True blood - all alcide, all the time

so i watched this episode last night and the only thing i can recall is naked alcide!!  i rewound that scene AT LEAST twice.  after that, i stopped counting.  um, ok so the writers this season have been VERY generous with the gratuitous eye candy.  yowza!  i didn't think they could show much more than they did back in episode 4 when alcide was undressing to shift into his wolf form (see below!)  - to which my friend bertha* commented "i was wondering how many of his pubes they were going to show before the camera finally cut away!" - but apparently i was wrong.  have i mentioned that there's a good chance that alcide (at least the actor that plays him) is related to my husband?  i sooooo totally going to the next family reunion!   (love you, poo!)



speaking of alcide (and when am i not?), so if he's such a stand-up guy, why does he keep lying to the girlfriend?  he so obviously hearts sookie.  no wonder debbie's pissed.

is it possible that alcide doesn't know sam merlotte?  don't all men who love(d) sookie know each other? i was sure he'd recognize him when he showed up at marcus' but nope.

in dire situations, why doesn't sookie think to use her "gift" more often?  like, why not continue to "listen" to debbie for a while until you're REALLY sure of her motives?  why did she have to wait for tara to throw her an obvious hint before she even thought to read her mind?  i would've been listening in before i even attempted the break in - what a dodo!

other notable scenes:

jason's comment "when you guys role-play does lafayette ever turn into a woman named mavis?" and terry's advice "i'm going with echelon formation..."  jesus' reaction to both of those idiots was priceless.

mavis grabs lafayette's junk! mavis seemed more surprised that she was a dude than she was at the news that boys can now have boyfriends.  didn't she notice that lafayette was a boy before she jumped into his body??


i'm so glad the creepy doll storyline is over (or is it?).  does this also mean the end of arlene thinking rene is going to come back to get her through mikey?  i hope so.  i don't like mamas being afraid of their babies...that whole "baby not yours" thing was pretty creepy.  and then the spontaneous house fire - could that have all been caused by mavis???  oh no, i'm getting the sinking feeling that we're not out of the woods yet.  frak.

jason's "parrot-phrasing" to jessica.  LOL!  i love when they remind us that jason can be an idiot sometimes.  but i can't believe what went down in the bed of jason's pick-up truck!  i mean, it is jason after all  and it would be so out of character for him not to be making sexy time with someone.  but this is his best friend in the whole world hoyt's ex!  jason was doing so well at behaving...that aside, couldn't they have picked some place less public?  hoyt's gonna be maaad.

what else did i miss?  plenty i'm sure.  feel free to send me a reminder in the comments section!

*names changed to protect those who may be surprised to find themselves in my blog

MasterChef finale: wanna be a jerk? go to hell's kitchen.

some chefs this season really just irked me.  some were bordering on crazy (christine), some you just couldn't help but love (ben starr), some were just hard to watch (esther, could you close your mouth already?), but there were select few that i just wanted to tell to shut.  the hell. up.

suzy:  i didn't mind her at first.  i kept reading comments about how cocky she was and comments from the other contestants.  maybe it was because the comments were coming from max and for me, max was public enemy #1 (more - but not much more - on him later).  i actually felt kinda bad for her when christian (grrrrr) kept saying "suzy, you're gonna losey".  but what i couldn't stand was when she blamed others because she failed to perform.  OMG, adrien made her cook with pork belly, how dare he do that to her "thanks a lot adrien, wah wah wah."  what finally did it for me was at the semifinals when she lamented that "it makes me really pissed off because that could have been my spot.  jennifer took my spot" - whatever, delusional lady! nobody took anything, you squandered it.  stop making engineers look bad.

christian:  this guy just never let up.  it really takes a lot of energy and effort to be THAT arrogant.  ok i get that most professional chefs are extremely arrogant and usually they are not people...people.  but dude, you're not a pro!  you cook at home!  get over yourself.  and why always trash talking the girl?  she's won 3 mystery boxes, does she need a michelin star before you'll acknowledge that she can make a good risotto?  he never accepted any criticism, he never gave any of the other chefs any credit, and he was incapable of learning anything during this experience.  what a complete waste.  and as his final dish, he made meat and potatoes yet criticized adrien for "making rice again".  maybe if he had focused more energy on his own dish and he might have had a chance at the finals.  

max:  i could not wait for this turd to go home - thankfully it happened early.  what a snob!  if you read his masterchef bio online,  he says the first dish he ever made was filet mignon with white truffle macaroni (while others said eggs, grilled cheese, applesauce, etc).  oh, gag.  that's not pretentious at all.

i just didn't understand the excessive need to put other people down this season...particularly by these three.  why not just let your food speak for itself?  OK, OK, i get it.  sound bites guarantee you more face time.  AND i'm sure the producers are asking the "right" questions so as draw out these nasty comments but give it a rest already!  they'd better be careful or else they'll end up going down the trashy road with hell's kitchen.

whew!  i feel much better now i got that off my chest.  so what else was noteworthy about this season?

did they have a masterchef makeover episode that i missed?  what's with all the new hollywood hair going on?  i missed an episode while on vacation so if that did take place, someone please let me know.

flour-gate:  so if you were jennifer, would YOU have lent christian the flour?  here's a better question - if the tables were turned, would christian have helped jennifer?  i'm thinking...no.  you know, when i watch top chef, i see a lot of helping going on because these chefs always want to win based on the their food.  but i also think that had christian not behaved like such an ass, then people would be willing to help him.  i found a small part of myself kinda hoping that jennifer would not be the nice guy, and keep all her flour to herself.  in fact, instead of using the excuse that she needed all her flour and "did not have a square to spare" i wished she had called him to the carpet.  would he have helped her in her time of need?  and i'm sure he would have lied just to get his flour.

i SOOOOOOOO wanted to eat that mushroom ravioli with the egg and the mushroom ragout.  "there's a party in my tummy, so yummy, so yummy!"

adrien's family member called him "chocolate boy" - hahahahahahaha!

what's with the final two kitchen?  do they seriously have to share that teeny tiny circular kitchen space?  if i had to prepare an appetizer, an entree and a dessert in TWO HOURS, i certainly wouldn't want to have to be worrying about bumping asses with someone else every 5 minutes.   where are the ovens??  those things need at least 4 feet of clearance!

*SPOILER ALERT!* - but let's be honest, if you haven't  watched or know the ending by now then you're more behind than i am in posting this...post.

so jennifer is this season's big winner.  shocked?  even my husband was like "i can't believe the girl won" (apparently he was so unimpressed with her that he couldn't bother to learn her name.  i mean, i can see how it can be a difficult name for him to remember because you know, it's not his wife's name or anything).   why is everyone so down on this girl?  is she so undeserving?  i think she performed just as well and as consistently as adrien.   i thought she showed a lot of technique and skill that seems improbable for the "home" chef.  hats off to you girl!  thanks for making me hungry (again).

totally off topic (TOT) - i'm reading a book now called "the immortal life of henrietta lacks" by rebecca skloot and am both amazed and appalled by the story.  i'm really enjoying it but i'm hoping the i won't be disappointed at the end like i have been with the last couple books i've read.  i think this one is a keeper though - check it out!