Survivor Gabon-Greatest Coup of the Season

I was hoping that the tribes would split one more time. Poor Fang being the underdogs this entire time. Both tribes think the feast signals a merge. Kenny spies a note under a pot but reacts too slowly as Charlie grabs the note and says that there is an hidden immunity idol and reads the clue. Everyone is afraid to react because as Kenny says, it's like accepting the apple in the Garden of Eden. If you take it you're doomed. Randy reads the clue and uncovers the idol in about 10 seconds. It is offered up like a sacrificial lamb, but no one bites. Marcus and Randy agree that it should be sealed in a bottle and tossed out to sea and with that fling of the arm the idol is set free, while everyone deep down inside was silently screaming, I want it, I want it!Then Jeff announces that the tribes will be split once more, with two new tribes of Kota being Randy, Matty, Sugar, Corinne and Charlie and Fang comprised of Kenny, Crystal, Marcus, Professor Bob and Susie. The real challenge here is how can the Fang survive the odds of 2 against 3 on each of the new tribes? The immunity challenge was how long can one keep their arms up to hold sticks. Crystal once again proves that she is such a weakling. She held it for one second and she's supposed to be some Olympic talent? Everyone pretty much loses it quickly and it's down to Matty and Bob. For an old guy, Bob has gumption. It was pretty gripping to see who would let go first and you could so feel their pain. Matty, whose pole was just inches away from being knocked off, was hooting and acting all deranged, while Bob suffered in silence. Both men's arms were shaking but Bob's post finally fell off and Matty won it for Kota. Back at Fang camp, the discussion is who is going to get voted off as Marcus finds out that Crystal is a cousin to one of his best friends and they both make a promise not to write each other's name down. Crystal however tells us, the viewing audience, that it's all just game playing so we know she's not keeping her word. Marcus think he has this game all sewn up and tells everyone that it's Kenny that will be going, but he forgot one important thing, that Susie is the swing vote and hasn't he been lobbying to get her out, isn't she Kota's target? When Marcus tells Crystal that Kenny is out, she gets into action and acts like the mother lion to protect one of her own. Crystal tells Susie that she doesn't have a chance if she sides with Marcus, who promised her the final three spot. Crystal says how can that be, since it will be Marcus, Charlie and Corinne at the final three. Drama and suspense surrounded whether Susie would be the sheep or the ram at the tribal council. Crystal and Susie pull off the greatest coup in this season so far by dramatically blindsiding the strongest player this season, Marcus. Wow, that was so good. Marcus failed to see that Susie was his Achilles heel and if he would have been smart, he would have lobbied to get Susie out and have Kenny and Crystal vote his way, but instead he chose to go against Crystal and in the end didn't see it coming. Satisfying TV at it's best, can't wait to see Kota's jaw drop when they see that Marcus was vote off!-Single D It was feast time with a twist, an immunity idol that everyone wanted but no one claimed so it was sacrificed to the ocean. I'm waiting for it to wash up on shore and someone finding it! After the split it was like old home week when Marcus finds out Crystal is the cousin of his best friend. How can you vote out family? Susie, feeling like the superior swing vote, tells Marcus that she could go either way at tribal but letting him she needs to be in the final three. Good luck with that Susie! She pretty much said she would flip which would make anyone want to vote her out. The challenge is balancing poles on the backs of their hands. I figured Crystal would be a shoe in for this one but before I could finish the comment, out she went. Weak as water! What was her Olympic event? A staring contest? It comes down between Matty and Bob. I was cheering for Matty until he got cocky and started laughing at Bob. Never count out the old dude! Matty came to his senses with a little prodding from Jeff and he out lasted Bob for immunity. Back at camp, Susie is so confident that Marcus will take her to the final three that she really doesn't listen to Crystal. At tribal, Ken lets loose his frustration at Marcus which doesn't help to keep him off the block but he gets saved when Marcus is sent packing. Double D

Top Design-Finale

I've been having the darnest time trying to adjust to the weather change and the time change. Yes kids, we really do have a weather change in Las Vegas. I have lived here several years and the weather immediately turns from summer into winter on Halloween night or the day after. It's really a dramatic and noticeable change. And with the time change, my sleep cycle is completely thrown off. So last night I tried to watch the Top Design finale, between bouts of eyes wide shut and eyes wide open. Top Design brought back recently booted, Andrea, who said that she shouldn't have made the choice to leave because she felt like she could have designed a whole house, well duh, you didn't give yourself a chance. Eddie, whose forced smile and unlikely pairing with his never to be my friend, Preston, was the last partner he wanted to be paired with. I wanted to slap that silly, frozen smile off Eddie's face. And Natalie. She's so bland, I almost forgot who she was. So between designing their houses and the end result, I had my eyes wide shut. I woke up just in time to see the finish products. I wasn't crazy about Ondine's 50's style house. The couches were pink, small and uncomfortable. Who watches TV on couches like that? But one of my favorite, I wish I could do that in my house item, was the square cut mirror headboard that she designed. I would love to do that in my living room. I think over all, my favorite was Preston's as a complete house. That was a house I could live in, especially the office with it's beautiful detailed moulding and the master bedroom with that heavenly canopy. Sweet dreams! I thought the dining room was elegant and tasteful. All the while, Adler while going through both Ondine's and Preston's, had that look of tasting sour milk. You could so tell that Adler's favorite designer was Nathan. I guess Adler likes rooms that can't be lived in. The dining room table was fit for breakfast only, one could never do dinner on a small square table like that and that paper plate light fixture looked like a fire hazard to me. I did like the painting, so simple-take a blank canvas and drip different streaks of paint, let dry and hang. Something DaVinci could copy. How simple is that? I think I might have to try that. Overall in the end, design outweighed function as they crowned stalker eye Nathan and give him the 100,000 grand. Hey Nathan, you looked much better when you had hair, less stalkerish and more artist designerish.-Single D

Ghost Hunters - Catch up

Since I have been on hiatus, I have a few sites to catch you all up on. So with no further ado...... Oak Alley Plantation, Wacherie LA. Used in the movie "Interview with a Vampire" (Brat Pitt was SO yummy!) the plantation was built in 1831 by slave labor. A lady in black is assumed to be Celina, the owner of the plantation, objects moving and empty chairs rocking are some of the reported activity. J&G get a hit on the thermal cam on the 2nd floor. As J&G are in Celina's room encouraging her to talk to them or sit on the bed to make the depression so many people have seen, Grant sees a shadow by the bed then sees something looking in the window. Grant dashes to the balcony but no one is there. Barry and Joe check out the driveway and see "one of those armadillo things" as Barry says. Obviously they don't have those in Ireland. Kris W. & Kris G. go to the attic and find a rack of clothes. Kris G thinks this is really cool and decides to look through the clothes. She gets about 1/4 of the way through the rack and both girls get a good scare when a HUGE cockroach disappears down the collar of one of the dresses. EEEEWWW! J&G return to Celina's room and try to provoke her into responding to them. Jason feels a cold spot so Grant asks her to light the flashlight as Jason demonstrates how to light it. As they talk to her, the flashlight lights up! Jason goes over to the flashlight and finds the light as well as the area around it extremely cold. The team show the findings to the plantation manager who was excited with the findings. Jason says he would like to come back to determine who is in the house. He says there is some nifty stuff going on but won't say it's haunted. Theodores in Springfield, MA is the oldest pool hall in North America and where TAPS tech manager, Steve, hangs out and plays in a band. A lot of people have reported hearing voices as well as the sounds of pool being played when no one is in the pool room. Full body apparitions, especially one of a small boy, are also seen. For whatever reason, there is a full human skeleton stored at Theodores. Don't know why that is, just thought I would let you know. J&G start out in the billiard room and see shadows moving around, hear footsteps and something kept moving the scoring beads. Kris W & Kris G go to the 5th floor where Kris W starts to provoke the spirits. There is something about a petite girl with a high voice that just doesn't inspire fear. Just kidding Kris, glad you are on the show! Kris G joins in the provocation and gets a cold breeze on her arm. Steve & Tango go the basement and have a discussion about the word prior. These two have become the comedy relief of TAPS. While reviewing the tapes, there is a figure on the thermal cam. A voice is caught on tape saying "welcome to Theodores". At least it's a nice spirit! Leominster, MA, the LeBlanc house. The house is a Victorian mansion that has been turned into 2 apartments. I wan't able to find any pictures since this is a private residence. Oh well! Reports here are of an apparition in the basement, another apparition of a child, knocking sounds and pans rattling in the kitchen. Also the 2nd floor seems to have a lot kids (who aren't there) running around and laughing. At least they are having a good time!

The kitchen has high EMF readings which explains the creepy feelings everyone has there. Steve gets a voice on tape responding to him asking if a door was open or closed, the voice says open. The thermal camera shows something moving in one of the bedrooms and audio tape caught what sounds like someone coughing and wheezing in the basement. During the time of the coughing & wheezing, it was discovered that the basement had once caught fire. Is it haunted? J&G still say that there isn't enough evidence to say that but, there is certainly something going on. Double D

Amazing Race-Hot and Sweaty in India

Leaving beautiful Cambodia first are Nick and Starr at 11:22 pm, followed by Toni and Dallas just 10 minutes behind with the Frat boys leaving last. All boarded the same flight to Delhi, India, which as always promises to be a bag of mix confusion. A budding romance is occurring between Starr and Dallas. At least she doesn't think he looks like teen wolf. First at the road block to paint one of the local tut tut taxis green, are Nick and Starr. How are they always the first ones off the plane? Joining them surprisingly are frat boys, Dan and Andrew, with all the other teams lost in India somewhere. The driving looks totally confusing, with cars, taxis and cows sharing the road equally. Tina and Ken are having an especially hard time with their cab driver trying to find Moonlight Motors, but Tina insist she knows the way. Sometime later they are still lost in India. Finally all teams arrive to the road block to join in the painting. Tina trying to make up some lost time is bossing poor Ken on how to tape and paint. Which is exactly what Terence is doing to poor Sarah. I think Tina and Terence should hook up with Ken and Sarah pairing off, then Tina and Terence can really duke it out, they're both such A-type personalities. I thought Sarah should have spray painted Terence's face for pestering her. Hey, doesn't she remind you of another currently famous Sarah? The detour is to either launder money or launder clothes. Humm, that was a hard one to choose. Ironing clothes seems like cake but it really was the more daunting of task. Teams had to iron 20 pieces of clothing. Not too hard right? First off, was this the Indian version of a public Laundromat? I guess they've never heard of washing machines and dryers. There were guys manually slapping clothes on stone just like in biblical times and where the women were ironing dried (probably sun dried) clothes. The irons were something from the 1800's, some kind of heavy hot charcoal heated thing. I had to crack up how Nick and Starr were just so prepared by bringing their own gloves. Who knew? The other teams are like where did you get your gloves? Starr's like their ours, yep we're that good! And what was Andrew frat boy ironing? It looked like some grandma panties as he complains that he can't iron these. The Frat boys are having a real difficult time of it. Hey, it's just ironing! They make it seem like it's the most difficult thing in the world and when a big gust of wind blew all their hard ironing on the ground even the spectators had a good laugh. The only teams to chose launder money were Ken and Tina and Sarah and Terence. See those two teams really are on the same wave length. Here the teams had to fashion an Indian version of a money lei out of rupees and give it to the groom. What a mob scene, hope no one yells fire! That definitely was the easier task, the only thing hard was trying to find someone to make a money exchange. Both teams after finishing the leis are trying to find the groom. Now wouldn't you think it would be someone in ceremonial garb possibly at some special table? Tina kept asking everyone in the mob if he were the groom. Finally, when Tina and Ken finished their task, Tina was like oh our taxi guy waited, bless his heart. I would have been like, get lost taxi man since he didn't have the slightest clue where anything was. The unfortunate taxi rides cost Ken and Tina their last place finish with Nick and Starr one again placing first, Kelly and Christy second and Mom and Dallas third. Fortunately for Ken (quit your weeping and tell Tina where to get off) and Tina this was really a non elimination round and will suffer a speed bump on the next leg of the race which means they will not be able to make any mistakes or be on the next plane home.-Single D

Ghost Adventures

So I come across this new show called Ghost Adventures and of course I'm going to check it out. As long as it's not Most Haunted with that so called psychic and his imaginary friend (he says it's a spirit guide) partnered with a "jump at anything" woman, I'll watch.

We have Zak, Nick and camera man Aaron who go to a site and get locked in for the duration of their investigation. The first episode I watched, it looked to me that Zak is either suffering from roid rage or he's had so much Starbucks that he is afraid of his own shadow. After Zak screams and runs from a number of things, he yells at Nick not to run when he ran from the men's room after hearing a loud bang. Obviously the lock down thing doesn't work when all parties get so spooked that they jump from a second story window.

I watched a few more episodes, in fragments I'm afraid because I was out of town and doing other things, and with each episode, Zak had more equipment but seemed just as jumpy. I'll check out the show again when I can really pay attention and give a better report. In the meantime, happy haunting! Double D