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Ahhh, The Amazing Race is back on and all is right with the world. :) It was sooo great to see Phil raise that eyebrow to incredible heights and shout "Go!" to the contestants.

So far, I (surprisingly) like the Goths (and I hate that the other contestants have labelled them "Freaks"...it just bugs me). I also like the lesbian couple and the "hippie" couple.

Prehate for the shrieking half of one of the "dating" couples. Ugh. Also the couple who were eliminated were on my hate list from the time they stole the cab in Ireland then laughed about it. When they had the nerve to mock Karma, I had a feeling they were doomed. I was sooo happy they are off my TV as when I hate a team, they usually stick around for most, if not all, of the Race.

I'm a bit meh about the rest of the teams. I think that both the dad and the grandpa are trying too hard to be "cute" and it kinda bugs me. I'm trying to withhold judgement for now.

I was also happy to see the blonde team smacked down after their chirpy "we'll flirt our way around the world". UGH. That NEVER works. And I hate it as a strategy. Just race, damn it. I was happy they got knocked down a few pegs and wound up in the middle of the pack.

Anyway, I am going to employ the record and watch technique as I hate waiting through the commercials.

Oh and we had a lovely dinner at Longhorn Steakhouse for Nicole's birthday celebration. Got to hold the baby who is cuter than a button.

Sigh...off to work.

Introducing the TAR All Stars!

I would have liked to have seen Ken and Gerard or Jon and Al (the Clowns) rather than the damned "beauty queens" but overall, I'm happy with the teams they've chosen.

This week, my hubby decided to watch with me--which is something of a minor miracle because he is not real fond of this program.

Previously: Gorgeous Australia, Hippies plot, Eric and Jeremy cancel cabs and recieve instant Karma. Yielding, skydiving and Monica pouting. Digeridoos--Ray and Yolanda, you're team #1 and BJ and Tyler, you're last AGAIN.
( Who will be eliminated--next? )

Next week: Two hour season finale...and I get to watch with my sister in Florida!! Woohoo!!

Okay, my remarks will start a few minutes into the show because I was distracted by the pretty colors of my new shirts as I opened the package I received today from Roamans. ;)

( And away we go... )

Next week: Awww--sad, frustrated Nerds! Noooooo!

My hubby is going out of town today for work. He's travelling by car with a couple of collegues to Kentucky for an "agency training" session. Basically this is to train agent's staff on a little tiny bit of what the reps in State Farm Payment Plan do. He is leaving at noon-ish today and won't be back until the same time tomorrow. Of course, my mind goes to all the bad places--so in an effort to distract myself until he gets safely home, I present my stream-of-consiousness rambling about last night's episode of The Amazing Race.

In the previouslys:
Phil has the most beautiful smile! The Race is going to Russia tonight, which makes me think of my good friend snegurochka_lee !
Okay, this is bullshit. We get thirty seconds of previouslys and then several minutes of commercials!

Back to the show and dang--are they actually showing some footage of the racers during the eat, sleep and mingle at the pitstop? It's because of the whole pinks and "studs" possible hook up. Bleh.

Eric and Jeremy--is he checking his hair? God, HATE.

I like BJ and Tyler, but their schtick is getting old.

Did Lake just tell his wife to shut up?!?? HATE HIM.

OMG, I would love to do the zip line!

Awww, all the teams are like: OMG, Moscow! That's totally what I'd be saying, too.

Yay!! Lake is LOST!

Fran and Barry are in last place...I'm afraid that's where they'll wind up this leg.

SHUT UP LAKE! GOD.

Ew, Eric and Jeremy are such pigs when they talk about the Danis.

Ooooo, Lake DID NOT just call his wife a "bitch." HATE HIM.

And during this commercial break I just have to say...TAR has the most fabulous music and the best editors in the business. Oh, and John Mellancamp is still really hot and so sex-ah with his gray hair.

Back to the show...aaand the airport bunch means that everything that happened before is for nothing.

The teams are finding out that Portuguese is easy compared to Russian.

Wow, Barry and Fran are 2nd?? And oh Yay, Ray and Yolanda are third, but wait--she can't swim??

Beautiful church. But it seems that Russia is just chock-full of those.

My hate for Lake and Michelle continues to grow. I can't believe she didn't do this roadblock. Did she actually think TAR would allow a roadblock to be done in the nude?
I really hope the show still have the "split the roadblocks evenly" rule because if so, she'll be doing worse ones down the line and won't have a choice. I mean, she actually said "Would you have let me do that in front of all those Russian people?" WTF??? Did she think the folks in the pool would just become so overwhelmed by her in a swimsuit that they would charge the 10 meter diving board? There is not enough WTF in the world for these two.

Awww, all the Russian swimmers are so sweet, cheering on Yolanda! She did it!! YAY!

Dave and Lori are in EIGHTH??? NOOOOOO!

Oh, gosh, Desiree's mom is really panicking.

BJ and Tyler taking the time to appreciate the cathedral is just so cool.

Wow, that's a lot of dolls!

Did I tell you how much I love the Russians at the pool cheering on the racers? Because there is so much love for them.

The band and the dancers at the doll detour is so cool.

The Danis are having awful luck. They left their bag at the changing room at the pool and had to go back.

The trolley park is really hard to find. Several teams switched tasks because their cab drivers could not find it.

Shit, I'm really worried about my sweet nerds.

PSYCH!! It's a "to be continued" episode! The look on Eric and Jeremy's face was priceless!!!

The Paolo family has been eliminated from The Amazing Race.

The Weavers need to go next.

That is all.

Goodnight.

I'm home today with a massive toothache. It hit me yesterday at about 3:00 at work. The kind of pain that feels like someone just shoved a nail into your gum and is pounding it into your skull. It was so bad my supervisor (who had come by to ask me to call a customer back) changed her mind when she saw my face and directed me to a dentist in our building. I went and turns out I need (yet another--you'd think I'd learn not to ignore those little twinges) root canal. *sigh* He gave me some penicillin and pain pills (lortab, lovely). It turns out they don't do "billing" there anymore, so I have to either pay all at once (even with insurance, nearly $500--eek!) or make enough payments to cover it before the work is done. I paid $200 yesterday and will be trying to pay more as soon as I get my bills paid for the month. I should be able to get it done next week. The pain actually kept me awake last night...I intended to go to work today, but I didn't get much sleep and am still in pain--even through the lortab haze.

The Amazing Race has ended for another season. Uchenna and Joyce won, and even though I was rooting for Rob and Amber (who came in second), I am happy with the result. Because they really need the money (both having been laid off) and they now have enough money to cover their bills and have the in vitro process they want to do. They want children so badly and have not been able to conceive, which is sad because they seem to be really nice people with a lot of love to give. They said they will adopt if the in vitro doesn't work and I hope they are able to bring a baby or child into their lives real soon. Congratulations to them!

Speaking of TAR, the finish line was at Bonnet House in Ft. Lauderdale!! My old hometown. I was squealing like the little fangirl I am as I recognized the area. My son used to be a security guard at a condo next door to Bonnet House, so I knew exactly where they were. I can't believe they were at such a public place (it's literally right across the street from the beach) and kept it secret. Very neat to see Ft. Lauderdale and Miami featured in the finale.

Rob and Amber's wedding is going to be on TV on May 24th. They were married several weeks ago in the Bahamas? I think. I will be watching because it is so obvious they love each other deeply and I'm such a sucker for that kind of thing. They remind me of my relationship with my husband.

If you want to read something really funny, go to Tomato Nation and read the latest entry. I love Sars! She's funny and talented and I can't wait to read her book someday.

Got to watch a Marlins game last night, it was fabulous! Dontrell Willis is still undefeated and is just a pitching madman. Go Fish!

Guess that's all for now. I'm going to get some breakfast and then (if I don't fall asleep) I'll be getting started on my new dress for RenFest.

Next year, no matter what I'm finding a way to get a flu shot. I wasn't able to get one this year (because of a shortage--thanks) and now I've been sick TWICE. This last time was so bad I just wanted to die. I'm still coughing a bit but I have to go back to work tomorrow because I missed 3 1/2 days last week and I hate using my time up so early in the fecking year.

So, last week I basically laid on the couch suffering and watching daytime tv. I read a little, but mostly I just moaned, coughed and tried to breathe. No writing got done because my head was filled up with aches and goo. I really couldn't think, at all. Ugh.

I hate being sick.

So, I really have nothing new to report...except I've seen a cool trailer for "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", and I cannot wait to see the movie! I have to admit, I was not really looking forward to the movie, after all, how could they ever top the brilliance and sheer campiness of the BBC series? But the trailer http://boss.streamos.com/wmedia/ugo/ugo/film/trailers/hitchhikersguide_02.wvx really gives me some hope.

The Acadamy Award program is on tonight and I'll probably watch out of habit more than anything else, but I haven't seen any of the nominated films, so I don't have any emotional investment in the show. I'm more curious to see how Chris Rock does as the host. I love Chris Rock and I hope the powers that be don't "gag" him for the show. It'll be interesting, to say the least.

And I can't wait til Tuesday---The Amazing Race begins again! EEEEE! And they have Boston Rob and Amber from Survivor All Stars...which, I know some folks disagree, but I am looking forward to seeing how they do. I really like those two and I hope they hang around for a while.

I'm thinking of entering Sycophant Hex's Spring Faire Festival http://www.sycophanthex.com/ in both the gen and the pwp catagories. I've already got an idea for a couple of things...naughty, natch.

Transferred what's finished of Chapter 10 to a Word document tonight. I'm lovin' it. Snape is so Snape-y...I could send it to the betas now, but I want to get his revenge on Draco finished in this chapter.
Not to mention I have a fabulous ending for the chapter...HEE!

And tomorrow night---THE AMAZING RACE IS BACK!! YAY!! The best reality show on television has it's two hour season premiere tomorrow night on CBS.

I'm extremely tired, but a bit wired, so I think I'll stay up for a bit longer because I don't want to have happen tonight what happened LAST night when I tossed and turned for HOURS before finally dropping off.

I hate sleepless nights. GAH, I was bleary-eyed all day at work and came home after only working a half an hour of OT. I want to get at least eight hours in this week, because there won't be any next week due to the holiday. Oh, and I get both Thursday and Friday off (as does my hubby) WITH pay. W00T!

Guess that's all for now.

Because I got rear-ended (not THAT way you pervs) last night on my way home from work. On Interstate 24, a couple of miles before my exit, they are doing roadwork, widening the road from two lanes to four. During rush hour, the traffic backs up as all the cars try to squeeze into two lanes. I was in the far right lane, completely stopped when WHAM! A lady in a red beemer smacked into me. Luckily I was stopped and she was only going about 10-15 mph, but it was a hell of a bump. I was wearing my seat belt, but I still got a huge jolt. We pulled over and got out, there was no damage to the car, so she apologized and we both went on our way. By the time I got home, my shoulder/neck area was sore and it got progressively worse during the night. By this morning I was so stiff, I could hardly move, so I called into work.
What a (literal) pain in the neck.

On a brighter note, I have heard from everyone in my family except my dad. He lives in north-central Florida in the country, so it's possible his phone/electricity is out. But, I still wish he or someone would drive into town and find some way to contact someone--because I am a bit worried. Everyone else came through the storm with minimal to no damage. I am very thankful.

The Amazing Race lived up to its name last night as they went to New Zealand! (Not a hobbit or elf in sight, unfortunately) They did a cool water sport called "sledging" which is like taking a boogie board with handles down white water rapids http://www.frogz.co.nz/ . And they did another thing called "zorbing" in which you blow up a big plastic ball and get inside and roll down a hill http://www.zorb.com/ . I want to go to New Zealand even more, now. The twins, Kami and Karli were eliminated (YAY!) but I'm worried because my favorite team, Chip and Kim are in fourth place. There is a curse on the people who are fourth when there are only four teams left...they have been eliminated every race so far. I hope Chip and Kim are the ones to break this curse.

I am going to take advantage of my day today to work on Chapter 9 of "The Binding", which I outlined the other night. I'm thinking of adding a smoking hot scene with Draco and the girls, which came to me last night as I was drifting off to sleep.
I wish more people would review it, tho. *sigh*