Exceedingly Mundane

I was really looking forward to all of my “shows” last night. We taped Bones, something we have started watching on Fox. We love all these good forensic shows that have interesting, likable main characters. We also taped the Idol results show, which we later watched. I was very sorry to see Mandisa go home. Granted, she didn’t do a great job with that Shania Twain song (that I love, by the way), but she was a heck of a lot better than a couple of others.

We watched Amazing Race and that was my heartbreaker for the night. Although I like several of the teams (and have team Mojo in a little informal pool I’m in), my favorite team by far has been “the nerds” – Dave and Lori. I just so hated to see them eliminated. I was sooo hoping for a non-elimination round (they haven’t had one yet, have they?), but no such luck. Sigh, my favorites are gone. I watched “The Early Show” this morning and saw their interview. They were as sweet and lovable on there as on the show. And to finish up, they said they were going to get married, so that made me really happy.

Lost was a horse of a different color. Tim called it right away, in the first 10 minutes, that “Dave” was Hurley’s alter ego. It was a rather boring episode, I thought, except for the little curve ball they threw in at the very end -Libby was in the same psych ward. Sigh. Ho-hum. Who cares. I want to know more about Henry, the Others and the hatch.

All in all, a disappointing night.

Not too much going on around here to blog about. Watching a lot of TV though! I worked on some of my pages yesterday for this blog (check out the sidebar, the “100 things” and “Lately” ones are the ones I spent time on yesterday). Tim is also doing some work on Hambones, in his “spare” time (aka, late at night). He’s really busy at work too. He finds time to go out back and hit golf balls every day after work, though, until dark. 😛

I meant to blog yesterday about the Dancing with the Stars finale. Click the -more- button if you want to get my TV and food wrap-up! 🙂

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I’m really enjoying this season of American Idol so far. I think there are a lot of good singers this time, and a lot of likable personalities. I’m going to go out on a limb early on and make a pick. There’s a lot of singing and improving left to do – but, as of right now, my favorite is:

Chris! Yep, he’s the one I am really rooting for right now. I like several of the girls (Lisa, Paris, Kellie and Katherine) and a bunch of the guys (LOVE Taylor Hicks, Elliot, Ace and the crooner kid David, although he may not make it much longer). But, overall, I really like Chris so far!

Yes, I wholeheartedly admit it. I’m a total TV addict. I have multiple shows on every day that I must watch. I go into withdrawal in the summer when my shows are not on. I go through mild semi-withdrawal on a week like this when the stupid people at ABC decide to show a re-run of Lost. I mean, how dare they!

I get excited and sad all at the same time about my TV shows… case in point:

1) 24 last night was great. As was House. We LOVE House. He is such a great character and says/does things no one else on TV would dare to do.

2) I’m excited that they are actually starting the singing on American Idol. It’s on 3 nights this week!

3) I get sad when I realize that Dancing with the Stars is about to be over. Final two shows this week – Thursday and Sunday. Sigh.

4) I get excited when I realize that a week from today we start the new Amazing Race. Yippee!

5) There’s so much other “must see TV” on for me that I have not had a lot of free time to watch Olympics coverage at night. Only so much TV viewing I can squeeze in, in one night. Sigh.

Yes, that’s my life. I love TV. I watch some daytime TV (Martha, Oprah, All My Children) and tons of nighttime TV. I could blog endlessly about each of my shows, but I try to restrict it here, and what little I do blabber on about, I post in the forums at Hambones.

I’ve faced the truth – I’m addicted. How about you?

I was so looking forward to the games this weekend, and so far, I have not been very pleased. Well, I wasn’t picking anyone in the Seattle game, but I was glad they won. Same for the Patriots/Broncos, although I was pulling for the Broncos (Tatum Bell helped me out a lot in my fantasy league). I thought it was about time that the Patriots didn’t go to a Super Bowl, and mostly, I wanted Peyton and my beloved Colts to have a chance to go and win. WELL. That fervent wish was just dashed. It was tight there at the end, and after I had given up, they got the ball back and had a chance to tie it up and go into overtime and then Vanderjagt missed that kick. I’m beyond despondent.

Off to watch “da Bears” as Suzie calls them, and I guess root for them. Tim, I think, would rather the Panthers win. I will have to watch for Suzie, since she’s at that game. I’m sure they will put the camera on her and she’ll wave to us

Tim, as expected, is now outside hitting golf balls. Again.

Looking forward to tonight – Tim is going to go pick us up some Chinese food (my favorite!) and we’re going to watch the 2 hour premiere of “24”. Can’t wait! Maybe that will make me feel better after watching my Colts lose.

I watched “Dancing with the Stars” last night on ABC for the first time. I never checked it out last summer, and frankly, wasn’t very interested in it. I knew Tim would never watch it with me, so we just skipped it completely. However, in the last couple of weeks, I’ve seen ads for the new show, and they keep showing that Jerry Rice is going to be on there. Well. I love Jerry Rice, he is from Mississippi and I think he’s the greatest receiver, ever, in the NFL and seems like a really classy guy. I tried to get Tim interested, based on Jerry and also Kenny Mayne (ESPN commentator) being on the show. He seemed mildly interested, but I figured he wouldn’t watch with me. But, I stuck to my guns (grabbed the remote away and hid it, basically) and turned it on at 7 PM. Tim had to get on a conference call shortly after 7 PM and ended up being on there for nearly 2 hours, so he missed the whole show.

I, however, was able to watch the entire thing. And I really enjoyed it! I didn’t think I would, I just wanted to see Jerry Rice, but he was second to last to dance and I really enjoyed watching all the others before him. And – I have to say I LOVED Jerry Rice and his partner!! He really got into it and seemed to be having a great time and I thought they did a great job. There were several couples on there that were good, and that I really enjoyed watching. One team gets voted off tonight, much like Idol, which returns soon and we plan to watch. I think that probably the rapper and his partner will go tonight, or else poor Kenny Mayne and his partner. Poor Kenny doesn’t seem to have one single bit of rhythm and two left feet (he looked just awful!) The Lachey guy looked good, Nick’s brother Drew. Of course, he was in a “boy band”, so he ought to have a little rhythm!

Anyway, I enjoyed it and I hope I can get Tim to watch next time. 🙄

I don’t really agree with the rest of the listing, but Time Magazine is right on with their pick for the number one show of 2005 – Battlestar Galactica. It’s a really good show, my favorite, and I’m so glad that it is coming back with new episodes in a couple of weeks. I absolutely cannot wait!

Read the entire article here.

UPDATED to add: We don’t have to wait a couple of weeks, the first new show is this Friday night. YEAH! I downloaded a free podcast today from iTunes and it is bringing us up to date, to get ready for the new show in 4 days. Yippeee!

I’ve blogged a blurb or two here and there about how disappointed I always am when one of my favorite shows has a rerun on, and not a new episode. I reiterate – what’s up with that, people?! I mean, these actors and the networks make millions of dollars, why can’t they churn out more new episodes? This week, none of our regular shows have had a new episode on. No new NCIS, no new Threshold, no new Criminal Minds, NO NEW LOST, argh. At least tonight, we’ll get to see Survivor.

So, with nothing new on and some good looking commercials for the Sci-Fi original miniseries “The Triangle”, we tuned in the last 3 nights to watch that. It had some big names in it, both stars and guys producing (the guys behind the movies Independence Day and XMen), and it was a pretty good miniseries. Good sci-fi stuff, if you like that kind of thing, which we do.

However, I must stop here and point out the most important thing, the whole reason for this blog entry – during commercial breaks of The Triangle, they kept showing commercials for ALL NEW episodes of Battlestar Galactica, beginning January 6. I screamed and hollered “woo-hoo” every time they showed one. I think Tim got tired of it after 3 nights 😀 I’m very excited though, I love that show, and can’t wait for new episodes. And new podcasts too, to download to my iPod and listen to. Yippeeeee!

Like yesterday, I missed some of the segments on the Today show about “Where in the World is Matt Lauer”. Sigh. I like to sleep too much, I’m afraid. I did see most of the second half of it though.

Today – Matt traveled to the Panama Canal. Matt went up into the control booth (gate house) and turned some dials and levers and opened the gates for a cruise ship (the Coral Princess with about 1,900 passengers on board) to begin its trek through the canal. He talked about the history of the canal, how many ships go through, how long it takes, and surprising to me – the cost. I had never thought about the ships having to pay, and the price is pretty steep! I believe for this cruise ship alone (don’t quote me, my memory is terrible), the price was about $265,000 dollars. I watched the video blog on the Today show website (today.msnbc.com) and the administrator of the Panama Canal Authority said that they generated over 1.2 billion dollars in revenue last year. So, it is very much a business. They also did a segment on the history – the locks and canal were built by the US Army Corps of Engineers and lots of people lost their lives due to accidents and things like yellow fever. President Carter agreed in the 70’s to turn over the management of the canal to the country of Panama, and this was done at the end of the century, December 31, 1999. The country of Panama and the Panama Canal Authority now run the canal.

It was very interesting, and you can go check out the video blog on the Today show website, or you can go here and read more about the locks, canal, lakes, and history at Wikipedia. Lots of good information here.

The clue for tomorrow’s stop – to quote Matt “The gold flowed here for a second time, after a bust in the Rocky Mountains”. Anyone got any ideas? 🙂

All of my life, I’ve been a TV addict. Now, that I am at home during the day, that means I watch a lot more daytime TV. I turn some of the talk shows on in the AM, and mostly just keep them on for noise. I enjoy some of the segments (some actors on promoting their latest movie, author promoting a new book, the occasional singer or band, etc). But, for the most part, I really just have it on in the background.

However, one thing I truly enjoy is the “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” series they do on the Today show once a year. Or less, I don’t remember him traveling last year. Anyway, I saw a couple of weeks ago that they were promoting this for November, and I wanted to be sure to tune in every day.

Today, I was not disappointed. Matt traveled on Day 1 to Easter Island. I have heard and read of this place before, but earlier this year, in reading the book “Three Weeks with my Brother” by Nicholas and Micah Sparks, I had a renewed surge of interest in the place. Located in the South Pacific and a province of the country of Chile, Easter Island is the most isolated inhabited island in the world. The famous stone statues, the Moai, line the coastline and have given rise to many questions as to their origin, use, how they were carved and erected, etc. You can read more about Easter Island here at Wikipedia.

Can’t wait to see where he goes tomorrow! Tune in!

I posted a new poll on the homepage of Hambones.org, which posed the question “are you watching any new shows this fall season?” Or something along those lines. I thought I would answer mine here, since I tend to be long-winded and ramble on and on and on.

We are trying out a few new shows and sticking with most of the ones we watched last season. I think it’s easier to go day by day, so I’ll start with Mondays:

beware – it’s a long list! 🙂 We watch a lot of TV!

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OK, in case anyone is not living on planet Earth, the season premiere of Lost is tonight. I’m ready and waiting – how many more hours do I have to wait?! 😀 I’ve had a counter on my blog for weeks, counting down to this day. I’ve read spoiler sites and stuff, and Gail and I have talked about it. I’m ready. More than ready. I better not be disappointed people, I know we will get more questions than answers, but I want an answer or two also!

We watched the Saints (of old) play terribly and lose to the NY Giants last night. I taped the season premiere of 7th Heaven, and we’ll watch it this week. Tonight is the season premiere of NCIS, which ended with the surprise killing off of one of the main characters last year in the last 5 seconds. There’s a new character added, played by Lauren Holly, and I’m looking forward to it. Then, House comes on Fox at 8. So, I’m all set and excited about something new to watch on TV. Of course, that goes without saying that I’m totally pumped about tomorrow’s season premiere of Lost. I can’t wait!

OK, just have to post a quick note that I’m excited about the new Survivor starting tonight. I’ve watched *almost* every single episode of this show since the first season. Tim watched from the very beginning, but I thought it was going to have too much snakes and primitive stuff in it, so I didn’t start watching with him until a couple of episodes in. But, then I was hooked, and we’ve never missed an episode since. I believe this one is season #11, so we’ve come a long way!

This season’s show is promoting a new twist – the return of 2 former players. They are keeping this a pretty well-guarded secret, as I haven’t been able to find anything online about who it might be. I hope they show it tonight, and don’t leave us in suspense for very long! 🙂 Mostly, I’m just really glad to be finally getting something decent on TV to watch. Once Lost, Amazing Race, NCIS, CSI, Without a Trace and 7th Heaven return in full swing, I’ll be a very happy camper!

On a related note, I once again joined a free Survivor pool at one of my scrapbook message boards. You get a randomly chosen player to root for. My player is Amy. I hope she does well. If, for some odd reason, she were to turn out to win the whole shebang, I would get some free scrapping stuff!

Tim is back at it again, working on graphics and “techie” things for Hambones.org. Which means one thing – he’s hogging the computer/scrap room. That equals no email for me, no surfing for me (well, except by memory and I bookmark everything), and no scrapbooking for me. WAH! I’m reduced to watching TV in the den and using his laptop to surf. He has to have his laptop later, as he has to do the weekly conference call this week (starting at 11 PM :cry:)

Anyhoo.

I have been meaning to blog about the August blahs. The heat, the humidity, my utter lack of interest in working outside (yes, all of my flowers, most of the grass, and the new tree we planted in the spring are languishing and near death). The August blahs for me also include this absolute dearth of anything decent to watch on TV. I’m glad preseason football is here, but golly gee, I’m ready for all my new shows. I want new episodes of Lost. I want the new Amazing Race to start. I want the new Survivor to start. Heck, I’m so desperate, I might even give some of the new shows a look-see.

So, without further ado, I’ve added 3 shows (Lost, Survivor, Race) to my countdown timers on the sidebar. I have tons of shows that I watch though, so I decided to not put them all over there. Here’s a rundown of some of the others that I like, and when their new shows start…..

(Click -More- to find out!!! :D)

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