Bastet

I'm ordering Chinese tonight, too. My mom's 7:30 a.m. knee replacement surgery got pushed back to 1:30 p.m., then was delayed an extra half hour because her veins were even more uncooperative than usual and it took four people to finally get the IV started an hour and a half after she entered pre-op, because of some unknown holdup while she was in recovery she didn't get settled into her room until 5:00, my dad bailed at 6:00 ... Point being -- I just got home a short time ago, and the only effort I'm putting into sustenance tonight beyond dialing the phone is pouring the Maker's Mark. So chicken & shrimp shumai, wor wonton soup (because it rained today), and combination kung pao are on the way. And now, it's time for that second drink.

You could have passed me this memo 20 years ago when I was working in retail as a horny college student; I didn't know I was allowed to get it on in the storeroom. Alas, I never had sex in the university library, either. I would not make a good TV character.

Another driving peeve: people who dart right in front of a big rig, motorhome, or similar. I've never driven an 18-wheeler, but I've driven a motorhome many times, and I cannot believe how stupid people are. It's usually someone in a tiny car, too. That extra space I'm leaving? It's not an invitation to you, it's a cushion because I see potential slowing up ahead and it takes me longer to stop. If you sneak in there, we have to brake immediately, and all eleven tons of me runs into 1-1/2 tons of you, guess which one of us is going to wind up with higher insurance rates and which one is going to wind up in a full-body cast. The motorhome my parents had when I was a kid had a CB radio that converted to a PA system with the flick of a switch. When the life of some idiot realizing he was about to miss his exit was spared by a couple of feet, my dad flipped that switch and bellowed, "This thing doesn't stop on a dime, asshole." Two nearby truckers blew their horns in support.

Oh yeah, one of the first things your learn in your Professional Responsibility course in law school is how not to unintentionally form an attorney-client relationship at cocktail parties.

Then we switched from STD to STI.

It's that she specifies the back seat that creates the inevitable implication in so many minds (and I don't believe for a moment that no one involved caught that, so while I don't think it was intentional from the outset, I think it was knowingly left in).

I love parquet flooring, although I feel it has to be used sparingly; I don't like it in a large room or one that's pretty busy on its own in terms of furniture, rugs, etc. I have some in my foyer (original 1938 flooring) and think it's perfect there.

I've never used any other herb in this specific recipe, but I've roasted nuts with thyme, sage, and/oregano, and usually with cayenne or similar as I like the spicy. So one of those would probably work here. I go to the FN site, but directly to the recipe via Google (I use "Barefoot Contessa" and as much as I know of the recipe title or main ingredients as my search term) rather than using FN's search engine.

Whether or not they accurately reflect the situation, his statement indicates he's talking about the budget for the production, not for his salary/percentage. For now, I'm going to assume it's a negotiation ploy and this will still happen. Of course, Showtime may very well tell him to pick up his toys and go home, then. We'll see.

Oh, they can save that for XF: The Next Generation in 15 years, when William Van De Kamp joins the FBI, stumbles on a bunch of unsolved cases with a paranormal bent, gets partnered up with a skeptical female agent, and soon finds their investigations thwarted by a shadow government.

Those are great; I've never had anyone fail to rave over them. I use a little less sugar than the recipe calls for.

When Roseanne checks the salesperson's pulse and tells Dan he's dead, prompting him to tell her to check it again: "I know how to count to zero!" And, in honor of this time of year, when Roseanne tries to comprehend the tax instructions and comes up with: "If line 67 is $500 or more, and more than the total of [something], then your husband must, by law, complete the taxes." I know the IRS makes for an easy target, and not without reason, but I also love the guy at the counter who points out where the instructions clearly state when a 1099 is and is not required (after Roseanne insisted she read the book cover to cover and it wasn't there). "... but the answer is there in writing. Sorry there are no pictures."

Ugh; I wasn't interested in Gibson the first time around, so he's certainly not someone I'm clamoring to catch up with for this installment. Plus, child actors generally get worse as they age, so he's likely to be quite bad (and he's only done two things since XF). Since IMDb content is user generated, and it's listed as rumored, anyway, it's probably nothing. Or maybe he could have a Vanessa Morley style uncredited cameo so viewers can wonder, "Hey, is that ...?"

Thanks, we're all hoping things go as smoothly with this one as they did with the first. Cooking for them will be interesting this time around; post-op, my mom is supposed to eat iron-rich foods, but my dad has recently started on a blood thinner for a-fib and thus has to make sure his vitamin K intake is both moderate and consistent from day to day. So, much of what is good for her is something he can't have a lot of. I'm heading over to their house for dinner; we have dinner together most Sundays, but this weekend I'm so tired I was just going to plop down on the couch with a book and my cat. But then my dad said he's grilling burgers and my mom is making onions rings, so I'm hauling my tired bones over there. And the air conditioning is in, yay. Not everything is hooked up yet, but the major installation is done. I will never sweat my way through another summer!

We don't celebrate Easter - although we did the hunt for eggs/eat a chocolate bunny version when I was a kid because, hey, chocolate! - but we usually use it as an excuse to have ham for dinner, something we only do once or twice a year (because it makes so much food). This year, though, with my mom's knee surgery scheduled for Tuesday, we're going to skip it -- she'll be in hospital for a couple of days, then won't have much of an appetite for the first several days she's home, so my dad and I would never make it through the leftover ham before it went bad. After this weekend, I can shift my mind from air conditioning project mode to make-ahead meals for my parents mode. Good thing work isn't terribly busy right now; it's nice to have time to get things like this done without going crazy.

I think there are more than two, but maybe it just seems that way.

I've never had a problem with these - or any other - double-sided DVDs. Is this a common problem that I'm just lucking out on not having? I don't care about format/packaging so long as the price is commensurate, so as long as I have all the content that is available, I'm good. I've always been rather impressed by how many special features we got for this show's DVDs; the only things missing from my wish list are blooper reels and a joint commentary by SZ and PB.

I'll eat white "chocolate" -- I just won't call it chocolate. But Hershey's? Hell, yeah. Yes, there is far better chocolate out there, and, yes, I prefer it. But every once in a while a good ol' Hershey bar hits the spot. Although it has been several years, so maybe it's different now.

Coming home today reminded me of another driving peeve: Those who have no idea what to do when a traffic light is out. All they have to do is treat it like a four-way stop; there is just no cause for the level of befuddlement that takes place.

Apparently Noah sent out a series of "We All Need a God" tweets (um, no thanks, I'm good) when Christopher Hitchens died. If they'd ignored their religious differences and stuck to the derogatory remarks about women both were so fond of, those two would have got on quite well.

I'm making pizza tonight, but I'm buying ready-made (whole wheat) dough for the crust rather than making my own. The toppings will be chicken, broccoli, and sun-dried tomatoes, with provolone and mozzarella cheese. The "sauce" is just a simple olive oil base.

I'm growing in the ground rather than in pots, but this is so true -- the basil, especially Thai basil, has to be babied or I just wind up with flowers. Which are lovely and smell nice, and I include dried ones in arrangements, but, still - not what I'm going for. But the (Italian flat-leaf) parsley is almost as indestructible as my rosemary and mint. It's my dill that usually works out to be my most vulnerable herb; just a wee bit too much sun and the next thing I know it's dead.

Or stick a Q-tip into their ear.

Yes, I've noticed that in other episodes, too -- a HH will say she wants to be near her family because they routinely help with childcare, and I think, "Makes sense," and then in the next breath she'll declare anything over 10 minutes to be too far, and I'm baffled. It's 15 minutes max, door to door, from my house to my parents', and I consider that conveniently close (but with just enough buffer to avoid the pop-in).

I feel the same way. There was a collective sigh of relief when the original announcement - that the site would just go away entirely as of whatever date - was altered to say the recaps would remain accessible, but I was sitting in my little corner muttering, "I don't care about the recaps; it's the forum content I want to see preserved." So much insightful and humorous commentary!