Fromage!

So, I spent a decent portion of the day dealing with gardens and the lawn. Yeeha. Although I spent three summers as a gardener, I've found that the appeal is somewhat lessened when not being paid for it. And lawn mowing and trimming has never been appealing for me. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is.

The front lawn is completely infested with Creeping Charlie, and I'm of two minds about it, quite frankly. At this time of year, it's quite lovely with its wee bluish-purple and white flowers. It smells nice when cut. I'm not a huge "Give me a lawn that looks like a golf course" person and I'm not in any mood to start dropping nasty chemicals on the lawn. It was once touted as a ground cover, after all. Still, it's rather ... um ... aggressive, so keeping it out of the gardens is fun. It's reputed to be quite a pain, so at some point I may have to dig up my lawn and get rid of it all. We'll see...

Now on to the Survivor Finale. They really make me laugh (and shake my head) with their overly dramatic nonsense. Perhaps the most gag-worthy moments of each season come when the finalists do their memory walk. The fact that good ole Jeffy uses phrases like "You will honor their memories" (and, yes, being American, he would say "honor" with -or rather than the more elegant "honour" with -our) and "fallen comrades". Yikes. They were voted off the island, not sent off to die in battle. Then, to top it all off, they set the torches on fire and send them out to sea... Who creates this sappy crap? THEY'RE GOING TO BE AT TRIBAL COUNCIL and THE REUNION SHOW! Cheese, I say.

I also enjoyed noticing how the number of torches on the boat kept changing between shots, belying their editing jobs. Then, of course, I had to be put off by the black, oily smoke which rose from the burning pile. Who knows what nasty flammable chemical was poured all over the wee boat to make sure it burned dramatically into the evening.

Highlights of whacky behaviour from the final Jury session? How about Alex's freakout session, not letting Cassandra say anything? What about Lisi, trying to be dramatic and funny with her Eenie Meenie game. Not working. And the water shoes comment? Jeff’s face just said, “What the heck is she talking about?” Then she tries to be pompous and asks Dreamz how many zeroes are in a million, which was both insulting and pointless since he knew there were six. I did enjoy watching Jeff’s face change to amusement with her at this point.

Then there's Rocky, who just tries far too hard to be tough and manly, doesn’t he? He certainly seems to have something to prove. Wouldn't it be amusing to find out that he's really a closeted gay man who dreams of owning a dance school or something? I just wish he'd not try to be Sylvester Stallone, because that makes no sense on a hundred levels.

Boo's appeal to Dreamz as a Christian Man, and Dreamz avoiding at all costs. Despite what Dreamz insists, I think he just can't fess up to the fact that he had a moral dilemma and chose for himself rather than for Yau. It's easier for him to insist that he was playing it all along, but quite frankly, I don't think he's that good an actor. He really thought he'd take the moral high ground until push came along and said, "Pardon me, but I've got to shove now."

So there you have it. My tirade du jour. And nary a mention of pickles in sight.

Surviving One's Own Misplaced Ego

It was the penultimate episode of Survivor: Fiji tonight (not counting Sunday's two-episodes-that-are-really-only-one-episode as two episodes). Ooo, intrigue, game play, winning a truck, strategizing, whatever ... that's not why I'm mentioning it.

Let's talk Feigned Heroism, shall we?

For those who don't watch, part of the reward challenge was to take the aforementioned truck to deliver school supplies and a portable school office to a local school. Good. The kids and teachers there can surely use the stuff. Sure, it's a publicity-charity event, but hey, the students and teachers will still get stuff they need. What gets me, however, is the self-adoring false heroism of the contestants. You know what? You didn't make the gifts. You didn't buy the gifts. You didn't even choose them. You're just the pretty face to deliever them as part of your televised quest for a million bucks.

That said, I have to admit that Dreamz, of whom I'm not much of a fan, was kind of kind and gentle with those little kids, talking to them like real people (at least for the ten seconds we saw).

All of that aside, one must admit how enjoyable it is to have a fellow like Yau-Man still going at this point in the season. He's a funny little nerd-man, but here he is among the more athletic alpha-types and holding his own quite nicely. Heehee! I'd be more than happy to see him win the entire thing!