QE
 

I'm only responding to mention that a few months ago I bought the modular coffee tables from West Elm and I'm very happy with them. There are a few other things in that catalogue that I have my eye on, and I wish their website were more developed.

QE
 

I like Kyan and think he's good at what he does, but I don't think he's really gay. If he were, he would know that his head is too big for his body and therefore he should not wear such tiny clothes.

I think he lied about being gay to get the gig, and wearing low slung pants and saying "product" instead of "products" is part of the act.

And Atticus, I think you need to have more sex with your wife, and pay less attention to the guys on this show.

news in brief
 

Alright, The Onion has quite possibly its best "News In Brief" stories ever this week.

http://www.theonion.com/onion3931/index.html

So, check it out already! Sheesh.

SO Mistakes
 

S'OK, Paigow. One day maybe you'll get to date a coke addict.

SO mistakes
 

Cat Person/Rebound Guy. Disaster and should've been mere coffee pals. Later, in sincere effort to make friends with cat, bought it organic (super-potent, apparently) catnip that instantly turned mellow Fluffy into a psychotic self-destructive violent crack whore who shredded the entire freaking dorm with its claws and then disappeared on drug binge for several days.

Wish him well wherever he is though, and hope Fluffy got into detox okay.

Significant SO Mistakes
 

I'll boil a long story down to this key phrase: "ABBA, you better do what I want because you know I have a gun."

Reeeeeeestraaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnniiiiiiiiiiinng Oooooordeeeeeer.

QE
 

I like Ted, but, like Jai, they sure don't give him much to do. And having Kyan explaining to people how to shave is going to grow old. Thom is the star, clearly, although the annoying camerawork they use when they compare the old and new can make it hard to grasp all that they've done.

QE
 

I love West Elm. But I cannot imagine actually living with stuff so low. Anyone have the sofas or chairs?

QE
 

Alas Kyan IS gay. The only thing that makes his gayness more palatable to me is the fact that he would be way out of league anyway if he was straight. He is gay and he had a crush on the male stripper they had on the show.

I agree with Atticus that Thom has done a great job with the rooms. I liked the West Elm stuff, but agree that it was more of a phone in this week. But for my Kyan-crush, Thom is my favorite. But Carson will be the star b/c he is laugh-out-loud funny.

[I got Al Franken's permission to use "funny"]

QE
 

You fool. He is mine now.

QE
 

She actually didn't want out of the relationship. He got all weird and backed out. Then he wanted to change the relationship so that he could just screw whenever he wanted. She wasn't going for it, although last I heard, he spent the night at some point last week. I haven't talked to Diana about the episode since she's seen it, so I can't give you her impression.

She's very cool, which would explain why she was underwhelmed. I thought the guy was a fucking dork, but I guess she's into that type.

As for the episode, Carson had some good one liners as always. They did a great job with his apartment, but the clothes were just kind of whatever. I think they're going to run out of "big events" pretty soon.

TM

QE
 

Come to think of it, I think that Shrek/Andrew was a camera guy on the crew. Perhaps they selected him to be the next SG as a form of revenge.

Agreed, though, that Thom both has the most to work with, and does the most with it.

QE
 

What is the quality like? I've been eyeing several things in there for months, but I can't find anyone who has any of their stuff. And, of course, there are no retail stores anywhere...

I just don't want to spend several hundred for shipping, and then decide I'm not happy with the quality, only to spend several hundred shipping it back, if their return policy even allows that.

QE
 

I have two words for the SG. Jack Osbourne.

QE
 

FWIW, there's an interesting review in Newsweek about QE, which goes into some of the backgrounds of each of the Fab 5, etc. One logistical point that I had wondered about before -- even though it appears that the magic is done in a single day, it really takes more like 3 -- they put the SG up in a hotel until the home is done over.

(Given the magnitude of the home makeovers, I had wondered how Thom managed to do it in a single day without a stroke.)

QE
 

Nice. I was thinking more of the unknown lost member of Barenaked Ladies...

But I'm Feeling Much Better Now
 

Welcome back Wonk. And I'm sure there has been, including a mention of the term pegging.

QE
 

That's the main reason that I got the small stackable coffee tables; sort of a test run.

I like the quality. Very solid wood, nicely finished, and smooth. Not too light. The furniture was well packed, and UPS could have probably thrown the box out of one of its trucks and nothing would have happened to my coffee tables.

I think that when I break down and buy a wide screen TV, I'll get the low long coffee table to use as an entertainment center.

The catalogue is owned by Williams-Sonoma, who also owns Pottery Barn, though I don't know if the furniture is manufactured in the same place.

QE
 

Thom does great work, but I'm afraid his will be the least long lived of the changes. Given what absolute pigs this guys all are, in a month you know there will be stacks of crap all over the new furniture, and the room will look very much the same. the SG might still get the new hair cut and buy clothes similar to what Carson got him, but unless they bring in a gay behavoir modification guy, the rooms will all look like crap again very very soon.

SO Mistakes
 

I once dated an alcoholic. She did not seem like one when we met, but the good behavior ended early on in the relationship, and things eventually turned abusive, first verbally, and then physically. She only got to hit me once, though. I called the police and I pressed charges. She did 30 days.

It was a lesson learned for me - I am much better at reading the signs than I used to be, and I am a lot less tolerant of verbally abusive behavior. In retrospect, it amazes me that I did not get out of that relationship earlier, but at the time, I just didn't believe that it could turn violent.

Now, I only date happy drunks!

BB4
 

Not a Spoiler, so no SS.

Best part of last night's show came early on when the more thoughtful HGs (Erika and Jack) were discussing how they didn't know anything that was going on in the outside world and that so much could have happened in the last 5 weeks. In what was apparently the same conversation, Erika discussed how she had met the Lakers once, and that Kobe Bryant seemed like such a great guy, a real family man, devoted husband, such a good guy, etc. etc. You couldn't make this stuff up if you tried.

That said, I agree with PP's analysis that the 5 Stooges should keep Nathan around, but I don't think they will. I think Nathan's gone unanimously (or maybe gets a sympathy vote from Allison if she gets permission from Justin) and becomes . . . the second member of our jury.

Think back to the Survivor with Brian, Clay, Ted, Helen and Jan as the final 5:

Brian = Justin
Clay = Robert
Ted = Jee
Helen = Jun
Jan = Allison

Eerie, isn't it. Jun and Allison better kiss and make up with Erika and Jack before it's too late. If they think that they can make Robert and Jee give up their man-crushes on Justin, they're insane. If Justin gets past this week, he's got the BB4 game in a choke-hold.

Relationship Mistakes
 

You should have hit her harder. That always results in a reduction in the total number of assaults.

TM

SO Mistakes
 

Wow, that really sucks. I'm sorry.

Sometimes, I wish we could just tattoo people's issues on their upper arms, so you can check more easily.

PIs are too expensive, friends and family are too unreliable.

SO Mistakes
 

'S OK - it was a long time ago, and no real harm done. The tattoo idea has promise, though. . .

Secret life
 

So this millionaire guy in Florida was leading a secret life - had 2 families. What makes a man do this and do you think the girlfriend knew about the wife?

Millionaire led 30-year double life
TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 12 — While their wives drove Rolls-Royces and moved among Tampa’s elite, Douglas S. Cone and Donald Carlson always seemed busy with business. Cone, the 74-year-old millionaire owner of a Tampa highway construction company, was gone most weekdays. Carlson was also frequently away from home — an absence his family attributed to a sensitive government job that required him to travel for long stretches. But those business trips masked a shocking secret.
DOUGLAS S. CONE was Donald Carlson.
Cone lived a secret double life for nearly 30 years, raising two affluent families in lavish homes 20 miles apart — one with his wife of 52 years and the other with a former employee.
By all accounts, Jean Ann Cone never suspected her husband was using an alias to carry on a relationship with Hillary Carlson, 18 years her junior. He fathered three children with his wife and two with Carlson.
The double life unraveled this spring only after Jean Ann Cone died at 75 and Cone married Hillary Carlson two weeks later. Friends said they learned of his new marriage in Sumter County, about an hour north of Tampa, when the local newspaper printed a listing of local marriages.
In March, she was found dead in the driver’s seat of her Rolls-Royce in the garage of the Cones’ 4,000-square-foot brick home on the golf course of the city’s most prestigious gathering spot, the Palma Ceia Country Club.
She had last been seen alive by a friend who had escorted her home from a small social gathering and watched her drive into the garage and close the door behind her. Police believed she passed out after she had parked the car but before she turned the engine off.
your cite

QE
 

Nah, just move the show to flyover land. They could stay busy in Minnesota for years.

Also it's too bad QE's broadcast network deal is with NBC because I'd love to see the guys do something with Jack's hair and glasses on BB4. He's like Prince Valiant with male pattern balding.

QE
 

In all fairness, Thom gets the crap clean-up-the-nasty-mess job of all of them. I actually liked the idea of using the crack pipe for a new purpose at dessert...

QE
 

Oh please - those QE boys would fly out here, spend one Saturday night with the Flower, and realize that there were simply no improvements to be made. "A straight man prettier than we are . . . how can it be?" "His fashion sense is . . . beyong reproach. Remarkable!" "He already owns a William Sonoma mini-blow torch! He even was able to pattern the carmelized sugar in the most astounding manner. We are truly humbled."

That is an episode that I would want to see.

QE
 

plus I bet your porno isn't strewn all about the place, but is well organized

QE
 

Did they find a crack pipe and show that? If so, I missed it. I thought the episode was quite funny for the first half, and then bogged down.

As for Cupid, they are going to have a problem of too many guys, needing to push the intimacy, but not having her look like a slut or offend the final few guys.

As for BB4, Alison may be more bald-faced and evil than Will, but far less smart or funny about it. Still, Nathan is a whiny pussy, almost as whiny as Amy on Paradise Hotel, who still doesn't get that she was not entitled to stay on the show with her man.

Less (needs an intervention) inSF

Go outside and see "the greatest city in the world"!
 

Seriously. You live in SF. Why are you watching so much TV?

But I'm Feeling Much Better Now
 

Pegging? Nobody hipped me to that, Dude. But then, I'm not sure I really want to know.

Go outside and see "the greatest city in the world"!
 

Well, the Tivo, coupled with the mad recapping that goes on in all the reality shows, results in Less only watching about 15 minutes of tv per night.

TM, when you talk to Diana, I expect the full report back.

That is all.

But I'm Feeling Much Better Now
 

It is when a woman puts on a strap on and performs anal sex upon her boyfriend. I suppose it could be on a girlfriend too, I forget whether it was specific to being done to a certain gender.

But I'm Feeling Much Better Now
 

Then be sure not to miss "gaping."

QE
 

Exactly. "His DVDs are sub-categorized and alphebetized within sub-categories, and there is an index cross-referencing them by release date, porn star, and money shot count. How does he do it?!?"

QE
 

Kyan and Franklin crushes in the same week? You may need a new nickname if Franklin doesn't turn out to be the straight mate.

Synthetic Diamonds
 

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/diamond.html

Spree: all about synthetic diamonds and how DeBeer's is scared as hell. Good.

Best quote: "Wrong, says Jef Van Royen, a senior scientist at the Diamond High Council, the official representative of the diamond industry in Belgium. "If people really love each other, then they give each other the real stone," he says, during an interview at council headquarters on the Hoveniersstraat in Antwerp. "It is not a symbol of eternal love if it is something that was created last week.""

But I'm Feeling Much Better Now
 

I'm reasonably certain that it was gender specific - boyfriend.

QE
 

Actually my Franklin crush has faded. He is cute, but last night he seemed a little awkward and young. Yes, Kyan wins my "most likely gay" crush for the moment.