Off Topic: That Was the Week It Was - July 27, 2014

Good morning! Welcome to my weekly off television topic photo post! If you're looking for my Big Brother coverage, you can find those posts right here at this link. This particular post is one I do each Sunday morning throughout the year, BB or not! I reflect on the week gone by in both words and photos I've taken along the way.

Alas, I didn't have a great photography week. It seemed like I was always rushing or conditions just weren't right. Oh well, there will be many more photos to take in my life.

I'm going to go once again with some random thoughts from the week:

• Last night as I arrived home to my New Jersey 'hood, I had to hear two competing Mexican Polka Bands. Ack! One was at a house near the corner of my block -- they were having a huge child's birthday party with a bouncy-house and all set up in the front lawn. As I walked by, they sang Happy Birthday, then WHAM into Mexican Polka! The second band was at the usual suspect house in back of my apartment. Even with my windows closed, a fan and the AC on, I could hear the thump-thump of the music. It lasted until nearly midnight.
• Two very young misbehaving children on the NJ Transit train were yelling and carrying on without any effort on the part of the parents to control them. When the piped announcement said, "Watch out for the gap when exiting." -- the girl cried out, "Cat? Where's a cat?" (I'll admit that was cute.) Her mother told her, "Gap. Watch out for the gap." The girl asked, "What's a gap?" I almost said, "A gap is a monster that swallows children who don't behave." I bit my tongue.
• There's an abundance of lightning bugs around here this year. If I were several decades younger, I'd be all over that!
• My cable and power were out on separate days this week, each for about six hours, neither due to a storm. Of course, my cable could have also been out while my power was out. I have no way of knowing.
• I panicked a bit when I saw Vincent pursuing a long dark quick bug along the floor into the kitchen. Ah. A carpenter ant. Not that I want those in my apartment, but it must have somehow strayed in from outside. As I predicted, I have had no influx of bugs by refusing to have my apartment fogged with poisonous junk.
• Oh. And Vincent killed the carpenter ant and then wondered why it wouldn't play with him anymore.

Onto this week's photos --

Early morning sun

Although the days are getting shorter, it's not to the point that I'm seeing the sunrise on my walk to the train station. We have been lucky in that we haven't seen many actual heat waves so far this summer (temps over 90 for three days or more). But we've had a lot of humid days and it's been a summer for lots of thunderstorms. I took this shot on Church Street in Plainfield.

Cool old car!

I have no clue exactly what make and model this is, but it sure is cool. There was an older man driving it. While he'd be too young to be the original owner, he seemed appropriate for the car. Watchung Avenue, Plainfield.

Looking up!

This Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly flew over my head at the Bridgewater Train Station. I was delighted to see I actually captured a halfway decent photo of him.

**CLICK THE 'READ MORE' LINK FOR THE WEEKLY FLOWER SLIDESHOW AND THE REST OF THE PHOTOS!**

Big Brother 16: Live Feeds Saturday/PoV Winner - July 26

The Don

Another busy day for the hamsters before they head into the three or four days of boredom. Here's what went down today (including the PoV winner) in that Big Brother House of Back to Back Comps:

• Uh-oh. The microwave isn't working. Whatever will they do now?
• I forgot to mention it yesterday, but feel the need to say this -- Christine is SO disgusting! [How disgusting is she?] She's so disgusting that she picks at her toes and toenails and THEN bites her nails! Ew! EW!
• Frankie once again is trying to get Zach to blow up at the PoV meeting on Monday (for the Team America mission).
• He already went whacko a bit at the nominations, but I'm not clear on whether that was enough or not.
• Either way, it's easy to get Zach to act up. It comes by naturally for him.
• The additional PoV players are Hayden, Donny and Christine. Amber is the host. Or hostess. Whatever.
• Amber wants the nominations to remain the same.
• I wonder if she has a premonition?
• Caleb thinks he'll be on The Bachelor next.
• @@
• What kind of prize is he? Sheesh!
• Apparently Victoria got the Houseguest Choice chip and chose Hayden.
• Caleb thinks they're working together.
• Well, they are -- Hayden promised Victoria she wouldn't be going home and taking her off the block would be perfect for him.
• But Caleb doesn't know that. We do.
• Frankie told Caleb that she chose Hayden because he's been saying how much he wants to play in a veto comp and has never been chosen.
• That has a ring of truth to it, as well.
• After the veto comp ... it was Hayden who won the Power of Veto!
• We know what he'll do with it.
• Shh ... don't tell Caleb or Amber.
• Jocasta is really sick again. I hope she gets better or this will blow the whole backdoor plan!
• They still plan on Amber going. Their rationale is that Amber won't be stuck in the jury house with Caleb if she goes now and Caleb will either refocus on his game or totally lose it and be out sooner rather than later.
• The only one who really seems to prefer Caleb going first is Cody.
• Frankie is worried about getting blood on his hands.
• Oh, boohoo. You're the HoH. You know the deal.
• They got the fish pizza delivery as the additional Have Not food. Along with the pizza, they have canned clams and sardines.
• They're happy with that.
• Well, when they think of some of the things they could have ended up with instead, they're happy.
• So, there you go ...

Chillaxin'

Zach cooks a huge M&M pancake

PoV Man with his lollipop

Jocasta is sick again

They LOVE the fish pizza for Have Nots!

Big Brother 16: Live Feeds into Saturday pre-dawn - July 26

Derrick and Frankie hug

Here's the latest from inside that Big Brother House of Sad Times, But the Show Must Go On:

• Before the news came down about Derrick's grandfather's death, Hayden gave Victoria some sage advice. 
• Apparently she had some fit of temper after losing the comp.
• Hayden told her that if she continued acting angry with everyone, it will turn the target on her. He told her to cry to the Diary Room, feel free to cry to him ... but outwardly act "normal" for the house on the whole.
• Later on in the evening, Derrick gave her pretty much the same advice.
• Hayden and Nicole know that Derrick, Zach and Cody have a final three deal. They think Zach is the weak/unpredictable link and must go soon.
• Hayden thinks they could backdoor Zach this week, but he'd rather Amber or Caleb get backdoored.
• Hayden pushed his backdoor either Amber or Caleb plan to Frankie, pointing out that voting out Victoria would be a waste as they can control her and Jocasta isn't a threat because she's unlikely to win HoH.
• Of course, they're all keeping Caleb and Amber under the impression that Victoria is indeed the target while telling Victoria she's safe this week unless she does something foolish and keeps acting out.
• Well, if she wins the veto again ...
• Derrick differs a lot from Frankie in his time of grief. Frankie had been open to hugs and tears and company. While Derrick seems touched that his fellow houseguests are so sympathetic, he's the kind who sat quietly for a long time while others didn't quite know what to do or say. Then he went to the Have Not room, laid atop the bed with a hoodie over his face to hide tears. He told Victoria he needed some time, a half-hour or so, to be alone and he would be okay.
• Frankie offered to go to the Diary Room and tell them he'd eat slop this week so Derrick could have real food. Derrick told him he appreciated the offer, but he didn't want (or need) any preferential treatment.
• Like Frankie's grandfather, Derrick's grandfather was watching the show because he's on it, but probably had no idea the whole premise or what was going on.
• Of course, some of us long-time hamster watchers are often in the same boat with that!
• Caleb says he first fell in love with Amber when he saw her in casting -- there were so many pretty girls there, but he knew she was the one he wanted.
• @@
• Caleb doesn't want to look like an idiot on television.
• A bit too late for that, don't ya think?
• Derrick is sure the double HoH bit will be going away soon. I agree -- just the logistics of the numbers in the house predict it can't last much longer.
• Derrick and Frankie think Zach needs to mend fences with Christine for the numbers. Zach doesn't want to.
• Derrick told Victoria she needs to stop going on about losing the Battle of the Block. It's over. Concentrate on winning the Power of Veto.
• They discussed other BB seasons. Derrick doesn't think people are liking this season so much; Hayden thinks it's possibly due to the unanimous votes and predictability. 
• He has something there. But, as far as casting goes, this season has a much better cast overall than last summers Season of Hate Speech.
• Nicole got to shun her Germa-tard at midnight in an awkward dictated by BB "strip" dance.
• Nicole told Victoria she thinks Amber is "fake nice."
• Yep, she is.
• Cody and Derrick are concerned about Zach -- he's messing up his game with his mouth and is so uncontrollable.
• Derrick is also worried that his Team America ally Donny might target him.
• He probably should worry -- Donny made him out to be the brains of the covert operations long ago.
• Cody thinks he will be the target of Caleb if Amber goes. He'd prefer if Caleb went first.
• Victoria told Cody that, before she left, Brittany told her to only trust Cody and Derrick.
• That brought back Cody's guilt over targeting Brittany.
• Hey, that's Big Brother.
• As it stands, it looks like Amber is the backdoor plan for the week if PoV is used. If not used, it's a bit of a toss-up whether it would be Victoria or Jocasta going home.

Big Brother 16: Live Feeds Update - More Sad News - July 25

Derrick got the news that his grandfather has died. His grandfather was 86 years old, a WWII veteran. This comes within two days of Frankie getting similar news about his grandfather.

Nothing like this has ever happened in the house before. I recall back in BB2, Monica was told her cousin was missing in the attack on the World Trade Center 9/11/01 (and the rest of the house was told of the terrorist attacks). That was horrific.

Big Brother 16: Live Feeds Battle of the Block Update - July 25

Victorious (not Victoria)

Nicole and Christine have won the Battle of the Block. So, Zach is dethroned. Frankie remains the sole Head of Household. Jocasta and Victoria remain on the block. There have been a few mentions of backdooring Zach if the veto is used, but I doubt that will happen.