ProTourist

I haven't seen this new Part 4 episode as yet, but in a previous installment Steven mentioned that his father had his own window-washing business. Steven Senior sounds as though he's behaving very differently from the way he did in parts 1-3, or else I wouldn't have like him. This doesn't sound like him at all. Hmmm.

Yes! Frankie Five Angels!

I wasn't able to post my answer to this in the Live Chat discussion because it had just closed, so posting here instead: Yes, Steven got married last spring (May or June, I think) to a woman named Stephanie Sanger, a massage therapist and mother of one daughter who lives in Iowa -- which is where Steven himself has lived since then. If this episode is showing Steven as still living in Houston, then it must be old footage, from 2017 or early 2018. Here is an article about the two of them including a few photos. If you google their two names you'll find a lot more. P.S. I cannot answer the sanity question, but I've read that she keeps rats as pets. Really.

That's one of the problems with the 'where are they now?' episodes. They can spend/waste a lot of time repeating scenes from the previous episode(s) -- more than is needed for continuity. Especially if they don't have a lot of new material.

Nope, Janine according to the schedule. The one from last season with the scooter and the gastric balloon.

From watching the first three installments of the Assanti Saga, I don't recall that their father had any girlfriend. He did have a dog named Rocky, though.

But Steven is married, and has a step-daughter -- so dad is a step-grandfather. But I agree it might be best if the bloodline ended.

That isn't really possible, unless the poundticipants have been lying (which many of them do at least sometimes) or have been asked/coerced to pretend and/or tell lies. The producers do engage in some creative editing at times, which can be misleading, but otherwise we are seeing actual footage, not animation -- so what does Justin expect us to believe? It could be that Justin means that Steven was telling lies on camera, which is certainly possible and would be easy to believe.

Steven Senior is my favorite member of the Assanti family. He's kinda fun.

Good evening, pounders. My eating habit today, in honor of installment four of The Assanti Brothers, has been a very late brunch consisting of breakfast tacos (soft corn tortillas filled with scrambled eggs, diced ham, jack cheese, guacamole, and salsa -- egg whites only for me because I'm watching cholesterol), a toasted blueberry muffin, and a caffe latte. I'm still stuffed. I rewatched part three of the Assanti Saga a few days ago as prep work for tonight, but probably won't be able to watch part four until tomorrow, whenever it's available online for non-cable-subscribers. So I'll probably just read along with you guys tonight. Would like to know if it will show Steven's marriage to Stephanie and his relocation to Iowa last summer.

It's hard to know with the editing on this show. They may have put together footage from two or three meals to make it look like one huge meal. I wouldn't be surprised.

According to TLC's currently-posted schedule, Janine's one-year follow-up will air next Wednesday May 29. We'll find out how her gastric balloon worked out, plus any other treatments that may have been used subsequently.

That's a good point. I had been thinking that maybe one slim chance she would have to get a job would be through a personal connection. But if she didn't know anyone in Houston, other than perhaps that musician-brother, then who could have set her up? I didn't consider one of the PR firms that works with the production company. And if she is still affiliated with the program somehow, then it might be in their interest to set her up with some kind of job, for one reason or another. But I don't think they would do it for any altruistic reason, such as to prevent her from becoming homeless -- they'd probably have a more self-serving motivation. And maybe a melt-down on the job would be even better for them than a success, especially if they are still filming her.

Competence and sanity are certainly requirements for any job, but there are labor laws prohibiting discrimination due to disability -- not that employers don't try to get around them sometimes. Reasonable accommodation is also required for the disabled. So if she could do the job from a wheel chair and had the necessary skills, I suppose it could work. But I wonder if she could sit up all day in a wheel chair, without needing to lie down periodically. Anyway, it does seem like a stretch, so maybe another lie or delusion. She also she said has a brother there in Houston, and I believe she meant that literally, not figuratively, who is a musician. Odd that he wasn't mentioned during her episode, though it could have been edited out. But you'd think he could have helped her in her apartment search, could have looked at them and sent her reports. Well, I think I'm starting to lose interest -- there's no way to tell what's true and what isn't, especially since there's so much she says she can't discuss due to an NDA. But if she is truly working then she should take down the GoFundMe -- she should be able to pay her rent without it now.

Watched a bit more of yesterday's video on her FB fan page. At one point she stated that she is working, Monday - Thursday, as a secretary at a public relations firm. I don't know, but I'd be surprised if she had the physical ability and stamina for a job like that. The walking around the office might be too much for her -- secretaries don't generally just sit at a desk all day. But even if they did, I think it would be difficult for her to sit at a desk all day. Hmmm.

Yes, Assantis Part 4, and the June-Chad-Pauline update are both available early via the TLC To Go app, or via TLC's website -- but the episodes are locked. They can only be unlocked using a cable or satellite television subscription. 😢

If anyone is hankering for some more video of this poundticipant, yesterday she posted an hour-long video to her FB fan page. I've watched only the first few minutes, which was enough to find out she has colored her hair cherry red, and that her friend Amanda is still there with her in Houston.

I liked the finale; if the series had to end, this was pretty good. I liked the elevator repair, seeing the Walowitz children at last, Amy's makeover, Leonard and Penny's pregnancy, and that S&A won the prize. But there were a few things that didn't seem quite right. The choice of 'surprise cameo' was odd. Do any of these characters have a serious interest in Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Sarah Michelle Geller? Not that I recall. I would have expected someone more from their universe, like Patrick Stewart (I suppose Sheldon's restraining order would not apply in Sweden) Zachary Quinto, or Harrison Ford. No parents at the awards ceremony? I thought we'd see Amy's mother and father -- would have loved another opportunity to see those two -- and Sheldon's mother. It doesn't make sense to me that they would stay away. S&A paid for all their friends to make the trip, they could have paid for their parents. I was surprised they were all back where they started in the end, all in the same apartment in Pasadena, as though there has been no personal growth. I expected Raj to hop over to London after Anu, and for S&A to be offered professorships at Stephen Hawking's Cambridge University, with Sheldon perhaps taking over Hawking's former position -- so the three of them living in England. The Walowitz family I imagined moving to Houston, where Howard takes a new position with NASA. I then imagined Stuart and Denise moving into S&A's old apartment across from Leonard and Penny, helping them out with the new baby, the four of them continuing on with their same jobs but new personal happiness.

At the end, Sheldon made me think of the King of Siam. I suppose Lady Tiang would be Amy, and Penny would be Mrs. Anna. 😢

A couple of updates on Angela J: 1) She has completely revised the story on her GoFundMe page, deleted the two updates, and added one new update which is primarily a heavily filtered facial image. Looks like this was done last night. Here is the new story as of right now: And the one update: 2) She has set up a fan page on FB -- Angie J My Yellow Brick Road. One comment said she must have taken this title from Penny, but Angie said that "The Wizard of Oz" is her favorite movie. There are references to a live video she would have done a couple of days ago, but there appears to be no recording of it to watch later.

It looks like there were two new episodes of Where Are They Now? (follow-up) that early-premiered tonight (May 15, 2019) -- June, Chad, and Pauline and Assanti Brothers Part 4. They are available online, but I don't know if they were broadcast as I do not have a TV: https://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/my-600-lb-life-where-are-they-now/full-episodes/june-chad-pauline According to TLC's published schedule, Assantis Part 4 will broadcast next Wednesday May 22 at 8pm, so I imagine tonight's premiere was online only, and that the posting topics will be available next Wednesday night. The schedule is also showing that the following Wednesday night May 29 will premiere the follow-up on last year's poundticipant Janine. Janine is the one who received the gastric balloon, and I've been looking forward to her follow-up.

The moderator creates the topics for new episodes (live chat and regular) two or three days before broadcast. But they are locked until broadcast night, so no posting until then. I'm not sure, but the mods might permit some pre-broadcast discussion in the "all you can eat" thread.

There have been others. I recall one woman who had so much scar tissue from previous surgeries, that when Dr. Now went in, he could not perform the weight-loss surgery. He had to remove the scar tissue, give her some time to heal, then do the WL surgery. But it was still done before end of episode. She must have been approved for surgery early enough in the year that there was time to wait and still do the surgery the same year.

No, this happened also to Kandi Dreier, but they didn't show it on camera. They put her into a medically-induced coma for a few days and kept her body temperature low, to help her recover.

For people who are used to lying down or sitting up in bed most of the day, yes, sitting in a car where there is no room to shift around or to stretch out your legs, can be very painful particularly for the joints, and can cause swelling which is also painful. Even for those who are lying on blankets or a mattress in the back of a van, it can be terribly uncomfortable. The worse shape they are in, the more pain they have traveling.