Homily

Must depend on the doctor, my daughter-in-law is pregnant and has already had two doctor's appointments and an ultrasound and she's only about 10 weeks along right now.

Yeah I agree, Howard was being Howard. He started freaking out 5 seconds after rejoicing in the news. They acknowledge almost immediately that Bernadette makes good money and that Howard is overreacting. I did love his lines about hiring a nanny but one who isn't too good looking!

:small voice: No tub would be a deal breaker for me if there was anyway I could find a place that had one. I've lived without tubs and while I won't say it was hell, it wasn't a lot of fun either. If I'm already compromising on other things I can see digging in my heels about a bathtub!

I really hope they don't go there mainly because given how shrewish they've made Bernadette you just know he won't be able to do anything right and even if she says she wants to leave the child raising to him she isn't going to be able to let him make any decisions on his own. In fairness though that's because up to know most of his decisions have been pretty stupid ones!

I will be very disappointed if the big argument around the pregnancy storyline is who had to quit their job. It's just not realistic at all and the writers should know that.

I used to think that this was a giveaway as to which house they get because I noticed a few episodes where they didn't bring the dog into every house. Then I started noticing episodes where they did bring their dog to every house so so much for that theory! Absolutely agree on the rudeness. Can you imagine a real estate agent in an actual real life situation allowing someone to bring a pet through an open house or letting clients bring their pet to every appointment they've made? I really doubt that would happen!

As far as we know Howard does go to the ER, that's certainly where he said he was going and really while Bernadette was minimizing the chances of something being wrong she was right there probably is nothing to worry about (even in a real life scenario).

Speaking of which Mary was supposed to be 30 the first year of that show and Mary Tyler Moore was actually only a few years older than her character but watching that show now it's hard to think of her and Rhoda as only being 30 years old. 30 has gotten a lot younger in the last 40 years! In terms of appearance and dress style but also in terms of interests and approach to life. Which is not a bad thing.

I hope they do that but I bet they won't. The entire gang had to go to the hospital when they thought Howard's mother was having a heart attack. Unless my friend needed me to drive and would be alone at the hospital I certainly wouldn't have assumed that I needed to be there while their mother was getting tests done. But then I don't live in a sitcom! They could handle it lots of different ways of course but I'm willing to bet if there is a protracted labour and delivery it's going to be done with everyone including Kripke and Stuart! in attendance.

I missed the first part of the show, was anyone actually calling in to talk about flags? And in fairness to Amy in the parts I saw she was trying to get Kripke off the phone. Pretty desperately!

I was 19 the first time someone thought I was a lot older than I was - they thought I was my 10 yr old sister's mother!! I certainly don't think I looked older but someone sure did! I remember being really insulted at the time. And I second CleoCaesar's comment, just because Penny doesn't look like a 20 yr old anymore and is dressing a little "classier" certainly doesn't mean she looks old! Except, yeah, maybe in LA where in movies and TV they have women in their 50s playing the mother role to men in their 40s.

I hope the writers have been hanging around this board and have realized how incredibly stupid it sounded to suggest that either of them had to give up their career and stay home with kids. I know a few families where mom or dad is home but I know a lot more where after a maternity/paternity leave both parents are back at work. Bernadette and Howard have the financial wherewithal to provide the best of child care for their kids there is no need for this self sacrifice (if they feel it would be a sacrifice). Hopefully they won't even go there.

Apparently she will be in the next episode but it doesn't sound like she's going to be a recurring character. Too bad if so as I thought she was very good and I like the idea of finally have a female character who is into comics and some of the other supposed "guy" stuff stick around for awhile.

On the subject of Sheldon and Amy having sex I'm glad they didn't have it be a big deal with the other members of the group. In an early episode when Sheldon and Amy are trying to spread gossip they have Leonard, believing that Sheldon and Amy have had sex make some pretty inappropriate comments "you dog you" being the least of them. These are 30 somethings and it's a sign that they are letting the characters grow up, at least a little bit, that they avoided replaying this kind of conversation when the Shamy really did "have coitus" as Sheldon would say.

Exactly. For that matter it's the rare episode now where Sheldon's mother or Leonard's mother talk about their other children. It came up in earlier episodes but not so much anymore, which is fine. Fits in with the way they had Leonard's mother be so nasty about Penny when he told her they were engaged. It made no sense because the times we saw her interact with Penny she seemed to like her (well as much as she likes anyone) and they actually bonded a bit in at least one episode. But then it was like that never happened. I guess the writers think it's funnier to have people being mean to each other and being needlessly nasty.

Just watching the one with the military couple relocating to Guam. If the needs of their dog was mentioned once it was mentioned 1000 times. I swear I've never seen anyone on these shows be as concerned for the needs of a child. And the contrived "oh I need a huge house for all the visitors who are coming" as opposed to "I just want a small condo and let's not spend too much". They really didn't have their hearts in their big dramatic difference though and it was obvious from the minute the saw it which one they were going to choose.

Sheldon definitely says at one point that his mother dove into religion because her marriage was disintegrating around her - that may have been when he talked about his father going out with a bottle blond barmaid who tried to buy his love with action figures.

I think it's a reasonable assumption. There is an early episode where Sheldon talks about how they got Mee Maw involved with activities at a senior centre and said "we'd never put Mee Maw in a home". It made it sound like Sheldon's mother was the one making decisions like this and while it's possible she's taken on the care of an in-law it's far more likely to believe she's caring for her own mother.

Eunice didn't love anyone but herself though and Mee Maw loves her Moon Pie!

Italy and ice reminds me of Everybody Loves Raymond, a character explains why he loves America "so much ice!" (with an Italian accent of course :). I don't know how that would have flown in any place we ever rented. These were privately owned homes that were being rented out through estate agents and man did they check on every single solitary thing to make sure you left the place exactly as you found it - and if you didn't you got dinged with charges. I speak from bitter personal experience here!

We never encountered a lack of bathroom fixtures but every single house we ever looked at had carpeting in the bathroom. We were renting so taking it out wasn't an option. I loved England, would go back in a heartbeat, but I never got used that that! And don't get me started on the separate taps for hot and cold or when there actually was one tap the water still streamed out in a separate stream of hot and cold. For most folk though I would hope these are the kind of things that are more a nuisance than a deal breaker and for us the fact that we were living in England more than compensated for it! I would really hope the HHIs who get the chance to go overseas complain about the drawbacks but still end up appreciating where they are. In other words that a lot of the "oh my god no bath tub" comments are producer driven. My then teenage nephew visited us and when he went home all he could talk about was how you don't get unlimited refills on pop in restaurants. Horrifying that you pay for every single drink you get! We'd forgotten to tell him that but we did remember to tell him to specify tap water if you asked for water in a restaurant otherwise the automatic default (certainly in every place we ever went) was an expensive bottle of water -- mind you this was in the days before buying bottled water was so commonplace so perhaps travellers today wouldn't be surprised at this.

I think you have to want to move over to Europe and have to be prepared for the culture shock that comes with it - and realize as well that some days will be harder than others. That's one reason I think the HHI do a big disservice to people who are thinking of becoming ex pats when they show supposedly newly transplanted Americans surrounded by a large circle of friends. No. Just no. That doesn't usually happen and least of all if you are a not the working spouse where you're meeting people with shared interests right from the get go. When we lived in England we were there with a few other couples who had also been relocated there by my husband's company. Most of us got along just fine and while we missed home we knew we were getting a virtually all expenses paid opportunity of a lifetime. One of the women though hated it, hated everything about England, was homesick and never got over it. She stuck it out for a year and then headed back home. I don't know why it didn't work for her but I do know she was miserable. I've often wondered if she ever looks back on that time and thinks that she wasted what could have been an amazing experience.

Friends of ours are building a house (well having a house built to be more accurate), they're retired empty nesters and I was really surprised when they showed us the floor plans to see that the house is basically 3 rooms excluding bathrooms. One huge "great" room and two bedrooms. I didn't know how to tactfully ask them if they realized that unless one of them was in the bedroom they were never going to have any privacy, not just when guests come, but from each other. I mean it is a big living area but there are no walls separating any of the areas, No walls, no doors, no privacy. I'd hate it!

I don't mind parents taking their children's needs into consideration, I agree the children shouldn't be the ones doing the deciding though! It's the HH buyers who worry about whether their pet will like the new place that drive me up the wall. I get loving a dog or cat, honestly I do, but sometimes some of these participants are just so way over the top with their "I just don't know if Cuddles will like this colour of carpet" that you have to wonder what's wrong with them!

Agreed. And even if it's done with love and all the best intentions in the world it's doomed to failure. It reminds me a bit of parents trying to bribe their overweight teens to lose weight - if only it were that easy no one would have a weight problem!! Anyway I have a basic problem with parents who control the purse strings and try to use that to treat their kids like a puppet on those strings.