Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays to all who read the blog! Without y'all, there would be no blog. I especially want to thank those who donated this year. It's been a very challenging health year for me and those donations are appreciated!

Big Brother Reindeer Games - Ep. 6 Finale Blog Party

 

                                                                                      CBS

While I won't be live blogging the show as intensely as I usually do, I will pop in now and then with a screen shot or comment as well as keeping up with major events. I do hear there's a party going on in the comments section. I hope to see you there! I will fill you in with major things like who wins the comps, who gets the boot, etc. 

Since we have no pool, I'm just keeping track here who gets the boot and what they win on the way out --

Cody Calafiore (BB16 and BB22) Eliminated 2nd/won a fruitcake.
Nicole Franzel (BB16, BB18 and BB22) 
Frankie Grande (BB16)
Taylor Hale (BB24)
Cameron Hardin (BB25) Eliminated 1st/won year subscription jelly.
Brittany Haynes (BB12 and BB14) Eliminated 5th/won men's Christmas underwear and socks.
Josh Martinez (BB19) Eliminated 4th/won ugly Christmas sweater
Xavier Prather (BB23)
Danielle Reyes (BB3 and BB7) Eliminated 3rd/won $5,000

Remaining to play the actual Reindeer Games, we have Nicole, Frankie, Taylor and Xavier. I wouldn't mind it if Frankie is the first boot of the night. Heh.

We get a Previously On. We're working on getting to the four who will compete tonight.

Tiffany remains the Elf in Charge tonight. Two head-to-head semifinal matchups. One final Naughty or Nice tonight. One of the paintings on the wall is a forgery put there by art thieves. Xavier thinks he has it ... and he does!

Xavier will get to make the bracket for the tournament. Decide with whom he wants to go head-to-head and that person starts 30 seconds after him.

He picks Nicole. Frankie and Taylor will do battle in the next part. The winners of the two will battle for the three.

Semi-Finals -- Nutcrackers are broken, need to be fixed. Must attach all 28 gears to their nutcrackers, first to fix and use, advances. Nicole has the 30 second disadvantage.

NICOLE WINS!

Xavier gets the boot. What? No gift going out?

Semi-Finals Part 2- Taylor versus Frankie. Elves are causing mayhem in the North Pole and must be apprehended. Five guilty elves. Knock down five guilty elves. First one done right wins.

TAYLOR WINS!

It will be Taylor versus Nicole at the end.

All of those previously eliminated come in. It's time for the Reindeer Game Final. They are all shocked that Frankie and Xavier got the boot. 

Final Reindeer Game - Acquire magical mistletoe, ancient antlers, sacred snowflake. That will fuel Santa's sleigh and save Christmas.

Taylor gets the mistletoe first.

Taylor has moved on to snowflakes

More evenly matched in snowflakes

NICOLE WINS THE BB REINDEER GAMES!    

Big Brother Reindeer Games - Ep. 5 Blog Party

 

                                                                                    CBS

While I won't be live blogging the show as I usually do, I will pop in now and then with a screen shot or comment. But I do hear there's a party going on in the comments section. I hope to see you there! I will fill you in with major things like who wins the comps, who gets the boot, etc. 

Since we have no pool, I'm just keeping track here who gets the boot and what they win on the way out --

Cody Calafiore (BB16 and BB22) Eliminated 2nd/won a fruitcake.
Nicole Franzel (BB16, BB18 and BB22) 
Frankie Grande (BB16)
Taylor Hale (BB24)
Cameron Hardin (BB25) Eliminated 1st/won year subscription jelly.
Brittany Haynes (BB12 and BB14)
Josh Martinez (BB19) Eliminated 4th/won ugly Christmas sweater
Xavier Prather (BB23)
Danielle Reyes (BB3 and BB7) Eliminated 3rd/won $5,000

Who will be cast out into the cold cruel world tonight?

Four challenges today. 

The doorbell rings. It's Tiffany, Elf Ambassador. Naughty/Nice Challenge. Holiday Special Canceled? Elfie has locked himself in Santa's Office. The keys must be found to let him out. NICOLE finds the key!

Her advantage will be someone else's disadvantage. Two Jingle Bell Brawls. Nicole picks one person to sit out. Most think it should be Xavier.

Jingle Bell Brawl One time. Eggnog recipe book misprinted, each recipe missing one ingredient. Sample seven eggnogs, figure what's missing, grab ingredient and win. Nicole sits out Xavier.

TAYLOR wins the Jingle Bell Brawl and a big power! She is the first to advance to the Reindeer Games. She can bring one player with her. She chooses Nicole. 

Frankie, Britney and Xavier will compete in the second Jingle Bell Brawl and the winner of that will go on to the Reindeer Games.

Second Brawl - Asked questions about entertainment performances so far. Two losers must go to Santa's Showdown. Xavier is the first to get one wrong. Then another one. Then another. Britney wrong. Frankie leading. FRANKIE wins. He will be in Reindeer Games. Britney and Xavier have to compete in the Santa Showdown.

Santa's Showdown time. Krampus is putting up anti-Christmas billboards. They must knock them down and put up new signs. They are on ziplines kicking down the bad ones. Britney is not doing well at all. She recovers and both are working on the good sign puzzle.

XAVIER wins!

Britney wins a pair of man's Christmas underwear and socks.

Big Brother Reindeer Games - Ep. 4 Blog Party

 

                                                                                      CBS

While I won't be live blogging the show as I usually do, I will pop in now and then with a screen shot or comment. But I do hear there's a party going on in the comments section. I hope to see you there!

I will fill you in with major things like who wins the comps, who gets the boot, etc. I'll even throw in a screencap now and again.

Since we have no pool, I'm just keeping track here who gets the boot and what they win on the way out --

Cody Calafiore (BB16 and BB22) Eliminated 2nd/won a fruitcake.
Nicole Franzel (BB16, BB18 and BB22) 
Frankie Grande (BB16)
Taylor Hale (BB24)
Cameron Hardin (BB25) Eliminated 1st/won year subscription jelly.
Brittany Haynes (BB12 and BB14)
Josh Martinez (BB19)
Xavier Prather (BB23)
Danielle Reyes (BB3 and BB7) Eliminated 3rd/won $5,000

Who will be cast out into the cold cruel world tonight?

Oh, we will have a candy cane rodeo!

Derek X. the Elf arrives with bad news. Jill Frost has disappeared. They have to figure out who took her. This is the Naughty or Nice challenge. The winner is Frankie. Another message from Santa. Next Jingle Bell Brawl pair up with your bestie. Frankie gets to choose his partner and will be able to penalize one pair during the brawl.

Frankie decides on Taylor for his partner. The other guys want guy/girl duos while Nicole and Britney want to work together. It ends up being Josh/Britney and Nicole/Xavier.

Jingle Bell Brawl time! They have to repack their sleighs. Winning duo decides who goes to Santa's Showdown. Frankie, as part of his Naughty or Nice win, can freeze a team.

When Xavier and Nicole were ahead, Frankie froze them for 45 seconds.

Taylor and Frankie win!

One player from each of the losing pairs will go to Santa's Showdown. Frank has to choose between Josh and Britney. Taylor, the other two.

Frankie wants to send Josh and Xavier and work as a team. In the end, Taylor goes with ... a commercial break. She chose Nicole to go to Santa's Showdown. Frankie sends Josh.

Sant's Showdown is a candy cane rodeo!

Yipes! They seemed to fall at the same time and we go to commercial. It turns out that Josh hit the mat first so he's out.

His prize is a Christmas sweater.

Big Brother Reindeer Games - Ep. 3 Blog Party

 

                                                                                  CBS

Ah, finally to the first one-hour episode. I'm sorry. I'm just having issues with all the long episodes of everything these days!

While I won't be live blogging the show as I usually do, I will pop in now and then with a screen shot or comment. But I do hear there's a party going on in the comments section. I hope to see you there!

I will fill you in with major things like who wins the comps, who gets the boot, etc. I'll even throw in a screencap now and again.

Since we have no pool, I'm just keeping track here who gets the boot and what they win on the way out --

Cody Calafiore (BB16 and BB22) Eliminated 2nd/won a fruitcake.
Nicole Franzel (BB16, BB18 and BB22) 
Frankie Grande (BB16)
Taylor Hale (BB24)
Cameron Hardin (BB25) Eliminated 1st/won year subscription jelly.
Brittany Haynes (BB12 and BB14)
Josh Martinez (BB19)
Xavier Prather (BB23)
Danielle Reyes (BB3 and BB7)

Who will be cast out into the cold cruel world tonight?

Why oh why has Nicole done NOTHING with that messy hair bun all these years?

We can expect drama tonight. Good. 

Uh-oh. The other women are onto the Danielle/Xavier duo.

The doorbell rings and it's Derek X. (BB23), our second Elf Ambassador. It's the Naughty or Nice Challenge. Oh my! The crooner has been dumped by his gal! Eep. He gets to the 9th day and loses it. Santa thinks they can help him figure out why she dumped him. Find scrambled letters on cookies and give him the four-word phrase as to why she dumped him. Winner gets a two-minute head start in the Jingle Bell Brawl.

I have it figured out. "You are too clingy." See if I'm right. I'm right and so is Taylor, the winner of the Naughty or Nice challenge. Both Josh and Xavier offer themselves to Taylor as the Naughty recipient.

Taylor chooses to give the Naughty list disadvantage to Josh.

Jingle Bell Brawl. 

Similar to the tiny tweezer comps

They have to rebuild tiny cookies. Josh can't see his photo of what it should look like for five minutes. NICOLE thought she won but was incorrect and didn't match the image given her. Now, NICOLE won the Jingle Bell Brawl!

Today Santa's Showdown is a one-person comp. That person will choose the next one to play if he/she wins. The second person has less time to play.

Time for the Santa Showdown in the Candy Cane Forest. Mrs. Santa's favorite ornament is trapped in a snow globe. First player gets the most time, each after that gets less. If the person completes it, they choose the next.

She sends in Frankie. He has five and a half minutes. 

Reminds me of the egg through chicken wire but moving.

Frankie finished it in 3.11 minutes. Frankie has to send someone else out. They will have one less minute. Frankie sends Xavier to do it next. Xavier completes it with 17 seconds left on the clock. Now he has to send someone in. He talks to everyone. Britney begs him not to send her. Nicole asks him not to send Britney. 

So ... he sends Britney. SHE BEATS IT WITH a minute 17 seconds left!

Finding out that Danielle is being protected by Xavier and possibly threw her under the bus, Britney chooses Danielle. Taylor had volunteered.

Danielle does not finish the comp. Lots of tears. She is out of the game. Her prize on the way out is the $5,000.

Big Brother Reindeer Games - Ep. 2 Blog Party

 

                                                                                    CBS

While I won't be live blogging the show as I usually do, I will pop in now and then with a screen shot or comment. But I do hear there's a party going on in the comments section. I hope to see you there!

I will fill you in with major things like who wins the comps, who gets the boot, etc. I'll even throw in a screencap now and again.

Last night, Cameron got sent home. Who will it be tonight?

We get the typical Previously On. We go through the three comps again -- Naughty or Nice, Jingle Bell Brawl and Santa's Showdown.

The doorbell rings and it's Jordan once again. Another crisis. Naughty or Nice -- Cranky Carolers, torn up sheet music of 19 songs and will only sing one. First player to guess song wins Naughty or Nice Power. The advantage today is supposed to be a game-changer. Of course, many are trying to avoid winning as they don't want the power of choosing a Naughty.

We have a winner -- CODY! The doorbell rings again and this time it's the carolers. 

The upcoming Jingle Bell Brawl will be a four-on-four challenge. Win and the team will be safe. Cody's advantage is to choose his team members, he will put one on the opposing team on the Naughty list.

Cody's chosen team is Nicole, Frankie and Xavier. Britney, Danielle, Josh and Taylor are the other team. On the Naughty List, he puts Taylor.

They are in Santa's Village. Each team has to decorate four trees. For her Naughty disadvantage, Taylor has to decorate a small tree before her team can do a tipping tree. The four trees can easily tip as the ornaments weigh different and branches are different lengths.

Despite the team waiting for Taylor, they are ahead with the first tree done.

Red team - Josh, Danielle, Taylor and Britney - are really ahead now!

RED TEAM WINS the Jingle Bell Brawl! They are all safe from elimination tonight. They must all agree to make one person on the other team safe. The other three will head to Santa's Showdown, loser gets eliminated.

The Red Team decides to save Nicole. Xavier, Cody and Frankie must compete in the Santa's Showdown.

Santa's Showdown time. The workshop is full of toys, lists from five picky kids -- stuff they like and hate. Find the gifts that fit their criteria. Can only carry one toy at a time to each gift box. First two players done are safe.

Xavier finishes first and is safe! Frankie finishes second.

CODY will be sent home. His winning package is a fruitcake.

Big Brother Reindeer Games - Ep. 1 Blog Party

 

Welp, we have two hours of games tonight, an hour and a half tomorrow night, then the last four episodes will be an hour each.

Tiffany, Derek and Jordan are the hosting elves.

While I won't be live blogging the show as I usually do, I will pop in now and then with a screen shot or comment.

But I do hear there's a party going on in the comments section! I hope to see you there!

I'm liking the introductions to each competitor. I like Britney so much! And Danielle! 

Santa tells them Christmas is in danger of being cancelled. One player who falls short each day will be sent home. At the end the winner wins 100 grand.

They did better on decorating the house for the holidays than they did for the last several seasons.

Britney and Nicole mend fences. It's a Christmas miracle!

Who could be at the door? Jordan! She's an Elf Ambassador for Santa. Time for their first challenge. First challenge each day will be the Naughty or Nice challenge. They have to solve a riddle -- packages will open with clues to a DJ's favorite song, can only guess once. More on the Naughty or Nice power later.

The winner is Britney. (Up On the Housetop) She has earned the Nice Power, will have an advantage at the next challenge - the Jingle Bell Brawl. She can put someone on the Naughty List.

After talking to everyone, Britney puts the Naughty disadvantage on Cody.

Safety for the day, winner will have a crucial role in who goes home. That's the Jingle Bell Brawl. Letters to Santa have stopped being delivered. They must place their letters in the boxes of others. Then they deliver ones in their box. Britney starts with one less for Nice, Cody starts with an extra trip due to Naughty.

FRANKIE wins the Jingle Bell Brawl. It will be up to him and him alone to decide which two players go to the Santa Showdown. The loser of that goes home.

Frankie chooses to send Cameron and Xavier into Santa's Showdown.

In it, they each have to make a Yeti sweater, 57 sweater parts. It's a giant puzzle.

What the sweater needs to look like.

XAVIER wins Santa's Showdown! Cameron is eliminated and going ho-ho-home. He gets to choose one gift from under the tree. He gets a year's subscription to the Jelly Club.

Regarding BB Reindeer Games

 

CBS

Monday night is the debut of the Big Brother Reindeer Games holiday series. While I won't be live-blogging the six shows per se, I will set up posts on show nights and may occasionally chime in with updates and screen shots. 

There are a few reasons I'm not committing to actual in-depth live blogging the shows. First, we went from a ridiculously long and intense BB25 season into The Amazing Race and Survivor as I blogged all three for a month and am still tied up with the latter two! Plus, I had a bad case of Covid back in September and am still affected by it. And, third ... this is all competitions. Competitions are hard to blog. Believe it or not, it's not easy to be constantly typing while watching a show!

But, since there have been requests, I will put up posts so y'all can go wild updating and partying in the comments area.

CBS

There are only six shows. Here is the schedule:

Monday, December 11 - 9pm-11pm ET/PT
Tuesday, December 12 - 9pm-10:30pm ET/PT
Thursday, December 14 - 8pm-9pm ET/PT
Monday, December 18 - 9pm-10pm ET/PT
Tuesday, December 19 - 9pm-10pm ET/PT
Thursday, December 21 - 8pm-9pm ET/PT

Derek Xiao and Tiffany Mitchell of BB23 and BB11 winner Jordan Lloyd will be hosting the shows. Competing for the $100,000 prize, we have:  

Cody Calafiore (BB16 and BB22)
Nicole Franzel (BB16, BB18 and BB22) 
Frankie Grande (BB16)
Taylor Hale (BB24)
Cameron Hardin (BB25)
Brittany Haynes (BB12 and BB14)
Josh Martinez (BB19)
Xavier Prather (BB23)
Danielle Reyes (BB3 and BB7)

All of them were winners or AFP on their seasons except Danielle and Frankie. Of course, I welcome Danielle into anything BB -- she should have won BB3 had the voting players been sequestered! Um, Frankie? No comment.

There will be NO live feeds; the shows are taped. They apparently did not live together at the BB house which has been done over as Santa's Lodge. The kitchen is now the bakery, HOH room is the office, all is festive and holly-jolly. Some comps will have them going to places like the Candy Cane Forest, Santa's Workshop and Santa's Village.  Each episode consists of three competitions, the last of which determines which player will be eliminated.

So, the first post will be up and running Monday evening. Be there or Santa don't care!

Off Topic: That Was the Week(s) It Was - December 24, 2017

An oldie, but a goodie

I'm not sure where the Santa suit is these days. Vincent probably destroyed it!

Another oldie, but goodie. This was created some years back for the blog by Zoetawny. I miss her! Not quite the best photo of Vincent, though.

I apologize for my absence the past few weeks with the exception of covering Survivor. I've had a mix of bad health issues, overwork and severe stress on my job, a lost camera memory card and, to be honest, the holidays in general aren't a good time of the year for me. They were great when I was a child and I do have precious memories of those days. 

Tomorrow I'll cook the small ham I bought on sale, make some side dishes and bake the Mrs. Smith's apple pie to round out my feast. Vincent and I will be alone for the day. That's been the story of my big holiday doings for most of my life. Well, not always with Vincent, but with a cat or two. Oh, well. It could be worse. I could have to work. I've had to do that some Christmas days in the past.

I hope those of you with families and loved ones have a good Christmas -- but try not to overeat!

The majority of the photos this week were taken with my cell phone camera. Although I have a different memory card in my camera, I just didn't see much in the way of photos to take this past week.

Brightly lighted these days

The white lighting at the Plainfield Train Station does seem to cut down on the vagrants hanging out at night. Yet, they're still there in the daytime.

Crescent moon

My camera picks up detail not noticed by the naked eye. You can actually see the whole moon, even a touch of detail with the markings.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - November 26, 2017

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and a great holiday weekend (if you had one of those)! I'm thankful for all of the loyal blog readers out there -- many have also become my friends, too -- who have followed this blog year in, year out ... even when Big Brother isn't in season! Safe travels to all heading home this evening.

Since it's a Sunday morning, it's time for my off television topic reflection of the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken along the way. If you're not interested in either, please feel free to check out my previous and newer posts I will put up after this -- they will be television related! You can find my Survivor posts at this link.

I actually had two days off from work in a row this week -- a rarity in my life. True to form as of late, I spent a lot of time napping on the first day off. The days off in a row were Wednesday and Thursday. My third day off during the holiday week was the Sunday leading into the week. 

While the two days in a row off were nice, it's not enough time to even travel up to my nearest relative in upstate New York for the holiday. I had to be to work Friday morning (and Saturday, too). So, it was a solitary, with the exception of Vincent the Cat, holiday for me. I'm used to it. I often do get invitations to join in at local friends. But I feel it's uncomfortable to intrude on family gatherings when I'm not family. I don't like eating with a crowd of strangers where I might only know one or two people. I prefer to be alone rather than to do that.

On Thanksgiving, I made myself a little feast -- turkey breast, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, asparagus and a Mrs. Smith's apple pie for dessert. Heck, the rest of the stuff was more work than I usually do, no way would I throw in a homemade pie! I had/have enough leftovers to last me through the weekend so I didn't/don't have to cook for four days after my big kitchen doings. I spent a good part of the day binge-watching The Sopranos on Amazon Prime. After all, that's a family-related show, right? Right? Heh. It's even a New Jersey family! But, I'll admit I don't know anyone in the mob in NJ. I did know some in both New York and Connecticut. But I'm not part of those families, mind you.

What else? Oh, here's a bit of urban life in New Jersey for you ...
I was waiting for the bus to get across town one evening after work. A street kind of guy pushing a bike stopped to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving. He showed me his tire was flat. Um. Okay. What do you want, dude? He showed me the glue and patches for the tire from his pocket. But then he hit me up. He only had a dime and the cheapest air is 35 cents. Oh, well. It's a quarter. I gave him one. We commiserated a bit about how air used to be free and it no longer is such. As he parted, he told me he shoplifted the glue and patches from the store down the street. ACK! I felt like an accomplice after the fact! Thankfully, my bus came shortly afterwards. I cannot fall into a life of crime in my advanced years!

I'm thankful that the guy upstairs went away for the holiday weekend. The quiet is nice. He's had his loud visitors there for the past few weeks and I meant to call the landlord about his extremely loud stereo on Monday this past week, but I forgot. 

Onto the photos for this week. I don't have a lot of them for you and many were taken with the cell phone rather than the camera. The moon shot was the camera. I can't get the cell phone to focus on that.  

Okay, train station. I'm here.

Train be on time. A friend often drives me in these days when our work schedules mesh. However, she had a four day weekend. I didn't. Taking the train on random days the past few weeks has made me late to work twice even though I should have an "early cushion" with the departures. I'm not happy about that. I always plan to be early and NJT makes me late. I'm always at the train station early to catch my train. The least they could do is run vaguely on time!

Friday's moon

You know I can't resist shooting the moon. Had I been out about four hours later, some meteors streaked through the New Jersey skies.

Chotola Pigeon Gathering

Pigeons often line the roof at the front of the Chotola Apartment Building on North Avenue in Plainfield. When I feel I have little photo inspiration while across the street waiting for my train, I turn to them. I often wonder what the building was like in its heyday or what the apartments look like inside. But I wouldn't want to live there even though it's so close to the train. I prefer to live where I don't have to worry about the denizens of the night ... even in the daytime.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Happy Easter!

I'd like to wish everyone who celebrates the day a Happy Easter! My weekly off television topic photo post will be posted later today.

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 11, 2016

Good morning! Since it's Sunday, it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. This is a regular Sunday part of this blog in addition to the television posts. 

If you're a fan of Survivor, please stop in Wednesday night for the big two-hour season finale blog party! The show (and blog party) start at 8pm ET. I'll be live-blogging the major happenings as they air here.

I really have very little to report on this week and even but a few photos. It's not really my favorite time of year and my health pain-wise has been rough. Plus, it's been cold! Supposedly, we're expecting snow this afternoon and evening, but it's supposed to turn to rain and warm up overnight.

Despite my pain issues, I'm going to arm myself with some ibuprofen, go into work early tomorrow, then head into the city after work. I haven't been going into Manhattan because I haven't been feeling all that well lately. But I now have a reason to go and a purpose. An online friend of more than 20 years from Glasgow (Scotland) is visiting the city. It's one of those odd nowadays tales of knowing someone so well and so long, but never actually meeting in person. He's much younger than I am. I recall he was an older teenager when we first met in a CompuServe forum circa 1995. At that time, he was barred from flying here due to some sort of marijuana issue.  

Now, fast forward twenty years -- he got married in his kilt a year or so back and he and his wife are passing though after visiting her home town of Ottawa. While I'm meeting them on the Lower East Side for dinner, I'll be arriving at Penn Station, walking over to Herald Square to catch the subway down there and taking a different route back up through the city and returning home by bus from Port Authority at the edge of Times Square. So, I'll definitely be taking some photos even though I won't hit Rockefeller Center and such. To be honest, they do look the same year after year anyway although if you haven't been there during the holidays, you need to get there sometime! The bus home drops me off across the street from my apartment.  

That's it. Here are the few photos I took this week. Clicking on an image will open it in a larger version. 

Holidays at the Plainfield Police

"Darn it, Jim. I'm a cop, not a tree lighting design engineer!" But the sentiment is there! The green lanterns by the entrance to the police department aren't holiday related. When I lived in CT or upstate NY, I never saw green lanterns by police department entrances. I noticed that NYC police stations had the lights, though ... as does Plainfield which is much closer to the city. So, I looked up the meaning behind them. I found this reference -- "According to the NYPD website, "It is believed that the Rattle Watchmen, who patrolled New Amsterdam in the 1650's, carried lanterns at night with green glass sides in them as a means of identification. When the Watchmen returned to the watch house after patrol, they hung their lantern on a hook by the front door to show people seeking the watchman that he was in the watch house. Today, green lights are hung outside the entrances of Police Precincts as a symbol that the "Watch" is present and vigilant." Huh. Interesting. The original Green Lantern(s)!

Here, then gone. Here, then gone.

The struggle is real. I fear the dandelions will lose the war; winter will win it soon.
 

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 4, 2016

Good morning! Since it's Sunday, it's time for my weekly off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photographs I've taken along the way. This is a regular Sunday part of this blog in addition to the television posts. 

After what seems like an eternity of covering Big Brother and Big Brother Over the Top, that's done and over with until summer comes around. I might post newsy bits now and then about BB stuff in between now and BB19, but (thankfully) no juggling blog coverage of it and work at the same time. I'm live blogging Survivor episodes as they air on Wednesday evenings. Come join the blog parties! I might also post some other television-related stuff, but I'm definitely going to take a bit of a breather from other daily show posts for a bit.

Work in my real world is exhausting me. At least now I'll get a bit more rest. I hope.

I really don't have much to report on for the past week here. Nor did I even get any great photos this week. Oh well. Onto the photos anyway! Clicking on a image will bring up a larger version. 

What? No one going to Manhattan?

I could jump on that bus and head into Manhattan for the evening. Nah. When I took this shot, I just wanted to go home. Home is where the cat is. Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

There it is! Plainfield's Christmas Tree!

While I didn't stick around in the cold and wind on Thursday for the actual lighting of the tree, I could see it on Friday from Watchung Avenue across from the police station. I had had a rough day at work and didn't feel like walking over there. I will do that someday.

Trying to stay warm

With no hawk around, the pigeons gather where the sun shines on the brick of the Chotola Apartment Building on North Avenue. 

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK TO SEE THE REST OF THE PHOTOS**

BBOTT: A BB Thanksgiving - into Friday, November 25

Drumsticks are better eaten than worn

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving with family, fun and food! I didn't write up a report yesterday because I was busy having a mellow day myself. But I'm here now and here's what's been going on!

• As I mentioned in my last post, Jason easily won the last HoH of the season. He will nominate two people for eviction and save one. Those two will have the opportunity to play for the Power of Veto.
• After the comp, secrets came bursting out of nowhere -- Morgan told them that Alex is her sister and their whole story (not getting along well over the years, Alex was the superfan, didn't know each other would be in the house, etc.)
• Jason told them that he didn't just reenter the house this season -- America voted him in over Jozea. 
• Of course, if they knew Jozea, they should figure nobody wanted to endure Jozea in there again!
• In between getting told by BB to stop talking about production, they all talked how they got on the show this season.
• Justin admitted he was a recruit and had tried for a cooking show.
• Jason indicated to Justin that he would be taking Kryssie with him to the final three, leaving Justin and Morgan to battle it out in Veto.
• Oh my.
• There is a side of Justin which certainly isn't entertaining! Not AT ALL!
• Justin started saying how he played the game this year the best of all. After all, he didn't know the game at all and has sailed right through to the end!
• He played better than Jason or any of the others! 
• Give me a break!
• Jason ranted (not in front of Justin) with Kryssie about Justin not doing much all season, yet thinking he was entitled to be chosen rather than Kryssie.
• Now, I totally understand the Kryssie choice, as does Kryssie herself. She knows she has no chance to win against Jason. But she has been WITH Jason since the get-go.
• On the other hand, Morgan is mixing and mingling with Jason and Kryssie quite nicely.
• Obviously, she wasn't expecting Jason to save her in this scenario.
• But things get worse with Justin.
• In the daytime, BB gave them letters from home, expecting them to read them together as a group.
• Justin just up and left the other three and his unopened letter.
• As they said, if he didn't want to read it aloud, fine. But stay with them and listen to theirs as BB did it for them.
• Instead, Justin stayed in bed almost all day.
• BB also gave them all the ingredients and recipes for a holiday feast. The recipes were ones from their families and some from previous houseguests.
• Morgan, Kryssie and Jason worked preparing and cooking.
• Justin slept.
• Remember, Justin is the one with the "chef" background.
• Justin woke up in time to eat, then went to read his letter and return to sleeping.
• Morgan, Kryssie and Jason cleaned up the kitchen.
• In this 24-hour period, Justin has managed to totally alienate the other three in the house.
• Both Jason and Kryssie want Morgan to be with them in the final three.
• They think Justin has been acting entitled to the win, disrespecting BB and the show itself.
• Y'know, I kind of agree with them.
• All along I've said he's not really playing the game; he's just being himself. And, while he can be entertaining, he's not playing BB.
• He wasn't even entertaining yesterday. 

In the spirit of the day

Look who decided to show up