The Bachelor-Jason Single Dad

Stephanie is the lucky bachelorette that gets the single date with Jason, much to Megan's grumbling that she left her kid at home. Well, like duh, you signed up for this! Stephanie tells the camera that today is her daughter Sophia's fourth birthday. Jason takes her to the beach where much to her shocking surprise Sophia coming running out. It really was such a touching scene, it almost brought tears to my eyes, almost. But I did see Jason tear up, maybe he was missing his Ty. Off they go to Legoland, where they have the entire park to themselves. WOW-my daughter says that would be neat, but lonely which I understood. Miss "you're hair is pulled to tight" is growing on me. I really wish she would let her hair down so her face won't look like she just got out of the plastic surgeon's office. I thought it was really cute when Jason gave her a lego rose and asked her to stay even though Legoland is not the most romantic of places to be. Stephanie had such a good time, I would have hated to see her go after she proclaims it to be the best day of her life. For the group date, Jason takes the group to a shop where they get to make a cast bust of themselves for Breast Cancer Awareness fundraiser. Great idea, here Jason really gets to see what kind of shape the girls are in. First Jason strips down to his bare chest and has to put baby oil on his chest so the paper machie doesn't stick. Erica and Melissa jump right in to help slather that stuff all over his chest. Close your mouths girls! Next it's the girls turn to undress behind a screen which shows their shapes. Hey this is family TV! Shannon was so funny when she said that on her first date with Jason, he saw her naked and touched her breast, well, he helped put on the paper machie on her chest. Megan tells Jason that she's always doing some sort of charity work and that it's been so unusual for a week to go by when someone isn't thanking her for something she's done and saying how great she is. Oh my god, it just screamed look at me, look how great I am, I'm so wonderful! Yuck someone get me a puke bucket! If Jason falls for that crap then he's a real dunce cap. Next Nikki is showing her insecure side by not being able to have a normal conversation. Here we find out that she is some kind of control freak. She tells Jason that she always has a back up plan to the back up plan and that she has her toothbrush lined up with her toothpaste. OCD! Say it with me, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! Can you say "Sleeping with the Enemy?"

Back at the ranch, Natalie gets the note that says she's the lucky one to get the next single date. Much to the dismay of the girls, it's the "Pretty Woman" date, jewels and a private jet ride to Vegas Baby! Jason says that he's taking her out because he wants to see if he she's deeper than her love for shoes and jewelry, but in the end he tells her goodbye as he whips off the jewelry off of her neck. Of course Natalie gets mad and then spills the beans that the other girls are not in it for the right reasons.

Elimination night it was a duel of how low can your dress go, battle of the clevages. Jason is perplexed about which one of the girls Natalie was talking about, so he tells Lauren what Natalie said, so Lauren tells him that it's Megan and Erica who are the troublemakers of the house. So when it comes to elimination time, Chris Hanson tells the group that Jason wants to get to the bottom of it all so he asks the girls to come clean. There was an awkward deer caught in the headlight, cue the crickets moment. No one wanted to come clean so Lauren told the group that basically it was Megan and Erica that caused the most trouble in the house. Megan, in her see my breast dress, was appalled acting like, who me? I would never say anything like that to Jason. Well, Ms I'm so in love with myself was spared the ax this week as Jason sends, Kari (poor thing we hardly even knew her) and Erica home. I'm wondering why Jason put Lauren on the spot like that and called her out in front of the girls? Maybe it was the urging of the producers. Double D thinks they control more than we see. Shannon meanwhile shows that she can't play in the big girl rink because she doesn't have the stomach for backstabbing which probably says alot about her even tho she still has stalker tendencies.-Single D

Momma's Boys-Finale

A mix bag of treats for this last installment of Momma's Boys, which I must secretly admit, I enjoyed. It was drama times three and the score, momma 1, boys 2.

Poor Jojo, since his mother was too selfish to bring along another girl for Jojo, his last and final date was with his mother. Now didn't I say previously that this was a little to Oedipal? The producers really played it up with Jojo and his mother walking on the beach, para sailing, and watching the sunset. Poor Jojo, even he said this was all a little too disturbing. Rob's last date was with Esther's pick, Lauren. They fly to St. Croix which looked totally amazing and have a romantic secluded date in a beach cove. Gads, I want to vacation on St. Croix just so I can go to this cove. Rob tells the camera that maybe his mother was right in her choice for him although he admits to his mother later that the first and last person he thinks of is Camilla. Michael's last date is with Erica, Penthouse Pet of the Year. Their last date is on a private yacht. Now that's my kind of living. I was glued to the set waiting for Erica to spill about her "real" job. When she tells Michael, he looked really pissed and hurt. When she gets back to the hotel she tells Lorraine about her dubious past as well. Mother Lorraine has her practically married to Michael so when Erica told her about Penthouse, Lorraine was like, oh well, I love you and that is not going to change how I feel about you, even though she totally was dismissive about Megan who posed for Playboy, Penthouse's polite cousin. Michael is like to his mother, do you know what kind of spread Penthouse does? I think not!

For the final elimination, first up is Rob with his choice of either Lauren or Camilla. He tells us should he go for the practical or for the passionate. Ah come on Rob, practical is Tupperware, do you want to settle for Tupperware when you can have crystal, or in this case Camilla? In the end, it was Rob who turned out to be a big momma's boy and chose Lauren because of his mother which he instantly regretted. Camilla did have the smug satisfaction that she really was Rob's first choice and you could so totally tell Rob was heartbroken. Esther you oughta be ashamed! I must tell you the first time I met my husband's Jewish family, me being Asian and all, but that's another post.

Next it's Michael's turn to chose between Erica or Amanda. His mother was hoping for Erica, nude photos and all, but I think Michael thought, how can I pick someone every guy in America will rush out to buy the latest Penthouse? In the end, Michael made the wise choice of picking Amanda the pre-med, 3 language student. They make a cute couple.

And lastly, Jojo's turn, to chose between his mother or Mindy. When Jojo was speaking and just about to tell Mindy, that he can't break his mother's heart, Mindy interrupts and tells Jojo that she doesn't think she could be with Jojo even though she really cares for Jojo because his mother is way too difficult to deal with. Really, ya think? Just then Jojo gets his inner strength on and tells his mother to take a hike because he's choosing Mindy. Go Jojo, he finally did find balls!

Conclusion:

Rob leaves the island vacation early and alone without Lauren.

Erica's contract with Penthouse ends and she travels to Florida to visit Lorraine (still hoping maybe that Michael will change his mind).

And....the producers offer Mrs. B counseling which she declined. - Single D

Book Review-The Twilight Series

When the movie "Twilight" first came out, I had never heard of it, didn't know what it was about and didn't in the least care to read it or so I thought. My daughter had heard of it, but hadn't read it. I guess it hadn't become the sensation here as it had in other parts of the country. But as the movie's popularity grew so did my interest, especially after I had read the reviews that it was a movie about a teen vampire. Eventually the feverish pitch of the movie made it way into my daughter's psyche's need to see it. I told her that movies are always better when one has read the book first, as books are always so much better than the movie, well in most cases. I'll do anything to get her to read more, so I bought the book "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer, but told her I was going to read it first as I had to screen it to see if it was appropriate for an eleven year old. Of course, I was not overly concerned as most of the theater audience comprised of tweeny to teens. I must admit I was secretly eager to read this vampire novel as I love a good vampire story and especially with this take on a high school girl falling for a high school boy whose a vampire. Now why didn't I come up with that original plot? I loved Ann Rice's "Interview with the Vampire" which of course set the standard for all vampire novels to follow. I liked her "Lestat" but her other novels that followed in that vampire vein lost my attention. She just didn't know when to leave the classic story line alone. "Twilight" is no 'Interview with the Vampire" to say the least, but it does tell a very compelling story that I skipped through this 400 some pages within a weekend. I found the characters very real and of course imaging them made all the more possible with it's theatrical release. I could definitely see it as a movie, ah like ya! "Twilight" makes a good read and a gripping story but it's not going to win any literary prizes. It's filled with pretty vampires that are more human than supernatural, rather prefer to dine on forest creatures than human creatures, don't sleep in coffins, in fact don't sleep at all, and are more polite than your average teenagers. It's a straight forward, gotcha at the seat of your pants reading. I'm thinking it's such a hit with the teens because Edward, the teen vampire, is totally hot and Bella, the awkward clumsy, pretty girl he falls for is your average girl next door. It's a love story made in vampire teen heaven, which I'm sure millions of teen girls are turning pages to see if they eventually kiss, which is exactly what my daughter is looking for.

When I finished "Twilight", my daughter took the book to school, to show off that she too was reading it.

"Twilight" was so good, I picked up installment two "New Moon", hoping that the love story would continue into the sequel. I don't want to reveal the entire storyline, but I was disappointed that "New Moon" takes a totally different turn revealing even more cast of characters of equal menace like the vampires. Did you know that the werewolf were the vampire's mortal enemy? Here Bella hardly even sees Edward which is totally disappointing. This read could have been a totally different series of books in this sequel. Bella is making new friends and travels great distances, to Italy of all places, oh yeah, who knew there is a vampire coven in Italy? Speaking of Italy, another great book that has that sinister vibe and takes place in Venice is Daphne du Maurier's short story, "Don't Look Now", see the movie with Donald Sutherland and Julie Christi. Now back to "New Moon", the whole premise of book two seems somewhat outrageous and decadent. There is one horrific vampire scene which was reminiscent of Rice's Vampire Chronicles and left me with chills.

As I was disappointed with "New Moon", but I still want to finish out the series and am now in the middle of "Eclipse" which is proving slow and steady, no hasty intent on racing to the finish line although my daughter spilled the beans and said that the third book is when Bella gets bitten. Well, didn't we know that was coming anyway? I still have my hopes that "Eclipse" will get better with the increasing pages, but it is not quite the page turner that "Twilight" held over me. Parts of the story tends to meander and roam like filler of styrofoam in a package, you just want to get to the good parts. So stay tuned for my conclusion of "Eclipse" and my review of the last book in the series "Breaking Dawn" which I'm sure won't be Stephanie Meyer's last word on the whole subject, look at JK Rowling, didn't she spin out the Harry Potter series into seven or so books?-Single D