Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - December 4, 2016

Good morning! Since it's Sunday, 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. This is a regular Sunday part of this blog in addition to the television posts. 

After what seems like an eternity of covering Big Brother and Big Brother Over the Top, that's done and over with until summer comes around. I might post newsy bits now and then about BB stuff in between now and BB19, but (thankfully) no juggling blog coverage of it and work at the same time. I'm live blogging Survivor episodes as they air on Wednesday evenings. Come join the blog parties! I might also post some other television-related stuff, but I'm definitely going to take a bit of a breather from other daily show posts for a bit.

Work in my real world is exhausting me. At least now I'll get a bit more rest. I hope.

I really don't have much to report on for the past week here. Nor did I even get any great photos this week. Oh well. Onto the photos anyway! Clicking on a image will bring up a larger version. 

What? No one going to Manhattan?

I could jump on that bus and head into Manhattan for the evening. Nah. When I took this shot, I just wanted to go home. Home is where the cat is. Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

There it is! Plainfield's Christmas Tree!

While I didn't stick around in the cold and wind on Thursday for the actual lighting of the tree, I could see it on Friday from Watchung Avenue across from the police station. I had had a rough day at work and didn't feel like walking over there. I will do that someday.

Trying to stay warm

With no hawk around, the pigeons gather where the sun shines on the brick of the Chotola Apartment Building on North Avenue. 

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

BBOTT: Season Finale ... the winner is ...!

Tonight is the first and only live Julie Chen hosted show of the season! One of the final three -- Jason, Kryssie or Morgan -- will be voted the winner by America and win the grand prize. This version only has a grand prize of a quarter-million rather than a half-million. I believe second place still gets the 50 grand, but I could be wrong on that.

So, let's see which of the two win. Oh. Did I say two? I guess I did. Eh. I'll go with it. Let's see whether Jason or Morgan win ...! 

I had no sound when Julie started the show. Once we went back to Jason winning HoH, the sound came back.

 
Mostly recapping at this point. They're doing diary room speeches with video from the season.

Speeches over, the previously evicted hamsters are brought on stage.

Neeley's opinion -- impressed with Danielle kicking it into gear.
Scott - Shelby's being a lawyer shocked him.
Monte - Sister twist was good, proud of Morgan.
Whitney - Surprised at Shelby's secret, but knew she was smart.
Alex - Her alliance was scared America would target them if they targeted Jason.
Morgan and Alex are both sure they'll be closer now.
Shelby - Live diary room helped her, didn't hurt her.

Now we see diary room highlight clips.  Julie mentions the bad language.

Justin - A clip of his dancing. Strategy or being himself. Being himself.
Shane - Sacrificed game for Danielle? Regrets? None. Now has short hair.
Danielle - In a relationship with Shane now. 
Cornbread - Surprised to see Kryssie in the final three. He's blown away.         

Online voting.
Alex, Whitney, Shane, Neeley and someone else voted Jason.
None voted Kryssie
Justin didn't vote.

Now it's speech time with the two minute speeches from yesterday.

Julie announces the votes have been tallied.
The 2nd prize is 25 grand, not 50.

Third place and evicted -- Kryssie. What a shocker! 
Julie talks with her.  

MORGAN wins!
 

Survivor: Millennials vs. Gen-X Blog Party - November 30

As Survivor airs here on the East Coast, I'll be live-blogging with the major events.  As always, the real party is in the comments area. Please feel free to join in on the fun!
 
Here are the blog pool match updates from the Lifeguard Luau Laurie:

Survivors
Adam Klein - Brian, Kelsey NY, Sharon N
Bret LaBelle - Brandi Peralta, Judi Sweeney, Skyriverblue
David Wright - Buzzmaam, MikesGirl, Sharon C
Hannah Shapiro - David, meb, Terry is a Texan
Jay Starrett - Becky, Jackie, Shayne
Ken McNickle - Dolores in Hollywood, Margo, Russ
Sunday Burquest - Brenda, Kristen from Ohio, SueGee
Will Wahl - Cheryl, Indiana Jane
Zeke Smith - Beachmom, monty924 , Glenn

Jury
Michelle Shubert
Taylor Lee Stocker 
Chris Hammons 
Jessica Lewis

Survivor fans ready? 

Hannah is beside herself about the Jessica rock pick. David is ticked that he burned his idol for no reason at Tribal. Zeke thinks he's winning the war over David. 

Ken came across the Legacy Advantage note he received from Jessica. If he can make it until Day 36, he'll be using it!

Reward Challenge time! Jeff starts bringing out loved ones. Tears all around as usual. Adam, whose mother is in stage four cancer and whose brother came, mentions his advantage to steal someone's reward. He will not be using it. 

They have to be tied to a rope and go through obstacles. Prize is the loved one at a barbecue. Jay wins Reward! He takes Will along as he had promised. For his second, he chose Sunday as "they" had made a promise. He gets to pick one more and even though they've been "brawling" all this time, he chooses Adam. 

Whoa! Adam, in appreciation of Jay's move, gave Jay his advantage with no strings attached. 

Will decides to defect to David and company. Hmm.

Immunity Challenge time - Endurance, they have to clench a thing holding a bar. David out first. Hannah out. Will out. Bret out. Sunday out. Zeke out. Jeff is torturing them about the hot sun baking their minds. Ken out. It's Jay versus Adam. Jay out.

Adam wins Immunity!   

With Will aboard, the move is on to vote out Zeke. Zeke thinks something is amiss because the others are too calm. He thinks David might have another idol and he needs to throw someone else under the bus. That someone is Hannah.

Ken gives Will a third-degree treatment before being willing to trust him. Will tells Ken that "they" will be voting for him. Uh-oh. Ken tells Jay that Will is saying his name. Will claims he needs to play his game for himself.

Gah! Adam calls it right that it was a stupid move on Ken's part! Now Will is going to be solid with the others as he can't trust his "new" group.

Tribal Council time. Both sides vie for Will's vote. He may be the youngest, but he has the deepest voice! 

Adam pulls out his idol! He plays it for Hannah!

The tally:
Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, Hannah, Zeke, Zeke, Zeke ...

Zeke is out!   

BBOTT: PoV and the Final Three - Tuesday, November 29

Determined to win?

Well, well, well. Of course, the only really big news of the day was the Power of Veto comp.

• It was called End of the Road.
• They had to run through metal police crowd control barriers set up in a switchback kind of queue.
• Jump over hay bales.
• Grab a hamster face picture, then return back the same way they came.
• Nine pictures in all. Had to get one at a time.
• The puzzle questions might have more than one possible answer.
• But there is only one correct solution using all nine.
• Justin was into making sound effects and cussing as he went along. He started to put faces in the spots first, getting a few wrong.
• Morgan decided to get all the faces first and solved some as she was bringing them back.
• In the end, it wasn't really any contest. Morgan solidly beat him, had all the answers right while he had some answers wrong on the board and didn't have all the faces.
• Surprisingly, in view of his behavior the last few days, he left the house on a good note.
• Julie came to the final three in video form, congratulating them and telling them they need to prepare a two-minute speech each.
• Those speeches will air live on Wednesday at 7pm ET/4pm PT. 
• The final three -- Morgan, Kryssie and Jason -- popped the champagne and got giddy. 

All spiffed up to host the comp

Monty was there.

Game faces on

The running was unreal.

It wasn't an easy puzzle, either.

Morgan WINS! She's in the Final Three!

Says he loves them. Yeah, right.

BBOTT: Nothing to see here. move along - into Tuesday, November 29

Eddie McGee, BB1 Winner

The Power of Veto comp isn't scheduled until 5pm today, Tuesday. I will report late tonight on its results. Otherwise, things have been pretty much the same in the house with even more tension due to the boredom.

In other news, I watched the Elementary episode from November 20th and immediately recognized BB Season One winner Eddie McGee in it!