Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - May 3, 2015

Good (late) Sunday morning to everyone! Welcome to my (late) off television topic reflection of the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken along the way. I ended up sleeping in later than planned this morning. Plus, I took WAY TOO MANY blossoms/spring photos this week. It took forever to load them into my Photobucket account and I had issues trying to get the slideshow function to work. Gah.

In happenings this week, plus a few random thoughts:

• The other day I heard a call on my scanner that the Plainfield Police were trying to catch a goat with a dog snare down the street from me. I thought it was related to the day care center near there -- you know, a kid visiting the kids. But apparently goats are a new thing (you can buy them on Amazon.com now); another call for a neighbor's goat in someone's yard not near the first incident happened as I was preparing this entry. Huh. I guess I'd rather have a goat living next door than a rooster. But, need I mention that this is a city?
• The children who shouldn't play in the hallway met Vincent this week. They love him. He tolerated them well. No, they cannot come over to play with Vincent. He's grounded for being a traitor.
• I'm more tired lately than a human should be. My allergies seem to get worse every year as I get older, too. However, spring is still one of my favorite seasons -- the other favorite being autumn. I could deal with spring and autumn year 'round, skipping summer and winter.
• My next staycation isn't until Memorial Day week. I must endure! I will endure! Then I will collapse and sleep for at least two days straight.

Onto the photos I took this week ... if you click on them, larger images will open in a gallery doohickey.

How I learn Spanish bit by bit

The work going on and closure of the bridge underpass by the Plainfield Train Station on Watchunghas taught me a few new words. Just don't mock my pronunciation! I edited this with the charcoal drawing mode of PhotoCat.com

NJ Transit Police

Upon seeing this vehicle and a half-dozen Transit cops at the Plainfield Train Station early on evening this week, I thought they were sweeping the annoying street vagrants away. Nope. Don't know what they were doing, but they were ignoring the street people who have now taken over the benches, the stairs, the shelters and more. 

I'm hoping this will work for you. As I mentioned above, I took way too many flower shots this week! I put most of them (well, the shots I really liked) in this slideshow. There's a heck of a lot of them. My apologies! Some from early in the week show buds that, by the end of the week, turned into full blooms. We've gone from daffodils to tulips and beyond. The magnolia blossoms are mostly gone in the wind by today while the light spring shades of green are noticeable on the trees. Even the poison ivy, growing at both the Bridgewater Train Station and along the fence by the Friends Meeting House cemetery in Plainfield are looking pretty.




If the slideshow doesn't load for you, you can check out the Photobucket "story" at this link. That too might take some time to load if you don't have a fast connection. I took way way too many flower photos!

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

The Amazing Race 26 - May 1 Blog Party

 

It's Friday night -- time for The Amazing Race! Since last week was a non-Philimination leg, we still have five teams as we race towards the May 15th season finale.

As the show airs here, I'll update this entry with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest news! As always, the real party is in the comments area. I hope to see you there. (And bring snacks. And beverages.)

Here's the blog pool standings presented by the Magnificent Margo:

Mike and Rochelle - Cheryl in NC, Laurie

Matt and Ashley - Delee, Merrilee

Blair and Hayley - Terry in TX, Margo, Chris

Jelani and Jenny - Marlo, Lynn 1, dla

Tyler and Laura - Ed in OH, David, Nickelpeed

PHILIMINATED:

Jeff and Lyda - Jennasmom, Paula Bell, meb

Lebya and CJ - Donna in FL, PDXGranny 

Harley and Jonathan - Becky, Willie J 

Bergen and Kurt - Nana in NW, Rbennie

Jeffrey and Jackie - Brian, Donna in AL, ORKMommy

Aly and Steve - Jackie, SueGee 

Let's get this show on the road! 

The teams are heading to Peru. Laura and Tyler get a flight first, but will it be the first flight in? Blair/Hayley and Jenn/Jelani seem to have gotten a better flight -- 12 hours earlier. Yikes! Tyler and Laura, after celebrating Laura's birthday, just realized they could have booked an earlier flight. Matt/Ashley, Mike/Rochelle make the earlier flight. 

After watching fireworks in Peru, teams are off to get lost in taxis. 

Jenn and Jelani find the elusive clue at a shoe shine first while Hayley berates Blair. 

Roadblock - Who wants to take charge in the field? Work with a professional sugar cane cutter and harvest the crop. 

It looks like Matt/Ashley and Laura/Tyler will be totally lost as they follow wrong directions when they were right atop the shoe shine booth. 

Speed Bump - Matt and Ashley have to type (with a typewriter) a loan contract for llamas. 

They have to log their FitBit (more product placement as if we didn't have enough with cars) progress. They have to drink sugar cane juice and figure out how many steps they must take to burn it off.

Detour - Mamas or Papas. Mama's moonshine, find ingredients. Papas has them sorting and delivering potatoes. Jenny and Jelani remain in the lead. Matt and Ashley are trailing.

Uh-oh. When some of the potatoes were sorted wrong, the woman just dumped them on the ground. Jenny and Jelani lost their lead and Hayley/Blair are heading to the Pit Stop. 

Pit Stop

1. Hayley and Blair - Each won a FitBit fitness kit. Oh, gee. Wow. 

2. Jenn and Jelani 

3. Mike and Rochelle

4. Laura and Tyler 

5. Matt and Ashley -- Philiminated

Survivor: Worlds Apart - April 29 Blog Party

Survivor fans ready?

When I checked the listing for tonight's show, it mentioned something to the effect of a "confrontational Tribal Council." Huh. Really? It seems like that's the norm rather than the exception!

As the show airs here, I'll update this post with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest news! As always, the real party is in the comments area. I hope to "see" you there!

Before we get into the show, here are the latest blog pool standings from that Rockin' Lifeguard Laurie:

Carolyn - Jackie, TerryinTX
Dan - Brian, CherylinNC 
Mike - meb, Nickelpeed 
Rodney - Margo 
Shirin - NanaintheNW 
Sierra - Jennasmom 
Tyler - Donna in Alabama, ORK Mommy
Will - Rbennie 

Jury
Hali 
Joe
Jenn

Let's get started!

Dan pretends to sympathize with Shirin, then turns around and tells us how horrible he thinks she is. Pot/kettle/black in my opinion. 

Reward Challenge time -- divided into two teams, transport tribe members with planks and barrels and such across field.  The reward is a catamaran trip with burgers and pie. Woot woot. It's a schoolyard pick. Blue is Rodney, Mike, Shirin and Sierra. Red is Tyler, Dan, Will, Carolyn. Red wins!

The four remaining at camp killed off the last chicken. Rodney reminds us he hasn't won not one reward. Too bad, so sad. 

Sierra thinks they should get Tyler out, keep Shirin because no one would ever vote for her to win the million. Meanwhile, Rodney thinks he himself is the biggest threat and is sure to win. @@ 

Dan considers his group on Reward are his allies. We'll see if that sticks. 

Immunity Challenge time -- hold onto a rope handle attached to 25% of body weight, eventually weaken, drop water bucket on head. Last man and last woman both win Immunity. 

Sierra out, Tyler out, Will out, Dan out, Shirin out. Carolyn wins for the women. Rodney out. Mike wins Immunity (second time in a row) for the men.  

The plan is to take Shirin out tonight. She tells Dan they're all incredibly stupid to vote her out. What an approach! She pushes her vote Tyler out agenda. Meanwhile, Tyler snags Dan's bag to see what's inside. Tyler tells Carolyn about Dan's extra vote advantage. Tyler's worried.

Mike knows the vote is leaning towards Shirin. He tells us he could shake up the whole game by giving her his idol. Hmm. 

It's Tribal Council time once again. Back to the Will attack on Shirin during the last tribal. Shirin tries telling them that not voting out Tyler would lose them a million dollars as he's the biggest threat and she's no threat.

Mike pulls out the idol before the vote and says he'll use it on Shirin. Is it a bluff? Shirin will vote Tyler and he will randomly vote. Jeff calls it Survivor Roulette. 

He does NOT play the idol.

Tyler, Shirin, Dan, Tyler, Shirin, Dan, Shirin, Shirin.

Well played, guys. I didn't think he'd waste the idol on her when he needs it. Now they know he has it.

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - April 26, 2015

Good morning! Since it's not just a morning, but a SUNDAY morning -- 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. Tune in on Wednesday and Friday evenings for the Survivor and Amazing Race blog parties!

It seems much of this week was windy or rainy or very cold (freeze warnings out and about) and rather sucky for taking photos. Yet I got some decent ones. At least I think I did. Of course, I was better off with more stable objects. No bugs! I had more failed flowers photos due to the wind, too. Grr.

Once again, I don't have much to report on regarding happenings during the week. Work, eat, sleep, give a cat attention, rinse, repeat. So, I'll offer up some random ponderings and observations:

• NJ Transit is considering up to a 9% increase in bus, light rail and train tickets. They could probably get at least 5% of that if conductors in every train collected/checked tickets of every passenger instead of not bothering. That and actually enforcing the $5 surcharge for buying tickets on the train itself instead of via online, machines or ticket agents.
• While they're at it, they seriously need to enforce the "no feet on the seats" rule. I remember decades ago getting bopped with a nightstick on my toe when I did that on the subway in NYC.
• I hear no coyotes at night around here. Yet they've been spotted in Manhattan.
• Good manners in public go a long way -- it doesn't matter whether you're a child or an adult.
• I'm looking forward to summer TV series. Big Brother will premiere on June 24. Under the Dome will be following BB on either Wednesday or Thursday nights, can't remember which one. Woot! I just saw a commercial for Falling Skies. So You Think You Can Dance should be popping up again. I'm also interested in the upcoming James Patterson series Zoo even though it brings back memories of the defunct whacked series When Good Pets Go Bad.
• What is the record for the length of time a cat can purr?
• I saw a Lamborghini this week during a rare moment without my camera. It was dirty. If I owned a Lamborghini, I'd pay someone to wash it. 
• They ripped out the hedge where I used to shoot periwinkle growing underneath. I wish they'd stop doing things like that. It's bad enough they removed the flowering bushes which used to attract butterflies and bees up by the TD Ball Park in Bridgewater. 
• I'm looking for the snakes to reappear at the Bridgewater Train Station. Although, it could be like the Year of the Snails there -- only showing up one year, then gone.

Onto the photos -- clicking on an image will open it up larger in a gallery doohickey!

The moon last night

Rockin' Robin

Tweet, tweet.

Looking more like spring in da 'hood

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

The Amazing Race 26 - April 24 Blog Party

 

It's Friday night! I hope you haven't forgotten that it's time for The Amazing Race! The last time out, my own blog pool team got Philiminated. Five teams remain. Who will be eliminated next?

As the show airs here, I'll update this entry with the major happenings. Refresh the page to get the latest news! As always, the real party is in the comments area. I hope to see you there. (And bring snacks. And beverages.)

Here's the blog pool standings presented by the Magnificent Margo:

Mike and Rochelle - Cheryl in NC, Laurie

Matt and Ashley - Delee, Merrilee

Blair and Hayley - Terry in TX, Margo, Chris

Jelani and Jenny - Marlo, Lynn 1, dla

Tyler and Laura - Ed in OH, David, Nickelpeed

PHILIMINATED:

Jeff and Lyda - Jennasmom, Paula Bell, meb

Lebya and CJ - Donna in FL, PDXGranny 

Harley and Jonathan - Becky, Willie J 

Bergen and Kurt - Nana in NW, Rbennie

Jeffrey and Jackie - Brian, Donna in AL, ORKMommy

Aly and Steve - Jackie, SueGee

Let's get it on! 

Teams are heading to Amsterdam. Jenny and Jelani are ticked at Matt and Ashley for U-Turning them and will seek revenge if possible. 

The Roadblock has teams seeking a matchingpair of clumpets? (Wooden shoes).  The person has to match two individual shoes out of a gazillion pairs.

Jenny and Jelani get through the Roadblock first and they're riding bicycles to the ferry to get their next clue. Laura and Tyler next through.

Matt and Ashley are the only ones remaining at the Roadblock. Matt has touched the correct shoe several times and is growing more and more frustrated. On his 43rd attempt he made the match.

Detour - Soak or Shuffle. Floating hot tub looking for the clues or play a Dutch version of shuffleboard. 

Haley continues to freak out on Blair. I think it might be cause for a justifiable homicide on his part.

Tyler and Laura have their clue to the Pit Stop. 

1. Laura and Tyler - won a trip to Seoul, South Korea 

2. Haley and Blair 

3. Jelani and Jenny 

4. Mike and Rochelle 

5. Matt and Ashley - A non-Philimination! They're still in it!