How debit cards work (or don't work)

My debit card is weird.

I accidentally washed it after I left it in my jeans once.  It went into the washer/dryer in perfect condition and came out looking pretty worn.  Oh well, no biggie.  I'll just get a new one, right?

Well, this happened in September.  I tried using my card at Wal*Mart and found out my debit card still worked.  So hey, maybe I don't need to get a new one after all.

About 99% of the time, my card works.  Except at the bank.

I was in Dallas for the State Fair when I tried (for the first time) to use an ATM machine at one of the branches.  It.would.not.work.  I must have made poor J stand there and wait for me for like 10 minutes before I gave up and walked away.  I kept standing there, swiping my card again and again... saying "one more, let me try one more time."  You know how that goes, right?  Guess what, the card finally worked on my very last attempt (my "for real" last attempt).  Whew!

Since then, I never had any problems with my card.  Until I needed to use my bank's ATM again to deposit some checks.  Then it wouldn't work at all.

So after about nearly 3 months of using my washed out card, I finally hauled butt into a branch to get a new one.  Yeah, I know - getting a replacement card online is as easy as 1-2-3, right?  Guess I'm just lazy.

Just thought I would tell the world that my card works funny...

Desserts, Friends - and oh, Christmas Too

Christmas was quiet for me this year.  Quiet is good.  Until I start to get bored.

But you didn't come here to hear about how bored I am, right?  You came here to find out about that pretty little cake I've been raving about this past week on Facebook!

Well - here's how it turned out....

See this adorable puppy?  Just looking at her makes you feel like you wanna squeeze her tight, scratch her ears and bathe in her wet licks, right?  Right!  Well, this adorable little ball of fur managed to ruin my cake. Go ahead and laugh.  There, don't you feel better now?  I know it felt good after I was able to laugh about it.

Thanks to my "lack of thinking ahead" as J would put it, Midnight (aka 12am) had a blast with my cake.  She brought a whole new meaning to "finger lickin' good"  After I had put the initial frosting on, I left the cake on the counter a bit too close to the edge and went upstairs to take a shower.

J came home while I was getting ready and casually asked me if my cake was done.  I was a bit preoccupied so I told him "yeah, sure, the frosting's done but I need to add something else on it."  He gave me a weird look so that got me thinking that he was the weird one.  Um yeah, the frosting's on, can't you see that?

I came downstairs, took one look at my cake and well - internally, I lost it.  12am had licked the frosting off half the cake!

As a result, I had to cut my cake in half and brought the good half to a friend's house.

At least we all got a laugh out of it....

I tried to salvage the cake the best I could and tried (and pitifully, might I add) to add trees on it like I saw in the picture.  I gave up, gave the frosting to J and told him "have fun with it."  He went ahead and randomly dropped green frosting on top of my cake.

Final outcome:  The cake looked funny, but at least I got the ornament part right.  And the cake was still delicious.  The homemade buttercream frosting was the best part.

How a 4 Year Old Thinks

I love my 4-year-old.  Even when he's being difficult.  I love him even more when he says insightful (and just plain cute) things.  He's funny when he tries to be grown up (although it wasn't funny at the time).

I was trying to sleep in yesterday.  I made my room dark so I could sleep in.  Yeah right, I should have known better.  When there's kids, you're not going to sleep in.  Period.  So while I was unsuccessfully trying to sleep in, my son jumps into bed with me.  He wakes me up and says "I'm hungry."  I tell him "Go ask Becki to get you some cereal" (ha yeah, I know - I should be doing it).  He gives me a stern look and says "But Mommy - it's morning.... see?" and points to the very little light that's coming in through the window.  "There's light so it's morning... and morning means you HAVE to wake up!"  I couldn't argue with that so I got up.

I've been using the counting system with Logan and it works 95% of the time.  One day he wanted some ice cream.  I told him no because he wouldn't eat dinner.  Guess what he said?  "I'm going to count to 5, you have to give me ice cream."  He got a spanking and hasn't tried to count with me again.

Retelling this story as interpreted by someone at church:

We were at drama rehearsal and the director was talking about a scene that will take place in a church (and pointed to the stage where the church will be built).  Logan turned to a hearing person at church and said "How can that be church?  This (pointing to our floor) is our church.  How can he take this whole church and put it in there?"  I got a good laugh.

The extinction of theme songs

While I was growing up I had a secret pleasure.  I thrived off TV theme songs.  I remember being proud of the fact that I could recite the whole theme song of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and I remember thinking I was all that because I could "rap".

Theme songs were the bread and butter of TV.  Theme songs does for TV that junk food does for your mouth.  You just can't help but go "wow."  You could watch your TV shows week after week and not ever get tired of the song that introduces the spectacle that you'd be watching for the next 30 minutes or an hour.  Now, when I watch TV, I can't help but feel incomplete.

Producers have done away with TV theme songs to make room for more ad time.  They have also shaved off a few minutes of each episode, but that's a whole 'nother thing to complain about.  What used to be one of the best things about TV has been reduced to about 10 seconds of perky music, or for most shows nowadays, nothing.  

The reason that theme songs were created was to make time for credits (after all, you DO have to credit people for their work, right?).  This also gave the viewers an added bonus of enjoyable TV moments.  I guess the reality of all this is that when it comes down to it - money matters.  In an effort to earn more  cash, they've lost sight of the thing that perhaps drew in and kept their viewers.  Maybe this is why ratings are lower?

I remember way back when the theme songs lasted for about a minute while images of the actors and their names flashed on the screen.  I remember way back when I laughed or smiled before the show even started.  I remember being eased into something gently rather than have something thrown in my face.  It was the equality of easing slowly into a hot tub, savoring the moment rather than just jumping in.

Not only have they pretty much eliminated theme songs, they've also messed with the credits.  They are usually shown during the opening scenes of the TV show, but who actually watches that?  I know I don't.  Some TV shows have credits stashed at the end, running through them quickly in a 1/2 window while the other 1/2 is showing an advertisement.  I've even see TV shows run through the credits so fast (in 5 seconds or less), that you'd have to pause to actually be able to see what they were.  Pretty sad.

Not all is lost, though.  There are a still few TV shows that have theme songs, but I wonder how many seasons they'll go before they wise up.  True Blood, Dexter, United States of Tara are among a few that are still clinging to the old tradition.

I give it just a few more years before theme songs become completely extinct, and before that happens, I'd like to acknowledge some of my favorites..

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - a nice rap that catered to their African American audience, and also tasteful enough for us "whites" who like to feel involved.

Saved by the Bell - a classic.  Enough said.

Growing Pains - a great "family" song about loving, smiling and getting through hard times together.  How can you not like that?

Doogie Howser - the perfect perky song.  It doesn't get any better than that.

Can you come up with some of your own favorites?

Busy Summer

It's been quite some time since I have written something.  Actually, it's been a long time.  I look into myself and ask for forgiveness, a forgiveness that will probably never be given.  I try to absolve my lack of writing with self-assuring excuses.  "I have a full time job now, which I love, that's keeping me pretty busy", "I no longer live alone (although the kids were gone almost the whole summer), therefore I have somebody to do things with", and the clincher, "I actually have a life."

My life today is a complete 180 from what my life was like a year ago.  OK - a little over a year ago since I just recently celebrated my one-year anniversary at my job.  My life one year ago looked like this:  No kids (they stay with their father every summer), no job, and no money.  I also lived alone in a 3rd-floor apartment.  I didn't go out much.  I escaped into computer games a lot, and I mean a lot.  I also found peace in writing because then I could complain to something/someone and ultimately, it gave me something to do.  After almost 7 years of being married and being a housewife, I had enough of staying home.  I wanted out.  I think at that point it was quite possible that I could have been tested insane.  Maybe.

In August, I received a huge blessing.  I was offered a job.  For those of you who know me most likely already know this story - so I'll make it short.  A temporary job on minimum wage turned into a full-time job that came with a huge raise.  This full-time job has been keeping me insanely busy - especially this past summer.  I can't complain (although, I do at times).  The pay is enough, I love being busy, I feel worthy and needed, and above all, I have a job.

All good things come with a catch.  Sadly, this means I have less time to do what I'd really like to do.  And when I finally get the time to do what I want, I'm dumbfounded at the time I have on my hands, having forgotten (and then remembering) what it was like to HAVE time, and I end up doing nothing at all, because I want to cherish being able to do nothing.

So - in short, I've been slacking off and I hope to make it a habit to write regularly again.  We'll see.

Next on my agenda: my trip to Colorado!

Colorado and Las Vegas - here I come!

I'm so excited!  I just booked my flight to Colorado!  For more than a year now, I've been planning a trip to Las Vegas to attend the first World Expo hosted by DeafNation.  The original plan was to drive up there with Jon and to make lots of pit stops along the way to see grand sights like Grand Canyon and Route 66.  Somehow, the plan evolved to Jon driving up to Colorado to spend time skydiving (and floating in a tunnel!) and hang out at a Deaf Pilot's convention thingie.  Of course, I'm always up for adventure so I thought it would be so cool if I met Jon there to explore Denver for a few days before we road-trip it to Las Vegas.

After we're done with Las Vegas, we'll (hopefully) see the Grand Canyon on the way back and I'd REALLY love to take Route 66 back towards Texas.

Gears are turning in my head already - what I should pack, what I might need to buy, how to plan the road trip back to Texas, what I want to see, what I want to do and most importantly - how should I preserve the memory!?  Of course, the answer's easy enough - take photos, lots and lots of them!  However, if you know me, you know I have lousy memory sometimes.  Chances are that I would forget where I took that photo, what day I took it and why.  So - I think I'm going to bring along a binder with page protectors (the sleeves you put papers in).  I'm going to drop in momentos like tickets, receipts, maps, brochures and anything else I pick up along the way.  I'll also (or at least try) to make notes on some photos.  The end result: a snappy scrapbook!

Over the next few days, I plan to do lots of research.  With Jon out of town, I'm sure to have a lot more time on my hands (but I will definitely be happy when he gets back).  I'm going to be looking into shows that I might want to see in Las Vegas (maybe America's Got Talent is hosting a show there while we're in town!), things I want to check out (maybe the Titanic exhibit? I'm a fan... and maybe the MGM lions, I hear that MGM has a habitat for them).  So many things to do, so much potential and so little time...

Did I mention I'm excited?  Whoo-hoo!

Still Lost

*Note: This is late, but better late than never...

One of my all-time favorite TV series has come to an end.  I enjoyed its entire 6-year run.  Although I became extremely frustrated at the writers from time to time, it was eventually worth it when the questions were (eventually) answered.

I looked at Lost as a "one step forward, two steps back" TV show.  Whenever one question was answered, much more were brought forth.  Guess that formula worked - millions of us kept watching every season to see what would happen.

The finale wasn't what I was expecting.  In some ways, it was satisfying - an excellent way to wrap up 6 years of confusion.  However, bits of it was disappointing.  I decided to compile a list of why I'm still "lost."  There are still tons of questions that went unanswered and if I'm going to watch something as confusing as Lost for 6 years, I'd expect answers to each and every one of them.

I stumbled across this website and this website had the same questions I had.  What was up with the polar bear, how did it get on the island?  Apparently, I wasn't paying attention.  What was the Man in Black's name (and what's the deal with witholding that information from us)!?  Why was Widmore so invested in the island?  What happened to Walt when he was kidnapped?  Each character was "assigned" a number - a number that was part of the combination to prevent the island from going into electromagnetic "whatever" - but the show didn't explain why that character got the particular number.  And what I'd really like to know is whether Ben is really good deep down inside or if he's just nuts.

Anyway, this website answers covers some questions that I had and others that I didn't think of.  Unfortunately, it doesn't answer ALL my questions.  Guess we're all just meant to be doomed to wonder about the little stuff...

http://screenrant.com/lost-finale-explanation-kofi-61464/

Fierce Guard Dog

See the chicken?  Look closer.  Yes, that chicken.  That juicy bit of chicken from McDonald's, a very rare treat for me.  I'm guarding it from that annoying black dog who'll eat anything, including cat poop (which makes Mommy's job a whole lot easier).

Apparently I didn't do such a hot job of guarding it. This little rascal got to it as soon as I stepped away to attend to a private matter.

She's fast. Very fast. And oh so very annoying.

When I realized that 12am stole my chicken, I chased after her and gave her a lickin'.  Too bad Mommy didn't get a chance to get a picture of that.  THAT would have been cool....

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Finale

Highlights of the Finale:

Daris now has a girlfriend.  If he was still overweight, would that girl still be interested in him?  Probably not.

Koli is just as obnoxious.  I think that when he lost all that fat, he also lost some brain cells.  What was he thinking, wearing pink pants and that ugly grey jacket!?  Ew!  During a flashback, Koli commented that he never valued himself because he was so overweight.  Well, I think he values himself a tad bit too much now.  I'll say it again - it's ok to be proud, but there's this teeny little thing called tact and down-to-earth appreciation (look at O'Neal, Mike, Daris... the list could go on).

Daris won America's heart and votes - he made it into the finale.  However, now that I think about it - I think we made a mistake...keep reading to find out why.

Three previous contestants returned to watch the finale - Erik, Danny and one other.  They looked great, especially Erik!  He won the title of the Biggest Loser when he was there, gained almost all his weight back and is now fighting to lose that weight.  He has lost 150 pounds to date.  He's supposed to come back to the next season's finale and show us that it can be done.  Sure - we already know it can be done.  The question is - can he keep it off?

All season long, we've been waiting to see how Shay turned out.  She was given a sweet deal by Subway.  For every pound she lost (in between last season and this season's finales), she would get $1,000.  She ended up losing 52 pounds for $52,000.  However - it isn't over yet.  Subway said that if she ran a marathon with the Subway dude at the end of the year, they'll double that money.

Yeah - I bet Shay was thinking "Oh damn, it's not over yet!?"  She had that fake smile on her face.  Now I am actually starting to feel bad for her.  She's probably sick of all the media attention, take her money and live her life.

Now - we went through the weigh-ins of 19 contestants that went home.  Some were shocking and some weren't.  Some accomplished their goals, and others did not.  What was extremely surprising (and rewarding) was Darrell taking Sherry's spot while competing for the $100,000.  Sherry weighed in early on and held on to the winning spot for about 9 weigh-ins.  When it seemed like she might just end up winning the prize, Darrell comes on and beats her by 2 pounds.  Darrell was marked as the sickest man on campus when he arrived and has since then pulled a complete 180.  It's amazing how many of them turned their lives around.

Koli ends up winning the $100,000 at home prize.  Here's why I think we made a mistake by voting Daris into the finale.  If Daris had been the one that joined the 'at-home' people, he would have been the one to get the $100,000 instead of nothing.  Now Koli has $100,000 and his ego has multiplied by 100,000 as well.  Oy vey!

For about a few weeks now, I swore that Daris would end up winning the title of the Biggest Loser.  He never caused any trouble on campus and he looks so great.  He weighed in first and lost at least 48% of his body fat.  That is a huge feat to accomplish - especially in 7 months.

Ashley weighed in second and shocked the nation by beating Daris by 2 points.  She still has more weight to lose - I wonder if she'll keep losing weight now or if she'll slack off a bit, now that money isn't on the line anymore...

I hate pink.  I loathe pink.  But if I ever gain weight and go on the Biggest Loser, I will ask to wear the pink shirt.  It's good luck.

When Mike came out from behind the white screen, four jaws dropped in my living room.  He is looking to be the favorite contender to win the whole thing.  He obviously has lost so much, but can he beat the magic touch of Pink?

Right before they weighed in Mike, the trainers talked to him, Mike handed his mom a white rose and they talked about his time on campus.  During that dragged-out moment, Ashley was standing there with a look on her face that said "ok enough - shut up and let's go!"  It's ok Ashley, I would have felt the same way.

Mike needed to lose more than 256 pounds to take the the position from Ashley.  He ended up losing 264 and won the title of being the Biggest Loser.

If Mike could do it, anybody can!

Don't forget to tune in next week for Jillian's series.  Even though I'm not too crazy about her, I'm curious enough to watch.

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 18

The show opened up with fantastic highlights of the final four.  It's hard not to become invested in them, we have seen them at their worst, saw them get beaten by Bob and Jillian, and now we are seeing them emerge as completely new people.  The world is their oyster.

The final four goes home for 30 days and then will come back to see how well each of them did under the pressures that daily life brings.  We'll find out which two makes it above the yellow line, and which two will fall below (and beg America for compassion and their votes to put them in the final three).

We watched as each of the four contestants went home to their family and friends.  They all weighed in to show their peers how much they've lost on campus and received standing ovations.  At Koli's welcome home party, Sam wore a funny white shirt that said "I (heart) Koli Bear."  Sam definitely looks different back at home - kind of a gangsta.  While on the scale, Koli mentioned that at the first weigh-in (at home), he promised that he would make it to the final four.  He did.  Now he is making another promise - that he will win the entire thing.  Careful, Koli... don't get too far ahead of yourself.

Ali announced that they would each be doing a marathon, just like they did when they first got to campus.  However, the first marathon they did was on bike.  This time, they would be going on foot.  How fun!

At Mike's home, the family was gearing up for their usual Sunday dinner.  Mike suggested "how about some good old spaghetti and meatballs?"  J almost jumped at the screen and said "no no no!"  How could Mike lose 204 pounds on campus just to go back home to his usual spaghetti and meatballs?  Big mistake!  But alas, Mike was playing it smart.  He lectured his mom on how ground turkey is leaner and has more protein.  Instead of carb-heavy noodles, he suggested wheat noodles.  Seriously, like his mom didn't already know that!

A little while later, Ashley called Mike to talk about the upcoming marathon.  Again - are they dating (or at least crushing)?

Bob and Jillian visited the remaining four contestants at their hometowns.  Bob didn't go to California where Koli lives - he had to fly over to Las Vegas because Koli was hiding out and working out 24/7.  He admitted to Bob that he wanted to 100% focus on the show and that he wasn't ready to be thrown back into life just yet.  Wasn't that the purpose?  To give a 30-day trial to see just how well they could handle all the daily stresses at home and still continue to make healthy choices and lose weight.  It's better to learn to handle it now than later.  Home is taking a heavy toll on each and every one of them.  There's lots of pressure to eat with everybody else, drink and to stay out late.

The marathon started off cold and rainy but turned out to be a nice day.  Daris commented "it turned into a nice day so hey, might as well go for a run!"  My favorite part of the marathon each year is to see the previous contestants come back, run alongside the current participants and to give encouraging words.  I wondered who would come on this year.  I was hoping for Mike, who was a brown team member from two seasons ago.  But then "J" says nah, he showed up last season, doubt he'd show up again.

Well, what a shocker - Mike showed up and ran alongside Mike (how funny!).  Matt from one of the early seasons came on and ran with Daris.  Ali (a 2 or 3-time returning marathon supporter) ran with Ashley, and both are members of the Pink team!  Sione ran with Koli, which was fitting because they are both members of the gray team and both are Tongan.  Mike, Matt and Sione looked like they gained weight.  It was a little disappointing to see - especially Mike because he's so handsome and young and as for Sione, he became a personal trainer so it's disheartening to see him let go a little bit.

Daris beat Tara's record time of 4:55 by completing the marathon at 4:02.  The way he's going, he could become a professional marathon runner in no time.

The weigh in was short compared to all the other weigh-ins in the past.  Instead of weighing in 10+ people, we only had to weigh in 4.  The two people who makes it above the yellow line automatically makes it to the finale.  The two people that falls below will have to plead with America to vote them into the finale.

Mike lost 23 pounds in the 30 days he was at home.  Not too bad, considering he probably didn't work out as much as he did at the gym, had to make all his meals himself, probably ate out a few times, etc.  Mike is now 299 and finally out of the 300.  This marked the first time ever in his life that he was under 300 (that is, once he got over).

Koli lost 13, which was disappointing to the trainers.  He could have lost that much in a week.  Even though he was in hiding in Las Vegas, he still didn't lose as much.  Smart decisions have to start somewhere and real decisions start at home.

Ashley lost 18 and is automatically in the final 3.    With Ashley in the final 3, Koli is pushed down below with Mike right underneath him.  Now it was down to whether Daris would lose enough to put him Mike and above the yellow line or fall down below with Koli.  If you thought that Koli's weight loss was disappointing, you'd be devastated by Daris' weight loss and the fact that he not only lost zero pounds but gained 2.  He got a serious beating from the trainers.

Daris and Koli begged and pleaded with America to vote for them.  Daris promised that he learned his lesson and that he'd do so much better from this point on and he will not disappoint us.  Koli basically said the same thing over and over throughout his mini-speech.  Just let him be in the finale so he can win.  Yawn.

Who did you vote for?  If you voted for Koli, I'll hunt you down and smack you.

Vote Orange!

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Why They'll Win

Ashley
Never underestimate the power of Pink. 'Nuff said.

Daris
It's always the quiet ones... He got off to a slow start, losing big pounds but not getting much camera action. Towards the end, he started breaking through whatever wall he was hiding behind and emerged as a new person (who is also hot, by the way. Maybe I'm biased because he looks a little bit like one of my exes). In my book, he's already won.

Koli
He's hungry for a win and has dollar signs in his eyes. He has enough determination to push himself all the way to the end, maybe a little bit too much.

Michael
He still has a lot of weight left to lose. Because he started with a lot more weight than anybody else, he won't have to lose as much to get that percentage needed to win. If he can get himself down to the low 200's (for a total weight loss of 300 pounds), he'd probably win by a landslide.

At-Home Winner:

It's easy to say that Sam could be the at-home winner.  After all, he did achieve his ideal weight while still on campus, didn't he?  We can't forget all the others who went home; they've had plenty of time to stay out of the limelight and to focus on their weight loss.  I predict we're going to be in for some big surprises.  In the running:  Lance, Melissa, Sam, Sunshine and Miggy.

Why Lance will win:  With a wife like Melissa to nag at him all day long, you can bet he'd be outside running all day just to get away from her.

Why Melissa will win:  She's just as bad as Koli, maybe even worse.

Why Sam will win:  He reached his ideal weight while still on campus.  That's a feat that no one had accomplished until now.  However, the muscles that he packed on may hurt him.

Why Sunshine will win:  She's sweet, adorable and has an excellent father.  She overcame being kicked off campus once, the loss of her uncle and seeing her father injure himself time and time again.  How can she not win?

Why Miggy will win:  If Melissa and Koli ever had a match, it would be Miggy.  She's a Puerto Rican woman with a lot of fire in her.  Once she's got her mind set on something, there isn't anything that's going to get in the way.

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 17

This is it!  The last episode before the finale.  We have our final five and this episode for sure will keep us on our toes while we wait to find out who will be the final four.  Mike, Ashley and Daris are feeling pretty good about making it all the way to the end with Sam out of the picture.  The way they see it - Sunshine and Koli are strong allies but only for each other, and if one of them falls below they will definitely be out-voted.  I am really not liking Koli right now.  He carried on a rant about how stupid the three (Mike, Daris and Ashley) were to vote Sam out instead of Mike because Mike poses a great threat at the finale - if he makes it that far.  In the past, when someone asked him to help get rid of the competition, he refused and vowed that he would rather preserve his integrity than play the game.  What about the time he tried to pit the younger contestants against Stephanie (whom we found out last week is dating Sam, how weird is that)?  He scoffed at Melissa when she gave a very compelling speech about keeping her around because since she's the least threat and struggled with her weight loss the whole time, she'd fall below each week; therefore giving everybody an easy chance to pick off their competitors.  Koli - just admit it - you're acting like a brat because you lost your partner, it's as simple as that.

Now that Sam is gone and Koli has almost made it to the end, his focus has changed - he is all about the finale and he is all about winning the money.  Sure - at this point, it's normal to hope to win the money, but if you're willing to ruthlessly run over anybody who gets in your way, something's wrong.  Earlier in the season, Koli proclaimed that he looks up to O'Neal and one day hopes to be the kind of man that O'Neal is.  Well - he ain't even going to come close if he keeps acting this way.  Suze Orman changed her prediction about Koli as the winner solely on the fact that he doesn't count his calories.  For someone who isn't attentive to the little (but necessary) things probably won't succeed later on.  How much do you want to bet that once the finale is over and the publicity dies down, Koli will slowly start to gain weight over the years (like Erik did).

Back to the show - the remaining contestants were shocked to find out there would be no yellow line this week, only one red line.  The person who loses the least percent of body fat will automatically be sent home.  While Ali was making the announcement, Koli sneaked in a grin (which looked devious to me) thinking that he's got it in the bag, he's already guaranteed a spot in the final four.  We'll see....

Erik and Helen came back on the show to talk to the remaining five about the realities of keeping the weight off once you're off campus for good.  Daris has genuine concerns about the single life.  He's always been the joker and the "best friend" but has never had a girlfriend.  He wonders how his life will change.  It is my personal prediction (almost a guarantee) that Daris isn't going to be single for much longer.  His time on campus has treated him well - very well!  While Daris led a formerly quiet life and was wondering how much it would change, Ashley expressed concern over her former partying lifestyle and tried to figure out what she needed to do to stay fit.  Her friends and her sister would still be partying.  She wants to feel like she still belongs but she will need to set boundaries (less drinking and eating) so she doesn't fall off track.

When it was Koli's turn to talk to Erik, all he did was talk about winning.  Erik can relate because he was the winner of season 3.  Erik cautioned that he still needed to stay on path and don't let himself regress like Erik did.  Koli spoke about how he's almost guaranteed to win the whole thing and that he feels he really deserves it.  I wanted to reach through the TV and smack him.  There were times where he fell below the yellow line and people kept him out of compassion when he begged for a chance to stay longer (to improve his health or a chance to win the whole thing?).  How about paying it forward?

Mike is struggling the most with his weight loss (and lack of weight loss).  He has lost a whole obese person weight-wise and he is still obese.  That has got to be really tough.  Mike blew a gasket during a workout.  He felt extremely frustrated.  With no yellow line, everything is riding on this last week - you either make it above or you don't.  Mike's weight loss has been a roller coaster.  With such a big guy like Mike, you would think that his weight loss would steadily be in the double digits like it did for Dane and the other bigger men that were on past episodes.  Mike would lose big one week and then lose so little the next week.  Would this week be a big one or a small one?

Having one red line this week is good in some ways.  This will definitely decide who deserves to stay and who goes solely based on their weight loss and not based on game play.  No chance to vote for favorites like Koli kept voting for Sam.  Even if there was a yellow line and Mike fell below, he wouldn't be in danger of leaving because Ashley and Daris would not let it happen.  However, if he fell below with either Ashley or Daris, he'd probably be gone.  Koli had his sights set on getting rid of Mike.  How is Mike a big threat?  He's not even halfway done, he's dipped below the line several times and it's kind of far-fetched to think that he'll actually lose the other half of what he needs by the finale.  All Mike needs right now is a great last week and he'd make it to the final four.

This week's challenge was the same as two seasons ago.  The contestants had to run over 16 hills while carrying the weight that they lost over the past 16 weeks.  Each hill represented one week on campus.  Whenever they came to the top of a hill, they would shed the pounds they lost.  First person to make it over 16 hills and to the end gets $10,000.  I remember the winner for this game - who could forget Tara?  She was a lean, mean, green fighting machine!  Daris soared way ahead of everybody else.  He had a very easy win.  Koli got third place... and when he tossed his remaining weight over the cliff at the finish line, he almost threw himself over.  That would have been fun to watch.

Everyone finished in steady streams except for Mike.  Ashley and Daris went back to Mike and helped him finish the competition.  Ashley and Mike held hands briefly - do I see another romantic match-up?  At this rate, the Biggest Loser has a higher success rate of creating romantic couples than the Bachelor/Bachelorette.  How sad is that?  Of course, it would make sense.  The Biggest Loser showcases real people with real struggles and real problems.  These people have seen each other at their worst, supported each other and grew extremely close because of shared hardships.  The Bachelor/Bachelorette displays fake people with fake blonde hair, fake nails and fake boobs who are whisked away on unrealistic romantic adventures (who goes from Hawaii to New York City to the Bahamas and to Fiji for dates in just a few short months).

Daris relinquished the $10,000 for a one pound advantage.  I personally think he didn't need it but better safe to be sorry.  You wouldn't want to fall below the red line if you had that one pound to help you stay above.  Talk about a major personal beating if Daris had kept the $10,000 and fell below the red line because of that one pound.

Each contestant was able to watch a video montage of themselves and their journey over the past few months. It was touching to see how far they've come and how much stronger they've become.  Daris' video was my favorite (maybe just because he's pretty nice to look at).  I just hope that they continue to do well at home.

At the weigh in, Mike breaks (or actually makes) another Biggest Loser record.  He became the first person to lose 200 pounds while still on the ranch.  He lost 12 during this episode.  With a big loss like that, he's definitely one of the final four.  But it's still too early to tell...

Koli lost 13 and pushed ahead of Mike so he's definitely in the final four.  I'm semi-proud of him but somewhat disappointed.  His head is going to grow 10x bigger overnight now.  Daris lost 10 and pushed up above Mike and guaranteed himself a spot in the final four.  It turned out that Daris didn't need that extra one pound - he could have (and should have) kept the $10,000.  Oh well. 

All the boys pulled out really big numbers... can the girls keep up this week?  Ashley ends up losing 7, which is a big number for her, but it wasn't enough to beat Michael.  Now Michael is in the final four.  Will Sunshine beat Ashley?  She's done so well in the past so it's almost a guaranteed victory for her.... right?  Sunshine ends up losing only 2 pounds - not quite enough to beat Ashley.  I was genuinely shocked.  I would have picked her as a possible winner of the season (and remember Suze Orman's prediction?  She predicted that Sunshine would win).  What a bummer for Sunshine... however, if there was a yellow line, she would have still fallen below with Ashley.  We all know how Mike and Daris would vote - so either way, Sunshine was doomed.  To add insult to injury, Sunshine fell short of her 100-pound loss by one pound.  It would have been nice to finish out the season with the accomplishment of losing 100 pounds, wouldn't it?

So - in anticipation of the finale, I went online to NBC's website to find out when it's going to happen.  The finale is on May 25th, which means that tomorrow's episode is going to be about something else.  I decided to watch the previews (I have no patience!) and predictably, the final four goes home to their families.  I guess they are going through their first true test - whether they can make it out alive back at home.  The preview was juicy and delicious!  It seems as though that at least one (or two, or three, or all of them!) didn't do quite so hot at home.  One of them gained two pounds!  Tune in tomorrow - I know I will be!!!

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 16

Exciting news!  The remaining contestants have been on campus for 4 months now and they have all lost a total of 805 pounds.  Here's more exciting news - it's makeover week!  How I've been waiting for this episode for so long!  I've said it before and I'll say it again - Daris' hair has got to go!

The contestants' response to makeover week was no different than mine.  They were all absolutely thrilled that they made it far enough to get a makeover.  Sam blurted out "make me prettier!  I love clothes and I love fashion."   Sam!?  Watching him this whole season, I wouldn't have known.  I guess there's a whole 'nother side to all the contestants that we don't see.  I was especially thrilled to see Daris make it all the way to this episode because.... his hair needs to go!

There are many things in life that we take for granted and we don't realize that we do.  This past season, I've recognized that I do take things for granted and have started to reflect more on what I can do rather than what I can't do.  O'Neal's triumphant trip up the stairs one foot after another was my first realization.  My other realization (among many others) was that it isn't very hard for me to shop for clothes.  When you're at my size, you don't have to worry about finding something that will fit - we become more obsessed with what's in style and what colors we like.  For the contestants, they have to worry about whether they'll find anything in their size.  Once they do, they settle for that - nevermind trying to scour the stores for something that's actually stylish because that'll never happen.

It was time for all of them to get a much needed haircut.  The hairdresser joked that Mike would lose 5 pounds just by cutting off his hair because he had so much.  Koli ended up with a mohawk, Sam got a prison-style cut (sounds bad but looks hot), and Daris finally lost all that hair!  He looks so good!

At this week's challenge, the contestants had to climb (as Ashley put it) Jacob's Ladder from hell.  Whoever stayed on it the longest would get a one pound advantage while the first person to fall would get a one pound disadvantage.  Ashley is out almost immediately at 3:47 and gets the disadvantage.  Mike fell second and then finally Sunshine fell at 45:13.  Daris was up against the two cousins who was hungry for blood.  Sam and Koli both want to beat Daris so that one of them can get the advantage.  Daris simply wants to win just to win.  He's just plain tired of the grey team dominating the challenges.  Sam is out at 55:11, leaving Koli to defend the grey team's honor.  Now here's where the real challenge started.  Whenever the grey team won a challenge, it was usually Sam that won it for them - can Koli win this time?

Two hours have passed and both Daris and Koli are going strong.  Daris asked if it is still considered peeing in the pool if he pees from up above.  If I was on that ladder, I would have fallen off from laughing.  At two hours and 30 minutes, Daris quits.  I was really surprised because even though he stumbled a little bit, he was still going strong.  He could have taken Koli.  It would have been nice to see the rug be pulled out from Koli - it might have humbled him a little bit.  His head seems to be getting bigger, it's a wonder how he's still able to pull his shirts on over his head.  When the competition was over, Koli tried his best to step off the ladder as coolly as he could and just stood there.  I was surprised he didn't jump off into the pool to cool down.

We finally see Bob and Jillian just past the halfway mark of the episode.  I think this is the longest we've been in an episode without seeing Bob and Jillian.  It's apparent that the episodes now are more about them and less about the trainers.  They were absolutely shocked to hear that Koli won the challenge (and not Sam) and pretty upset to hear that Daris lost because he just quit, not because he fell off the ladder.  Bob was disappointed in Daris because while he is physically capable of doing whatever he wanted, it was apparent that he still needed to work on his mentality.  Do I predict another Dr. Jillian session coming up?

There wasn't exactly a Dr. Jillian session but Jillian starts pounding on Ashley extra hard this week.  Of course - the game is coming close to the end and Ashley has a Pink reputation to uphold.  It is Jillian's sole responsibility to make sure that Pink is still "in".

Bob gets a chance to pull Daris aside for some private talking.  He tried to make Daris see that he's so close to the end and that he can't start slacking now.  To teach him a lesson, Bob made him do a brutal last minute workout that even he and Jillian can't complete.  And guess what?  Daris did it.

Koli seriously needs a lesson in humility.  It's ok to be proud of what you've done but I think he's taking it a bit too far.  During his interview, he said he felt he was going to get double digits.  Cocky, isn't he?  Well - I guess he had a right to be because he ended up losing 15 pounds this week.

Sam only lost two pounds.  This is evidence that his time is up.  He's lost so much of his fat and gained a lot of muscle.  Ashley makes it above the yellow line with 10 pounds lost and pushes Sam below.  Never underestimate the power of the Pink ninja!

Mike was unfortunate enough to fall below with Sam.  With these two contestants below, it is pretty obvious what the choice should be, but people might feel threatened by Mike and the potential he has with so much more weight to lose.  However, they might be sick of the grey team winning all the time and want to split them up.  Personally, if I was there, I would have sent Sam home.

Koli kept sniffing around to find out what the other three contestants were thinking so he could weigh Sam's fate.  It seemed as though he wanted to figure out a way to blackmail them into voting to keep Sam.  In the end, Sam was chosen to leave.  It was sad but... it was about time!

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 15

There are perks to being on the Biggest Loser show.  One of them is traveling across America.  This week, the crew headed down to Texas.  The focus of this episode was that there is an epidemic spreading around America, an epidemic of obesity, and Texas was hit the hardest.  Texas is the fattest state in the US.  Five of the ten fattest cities are in Texas.  How pitiful is that?  Being from Texas, I was appalled to hear that.  Living in Houston, which is ranked the second fattest city in the US, I see evidence of obesity everyday.  I guess that after seeing something for so many years, I've become oblivious to the fact just how many obese people there are in my city.  In about 35 years, it is estimated that 75% of Texans will be obese.  I can tell you one thing - I'm going to try my damnest not to become a part of that statistic.

First thing on the agenda for the contestants was to do a 5k run around the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.  If you've been to the Cotton Bowl, you'd know that it's huge.  It was nice seeing something familiar on TV.  Before the 5k run, Jillian decided to show the girls that it's possible to travel and still find sensible snacks and products at a local drugstore.  The three girls trekked to a local Walgreen's so Jillian could show them that they could purchase common necessities there.  Seriously - I think it's safe to bet that Ashley and Sunshine have been in a Walgreen's before (or a CVS) and I think it's even safer to say that they know what's at Walgreen's.  My only thought is that the producers wanted to get extra advertising in (and maybe the girls needed some tampons), so what better way to follow them around and show America how cool it is to shop at Walgreen's when you're out of town?

The contestants appeared on local radio shows in Dallas to promote the 5k run.  The first 30-something callers would be able to join them.  The goal of the 5k run was to promote awareness (and to definitely cram in extra publicity for the show).  During the 5k run, the contestants took the time to talk to their fellow peers about how hard it is and how important it is to never give up.  Daris decided to go for a personal best for the 5k run and then went back for his team.  How about staying with your team all the way and going for your personal best on your own time?

It was bad that Daris left his team (at least he went back), but it was even worse when Koli forgot about a woman on his team.  After he finished his run, he suddenly realized that he left a woman behind and went back to get her.  When he arrived, she was grateful and during her camera interview, she gushed about how nice Koli was and about the fact that he came back to get her as promised.  Sorry honey - but he forgot you.  I wonder how that woman felt when she watched that episode and realized the truth.  I bet she isn't gushing about him now.

Bob showed up a a local fitness center to train some people.  He decided to have an open Q&A session and said "ask me anything you want."  I'd bet you money that a person probably asked some personal questions (such as "are you gay?") and the producers didn't include them.  How about having actual reality in a reality show, producers?

Finally - the challenge has arrived.  You can't go to Texas without going to a Rodeo.  If you were born and/or raised in Texas, you have to know that the Rodeo is our trademark.  My former boss is (or was) on the committee for the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo.  She held one of the top positions and mentioned that Houston's rodeo is the largest in the nation.  Too bad she didn't include free tickets with that little tidbit of information.

Along with the rodeo, Texas is famous for the Aggies and the Longhorns.  This made the next challenge very fitting.  The challenge was to herd baby longhorns into your pen.  The person who got the most longhorns in their pen would receive immunity.  After weeks in hiding, immunity is back!  The challenge was funny to watch.  Watching the contestants chase the longhorns made me think of myself, Jon and the kids chasing my dog, Midnight (when she gets out, she is very difficult to catch and bring back into the house).  They are quick!!!

Sunshine sacrificed herself and decided to help her Dad.  While Sunshine and O'Neal's relationship is touching, it has been one big love fest after another.  Could it be that they're a little bit too close?  I guess that's all relative.  O'Neal kept trying to bust his butt throughout the challenge to catch a calf or two.  O'Neal was diving left and right.  Gee - take it easy - a busted knee ain't worth it!  Koli ends up winning and gets immunity.

Last chance workouts are known for its brutality - especially if Jillian is doing the training - but this one was especially brutal.  The trainers had everybody do a handstand up against the wall AND do push-ups.  Very interesting.  I think I might want to try that someday.  Ha!  Maybe I'm dreaming.

Following a brutal workout was a tragic weigh in.  Everyone did alright and it came down to Sunshine being below the yellow line and O'Neal was in danger of falling below with his daughter.  Michael was the last one to weigh in, so it would have come down to either O'Neal or Michael that would be below the line with Sunshine.  Michael needed 7 pounds to be safe and shocked us all when he lost 15.

It was easy to figure out which way the elimination would go.  O'Neal has constantly sacrificed himself for his daughter and this time was no different.  He asked everybody to respect his wishes, to let him go and to keep Sunshine there.  It was heartbreaking to see a father/daughter team be split-up, especially after the loss they recently had and all the injuries that O'Neal has suffered through.  It was tough to see O'Neal go - he has become an icon of this season's Biggest Loser.

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 14

If I had to choose one episode of the Biggest Loser to be crowned the most comedic, I would choose this one.  The first half of this week's episode focused on a food temptation challenge that lasted a whole day.  The kitchen closed down for the day.  Everyone has to get meals in a different room, a room that is filled with all kinds of food, both good and bad.  Everyone was given the opportunity to eat whatever they wish... they would have to make a choice between healthy food or junk food.  Whoever decides to eat the most calories over the course of the day would be awarded with the prize of having the sole vote in the elimination.

Now here's the fun part - watching everybody make their choices.  For Koli, the decision was a no-brainer.  Sam has been struggling with his weight loss on campus so Koli decides to do a free-for-all on the food and eats everything.  By eating the most calories, Koli would win the sole vote and he would use that to keep Sam from being eliminated.  Ahem, how is that not game play?  Just a few weeks ago, he scolded several people for "playing the game" (especially Stephanie and Melissa), and now he's doing the same.

Immediately upon finding out the rules for the temptation, Mike decided that he would not participate in this challenge.  He wasn't going to be responsible for a single vote.  Yep - that would be the fastest way to make lots of enemies on campus.  With the number of contestants getting lower each week, you would want to try to stay friends with as many of them as possible.  While Mike didn't play into the temptation, he definitely played with the contestants' minds.  When he comes out of the temptation room he sighs, rubs his belly and provides small hints that he partook in a devious scheme to win the challenge.

If there was ever a time for anyone to fall victim to a giggling fit, this episode was it.  Ashley experienced several bouts of giggling fits each time she walked into the room.  You would have thought she was a 5 year old on Christmas morning.  O'Neal was almost the same.  While he didn't succumb to giggles, he grinned from ear to ear and seriously debated whether he would take a bite or two of a cookie.  Everyone has their weak spots.  If I were there, it would cake, chewy chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies and brownies!

Because Koli proclaimed that he would be eating as much as he could to help protect Sam, it wasn't a secret that he ate.  The question here was how much did he eat?  We see him go into the room during each meal and we see him rack up extremely high numbers in calories.  I was genuinely surprised he didn't experience a setback to his health - other than feeling very sick after each meal.  When Ali announced that Koli won the game, I wasn't surprised.  When she announced the total that Koli ate, I was taken aback.  He ended up eating 1,545 calories for breakfast, 2,000 calories for lunch and 599 for dinner - which brought his total calories for the day to 4,164!  I wouldn't want to be him when the trainers finds out!

Sure enough, the trainers were furious with Koli.  They kept saying that this whole thing wasn't just a game and it isn't a joke either.  Eating excessively to keep Sam in the game (a person who has fallen below the yellow line several times in the recent weeks and is basically at his goal weight) was a very stupid move.  Koli is protecting someone who doesn't need to be there anymore.  It's very apparent that it's all about winning the game, and not about the health.  O'Neal might have done the same if he knew he had a fighting chance.  He would have done it to protect Sunshine.  The difference is that Sunshine still needs to be there and the second thing is that O'Neal was big enough to overcome the decision to play games and let things fall where they may.

Speaking of O'Neal, he impressed everyone during a workout by doing push ups on stools like the younger guys do.  Everyone was in such awe that they all stopped what they were doing to watch him.  I haven't personally tried doing it.... it doesn't look that tough but I know better than that.  It must have been extremely difficult and I applaud O'Neal for breaking through his obstacles and for pushing himself as far as possible.

The challenge this week was to build blocks that will take you up to a ladder that is dangling a few feet off the ground.  The contestants needed to build stairs out of these blocks, get on the ladder and climb to the top.  The first person to make it to the top will receive a one pound advantage.  The last person to complete the challenge gets a one pound disadvantage.

Mike was nice enough to help Ashley out by giving her a layout that she could work with.  However, his design was worthless.  By helping her, he actually set Ashley back.  She might have progressed faster if she came up with her own design.  Daris wins with Sam very close behind.  After 14 long weeks, Daris has finally won a challenge either as a pair (with his mom) or alone.  Way to go!

With every up, there must be a down... somewhere.  Daris' first win was clouded by O'Neal's injury during the challenge.  He fell off his building blocks and smacked his knee against the concrete.    Because he didn't finish the game and was taken away in an ambulance, he was given the one pound disadvantage by default.  How sad is that?  What bothered me was that a few others didn't finish the competition (Ashley and Mike, for example) either.  Why was O'Neal given the disadvantage and not Mike/Ashley?

To add insult to injury, O'Neal finds out that his brother has passed away.  Time to break out the tissues.  It was heartbreaking to see O'Neal go through this; he didn't have a chance to say good-bye and it was tearing him up.

Weigh-in results:

*Koli lost 10 pounds even after he ate 4,000 calories during the food temptation.
*Sam lost 6 pounds.  At first, Sam was slacking off because he knew that Koli's vote would save him from being eliminated if he fell below the yellow line.  However, with the troubles that O'Neal was going through, it seemed as though Sam might fall below with O'Neal.  That wouldn't have changed Koli's vote but it would have definitely made it difficult.  Sam decided to work out harder towards the end of the week to save himself so that if O'Neal fell below, he'd fall below with someone that Koli could easily eliminate.
*Victoria lost 1 pound.  Not a big surprise there.  All we've seen all week is Victoria slacking off.  Gee, I wonder why she only got 1 pound.
*O'Neal lost 8 pounds!  Even with his bandages and brace (did the producers find out the weight of that and subtracted that from his weight?), O'Neal still did well enough to stay above the yellow line.  Finally, some good news for him.
*Sunshine needed 2 pounds to be save and only lost 1.  This probably would make sense due to the stress of losing her uncle and having her dad in the hospital.

Koli's decision was a no-brainer.  He kept Sunshine out of respect for O'Neal and booted Victoria.  Koli wasn't shy about complaining about how Victoria slacked off and that she deserved to be booted out.

Each week we see Koli transforming more and more into a different person.  I'm not liking what I'm seeing.

A Major Blonde Moment

The other day, I met a friend for lunch at a vietnamese restaurant.  Normally the food is good, but that day I was unfortunate enough to get some fatty meat.  When I'm there, I usually order the same pork dish.  That dish doesn't come with bones, but that day it came as a pork chop (which I hate).

Naturally, I complained about the quality of the meat and the fact that the bone was still attached.  I was picking off the bone and all the fat when I said "Gee, they didn't get rid of the meat."  Needless to say, I meant the fat.  Duh.

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 13

The contestants have now been on campus for 12 weeks.  Their reward is host Ali interrupting their breakfast, but according to Koli, that's ok, she can interrupt his meal anytime.  Straight off the bat, Ali announces that they have business to tend to.  They head out to the gym (and they didn't get to finish their breakfast) to find out what's in store for them.

As a metaphor for the balancing act of family, work and eating healthy food that's waiting for them back at home, the contestants will be balancing quarters on a tray.  They are allowed to place as many quarters as they'd like at $10 a quarter.  The objective is to hold up one end of the tray with only one hand.  Whoever can keep their quarters from slipping off the tray wins.

When the game begins, the contestants start piling on their quarters.  Sunshine stopped at only 10 quarters, anticipating that she'd stay in the game long enough to add many more at the end.  Pretty smart move.  Let's see if it pays off.  Koli immediately begins adding as much as he can.  Greed can come back and bite you in the end, bud.

Daris, Sam and Victoria are the first ones out.  Pretty surprising.  It looks so easy but I'm sure that if we all tried it, we probably wouldn't have lasted as long as anybody over there.  Holding up a bunch of quarters with only one arm can be tiring.  At an early point in the game, Koli is sweating profusely while holding up $2,300 worth of quarters.  Too much, too soon Koli.  Meanwhile, sometime during the game, Sunshine adds more quarters.

Sunshine gave it a good fight, but sometimes you just can't win 'em all.  Mike ended up winning the $1,000 he had on his tray.  Courtesy of Total, because Mike gave it 100%, they doubled his earnings to $2,000.  Because Sunshine gave it all (100%), she got her $650.

Suze Orman came to the ranch as a guest to talk to the contestants about their financial future.  She predicted that Danny would win the title of the Biggest Loser purely based on his FICO score when compared against the others.  Based on that track record, she admitted that she would have predicted that Koli would be the next Biggest Loser.  However, when Suze asked Koli if he was keeping track of the calories he's been eating, he answered "No."  On that answer alone, Suze determined that if Koli didn't care enough to count his calories to make sure he was eating right (instead of guesstimating), he probably wouldn't make it.  Her prediction went to Sunshine as being the next best contender for the Biggest Loser title.  Yeah, Sunshine is one of the youngest contestants at only 24 years old.  She didn't quite have as much time as the others to screw up her credit scores.

Jillian decided to prey on Victoria this time around.  At Week 13, Victoria should be doing a lot better than this.  Really, Jillian?  Seriously?  She hasn't even been there much longer than 3 weeks.  Her training regime at home was probably very different from those on the ranch.  She's trying to stay afloat - give her a break!

This week's challenge was fun.  There is a total of 140 keys attached to 7 balloons.  Two of them are the keys that will start a car.  Whoever finds one of these keys and starts the car, the car is theirs.  How nice.  We haven't seen this kind of prize in a long time.  The catch is this - they had to run back and forth between the balloons (and it was cold and rainy) and the cars.  The momentum of winning a car would undoubtedly keep them going.

It would really suck if one of these keys got unlatched and fell into the grass.  This would make for funny TV.  I can just imagine somebody holding the VERY last key with all the contestants all standing around the last available vehicle in anticipation - only to find out that the key doesn't work.

Drea wins the first one midway through the game.  Then it gets down to 40 keys left... 35 ... 30...  could my fun prediction come true?  O'Neal ends up winning it and unsurprisingly, he gives it to Sunshine.  What a good father.  Fun fact:  While the others huffed and puffed while scrambling quickly for the keys, O'Neal took his time due to his knee injury.  He look way less trips and ended up with the winning key.  Is he lucky or what?

Drea has a breakdown during one of her workouts and Bob counseled her instead of Dr. Jillian.  I like his tactics so much better.  He's nicer and he doesn't jump down your throats, making you feel any worse than you already do before lifting you up.  His words make you think and it is so much more positive.  We need to see Dr. Bob more often.

Since Jillian felt that Victoria wasn't pulling her own weight around the house in regards to the workouts, she made her run 37 1-minute sprints.  Amazingly, Victoria makes it and Jillian still doesn't look satisfied.  What?  Really?  I should kick her.  Or better yet - watching her get pushed down into a mud pit was the perfect remedy.  After working out, Bob and the contestants took a roll in the mud.  When they saw Jillian, they decided that it was the perfect time for revenge for all the beat-downs they gave them.

During the last chance workout, Mike ran a whole mile without stopping.  He was so proud of himself.  We are all proud of you, Mike.  It's hard enough running a mile much less running it with 300 extra pounds on you.  As soon as Mike announced that he ran a whole mile, Bob congratulated him and then said "Do it again."  The look on Mike's face was priceless!

This week garnered no immunity so everyone was up for grabs.  Drea falls below the yellow line.  Sam was the last one to weigh in.  He only needs 3 pounds in order to push Sunshine below.  Too easy, right?  It turns out that Sam lost zero weight this week.  He is so small compared to everybody else and has so much muscle.  He doesn't have much more to lose.  Is his time up?

Drea goes home even though she needs more time on the ranch; she has much more weight to lose than Sam.  However, when it comes to voting, I guess everybody prefers to keep friends around - at least time time.  If Sam falls below again - will they keep him around longer or give him the old heave-ho?

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 12

One word.  OMG!  Melissa!  OK - that was two words.  She is game play all the way.  At the very start of this episode, she goes around scolding everybody for keeping Sam when he's their biggest threat.  It's in everybody's best interest to keep Stephanie.  One threat down, several more to go, right?  Guess everybody doesn't have Melissa's way of thinking.  They voted based on what they thought was the right thing to do.  In retrospect, voting Sam off would be Melissa's "right thing to do."  It's all relative.

When it comes to being thrown into something new, the cast can never get a break.  This week's challenge has been another new obstacle for everybody to overcome.  This time it is a race to see who can be the first person to lose 2% of their body fat.  Whoever does it first gets immunity.  Anybody can weigh themselves in at any time - but the catch is that you can only weigh in once.  If you weigh in too soon and don't meet your requirement, too bad - you're out of the running.  For the one that weighs in and makes it, he/she doesn't have to weigh in again with everybody else.  Whatever weight he/she was at when they weighed in for the 2% would be used at the weigh in the following week.  This means that whoever weighed in early and won would have a few extra days before the next weigh in.  How cool is that?

Melissa's mouth takes a trip down rambling lane.  Immediately, she starts talking nonsense and is already planning her strategy.  Seriously, shut UP Melissa!

Victoria ends up pushing the button first.  She's getting way ahead of herself.  It's obviously too soon, but we have to remember that she's pretty inexperienced.  It's her second week on campus so she is still learning the ropes, learning the games and learning what her body can do (or can't do).  Losing 6 pounds in two days is definitely not something her body can do.  No way.  Instead of 6 pounds, she only loses 3.  3 pounds in two days is pretty good, but not when you're trying to win a challenge like this.  Even on the Biggest Loser ranch, you don't lose 6 pounds in 2 days (except if it's your very first week and it's all water weight).

The next challenge is a pool game.  Cool!  There are a thousand 1-pound pucks at the bottom of the pool.  Everybody has to dive down and bring 100 pounds to their scale, and they can only bring two pounds at a time.  The winner gets two weeks at the Biggest Loser Resort.  The loser gets a 2-pound disadvantage.  Here's the kicker - after they finish filling their scale with 100 pounds, they can help out a friend.  This goes without saying - nobody's gonna be helping Melissa, that's for sure!

Sunshine starts off with a bang.  She is obviously an experienced swimmer and has a huge advantage over the others.  During the course of the game, it seems that Melissa is going to finish in third place.  O'Neal and Mike are trailing behind her but not by far.  This is surprising.  Melissa tends to be one of the top competitors in the challenges.  I guess she's just not cut out for swimming.  With only two people below Melissa, it's almost guaranteed that the others will be helping them out to put Melissa in last place.  I bet Sunshine starts helping out Dad as soon as she completes packing on her 100 pounds and the others will be helping Mike.  This is practically a no-brainer.  Sunshine and Sam are essentially neck and neck throughout the whole challenge.  Finally - someone gives Sam a run for his money.  It's always awesome to see a girl do just as well as the man next to her, and maybe even surpass him.

Having friends on the show does help, whether anybody wants to admit it or not, and this challenge proves it. Sunshine finished first (yay!) and then started helping her Dad.  Everybody else pitched in to help O'Neal and Mike out to put them up above Melissa.  Naturally.  Melissa kept saying over and over that she wasn't there to make friends and that she doesn't need any friends.  Well, there ya go!  You accomplished what you set out to do - alienate everybody. How'd that feel?  Melissa ends up scolding everybody (again, ahem), this time about helping Mike.  Mike is still the biggest person on campus and he's still everybody's biggest threat.  According to Melissa, why would anyone want to help their biggest competition?!  Well Melissa, it's already been proven that everybody just might have something you don't have...compassion for others.

Again - it's not over for Melissa just yet.  Boy, she's been given chances time and time again to stay in the game, huh?  Could this be the producers' goal?  To keep Melissa in as long as they can?  You bet.  Drama draws in people (sadly) and the producers are all about the ratings.

Melissa still has the chance to weigh in on the scale for the 2% body fat challenge.  Melissa starts her planning and tries to figure out when everybody else will be weighing in.  It's her goal to wait as long as she can but to weigh in right before when she thinks somebody else is planning to.  The night camera shows Melissa working late at the kitchen table, snacking on something, and finally going to bed around 11pm.  She gets up at 3am and worked out until the sun came up.  And then..... somebody pushed the button.

As it turns out, Sam hit the button, not Melissa.  Sam was pretty smart.  He worked out for 3 hours the night before, went to bed and then weighed in first thing in the morning.  I'm willing to bet that he peed and pooped as much as he could.  He probably also didn't eat breakfast.  He needed to lose 6 to make it and he ended up losing 10!  10 pounds in 4 days!  After it was determined that immunity was not up for grabs anymore, Melissa started to obsess about the 1 pound disadvantage.  She is now worried about whether she'd make it on the scale.  Again - Melissa - you had the chance to get up above your obstacles.  You just needed friends to help you out.  That's down the toilet, so what's left?  Nothing.

Dr. Jillian has now announced that O'Neal and Sunshine's father/daughter relationship is unhealthy.  Like really?  Seriously?  They're too close or something like that.  Whatever.  I guess since Dr. Jillian knows everything, they'd better sit down, talk it out, and solve whatever imaginary problems they have so that they can live a better life.   O'Neal acknowledges that he's holding onto Sunshine a little too tight.  It's time for him to let go and let Sunshine become her own person.  Uh, doesn't every parent go through that?  Granted, some are more extreme than others but this hardly calls for a psychological evaluation by Dr. Jillian.

Koli and Daris had bad luck this week with the scale.  They had bad numbers (bad by Biggest Loser standards) and the trainers were stumped.  They both worked extremely hard and yet, they lost so little.  Everybody else had good numbers.  A lot of obstacles were overcome this week.  Sunshine made it to under 200 pounds and O'Neal passed the 100-pound mark (he has lost 106 to date).  Michael lost 8 pounds, bringing his total to 156 pounds in 12 weeks.  That's pretty impressive.  And finally, Victoria loses 11.  Wow.  What a great week for most of them.

Drea ends up going under the yellow line with Melissa.  Enough said.  Melissa only lost 3 and she needed 5 so her one pound disadvantage didn't even hurt her at all.  She hurt herself.  Could it be her late-night snacking?  Probably.

Wow - I just found out during this episode that Melissa is a lawyer.  Really!?  Well - if I needed a lawyer, I think I might want her on my side, but as an ordinary person she is just plain annoying!  Her only argument to save herself from being voted out was game play again.  She urged everybody to keep her because she is obviously not a threat and that Drea is.  Wouldn't it be so easy to keep Melissa around, not having to worry about her and just one by one, kick everybody off that falls down below her?  Right, so easy... but is it right?

Everybody decides to stick with integrity and gets rid of Melissa.  The voting was unanimous.  Who'd have thunk it?  If Melissa had friends, she might not have been voted off.  If she had friends, she would have left with hugs and good-byes from everybody.  I still wonder... how did she even get married!?

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 11

Suddenly, the show isn't so dark anymore.  There are bright colors everywhere - singles are back!  This part is fun because now everybody is on their own.  No one can hide behind the weight of the entire team.  No more coasting.  It's every man for himself now.  Everyone will be held responsible for their own actions... or non-actions.

Here's another fun part.  All the old contestants from this season came back.  They have another chance to get back into the game.  Of course, the people who are currently still in it weren't happy to hear that.  They've fought this long to stay afloat and now they have to worry about one more competitor.  The person that gets to come back to the show will get voted in.  It's purely a popularity vote.  They can vote for anyone to come back except for your former teammate.

Remember Migdalia?  No one can forget her and her mother, Miggy.  Yep - even Miggy's back, but Migdalia didn't come back.  Her husband went to Iraq and there would be no one at home to watch her kids.  Remember the Blue team (not the Black vs. Blue but the original two)?  The mother begged and pleaded to let her daughter back into the show.  They've been there twice and got sent home immediately both times.  They failed to complete the very first challenge and when they were given a chance to come back, they had to compete against yellow for the most weight lost.  Obviously, yellow won.

On to the voting.  It would have been hilarious if it was a 12 way tie.  Like that'll happen.  Right off the bat, everyone started to vote for John.  He obviously made a big impact during the short time he was on campus.  Just when it seemed like John might win, the votes started to come in for Victoria.  It got to the point where it was a tie and Michael had the last deciding vote.  I smell something stinky.  The producers had to have a hand in this.  I wonder if they had to turn in their votes prior to the taping so that the producers could know who was voting which way.  That way they could line up the contestants in whatever order they wanted to make it oh, so dramatic.  That would make more sense because whoever was the last voter could change his mind right on the spot if he wanted to.  That wouldn't have been nice.  It would have been a more truthful vote if everyone voted beforehand without knowing the final results.

In the end, Michael voted for Victoria and she won.  O'Neal and Sunshine could sympathize with Victoria and her mother. They also lost the very first challenge and knew/understand what it was like to be sent home immediately. It would make sense that they voted for Victoria to stay.  Wonder if she just ends up winning the whole thing.  Wouldn't that suck for the others?

It's not over yet for the banished contestants.  They were given another chance to get back on campus.  They had to compete in a stepping challenge.  First person to 1,000 steps wins.  Miggy and Melissa have a long history of feuding, so of course, right off the bat they both fly way ahead of everybody and they were neck and neck throughout the whole challenge.  Melissa pulled ahead of Miggy and was able to keep that lead.  She ends up winning.  I can imagine just how thrilled everybody was.

The top three players in the stepping challenge were Melissa, Miggy and Lance.  Koli made a great point.  Lance just left, Miggy's a huge troublemaker and Melissa quit (and she's just plain annoying).  Why would anybody be happy about having any of them back?

Melissa and Victoria were given immunity.  I was glad for Victoria but felt that Melissa didn't really deserve it.  The trainers came in and found out that everybody was back to singles.  They were thrilled!  Maybe now that everyone is accountable for their own actions, they will step it up.  However, this is about the time when alliances will go kaput.  Happens every season without fail.

Bob was so adorable.  His face was so awww when he saw Victoria walk in.  He even cried (or got close to it).  Mr. Trainer is in touch with his feelings!

Speaking of alliances going kaput... In one of the one-on-one interviews with Sunshine, she boldly stated "I'm going to be in the final 4.  These are just people for me to play with."  So cute!  Also, Koli turned against Stephanie.  He went to Ashley and told her that he thought that Stephanie was throwing the game.  She's messing up the weigh-ins on purpose for whatever twisted reason.  He got Ashley to believe him.  How sad.  I refuse to believe for even a nanosecond that Stephanie could be the kind of person who was playing the game all along and hiding behind her innocent-looking face.  I felt so bad for her.  BUT - it's always the quiet ones that'll get you... isn't it?  Once Stephanie found out, she confronted Ashley and Drea.  She managed to work things out but I wonder how long that'll last before Koli steps in and messes with their heads again.

At the weigh-in, O'Neal finally walked up the steps one foot at a time.  Wow.  It was so emotional that Bob cried.  It's amazing just how many things we take for granted.  We don't even realize how hard something as simple as going up the stairs might be for someone else.  Be thankful you have two feet and be thankful that you can walk up the stairs.

Well - the weigh-in come down to having Sam and Stephanie below the yellow line.  Koli made a big speech about how Stephanie is playing games, that she's pretty shady, and how he can't keep someone around like that.  OH come on!!!  We know you'd never vote for Sam.  Why not just come out and say "I'm never voting for Sam for obvious reasons" and just leave it at that!?  I'd like you a hell of a lot better if you had just said that.

Stephanie got sent home and it was apparent that Ashley felt bad.  Yeah - I hope you feel guilty, Ashley.  You betrayed a friend and ran right over her when it was convenient.  Way to go.

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 10

Home Sweet Home. Everybody went home this week to see if they can resume their routines and still maintain a healthy lifestyle. The cameras followed everybody home and captured their joyous brief return to their crazy lives. Michael's return was hilarious. He had just been home the previous week and was only back on the Ranch for a few days before being booted back to reality. His family greets him (without the anticipation and excitement like all the other families) and tells him that his grandmother hasn't been doing much better. It was almost like a soap opera complete with bad acting and awful ominous music in the background.

Enter Mike, stage left.
Mike: Is she doing any better?
Mom: (cue dramatic music, lips tremble) No. (Sob)
Mike: (somber) Oh.

          Is that all you can say Mike!?

If you've watched enough Biggest Loser, you'd know by now that every time the cast goes home, something (or someone) follows them. This time, the surprise was a stationary bike. A DVD announces that they will be biking a marathon to win $10,000. The fastest time wins. However, they would be able to add 5 minutes to someone's time by eating a 100-calorie cupcake. I'm proud of most of them. Many chose not to play the eating game and decided that they wanted to win it with hard work and integrity. A few others - shame on you! Lance was the worst. He ended up eating 17 cupcakes at 1700 calories. I truly believe that if his wife wasn't there to egg him on, he wouldn't have eaten so much. So much for spousal support, Melissa, and I'm talking about the good kind.

It wasn't surprising to see Sam get the most cupcakes against him. He is a fierce competitor and has been on a good streak lately. He is definitely a big threat to everybody. It would be hilarious if he still won the event.

The game begins and everybody is off to a good start. Many of them start blazing right through, wanting to be in the lead right away. Moderation, people! Find a good pace and stick with it all the way through. It's common sense that if you start blazing right away, you will lose the momentum and start slacking off towards the end. That’s never good. Sam starts off very strong with Sunshine and Lance extremely close behind. Ever since Sunshine has won her spot on campus, she has proven herself to be a strong competitor. She can fight with the big boys. With Melissa gone (and she is nowhere near as sweet as Tara), Sunshine has become Tara #2. This is always refreshing to see.

Sam ends up winning 1st place, but there are still the cupcakes stacked up against him. All those cupcakes dramatically dropped Sam from 1st place to 8th place. Several others had cupcakes against them so the roster got all mixed up. What's really funny is that Koli did not finish very strong and he ended up winning 1st place just because no one named any cupcakes against him. Word to the future contestants - if you're going to eat food for someone else, spread it out! Lance - if you had devoted just a few of your 17 cupcakes to Koli instead of shoving most of it on Sam, you would have won 1st place. That's so sad.... for you.

On to the weigh-in... Even with 1700 calories eaten, Lance still lost 8 pounds. Maybe he's the kind of guy who can eat whatever wants and then lose that weight straightaway if he worked out afterwards. I guess anybody can do that. But it wouldn't be advisable to eat 1700 calories worth of cupcakes on any given day. IF he didn't eat all those calories, he might have lost much more than 8.

Blue proved that they could do well at home. All had pretty good numbers, basically identical to what they would lose if they stayed on the Ranch. Bob & Jillian taught them well.

Black needed to lose 26 to win. Stephanie tends to lose just a few on the Ranch (usually between 2 to 7 pounds each week) and she lost 9 while she was at home! 9! That's amazing. She broke through the 200 pound wall and is now 199. Awesome. Ashley must have went along with Stephanie for the ride because when she stepped up on the scale, she found out she lost 10! They did something right, that's for sure.

Black's much needed accomplishment meant Blue's demise. They finally lost a weigh in. And guess who went home? Lance. I knew those cupcakes would come back and bite him in the ass.

Biggest Loser, Season 9 - Episode 9

Whoa, I'm pretty behind on keeping up with the Biggest Loser. Guess I will be doing lots today by writing about four episodes (I hope). I'm just glad I kept notes!

From this episode on, I'm going to be keeping track of what seem to be obvious manipulations by the producers. There was once a time when I thought reality shows were actually reality without little (or any) interference. How sad. The Biggest Loser reeks of control by the producers during each episode. Who's still in, who's out and how the teams are divided are definitely deciding factors on how the producers want to go about setting up the challenges and stuff.

Clue #1: This week's pop challenge was a trivia challenge. Granted, trivia challenges are not unheard of but the Biggest Loser thrives on physical activities. Did they switch to a trivia challenge this week particularly to give the Black team a fighting chance? Up against Blue, Sam and the ladies don't have much of a chance of winning at all. This hardly seems fair. If the producers changed game play to help the Black team out, that would mean that Mike's strategy of dividing the strong versus the weak (and casted out his biggest competition in hopes of eliminating him) failed.

The prize for winning the brain teaser challenge was a 1-night stay at a fancy-shmancy hotel with expensive tiny-portioned meals and over-the-top spa treatments. They would also get a gigantic room all to themselves. The losers would end up cleaning the filthy kitchen (how could they eat there!?) and the sweat-covered gym (yuck). Winning the challenge would be a nice perk, but they have to remember that they're there to work hard, to lose weight and to keep sight on the fact that they're giving themselves a better life.

Wouldn't you know it - even after Black was given a fighting chance - Blue still won. That's a shame. It was painful to see them lose and it was even worse to see them have to clean the kitchen and the gym... but hey, at least they're burning off calories while working while Blue loses a day of working out. Let's see how this works out for them.

Dr. Jillian reared her ugly head again during the episode, this time with Ashley. Apparently Ashley and Sherry do not have a healthy mother/daughter relationship and there are some rifts between them. Seriously - what mother/daughter relationship is perfect? Some might be closer than others, but I don't see the need to analyze everybody's relationships and then determine that if they don't "solve" their issues, they wouldn't change their lifestyles effectively. I don't even remember what the issue was with Ashley and Sherry. Something about Ashley having to take care of Sherry, I think. Jillian decided that it was time for Ashley to say "Cut the crap and let me live my life." Granted, I might feel the same way but she is her mother and families take care of each other.

Michael left due to a family emergency. He would be away from the Ranch and might not be working out and eating healthy as he would be if he stayed. We'll see how he copes with the real world while losing weight at the same time. This is an excellent test of whether Michael has changed his habits back at home.

There was a cooking challenge. Curtis Stone shows up again (we have been seeing lots more of him lately) and is acting as judge on taste and calories. There was a long table with many food items. Each team takes turns taking 12 items off the table. Once the item is off, the other team can't use it in their dishes. There was a 30-minute time limit to make an appetizer, main dish and dessert. Wow - that is tough. The winner of this gets a 5 pound advantage. A tough challenge comes with great rewards.

After a bad losing streak, Black wins the cooking challenge and the 5 pound advantage. How awesome for them! Did the producers give them another chance at winning after failing the earlier non-physical activity? I don't think I remember an episode where there were zero physical challenges. Each episode had at least one, I think. If I am right, the producers were probably pushing hard to keep the Black team afloat. My guess is that drama might ensue if more of them stayed to fight against Blue.

Blue has it really bad this week. Michael is gone, they wasted a day at the spa and Black has a 5-pound advantage over them. Even so, this still isn't a time for Black to slack off. They have fewer members on their team which means they all have to work harder to lose their required weight to stay in the same.

I had high hopes for Black at the weigh-in. How could they not lose, right? They worked out, burned extra calories while cleaning and had a huge advantage over Blue. Their results were subpar. I especially felt bad for Stephanie. She loses so little every week. It's like her body isn't giving her a chance at all. Or maybe she just needs to figure out the perfect combination of food and working out to get her body to wake up and respond.
After Black weighed in, it was determined that Blue needed 45 to win. Could they do it? Apparently, they could. They ended up losing 56. They did not only meet the requirements but surpassed it. I was genuinely surprised.

Sherry ended up being eliminated. I wasn't surprised because in the past, the older people have always been the first to go (when people aren't feeling so terribly sorry for you, like they did for Ron. On another note, they knew that Ron didn’t have a fighting chance of winning with his bad knees so what was the harm in keeping him? That would only boost their chances of winning).

Helen is currently the oldest title-holder at 40-something. Will we ever see an elderly Biggest Loser after 50? Only time will tell.