Mixed bag

Bunch of random things today.

My counter has disappeared. I spent half an hour trying to get it to reappear. The best answer I can find from the on-line "knowledge base" is that there is some other java script on the page that is basically cancelling out the counter's code. So I removed everything in the sidebar. Still no counter. It's still keeping track of my visits (I'm currently at 5134) but you can't see the number over there. Times like this I have to remember that book, "Don't sweat the small stuff."

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I went with my parents to look at some of the houses in the North Carolina Parade of Homes today. We started out at the top: $989,000 in Cary. I think the cheapest one was $312,000. I think our favorite was "Rex's Request," weighing in at $414,000 and 3000 square feet.


A lot of the homes had neat ceilings:




These doors were popular:


One home featured bamboo flooring, which is my favorite, although I prefer a wider reed:


There were a lot of mud rooms and wainscoting:


And of course all the houses had immaculate, though not lush, landscaping:


I had hoped we'd make it to some of the homes in Raleigh that are actually in my price range, but since it only goes from 12-5, we didn't have time. Oh, well, it's not like I'm buying right now anyway.

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It's been about three weeks or so since most of the new shows started for the fall season. I started watching many, but only a select few remain on my must-see list.

Jericho - It's still kind a creepy, but it's keeping my interest. There's the realism aspect of how do these people survive, but there's also a bit of mystery as to why one resident of the town seems to have known the bombs were coming.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - You've gotta love how running an SNL-type show gets the same gravitas as running the country got in West Wing.

Brothers and Sisters - Kind of a bizarre mix of problems, some relatively unique (war vet son who's lost his way, tension between liberal mother and conservative daughter, pension fraud at the family company, dead patriarch's decades-long affair revealed) and some tried-and-true (married couple feels strain of mother's workaholic tendencies, career woman forced to choose between dream job and potential husband). The writing and casting are excellent.

Men in Trees - Lighthearted fluff perfect for a Friday night. Anne Heche is always highly watchable and her antics up in Alaska are entertaining. Good supporting characters too. I love the young innocent couple.

The shows I started watching but have dropped:

Heroes - Did not grab me after two episodes. Kind of comic-booky which is not my thing.

Ugly Betty - Too cartoony. The performances are over the top. I like the underlying premise (unattractive girl makes good in the big city) but it is kind of annoying to watch, and ricidulously predictable. But, it's on before Grey's Anatomy so I usually catch the last 15 minutes or so.

Six Degrees - I gave this one a fair shake...three episodes...but it just wasn't intriguing enough. These characters are supposed to be linked somehow but beyond one dropping a coin and another picking it up hours later, the writers didn't give me enough to pique my interest.

As for returners from last year:

Lost - It feels like it's moving very slooooow because we've been through two weeks of the new season and we still don't have an update on what's going on in the hatch. One of the reasons Lost was so good before was because the developments happend fast and furious. I hope things pick up quickly. I have enjoyed the flashbacks, though. I also feel like every little line is like a clue for something, but not in a good way. It's like the writers know people eat this stuff up, and so they throw in random things as if they're doing you a favor by dropping a crumb, but all it does is add to the confusion. But I still maintain that it's a well-crafted show.

Grey's Anatomy - Oh my word, this is a good show. I can't believe I started out not liking it when it started a while ago. It wasn't until the Superbowl episode (with the bomb) that I fell for it. I love all the characters, and I also love reading the writers' blog on Fridays to hear what they have to say about the previous night's episode. It always adds some insight.

Desperate Housewives - I look forward to it because it's entertaining and I like the characters, but it does have me in its grip like Grey's Anatomy does.

I also watch Amazing Race 10, but wish they'd get the heck out of Asia already. Of all the continents on the planet, that's the one I'd least like to visit. I watched What About Brian last year (it was only on for like 5 episodes) and I taped the permiere last week but haven't seen it yet. I wanted to watch The Nine, but it's on against Project Runway. PR will soon be over (I'll be happy if Uli or Laura wins, and furious if Jeffrey wins) so maybe then I'll catch up with The Nine on abc.com, then start watching it. I've heard good things about it.

Dude, I watch too much TV.