Wednesday, August 03, 2005

BB6: I’m evermore annoyed with Ivette. I was amused that Kaysar et al were classified as “evil” where the Maggie crew are “friends.” How high school. Maggie plays at being strategic, but she’s nominated out of pure emotion.

TAR2: That is the season that’s currently airing on GSN, right? I caught a few snippets of the episode last night during commercials but not enough to see if WilTara would still annoy as they did when that season aired. I have to say that it felt like that season was about 20 years ago, though. The show has come a long way with a lot of Racers - they all blend together at this point, especially the earlier seasons. Anyway, I set the DVR to record every night starting with tonight, which I think is the Season 2 finale. That’s cool, because I really wanted to catch Season 3 from the beginning - FloZach and the Asshats. That’s good reality TV and will help me stay awake in the wee hours during the Blogathon on Saturday.

Kate took a tumble off of her bike earlier this week and lost quite a few teeth as a result. She’s now in need of about $8K to cover the costs of the dental repairwork needed - and we’re talking some serious repairs here. If you can spare a dime (or two or a few thousand dozen), then head on over to leave a little something in her tip jar.

LATER: PayPal makes it really hard to help someone. It’s why I hate using them and am no fan of theirs. You’ve been warned.

Because I sure would love to have one. I can’t tell you how many cold calls I get from vendors who are on the GSA Schedule and want to hustle their catalogs and literature on me. I tell them all the same thing ...

I order from the GSA website exclusively. If your stuff is on the website then I might order it. I don’t have the time or inclination to pore through countless catalogs hunting down the perfect paper clip.

And I have to admit to a small amount of satisfaction at the disappointment/resignation I hear in their voices when they realize that there is absolutely no way they will get to send their crap to me.

What James said.

I wanted to believe you, dude. You shouldn’t have lied.

If your son was putting in for Eagle Scout would you call your local US Marshals office to ask if anyone could/would write a recommendation for said son?

Seems to me that the recommendation should come from someone who actually knows the kid, no?

I referred the mother (who was calling on behalf of her son clearly) to HQ - partly because of this (and yes, I realize the grammar is dreadful in that notice. I plan to forward it to the webmaster with edits for correction).

Tuesday, August 02, 2005

I will wait to say “I told you so” when we get official word that it’s canned. Until then, here’s the unofficial word of the moment.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again - TAR is not a competition that is designed for kids. It’s too hard for most of the adults who participate. I’m seriously doubtful that the family version will be compelling television and my biggest fear is that it could kill the show. I’ll happily wait for TAR9 if I need to.

Via: Ith

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I’ve started to realize that blogging for 24 hours will be hard. It’s going to mean a lot of mundane, boring posts. Two guarantees: I will be coloring my hair and two ceiling fans will be installed in the room where I will be blogging on Saturday. See what I mean? Then I thought that I could enlist your aid. So if you have questions you want me to answer on the blog, post them in the comments here. As long as the answers won’t reveal too much private stuff, I’ll be happy to field your nosey questions.

I have to thank those of you who have generously pledged to sponsor me. Please make note of the incentive of free tea for a pledge. Some of you might not care about that while others of you will. To the two anonymous sponsors, please email me with your contact information so that I can send you the tea when it’s all over.

And I’m trying to think of other things I can do to encourage you to sponsor me - aside from reminding you that you will be helping a very worthy cause - freedom and justice for those who have been sold and then freed from slavery, prostitution, etc. International Justice Mission is a great organization that is helping a lot of people to become free and adjust to that freedom after years of oppression.

Anyway, thanks again to my sponsors and don’t forget to tune in on August 6th beginning at 9am ET. I will be posting every 30 minutes for 24 hours, guaranteed.

There are some folks that I’m missing; folks who have taken a hiatus from blogging or quit altogether. They are:

Bill
Jared
Phern

I miss reading their posts and interacting with them in comments. And this isn’t to guilt them into coming back; I’m just making note that I miss them.

That is all.

Since Mom and Dad had watched last week’s episode with me and seemed to enjoy it, I mentioned that the finale was coming on last night. Both sort of perked up and they did join me in the basement to watch it. What follows is somewhat spoilerish, although I’ll try to be cryptic enough for those who haven’t seen it yet and plan to.

Good ending and we were happy with the winner. I was not at all surprised that Ramsay made the counter offer to the winner and I was very pleased that he accepted that counter offer. One of the things I like most about Ramsay is that when he sees talent in the kitchen he wants to cultivate it and to help that person grow as a chef. The winner is going to benefit greatly by shadowing Ramsay for however long he chooses to stay with him. And then when he decides to open his own restaurant, he will be in much better shape.

Another thing I love about Ramsay is that he wants people to enjoy eating. It’s why he sends chefs out on the street with their food and invites potential customers to taste their offerings. Feedback from the people you want to come into your restaurant will do nothing but help you. Where Ralph hurt himself was the overselling - just let the people taste the food and determine their opinion without you trying to cloud their impression with your hustle.

Dewberry was pretty much useless - likeable, but useless - was he that whiney before he got the axe? I missed his tenure since I came into the show late. And how on earth did he even make the cut to be on the show?

Oh yeah, one other thing - the naming of the restaurants. Both were bad, imho, although I’d be much more likely to eat at Frank and Lulu’s than Lola Pop.

Monday, August 01, 2005

There’s a man that I met a while ago and see on rare occasions that totally reminds me of Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite. And I’m not talking about just his face. This guy is the total Uncle Rico package with the dated outfits, semi-smarmy personality, the fast talking, all of it. So it makes it hard not to think of that character every time I see him and it makes me thankful that I don’t see him that often.

You have people like that in your life?

Item 1: For those who listen to Don and Mike on the radio - today is Don’s first day back on the air after his wife’s death. I know that I plan to tune in this afternoon when they go on the air.

Item 2: I did manage to watch Saturday’s episode of BB6 when I got home yesterday. Why Maggie played at reconsidering the obvious nominees for eviction leading up to the official nomination is of no matter. She’s crafty and wanted to see the Kaysar team grovel. Her goal is to oust the people most responsible for Eric’s eviction and they are Kaysar and James. I’ll be sad to see either leave the house - I prefer the Kaysar team to the Eric Maggie team. Ivette gets more annoying with each episode.

Item 3: The 4400 was excellent last night. Like LOST, it answers some questions while raising still more. I appreciated that they showed the conflict about the dude from Rwanda. Having just watched Hotel Rwanda recently made me torn in how I would have responded to the choice. But like Tom, I do think that the way The Future set the guy up was justice.

Shopping: I arrived at Beau’s on Saturday morning and after a quick inspection of his closet (I wanted to see his entire wardrode before we went hunting for sport coats) we headed to the mall. We stopped at Belk’s first and looked at three navy blue sport coats in three price ranges. The higher end one, by Ralph Lauren, was nice but I wasn’t impressed enough to be willing for Beau to spend that much money. The middle priced one was nice, but seemed flimsy. The inexpensive one was nice enough, but I wasn’t completely sold on that one either. So we trekked down to JC Penney to see what they had. Turns out they were having a great sale - buy one, get one free. And I thought their jackets were better quality and they fit him better. He got a nice midnight navy blue sport coat and a navy-gray herringbone one. Now we need to update his dress shirts/ties a bit. And he’s in need of some dress pants, too. He tried on a few pairs of pants but we decided to wait on that for now. He was a good sport about it all and seems pleased with his new coats.

Wedding: From the mall we headed back to his place so he could change into dress clothes for the wedding that afternoon. That was a fun time - the couple was very cute and it was evident that they were blissfully happy to be getting married. She was almost skipping down the aisle during the processional and she rocked back and forth through the whole ceremony - not with nervousness, but with sheer excitement. And she was radiantly beautiful. It was a lovely wedding and I enjoyed getting a chance to get to know more of Beau’s church family.

Farming: From the wedding we went straight to West Virginia to spend the night with his dear friends at their farm. They live in a really beautiful location in the moutains and their farm is great. It is a working farm, with cattle and sheep. She has a gorgeous Arabian horse and they have the requisite barn cats and working/hunting dog. He also has a carpentry business and judging from the pieces they have in their amazing farmhouse, he does beautiful work. I told them that Beau and I will be more than willing to throw some carpentry business their way and he promised to charge us double. The family was great fun and I felt like I was with my own family - they clearly adore Beau and he adores them. I was happy that they welcomed me so warmly and I look forward to the friendship I know that we will continue to develop over the coming years.

We went back to H’burg yesterday morning for chuch, which was good and then after lunch and a short power nap I hit the road for home. It was a full and very fun weekend.

LATER: Oh yeah, and when I got home, the house was as if the whole plumbing thing had never happened. Very nice. Then my parents complained about all of my crap cluttering the basement.

James Joyner saw Spamalot this weekend and posted his favorable review. Makes me look forward to our showing in February ‘06 even more!