The End of an Era

I will attempt to not get maudlin over a TV show, so please bear with me.

The series premiere of Lost was in the fall of 2004. In the fall of 2004, I was a wife and a teacher (among other titles). Over the course of the 6 years of Lost's reign on TV, I have given birth to my 2 children, gone from teaching in a public school to being a stay at home mom, given up the ability to watch most TV without some sort of interruptions, on top of many other smaller changes in my life. In short, my world is very different today compared to 6 years ago when I first started watching a television show that I knew little about beyond the previews showing a plane crashing on a deserted island.

As silly as it may sound, I feel like, with the series finale airing tonight, this marks the end of an era for me. I've spent many a night rocking my babies and giving them one last bottle before putting them to bed, all with the backdrop of Lost. I've also spent many a naptime, the day after Lost has aired, watching an episode that I missed due to a crazy evening the night before.

On top of the changes that come from shows going off the air and kids growing up, I've also enjoyed chatting about this show to fellow Losties. In the beginning, there weren't many that I knew of. Save for one, my friend Steve. Many a text has been sent about Lost. Many a conversation had about predictions, theories, storylines, etc. Tonight, our church is throwing a going away party for Steve and his awesome family. (Sadly, we have to miss this party because Cooper has had a fever today.) They are moving to Fort Worth to plant a church. Keith and I are so proud, excited, and thrilled for them. But we'll miss them. And I think the end of Lost has made this feel like even more of an "end of an era" moment.

Now that I've got all my "emotional" ties to Lost out of the way, I thought I would share my list of things that I must see answered or resolved tonight during the 2 and a half hour finale.

~Why was Claire told she could not let anyone else raise her son, Aaron? Kate has raised him for several years and so far everything is fine. Was there a real reason behind the psychic telling Claire this?

~Where did Walt's special abilities come from when he was on the island? Does the island equipt children with them, and excludes the adults? Will we see Walt again?

~What role exactly do Widmore and Eloise play in all of this?

~For the longest time, Daniel Farraday was a very important character on the show. I really thought he might be "the key" to the mystery surrounding the island. But we haven't seen him in a long time, save for one brief moment in a sideways flash with Desmond. Is he as important to the island as I thought or did they overblow his role in all of this?

~Jacob told Kate, Jack, Sawyer, and Hurley that he chose them as possible candidates because they were alone in the world and had no one. Kate was crossed off because she became a mother, yet Jin or Sun was also a potential candidate. Why? They were married to each other. And while they did live a lonely existance among the rest of the world, they had each other, so they didn't really fit the description that Jacob gave to the rest of them.

~How exactly does the Dharma Initiative play into all of this? Did they just so happen to choose a deserted island to practice their experiments on? Were they brought there by Jacob or his mom for a specific reason?

I know I could drag this list on and on, but I'll stop here. My plan is to start from episode 1 and rewatch all 6 seasons back to back. I'm in hopes that I will notice more bits and pieces of information that may have been scattered throughout that we all just missed because we had no idea where the show was going.

I hope that come 10:30 pm tonight, I will be happy with the way it all ends. And that they don't pull a "Newhart" or "Seinfeld" on us. Both of those shows had terrible finales, so I will be really sad if Jack wakes up in bed next to Kate and this was all a dream.

My Shows

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about the shows that I typically watch and since this week has been a good one in the life of said shows I figured I would give it a shot.

I've not been an American Idol fan from season one.  I've occasionally watched episodes from season to season, mostly those including auditions which are always hilarious and insane.  But after last season when I became a big fan of David Cook's (the winner, of whom I'm still a fan), I've been more invested in watching this season.  While I personally don't think any of the contestants are as talented as Cook, there are several good ones this season.  Last night was Motown night, I only watched the first half (because the second half conflicted with the best show ever on television) but thankfully I was able to see Kris' performance of "How Sweet It Is" during that half.  That song has lots of nostalgia linked to it because it has been my parents' "song" since they first started dating in the 70's.  I've grown up hearing it very frequently, not to mention seeing "How sweet it is..." followed by xoxo written on cards and notes that they've exchanged with each other over the years.  I thought Kris did a great job singing this classic!  This performance combined with last week's performance of Garth Brooks' "To Make You Feel My Love" has brought him to the forefront of my picks for the winner of this show.  I'm also becoming a big fan of Matt's, who has a Ryan Tedder from One Republic sound to him.  Unfortunately Matt was in the bottom 2 this week, he didn't get voted off, but apparently I'm gonna have to throw a few votes his way next week just to be sure I've done my part to keep him on the show.  While I try to watch as much as possible, I'm not someone who votes typically (last season being a big exception once David Cook rocked my face off with his performance of Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby", then I voted each and every week, multiple times.)  So we'll see how this season pans out.  I don't see myself becoming as invested with a contestant this go around, but I still enjoy watching and I'm curious who will ultimately win.

While I have a variety of other shows that I watch on a regular basis, the only other one that I'm going to blog about is "Lost".  I've talked about it before, but the past several weeks have been some of the best episodes this show has seen.  If you are currently watching old seasons in order to catch up to the new episodes, then please skip over the rest of this paragraph if you don't want to read any spoilers.  With that out of the way, I have to say that this week's episode blew my mind in the last 5 minutes.  I'm on the edge of my seat in anticipation with how the death of young Ben (assuming he's dead) is going to change the show.  Will the future be changed because Sayid shot Ben as a child?  Will Ben be healed by the island as we've seen happen with atleast 2 other previously dead characters?  Did Sayid's "betrayal" of young Ben's trust become the ultimate reason why Ben is who he is in the future?  Maybe Ben would have turned out all together differently had Sayid helped him escape to be with Richard and the "hostiles" rather than shoot him for no reason.  (Obviously Sayid did have a reason, but young Ben wouldn't have known what those reasons were.)  I'm a huge fan of Sayid's, but I'll say this, if he killed Jin or caused Jin to somehow become framed for Ben's shooting/murder, I will be very upset with him.  I think it's obvious now that the reason why Ben gave the "others" his list of people to capture from the plane when it first crashed are the people he knew on the island before from the 70's.  That list only included Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Hurley, and Sayid.  The only person left off that list was Jin, which I'm having a hard time figuring that part out.  This show just keeps getting better and better and I'm so happy that I have been watching from the beginning because it's one of the few that I'm thrilled to be invested in.

Just as an aside in closing, I'm becoming a little jaded with "The Office".  I feel like the episodes are trying too hard, or maybe not trying hard enough.  I'm going to continue watching as my time allows on Thursday nights, but I'm disappointed in this season because the funny just seems to be all gone.  

The Best TV Show Ever

Two weeks from tonight, the best show on TV will finally return for another season!!!  If you don't know what show I'm talking about, then you just don't know me at all.  Of course I'm talking about "Lost".  

I had good intentions of rewatching previous seasons this summer leading up to season 5, but unfortunately I never got around to doing that.  Maybe this summer.  You know, because I won't be busy at all with an almost 4 year old and a newborn.  But if this baby isn't a good sleeper, I may need something to pass those nighttime feedings...  I really hope that isn't the case though.

Back to Lost, I seriously cannot say it enough, this is THE best show ever.  If you like the least bit of intrigue and mystery this show is truly for you.  The writers have no problem killing random characters off.  Some people probably don't like that, but I think it keeps you on your toes because you just never know what's going to happen because nothing is sacred.

I know this is going to be a great season.  

What Are You Watching?

I'm one of those people who has to have something to watch in the evening. I don't necessarily watch something every evening, but I need to know what's on so I can know what my options are in case I have nothing else to do.

Now I should probably clarify this, but I ALWAYS have something to do. There's always something to clean or laundry to fold but by 8 PM, I'm generally of a mind to do some sitting. So I'm either sitting and talking to my husband, which we try to do occasionally, especially when it feels like we haven't seen or talked to each other much lately. Or I'm watching something on TV. I thought I would share the shows that currently hold my interest of an evening, and then maybe you can let me know what shows you're watching in case I might prefer your shows to mine. One thing you should know, we don't have cable or satellite so my TV watching is limited to the main stations: NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, etc. That may seem archaic to some of you, but hey, I'm saving $50-$100 a month by just watching TV via the antenna, so I feel like I've accomplished something by that. Now, if our landline phone company would get on the ball and start offering us the packages that are available to everyone else, we would probably go ahead and get satellite. They currently have a package online (that we aren't eligible for) that includes home phone (with unlimited long-distance which we don't currently have), DSL internet, and satellite all for about $100. That would be nice. But such is life when you live in more of a rural-type setting.

OK, so I took off on a rabbit trail there. Sorry.

Back to my original intent of this post. TV shows.

On Mondays, we watch most of the comedies on CBS: Big Bang Theory (which is just meh to me) and How I Met Your Mother (which I love. Neil Patrick Harris aka Doogie Howser is hilarious, but the entire cast is solid). Now after HIMYM comes Two and a Half Men with Charlie Sheen, but there's also a show on the CW called "One Tree Hill" that we sometimes watch. Yes, I know that's a teeny bopper show, but for whatever reason we've been watching it since the first episode so I can't just give up on Lucas and Peyton now! But if it's an extremely stupid episode (like last Monday's), then we watch "Men". At 9:00, CSI: Miami comes on. Let me first say that I loathe David Caruso. He's a terrible actor and I can't stand the way the show always lets him have the last line before they start the opening music. He's extremely condescending in the show as well. Now, why do we watch it? Well, there's really nothing else on at that time and Keith likes it, while also despising Horatio right along with me.

Tuesdays are a definite hit or miss night with TV. However, I've recently started watching The Biggest Loser and I'm really liking that show. If you're watching it, I hope you hate Vicki as much as I do. I don't think she even cares about losing the weight, she just wants the quarter of a million dollars. And is a quarter of a million dollars all that much money any more? I mean, of course I would love to win an amount like that, but is it really enough to make it the prize money for a primetime "game/reality" show? I guess "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" has spoiled me to people winning more money when they win a show.

Wednesdays we are at church until 7:15 or 7:30, which means that I miss New Adventures of Old Christine with Julia Louis-Dreyfuss. That show really makes me laugh, but I haven't seen it in several weeks now. At 8:00, "Life" comes on. I started watching it last year and I really like it. It's a different type of cop show and the actor who plays the main character is interesting, so we've enjoyed watching it. At 9:00, CSI: New York comes on. I used to have a dislike for Gary Sinise because he played the kidnapper in the movie "Ransom", but I really like him in this show. I actually find him to be one of Hollywood's more versatile actors. He was also in "Forrest Gump" and played a completely different character there as well. I enjoy watching this CSI simply because I think he's really good at what he does.

Thursdays make me a little sad. Thursday nights used to be Must See TV. It was the night that the Cosby Show came on, then Seinfeld was on on Thursdays, Friends also aired all 10 seasons on Thursday nights. I feel that Thursdays ever since Friends just haven't been the same. However, I have recently fallen in love with The Office. It's not quite Friends material, but it's still really funny. Keith doesn't like it all that much because he finds Michael Scott (Steve Carrell) borderline absurd in this show, but I find him to be hysterical in many episodes. Then at 9:00 is a new show called Eleventh Hour. We've been watching it each week and Keith really likes it. I'm still on the fence, but since he watches The Office with me, then of course I return the favor with this one. It's definitely a different show. The premise is that this scientist works for the FBI and he investigates all these weird, science-related cases.

Fridays, I mostly wait until 8:00 when Don't Forget the Lyrics comes on. I've already talked about that show in a previous post, but it really is a good show to watch.

Saturdays are very hit and miss. Sometimes they show reruns of the previous week's episode of the new Knight Rider. I don't even know when that show originally comes on during the week, but if they're showing it on Saturday night, then we watch it. Keith loved the original one, so he enjoys watching this one. But if you know him, then you know of his love of cars in general, and fast cars more specifically. So the car on there is right up his alley, plus all the cool stuff that it does, he gets a big kick out of it. 

And finally Sundays. As I've mentioned in a previous post, we typically watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. Sometimes we'll watch Extreme Home Makeover, depending on if we're in the mood. I kind of miss their early episodes where they actually went into people's houses and remodeled what they had rather than leveling the house and starting from scratch. It was interesting to see the things that they did to change things up in their houses. But I also understand why they build brand new ones.

So, after rereading this it appears that I'm a couch potato. I promise I'm not. There are very few shows on this list that are "Must see" for me, so obviously if we're not home, it doesn't bother me to miss it. We don't have a Tivo or DVR so if we miss it then we miss it. Occasionally I'll catch shows online, but that just depends on what show it is and how much I care about watching it.

What shows are you watching? I'm interested to see who all mentions Grey's because that seems to be a pretty popular show, but I've just never gotten around to watching an episode. And a post about TV shows would be completely useless if I didn't briefly mention my most favorite show which is Lost. The new season doesn't start until February, but that one is definitely Must See for me (and Keith). So I'm very excited for it to start back up this winter.

A Breakthrough!

As most of you know, we've been having issues with Garrett playing with his poop, as much as I want to phrase that delicately, there really isn't any way to do so. For the past couple of months he was doing this regularly and making huge messes, which obviously frustrated and grossed me out at the same time. I read a few tips for how to handle it, but never really got a chance to implement anything. Well, it's been several weeks since we've had an episode, but I've still been on the alert for the possibility. Today, we finally had a breakthrough. He was supposed to be napping, but about half an hour into naptime, I heard him say "Is it poop?" He tends to ask lots of questions, and phrases many statements into a question. Dread and fear immediately entered my heart upon hearing him say this. I just knew that I was going to walk into his room and see a disgusting sight. Surprisingly, this was his way of letting me know he had pooped, but thankfully hadn't done any investigating on his own. Of course, we then went through the dirty diaper changing routine where he asks me approximately 1000 times "Is it yucky?" Yup, it was yucky. I'm in hopes that he is now officially past the poop-obsession phase. Of course I'm sure we're now moving on to something else to be obsessed about, but really, what could be worse?

For those of you who couldn't care less about my child's disgusting habits, here's a little update on our new TV. This weekend we went to "The Dump" and bought a cabinet to sit under our TV and house our DVD collection along with the surround sound receiver, DVD player, and other miscellaneous stuff. (For those who have never heard of "The Dump" it's a local furniture place that sells stuff for pretty cheap. It's huge too, approx. 100,000 square feet!) Obviously we've made the decision not to attempt to put our DVD player and other stuff in the hall closet. The wiring aspect of that scenerio was going to be a nightmare. Keith discovered this when he went into the attic last week in order to get our surround sound wired in. First of all, a 6'5" guy isn't the ideal size for a person to be crawling around in the attic. Secondly, he has a healthy fear of spiders, so that isn't the best place for him. Yes, I said my 6'5" husband is afraid of spiders, and he has every right to be. He was bitten by a brown recluse (fiddleback for all you Texans) a few years ago and got really sick and had to make several trips to the doctor to get it taken care of. It was horrible. He still plans to go back into the attic one more time in order to finish off the surround sound, but we've nixed the plans for our closet turning into DVD headquarters. I actually love this cabinet that we bought and it's plenty big enough to hold all the electronics, plus our DVD collection as well as all the VHS tapes that we still have. We still have to buy one of those radio-frequency remotes though. The doors on the cabinet are wood, not glass, so if they're closed we have no way to control the DVD player with our current remote, if they're opened, we have no way to stop our child from destroying everything inside that cabinet, so the new remote will hopefully take care of all that.

A few things that we've learned in the past week and a half since getting all this new equipment...1. There are lots of digital channels to be picked up with a regular antenna (actually I think our antenna is one that's supposed to pick up digital channels too, but we don't have to pay a monthly fee like we would for satellite or cable!) 2. Blue Ray discs are awesome! There is no comparison between watching an actual Blue Ray disc versus a regular DVD being played on the Blue Ray player. The Blue Ray has excellent picture quality, whereas the regular DVD looks fine, but you don't see the detail like you do on the other. (I still don't plan on buying any more Blue Ray discs until their prices drop considerably.) 3. If you plan on converting to Blue Ray in the next few months, I highly recommend you buy the Playstation 3. It plays Blue Ray discs as well as games and it's the same price as the regular Blue Ray player. We didn't know this, and neither one of us are into video games, but even Keith said that if he had known, he would have definitely bought the Playstation 3 instead because then you have the option of playing games on it as well. 4. Some people look terrible in high def. Especially some of our local news anchors. I now understand why some celebrities don't like the high def movement, they certainly do not look good. This was made even more evident last night while watching the Oscars. Some looked wonderful and you can tell they are just naturally good looking, while others obviously cake on the make up, and in high def, you can tell. Every scar, wrinkle, stretch mark is very noticeable. Remind me to never become a celebrity.

We're Going High-Def!

Today we bought something that we've been saving and contemplating for the last 3 years.
A new TV! We headed to Best Buy first thing this morning and hung out for a half hour or so while we debated what all we wanted to buy. We ended up with a Sony 40" flat panel HDTV, a Sony Blu-Ray disc player, a special surge protector-type thing for electronics, and a wall mount for the TV. Best Buy threw in 3 free Blu-Ray discs. They also gave us money off of each product since we were buying several things at once. I am beyond excited since, up until this point, we've been watching our movies and shows on a 19" tube TV from the 80's. I can't wait to see what all I'm missing in all those movies and especially Lost. There are so many scenes where everything is dark and I have no idea what's happening, but I'm sure that is all about to change now that we'll be watching in hi-def.

We learned a few things as we've researched over the last several months. First, the Blu-Ray player will play regular DVD's and upconverts them to be hi-def, so that's nice to know considering that Blu-Ray discs are ridiculously expensive. I'm used to picking up DVD's for 5 bucks at Walmart, I'm not about to start paying $30 or more for one movie. Second, all TV's are the same. If you look at them on the wall at Best Buy or wherever, there are some differences, but ultimately they're all pretty much the same. We got an awesome deal on the Sony which is why we went with that one, plus that's a familiar brand so we're in hopes it will be trustworthy. Of course our current TV is a Hitachi and it's obviously done us well. Third, you can buy a radio-frequency remote control that can be used on anything wherever it's at. For example, our plan is to eventually put the DVD player in our hall closet. Due to the TV being mounted on the wall, we don't really want cables running everywhere or the need for a stand of some kind for the DVD player, so instead we'll have it put away and this remote will work even with the player out of sight in the closet.

I can't wait to get everything hooked up and running. I think Garrett will be in shock when watching all his favorite movies and shows on this big, high-def TV. Hopefully we won't all become complete couch potatoes.

Lost!!

I am officially counting down the days until next Thursday.
"What's so special about next Thursday" you ask?
The season premiere of the best TV show EVER, Lost!

This is their 4th season and the season finale last year was so awesome that I just can't even begin to imagine how this season is going to kick off. I'm already making plans to put Garrett to bed early and insist that, if Keith comes home from work during the show, he will have to wait to speak to me until a commercial, and no questions about what's happening. I know I sound like a tyrant, but there is a serious lack of good, quality shows on TV nowadays, and I've been watching Lost since episode 1, so I'm not about to miss a second of this episode (it's times like these that a DVR or Tivo would really come in handy). I hope that atleast a few of you out there will be watching so we can discuss it later on. Although, if you've never watched a single episode, it might not make much sense to you, if you just jumped in at season 4. I'll try not to spoil anything for those of you who are currently watching previous seasons in order to catch up. I currently have the first 3 seasons of Lost in my Blockbuster queue, but I'll probably save them until season 4 is finished, then maybe it will be out on DVD by the time I'm through the first 3 seasons. Of course working your way through entire seasons on DVD is hard to do. Especially when, though Keith is a big fan, my husband would much rather watch movies than rewatch episodes of a show that we've already seen, whereas I love doing that! So it will probably be something I'll be watching during naptimes and when Keith travels.

Just a reminder, the new season of Lost begins next Thursday night at 7:00. Please don't call me then because I won't be answering the phone until after 9:00. Thanks! :)

Summer TV

I just want to complain for a second about the TV show options during the summer. They stink, plain and simple! Why are we forced to endure a minimum of 3 months worth of reruns and stupid reality TV shows that someone made up (some of them were probably made up by a child)? If we have to watch reruns, why are we watching ones from the season that just ended? Why not catch everyone up on prior seasons of the show? Or, better yet, why not reruns from old shows no longer on? I would enjoy a good Brady Bunch marathon once in a while. Or how about the shows Charles in Charge or Who's the Boss? That was decent TV back in the day. I realize there are cable channels that show some of these, but first off, I don't have cable or satellite so not an option for me, and secondly even some of the cable channels show the exact same episode of Full House every day for a week. So they're not cutting it for showing good quality reruns.

Now I realize that people typically go on vacation during the summer, maybe there's more sporting events going on in the evenings that I don't know about. But, come on, in Texas even at 8:00 in the evening, no one wants to be outside, it's still too hot! So we have a bunch of people stuck inside watching useless TV. And what about those of us whose summer is exactly the same as the rest of their year? I would like some good show options on at night after I've put my son to bed and have nothing else to do. (Most of the time my husband works late.)

Whatever happened to the movie of the week? They hardly even show those on the weekends, but it would be nice if they would show a decent movie during the week as well. And I don't mean a Disney movie. I love those, but how many kids are really up until 9:00 or 10:00 at night watching a movie on TV that they probably already own? Let's bring on the Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey movies! What about old movies from like the 50's? Some of those are better options than the reruns they try to push off on us. I think they should show some old musicals. Kids today need culture. Let's watch Singing in the Rain or Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. Talk about the good stuff!

Now, I will say that there is one show currently on this summer that I am enjoying. It's called "Traveler" and it's very fast paced and intriguing. I typically watch it off of ABC's website on Thursdays because it comes on Wednesday nights when we have church groups. Of course now that I've said it, the show will be cancelled tomorrow, which is typical. But this is a show that I would recommend, if you're sick of all the reruns. Other than that, there's absolutely nothing else out there. I would love for ABC to rerun Lost episodes from the beginning to get us all caught up since the new Lost won't start until February of 08. But I'm sure I'm in the minority there.

All I'm saying is that we shouldn't tolerate "crappy" summer TV any longer. What are we going to do about it? Absolutely nothing because what good would it do? I guess I'll be renting movies between now and the new fall season. If you have any good ones to recommend, let me know.