SandyToes

Ah, Kerfuffle! How could I forget?! Good catch, Mindy!

Yea!!! What are we up to? Craigslist I seen... Judge waves her finger with the "Uh, uh, UH!!" Need to run to Spec's... .

I'm loving the Amazing Editors! From the "here's the treasure box" graphics last week to the punting maps and arrows this week - love it. Teams still all running together, so no favorites yet. Just so glad the show is back. DVRing and watching on Sundays. Almost the same... Is there any chance the 4-hour penalty would be enforced in the next leg? If teams were bound by already scheduled flights, the penalty might not have been possible. Wish we'd had a clarification.

More baby names? You got' em. I have the definitive two. I'm sure of it. (although all things Ray must be pretty cool!) (1) L-a (2) Shithead. * * Give up? "Ladasha" My daughter had her in the dorm at college. She-theed. Seriously. A friend was checking in people at a post-hurricane shelter and double checked the spelling and had to ask about pronunciation. And got the evil eye for questioning it. Sigh. Judge Judy - um, Hmmmm. I love her evil smile/smirk in the opening credits. Looks like an SNL skit. Or when the litigants act all lawyerly - I think yesterday's show, "May I approach the bench?" J: "No!"

Oooh, I like that! Besides. The wine bottle is empty. We could add when Byrd chuckles, or they shoot each other the "Not sure it's worth it even being paid for this" look? Ouisch, I think you nailed the three-children thing. Duh. The day is warming up here. May go stretch out on my car and catch a few rays.

So, basically, please know that basically, not all landlords are basically bad.* JJ seemed to, basically, overlook that the photos basically showed the house after it was basically cleaned. That basically bugged me. Basically, the whole thing was weird. The previews of this episode yesterday were, basically, hysterical. How do people let strangers move into their homes without a lease?? A facebook message as a lease? For a family of five?! JJ seemed especially short-tempered today. Must have been a long week. Pepto Precious would do that to you, I guess. Exactly!!! Grrrrr! "How many children do you have?" "Right now, I have three." As opposed to yesterday? Or next week? Criminy. (Although, to be fair, I guess one could have met a tragic end, or be back with Daddy.) LOVE when the judge calls bullshit on scammers. Wish she could have done more. * We've been landlords for years, and try to very carefully to document, document, document things. We've been very blessed with mostly wonderful tenants. I am still often amazed at how tenants will treat a house they don't own, or get so angry when we won't let them live there for months on end for free. Imagine! My takeaway on the first case was that they signed a new lease, and then left. According to our leases, you break the lease, you lose the security deposit. Some landlords are slumlords, but not all. Just felt like there was more to this story. //end soapbox. Craigslist! Drink! Kerfuffle! Drink! What? Still only me? Shoot.

I cannot quit laughing. In related name-news, we had students in my building named "Nevaeh" (backwards), and ran across one today, Abcde. Pronounced "Ab-cee-dee. Seriously. Bone-jarringly stupid. hee

The Precious Car bit - would have loved to seen 5 more minutes of that - just to see what else she'd come up with. The look on her face when JJ shut her down was just precious.

Smack! Thud! Sorry. Just where my brain went. A friend and I were talking the other day about the changes from the book. As readers, not knowing what's going to be changed keeps it interesting for us. There is still some level of suspense, because new things pop up from time to time. I loved the joint running to the stones - very effective, I thought. I do agree with post earlier that this may not have been the best way to end the first half - it did seem a little lackluster. Also can't believe it is a 6-month wait! Time for a pedicure...

Me, too! I was hoping JJ would follow up on that. And Mama's attitude! Yikes. And I thought it odd that she got the money for a car loan, put it in her account, and then what? Did she buy a car? It sorta sounded like she just pocketed the money. That's one I would have liked to just hear more of the story, for TV's sake. And, oh. I weep for humanity.

I was glad that, to me, some of the auditionees were better than Monday's group. I wonder if since these are not live auditions, the clips are packaged by production. Maybe Monday's group was a lesser group, since Monday's viewership might be less, competing with DWTS and Big Bang. Why waste the best talent on a night when people may not be watching? I also think sometimes the judges wait to the last minute to turn so that no one else will jump in. There does seem to be a good bit of "Well, he turned his chair, so maybe I should, too." Or, just the judges' drama. For me, that is about half the show - watching the shenanigans of the judges. In that regard, I miss Usher. Thought he was a good foil for Blake. The Blondes all run together.

I didn't hear anything spectacular tonight, and am surprised at how poorly these singers breathe. I would think even untrained people would try to not take big, sucking breaths in the middle of a word. I can cut some slack for nerves, but so many of them say, "Singing is my life!!!", but seem to know very little about technique. I guess that's why they are here - to be coached on technique. I hope anyway. Blinds are always my favorite episodes. Hope the young man from the farm comes back. He did a great job holding it together during the comments, and then was so sad in his exit. Loving the mix with Gwen and Pharrell!

Most heartily agree. The attack would be awful and terrifying, but making a decision to strike and kill another human being would be life-altering, in my mind. I think the combination of both was what had her reeling. I think if she had "just" been attacked, she would have fought and kicked and (possibly) found a way to defeat her attacker. Claire seems just that tough! But given there were two men, and one had a gun pointed at Jaimie, things changed. Not to imply that the attack wouldn't also be horrifying and life-altering, but I think the two events compounded each other. Plus she kept looking at the blood on her hands. I did like that she realized that if Jamie tried to comfort her, she might lose it completely and spill the beans. I'm one of those "Don't be nice to me or I will come unhinged" kinds of people, so I get her wanting her space. Glad she recognized the shock. As for the episode as a whole, a little too much Frank, but nice to see him being a person. Really liked the joint return to the stones, and them crying out to each other (and I thought they both heard one another.) However, I can't NOT see BJR's face when Frank is present - don't know how Claire could resume a life with Frank, while seeing BJR's face. Kind of like in the early eps, when she saw Frank in BJR, and kept trying to find the good in him. I think even if they showed Frank with puppies and rainbows, I would still be thinking, "Creepy!"

Is it just me, or have there been a bunch of teens suing other teens? I don't even think it would have occurred to me to sue someone when I was that age. Is it "I want to be on TV and this is the only way I can" or really a mindset of "If I don't like it, I can just sue" ? Or just a microcosm of our society. I really just kind of like the idiot trainwrecks - more entertaining, and I don't have to think too much. Especially when Judy and Byrd just giggle. Poor saps. Of course, I could just get a life...

"Conversating!" Drink! Oh, wait. Just me? :-/ But imagine if we included "I seen" and "I done..." and "Willy house" what fun we could have!

Creepy dude. And four kids call him "Daddy?" eeeww. I think the issue that got a mere mention was that IF JJ had ruled he would get all his rent back, HE never paid the rent. The government did - whether through section 8, county assistance, or whatever. If the house was unlivable, whatever agency provided the funds for rent would have been entitled to the refund. I think he was hoping he'd walk away with a nice bit of cash. The business of living "on the border" so his kids could see their homeland - just mind-blowing. And yes, Mr. Landlord, you DO need to do credit and background checks. Every time, for every adult living in the house.

Fair point. The cases are repetitive. But I also know winning a case and collecting the judgement are very different things. Plus, the amounts are low enough that farming it out to a collector is hardly worth it. As I understand the way the show works, everybody gets money. And if you win, you get more. The point being, the winners (ha - now that's an oxymoron!) actually get some of what they are owed. That's the only reason I can think that some of these people agree to be on the show. $5000 is more than they came in with. Probably why some defendants agree to appear - they know they will lose, and won't actually have to pony up any money. If I've got this wrong, please feel free to correct! When things get jumbled up, I find them more entertaining. The dip$hit with the car yesterday - Loved how the plaintiff not only got the title back instantaneously, but Judge told them to go home and call the police and report the car stolen. I hope they did. (And I'm betting Rico is long gone....)

Aww, man. I was soooo hoping Rico would be back! He was cool, dude. I just knew he was gonna done fin' Willy! Blondy, though, was dumber than a box of hair. Loved that Judy had her sign over the title Right. Then. and There. And still she balked!!! In the puppies case, I would have liked to see (seen?) what the other puppy breeder had to say. She seemed to think she was entitled to the puppies AND fees. Was she not paid? We will never know. Dang. Crowbar girl - another great example of arguing both sides of an issue. Crowbar for defense in case 10 women jumped her, but she wasn't scared of nothin'. A day of giving blondes a bad name, I'd say. As a blonde. :-/

Someone made a wonderful point (here or in the episode thread - can't find it now) that the ring made from the key now gives Jamie secrets, too. I kind of liked that twist. In the book, it seemed like Claire had secrets, and Jamie just wasn't sharing all the details. This may bring a little equity in the "you don't have to tell me everything, but just be honest" discussion. Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Or a Yorkie. I forgot about the repeating, pawnable necklace! That kind of just snuck in at the end. How much does one "earn" for pawning a $157 (+ tax!) necklace? The whole group today was a bunch of loons. Brazil vacation girl was Just. Not. Getting. It. And won't. And the parent couple suing each other (over and over and over?) There are times I watch this show just to see the Judge deliver a smack down to some of these people. But the groups the last couple of days just kind of make me sad for humanity. The 19-year olds yesterday (she had a miscarriage but didn't bother to tell the baby daddy, and got knocked up again) drove me nuts. But hey - they got to be on TV! Sigh.

Oh, Miss Sunshine. What a mess. And interesting that the "derogatory remarks" were brought up after her complaints about him flirting with her. I haven't dated in a long time, but I don't recall flirting involving derogatory remarks. Glad JJ saw right through that garbage. Just all kinds of screwball. (And do both sides really get paid? Sad that Sunshine and her boyfriend/idiot will get money off this.)

This used to be must-see summer watching for me. Prince Poppycock! I find coming here (or TWOP) the day after and reading comments MUCH more enjoyable. Certainly faster and more thoughtful. (And I really kind of liked the train wrecks in the early auditions...) As for America's Largest Dress (tm marketdoctor), was there a Snapple Vote for that, too? Wow. And why?

I came in late on this one, and you captured my first thought exactly. Could not figure out what I was seeing. Then the halterview comments were even more bizarre. Kinda sorry I missed the whole thing. Or not. Loved car accident girl's stunned look at the $50 award. Ha!

I came in wanting to see Tommy Chong. (One of the few names I recognized.) LOVED it! What fun. Cheech a bonus! The good ones are great, the bad ones are awful. Can we send more than one home? Jonathan was darling. Don't know him, but hope he stays around.

I always kind of felt like Robert's and Graham's disinterested hanging-on-ness was based on wanting to be around for the end game. No one seemed to know what was waiting at the finish line, so maybe the plan was to just stick around in case it was something fabulous. (like a neeewww caaaaaaar!) As long as nothing better came along, it was give a rose, accept a rose. I think Graham was interested in playing the field/game on the first episode, but we know how that worked out. Loved how it seemed he was trying so hard to look devastated on the way out. mmv. As for the phone call home for dating advice from a 9-year old, just all kinds of ick. And she did sound VERY mature for nine. If the editors can embrace the camp (and bring back Dr. Raccoon and some of his colleagues), then I'm in next time. Too boring just watching people whine, even on a beach, to watch again. Bring in something to shake things up - suggestion earlier to allow the newcomers to pick anyone, without knowing who is already coupled up, would be a start. Shoot, even a beach volleyball game would have been helpful.