chunks of the plaster came off with it, because the paint had basically glued the shelf to the wall. I know I had waited at least a few days after painting to put up the shelf, and it still stuck like that. They probably painted that morning and nailed on the frames that afternoon and that would be a mess to repair. A professional painting contractor recently told me that it takes at least 3 weeks for paint to fully cure.

And her designs are just the opposite - not so beautiful, but rather funny. Note: This was the only Genevieve show I have watched, and she used really busy wallpaper in some rooms and lots of gold/brass fixtures. Plus she put her kitchen cabinets up to the top of her 12 foot ceilings (L-shaped kitched layout) - nothing wrong with that, gotta get the storage where you can, but she attached one of those rolling ladders to them so she could reach the stuff, even though she said it would only be seasonal stuff - so now she will have a rolling ladder in her way when she is cooking. But I am now very off-topic, so let me just add ... I am very glad they didn't make Genevieve Gorder a judge on Flipping the Block.

I recently watched an episode of Genevieve's Renovation with Genevieve Gorder. She is turning two apartments into one for her and her daughter. She couldn't put a hot tub on her balcony, so she put a bathtub in her office - the office she plans to see clients in. There is nothing around the tub, it is just there in the office like the desk and file cabinets.

Mileage obviously varies - Josh is my favorite of the crashers hosts. He seems to have the most fun and everyone seems to like him. I don't watch any of the crashers shows on a regular basis, but if I have a choice between house crashers on one channel and any of the other crashers shows on another channel, I will pick House Crashers. However, that is not entirely because of Josh - my kitchen and bathrooms are too small for any of the stuff they do on those crashers and I am just not into any of the yard makeover shows.

Well, if Dutch didn't go, I am glad it was Felle and his passive-aggressive-ness. Every time he was working with others he would just do things his own way, not listening to his partner, and then when his partner would eventually get upset, he would tell her she shouldn't let it bother her. He made it sound like he was so calm and rational that he wouldn't get annoyed at whatever, but, of course, he is not going to be bothered by what happened since he got to have his way. He had the same attitude working with Shannon, Nicole and Natalie. I wonder if he had no respect for women, or if he would have been the same way if his partner was a guy. He let Dutch be in charge, but Dutch is the only one more obnoxiously bull-headed than Felle, and Dutch is rather intimidating, so I am not sure Felle was the same with Dutch as he would have been with Gear or any of the guys who has left already. I was surprised Felle didn't tell the judges that his partners insisted that it be monochromatic (maybe because it was Dutch that insisted), but I think what really did Felle in was when Dutch pointed out that Felle painted one of Dutch's designs. Even though Dutch said Natalie should go, he couldn't resist bragging about himself (I think he only picked Natalie because she is stronger competition than Felle) Glad Gear won. He and Natalie are my favorites. I am not impressed with Shannon, and something about her rubs me the wrong way. Nicole is likeable enough, but I have an aversion to glitter, ever since my kids sprinkled some in the bathroom and it took what seemed like forever to get it off the caulking. Glitter is the herpes of craft products - it never goes away.

In the writers' room: Writer A: We either need to close up the tunnel or have a dome drop down on Zenith or else we have to change the name of the show. Writer B: Change the name? if people can get out, then there is no show anymore. You are right, we need to close the tunnel. A: How? B: What if the eggs goes through the tunnel? A:; That makes sense. But how does the egg get into the tunnel? B; Big Jim takes it to bargain with Barbie's dad. A: But then Big Jim will be in Zenith, and we need him in Chesters Mill. He is one of out best actors. B: Yeah, the way he wrinkles his face and squints, while talking real low and husky - that is some fine acting. A: Maybe we could have Big Jim drop the egg into the tunnel? B; Why would he do that? A: So Barbie's dad will let him, Pauline, and Junior out of the dome. B: Why would Barbie's dad let him out if he already has.. A (points at the clock): Hey! it is 4:45 already. We gotta hurry up B: Okay, so Big Jim throws the rock off the cliff and the tunnel caves in A: There could even be an earthquake. We haven't done one of those yet. B: We could have buildings fall down and the windmill could land on someone and... A: The windmill is not up anymore - vandals, remember? And the set builders are already mad at us the that magnetic thing we did a few weeks ago. B: Can we at least have the wall of the jail fall so Phil can get out? A: Oh yeah, Phil. Sure. B: Good, that's done, and with 4 minutes to spare. A: Oh wait, don't we need to have the egg for the rest of the season? B; Yes. Darn. How are we going to bring the egg back? A: Hmm... what if we have the four hands go to the edge of the tunnel and the egg will float up to the,. B: we did that with the lake: A: That was different - the lake has wate, the tunnel doesn't. B;5 O'clock. Time to go. I am starting the last season of Lost tonight.. A; Cool. See if you get any ideas.

With two cats being the center of his universe, I would have thought Glenn would pick up on some of their grooming habits - or maybe he has (licks his hands and slicks back his hair) - or maybe the cats groom Glenn. I kid, Glenn is one of the people that reinforced the notion that I shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Imagine any other reality competition show having the judges compete against each other. Top chef may be okay, depending on which judges participated. Project Runway would be horrible, as would American Idol (original judges). True, but I prefer this to the shows that try so hard to make the winner or loser a surprise that the viewers can't figure out why someonewon or lost. And there doesn't seem to be an in-between in tv.

What if tossing the egg ended the dome and the earthquake was actually the ground shaking from the dome falling/disappearing? What if there was no longer a dome over Chesters Mill (and now there is one over Zenith)? How long would it take the people of Chesters Mill to realize they could leave anytime? Days? Weeks? Months? If Hunter wasn't there I would say it might take them years, but he seems like a bright guy. So the writers had Hunter mention that he could hear Norrie and Joe talking in the school hallway, so that the audience wouldn't be confused when Phil was able to hear about the tunnel when Norrie and Joe talked about it in the hallway of the jail. They obviously think the audience is a bunch of idiots. And they had Joe and Norrie give so much detail in their jail conversation - they both know how it works and there is only one tunnel, but they still said something like "go through the locker to the tunnel under the school where we can jump off a cliff and end up in Zenith. There was some bad acting in Pauline's distress and in Big Jim's looks of confusion/dismay/concern/anger (all the same look) , but my nomination for worst performance this episode goes to Norrie in her discovery that the egg is missing - She walks into the room, holding an empty towel, stops, and says "Oh my God, the egg is gone" There was a little emotion to her voice, but why did it take her so long to notice that the egg was gone? Shouldn't she have said OMG! when she first went into the room to get the egg, or did she just mindlessly pick up the empty towel and not notice the egg was missing? I can't wait to find out how she solves this one - I predict it is either "We have to set the fields on fire to heat the town. Go attach the hose to the propane tanks." or "It is getting colder, we need to 'thin the herd'." Not wanting to defend the show or anything like that, but a lot of colleges start as early as mid-August (or that is when the kids go back to set up their dorms). So, if it has really been only three weeks, it might be the first week of September, probably too early for the leaves to change (unless they have been under stress from acid rain and magnetic pulls and dust storms, etc...). But there could be another explanation for the early season change - I have a theory that the dome makes time speed up. The sun may still have a 24 hour cycle, but everything ages faster - the seasons change sooner, people heal from gunshot wounds and severe beatings faster, relationships of a few weeks seem like relationships of a few years, etc. Everything ages faster - Lyle was especially affected by this as he got 40 years older in 25 years. Well, it won't be immediate - they will have to shake hands first. I like how everyone thinks they know what the dome wants or what it can do based on what works best for them. It makes me sort of wish I had a dome over my town. "The dome made me eat this hot fudge sundae" "The dome wants me to take the day off work, with pay." "The dome chose me to use your credit cards at the mall."

I think people that want to be on reality shows are more likely to crave attention, and will take negative attention over no attention at all. So if they can't get attention for being really good at something, they will be mean, cruel, obnoxious, etc... to get attention. I also think being on tv brings out the worst in some people - they are away from their support group or away from the people who would normally keep them in check. And, of course, the biggest reason is that a lot of reality shows go out of their way to cast people they think will create drama and tension (if you want to see the opposite - watch Face Off or Jim Henson's creature workshop). I think there have been more bitchy straight women on PR than are in the general population, percentage wise. Same thing for gay men. Or straight men, or lesbians, etc... The bitchy gay men may seem more prevalent on PR because there tend to be more gay men on PR - I would guess that more than half of the men on PR are gay. The majority of them have not been cruel or bitchy to others.

Fridays marathon starts with episode 4. If you have Comcast, Rowhouse Showdown is on Demand. Available until sometime in November. I think I will give it a try. I hope the Rowhouse contestants aren't too obnoxious.

Unfortunately, I think Keith is going to get the "you started so strong, but the judges think you are falling behind" edit

Last week, Kini mentioned that he had time to spare and the judges seemed to be a bit miffed about it. Perhaps, Kini didn't say anything because he didn't want to point out that he had extra time again this week. Still, would've have been best if Sean said "I designed the blouse and Kini sewed it."

In last week's episode thread, someone mentioned that they think Romeo is pretending to be a witch and fighting with others and is being the way he is because he has studied reality tv and knows this is what he needs to stick around longer. I thought about that as I watched this week, and I think that poster was right. It annoys me that they use the words "Social Media" as though it were the name of a person. "I hope Social Media Likes me." "Let's see what Social Media thinks." Social Media is a thing, not a person, it doesn't think or feel. So, if we have to put up with Boom, Boom, Boom and Boom, Boom, Wow, does that me we never again have to hear tooch, booch, H2T, and smize? It may be a fair trade. I came up with a theory last year that we never see Tyra's ears at panel because she is wearing an ear bud so someone with a calculator can tell her what her score has to be to get the results she wants. And I always thought that they should let the models pick which photo of theirs is the best. I think you may be on to something. According to Wikipedia (and why can't I find any background on the model wannabees in the show's website?), Adam is 26. Which means he probably graduated from high school in 2006. They started using the 2400 point test in March of 2005. If this is true, two things surprise me - 1) Why haven't the other models called him out on it? Possible answer is that since he is 26, they all assume that back then, the test was still out of 1600 (Keith is the only other 26 year old, the rest are 24 and under). 2) Adam is 26! And he is still in college? And still thinks that his ability to drink beer and/or get wasted is a bragging point? He also is in the top 1% of tools (or losers, as tools were called when he started college).

I am going to miss this show. And these people. I hope they bring it back again, and I hope they keep casting people that get along and work hard, and don't go for the "drama!" It sounded to me like he was talking to the stones, not to himself, which I thought was even funnier. I believe I heard him say, to the stone, something like, "you are going to like it here, and you fit perfectly too."

Shapeshifter - nice update to the list, can't believe I forgot when Junior started his road to redemption (even though he mentioned it recently, I think). Although we may need to keep looting without attempted rape on the list too. Looting was a big deal for about 3 minutes in one episode. It suddenly occurred to me that the 4 that returned from Zenith just popped up in the lake. And when Melanie supposed came back to life, she just popped up in the lake. Everyone assumes that Melanie's body was dumped in the lake 25 years ago, but I have a new theory -- Melanie didn't die when she hit her head, she just blacked out. They disposed of her body somehow - shallow grave, thrown in lake, or dropped down a hole under the school (aka the tunnel). If it was one of the first two, then she woke up, realized this was her chance to get out of Chester's Mill and moved to Zenith. If it was the third one, she woke up in a playground in Zenith and realized it was her chance to be rid of Chester's Mill. For the last 25 years, Melanie was been living peacefully in Zenith, taking really, really good care of her skin. Then one night she sneaks into Dale's dad's yard to look for a bracelet she lost years ago when she helped a little boy put his hand print on a red door. She finds the door, goes through it to see if the bracelet had fallen inside, is then sucked thorough a smoke vortex, and ends up bobbing in the lake in Chesters Mill. Since the teleporting between Zenith and Chesters Mill, can apparently cause mental/physical issues in a random group of people that travel through it, Melanie has developed amnesia. She now believes she is a high school student come back from the dead, but she is really just a cougar.

I think it is because Danny was smaller than Romeo, and Adam is bigger. It is always easier for bullies to pick on someone they think they could beat up.

The Chester's Mill hierarchy of morality - ranked from worst to least offenses. Worst - Cheating on your girlfriend of a week by kissing another girl Vandalism - most of the police man hours are spent chasing vandals Looting Holding someone hostage (it would rank lower on the list, but Big Jim was actually a little bothered by it) Mass Murder - "You were planning on putting swine flu in drinking water? No big deal. Do you want to be sheriff?) Hanging someone without a trial (at least 2 people were against it) Sleeping with the man who murdered your husband less than a week after your husband is killed Least - Shooting someone - doesn't matter how guilty (Max) or innocent (Dodie) the victim is, killing someone is easily forgiven

In German, "zu" means "to" and "grau" means "gray" so I figured that Fade zu Grau translated to "fade to gray" - which works well with his design this episode. This above post prompted me to see if "Fade" is a German word too - it is. Fade means bland, insipid, dull, tasteless, flat, vapid, stuffy, characterless.... In my head, I will keep thinking of him as Fade to Gray - mostly because it fits better, but also, the umlaut (the two little dots above the A) might change the word/meaning, and because he pronounces it as fayd, and f-a-d-e should be pronounced more like fah-day in german.

This Social Media crap bugs me to no end. If I want to know what other people think, I go to Previously TV, where I get well thought out opinions and explanations instead of the gut reactions of teenagers with carpel tunnel.

Ah, I remember now, his hand did shake when he was doing the injection. Of course, that doesn't mean that the writers remembered that he developed the tremor because of the trip through the tunnel. It is quite possible that the writers just wanted to show that he was nervous and had forgotten about the earlier shaking. .

They only showed Sam shaking in one episode. Lyle was apparently able to saunter out the institution's doors, even though he had been catatonic hours earlier. I am thinking that the writers have forgotten that they hinted that going through the tunnel would cause mental trouble. It is the most likely theory, considering all the other stuff that has been forgotten. I was going to use Junior holding Angie hostage as an example of things forgotten by the writers, but in this episode Melanie makes a comment about doing crazy things for the one you love (or to protect the one you love) and Junior gets a look on his face that perhaps means he is thinking about how he held Angie hostage a few weeks ago. Then again, I don't find him to be a great actor and the writers have haven't mentioned the hostage thing all season, so it could just be a coincidence (actor got gas as Melanie talked about love).

Too bad that Rebecca knows about the way out of the Dome, and will eventually know that they can get back in - it would have been more fun if she still thought they were trapped. Every time there is a new crisis, someone could just make a quick run to Zenith and pick-up what they need to fix it and pretend they just found it somewhere. Food shortage returns and Rebecca starts thinking about how to thin the herd, quick trip to Zenith and "hey look Rebecca, we found all these cans of tuna and boxes of Top Ramen. We are good for months." Running out of fresh water and Rebecca starts building a desalinization plant (event though they are no where close to salt water), quick trip to Zenith with a really long garden hose, and "Hey look Rebecca, this swimming pool has fresh water in it and it never gets empty. Problem solved!" Acid Rain returns and Rebecca is trying to syphon water from the fresh water swimming pool to sprinkle on the lake, quick trip to the Costco in Zenith, and "Hey Rebecca, we found these 50 lb cartons of baking soda in the woods, let's use the windmill to blow the baking soda into the acid rain to neutralize it!" (would baking soda neutralize acid rain? I have no clue but, hey Science! and all that). Boy, the dome must be self-cleaning - acid ran, dust storms, heavy objects banging into it, but the dome remains crystal clear, not even any sort of reflection on it. Well, in all fairness, Big Jim didn't get the idea until he saw Barbie writing on the Dome the night before. Until then, his plan was to go to the Dome and press someone's ear against it. I figured they got the windmill working again and her hair and clothes were blown dry on her way across the field. But he had to throw the pages on the ground so that someone could find them and realize his plan. Oh wait, that would be an example of continuity, something this show has never bothered with. Nevermind. Didn't the smoke monster on Lost contain images from the "victim's" past? I thought all smoke monsters/vortexes contained flashbacks - you know, like vampires don't have reflections, babysitters alone on Halloween will always go down into the basement. The weird thing was that Pauline had a premonition, not a flashback. So someday we will see Pauline and Melanie in a sand pit discussing the egg? Wait, that would require the show has some continuity. Nevermind. Since it has only been a few weeks under the dome, this is still 2013 and they should both be around 40-43. Eddie Cahill looks a bit older than he really is, so he could pass for 40. Dwight Yokum also looks older than he really is, as I would have put him at 65, so he could pass as Sam's dad. Yeah, Lyle being in high school 25 years ago bothers me too. The only thing that kind of makes sense is Lyle's hair - I mean, he is supposed to be the only barber in town, so it would make sense that there are no trained barbers to cut Lyle's hair and he had to cut it himself using mirrors and a butcher knife.

Maybe Yu made such a fuss out of Matthew wanting to be called Matthew and not Matt because he wanted to be the only "Yu" - so no "Math-yu", just Matt. In coming weeks, we will find out that he requires everyone to use first names when talking to each other so that no one at the photoshoot says "you." I can just imagine the exchange -- Model A (speaking to Model B): How did you do on the shoot? Model B: I thi- Yu (yelling): Who said Yu? Model A (timidly): I did. I'm sorry, it will never happ- Yu: Get out! Model: But I haven't --- Yu: Get out right now! No photos for you! I am the only Yu! Does everyone understand now? (takes a deep breath) Okay, Matt, you are up next. Matthew: I prefer to be called Ma--um, yes, I'm Matt. Where do you want me?

Very good question - I have no clue how they do it now. For a long time they had the models lined up on the runway, and the person who won the last challenge got to be the first to pick his/her model (picked before going to Mood). Then they used the button bag to choose the order that the other designers picked models. Usually everyone picked the model they had the week before and the model who was with the losing designer ended up going home too, but there were occasional changes. Back then, the show was only an hour and some of the time was spent picking models. Now it is 90 minutes and it doesn't feel like we are seeing any more of the design/sewing process. I think they must be spending a lot more time on the judges deliberations and Tim's tattling. I am not sure about that though, since I usually fast forward once runway portion is over and go back to watching when they announce the best and worst looks.