GoldaVining

I am starting to like the hosts and judges. Last season I found them all low-key annoying, Dan Levy annoying most of all. This season I am finding Dan Levy adorable. What? So far, Mengling is my favourite contestant. I loved those coin cookies strung on a ribbon. Gorgeous. And she is funny. "I have weak, noodley arms!" Bwahahaha! I will be saying that for the rest of my life. I also like her dog, Nimbus. I realize he is probably named for a cloud but I wonder if they call the dog NIMBY (not in my backyard) just for comedy purposes. I would. Ha! That moment when Megan turned (mouth jammed full of popcorn) and said to Sadiya, "You want some popcorn?" was cute. Offering sympathy snacks is always a good move. I am good with Wendy being sent home. Disaster. Andrei and Sachin are both super impressive in their designs and skills. Was Devon crying at the end? Because Wendy was going? Or just stress? I am grossed out by some of the bakers touching their faces, rubbing their lips or eyes, pushing hair back, blowing on the food, etc., when baking. Yuck, stop it. Sometimes with fancy fiddly cookies or cupcakes the most obvious thing to me is that this thing I am supposed to eat and enjoy has been touched A LOT.

Yes. Exactly. This whole set up is weird. When Nate was talking to his dad about possibly scaling back, I thought how can you "scale back" from one cow, a couple of goats, and a handful of chickens? If anything, it isn't enough. What do you do with a single cow? Long term if milk is what they want, they are going to need to buy or borrow some boys for their girls every year. But adding boys (bulls, billy goats, roosters) is where things get nuts fast. Literally. Most dairy cattle farmers order frozen semen to avoid the situation (and for genetic planning/diversity of course). Bwahahaha! This made me laugh out loud. Not about her being miserable, but her "bangs journey". That killed me. So funny. I don't know anything about her bangs journey but I know the misery of my own bangs journey. Ha! So relatable, Those properties they were looking at were shocking. Just nothing there. No fences, no barns, no trees, no shade, nothing. Talk about starting from scratch. I would buy a fixer upper that at least has fences. Rather than scaling back, it is the order of things that needed to be considered. Buy the land, fence the land, build the barns, get the livestock. I don't understand either and the show has not been clear.

I did not expect things to shake down like this, but I am rooting for Mariah and Raymond. I am happy to see them out of Mariah's mother's house and on their own and kind of making it work. They are the best couple of this entire barftastic bunch. What the hell? That is how gross all of the other couples are. Yuck. I still worry about Autumn and her baby and her dog on that sailboat. That can't work for much longer can it? My feelings have turned against Matt but not against his rose embroidered acid-wash jean jacket. I need that now.

These folks are enjoyable. Lauren is low-key and smart and funny. Nate is super pumped and positive. We recently sold our little farm and we have a young son, so this show appeals to me on many levels. Everything about Ruby and Ray is brutal and breaks my heart. What an unbearably difficult time these folks have had starting their family. I think I would be in pieces. Everything else about the livestock and making cheese (anything homesteading) is super interesting to me. I miss my goats and chickens so much. I look forward to seeing this family get their farm up and running but I am totally confused about their land. I have so many questions. I think Nate explained that they are housing their animals (temporarily?) on their friend's land. Are those animals stuck in those small metal enclosures all day? Is there no pasture land? Is the cow expected to just stand there her whole life or is that just for filming? Is this how farming is done in the desert? That little pallet shed is the only place for Xanna to get out of the sun/heat? And those nursing goats are just standing on dust/sand eating hay? Goats are more like deer than sheep in that they prefer to browse for leaves, all kinds of leaves and bark, not just hay. Is Nate going to continue to haul hay 2 bales at a time on his commuter car roof rack? Dude needs a truck. Does the friend take their animals into her barns at night? Are there no predators in the desert? Our goats and birds (chickens and quail) were heavily preyed upon by bears and cougars and coyotes. We had barns with heavy metal bars across the doors and windows for our animals at night. We had livestock guarding dogs outside in the daytime, and we still suffered losses to predators (mostly bears). We had our chickens free-ranging with our goats and they would stand under the goats or hide with the dogs when the eagles and hawks were circling. This whole set up is weird. I am concerned but still very much interested.

I am a peaceful person, but talk about rattled....this show rattles some rage vein I didn't realize I had. Why do I watch it? I have to fast forward through Ally and Josh or I will do myself a harm. The triplet mom talks like she is still in the 6th grade. Not the content of her conversation, of course, but her mannerisms. Ugh. I can imagine how hard it must be to have triplets and I know from my own personal experience how much it blows spending the first month (or months) with your newborn in the NICU, but she makes it so hard to feel kindness toward her. Basically, I am just watching for Autumn and Matt at this point and they just make me sad. The dog makes me sad. The sailboat makes me sad. Autumn's giant sad eyes make me sad.

I enjoyed this season so much. I ordered the past GBBO seasons on DVD from Amazon and have been watching them with my mom who is in hospice and has a lot of time to kill. That doesn't sound right but you know what I mean. We have such a good time cheering on these contestants who have long ago gone on with their lives and here we are in 2018 waiting on tenterhooks to see if their biscuits will come out crisp in the end. Ha! In this season's final, I was astounded that James would submit 5 separate cakes for his showstopper. The man is clearly brilliant but how would he propose they judge that entry? That's like putting 5 different answers on a test paper and asking the teacher to pick the best one and mark that one. What? What was he thinking? Probably he was thinking about medical school. It is amazing that he was able to do both simultaneously. That is bloody impressive.

Before I went on maternity leave, I worked at a large hospital doing infant autopsy reports. It makes me insane with worry when people go way past their due date.

Yay Sam! I'm so proud of you! I certainly would have been happy for Britt if he had won because he deserved it, but this game is about who won't tap. Sam is so young yet and seems like he can really out suffer us all. He still sounded happy and coherent when he was talking about his snowshoes. I love his attitude. I am so pleased for Sam and his family. If they can buy a house and be mortgage free at their age, that is awesome. I would never slam any of these folks who tried to make it on this show for their survival skills or lack there of -- there is nothing normal about the situation. Our ancestors were not hobbled in their hunting by only being allowed to travel a few miles and no doubt they would have started trying to store supplies and provisions long before the tail end of summer, That said, I will never understand how our ancestors survived. It seems impossible, especially in some of these locations. I live near the location of season one and while I don't know if the dense rainforest is an easier location than Mongolia, dang that part of Mongolia looked barren.

I am sad to see Sarah Jane gone from my TV. I really like her a lot. I also enjoy Cathryn and I believe (although it goes by so fast I can hardly catch it) that twice now she has said, "Pants!" as a curse. Love that so much! I regularly use "bloody" like a Brit, but that's a fairly common usage in Canada.

I find Lupe's personality deeply, deeply unappealing and my mind boggles at what Gilbert and Andrew's mothers must have done to them as boys to turn them into men who want to be with her. However, if I saw a child or a dog with a busted up hip like that and a leg hanging like that I would consider it beyond cruel not to help get that fixed. Even though Lupe's "the scale is not accurate" attitude is total garbage, and Dr. Now was probably already sick of her shit, I still think she needed that hip issue addressed first thing. I realize that being Canadian I have a different mindset toward universal healthcare, but I can't see how anybody in the medical profession could ethically see her hip and not fix that thing ASAP.

Dottie is my favorite of all the participants on this show over the years. I was very happy to see there was an update on her. Sean's story is so unbearable on so many levels that I don't even want to think about it anymore, but I am rooting for Dottie! I think Dottie is a darling with a sweet nature and a loving heart. I think she has been overwhelmed for a lot of years by her hard life but I really believe she can do this and have a great future with Chris and Landon. I also love Chris which is unsettling, but there it is. He probably skipped grad school, but I think he is handsome in a blurry kind of way and he appears to have a steady job and a kind heart. Sean's church volunteers reminded me of a time when I volunteered with the Salvation Army. One day the major asked me to help a woman who was about to be evicted unless she cleaned out her hoard. A friend went with me and we arrived to find a very large woman lying on a bed, wearing a very large diaper, watching The Young and The Restless. All around her was garbage higher than the bed and in the corner of the room it was piled right to the ceiling like a landslide. The garbage around her were mostly plastic shopping bags full of donated food packages, bags of rotting bread and produce, dirty clothes, and hundreds of her old dirty diapers. The smell was incredible. My friend and I filled probably 30 black garbage bags before we could see the floor. On the floor was a shag rug covered in rat droppings and there were onions rooted in the shag. I will never forget for the rest of my life digging onions out of shag carpeting.

Barf.

I'm a Canadian and I too felt oddly protective of the much-loved classic American pie during this episode. I love to bake in general, but pies most of all, so I was excited to see this episode. I have watched enough of Paul Hollywood over the years to know that man loves banana so when Sarah Jane said she was baking a banana pie, I hoped Paul would be happy. There was a time when Paul was very unhappy regarding something baked with banana (it wasn't as good as he had hoped) and Sue called Paul an "angry baby". Now I always think "Angry Baby! Angry Baby!" when I see Paul Hollywood and it makes me happy. After all that going on about eel pies, I was certainly expecting to see the bakers have to make one. I prefer a tart pie myself, but I usually make rhubarb or blackberry pies, so there is little chance of them turning out too sweet anyway. That said, a couple years ago for Christmas dinner I decided to make the turducken of pies where you bake a pie within a cake and that was super fun. I made two different piecakens just for kicks.

Ha! This! I have been a strict vegetarian for 35 years and I basically just eat Pringles and Diet Coke. It isn't a healthy diet if you don't make it a healthy diet. Hell, Oreos are vegan!

So many feelings.... this show has really brought up baggage for me. I was terrified for Leslie and Stacey when they first showed the party for the grandma at the local grocery coop. Looking around at all the miserable faces in that room did not prepare me for the supportive reaction that came next. I was furious with Leslie's shithead cousin (or whoever he was) for asking about Leslie's penis in front of the entire extended family. What the hell was that? Make Leslie cry and then comfort her, that's great, thanks. It turned out to be good for everybody in the end, but who does that? He was admitting this situation was awkward as hell but immediately starts out basically, "So your penis, what are you doing with that?" Gross. I loved the grandmas in this episode. Lawren's grandma -- Awwwww. Love her! And Leslie's grandma too. Leslie's uncle was shy, but supportive. I like it. A poster mentioned this regarding a previous episode, but these women are now dealing with the giant ball of bullshit of what "feminine" should look like. Although I am female by birth, I have always felt like an imposter, like a linebacker in a prom dress. I have never felt the "right kind of female" for the world. I gave up at an early age (like 12) and just refuse to participate in it. I was regularly called a dyke in high school, no doubt because I wore a New York Rangers hockey jersey most days. Ha! My father regularly shamed me, my sister, my mother, and even his own mother and sister for being "stupid females". Anything remotely female or feminine was ridiculed and clearly stated to be of no value. So I have this battle in my brain between what I imagine is my need to look feminine for society (or be called a dyke) or look/act feminine and be shamed and called "stupid female" by my father. No way to win. I refused to participate in the bullshit and found a husband who doesn't even realize that all of this exists in the world. Whatever. I'm glad it is a non-issue in my house because it is pointlessly exhausting. Example of extreme bullshit: When I was 11, I got in trouble for showing "toe cleavage" in my mary jane church shoes. YES, my insane evangelical christian parents said TOE CLEAVAGE . I was told to go put on white socks and cover up my scandalous toe cleavage. When I was in my 20's, my boyfriend refused to go out to dinner with me unless I painted my toenails or put on closed-toe shoes because a women can't go out in public with bare toenails. I was 118 pounds when we started dating. At 120 pounds, he told me if I hit 125 pounds he would drop me. These are just a couple of examples, folks. There's so much more! Good luck, ladies!

I can't believe Stacey had to go back to work. I can't even imagine going back to work one week after giving birth. I live in Canada and I had one year paid maternity leave from my job at a hospital. After my year was up, I had to choose between going back to the hospital full-time days (no part-time or night shift option) or staying home. I stayed home. I ended up working full-time nights for a different hospital from home. It was rough but at least I was home with my son. I realize the TLC editors are manipulating the details regarding Leslie's health and Lawren revealing her news to her mother, but still, this show is getting almost too painful to watch. Cindy might need to get her testosterone level checked. Maybe she needs to take a little estrogen before she starts rubbing up on trees and power poles. Take it easy, lady.

I have completely flip flopped my feelings. Oh this show. I feel terrible for bashing Bev after the previous episodes. This episode turned me around. Now I feel Bev is doing the best she can given that she is surrounded by jerks. I still feel she needs to catch up a bit (she seems like a dim bulb) but I feel for her. She is being tossed away like trash by Karen who is so full of glee at leaving their life behind. Bev was probably dreaming of growing old with her (jerk) husband of 20+ years and babysitting her future grandchildren. Now she is looking at renting a crappy apartment with holes punched in the drywall. Cindy is still grossing me out. I cannot see what Troy sees in her. Cindy seems like Troy's elderly aunt. Stop talking about how much you love wieners, I'm dying.

Oh my gosh, this show. My feelings! Leslie was looking great this episode. She has figured out her make-up (except for being a little shiny) and she looks good! It isn't necessary to have giant stage hair and makeup to be a girl. I have been a girl all my life and I don't do that. I'm certainly not a girly girl, but there are different kinds of girls. That's okay. I have never once worn lipstick or painted my nails. Me and most of my friends are just jeans and no makeup girls. In the past when Leslie was upset because she felt she didn't look feminine enough, I said out loud to the television, "Same, sister, same." I have felt that way all of my life. I just refuse to do much about it. My husband wouldn't notice if I grew antlers, but I do keep my hair long so folks don't think I'm his brother. However, while Leslie is looking good, Leslie made a jerk move commenting that maybe Stacey needs to pick up more hours at her job/go back to work quickly after delivery. Stacey is working, third-trimester pregnant, with a toddler at home, supporting Leslie's transition. How much more should she do? Stacey might just drop if you put one more thing on her plate. Good god.

So happy Alone is back! Yay! This is the only show my husband and I watch together. We both love it so much. I'm very happy to see Carleigh again, love her. I enjoyed seeing Sweary Larry mocking Nicole. Ha! I remember him being miserable during his season, but he also spoke about how miserable he was at his job back home too. Probably most of us can relate to having (at least at some point in our lives) that one job that was pure misery. I liked hearing Alan's voice too. It does seem odd that Sam chose flour as a ration. I would think something more nutritious would be a better choice but Sam probably has a plan. Or maybe he just wants to eat something comforting? When I was young and my parents were poor, my mom used to make us drop dumplings (she called them noodles) that were just flour and water. I still make them for myself sometimes although I don't serve them to my family for dinner. When I was a kid we also made a modified type of bannock cooked on a stick over a fire that was just flour and water as well. We would press the wet dough around the end of a stick so it looked like a cattail (the plant) and then hold it over the fire and cook it just like a hot dog. Good times.

Yes. Exercising, working, volunteering, crafting, or doing something, good grief, something, anything at all other than sitting and waiting for the next meal. Some of the people on this show are raising kids, or working, but so many are doing absolutely nothing. I also think about food a lot, but it helps me to keep busy and focused on other things. Keeping my hands busy on things I don't want to get greasy/dirty (sewing, knitting, painting) helps. In this episode, I noticed Diana was a quilter. That helps. Ashley is a stunner when she smiles and while Daniel looks a bit like a kicked puppy, I really like him. They seem like such an unlikely couple, but I enjoy them together. I hope they are okay.

I can't believe the first words out of Leslie's gun shop co-worker/friend at the pub were "Are you happy?" I was worried it was going to be something awful and his first response is "Are you happy?" He is concerned for his friend's happiness first and foremost, over and above all other (valid) concerns. I love this guy! Are you happy? I'm happy! The relief flooded over me. I love you, Camo Hoodie Dude. Beverly said she had never heard of such a thing as transgender. Nobody could be that obtuse except on purpose. The way she expresses herself is embarrassing.

I love Jenna and Oliver and I want to see them on my tv in something but this was the season finale and I'm still not invested. I just want a Bobby Lee spin-off.

I was not expecting this show to be as good as it is. I am impressed. It was truly heartbreaking. I'm already invested in some of these folks after only one episode. I see by the comments some people think TLC handled it rather poorly (meaning in the usual style of TLC! ) but I think it was done a little bit more thoughtfully than the usual TLC offerings. I think Jennifer has the hardest row to hoe. She is not only dealing with the transition of her spouse, but she is waking up every morning hoping Lawren will not choose to die that day. Lawren has already attempted suicide in the past. I can't imagine this level of stress. Luckily, they seem to have true unconditional love between them. The kids also don't seem to be freaking out, but they may be walking on eggshells just hoping Lawren will live through the day. This is brutal. I think Lawren needs to be in some kind of treatment program before there is another suicide attempt. Stacey and Leslie (like Jennifer and Lawren) also appear to enjoy unconditional love in their relationship. They seem like darlings, both of them, minus the bear hunting - was it bear they said? Really? Is that good eating? When I was broke I ate beans for dinner, but that's me, I can't skin a bear. Maybe they said deer. They live in Northern Washington, I think, which is right between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Portland, Oregon, A young couple moving through this early phase of transition would find both of those cities pretty embracing/welcoming/easy going from my experience. We haven't seen yet if their community will embrace them or reject them. Depending how episode 2 goes, they might consider moving a few minutes North or South, although those two cities might not be in their budget range. Leslie's story about being stripped and thrown naked out onto the street as a child makes me want to call the cops. Can you imagine this behavior in 2018? What are the limitations? How many years can we go back? Charges filed. Ugh. I have a 7-year-old son. I know I could accept my child being transgender, no worries. I am the mom and love my child no matter what. I can do that for sure. But my husband? That would be really hard. I know I could accept him as her as an individual... but still as us? I don't know. Stacey is a good role model for me for the way she loves her spouse unconditionally. She is trying to see if she can accept this new marriage format, but she is willing to try. And pregnant at the same time? Wow. Lucy has had a long isolated life and is trying to grab some happiness and finally feel at peace so late in life. Cindy, the aerospace engineer, is talking on camera about how much she loves penis. Please find somebody else, both of you. Wanda needs to go home. Yuck.

I loved so much Becky's delivery of the lines where she says she didn't want to leave the Mexican restaurant anyway because they were going to be selling filled churros. So deadpan. The look in her eyes! Bwahahahaha! Killed me.

This episode was gold. I was howling and rewinding, howling and rewinding.... Loved it so much. I am loving Becky, what the heck? I was always 100% Darlene in the old days. Becky delivers her lines like she wrote them herself. Just flat out, head up. I love it. Darlene seems more shrunken and skittish and jumpy than the old days. Maybe it is intentional. Becky is perhaps finally starting to see her way out after Mark's death while motherhood has taken a toll on Darlene (and me too, so I get it and howdy). For me it is a thrill to watch Jackie. The scene where she sprays the whipped cream into her own mouth is hilarious. I had to rewind it several times. Laurie Metcalf is a genius.