Bastet

Sweet Jesus. I wanted something mindless with which to distract myself tonight, without having to expend the energy to get up and pop in a DVD. Options were limited, so I settled on this. If these people were truly inept in the kitchen (instead of straight out of Central Casting with who knows what for culinary skills), they'd eat out more than the average person. So, while they may not know how to cook the various egg dishes, they, as a group, should be able to identify most of them. And, you know, pronounce "tortilla." Mr. Mansplain should be tossed in the dumpster out back, so of course he comes in first on his team. I hate potatoes, and don't much care for meatloaf, so I wanted nothing to do with those dishes. The enchiladas made me hungry, though (minus the crema, as I also dislike sour cream). All this did was remind me why I rejected this show long ago.

(Emphasis mine.) That would drive me nuts.

I'm two minutes into the whiskey and wings episode, my first of 2017, and I see the sob stories haven't changed -- how, exactly, would winning a cooking competition cure one's mother of homophobia? I love whiskey and chicken wings, so I'm in, but come on.

I agree - the white socks are so cute! My late kitties Maddie and Baxter both had them (either ankle socks or toe socks depending on the paw), and Riley has ankle on her back paws. I'm happy to see Norma Rae has a home! I wonder if we'll ever get an on-air update, or if they'd just like to put that fiasco behind them and move on.

A friend of a friend is a really enjoyable person to be around otherwise, but she manages to work "my PhD program" into conversation two or three times during any given gathering. We thought it would die off after her degree was no longer shiny and new, but we're going on about five years now and she still does it. I understand that she's proud of it, as she should be, and there are certainly times when her credentials and/or experience are relevant to the discussion. But, boy, does she make sure to shoehorn it in there when it's not.

I wanted so desperately to love that movie. They wouldn't let Khouri direct Thelma & Louise or Something to Talk About, so when she finally got her shot, I wanted it to be great. It's not. But, like you, I enjoy it in spite of itself, thanks largely to the cast. James Garner and Ellen Burstyn would have been all I needed, but throw in all the others (including Maggie Smith), and I can't not watch. But, yeah, it's a mess.

A newlywed husband wrote a great piece many, many moons ago (in a publication I can't recall, but it was reprinted in Utne Reader, which is where I saw it in the early '90s) on how difficult it was for him to change his last name to his wife's, versus how simple (sign here on marriage certificate) it would have been for her to change hers to his. So little has changed, which is just ridiculous. A former co-worker - who had opted not to change her name (and I just love how it's A Thing when a woman keeps her last name upon getting married, but perfectly normal when a man does) - once received a piece of mail from her own uncle addressed to "Mrs. [Husband's Full Name]." Heh; I can still picture the circle of WTFery going on in our office when she brought it in. Like she said, even if she had changed her last name to her husband's, it still would have been stupid to address her as "Mrs. [His First Name and Last Name]," as if she was an appendage rather than a person. But to do it when there was absolutely nothing in that name that applied to her - and it's not like they were newlyweds, and he was making a jokey/cute reference - was just a big ball of whatever.

Sweet! I don't normally pay any attention to Clemson, but I was rooting for them hard tonight. Nice to see them pull it off. (And -- Suck it, Saban! [and Kiffin, even though he got the boot early, and Sarkisian])

Hentoff was one of those rare people with whom I agreed and disagreed in something approaching equal measure (I'd have to tally, but my guess is we aligned far more than differed, just disagreed strongly on some key issues), but whose reasoning I generally understood and respected even when we reached different conclusions.

I hate myself that Elaine Benes saying "Maybe the dingo ate your baby" is playing in my head right now, but I cannot make it stop. From the article, a statement from one of the reporters covering the trials and inquest: And would anyone have had any shits to give if it had been the wife who was slim, blonde, entered and exited the courtroom with her spouse, and apparently played "second fiddle" in the marriage? But, no -- clearly that meant she was a diabolical killer and he was the hapless husband who had to help cover it up. Those poor people; they lost their child in a freak accident, and then got raked over the coals as killers. No pardon and compensation can make that right.

I'm sure my perspective is skewed, because the people I know in this situation (where a recovering addict is living with or otherwise closely involved with someone who uses but isn't addicted to the substance in question) happen to all handle this the same general way, and all are long into their recovery, so I don't have a representative sample in real life, but none of them operate that way -- the non-addicts are not expected to go without something it's perfectly fine for them to ingest, especially in their own home. In fact, the addicts are firm that wouldn't be a good way for them to live, because it creates something of a false world and they need to function in the real one. But I never saw what things were like in the beginning, when I'd imagine the bar/medicine cabinet was cleared out for a while. I think, like most things, it depends the individual circumstance. My objection is to the idea it's automatically and always improper and thus Adam should not drink or smoke pot while with Bonnie -- because Bonnie hasn't asked that of him. She has to decide what she needs from him, and then, if she determines that it jeopardizes her recovery for him to imbibe when he's with her, he'll have to decide how to proceed. But we haven't seen any of that yet. Given the sharp way the show has handled the myriad issues surrounding addiction, I'm hopeful this will be done well, too, and I'm curious to see which way they go with it. I just disagree with blanket proclamations on how the loved ones of recovering addicts should adjust their own habits. I know how my several friends/colleagues handle similar situations, and I think I know what I would do, but there are a lot of paths out there and I want to see which one the show decides to take Bonnie and Adam down. Because they're clearly setting up a storyline, and I'd kind of like them to get to it already.

Or Peyton Manning. Put two different people in those ads, and I'd probably like them.

Exactly. I said that if that defensive meltdown wasn't a one-off, it was going to be a long second half and, oh look, one long, ugly, miserable second half. If the Giants had played in the second half like they did for 29:59 of the first half, it would have been one hell of a game and could have gone either way. I'm still bummed today; I really wanted football to be an oasis for me this month. Now I have to root for the Packers next weekend. (I don't hate them, mind you - although it took a long time to get the Favre stench off for me to say that - but I like the Bears, so it's a stretch.) With the Giants out, I'm now hoping for Seattle to take the whole thing, but they're a shakier team than they've been in previous appearances. So I want the Cowboys out ASAP, so I can at least relax that if the Patriots wind up taking the AFC, I can still actually watch the damn Super Bowl and root for the NFC team. Something that will not be happening if it's Cowboys/Pats.

I don't consider myself lacking in empathy, but I certainly wouldn't forevermore skip my pasta and wine just because my dining companion stuck to steamed vegetables and water. They've adjusted their lifestyle to accommodate an issue, as they should -- the rest of the world doesn't have to make similar adjustments, because the rest of the world doesn't have the same issue. Otherwise, by that logic, if you lived with someone who abstained from alcohol, or was on a strict diet, you couldn't eat and drink what you wanted in your own home? Bonnie has to decide whether she can or cannot be around Adam when he's drinking or smoking pot; I know several recovering addicts who have no problem being around the substance at issue, but they've all been in recovery, steadily, for a long time; Bonnie's situation is more tenuous because of the relapse. If she decides she can't, then he has to decide whether to never drink or smoke pot when with her, or they go their separate ways. Either choice would be reasonable. This obviously has to come to a head somehow, with how much they've been showing it. I'm just not sure which story line they're leading up to.

Turn out the lights, the party's over. Fuck.

Good grief. We're pretty much in disaster territory at this point. Holding Green Bay to a FG was crucial, but Giants really need to get it together.

Oh my god. If I have to worry about the defense blowing as many big plays as the offense does, this is going to be an unbearable second half. WTF, Giants secondary?!

Yep, happens all the time!

That makes me twitch whenever I see it, too. Flowers 101.

Beckham should have caught that ball. I hope that's not how things are going to go for our offense this game.

Jasmine sure looked happy (and comfortable) next to Yahtzee in the follow-up pictures, so hopefully she got over her awkwardness (and probably residual fear from being bitten by her grandpa's dog). She was a lot better with Yahtzee than she was with the adult dogs, so hopefully starting small and growing together helped. At least the parents seem like total dog people, so Yahtzee will still get plenty of affection and attention if Jasmine hasn't/doesn't ever turn into a dog person (in which case I would just hope the parents didn't try to force her into something that just isn't her). And, yeah - no updates were given at the end of the Norma Rae episode. I wonder why they didn't include her being returned, like they did with Artemis. Maybe because for Artemis, she already had a new home by the time the episode aired, so they could cap it off with that happy update. And maybe if Norma Rae gets a new home, we'll get an on-air update. I watched the late-night airing, so I got to see the parts I'd missed. Sui even told Mike that if he has something on, he can go to Tia with it, because she "gets us." Sui tried to tell him, Tia tried to tell him and show him -- it's a real shame he didn't trust in that. That dog they rescued is so cute. It reminds me of when Escargot got a home, and either Tia or Tania (or Lizzie - someone) said he can go live with a bunch of "beagle-y things." They're adorable.

That depends on the model, but many ovens do use both elements during baking. However, the bake element is doing the bulk of the work, so you could adjust temp/cooking time to allow for the lack of a broiler element (or just keep doing as you're doing, since you're not noticing a problem; it's probably only about a 10% loss you're experiencing if your oven normally used the broiler element during baking). If you don't use the broiler, and you're going to replace the oven this year, anyway, you can just go without (unless you're going to try to sell the oven, in which case spending $30 on a replacement part might be worthwhile).

This is why I wish a Basic Life Skills class was part of every high school curriculum. No one should be afraid of changing a light fixture. (I understand why you are, because this stuff is not common knowledge - it's a societal problem, not a problem with you.) Go to the breaker box, turn off the breaker that provides power to the fixture in question, (check it with a voltage tester to be sure if that makes you feel better), and play with the wires to your heart's content. You'll have wires coming out of your fixture, and wires coming out of the electrical box in your ceiling/wall. A black or red wire is the "hot" wire -- the one with current. A white wire is "cold" -- the neutral wire. A green or copper wire is the ground wire. Strip off any insulation necessary to expose enough length of wire to connect and cap. Using wire nuts or similar to do that twisting together and capping (make sure you use the right size - they should come with the new fixture - and create a secure connection), connect hot to hot and cold to cold, then connect the ground to, well, ground (usually a screw in the box). Shove the wires up in the box, screw in your new fixture, turn the power back on, and you're good to go. You'll step back and laugh that you ever thought it was something you couldn't do (and you can impress your friends who think the same thing).

I was sad to see Mike lie like that, because Tia gave him every opportunity to just offer up an explanation for his attendance issues and work with her on it. She's done it many times that we've seen, and thus probably many more we haven't. Of course, this is the guy who said he'd never had a boss tell him something as simple as "good job" before, so he very likely doesn't have any basis to understand he can honestly say, "I have some family shit doing on right now, and I left when I shouldn't; I'm sorry and I'll get it together" and keep his job, so he reverts to lying and hoping he can hang on. For him to just bail after that is too bad, because he could have easily kept that job (and people aren't exactly lining up to give him another one). My attention was split during this episode, so I didn't see all of Jasmine's interaction with the puppies they considered, including Yahtzee. What I did see was fine, but the stuff at the house was indeed off. But this is her first dog, and she reached out several times when Yahtzee was moving away; she just seemed spooked by Yahtzee making the first move. So hopefully they have, in fact, settled into a nice groove together.

People who flip out about not being addressed as Dr. amuse me. Mind you, if I know you have a doctorate, that's how I'll address you unless you request otherwise, but if I don't and use Mr. or Ms. instead? No offense intended, and calm yourself. The reason I'm particularly amused by this is that, as a lawyer, I have a doctoral degree, too. But for various longstanding reasons and murky professional conduct rules, we don't go by Dr. So I simultaneously sort of understand the "I earned that degree" impulse but mostly just laugh at the insecurity that one needs others to acknowledge it and huffs when they don't. (In an amusing - and confusing - development, one of my [non-lawyer] friends is highly offended at lawyers not being addressed as Doctor, and is on some sort of one-woman mission, referring to me as Dr. [Last Name].)