CBS Fall Lineup

This fall, I was planning to make a lifestyle change.  I had been thinking and praying about it for some time, and was at peace with my decision.

Goodbye, Melinda Gordon

I had decided to delete The Ghost Whisperer from my DVR.  This was a very difficult decision, but after having a collection of eight episodes from the spring backlogged in my DVR in JULY, I think it was clear that we were both moving in different directions.

HOWEVER, CBS jumped the gun and cancelled the show before I could make this lifestyle change.  I guess I am just as perceptive as the network’s execs.  They should totally hire me.

Melinda Gordon was an important part of my life from the moment she convinced that lost Vietnam vet’s soul to cross over that fateful day in 2005.  I shall miss her, Jim, Delia, Ned, Ely and Aiden, along with those that haunted her—the shineys, the shadows, the weepies, the creepies, the crawlies…I couldn’t keep up with all of them. 

Now on to the new stuff!! First, let me publicly state that I do not care for CBS’s website.  I find it difficult to navigate, and it takes me three clicks to get to the preview I would like to see.  I recommend the CBS website brass find a copy of Nielsen (1993) for web usability guidelines and suggestions.  Or maybe just look at ABC and do what they do.  It’s not hard, really.  I do like the fact that CBS gives you the option to embed previews into another website, which I am doing here so each of you can decide (in one click, mind you) for yourselves which shows will make your DVR list. (If the shows don't appear in your web browser, click on the You Tube link about halfway down.  For whatever reason, it makes the others work. And my apologies, CBS insists upon playing their commercials.)

CBS only has five new shows, a testament to Les Moonves and the CBS geniuses that are able to pick and place such great shows. Here are my picks and pans by night and time:

Mike and Molly (Monday at 8:30)—I think this show will become near and dear to my heart.  I like the title because I have a cousin named Mike and he has a dog named Molly.  How cute!  But really, this show is about Mike and Molly, two nice people with struggles to lose weight.  I totally relate. They want to date.  Dang, I was on a roll with the rhymes, now I’m stuck. 

ANYWAY…Mike develops a little crush on Molly and he asks her out.  I have not been disappointed by CBS’s comedies, and I think this one will rank right up there with How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory.  The show stars Melissa McCarthy—she was on Samantha Who? and has been in several other movies and shows.  She’s super cute and a good actress. 

Hawaii Five-O (Monday at 9)—Let’s first get this out of the way:  

Ok, that was fun, now wasn't it?  I cannot speak the word “Hawaii” without this song popping into my head.  One of the greatest t.v. theme songs of all time. 

CBS has decided that they need to re-make the 1970s hit show.  I never watched the show the first time around, but I am very aware of the fact that it is a classic. 

I don’t know about this one.  I just don’t know.  The previews look really good.  It looks like a fun cop show. I want to like it. But the child of the 70s inside me wants to hate it.  I’m stuck.  I love Hawaii with all my heart, so that makes me excited to see the show, simply so that I can see more Hawaiian scenery.  On the other hand, I’m just not much of a cop show person.  But Scott Caan (who is having a birthday today!  Happy birthday, Scott!)  plays Danno, and I have liked him since he was Tweeder in Varsity Blues, and then I loved him when he was in Ocean’s 11. Then in Ocean’s 12. And then again in Ocean’s 13. 

Ok, here’s my plan.  Hawaii Five-O makes the cut, but it has three episodes to make me love it, otherwise, it’s getting blown off the list like an angry volcano.

Book ‘em Danno. 

The Defenders (Wednesday at 9)—Based on the preview, Jerry O’Connell and Jim Belushi work really well together.  They’re funny together.  I think this could be a good show, but for some reason, I’m not feeling it.  It’s set in Vegas, which I love, and I get to look at Jerry.  I can’t pinpoint why I won’t be adding this to my lineup, but I just won’t.  If you’re into legal dramas, give this one a chance, and if Hawaii Five-O doesn’t work out (and I don't think it will, despite what Entertainment Tonight says), then The Defenders may get added in its place...or maybe I'll take up another hobby, because I clearly watch too much t.v.

S#*! My Dad Says (Thursday at 7:30)—William Shatner is the dad that says stuff.  He’s the best part of this show.  But I’m thinking no.  First of all, I hate it when people try to force something in to a t.v. show.  Does anyone remember Dirty Dancing the t.v. show?  Probably not, because it was a bad idea! But CBS tried to make a t.v. show out of something that clearly should have stayed a movie.  Same thing goes for this show.  S#*! My Dad Says is a Twitter site.  It should stay that way.  In the preview, the acting looked strained, unnatural and poorly timed.  I could be wrong, but this one doesn’t make my cut.

Blue Bloods (Friday at 9)—Tom Selleck.  Donny Wahlberg.  Oh yes.  The 12-year-old New Kids on the Block fan inside of me is squealing right now.  I’ll be loving you forever, Donny!!!

CBS has some really great shows, and we are fans of many of them.  Here are the CBS shows on my DVR:

Sunday:  The Amazing Race. I used to love this show, but lately, I’m growing tired of it.  The American people must be tired of it too, as it has been shortened to 30 minutes.

Monday:  7 p.m.:  How I Met Your Mother; 8:30 p.m.:  Mike & Molly; 9 p.m.: Hawaii Five-O.

Note:  CBS has moved Big Bang Theory to Thursday.  This better not mess with my recordings of other shows!!!

Tuesday:  9 p.m.: The Good Wife. I LOVE this show!!!  Nurse Carol Hathaway.  Mr. Big.  Great cast, great story line, great show altogether!

Wednesday:  7 p.m.:  Survivor. That’s all Scott. 

Thursday:  7 p.m.:  The Big Bang Theory. So funny!!!!!

Friday:  9 p.m.:  Blue Bloods. This appears to be the Brothers and Sisters of the law enforcement world, and since I missed the boat on Brothers and Sisters, this show will make up for it.

Saturday:  Nothin.  I’m at the football game.

Nice work, CBS.  I think you have pulled together an excellent lineup, and I can’t wait for September 20!!

ABC Fall Lineup

Although I have thoroughly enjoyed Boston Medical, Scott has loved laughing at the antics on Wipe Out, and I am disgusted at what has become of Chris Harrison on Bachelor Pad (he was so good on Channel 9 in Oklahoma City), ABC’s summer programming is wearing on me. I understand why they keep the A-list programming in the back pocket until the fall, but dang it, I watch t.v. in the summer, and I’m getting tired of the sub-par reality "programming."

Oh, Derrick and Meredith, how I miss thee and your beautiful hair.  Will the handsome Dr. Shepherd recover fully from his gunshot wound?   Will Owenstina’s love survive despite Owen’s feelings for Teddie?  Will Callie and Arizona…oh wait, I don’t care so much for that one.  But I am just chomping at the bit for some good television!

In addition to my longing for Grey’s Anatomy, I am also anxious for the new season of Cougar Town, Modern Family, The Middle, and Desperate Housewives.  But this year, as in past years, I am just itching for the new television shows!  So here are my picks and pans for ABC’s fall lineup by order of night and time:

No Ordinary Family (Tuesday at 7)—Blah.  I think it would be a fun movie, but for a t.v. show, no.  Moving on now, because I want to spend no more time on this…

Detroit 187 (Tuesday at 9)—If I were really into cop shows, this would make the DVR list.  I watch The Closer, so I just really don’t have room in my life for another crime drama.  But, this show does look really good.  SOOOOO, depending on how well some of the other shows pan out, this one may get a mid-season add.  If you like crime dramas, check this one out.

Better With You (Wednesday at 7:30)—Yes, this one looks good!  The actors are great!  I really liked Jennifer Finnigan when she was on Close to Home (before CBS cancelled it).  I loved Debra Jo Rupp when she played Alice (Pheobe’s sister in law) on Friends, and then as the mom in That 70s Show.  Josh Cooke looks familiar, but I didn’t see anything that rings a bell for me on IMDB.  Finally, Kurt Fuller plays the dad in this show.  He has been in everything, but my favorite was when he played Russell in Wayne’s World. This show definitely makes the cut.

Isn't  the former Dr. Lockhart looking
poorly these days?

The Whole Truth (Wednesday at 9)—I’m not a huge lawyer show person, but I will record this one simply because Maura Tierney is in it.  I loved her as Dr. Abbie Lockhart in ER, so I am happy to see that she is employed, so I will do my best to make sure she stays employed.  However, she looks AWFUL.  Oh yeah, and the show looks good too.  However, this show has three weeks to ensnare me, otherwise it gets deleted.  Cut throat.  That’s how I roll in t.v. land.

My Generation (Thursday at 7)—Makes the list, no questions asked. The show is set up like a documentary that introduces us to the characters when they were seniors in high school in 2000, then we catch up with them 10 years later.  It looks very creative, very different from anything else, so I’m excited to see how this one turns out.  I didn’t really recognize many, if any, of the actors, but that’s okay.

Secret Millionaire (Friday at 7)—No.  Dumb.  Don’t care.

Quincy was a favorite for a
young Dr. Irlbeck and
her grandparents

Body of Proof (Friday at 9)—This looks good.  Dana Delany stars in this cool show.  I really liked Quincy when I was a kid (yeah, Grandma and Grandpa let me watch whatever I wanted), and this looks like the 2010 version of Quincy.  Delany’s character was a big time neurosurgeon, but a tragic accident forces her out of surgery.  To stay employed, she becomes a medical examiner.  This will take the place of Ghost Whisperer in my Friday night lineup. Jeri Ryan is also in this show and I think she’s cool.

There are several other shows that will hit mid-season, especially Mr. Sunshine, starring none other than Matthew Perry (a.k.a. Chandler Bing), but I’ll get to those in a post in a few months.

I have become pretty loyal to ABC, as evidenced by my DVR:

Sunday—Desperate Housewives

Monday—Well, nothing. Dancing with the Stars doesn’t make the cut.  Sorry.

Tuesday—Neither does the DWTS awards show.

Wednesday—Basically, Wednesday belongs to ABC.  The Middle, Better with You, Modern Family, Cougar Town, The Whole Truth.

Thursday—My Generation & Grey’s Anatomy

Friday—Body of Proof & 20/20. 

So there you have it.  Please do not disturb me the week of September 19.  Clearly, I’m busy.

Well, excuse me, but I think you've got my chair...

We scored these great metal yard chairs from some of Scott's grandma's old stuff.  As you can see, the years had been cruel to these little cuties.  So, I gave them a spa treatment, and they now look like brand new chairs that are worthy of the Ruby Tequila's patio.

The first step was to clean them off (the birds really liked them).  I had to use a scrub brush and the "jet" setting on our spray gun to get all the rust and "bird impurities" off.  Then I spray painted the arms with a new coat of white.

The next step was taping.  And that was an extremely tedious job.  It took about 30 minutes per chair to wrap the arms and legs, and there were three chairs.  Mind you, I was trying to get all this done when it was raining every other day in June, so what should have taken two evenings ended up taking a week-and-a-half.

We made good use of our old shower curtains (as seen in the picture to the left).  I felt like a genius when I realized the old, musty shower could double as a paint drop cloth.  Of course, I often feel like a genius.

After painting the first chair an awesome lime green, Scott and I really liked the color combination of "painters' tape blue" with the lime green.  Lucky for me, Rustoleum makes and Home Depot sells painters' tape blue in the vast selection of spray paints.  (Note:  Painters' tape blue is not the actual name of the paint color, but I like the name that I came up with.  It's cute, don't you think?)




I also bought a lovely shade of lemon yellow to round out the trio.

And here is the finished product!  I love the way they turned out and I am so pleased with the outcome of our patio.  I did all of the painting and landscaping.  Scott watched.

After I came up with the catchy title (thanks, George Strait), and as I was writing this post, I couldn't get George's 1980s mega-hit The Chair out of my head. The song was on my iPod, because I have the entire Strait out of the Box set stored there, but I couldn't figure out how to pull the song off my iPod and embed it into my blog.  So after two minutes of frustration, I went to YouTube, and oh...my...goodness.  I found excellence in 1980s video making.  I couldn't bear to keep this gem of a video to myself, and I had to share it with you, all eight readers of my blog.  Enjoy.

Ag Media Summit

Mickey's Diner in downtown St. Paul  

As summer starts to draw to a close, my favorite way to wind down this wonderful time of year is to attend the Ag Media Summit.  This year's meeting was in St. Paul, Minnesota.  Upon arrival, we were starving, so we went to Mickey's Diner.  The place was one of those old dining cars, and it reminded me of Shortcakes in Stillwater.  It's always open and has served a wide variety of fried stuff to Minnesotans and lots of famous people.  There was seriously nothing healthy on the menu, but you can get breakfast 24 hours a day!  I had a hamburger and fries.  It was tasty, but I smelled like a hamburger for the rest of the day.

Back at the hotel (Crowne Plaza), somehow, someway I got a poolside room.  I never get the good room, so you can understand my excitement.  The first night we were there, we hung outside my room and watched people swim.

However, I was rather confused at the bathroom configuration. It was as if the contractors completed the bathroom and thought "hmmm....something's missing.  Oh yeah! The toilet!  Let's just cram it under the counter and no one will ever notice."  Weird.

Before all the conference festivities began, we deemed it essential to go shopping at the Mall of America.  It was way bigger than I could have imagined.  It has an amusement park inside!  We were there only two hours, so we barely got to have the full experience, but I found a wonderful scrapbooking store there.  We ate lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  They had fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp gumbo, shrimp cocktail, shrimp salad, coconut shrimp.....that's about it.

For the Ag Media Summit Welcome Party, we took a riverboat cruise up the Mississippi River.  It was really fun, and the views were great.  As usual, Boelte Hall had their props set up for pictures and we had to see who could be the funniest.

The Texas Tech crew.

Defending myself from Viking attackers

The OSU alumni who are now faculty members. Nerds.

All the OSU alumni and students who attended AMS.

During the conference, I won a Flip Cam from Alpharma and Charleston Orwig.  I was so excited about this, and couldn't wait to shoot my first video.  And here it is.  Special thanks to Lindsay Kennedy for starring in this video and for coming up with the material.

The final night was a little dressier for the cocktail reception and banquet.  My students looked so cute! The banquet was followed by a dance, but since I tend to embarrass myself when dancing, I opted to go back to the room and pack.

I slept most of the trip back--little did I know, I was getting sick.  Every time I travel, I get sick!  But as we were approaching Lubbock, I got so excited to see how green and pretty everything looks this year.  

So here's to another great Ag Media Summit, and as I close this entry, I get a bit of a panicked feeling because I know summer is almost over and I am so not prepared for the fall semester.

Next year is in New Orleans.  Woohoo!!!