Oh man, the news we have been waiting to hear! The Amazing Race is finally going to have overseas productions, including one “for the Asia-Pacific region!!!” DUDE, WE ARE SO APPLYING. But wait, who will take on the role of Phil? He’s a Kiwi; he should do our show too! (If Eddie McGuire is waiting for me on the mat, he’s going to get a kick in the nuts…)

• Man, how awesome is Survivor Stephanie? She’s tough and she’s optimistic and she eats bird fetuses and she’s got great abs and she Dutch-braids her own hair. (Mental note: Update goals in WW notebook to read “Become Stephanie.”) I feel like if I knew her in real life I’d probably hate her because we’d both be so competitive, but I love watching her kick butt on the show. Well, “kick butt” in the sense of “trying really hard in the face of relentless defeat.” Oh, and let us never speak of the bird fetuses again, because I’m still cringing. That is my ultimate, ULTIMATE nightmare. The Snook kept laughing at my horror. I was like, “You don’t understand. The notion of a Very Small Animal being in my hand scares the bejesus out of me, so the thought of having one in my mouth…” HORROR.
• I can’t believe I didn’t mention this, but what’s up with Days changing Belles on me TWICE IN TWO WEEKS? I never even realized how much I liked the first actress, but man, Belle #2 brought it home big time. She sucked. She was a bad actress, she had no chemistry with either Philip or Shawn, and – it feels shallow to admit it but hey, I’m talking about a soap here – she was really unattractive. A total minger. Within the space of one episode my interest in that storyline dropped about 500%. I started actively rooting for Jan to complete Shawn’s brainwashing and win him over. But just as soon as I’d resigned myself to the situation… they changed her again! Belle #3 is definitely prettier and less whiny, but she’s still no Original Belle. She has sort of a pinched, anorexic look about her. Gain five pounds, Belle #3, and you could vault to the top of my Favorite Belle List! And now I’m back to hating crazy psycho Jan.
• As far as I can tell it hasn’t aired in the US yet, so you Americans simply MUST watch Operatunity when it comes on PBS. It’s a documentary shot a few years ago in England where non-professional singers vied to be chosen to perform with the English National Opera. (“Opera Idol,” if you will.) I absolutely loved it, even though I totally guessed the ultimate winners really early. I still cried when they won though. There were just all these normal people who had a gift – albeit one with not a lot of practical use today – and most of them had given up so much of their dreams along the way. The big finalé performance was on Sunday and I’ve got it taped to watch this weekend. Can’t wait…
• We’re still gamely watching each episode of Desperate Housewives, but it’s really not catching on with either me or the Snook. Every now and then we halfheartedly make a prediction about the mystery, but mostly we just don’t care. I don’t predict we’ll be TiFauxing it much longer.
• Lost, on the other hand, has us and most of Australia hooked. We actually missed the last episode (since it conflicted with Operatunity) but it seems several the Snook’s co-workers were able to burn copies for him. I’m dying to figure out who whacked Sayid when he was triangulating the signal.
• Oh, and in case you haven’t visited our house in the last month and been personally subjected to a viewing, the Snook and I are officially obsessed with Arrested Development. We’ve watched the entire Series 1 DVDs (Thank you Kel!), like, three times now. I must admit, my favorite character of all is Buster. I say “Hey, Hermano!” at least once a day. Unfortunately we’re going to have to wait til Season 2 airs here, I think. The Snook’s been nosing around on the torrent sites and apparently only the more recent episodes are available, and we don’t want to watch them out of order. Damn!