Interesting article about Guy Fieri -- [link]

It doesn't paint him in a good light.

Go pro snowboarders! Sometimes laid-back actually means preternaturally calm.

I loved them, after the WTF of not booking all the way through to Thailand in the opening scene.

It looked to me like they got lucky again on the challenge, since it seemed like the wind picked up as the day went on making both challenge options a lot harder. I mean, the fact that they knew what to do and got it done fast was on them, but it also helped them get lucky by avoiding additional complications.

I'm glad the grandparents are still in it, and hope they can pull off a few more legs. They're highly entertaining and I love their attitude.

Not for the first time the twins got severely flustered, which had to detract-- looks like they started early enough and couldn't find their marked materials.

Agreed the grandparents rock hard.

I loved them, after the WTF of not booking all the way through to Thailand in the opening scene.

That made no sense - even if you think you'll be able to get a better flight once you get there, wouldn't you book all the way through just in case? Their budget for plane tickets seems to be pretty much unlimited.

I'm ready for the twins to go now. Not paying their cab driver because they forgot to change money? REALLY not cool. And they seem to have no capacity for dealing with stressful challenges - they go off the rails almost immediately every time.

So! I just started TAR! Which is just called TAR this year I note, so theoretically this Tivo season pass should now hold. But anyway. So who do we like? The snowboarders? I liked them. I was thinking it was just because they weren't under stress, but they were, coming from first to last to first in the pack. Lots of things were fortunate for them, but honestly, they did put their heads down and work. I think their skillset had a lot to do with their success with the coral. Their rig was sturdier to begin with. They did get thrown off by the current, but then knew how to compensate both with the rack and the kayak.

I was glad the twins were able to turn their attitude around facing elimination and appreciate the surrounding beauty. It's kinda a shame they couldn't actually go out like that.

I would have chosen the coral task even though I can't dive and then struggled with it. But that stuff matters to me. I didn't love the shots of the teams just leaving shit on the bottom of the ocean (in an area ecologically sensitive enough to need coral nurseries). Basically all the work they did was useless, so I hope it's not too much to hope the show cleaned up after itself.

Oh yeah, and the twins should have at least paid in Indonesian money. Looks like it's going to come up again next week. Talk about entitlement. And then there was the "we have people for that" comment about setting up the chairs and umbrellas.

You should always be suspicious when one half of a detour sounds much easier than the other, given the fiendish history of the challenge-creators. Both tasks were hard, but at least the other was no harder than it sounded, and if you knew how to put pipes together or handle a kayak and currents.

I know I'm overtired (and sort of hormonal), but The Sing-Off just made me weepy. Oh, North Shore.

The Sing-Off often makes me weepy. Singing in harmony is often a great trigger for me.

So who do we like? The snowboarders?

Yes! I don't care if they lap the pack, if they keep doing it with a great attitude and actual skills.