sam.fitzpatrick

I taped most of the season and watched the finale late last night. For the first time I felt the show was rigged. (1) All four routines received perfect scores for their second dance. No way that the winner's routine was on par with the other dances. As value of the judges' scores are represented as a percentage of the total scores for all teams. As a result, this improved the score for the eventual winner compared to the other dancers. (2) The fan voting was real time and thus only available to the audiences watching the show live. I suspect that the eventual winner's fan base is skewed to those time zones and thus it helped him more than his competitors. I wonder if the fan voting would have had the same result if the standard overnight voting was allowed with a results show the next night as in many of the past seasons.

In her latter years, my grandmother felt she had a right to say anything she thought in public to whomever she felt needed to hear it. We discussed it with her several times and nothing changed. While out for Sunday brunch, she made an inappropriate comment to her great-grandson loudly enough that the customers at nearby tables all stopped talking and stared at my nephew. I stood up without saying anything, released the brakes on here wheelchair and rolled her out the front door to the car. When she claimed that she wasn't done yet, I explained to her why she was done and told her if she ever again made such a comment, I would not join her for family meals again. After many years of conversation, that finally hit the mark. I recommend straight talk now, let her know there will be consequences. Include how her behavior affects your enjoyment of the event and you are tired of it. Let her know if she does it again, you will not be attending future events if she continues the behavior so that you can enjoy the holidays.

Having served on a board of a non-profit, I know that many times specifically donated funds for something like this rarely go to administrative expenses, as an organization like the Red Cross already has the administrative expenses covered from its general fund. Overhead expenses, such as transporting relief supplies, are still incurred, but reduced through donations from businesses of the services and individuals and religious groups volunteering to provide the man-hours needed to deliver the relief.

As if a good, professional photographer couldn't adequately capture this. I hope that if she does leave behind the "artwork" for the grandkids there are also sufficient funds for the years of counseling they may need.

When I got into my car for my drive home from work last night, the radio picked up the middle of an ad from the American Red Cross seeking donations. What I heard was, "to donate to California wildfires, please visit xxx.org or call toll free to (800) xxx-xxxx. Your support is needed. To donate to California wildfires, please visit xxx.org or call toll free to (800) xxx-xxxx." (Yes, the sentence was repeated.) All I could think was, "Those fires are burning just fine without my financial support." This morning I heard the full commercial and the part I missed mentioned how the funds will be used to support the victims of the fires, but the ending of the commercial did in fact ask for donations for "California wildfires" and not "California wildfire relief" or some other phrase representing how they are really using the funds.

I think so, and you asked what her favorite album cover is.

I think you would like Jake Hughes. I visited DC the summer of '17 to do some sightseeing with a friend and had a massage from Jake the night I arrived. https://www.masseurfinder.com/massage-therapists/29878/

In the days of grinder hook ups and all, I'm not sure that any partner you have in the future expect that you've been waiting for Mr. Perfect. That being the case, I know that I've hired fewer times than the number of hook-ups some friends have had. So if the discussion comes up about your sexual past, feel comfortable stating that you've had x partners. If asked how you met someone, feel free to use one of the answers I use truthfully: "we met on-line" or "I was feeling lonely and wanted a hook up, and I saw his ad."

Save me a seat at your table!

"Did you mean to leave this at the front door?"

I've had several users of walkers indicate that they like having a basket on their walkers. Perhaps things are more likely to fall to the floor with a tray?

I saw this film this morning and enjoyed it quite a bit. While I wouldn't say that I'm a Queen fan (other than Freddy Mercury, I couldn't name a member of the band before seeing the movie), I do enjoy several of their songs. It is the music that makes the film.

Three siblings were killed in the Indiana this week while waiting for their bus in the dark.

I'm splitting hairs, but I don't mind performance numbers at a wedding IF (and this is a big IF) they are not the couple's first dance. The first dance should be all about the couple, and I think a production number takes away from the meaning of the moment. If the couple wants to do a choreographed number after the ritual dances (couple, mother/son, parents, etc.) are completed, I'm fine with that.

Growing up in Indiana we didn't have it. Working as I did in a role that I interacted with colleagues across the country, it was always fun trying to remember whether Green Bay was an hour behind us or on the same time. I loved that AZ was always two hours behind. Then I had to move to Ohio and remember that my mom in Indiana was an hour behind Ohio during the summer. I tend to be a person who awakes with the sunrise. These last couple of weeks are really tough getting out of bed. (During the summer, I'm up well before the alarm goes off at 6:00, even on the weekends.)

In high school, one of my duties as class treasurer was to manage pop machines we used for fundraising. Back then our machines only accepted coins as a can of soda was only twenty-five cents. Most machines have two internal change mechanisms, one for quarters and one for nickels. Usually, they are self-filling with the quarters fed to the machine feeding the top of the quarter change mechanism, but on occasion it still requires and attendant to resupply the change. As I recall, it would be possible for the attendant to slide in a nickel rather than quarter for the change device. Back in the day, the most a 'change maker' could hold in a machine was about $25 dollars.

On tonight's epidsode, Corky had a line that had me laughing so hard I nearly fell out of my chair. The show is showing moments of what made it my favorite back in the day.

I'm now signing those darn electronic screens more often than I'm signing paper documents. My 2nd grade teacher who taught me how to write cursive would have a few things to say about how much my handwriting has deteriorated.

I have attended the last two years and the pool party has been in the afternoon. Both years, I left before the activities were over to limit my time out in the sun, so you shouldn't have any problems showing up for work on Monday.

Agreed - - my absolutely, without any question, worst hotel experience was at a Helmsley Hotel. My skin crawls just typing this message thinking back 20+ years ago.

This week's episode was better. And Jim Dial was on.

Thank you - I've made the edit.

Avalon, Congrats! I'm sure that even for just getting around your residence you will find great benefit. I've had two family members that resisted getting them for a while. My grandmother in particular didn't get one for more than two years after her physician recommended it. In addition to providing her stability when walking, it also allowed (forced) better posture and she realized that she was sleeping better at night. Hopefully you will find many benefits.

Agree. I thought this week's episode was the first of the three I've seen that didn't feel forced. Still needing more time to fully sit in.

My sister contacted me as she was watching the premier and she indicated I needed to watch it. I didn't think it was awful and added to my DVR recording schedule, but it is at the bottom of the list, so if there are other shows on my list, it will not get recorded and I will not miss it. However, I do think it is better than some of the sitcoms on the air and there is little TV that is geared to an older generation, so it might actually gain a following. Even though most of his lines are bad, I do enjoy the way Leslie Jordan is able to deliver them. It is good to see an openly-gay character older than me on TV.