Survivor: Worlds Apart - Season Premiere Blog Party and Pool!

Survivor fans ready? Tonight's 90-minute season premiere will be followed up by a 90-minute season premiere for The Amazing Race 26. The TAR blog party post will show up a few minutes before that premiere. So, if you're watching both shows, refresh the blog main page at show time to join in on that party!

Here we go again. This time the gimmick, er ... twist, is that the castaways are separated by the kind of jobs they have in real life. Like every other twist separating castaways, all will be null and void once it comes to the merge. But, let's see how they do.

As the show airs here on the East Coast, I'll be posting the major happenings in live time here on this entry. Refresh the page to get the latest news!

The Lovely Lifeguard Laurie is once again running the blog pool (thank you!)  Any castaway(s) booted tonight will result in the blog pool people who had them being reassigned to another castaway. Here are our random match-ups for the season:

Blue Collar
Dan - Brian, CherylinNC 
Kelly - Petals, Ed in Ohio 
Lindsey - Donna in FL, David 
Mike - meb, Nickelpeed
Rodney - Margo 
Sierra - Jennasmom

No Collar
Hali - Zoetawny, monty924 
Jenn - Merrilee, Becky 
Joe - SueGee, Chris 
Nina - Lynn1 
Vince - Delee 
Will - Rbennie

White Collar
Carolyn - Jackie TerryinTX 
Joaquin - Laurie, Rochelle 
Max - PDX Granny, Marlo 
Shirin - NanaintheNW 
So - ORKMommy 
Tyler - Donna in Alabama

Okay, it's on with the show we will go!

Jeff is introducing the tribes. All newbies, no veterans of the show and many are big fans. Yellow is WC, Blue is BC and Red is NC. Jeff wants them each to pick a leader. WC chooses Joaquin. BC picks Dan. NC picks Will. Each of them have to pick a second member. So for WC, BC has Mike, NC has Jenn. Once they get to their camps, the two "in charge" must make a big decision for their tribe. Hmm.

Deceive -- they can a small bag of beans to camp and get an idol clue
Honesty -- they can bring big bag of beans back, no clue.

Jenn/Will take the big beans, Mike/Dan the same -- their tribe is already talking about how they actually took the small bag. Joaquin wants the advantage and ally with So. They go for the small bag. So feels like she's making a deal with the devil. She just might be. Their tribe also thinks they're lying.

BC has a fire built in less than two hours.

Must Dan wear a speedo while he calls himself a fat man? He's alienated most of his tribe due to his mouth or bossiness.

Joe earns brownie points with his tribe because he has now made fire without a flint.

Oh my gosh ... Carolyn, my pool person, found an idol without a clue. Mind you, Joaquin and So did NOT share the clue nor the fact they had one. Ha! WC can't start a fire, nor build a shelter.

Immunity Challenge -- free a ladder and bring it through a series of obstacles, then choose a puzzle to solve out of three. The puzzles each address a different approach to thinking. First place winner gets reward of a fire-making kit, second place gets a flint.  Last place gets to go to Tribal.

NO COLLAR wins! Blue Collar wins second place. White Collar gets to go to Tribal and someone will go home.

So is working on getting Carolyn out even though Shirin is the one who blew the puzzle. Thankfully Carolyn has an idol and a clue that her name is being brought up. She tells Tyler (who let her know the others are talking about her going) about the idol. Now Carolyn is working to get So out.

Tribal Council time! Catfight time. Meow! So voted Carolyn and vice versa.

The tally -- Carolyn does not use the idol.

Carolyn, So, Carolyn, So, So, So.

So is voted out first of the season!

The Amazing Race Blog Pool OPENS!

The Magnificent Margo is once again in charge of the blog pool! We all know how much she rocks!

Here's how the blog pool works --

• Blog readers are randomly matched with a team
• They can cheer on that team until the team gets Philiminated or win the million!
• There is no wagering! We're playing for the bigger stuff of life here -- bragging rights!
• If you wish to be in on the pool, please sign up in comments in THIS POST ONLY. If you ask on another post, it could be inadvertently missed.
• The cut-off for getting in on the pool will be Tuesday, February 24 by 6pm ET.

Ready to race?

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - February 22, 2014

Good morning! It's Sunday and that means it's time for my off television topic reflection on the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken along the way.

On a brief television note, Lifeguard Laurie is taking names for the Survivor blog pool -- you can sign up for that on the post for the pool. The cut-off is Wednesday by noon Pacific (9pm ET).

About the only positive thing that happened for me this past week is that I received my new camera on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was so brutally cold that I didn't do much with it as I was shivering and need to take my gloves off to take a photo. I like what I see of the camera so far, but I long for days of spring to comfortably take photos.

Most of what else I have on my mind would be construed of as whining. A lot of it boils down to "I'm tired of ..."

Onto the photos -- clicking on an image will make it larger.

Venus and the crescent moon

I took this shot from the Bridgewater Train Station leaving work on Friday evening. Mars is there, but not very visible in the dusk. 

Once I got home

The dark clear skies were great for the shot! Mars is more noticeable with the darker skies, too. This is with the new camera. I took it on the front walk of my building juggling a half-gallon of milk, no tripod, shivering because it was record-setting cold and I had to take my gloves off.

Testing the zoom

It was too cold to do much, but I wanted to test the zoom a bit. I took this photo from the other end of the Plainfield Train Station. Where the fence is marks about a block distance from where I stood. I didn't even have it at full zoom, but it was too cold to do anything more. The windchill was about 20 below zero.

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

Come One, Come All! Survivor Blog Pool Now OPEN!

Survivor: Worlds Apart premieres this coming Wednesday -- February 25, 8pm ET/PT.

The lovely Lifeguard Laurie has once again volunteered to run the blog pool for the season. (Need I mention how the woman rocks?) The way the blog pool works is:

• Blog readers are randomly matched with a castaway
• They can cheer on that castaway until the castaway gets the boot or is the sole Survivor
• There is no wagering! We're playing for the bigger stuff of life here -- bragging rights!
• If you wish to be in on the pool, please sign up in comments in THIS POST ONLY. If you ask on another post, it could be inadvertently missed.
• The cut-off for getting in on the pool will be Wednesday, February 25 by NOON Pacific Time (or 3pm ET).

Survivor fans ready?

The Amazing Race 26: Casting the Couples, Part 1

I've done the looks at the blind dates in the casting for this season's The Amazing Race. Time to delve into the already existing couples they'll be up against!

LEBYA AND CJ

CJ Harris, age 26, is an IT tech who's been dating Lebya Simpson, age 25, a medical support assistant for the VA Hospital, for over ten years. Yeah, she wants him to put a ring on it. They both hail from Tuskegee, Alabama. They've known each other since childhood.

I'm not sure how well they'll do on the race, but I like this couple. I think they're going to be entertaining.

ROCHELLE AND MICHAEL

Well, these two are a bit different. Michael Dombrowski is 26, a truck stop manager (his parents' business) and pro-wrestling promoter, living in Traverse City, Michigan. Rochelle Nevedal is 29, a contract engineer who does business with companies such as ATT, plus she's the co-owner of a roller derby league in her hometown of Kalkaska, Michigan. They've only been dating eight months.

She wants to use the race to "test" the relationship as she has a young son and wants to make sure she makes good decisions about her future relationship. Um. Okay. I'm not sure the stress of the race is the best way to fast forward a relationship. We'll see. They both better not keep saying "actually" and "at the end of the day" throughout the show!

JONATHAN AND HARLEY

Squee! Squee! It's a NKOTB member! Of course, they kind of came after my teenage years. I'd like to know how Jonathan Knight is actually 46 years old these days?!? That makes me feel even older than my years. His partner is Harley Rodriguez, age 41. Harley is a master fitness trainer. They have been together seven years and live in New York.

Y'know, I think these two might very well do quite well on the show. Between the used to traveling and physical factors, they're light years ahead of a few teams. A seven-year relationship is probably more stable than the eight months of the previous couple.