If you haven’t seen CBS Monday night before, give it a try. It is hilarious. I used just about all of the brain juice I have left on that eloquent expose about The Hills, so here’s a brief recap of tonight’s action:
Big Bang Theory: Nerds make terrible wingmen. They also create lots of awkward situations. But the girl across the hall is pretty cute.
How I Met Your Mother: Two words (times two): Naked Man. Do it.
Two and Half Men: Even tough guys have feelings.
It’s currently 2:15ish in the morning and I still have a couple of hours left of my up all night party before I depart for MA. Needing something to do, I figured I’d comment on the highlight of everyone’s Monday evening… The Hills!
I love the Hills, but this was not one of my favorite episodes.
OMG like this episode was like so WTF even by like the Hills standards LOL.
Ok so basically some idiot friend of Justin Bobby starts a rumor that Justin Bobby and Lauren hooked up. Ew! Unlike Audrina, Lauren actually has some standards… so everyone in the world except Audrina knows this isn’t true. She flips out and texts and calls everyone to find out if it really happened. If there’s one thing you learn from watching the Hills its that you do NOT spread rumors about Lauren if you want anything to do with her. Bye bye Heidi, bye bye Spencer, and now bye bye Audrina. I know better and will never spread any rumor about Lauren. But would it not be amazing if I was in position to spread such a rumor??? I’d be on the inside! Anyway, Audrina is being stupid and Lauren let’s her have it, and everyone leaves crying. And who was that old lady sitting at their table with the disgusted look on her face? She picked a bad table to sit at, I guess.
You know it’s a twisted episode when the Messman can watch an argument involving Justin Bobby and come out of it on his side… but “go Justin Bobby!” as Rebecca put it after he walked out on Audrina.
Now for some of the finest quotes from the episode:
“I gotta go dude… this is so stupid”
“This is so messed up”
“This is so ridiculous”
And that just about sums it up.
Oh, and Spencer is still a douchebag. Side note: what the heck does he do all day? Does anyone have an answer???
Oh, and I can’t believe those two got married this weekend. Without telling anyone. We can only hope they don’t spawn any offspring anytime soon.
Let’s get to it!
The race heads to Moscow. Dallas and Starr are uber cute in the airport waiting for the flight to board. Nick thinks Dallas can hold is own with Starr and that makes him different from all the other boys. The Frat Boys spend all their money on new shoes, and worry they won’t have money for cabs… hmmm… foreshadowing!
Everyone gets on the same flight, and it turns out cab drivers in Moscow get lost easily. At least they do when they have to drive screaming impatient Americans who don’t speak Russian around… After lighting a candle in a church the teams run off to join the Russian army.
Everyone is good at marching because it’s basically just like walking… except the Frat Boys… well except Dan. In what has to be not only one of the most pathetic attempts at any physical activity ever in the history of the entire world, but also perhaps the funniest two minutes of television ever in the history of the entire world he waves his arms and legs in random directions and reveals (shocker!) that his lacks coordination or other basic skills that human beings possess. Andrew is not amused, but the soldiers (and the rest of world) are.
Meanwhile, Dallas totally dominates a physically demanding bakery challenge. Ken does too. The bakery woman says that Nick is “not fit” but he gets the job done, completing the task with that little bit of sass we have come to expect and love from him.
Dallas and Toni win! I’m happy. They deserve it and they’re good people. And they’re my favorite team. Ken and Tina second.
Nick and Starr have trouble finding a cab, and run all over the neighborhood. Even though I want them to finish third ahead of the Frat Boys so I’m starting to get worried at this point, I have to thank them for getting lost because of the additional time Starr and all her gorgeousness was on the TV. Great outfit, by the way.
After serving the Russian Army some borscht while trying to make small talk about hot tennis players from Russia, Dan actually does well on the flour carrying. He interviews he can do the “neanderthal tasks” very well. Unless neanderthals marched. Or followed directions. But neanderthals carried around 50 bags of flour so Dan does that well.
It’s tough to tell from the video editing, but it is entirely possible that the Frat Boys beat Nick and Starr to the Pit Stop. Unfortunately their cab driver is not amused by the fact they can’t actually pay him for driving around the ENTIRE DAY. He refuses to accept their shoes and Dan pouts until the cabbie finally accepts their meager wad of cash. That cabbie looks like he could have some “friends” who could cause the Frat Boys some trouble… but now they’re off sprinting to the finish! But they come in last. Unfortunately this is a non-elimination leg, like everyone knew it would be, and they get to stick around. How do these guys stay in this thing?
All in all, this week was a good week on the race. Dallas and Toni won. Starr had lots of on air time. The Frat Boys amused us. Ken and Tina stayed in it.
Preview from next time: In a repeat of the marching incident, Dan has to dance. Although dancing is harder than marching, and therefore his ineptitude is less amusing, it still looks like it will be another two minutes of quality television. At least these two are entertaining. Phil also informs us that one team loses all their money and their passports. Uh oh. There is then a montage of every team asking how they are going to find a cab or pay for this… so that we aren’t sure who loses everything. What a cliffhanger!
On the Today Show this morning Matt said that later in the show they were doing a segment about a girl who was petting a cougar that they thought was safe, but ended up attacking her… and that the Today Show would be telling us, and I quote, “what we can learn from this.” Huh? How about… don’t play with cougars, lions, tigers, bears, etc? I’m glad the Today Show is going to be spending their time spreading the breaking news that cougars can be dangerous to play with.
I know it might seem stupid or cheesy, but by adding layers to every situation we are in, we can make every single moment of our lives unique, and thus more meaningful!
Take yesterday for example. I went to lunch with Ellen and Em and Rachael. Not unique (although it DOES NOT HAPPEN ENOUGH!). We ate at Burrito Loco. Again, not that unique. We sat at the table in the Northwest corner. Now we’re getting there. Em and I were on one side, Ellen and Rachael on the other. See??? Now we’re starting to get to a pretty unique situation. Add what we were wearing and I bet it won’t ever happen again.
This can be done throughout the day. I often think, when I’m on the bus in the morning, “I will never again pass that car on this highway again” or something similar. During the Republican convention I saw a United States Capitol Police truck parked in the street near the building I work in. I would not be surprised if there is NEVER a United States Capitol Police truck parked on that street again in my lifetime. It was my only chance to see that.
Each and every moment of each and every day has the potential to be unique – it might never happen again. I think we should all appreciate that. And it is worth getting up each and every day for, if you ask me. We never know what unique surprises await us every time the sun comes up.
I was going to write about my fury at the decision made about Lieberman earlier this week. So I started to write down random thoughts with the intent of merging them into some sort of semi-ish coherent rant. But while I was still in the random thoughts phase I read an article that expressed exactly how I feel and did so far more persuasively than I ever could. So, please read this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-geiger/liebermans-biggest-crime_b_144903.html
Well put, sir. Well put.
Now, if you care to see my random thoughts I began to jot down before reading that article here they are:
– the democratic voters in CT decided they did not want him to be in their party… and why should we disagree with them?
– This was not a vote to push some ultra-radical-leftist agenda through congress. This was a vote on whether or not to keep someone in a club. Someone who actively campaigned for a different club, said your club was dangerous and naive and un-American and that the country would be destroyed if you won. He chose his side, and his side lost. Tough beans. He cast his lot with the doomed presidential bid of McCain and lost. He made a CHOICE to support the LOSER. Now we want to give him a do over? I’m all for hearing all sides and working with all sides on important issues, but this decision was not about that. This election was cut and dry. It’s one thing to support McCain. It’s quite another play right into the Republican fear mongering us against them must destroy terrorists a vote for Obama is a vote for America’s doom rhetoric.
– Now, I am not afraid to admit (rather loudly) to anyone who will listen that I do NOT want Lieberman in the Deomcratic party (and as I mentioned earlier neither to the Democrats in his home state). But if you think that he should be given a second chance and should remain in the party caucus, at least don’t let him keep his chairmanship. You make him “surrender” his place on the Environment and Public Works Committee??? That means you assume he even wanted that assignment in the first place. Would you?
– Howard Dean said it should be a political decision, not a personal one, as to whether he should keep his chairmanship. He also said he had not reviewed Lieberman’s credentials for being chairman of homeland security. I’ll do it for you, Mr. Dean: Lieberman thought that (despite the experience of the past 8 years) the other guy would be better than our guy at providing homeland security.
– The Fix mentioned that the divided factions of the Republican party led to it’s decline in ’06 and ’08, and that if Lieberman was not punished it could lead to the same thing for Democrats.
– I read an interesting piece today that basically says that Obama is saving his political capital for more important fights (passing major climate and health care reforms in the first two years). All I have to say is that he’d better be. Lieberman is going to lose in 2010 (although this lifeline the Democrats handed him increase his chances at winning). If keeping him on for two years does not result in any significant progress on those issues I am going to be one very unhappy camper.
– Also, we don’t need his vote anymore. The only reason to keep his vote is if the Democrats get to 60 (I do NOT think this will happen because Chambliss will win in Georgia) BUTTTTTTT Lieberman is also on the record as saying that he doesn’t think anyone should have a filibuster proof majority… so I’m not inclined to believe that he would vote to cut off debate as the 60th vote.
If you are ever in need of a rant to pass some time, just mention Lieberman to me, sit back, and relax.
So the other day a couple of weeks back I went to the bathroom twice during while I was at work. Both times I passed the same young woman walking in the opposite direction, I can only assume heading for the women’s bathroom. That is a coincidence. It was a pretty pleasant one, as she was rather pretty herself.
Coincidences happen all the time. On Sunday night Polly and I both answered one of Rebecca’s questions at the exact same time with the exact same answer. Last week I was about to gchat a friend when that friend gchatted me.
Coincidences happen all the time and I like them.
Do YOU have a good coincidence to share???
We’re down to the final four of the Amazing Race. I am quite pleased with the teams that have made it to this point. There are basically two criteria for teams that I want to make it to the final three. A team must either be pleasing on the eye (Nick and Starr) or be teams that I root for and like (Ken/Tina and Toni/Dallas).
We started the evening with five. The biggest threat to my fav three making it to the end was the annoying recently dating couple. I was not optimistic going into the evening, as I figured the Frat Boys would once again melt down, meaning team annoying would continue on in their quest to eliminate my favorite teams.
But what’s this… team annoying decides to challenge Nick and Starr for the Fast Forward. Unfortunately the male half of team annoying is a vegetarian, and they have to eat sheep butt. He can’t, they have to go back, and they get sent packing despite the best efforts of the Frat Boys (more on that in a sec). Male half annoyingly explains that the was a vegetarian and hadn’t eaten meat in 15 years blah blah and couldn’t get it down blah blah. Phil asks if he could have gotten it down for $1,000,000. Ouch. Male half realizes maybe he should have tried harder. Why didn’t someone tell him earlier the winner got that much money???
Now, how the Frat Boys are still in this thing is unbelievable. Here are their finishes: 7th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 6th, 5th, 4th(of 5). They are like that designer on Project Runway or Chef on Top Chef that always does JUST enough not to go home. They constantly bicker with each other. They don’t read the clues. They can’t figure out any of the Road Blocks. Case in point: they needed to ask directions to a place where they were supposed to meet some Mongol warriors. Instead of getting out of their vehicle and trying to communicate with the locals (who don’t speak English) they insist on driving around, staying in their vehicle, waving their arms, and shouting in English about how no one wants to help them. GENIUS! Case in point #2 (although not related to Road Blocks): the final clue reads: make your way “on foot” to the pit stop. So they decide to take… a cab. In any event, thank god, they made it as team #4.
I wonder how the Frat Boys will deal with their Speed Bump after finishing last in the non elimination leg that is (surely?) coming up. I didn’t think it was possible, but these two are actually giving Frat Boys a bad name.
Yes, I realize this is a little late, since everyone else went to Warba last Wednesday, but, as my ESPN College Pick ’em entry’s title reiterates, better late than never, right? Thursday and Friday were filled with work, Friday night was filled with an impromptu Gilmores night, and Saturday was filled with naps and sports. Yesterday I was just lazy. But today I get to write my bit about not going to Warba. Some of us could not go and felt a little left out. That is, until I had a super amazing awesomish day.
So as everyone else was leaving for Warba, I was walking down the street towards Kramarczuk’s. Kramarczuk’s is a Ukrainian sausage shop, but they also have a bakery and a restaurant. They also have great Polish food (which is very similar to Ukrainian food). A professor of mine at Macalester said it was the best place to get Polish food in the Twin Cities and that it was close to being as good as grandma’s. I have to agree, and last Wednesday I picked up some Kielbasa. I cooked it when I got home and it was amazing.
Em did not go to Warba either, so we had to entertain ourselves around the UTech. We chatted a bit and decided that we would not be surprised if Ellen possessed some sort of extraordinary power. Sort of like a grandmaster of a super secretive organization. Only using the powers for good. Or so we hope. Here’s what sparked the discussion: A couple of weeks ago I randomly happened upon Ellen’s high school senior class video online. I mentioned that I found it, and within one week it was removed from the website. That takes power, my friends. Don’t let the quiet, confident exterior fool you… that is the quiet confidence of someone with great amounts of power.
So then it was time for Game night. There were six of us… a good size crowd for playing games. We played Scattergories. I did not lose, but did not win. I was comfortably in the middle of the pack. Here is a moment that typifies my averageness on this night: The letter is “A”. The prompt is “Country”. I write “Andorra”. Someone else writes “Andorra”. No points. I mean, who thinks of Andorra??? It just wasn’t meant to be. Afterwards I think my head was hurting, but it was really quite fun.
So that was the Wednesday that was, for someone who did not get to go to Warba. Not too shabby, if you ask me.
Today is also Polish Independence Day!
On November 11, 1918 the nation of Poland was re-established 123 years after it was dissolved. In 1795 Russia, Prussia, and Austria divided the Polish Kingdom between them, erasing an independent Poland from the map. Following the defeat of Prussia and Austria in World War Oneand the collapse of the Russian monarchy, the Allies established the Second Polish Republic – making Poland an independent nation again.
Happy Independence Day, Poland!
The World of the Mess 