No Justice, since Top Model is two hours, and Criminal Minds is on!

Crap, Justice versus Criminal Minds and I am not enthralled enough with either to really choose. It's SpyDaddy vs (Catching) Psychotics. I wonder which I can count on showing reruns later...

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I am not enthralled enough with either to really choose.

Yeah. I think I would watch either one, but not obsessively. Although I kind of forget how much I really liked Criminal Minds, since it's been MONTHS.

I think I have to give up on my thought of watching Scrubs on Comedy Central before it's even started.

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Although I kind of forget how much I really liked Criminal Minds, since it's been MONTHS.

I honestly like it better, likely. But, like you said, it's been months. Okay, I am choosing Criminal Minds and the premiere will hopefully sway me. It's the second part of a two parter. I need to go find me some recaps because I can't recall where we left off.

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Also since that's pretty much all they do, these anesthesiologists are very, very good at the epidural.

And, often, they are nurses and not docs. My aunt was a nurse anethesist and she and one other nurse gave 99% of the epidurals in 3 hospitals. She was very good at it.

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TAR: That food challenge didn't bother me because for once it actually was eating a local delicacy - and not in a quantity that just made it a sheer endurance challenge. That seems different to me than the eleventy pounds of meat or near-fatal doses of caviar.

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TAR: Okay, I have so many problems with this already. It seems stupid to eliminate two teams in the first episode. And, for a show that has trouble recruiting women teams? Maybe something that relies so much on arm strength wasn't the best idea for the first episode.

This season looks to be continuing the long-standing trend of everything being in the activities and not actually figuring how to, you know, race from place to place. I was hoping that that would be one of the big changes. And enough with the "fear factor" food challenges already.

As for teams: Kimberly and Rob definitely already bug. I have a feeling that I will soon dislike the former addicts. I don't really see anyone to root for yet. I like the coalminer and his wife, mostly because I have the feeling that the production team was hoping for "ugly, confused Americans" when they have been anything but.

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The class was quite made of awesome and I am much, much less stressed and nervous -- also, pretty committed to getting a shot of fentanyl rather than an epidural. The hospital we're delivering at does not do "light" epidurals, just the heavy-duty shit that numbs you out completely from chest to feet, and I already know from enduring various dental procedures with and without anesthetics that I can cope much better with some pain but full sensation and bodily control than total freedom from pain accompanied by the creepy feeling that part of my body has just been erased. Some pain, or even a lot of pain, is way, way preferable to "Hey, the lower half of my body has completely disappeared!"

Also, I can't believe Hec reported on the class without taking the opportunity to mock the fuck out of the two bonehead dads-to-be with the cracktastic questions. So, permit me to sneer at them.

Bonehead #1, during the discussion on the pros and cons of various pain relief methods during labor:

"So, if the pain is just part of a natural process and there are no long-term effects to experiencing the pain, why treat it at all?"

As Hec said later in the car on the way home, fine, fucko, we'll just nail your balls to the wall and leave you there for 12 hours. Since your balls probably won't suffer catastrophic permanent damage and you'll be more or less functional 48 hours after we take the nails out, you'll be fine without any meds, right? Right?

Bonehead #2, during the discussion of various reasons for C-sections:

"So, if the whole procedure takes only 15 minutes instead of maybe two days of labor, and it's completely painless, why doesn't everybody just have one?"

I just... major abdominal surgery... slicing through muscle walls and cutting a bodily organ open... fifteen painless minutes... buh... Fuck it. There are no words.

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Recent studies have shown it doesn't really stall labor, according to my OB. Some docs don't make you wait to 4. But since it takes awhile for them to stick you, then for the meds to hit your system and start working, I could see where there would be a cut off point if delivery was imminent.

Recent studies, as I recall, have been mixed on the subject. But it's been months since I last read up on it.

We asked about a cut off point. The L&D nurse teaching the course was funny.

"Umm... crowning?"

(At which point, she hastened to add, they'd give you a block in that region.)

JZ should ask her OB about walking epidurals. Pain relief without the loopy or the numb! The other narcotics didn't do anything but let me rest between contractions, but it wasn't a restful rest, more a passing out rest.

ETA

The hospital we're delivering at does not do "light" epidurals, just the heavy-duty shit that numbs you out completely from chest to feet

Well, poopy!

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(Okay, the truth is that I now need to change my tag to "Hail Eris!" May I, Strega?)

Heh, it's hardly original to me, but you have my blessings.

As was mentioned elsewhere recently, the WB didn't exactly cancel Buffy. If they'd outbid UPN for it, they'd have lost money that way. If the WB had been able to keep Buffy while actually making a few pennies... I think they'd still have gone under. Buffy wasn't exactly a ratings hit in its last two seasons, remember.

The WB lost a huge audience chunk with Buffy.

Is there any evidence for that?

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"So, if the pain is just part of a natural process and there are no long-term effects to experiencing the pain, why treat it at all?"

The mind boggles. And,

Major abdominal surgery... slicing through muscle walls and cutting a bodily organ open... fifteen painless minutes... buh...

Having done this without the baby to take care of on the other end, I can't imagine actually choosing it.

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