Bastet

I watched a few early season one episodes last night while unable to get back to sleep, and Bartlet's "I am the Lord your god" entrance in the pilot will never stop being a thing of beauty. And Mary Marsh remains one of the most unpleasant people ever to darken my doorstep (or, you know, television). No matter how many times I watch it, it will never be believable to me that Sam thinks Leo has a daughter in the fourth grade. These people have worked together in the White House for a year now, and were piled on top of each other on the campaign trail before that. Sam specifically knows he's married to Jenny, not some young second wife. Nor will I believe that Sam would have told who he thought was a random school teacher that he accidentally slept with a prostitute last night. Sure, it all makes for a very funny scene, but I can't swallow it. With Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc, I didn't do myself any favors in the trying to get back to sleep department, because I got all riled up that here we are on episode two, and we already have our first example of the show presenting it as darling when a man ignores a woman's well-founded objections and refuses to take no for an answer. Laurie ignores Sam's multiple calls, so he tracks her down and makes a scene that forces her to leave. She tells him she neither needs nor wants his Captain Save-a-Ho routine, and flat-out tells him he humiliated and scared her - to which he replies, "I guess that's just the way it goes." When she tells him that's not good enough, he announces it doesn't matter what she wants, because he has decreed he will become a friend of hers. That's not cute, Aaron, it's disgusting. I like the episode otherwise (well, except for Leo saying C.J. is a "good girl" to the Vice fucking President). And I love A Proportional Response. I think it was brave to write, in only the third episode, the president as completely out of his depth. Those scenes in the Situation Room are uncomfortable to watch, he's so decidedly un-presidential in front of all these guys he's terrified think he's unfit to serve as Commander in Chief to begin with, but it's a great story. I like Fitz telling Leo to tell Bartlet it's always like this the first time, and he's doing fine. I like the introduction of Charlie, but he's working now and deferring college because he has a sister in high school to take care of. So how does taking a job in which 20-hour days and long, last-minute trips are not uncommon make sense? Five Votes Down was the last episode on the disc, and by this point I'd been briefly dozing off and on for a while, but thankfully I was awake for the scene in which Bartlet wanders into the Oval Office stoned on a combination of Vicodin and Percocet. It's damn hard to pick a favorite part of that, but the way Martin Sheen mimes rolling up his sleeves has to be a contender. I like Thom Barry as Congressman Richardson. "Not the three-inch grip, but the two-inch grip. With the forty-gauge barrel and the thirty round clip, not the twenty round clip. With a three-day wait to run a check to see if you're crazy. As if wanting the gun wasn't a pretty good heads up in the first place. No, this is for show. ... You write a law that can save some lives, I'll sign it. In the meantime, please don't tell me how to be a leader of black men. You look like an idiot." The break-up of Leo and Jenny is really well done. Much more mature and nuanced than what we normally see on television. You want to put Leo in the wrong for going so far as to forget their anniversary, but he's absolutely right that for the time they're in office this job is, in fact, more important than their marriage. And you want to be annoyed with her for not understanding - she has, after all, been married to a politician for a very long time now - but she's not being irrational or tossing down ultimatums, she is simply saying she cannot live like this. She couldn't have truly known how it was going to be, and asking someone to spend four to eight years with a spouse who is virtually never home other than to sleep is no small thing.

That's what I do -- go snip off a piece of aloe from one of my plants. It feels especially good on a burn. And a neighbor says it's really good for her hair.

Such as a dad or other male family member? Except that they're kids and thus inherently annoying? No, I understand not everyone feels that way. And that, despite the lack of experience, a particularly talented kid may be more qualified to appear on a show than some of the adults who get their proverbial 15 minutes on FN. But I think the trend of coming up with "Junior" versions of so many shows does speak to ridiculousness.

Oh my -- as someone who won't own a phone/computer that can carry on a conversation with me until the day comes there is no other option, this made me laugh so very hard. Thank you.

My mom called me this morning and asked, "Did you know Sunday is Easter?" Nope, and neither did she until someone asked her this morning what she was making. So she's off to get a ham and I'll figure out what I'm making for the sides sometime between now and then. (We don't celebrate Easter, but we did the egg decorating and hunting thing when I was a kid, my grandpa would come over, and then we'd have ham for dinner because he really liked it. So we got in the habit of having ham on Easter, even after it went back to being just another Sunday.) Ooh, and now DeLurker has me pondering Ina Garten's spinach gratin ...

I am terrible at "Who ruled what when?" type clues, so I was quite surprised to run the "Follow the Leader" category. That must mean the clues where too easy for DJ. I also ran the medical matters category, but I almost always do. If I ever went on the show and got a DD about medical conditions, specialties, etc. I would bet huge. The clues always seem so simple to me, so I must have some strange well of medical knowledge. I got a laugh out of also running the potato category, as I hate potatoes and do not eat them in any form other than French fries cut so thin and cooked so crispy they no longer taste like potato (and then dipped in ranch dressing). That seemed more like a first-round category. Come to think of it, I also ran the flag category, tree songs category, potpourri, the one about athletes' final games, and got all but one in most others. FJ was an instaget. This was a good game for me! Titicaca?

Manhattan Beach is only about five miles away, and there's a nice little Italian restaurant there, a family-run, cooking Grandma's recipes type of joint. Mama D's. It's small and a neighborhood favorite, and I don't know if they take reservations, so there might be a wait.

Every other Siri commercial I can remember has annoyed me (that's the one where one of the Deschanel sisters asked her phone if it was raining rather than just looking out the window, right?), and none of them are going to get me to buy the phone, but that Cookie Monster commercial is so cute and funny I've watched it half a dozen times since I saw last night's post. Which means I've had Jim Croce in my head for hours, but that's okay.

I knew casein, but wasn't surprised no one else did. Laughlin kind of surprised me as a TS, but then I looked up where each of the contestants are from and was no longer surprised; I've got much more cause to know it in southern CA than they would in points East. I can't decide if none of them knowing the National Labor Relations Act surprises me; I think I overestimate how much of the New Deal is common knowledge. Richard Byrd as a TS truly surprised me, though. I also would have thought someone would get sundries and Thurber. FJ was an instaget for me, but for no good reason -- I didn't actually know the information in the clue, Vietnam just popped into my mind when I read it (probably because Ho Dynasty translated to Ho Chi Minh in my brain). I thought it was silly to have the Eiffel Tower clue as a DD and am irrationally pleased it wound up only being worth $1000.

I agree that shot in her intro is ill-advised (methinks someone was having a bit of juvenile fun in the editing room), but I like Lisa's gadget segments, and that they're distinct from Adam's equipment-testing segments. She doesn't go through the results of comparing multiple versions of a gadget, because often there aren't many other versions; she just gives a brief recommendation and demonstration, and I think it's a nice supplement to the show. I'm not generally one for single-use gadgets, so I like seeing what ATK thinks is worthwhile.

Heh; well, the cats are great, and since I am currently cat-less I love staying there when my parents are on vacation and getting my kitty fix. And I love - and like - my parents, too, but I'd live in my car before I'd live with them again, so, no, no desire to return.

What neighborhoods?

As soon as I saw that freeze frame, I knew which one you were talking about. It cracks me up, particularly the "What?" scenes when the kid wakes her up and when she's in the shower. Cats like to wait until these times to get up to something, so I'm happy to only imagine how often kids do the same. The actor playing the wife/mother is great.

Today's peeve: Me. Specifically, my recurring forgetfulness. Almost every time I come home from kitty-sitting at my parents' house, I discover I've left something behind. This time, it was my iPod. No big deal; my mom will drop it off at my house tomorrow while she's out running errands. But I do this pretty much every time! I've left my watch there, medicine, hair clips, a book, a jacket, etc. I never forget to pack something when coming home from anyplace else, so I think the fact it's my old home and it's close by - and thus I won't lose or even be without for any length of time anything I leave behind - makes me sloppy in double-checking I've got everything. But it was sitting right on top of the built-in entertainment center (which has nothing on its wall-to-wall length other than the center speaker and some decorative items at each end, so it should have jumped out at me). My good memory used to be legendary. Now ... it's still good for the important stuff <knock on wood>, but I've got old-age brain in middle age. And I just love walking into a room and thinking, "Wait, what did I come in here to get?"

I like taking a shower at Virgin's "Revivals Lounge" when I fly overnight into Heathrow, rather than waiting until I get to my hotel, but I can't really see myself showering in flight even if that was available -- I've had a major earthquake hit while I was in the shower, I don't need to follow that up with hitting a pocket of crazy turbulence while I'm in the middle of soaping up.

Yeah, I don't really care what condition a house was in before it was fixed up/cleaned up so long as it was done properly. When I was house hunting, I wanted a fixer upper so I could do all the repairs and upgrades myself and know they were done properly. But from what we've seen of Tarek and Christina's contractors on the show, they don't cut corners - there are a few things I've seen where I would have done it better (things where they do it to code, and that's it, but there's a better way to do it that further guards against future problems), but I've never seen something where I think, "I know that's allowed, but no self-respecting plumber/carpenter/electrician/whatever should do it that way." So, while I'd still be looking closely at everything I could see, I'd be pretty comfortable with the quality of the unseen work in one of their houses.

That poor family; Tray Walker's father died of a heart attack in 2014 (the family spread his ashes on his birthday, which was the day after Tray was drafted), and now this.

"You have to do that right in my ear?" is my favorite part.

For most people, it makes more financial sense to set aside savings for vet bills than to buy pet insurance -- the easiest way is to establish a dedicated savings account, and put into it what you'd pay as a premium every month. Consumer Reports did a good write-up on it.

Yeah, it made sense to me when Marjorie selected Angelina as a sous chef in a previous challenge, specifically citing her prep skills (and figured the more general statements in praise of Angelina stemmed from the fact a) Angelina didn't suck, just wasn't on par with many of the more-experienced chefs, and b) they were roommates), and seeing Jeremy - with an even larger field of former cheftestants to choose from - choose her for the same reason solidified that.

I love that not just for this finale, but for a number of challenges now, the decisions have been close, with the judges sending home not someone who made a sub-par dish, but someone who made not quite as great a dish as the other(s). The hallmark of a good season. And I hate to follow that up with the shallow, but when a woman as beautiful as Padma manages to be stunning anew, I have to comment - she looked truly wonderful in this episode. I was rooting for Amar, despite the LCK avenue, for his team (as I said last week in the spoiler thread, I don't dislike the contestants helping Jeremy, I just don't actively like them the way I do Kwame and Marjorie) and for substance over style (and the fact Amar has not been captured on screen referring to women as chicks or undermining a young girl's self confidence). But I can't reasonably argue, based on what we saw, that Jeremy was all hat and no horse; I think their meals tasted equally good, and given that tie Jeremy's technical proficiency gave him the extra boost needed to declare a winner. I can eat lamb practically rare, so I'm inclined to say underdone lamb is a lesser offense than underdone duck, but I don't really care for duck, so I can't make a proper comparison. Jeremy had an unequivocally positive, and ongoing relationship with his mentor, while Amar had unresolved issues with his and had thus been out of touch for years. Despite that, he came incredibly close to winning, and pulled off risotto. So, kudos to both, because Jeremy won but Amar also succeeded.

I like cabbage, but I don't like corned beef (I'm not a big beef fan in general). I think salmon and asparagus tonight, because I'm not really in the mood for anything in particular and that's quick and easy.

As soon as she shot the dog, I thought, "Oh, it's on." Yes, I'm one of Those People. All this brilliant planning, and then in front of multiple cops she just shines the rifle's laser light around in a broad sweep towards her target, asking one of them to notice it? Please. My guess is either no one dies, or if they do kill someone off it will be Kiki. If the actor's death hadn't necessitated killing off Frost, this would be prime time for a big "one of their own is lost" storyline (all due respect to Susie, but she's not in the same league) in which they off Korsak - especially since fictional cops who talk about retiring are often not long for the world - but given the Frost storyline I don't think they'll go back to that well. So they may go with the tired trope of killing off a cop's wife -- especially since we saw/knew nothing of Kiki for so long, then suddenly they were engaged, and then we saw more of her in two episodes than we had in her previous existence combined (complete with her worrying about his safety). I cracked up at Jane's reaction to Maura trying to lead her on the dance floor, and then her juvenile, "Hey, what's that?" to escape. The kilt jokes are beyond old, but the looks on Jane and Maura's faces when Kent twirled around in front of them were worth it. I never saw the Frankie/Nina vibe other posters have been talking about for so long until this episode (or maybe it started in last week's; I watched them in a row and they've blended a bit).

Anyone can make one.

Tiffani's is the only one of the celebrity shows I can watch. There is absolutely nothing new or noteworthy about her food - it's all stuff most of us have made a thousand times before - and I thus have no idea why the show is on the air, but at least it's pleasant background noise when nothing else is on. Tia Mowry, Valerie Bertinelli, Patricia Heaton, etc. -- all of their shows are just unbearably annoying to me on top of not providing me with any recipes or techniques that make me think, "I need to try that." But there's something about Tiffani's personality that overcomes the hokey set-up with the celebrity friends. She seems like a nice, normal person who forms genuine friendships with the people she works with for lengths of time. And, on a shallow note, she's got a great body, one that suggests she actually eats the food she cooks.