Kerri Okie

You are absolutely right, thanks. That's what I get for flipping back and forth between episodes of Bosch and A Series of Unfortunate Events. I'll go fix my post.

Yes to both of these comments. MC writes good mystery/procedural, but not always great interpersonal relationships, Bosch's romances in particular. (I personally couldn't stand Eleanor, neither the book nor the TV versions, and wasn't sorry to see her written out.) It feels like Amazon has put together a writing team that allows him to play to his strengths, while improving on other aspects of the novels that aren't so much in his wheelhouse. I don't mind the family stuff. I could have done without Maddie's walkabout scene, but in general, I like Bosch's relationship with his daughter and their scenes together, and I was glad to see a secondary character like Edgar be given so much importance aside from the main storyline. Maddie goes to Chapman in the books as well.

One of the things I like a lot about this series is that enough is changed so that even if you have read the books, you still don't know whodunnit. Angel's Flight alone has a slightly different set of victims and a different killer, with definitely a different outcome, so don't let having seen the show stop you from reading the books.

The homes were in Yorba Linda, and according to TLC's site, Paige and the Trading Spaces trucks were in Southern California on or around September 20 to begin filming for the season. The Canyon Fire in the Anaheim Hills started September 25, so the timing and location are both right; that was probably the fire they saw. If so, about 2600 acres were burned, 600 homes were evacuated, and one was damaged. There was a second fire, Canyon Fire 2, that started in October and was caused by embers from the first Canyon Fire. In that one 7500 acres burned and 25 homes were lost. I was in LA in early December when a state of emergency was called because of wildfires, and watching that part of the show was very uncomfortable. In their defense, I'm sure that when the comments were made they had no idea what the outcome would be, but by the time the show was being edited they certainly knew the impact of the fires. They should have edited out the comments, or at the very least added a little update about the fires and expressed their condolences to the communities and to the families that had lost their homes.

I'm a teacher too, so I totally get what you're saying, especially about hiding out in the bathroom. ;) Maybe it's different for me because my kids are grown, still at home, but grown, and don't need mom all the time, so I don't need that special room to escape to, and when I do, I just go to the bedroom and close the door. But she wanted it, and her hubby had two rooms of his own for goodness sake, so I'm glad she got what she wanted.

I liked the randomness, too. It went with the random aspect of the wall colors. If it were my room, I might consider cutting those pops-of-color floor tiles in half on the diagonal to make triangles to match the pattern on the wall. Then again, that might have been a bit much. That wall was gorgeous though. Re: the laminate floor, we had "wood" laminate in our last house. It looked good from a distance, but close up it looked cheap, especially as it aged. Not sure if that's why the HO hated it, but having lived it, I can understand. Didn't care much for Carter's room. It was all right--nothing that I couldn't live with if I had to--but other than the ombre wall, I agree, he didn't do much in there. The whole "mom cave" idea is weird to me anyway, unless it was designed to be a craft room or sewing room or something where she had to store lots of pieces and parts. If it was just a place to go to read a book or play Candy Crush, I don't get the idea of needing a whole other closed off room to do it in.

I don't remember the exact wording either, but the term "pre-industrial" was part of the clue, so that's probably why "running out of gas" wasn't acceptable. I did get the right answer for that one, but for bisque, I said ceramic. Not sure if that would have worked.

I was even more annoyed that he laughed at her DD bet of "only" $200. When she couldn't come up with an answer and "only" lost $200, he should have apologized.

As far as I'm concerned, it still means that. I cringe when I hear it used otherwise, and while I know that the common (incorrect) use will eventually become accepted, it doesn't mean it will ever be correct. Same with the uses of "literally" when one means figuratively, "irregardless," and "women" when talking about one female person.

What a brutal day. After the heat, the long hours, the draining challenges, I have a hard time holding someone's facial expression at the end of it all against them. What I did like was when both teams saw they were U-Turned, while Jessica went on about it being personal, Evan sucked it up, said it didn't matter who had done it or why, and focused on the task. I'll take that over whining any day. That said, I don't think any of them are horrible people, just that they don't always handle stress and fatigue in ways that are particularly pretty. Agree about the partner swap and, I was looking for the giant fork in the road too!!

Good point, and I agree wholeheartedly about Robyn. She's inconsistent, but she's never been an outright bitch or saboteur. It was unfair of Ramsay to rail on her, especially since she was well out of the running anymore.

Possibly, although had Michelle chosen Barbie over Elise, he would have been stuck with both of them anyway. Since Michelle had first pick, that was a situation that was out of his control.

I thought both Benjamin and Michelle handled their teams well. I liked Benjamin's preservice pep talk, and he treated his team with respect. Ramsay should have backed off and let him deal with Robyn though. I get it--"Your menu, my standards," but it should have been Benjamin's test to pass or fail. Or maybe it got to the point where he couldn't wait for Benjamin to handle it anymore, by which point I assume Benjamin had already lost. OTOH, Michelle handled Elise as well as anyone could have handled Elise, and wouldn't have had to repeat herself ad nauseam if Elise had just bothered to answer her even once. Where Michelle outshone Benjamin was in how well she knew her team, having worked closely with every single one of them in her two seasons, and played to their strengths. She placed Elise strategically, and had a plan for getting rid of her if she needed to. I'm baffled why Benjamin, who had never worked with Barbie, didn't bother to find out what her strengths were and use her accordingly. I 100% agree with Drogo's post above that if he'd flip-flopped her with Robyn, he might have won, although I also think that GR preferred Michelle in large part because she is moldable.

They used to do a fan favorite cash prize, yes. Probst's self-promotion aside, sponsorship sure isn't what it used to be. Remember when they used to give away cars in reward challenges? Now (if they're lucky) they get dinner from Outback. Heck, they don't even present the winner with a giant check on the CBS morning show; they just hand over an envelope before the commercial break and say, "Here's your million. Don't lose it."

The advantage, as it said in the clue, was information. Chrissy got to know ahead of time what the final twist was, and whether she wanted to use that information to her advantage. Which she did. If anything people should be upset with Devon for not practicing making fire when he had the advantage of knowing that he was going to have to make fire and Ben didn't! But no, instead Devon decided that the Survivor Gods were telling him to chill on the beach, same as all those times everyone sat around at camp and let Ben go off and search for idols unattended. On that note, Ben also made the comment that the last idol could only be played until final five, therefore he, and everyone else, must have been told the idol rules at the beginning of the game, which makes everyone else sitting around camp not looking for idols or checking up on Ben before it was down to final five even worse game play. One thing that hasn't changed since season 1 is that the winner is still chosen by the jury. If they didn't feel Ben deserved to be there, they didn't have to vote for him. But everyone had an equal chance all season long to make fire. If they chose not to, how is that Ben's fault?

I'm still shrugging at that one myself. The closest I can come is capital punishment, but that would be loss of life, not specifically loss of a head. Capital comes from the Latin word for head, but again, I can't see what that has to do with the loss of a head.

I was thinking exactly this earlier today. In fact, I had to do a doubletake just now to make sure this wasn't my post, lol. Shakira was not a great coach, but I really enjoyed her because she, like Miley, really seemed to want what was best for each of her singers. With both Miley and Shakira, (and for the most part, Pharrell and Alicia Keyes, though I did skip chunks of their seasons) I have never felt they were making it about them. I am looking forward to Kelly Clarkson. She's such a fan of the show, I think she'll be a great coach. I hope...

It's because once they hit the live shows, it's no longer really about "the voice," but about the big productions, packaging the performer (costumes, hair, makeup, etc.), and arranging every song so it's all about the vocal gymnastics and hitting the big notes. Surprisingly Miley has become my favorite coach, and someone who I feel actually listens to the members of her team instead of coming in to each rehearsal with a preconceived notion of what she wants them to be and/or do. I wish they would dump everyone else and start with a fresh lineup.

There was some interesting editing going on for this elimination. I'm not sure what the order of events really was, but Van's face was clearly visible in a shot of the blue team during the time GR was talking to the women about their nominations, although from what we had seen, he had already been eliminated. I don't know why they would show things out of order, because it seemed like it would have been more dramatic to have all five of the contestants lined up for elimination and then GR pick whoever he was going to pick, but they chose to show him eliminating Van first, then nothing coming of the women's nominations, other than loud-mouthed Elise being a loud mouth. Quelle surprise.

Damn. Janice? What the hell, America?

Pokémon was an easy one for me. In its early days my kid (now 22 years old and still a Pokémon fan) wanted to play, but he couldn't read the dialogue on the screens well enough to get through it, so I kept having to stop what I was doing to read to him. I was spending so much time helping him that I eventually started playing it on my own. By the time I finished, I had a pretty impressive collection of Pokémon myself, which made me the coolest mom on the block that year!

I looked it up. The $399 kit is a hormone test for women trying to conceive. But it's only $69 to measure testosterone. Maybe it's just more expensive to measure women's hormones than men's, but something seems wrong about that. Plus, I've undergone hormonal testing when trying to conceive; it's not a one-time test. For those curious, the STD test is $189. I agree. I've never known the sharks to not ask if a product making health-based claims had been vetted by the FDA or some other agency. And yes, even if I had this test done, wouldn't my doctor want to repeat the test in his/her office? Until you can buy it OTC and use it at home like a home pregnancy test, I just don't see this being a thing. Cold oatmeal sounds gross, but as much as the sharks loved it, I want to try it. I'll wait for the snack size though.

Same here. I stumbled across a MC Canada marathon on the Cooking Channel a few weeks ago and I was hooked. The drama is all about the cooking, not about the personalities. There are no cute little hats or costumes to help us tell the contestants apart, and every TH doesn't start with "back home in ____..." Back to HK, I have mad respect for GR as a chef. He's amazing to watch when he's doing demos, but he's lost all credibility with me as a TV persona since he's more about the drama than the competition itself. I did enjoy that last challenge though.

LOL, so did mine.

I was just about to say the same thing. No way it was The Wall, which came out in 1979. (Another Brick in the Wall was huge when I was in high school.) I briefly toyed with Let It Be, but knew that was too late, too, so I guessed the White Album.