WTF?!??!

Man, don't mess with Trump I tell ya.

So this week Trump was too busy for his tv show and flew off to LA and left Carolyn in charge along with Apprentice Number One, Bill. It's nice to know George's job is real enough that he's too busy once in awhile for the show, too.

Carolyn had the PMs of each team choose their weakest 3 members and switch sides. Alla seemingly made a huge error in giving up Rebecca and Marshawn; she also sent over last week's idiot Jennifer. Josh sent over the obvious: Markus, Clay and some guy named Adam (where did he come from anyway?!?!). I immediately felt sorry for Randal.

Their task: come up with an in-store promotion at a sporting goods store based around a single sport. The team who raises the revenue of that department by the highest percentage wins.

Alla's team chose golf even though none of them knew a thing about it. They focused on Clay whining to Alla the whole time about the setup. The other team got behind James' idea of baseball. They were going to set up a baseball diamond in the store, with a batting cage in the middle and stations to sell baseball items at each base.

I say were because the manly men of Josh, James and Marc got so obsessed with the batting cage concept that it grew to be bigger than the whole diamond (practically). This meant their stations were shoved far off to the sides. Jennifer meanwhile claimed she was going to sell anything they gave her to sell, and became especially obsessed with the radar guns.

Alla's golfing group set up a mini-putting green for kids which worked well because part of the team would spend time watching the kids play golf, while the rest shuffled the parents off to all the items they wanted to sell them.

Josh's baseball group drew a much larger crowd but they were too busy waiting in line to bat in the cage and learning batting tips from Josh, Marc and James to spend any money. And Jennifer? Couldn't even sell the pretzels and hot dogs that didn't even figure into their revenue. Marc didn't even pick up on visiting Bill's hint to get out of the cage and start selling to customers. Anyone, including a store employee, could have fed the balls in that machine that he insisted he had to run. And Josh? He was a mess. He let the whole event get out of control.

So obviously, Alla's team kicked their ass, raising revenue 74 percent. Josh and his crew managed to have sales DROP 34 PERCENT, the biggest loss in Apprentice history.

As Alla's team celebrated with a deep sea fishing trip, you couldn't help but wonder how the heck they won, except for Randal. I love Randal.

Back in the boardroom, Trump returned and upon questioning the whole team, found the whole thing a mess. He found out Rebecca, on the crutches with no sales experience, sold the most with Marshawn and exempt Brian coming in second. He was so disgusted at the loss, he didn't even let PM Josh pick who to bring in the boardroom. He excused Marshawn, Brian and Rebecca and brought the rest of the team in. I liked that because it put an end to that whole "I'm gonna protect my friend and gang up on the weak person we don't like" tactic.

So he brought those four back in and after some really tough questioning and pointed criticism from Bill, fired each and everyone one of them. I guess this season just got four weeks shorter.

The cab ride was awesome. All four squeezed in with none of them talking. Josh in particular seemed shocked and appalled.
That was awesome man. And it brings the obvious final three to: Rebecca, Marshawn and Randal. I predict a Randal v. Marshawn final two and please don't make me pick one. I'd have to take Marshawn. She's so well spoken and choses her words so carefully.
But Randal? He rocks.

It can't get much worse?

Seriously. I'm trying to give Martha the benefit of the doubt but celebrity dogs?
The auction was at least somewhat exciting but I've tuned out most of the episode out of sheer boredom.
Here's hoping next week picks up a bit.
Ugh. Celebrity dogs!??!?

This tastes like a My Little Pony

That, my friends, was the best line of the night.

Overall a good episode. Some of the cuts to commercial were more awkward than usual. But we saw some flashes of the old Rory again and that made me happy. Though I don't like her bangs.

Madeline Albright did so well (in my opinion) as Lorelei in Rory's dream. It made me sad that their plan for 21 didn't work out though. Luke, as usual, is proving to be a dream and I'm so glad that they are allowing Lorelei to believe she deserves a guy like him. Logan proved to be a big shit. Rory should recognize his annoyance with her grandparents as something she doesn't want. I mean, Luke's reaction to them is one thing; Logan is just a brat about it.
I loved Luke giving Rory his mother's pearls and really enjoy the dynamic between he, Rory and Lorelei. He hates being in the middle but you can see since season one that he has loved Rory like a daughter and I hope he gets to be her stepdad.

Poor Grampa Gilmore. His heart is broken. Man, that scene where he was opening up to Lorelei and then totally got pushed by Emily's obnoxiousness to admit that he doesn't want Rory to be "just" a DAR fundraiser...wow. Just wow. It's not whether he believes that life is right for Emily...though you can see why she'd be offended by insinuation. Just great stuff.

The best part was the "scenes from upcoming episodes." I've never been a fan of Jess. He didn't treat either Rory or Luke in a way they deserved. But having him call her out - tell her she's not being herself - is perfect. The one thing about Jess is that he knew Rory better than anyone.

The Eeyore Pumpkin has spoken

Both Anonymous and Simba's Mom had great suggestions to postpone my Charlie Brown viewing till another time and enjoy the drama that will be Rory's birthday tonight. However, it's just not the same when I don't watch it the night it's actually airing...so I went to the Eeyore Pumpkin and he said "Trick or treat." He wasn't much help.
I shall tape my great pumpkin special, wonder why they Pooh special isn't on, and watch Rory's party and hope Logan falls in the punch bowl.

I hope the Eeyore pumpkin shows well in this picture. He was hanging out with some regular Jack O' Lanterns the other night...

Linus and Lorelei

The big dilemma for the evening: Do I tape Charlie Brown and watch Gilmore Girls? Or Vice Versa?

I shall have to ask my pumpkin I carved this weekend for the answer. My pumpkin is carved with Eeyore's face, and Eeyore knows all.

You're not going to slay *this* dragon!

I'm not even sure what that argument had to do with dragons anyway.

Tonight on Martha's Apprentice the teams were reconfigured and had to make, market, and sell a new salad dressing for Wishbone.
They had a day to make the dressing and design the label; and they had an afternoon demo at a supermarket lined up to sell the dressing.

Since the two chefs were split up and sent to separate teams, it was finally time to see who was the better chef. Bethany claimed to be and Marcella seemed to let her think Bethany was, too. But in the end, Marcella's Rosemary Lime Vinegrette sounds more tasty and more unlike anything on sale today, while Bethany's Asian Vinegrette probably was awesome (Martha loved it) but really, how many brands have something like it already? Marcella's first dressing was what really impressed her team but they were scared off by the green color. Really guys? Seriously? It's going on a green salad anyway?

It came down to price points and number of bottles sold. The Rosemary team had a lesser price than the Asian team. But the Asian team had live wire Jim on their side and since he decided to sell the dressing as a foot massage oil, and also swore to a teammate in front of some children, they got reprimanded and almost kicked out of the store.

In the end, the Rosemary sold more bottles and won. And now you can buy it for a limited time along with a Cranberry Walnut dressing (I wonder why Master Chef Bethany's dressing isn't on the market!???!). They got a boat ride.

And Jim was taken into the boardroom where he wasn't fired. I mean, Martha, I know he's good tv but do you really want him representing you? Didn't Wishbone get pissed at his antics?

Instead the weak project manager Jennifer was sent home. And Martha couldn't even muster up a long letter for her this time. She was unimpressed to say the least.

Next week: something with celebrity dogs. And More Jim Antics Galore!

Sores and Boils Alley

Tonight on Gilmore:

The town agrees to amp up the charm and increase tourism by renaming all the streets to the names they had in 1779. Against the logic of upping the tourism, the Dragonfly, you know, the INN that drives people to visit Stars Hollow in the first place, gets Sores and Boils Lane and Taylor of course can see nothing wrong with it.

Rory and Logan are so good at hiding their poolhouse rendezvous that Emily and Richard can't believe they are still together. When they do manage to grasp onto Logan, Richard asks him tons of questions about Rory's future in a desperate attempt to find out what is going on in her life and whether she will ever go back to Yale. But Logan, despite his Yale schooling and private schooling from all over the world assumes this means they want Rory and Logan to get married. Big Leap there, big guy. They don't even really like you, they just love Rory and want her happy.

Emily lost it when the maid put sugar on her grapefruit AND she finds out Richard has seen Lorelei all in the same breakfast.

It's obvious that Richard is hurt by the revelation that Rory threw her life away over a boy and his dumb father. When Rory's picture from the DAR gala from last week appears in the paper it seems to upset both Richard and Lorelei separately but in the same way. They can see the waste that is happening right now in Rory's life and rather than being angry, they are just plain hurt.

Logan bought Rory a fancy purse and she reacted to it much like I would (put her old purse in it to carry it, didn't have a clue what the big deal was about it, etc.). I'm not sure how I'd react if J bought me a purse. Her reaction to it brought flashes of old Rory back...the one who wasn't so impressed with all things wealthy.

Lorelei keeps getting weird deliveries of Emily's old belongings (clock, bird cage, figurine, urn, etc). Luke tries to get Lorelei to call her mother; but of course Lorelei wants nothing to do with it. That woman just can't let Richard have a relationship with their daughter that doesn't include her. The absurd thing is she doesn't even realize how awful the visit Richard had with Lorelei truly was; it wasn't pleasant in the least.

Emily gets wind of Richard's true intentions with his discussion of Logan and so they break into the pool house...Richard completely uncomfortable. Emily with all her Lorelei experience, sets to work quickly. They find nothing, of course, mainly because they haven't a clue what to look for...

Lorelei's rejection of Sores and Boils Alley gets her removed from Taylor's Maps of Stars Hollow. Emily calls Lorelei and owns up to having sent her tons of stuff when she calls under the guise of re-doing her old bedroom into a gift wrapping room (which sounds dreamy to me...can you imagine?). When Lorelei admits to wanting it, her mother asks when she's going to come get it. Classic Emily. She will individually ship over 50 boxes of things but the one thing Lorelei wants, she has to come get. It's a wonder Lorelei isn't more screwed up.

Lorelei took her gripes to an unseen town meeting. Apparently even though she can pay $100 to keep 3rd Street as her street name, Taylor apparently patted her on the head so the deal was off and Sores and Boils Alley it stays.

Emily pushes Lorelei too far with the dollhouse, giving her a noon deadline and Lorelei stands up for herself and says burn the damn dollhouse.

Rory continues her decline by telling Logan she loves him, giving him the "Dean told me that and I handled it wrong so don't say anything" out, and Logan sorta weasles his way out of saying it but leads Rory to think that he said it anyway.

As Luke and Lorelei take inventory of her mother's possessions before they head out to Goodwill, Richard shows up at her house with the dollhouse. And to talk about Rory.

Credits roll....

I love Richard.

Good Old Gilmores

I'm in the process of catching all the Gilmore Girls by netflixing them on DVD.

I'm in the midst of season four, Rory's first at Yale, and when the show first starts to divide Rory's world from Lorelei's.

Then on Tuesday night, I'm in the midst of season six where all hell is broken loose and they no longer are even speaking.

On the one hand, it shows how well the show is written. This needed to happen and as much as I hate the current state of Gilmore land, it's well done.

On the other, I'm finding that watching the old episodes is kinda making me sad. Because Rory is still Rory, this character I could identify with in ways I want to. Unlike now, where Rory is uncomfortable to watch (Because I identify with her in other ways...).

Ding, Dong, Toral's Gone...

I can't post more till later but I wanted to chime in that I'm sOOOOOOO glad Toral got fired by Trump last night. She isn't even suited enough to be his admin! Tee hee.

The Weavers, they've lost it - Updated

So on the Race last night, I'm finally learning the names of people and getting a bit more into it. They took their first flights, giving airport action as they flew from DC to South Carolina. I thought it was funny when the teams all freaked out when Widower Weaver asked the airline ticket attendants about some basics of flying cuz she was freaked about flying, and everyone else assumed they were being devious.

The roadblock slowed a lot of teams down. They had to either do some mud bogging - four wheel driving through mud in a Jeep at a location 45 minutes from the clue box and the next task; or the shrimp boat task that was closer but involved snapping the heads off 200 pounds of shrimp. The mud bogging was tried by the Weavers who gave up; the Aiellos who were severely slowed down by it but got it done; and the Gaghans (team with two little kids) who got it on the first try.

The groups were divided into two busses, each leaving two hours apart (so if you finished your roadblock first, you got the first bus, etc.). I loved it when the Gaghan dad, who's so hyper-competitive sounding in earlier episodes, was leading the second bus in a made-up song of "We're all in last place!" The second bus was shown stopping at a waffle house where the eldest Weaver daughter lost it, crying in the bathroom, and the mother claimed she felt like a prisoner because they were stuck on a bus and weren't told where they were going. That resulted in them dancing in the parking lot and singing while the other teams were shown giving interviews about the Weaver family finally losing it.

The bus trip was 8 hours long, taking them to Space Camp in Alabama. They had to do that g-force thing as a roadblock and then find a shuttle for the pit stop.

The women doing the race with their Dad won the leg, with the brothers and sister from Cinci coming in second. The first place team got FREE GAS FOR LIFE from BP.

The Aiellos took too long at the clue box before the g-force thing, making them do it last, and that meant they made it to the pit stop last and were eliminated. The Aiellos were the team of the dad with his sons in law.

Who wouldn't want to win free BP gas for life!??!?!?!???!?!?

I'm sad the Aiellos are gone. I liked them a lot and they were having fun.

I'm hoping the race will pick up a bit with less people involved. Right now we're having to watch so many people, that the pace of the show is suffering. OH, and the super loud freak out sisters fight next week. ROCK ON.

Lorelei was right? You're KIDDING me!

Loved loved loved last night's episode of Le Gilmores. Paris was a hoot. Kirk did mime. Luke and Lorelei had a misunderstanding and realized it together and worked through it, like grownups (gasp!), and didn't even fight. And best of all, Richard and Emily finally realized that Lorelei was right, that they sided with the wrong Gilmore and made a rash choice in allowing Rory to run away from her first failure. Will they do anything about it? (I don't know; I missed the previews for next week cuz my tape cut them off.) It almost doesn't matter. It was so great to see Emily attack Logan's mother, so sweetly yet so viciously.
But oh my, the other pitch-perfect writing moment was having Lorelei and Sookie react to the dancers at the recital they way they did. The best.

Martha, Martha, Martha: The Cake Edition

Ok, these dudes had to create and sell one type of wedding cake, their sales point being a wedding expo of sorts.
And so of course the creative team blew it again.
What the hell is up with Jim not being there for his pregnant wife? Hello? She's giving BIRTH dude! No job is more important than that you little shite.
But despite the past episodes, Jim was not the villain this time. No, not even with him missing the birth of his child so he could sell wedding cakes for a tv show.
No, that title belonged to clueless and annoying Shawn. She did the market research, calling a high-end cake designer who told her pink is the current hot color and to go with an oval cake. So the baker on the team did just that. And then Shawn decided pink was ugly and she hated the cake. So she didn't even really try hard to sell it.
Meanwhile, the other team played it safer with an all white cake, that obviously brides who had already started planning thei big day could fit into their weddings. And they kicked ass.
I'd like to see more about the tasting portion though.

And so the Project manager brought back the team's scapegoat, Dawn, who they just hate for no real reason. And the woman who stayed up all night baking the cake. And Martha didn't like it so she brought in everyone on the team and fired Shawn's egotistical ass.

I still think Martha's daughter is cool.
That is all.

The Race!

There are some elements of this Family Edition of Amazing Race that I like. I just think so far there are far too many people to keep track of in only an hour. I keep getting mad at the screaming sisters...dudes, keep it down. Your squealing led three other teams to the clue box. If you play it cooler, then no one knows you found it...Amazing Race 101.

I loved the idea of the task right at the pit stop. It made for some foot races of extremely exhausted people.

Sookie and Luke's Butt

Ah, Gilmores. Lorelei broke my heart when they showed her looking so longingly and broken at Rory as Rory approached the church last night. The more this goes on, the longer I'm upset with Rory and more I support Lorelei. Next week looks to be good with the elder Gilmores realizing that (gasp!) Lorelei was right!

This week was so much better without TJ. Brother Beau was quirky but not annoying like TJ.
Also: Loved the scene with Lane and Rory. Lane was so awkward with Rory, too, like it is when friends start to grow apart and it made you want to scream even more at Rory at what she's giving up for Logan.
Sure, they bonded rather quickly after that initial weirdness but still, it just magnified how far from Stars Hollow Rory is, in mind and spirit.

OH yeah what was up with Sookie's obsession with Luke's Bootie anyway?

The World's First Combination of Analyst and Therapist...

Tonight on Arrested Development:

Scott Baio started as Bob Loblaw who Lindsey is of course after. She ended up using the family's entire retainer on phone sex with him. Meanwhile, her husband Tobais announced that he was the world's first analyst and therapist and showed off his business card, labeling him an "analrapist." When he gave his card to Buster, Buster squealed. Tobais explained that it was pronounced "a-nal-ruh-pist" but as Buster said, "It's not the pronunciation I was worried about."
Buster got tricked back into the army by accepting a medal. George hired a surrogate dad to attend all family functions outside the range of his house arrest. This meant Super Dave Osborne was on and he recited everything that George said. Everything, including the instructions he was being given. GOB went back and forth on accepting Steve Holt! as his son again. Ultimately, he accepted him only to take a roofie in order to forget about it. George Michael told Steve Holt! that he was Maybae's cousin after Steve Holt! said "I'm doing your cousin tonight;" George Michael said "Yeah and so are you." Tee hee. Anyway, Maybae had freaked at the thought of having sex so she drugged Steve Holt! before she could find out that he was her cousin; she drugged him in order to make him think that they had sex. And the family drugged Rita, Michael's new girlfriend, after they kidnapped her and knocked her out. Michael still has no clue that Rita is spying on him. Oh, they had their first date at an American Themed restaurant in Wee Britain, where they were served 64 oz beverages and baskets of donuts. And we saw the brief return of GOB's racist ventriloquist dummy.

I haven't laughed this hard in a looooong time.


edited to add: THIS is perhaps the bestest thing ever!

Live From New York...

About the only tv I watched this weekend was SNL. Steve Carell was the host and he was actually quite good. I don't know why I'm shocked...I guess cuz sometimes I can really like a host and then they actually host SNL and it's just not good. His sketches were pretty good though and he did really well with the ensemble.

I wish he'd done Weekend Update, though. Horatio Sanz? Of all the cast available, and a host with a background in fake news, you send Horatio Sanz to fill in for Tina Fey? Amy Poehler still rocks.

I loved the Jet Blue air skit where the passengers could watch themselves crash land (except Steve Carell, who was watching Charles in Charge instead). Best moment was probably Kanye West "running into" Mike Meyers in the hallway and Mike Meyers acting all scared of him.

And we had a Debby Downer sketch. Since I just got done working with a Debby Downer, that "wah wah" music really cracked me up. As soon as the real-life version got fired/quit (mutual separation I guess), we were talking about how conversations with her made us want to go "Wah, wahhhhhh" as soon as she got done talking.

Next Week: Napoleon Dynamite and Ashley Simpson. I think I'll skip it.

Green with envy.

So this week Trump had every right to fire who he fired, although I agree with the men's team that Marcus needs to go and soon. To stand in front of the client like that and not back the team. Just keep your mouth shut you idiot. Also, Chris? Yeah, directing traffic for a film shoot is NOT that easy no matter what you think. It's the job of the first AD generally, and the first AD is the number two man on the set. So don't be giving Marcus crap about how easy it is.

I did like the women's campaign better. Not that it made me want to buy the car. I wouldn't want that car anyway.
I wish we'd seen more of the Project Manager Marshawn, though. Cuz for the whole team to give her an exemption, aside from Kristie who is turning into a meddling witch, she must have contributed more than they were showing.

Overall Chris had to go. Trump basically all but told him he'd fire Mark for not capitalizing the word "Italian," for messing up several other things in their non-creative campaign (when the print ads didn't match the video, I was sure they'd lose. Duh.).
Chris still ignored Trump, only brought in Marcus and Trump let him have it.

When's the Star Wars task?