Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was 8/30/09

Yes, it's Sunday. You know what that means -- it's time for my off topic ramble through the week in thoughts and photographs I've taken. If you're looking for Big Brother 11 news, head to the BB blog tag. If you want to take a walk with me, stay right here.

We've had yet another week of muggy and often stormy weather. Even on the days when the temperatures were fairly low, the humidity was right up there. I want it to end. I want crisp clear autumn weather ... and I want it now. Do you think that will work?

I really don't have any excitement for you. I, once again, didn't win the Mega Millions. But I did only spend a dollar on each big jackpot. I suppose that made the odds go way against me. However, I didn't want to throw away more than a dollar on it. You see, I'd never be a good one to go to Atlantic City or Las Vegas. It bothers me to throw away money.

I worked all week as I'm wont to do. My life outside the day job is still tied up with all the Big Brother doings. While I enjoy the excitement in the blog and the freelance TV Squad writings during the live feeds, I'm always ready for them to end when it comes time. More than four or five hours sleep is so welcome.

While I'm here and off topic, I want to give a shout out to Bernice of the Plainfield Plaintalker and Dan Damon of Plainfield Today and Clips. Thanks go to Bernice for bringing up my blog once again. Thanks go to Dan for adding my link to his Clips blog. You both rock! Although my own blog tends to focus on television, I always read those blogs to find out what's going on in the city around me. I find this city very interesting and a friendly place in which to live. Plainfield often seems to have a bad reputation, but it's a place where almost everyone greets me with a friendly hello when I'm walking on the sidewalk. That just doesn't happen everywhere.

Onto the photos for the week - clicking on them will open them larger in a new window:

Feral cat at the Plainfield (NJ) Train Station

He looks hefty in this photo, but he's pretty thin when he stands. This one, or one who looks like him, has been around for more than a year. I feel sorry for him, but he doesn't trust people at all.

A slice of sky

Plainfield Train Station with a double-decker in port. Um ... in track. Something like that. At least the rain stopped for a few minutes.

Is it autumn yet?

The poison ivy in Bridgewater (NJ) is starting to pick up its first hint of fall color. That is, the leaves not attacked by the poison ivy leaf gall mite.

Same bees, new flowers

The flowers the carpenter bees were on last week have passed, so they're on these now. I was taking shots as it started to rain and the bees started to come after me like it was my fault that it was raining. Eek!

Planning to overthrow democracy

I know they're up to something. Something sinister would be my guess. Bridgewater, NJ.

Moth in the wind

I haven't seen too many butterflies this year. It should be Monarch season soon. However, this yellow moth was willing to pose for me until the wind flapped its wing. That irked it and it flew away.

It IS a stinkhorn!

I was reluctant to outright declare the shot I took in last week's post as a stinkhorn mushroom as the colors weren't just right. I took this shot earlier in the week this week and the colors match the website information I found. Supposedly the tip smells like carrion. I'll take their word for it.

The stinkhorns yesterday

They droop over next. Minds, gutter ... I know.

Scott Drugs in Plainfield

I used the illustrator mode plus sepia in this photo. It's too bad they misspelled "neighborhood" on the awning, eh? I believe that's been there, misspelled as it is, since I moved to town eight years ago.

Waiting on a train

Bound Brook Train Station, New Jersey

Eek! A spider!

This little guy (maybe a half-inch) was zooming around building a web. I took dozens of shots, but in most he was just an orange/red blur. Such a busy guy ... he makes the ant look lazy.

Now defunct Telephone Building in Plainfield

I imagine at one time this building was full of Ernestines. Nowadays, the front doors are padlocked. I can't help but wonder what this town was like 70 years ago.

Big Brother 11 Live Feeds Into Dawn Sunday 8/30

They spent most of the day comatose and now they're up most the night again. Not helping matters is that BB gave them alcohol once again. In a way, the Natalie age lie keeps her from imbibing and she's often the straightest thinker on alcohol nights. Occasionally she slips and drinks, but Natalie doesn't get drunk. I think all BB hamsters should take a clue from that -- why do they go ahead and get drunk? Loose lips sink ships!

Here's the latest from that Big Brother House of Smoke and Mirrors:

• Smoke and mirrors describes the night well. Schemes and dreams could do it, too.
• Jordan, forgetting that she is trying to win a half million dollars to help her family as well as herself, is willing to blow it all for Jeff to stay in the game.
• Jeff, on the other hand, doesn't want Jordan to ruin her own chances in the game. Yay, Jeff.
• Natalie is the one most antsy trying to find out how much money the hamsters won in the Pandora Box yesterday.
• BB ain't tellin'.
• Jeff says he really can't trust Kevin again because he broke his word and put him on the block.
  
• Jeff broke his word and put Russell on the block.
• Jeff admits that it's a game and he got got. But he won't trust Kevin again nonetheless.
• He shouldn't have trusted Kevin and Natalie in the first place!
• However, Jeff still trusts Natalie, as does Jordan.
• Ack. Fools and their money will soon part.
• But do Natalie and Kevin dislike Michele more?
• Jeff can't think of a scenario in which he can make it through this week.
• Yet, there are schemes.
• Jordan is willing to go home in his place.
• Natalie, Kevin, and Jordan came up with a new scheme -- Kevin will "betray" Natalie. He'll get Michele to use the veto to save Jeff and promise to put Natalie in his place on the block with Michele. He will trash talk Natalie and convince her that he wants her out.
• Then they'll vote out Michele.
• I don't think that Michele is that dumb. I doubt she'll fall for it.
• Michele is acting like she wants Jeff to stay. She told Kevin she wants him to stay.
  
• But who can tell with her?
• Michele knows that of the people left, Natalie would be her most likely adversary.
• But no one is close to her in the house still ... near the end of the season and no one can really declare her as a friend.
• Meanwhile, Jordan has really worked herself in well with Kevin and Natalie.
• I think they'd like her in the final three, but boot her before the final two because she's too popular with everyone. No one wants her against them with the jury.
• No one has approached Michele with the latest scheme yet.
• They're muddled with alcohol.
• I'm muddled with all the schemes and dreams, smoke and mirrors.
• We'll see what happens, but I can't think of Michele pulling a Marcellas.
• Jeff himself thinks it's pointless to try.
• Jordan and Natalie think Jeff should flirt with Michele.
  
• If Natalie and Kevin do this, one of them deserve to win ... even if they save Jeff.
• Whether it's better for Jeff or Michele to leave for them, I don't know. Jeff is a strong player, but he's predictable. Michele is proving herself a strong player, but is very unpredictable and a lone wolf.
• Then again, going against Michele in the final two might be a guaranteed win for anyone. Going against Jeff may be a bit trickier.
• I just don't know.
  

Big Brother 11 Live Feeds Saturday Daytime 8/29

Scroll down.
There. That's as exciting as it gets.

I think today has been the dullest day ever in the house. Well, sometimes when they have that silly extended stay time with the final two, maybe that's worse. I'm basically posting this so you don't think I forgot about you.

Here's the latest from the Big Brother House of Snoozing Losers:

• Jeff is dreading going to the jury house with the people he evicted and watching [bleeping] movies and [bleep].
• Jeff doesn't want to campaign to stay because it would mean Jordan goes home.
• We need to remind ourselves that the veto meeting hasn't happened yet.
• But I don't see Michele pulling a Marcellas.
• Natalie mentioned how often Michele goes to the bathroom. (I told you there's nothing happening!)
• Jeff told Jordan that Michele has no reason to save him.
• Kevin thinks Michele needs to go next because she's a strong player and not to be trusted.
• If Michele is HOH and Kevin or Natalie win veto, they would get Jordan out.
• Well, duh.
• Natalie thinks she could beat Michele in a comp.
• Yeah, right.
• Jeff isn't really talking to anyone but Jordan and no one is talking to him ... but Jordan.
• He drank an entire bottle of wine last night and probably is feeling that a bit, too.
• They're all napping except Michele. She's staring off into space.
• Um, okay. I must stare into space now.
  

Big Brother 11 Live Feeds Into Saturday Dawn - POV - 8/29

There are aliens in the mirrors.

After a night during which the feeds were blocked a good portion, the power of veto comp is over. And, look who's wearing the necklace -- Michele. Now, all of a sudden, Natalie and Kevin are her new best friends. It was an odd evening before the feeds block. Here's how everything went down:

• They ate together, but separately bashed each other. Kevin and Natalie bashed Michele and Jordan/Jeff dependent on occasion. Jeff and Jordan bashed Michele.
• All in all, there are two distinct camps -- Kevin/Natalie and Jordan/Jeff. Michele is a lone wolf and no one really has her figured out. She has different tales for whomever is listening and no one really knows her at all.
• Then came the aliens. We've seen this before. Jordan spotted one first in the mirror in the kitchen while Michele was washing dishes.
• Jordan thought it was funny, not scary. Michele didn't quite believe her.
• That is, until Michele went to the bathroom. When she saw the face in the mirror, she laughed and said it was amusing.
• There was another one in the splish splash room and yet another one appeared in the HOH room as Jordan tried to tell Kevin and Natalie about them.
• Kevin seemed to think they're a bit creepy but just about everyone else think they're funny.
• Kevin thinks they opened Pandora's Box in the earlier not-a-luxury comp in the yard -- now evil will unleash.
• They were told it would be a midnight PoV.
• So there was a scurry of studying.
• Michele and Jeff clashed. She said he called her a liar and made her look bad in the Pandora's Box.
• He said it was because he thought she was lying.
• Michele cried.
• She muttered to herself that she hates him. I think the latest him is Jeff, not Russell.
• Jeff and Jordan think Michele is going crazy and that it's funny.
• Jeff (once again) told Jordan how important it is to focus.
• For some odd reason, all of the others think Michele knows what's behind the Pandora's Box story and just isn't telling them.
• They were getting clues in the Diary Room for something.
• Jordan assured Jeff that Natalie told her the plan is to get Michele out of the house.
• Michele told Natalie that her (Natalie) performance in the last HOH was so horrible she had to throw it. Natalie denied throwing the comp.
• Finally, when pressured, Natalie just said, "Okay, I threw it." I think she did it to shut Michele up.
• Then the PoV went down, so did the feeds.
• From what they're saying, it sounds like the face morphing comp again.
  
• Michele to America, "Your boyfriend is going home."
• Michele told Natalie and Kevin that her plan all along was to take out Jeff and Jordan.
• Michele, Kevin, and Natalie all say they have to get Jordan out of the house before the final three as she would win the jury vote over them.
• Natalie is sure she will win HOH next week. Yeah, right.
• Jordan told Natalie that she's willing to go home instead of Jeff this week.
• Oh my.
• Natalie told Jordan that if she wants her to vote her out, she will.
• I doubt she will if she has the chance to get Jeff out.
• Jeff found out Jordan was campaigning to leave over him and told her to stop it.
• He told her she was the sweetest girl in the world.
• Jeff admitted he got too cocky and said that Kevin's move to put him on the block was the right move for Kevin.
• Jeff is sure he will be evicted this week.
• I personally don't see any other scenario myself.
  

Big Brother 11 Live Feeds Bulletin - Nominations 8/28

After a long (two hours-ish) feeds block, they're back. As Kevin indicated to both Jeff and Michele earlier ... they're both on the block.

There are no fireworks. Michele stocked the toilet tissue and Jeff is cooking.