Bastet

I don't eat ketchup with either of those things (or at all, really, other than as an ingredient in cocktail sauce), but that made me laugh. Ten Ways to Open a Bottle of Wine Without a Corkscrew

Oh, I've said it, but mostly as a casual remark to a colleague (e.g. differentiating between meeting beforehand or I'll just see you at the courthouse) or in jest, with the occasional, legitimate "Well, then I guess I'll see you in court" type thing when we can't reach an agreement. I've just never routinely sneered it at opposing counsel like TV characters do.

Carrie's palpable nervousness, standing behind Debbie on stage at the SAG Awards, was one of my favorite moments. Any time Debbie would stumble over her words, you could just see the "Oh, please don't let this be bad" desperation. And the relief when Debbie ended on the perfect, "And I ain't."

"I'll see you in court."

I love that they wound up with three hounds. From zero dogs to three in a matter of months. Melfi's owner's story would have been plausible had Melfi turned up in a local shelter, but how did Melfi get an hour away? I know dogs can roam, but I'm suspicious it's more like "boyfriend dumped her" than "she got out and boyfriend couldn't find her." Loretta makes me think of Loretta Lynn, and I initially thought Bo Bandy's name was Moe Bandy, so I was cracking up at the thought of two dogs with country singers' names living together. (And the third one they adopted is named after a country singer, but I'm blanking on the name - and I just watched this last night, too! - so ultimately they did end up with two country singer names.) At one point when Holler and Loretta were at the door, butts to the camera, their tails were wagging in synch. It was so cute! It was nice to see a focus on Joe, as I really got a good vibe off of him in the episode when he was hired, and I've liked the little glimpses we've seen since; nice to hear he's become a real go-to guy. I liked the way Tia handled his guilt over the dog fight -- showed him a technique he can try, but also assured him he did nothing wrong. It's funny that stray dogs showed up in the VRC parking lot, like, "Hey, we hear this is a place we can get help."

Having a diabetic cat for whom a high-protein/ultra low-carb diet is inadequate to maintain proper blood glucose levels and is thus insulin dependent is a lifestyle adjustment, yes. You're tied to that 12-hour schedule, you need a friend or pet sitter who also learns how to test the blood and administer the insulin before you can go away, etc. But, good grief, people do it all the time! You get into a routine and happily carry on with life. What a horrible thing for a vet to present a diabetes diagnosis as something warranting euthanasia!

Did she use this technique, from a previous episode, where she roasts it for a short time in a really hot oven? That's what we did for Christmas Eve dinner, and it came out just delicious.

That was the most memorable moment for me. He was an absolute shithead as a father, and that's a hard thing to get over no matter how old you get or how much therapy you have. For her to be clinging to whatever scraps of love and affection could be found in what were quite clearly his final months, combined with all the years she'd spent talking so openly - and amusingly - about what a shit he was -- it was really something. I'm a bit divided on whether or not I liked the jumbled focus. On the one hand, no; filmmaking 101 dictates you do a better job of creating flow and tying storylines together. But on the other, it kind of worked under the circumstances. Debbie really got to me twice -- choking up with pride at Carrie's vocal talent (and wishing she had it herself) and, even moreso, tearing up again when talking about the effort it takes from all of them to shout over Carrie's disease and convince her she's loved, and how hard that is for her to see. I would have liked more on how the reconciliation process, but I liked it. I might not have liked it as much had it not wound up being an "in memory of" production, but I liked it.

Ugh, I'm so annoyed I don't get that channel. The slow blink they made everyone do drove me nuts, but otherwise I loved Mystery Diagnosis.

When Padma (or one of the judges) told Emily she'd have been going home if Jamie hadn't declined his immunity, I expected her to just say "I know," to look really awkward, or to thank him or something; I wasn't expecting the "Then I don't want him to go home," walking away to a corner by herself, or giving him that teary punch saying, "You shouldn't have done that." I don't think I'd have given up immunity in his shoes, even with how truly terrible his dish seemed to be (I do think I would have if Emily had made a dish as good as John's, so that immunity would have meant someone was going home for a really good plate of food while I was spared for making a plate of crap), but I respect the thought process behind his decision. I also respect Emily's reaction. The "You shouldn't have done that" in particular, had a sense of, "You know you're going to go further in this competition than I am, you should have let it be my turn now." I did not like this episode; way too much time spent on running around Charleston in the rain, not enough time spent on cooking, even with 15 extra minutes.

Thank you, football gods! That was a great game, even if I did have to root for Green Bay. Now I can watch the Super Bowl, even if the Patriots are in it. Hoo boy, that kick -- I thought for sure that was going to hook left.

Oh my god, why didn't he stay in the end zone?! Up until then, I had really been enjoying my one-day stint as a vociferous Green Bay fan. Come on, Packers, get your heads back in the game.

I didn't have to parallel park to get my license; unless I had panicked, it wouldn't have been a problem, as I've always been good at it, but it wasn't part of the test. I was rather appalled at how easy the test was. I was a good driver even at 16, and well-qualified to be licensed, but the test did previous little to actually ascertain that. It was disturbing.

This Seattle game is really bumming me out; I'm going to have no one left to truly root for in the playoffs, and will just be in "anyone is better than the Cowboys or the Patriots" mode.

I like the Hepburn/Tracy storyline in that one, but Ball and Wynn come close to stealing the film (and I'm sure some feel they do run away with it). It's one of my favorite movie performances of hers. I don't like I Love Lucy (in general; there are certainly individual scenes that give me a good laugh), so I'm always happy to come across Lucille Ball in a film that I do enjoy.

I'm having Seinfeld flashbacks: "You were making out during Schindler's List?!" Were they young? Forget the genre of film, I can't imagine spending that kind of money and then not watching it. If you don't have a home of your own, go make out in the car. Don't have one of those, go make out in a park or something else free.

I think they mentioned looking underneath it. When the boss radioed in that they were calling it off, he only mentioned checking twenty feet in front and twenty feet behind, but earlier he'd gone into more detail about the search and I'm pretty sure underneath was mentioned then. I think it was just the usual unreliable eyewitness testimony -- the driver did get out, but they didn't see her/him.

Here you only have to take a vision test when you do in-person renewal, and that doesn't happen very often. (My license expires next year, and I'm sure I'll have to do it in person then because, although I can't remember specifically how long ago it was I last had to, I know it was a long time ago.) Whenever that was, I just memorized the letters on the eye chart while I was waiting my turn; I had much better vision then and thus didn't always wear my glasses while driving, and I didn't want the "corrective lenses" restriction on my license in case I happened to be pulled over while not wearing them. It turned out, though, I could read the letters (without glasses) just fine anyway. The next time? Unless it's that big E at the top, there will be no way in hell I can read it without my glasses. Which I now wear all the time (because of the whole not being able to see clearly more than a few feet in front of me without them thing), so restrict away.

As a civil rights lawyer, I cannot urge everyone strongly enough not to aid in shifting the "reasonable expectation of privacy" standard further to the "what, we all voluntarily put this shit out there anyway?" side of the scale. Popping your DNA sample in the mail, and counting on benevolence and/or "Oh, we don't have time to abuse this database of information"? Not the best strategy. Now more than ever. Getting back to commercials, the woman who thinks she has a shared ancestor by virtue of marriage drives me bats, too. And, yes, it seems not to be some deliberate representation of shared ancestry once one delves back several generations, but just a bad copywriting choice.

That came up for discussion here last season, and I don't think anyone ever fanwanked a completely satisfactory answer; it's quite the "only on TV" scenario.

Garden windows are notorious for leaking, but I think that's mostly down to improper installation. I think the nice ones are fairly, well, nice. (I have a bay window in my kitchen, and I like that better, but several friends have garden windows that I like.) They're certainly common enough here in southern CA that Tarek and Cristina would recognize one. But, hey, if you're willing to pretend you're happily married when you're actually living separately and dating other people, what's feigning ignorance of a window?

I can't believe how high that woman with the respiratory infection's temperature was: nearly 105 when Holly first took it, and then over 105 the second time. Yikes! It was good to see a little glimpse of the "go somewhere else; we have no beds available" problem they encounter. I also liked Holly, when they were told the call was for "flu-like symptoms," saying that, after having had the flu, she can see how someone would think they were dying. I really liked her and Nick's impression of when you first feel better. I loved Dan with the former Playboy Bunny's dogs, since he has dogs of his own who are his "children." (And I especially loved that she was so adamant about getting them out of the house and then making sure they were kept safe while she was gone.) I'm surprised neither he nor Titus understood the line about "Playmates are the ones with a staple in their stomach" without having it explained. But I like the laugh they each got when it was spelled out.

I saw the promos for the pilot, said, "That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works," and figured if I was that annoyed from a 40-second compilation of scenes, I should just skip the show.

The universe hates me, because to live all these dreary years without an NFL team, only to finally be flooded with them -- and have them be the Rams and the Chargers? That's cruel. (I wanted the Raiders back, even when they sucked.) I can see myself becoming something of a Rams fan in time. The Chargers, eh. And hell to the no so long as that annoying twit Philip Rivers is behind center. I can't get excited about a team if I'd spend the whole game yelling at my own QB to shut the hell up.

I think you should post that analogy to the project management website.