Big Brother 17: Live Feeds Sunday into the Evening - August 30

Vanessa befuddles Meg

Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of Misguided Malcontents:

• It's Sunday, so it's rather quiet in the house.
• The only thing looming ahead is the PoV ceremony tomorrow. James is sure to save himself. So, the only real action is trying to come up with the replacement nominee.
• As of now, that's still looking like Julia.
• Vanessa offered to give her $10,000 out of her pocket if she went up as a pawn and ended up going home this week.
• BB dragged Vanessa into the Diary Room and pooh-poohed that deal.
• Vanessa had to renege and reword things as it being a "gambling expression."
• Meg talked to Vanessa, trying to get the target off of her.
• That didn't really work.
• Vanessa found out that James was told two things that she said to Austin in confidence.
• Will she throw Austin on the block?
• Nah.
• She'll let one of her new minions do that bidding. Gotta protect her jury ratings!
• But it does give her more ammunition against Austin. She knew she was lowest on the totem pole before. However, now she knows that Austin continues to betray her confidence.
• Julia is a "safe" pawn as only three votes are needed to keep her. She automatically has Austin and Liz. And, Steve has a crush on her.
• James and Meg vow to not play pot ball or take photos or anything because they're on the block.
• Meg thinks that, as long as she does go out, she'll go out on an hour-long episode.
• Heh.
• Of course, all the shows are an hour, but they're thinking one eviction.
• They are so not expecting double eviction again this week. They figure it will be next week.
• If you hear the expression "camping," it's a euphemism for something else.
• The photo booth opened. It's losing its fun factor.
• That's about it!

Johnny Mac knows he's safe ... for now

Twinz

Wants to win HoH

 

Friends fun

Big Brother 17: HoH and Return a Hamster Outcome, Nominations Show Blog Party - August 30

Good evening! Ready for a blog party? While many of us already know the results of the PoV comp, tonight's television episode will focus on the  HoH comp outcome from Thursday evening including which jury member returns, as well as the nominations.

Surprisingly, the show is on time tonight despite the Barclays PGA golf (from about a mile away from where I live). I'll update this entry with the major happenings as it airs here on the East Coast. Refresh the page to get the latest. As always, the real party is in the comments area. I hope to see you there!

Already they've made the comp longer than it was in actuality. 

Julia out first. Steve out. Meg out. (That's by the time the show ended although they stretched it out now.) James out. Liz out. It's down to four jurors and Vanessa. Jackie out. Becky out. Shelli out. So, John has earned his way back into the house. 

Vanessa tells JM he's safe. JM says he has stuff to do. He doesn't want the others to think he might work with Vanessa. Johnny Mac is down and Vanessa is the new HoH. 

Johnny Mac knows that Vanessa is the biggest liar ever, but will work with him because she's the low person on the Austwins totem pole. The twins are super upset that he's back in.

James and Meg hope Vanessa will be ready to take out one of the Austwins trio. Steve and Johnny Mac think working with Vanessa is going to give them safety this week. 

Who wants to see my HoH room?
Not me. I'll pass. 

Talks time. First, Austwins. She tells them that Steve and Johnny Mac are a layer of protection and she has to do what's best for her own game. She wants to target James and Meg.

James and Meg think she should target Steve because he does whatever Austwins want. Vanessa reports back to Austwins that James and Meg want to target them. 

Oh, geez. Liz agrees to be Austin's girlfriend. Gag me now. 

Julia wants to prank Austin because she can't get James. He laughs more than being scared, but she and Liz declare victory. 

Vanessa pries James and Meg for info (dirt) on Austin. She gets some info, but not on Austin. She wants to know if they're willing to be a pawn (against Johnny Mac target). They argue over who should be a pawn ... both James and Meg offer to go up. James said he'd target Austwins. But Vanessa had wanted him to give her a reason to target Austwins (to see if she could work with them).

Nominations Today. Vanessa nominates Meg, then James. Game move, not personal. 

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - August 30, 2015

Good morning! Welcome to my weekly off television topic reflection of the past week in both words and photographs I've taken along the way; This post is a year 'round "feature" on the blog. If you're looking for Big Brother posts, they can all be found at this link right here. If you're not interested in this particular post, please feel free to skip on by it. I'll be posting a Big Brother blog party post coinciding with the East Coast airing of the show and, late this evening, another live feeds post. Stay tuned.

Yet another week in the (seemingly never-ending) countdown to Staycation for me. Here's some random notes on the week:

• I woke up very early one morning this past week smelling smoke -- like house-burning smoke -- in my apartment. That was one of the first nights that I had turned off the air conditioning and threw the windows wide open as the heat had lessened.
• It turns out that two homes were destroyed and one damaged in a huge three alarm fire with 80 firefighters responding right on the street in back of my building. The fire was actually across the street from the Mexican Polka live band people. I'm so running on empty these days that I slept through all the hoopla.
• (Side note: The Mexican Polka live band people were at it until nearly midnight last night. Grr.) 
• In the urban jungle news arena: There I was, resting on the ledge by the Plainfield Police Annex waiting for the bus home from the train last night and this creepy drunk non-English speaking dude plopped down practically on top of me. "Ola!" I reacted with exaggerated shoo hand motions and "Go away! Shoo!" I already had plans to knock him to the ground if he didn't go away -- I'm larger and sober, he's drunk. I scared him. He stumbled away. A cop who had been sitting at the traffic light watching called out to me, "Nicely played!"
• I find it very depressing that I'm old enough to join the Plainfield Senior Center which I don't have time in my life to join because I'm not old enough (or financially set) to retire.
• Not that I'd really want to join. I'd probably rather do something like join a whitewater rafting club than do many of the activities they have going on for seniors.
• In more urban jungle news: One early evening on the 59 bus, a guy tried to board with one of those personal shopping carts well overloaded with scrap metal (he probably stole). The bus driver wouldn't let him board and started screaming, "No! No! NO!" -- thus scaring an innocent dude who was paying his fare. I was looking at the scrap metal pieces haphazardly piled atop the cart and thinking it would be dangerous. I was glad the bus driver told him no and drove off forcing the guy to get his foot out of the bus door.
• We're expected another heat wave this week.
• Wah.

That's about it. Onto this week's photos! Clicking on an image will open it in a larger window.

I love the flowers

But I'll love autumn temperatures a lot more! Of course, autumn has its own flowers, plus glorious fall foliage.

Fireworks at the TD Ball Park

On Monday night, just as the 10pm train was coming in, they started the after game fireworks in Bridgewater.

East Second Street fire scene

Despite the local newspapers saying the fire was at 240 East Second Street, it was not. It apparently started in the attic of 640 and spread to 642. Both of those homes seem totally destroyed, with the roofs caving in on them. 644 has its siding all melted, but the building didn't catch on fire. No one was hurt. More of the fire scene photos after the jump ...

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

Big Brother 17: Live Feeds into Sunday - August 30

Read the body language

Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of Pancakes:

• It sounds like Johnny Mac, Steve and Vanessa just might be really working together again ... until they're not.
• Obviously, nothing is forever in this house of hamsters!
• The Austwins really want Vanessa to put Johnny Mac up to replace James when he saves himself.
• They want that so bad that they tried to convince James and Meg to go throw JM under that horribly driven reality bus.
• When Meg talked to Vanessa, she was given false hope by Vanessa. I know from watching Vanessa all summer, that was just her jury talk -- she'll blame Meg's ouster on others, claim she had no vote and was under the impression Meg was safe.
• Yessirree! That's Vanessa!
• When James talked to Vanessa, he told her what she wanted to hear. He has Vanessa pretty well figured out.
• He was honest (it seems) with her when asked about Johnny Mac.
• He really has no clue who Johnny Mac would target.
• Yup, Johnny Mac, Enigma Man.
• James did his best to throw Austin under that bus, though.
• JM and Steve have agreed to put last week's throwing each other under the bus to try to keep afloat in the past.
• They think that they might even to bring James aboard (despite James's threats about Vanessa).
• They also think no way would James ever work with Vanessa if she wasn't with them (Steve and Johnny Mac).
• Meanwhile, Julia's name keeps getting mentioned as the pawn against Meg.
• Now, she probably would be safe against Meg.
• The two of Austwins who would be true target pawns would be Austin or Liz.
• Both Liz and Austin seem to be on board with Julia going up as a pawn.
• Julia, not so much.
• We have until tomorrow, but it seems most likely that Julia will be up with Meg. 
• While Austwins were pushing for Johnny Mac to go up, Vanessa pretty much shut them down.
• We'll see.

James talks to Vanessa

Wearing her green hat ... again

Don't do it, Steve!

Vanessa no hat, different look

Big Brother 17: Live Feeds Saturday, Power of Veto - August 29

Vanessa's smiling? Not for long.

Here are today's happenings from inside that Big Brother House of Lackluster Loonies:

• The feeds were blocked for more of their awake time than they've been running.
• Why?
• First, the veto players pick.
• Besides Vanessa, James and Meg ... they drew Austin, Liz and Julia.
• Oh my. That sounds like it should be good for Vanessa, doesn't it?
• Heh.
• Johnny Mac was the host.
• I guess Steve sat around and did nothing.
• While so many prepared for the Fold or Stay comp, it wasn't that at all.
• Heh.
• It was one where they had to run through the house searching for something ... thus tearing apart the house and making a huge mess.
• I'm surprised they're cleaning up the mess. Sometimes the house looks just about that bad when they're just plain living in it!
• The big news is ... JAMES WON THE POWER OF VETO.
• Did you hear that?
• Liz made a point of bragging that she deliberately took all Meg's stuff and threw it around.
• Mean girl.
• Austwins and Vanessa are very unhappy.
• Too bad, so sad.
• Vanessa thinks they planned a comp that James would win.
• Huh? How can you even predict who would win something like that? Meg with her hurt leg could have won!
• James told Meg he's thinking of trying to make a deal with Austwins that he'd go after Vanessa if they'd vote to keep Meg this week.
• Hmm. I doubt that would fly.
• I'd imagine that Meg's days in the house are up. I've really enjoyed her, but she so sucks at comps and the general cut-throat kind of game BB is.
• She's too nice.
• Vanessa doubts James will use his veto to save Meg.
• I doubt it, too.
• Vanessa wants to put someone on the block that will be a guarantee Meg will be the one voted out.
• Gee, put AUSTIN up! Go for it, Vanessa, he's so loved in the house!
• Heehee.
• Julia suggested Johnny Mac. Vanessa nixed that.
• Of course, if Johnny Mac goes up there would be the chance Meg would stay.
• Ohhh ... Vanessa suggested to Austin that she put up Julia as a pawn.
• Now, that's something she mentioned last night if James got himself off the block.
• Uh-oh. Paranoid-Vanessa is starting to worry that Johnny Mac is spending too much time with Meg and James.
• And that's where we are.
• At the moment.
• Things could change -- we're talking Vanessa. But, she has been talking all along since HoH about getting Meg out. She usually accomplishes her goal.

Johnny Mac sports a new look.

James sports the Power of Veto!