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Very slow moving Lightning Round

Posted by Michael James on Nov. 30, 2010

If we get a snowstorm tomorrow, people will complain that it would be too early in the season for it.  But really, December 1st is a prime day for snow.

The streak started with 1.2" on December 1, 2005, West Allis received 12.4" of snow on December 1, 2006, there was 3.5" of snow on December 1, 2007 (starting during the West Allis Christmas parade) and 3.8" of snow on December 1, 2008.  Stupid 2009 broke the streak, and tomorrow is just supposed to be cold.

Apparently I only put up Christmas lights randomly.  My first year in West Allis (2006) I beat the above snowstorm and got up the lights around the house.  I never quite got there in 2007, but got them up in early-November in 2008.  I did get them up last year, too, but I haven't the time or energy to get them up yet this year.  If I don't get them done this Saturday, they're not going up because I have plans all day on Sunday and also on the following weekend.

Back in September, I had a blog mentally written about my TV viewing habits; in short, I don't have time to watch all the shows I want to.  At the time on Sunday alone you had The Amazing Race, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Dexter, Boardwalk Empire (aka The Nucky Show) and Mad Men.  Monday's had House and Hawaii Five-0.  Wednesday has Stupidvivor, The Defenders and Hell's Kitchen.  CSI on Thursday.

In a perfect week, we can fit them all in.  Mad Men ended for the season a month or so ago, so that is now out of the rotation.  I decided that I didn't like Hawaii Five-0 so that is done.  I liked The Defenders, but they are on Time Warner On Demand, so I don't need to DVR that.  Dexter, The Nucky Show and CSI are also On Demand, so I am good there.  We manage to watch the rest of the shows, except House.  I think there are now six episodes of that on the DVR.  And right around the corner are the new seasons of Big Love and Men of a Certain Age.

So what about those shows?

The Amazing Race - I didn't see this week's yet, so don't tell me about it.  The last episode I saw had that stupid Double U-Turn that assured that the last place team couldn't catch up.  Why didn't they save the time and put the mat there?

The Simpsons - OK, I've stopped recording them.  Now I catch them when catch can.  They stopped being good in about 1997, so I'm not too worried.  There are always reruns.

Family Guy - Sort of ditto The Simpsons.  I don't record them (or even watch them until My-Sugar-Na goes to bed) because they can be too racy for her.  The one that might have pushed her over the top had the scene where Cookie Monster was jonesing for a cookie so bad that he was found in a public toilet stall with a tube of raw dough and a spoon, and was heating it with a lighter.  It was so funny that I almost peed my pants, and I just got the most evil look from her.

Dexter - We are actually caught up on this, even though just about every plot device this season is a repeat from previous ones; killing partners gone awry (like Miguel Prado), a killing soulmate (Brian), a sex partner gone awry (Lila), a partner killed in the Dexter/bad guy crossfire (like will happen with Lumen... it can't not, can it?),  and an actual detective doing his job and figuring out Dexter (like Doakes before Quinn).  But I can't wait to find out how it ends this season.

The Nucky Show - I am a whopping four episodes behind on this, and it is one of my favorite shows.  My-Sugar-Na thinks I like it for the constant display of boobies (really, were women in 1920 that promiscuous?) but I can look behind that fault and see that it is really the Sopranos with better sets and clothing.  Seriously, though, I really like the way the show takes a fictitious character (Nucky) and sets him in a real scenario (the beginning of Prohibition) with a number of real-life bad guys (Al Capone, Lucky Luciano, Arnold Rothstein, Meyer Lansky, etc).

Mad Men - The season has been over for awhile, but I so did not miss the Betty Draper character this season.  It was an interesting arc to see Don Draper hit the bottom as a drunk that was losing control of everything, and come back to (semi-)respectability.  There has been some internet chatter about not coming back for a fifth season, but I think it will.  As with Dexter, though (currently in its fifth season) how many times can you tell the same story before it comes time to hang it up?  With Mad Men set in the 1960s, at least, the era can direct the characters (as they did with the JFK election, the increasing use of TV as an advertising medium, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassination of Kennedy, the Beatles coming to America, etc).  Mad Men's most recent season was 1965, meaning we've got the entire '60s hippie, counter-culture thing coming up.

House - With Olivia Wilde (the actress who plays 13) off doing movies and being otherwise sexy, this season seemed awful dull.  That's why we are two months behind on it.  We'll catch up on it soon, though, as Amazing Race/Dexter/Nucky Show wrap up their seasons in the next few weeks.

Hawaii Five-0 - I really wanted to like this show and get in on the ground floor.  Too many shows (both network and cable) shows that I've heard so much about were a couple of seasons in before I knew what I was missing (like The Wire).  I saw the pilot and the second episode, and I hated it.  It was close enough to the original that is fair to keep the show title, but the constant explosions and with death lurking around every corner (and we all know McGarrett and Dan-o aren't dying three times each per episode) I just completely lost interest.

Stupidvivor - Same garbage, different season.  Ask the wife about this one.

The Defenders - Another remake, this one, however, is nothing like the original.  It is a nice, flighty hour dramedy, with Jim Belushi actually playing the straight-up defense trial lawyer and his law partner being the buffoon.  Well, at least for the first two episodes.  Something had to give.  This does seem to be the type of show, though, that you can watch sporadically and not miss much.  Extra bonus points for being set in Las Vegas.

Hell's Kitchen - A couple of seasons ago, I said that this show was horrible and couldn't wait for the Milwaukee-area girl to get kicked-off so I could stop watching it.  Then we watched it last spring/summer, as nothing else was on.  Now there is a Madison guy who is likely to be in the final two, so I am stuck watching it again.  Funny, though, that we aren't behind any episodes of this show.

CSI - I was not a ground-floorer of this show. but, again... Vegas.  The show is old and tired (how many times can we look at the crime scene and find the perfect fingerprint in the blood splatted on the wall and find out that the fingerprint belonged to someone who died fifteen years ago.  And how many serial killers are there in Las Vegas).  Come to think of it, besides being set in Vegas, what do I like about the show?  Marg Helgenberger's botched lip job?  You know what?  I like the theme song.  It stays.

Big Love - Starting up again in January.  It has been announced that this is the last season for the show, and I will watch it because it can't possibly be as bad this season as it was last year.  If last year was its first season, it would have never gotten picked up.  It was cartoonish last year, not a plausible look at a real situation.

Men of a Certain Age - I love how Ray Romano plays in this drama, as basically himself from Everybody Loves Raymond, but in a different light.  I do keep waiting for Pembleton to get his dad in The Box, though.

My chili career may have come to an end.  One reason could be that because my chili tied for first place in the Celebrity judging at Bunkers on November 21st.  As they say, if you retire on top, they can never take that away from you.

But the real reason may have been the blow back from my flu shot the day before.  When I got home from Bunker's that Sunday afternoon, I started developing a headache.  A three hour nap later and I felt like I had gotten hit by the #52 bus.  Then I barely made it to the bathroom.  Both ends.

Needless to say, its the same reason I no longer eat Grasshopper Pie, Quarter Pounders with Cheese or S'mores Pop Tarts.  Just the other day, (Sponsor's Name Here)'s Official Son, Mitten, brought home some chili cheese dogs from Sammy's, and I made him eat them in the other room.

Don't you dare every pay full price for stuff on the internet... as a matter of fact, I forbid you.  Start at Retailmenot and find coupon codes (or try here or here or here).  If you know where to look, you can buy just about anything with a discount.  You can even buy (at a discount) somebody else's gift cards that they no longer want (Side note; also remember this site on December 26th).

And finally, Dear Readers, don't forget to catch me on my Twitter feed.  I don't say much interesting stuff, but I now have an app for my phone which makes Twittering that much easier.  Of course since nobody actually follows me, this Twitter app just serves for me to text myself, but whatever.

But you'll never catch me twittering about Danny Gokey....