Folks are home for a week, and this is allowing me not to work on the puppies quite so much. I am still the primary person on puppy-patrol, but nice to have some help!

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After a year of talking about it, a friend and I started a Cafe Press store. Once it’s all set up I’ll link everyone, but we have a billion ideas for products.

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The very first rough draft of my new company web site was up for us to see. Very exciting. Can’t wait to get all started on it and get it done!

Let me just say, I have NOTHING against little Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt. She is an innocent little girl. What I have problem with is “Brangelina” and the press obsession with them. Let us not forget that Mr. Pitt left his wife, Jennifer Anniston, for Ms. Jolie. Let us not forget this whole debacle is the result of an AFFAIR! If there were problems between Brad and Jennifer, I’m sorry and they should have gone to go to counseling. Having an affair with your co-star and setting up a family very publically is a bit much. Every newspaper must be like a dagger to Aniston right now.

Today I heard that Jolie & Pitt are asking $5 Million for the first pictures of their baby and it will be donated to charities in Nambia. Yay for the charities, but whatever media outlet coughs up $5 Million for this needs to be kicked squarely in their teeth. This insane cycle of celebrities having children with bizarre names and then selling the rights to their first pictures is such a perverted form of jourmalism, it disgusts me.

Yet, the sales of these issues must warrant the amounts they are paying, so then you have to ask why people are so interested in this stuff? So the question then becomes, in this paticular case, we come back to does no one remember that this is all the product of an affair? Are we not glorifying someone who broke the sanctity of marriage? Someone who broke his marital vows, had an affair and left his wife? People are so concerned with how gay marriage may effect the sanctity of marriage, but hey, two pretty people had a kid from an affair, let’s put them up on a pedestal! I could care less how anyone feels about gay marriage, but you have to see the hyprocicsy here.

So do me, and journalism in general a favor, when these outrageously over-priced pictures come out, don’t purchase whatever magazine they are in. All you are doing is helping the vicious, never-ending cycle.

You know, I wonder how many people ever pay attention anymore to what Memorial Day is about? It seems anymore it is ONLY about “the unofficial start to Summer” as I heard endlessly on the news today. I heard lots about grills, box office numbers for movies and traffic, but the mentions of the true meaning seemed to be totally secondary.

This past year I learned a lot about Remembrance Day from my froeign friends. They take it very seriously, and it is not just some day off from work. It is set to an actual date that means something to them, the anniversary of the end of World War I. Ours floats, attached to no signficant event.

I hope you all had a safe Memorial Day, but I also hope you all took a moment to remember all of our fallen soldiers.

The Apprentice is almost over, The Apprentice is almost over! Can you tell I’m thrilled?

The teams were down to Allie and Roxanne on Synergy versuses Lee and Sean on Gold Rush. They were summoned to meet with the Donald, Don Jr. and Ms. Pouty-lips herself, Ivanka. Their task was to create four new uniforms for Embassy Suites main employees:front desk, breakfast cook, suite keeper, and bellman. The judges would be actual Embassy Suites employees.

Lee was up as GR project manager and they went immediately to meet with the Embassy executives to understand what they were looking for. They then went off to meet with actual employees to see what it was they want from the uniforms. They opted it would be best to rework the current uniforms with improvements.

Allie was leadign Synergy and followed the same course of meetings. The big difference for them is that they decided on a total ground-up redeisgn of the uniforms. Allie seemed to have an odd obsession with culottes, which none of the employees they talked to even knew what they were. Not a good sign.

GR quickly met with Edward, their deginer from Lafayette 148. The meeting and designs were quick, and they were off to purchase fabrics. Allie and Roxanne met with their designer, Marc, and Allie insisted on skrts for the front desk female clerks. This didn’t thrill Roxanne as the actual employees had insisted they preferred pants, but she kept her mouth shut for some unknown reason.

When Marc didn’t take things the way Allie wanted him to, she was very vocal with him and Roxanne felt he should be left alone since he was the expert. WHAT?!? A person on this show who thinks the “expert” actually knows best?!? How did she get on this show? Is their screening getting lax?

After the fashion show to show the designs to the employees, GR received 83 votes to Synergy’s 37. If you saw Synergy’s designs, you would have to agree, they were just plain old horrible! As their reward for winning, Lee and Sean got to have dinner with Ivanka and Donald Jr.. I think I would have asked for a different reward. It is supposed to allow them insight in to Donald, but, you know, I can not imagine a worst dinner than sitting with Pouty Lips and Hair Boy Jr..

The boardroom saw the “friends” fall in to the traditional “it’s all her fault!” mentality, and went so far as a a shouting match. Well, the Donald was disappointed with both of them and sent them both packing.

Unless you were under a rock yesterday, there is no way you did not hear about Cheyenne Nebraska County District Judge Kristine Cecava and her insane sentancing of a child molestor. It seems Richard Thompson stahnds just 5′1″ and weighs around 100 pounds. He pleaded no contest to two counts of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl, and so he should have received a stern sentance. The judge noted the such a serious crime deserved a long prison sentance…instead he got “intensive supervised probation”. She also stated that he was not a sexual predator.

If the people of Nebraska retain her the next time she is on the ballot, they get what they deserve. This judge is clearly not cut out for this job. I could care less if this guy would have a hard time in prison, do you think that sort of though crossed his mind when he molested this girl? I doubt it. He belongs in prison, and if something happens to him while there, oh well, too bad.

This will mean nothing to 99.9% of the world, but Desmond Dekker passed away yesterday. Born Desmond Adolphus Dacres in Kingston, Jamica on July 16th, 1941, Desmond would go on to be one of the biggest driving forces in Ska music. To the Ska community, this is the equivilant of losing someone like Elvis. Everyone in the Ska scene knows of Desmond, an especially his song, “The Israelites”. (video below)

Like I said, I doubt this matters to anyone who reads my blog, but it’s a big deal to me. Desmond was so influential, his presence will be greatly missed.

July 16, 1941 – May 24, 2006

Well, they seem to be doing well at home and made it almost the whole day until just before bed. Was weird, they had JUST been out, were wrestling and had accidents, both at the same time. Was very odd. At work…ugh, that was a whole nother kettle of fish. Multiple accidents from both. I think the problem there is they have to go out on leads and they do not like them at all. They will do their business on them, but reluctantly. Going to have to work on that more.

The fighting continues, but it is so funny at this point. Tonight I was sitting on the floor with them and they were having an all out brawl over who would get to lick my arm.

Wake up time slid to 6:18 AM, so I am hoping to slide them a bit more each day so I can get some sleep. Since all the employees left today on a business trip, when they went down for a nap, so did I…on the floor of the office. Felt sooooo much better after that. I did leave them for about an hour today, but Grandma graciouslly came over and was their puppysitter while they napped and I went to a technology demo I had scheculed weeks ago. (Just wish it had been more exciting)

I did have one friend tonight stage an “intervention” with me as she said I was quickly turning in to one of those parents who couldn’t talk about anything but their newborns. She’s right, but I think it is all a matter of finding a balance and I’ll get there!

Well we had some good advances and some problems with the pups today.

Lead training - Went much, MUCH better today. They didn’t fight me going out on the leads at work, and they walked back in with no help on the indication that we were going in. Winston even did both his jobs on the lead today, a first!

Wake up time - 7:20 AM YES! Sean got some sleep last night!

Accidents - Well, they used the potty pad at work…then played tug of war with it and went on to an accident each. Not sure why I am having such a problem at work. We’ll work on it though.

Winston and Iams - It would seem Iams does not agree with Winston and it came up after a couple of hours. Poor guy. I’ll be looking in to switching him back to Eukanuba. He had no problems on it.

Personalities - I am loving watching the differences pop up. Winston is perfectly content to sit in your lap quietly and cuddle. Patrick will for a few minutes and then he wants to go off somewhere. Winston is frighteningly smart at figuring out flaws in the run. We blocked off the bottom stair to the deck…well that last a few days. He made it to the fifth step tonight. We are now calling him “safe cracker”.

So, as the title says, this may seem dog heavy for awhile, but if today was any indication, they are all I will be doing for awhile!

I slept on the couch last night so they would know where I was and let me know when they were ready to go out. Well, little did I know that would 6:00 AM. After letting them out, I was treated to an hour of professional wrestling and ganwing on my toes. I got back to bed for 45 minutes and had to get up for their vet check-up. (which they passed)

They came to work for the day and had a couple accidents, so I spent a lot of time running them out to the parking lot. When we got home they got to play for their run for the first time and, wow, if you didn’t know better, you would say these dogs hate each other, but when they sleep, they sleep right on each other.

So today’s observations? Winston is the brighter one while Patrick is the more bull-in-a-chinashop. Winston is further along in potty training and had NO accidents tonight! YAY! Hopefully he will help teach Patrick.

I am on my way to Illinois to get two puppies, this one:

And another I will pick out once I am there!

Name suggestions welcome!!!

It took 9 races, but at long last, the Amazing Race hit Tokyo! Finally, a foreign city I know!

BJ & Tyler (AKA the Hippies) were the first ones out of the gate at 11:18 PM for the beginning of the final portion of the race. Opening their clue, they learned they were to travel 75 miles by taxi to the Royal Kraal. Once there, an elephant dressed in ceremonial gear would give them a T-Mobile Sidekick that contained their next clue. Once they got there, they saw the facility didn’t open until 4:00 AM, meaning all the teams would be together again.

Sure enough, Eric & Jeremy (the Frats) and Ray & Yolanda (RaY) caught up and they all entered together. Once they got their Sidekicks, they read them and discovered they would all be flying 7,000 miles to Tokyo! YES! Once there, they would get a car and drive in to Shibuya. Once there, they would watch the giant video screens for a hint to where their next clue was.

The Hippies made a mistake in thinking a Japanese airline would get them there faster, but they weren’t going to get in until 4:00 PM and RaY and the Frats were going to get in at 2:15 PM. The big advantage for the Hippies though was Tyler’s extensive past in Japan and his ability to speak the language. (I have since learned that the Hippies can speak 36 languages between the two of them) Once in Japan, the Frats got to their car and made it to Shibuya, but RaY got lost, so lost the Hippies bypassed them getting to the infamous intersection.

In Shibuya crossing, considered the busiest intersection in the world, the teams scanned the numerous giant video displays until they finally apotted the message “Find Hachiko”, a famous statue of a faithful dog that is known to just about everyone in Japan. Once they located the statue (not that far from where they were standing) they found a young Japanese man wearing a yellow & red scarf that gave them their next clue, the Detour for this leg.

In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Maiden and Messenger. In Maiden, Teams would travel seven miles by taxi to a Japanese garden and use a palanquin, a centuries old method of transporting Asian royalty, to carry a maiden one third of a mile to a tea ceremony. In Messenger, Teams needed to travel on foot 200 yards to a parking lot where they would pick up a pair of folding bikes and two messenger bags, each containing a parcel. Then, after assembling the bikes, they would to ride through the chaotic Tokyo traffic and deliver the packages to two separate buildings listed on each parcel.

I wasn’t shocked when the Hippies were the only team to take Messenger. I would have been torn, Tokyo street numbers aren’t sequential, but I still would have been tempted to take it. The Hippies flew through their task, and both them and the Frats finished before RaY even started. Once the teams finished, they were directed to go to Capsule Land Hotel Shibuya. You guessed it…the infamous hotel “rooms” big enough to lay in and nothing else. The teams were given departure times starting at 9:00 AM and every 15 minutes after that. The order was Frats, Hippies and RaY.

Starting at 9:00 AM, the teams departed with their clues telling them to drive 80 miles to Fujikyu Highlands, a popular amusement park at the foot of Mt. Fuji. The Hippies caught up to, and passed the Frats, yay for being able to know the language! RaY…yeah…they did bad. Lost again, a lost toll booth ticket and general slowness put them way behind the other two teams. As each team arrived they discovered a Roadblock:

“In this Roadblock, one Team member had to experience the adrenaline rush of three consecutive thrill rides: The Pizza, Denbo and Fujiyama. While coping with the rides, they also had to maintain enough composure to spot a man holding a sign with a message somewhere along the way on one of the rides. Once they completed the three rides, they would tell a park manager what message they saw to earn their next clue.”

During their rides, Tyler tried to convince Jeremy he had missed the sign they were looking for on the second ride, but he caught on. Everyone caught the sign on the third ride and got their clue directing them to the Pit Stop on Lake Yamanaka, seven miles away. They were to take swan shaped foot-peddled boats out to a popular tourist boat known as The Big Swan.

As the Hippies and the Frats arrived at the same time, we were treated to the awe-inspiring sight of a swan boat race…it was…interesting. The Hippies won and for coming in first they won T-Mobile Sidekicks with 3 years of service. As they stood on the mat together, the Frats whines about Tyler’s attempt at deception and how it was dirty playing. Oh…you mean like cancelling cabs? Guess that was clean. RaY came in third.

As the next leg, the last of the race, started, the teams learned they had to drop their cars off and fly 9,000 miles to Anchorage, Alaska. The Hippies took off at 12:18 AM and got back to the hotel where they had first gotten their cars. The bus to the airport didn’t leave for a few hours, so they asked the front desk if they had internet access they could use. They said they could go up to the second floor and use the computer room. Before they did, they asked the clerks to tell the other teams there was no internet.

The Frats arrived and asked for internet access, the front desk clerk said “Yes”, but then turned to “No” and seemed to no longer be able to speak English. The Frats thought it was odd, but just sat in the lobby. An hour later, after booking a flight online, the Hippies came walking in to the lobby and tried to play off that they got lost. The Frats seemed suspicious, but shrugged it off, but the front desk clerks were smiling from ear-to-ear.

The Frats booked a flight throguh Taipei, Taiwan once they were at Narita (my airport I fly through! So cool seeing places I know so well on the Race!). They really thought they had pulled one over the other teams, but they found later flights to Taipei that put them all on the same flight to Anchorage. Once there, they found marked cars and opened clues telling to drive 30 miles to Mirror Lake.

RaY got lost…again. I swear, those two have NO sense of direction. The Hippies and the Frats arrived at the same time and opened thier clues to discover their last Detour:

“In Drill It, Teams needed to use an auger to drill ten holes in Mirror Lake and then push a shack across the lake to cover at least two of the holes in order to set up an ice fishing camp. In Deliver It, Teams had to load a bush plane with medical supplies and, using a map to navigate, direct their pilot to an airfield to deliver the supplies to a first aid station.”

Small problem…the planes were grounded due to weather, so everyone was going to have to do Drill It. The Frats won int hat race, but not by huge leaps. Once the teams finished up here, they got a clue telling them to drive 26 miles to Kincaid Park, put on snow shoes and search the park for their next clue.

At the park, you could tell excitement was getting to the Hippies as tehy ran past the snow shoes three times before spotting them. The Frats got through this task fast, the Hippies were slow. Once they got their clues, they were instructed to fly back to Denver, Colorado and take a taxi 30 miles to Clear History Park in Golden, and search the grounds for a clue. The flight to Denver again equalized everyone, but oh well. It didn’t matter, RaY got lost…again. I wonder how they find their ways to work each day.

The clue at Clear History told them to travel six miles to Red Rock Ampitheater, the starting point of the race. I don’t ever remember the race ending where it began before, so this was kinda cool. The final challange involved running in to a field of 285 flags and finding the flags for each country they had visited on the race and putting them in the correct order that they went to each. The Frats were out of order and picking the wrong flags, the Hippies couldn’t find the Russian flag, but otherwise were in order. Once they figured out the Russia problem, they shifted the flags and were given the go ahead to head to the final pit stop.

After 59,000 miles, 10 countires BJ & Tyler are the winners of the Amazing Race 9!!!!

THE HIPPIES WIN!
THE HIPPIES WIN!
THE HIPPIES WIN!
YES!

This is the first time a team I have rooted for since episode 1 has won the whole thing, and played a clean, fun game. The Frats came in second and RaY cam in third.

Day 2 of inspection prep. The fence is done, the doggy bed area is ready, I just need puppies now!!!!!!!!!!! (To those who asked, yes, cocker spaniels and we are planning on two this time.)

Not much to say today. Life without Beau has sucked. Not seeing his big eyes when you walk in the door from work has been rough, and not hearing him walking through the hall each night has been rough. We’ve already been looking in to 1 - 2 dogs, and we’ve decided to go the rescue group route. We have our eye on one little guy already and now we are just prepping the house for the home visit to make sure we are good folks. So lots of cleaning tonight, setting up a fence and so on. Wish us luck!

The Apprentice just keeps rolling along, and here we are down to the final five…I can almost taste the ending!

The teams met with Trump in the Donald J. Trump watch showroom….I kid you not. Is there anything this man won’t put his name on? This week the henchmen are Bill Rancic and Ivanka-the-Pouty. The teams are to set up in-store displays in Wal-Marts for the X-Box 360, the winner will be based on judgement by executives by both companies. Sean would be Project Manager for Gold Rush and Tammy for Synergy.

This week someone finally did what I have said has been missing on this show for ages…they outsourced! BUT, they did it incorrectly. Sean opted to hire pros to build his display:one for signage one for floor and roof so he could make a 360 degree display. The signage guy came through, but the floor and roof guy didn’t, causing the display to look like it was falling down. His problem was he didn’t build in penatlies for failur of completion. Any time you are going to work on a time sensitive project you have to build in fauliure-to-deliver penalities. I wish someone had mentioned that, but oh well.

Over at Synergy…they decided to go with a “Red Carpet” type event, but it ended up looking more like a living room and too inviting to just sit down and relax. Their signage was your typical Kinko’s type signage which was way too small and too easily lost in a sign-heavy enviroment such as Wal-Mart. The other problem had was a total lack of respect from Allie and Roxanne. Nothing says you have to respect your boss. Just like any situation, a person has to earn respect, in a team situation, team work is essential. Instead of working with Tammy though, they questioned him and then committed the ultimate faux pas, Allie rolled her eyes about Tammy repeatedly in front of Bill when he came to visit. You know, I don’t care how much you dislike your boss, you NEVER show disrespect in front of their superior. It reflects on you, it refelcts on them and it reflects on the corporation.

I know this isn’t exactly a recap more than it is a commentary. but this episode was one of the best episodes yet for showing differences in business operation. While Gold Rush’s display was unfinished they met the requirements better. It was a full experience, cross-sold accessories and focused on actual products as opposed to making it an event. That is what so many people have forgotten over the years of this show, it is ultimaely about serving the needs of your clients, and the client here was Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is about sales. So even with an unfinihsed display, Gold Rush won it. THeir prize was to fly our to Dreamworks SKGs production facilities and recorded voices for their upcoming movie “Over The Hedge“.

Meanwhile, Synergy headed to the board room and Tammy was fired for having no control over her team, but both Allie and Roxanne also gor verbal dressing-downs for their actions.

Over all it was a great episode for business lessons. Nice to see that happen once in awhile.

Survivor Exile Island is over! *runs around until he passes out* Let’s crank this mother out!

Danielle and Cirie had their fire challange and after a couple of false starts, Danielle takes it.

The next day, Terry & Aras continue their competition even to fishing. Aras caught the bigger fish. Good for him. Still though, they had to head off to see Jeff Probst for waht turned out to be a Reward Challange (odd for this late in the game):

“…for this Reward Challenge, the Survivors must race to the top of a three-story climbing wall using four individually-shaped pegs. First, they must make their way through a table maze. Once at the end of the maze, each will release a bag containing their first two pegs and move to a spinning wheel. Reading the clues, each must spin the wheel clockwise, counter-clockwise, and clockwise again like a combination lock to find the one bag that contains their final two pegs. With the help of the pegs, the players must get to the top of the wall and place their pegs in the proper slots, which will raise a flag. The first person to raise their flag wins the Reward: a high-protein meal and a cot to take back to camp. This Reward will give the winner a huge advantage in the upcoming Immunity Challenge.”

Aras got out fast, with Terry nipping at his heels, Danielle was never really a factor. As Aras hit the wall, he seemed sure to win it, even after he slid and was only saved by his shirt catching on a peg. He made it to the top first, but somehow Terry managed to get his pegs in first, lowering his flag and winning the important reward. Aras tried to brush it off as nothing by eating some big fish back at camp.

The next morning, everyone got up early and headed off to Exile Island for the “Tour Of Losers”…I mean when the final three have a chance to reflect on those who were voted off…forget it…Tour Of Losers. They walk around, try to come up with som edopey good memory and then move on. Once they had gone through them, they put the torches into Exile Island’s giant skull and built a big bonfire. You know, this kind of disappointed me. They usually auction the torches off for charity. Guess not this time. Which I do think is a shame.

At the Immunity Challange, it wasn’t so much the usual endurance as it was balance.

…the Final Immunity Challenge will be a test of balance. Starting on the largest of a series of floating platforms, every fifteen minutes the Final Three will move to the next smaller platform. As the platforms get smaller, it will get tougher for the Survivors to maintain their balance. Only their feet can touch the platform. If their hands touch the platform or they fall off, they are eliminated. The last person standing wins Immunity and a guaranteed slot in the Final Two.

It wasn’t until the third pad everyone had problems. Terry never really got his balance, Aras was uneasy, Danielle was steady as a rock. Terry went down, Aras looked at Danielle, she nodded, he jumped off. Now, the thing is, you thought she had an alliance with Terry…guess not. Danielle wins final Immunity and the power to decide who goes with her to the final two.

There was lots of back and forth, Terry seemed at ease, Aras was threatening, but in the end, Danielle took Aras to show tribe loyalty. Seems a shame after Terry worked so hard, but oh well. On their last day, the final two were given champagne and food for breakfast. They celebrated, drank champagne, went for a walk, Aras feel on his cutting himself open requiring multiple stitches…..perhaps Survivor shouldn’t give booze to mal-nutrioned people? Considering the last time we saw the Survivor Medical Crew was in the Australian Outback, they were called out *twice* this season! Way to go schmucks.

At the final tribal council, we had the usual random questioning and bitterness, with Shane asking them to pick a number between 1 and a million…is anyone surprised by this? Well, the votes were cast and in a 5-to-2 vote, Aras is named the Sole Survivor. Eh…who cares. Boring season for the most part. See you next season for Survivor Cook Islands!

Next to last of the Survivor Exile Island episodes…yay! We started off with everyone returning from Tribal Council and Cirie commiting the most horrible of crimes…SHE DROPPED HER TORCH IN THE IMPROPER PLACE! Now now…settle down, no need to run for the exits. Terry did take exception to it, but that only led to yet another Terry vs. Aras verbal throw down. No big shocker there. So instead of enjoying their first night as the final four, they instead had a blowout argument. Good times.

The next morning, everyone gathered for a fairly complex Reward Challange. I’m surprised Jeff Probst didn’t run out of breath.

“The castaways will each be attached to ropes by one of two carabiners. Using the two carabiners, they will clip and unclasp from one rope to another as they navigate their way around each other along a main thoroughfare that leads to six stations: poles, hermit crabs, rocks, iguanas, shells and fish. Each time they get to a station they must count the number of items, race back to the start, and find the answer tile with the same number on it. Once they’ve been to all six stations, they will have six numbers. They will then place those six numbers into an answer grid. Using the combination, the two numbers in each column will open the locks. If the lock doesn’t open, it means they’ve counted wrong and they can go back and correct their mistakes. Once they’ve opened all three locks, their tribe flag will drop. The first person to lower their tribe flag wins the Reward: a luxury yacht tour of the Panama Canal. “

Yeah…I never did quite get it myself. All I know is Danielle just ended up messing with everyone, Terry and Aras got in fights and it just got weird. Once Aras and Terry had done all six stations and gone back out to do recounts, Terry thought you could only do one station and then come back, so he whined when he felt Aras was doing more than one. Jeff over-ruled him and Aras made fun of Terry for whining. In the end Aras won the trip and picked Cirie to go with him. He sentanced Terry and Danniele to go to Exile Island.

Once out on the island, Danielle and Terry discuss the possability of eliminating Aras due to his picking Cirie for the reward makes it obvious they are an alliance. Danielle agrees it is time for the to team up. When Aras and Cirie return to their camp, Aras decides to rest and Cirie takes up th eflint to make her first ever attempt at making fire. She succeeds and squeals with joy, waking Aras who is very proud of his friend as he reflects on how far she’s come since day one.

Everyone gathers for the Immunity Challange and is for a mixture of brain teaser and phyical challange:

“For today’s Challenge each Survivor will work to solve three puzzles. Using a set of coordinates, each castaway will cross two ropes. Where the ropes intersect, a bag of puzzle pieces is buried in the sand. They must dig up the pieces, then race back to their respective answer boards to complete their puzzle. The puzzle will reveal the next set of coordinates. The first person to solve all three puzzles wins Immunity. “

Aras got his puzzle pieces first and never relenquished his lead. Danielle got stuck on the second bag of pieces for quite awhile and Terry got close to catching up, but never quite made it. Aras ended up winning and breaking Terry’s amazing streak. Back at the camp, Danielle and Cirie figure out the vote will probably be 2-2 and will result in a tie breaker. In the recent past ties have been solved with building a fire, so both girls practice.

Sure enough, the vote is a tie and since Terry is the one with the hidden immunity, no one can save themselves. Danielle and Cirie go to do the fire challange and….to be continued?!? Blast you Mark Burnett!

So, this week the Amazing Race brought us down to the final three teams. As the race began, the teams decided wether or not to help the penniless, and clothesless, BJ & Tyler as they left. Ray & Yolanada left a pair of pants for BJ, Eric & Jeremy left sandles for the shoeless BJ, commenting that he was still a human. While I have said nasty things about Eric & Tyler in the past, I do applaud them for this. Mojo? Didn’t leave anything. I hate them. BJ & Tyler were grateful for what they did receive, but made note of what team had left them nothing.

The first clue the teams had received intstructed them to fly 7,000 miles to Bangkok, Thailand. Once there they would take a bus for 97 miles to the city of Lopburi, and find the Three Spire Pagoda, a Buddhist temple. The teams got to the airport and all booked flights on Qantas, landing in Bangkok at 11:00 PM, except for BJ & Tyler. Mojo complained to Eric & Tyler for giving BJ shoes because it would have kept him out of the airport. Eric & Tyler lied and denied giving him shoes.

BJ & Tyler set out to the bar district to beg for money, and seemed to have a good bit of luck, but this caused them to miss out on the plane everyone else got on to. They instead lucked out and got a flight that would get them there 15 minutes earlier. Oops! Due to various changes in flying though, the 11:00 PM flight arrived at 10:15 PM and the 10:45 PM flight arrived at 11:00 PM, so BJ & Tyler thought they still had a slight jump on the other teams. Eric & Jeremy and Rat & Yolanda made it on the midnight bus, and Mojo was told the first morning bus was at 4:50 AM. It wasn’t. The first bus was 4:20 AM and BJ & Tyler made that one.

The temple didn’t open until 8 AM, all the teams were there except Mojo. Ah…poor Mojo. When the temple opened, teams opened their clues to find the second Fast Forward of the race:

“In this Fast Forward, Teams had to travel two miles by taxi to a nearby restaurant and take part in a favorite afterschool activity in Thailand. What Teams didn’t know was that the activity was feasting on a bowl of stir-fried crickets and grasshoppers.”

BJ & Tyler and Ray & Yolanda headed off to the Fast Forward, but as Eric & Jeremy had already done one, they had to do the Roadblock instead:

“In this Roadblock, one Team member had to prepare a ceremonial feast for the sacred monkeys that inhabit the shrine much like the locals do during an annual festival. After completing the feast, the Teams would present the feast to the monkeys to earn their next clue.”

At the resturant, BJ & Tyler were hesitant at first, but after only one bite, Ray & Yolanda backed out and wished them luck and ran back to the Roadblock. While they raced back though, Mojo showed up at the Shrine and were encouraged to think they would be ahead of one of the two two Fast Forward teams. Ray & Yolanda showed back up and all three teams were going at the vegtable presentation. The teams soon learned the biggest problem was that the monkey’s were pulling the fruit off as fast they prepared it. As the teams finally finished though, and received their clues, they were told to take a cab for 90 miles to the Chao Phraya River and then go by ferry to Koh Kret Island, and find the Buddha Garden.

While the teams followed the directions, BJ & Tyler finally slogged their way through the Fast Forward task and received their instructions to go to the Pit Stop at the Marble Temple, a Buddhist shrine built in the 19th century. While the other teams got to the Buddha Garden and find their Detour for this leg:

“In Move It, Teams had to make their way on foot to a pottery factory and transport 72 clay pots through the winding, narrow streets of the market to a boat docked on the river using the traditional Thai method of carrying the pots on wooden boards balanced on their shoulders. In Altar It, Teams needed to make their way on foot to a nearby temple and create a shrine to Buddha by assembling the shrine and then gold leaf a statue of Buddha.”

The only team to take Move It was Mojo, who was just a complete disaster at it. Which amused the heck out of me. It took them three trips to get all the pots moved, which allowed Ray & Yolanda and Eric & Jeremy to jump ahead of them. So, long story short…adios Mojo! The final three teams are set and next week, after nine seasons, at long last…TOKYO!

So The Apprentice did give us a darn funny moment at the beginning this week. Tammy tried letting Allie and Roxanne know that Sean wasn’t out to get them. Well, Allie wouldn’t have any of it and would not shut up about how Sean had sided against her during their last board room. Sean was trying to sleep, but they would shut up and just kept demanding he apologize…Sean had ear plugs with him, he put them in and just let them keep going. Just too funny and so deserved.

Trump met the teams on the football field of Rutgers University and wanted to even them up. Funny, Sean wasted no time moving over to Gold Rush, making it all men, and leaving Synergy as all women. This weeks task would have the teams setting up Outback Steakhouse tents in different parking lots for tailgating parties. The team to bring in the most money would win the task. Lee stepped as Project Manager for Gold Rush and Roxanne for Synergy.

Gold Rush quickly got an idea to lock the Rutgers cheerleaders in to an eclusive apperance and make an event out of their tailgating party with a money pit, food eating contest and make it a party atmosphere. In the meantime, Synergy went to try the Outback food and then got to planning, putting them far behind in promotion. They lost out on the cheerleaders, missing promoting themselves at the pep rally and not hitting the parties that night. They tried to get some of the cheerleaders, but ended up getting shot down. Michael thought they could be ncie and give them a few, but was quickly shot down by Lee and Sean as being an idiot for evenn considering it.

It really looked like Gold Rush had a huge party going on with tons of people hanging out at their tent. Synergy had a mostly empty tent, but then got the idea to go out and offer to deliver the food to people’s cars free of charge. Business picked up quickly for them, but they still didn’t seem to be as busy as Gold Rush. You did start to notice that Gold Rush’s business wasn’t converting in to sales though, just lots of gawkers at their events. Guess what…it worked. Gold Rush sold $1,750 and Synergy $2,750. Oops.

As Synergy’s prize, they were flown to the Raphael Winery and got to pick grapes, stomp them and make their own wine. Gold Rush got to discuss which of their own they were going to devoud in the board room. Lee and Sean decided Michael was to blame for the loss and ecided to team up on him.

In the end, it really boiled down to just his willingness to even consider giving Synergy cheerleaders that lef to Micahel being fired. Adios loser.