Bastet

I know Bush was only repeating someone else's bullshit, but I wish Roker had also reacted to the nonsense about "kids" doing a dumb thing -- Lochte is 32 years old.

My condolences on the loss of your brother Tom, Luna. One of my uncles died from COPD nearly 10 years ago; he wasn't even 60. And ouch on the broken toes and feet! That must be a mighty inconvenient injury. I hope you can crawl under the covers for a while after the week from hell.

Yeah, I don't get sad and pathetic, either. I'd wager watching TV is how most people spend an average evening. (Which begs the question of what could possibly be so epic about it, so I'm side-eying the commercial even though I haven't seen it.)

Last night I fell asleep with the last disc of season seven playing, and when it came to the episode where Willie Ray dies, Brenda's screaming for Fritz startled me out of a sound sleep. It's so raw and urgent. Since I was awake, I rewound and decided to watch Fritz this time. We don't see him much, as they pretty quickly cut back to Brenda, but in those brief moments you can see what a great job Jon Tenney did, conveying the fear and confusion as Fritz enters the room in response to her screams. And then the look on his face when he realizes what's going on and drags Brenda out of the room. The scene is all Kyra Sedgwick's, and she nails it, but he also plays it perfectly. (And Frances Sternhagen does a creepily good job of looking dead.)

I remember how unusual - and thus how very effective - it was then to see the exam being done (when Mary Beth took Chris to the hospital after the rape). Now we have L&O: SVU showing the rape kit process in full detail, and it's still powerful, but this one remains clear in my memory. With that doctor who kept telling her to relax.

Reality show stars count. His campaigning for Mitt Romney killed it, but I had a major Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) crush going on. And I find Damon, who used to work with Mike Holmes on his various shows, absolutely dreamy.

As someone with curly hair, I consider shampoo the devil. I rinse and condition every time I hit the shower, but shampoo is something to be used sparingly and only with a gentle formula. My peeve? The many years I did not realize this. I get my thick, curly hair from my dad, and he just kept his hair cut very short and never thought about it. My mom, whose hair is straight and fine and leans towards oily, shampooed my hair daily because that's what was normal to her. So when left to my own devices, I continued this practice. Bless the girls who grow up in an era where the whole "low-poo/no-poo" routine is discussed.

Not remotely appropriate in a workplace, and something to follow up with if you choose. The comment on things being different down south reminded me of when my best friend relocated to Florida (Orlando area) for a few years. She's an HR director, and upon arriving at the FL company discovered an employee was signing off her office voice mail and e-mail with "have a blessed day." My friend told her that wasn't an appropriate sentiment to include in professional correspondence, and the employee was utterly confused, stating that everyone said that.

This could have been written by me. Those are generally my favorite kind of series finales -- a great stand-alone episode, with some callbacks to the pilot and other pivotal/favorite moments, that leaves me feeling content, happy I was along for the ride and leaving with the sense these characters carry on in perpetuity much as they'd been, I just won't happen to be peeking in on them anymore. And that's definitely what I wanted from this show in particular. I've spent all this time enjoying the gang from BPD - the Homicide detective and her best friend the ME, the squad, and (to a much lesser extent) their families. So they're going to leave me with a bunch of people who are no longer connected that way? I hate shows that start frantically pairing off virtually every single major and secondary character with a romantic partner as they draw to a close. I don't automatically hate shows that have their main characters make drastic life changes in the end, as life is full of transitions, but I do require they a) limit that to one or two characters and b) establish a logical reason for it.

I love them both so much! I recently borrowed a friend's DVDs to watch The Closer all the way through (and then promptly watched it again; how on earth did I not like that show when it was originally on?!) and my Jon Tenney crush is in full bloom. I've always found him attractive, but have generally seen him playing characters I don't like. Fritz, however, is my TV boyfriend, so everything is aligned. It also reminded me I have a bit of a girl crush on Mary McDonnell. And on the second watch, I found myself developing an odd little crush on Andy (Tony Denison). He's attractive, and has this terrific twinkle in his eyes and a great smile. So, an all-around good binge watch!

Are they promoting using this paint in place of washing the walls before painting? That would be dumb; paint a dirty wall and you're painting dirt. Sit back and wait for the peeling to start. But the pitch is how it continuously kills bacteria for up to four years, so I don't think they're trying to say you don't need to wash the walls first. I mean, maybe, but I think it's just another "eradicate every germ you come into contact with!" pitch since there's quite an audience for that these days. Also, she has too much paint on her brush. But I like the color.

See it coming in that the show was going to ship her off to Virginia? Sure. See it coming, like if this was a real person one weekend spent teaching a class would inspire her to change careers and locations? Not at all. And while there was potential chemistry with the cute FBI agent, it's not something to move for (and one small mercy is they don't seem to be setting that up as a reason for her decision). I keep comparing this to The Closer, because I recently watched it and they're both cop shows who had the main character(s) decide to change jobs in the end, and this show has done nothing that one did to make me understand why. And there they had to move Brenda out of the LAPD, because Kyra Sedgwick was leaving, but the show universe was going to continue in the spin-off Major Crimes. Here, they chose to write Jane as choosing to make such a big change in her life, yet can't be bothered to explain it. They've had plenty of time to develop it, but simply haven't.

You don't. And I just can't deal with catering to people who do not have a compromised immune system yet treat all germs as a devil to be eradicated (thus, in an ironic twist, compromising their immune system). Anti-bacterial paint. Where will it end?

Unless there's more than what I read a few months ago, I don't understand the uproar over her comments about not being plus-sized. She's not. She's a little larger than the average female celebrity, and she calls out how ridiculous the nasty comments she gets about that fact are. When some magazine (I think) referred to her as plus-sized, she responded that she - a size six or whatever below-average size she is - is not plus-sized, that it's equally ridiculous to go around telling readers if they dare rise above a size four, they're overweight. I didn't detect one whiff of "oh no, don't you lump me in with those gross fatties who really are plus-sized," just "are you kidding me with this shit?" frustration with the concept that Hollywood has so warped our national sense of what's typical that now we're calling size six plus-sized.

Ha, no - I have 35 years' worth of their comments (and Barney's) floating around in my head. Another fun tidbit: the scene where they go get completely bombed with the rape victim they were trying to hand-hold through testifying? They were drinking for real. I'd have to look up who won each season, as they took turns, but for the whole time the show was on the air with Sharon as Cagney, one of them won each year.

Damn, Aly and Simone are fantastic on floor! Once again, it's Aly's routine that grabs my attention even more than Simone's (I know nothing about what moves are harder to do; I can't even do a cartwheel, so it's all impossible to me), but they were both just so much fun to watch. It's so great to see them walk away with gold and silver, because they both made an event I don't normally enjoy all that much pretty thrilling. And, yay, I can get to bed before midnight.

Go ahead and get your giddy on; they've talked about it, and they indeed had a blast.

Convenia (the shot) is a broad spectrum antibiotic, and the bacteria most often the cause of UTIs in cats are sensitive to it, so odds are it will do the trick and you won't have to attempt giving a feral cat daily meds. Fingers crossed for you! Did they send out for a urine culture to identify the bacteria? That way you'd know for sure you're using the right antibiotic. I'm glad everyone is relatively healthy and you're pleased with the new vet so far.

From the Washington Post reporter's reflections on Gabby Douglas: Ooh, ooh -- pick me, I know <raising hand>! Sexism and racism. Can I get a hard question now? Shifting gears, I accidentally spoiled myself on the beam results, so once NBC finally gets around to airing it there won't be much suspense for me, but I'm still looking forward to it. What I really look forward to - and will all but take a caffeine pill to stay up for - is the floor. Go Aly!

It makes me sad how boring this show has become. Maybe it's the universe trying to soften the blow when I hate the finale, because at this rate I'll just be happy it's over. I don't care about Angela and what's-his-name. I don't even care about Frankie and Nina anymore. This is all just being written in the most uninteresting way possible. The return of the college husband? Seriously? I have no idea why Jane is taking this job. She has a job she loves, with people she enjoys working with and who are her friends outside of work, in a city with her family she's close to and her best friend. Okay, it can make sense to move away from all that after all these years, but they did nothing to set that up here. It's just "the show is ending, so let's shake things up."

I never have a problem with browning, either (like you, I let the ingredients hang out together for a couple of hours before eating/serving it). I just put the pit(s) in the guacamole for good measure, and tightly cover with plastic wrap. At least the salads existed even if they weren't shown; it always stands out to me that Ina will present a full meal, with no green salad in sight when we see the table. I don't expect making a mixed-greens salad to be part of the episodes, but as someone who has a side salad with every dinner, it's odd for me to look at a dinner table and not see one, time and again. I'm pretty much swimming in tomatoes right now (note: that is not a complaint!) and the episode with capellini with tomatoes and basil was on this weekend, which reminded me that would be a good way to use the grape tomatoes. I think I'll make that tonight, with angel hair pasta instead since that's what I have (I don't eat a lot of thin pasta, so it's not always on hand).

I thought she was already living in the group home when her parents moved. My recollection is that what changed after her parents' move to a new home was Elena stopped visiting regularly on the weekends, because she wasn't comfortable in the new house.

I liked that show. It was before my time, but I met someone in the early '90s who had an impressive VHS collection of films and TV shows not readily available. He was forever loaning me things he thought I'd enjoy, including He & She. Prentiss and Benjamin (married in real life, of course) played husband and wife again in a spectacularly silly '80s horror spoof, Saturday the 14th. I have it memorized, as does a friend of mine, and we pull it out a couple of times a year as part of our movie nights. Both actors are on my "Actors I Like in Pretty Much Everything" list.

From that article: So why is she doing it? They are going to have to come up with something they haven't yet shown to make this believable to me. In much less aggravating news, I love that Sasha took as a souvenir the photo from Maura's office of women in the 1800s performing an autopsy.

It's great having a nearby neighbor with backyard chickens. I don't know if living next door would create smells and sounds I'd find a nuisance - although I'd rather listen to chickens than crying babies or shrieking children any day - but being a few houses away means I have steady access to fresh eggs, and the peace of mind that the chickens bearing them are fed, housed, and all-around treated as they should be.