Wednesday, August 02, 2006
It’s not Friday, but it’s 100 degrees so what the hell, you know?
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You Are a Chimera |
 You are very outgoing and well connected to many people. Incredibly devoted to your family and friends, you find purpose in nurturing others. You are rarely alone, and you do best in the company of others. You are incredibly expressive, and people are sometimes overwhelmed by your strong emotions. |
Happy Birthday
To the blogger formerly known as Zombyboy, David J.
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
Well, that explains it!
Last night was a bad rotten night in Valerie-sleepy-land, with that beautiful little child dragging me out of bed three freaking times.
But this morning she’s got a tooth to show for her troubles!
Hell’s Kitchen: Ding Dong, Sara’s Gone
Hell, yes! No. More. Sara.
Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!
I practically did a happy dance. We both clapped and cheered. For something on TV! How lame is that? But it was Sara.
Okay, the challenge. That was cool. In retrospect, given that each construction worker was supposed to sample each dish and vote, as opposed to selecting what sounded good to them, the result was entirely predictable.
Heather went totally lowbrow, but chicken sandwich and fries is so… McDonald’s. While I love McDonald’s and it has a revered place as part of any normal person’s diet, it’s not going to win a “which is best” vote against, well, lots of things.
Conversely, Sara, whom I’d bet got the second lowest vote count, went weirdly highbrow. Quail? Hello!? Who eats Quail? Surely not many construction workers for lunch.
Keith had a shot, with his lobster and greens, but not everyone likes lobster, and fewer like greens.
Virginia, though… how all-American is a turkey sandwich? Without being traditional fast food. Take something most people love, fancy it up, but not over the top, and you’ve got a winner. Smart. She may fall apart every time she’s on the vegetable station, but apparently she can plan a menu people will enjoy, and relate to the public personably.
Every time she does something right, then she gets goofy. That was a cool prize, though; almost a grand worth of stuff. On top of a guarantee at the final three!
For the dinner service, Heather was amazing and showed why she was an early favorite. Keith only messed up in a minor way. I still see those two in the final, yet… the teaser previews for next week said we’ll be shocked (again) at who is eliminated. That would have to mean Heather or Keith, because Virginia wouldn’t be shocking.
Sara was bad. Really, majorly bad. Justifiably the one to go home even if Virginia weren’t safe bad.
Fascinating tactic, telling Virginia she was no longer safe. We assumed that was more ploy than true, and that turned out to be the case.
In the end, Virginia had only herself to challenge, and she did it. She’s at that “still growing up” age. When she had a choice to take herself out of it, or not, sending Sara home, she agonized but then you could see the mental switch flipping. We witnessed a life-changing moment right there on camera, in which everything changed for her, not just externally, but in her mind and her self-perception. Virginia lit up with it.
I may be rooting for Keith and expecting him to win. I may be impressed with Heather and not at all unhappy if she wins instead. But watching Virginia at that moment was one of the most compelling things this season. If that gives her the momentum and fortitude to compete as if she really belongs, who knows… The others are human too. Heather, especially, can break under pressure. Maybe it’ll be a completely unexpected Keith and Virginia finale. Maybe the trip to Vegas was indeed foreshadowing.
By the way, did I mention Sara’s gone? And I’m thrilled? Yes!!
Update:
Excellent commentary along similar lines, via Jen, who let Beth speak for her.
Poor Sense of Touch
I know, I know; it’s a losing battle, but this drives me crazy.
I was reading this article, instead of finishing my Hell’s kitchen happy dance post, and came across this paragraph:
Behold the wholly sanitized childhood, without skinned knees or the occasional C in history. “Kids need to feel badly sometimes,” says child psychologist David Elkind, professor at Tufts University. “We learn through experience and we learn through bad experiences. Through failure we learn how to cope.”
Which totally derailed me from my reading as I exclaimed “no, they don’t need to feel badly, they need to feel fucking bad!”
I will never ever in my life feel badly unless I get some serious dermal nerve damage.
May the sense of touch be with you.
Moving Day
Well, this should be interesting. After having trouble renting it, the landlord showed the apartment to a couple with a young girl, probably not much older than Sadie, and a day later came and took down the for rent sign. Right on schedule, it looks like the yard is full of vehicles.
Most of the people we saw them showing the place to were of the “you’re kidding” variety, but that last couple seemed perfect. Fingers are crossed.
Update:
Then again, one of the vehicles is an SUV, and the other one is a ladder-laden paint truck with a couple of painters sitting almost stock still, union or highway department worker-like, on the tailgate, looking off into the distance. I’m confuzzled. My guess is they are waiting for the arrival of stuff to help move, and are proverbially on their way to work otherwise. But who knows.
Laterer:
Weird. That amounted to absolutely nothing. All I can figure is maybe the dude moving in does painting, had just gotten the key, and was doing a walk around while his guys waited.