cindy's reality tv (and other really good shows on tv) commentary

new year, new tv

2009-01-12T21:01:00.003-05:00

Happy new year! What a better way to kick off the new year with a new season of 24!! Jack is back, TONY is back and the ever beloved Potato Face is back as well. Oh how we love you Chloe. I am currently in the midst of a 4-hour season premiere and it is FAB. Tony has returned from the dead, turned out to be a bad guy, and then turned out to be a not such a bad guy after all. Intense. Pay close attention this season as Janeane Garofalo attempts to take on the role of Potato Face working for the FBI and the new woman president attempts to piss off everyone in her cabinet.

Oh, Tony. My how you've perfected the faux bad guy look.

happy holidays!

2008-12-22T21:37:00.000-05:00

i know, i know, i have been a most horrible nonexistent blogger the last few months. The supercomputer took over my life. But happy holidays for now and I will be back in 2009!

desperate and awesome.

2008-10-08T21:36:00.006-04:00

I'm still far from caught up on catching up on tv but I just watched the season premiere of Desperate Housewives and am totally confused as to what the heck has happened since last season:

* Lynette's kids have doubled in age and are in high school now - they're SIXteen!
* Gabby is a housemom and has a chubby daughter (but still a blind husband)
* Edy's back and married.
* Susan is sleeping with her painter and Susan and Mike are no more because of a car accident. So sad.
* Bree's still married to Orson but Danielle came and took her baby back.

Oh- and I'm 30!

dance overload

2008-09-24T22:12:00.003-04:00

A new season of Dancing with the Stars started this week, and somehow, according to my DVR, there have already been THREE episodes this week but it's only WEDNESDAY. wtf. A bit overkill, no? How exactly do they expect people to keep up with this? Season 7's stars:

Cody Linley, some kid from Hannah Montana that I'm sure my niece knows
Celebrity Chef Rocco Dispirito, who is dancing with an injured dancer
Toni Braxton
Olympic Gold Medalist Maurice Greene
"Actress" Brooke Burke
Actor Ted McGinley - aka Jeff D'arcy from Married with Children
Lance Bass, the token boy band contestant of the season
Cloris Leachman (I know nothing about her)
Comedian Jeffrey Ross
Reality tv star Kim Kardashian
Soap actress Susan Lucci
Olympic Volleyball Gold Medalist Misty May-Treanor
Football player Warren Sapp

Lots of athletes. Two dances in the first week and two couples eliminated right off the bat. Whew!

90210

2008-09-20T20:31:00.008-04:00

I'm currently watching a marathon of the new 90210 (yup, a fabulous Saturday night). So far, it's pretty great. Well cast and just the right amount of funny.

So far, things I love:
Hearing Coldplay at the beginning of the premiere episode.
Hearing the modernized version of the original theme song.
The return of Kelly Taylor.
The Peach Pit.
The references to The Hills.
How terribly bitchy everyone is.

Things I don't love:
Not hearing the original theme song in its original glory.
How bitchin' skinny everyone is.
How terribly bitchy everyone is.

the storyline is so far not overly interesting, kind of predictable and very high school. Good times.

UPDATE: Brenda Walsh just made an appearance. Amazing.

genius.

2008-09-15T20:09:00.003-04:00

I just watched the season premiere of SNL, hosted by Olympic champ Michael Phelps.

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin is GENIUS, and is exactly what I pictured when I watched her speech at the RNC. I sort of pictured Amy Poehler in a different role, but having her play Hillary Clinton next to Tina Fey as Palin is AMAZING. Tina totally nailed it, and Amy Poehler as Michael Phelps' mom is pretty great.

Michael Phelps ain't much of an actor - but still kinda adorable. In a super dorky kind of a way.

politics

2008-09-03T22:56:00.003-04:00

I'm not really into politics, but just happened to flip past the Republic National Convention after the Yankees game ended and stopped to listen to Sarah Palin's speech for a minute, mostly because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of new teen celebrities Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston.

In any case, is it just me or is Sarah Palin reminiscent of Tina Fey? This is soooo an SNL skit waiting to happen!

summer's end

2008-09-01T21:34:00.003-04:00

Labor Day weekend brought beautiful weather, a trip to the Hamptons, yummy BBQ, and the official end of summer. So sad. BUT, the unofficial end of summer means the unofficial start to fall tv! Tomorrow brings the premiere of the 90210 spinoff. So exciting. Also coming up is a new season of America's Next Top Model. And FOOTBALL!!! Ahhh... who said fall is a bad thing?

america's favorite zip code

2008-08-25T20:29:00.001-04:00

http://cw11.trb.com/entertainment/network/stv-90210-story,0,5187901.htmlstory

Amazing.

moley mole

2008-08-14T21:07:00.001-04:00

Just caught up on the Mole and found out who won and who lost and who was the Mole. Craig was seriously the most un-moley mole ever. And abc is on CRACK if they think that ANY of the "clues" they embedded in the show were decipherable!

BB 10

2008-08-03T10:50:00.002-04:00

Is it just me or does anyone else think that Keesha from this season's Big Brother is remarkably similar to Danielle Donato from Big Brother 8?

round 10

2008-07-13T21:26:00.002-04:00

And so begins another season of Big Brother tonight... season 10 to be exact. I didn't actually know it was starting but happened to flip past it and so of course it's been added to my DVR list. I never watched seasons 3 through 7-ish... but have latched back on the past few seasons for lack of better things on tv.

I don't have many judgments on the house guests just yet, except that Renny is CRAZY. And this is what summer tv has come to...

happy 4th.

2008-07-04T19:50:00.003-04:00

Hello there. You'd think I was on vacation or something. Actually, tv has gone on summer vacation and I as a result have gotten lazy. Only a small handful of shows on to watch. One is The Mole, which is as fun as always, EXCEPT for whoever this new host is. Andersen Cooper, where are you??

Oh, and a new season of Weeds! Which is so very fabulous as always. Nancy is working for the Mexicans now. And still a babe.

And that's about it. I'm desperate for some new tv for the summer. Is there ANYTHING out there?!

weeds

2008-06-16T21:18:00.002-04:00

I hope you have SHO because Weeds is back! Season premiere tonight at 10pm. Yeah, I know I have been behind in my tv updates, but this is one of the best shows on tv, so you must watch! If you don't have SHO, well... that just kind of sucks for you.

eight is enough

2008-06-08T20:25:00.000-04:00

I've discovered a show on TLC that has me in complete awe - Jon & Kate Plus Eight. It's the story of Jon & Kate (duh), a bi-racial couple and their EIGHT little kids. Yes, that is correct. They had a set of twins, Cara and Madelyn, who were precious as could be, decided to try for one more, and ended up with SIX more! So along with the twins came the sextuplets Alexis, Aaden, Collin, Leah, Hannah and Joel. Welcome to the most incredible household ever. Watching Jon & Kate run the household while raising eight kids... wow. Everything from keeping the kids clean to recycling is impossibly hard but they pull it off wonderfully, most of the time. Amazing! It sure does help that the kids are amazingly adorable!

the mole

2008-06-07T21:03:00.003-04:00

The Mole is back! And for the record, is sooo not the same without Anderson Cooper. But, that being said, is still one of the greatest reality shows of all time and after a four year hiatus, it's back! Yay.

For those of you who missed this phenomenon the first time around (and NO, watching Celebrity Mole does NOT count): hosted this time by Jon Kelley, 12 players try to figure out who among them is the Mole, a sabotuer trying to keep them from winning money. Players carry around little notebooks, compete in adventures trying to win money for the cashpot, and try to keep track of who they think the mole is. At the end of each episode, the players take a quiz about who they think the mole is, and the player who knows the least is executed from the game. Got it? Great. Now set your DVRs if you haven't already!

labels and love

2008-05-31T12:14:00.003-04:00

I am so terrible behind on tv (again - you're used to it by now, right?) BUT I did manage to go see the Sex and the City movie last night! And oh how I loved it. I won't go into great detail because I don't want to ruin it for people, but I will recommend it. If you loved the series, and you loved Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha, you can't not love the movie. I laughed, I cried, I had a fabulous time.

I do however think the theater I went to got a bad copy of the movie because you could see microphones and such dangling from the ceiling every now and then. Kind of distracting and I can't believe for a moment that that would make it through final editing and out into the public. Weird. But all in all, a good time!

whew.

2008-05-21T22:02:00.002-04:00

I opted against the two hour finale of American Idol and turned it on at 9:56pm to find out that David Cook thankfully won by a very safe margin of 12 million votes. What a relief. I sort of wondered what I missed in the previous two hours but I also am pretty sure I don't much care. I'm just glad that Archuleta kid did not win. That would have been the biggest travesty ever.

snooze

2008-05-20T22:42:00.003-04:00

I just watched the top two perform in the American Idol finale and I must say, I love David Cook and all but this has been the most underwhelming top two ever. Seriously, kind of a snoozefest. But the judges loooooove them some David Archuleta and I DON'T GET IT.

it's coming back!

2008-05-19T22:10:00.003-04:00

OMG I just saw a commercial for The Mole - they're starting a new season in two weeks. HOW EXCITED AM I?!

June 2nd, 10pm. MARK YOUR CALENDARS.

david vs. david

2008-05-18T11:11:00.000-04:00

Another cuckoo week of week and extreme chaos. I'm getting through it and furiously trying to catch up on tv at the same time. We are down to two on American Idol and it's David Cook vs. David Archuleta. I so can't stand David Archuleta and if he wins there is something very wrong in world. As scary looking as he is, David Cook must win!

I have quietly been catching up on Desperate Housewives and it's kind of great -- Susan just had a baby with Mike the Plumber who found out that Bree's husband Orson was the one who ran him over with a car. Bree confessed to the rest of the ladies that her baby is actually her daughter's baby, and Gabby is married once again to Carlos who is now blind. Lynette has a huge problem on her hands in the form of Kayla, Tom's daughter from a previous relationship. Kayla is a really messed up little girl and bad things happen. And that is pretty much your season in a wrap - tonight is the season finale which will wrap all this up into something that makes you wonder if anyone will care what happens next season. Good times.

and then there were three

2008-05-09T21:43:00.004-04:00

I kinda don't understand how another entire week has gone by already. Especially when it was the longest. week. ever. All I can really tell you is that Jason Castro FINALLY got booted off Idol. He did a terribly awful rendition of Bob Marley's I Shot the Sheriff and really shot himself in the face in the process, it was so bad. Really, I can't see any alternative to David Cook winning.

I have to work this weekend...again. After having already worked what seems like an endless number of hours this week. So sad. I need sleep!

oh so tired

2008-05-04T13:35:00.004-04:00

It's been a looong exhausting week for your truly and tv has eluded me. I have worked many many hours in many many days (including Saturday into the wee hours of the night) and spent so little time in my apartment that I think my DVR feels neglected.

I think Brooke White got kicked off American Idol this week. Which is very sad, only because that means David Archuleta is still there. But is also good because it means David Cook is still there too!

This morning/afternoon when I finally rolled myself out of bed I watched the final episode of this season's Big Brother, a week after the fact, to discover that Adam won, Ryan only got one vote, and all the contestants were still as obnoxious as I remember them. I really really hope next season is a better one than this turned out to be - it had hope early in the season but then just went downhill to an awful place.

I am going to try my hardest to catch back up today, since I think it's going to be yet another really long, really crazy week. Oh how I love my job!

return of the smoke monster

2008-04-26T22:54:00.002-04:00

TV has started picking up with the return from rerun land and new episodes of Desperate Housewives, Scrubs, The Office and some others. It's been a challenge catching up on shows this week, but it's Saturday night and what else is there but to do but stay home and sit on my lazy ass to watch some quality television?

One item of note this week is the return of Lost. There haven't been new episodes on in so long I've sorta forgotten the plot and have to stretch to remember what is going on. Oh yeah, they are trapped on an island. Except, instead of flashbacks to tidbits of people's lives from before they are on the island, there are flash forwards of people's lives from after they get off the island - except I don't think we really quite know just how it is that people get off the island.

In any case, Ben's daughter Alex totally gets killed because he tries to psyche out the bad guys by saying she's not actually his daughter, and they totally call him on his bluff. And this pisses him off greatly so he disappears into some secret tunnel and releases the smoke monster! I can't believe Ben controls the smoke monster! Actually... yes I can.

In the flash forward, Ben and Sayid meet up in Iraq and decide to start killing lots of people in revenge of Sayid's wife (apparently he marries Nadia after he gets off the island) being killed. And apparently she gets killed by Penny's dad. And the hunt is on. I wonder if Ben brings the smoke monster off the island with him?

spring has sprung

2008-04-19T18:19:00.005-04:00

So between baseball, warm weather and craziness at work, I am so very behind in tv. Haven't watched a darn thing this week other than FF-ing my way through American Idol at lightning speed to see Kristy Lee Cook finally get voted out.

David Cook all the way!

My plan is to try and get caught up on the rest of this week's shows by the end of the weekend. Who knows if that works or not.

gasp

2008-04-10T21:12:00.002-04:00

OMG my favorite Aussie Michael Johns got eliminated tonight from AI. Nooooooooooo!!! There is no justice in this world. I.am.devastated.

So sad :(

idol gives back

2008-04-09T22:25:00.000-04:00

So I am catching snippets of Idol Gives Back (which is apparently a 2 1/2 hour affair). I know it's a great cause, but it's crazy loong and I'd be up all night trying to watch this straight through, so the FF button it is. Currently I'm watching Teri Hatcher sing a Carrie Underwood song. Since when can Teri Hatcher sing?? I half expected Simon Cowell to come out at the end and criticize her performance, but not so much.

Eli and Peyton Manning have made an appearance... and Eli most desperately needs a haircut.

There are lots and lots of celebrity appearances and lots of performances, but I'm now watching the Idol contestants singing Seasons of Love - one of my personal favorite Broadway songs ever! And so appropriate for this particular show, so it's quite lovely.

Miley Cyrus performs TWICE, which seems highly unnecessary. Brad Pitt shows up near the end and everyone goes NUTS! The show closes out with the Idol contestants singing something soothing and calming that immediately makes me decide it's time for bed. And so I will do just that now.

Tomorrow - back to business with elimination night!

dream on

2008-04-08T21:50:00.000-04:00

It's "Inspirational Week" on American Idol in honor of Idol Gives Back and my favorite Aussie is up first with Aerosmith's Dream On and we're off and running! Paula and I loved it, Randy and Simon not so much. I don't think Michael Johns could ever do wrong in my eyes.

Syesha sings Fantasia's I Believe and we're all reminded that Fantasia actually did win a season of American Idol.

Jason Castro sings one of my favoritest songs of all time - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole's make of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, so even though I still think he's a bit weird and I'm not in love with him like the rest of America, I LOVE IT.

Kristy Lee Cook, who has been skating by the past few weeks by the skin of her teeth, finally has a fabulous week and MIGHT actually not be in the bottom three again this week!

David Cook sounds like... well, like he does every other week. Don't get me wrong, he sounds good - but I'm starting to not remember what songs he's sung from week to week because they all now sounds exactly the same!

Carly takes on Queen, which bugs me for pure fact that I love the way Michael Johns has rocked out to Queens in earlier episodes and she doesn't do it NEARLY as great as he does.

David Archuleta - the 12 year old America loves and I still don't really get why. Even the judges love him!

Last up, Brooke White singing Carol King's You've Got a Friend and even though I don't love her hair tonight, I do still love her, even though I much prefer her with the piano.

Oh yeah, Paul's boobs are so spilling out of her top.

nbc debacle

2008-04-07T20:17:00.003-04:00

So there has been murmurs of Project Runway moving to a different network for a while. With it's popularity, one would think it made sense to move it to a larger network. It's current home is Bravo, which is owned by NBC, so wouldn't a logical move be to move to... NBC? But oh no, the owners of Project Runway think THIS is a good idea??!

Project Runway moves to Lifetime

baseball!

2008-04-02T20:11:00.002-04:00

Baseball season is under way, and it is totally screwing with my DVR-ing schedule! And messing with my tv watching in general, not that this is anything new since this happens every year. And every year, I find a way to fight on through and balance it all out! Just takes me a week or so to get myself in order, and then I'm constantly slightly behind, so bear with me!

sleepy

2008-03-28T22:10:00.001-04:00

It's 10:10 pm on Friday night. Going to bed. Yeah that's right you heard me. This is the earliest I've been to bed all week and it's Friday. Oh yeah, it's been that kind of week. Good night.

*yawn*

chikeeeezee

2008-03-26T22:31:00.003-04:00

Just got home from my third night in a row of after-work socializing, and I am trying frantically to keep up with tv - I have very quickly FF'ed my way through this week's AI results show, and the bottom three consists of Chikezie, Jason Castro and Syesha. I am SHOCKED Syesha is in the bottom crowd and even more shocked when Jason Castro gets sent back to safety - I'm so over him! And so we're down to Chikezie and Syesha and it's a bye-bye to Chikezie. Which I kinda feel bad about, since he's actually been doing decent, but am also glad about because Syesha had a most wonderful performance this week and deserved to stay! And then there were nine...

top ten

2008-03-25T22:10:00.000-04:00

It's the top ten on American Idol and I'm still hanging in there, even though it's been a tough season so far. This week each singer has to sing a song from the year they were born. Mind you this means like, 1987. Oh man I am old.

Ramiele is so very adorable and lovely, so I am so very sad that she didn't sound very good - but she is a bit under the weather, so I think she gets a pass and will hopefully make it through to next week.

Jason Castro continues to bore me.

Syesha has a most fabulous performance in her breakout week and I actually really like her now!

Chikezie just doesn't do it for me.

Brooke White is still fabulous, even without her crazy curls, because she is lovely with her piano.

Michael Johns was born in 1978 - that's my year! And born just 22 days after me. And is as adorable as ever, heehee. And totally rocks it out with Queen! Ohmygosh, I totally have such a crush on him! (Me and every 16 year old girl in the country I'm sure.)

Carly Smithson is lovely. And her husband has lots of tattoos on his face. Weird.

David Archuleta is really, really overrated. I don't quite understand why America is so fascinated with him. Maybe it is because he was born in 1990 and I'm just mad at how old that makes me. He looks about TWELVE, for cryin' out loud.

Kristy Lee Cook finally has a decent week but I'm already so mad at her from her last few really awful weeks that I fear this was too little too late.

David Cook is a rockstar!

So who's going home? Whew, this is tough one this week. If I had to pick, it would be bye bye to Jason Castro.

staged reality

2008-03-24T21:23:00.002-04:00

Season premiere of The Hills tonight! Woohoo! One of my favoritest fake reality shows - more soap opera than reality, but still fabulous! We finally get to find out what happens with Lauren in Paris, and Spencer's attempts to win Heidi back!

dance!

2008-03-15T19:53:00.003-04:00

I recently have discovered a most awesome show on MTV called America's Best Dance Crew. Hosted by Mario Lopez, teams of dancers perform hip hop routines of various sorts. The episode I happened to catch was made up of four teams left, each turning a Broadway musical number into a hip hop routine. Nice! Oh how I wish I started watching this show earlier.

down to a dozen

2008-03-11T22:13:00.000-04:00

This week starts the Top 12 on American Idol and I am smitten! It's John Lennon week which is GREAT because that means a myriad of Beatles songs and such for contestants to sing, and I love that. Normally this is where I start to do a contestant-by contestant recap week to week, but I'm too tired for that this week, sorry!

So the judges HATED Ramiele's performance this week and yeah it was a tad on the boring side, but she sang In My Life, one of my favoritest songs ever, and I love her! She's so adorable. Oh, and I love how she talked about how she works in a sushi restaurant so she smells like sushi all the time. heehee.

Generally speaking, most of the contestants stepped it up big time for the top 12 performances. Yay!

improv everywhere

2008-03-10T21:36:00.003-04:00

There is an "organization" out there Improv Everywhere - does anyone else know about this? This is the group that orchestrates the annual No Pants fiasco.

Here's a sample of some of their other work.

Isn't that wild? I'm totally fascinated!!

til death do you part... or til Big Brother changes his mind

2008-03-09T20:44:00.003-04:00

Big Brother is AMAZING! I KNEW the couples would get split up! And I'm so glad they go split up! And I'm SO glad Allison is the first person to get booted as a single! I hated her dearly. and she got evicted TWICE! Love it.

i'm back!

2008-03-05T20:03:00.002-05:00

Hi, I'm here! Sorry for the lag in blog activity, I was in Aruba! It was a lovely trip, there was lots of sun and drinks and food and flamingos and iguanas! Seriously. I'm catching up on tv now, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, enjoy this lovely photo of an Aruba sunset!

snow!

2008-02-22T09:01:00.003-05:00

It's snowing! A lot! There is a crazy amount of snow coming down right now and I was too much of a wuss to brave the snow this morning, so I am working from home today. I tried to take a picture of what it looks like out my window with all the snow coming down and my little civic covered in a huge pile of snow, but you couldn't really actually tell it was snowing in the picture so it wasn't so much fun. I AM working but wanted to report that on the Today Show they are in Miami right now where it is 85 degrees... I want to be in Miami!!!

top 24

2008-02-20T21:22:00.000-05:00

This week begins the part of American Idol where it's on about nine times a week (okay, three) for a total of approximately 23 hours (okay, five.) Point is, its a LOT. Which makes it super hard to keep up, but I'm trying! I'm currently watching last night's top 12 guys perform while my DVR is currently recording the top 12 girls performing. Simultaneously, Big Brother is also on about three times a week. Whew, talk about exhausting!

So far none of these guys are all that interesting to me - and some I don't even ever remember seeing before! How the heck did they end up in the top 24? Have I been paying that little attention so far this season?

love stinks

2008-02-19T22:13:00.002-05:00

Big Brother is so fantastic! Alex and Amanda, the co-HoH are pretty much at war with each other because Amanda likes Parker, who's coupled with Jen, who's dating Ryan, who's coupled with Allison, who is pretending to be a lesbian with Sheila, who is coupled with Adam. And on and on it goes. Nobody actually seems to be soulmates with the person they were paired up with...yet. So entertaining!

2008-02-18T22:30:00.001-05:00

Tonight is the finale of Dance Wars: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann, and while I've enjoyed this little mini reality series, it was starting to get JUST a tad bit stale, so it's good to see it wrap up - tonight we find out who wins - Team Bruno or Team Carrie Ann. But for the record, I DO love the singing and dancing competitions!

Part of this way too long finale included finding out who the contestants on the next season of Dancing with the Stars will be:
- Marlee Matline (?)
- Penn Jillette from the Penn and Teller duo.
- Marissa Jaret Winokur from Hairspray.
- Adam Carolla from The Man Show.
- Kristi Yamaguchi - yay! I love her!
- Christian de la Fuente (?) - a Latin star actor of some sorts
- Monica Seles the tennis player
- Mario the R&B singer
- Steve Guttenberg the actor - he's been in a crapload of stuff, but is it weird that I remember him best from Three Men and a Baby?
- Jason Taylor from the Miami Dolphins?! I would like to know how they convinced him to participate in this...
- Shannon Elizabeth, actress (the American Pie chick)
- Priscilla Presley - wow, that's actually pretty neat!

Update: So for those of you following along at home, after lots of fun little performances from both teams, including premiere singles from each group, the winner of Dance Wars is Team Bruno - NOT who I was rooting for, but oh wells.

'til death do you part

2008-02-18T10:21:00.003-05:00

If you are not watching Big Brother this season, you MUST START NOW! It's only two episodes in, so you are not that far behind and can easily catch up. They've done something different with the show this season and it's fabulous! The contestants are paired up into couples and are competing in the house as those couples. That means they earn Head of Household as couples, and get nominated and evicted as couples!! It's absurdly entertaining - there is a real life couple that are secretly dating in real life, but nobody in the house knows and they DON'T get paired up with each other, so they are technically competing AGAINST each other. There was also a real life ex-couple who had just broken up after a 12 year relationship, unknowingly ended up on the show together and DID get paired up together - but they were the first couple eliminated. Which, for the record, I don't agree with, since there is a cranky old mom paired up with someone she doesn't like and they, especially she, are so MEAN to each other, it's just annoying.

In any case, I hope you are watching! If not, you should be!

rehab

2008-02-10T22:55:00.000-05:00

I have been half watching the Grammy Awards tonight and at this particular moment Amy Winehouse is performing. Now I am not trying to be mean here, but I was surprised to see her - I thought she was in (no pun intended) rehab and too doped up to be out in public. But aside from the fact that she is done up kind of crazy looking, she looks perfectly sober and undrugged. Okay, well maybe not COMPLETELY coherent, but enough to perform in some cabaret setting that isn't technically part of the Grammy Awards, but was on the Grammy Awards. Go figure.

...Okay, now her performance is over and she just won Record of the Year. NOW she looks drunk and incoherent and incredibly confused. She just beat out the likes of Beyonce and JT for this award... wow.

Btw, new season of Big Brother starts on Tuesday at 9PM - set your DVRs, it sure to be fabulous!

18-1

2008-02-08T21:35:00.000-05:00

I'm back from the BEST. TRIP. EVER! Well, I've been back for a few days now but I'm only finally now just becoming coherent and functioning like a normal human being again. But I still do not have words to describe the most amazing trip experience ever - witnessing the Giants beat the Patriots to WIN THE SUPER BOWL!!! Going to Phoenix was crazy enough, but I never EVER thought I'd actually go to the game. We hung out by the stadium, drank and soaked up the atmosphere. Less than two hours before kickoff, I ended up getting a ticket and I was off to the Super Bowl!!! It was an amazing game and an amazing time. I do not even have words for how incredible it was to not only be at the Super Bowl, but to watch my NY Giants in the Super Bowl, and to watch my NY Giants take down the New England Patriots and ruin their perfect season. The Giants are Super Bowl Champs!! And I got to watch it live! Un-freakin-believable. Oh, and check it out - I got to meet Brian Cashman in the parking lot before the game!
There were lots of celebrity sightings - Rob Schneider, Clyde Drexler, and a small handful of Victoria's Secret models too! It was such a crazy atmosphere and an unbelivably good time. And WHAT A GAME. Giants 17, Patriots 14. LOVE IT!!

Monday night we hung out in Phoenix and went to the Suns game. I'm not an NBA fan but we had seats about 12 rows back from the court right behind the Suns bench, and it was pretty damn cool! Dan Majerle was there making crazy baskets from half court, and then Steve Kerr showed up at halftime and sat two rows in front of us.

Tuesday it was time to head home and another day spent on a plane. I missed the ticker tape parade they had for the Giants back in NY because I was traveling, which was a little disappointing since the parade went RIGHT by the building I work in and I would've had a front row seat! But alas, I was at the Super Bowl, and that beats a parade any day :)

NY GIANTS SUPER BOWL CHAMPS!!!

Phoenix-bound!

2008-02-02T11:44:00.000-05:00

I'm going to Phoenix! I'm not actually going to the Super Bowl, but in the spirit of continuing my crazy ideas and supporting the Giants (who I STILL can't believe made it to the freakin' Super Bowl!) I am going to hang out in the host city. Kind of nuts that I decided to do this, but I just couldn't resist.

I was work last night until 9:30pm, went to dinner with the people I was working that late with, and then went BACK to work around 11:30 to pick up my laptop, which I need since my Phoenix trip is stretching through Tuesday. Finally got home around 12:30am, passed out, am super exhausted, and now have some busy days ahead of me. Today I need to round up my 3 oz. travel toiletries and pack, have pre-Chinese New Year Dinner with my family, and then catch a 6AM flight out of LGA tomorrow morning. EEK. Lots to do!

I'll report back when I return from Phoenix. In the meantime, GO GIANTS!!

uninspiring

2008-01-27T17:30:00.000-05:00

Celebrity Apprentice SUCKS. It's so not interesting and it's really a shame that Trump has let his show get to this state. I used to legitimately like this show and now I'm just so uninspired watching these celebrities haphazardly complete these projects. It's lovely that they are raising money for charities (this past week they contributed a portion of the winnings the the Fund for Public Schools) but it's like they are not even really TRYING! Nobody cares! Everyone pretends to care, but nobody actually cares! So sad and disappointing...

yikes

2008-01-22T20:41:00.000-05:00

I'm pretty sure I am the 18 millionth person to write about this but - I can't believe Heath Ledger is dead! Celebrities doing drugs and celebrities dying from doing drugs is always in the news, but... Heath Ledger?! And only 28! Unbelievable.

I know they have been split up for quite some time now, but poor Michelle Williams and little Matilda.

the modern woman

2008-01-21T18:34:00.000-05:00

I just watched three straight episodes of Cashmere Mafia, a new series on abc about a group of 4 best friends living in New York City, each fabulously ambitious and sexy in her own right. I love it. It's not the best show ever, but it calls to me, I love the characters and I love the setting. Each of them has a little part of them that I wish I was. Brilliant. I will indeed be continuing to record and watch this show and enjoying every minute of it!

alaska's not as cold as green bay

2008-01-21T15:04:00.000-05:00

If someone had told me back in September that a) the Giants would make the playoffs and b) that they would beat the Packers to win the NFC Championship and a trip to the Super Bowl, I would have laughed and laughed and laughed, and then stopped to catch my breath... and laughed some more. When they were in the Super Bowl 7 years ago, I couldn't even watch because they didn't really even show up to play and it was embarrassing. This time, all I want is for them to put up a good fight. Well, it's not ALL I want - I want them to beat the damn Patriots and win the freakin' Super Bowl. But, if they at least put up a good fight, like, they did in Week 16, I will be ecstatic.

In other news, I am spending my day off from work... working, but also catching up on tv. Last night was the season finale of Amazing Race, and so today I watched the final three teams race around Alaska gutting fish, catching crabs, climbing glaciers and spending a lot more time in taxi cabs than I thought normal. But in any case, TK and Rachel finish on top, with Ron & Chris in second and Nick & Don in third... quite a nail biter until almost the very last minute and another race comes to an end. What is it about this show that it never gets old?

omg

2008-01-20T23:26:00.000-05:00

The Giants are going to the SUPER BOWL!!! I can't even believe it - how the heck are the Giants in the Super Bowl?!

dance wars

2008-01-15T21:50:00.000-05:00

Tonight I decided to devote my evening to Dance Wars: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann. LOVE IT! It's hosted by Drew Lachey, the winner from one of the Dancing with the Stars seasons and stars my two favorite judges from that show - what's not to love? Well, let me back up a moment. The premiere episode at 2 hours long and consisted of open auditions in various cities was a bit of a snoozer and I ended up giving up about a third of the way through it. Skip to episode two: The selected contestants sing and dance in various groups, Bruno and Carrie Ann select their teams and it's a whole lotta fun! Starting next week people will get to call in and vote. The whole thing is very American Idol-esque and quite entertaining! Speaking of, American Idol starts tonight and is currently recording on my dvr. woohoo!

the mob

2008-01-11T21:25:00.000-05:00

Tonight I became addicted to some game show hosted by Bob Saget called 1 vs. 100 where a contestant competes against a "mob" of 100 people (technically 102 since one of the mob is actually triplets) and methodically knocks out members of the mob in a quest for $1M. Yes, I am spending my friday night watching bad network tv - do you have something to say about that? In any case, I must say I'm quite a fan. Now I'm watching Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde - which I own on DVD but is currently on TBS so who can resist.

Who said I don't know how to have fun on a friday night?

damn you dvr

2008-01-10T21:21:00.000-05:00

I have spent the past few days incredibly drugged up on Nyquil and Dayquil - boy, I never realized how potent that stuff was! And so tv watching has been difficult since my head's been in a fog, but tonight I watched last night's Project Runway and it was prom week! Clients were a bunch of high school girls needing dresses for prom and how mad am I that apparently it ran a minute or two over this week because my dvr cut it off literally RIGHT before Heidi announced who was out. Agh! I mean, that's just rude. And so I had to go and research it on my own - turns out Kevin got the auf wiedersehen even though Christian had the crazy girl who tried to take over his project and made him design a tacky dress.

...9:30's not too early for bed is it? Because I just took my Nyquil for the evening and will likely be knocked out in the next 5 minutes!

candy shop

2008-01-09T21:29:00.000-05:00

I am tragically behind in tv, but finally tonight just watched Project Runway from a week ago, where the task was to raid the Hershey Store in Times Square, and then make an outfit out of it, and oh what fun it was to see the candy wrapper dresses! There were some crowd pleasers for sure, and Rami's winning outfit was well deserved:

I adore Rami as a designer. I hope he goes all the way!

i wonder

2008-01-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

How has the Britney Spears drama gotten so out of hand that Dr. Phil is now involved?

I just watched Roger Clemens defend himself on 60 Minutes. Boy, Roger sure is angry! And from what I can tell, he's bigger and tougher than Brian McNamee and I certainly wouldn't want to be Brian in that fight...

one down...

2008-01-06T18:10:00.000-05:00

Giants finally made it past the first round of the playoffs, woohoo! Next up - Dallas. I am trying to get all my tv watching sorted out, but with the NFL playoffs taking up most of my weekends and work taking up most of my weekdays, it's been a challenge. We are down to only 3 or 4 teams on Amazing Race, Project Runway started up again after what seemed to be a hiatus of several weeks, and new seasons of good stuff are coming soon:

American Idol: 2-night 4-hour premiere on January 15th and 16th, 8PM.
Lost: Moving to Thursday nights! January 31st, 8PM.
Prison Break: January 14th on Fox.
The Apprentice: This should actually get categorized as something brand new because Trump is doing the worst thing possible and doing the show this season as a celebrity edition - Gene Simmons, Stephen Baldwin, OMAROSA... seriously?!

Also, brand new on the radar:
Cashmere Mafia: Starts tonight on ABC at 10PM, I'll be recording it so that I can see if it's worth watching.
Lipstick Jungle: February 7th on NBC. I'll be checking this one out too, simply because I'm intrigued by the name of the show alone.
Dance War: Bruno vs. Carrie Ann: Starring the judges from Dancing with the Stars, starts tomorrow night at 8PM.

Lots of tv that I will try my very best to stay on top of!

happy new year (eve)!

2007-12-31T08:59:00.000-05:00

I'm currently sitting at home waiting for the GE service guy to come fix my washing machine (again) so that I can do laundry. While I do so, I'm watching the Today show, and they are talking about the New Year Wishing Wall - I LOVE IT! People write new years wishes on official times square confetti and it's all stapled to a wall. At midnight tonight each wish becomes part of actual Times Square confetti raining upon the millions of people out celebrating! Wish I had known so that I could participate - they've been collecting them in Times Square the last ten days. Oh well.

Countless Yankees game, three Penn State road trips, two Giants game, and one pair of Pradas later, I am ready for 2008! Everyone have a happy and safe new year :)

year in review

2007-12-29T14:20:00.001-05:00

Where does the time go? 2007 is coming to an end but it went by so fast! A lot of things happened this year. I accomplished something big at work and ended the year on a high note by starting a new and exciting adventure with a new job. I met a boy who thus far a) has not gotten tired of me and my stupidity (yet) and b) I have not gotten bored of. This is an enormous feat when it comes to me, believe me. I've made lots of great friends, had lots of fun football outings, survived my first full year as a single homeowner - all in all it's been a good year.

Had a lovely holiday as always, complete with cool gifts. This includes a pimped out mini dirt devil that I love to zoom around my apt and zap up crumbs and dirt with - yes, I'm a dork like that. No new years eve plans thus far, but 2 out of 3 of my last new years were planned and executed in the final hours of the year and turned out just fine, so I'm not worried.

As for tv, well there was lots of good and bad this year. And there is a lot of football to be watched over the next few days, so this is how I'll end the year. Bye bye to 2007. I'll see you in '08 - Happy new year!

Merry Xmas Eve!

2007-12-24T10:57:00.000-05:00

With the holiday usually comes a lapse in tv. Most shows are in reruns and only a handful of reality shows are still going - at last check, I think Amazing Race and Project Runway are the only ones that I care about.

So that means break time for me too. Happy Holidays!

Most Fascinating

2007-12-23T21:05:00.000-05:00

Who are the ten most fascinating people of 2007? Well, according to Barbara Walters:

First up, my boy JT! Oh, how I love my Justin Timberlake and he's had quite a year... quite a life actually! From Brit to Cameron and now Jessica Biel. That's my boy. Fascinating, indeed.

Bill Clinton... eh.

The founders of MySpace. Isn't this like, so 2006?

Katherine Hiegl. I'm pretty much the only person on this planet that has never gotten into Grey's Anatomy, so I guess that's why I just don't get this. She has also in Knocked Up, which I did not see. It appears I am missing out on some fascinating stuff.

Don Imus. What a character. Eight months off the air, but he's baaaack!

Jennifer Hudson. American Idol, Dreamgirls, an Oscar... not too shabby.

Victoria & David Beckham - one of the hottest couples known to mankind. A soccer hottie and Spice Girl together making hundreds of millions of dollars. Oh to be part of the Beckham empire..

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. He chugs 20 cups of coffee a day and calls George W. Bush a donkey. HAHA.

And the most fascinating person of 2007? J.K. Rowling. Great, figures Barbara Walters would pick the super famous writer of a series that I've never read. Yeah that's right, I've never read a single Harry Potter book. Haven't seen all the movies either. Does that make me a bad person?

yummy

2007-12-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

New discovery of the day: Food Network now broadcasts in HD! I can now watch all my awesome favorite food shows in high def. Yay!

feathers

2007-12-09T12:47:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I very happily inherited my brother's almost brand new fluffy Ralph Lauren goose down comforter - he said he didn't like it because there were too many feathers flying around everywhere. I don't mind the feathers and I LOVE the comforter. I also finally now own a fancy humidifier that my mom bought for me from Bed Bath and Beyond, to soothe my very dry and scratchy throat and stuffy sinuses. As a testament to just how much these two items have improved my sleep conditions and comfort level - I didn't get out of bed until almost 11:30am this morning! I haven't slept that late in quite a while, so clearly my body is hurting from this nasty cold I've had for the past week. I've been so sick that I haven't even really caught up on much tv and my sunday afternoon will be spent watching football and wrapping christmas presents! And maybe cleaning up the mess that has accumulated in my apartment while I've been ill.

My last full week at DHR lies ahead. Part of me is sad to leave it behind, but I am hopeful that the adventure that lies ahead of me will be exciting!

movies rock

2007-12-07T22:45:00.000-05:00

I am watching a special on CBS called Movies Rock! A Celebration of Music & Film which features contemporary artists performing classic songs from classic movies. Carrie Underwood just performed The Sound of Music and she KICKED ASS.

Some other highlights:
* Usher's rendition of Singin' in the Rain
* A very preggers and gorgeous J-Lo
* Josh Duhamel
* Marc Anthony performing Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate
* Tony Bennett singing White Christmas

Fun stuff.

sick

2007-12-07T19:13:00.000-05:00

Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that I haven't blogged this week. You'll have to excuse me, it's been quite an off week for me since I've been sick, lost my voice and am all kinds of swamped at work tracking to wrap up my current job while simultaneously trying to prep for my new job (all in all, NOT an ideal week for me to be ill and not "on"). And so, it is friday evening now and I'm in for the night, which means tv catch up, so stay tuned!

funny

2007-12-02T20:41:00.000-05:00

You know, it really does make you wonder who's in charge of naming cities and whether anyone actually gets a vote when somebody comes up with these. I wonder if they have trouble selling real estate, because I would imagine most people don't want to have to say they live in one of these places.

50 Most Bizarre City Names Around the World

winter!

2007-12-02T11:36:00.000-05:00

It's snowing, it's snowing!! Yes, I am a dork but today we have our first snow of the season and I am excited about that! It is December and there is snow. I now feel a little more justified in the fact that I've been playing holiday music for the past week already. Today I will go down to my storage unit and break out the holiday decorations. And now I can start using my snowman mugs! What can I say, I am cheesy when it comes to this stuff.

And it will make me feel better about the fact that I am still sick and not feeling well at all :(

tiki!

2007-12-01T17:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't been able to bring myself to leave the apartment at all today. It's just been one of those days. Actually, I sense it's going to be one of those weekends. And so I've been alternating between napping, catching up on tv and watching football.

This week's Project Runway featured making an outfit for Tiki Barber! The man has has crazy shiny white teeth, btw. Most of the contestants didn't have a clue who he was and Tim Gunn trying to explain that he used to play football for the NY Giants didn't really help much. This challenge turns out to be somewhat of a debacle since many of the designers have never done menswear before, and this is the first time there's ever been a menswear challenge on this show. The further into the task it gets, the more of a trainwreck some of the designers' creations are. Tiki's wife Ginny shows up to give some critique and advice, and I find her personality to be just a tad underwhelming, but who am I to judge - she's married to Tiki Barber.

Jack ends up creating the winning look, a nicely done contrasting striped shirt with pinstripe pants. Supposedly Tiki agrees to wear this winning outfit on the Today Show. I'll have to investigate that one.

In the bottom three are Sweet P, who creates a super messy looking shirt because she couldn't quite get the proportions right in her patterns, Ricky, who makes a very boring suit that is not only dull, but unfinished as well and has pins hanging everywhere, and Carmen, whose outfit doesn't have a shirt! No joke, she ends up taking the fabric that was supposed to be the shirt and draping it around his neck. What a disaster, and alas, it's bye bye to Carmen. What did she think she was doing, trying to put this outfit on Tiki?!

How embarrassing.

sick

2007-12-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

I am sick. I woke up this morning and when I opened my mouth to speak, strange funny coughy noises came out instead of my voice and it hurt. (don't ask who I thought I was trying to speak to given the fact that I was in the apartment by myself when I woke up today)

I sensed some illness creeping up on me the past few days but ignored it, and of course now it's caught up to me. yuck. To add to the cranky factor, whoever lives upstairs from me is hammering their floor. Okay, I don't know that they are hammering their floor but that is what it sounds like. It sounds like there is full blown construction going on above me, so there is lots of loud pounding shaking my apartment and giving me a headache. Oh, and there is actual construction going on across the street so there is lots of noise coming from outside as well. good times.

On the bright side, I did have a lovely dinner with friends at Stanton Social last night! Today I will attempt to straighten up my disaster of an apartment.

bitten

2007-11-29T21:50:00.000-05:00

I was two episodes behind on Project Runway. So tonight I watched last week's episode, and the challenge was designing a two-piece outfit for Sarah Jessica Parker's clothing line. There are fourteen contestants, but only 7 design concepts are chosen by SJP, and then teams of two are formed.

The winning outfit, designed by Asian designer Victorya:

And of course, one day you're in, the next... you're out:

It was a bit of a potato sack, don't you think?

I now need to watch this week's episode 3, but that will be for another day.

angels

2007-11-29T20:34:00.000-05:00

Woohoo, my favorite annual show is coming up next week!

http://www2.victoriassecret.com/fashionshow/index.cfm

Featuring the Spice Girls' debut reunion performance. Heehee.

no chicken, no check-in

2007-11-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

The star of this week's leg of Amazing Race is the chicken that each team has to tote around with them from pretty much the start of the leg til they get to the pit stop. I spent the entire episode watching in anticipation for one of the teams to lose a chicken and be denied check-in at the pit stop. But alas, all teams are responsible and show up with chicken in hand. How boring.

In any event, the dumb blonde team "u-turned" Lorena and Jason, which slowed them down immensely and ultimately resulted in the elimination of Lorena and Jason from the race. And now all the teams HATE the blondes (whose names I cannot quite bring myself to remember) so they are pretty much screwed for the rest of the race.

Meanwhile, the Giants suck.

post-turkey haze

2007-11-24T22:09:00.000-05:00

Have been at my sister's house the past few days for the thanksgiving holiday. We had a lovely turkey feast and then my sister and I got up at 7AM the next morning for day-after-Thanksgiving doorbuster sales! By noon I was wiped out. We ended up doing a second round of shopping later in the day after a lunch break and a nap, and I must say I cleaned up pretty well. Got some of my christmas shopping done as well as got myself a bunch of great bargains! All in all I am quite pleased with the results.

You know what the best part of Thanksgiving being over is? I can now play holiday music without guilt! YES. I've been waiting for this you know. Love the holidays, all the holiday stuff being sold, the holiday cookies, the holiday food, the holiday crafts (my card making adventure is well underway) and did I mention the holiday MUSIC?

So what does this all mean? It means I am terribly behind in my tv watching. Will try to catch up soon on some shows, so stay tuned. Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving!

i choose me.

2007-11-21T22:09:00.000-05:00

Oh how I wish I still watched The Bachelor. I didn't actually know it was still even on, but for this alone, this season would have been worth watching:

The Bachelor Chooses NOBODY.

Classic.

favorite things

2007-11-21T21:07:00.000-05:00

So I stopped recording Oprah a while back, BUT I did set my DVR to record The Oprah Winfrey Show on Tuesday, November 20th. Why? Because it was her annual Favorite Things extravaganza episode and even I could not be kept from getting swept up in the crazy chaos and excitement of Oprah giving away a crapload of super cool things worth an obscenely large amount of money. Yes, I buy into the insanity. And so, Oprah's favorite things in 2007:

1. Samsung HD camcorder - it's teeny tiny and super high tech. Retail price: $800.

2. Crochet Uggs, which I don't actually think are all that cute but I bet they are super comfy and warm. Retail price: $120 accordingly to Oprah, but the Ugg website sells them for $100.

3. The ToyWatch. Retail price: $150.

(At this point the audience is already screaming and crying so hard they are practically shaking. And we are less than ten minutes into the episode. Scary.)

4. Perfect Endings Holiday Cupcakes in red velvet, chocolate and coconut flavors. Retail price: $59 for a box of 9 cupcakes (3 in each flavor). In case you are counting, this comes out to over $6 PER cupcake. I will be sticking to my $1.85 cupcakes from Buttercup.

5. Williams-Sonoma melamine nested mixing bowls with matching measuring cups and spoons. $32 for the bowls and $18 for the cups and spoons.

6. The KitchenAid standmixer - retail $349. I have been DYING for one of these (but there is zero room in my kitchen for this monstrosity).

7. The Planet Earth DVD series from the Discovery Channel. Retail price: $59.95

8. Kai body butter and body buffer, which is like a loofah with built in soap. Retail price: $83 for both - that is a lot for soap, no?

9. Clarisonic skincare system, from the makers of the Sonicare toothbrush. Retail price: $195.

10. Claus Porto jumbo soaps from Lafco New York (where I want to go!) in 17 different scents. A set of 3 is $42. Oprah sure is into the overpriced soaps this year.

11. Autographed copies of The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Oprah's holiday must-read book.

(FedEx elves make their third trip out to the audience at this point. Insanity.)

12. Breville Icon panini press. $99.95 exclusively at Williams-Sonoma. I want one of these too. Don't have room for this in my kitchen either.

13. The most expensive thing in Favorite Things history: LG refrigerator with a built in HDTV, DVD hook-up and radio. You can also access local weather built-in recipes. There is a tv in the refrigerator. Seriously. And costs $3,799. Holy crap.

14. Ciao Bella blood orange sorbeto (inside the LG freezer of course). YUM. $4.99 a pint.

15. Loungy outfits by Rachel Pally. Sailor pants are $194 and tops are $141. I realize this stuff is supposed to be fancy and such, but I would never wear this to be honest.

16. Premiere edition of Scrabble - it's got a built in drawer to store the pieces and spins on a lazy Susan. 70 for game night!

17. United Artists 90th Anniversary Prestige Collection - 90 DVD movies in a box. NINETY movies in one box! $869. She says it's a great gift, but who can afford to buy this for someone?

18. $250 gift card for Target. Woohoo! We love Target!

19. Shaklee Get Clean starter kit. Go green. $89.60 for a basket of the cleaning stuff.

20. O's Guide to Life. The Best of O Magazine all combined into one book. And autographed by Oprah of course. $29.95.

At this point Josh Groban comes out singing Christmas carols. I'm not a huge fan, but he does a pretty stunning version of Silent Night and then shows off piano skills too. So obviously, the logical next favorite thing:

21. Josh Groban Noel CD.

22. And obviously, to wrap all the fab gifts Oprah has just convinced you all to buy - Hallmark RED wrapping paper and holiday card collection.

Not too shabby for the guests in Georgia that got to go to this special taping! And just what I needed to get me in the mood for holiday shopping, since I totally love the time of year coming up and get a high off holiday shopping. Black Friday, here I come!

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to all! :)

b-i-n-g-o!

2007-11-19T20:33:00.000-05:00

It's week 3 of the Amazing Race and crazy Asian dad has a hernia that is going to cause problems during the race for sure. The goth couple is still managing to keep up their makeup ritual and the teams are off to West Africa to find the town of Ouagadougu (or something similarly unpronounceable that I have no chance of spelling correctly). Every single teams gets on the same flight and they all end up waiting for the same train, so there's lot of bunching and all the teams are evened up. Most of this week's activities take place in an African town called Bingo.

The first task they finally get to attempt involves milking camels - LOVE IT. You know why? Because not only do they have to milk the camel, they then have to drink the camel milk. And THEN they have to lead the camels down a path. This proves to be pretty damn hilarious if I do say so myself. Camels are screeching, kicking and pooping all over the place. And then there's Lorena who won't stop screeching and screaming herself, kind of like the camels. Good times.

After some interaction with local African students, Azaria & Hendekea end up first at the pit stop to win a trip to Bermuda, and teams 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 all show up within a minute of each other - I don't know if I've ever seen that happen! And SOMEHOW, Lorena and Jason DON'T come in last even though they were a DISASTER on this leg. Alas, it's bye bye to Marianna & Julia, the bitchy sisters from Florida. All in all, a good week in the race!

Next week: Dancing and scandals!

music makes the world go round

2007-11-18T22:41:00.000-05:00

I used to LOVE music awards shows. As in watched them obsessively - Grammies, AMAs, MTV, etc. etc. If it qualified as some sort of music award, I was watching intently without interruption and not missing a beat. Not so much anymore, though this evening I find myself flipping past the American Music Awards every now and then, so I will comment as I see fit on the bits I do catch between this and football and Pretty Woman (!). Amazing Race is also on but my DVR is recording it and I likely won't watch that tonight.

8:40pm: Ashanti just came out looking fantastically awesome in a mustard yellow gown and awarded Akon an award for best R&B male. His speech is somewhat incoherent though and I don't really have a clue who this guy is that he brought up on stage with him.

8:54pm: I flipped back just in time to see my boy Justin Timberlake win the award for best male artist! Unfortunately he wasn't actually there so all we got was some satellite footage of him being excited about winning the award. And I guess that means he won't be performing tonight :(

9:13pm: Carrie Underwood just won best female country award wearing a fabulous white dress which I will try to find a picture of online. And then some country group came out singing Beyonce's Irreplaceable??! It was all very strange, until Beyonce came out to join them and then it was... still very strange. That song was not meant to be country!

...found a pic of Carrie's dress. I love the design of this. I'm not so sure why, seeing that it's not something I would ever wear, but then again, most of these things aren't. But I love the pattern of the dress and the neckline. It's so chic!

9:37pm: Justin Timberlake wins best R&B album for FutureSex/LoveSounds! And once again, all we get is a quick glimpse of his adorable face via satellite.

9:43pm: Jennie Garth, Mel B and Helio come out representing Dancing With the Stars (and of course - it's an ABC show on an ABC award show) and oh my goodness, Jennie Garth is super adorable!

10:08pm: Duran Duran! They perform two songs and I don't recognize the first song they're performing, but I don't so much care, because how can you not love it? It's Duran Duran!! Their second song is Hungry Like The Wolf, and I just love that in a world of modern pop culture, hip hop and mainstream pop, Duran Duran can still get up on stage and rock it with the best of them. Awesome.

10:25pm: The Patriots are currently beating the Bills 42-7 in the third quarter. It's like there isn't a single team out there who's even attempting to put up a fight against New England!

I dug around a bit and found a picture of Jennie's outfit at the AMAs. I love the dress! Nice and simple, but so cute! And what a great color for her. Many people couldn't be caught dead wearing teal but Jennie carries it off without a hitch!

10:33pm: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony just won an award... I didn't even know they were still around!

Okay, there's still about twenty minutes left in this awards show but I've had enough. Time to call it a night and put both my tv and laptop to rest!

Make it work!

2007-11-18T18:15:00.000-05:00

Season 4 of Project Runway is underway and I have finally gotten around to watching the premiere. We've got 15 new designers ready to roll, and while I usually try to introduce the designers one by one up front (like I do with the Amazing Race teams), I'm just not going to bother this time because... well, I'm too lazy to. So we will meet them as the season goes along, okay?

The new designers are summoned to home of Fashion Week - Bryant Park, where they are greeted by champagne and a very empty park in the middle of the day - as if that EVER happens. Tim and Heidi show up, looking fabulous as usual and making everyone swoon just a bit. With no time to waste, the designers are presented with challenge #1: Grab fabric from three tents set up across the park, lots of it, and then make an outfit that expresses "who you are as a designer." They all ransack the tents, and I feel terribly bad for the big fat guy Chris who can't really run and is the last one to reach the tents, but he turns out to get what he needs and wants out of the fabric choices, so it's all good.

Back to Parsons they go and they've got 13 hours to make it work! Seems like a lot of time (relatively speaking), but next thing you know there's only 4 hours left and here comes Tim to check out the progress. He's not really amused with Simone's progress, and that turns out to be a bad omen of things to come. Rami's making a lovely gray dress with lots of draping and Ricky's making a super cute sparkly babydoll dress. Elisa decides she's done with her dress even though there are still four hours left, and this is a problem because a) her dress has unfinished edges, b) its "pooping fabric" on the backside and c) she makes everyone hate her because she decides to take a nap while everyone else is hard at work. I'd also like to point out that we first met Eliza at Bryant Park grinding her silk chiffon into the ground to cover it with grass stains. Lovely. She isn't using using her grass stained chiffon as far as I can tell though, but I can't really quite figure out if that is a good thing or a bad thing, given the state of her dress.

At 1AM the designers head back to Gotham City for a rest, and the next morning they go back to Parsons to put in their finishing touches, meet and fit their models, get the models' hair and makeup done and make use of the glorious Bluefly Accessories Wall! I loooove the Bluefly accessories wall and this officially becomes my favorite show entity.

It's runway time, Heidi looks awesome as usual and we get to see the designers' first set of creations. Nina and Michael are seated and ready to judge, joined by designer Monique Lhuillier, whose work I don't know very well, BUT who I know makes lovely wedding gowns.

There are some of the usual disasters, and some outfits that are lovely. Actually, I was quite pleasantly surprised at just how lovely many of the outfits came out - pretty impressive for the first week. The winning outfit:

Made by Rami, and most definitely one of my favorites this week.

One day you're in, the next you're out:

Bye bye Simone. You didn't really stick around long enough for me to decide if I actually cared you were leaving. I was surprised Elisa the puppet maker didn't go home, given that her creation was quite awful, but I guess she got the creativity points.

All things considered, we're off to a good start for season four, and I can't wait to see more of the Bluefly Accessories Wall!

shoes

2007-11-14T21:21:00.000-05:00

This made me laugh and laugh and laugh. It looks so sweet and innocent at first glance, doesn't it? And is just especially funny to me considering my recent shoe investment (see below post). It's a pin being sold by a Paris-based website called Locher's and there is all kinds of cute and funny stuff on the site. Seriously, if you get a chance, browse the site. It's quite entertaining.

Project Runway 4 starts tonight! Hope those DVRs are set! Bluefly.com is in cohorts with the show this year - every week the winning design will be available for sale on Bluefly the next day. Imagine that!

the devil wears prada

2007-11-13T20:50:00.000-05:00

Aren't they lovely? Biggest fashion investment I've ever made in my life!

the grass is greener

2007-11-12T20:14:00.000-05:00

...in Ireland! Seriously, the grass is a ridiculous shade of bright lush green in Shannon, Ireland where the teams in the Amazing Race had their first pit stop. I can't quite get over it. But in any case, it's night time by the time the second leg starts this week and the teams are off to an airport to find a flight to Amsterdam for this next leg, so bye-bye to bright green grass.

Teams battle over two different flights to Amsterdam, and once there, it's gray and gloomy. Teams are greeted with a detour of either scouring through huge decks of bike racks for ones with matching stickers or completing a very bugs bunny-like lifting task to get furniture from the sidewalk to an upper floor of an Amsterdam home. After this craziness, teams are led to... ditch vaulting! Oh yes, pole vaulting over a muddy, dirty, soggy ditch. If you fall in, you're slimed. And so this is the roadblock that makes this episode oh so interesting. The first team to attempt it flies over it with ease... and then it's all over after that. Most tries result in mud covered contestants and I think this show reaches a new height when the grandpa gets covered in mud and decides to strip himself down to his underwear (in the form of what appears to be tighty whities but they're black and spandexy - gross). So here we have 68 year old grandpa Donald and his pale jiggly body, clothed in way too tight underpants and covered in mud, vaulting over the ditch. What a sight.

In any event, Asian dad Ronald (clad in a "Who's Your Daddy?" windbreaker) turns out to be somewhat of a nutcase and acts all crazy this episode, which makes me and all the other teams feel very sorry for poor Christina. He's going to need to settle down a bit if they're going to have any chance of climbing out of last place, where they currently reside.

And in the end, Lorena & Jason get to the pit stop first to win the leg of the race along with a pair of sports bikes that Lorena acts way more excited about than I bet she actually is. Minister couple Kate & Pat can't quite get their act together for any part of this episode and alas, come in last place and are eliminated.

Next week: Camels!!

chilly

2007-11-10T16:43:00.000-05:00

I have yet to leave my apartment today. I had such grand plans for the day: watch some football, run all my errands, visit my parents, go out to dinner. Instead, it's creeping up on 5pm and I have yet to venture outside. All I've accomplished is watching Wisconsin beat Michigan (yay), sneaking in a little nap, watching more football, eating a bunch of tater tots and... that's about it. There's a chill in the air outside and I'm thinking I might just be more comfortable holing up in my cozy apartment for the remainder of the day watching more football and catching up on some tv. Yes, I am lazy when it is cold outside!

vegas!

2007-11-07T20:47:00.001-05:00

I am currently watching a show on Discovery HD called Build It Bigger. In this particular episode, it shows the construction of the new upscale hotel and casino the Palazzo, a 53-story extension my very favorite venue in Vegas, The Venetian. The Palazzo boasts to be the biggest, tallest, newest and most glam hotel in Vegas. Can't say that I can argue with them, and watching it get constructed is super cool! I must see it in person! I'm feeling the need for a Vegas fix soon...

Oh and by the way, new season of Project Runway starts next week on Wednesday, November 14th @ 10PM on Bravo. Set your DVRs!

young hollywood

2007-11-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

One of the many reasons I love The Hills is that it allows me to vicariously live out the fantasy world in which i am a fashion princess living and working in the fashion industry. Lauren works at Teen Vogue and gets to do super cool things. Her and Whitney are in charge of coordinating this Young Hollywood Fashion Show in the very swanky Vibiana Church in LA. Lauren gets to be the stylist for Marc Jacobs' fashion show. Everyone is dressed to the nines and schmoozing with good looking people. In other words, a far cry from me and my jeans and sneakers in any random sports bar. Of course, living such a glamorous fashion-infused lifestyle would probably require me to live in LA, spend lots of money and be somewhat superficial and shallow. So not so much. Besides, it would also require me to give up my cute little condo which I love dearly even though it has recently been rezoned into an insurance-required flood zone due to its proximity to the East River. *sigh*

ready, set, go!

2007-11-05T21:52:00.000-05:00

Here we are, it's season 12 of The Amazing Race, I couldn't wait to watch and I am as always, smitten. First, we meet the teams:

Shana & Jennifer: Two blondies from LA, and they think they're hot, but they're not. They think they're going to flirt their way to the finish line, but have they not watched the first 11 seasons of this show? It's so not how the race is won. They are doomed and I already dislike them.

Kynt & Vyxsin: Those are not typos in the names! It's a goth dating couple from KENTUCKY and I'm fascinated to see how long they manage to keep up their goth makeup on a daily basis on this race - their makeup must take up a crapload of space in their backpacks!

TK & Rachel: Hipster couple from Cali who think they are madly in love but have only known each other for a year. I know, who am I to be judgmental?

Jennifer & Nathan: Jock couple from Cali who are already fighting and screaming at each other a lot, and it's only the first leg of the race. They're in trouble and no Jennifer, now is NOT the time to wonder if you want to spend the rest of your life with this boy. Especially not when you have a donkey that won't budge.

Jason & Lorena: ANOTHER couple from Cali. Lorena is super whiny and a total crybaby and and Jason doesn't seem to really give a crap about anything, including the race. Combined, they are incredibly annoying.

Nicolas & Ronaldo: A boy and his grandfather. You can sense the anxiety in Nicolas as he tries to hurry along his 68-year-old grandfather along at every pass. This is not going to go well because you can tell the grandfather is going to get stuck doing physical tasks that he can't actually do and we're all going to cringe.

Azaria & Hendekea: Brother and sister token black team. Don't have much of an opinion about them just yet, but they seem pretty harmless and fun. Oh, and they're not annoying, which is a plus.

Ronald & Christina: Token Asian team comprised of father and daughter. Of course I am rooting for them! Ronaldo serenades his daughter as they bike ride, and it is adorable. Almost as adorable when he yells "Who's your daddy?" at the pit stop.

Ari & Staella: Best friends from Cali. I already don't like them because they shamelessly stole one of the other teams' taxis. I know it's a game and all, but STILL. At least have a little guilt about it!

Marianna & Julia: Sisters from Florida. They are pretty irritating, but this early in the race, I can't actually put my finger on why. Stay tuned.

Kate & Pat: Married Ministers from California who think they are holier than thou, and I suppose as ministers they can think that. But it doesn't give them a right to be obnoxious!

First stop: Ireland! The race starts in LA, but no sooner than we meet the teams are we off to LAX to hop on a flight to Ireland. Aside from being rainy when they get there, it's beautiful! There's bright green grass everywhere, cute little farm houses and locals with adorable Irish accents. In Ireland, they ride bikes and lead donkeys to a farm (I love the tasks involving animals the best!). The donkey task is great because some of the donkeys refuse to even move in typical stubborn donkey format while others run so fast that the teams leading them can't keep up. heehee. At the pit stop, Hendekea & Azaria come in first place and win a trip to... Canada? The other teams trickle in as fast as their donkeys will allow them, and in the end, Ari & Staella are the last to arrive at the pitstop due to a very uncooperative donkey. And remember how they stole another team's taxi earlier in the leg? That's what we call karma, bitches.

the race is on!

2007-11-04T20:36:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the season premiere of one of my favorite reality shows EVER, The Amazing Race! Very exciting to finally have a reality show that I'm excited about back on. It's season 12, it starts now, and I will be talking about this show a lot over the next couple of months while the teams race around the world, so set your DVRs!!

I'm currently watching Sunday Night Football featuring the Cowboys vs. the Eagles (a game where I want both teams to lose... can that happen?), but my DVR is recording away, so check back soon when I get a chance to check out the teams and provide my usual commentary on the contestants and the race!

tv weekend

2007-11-03T19:48:00.000-04:00

It's Saturday evening and what have I done today? Ventured to Bed, Bath and Beyond, got my car washed and did a round of grocery shopping. Then I came home and plopped myself in front of the tv. Oh, but not until after I scrubbed down my entire bathroom and windexed and swiffered every surface in my apartment that would allow it. And then I made baked ziti. So I think it's deserved that it's now Saturday evening and I'm doing nothing other than gorging on my pasta and watching tv, right? Most of the afternoon was filled with college football but I did also manage to watch a bunch of shows from the week.

The Office went back to half hour episodes but are still as ingenius as ever. This week was the return of Jim's ex-girlfriend Karen, who I still dislike. I haven't missed her at all, I hope this was only a one time appearance. She's got bad hair and a bad attitude.

Scrubs is back, and JD is having a BABY!! Well, Kim is having a baby, but it's JD's! It's a baby filled episode, and who doesn't love babies?

In a stunning upset, Cheetah Girl Sabrina is eliminated from Dancing with the Stars! She was the BEST dancer on the show, who knows what happened. But I guess it doesn't matter so much given that I'm barely watching the show anymore anyway. I watch about ten minutes of it a week, enough to find out what dances they learned and who got eliminated. Lame, I know.

And now I'm sitting here watching a chick flick on HBO called Because I Said So starring Diane Keaton and Mandy Moore. It's not very good, but it passes the time before I decide to switch back to college football for the rest of the evening. Yes, just my kind of a Saturday evening!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T19:41:00.000-04:00

Saw this on the porch of someone's house during my last Penn State trip:

Classy, I know.

for the glory

2007-10-29T20:36:00.000-04:00

Once again, I apologize for my absence. It's been one of those... months, and I'm only starting to get my act back together. I've returned from my final Penn State football trip of the season, one that was cold and depressing, accented by an embarrassing loss to OSU on national television, but highlighted by the excitement of College GameDay and breakfast burritos.

Also welcome my first attempt at youtubing:

Unfortunately there's lots of crowd noise and I also got tired of holding up my camera so it's only the first two verses!

In the process of attempting to record College GameDay, the Penn State game AND the Giants game while I was away, my shows from last week got deleted from my DVR :( So I missed The Office as well as Scrubs. So sad.

I should be able to get myself back on track now with no more trips, no more baseball and just football to deal with. Need to tidy up my DVR and I'll be back in business so stay tuned!

Oops

2007-10-20T11:59:00.001-04:00

For those of you actually paying attention, apologies for not having written anything in the past two weeks. I was away last weekend having a super drunk time at Homecoming (Penn State 38, Wisconsin 7) and have been feeling somewhat under the weather all week, possibly somewhat related to the fact that I overdid it just a bit during my college weekend. Amidst all that, I have been trying to keep up with tv but there hasn't been anything GREAT on. Some things are good, but nothing is great. Kind of disappointing. EXCEPT for The Office, which has stretched itself out to hourlong episodes this season and are hysterically funny. The first season that The Office was on, I was skeptical, because although it was funny, I had already seen the BBC version of the show which was hysterical in its own right with its dry British humor and sassy characters. The first season of the American version was nothing but an exact play-by-play of the British version, and it was hard to have to compare them. Since then, the American version of The Office has had quite a coming out party and I am quite loving it! And for the record, she is not one of the main characters, but the woman who plays Kelly Kapoor is absolutely genius - her character throws just the right amount of crazy-obsessed-girlfriend humor into the mix. Fabulous!

And now, it's Penn State football time. Have a lovely weekend! Until the next time I am able to muster the energy to write, here's a picture from my Penn State-Wisconsin weekend. It's me and a certain Wisconsin fan at Penn State's Lion Shrine - you'd never know from this picture, but it was taken at abut 2AM and while incredibly trashed. I'm refraining from posting the pictures where it is obvious just how drunk we are :) I look perfectly sober in this one, though it's amazing I didn't fall off the lion, as that sucker is pretty slippery!

29

2007-10-09T21:03:00.000-04:00

My 29th birthday came and went with rather little fanfare, just the way I liked it. I had a three day weekend (inadvertantly stretched into four) and spent most of it... eating. Birthday meal #1 consisted of yummy soup dumpling and a big fried seabass. Birthday meal #2 was sushi at my favorite sushi place in the city, and birthday meal #3 was a delicious massive buffet spread that left me so full I was almost ill... but I managed to make room for the tasty little birthday cake highlighted by my niece and nephew serenading me with a birthday song.

Aside from the food, Penn State got a win and the Giants got a win, so aside from the debacle that is the New York Yankees, which I will decline from discussing at this time, it was not such a bad birthday weekend. The Yankees must have missed the memo about it being my birthday. hmph.

Next up - Penn State homecoming!

baseball pains

2007-10-04T21:02:00.000-04:00

Game 1 of the Yankees-Indians ALDS playoff series is currently on. So it's the 5th inning and the Yankees are crumbling and down 9-3. I made me somewhat sick to my stomach and I couldn't bear to watch anymore so I turned the game off. Yankees in the playoffs and I had to turn the tv off because it's so terribly difficult to watch! Oh what a debacle. I'll turn it back on it a bit to continue the torture, but in the interim I put on Survivor: China (and yeah they are in China but honestly, it looks like every other island on which they've ever filmed this show!) to soothe my brain a bit. I do not understand how the Yankees can continue to torture me like this, season after season after season... *sigh*

woe is britney

2007-10-01T19:19:00.001-04:00

I've been staying away from the debacle that is celebrity gossip, bu due to popular deand from halfway around the world: Britney has temporarily lost custody of her kids! The bad driving, the drinking, the drugs... it's all caught up to her and of all things, K-Fed now gets to hang on to the kids until further notice, because Brit is such a mess. It is a sad SAD world when K-Fed is the better one!

secrets & lies

2007-09-30T10:30:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to watching what I THOUGHT was the season premiere of Desperate Housewives from last weekend and must say that I was sorely, sorely disappointed as it wasn't at all the season premiere but an extended 43-minute long recap of prior seasons. A long, detailed step-by-step recap of each and every desperate housewife's life. So not necessary.

So it turns out the premiere is actually tonight, but I won't be able to watch because I'll be at the Eagles-Giants game. Woohoo! Let's just hope I can manage to not get myself into as much trouble as I did the last time I went to a Giants game! Seriously.

Lucky 13

2007-09-26T22:59:00.001-04:00

Yankees FINALLY clinched their playoff spot tonight! Took 'em freakin long enough, but considering how horrid they started the season, I'll take what I can get. 13 straight seasons into the post season... could this be lucky 13?

dancing queen

2007-09-26T21:30:00.000-04:00

This is a reality tv blog after all, and this week started a new season of one of my favorite guilty pleasures in the reality tv world ever – Dancing with the Stars! Not only do I love the concept of pairing up celebrities with professional dancers and having them compete against each other, but it also allows me to live vicariously through these fantastic dancers that forever make me wish I was one of them! Yes, in my own secret fantasy world, I want to foxtrot and mambo with the best of them and dance, dance, dance my life away!

Among this season's dancing stars are:
- Jennie Garth (aka Kelly Taylor from my most favorite show ever in the 90’s – Beverly Hills, 90210)
- A Cheetah Girl (no clue who she is but my niece wold be all over it) who is fabulously adorable
- Scary Spice Girl Mel B
- Wayne Newton
- Sports Illustrated model Josie something-or-another (since when do models qualify as celebrities?)
- Boxer Floyd Mayweather, because every season has to have at least one bigfooted athlete
- Jane Seymour (Dr. Quinn)
- Marie Osmond
- An Indy 500 race car driver who's name I don't remember
- Abercrombie & Fitch model Albert Reed (yeah he's pretty cute, but kinda dorky looking all at the same time, go figure)
- Soap star hottie Cameron Mathison
- Owner of the Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban (you'd think he had better things to do than participate on this show)

This week, the lady celebrities performed one night, the gentlemen celebrities performed the next night, and the on the THIRD night (okay, even I will admit three nights of this show in one week is a bit of overkill), there is a vote off and bye-bye to Josie the model - she really just could not dance much at all, and I had no idea who the hell she was before this week, so the dance must go on!

big brother has failed us

2007-09-22T09:51:00.000-04:00

Dick won Big Brother by a vote of 5 to 2 - seriously. What a travesty this season has been and I am glad it is all over. Apologies for the lack of blogging in the past week. It's been a long, tiring and all around painful week for a variety of reasons and so tv hasn't really been at the top of my priority list (crazy, I know).

Fall tv is starting soon, which means new shows, new seasons of old show and just lots of things to watch in general when you throw in baseball and football! Some notables coming up:

- Season premiere of The Office: Thursday, September 27 @ 8PM
- Yet another season of The Simpsons starts Sunday, September 23 @8PM
- Dancing With the Stars: Monday, September 24 @ 8PM
- Desperate Hosewives: Sunday, September 30 @ 9PM

And a variety of brand new shows will I'll do my best to check out and report back on. It's a big day in college football today and so off I go to watch College GameDay...

Danato Debacle

2007-09-14T19:29:00.000-04:00

I officially HATE this season of Big Brother. The fact that the Danatos are the top two and have won the game demonstrate all the many, MANY things wrong in this world. blah.

whiteout!

2007-09-09T18:37:00.000-04:00

I'm SO PISSED both Jessica and Eric got evicted last week. UGH! Terrible.

Aside from that, I don't have much else - was away this weekend enjoying a beautiful football weekend at Penn State and it was super fun! We pulled off a full stadium whiteout and beat Notre Dame, 31-10. Woohoo!

Come on now, admit it, that looks pretty cool!

cindy's reality tv (and other really good shows on tv) commentary

new year, new tv

happy holidays!

desperate and awesome.

dance overload

90210

genius.

politics

summer's end

america's favorite zip code

moley mole

BB 10

round 10

happy 4th.

weeds

eight is enough

the mole

labels and love

whew.

snooze

it's coming back!

david vs. david

and then there were three

oh so tired

return of the smoke monster

spring has sprung

*gasp*

idol gives back

dream on

nbc debacle

baseball!

sleepy

chikeeeezee

top ten

staged reality

dance!

down to a dozen

improv everywhere

til death do you part... or til Big Brother changes his mind

i'm back!

snow!

top 24

love stinks

'til death do you part

rehab

18-1

Phoenix-bound!

uninspiring

yikes

the modern woman

alaska's not as cold as green bay

omg

dance wars

the mob

damn you dvr

candy shop

i wonder

one down...

happy new year (eve)!

year in review

Merry Xmas Eve!

Most Fascinating

yummy

feathers

movies rock

sick

funny

winter!

tiki!

sick

bitten

angels

no chicken, no check-in

post-turkey haze

i choose me.

favorite things

b-i-n-g-o!

music makes the world go round

Make it work!

shoes

gasp