I recently started working at home so I have no annoying co-workers except when I talk to myself (shut up). I loved the new Harry Potter movie - best so far.

I am organizing a TAR premiere party for Toronto. Check the Toronto thread for details, if you are interested.

Gee, Loraxe you are having a rough week. Hope things are looking up soon.

Ooh! Ooh! I have one of these, too! Our admin. assistant cannot talk above a whisper to save her life! And what I can't figure out is, when she tells me something and I respond "I'm sorry?" or "I didn't catch that", why does she speak in the same tone of voice??? I have to ask her to repeat herself 3 or 4 times before finally just getting close enough to her face to hear her! She's so nice, though, I can never get mad at her. I also think she has extreme organization OCD. Among other things, I've never seen a supply cabinet look so orderly.

JenEX Congratulations on your decision! I wish you best. My wife and I adopted our youngest daughter from Korea and we are in the process of adopting again..a boy this time! Adoption is expensive...but I can't imagine our lives without our little girl! There is the adoption tax credit (up to $10,000) that helps defer some of the financial burden.

Good luck!

JenEx, I'm sending good thoughts (and any spare good karma, though I haven't found any yet) in your direction! My little cousin (not so little any more, but I still think of her that way) was adopted from China, and she is just the niftiest! Best of luck!

ETA: Could! I! Use! Any! More! Exclamation! Marks!

Be very careful -- when my last full-time employer went bankrupt, they blamed the first late check on their bank. Another late check came a month later, and within a month after that we were all out on the street. Some of my co-workers had to bribe one of the janitors to let them in to recover plants, shoes, family pictures, etc. from their cubes. Our insurance and retirement plan payments hadn't been made, either, even though the company took the usual deductions for them. I'm not saying that's the case with you, Loraxe, but if it were me, I'd immediately start job-hunting and shuttling all my personal belongings home. The one piece of advice I can give that I think you really should follow: assume all bad rumors about the company are true. It's like finding out your spouse is cheating -- you can ignore the signs, or you can watch the situation more closely. (Now watch, you'll come in and tell me you work for some hugely profitable multi-national or something, so I'll have ranted on about nothing.)

JenEx, I have a single friend who adopted a baby from Guatemala, and a married friend is in the process of adopting a baby from India. I'm not sure why they chose those countries, but you might check to see if they're cheaper than China.

Daria, a lot of companies were affected by the Royal Bank snafu. They were upgrading software and lost all transactions for 2 or 3 days. It's taking forever for things to get back to normal.

I used to work with a quiet talker, too! Intentionally. It turns out he did it so he could always claim he was misheard if a problem came up later.

JenEx, good luck! I do know that some of the other people posted with us in Colombia are looking to adopt babies here, but I have no idea how easy it is.

That reminds me of when I did an internship for an Off-Broadway Theatre Company - whenever I got my check I would rush to the bank to cash it while there was still enough money in their accounts to cover it.

Oh, WORD, Dodo! SERIOUSLY.

And for what it's worth, I've worn Demeter's "Martini" off and on for years, and I love it. Kind of spicy with a little boozy (in the good way) twist to it. Smells NOTHING like a martini, but what are you gonna do?

Also, I, too, have a low talker. He's a new partner that we call The Associate Whisperer (or the Horse Whisperer or just HW, if we're feeling lazy), and he be KREEPY, yo. He comes into your office, shuts the door, and sits in your chair, and then fixes his beady little eyes on you and talks at about negative 3 decibels, so you're forced to lean forward (helloooooo, cleavage!) and listen REEEEALLY intently to catch it all. Which, of course, is exactly what he wants. Oh, and no interrupting with "Excuse me?" EVER. Or he'll just sit there and glare at you before moving on.

Control freak much? Gah.

To which I have only one word to say: Enron.

piperdown! Cookies and Clods? Oh lord. I'm not gonna be able to fit my clothes soon. And I can't work out because, on top of still being sick, I am a clutz, fell down the steps in my house last night (lights? who needs lights?) and jacked my poor little defenseless baby toe up. Ow.

I'm going to go share with my hatable co-workers. Right now.

Now that they're all addicted too...

JenEx, please forgive my ignorance. I thought I heard that people adopted internationally to avoid the intrusiveness present in the US. Is it just less intrusive elsewhere as opposed to allupinyourbusiness-free? Or is it even different at all?

As much as I disliked my last job, they did give $5000 in adoption assistance, which I thought was a great benefit.

I completely disagree. I thought it was by far the worst of the 3 movies so far. Granted, it was still entertaining but I definitely didn't enjoy it nearly as much as the first two. I understand that they need to leave certain things out of the movie that were in the book or else the movie would be 8 hours long, but I think they left out WAY too much this time. I found myself wondering if people who *haven't* read the book would fully understand the movie and when I spoke to my brother and his wife (both of whom have NOT read the book), sure enough, there was a lot of the movie they didn't fully get. It just seemed like the movie glossed over the entire friendship/betrayal of Sirius, Pettigrew and the Potters. It was still a good movie though. I love seeing how the kids have grown up. (Funny how the kid who plays Ron is getting cuter and the kid who plays Malfoy is getting uglier.)

[small voice]I kind of think the kid who plays Ron is, well, HOT.[/small voice]

I'll arrest myself now.

Hey, if you wanted celery and water, I could have sent you them, but where's the fun in that? Yeah the cloddhopper's were a last minute addition. They come in a wide variety of flavours so if you need any more....I'll let the FDA know they're coming, we're on a first-name basis now.

I'm pretty much done all the chips you sent. Thank god that, while being a complete klutz as well, I can excercise. Those cheez-it's were hard to ration.

I thought the kid who played Oliver Wood in the first 2 movies was pretty hot (Yes, I am a sucker for an accent). Haven't seen the third one yet, but Wood is in the book alot...so my hopes are high!

Definitely agree with you on the Oliver Wood hotness - but he does not appear in the latest movie at all! Spoilered for those of you who haven't seen the latest and don't want to know.

Oh no! No Wood? No rush to see the new movie, then!

I saw HPIII last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is my favorite of the books so that might be why.

I agree that it glossed over some important points - like Hermione randomly appearing in classes, and what the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs referred to on the Marauder's Map. But I liked the new director's interpretation of the feeling of the books a lot better. The 'new' hogwarts was very appealing, and the special effects were terrific. Especially Buckbeak and the Dementors. I didn't like the special effects for Lupin as a warewolf though.

Oh, and Emma Thompson was a very entertaining Trelawney.

Rachel, you should have seen the movie with me. While I did enjoy the movie, whenever I disagreed with something in the movie, I said it out loud back to the screen (just ask Lawtalkin'guy). For example, when Lupin says that he recogized Harry because of his eyes, I was very angry and said, yes, I did say it outloud, no you recognized him because he looks just like your best friend from school!. And, leaving out all that Crookshankes (however its spelled) did - wrong wrong wrong. And, the worst, letting us know that Peter was alive halfway through the movie. I am surprised that JK was ok with those changes. Sigh, I know, its just a movie.

Heh. I'll be your cell mate because I think he's HOT too. As are his twin brothers. As was Oliver Wood. Hmmm...now that I think about it, that movie is a dirty old woman's dream come true!

And WORD M. Darcy to all your points!

Not that I don't love your talk of the love of the boys of HP, but if my computer explodes right now, I'm not complaining. I hate computer. Computer is so not getting any loving. Stupid programs and stupid aflej fa bva ekrt file save print script fjalerjfl.

Yay! It worked! Threats of death make computer not be dead in my heart. I ruv you computer...yes I do! My little 'puter shmooter.

Hee. It's also my 13yo daughter's dream come true. We were both sighing and giggling through the entire movie. (Annoying my mother greatly, I might add. Eh, she must have something against jailbait. ) I think the kid who pays Harry has turned into a stone cold fox. But Oliver Wood was the hottest in the 1st two movies, definitely.

Make that a cell for 3 Rachel and wtf. I think the twin actors who play Fred and George are totally gorgeous. I confessed this to Mr. Duchess after we saw the movie on Sunday and I think he wanted to call the cops right there.
I still think that kid who plays Harry is sort of weird looking. It’s his eyebrows – I can’t put my finger on why they creep me out.

The third book is also my favorite and I loved this movie. The only thing I missed like europa1057, was the explanation of the names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs.

Back to the Demeter scent talk – I love these. I used to wear the one called Tomato but now I can’t find it anymore. I also have the Paperback (I can’t begin to describe the scent but it’s nice), Mojito, and Ginger Ale ones. Mr. Duchess occasionally wears the Laundromat scent but in general he doesn’t like to wear cologne himself – he just likes the smell on other people. (that sounds kind of pervy doesn’t it?)

Jen Ex, good luck working out the adoption details!

Harry Potter: I saw it this weekend, and definitely enjoyed it. I don't think it was excessively dark. We ended up going to a matinee for scheduling reasons, so there were tons of 10-12 year olds in the audience. Thankfully, they were better behaved than most movie audiences, and seemed to enjoy the story and not be too freaked out (of course, I'm sure they've all read the books and so were aware of the story). One of my friends hadn't read the books and still enjoyed the movie, so I think they probably did the best they could considering the length of the story (I can imagine the challenges of trying to write scripts for #4 & #5 that aren't 6 hours long!).


Yeah, the kids certainly have grown, and you don't quite notice until you see pictures from the first one and realize how young they were.
I saw some 'behind the scenes' thing on A&E last week (one advantage of being off work with a broken limb is the opportunity to watch random stuff on tv), and the kid playing Malfoy looks much more pleasant when he isn't sneering (iirc, he played the cute little kid in Anna and the King)

I have to join the Ron-is-hot club. I'm just a 13-year-old fangirl at heart, really.
I thought it was better, despite the things that I was definitely disappointed were left out, because I thought atmospherically it seemed more true to the books. I loved the first movie, but the second one seemed to have too much "oooh, shiny" special effect thingies, so I liked that this one was more low-key. And as much as I'm generally a stickler for true-to-the-text, those books are packed with plot and action and detail. It would take 5 hours just to include the Quidditch and the Crookshanks subplot. Not that I wouldn't watch that...

Thanks to those offering good wishes on our adoption plans. I figure it can't hurt to have a little extra good karma coming our way. And Suga:


It is different, but there are some elements that are the same. For both you have to have an approved "home study" which involves a social worker interviewing you multiple times and coming to your home to make sure you aren't psychotic child-killers, or whatever. For international, you also have to fulfill the other country's requirements, which usually include income verification, copies of income tax, health statements ... I forget what all else. Lots and lots of stuff.

The major difference is that the children available for adoption overseas have already been either relinquished, abandoned, or truly orphaned. Rarely is it the case where a pregnant woman will go through an agency and make an "adoption plan" (as the parlance is here) for her child; China, for example, the majority of the adoptable kids (95% girls) are abandoned at or soon after birth. So you don't have to go through putting together a profile to "sell yourself" to the birthmom, and you don't have the waiting period where she could change her mind and decide to parent. From the people I've talked to, that's one of the major factors that goes into the decision; we knew, after dealing with the uncertainty and ultimate failure of infertility treatment, we couldn't deal with the uncertainty of waiting to see if a birthmom picked us, and then waiting to see if she went through with the adoption, and possibly having to start all over. When you get accepted into an international program, there's a lot of waiting and paperwork, but you will have your child at the end of it.

China is actually one of the best-regulated and least expensive programs, along with Korea. We checked into Guatemala, but they are revamping their adoption laws and things are fairly instable. South American programs tend to be less secure and more expensive, for some reason. We're looking into adopting a waiting child -- a toddler, probably, who hasn't been adopted because of minor medical issues. That both shortens the wait and reduces the cost.

Parks, congrats on your adoption-in-process as well! I love to hear happy adoption stories.

Sorry for the blather. Obviously a subject near and dear to me, and I've done soooo much research and reading that it's a relief to have reached a decision. Now we just have to figure out how to pay for it. The tax credit is great and will help a lot, but you have to have the money up front first!

Sorry to use this forum for a Ping, but Kanuck!? I sent you an e-mail that bounced back, so I'm wondering if I have the right address. I think you know how to contact me.

And JenEx, I had forgotten about the Guatemalan laws tightening up. My friend had to wait some extra time because of that.

I have a totally random question for people here. I have a couple of downloaded games (Zuma, FruitSmash, Puzzle Inlay) that seem to interfere with my CD-ROM drive starting. If I play Zuma, then want to use my CD-ROM drive (for example, to play the Sims, and yes, I do know I play too many computer games, shut up), I have to re-start my computer. The CD-ROM drive just refuses to start after playing some of the downloaded games. The downloaded games don't have anything obvious to do with the CD-ROM drive, but obviously some component of them has a screwy carry-over to the CD-ROM drive. Is this fixable in any easy way? I am tired of re-booting.
Best of luck to you in your adoption plans, JenEx. A colleague of mine adopted her daughter in China last year and she's a very winning child, I must say (I don't usually like most children). I know you were talking about finances - my colleague and her husband took out a home equity line to deal with all of the expenses.

PButtercup I am glad I have your sympathy because I forgot to mention I am coming to live with you for a few weeks.

Sadly the big corporation I work for is still kicking, but its good to know you have my back DariaG

I know several people who have adopted from China, and despite the time it takes to pay it off for some of them, its obvious just by looking at how happy they are that it is more than worth it. Good Luck!

Oh, thank all the Gods that I work at home, alone, except for two cats and a lot of laundry. I do a lot of work for my ex-employer still, so I get to watch the ridiculous shenanigans from a safe distance. It's like having my own private soap opera. Plus, I don't have to worry about getting busted for too much TWoP reading.
Best of luck and warmest of wishes, Jenex! I know that you'll end up with your child 'o dreams in the end.

Now, where did I put the guest towels?

Maybe to bond with the new pet rabbit?

Suga Wuga, go to the interview as though there is no possibility of the other job. If offered, make the decision based on what you think the best choice is for you in the long run between your current situation and the offered one. There are no guarantees. And there's also no guarantee that once you interviewed for the purportedly better job that you'd get it or you'd be as enamoured of the opportunity as you are now from afar.

If you take the first job, and discover you're really happy, then you don't pursue the second. If you take the first and think you'd like to try for the second anyway, the only place your possibly flakey behavior matters is during the interview process for the second. If you have a solid, honest, story about why you took the new job (and almost anyone will understand that you couldn't know this other opportunity would really materialize) you can still get it. And after you've been there happily dozens of years, no one will notice that 3 month job in 2004.

Of course, the above doesn't apply if these are internal transfers within your current company. But in that case, you could push the process for job 2 because of the existence of job 1. If you're really a fit for job 2, they'll be eager not to lose you to job 1. Intraorganizational competition is a good thing when you're trying to place out of your current position.

Finally, on the TAR front...I mentioned to my vacation buddy that TAR 5 debuts on our last night in SF. And that if we were back in the hotel by 9:30, we might watch (I'm already set up to tape at home). She said, "Oh, cool. I guess I'll finally know what all the fuss is about." Another convert at the ready!

JenEx, I think you just explained perfectly why the second movie irked me -- it was the whole going into the Chamber of Secrets scene. In the book, doesn't the sink just simply move or something? In the movie, the entire (enormous) sink roundabout thingy moved up and down and over and around making a huge amount of noise. It was so dramatic. The third movie didn't dwell on stuff as much. It wasn't so Look! At! The! Dementors! They're! So! Horrifying! It just let the dementors be scary.

I think I need to back off Harry Potter for a bit, though. Between re-reading all the books and seeing all three movies in the past two weeks, it's really affecting me. I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard a noise. I went downstairs to check it out, and as I was looking around I thought, "Dammit. I left my wand upstairs!" It wasn't until the next morning that I realized how messed up that was -- not just the wand thing, but getting out of bed to check on a noise. I never do that, I'm more of a "pretend I'm asleep and the bad noises will go away" person. But Harry? Would totally get out of bed to check it out. So some day I'm going to get killed thanks to that little freak.

Many thanks for the feedback, BoDiva. I'm actually about to tear myself away from TWoP so that I can prepare for the interview I have with job prospect #1. I have 30 minutes. Now I'm all nervous and starting to think that seafood salad was a horrible breakfast decision.

JenEx, thank you so much for elaborating on the process. I really love learning more as I've always wanted to adopt a child one day myself.

col1999, I had a similar experience. I was listening to Chamber of Secrets as I fell asleep one night, all of a sudden I woke up and heard a voice saying "must kill" - scared the hell out of me until I realized it was Jim Dale still reading Chamber.

Here is a question for those who have seen PofA. Who was that hanging out with Draco the entire movie? It was two guys - one was Crabbe/Goyle (I don't know which is which) but the other one couldn't have been the other one unless the actor playing him lost a lot of weight. Heh, everytime he was on screen - I kept saying "who are you?"

Good luck, Suga! Seafood? Erm, wouldn't have been my choice.

Col1999, exactly. The Dementors were plenty creepy-scary without mega effects and stuff. And the hippogriph was far less annoying than Dobby. M. Darcy, I think it actually was the same kid, he's just shot up and thinned out. Same thing with Neville -- totally didn't recognize him until he spoke.

So I actually remembered to set the tivo to record the Early Show this morning for the team announcements and what happens? Satellite goes out. For no apparent reason. Aaargh!

So the Krazy Ko-worker kame (sorry!) into my office yesterday to "break" the news to me that she was leaving. Cause I care (well, I do, but not in the way that she thought, I guess). Cause we're... friends? No.

Anyway, I heard her little bubble go *pop* when I beat her to it with a hearty "Congratulations on, well, leaving!" The popping continued when I wouldn't tell her from whom I'd heard the news (ummmm... everybody?) and was complete when I "accidentally" let slip the fact that (unlike She Who Was Pretty Much Made to Quit Because People Refused to Work With Her Due to Her Reeeeeeally Bad Behavior) I am liked/appreciated/neede/possibly feared SO MUCH by the people I work for here that they're sending me to the London office for 3 months just because I asked them to. *POP!*

Did I mention that the bad behavior related to her wanting to work in the London office? No? HEE.

The only bad news was that, even though when she announced she was leaving, they told her she could be gone at the end of the day if she wanted (2 weeks? We don't need no 2 stinkin' 2 weeks out of you!), she's staying through next Friday (the 18th). It's not really that bad, though, since I'm taking off for a week in LA this Friday (the 11th), so I won't have to deal with her. I'll think of her sitting miserably in her office while I'm sitting by the pool/louging at the beach/shopping till my credit card melts, though.

So glad she stopped by... ;)

[ETRespond to M. Darcy below-- September. Which means that I will have to do some pretty damn fancy footwork (read: LYING) to make it to TARCon5. But if we get a finale date within a reasonable time, I'm definitely going to do my weasly best to get there!!]

That is really cool that you get to go to London for three months - when are you going?

Good luck with the interview, Suga! Do keep us posted on how it goes. And my philosophy of job interviews is always: Don't count on the perfect job to materialize. A couple of times I've wanted to wait on what I thought was the perfect job, only to (a) not have it materialize or (b) have it turn out to be a really shit job that I'm glad I didn't get. So these days I try to be practical and deal with what's actually a real option. Although who knows, maybe the other job will indeed come through -- and believe me, you wouldn't be the only person to drop a short-term job off their resume!

I understand your breakfast choice completely -- mine today is strawberry shortcake. Yumm, cake and whipped cream for breakfast. Who needs a banana?

Since this isn't so much about TAR in the Media but TAR not in the Media, I'm going to whine about it over here. I've been listening to CBS on my walkman basically since I got to work at 7:30. And what have I heard? Non-stop Reagan. I've heard a recap of the half-mast flags the local anchor drove by this morning. They gave a minute by minute detailed schedule of what will happen with his body for the rest of the morning. Now, apparently, they're covering the whole thing. Of course, this is doubly boring when I'm only listening to it, because all the "respectful silence" is just static. Now, I'm all for honoring presidents but why couldn't they a) spend time on him when he was alive or b) not cover it quite so closely? This borders on a fetish for the dead! Now they're reciting the lyrics to "American the Beautiful"! Aaaaagh! I want my TAR! And now I feel bad for being disrespectful of a) the dead and b) the important! Aaaaaaaaagh!

.
Not to worry: Not everybody considers Reagan to be the above, although he is undeniably a) the dead.

So I just went to the doctor for a skin rash, to have her walk in, say, "I'm not a dermatologist, here's a referral to the dermatologist," and walk out. Could that have been done over the phone? Why yes, I believe so, but then they wouldn't have gotten to CHARGE ME for an office visit.
WherevertheLimey, a) what a satisfying visit for you, and b) Chartreuse with envy at the thought of three months in London. Chartreuse.
And good luck with the job, Suga! Hope the seafood salad stays down!

jennblevins, there's a link to The Early Show clip in the Media thread.

I know what you mean about Reagan, though. Whenever I see the clips of people filing past his coffin, all I can think of is people in Red Square filing past Lenin's coffin/tomb/whatever. Or Mao. It seems more sick and twisted than respectful to me. Then again, I hate funerals with open caskets, so maybe I'm just out of step.

Maybe I'm just a disrespectful prick (shut up, everybody), but I can't see standing in line in 100-degree heat (welcome to Swamp City!) just to look at a box.

I just keep thinking "Hey, news flash! He's STILL DEAD!"

I was home sick on Monday, and they showed live footage of the hearse leaving his driveway and driving down the street. No kidding. And people were lining the street clapping, which just seemed weird to me. Were they saying "yay! He's dead!" or "Wow, that driver really knows how to handle a hearse!"?

I would never stand in line to look at anyone's coffin. I don't want to look at coffins of people I actually knew and cared about, never mind dead presidents. And he was 93 freaking years old! It's not like this was unexpected, you know?

Being jewish, this whole thing is doubly-weird for me. I just don't get the whole wake thing.

But that's only because we bury our dead as soon as possible. My mom passed away on a Thursday at 4 p.m., and the funeral was Friday at noon. It was basically enough time to get my grandfather on the early plane from Florida so that he could be there. We also never have open caskets or embalm. My dad has weird religious tendencies too (he grew up in a semi-orthodox house), so everyone in my family only gets a plain, unvarnished pine box, held together with wooden pegs. no lining.

The idea is to get you to decompose as quickly as possible.

So I always find these "let's follow the coffin around for a week" things interesting from an anthropological perspective, if nothing else.

and jennblevins, I agree with you on the oversaturation in the media. I blogged about it yesterday, thereby becoming a hypocrite as well.

Fighting urge to reply to what Macaddict said.

On the upside, my office might close both Thursday and Friday! Finally something positive as a result of Reagan.

Yeah, my husband, who works for the state, is off on Friday because of the funeral. I told him that's just crap. It's not like Reagan even knew our state existed. Or even that our state did well at all during the 80s boom time. It was more of a bust in my area (heavily dependent at the time -- and probably still -- on agriculture and oil).

It is such a relief to know that I'm not the only one who thinks they're turning him into St. Ronnie! Of course, when he was running for president, my dad threatened to move to Canada if he got elected (and for eight years regretted that he didn't), so I've never been able to stomach the man's politics. I gather he was a nice guy, but so is Shrub, so clearly being a nice guy doesn't necessary have a thing in the WORLD to do with being a good president.

[/rant] Whew! I feel better for that!

On to more cheery subjects. I just found out that a coworker is a TAR fan and was thrilled to hear the teams are, so I don't have to go to the trouble of converting someone to the cause to have someone to talk to about it! (Not that I'm not busily converting everyone I can, but a ready-made fan is easier sometimes!)

I don't get it either. But what I do get is a two hour early departure today and a possible "holiday" on Friday. Thanks, Reagan! This doesn't quite make up for that whole "students over 18, yet still broke and young and have no way of supporting themselves, are ineligible to take advantage of their deceased parent's Social Security benefits" thing, but at least I can catch a good nap. I like naps.

The interview went ok, I think. The seafood salad stayed put (yeah!) and I think I was semi-articluate. The problem with where I work is that everyone knows everyone so now they want to talk to my current boss and some guy that I worked for for two weeks...two years ago. Ugh. My current boss doesn't exactly know that I interviewed for a new position, though, to my credit, I did tell him six months ago that since my contract was ending soon that I'd be looking at getting a permanent position. I wanted to stay in this division and told him so, but also that if it didn't materialize, which it hasn't, that I'd consider moving elsewhere in the agency.

BWAH!!! Damn, JenEx! Now, I've got coffee all over my keyboard. Of course, when my brother heard that Ronnie had died, his first response was "How could they tell?" Evil, I tell you, just evil.

Hey all

Just wanted to stop in here first before I begin posting on the episode and racer threads. I missed the first three seasons of TAR but have read all of Miss Alli's wonderful recaps. I watched all of Season Four but did not get involved this early...learning about the racers ahead of time and all. Really looking forward to this upcoming season, and since my wife just doesn't get this show (she didn't like the Apprentice either) it will be great having others to share my enthusiasm.

The last few weeks have been really dry TV-wise...no Apprentice, no American Idol, no Survivor...(I don't think I watch any scripted shows anymore except ER) so its cool to have the racers up now so we can start getting excited for the return of the best show on television.