Laura's TV Round Up Week 15

1. House - HIMYM was a repeat, so I watched House. Actually, saying that I multitasked during House is more accurate. I still have a hard time giving this season my full attention, but it was watchable when I was paying attention. I didn't mind Thirteen at all this week, so that's a major step forward. Having the psychopathic nature of the patient be related to her Wilson's disease was interesting, despite it being somewhat unbelievable. I'm really over the whole House-Cuddy drama and wish that they would just let it die a quick death. I know a lot of people out there think that the two of them are perfect for each other, and while I could have believed that seasons ago, House has done far too much damage to her. For her to accept him at this point, even if it is with massive groveling on his part, would make her look like a complete idiot with absolutely no self worth. At this point, House should wind up with someone he hasn't completely damaged in the past or should be left alone. Personally, I'd be fine with him on his own with the occasional get-together with his hetero life mate Wilson.

2. Last week's Project Runway - I still haven't seen the first episode of the season, but the second one was pretty good. It's quite possible that even the weakest link of this season is more talented, or at least more interesting than any of the contestants last season. I'm still struggling on names, but I really liked the designs of Emilio, Mila, and Amy. I love hearing Anthony talk, and his comments about how Mila can kiss his entire family's collective asses makes me want him to stick around for awhile, even if I can't specifically remember what he designed and whether it was worthy. Jay's design was good, but I preferred the futuristic look of Mila's and the airy quality of Amy's. Ping is straight up crazy town. She has a fun name, but I'm sorry, if your model's ass is hanging out, then you deserve to be gone. I don't know what she did last week, but is she this season's Mitchell, only with crazier ideas to back it up?

3. This week's Project Runway - I feel a lot better about this season. Continued love for Anthony, especially the noise he made when he found out that he was safe at the end. I thought it was an interesting switch to have the designers make a look for less based on another team's design, but it made for some confusion, especially since each team's garments did not come out consecutively. Overall, I was not that interested in the teams they considered to have the highest scores. I'm glad that Mila got some love because her dress last week was really good, but this week's dress looked like what Sue Sylvester might wear if she went high fashion. It's not exactly a diss, but it's not a compliment either. I thought their look for less was too much of a rip-off of the original design and could have been better. Regardless, I think she has talent and I'm happy she's sticking around. Personally, I liked the look of Anthony and Seth Aaron's outfits (especially the more expensive one), but I know that construction doesn't always translate through the television screen. Ping managed to keep her model covered, but in a nasty way. That girl has Andrae's tear ducts without any of his humor. She wasn't completely horrific, but I'm still happy that she's out. And just a note - Maya totally looks like the love child of Sara Ramierez and Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice.

4. The Pregnancy Pact - I was cleaning and I wanted something mindless to watch. Boy, did I find it. This movie was insanely bad, even by Lifetime standards, and really did very little to educate on teen pregnancy. Sure, one of the girls in the pact had a rough labor and needed an episiotomy and was worn out by her baby crying and her nipples bleeding, but they barely showed it. One of the pregnant girls made a passing mention of adoption, but you never saw if she actually opted to make that decision. The main girl who was obsessed with babies appeared to be deliriously happy with hers in the end with absolutely no negative consequences except for her baby daddy having a different girlfriend in the end.

It reminds me of the little bit I saw of "Secret Life of the American Teenager," which is worse than this because it goes on week after week and isn't over in two hours like the Pregnancy Pact. ABC Family took what could have been an interesting concept and just went psychotic all over it. They don't show the real consequences, you're either in the celibacy club or you're a complete slut, no room inbetween. One character was convinced that because she had sex, her dad died? What the hell is that? What kind of ideas are we giving teens about sex here? Ugh, my children are never ever going to watch crap like that.

Furthermore, I heard Secret Life described as a combination of Juno and 7th Heaven. If Juno herself were to see that, she would go up to 7th Heaven and kick each child in the genitals or danger zone, or whatever the parents on that show deemed that region. Granted, there are some issues in Juno, but it is nothing like and not in the same category as 7th Heaven. Juno managed to win the Oscar for best original screenplay. 7th Heaven featured an episode where one of the characters gave birth in an elevator and everyone was happy that her brother was the one stuck in the elevator with her to deliver her baby and hence glanced at her danger zone, and then she came off the elevator wearing her pants and boots, because the first thing you do after you give birth is put on your pants and boots despite the agonizing pain coming from the place where the baby ripped right out of you. And that’s just an episode I happened to see – I’m sure there’s more ridiculous crap going on up in that joint.

Where was I? Whatever, just use a condom.

Say Hello To Your Friends

Are crunchy M&Ms gone forever? They were pretty good, but I suppose I'd rather have them gone than lose peanut butter M&Ms. Don't bother trying the PB&J M&Ms, it's not that they were horrible, but I'd much rather use my calories on something else. You know what else was awesome? Milky Way Poppables. I haven't seen those bitches in years.

Yes, I've gone over to fat girl territory. In a way I never really left.

Remember in Baby Sitter's Club how Stacy had to remind the readers every five seconds that she was diabetic? I'm like that in my love for chocolate. I just remembered how Claudia was always hiding junk food all over her room. Was that because her parents didn't approve? Is junk food to Claudia Kishi as CDs are to Lane Kim?

(Speaking of Lane Kim, I saw a girl who looked exactly like her riding a bike, which made me think of this - Try to ignore the captions, I couldn't find one without)

Who was your favorite Baby Sitter? I know you're supposed to like Stacy because even though she's trendy and beautiful her parents are divorced and her diabetes made her wet the bed, but I couldn't get on the Stacy train. Claudia was too flighty. Jessie was too cocky. I liked Abby, but she was too new school. Mary Ann was too shy and she got the best boyfriend. I guess it's a tie between Kristy, Dawn and Mallory. I feel like they might have ruined Dawn with those spin-off books - What were they called? You know the ones where she moved back to California and she had a friend who was anorexia and the other one's Mom died?

Apparently it was "California Diaries" - which isn't creative at all, but then again, Baby Sitter's Club wasn't really pushing it either.

Laura's TV Round Up Week 14

1. HIMYM - This episode felt like the writers wrote it in about thirty minutes, then decided to go play paintball for the rest of the day. It's okay to have no plot advancement, but you have to do it in a way that is humorous. I laughed out loud about one or two times, but the rest of the time was just boring. I didn't really care for punch-them-out Lily, though at least it didn't go the way I expected (I thought that even with Jenkins' confession, Lily would still think Marshall was trying to trick her). Robin's character is such a shell of what it once was, Ted was barely present and Barney was even less so (Neil Patrick Harris directed this episode, apparently). I really feel like they even wasted Amanda Peet, who can be quite funny if given the proper outlet. I want my good show back. And on a medical note, why is Lily's school having a measles outbreak? Those kids should be immunized, I would have found a flu or staph outbreak much more believable.

2. Modern Family - I feel like I shouldn't even comment on this, because every week I just say that I love it and that continues to be true. I missed a little bit in the middle, something to do with the flowers but fortunately returned to see the bouqet go up in flames. I love that Manny's first "date" lunch was grilled cheese, tomato soup and ice cream (because Manny likes ice cream). I read an article complaining that you never see Mitchell and Cameron kiss at all, but really, I feel like that's in tune with their characters and the theme of the show and not some diss to the gay community. You see them show affection in their actions, especially in their interviews. Furthermore, I don't think it's really a huggy kissy show - I don't think we've seen Clare/Phil or Gloria/Jay kiss. There's been some references to their love lives, but I think that's true of Cameron and Mitchell as well (in the pilot, which just re-aired on Wednesday, Cameron mentions an incident with his mother walking in on them). I'm all for showing gay relationships, but as long as it's true to the characters and the show.

3. Fringe - Hey, why don't we walk into a building with a potentially contagious disease and not wear any protective gear whatsoever? Okay, that sounds great! That's my nitpick here - Peter could have just as easily been exposed by a hazmat suit tear or a needlestick, but they let them wander into a place where a guy spewed vaporized blood out of his mouth and died? Overall, this show is still enjoyable and I didn't have a hard time picking things up despite missing the rest of the season. Has any of the Peter is dead thing been explained? There was a mention by Walter to Astrid that she should leave things in the past, but I didn't know if the viewers were let onto anything. I'll look into it myself at some point, but I was just curious.

4. Grey's Anatomy - I think I like it better when everyone's pissed off at each other:



Meredith/Derek - I thought that she was in the wrong, but he didn't use the best means to convince her either. I'm not really concerned for them, but the writers do have the tendency of dragging fights out (see Meredith and Cristina last season). At the very least, the Chief's problem is out in the open. I just hope that Derek's not a snarky smarmy jackass when he's inevitably chief. And I want Meredith's bathrobe.


Calle/Arizona - Okay, they weren't really pissed off at each other, but I really like the two of them together and was hoping Arizona wouldn't be so superficial. At least she got over it in the end, and Callie got some funny lines to boot ("Please take off my gauze paws" was probably my favorite). So far the two of them seem to be getting over their arguments, etc quickly and believably and I hope that stays true


Lexie/Mark - Lexie had my favorite line of the night ("We've already had sex. It's like recycling, it's good for the environment"). I wish that Dr. Double Standard could get over himself and realize that Lexie was hurting too and he's not the only one who should get a free pass. She was dumb and drunk, but they were broken up and it's not like Mark hasn't assisted adultery before. I typically like these two together, but Mark's been a bit too much for me in the last two weeks, especially when he did his sudden "Why don't I move to LA" monologue.


Owen/Cristina - Once again, I hate this triangle, but at least it shows us how desperate Cristina really is to be taught. I'm not a huge fan of them together, but I'm hopeful that they can work something out. However, with hearing that Kim Raver (Teddy) is officially joining the cast, it's unlikely that everything will be sunshine and rainbows for them.


Alex/Izzie - If nothing else had happened this week, Izzie getting her ass dumped was enough to make this episode for me. I really miss season 1/2 Izzie - she was annoying at times, but she had a good heart. Ever since the writers decided that she and George had always been in love (see "Things I Pretend Didn't Happen" below), she's turned into this entitled bitch who stomps over everyone else's feelings. I don't think Alex was particularly smart in "cheating" on her, but she left him (and not for a very good reason), never returned his calls, ignored him the one time she did return to the hospital, and was gone for a fairly long time (not 100% of the exact time, but we know that she was gone from Thanksgiving through New Year's at the very least, and other things have suggested that it was longer than that). The fact that she came back expecting everything to be okay just because she snapped her fingers is proof enough that she's deranged. It's a shame because prior to her leaving, I really thought the two of them were good together - I wish they could have shown them dealing with the whole getting married to soon/Izzie almost dying thing while they were actually together. This is just something else that the writers have completely botched.

Things I Pretend Didn't Happen
Sometimes I find it more enjoyable to pretend that certain events on television shows didn't happen:
1. Izzie and George on Grey's - I might have been able to stomach this if George hadn't been married to Callie at the time. George cheating on a girlfriend is a stretch, but cheating on his wife (even if he was drunk) was a completely character assassination and even felt wrong to the actor playing him. I like to pretend that George and Callie just realized they were wrong for each other, they split up, and no one suddenly realized they were in love with Izzie out of the blue.
2. George dying on Grey's - I understand TR Knight wanting to leave Grey's, but they really did not need to kill him. There are a dozen ways to send a character off, and the show even provided two outs (1. He could have gone to the army as planned or 2. He could have been laid off during the merger), yet they still went with the option that most shows do. I like to pretend that George isn't really dead and he's being the sweet fun character he originally was and is kicking ass as a trauma surgeon somewhere out there.
3. Kutner killing himself on House - See above. Be a little more creative writers.
4. Cameron and Chase Marry/Cameron Leaves - If Cameron is going to leave the hospital, why does she have to leave her marriage too? This was just the dumbest way to have her leave.
5. Carter and Thandi Newton on ER - I think her name was Kem on the show? I'm all for having Carter fall for someone who's (a) not blonde and (b) doesn't work at the hospital, but they made her such a shrill person. Their future was left up to intrepretation in the finale, and not only do I choose to believe they break up for good, but I like to pretend that they never were to begin with.
6. Kerry's partner dying in a fire on ER - Sandy? I'm really rusty on the ER names here. The writers felt the need to kill off a character that we barely saw in the first place, and then they didn't really give Kerry enough screen time to show her suffering. Laura Innes is a great actress and could have done well with this, but instead it fell flat.
7. Barney and Robin on HIMYM - You know how I feel about this, so I won't elaborate.
8. Joey and Rachel on Friends - This was just stupid and very similar to the Barney/Robin situation to me.
9. Joey's Spin-Off vs. the Friends finale - There was no indication that Joey was leaving his NY friends for California in the series finale of Friends, so I just pretend that the spin-off didn't happen.

Lassitude

Have I always been this boring and bad at updating? Wait, it's better for my ego if you don't answer that. I'm pretty much grasping at verbal straws here because I've been avoiding writing for so long that I'm afraid if I don't write something now (even if it's just crap) I'll get completely out of the habit. So here it is: I feel kinda bleh. I shouldn't feel bleh, I know. There's way worse crap going on in the world, hell, even to people I know, I'm just in a bit of a funk. So I do puzzles and watch Law & Order SVU on Netflix and neglect housework. This is the new me, bitch.

Okay, so maybe it's not the new me, it's just Laura in a funk. Funky Laura. Does anyone else have "Funky Town" in their head right now? At least it's not....oh wait, "Black Velvet" is back. Kates and I heard it at kareoke (by an actually very good singer) and it's been following me around ever since.

Thoughts:
- I adore Netflix.
- I need to stop watching Law & Order SVU
- Work is still mind numbingly boring
- I think that the holiday Junior Mints shouldn't include white centers, only red and green ones.
- Did anyone else know they make coconut M&Ms?
- I need to look up the hours for the Cincinnati Zoo because I want to see the sand cat kittens that recently made their debut
- My mouth is so dry. I think it's related to the whole donating platelets thing yesterday.
- I got a new laptop. Now I just have to figure out how to get microsoft office on it.
- I need a haircut.
- My pinky finger is itchy.
- Luke Wilson needs to stop being in commercials.
- Did Owen Wilson once try to kill himself? If not, who am I thinking of?
- Apparently I have a paper cut on my pinky finger. And it's itchy. Son of a B.
- My cats keep sitting on my card table so I can't take it down.

See, this is the crap you get when you don't write too often. Or maybe this is the same crap you get when I do write more often, but you just have less of it? Whatever, you can't get rid of me that easily.

Laura's TV Round Up Week 13

Sorry that this is a day late, but it was trapped on my flash drive and I wasn't about to write it all over again.

1. House – I didn’t watch House and as long as HIMYM is new, I probably won’t be watching it. House has become like Law and Order SVU to me – I don’t need to watch it live, but if there’s an episode on USA while I’m bored, lord knows I’m going to watch it. At this point, you don’t really need to know anything about what happened the week before because it’s the same sudden realization at 8:52 with no real plot developments for the characters.

2. HIMYM – If they continue having episodes like this, I really hope that we (and therefore Ted) meet the mother by the end of the season, because I feel like it’s not doing them any favors to drag it out longer. I realize that the show is called “How I Met Your Mother,” and because of that, it seems like the show should end when the title is fulfilled, but after all this build up, I’d really like to see some of their relationship. I think season 2 functioned well because they did not really mention the mother much and the audience wasn’t distracted by the fact that they’re being jerked around. As the third and fourth seasons went on, the references seemed to become more frequent and have definitely peaked this season – I feel like it’s a mistake to keep mentioning it with pretty much no reward.

This episode was half and half for me – There were definitely some laughs and I adore Tim Gunn as Barney’s personal tailor (complete with button donation), but I wasn’t a huge fan of the musical number at the end. Following a season of Glee, it feels like the creators were like, “Well, it worked for them…”. I’m somewhat okay with doing a musical number, but I feel that if you’re going to do it, you have to take it over the top (see: Robin Sparkles, Let’s Go to the Mall and Sandcastles in the Sand). I also thought that the other cast members should have contributed to the number more – I love NPH, but I know that a few others in the cast have serious singing experience and I would have liked to see that. I don’t know if it was my TV, the network, or whatever, but the sound levels were not that great during the musical. I also could have done with an end tag, which is often the funniest portion of the show.

3. Modern Family – I continue to love this show, even in the absence of Manny in this week’s episode. I loved the end tag featuring Cameron as Barkley’s voice, with the wind flapping through his ears. And on a completely unnecessary note that I’m going to share with you anyway, I have the same striped pitcher that Clare and Phil do (Crate & Barrel, courtesy of Maureen).

4. Grey’s Anatomy/Private Practice – Being referenced as one episode because of the super special crossover event….I am so sick of them doing crossovers. The first time Addison came back was fine because she was there for a specific surgery and she didn’t insist on dragging any of the GA characters back to PP with her. Then her brother has worms in his brain? Bailey’s patient just happens to have a sister with a matching kidney at Addison’s new hospital? Mark has to refuse the surgery on his daughter the first time so at the end of the hour they can go to LA? If you want Kate Walsh to interact with these characters, then you shouldn’t have given her a spin-off in the first place. There wasn’t a single redeeming character action in either show and Taye Diggs’ shirt remained on throughout both hours. That’s just sad where I come from.

5. Project Runway – I intended on watching this while I was staying with my parents this weekend and I didn’t get a chance.

Collin

Collin Joseph MacGregor passed away on the evening of January 8, 2010. He was on this earth for almost 8 weeks. He will be in our lives for much longer.

He was born on November 12, 2009, at 1 pound 15 ounces, almost 13 inches long, at one day short of 26 weeks. I could list off everything he went through during the 55 days of his life, but all you need to know is this: Collin was a fighter.

So often, I would hear about the obstacles Collin was facing. I would wonder how he would be able to fend off the opponents heading his way. Yet, time after time, he did. In his last day of his life, he even survived a surgery that many thought he would not. In the end, he had a clot that could not be broken, even with the doctors fighting with him as well. You never ceased to amaze me, Collin. Who knew that something that small could have so much strength?

I am not saying that this makes sense, a baby, a son, a brother, a grandson, a nephew, a cousin being gone so quickly. It breaks my heart, thinking of the pain that his absence will cause. I hate that I'll never get to see him at family gatherings or get a chance to hold him or watch him play. But I don't begrudge you that, Collin. I'm so relieved that you can relax and you don't have to fight any more.

When I worked in bone marrow transplant, I saw one of my well-liked patients the morning of the day he passed. His breathing was struggling and he had a do not intubate order, so they placed him on a high-flow oxygen mask to help him hold on until his family could be there. Despite this, he was still very alert, but he couldn't talk because of the oxygen blowing into his mouth and nose, and he had trouble hearing over the sound of the mask. I was at the foot of his bed, so I reached over, held his foot tightly and looked into his eyes. There was an understanding between us in that moment - Goodbye, this is likely the last time I will see you. His eyes were saying thank you. I hope mine were too.

I want Collin to know this as well. He could not walk, he could not speak, he never lived outside of a hospital, but he managed to reach so many people. Most of them he never even met, but we knew him and we are blessed. To witness someone so courageous and feisty is truly an honor. You will be in my heart forever.

Thank you Collin, for everything you taught while you were here with us. We will carry the lesson with us every single day. We wish you could have stayed here longer, but how lucky to have an angel like you watching over us. I love you, sweet boy

Prayer Request

As some of you may know already, Tim’s cousin (Jill) had a premature baby born back in November and he is currently not doing well. Collin was born one day shy of 26 weeks, at almost two pounds, and while he did well during his first month of life, he started developing complications a week before Christmas. He developed an infection on his main IV line, renal failure and was found to have several blood clots, the most dangerous being in his SVC, a main vein near his heart. He received four doses of tPA, a blood-thinning medication that can be quite dangerous in premature infants. Unfortunately, the medication did not shrink the SVC clot. Last week, they discovered some brain damage indicating that he will have moderate to severe cerebral palsy, and may have some cognitive and behavioral issues in the future. His condition has worsened this week and even though they thought that they were going to lose him on Tuesday, he has managed to pull through. In what may be a last chance effort to save his life, he will be having surgery to attempt to remove his SVC clot. The doctor performing this has only done this procedure on four other babies, none of which were as small as Collin is. His surgery will be tomorrow afternoon at the Cleveland Clinic.

Jill and her husband Mike are wonderful people. Jill has been particularly kind to me in the eight years I’ve known her and she truly feels like my cousin, and not just Tim’s. Since Collin was born, Jill and Mike have spent most of their time at the hospital, and when they are not there, they are with their two year old son, Ian. They are one of the nicest families that I’ve ever met and have shown amazing strength throughout this time.

Whatever you believe in, please send good thoughts their way tomorrow. Collin has a lot of people on his side, but he needs all the prayers he can get. Thank you for listening and blessings to you all.

P.S. - I apologize if I already sent this to you in an email, but like I said, I want as many people praying for him as possible.