Frustration!

I still have no computer....and no word from the tech guys either. Ughhhhh!

Blogging in the spare moments in the evenings when I have access to the laptop. Double ughhhhh!

Jeremy Bentham

Once again I came away from this episode feeling like the writers wasted a good opportunity for some suspense. The music and the lead up to John's discovery on the island was so suspenseful that it was almost like they forgot that they already showed us that John was back in the previews from last week. They really need to stop giving so much away. (I can't believe I'm saying that.)

Actually they did answer quite a few questions this week. Mostly about where John was and what he was up to before his untimely death. We found out that the "exit" from the island is in Tunisia. We found out how John got the name "Jeremy Bentham" and how he found the Oceanic Six. But most of all we found out that I WAS RIGHT! I totally predicted (in this post about the Jughead episode) that Ben replaced Whidmore as the leader of the Island. I've never predicted anything correctly on this show before. WoooHooo!

Of course we were still left with lots of new questions. The biggest one being, why did Ben kill John after saving his life? Was he just trying to get information out of him? Did he need to find out about Jin, or the freighter, or Eloise Hawking before could kill him? Or was it the mere revelation that John knew about Mrs. Hawking that pushed Ben over the edge and he never really went there with any intention of killing him before that? I've given up trying to predict what is going through Ben's head.

So now they are all back on the island, including some strangers who were on the plane and Ceasar and Alana. Is Ceasar the new Jack? Does that make Alana the new Kate? It's hard to believe that they can still be introducing new characters at this point, but now John has a whole new crew to confuse and frustrate with his mystical talk about being, not just special, but now actually risen from the dead. Was it Ceasar, with his newly found shotgun, that was shooting at Sawyer and the gang as they paddled the boat in the rain? That is starting to seem sort of likely.

Random thoughts:

It was nice to see Walt again, although I thought he lost some of his acting ability as he grew up.

Was it Kate that took the boat with Lapidis? That seems strange. I would think that Kate and Jack would be pretty much inseperable.

Who are the sides in this war that is coming to the Island? Is it Ben vs. Whidmore?

I was thrilled to see that the Island did not treat Ben special in any way. He crashed in that plane like any other regular guy. Yes! He deserves it.

In the scenes from next week:

Sawyer seeing Kate again after what? 4 days? GAG!

I think Charlotte may be back from the dead already.

The burlap head dresses have returned. Oh how we've missed them.

For more LOST theories and questions head over to the LOST Books Challenge and follow the links.

Better Late Than Never

Brian and I finally had time to celebrate Valentine's Day this weekend. Things were just way too busy for us to have our traditional gourmet meal and movie at home on the actual holiday so we had to postpone it a week.


Of course the kids could not imagine a Valentine's Day without their traditional "love" breakfast (even though Grandma had brought them Krispy Kremes). So we did manage to get the heartshaped pancakes and strawberry milk made and the hand-made cards delivered on Feb. 14th before we had to leave for all of our other activities. (Credit goes to Brian for the creative plating.)


For our celebration Brian grilled New York Strip Steak, while I made Ultimate Twice Baked Potatoes, green beans in Browned Butter Balsamic Sauce, and homemade whole wheat rolls. We drank some sparkling grape juice that has been aging in our cabinet for over a year and then used my brand new blow torch to finish off some beautiful Creme Brulee for dessert.



It was a DELICIOUS meal and we were thoroughly stuffed. I had to buy the steaks for about $10 and a bottle of balsamic vinegar for about $3.50, but other than that I had everything I needed on hand. The kids were upstairs watching a movie (they ate fish sticks earlier) so we didn't need a babysitter, and we rented the movie for $1.50. $15 for a Valentine's celebration is not bad.


Of course we ate at our seldom used dining room table by candlelight and used the china and crystal that only sees the light of day two or three times a year. After dinner we watched a movie and I gave Brian his gift.....a homemade giant chocolate kiss filled with his favorite flavor of all time.....Oreo. (Look for step-by-step directions for making the Kiss right here on my blog next Tuesday).



I almost like celebrating like this better than going out.

Manic Monday

316

I immediately thought of John 3:16 when I saw the title of this episode. After watching it I can see that the scripture may have indeed been the reference intended. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with John Locke being set up as a Jesus figure, though. Here are my thoughts on the show:

Let me get this straight: Christian substitutes for Jacob and John substitutes for Christian? Weird triangle there. Also, I assume that Hugo has a guitar case on the plane to make up for Charlie not being there and Sayid is in handcuffs with an armed escort to make up for the fact that Kate is now free. But why is Ben there? He doesn't fit in at all. Of course maybe he didn't get off of the Ajira jet either.

Interesting that Lapidis is back....although I'm not sure that I would have recognized him without hearing his name first. He looked SO different without his beard and long scruffy hair. I hope he is happy that he finally gets his chance to fly a doomed aircraft...although things didn't turn out too well for the first pilot.

I found it telling that Hurley was the only one concerned about keeping other people off of the plane that he was pretty sure would crash. Jack worried about them but only after they were already on the plane. Of course, Ben didn't care.

Which leads me to the stupidest line of the night: Jack asking Mrs. Hawking about Ben, "Is he telling the truth?"

And the dumbest statement of the night: Mrs. Hawking telling everyone, "I apologize if this is confusing."

So, is the "very clever fellow" Mrs. Hawking refers to, Daniel Farraday? And was it just me or was Eloise completely unsurprised and unconcerned that her son was on the island and in danger?

So why did Ben lie about his mother? Or was it jsut a figure of speech/a joke? And what in the world happened to him? My theory is that he somehow got Sayid arrested and deported to Guam while simultaneously busting Hurley out of jail. That would be impossible for most people but Ben could do it with one hand tied behind his back.

The biggest mystery of the night has to be what happened to Aaron and why did Kate let him go? I'm pretty sure he is with Claire's mom, but you never know.

Note to Jack: Getting your Sunday School lessons from Ben is probably not a good idea.

Note to ABC: Please make the entire show and scenes from next week fit within the 64 minute window that Tivo and DVR standardly record. It is REALLY disappointing to miss the last few seconds every week.

Liar, Liar.......

I've mentioned before that our house is just one big list of projects. Well, that applies to our yard/pasture too. (It was a pasture that we put our house in the middle of and started mowing...therefore magically transforming it into a "yard". Sounds lovely doesn't it?)

Anyway, one of the problems we have in our backyard is wild blackberries. The canes are overtaking our yard by two feet a year. Those things multiply faster than rabbits and they are a lot harder to mow over. (Sorry, that's gross, I know.) We love the blackberries, but we are missing the use of a large portion of our yard.

We finally got sick of it and took some action. We got out the matches and lighter fluid and got to work. We lit fires all through the briar patch and watched them roar. The only problem is that they burnt everything but the blackberry canes (which Brian reminded me are not dead, but just dormant for the winter, despite their dry, brown appearance). At that point (with all of the weeds, leaves and sticks burnt off) we had to resort to using large pruning shears to cut each and every cane off at ground level by hand. Not fun.

We worked for about 8 hours and cleared three-quarters of the area that we wanted to. It was slow work, standing in the midst of the fires cutting off the canes and dragging them out to a pile with the rake, but it made a huge difference. We came through the day with sore backs and arms, and smelling like smoke, but otherwise unscathed....well mostly.

At one point I looked through the smoke and saw Brian doing a little dance in the midst of the briar patch. Apparently his pant leg was on fire. He was frantically trying to stomp on his left pant leg with his right foot, but every time he thought he had the fire out it would flare up again. He finally resorted to standing on a portion of the burnt denim and yanking up his left leg in order to rip off the burning portion. Of course I was very helpfully laughing.....while standing at a safe distance from the mini wildfires. Upon further examination he discovered that his boot laces had been burnt through too.

When I asked him how he realized that his pants were on fire he said, "Well, my leg was getting really hot."

A Note to My Readers

.....all 3 of you.

The hard drive on my home computer crashed yesterday....which means I cannot publish anything on my blog until Brian gets home from work in the evening with his laptop.

Sorry for the daily delays. Hopefully I'll be up and running again soon.

Healthy and Delicious

I have a great recipe for an easy, healthy dish.



I call it Lettuce Wraps.



Here are the ingredients:



brown rice, cooked according to package directions
diced green pepper
shredded chicken, cooked
salsa
corn, cooked
black beans, drained
diced onion
diced avocado
lime juice


Just mix all of the ingredients together, using the lime juice just to help everything stay fresh and the salsa for flavor and moisture. You can use as little or as much of each ingredient as you like, but the idea is to have a nice mixture that can be plopped in to the middle of a nice green leaf of lettuce and rolled up.


It really is very delicious and healthy. Enjoy!


For more great recipes check out the In Season Recipe Swap at Tammy's Recipes.

Manic Monday

Happy Valentine's Day

Hebrews 12:2
"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross,
scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

I've always assumed that the "joy set before him" was Heaven. Perfect communion with God. Forever. Isn't that the joy set before all of us? But in a sermon at church recently I gained a new perspective.

What was Jesus' joy that was set before him? Why did he endure the pain of the cross? What didn't he have before his death that he could have because of his death? The answer is: YOU. He couldn't look forward to being with you in heaven for all eternity until he paid the price to wipe out your sin and mine.

YOU ARE HIS JOY!

Happy Valentine's Day!