For cat bloggers and Lost fans!

If you love Lost and cats, you'll get a big kick out of this:

LOL Lost Season 1

This took a lot of creativity and hard work!

So...do you watch Lost? What are you thinking about this season so far?

As for me:

1. I'm not much caring for the alternate universe characters. Of course, I'll always love Hugo and he sure seems to be happier in this "X"-verse.

Last night, we got a look at John Locke-X. In many ways his life is "better" than it was in real time. Still...is his character shadier? I mean, use company time and money to go to a seminar in Australia and then sneak off into the bush for a walkabout? And to make the deceit so blatantly obvious? Wild.

I also noticed that he's still together with his true love. She mentions his father. So does this mean he's got a relationship with dear old dad? The old man didn't push him out a window? How'd he get into that chair?

Back on the island with our favorite characters (that I wish the focus was on all the time): what's going on with Smokey/Esau/Locke? Is he evil? He seems to be--he's got all the dark characteristics of evil. He becomes the smoke monster and kills people. His color is black as opposed to Jacob's white.

He's enticing Sawyer and Richard with answers to all their questions--if they'll follow him. It put me in mind of Satan tempting Christ. But ... on the other hand, Jesus has asked his followers to follow Him too. So who's good and who's evil?

I'm still trying to figure that one out...

Quick Update

I really meant to update more often, especially to participate in Cats on Tuesday which I totally missed :(, but I was sick this week with some kind of virus. :P No, I don't think it's swine flu, just some kind of bug that laid me low for several days. I'm feeling better but TB is still sick.

I'm down another 3.5 pounds, yay!

The sun was *finally* out this morning but now it's all overcast again. :( I hope Kristin's junior trip to Baltimore won't be spoiled by the weather! I'm wishing her a wonderful time!

The gang is doing fine except for being hungry all the time. Koz is still on his diet so that means we have to police everyone! Koz goes up on the counter for his diet food and everyone else scarfs down what they can in 5 minutes. No, we don't time them, it's just that they walk away so quickly! I don't know why they don't try to eat more...guess it's a cat thing? Amber and Koz eat their fill but Mouse and Cubby take a couple of bites and that's it! Then they're hungry again in an hour! :P

And Lost really rocked last night! Terry O'Quinn is such a superb actor...and so is Michael Emerson. Everyone else did a fine job too, it really was a fantastic episode! I'm so sorry that the season is coming to an end. What will I do this summer? Waaaaaaah!!!!

Oh Boy It's Lost Night!

Just Stuff From Today

This

TB's legs continue to pain and itch him but they don't feel as hot as they did. I guess TB's going with the assumption he's healing slowly. I'm not sure I agree. I'm worried about the itching and the fact that it's not all clearing up faster and got him to leave a message with the doctor.

We both went together--we travel as a team just about everywhere now--so he could apply for SSD (social security disability) and so I could meet with my DVRS (division of vocational rehabilitation services) counselor to discuss working from home for me or getting into a program to upgrade my clerical skills. We need income and we need it NOW


Thursday Challenge:

This week's challenge is "family" and here are all our grandchildren and a daughter:






That

Well, why should this be any kind of a surprise? Diabetics need to exercise and doctors tell us we should so that we can have better control of our sugar. It also does wonders for the heart and blood pressure. But too many of us don't exercise and it's not because we like being fat or have a particular death wish!

More than half of U.S. adults with diabetes also have arthritis, raising a serious obstacle for diabetic patients urged to exercise, according to a government study.

It's not that we don't want to exercise, there is too much pain and probably not enough of us can afford to join a gym with a pool.

The full article is here.

While we're speaking of diabetes, one of the foods I was afraid I'd haave to give up is fruit. I love fruit, all kinds, and it's one of the healthiest snacks I can find. These are some tips for better ways to eat fruit when you are diabetic:

* Eat fruits raw or cooked, as juice with no sugar added, canned in their own juice, or dried.
* Buy smaller pieces of fruit.
* Choose pieces of fruit more often than fruit juice. Whole fruit is more filling and has more fiber.
* Save high-sugar and high-fat fruit desserts such as peach cobbler or cherry pie for special occasions.

and the other things

Has everyone seen the sinkhole pictures in Texas? This thing has grown to the size of two football fields and is still eating vehicles, parts of buildings, telephone poles and more dirt. It could take about 2 weeks for this thing to stabilize so it could keep right on growing! I guess if there's anything good about this it's that it didn't open up in someone's neighborhood...yet.

Did you hear about the little town in Wyoming (75 people) that has all the air pollution of a big city?

I read an article but lost the link for it about all these wonderful super seeds we created to grow wonderful food to stop world hunger. Wellllll....the problem is we didn't teach anyone about fertilizer nor make it affordable, or about crop rotation and so on so that all these wonderful seeds are withering away in poor soil.

What are we doing to ourselves?

One ray of hope: after all that death and destruction in Myanmar, a baby is born.

Lost

I almost wasn't going to write anything about the show this week. I wasn't crazy about the episode. Dr. Jack was acting like a controlling freak. First he didn't trust anyone to remove his appendix but himself (huh?) but luckily Juliet and Bernard had the smarts to knock him out before that went too far; he got ugly and possessive with Kate and his ghost/zombie father was totally creepy in the episode. Now I know how Claire got separated from her baby but it makes no sense. She is supposed to raise the baby, not Jack and Kate. The whole show was just creepy to me and I was glad when the credits began rolling. I'm not a big Jack fan anyway.

Tuesday Sundries

Cat bloggers of the world, unite again! Check out this site, My Pet and I, and tell 'em I sent you! This website is good too if you have woofies and bunnies and any pet! :D

My favorite show is filmed somewhere on one of these islands:

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Lost:

So who saw that coming? Who else was totally depressed when Alex was shot executiion style? This doesn't bode well for Danielle, does it? So many of us thought that somehow Danielle was only shot but, really, what purpose would she serve to the story now that Alex is gone thanks to the "rules" of the "game" being changed.

So is this what Lost is really about? It's not about the Losties and them finding themselves and getting themselves home. It's a great big game of Risk between rich people fighting over the fountain of youth. I'm thinking "The Economist" is actually Mr. Paik, Sun's father. What do you all think?

This was a great episode for Ben, wasn't it? I have a real love-hate feeling toward this character. Just when I've decided he is thoroughly despicable and revolting, he does some mind blowing cool stuff and I have to wonder if he isn't a "good guy" after all. More and more, I'm like him a whole lot better than Jack!

At first I thought it was really stupid that Sawyer could dodge all those bullets when three people were shot down so accurately. Now, though, I'm thinking that Sawyer is one of those people who can't be killed...like Michael. The island doesn't want him to die! As for Claire, I got the chills when she said, "I'm not dead" and Miles quipped, not yet you're not or something like that.

So...if this is just one big chess game and everyone is just a bunch of pawns, does that make me enjoy the show any less? No way!

Don't know, don't care about Lost? That's okay...and now for something completely different:

Autism Awareness:

“New York police come into contact with someone on the spectrum at least once every day and have no idea about it. ..."

I had no idea! The really nice thing is that the NYPD got some training in how to respond to people with autism via a videotape created by the Autism Society of America. Read the whole article here.

Some more reality bytes:

TB has an infection in both legs and is now on an antibiotic. As for the why of it, he is retaining fluid and his diabetes can cause complications like that. Great. He'd been feeling pretty miserable lately and then his legs turned red and felt hot. I'm glad he was willing to go to the doctor this time!

As for me, the doctor says there is a little swelling in my legs but not enough for him to be very worried. He did an EKG which he said looked "fine" but said it wouldn't hurt to go and have the echo done on my heart. Well, I don't want an echo. I'm afraid of what it will show. But I am going to go get one anyway.

Don't get fat. It is NOT worth it. If you are young and fat, try to get the weight off now before your metabolism changes and it becomes too difficult. I wish I'd listened to my midwife when I was in my 30s. :P

Ten On Tuesday
10 Superstitions, Traditions, and/or Personality Quirks

1. I am a hypochondriac. I do have things that are wrong with me but take this echo I'm supposed to have. I'm already imagining a thousand things that are wrong with my heart.

2. I'm a pack rat. It's hard for me to throw stuff out "in case" I might need it some time. I'm really sure I'll need all those scraps of paper and magazines and what have you from years ago. :P

3. Don't celebrate a birthday before the actual day of! It's bad luck! Celebrate with a party after if you can't on the actual day but never before

4. I have always been a cat person and have had at least one cat since I was a baby. Now I have six. I think I will eventually be one of those crazy cat ladies you read about in the paper.

5. I'm a real stickler about what we have to eat on certain holidays. There is no way I'd eat anything but turkey on Thanksgiving (don't even think about fish) orcorned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day.

6. I used to cut my cucumbers in half and rub them vigorously to get rid of gas. My first husband thought it was hilarious and explained it was an old wives' tale I got from my mom and probably from my grandma. You have to remove the seeds to get rid of gas from a cucumber!

7. I can't drive over a bridge

8. When I used to eat M&Ms, I'd organize them by color. I would eat the brown ones first, then orange, then green and save the reds for last.

9. It's weird that for someone so disogranized, I am obsessive about certain things. For instance, I feel like I must have at least one post on my blog a day, sometimes more and no more than 3. I have to have a post on one of my other blogs too or I feel antsy. When I read books, I get antsy if I'm not reading a classic or non-fiction every third or fourth book. What's up with that anyway?

10. I don't like talking on the phone and I will ignore it if it's ringing, even if I have it right by my side. Sometimes when the phone rings, I just call out "NO!" and that means I don't want to talk to anyone, period. I don't know why I don't like talking on the phone. I didn't use to be this way.

Which Dead Lost Character Are You?

Which Dead Lost Character Are You?

More on Lost. Created by BuddyTV

I totally hated the ending of tonight's episode. Other Lostaholics will understand exactly why and probably feel the same way I do. Dead characters usually don't get a backstory although there was an exception last season...and perhaps the character I'm worried about isn't even dead.

As for why I'm speaking in generalities, not everyone's seen the episode yet.

Lost Puzzle

It helps to know the numbers...

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

Lost 4.7: Ji Yeon

What a surprise--no, not about Michael. I was surprised that the story of our favorite married couple, Jin and Sun, was both a flashback and a flashforward. I'd heard this was going to be happening but I was so sucked into what was happening, I also forgot...and boy, they really got me! I also knew there was going to be the death of a "major" character and once I was relieved it wasn't Desmond or Sayid, my next worry was Jin. The actor who plays Jin, Daniel Dae Kim, was arrested last fall for DUI and that's been the kiss of death for so many of the actors on the show.

Now we know the identities of all the "Oceanic Six". There was a lot of speculation about how Claire's son, Aaron, fit into the equation. Did he count since he was just a little boy? In the beginning of this show, Sun realizes that the freighties are not there to rescue them and that it might not happen. She begins to panic, worrying about her unborn baby and decides she and Jin need to leave and join the Lockettes. Juliet, the fertility doctor, is horrified. She knows all the pregnant women die on the island and when Sun won't listen to her, Juliet blurts out to Jin the secret Sun's been hiding: Sun had an extramarital affair. Jin storms off. Uh oh.

Foreshadow: There's a scene where Jin and Sun are talking about names for the baby. Sun doesn't want to discuss it because it would be bad luck and could bring a jinx down onto the baby. Still, Jin goes ahead and says what he'd like to name a baby girl: Ji Yeon.

Now we flash forward.

Sun seems to be getting ready to go somewhere. She's putting on lipstick and hesitates, seems like she's going to cry. We realize it's a flash forward because she doubles over in pain and we see how very pregnant she is. She's in labor but doesn't seem to realize it and thinks something's wrong with the baby.

We see Jin going into a toy store, frantic to buy a giant stuffed panda. He's rushing, like he's late for a very important date...and he is! What's he doing in the toy store when his wife is about to deliver their baby? As I'm watching, I'm looking for one of Sun's father's henchmen. I figure that's how Jin will die--pushed in front of a car. It turns out that, through a funny series of mishaps, someone else gets into the cab with Jin's panda and drives away. Jin rushes back into the toy store for yet another panda. Something is very weird here, I'm thinking.

When Sun has the baby alone, I realizez Jin must have died on the island. So what's with the pandas? Is he a ghost? And then we learn we has bringing the panda as a gift to the daughter of the Chinese ambassador--Jin is having a flashback while Sun's is a flash forward. Pretty neat trick the way those two stories worked together!

Hurley arrives at Sun's place after her baby (a girl, named Ji Yeon by Jin) is born and the two of them go to the cemetery. I think it can't be the actual day of the funeral, just can't be, because no one else is there. Hurley's glad of that...why? There's a stone already up for Jin so their return had to have happened a while back. You don't get a stone overnight, right? And the date on the stone? September 24, 2002...the date of the flight.

Things can be faked though. Back on the freighter, Sayid and Desmond finally get to meet the captain. The "mole" on the ship leaves them a note warning them not to trust the captain. The crew members all seem to be quietly flipping out. A woman, dressed in heavy chains, walks to the side of the ship and jumps. No one looks around or tries to help except for Sayid and Desmond. When the captain shows up he says something to the effect that there's no point trying to save her because she's already gone.

The captain also tells them Charles Widomore, Penny's father, is financing the ship and that the boat is stuck where it is because of the saboteur. They'd like to go to safer waters so that people stop going crazy but they just can't. So why did the nefarious Mr. Widmore send these people to the island? What are they really after?

Sayid and Desmond finally meet the mole and it is Michael Dawson, only now he's calling himself Kevin Johnson. Where's his son Walt? Why did he tell his friends (assuming it was him that left the note) not to trust the captain? He himself is totally untrustworthy--he betrayed his friends, led them into a trap and then blithely drove away with his son.

The captain's last name is Gault. There's been so many literary references during the series that I thought right away of "Who Is John Galt?" about the millionaire genius who decided to "drop out" of society rather than continue supporting people who don't contribute and sit around whining about how badly they're being treated. This is from Ayn Rand's book Atlas Shrugged.

I read the book when I was about 19--my boss recommended it to me and said it would change my life. It didn't but I remember it well. Rand had a preachy sort of tone and some of her characters were very stereotyped. Basically, this was a group of industrialists led by John Galt who became so disillusioned with the way things were going in the country that they all dropped out one by one and moved to a utopian sort of society. Does that sound familiar? Meanwhile, back in the real world everyone and everything began to break down because the "gimme gimmes" either couldn't or wouldn't fix the system. Meanwhile, in industrialist utopia, everything ran smoothly. At about the time there was going to be total collapse else where, John Galt and his people decided to make a move.


I didn't see anyone comment about this possibility but you never know, right?

Rough Night aka Reason for the easy puzzle

Create your own puzzles at PuzzleBee.com!

This is an adorable little kitten in a black & white photo.

It's been a long day and a rougher evening.

I went with Kristin for her overnight and all-day-long sleep study. As the parent of a teen, I was planning on staying with her in any event. It turns out that a parent of a minor is required to spend the night. That they had to make this a requirement makes me wonder about the common sense of some parents.

Okay, so with that in mind you would think the place would provide a bed for the parent too...right? Or am I naive? We get to the place (which was hard to find in the first place) and we're shown to a nicely furnished but tiny room. There is a queen bed for Kristin...and a chair for me.

Hello?

"Sorry, that's all the company provides," the tech tells me.

"I have back problems. I can't sleep on that," I tell her.

She says I can bunk with Kristin as long as I stay to my "side" of the bed and don't disturb her or the study...or I can reschedule. Grrrrrrrr....like I'm going to have TB drive us on a 30 mile trip again this late at night. I decide to sleep in the same bed and "keep to" my "side".

It wasn't terrible but all today I found I had the attention span of a flea. Anytime I tried to do anything I found myself feeling as if I was going to fall asleep. One time when I did sleep, the tech told me I was snoring through my CPAP mask and that the pressure needs to be changed. I missed TB and was either calling, texting or emailing throughout the day. He missed me too.

Kristin did great and was more stoic than I, considering she was all wired up and even more inconvenienced than me. The tech got all the information she was looking for and we were finally on our way home.

My brain still feels like it's flitting here, there and everywhere. Kristin is punchy and has the giggles.

And Jin--from my favorite show Lost--is dead in the future, leaving a grieving widow and newly born child. I may or may not write more about this episode. Right now I am just too affected.

Anyway, that's why today's puzzle is really easy.

Lost 4.6 "The Other Woman"

There wasn't an overly complicated amount of stuff to digest on Lost last night which may be a good thing since I feel like my brain is about to short circuit sometimes!

This episode was supposed to be about Juliet and it was ...sort of. Juliet is the fertility doctor recruited to the island by Mittelos Bioscience to help the Others deal with the mortality level of pregnant women: 100%. The thing is, Juliet can't seem to help the women either and every time one more dies, she's further distraught. Along comes Goodwin, whose role I haven't figured out yet. A doctor? A mechanic? Anyway, even though he's married to Juliet's cold hearted island shrink, he is very interested in Juliet and it isn't long before they begin an affair.

Well, the problem with that goes beyond Goodwin's spiteful wife. It turns out that Ben has a crush on Juliet and wanted her for himself. He's jealous--and he puts Goodwin in a situation dangerous enough to get him killed...and then he takes Juliet there to see the decomposing body. Nice, Ben. Way to get Juliet to like you!

Meanwhile, Ben is busy manipulating the still pliable and ever so gullible John Locke. I'm disappointed in Locke this season. He flip flops between strength and weakness. Ben reveals that the person funding the freighter people is none other than Charles Widmore, Penny's father (of Desmond & Penny) and world's richest, coldest man. He wants to exploit the island, Ben tells John. And so now John lets Ben go free to cheerily go move into one of the bungalows--much to the astonishment of Jurley and Sawyer.

Also meanwhile, Claire wants to talk to Miles. When we last saw him,he had a grenade in his mouth. Why does she want to talk to him? Does she know he's able to talk to dead people? What if he channels Charlie to her?

On the other side of the island, Jack and Juliet have misplaced freighties Daniel and Charlotte. Jin says he saw them walking into the jungle. Why? Where are they going? Jacket (as people like to call Jack and Juliet) set off to follow the two. For the first time (I think) Juliet hears the jungle whispers and then has what I believe to be her second encounter with Old Smokey who appears in the form of the shrink.

"Why are you here?" Juliet wants to know.

Phantom/Angry Shrink says she has a messae from Ben. Juliet's to find Charlotte and Daniel and prevent them from releasing poisonous gas over the island. Jack arrives in time to see and hear the wird shrink before she acts like the Witch of the West and melts in the rain.

As a matter of fact, Daniel and Charlotte are acting like bad guys: they're sneaking around with a bag of gask masks and hazmat gear, they're lying and they're bonking Kate on the head with the butt of a gun. Kate's injured and when Jacket comes across her, Juliet goes on alone so Jack can tend to Kate.

She finds the missing freighties at "The Tempest" (great title--like Shakespeare?). They in full hazmat mode and Daniel is fiddling with the machines when Juliet arrives. In spite of everything, though, Juliet's not able to shoot--especially when Charlotte yells that they are trying to stabilize the poison so no one can use it against anyone. It turns out Juliet was correct to follow her instinct...the poison is neutralized.



It seems Smokey wants to stop the freighties at all costs, but why? Who or what is Smokey anyway? If Smokey was also Abbadon why was he recruiting anyone to go to the island at all? These and more questions MAY be answered sometime! :D

The other reveal was the mole on the ship. Ben told Locke off camera...I'm pretty sure it's Michael, the Lostaway who betrayed his friends in Season 2.

My Thursday Thirteen #10: Lost's Episode 4.5 "The Constant"

You probably have to be a fan of Lost to enjoy my TT today although there are several literary references. :)

Thirteen Things about "The Constant", Episode 4.5 of Lost 1. It was the unstuck-in-time story of my favorite character, Desmond! I have been infatuated with this guy since the first time I heard him say, "See you in another life, brotha!" Poor Desmond...he sure looks like he's come unstuck, doesn't he? 2. Desmond's character isn't killed off! I was worried that he would be because a major character is supposed to be bumped off by episode 7. 3. Desmond's got to stay around away because he's now become Daniel Farraday's "constant"! 4. Now I believe it's Daniel Dae Kim's character, Jin Kwon, who will be killed off thanks to the curse of the DUI. Like three other former Lost actors, Daniel Dae Kim was arrested for DUI. The previous three were killed off. Dum-dee-dum-dum! 5. This episode was about time travel and I just love books and movies about time travel! Only Desmond's consciousness time travelled, not his body. That saved us the inconvenience of wondering if his clothes would go with him, as did NOT happen in The Time Traveller's Wife! 6. This poignant scene so reminded me of Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, specifically when heroine Claire catches a glimpse of a Scots Highlander looking up at her window. The man disappears like a mist. 7. There was a salute to Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five: references to being "unstuck" in time and travelling unexpectedly and without any control over the situation at all! 8. There was also a salute to the move Back to the Future especially when Desmond tells goofy physicist Daniel Farraday the formula he needs to send Eloise the rat into the future. In the movie, Marty McFly clues the Professor in to how to make his what-you-call-it so that the DeLorean could become a time travelling machine. 9. There was mention of the slave ship, Black Rock, that was wrecked on the island years ago...and it's hulk is smack dab in the middle of it! What's it doing there? That hasn't been answered yet but now I know who owns the diary of the captain, or was it the first mate? 10. Maybe now we know what caused the "sickness" among Danielle's crew. Maybe they were all (except Danielle--and maybe because she was pregnant) affected by the same weird electromagnetic stuff that caused two of the freighter people and Desmond to become "unstuck" 11. It took place on Christmas Eve. I just love the Christmas holidays! 12. The more answers we got, the more questions came up: if Penny's father hates Desmond so, why did he give Des Penny's new address? Why did Penny's father want The Black Rock diary? Why does Daniel have trouble with his memory? Where did that electromagnetic storm thingy surrounding the island come from? 13. More than anything else, this was a moving love story. Desmond and Penny are soul mates. Toward the end, when they finally reached each other by phone, I was nearly bawling like a baby. They were so excited they were talking over each other but they did manage to say "I love you" before the line went dead! It was so beautiful!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Sunday Stuff

I visited St. Mark's Church today and I'm glad I did! It's a very small congregation--apparently something bad happened several years ago that caused a traumatic split and like 2/3 of the families and the pastor left. They are trying to recover from that. It's good that they are reaching out to the community. It seems like it's a helpful healing thing to do to reach out to people in need when you yourself are suffering. I'm going to go back again.

Am I being paranoid or what? I installed AIM for my mom, brother and me because it's easy to use and because so many members of the my family use it. But ... any time I've tried to IM one of them, I'd get no response. And one day when I IM'd, the relative abruptly signed off, signed back on, went invisible and then signed off again. Okay, I get it, thinks I. I must smell or something. OR IM'ing to say hi is just not copacetic. So now I don't send an IM--not that I'd get a chance to because when I sign myself on now, a few seconds later BAM! They're off. I don't get it, but I get it. I get it.

Here's a recent picture of Little T. This picture was taken to paste onto a craft that was to be a spring mushroom project. I haven't updated about him in a while--not because anything's wrong with him. In fact, things are very right with him. He's signing more and as his vocabulary increases, he' beginning to enunciate more clearly.



I guess I've been sticking to the cat blogging more for the same reason people used to go see musicals and comedies during the 1930s. I have to have some refuge from the depressing stuff plaguing us, including issues (or people) revolving around Tomas. Oh, I could go on and on and vent here about it all but I rather think people would be shocked and not know what to say. Or I could talk about the finances and TB's suffering...but everyone has problems.

Cat blogging is therapeutic.

Where was I? Oh yeah...here's one of my favorite memes!

Unconscious Mutterings

I say ... and you think ...

1. Chemical :: Romance


2. Poker :: Stud


3. Federal :: Reserve


4. Mattress :: air


5. Who am I? :: I am me


6. Investigation :: examination


7. In good hands :: with All State


8. 8:30 :: Lost is on in half hour


9. Creditors :: Vampires


10. Resource :: available to help

It seems I'm in a very weird mood at the moment. Guess I'll take a nap!

Lost 4.4 Eggtown

This wasn't my favorite episode because it centered around Kate. She is spunky and daring but I don't care too much for her character. Her backstory is that she is a fugitive from justice, murdering her father in cold blood and then committing other major crimes and felonies while on the run. Her father was an abusive man so I would have felt more sympathetic toward her if she'd acted in a fit a rage but she diddn't. She killed him to get insurance money for her mother.

Kate's flash forward dealt with her trial once she and the other members of the "Oceanic 6" were rescued. The only real interest I had in it was the big whopper Jack told on the stand (there were only eight survivors of the crash and two died; Kate rescued him and basically the other four as well) and the big twist at the end. Kate kept talking about her son and I thought she might have been pregnant with Sawyer's child ... but she is actually referring to Aaron, who is actually Claire's child.

So what happened to Claire? More about that in a minute...

My favorite character John Locke has now gone totally Lord of the Flies cuckoo. He's unsure of himself again and allows manipulative Ben to get under his skin which makes him meaner and more controlling than ever. He tells Kate (a visitor, not a member of the Locke camp) that she can't visit hostage Miles because this isn't a democracy.

Kate says so this is a dictatorship and Locke responds something like, "If I was a dictator, Kate, I would have shot (or was it killed?) you." Ooooh, scary!

When Kate goes against his wishes and visits Miles anyway--and even worse, brings Miles to visit Ben--John proves he's the decision maker by outright banishing her from the camp. And he goes to Miles and lectures him about breaking rules and needing to punish people for doing that. Here is Locke's punishment for Miles:



Yep, that's a grenade in Miles' mouth. I bet the poor guy is peeing in his pants trying to keep his jaws clamped down around the thing. Even though I believe it's not loaded, Locke has really gone over the top here. It's funny how the Lostaways are turning into The Others that scared and hurt them so much.

And before we decide Locke is an unspeakably cruel dictator, let's pause a minute and reflect that he did make a generous meal for everyone, strangling at least one chicken and getting blood all over his hands in order to prepare for this sumptuous banquet everyone would be summoned to at six.

Except for Hurley, the other members of the group don't seem to mind. They do laundry, enjoy the luxury of laundry and coffee klatches as Locke strangles chickens. One of the best lines of the episode belonged to Sawyer, referring to his fellow groupees: "Baaaaaa." Yes. Sheep.

That brings up a point about a post I saw on The Fuselage forum early on. People were really upset that Claire was laughing, playing with baby Aaron and seemed so happy and content. Didn't she miss Charlie, dead now only two days? Where's the grief? Where's the continuity? That hit me too and I think the writers did make a big goof not showing a more subdued Claire at least once or twice. It didn't bother me that she laughed as she played with Aaron, though, because having experienced the loss of my first husband I can tell you that it's very normal to be able to laugh and seem to be joyful two days after the death...especially if your kids are involved. I took my kids to see Shrek two days after my husband/their father died and I laughed and laughed--no one would have thought I was a recent widow. Also, there was no real closure for Claire yet. I saw Rich's body that morning. I saw him again at the viewings. I knew he was gone. But who knows? With Claire, part of her mind might be telling her that maybe Charlie is still alive. 'Nuff said about that.

Back to Locke, Miles and Kate: It was so all fired important to Miles that he get to speak to Ben and what did he want? To extort money! And so now he gets to hold a grenade in his mouth. Nice. And Kate and Sawyer broke up. Good--he is better off!

Back at the beach, two of the freighties are messing around with cards. One is Daniel the physicist and the other Charlotte the archaeologist. Daniel seems to be either trying to remember cards he's just seen or is trying to predict what they'll be before he turns them over. He is really dismayed by his performance and Charlotte keeps trying to reassure him. What's up with that? I don't think that Daniel is drain bamaged ;) and so I think this is another one of those time/space experiments that is freaking him out.

And then we find out that the helicopter carrying Sayid and Desmond and the pilot never arrived back at the freighter. Uh oh. Did it go where the rocket went before finally arriving on the island?

That was such a big shock about Aaron! Claire's back story was that she and her boyfriend got pregnant and then he walked out on her. She didn't want to keep the baby and went on a lark to see a psychic who reacted rather strongly to her. He warned her that the baby was surrounded by evil and misery and that she had to raise the child herself. She must not let her child be raised by "another" or "an other". That seemed a real possibility that first season as The Others were actively kidnapping children.

Yet, when Claire insisted on giving up her baby the psychic arranged for her to go to California and let a couple adopt the child. It would be safer there for some reason. So did he foresee that Claire would be in the crash and be forced to raise her baby? Or did he just believe Aaron shouldn't be raised in Australia?

And why isn't Claire with her baby? After he was born, she developed a strong bond with him. I cannot imagine that she would willingly give him up for any reason whatsoever. My feeling is that either Aaron was taken by force (and by whom?) and Claire imprisoned somewhere or ... she is dead.

Lost always leaves me with more questions but that's just fine with me!

The excellent recaps are beginning to come in at Dark UFO. These reviewers are great and analyze hundreds of details that I totally miss the first time I view the episode. Thank God for rewinds and the repeat enhanced episode ABC provides the following week!

I took another which Lost character quiz and this time I'm Desmond! Good--he is my new favorite!

Which Lost Character Are You?

More on Lost. Created by BuddyTV

What's New, aka Why I Love Cat Blogging (TT#8)

Thirteen Things about What's New With Us 1. TB had his second epidural yesterday and while it went off without complications, he feels worse today than he did before the shot. We've heard this is normal and that he might feel this increased misery for two days. The doctor injected 1/3 more steroid than he did before hoping to make the shot work. The downside is that TB has to watch his sugar level as steroids wreak havoc on them. 2. The doctor also had TB schedule an EMG (this is a nerve test) so that he could identify the exact nerve being pinched. An EMG can be very uncomfortable and painful. I had one for my hand. Not fun. 3. Linda was supposed to get a new used car from a Ford dealership, signed the paperwork and overnight they changed their minds, refunded her money and said we can't help you. I don't know what happened there but then she went to another place, a buy here pay here, and picked out what seemed to be a nice Mercury Sable. When she drove it home, though, it rocked in park. It went to keep going. The following day, the engine light came on and the car continued to try and drive in park. She's having the car looked at now and trying to get her money back...good luck! :P 4. My doctor has been adjusting my meds and so my moods have been up and down like a see saw. Cymbalta does a better job treating my arthritis and fibromyalgia pain than I gave it credit for because I could barely move for a couple of days. I'm taking my usual amount of Cymbalta again as a result. 5. It seems our Little T has developmental speech apraxia and right now the goal is to teach him sign language. That may be his primary mode of communication although getting him additional speech therapy would help. We're looking into that 6. Bill collectors are beginning to call us now instead of our infamously financially delayed family member who shall go nameless in this post :P. We tell them TB has been on disability since September and that the state has been careless about getting checks to us in a timely manner. Meanwhile, the amount is 1/3 of what he used to make. 7. My mom is still having major problems with her computer and unfortunately, I can't diagnosis the trouble over the phone...but we have so much going on here, we can't get down there either 8. My brother applied for a better job that we're praying he gets although it'll probably mean a major move for him 9. Kristin got a job at Six Flags Great Adventure *is this necessarily a good thing? I'm not sure...) and is busy trying to save up money so she can go to a dude ranch with her friend's family in May 10. Heidi still seems to have no insurance :( 11. Tomas spontaneously asked for milk the other day. Normally I'd ask him, "Are you thirsty?" or "are you hungry?" and he'd shake his head 'no' or say "yeh!" But this time, he turned to me and signed "milk" and then headed to the refrigerator. Communication breakthrough! YAY! And he always looks so happy when he makes himself understood. So this is a very good piece of news 12. Last Thursday, TB and I were sitting down to watch Lost and Sox jumped up on the couch with us. TB was snacking on jalapeno Doritos which are very spicy and Sox took a chip out of his hand and crunched it down! If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I wouldn't have believed it! We knew he should not eat such spicy stuff so TB quickly shut his bag. That did not stop Sox. I had sour cream and onion chips and was still sitting with one in my hand, frozen with disbelief and laughter, and the little kitty took it right out of my fingers and chomped it down too! There are NO chips for anyone tonight! I wish I'd had my camera out! 13. Cubby has been making more and more appearances, staying out longer and coming over to say hello. I've actually gotten a chance to pet him several times for a few moments each before he'd dart back under the bed or into the closet. He's really coming around! Now, if you read the first 10 on my last and then the last 3 you'll understand why I love cat blogging (and grandson blogging) best. Cat blogging is fun and takes my mind off our troubles. Happy TT!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants


thursday thirteen

Lost: The Economist Episode 4.3

I'd been putting off writing my thoughts about the episode because I really didn't like it that much. There were a couple of things that I thought was really really cool:

Daniel, the physicist, conducted an experiment. He had Regina on the freighter fire a rocket toward a contraption he'd set up. When the rocket failed to appear as expected, Daniel was very dismayed and alarmed. I wasn't too surprised because there have been tons and tons of hints that the island is in a totally different time zone if not even a totally different universe. Two examples jump into my head: Desmond's time travelling episode, in which he meets very spooky time traveller Mrs. Hawking who warns him he has to act out the same scenario as he did before or else we're all gonna die.

And the other was kind of charming. Hurley and Sayid are sitting on the beach and they've gotten a radio to work. All of a sudden it picks up the strains of Glenn Miller's "Moonlight Serenade". Sayid remarks something to the effect that they don't know how far away the signal is and Hurley says (in jest?) "Or from what time." And when Sayid gives him this "What!" look, Hurley says "Just kidding, dude."

Or maybe that was Glenn Miller, live, performing somewhere, sometime before his plane went down during World War II.

Why I didn't like the episode:

1. Locke is acting just like the nickname Sawyer gave him, Colonel Kurtz. If not the looney colonel, then he's acting like one of the savage boys from Lord of the Flies. He's losing it and as he's losing it, he's becoming meaner and trying to control everyone. He threatened Hurley, who objected to the idea of taking one of the freighties hostage. Since when do our guys take hostages? That's something The Others do, dude, just like at the end of the second season when Ben & his gang took Jack, Sawyer, Hurley and Kate.

2. Hurley conspired with Locke to trick Sayid and Kate! You don't do that to your friends, especially not when the group you're with are taking hostages and threatening to kill people (like Ben)! Hurley, Hurley, you were so sweet the first couple of seasons.

3. That whole flash forward sequence with Sayid. I love his character and I have enjoyed all his episodes up to now. I just didn't like seeing him living the high life, playing golf and assassinating people cold bloodedly. I really enjoyed the episode last season with the cat, which reminded him of a woman he tortured so brutally and yet she still forgave him. It was a powerful episode and so I was annoyed to see him just shooting people--whether he was forced to or not.

Other fans have written in-depth analyses of the episode and have come up with some very fascinating ideas. The one I love best is the one that says the flash forward occurred out of sequence. It started with Sayid on the golf course and some guy comes up and advises him to use a certain club to make the shot. The make a bet, Sayid loses, and as they talk, Sayid reveals his identity. It's very obvious the other man is totally unnerved, scared and tries to get away but Sayid kills him and nonchalantly strolls away.

Later on, he makes contact with a woman who works for his target, "The Economist". He's supposed to make contact and get close to her to weasel out the identity of "The Economist". Meanwhile, she's also trying to figure out who he is working for. Some of it started to remind me of The Sting. In it, Johnny Hooker is being pursued by a hitman and takes up with a waitress from some dive...well, it turns out in a twist that she is the assassin. I had a feeling about this lady friend of Sayid's and sure enough, she pulls out a gun and shoots Sayid when she realizes he's not going to tell who he works for. Sayid kills her, no surprise, but I found it depressing.

Here's the cool part of it that another fan wrote about: The rocket in Daniel's experiment finally arrived 31 minutes after it was shot off from the freighter. Where did it go for that amount of time? In the original script, "The Economist" placed a call to his female employee about a half hour early. And in the episode itself, apparently 31 minutes into it Sayid is telling the woman he's looking for/going to kill The Economist. Well, if you rewind 31 minutes you're at the golf course at the beginning. Whoa! Could it be?

I thought of one more thing I really really liked: the end of the episode. Sayid is actually working for Ben. Who saw that coming?

For some really great reviews, click here and look for the recaps.

Lost 4.2: Confirmed Dead

Most people liked this episode of Lost better than the premiere last week. I'm one of the exceptions, I guess, mostly because I love the Hurley character and the story focused on him. This week, we got to "meet" the four freighter people. Are they good--or are they bad? The one thing we know for sure is that their primary mission was not the rescue of the castaways.

This episode had flashbacks rather than flash forwards. It makes sense to me because we'd never met these characters before and we needed to have some background information. All of the flashbacks take place just before they are sent on their recovery mission.

First off there is a physicist, Daniel Farraday, who seems to be a very nervous, eccentric type who doesn't want to be limited by job classification. When we first see him, he's in front of the TV watching news footage of the discovery of Oceanic flight 815's wreckage at the bottom of the sea. He's weeping...and he doesn't know why. He is the first person out of the "rescue" helicopter--he's shoved out, actually, and the first one discovered by the castaways--Jack and Kate specifically.

Jack notices right off that Daniel's carrying a gun and that he seems very nervous and evasive. Jack is further dismayed when they come across a box thrown from the helicopter and there's a gas mask in it. "What's this for?" he asks Farraday who hems and haws and finally says, "I'm not in charge of packing." Uh-huh--and Jack is definitely getting bad vibes from this "rescue".

TB recognized Farraday's last name. Michael Farraday is or was a physicist, too, and invented the Farraday cage. The Farraday cage is used to block electronic signals. I understand enough of that concept to realize that it could refer to the protective shield around The Island.

As Farraday was hedging about the real mission of the freighter, his satellite phone picks up a signal from another of the helicopter crew, Miles Sturm (sp?).

Miles, it turns out, is a ghost whisperer, pretty anti-social, and a thief. His back story showed him going to an older woman's house to help her with a haunting spirit--that of her grandson, a drug dealer murdered and still hanging around. Why? Grandma has to hand over $200 to find out and to have Miles help her grandson cross over. He's got a machine that looks like it's right out of Ghost Busters and he does communicate with the murdered young man--and finds the kid's drug stash and a big wad of cash. He pockets the cash but puts the drugs back in the wall. He "generously" refunds Grandma half her fee but doesn't bother to mention that there was drugs and money hidden in the boy's room.

It crossed my mind that having a ghost whisperer would have lots of advantages for whoever is funding the mission. If it's Dharma, this guy could communicate with the murdered souls of the original community--obliterated by Ben and the other Native Others. He also could probably communicate with the mysterious Jacob as well as any of the remaining castaways who've died since the crash. When Jack, Kate and Farraday come upon him, however, the only thing he is interested in is Naomi's body. Until he's able to communicate with her spirit, he still believes she was murdered by Jack and his group.

Meanwhile, Locke and his merry band are off on their trek to safety. First Locke wants to detour to Jacob's cabin. Hurley slips up and says, "isn't it that way?" or something to that effect. Both Ben and Locke give Hurley this look, one of dismay or shock or something--so Hurley also knows about Jacob and the cabin? They exchange looks after Hurley fumbles and finally says oh, I thought you meant the airplane cabin.

Then we're introduced to Charlotte S. Lewis (C.S. Lewis allusion!), a very enthusiastic archeaologist who bribes her way into a dig (in Tunisia) and is most delighted to discover the skeleton of a polar bear (in Africa, in a desert!) and a Dharma collar. Aha, now how did that happen? Parallel or time travel? And was she there? She knew to look for the collar!

Charlotte's chute lands her in a tree high over a lake or other body of water. She cuts herself free, falls into the water and surfaces. She is totally happy to be where she is and then looks up to see Locke and his group staring at her. When she tells them she risked her life to save them, she's really shocked and offended when Locke replies that they don't want to be found. Further, they take her sat phone, tie it to Vincent the dog's collar, and sends him off in another direction. She is now their hostage of sorts.

Ben's been making a general pain in the ass of himself. Apparently he enjoys getting beaten because he's provoked several people now into using him as a punching bag both last season and now. Suddenly, he makes a move and grabs a gun from someone and shoots Charlotte. At first everyone thinks she's dead but then we realize she's wearing a bullet proof vest. Lucky Charlotte...I sort of suspect, though, that the vest is a ruse and maybe she has some real power she's not telling us about yet.

The last freighter character we're introduced to is Frank Lapidus, the helicopter pilot. When we first meet him, he's on an island in the Bahamas watching footage of the 815 wreckage. There's no way that a bloated body would be shown the way it was, TV just doesn't do that. I get it though that Lapidus needed to see the pilot's hands in order to dramatically call and announce that the body isn't that of the pilot. The real Seth Norris would have been wearing his wedding ring, no doubt about it, Lapidus swears. The other surprise is that it turns out Lapidus should have been piloting the plane that day and that he knew the manifest name by name. Hmmm.

This capture came from DarkUFO. It's a capture from the pilot episode of Lost, way back when, and you see the hands of the pilot as he hands the transceiver to Jack. He's most definitely wearing a ring. So if the body isn't Norris' then whose is it and why the cover up? Why wasn't Lapidus flying the plane that day?


Lapidus landed the helicopter safely and yet somehow he is hurt and wandering around. He's unconscious when Miles, Farraday, Jack, Sayid, Juliet and Kate find him. Sayid and Juliet joined the group soon after they found Miles and it's a good thing because they brought guns and disarmed the two freighter guys. Juliet treats the cut on Lapidus' head and gives him her name...and he realizes right off she was not on the plane. Miles becomes very excited and shows her Ben's picture--that's who they are really after, that was the primary mission--get Ben.

Why? The more I think about it, the more I think the freighter people were sent by pissed off Dharma-ites who might realize what Ben did to their people.

Meanwhile, back at Locke's group, Ben is about to be executed by several (Sawyer, Locke) who have become totally fed up with his shenanigans...except Ben saves himself by revealing he has a spy on the ship! To prove it, he provides almost all of Charlotte's life history.

And so it ended on that note, way too soon again.

Who could the spy be? Could it be Michael? At the end of season 2, Ben gave betrayer Michael a set of coordinates to follow. Could it have been to the freighter? Maybe it was all prearranged, more that Michael had to do for Ben in order to free himself and his son from the island. Maybe that's too obvious, though. Maybe the spy is someone else.

There's more analysis of the episode on Dark's website as well as a lot of very informative points those viewers noticed that I probably didn't. Click
here and scroll down to find the recaps. They're very insightful and informative!

Lost Again!

I am so thrilled to have my favorite series back on the air! The other good news is that the writers' strike may be coming to an end...could it mean we'll get a full season of Lost after all?

Other people have reviewed Season Four's opener, "The Beginning of the End" and probably are more observant and eloquent than me but I just have to say what I've been thinking about. I have to admit I did read some of the spoilers and so I knew the very first thing we'd see is not an eye (as happened the first three seasons) but a pile of fruit. It seemed like someone had been collecting food on the island and had left it all behind when the survivors of the plane crash had to hurriedly decamp but then...crash! A car jumps through the fruit scattering it everywhere and we realize that this is the future.

Who is in the car? Of all people--it's Hurley! Why was he driving like a maniac and why did he get himself involved in a police chase? It turns out that he is one of "The Oceanic Six" (and we know from the finale last season that two of the other six are Jack and Kate) and has been having troubling visions since getting off the island. He is so frightened of them (although usually all he has to do to make them go away is close his eyes and count to five) that he allows the cop who interviews him (coincidentally the ex-partner of one of the plane passengers) to have him admitted into a mental hospital.

If Hurley thought hiding in a mental hospital was going to save him, he was very wrong. First a very scary, cadaverous looking giant of a man named Matthew Abbaddon (sp?) shows up posing as an airline lawyer and promising to put Hurley in a luxurious mental hospital. When Hurley declines, the man goes cold and angry looking and says in an ominious voice, "Are they still alive?" Something even more ominous: this guy's last name also means hell, death, or something equally awful. Something else even more ominous: after he asked the question, Hurley began screaming and the guy vanished. I could see the door open but I didn't see anyone go through the door. Now, maybe we see the door a split second after Abbaddon ran through it but why do I suspect he might be Smokey?

And then Charlie shows up. Charlie was always one of my favorite characters who performed one of the noblest acts of courage one can do for anyone--he sacrificed his life to save the survivors he loved and cared about, particularly Claire and baby Aaron. Charlie appeared to Hurley just before the car chase, standing in a Ho Hos display. Then, in the interrogation room, Charlie swam up to the glass window and put his palm up. Instead of "Not Penny's Boat" his message to Hurley was "They need you."

And now he strolls up to Hurley, telling him not to run away even though Hurley is protesting and trying to close his eyes to bring back reality. Once Hurley realizes that Charlie is dead but also here, they have a conversation. This picture is so cool. The gist of the conversation is that leaving the island was a mistake and Hurley needs to go back there.



Jack comes to visit Hurley--he said it was to see how things are going, but I'm sure Jack wanted to make sure Hurley wasn't going to talk. The Ocean Six apparently are covering up or lying about something and Jack wanted to know if Hurley was going to "tell". Hurley says it was a mistake for them to leave; "it" wants them back. I'm not sure which "it" Hurley is talking about but I suspect he means The Island. I think Charlie represents The Island, too. At this point, Jack hasn't hit rock bottom, hasn't begun using oxycontin and hasn't begun to believe that they made a mistake. He's clearly upset with what Hurley says and leaves abruptly--but there seemed to be something else there in the gym. TB says as Jack came in or went out one door "something" came in or went out the other. Smokey?

That was the flash forward. The castaways are still on the island and rescue from "Not Penny's Boat" is still under way. They split into two groups--those who believe that the rescuers actually represent danger and those that want to be saved. Hurley first goes with Locke's group--the one that wants to stay and hide. On the other hand, Desmond (who was with Charlie when he died and left the warning message on his palm) stays with Jack. Why? I'm thinking he wants to get back with Penny so bad he'll get on anything to get off the island.

Kate stays with Jack--why, I'm not sure. Once she leaves the island she'll have to go back to jail or go up on charges or something. Sawyer wants to keep surviving and so he splits with Kate and joins Locke's group. Ben, the manipulative leader of the Others, politely requests permission to go with Locke and Jack grants it. Now, Ben tried to kill Locke by shooting him so he must really be afraid of the rescuers to want to go with someone who probably would like to kill him back.

As always, the show ended much too soon and I just want more, more, more--but I've got to wait until Thursday.

There are other better written reviews of the episode at Dark UFO and also at Abel's Blog. And if you're really into the show like I am, be sure to check out the ho ho ho and "it's all about the ho-hos" theories!

A Very Eventful Day!

Our Little T is four years old. Happy birthday, Sweet Pea! TB and I went to his class party and all the kids had a great time. We took lots of pictures and had our movie camera with us and will probably upload more this weekend.

TB also had laser eye surgery on his left eye and it went very well! Technology is wonderful--you'd never know he had surgery at all!

And last night's episode of Lost still had us talking about it all day!

My Lost Quizzes

What is Your Fate on Lost?

Created by BuddyTV

Which Lost Character Are You?

Created by BuddyTV

What I Am Thinking At 6:30 P.M. TT#130

Thursday Thirteen:

1. Only 90 more minutes until Lost! I'm doing the happy/chicken dance!

2. Where are you, pizza guy? We're hungry!

3. I love playing with my cats, it's so relaxing!

4. What goes around, comes around. In other words, whatever you sow you're eventually going to reap...if not today and not tomorrow, someday. In more other words, instant karma will eventually get you.



5. "Honesty is such a such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue." Not every one. But some I have in mind right this moment that I won't name.

6. Like daughter, like mother? I have bipolar, too. And I am sure either my mother or father or both are--just not diagnosed.

7. Why does it seem like nurse practitioners have more on the ball than doctors?

8. How many blogs can I visit between the time I finish eating and the time Lost starts?

9. Tomas, you are a big ray of sunshine in your nana's life!

10. So are the grandkids in TN...miss them.

11. Is winter done, please? It's going into the forties.

12. I can't believe Little T is going to be 4 years old tomorrow!

13. Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost, Lost...

Thirteen Things about YOUR NAME 1.... Start your list here!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants