Bastet

It has been the exception, and an ugly, sad exception, in my experience where we're talking about decades-long marriages with grown children. Grace was thoroughly blindsided by it, so she didn't think that was the norm. Getting back to this episode, my mind continues to be boggled at how casually Grace's actions were treated. She shot what she thought was a person! A person sitting in a chair, with their back to her. No ascertaining that it actually was a burglar (rather than, for example, Frankie ignoring instructions to stay put in the studio). No "don't move or I'll shoot" warning, even if it was a burglar. Just shot them in the head. And that's pretty glossed over in all the discussion about having a gun versus not having a gun, which is a) disturbing and b) weird since one of the main arguments against keeping a gun in the house is the likelihood that if it's ever used, it will wind up accidentally being used against someone in the house rather than an intruder.

Sounds like mid-90s fanfic.

I lost track of time and tuned in when the first round was already underway; without the introductions, I don't know who anyone other than Alan Thicke and Rick Fox are (and I only know the latter from basketball; I didn't know he's an actor, too). It was sad to see Thicke go out first, but his dish sounded like a bad idea from jump. The truffle oil woman annoyed me even before she started pouring gallons of that crap in her food. After that, and that ugly puree, I was going to throw something at the TV if she somehow wasn't eliminated. She seemed to have a good sense of humor about it, though. While I disagree with it, the "salt your pasta water so it tastes like the ocean" mantra is so ingrained that if I was making pasta in a cooking competition, I'd do it then; it was pretty silly for the winner not to. It didn't matter because she was up against Rick's popcorn just thrown on the plate and the Truffle Queen, of course, but it was a criticism very easy to avoid hearing.

I think that's horrible, even given the fact not all that much time had passed since Robert asked for the divorce; Grace is family. She's been Aunt Grace to the niece since the day that girl was born, and doesn't stop being her aunt just because she's no longer married to Robert, at least not in any of the ways that matter. Which is why Grace was hurt.

I could not stand Jeannie during the first season, but she's growing on me now. I vaguely remember the HIV storyline that's coming up, but not much more than that. I like the actor playing the prostitute who Mark keeps taking care of. Former prostitute now; she has a job and things are finally turning around for her. Which, of course, means she finds out she has cervical cancer. Mark assures her how high the five-year survival rate is with treatment and she just looks out the door towards her kids and softly says, "Five years. My kids won't even be teenagers." Very well done.

It happened in the middle of Love's Labor Lost. I was so annoyed! I haven't noticed it in any other episodes, but a lot of them I just have on as background noise, so it could happen without me noticing.

His sister (Lydia) wasn't so pleasant to Grace, when she uninvited her to the niece's shower. They'd been having a nice talk until then, but Brianna also told Frankie she was a better friend to Grace than the Lydia has ever been, so I wonder how much of Lydia's life has also been about appearances. Lydia doesn't have issues with Robert being gay, though, so that's a generational improvement. And not just over the mother, but the father, too; Lydia told Robert it's a good thing their dad was already dead, or he'd have flipped. So we can't blame Robert entirely on Ma Hanson.

Since no one actually suggested that solution, I'd say it's not.

She was. I was just musing that Smith was somehow in my mind as being in her early 70s, so I was kind of laughing to myself at the idea that they took an actor Robert's age and slapped a bunch of spots on her skin (probably because not many actors Robert's mom's age are still alive, never mind working), and then I looked her up to see, no, still not old enough to be Robert's mom, but more than ten years older than I thought; where did the time go?

That looks good (and I do mean looks good; it's very colorful). I suspect I would want to cut way back on the honey as well, so I'll make that adjustment to the dressing when I try it. Other than that - and replacing the soy sauce with tamari, which I always do because I find soy sauce too salty - it sounds like it would be quite tasty, so I've bookmarked the recipe. Thanks. In fact, I should have all those ingredients on hand at any given time (not a bag of cole slaw mix, but I almost always have red and green [and maybe some Napa] cabbage in the crisper), so maybe I'll make that tomorrow (I won't be home tonight).

The "now, all I do is take cat pictures" dude cracked me up, but how do you have a kitten who is failing to thrive (general term for the symptoms he was describing - lethargy, not gaining weight, etc.) for a month and not take her in sooner? Obviously something is wrong, and if cost is an issue, you can just have a fecal test done (since an intestinal parasite is Suspect Number One in a case like that) and take it from there. Or let your dog's lipoma grow so large one side of him is now twice as large as the other and he can't get around properly? I know those things can reach that size in a matter of months rather than years, and we know cost was an issue for her; she said she couldn't afford surgery other than at a low-cost clinic. Fine, but Planned Pethood offers payment plans. And she was a local, not someone who had to travel there because there was no low-cost clinic in her area. She should have had that poor dog in there sooner (maybe she tried and they were booked until now, but Dr. Jeff would, as he said, much rather remove those things when they're small, so I think they'd have gotten her in sooner had she tried). The little beagle dog was adorable! Like they said, the hardest part of her recovery will be keeping her from running around like a lunatic on that splinted leg. I know nothing about horses, so it was interesting to see that you can knock one out enough to cut a tumor off her face, yet lightly enough that she can remain standing. I don't like birds as pets, but that woman sure loved hers; it was cute how the bird started "talking" to her again after she felt better. And it was crazy to me that they could all just carry the bird around, even outdoors, without any apprehension she'd fly away.

It's more the location than the size; being in Rodbell's, there were people in and out of there all day long. Not big tips on each meal, because it wasn't expensive food, but a lot of tips, because people got in and got out. Lots of regulars, too, because it's not just shoppers, but mall employees. It was always pretty full. And Leon also said the customers loved Roseanne and Bonnie, the way they chatted and joked with them.

I think by dating Barry exclusively for however much time had passed and finally introducing him to her mom as the man she's involved with, Brianna showed she was open to being in a committed relationship and making someone part of her life (rather than just wanting "a boyfriend who doesn't talk" as she's said in the past) and sticking with that as long as it lasts. She just didn't want that to wind up in marriage (or kids). Then it's on him to decide if he can live without that. He couldn't, so he moved on. Done. Move on. Good for both. She's seen she can, indeed, be part of a romantic partnership, and if she falls in love with someone who wants the same things she does out of such a relationship, great. This wasn't it, and that makes her sad for a while, because she was happy with him. But it's life. It was this wonderful, healthy thing, and then all of a sudden she's abandoning her business to stalk the guy and try to entice him into cheating on his girlfriend with her. Gross.

I think the opposite -- she'd have made a higher base salary at the salon (although barely over minimum wage; I think it was an extra .50 per hour or something when she started shampooing), but the tips would be much smaller than at Rodbell's. It's one of the reasons I can see her leaving the salon job for a server position, despite how much she liked her co-workers. And I don't think there was any realistic potential for advancement at the salon. Unless she wanted to get her cosmetology license; I'm sure they'd have worked her schedule around school and maybe even hired her on afterward (it would depend on if there was enough business to justify another position), but with no interest in doing hair, it wouldn't make much sense to go to school for it. Writing was the only passion she had, but she saw no realistic way of making a living at that (which is accurate for her), and their financial concerns were always pretty immediate, so I find it quite in character for her to look for jobs she already had the skills for than to take the time and money to go to school/train and apprentice for something that didn't interest her any more than what she could already be doing.

My UO: I like Kerry Weaver.

I was talking about her mindset when Jackie was dragging her away from the kitchen table so she could get dressed and go interview for a job she didn't want -- why the job sounded so horrible to her, on its own, and especially given the way she was feeling. She wound up taking it because of the people who worked there; they didn't treat her like she was nothing. And then she got promoted, and got to have some interaction with customers (but still had to endure sweet but humiliating things like Crystal tipping her $10 for washing her hair). But I can still understand why she was happy to move on to something else when the opportunity arose. If she'd taken as a busser at Rodbell's, I'd wonder why she didn't just stay where she was, but leaving to take a server job, I understand.

I can understand her feeling differently about serving food to someone she knows and sweeping up their hair, and we saw that people, indeed, treated her accordingly; Becky mentioned, kind of embarrassed, that a girl at school said, "My mom saw your mom sweeping hair at the salon." Roseanne had the great comeback, telling Becky to tell that girl, well, Roseanne saw her mom getting her roots done and her upper lip bleached. And at least when serving fast food, everyone other than the little maggot was on the same level. She could chat with a customer if she wanted. At the salon, she was low woman on the totem pole, and essentially invisible to the customers (until she got promoted to shampoo woman) -- the people she worked with were great, but to customers she was just this figure in the background fetching coffee, washing towels, and coming through to sweep up their discarded hair. She walked away from a union job, and feels like she's just sunk lower and lower with each subsequent shot at employment -- she couldn't hack it at phone sales, she got fired by a teenager, and now she's sweeping up hair.

Frankie's back went out in the first episode; Grace had to bring her pills to her on the beach. And what happened to Grace is fairly common, where someone trying to support the full weight of someone else winds up injuring herself in the process. That one was more sitcom-y than we usually see on the show, and the slow-speed chase across the floor was almost cartoonish, but it worked for me. I wouldn't want it over-used, certainly, but I enjoyed it.

The killer in Sleepaway Camp.

Initiation fees up to $85,000 and dues up to $700/month and they can't afford real brass? Wandering eyes or no, that painting pretty much says everything you need to know about the place, right? And now I'll go fall down the Hyperbole And a Half rabbit hole yet again. Like I'm not already slacking off enough by having ER on in the background and reading the forums.

I usually only have time to properly focus on one episode each day, and the other two are background noise, so I miss some things -- What made Susan decide to keep "Little Susie" rather than adopting her to that couple?

Yes, that's the part that makes me smile, not cry. "Get busy living, or get busy dying. That's goddamn right."

Watching The Shawshank Redemption for the umpteenth time, I must submit Brooks' death and all that preceded it with his release -- his desperate attempt to assault Haywood so they'd "let him" stay in prison (and referring to prison as "home" when he muses he could shoot the manager as a bonus and get sent back), letting Jake the bird go, trying to make do on the outside, in a world so unfamiliar to him, the conversation about being institutionalized, etc. "They send you here for life, and that's exactly what they take."

RV slide-outs - at least those with which I'm familiar, and I have to think this would be a universal feature given the potential for being stranded otherwise, should a slide get stuck in the out position - have a manual override so you can crank them in/out should you experience an electrical or mechanical problem you can't resolve on-site. I think slide-outs are the greatest thing to happen to RVs; the motorhome my parents have now is a little bit longer, taller, and wider than the one I grew up with, but what makes it feel so much roomier is having the slides - and they only have two (living room and bedroom).

That's how my (Los Angeles) neighborhood is, and I love it. We're not up in each others' business, but when circumstances call for it, we don't hesitate to help each other.