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I got the impression that she agreed to the cameras with the understanding that the footage would be for personal use only. In other words, someone wanted video of the birth, which is not uncommon.

I think Bravo is testing the waters for new programming; perhaps the ubiquitous housewives shows are running out of ratings steam? I've noticed this year that I am tiring of a lot of the reality shows and have removed them from my DVR schedule. There are promos for "Bravo Home." Sweet Home Oklahoma got repurposed into Sweet Home, an interior design show. And this little series. I liked it. I grew up with a noon whistle and the sound of trains passing in the night on one side of town. I never heard of bagels until I moved to the big city. I was expecting at least one Waverly resident to bring up guns, since it's a hot topic in small towns these days, and I assumed production wouldn't be able to resist the inevitable brouhaha. Thankfully, no. However, too bad we had to descend into Bravo's typical drunken screeching - the loudmouth bartender who's a legend in her own mind. Will be interesting to see if the MN politician makes it onto the state or national political stage.

According to Linkedin, Randy is still an IT specialist with the State Department and has been since 2003. It says he is based in Alexandria, VA (a DC suburb). He has two IT-type MBAs from Georgetown and Johns Hopkins. That position is most decidedly not a diplomat. Ambassadors, diplomats and foreign service officers are a very specific career path, with specific credentials and education (although sometimes ambassadors and diplomats are big political donors who are rewarded with these posts by a newly-elected president, and they often quit or lose their positions when a new president is elected). LinkedIn says Meredith is an outsides sales rep at GTM Sportswear in the DC metro area. GTM Sportswear advertises opportunities for people to have their own online stores affiliated with GTM. So Meredith is probably selling cheerleader uniforms and so on. Weirdly, neither Randy's nor Meredith's LinkedIn profiles mention any foreign locations.

Her husband is not a diplomat. He is an IT specialist who works in an embassy. Ambassadors, diplomats, foreign services officers are very specific things.

She was self-aggrandizing. See recent posts.

I couldn't find any reference to her or her husband as actual ambassadors. So I think she was using the term in a colloquial sense. Maybe her husband is a foreign service officer, or a civil servant who works in an embassy.

Do Kelli, Judy, and the sweet woman who assists them work a full day before working the practices at night? That has to be exhausting, especially when they work out doors in the summer heat.

This. To be fair to anyone in this situation, it is not easy to have a dying loved one at home (I know from personal experience, during which we were caregivers and also had in-home care). It requires a lot of emotional resolve and sacrifice, and I don't think Jeff is wired for this. For God's sake, he doesn't allow staff/camera fodder to use the bathroom in his homes, and he hassles Gage about the few things that are left lying around. Home health care would drive him over the edge. Didn't his grandmother live for quite a while after these scenes were shot? I thought hospice only accepted patients who were truly terminal; I remember being told by staff that they would not keep my father if his demise wasn't medically imminent. Obviously, despite the comments about her tearing out her IVs (my father did this during his night terrors), she clearly received some kind of sustenance to maintain life. I'm horrified at how sheltered Monroe is. Whoever said that Jeff and Gage will be intolerant of pretty much any fellow parents and their children was dead on. They are elitist in the extreme. To clarify my earlier remarks about the repairs Jeff made to his grandmother's home, I suspect that he did so knowing that he and perhaps others would inherit the home, and he wanted to be able to maximize its value for sales purposes.

Tara seemed depressed to me. I hope being cut from the team didn't send her spiraling further down. I hope she has friends and family who are watching out for her. I don't think the decision to cut Victoria was solely Judy's and Kelli's call. I think there were internal organizational conflicts about whether to keep her. Perhaps they were all were waiting to see if she'd lose weight and dance better after all those practices. The two legacy dramas made for good TV (in production's mind). I hope this show will morph away from too much focus on the Cut Drama, which is transparently aimed at the TV viewing audience, and more on other things. Or do cuts earlier, with briefer footage, and add more of the other stuff. I'm bored with the same thing, over and over. After a lifetime of watching my weight, including for dance and cheer, I know that the bottom line is greatly reduced calories for some people; for those people, exercise can only do so much (although of course it's great for other health reasons). For me, it doesn't matter what kind of calories I take in (protein, carbs, ets.), other than a careful mixture helps me maintain energy and mood.

Meredith's choice of words was odd. There are civil servants, and there are ambassadors. I've never heard anyone in the Foreign Service use her terminology.

In the first season, didn't Stephanie continually complain that her husband was a micromanager, constantly telling her what to do, and that she knew how to run the house and take care of the kids? Now all of a sudden she's afraid of being alone for six weeks or however long it is? That she doesn't feel capable, despite having nannies and staff? She's the most superficial Dallas housewife, and the most crafty. Her personality is extremely contrived and subtly manipulative.

As usual, Jeff made his grandmother's illness all about him. He isn't alone in responsibility for her. We heard his brother offer to help, and Jeff's father is alive. I suspect Jenni has pitched in over the years, and possibly Gage and a long list of housekeepers and health aides. Hospice is wonderful, but Jeff could have honored his promise and brought his grandmother to his home. He also clearly doesn't want to take in her dog. Did she really want to be shown on camera while so ill? Jeff is an asshole. Since I loathe Jeff, I'll speculate that the work on his grandmother's house over the years was so he could claim it and make money off of it after her death. This is the first episode I've watched this season. The show is relentlessly depressing, with Jeff obsessed with finding fault with others, and failing to take common sense steps to change his behaviors and resolve problems. He clearly spends his days and nights focused on this fault-finding, instead of running his businesses and sharing equally in the care of Monroe. Jeff has sabotaged so many business opportunities, and his "flips" are long-term expensive renovations/restorations. People take all kinds of passive-aggressive revenge against him, while collecting their checks. I hope that he is finally facing some consequences. All he cares about is money, and I think he's losing it and squandering it hand over fist. I still think Gage has a long-range strategic plan.

Every time I see a group of men banding together against a female colleague, complete with stern lecturing, I'm reminded of old cartoons with little boys in tree houses and "No Girls Allowed" signs. Ordinarily I would say that Rhylee is way out of line, but I suspect she's like a lot of women who have just had it with the male hierarchy in the workplace. She has zero tolerance for any lecturing, man-splaining, shushing, dismissive hand gestures, etc. Some men have gotten very crafty about how they get around the supposed rules of behavior - "If you'll just listen, I'm trying to help you." Meanwhile one of you walks away from the tender's controls in choppy seas and puts the tender and its passengers at risk. Why does she have to kowtow in the face of this? That's why this crap continues, this group gaslighting and efforts to redirect blame onto the woman. #theystilldon'tgetit. The fact that this is a television show, scripted with incompetent immature fame whores, pretty much invalidates the typical chain of command that exists in real life. Captain Lee and the off-camera crew are really managing the yacht, and the deck crews are just disposable stooges. While I'm on a rant, I'll speculate that Adrian and his open relationship are really about what Adrian wants. His sly sexual innuendos are annoying. We get it - you're a horn dog.

The last couple of episodes almost ruined the series for me. I liked the old-fashioned scary storytelling, without the copious gore that modern horror movies employ. But the endless whiny arguments and overacting in the last couple episodes were awful. Shirley's endless "fucks, fucking, etc." were lazy script writing. And poor Steve was forced to mouth endless mental health PSAs. "But Dad, she had a mental illness!" I also hate Rapunzel curls on adult women. Better editing would have made for a great eight-episode series.

At the wolf sanctuary in PA, they have some wolf "couples," lone wolves, and packs. I think part of it is temperament, age/illness, and whether the wolves are willing to form packs. They let the wolves decide. In my earlier post about Fur-Ever, LARC was named on the search warrant, but still local law enforcement would not let LARC staff onto Fur-Ever's property.

Is he the cowboy-hat wearing sheriff from AZ? If so, he is a famewhore of the highest order. He wants a TV gig; he wants to be another Sticks.

I loved the Cornell show and hope it comes back. The equine treatment was fantastic. Did anyone watch the latest Wolves and Warriors? The episode was about the team trying to stop a woman who was raising wolves, breeding pups for petting zoos, tranquilizing wolves for sportsmen shows - allowing people to climb in cages with the tranquilized animals - and then killing them and selling the pelts. (For-Ever Wild in Minnesota) They also had mountain lions, kingfishers and foxes - the latter of which were skinned so Fur-Ever Wild could sell fox faces for $5.95. The team got all kinds of court orders, including from a federal judge, yet the local aw enforcement cooperated with Fur-Ever in spiriting the animals away (possibly killing them) . The W&W team had an order to rescue the wolves and bring them to the sanctuary; they stood right outside Fur-Ever's fences during the countdown to the transfer. In the end, they were able to save only one wolf, George, by chasing after a truck with him in it, asking the State Troopers to stop the truck, and convincing the people in the truck to turn over George. Fate of the disappeared wolves? Unknown. The episode didn't explain how Fur-Ever got away with violating the orders and sanctions. Did anyone understand what happened here?

So I binged season one this past week. Oddly, my least favorite characters are Midge and Joel. With Joel it's the character's weakness, and with Midge it's the acting style. RB marched in and out of her scenes (did she ever dawdle?), spitting out clever dialogue, and rarely relating to the other characters except as comedy acting foil. Like an old sitcom. Pollak did the same thing. The exceptions were her few moments with Susie and Joel. And her "comedy" felt rammed home, a poor imitation of Joan and Roseanne. I was distracted by RB's red wig and blue eyes, looking nothing like her parents. And her prissy manner of speaking. And why bother giving her absentee children, except to emphasize what a cad Joel is? Anyway, I kept watching for the wardrobes, old NY, and the other actors, who were great. Shaloub and Kirby were especially fine.

Those pink curlers were called spoolies. My grandmother used them every night. I remember pantyhose by 1968. There was a horrid fad for a couple of years where they were a deep orangey-tan, and my pale-skinned mother stuck to her stockings and garters until realistic pantyhose shades arrived on the scene in the 70s. I bought my first blusher around 1967 or 1968. The dime store sold a three-pan palette that had a pinkish blush, a peachy blush, and a dark tan blush.

Just started watching the series. It really comes alive with the parents and side characters. Those fantastic actors began to find their comic rhythms in this episode. I'm struggling with Rachel's character. I was annoyed with Judith Light's cartoonish character in Transparent, and I'm getting the same vibes with RB/Midge here. I'll keep watching for the parents and the divine apartments and wardrobes. My mother used to swan about the house in elegant dressing gown (bought on sale), red nails, gold slippers and hair in pin curls tied up with a scarf. I think it was her "I have to cook and clean today but I've got a cocktail party tonight and my nails and hair are almost done and this dressing gown gets me in the mood for the party" outfit. 1950s Greenwich Village (or Paris) always called to me. I'm loving the 1950s NYC ambience. If you haven't already, get a hold of HBO's Getting On. Alex Boorstein, Niecy Nash, Laurie Metcalf and cameos from long-ago TV actresses - one of my favorite shows ever.

Victoria wasn't the only one with a fluffy mid-section. Not by a long shot. The weight criticism is a red herring and for TV ratings. I think the real reason she'll get cut (I'm unspoiled) is that she's a loose cannon, not to mention the rudeness to Jinelle. She's not deferential enough for DCC. More dancing, less "who'll get cut" drama please. I think Jinelle is being groomed for Kelli's position. Perhaps Melissa R. is also a contender, although I think Melissa wants an entertainment career. But the window is closing on that for her, in terms of her age.

I think the housewives suspect Leeann won't actually get married. All this wedding talk is for a storyline. See Denise Richards, NeNe Leakes, etc. D'Andra's trying to break the 4th wall.

I think D'Andra is projecting her own unhappiness like crazy.

The editors showed the back of Brandi's head three or four times, with an apparent bald spot. Snarky editors? I predict Brandi is headed for full-blown drunken housewife. She doesn't strike me as happy. She hastily adopts a boy to keep her husband happy, films a series of scenes where she's constantly holding the baby and ignoring the other two, husband is gone all of the time, Brandi puts down the baby and hires a nanny, and resumes her days of drinking. Her kids are Exhibit A of ignored/indulged children. D'Andra's husband will dump her the minute she loses the money. Rich is in it for the camera fame and Bravo paycheck.

It's just come to me. Rylee resembles Sarah Ferguson - red hair, square jaw, eye shape.