lefawn

I buy my hummus. It comes in a big container from Costco. I eat it with baby carrots, pre-washed and out of a bag. Jill's clearly making more of an effort than I am.

I was so happy last week when Hulu gave the the heads up about Designing Women now streaming. I was too young to have watched the first season or two when it was originally airing but I know I started watching it "live" at some point in season three or four. I'm sure most of it just went over my head but I do remember watching and even following some of the tabloid stuff about Delta Burke leaving the show. And then when I was in high school this played all the time on, I believe, Lifetime and I would record and watch every episode in a big block on the weekends (my original binge watching!). Anyway, I spent most of the long weekend watching. I thought about just watching some of my favorite episodes but it was way too hard to choose so I just decided to watch from the beginning. It really amazes me how much of this show I can repeat almost verbatim. And not just the always wonderful Julia rants but little throw away lines. This show has clearly shaped a big part of my own humor.

No a "Federal" Lawyer is not a thing. An attorney may be more versed in Federal law and procedure but I don't know what Jenelle is even talking about and I've been a paralegal for almost 20 years.

Oh, of course. I just think the boys will pay at least a modicum of lip service to using condoms while some of the girls on the franchise will be so desperate for any kind of positive attention they'll be looking for trap babies with their one tru wuv and will totally feed some idiot a line about being a barren 15yo.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's why MTV hangs on to this dying franchise. First one of these girls to go through the whole dating and getting knocked up process on camera is getting her own series and her own money.

I've been watching a lot of Tastemade recently which is a channel I didn't even know existed until last month. It's like FN/CC but geared toward the 20s crowd. I doubt any of the hosts are over 30. There are a few travel shows but they seem to be food centered too. There are two shows they seem to show over and over again - Make this Tonight and Struggle Meals. Make this Tonight will have a theme and then have one to a dozen hosts making various dishes on that theme. There are no actual recipes; the channel seems to be more improvisational style cooking. And the dishes themselves seem to run the gambit from beginner to advance home cook. For example, I watched an episode last night on pasta and it went from a simple pasta primavera that was just sauteing veggies and adding cooked dried pasta to a blueberry dessert that involved making two types of fresh pasta and a custard and maybe something else? Not a weeknight undertaking for me. They also have a good mix of styles and tastes. Meat dishes but plenty of stuff for vegans/veterinarians. Healthy fare right along more decadent stuff. It can be a little jarring at times. I watched an episode on diner fare and they had a meat free ruben made with beets and a couple of segments later a tater tot hot dish. I wanted to try both dishes but, if I'm being honest with myself, I'd probably only make the hot dish and just try to find the beet ruben at a food truck or something. Struggle Meals is hosted by a guy named Frankie who also hosts several segments on Make this Tonight. Struggle Meals premise is that the dishes are less than $2.00 a serving. I question the math on that. First, since there are no recipes you can never know if he's using, say, a pound of ground turkey or 3/4ths a pound. Second, he also relies a lot on his free flavor drawer, basically condiment packets you'd get at restaurants. I know I've never gotten half the stuff he has in there as a to go packet. With the exception of soy sauce, I've certainly never gotten any to go condiments in such vast quantities to create a drawer full of the stuff and use it when prepping a meal. But even with having to buy stuff like hot sauce or honey and not knowing exactly how much of a protein he's putting into a dish, I imagine his stuff is still pretty frugal and probably clocks in for less than $3.00 or so. And he also makes some stuff that seems pretty inexpensive and then he adds a premium ingredient that I wouldn't use or that could be cut out without really sacrificing the overall quality of the dish. It all probably evens out. I also really like any show that shows you can make good, delicious, and relatively healthy meals with out breaking your budget. When I'm not hanging out on TV forums or watching cooking shows, I usually spend a lot of time on personal finance blogs and some commenters really believe if you're not spending $500-$700 a month on food then your just living on ramen or starving yourself. If I had had a show like this when I was in my first years out of college and had a microscopic food budget, I probably would have experimented with cooking more.

I was at Crime Con a couple of weeks ago and got these stickers at the Dateline panel. Andrea Canning and Lester Holt couldn’t make it but Keith, Josh, and Dennis were there along with one of the show’s producers. They talked about about how they choose and develop stories, what it’s like to interview killers versus victims families, and just the show in general. Good panel overall but the stickers really made appreciate the behind the scenes staff that help make the show -and stuff like this - happen.

I noticed Baby Andy was left with William. I think William (not Bill, not Will, not Billy - as someone who has an easy abbreviated name but HATES that eliding and prefers a less common one or, just, my actual name, so I like that he’s William) and Eddie are the only ones who are really given Baby Andy. I wonder how much of that is from the creators life - the Eddie brother and William brother were the caretaker kids - or how much is just from the set - the actors who play Eddie and William are good with toddlers so the writers just do it that way.

I think Markie Post’s character (Helen?) is probably dressed as the more “modern” woman while Peggy is still the throw back. Money, time, and just general personalities probably all contribute to this. As a Peggy myself I’d prefer to look slightly out dated rather than too on trend. Also I love Mike’s plaid zip up jacket.

My husband manages a medium box national (maybe only semi-national) chain pharmacy store and his base salary is 87K with bonuses usually in the 20-40K range based on profits, shrinkage, and whatever random metrics Corporate has decided to focus on at the moment. So Amy’s salary seems a little low but I agree it’s probably because she skipped over, like, five steps. My husband started this career path at 23 as a college graduate with a business degree. He spent a few years as a floor lead (like I imagine Amy was), then became an assistant manager (like Dina), all while getting and maintaining his pharmacy tech licence. After 6 years as an assistant manager he had the opportunity to get a manager position — but only if he moved three hours away. He did with the understanding he’d be placed in line for a local store if one became available. He was eventually moved back to our city and has a pretty good gig. I mean he’s still expected to be there all the time. If a shift lead is sick, he’ll have to open or close very suddenly. And he still routinely cleans up messes on the floor. Vomit, random bottles being dropped, yesterday he came home reeking of perfume, cause some customer spilled a bottle. Now his job requires a Masters degree.

Re: Sayid’s notebook. I know legal immigrants who have taken to carrying around copies of all their papers so if (when) they get hasseled they’ll have everything ready and can, hopefully, just walk/ drive away. My former roommate includes a picture of him with my mom and her pastor at her church’s Interfaith Fellowship luncheon. A sorta “ yeah, I’m Muslim but I love Christians and hang out with them all the time!” The idea is to humanize him and seem less “scary”. So the pictures weren’t that much of a stretch to me either. It was a funny bit but absolutely horrifying if you know anyone this could actually happen to. I like my comedies to be comedies 90% of the time. But if a comedy wants to make a social or political or serious statement, and does it well, I’m in. Sometimes we learn and relate more through humor than the nightly news or an op-ed in the paper.

I’ve been rewatching some of the episodes since I’ve heard news of the cancellation and notice that Peggy always wears the same basic dress. Different necklines, different sleeves, slight different pleating but the main form is the same with a shirt top, fitted waist, and a slightly flared skirt. We know she sews so I imagine she’s been working off the same Simplicity pattern for decades. Her look may be slightly outdated (or, not - I think it’s pretty timeless. I wear dresses like that to work now although with flats instead of heals.) but it complements her body and, at this point, she can probably crank one of those out in an afternoon.

I loved the scenes with Ruby and Stan (and later just Ruby) in the attorney’s office. It reminded me so much of the scene with Ruby with her daughter at the fancy doctor they went to last season after their first job and she was asked if cucumber infused water was okay. Money, even obviously crooked money, can buy a lot of privilege. And (faux) respect.

When they mentioned Dan Blocker (Hoss from Bonanza) was going to be at the banquet I got super excited and assumed his son, Dirk Blocker (Hitchcock on Brooklyn 99), was going to show up in a scene at the event and that would be the big final pay off of the episode. Since I watch both shows on Hulu, I forgot/didn’t realize the shows were on two different networks. If this show was on NBC, that cameo would have happened! I’m glad Frank learned that sometimes it’s fine just having fun doing something you’re good at. He got a win! And shrimp! $46 more a week is huge! Peg’s speech about how that would have a real impact on her life and the life of the kids totally had me. Mike, as a machinist at a defense company, should be making decent money but, with eight kids, economizing is still essential. But that extra bump in cash will really help at home.

The theremin (the weird instrument) plays the theme of the original Star Trek series too. Moms, especially moms with multiple kids, often have to be hard asses. It's difficult enough to keep one of those little buggers alive but EIGHT! At that point you're General Patton.