BB18: Live Feeds into Monday Night - September 19

Sadly thinking he's third place

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

• Before I get going on this report, I want to thank the commenters in the last update who were concerned for my safety. Yes, the New Jersey aspect of the NYC/NJ bomber is nearby. Elizabeth is my county seat where I serve jury duty (gah!) and Linden is just two towns over from me. We're talking small towns in square miles -- about maybe 15 minutes on back roads away. Plus, I do take NJ Transit trains for my work commute. But all is well and the good guys won! 
• Onto the BB schtuff ...
• As James would say, one more day and a wake up.
• I'm actually getting tired of the countdown being said that way.
• The yard is still open.
• Nicole and Paul spent most of their alone time together badmouthing James.
• Nicole is tired of him bringing up his daughter (family card!).
• Paul is tired of James bragging about how good he is at wall comps .. and comps in general.
• Paul tried to get James to admit to throwing comps to no avail.
• Nicole told Paul about James telling her how great it would be if the two vets made the final two.
• James told Nicole that he thinks he would only have two votes if he were in the final two.
• He just might be right with that.
• If James is in the final two with either Paul or Nicole, the best he could do is second place.
• BB decided to thrill them with a big surprise! They showed them a commercial for BBOTT (the fall online only season).
• "But what are they going to do with us?" wondered Nicole.
• They also gave them a blackboard.
• Now they can give the new hamsters tips!
• All alone, James gave a big talk to us/family/friends about how he'll be out in third place, should have kept Corey not Nicole, but no regrets.
• Aw, how sad. 
• But he should have played the game not the showmance!
• That's it for now. 

Badmouthing James at every chance

Will the jury be bitter?

BB18: Live Feeds into Monday - September 19

Take James or Paul? Gotta win first!

Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of Days to Waffle:

• Once again, they stayed awake for quite a bit ... for them.
• It seems that Nicole might be waffling and considering taking Paul if she wins the third part of HoH.
• Paul, on the other hand, seems pretty dead-set to take Nicole if he wins the third part of HoH.
• BB gave them some alcohol -- just about as much as they were issuing the whole house of hamsters earlier in the season!
• Both Nicole and Paul imbibed more than James.
• Nicole is worried that Natalie is influencing the girls' vote in the jury house and that James might have more votes than she had given him credit for.
• And, (due to alcohol?) she pretty much said the same to James.
• He said he won't be mad with either way she goes.
• I say he should have tried harder during the game and "gotten blood on his hands" instead of now sitting back thinking both will take him to the final two.
• They still have three days or, as James would say, two days and a wake-up.
• It still looks like, due to speech practices, Paul will take Nicole to the final two if he wins the last part of HoH.
• Now Nicole's choice is looking a bit doubtful.
• But that's subject to waffling. 

If he gets to final two, he could win it all.

On shaky ground with both now? Hmm.

BB18: Live Feeds into Sunday Evening - September 18

Practicing her speech to the jury

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

• Okay, so there's not much scheming going on lately.
• They were awake for hours today and also had the yard.
• Woohoo.
• Nicole and Paul separately practiced their speeches and possible answers to juror questions.
• A bit of interesting insight to those speeches ...
• Nicole's speech and "answers" seem to put James in the other chair.
• Paul's practice seems geared towards Nicole in the other chair.
• What we can probably infer from that is that if Nicole wins the third part of HoH, she'll be taking James. If Paul wins the third part, he'll probably be taking Nicole.
• I think I'd rather the latter -- Paul and Nicole.
• With James in there, the end game is too predictable. He would win second.
• Another interesting thing to note is that they were talking hamsters of the season. Both Nicole and PAUL commented on Bridgette's potty mouth!
• Now, Nicole has a case. She generally isn't cussing all over the place.
• Paul, on the other hand, can't say a sentence without using profanity.
• Not much exciting to report on.
• Jackie out. 

Sleepy Jamesy

Fashion police! I think there's a crime here.

Both of them will take me!

Guffawing once again

Let it end already!!! The madness!

Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - September 18, 2016

Good morning! Since it's 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. If you're here for Big Brother news, everything I have for you can be found at this link. I'll be posting another live feeds report late tonight (for what it's worth at this point). But this ain't that. This post is a year-round regular "feature" while Big Brother is a summer obsession. Or, something like that.

Also television-related in this off television topic post -- if you want to be in the blog pool for Survivor 33: Millennials vs. Gen-X -- you need to take action and sign up on THIS LINKED POST. The cut-off for the blog pool is tomorrow, so get in there today! Every season we have late people wanting in and it would be nice if everybody made the deadline!

Okay, as for this week ... it's been a staycation. The timing is good as I'm still trying to recover from my sprained ankle. It's to the point now that, unless I'm on it a lot like I was on Friday, I can actually feel that bony bit that should be felt on the outside of the ankle. I've been trying to stay off it the best I can and pampering it at home with ice and elevation.

As a result of the ankle, I didn't go into the city (Manhattan) at all this week although I had hoped to go photo-stomping the Feast of San Genaro in Little Italy. I did attend a cookout, got together the photos for the library contest and delivered them (Hi, Jeff!) and got a few things done around the apartment but not as much as planned.

A few random things:

• Someone put about twenty books atop the mailboxes for people to take. I looked them over. None of them looked like my cuppa tea. I hope someone takes interest in them, though. I'm just not into historical romance novels.
• Some jerks in a white van with a 908 area code phone number and "Carpet Cleaners" logo pulled up outside last night and filled our apartment dumpsters with carpet remains and other debris. I yelled out the window at them that I was calling the police for illegal dumping to scare them. (There are also signs.) I didn't call the police because I'm not sure of my standing with a complaint as a tenant. I'll call the landlord's office sometime this week to see what they want. I should have gotten the total phone number off the van to give to the landlord. Hopefully, they won't return. But now the tenants in this roughly 40-unit building have no room to put trash in the dumpsters until tomorrow when they're emptied. Grr.
• If there were to be a zombie apocalypse overnight tonight, I wouldn't have to go to work tomorrow.   

Onto the photos for this week (and last). Clicking on an image will open it in a larger version.

The Vincent

I messed with this shot with a photo editor. I really should turn that one couch pillow around. It does match the couch on its other side! I blame it being backwards on the couch because of Vincent the Cat. He knocked it over to sleep atop of it and, without thinking, I put it back up with the wrong side facing out. Yup. All the cat's fault!

Banded bird

Is this my best side? I saw this pigeon watching me at the Bridgewater Train Station. It wasn't until I started shooting him that I noticed the ankle bands. He's someone's bird, whether racing or homing. I don't know what he was doing hanging around the train station!

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

BB18: Live Feeds into Sunday - September 18

Don't cry. It's almost over!

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

• With nothing but time on their hands -- no comps to play, nothing expected to happen -- these are some bored (and boring) hamsters.
• Thankfully, BB opened the yard up to them, so they aren't just cooped up in the house.
• Paul continues to work at being Nicole's bestest buddy to make sure she will take him into the final two if she happens to win the last part of the HoH comp.
• Nicole continues to say things to Paul about how James doesn't deserve to be in the final two in case Paul wins the final part.
• Meanwhile, James thinks for sure that Paul will take him to the final two if he wins and that Nicole also should if she wins. He thinks he's sitting pretty right now.
• James feels he needs to keep Paul and Nicole from being together without him.
• But he's really doing a horrible job of that.
• For the past couple of days (since the champagne brunch), the hamsters have let the kitchen go. Paul kept saying he was saving it for a cleaning blitz when he was bored.
• However, Nicole couldn't take it any more and started cleaning. 
• I've noticed that the gallon of orange juice from the champagne brunch was still sitting out of the refrigerator on the table THREE DAYS LATER.
• She complained about chicken in the sink, etc.
• Of course, Paul guilt-tripped about the kitchen, as did James.
• Nicole is in one of her many insecure jags.
• She's so lucky to have Paul to console and encourage her!
• Ha.
• As it stands with these three, I really think that if either Paul or Nicole take James into the final two, James would end up second place.
• It gets a bit trickier if Paul and Nicole are the final two (and I personally don't think it will happen because they both have better cases to win against James).
• If the case is Paul and Nicole in the final two, if the jury considers who played the game best ... Paul should win hands down.
• No matter how obnoxious he can be.
• No matter that he's my blog pool boy.
• He played the best game, especially considering he made some horrible choices (Jozea, for example) in the beginning and had to overcome his own lack of knowledge about BB.
• I've decided that BB wants to psychologically torture both the hamsters and us by having the final three cooped up so many days with nothing happening.
• And the beat goes on ... 

James tells us what a good position he's in.

Paul plays solo Jenga.

Nicole aghast at kitchen mess.