Bastet

I'm going to take the Christmas tree and decorations down tomorrow, so maybe I'll have the episodes on while I do that and see if I can get back into the swing of this show. But with Kerry gone, we're down to Luka, Abby, and Neela as the characters I like. Three out of a huge cast. Oops, forgot Sam. Okay, four.

Becky used to watch the game with Dan when she was younger. D.J. did, too. Only Darlene retained an interest in sports, as the other two lost interest as they got older, but initially everyone but Roseanne watched the Bears, at least.

She is, in one of the other ones included in the spoilertv article.

I've missed so much of this show, I'm not sure I'm going to bother trying to watch any more. I missed last week due to a bad mood and pre-holiday madness, and this week I'm off, so don't have it on in the background while sitting at my desk, since I'm not sitting at my desk all day. I haven't had any urge to turn it on in the living room and actually sit down to watch, even when I've been home while it's on.

Seriously? Because that's even worse than the first two. I wish FOX would start greenlighting seasons only with the stipulation that Chris Carter is prohibited from writing any of the episodes. (Or, for Pete's sake, at least ban his awful VO/stock footage combination.)

I've seen him in quite a few things, but he'll always be MacGillicuddy to me.

The Laugh was a great one to lead off with; that put a huge grin on my face.

Merry Christmas to me! The Seahawks winning makes me happy, the Cowboys losing makes me happy - combine two in one, and knock Dallas out of playoff contention, and I suddenly have a bit of holiday spirit in me after all.

@mojoween, I have been depressed by some major and some decidedly minor events lately, and to learn of your very real, horrible loss has been a perspective check to the gut. I am very sorry to hear of your loss.

Heh. The Miralax will work just as well as psyllium; I only prefer the latter because it's natural. Hopefully you'll see results soon! At least she's still getting stuff out, so you know you have time to let fiber and water work rather than needing to think about an enema.

Regular psyllium is better (make sure it's unflavored and unsweetened), and that you would give 1/8 to 1/4 tsp daily, mixed into wet food, hopefully with some water added to the food if cat will allow that. For canned pumpkin, you'd mix about a tablespoon of it into the food (some cats dig it and will just eat it on their own). Either way, water and fiber is what you're looking to add.

Because you were. That degree of inebriation takes away your ability to consent; even if she asked you if you wanted to have sex and you said yes, that's not consent because you simply do not have the ability to consent under those circumstances. I'm very sorry that happened to you.

Thanks. That adds another level of "huh?" to having the students award their tickets to the truck whose menu most made them want to order, rather than having them sample everything and then vote for their favorite actual food. Moot point here, as the kids' favorite was the judges' second favorite, but that could have gone awry.

But did they win safety by having the menu that appealed to the greatest number of college kids? The kids picked Down the Chin, but the judges anointed The Hangover Cure the winning team. Was there something that specified the diners' favorite could not lose? Because, otherwise, if the students had picked Team X as their favorite, the judges still could have ruled them the worst. I think having the students award tickets based on the menu rather than the actual food was odd, but I don't think it was a situation where a team could put forth a great menu, completely flub the execution, yet still be immune from elimination because of the students' votes.

I did some Christmas shopping at Macy's at the beginning of the week, and one item I was considering was not under a sale sign. I scanned it to see the price, and was seriously surprised when it came up full price - I really figured everything in the store was on some degree of sale at any given point.

I hate sudden death quickfires. Especially when people have to stop to do dishes before fighting to stay alive. If you have no other ideas than French toast, you belong on Chopped, not Top Chef. Padma’s face while eating Laura's dish was fantastic. And crepes aren’t very different than omelettes, so that wasn’t all that creative a choice for a deconstruction challenge, and then to screw it up? To over-cook the eggs in a hole? The bottom three made sense to me. And then none of them even understood what a French omelette was, let alone managed to make one. Laura was stuck on stupid for the entire thing, and I felt a bit like Fatima; it was actually hard to watch someone who has talent display not an ounce of it. But she obviously doesn’t have the right temperament for a competition like this, so I think it was something of a mercy killing for her to go out this early. The fried egg salad was the most interesting idea to me, and the smoked egg second. (I don’t eat egg yolks, so I wouldn’t have eaten any of these dishes, but I liked the concepts.) The breakfast sandwich was an obvious choice given the tidbit that the Denver omelette may have started as a sandwich, but it you do it well, you succeed, so I was glad someone tackled it and came out among the top. I don’t quite understand the student voting in the elimination challenge; students awarded their tickets to which truck's food they opted to order from based on the menu, rather than sampling everything and awarding a ticket to what tasted best? Is that right? If so, what if the menu sounded great but the food fell short? And Hosea is someone I could go the rest of my days without seeing again; shut up about your empire, fool. At least he wasn't featured much. Anyway, The Hangover Cure (Mustache Joe, Fatima, Tyler) were not a surprise as the judges’ favorite. I hate Mustache Joe, but a sticky licky chicken wing is right up my alley - as a hungover college student or a sober professional. I want those wings right now. Fatima not being able to do her cream the way she wanted due to equipment failure sucks, but waffles are a perfect idea, and she pulled it out. I’d have eaten the hell out of that one, too. Tyler putting vodka in the tomato soup was a nice touch on both a flavor and conceptual level, but I agree on the need for more croutons. Without tasting, though, I think I’d have gone with the kids and picked Down the Chin (Carrie, Joe, Tanya). I’m not surprised they were the crowd favorite. I’d have chowed down on all three dishes. Chicken and waffles are perfect. (And I enjoyed Tanya talking about being marginalized when she tried to lease restaurant space, and that’s how she wound up where she is in Oakland. We need to hear those truths.) Ribs are almost always good, as are Juicy Lucy burgers. All three dishes went together to fit a theme. If you need wet naps, you’ve had a good meal. For the losers, Foodgasm (Brother, Rogelio, Bruce) were an easy choice to be on the bottom. They sucked! No concept is easy to get over, but the food just wasn’t good. Rogelio is seriously serving a salad to food truck-going college students? You can do that, but it better kick ass, and that didn’t. So he was no surprise for elimination, but the other dishes were just as responsible for landing them on the bottom. Bruce’s sandwich sounded good, so for that to be too greasy and fatty is pretty bad. Not having a working oven sucks - hillbilly sous vide, heh – but that wasn’t a factor; it was just a bad sandwich. I like Brother’s story of how he wound up in college, but the fry bread didn’t do a thing for me. Blazin’ Sammies (Adrienne, Chris, Tu) were just as easy a pick for second worst. Banh Mi sandwiches are often so good (although that one looked anemic on ingredients), and the chopped cheese was hilariously college while sounding genuinely good in concept and okay in execution, but three sandwiches, and all with the same bread? Okay, it’s a concept, but I don’t think it’s a good one. And the fish fry sandwich was so obviously dry just looking at it. All three fell short.

I didn't even turn on the TV yesterday; I was so depressed about my favorite character on my favorite show being killed off the night before, I couldn't imagine taking interest in a TV show while in that mood. Today, I've had the episodes on in the background, but not once have I heard something that made me turn around and tune in. I have no idea why Luka is being held hostage or whatever is happening to him, and I don't care. Part is my mood, but I think a lot of it is the show.

The situation for pit bulls (and chihuahuas, but especially pit bulls) is horrible in Los Angeles, as shelters are inundated with them, and many only keep pits on the owner hold (3 days, often, maybe 5) and then immediately euthanize if not claimed; no chance for adoption. But there are at least some resources here, and as many shitty owners as we have, the overall community attitude towards dog ownership is a little better than in the south. So I'm not surprised they, despite having been there after Katrina, a few times afterward, and being in contact with local rescues, didn't fully realize the scope of the problem until they got there.

Same here, which is why I still get presents from Santa in front of the tree each year -- it's the stuff my mom didn't want to wrap. (I'd never heard of anyone wrapping stocking stuffers. I guess it would slow kids down.) I hate Christmas cards as a waste of paper. I really hate photo cards, because they're not even recyclable. And I really, really hate photo cards with not one personalized word written on them; just printed off and mailed out. Gee, thanks for thinking of me. If someone sent out a holiday newsletter that detailed all the ways in which their life had been shit this year, concluding with "hope yours was better," I might not hate holiday newsletters so much. (And one of the many reasons I don't use Facebook is it seems like a daily version of the holiday newsletter.) I either call or email people, depending on how close we are (hint: I don't make too many calls). I have three people who are really into getting old-school cards, so I send cards to them, though (I just put them in the mail five minutes ago).

I'm watching the one you're watching.

I watched the first two episodes of the season, then learned via the commentary that the first seven all go together to wrap up season one, so I decided to wait until I can watch the rest in one go. Because, knowing that, if I watch two more on a night when that's all I can watch, I'm going to say screw it to needing to sleep and be coherent the next day, and just stay up watching all five. I may have to wait until the weekend, but what a treat it will be. Thus far, though - holy crap, Tigh could teach graduate level courses in making a bad situation worse.

That needs to be embroidered on a pillow (and then shoved up his ass).

Not unless it's sweltering in your house.

Oh no, they still do all that, just put it on credit cards, like those are magical sources of unlimited funds. Each month, every penny of their - not insubstantial, mind you - income goes towards a bloated mortgage and an incomplete payment of their credit card bill. Lather, rinse, repeat, and they never wind up with any savings and are up shit creek when they retire, but, hey, they kept up with the Joneses and never delayed gratification. Winning!

Interesting. I (not a cancer survivor, but the daughter of one on her second metastasis) think the current ad campaign is a good one, highlighting the various services ACS provides - it's lobbying for research and insurance access/coverage, yes, but it's also direct services like connecting patients to local resources like rides to treatment appointments. My mom volunteered with ACS for years (and still does from time to time), and even won volunteer of the year from the local chapter, but I still never really knew the various pies in which it had its fingers until this ad campaign made me think about it.