NextIteration

Given Nia's natural shape since she was little and through puberty, I'm going with growing muscle mass in her legs from dancing. It happens. The only way to work around it is a lot more Pilates and ballet (time at the barre) training to recreate the long sinewy muscle that is inherent in the more preferred ballet body. But Nia has never had the inherent ballerina body, it's really hard to work against what you were born with.

So, it's confirmed, I'm a complete sap. I watched the whole thing and teared up a number of times. What struck me is why is the baby shower on The Spew and not Weekend GMA, and why such a big celebration for a guest co-host, I mean seemingly bigger that the permanent co-hosts that we see in the intro? I loved the nursery, and now I can't wait to have a grandchild to buy that awesome convertible stroller, car seat, infant carrier contraption. I thought we had great stuff 21 years ago but that stuff had nothing on the current versions!

We had Jane Sanders last week. But, where are Ms Rubio, Cruz, Carson and Kasich or former POTUS Clinton? I think the untrustworthy meme about Madam Secretary cuts two ways, on the left she's a flip flopper who'll say anything to get elected, on the right she's a criminal. She's given no room on the left to be a human being that evolved in her positions on issues, therefore you know, she's just a dirty liar.

I feel like Griffen and Lackey are making a big mistake going so blatantly for ratings (from Trump coverage) in the short term, that they are destroying anything good that is left on MSNBC. That said, Joe and Mika are interviewing Clinton today for the show tomorrow, Clinton will be on MTP Daily today and Sanders is doing Hardball on Matthews College Tour show tonight at University of Chicago.

That was very sad to watch, I didn't realize there was a tribute to Ang since it was dvr'd I'll have to look for it and watch it. I did really enjoy seeing Big Ang so happy at the "art class", lol.

Maddie is great in this ad, but the premise of the ad is sort of self-defeating for Capezio. Sending a message that is derisive of barre is really dumb for serious dancers. There is an order and reverence to ballet class that should be followed. You only get to go to center work once you have properly warmed up - there is a well defined progression to a ballet class, and breaking the mold of it could actually injure a dancer. Never mind the disrespect to a standard colored basic tank leotard that is a sign of ballet level in a school. Capezio makes far more money off of basic leotards and ballet shoes than anything else - these are the foundations that most little ones start with, and they are also by far the most often replaced items in a studio or ballet academy dancer's wardrobe.

I don't understand the offense over an incredibly modest standard mock turtle neck leotard? Is it because of the color? The armbands? That leotard is much more modest than the standard ones in the Capezio ad.

I'm not sure that Holly believes or expects that. My impression is that she just wants Nia to have decent, challenging, age appropriate choreography with good music and a nice costume that gives Nia a shot at winning an overall. It doesn't seem like Broadway is a goal for any of these girls anymore, but most of them have had the skill to perform a Musical Theatre number very well for a long time, even Nia. The category is much more about performance quality than anything, but the choreography still needs to be very good and fit, as does the music and that music was heinous.

Dag nabit, Abby, just for once choreograph something excellent for Nia - that was beyond awful, as was the costume. Stop trying to force something to music that does not fit. How was she supposed to get her inner-Liza on to that crap music? There was not enough Fosse like choreography in it either to be "Liza-like". Charleston? Really? I understand Holly's frustration.

Ah, so Kendall competed for title and won. I couldn't figure out why the hell she had a tiara on her head, and you know that even at a fake competition - Jill puts in for title so Kendall gets a tiara. Every single time. But that performance quality usually shows up by now in competition dancers if it's inherent, it takes longer with ballet academy kids. And you can't fake it and it can't be taught. My dancer has it in spades but she had to work really, really, really hard to bring up her technique to match. I'm done with Brynn's mom in a way that no other mother has annoyed me, she is simply vicious. We've already been over Kira's drama, no reason to try to milk that again. I'm wondering about the atmosphere at Club Dance too, it must be really competitive. Don't even get me started with the ruination of SYTYCD, I can't help feeling like they want to amp up momma drama because of this show. I loved Kalani's solo, Brynn's was lovely but she slipped and has little face, I loved the SteamPunk group dance.

The man must not sleep at all (Trump) he knows every single thing that airs about him, from all networks by anyone.

Didn't Whoopi and Joy guide her to that realization a couple weeks ago while discussing abortion in another context? That she's personally against abortion for herself but would not want to force other women not to have a choice? While appreciate the Pope's exception here, I have a problem with him not extending it to condoms to prevent HIV, which can kill you. I do think it's ironic that he's going against doctrine to allow sex for a couple years until a vaccine for Zika can be developed or I don't know what. It's just odd. Okay, I just have to say this though it's been covered above better, calling a fetus an unborn baby or a child raises the hair on my neck. It's a fetus. It isn't a blob of cells after a number of weeks which used to be used to justify things, but it is a fetus not an unborn anything. And I hate the use of pro-life, because I don't know a single person that is pro-choice that is anti-life. What these anti-choice people need to call themselves is pro-fetus, because they don't give a darn (as stated above so well) once that fetus is born. And they aren't pro-life because nine out of ten of them are pro-capital punishment. Joy alluded to the one area that gets me going so much that I start being for capital punishment, and that is pedophiles, the damage that they do to their victims is for a lifetime so I get really worked up about it. I do understand where Clinton makes her exception which is terrorism, like McVeigh for Tsarnaev - but after I really reconcile everything, I'm still against capital punishment for any reason. CCB and her allusion to the clinics being small-businesses made me scream at the teevee machine, "defunding" Planned Parenthood doesn't mean they are going to send the money anywhere else because what Planned Parenthood receives is reimbursement for fees for services. The clinics that the GOP keeps referring to are not "small business" but community clinics which were greatly expanded under the ACA. These are the free and sliding scale clinics used by the under and uninsured. So now, Kasich is effectively saying is that Ohio will no longer reimburse (via Medicaid, which he did accept the expansion of) PP or community clinics that may have have an associated clinic that performs abortions. Stupid CCB, there is nothing entrepreneurial about the community clinic system.

I too depended on drive thru Starbucks and MickeyDs a lot when I was carting the kids around to too many activities to count, MickeyDs for food and Starbucks for caffeine so the kids would behave and concentrate wherever they were going because ADHD meds were wearing off. Can you imagine how CCB/BAB would judge me?

So, Morning Trump triples down. And in their smarmy arrogance make a correction about some bullshit that nobody cares about, okey dokey. And I struggle to believe that Sen. McCaskill took Mika's call if it didn't start with an apology - "friend of the show" my ass, the last time she was on they treated her like dog manure. I happened to be on Twitter yesterday when Mother Jones broke the announcement about Sen. McCaskill, they caught it very early and she's expected to have a few weeks of "treatment" and make a full recovery. I wished her healing vibes directly.

1. please share the secret to doing strikethrough font, I need that to perfect my snark. 2. CCB aka BAB had an eating disorder big time back in the day 3. You are correct, as much as I love me some Big Ang, she is an example of plastic surgery gone amok, as is most of the cast of Mob Wives. shhhh, don't judge.

Morning Trump busted on a hot mic at their promotional event Town Hall. Isn't that why you have BMW in your state as well?

I had stuff to comment about but I already forgot. eta: I remembered. Screw you Paula about "journalistic responsibility" yours sucks. And Whoopi? Duh, of course they just (the media) cover the horse race and create drama, that's how they keep people dialed into their nonsense. Did I sense the Whoopi/Joy tension when Joy expressed her preference for Hillary?

Why would they allow Renee then? It doesn't make a lot of sense.

I've been watching but not posting, I don't know if I'm happy or sad this train wreck is almost over, but I'm definitely sad that Big Ang died.

I'm so sad about this, for some reason when I watched the episode where she's crying with Karen and Carla the other day, I had to google to see how my heart Big Ang was doing (I don't spoil myself) and was heartbroken to see that she's gone. RIP. Thoughts and prayers to her family.

Did they spend more than 4 minutes in 2 1/2 hours discussing the Democrat side of the ledger this morning? A little late, but CNN Blisters Morning Trump. And Salon writes about the long con that is the Trump campaign, which of course, Joe is in on.

Conservatives have expanded their voter suppression efforts beyond Voter ID. Leave it to Texas, again, and again, and more.

In all fairness to the idea (but to Joe, lol) Harry Reid owns the Democratic political machine in Nevada and has for a very long time, he's been a leader in the Senate since 1999. Nikki Haley, though a twice elected governor has nowhere the power in South Carolina that Reid has in Nevada.

And then we get the "Harry Reid rigged it for Clinton" narrative again. I know this is partially true, but the exit polls I think? Showed that Clinton actually lost the Latino vote by a couple percentage points - she won the Black vote by 54% - and that is what brought in the win. This speaks volumes about how SC is going to play out in all likelihood.

I feel like of all the lefties (Harris Perry, O'Donnell, Maddow and Hayes), Hayes has been the most fair. I've seen him challenge Tad Davine and Jeff Weaver (honestly, Tad Davine is just skeevy). He seems to honestly be having a head and heart conundrum despite The Nation endorsing Bernie, I'm pretty sure that Hayes wrote the endorsement from The Nation for Obama in 2008. Chuck Todd being the reasonable one is reminiscent of Halperin defending Clinton awhile back on Morning Joe. It makes my head hurt.