Off Topic - That Was the Week It Was - August 14, 2011

It's Sunday morning, time for my weekly off television topic trip through the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken. If you're looking for the latest Big Brother 13 news, check out the post before this one. Nothing earth-shattering has happened since I posted that -- I still don't really know what Daniele will do.

Sigh. This has not been a good week with the knee replacement recovery. I had recovered (I thought) from straining the quad muscle a couple of weeks ago. Maybe not so much.

In physical therapy on Tuesday, while doing a balance exercise and having had the best day ever in PT ... it happened. My new knee actually bent backwards with a loud pop and I crumbled to the floor. The pain was the most intense pain I've ever had in my life. I was sure, at the least, that my leg was broken.

After getting caught in torrential thunderstorms on the way home, the knee swelled almost double. I could put weight on it, but it was very unstable. It kept feeling like it was going to go backwards again.

With both crutches (sigh), I went to my orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday. He did the tendon tests to make sure they were okay and put me through a series of x-rays. I was very scared that where the femur was drilled and the spike for the implant was might have broken as the pain is mostly above the knee and in the thigh. But the x-rays were negative, good!

He told me to ice, elevate, don't go to PT and to return on Monday. He also put the leg in an immobilizer for stability. He thinks that I had a patella subluxation -- which is roughly a partial dislocation of the kneecap. When I looked it up online, the first article scared me to death -- saying it was the most common cause for a failed knee replacement. GAH!

But, while my doctor seemed very concerned, he seemed to be just as sure that with time and rest, the knee will be back to normal. And, in reading more sites, it sounds like repeated subluxation is the failure cause. I guess I'll see. I walked to the local bodega with one crutch and no immobilizer yesterday. The knee is still acting unstable, but I was very slow and careful.

With the additional pain, I started taking more pain meds. So now my stomach is all whacky once again. It really hasn't been a good week. Yet I did get some decent photos! Clicking on an image will open it larger in a new window ...

When it pours

I no sooner left PT in agony on Tuesday and a tremendous thunderstorm hit with torrential street flooding rainfall. I took shelter in the gazebo for a while. Scotch Plains.

Bored in the rain

Rainy day cleaners

Park Avenue, Scotch Plains

Flying mice!

I swear these carpenter bees were the size of flying mice! Bound Brook.

HUGE mushroom

This was also on Maple Street in Bound Brook on Wednesday as I went to the doctor's office.

Huge mushroom next to my huge foot

Another bee on Maple Street

Maple Street moth

Excuse me, could you turn around?

Um. Okay. Stop looking at me!

Could you give me a hand?

Same moth?

Waiting on NJ Transit

Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

Vincent is floored!

He's not quite sure what to make of the immobilizer. I told him it's NOT a cat scratching post!

Big Brother 13 Live Feeds Bulletin - PoV

Jordan has to wear this

Lawon left his wig behind
Adam doesn't have to wear this.

After a very long feeds block, they came back on to Kalia, Porsche, Jeff and Adam playing a game of 20 Questions about celebrities. @@

Finally two cameras went to Brendon and Rachel. They are SO not happy. From the whisperings, it sounds like Jordan has to wear an outfit and Jeff seems to have won money. Brendon and Rachel are wondering what sort of deal Jeff and Jordan have with Daniele because she doesn't want to put Jeff up. Neither Shelly nor Daniele have been on camera since the feeds returned.

Okay, there's Shelly all alone in the have not room eating a roll or donut. She doesn't look happy. Looks like she got solitary confinement as there's a toilet set-up behind a curtain.

Adam told Jordan that Daniele told him Jeff would be safe when there were three left in the comp. AHA! Finally, an hour and a half after the feeds return, Jordan said something to the effect of, "Who do you think she'll put up when you take yourself off the block?"

:::collapse:::

Adam won the Power of Veto.

Shelly has the phone call from home after her solitary.
Daniele has a veto ticket allowing her to play in next week's PoV.
Kalia has a Caribbean trip.

Big Brother 13 Live Feeds Through Saturday Morning 8/13

Phillip

Sure, I like drama. You know I enjoy a good brouhaha. However, one thing folks who don't have the live feeds don't realize -- while we have four separate camera views, it might just as well be two (sometimes one!). Feeds 1 & 2 are usually just two different angles of the same location, with 3 & 4 covering a different location.

Into the night last night after nominations, we could have had four cameras on four different tiffs at times! I had to use the flashback option to go back and find things I missed. Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of All Heck Breaks Loose:

• Okay, Daniele did nominate Shelly and Adam, telling them that she wants the veto used to backdoor Brendon.
• Daniele has said before that she doesn't like the backdoor bit as the person never gets a chance to stay.
• Daniele has deals with both Jordan and Jeff and Brendon and Rachel -- separate deals, that is.
• I'm honestly not sure which deal she's sticking to. She even told Kalia the backdoor Brendon bit.
• At this time, if the veto saves someone, I think only Daniele knows what she'll do.
  
• If the veto isn't used, it looks like Shelly is history.
• After nominations, all heck broke out.
• Rachel, now that she has her bestest fiance in the world back at her beckon and cry, threw everyone under the bus.
• She said Jeff was mean to her, Shelly was running around telling every conversation they had to the other side and no one helped her.
• That's after me watching HOURS of Jeff and Jordan (and sometimes Shelly) consoling and catering to Rachel's mentally unstable behaviors last week!
• Jordan once again pushed for a "house meeting." I don't know why she keeps suggesting those things. Of course, as a feeds watcher, I like them because they usually turn into screaming matches.
• But, as a hamster, they just tend to stir up more problems.
• As this one did.
• Rachel kept screaming at Shelly and it got to the point where even Brendon wouldn't support her in her exaggerations and sometimes outright lies.
• Shelly screamed back.
• Jeff lit into Jordan calling her dumb for calling the meeting.
• :-( So not nice, Jeff!
• Rachel went running around to everyone saying how she's been telling everyone for three weeks that Shelly has been playing both sides of the house.
• She's right, but I really didn't need to hear her say it 756 times!
• Shelly freaked. Shelly cried. Shelly wanted to quit.
• "I've always just tried to help these girls," Shelly cried.
• Well, it's one thing to clean things and offer worldly advice, but Shelly does take things too far.
• Neither Porsche nor Rachel need to be told by her that they need to wear something so their "hoo-hahs" don't show.
• Darn it, Shelly ... they obviously WANT to be exhibitionists! Leave them alone about that stuff. If they want to look like tramps, let 'em. No skin off your nose!
• You can play the 42-year-old mommy card without giving them that advice.
• The only comedy relief of the night was the new houseguest Phillip.
• Okay, Phillip is only Adam wearing Woody Allen-esque eyeglasses.
• Actually the character itself is a neurotic, OCD, weirdo momma's boy ... kind of like an old Woody Allen movie character.
• Another fight(ish) started when Brendon and Rachel wanted Porsche's bed. She's had the same bed all season and doesn't want to give it up.
• Kalia doesn't think it fair to be asked to give her bed to them either.
• Face it, Brenchel ... no one wants your bodily fluids in their bed!
• No one is on slop this week, no food comp.
• The veto players were picked: Daniele, Shelly, Adam, Jeff, Jordan and Kalia.
• Brendon and Rachel are very upset that their names weren't picked.
• They, Adam and Daniele think it's odd that Jeff and Jordan or, at least Jeff, have played in every veto comp so far.
• Right now, the veto competition hasn't started.
• I'll let you know when I know.
  

Shelly's 19th nervous breakdown

Jeff complains that California is cold.

Big Brother 13 Live Feeds Friday August 12 (Nominations!)

Big Brother doesn't let Daniele into her HoH room.

It's been quite a day in the house. I'm not feeling too well, so this is going to be a real abbreviated list o' happenings. Yet, I've watched just about all the conversations and, as of right now, I'm a bit dismayed as I get this typed up during the feeds block for nominations. Here's the skinny from inside that Big Brother House of Drinking the Kool-Aid:

• Before last night's HoH, Rachel and Brendon (as well as most of the house) were loud and boisterous about Brendon's return.
• Of course, Kalia and Daniele (and to a much less extent, Porsche) knew they were in deep doo-doo.
• Then Daniele won the HoH and the tables turned once again.
• Today a lot of the talks were Shelly Mojo talks -- she talked with Daniele and Kalia, getting into a minor brouhaha with Kalia.
• Daniele and Shelly spoke alone, all came up hunky-dory.
• Shelly and Kalia talked alone, all ended up not only hunky-dory, but peachy-keen.
• They hugged and cried.
  
• Of course, everyone is pleading their case to stay to Daniele.
• That goes without saying.
• So I just typed it and didn't say it out loud.
• Then, Shelly even worked some of her mojo on Porsche.
• Remember Porsche? Yeah, she's still lurking about the house being for the most part a non-entity.
• Jeff's meeting with Daniele was the only brief one. He brought her into the Have Not room, said, "We still on?" Daniele told him, "Yes!" They bumped fists and split.
• Then came Brendon and Rachel.
• Sigh.
• Daniele at first kept not committing to deals they were proposing.
• After all, they're her main targets.
• What they're proposing (and taking forever to do so) is that they work with Daniele to the final three.
  
• They want Daniele to put up two other people this week and tell everyone that she plans on backdooring Brendon.
• Brendon told her that further on, he'd be willing to backdoor Jeff.
• The deal is that NO ONE knows (or would suspect) that they're working together.
• They would protect her if they have power next week.
  
• They would all three talk like they have about wanting to nominate/backdoor/throw out each other.
• Well, Brendon and Rachel wouldn't turn on each other, of course.
• They kept pushing for a Shelly/Adam nomination saying that Shelly would have a chance to get letters and photos from home in the jury house.
• Daniele told them that they definitely gave her something to think about and, in the beginning of their talk, she was sure she was going to put them on the block.
• Finally Adam came up and "rescued" Daniele from the Dastardly Duo.
• She told Adam that if she puts him on the block, he's a pawn.
• He said he's okay with that.
• THEN ... just before the feeds cut for nominations ...
• ... Daniele grabbed Kalia to the storage room.
• Kalia started in on a long (anything she says is LONG) tirade about her Shelly talk and how it ended with them hugging and crying.
• "You're going to hate me," Daniele said.
• She gave Kalia a brief "what if?" talk about putting Adam and Shelly on the block to backdoor Brendon or, if the veto isn't used, get Shelly out.
• Argh. She drank the Kool-Aid.
  
• ... then the feeds cut for nominations.
• Gah.
• Adam and Shelly are on the block.
  

Kalia gets animated in a confrontation with Shelly.

Shelly and Kalia talk things out, hug and make up.

Useless waste of space in the house.

Big Brother 13 Live Feeds - New HoH - August 12

Daniele is the new HoH.