Pop Tart

I have friends who have a cottage on a lake in Wisconsin that is a family vacation spot but which is rented out on AirBNB when they're not using it. They have a similar binder for the guests who rent the cottage - after renting the cottage guests are responsible for general clean-up, i.e. picking up garbage, loading the dishwasher and cleaning everything up in a basic way. But linens washing and floor mopping, etc. is done by a housecleaner who also acts as the onsite care-taker for any issues that arise. But here's the kicker. They have invited me to stay with them a couple times (along with other friends) and though I did help pick up, neaten my own space, they in no way expected me to do all the work that was listed on the checklist in the binder. I was their guest. I did help because they're my friends and it was nice they asked me to stay, but no one was chasing me around with the binder making sure I did the work.

Madison Marie Parks-Valletta - poor, poor imaginary daughter.

When Scheana was extolling the virtues of Rob (he skis, he snowboards, he boats, he owns a vacation home!), that was bad enough. But she followed that with how great it is to be with a “real” man, and I have never felt more like I wanted to reach through the tv and smack someone then I did in that moment. She really is just a despicable person.

Teddi was on WWHL a couple weeks ago and Andy asked her what was the most surprising thing for her since she had started filming/being on the show. She said that it was a surprise to her how real it was when you're in the actual moments. She thought, going in, that she'd be able to sort of have one foot in and one foot out and be able to just treat it as a job, but still have her "real" life. But that's not what happened. She discovered that she was really feeling all the things she's showing on screen. She said that none of it was acting (not on her part anyway), that as se experienced each scene/interaction that she was feeling all the feels. Now this is Teddi's first season so this may all change - I certainly think that all the housewives become increasingly scripted/plotted/planned as they go from season to season. But for right now, I'm really liking Teddi and do believe she's being real here.

I was thinking this might be the case too. I'm not a fan of Jax by any stretch of the imagination, but his affect this season seems a bit beyond his usual general tool-ish-ness. He seems genuinely messed up. Yes, I think he's trying to get Brittany to dump him and is loathing how he's trapped in this storyline with her now, but I also think there's actual real life events (his dad) that are affecting him as well. I did chuckle when Jax, in his talking head, said that Scheana's over the top declarations about Rob and how much he lovvvves her were going to bite her in the face. Then he paused and asked the camera people if that was the right phrase, then he said it again and then said 'oh well, I like to make up my own'. I realized last night that Lala, with her endless "my man" (gaggggg!) must have been forbidden by him to say his name on the show. Or he's told the show producers that he can't be named, or something like that. Last night it seemed like James was about to say his name and she started shouting to shut him down and she's done that before. Perhaps if his name does get dropped in conversation then he becomes fair game to the producers, so Lala has to make sure his name doesn't get said.

Yeah, this is why I'm not buying Arianna's attempt at a #metoo moment with her story this season. When she's talking to Lala and Sheana and Billie (sp?) she says she doesn't care if she ever have sex again and explains it's all about her bad ex-boyfriend who put her sexuality down. When she's talking to Sandoval she tells him she doesn't enjoy sex and he reminds her that she didn't seem to have this issue earlier in their relationship and then she backtracks and tells him they need to spend time together so that she can feel close to him, implying that she doesn't want to have sex with him because she doesn't feel close to him. The thing is, I have no issue with her not wanting to be sexually active if that's where she's at, I'm just very skeptical about the why of it all. And, though I don't find Sandoval charming at all, I do think she owes it to him to tell him if she's just over that part of their relationship.

I kept wondering if they're planning on some spinoff show with the brothers Schwartz and Sandoval? One of them mentioned several times (or more then one of them mentioned once) how he wanted to stay in California and the whole Sandoval thing with dressing them? I don't find them at all interesting but I could see Bravo doing a one off show like they did with Brittany and Jax visiting the family. Probably not, but that was the vibe I was getting. I've never been an Arianna fan, too caught up in being the "cool girl" most of the time, but lately she's been especially bad. Totally negative all the time. Just too much.

Once again Dorit was in the wrong in a situation (making such a big deal about her glass), but she's trying to gaslight Teddi and make her think she's wrong, a liar, a psycho, etc. At Teddi's party: Dorit got served champagne in a wine glass, BY THE SERVER, or wine in a champagne glass, or pink lemonade in a beer stein, or something like that She was drinking a bit from the glass and chatting with Teddi (but still irked about Teddi trying to talk calmly and rationally with her about late-gate). As they're talking she's suddenly on her feet and saying she can't focus on their conversation, or she's distracted, or something of the like and has to change her glass. She and Teddi walk back to the counter - Teddi looking befuddled and like "what the heck is going on?" - and Dorit makes a big point with the server to say that she had the wrong type of glass for what she was drinking with Dorit giving Teddi lots of side-eye because she hired this guy who got it soooooo wrong. While Dorit is waiting for the glassware switch Lisa R. arrives and joins them. Dorit then tells Rinna (with Teddi still standing there) why they're at the counter, because she has the wrong glass and she just can't, just can't, like she's OCD (might have been Rinna who threw in OCD, but that was what Dorit was expressing) and can't focus when so much is wrong with her world. Rinna jokes with her that she's the same, laughing it off and trying to ease the situation. Teddi is upset with the whole scene - rightfully so - and as is required on this show has a sit-down with another housewife (LVP) the next day, or some time, and talks about how the situation made her feel (and she doesn't even name names, though of course since this is all producer driven, LVP has the whole script) LVP runs to Dorit and tells her that Teddi is upset with her about the glasses and Teddi said that Dorit couldn't concentrate on anything else because of her wrong type of glass, or whatever words LVP uses At the birthday party: Dorit pulls Teddi aside and confronts her about LYING to LVP. She never said anything about not being able to do anything else, or being distracted, or unable to concentrate. Teddi is once again LYING!!!! And how dare she? This is exactly what Dorit did with late-gate. When Teddi retold the story of how late Dorit was, some of the details got lost in the translation, but the story was 99% correct. Dorit was way late and then told others that it was Teddi who was the jerk because she'd left the restaurant when Dorit was only running like six minutes behind. Her fudging the details to make it look like it was Teddi who was initially in the wrong was what most upset Teddi. And so it is with glass-gate - Teddi recounted the story to LVP and got all the essentials correct, but Dorit is seizing on the wording to declare Teddi the LYING PSYCHO. LVP and Kyle join them and Kyle makes a point of asking "is this a private confab?" and Dorit tells them it's not and she's just having a conversation with Teddi about the glass thing. LVP then decides to give Teddi a lecture about glassware (with the subtext being that of course Dorit was right to be upset about the faux pas). Teddi rolls her eyes and Kyle seems to be feeling the same way because she starts to give her opinion about why she thinks Teddi was upset. Dorit goes off on Kyle about being Teddi's mouthpiece and how dare she interrupt or interject herself - which LVP kind of backs up - even though Dorit said they weren't having a private conversation and she had no problem with LVP interjecting on her behalf. Kyle gives up and walks away, drinking water in her wine glass, and Dorit yells at Teddi that she's a PSYCHO! LVP stands there. And I think it was after calling her a liar and a psycho that Dorit said that she really cared about Teddi? Teddi just thanks her for the party, gives her a hug and walks away.

Yes, me too. I've thought for a while now that LisaR (because of her longtime soap acting job) decided she needed to treat this as a role. I'm guessing when she took this gig she came at it with an actor-ly bent and had to decide just "who is my character"? "what's her motivation"? etc. and once she figured out who and what her character was going to be, that's who she'll be. This was never more clear to me then in last week's episode where she appeared at the dinner, having just flown back from NYC, and after talking about how tired she was, launching completely unprompted and out of context into the story of Ken being sued for assaulting someone. It was just so abrupt and out of nowhere that I was sure she came into the scene thinking, 'have to remember my lines, have to remember my lines' and blurt!

I recently saw an old episode of ER and in one scene I kept looking at the nurse helping with the emergency patient and thinking, wow she looks like Kyle, but totally different, so nah, can't be. I looked her up on IMDB and sure enough she did a number of episodes of ER. So while I don't know about her lips or any other specifics of what she has had done, she does looks very different then when she was on ER 15-20? years ago. Exactly. Dorit was late, so that makes her in the wrong, regardless of how late (and I'm inclined to believe Teddi that it was way late since we know Dorit has some problems with the truth - and we haven't yet seen that from Teddi). But Dorit, being in the wrong, promptly went to other HWs and made a deal about Teddi up and leaving when Dorit was only a few minutes late. So in her retelling to the other housewives, Teddi is the one who comes out looking unreasonable. And bear in mind that these women are still getting to know Teddi. So Dorit coloring it that way not only puts Teddi in the wrong (which she wasn't) it also gives the other women the impression that she's an impatient, stick in the mud who abandoned Dorit. Regarding Erika's husband - I agree that men can be needy when they're sick, often when only a little sick, but her husband had been in a car accident and broken his foot and he's like what? 70 years old? That's a pretty major trauma for anyone to go through, but at that age? That's a lot. Though Erika was trying to make a joke about it and pretend that he was being just too babyish for words, it seemed she was just plain disgruntled that he was around more and thus she had to interact with him and not go hang with her glam squad as much as she normally does.

Agreed. Can’t come soon enough for me otherwise I may just give up on the show. I don’t hate Jack, in fact find him about as interesting as all the other characters. I am getting extremely tired of the emotional manipulation and the endless, drawn out story of Jack’s death.

Except Heather wouldn’t make a big deal about it to her hostess and then again in front of a guest. Dorit not only had to make sure Teddi knew it was the wrong glass, she then made a big deal about it to Lisa R. the minute she came through the door. And on top of that, after Teddi made such a point to clear the air with Dorit about late-gate before the party, Dorit still has to bring it up multiple times and make everyone uncomfortable. Each week I think perhaps this will be the week where I don’t dislike Kyle, but nope not this time either. I just have never liked how she uses her family to portray herself as the endlessly saintly Kyle. Last week she was “all woe is me, I can’t tell my sisters about my success because they’ve distanced themselves from me and I don’t know why (except really I’m pretty sure they’re jealous).” Now we find that her big new show on the Paramount? channel is ‘inspired by’ her family. Yeah that’s not going to bother anyone.

It seems pretty clear that Scheana sees the writing on the wall in terms of her “romance” with Rob and is seizing on this rumor as the way she can blame others for the break up. It’s not that Rob merely saw her as a friend with benefits and ran for the hills because she was talking marriage as soon as her divorce was final. It’s that these “bitches” are responsible.

I think this is my biggest issue with MM. I can mostly take the political view from her because, okay, she's decided she's a hardcore republican and that's the role she is determined to play in each of those conversations. Not enjoyable or even very enlightening, but okay, that's her schtick for political conversations. But it's in other more general topics that she really and truly loses me. She just can't achieve anything other then a sharp, nasty tone in what she's saying regardless of the topic. I don't know if it's because she's just so tense? But there are ways to disagree, poke at, be contrary with others on a topic without sounding so darn bitter. This example with Timberlake is one. Another that jumped out at me earlier this week was when they were discussing the Aziz situation and Sunny made some comment. Megan jumped in with a comment about having dated more recently then Sunny who's been married for 20 years...and the tone was just so bitterly sharp, for no particular reason. She could have coached it more self-deprecatingly or poked fun at herself at the same time as she reminded Sunny she has more recent dating experience, like "unfortunately I've had to be in the dating scene a lot more then you recently Sunny" laugh at herself "and from my experience..." or something like that. She makes the same point, but doesn't slam the other person. I just can't figure out why she is projecting so much bitter anger and unhappiness 95% of the time.

Agreed. I’m calling major BS. A sprained ankle is incredibly painful, so walking on it an hour or so after it happened? No way. And she was moving that arm and shoulder a lot with nary a wince, so nope, not believing her tragic fall down 18! stairs. And all her lying aside, which I’m convinced this was, she’s also dumb as a post. If you decide to go to the party to prove your injuries? Then you make sure you’re incredibly gracious and show how above it all you are, so that the doubters look like and feel like shit. You don’t deliberately insult your hostess and act smug about doing so. She’s an idiot.

Ah ha! I did not know that. See how far from fashion I am? Thanks for the edu-macation. ;-)

I agree. I'm not a huge fan of Kyle's, but one thing I sort of get about her because I feel like I'd be exactly the same way is how uncomfortable she always looks when she's trying to be fashionable or wearing something she thinks she should wear because it cost a lot of money. Her discomfort and maybe insecurity about it shows. But when she's just relaxing at home and not trying? She looks great. Hard to define but there's just something about how she wears so many of the more "fashionable" items that strikes me this way. And speaking of clothes, I laughed a bit when Dorit showed up at LisaV's house to ride with her and LisaR. to the horse jumping contest. She took several jabs at LisaR's clothing choices, jeans, shirt, boots, as not being appropriate for the posh horse event they were going to - all while she's dressed in her mini dress and high-heeled, open-toed shoes. And I'm looking at LIsaR and thinking she's dressed just right. And then they arrive at the dry, dusty location and LisaR laughs because she's dressed exactly right. To top that, they'd even had a heads up from Teddi that they shouldn't wear open-toed shoes. Loved that whole bit. Oh and one other fashion note. The Birkin (sp?) bag that Dorit got as a birthday present looked an awful lot like the one that Kyle had when they went to Vegas. Kyle's was blue/aqua colored and Dorit's pink, but otherwise pretty similar.

I agree. It's the equivalent of making a pot of chili. Both delicious and both something I might take to a pot luck or have for dinner with good friends, but not something that requires fancy, expensive dishes. Dish it up in some bowls, have some Roti on the side and you're good to go.

I'm betting that Dorit watched last season multiple times and Jagger was probably there some of the time. I kind of get it that if he had questions as he watched his mommy on a tv show that she'd have said mommy's the good guy, and those women are the bad guys. That is the way a parent would describe a show in kid's terms. Good guys/bad guys. And Dorit is definitely someone who would watch over and over again - probably why she's working so hard to seem like such a warm, friendly, family person this time around. I'm enough of a conspiracy theorist to think that Lisa would have paid someone to fake a license for her for just this kind of purpose. Mostly because that whole scene seemed so staged and specifically meant to get the idea out there that LisaV was in the same age range as the other women. Perhaps it is the way she dresses (and the very wrong choice to keep that head of hair to look younger) but she just reads as mid-sixties to me. It could be because the other women all dress like they're teenagers still, but.... I need to see a birth certificate. We need Megan Edmonds to do some investigating!

I like Teddi too. She seems to actually be showing her authentic self. I believe that she can spend $35,000 for her kids’ school because she thinks it’s important and still be someone who’s frugal about things she has no interest in, expensive wine, gambling, diamond bracelets, etc. That isn’t a disconnect to my mind. Even in terms of the horse riding, she’s following this theme. It is very expensive to own a horse that is nerver going to win a thing, it’s HUGELY expensive to own one of the type she was riding. So instead of owning all that expense she’s riding someone else’s horses. Still costly, but not nearly as much as owning. Regarding LVP’S age? No way on earth is she only 57. No possible way. 67 maybe. And I know I’m in the very small minority, but Lisa R. doesn’t bother me. She does go nasty at times, no question, but I feel like there’s generally a basis for truth in what she says. When she started that whole munchhausen thing about Yolanda she may have got the terminology wrong, but as a general idea (that Yolanda amped up the seriousness of her illnesses, and her family’s illnesses), she wasn’t far from the truth. Same with what she verbalized about Kim. So when she throws out there that there’s coke being used by Dorit and her husband? I mostly believe it.

This is the thing with Kyle. She has always made Kim her story. How Kim's addiction makes it so hard for her. How she has to take care of Kim or survive Kim or whatever. Going back to season one Kyle has had almost no other story. She was the one to make sure to call Kim an alcoholic at the end of season one. She is the one who talks about all that she does for Kim. And on and on. Other then the one season where she was a bit on the outs with Lisa, what other storyline has she had? Her happy marriage? Her white party? Her taking her daughter to college? Kyle has always relied on being able to play the Kim card for drama. I did think that this season, since Kim isn't going to make any appearance at all according to reports, I thought Kyle might finally have to come up with a storyline of her own, but here we are in ep. 1 and she's already somehow made Kim the topic of conversation and positioned herself as the victim caught between Harry's anger and Kim's problems. Poor, poor Kyle. She just doesn't know what to do. She's caught in the middle. I'm wondering how she'll manage to make this last all season. And if she doesn't, then what? Just what will Kyle use to show her saint-like qualities? I am not in any way saying that Kim isn't a very sick individual who has major addiction issues that impact all around her. But Kyle, since the very first season - which reportedly wouldn't have happened for Kyle if she couldn't talk Kim into participating - has always made sure that the world sees how it all relates to her.

Jax said something on WWHL about there being a new Taco Bell in Vegas on the strip, but I got the sense it was maybe something extra (with a shop that sells TB merchandise?) for a TB. And that was where Katie got the sweatshirt and he went back there and got one too. Ha! Exactly.

Looks like he's from Game of Thrones my ass. Right?! When she said he's a warrior - I loved how the camera panned down to show him in all his douche-y, hipster glory. Add a manbun to this guy and you've got him. Not how I picture a "warrior". I loved how when Tom and Arianna were in the leather tent at the gay pride event (which sooooo shocked Lisa - umm right) and Arianna immediately went into lecture mode about how hitting someone with a leather strap works. I couldn't figure who she was Arianna-splaining to exactly. Tom? The guy wielding the strap? Lisa? I was laughing at how she was getting all pedantic and pedagogy about it. All while Tom is pulling down his pants. I wish that the show (Lisa!) would give up on the gay pride events to show how cool and with it she is. Oh and side note, did she get a boob job? Her breasts looked pretty large in that white dress she was wearing with the cape and stupid hat. Regarding the Jax cheating thing - I'm convinced that the whole thing, while it probably happened at some point, is something Jax and Brittany have been saving to act out for their "story" this season. The oh-so-convenient dropping of all the info in episode one about the cheating, Faith suddenly telling all and sundry that it happened, and then the reactions of Jax and Brittany. All pretty staged. I do think he did cheat on her at some point, but I think this is all being re-played for the show. And while Stassi's sort of out of the blue 'I want to be an event planner' goal is obviously staged, I'd love it if she made an actual go of it. Especially if the Toms fall on their faces in their partnership with Lisa.

The problem with the “Sheldon is a jerk” episodes is that, because this is a sitcom, it’s as if after each episode the slate is wiped clean (in terms of Sheldon’s behavior). After last week where he went behind their backs to work on an off shoot of their project for the army my greatest hope was that they’d be allowed to be irritated by this for more then one episode. But it’s as if it never happened. And then this week...here Sheldon was just out and out horrible in what he did, but other then an exasperated “Sheldon!” from Leonard, we’ll get nothing. Next week it will be as though this never happened. When instead there should be comments from all of them about how he’s twice now cost them money and that he’s about as far from a friend as you can get. I get that many sitcoms follow this pattern where all is forgiven and forgotten by eps.’ end, but as viewers who have just had two weeks in a row of jerky Sheldon behavior, it gets harder to take.

Isn't most of the money in their family Shannon's family money? Am I remembering that correctly from the first season? I thought Shannon's family was very wealthy and she grew up that way. I thought that was some of the source of the strain with her and David in that early season. She had the money and maybe his construction company wasn't doing great? I may be totally misremembering all of this. I hope she has an ironclad prenup if she had a lot of money going in if she had family money. I get that she's a lot of work and could have a little sympathy for David if I didn't think that he stuck around because of the money. He's clearly been bitterly unhappy for years and has chosen to stay up until now, so that's on him. Shannon, pretty unrealistically and stupidly I think, still thought they could somehow get back to the time they were in love (he said two months, but I'm wondering if it was even that) so she wanted to work on things. But David has not wanted to be there for years.