Oh, cool! I remember lots of sports business between the two, particularly soccer, if memory doesn't fail.

I kind of miss my hometown, even though I don't want to live there. Funny how that is.

Mmm, lunch.

Merlin’s top 5 super-obvious, “no-duh” ways to immediately improve your life:

5. Get pickier - You are the sole person in your life who gets to decide where your time and attention can go. Take that responsibility seriously by not wasting time on junk.

We watched 30 Rock last night, and just couldn't make up our minds. We'll give it another shot or two.

BSG - don't forget: Baltar the self-serving; traitorous, yet charming and mad scientist.

Yes. He was easy to tell apart from the other guys, on account of his different hair and complexion, and the blonde Cylon attached to him like a growth (is her name just Six?). Now, I know she was with Baltar when his world went boom, and she was then reborn elsewhere. Was Baltar just having delusions of her, or what's the deal? I thought he was imagining, or having visions/delusions, or that the reborn blonde Cylon was communicating with him telepathically, but toward the end of the catch-up episode, someone (maybe the Secretary of Ed/President) seemed to spy him making out with her so I got confused.

Heh. Johanna's finally started watching and she thought the guys all looked alike, too. I think the guys are all distinctive -- it's the girls (well, the non-blondes) I get confused by.

Strega, did Johanna just file them in her cute-brown haired-boy folder, too? I think I could pick out Helo, but I'm still shaky on Anders and Apollo. Was there ever a romance between Apollo and Starbuck? And/or at some point, was Starbuck involved with Apollo's (now deceased???) brother? Why weren't Apollo and his father on speaking terms early on?

I wouldn't try to catch up with summaries, honestly. Given the premise this season, you don't need to know everything that has happened before in order to follow what's going on now. There will be references you won't get, but it's not like it's Alias, y'know? I think it's more like Buffy or Angel -- you can follow an individual episode even if you don't know why this character doesn't like that one, or whatever. And the complicated stuff won't be in a short synopsis anyway. If you wind up liking the show it seems like it'll be more fun to go back and watch the previous seasons and go "Oh, that's why..."

The first thing I did when I found BtVS in season 3 was go online and find summaries for every episode from the first two seasons, so I expect our perspectives differ. That said, it's good to know I can jump right in, because I don't want to put off watching the new stuff. Waiting often turns into not bothering, these days. I prefer to have the backstory, but I'm at a point in my life where it's getting less and less likely that I'll watch something if I "have" to have the backstory.

I'm against having to do homework to watch TV, on principle. I pushed the jump-on-in approach for Veronica Mars. I know its likely to always remain a niche sort of show, but I do think some potential viewers were turned off by fans telling them they "had" to start at season 1, episode 1.

Liese, that sounds like a good move for you guys. Yay bus.

I did love Cooking With Feminists, but the rest of the show was eh for me. No, that's a lie, I just didn't like the "audience participation" part.

Yep, soccer is the main rivalry as far as athletics go. The main rivalry is really academic since they are Div3 schools. Where are you living now SA?

The main rivalry is really academic since they are Div3 schools.

Any opportunity to flaunt the black honors gowns, really.

here are you living now SA?

I'm living in Dublin for the time being. That is, Ireland, and not Ohio, Texas, or California, which have all adopted the name for their own small towns.

Nobody pays any attention to atheletics at Div3 schools so the only thing they've got is academics if they're lucky. And, after you graduate, the rivalry disappears since you can't watch your team play on tv, and most people are unaware of the names of small liberal arts colleges.

I figured you were somewhere on the other side of the pond since you were eating lunch. Ahhhh. . . to live in Europe again although I'd be happy to settle in Vancouver or Toronto. I on the other hand am having my morning coffee before I head to work.

Help? Who plays Masie, Matt's assistant, on Studio 60. IMDb gave me no joy.

You know some of those BSG questions are better or more interestingly answered by watching the episodes. . . partially because the not quite knowing the answer adds to the enjoyment of the show. Particularly the questions regarding Baltar and Six.

I gather that Lee and Bill Adama were at odds because Lee felt that his father pushed his younger brother into the service when he didn't really want to be there and didn't have the talent for it either. Starbuck was engaged to the younger brother (James?) but she and Lee seem to have that kind of attraction where he's into her at times when her attention is elsewhere and vice-versa.

I think you can still read past recaplets at TWOP. And there are recaps on Scifi.

Cloning business runs out of lives

California company finds little demand for costly cat copies

SAN FRANCISCO -- Genetic Savings & Clone, a biotechnology company that sold cloned pets, has sent letters to its customers informing them that it will close at the end of the year because of little demand for cloned cats. The company had recently reduced the price from $50,000 to $32,000.

The letters said the Sausalito company was not accepting new orders for clones because it was "unable to develop the technology to the point that cloning pets is commercially viable."

Huh. Who woulda' thunk that few would be willing to pay $32k for a cat clone?