The Apprentice (Episode 3)

The show picks up with Markus coming back from the boardroom to his suite all by himself to the teammates on Excel who wanted him to get fired so badly. His teamates decide to give him a fresh start and things pick up from there. For the girls of Capital Edge, Rebecca arrives back from the hospital, you may remember that she was injured in the reward challenge playing hockey. This is crucial to this installment as she is befriended by Toral, who goes to the hospital with her and becomes her close friend. This presents a problem though as no one can stand Toral and the two more or less become the outcasts.
We find out that Rebecca has broken her ankle and is on crutches. Rather than quitting, she decides to become the project manager in the upcoming task.
Both teams are to go to an assisted living facillity with the charge of teaching the residents how to use new technology in their lives.
Marcus is already arguing with his team but this team everyone has the give and with this task he seems to fit right in. Possibly this is the right task for a geek. The Men of Excel are slamming and jamming and the residents are humming right along.
Meanwhile, the women of Capital Edge do not seem to have anything happening. No signs, A cake with Techno Expo spelled wrong, and seemingly, no enthusiasm. Toral is totally awful as she does not know anything about working her big screen TV. The only enthusiasm they can drum up is when beauty queen Jennifer M does push ups. Shades of Apprentice on the first run a year and a half ago when the women won every task by selling sex.
In the boardroom the men are the clear winners and get a reward of donating their technology to a children's hospital.
The women come to the boardroom and finger Toral as one of the reasons that they lost. Indeed she was a disaster and it is up to Rebecca to chose two girls to bring in to the boardroom. She winds up picking the two Jennifers, while Toral is allowed to return with the other girls to the suite.
Noone could argue choosing Jennifer W, except of course, Jennifer W. She was supposed to be the winning edge for the team. The events planner. Well JW did not come through and became a mess of sobs. The choice of Jennifer M was rather curious as Trump seemed to think that she was alright. We all now by now that Trump has a soft spot for beauty queens. We also know that he does not care much for candidates who protect their friends. Trump starts off by telling Jennifer M that she is safe unless of course she says something stupid. He tells Rebecca that he would have fired Toral had she been there. The spotlight is on Rebecca who does an excellent job of defending her choise as well as herself. The Trump finger of fate points to Jennifer W who wilts under pressure and Trump says the dreaded 2 word "Your Fired!"

The Apprentice: I Write The Songs

This weeks episode a little more entertaining that the last few because of course it dealt with Entertainment.
Team Excel is down to just two players after last weeks double firing. Albeit 2 strong players in Rebecca and Randall, both have overcome adversity and have shown great leadership.
Capital Edge tries to make amends with Clay, but since the other 3 players have denied him an exemption--he takes it as a slap on the face which essentially it is. He is the team's "sore toe".
To start the next task Clay answers the morning call from Rhona. I still have not figured what she does (since Robin is the Receptionist).
Everyone gathers at the designated place and Trump evens the teams by letting Capital Edge get rid of one player. The choice is academic and Clay is now team Excel. Randall and Rebecca are excited because although they know Clay is a flake, he is also frequently on the winning team. This week they are too audition an artist, write a song for that artist and that the song would be played on XM radio, marketed as the hottest thing in entertainment. Donald's parting words are a matter of dispute, 5 contestants and the ever dwindling TV audience heard him say "Now is the time to step up!", however Clay heard Trump say "now is the time to be a bigger pain in the butt and screw over your teammates"!
Excel finds that Clay is too much for them to handle--too bad he's theirs. Capital Edge can just do it right and they are the winners.
Poor Donald finds Clay in the boardroom with what he thinks are his best contestants. He quickly knows that no matter what happens he has to fire Clay so he says he is going by past record even though it he had never mentioned that criteria before.
The reward for winners Capital Edge was a helicopter trip over New York City. Trump pointed out all his properties as if New York City was a giant Monopoly board.

Divisional Round NFL Playoffs

 I watched at least a little of each of the four playoff games this weekend.  Since my team, The Seattle Seahawks, didn't make it this year, I picked a couple of teams based on wanting to see a team win the Super Bowl that had not before.  

I immediately got behind the Detroit Lions, one of the league's older teams, that still has never played in the Super Bowl.  They have long been one of the worst franchises in the league, but this year, really stepped up and made it in.  

The other team, which I never really rooted for, was the Buffalo Bills.  They went to a string of Super Bowls at a team when the NFC dominated.  They have still never one.

The Lions won a tough match against the Tampa Bay Buc 31-23, so they will advance to the conference finals against the very tough San Francisco 49ers.  

The Bills sadly lost to the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24.

Other winners were predictably the Baltimore Ravens over the Houston Texans and the San Franciso 49ers over the Green Bay Packers.

Apprentice 4:Toral Dooms Her Team

This week's Apprentice was another marketing task as The men of Excel and the Woman of Capital Edge were charged with the task of coming up with a character to Promote Dairy Queen's blizzard. The show was really a soap involving the team's dislike of Toral who barely escaped the axe last week. Toral is very smart but has absolutely no social skills. The snooty women of Capital Edge cannot stand her and the feeling is mutual. I almost think the team took a dive to settle the matter.
Excel won the task with Clay, the no-holds barred Project Manager. His tough tactics worked as team was victorious. Whether the team won because of him or in spite of him remains to be seen, but inspite of their complaints, the team voted him immunity for the next task. The results of their work are above. The reward challenge involved playing baseball with the New York Mets, who Trump proclaimed as "winners", the show was film many months ago since we know that this past season, the Mets finished last in their division, while have a humongous payroll. The good news is that nobody got hurt.

Celebrity Apprentice--It's Bret vs Holly

The contestants are in the suite celebrating the fact that they are still in the game when the phone rings. Trump wants to see the candidates in the boardroom. They return to the boardroom where Trump says that he needs to fire someone right away. He asks everyone who they think should go. The consensus seems to be that it should be Maria. Maria makes a comment about Curtis that Trump finds disgusting, He wastes no time in firing Maria.
The four remaining candidates are Holly Robinson Peete, Curtis Stone, Bret Michaels, and Sharon Osborn. They are about to undergo a rigorous series of interviews with Apprentice Winners Bill Rancik and Joan Rivers. After the interviews Trump refers to the feedback from Rancik and Rivers. He determines that all the candidates are good but he can only take two the final task. He fires Curtis and Sharon. That leaves Bret and Holly to go at it.
The final task is to create a flavor of Snapple, then design a commercial and advertorial to go with it. Whoever does the best job is the new Celebrity Apprentice.

Teams are chosen Bret gets Summer and Daryl Strawberry. Holly gets Curtis and Maria. No rhyme or reason why they got to come back while Cyndi, Sharon, and the like had to call it a game.

While Holly (a somewhat abrasive candidate) looks like the early favorite. There is little doubt that most of the viewers will be pulling for Bret.

The Apprentice: The Final Task

The last four contestants are talking in the kitchen. All are members of the old team Arrow, a late starter, whom at the the beginning of this season, had spent weeks in the tents before they earned their first victory. They are surprised when Donald Trump and his son Donald, Jr walk in to the mansion (without knocking) telling them to get dressed up because they have a cocktail party to attend to in Beverly Hills with the 5 previous winners of the show. When they arrive at the party, they learn that Bill Rancik, the first winner and show mouthpiece, was unable to attend because of a last minute business meeting. Randall, Sean, Kelly, and Kendra are there and dispatch what seems to be useless wisdom to the candidates. Kelly informs them of one final task. Both teams can pick 2 fired candidates. James and Stefani pick Aaron and Kinetic's Angela , a smart choice because she had a big fan in Trump. Frank and Nicole pick Suryea and Tim.
The candidates are split into 2 teams and are to meet Donald Trump at the backlot of Universal Studios. Teams will make a one minute movie (commercial) for Renuzit.Trump mentioned that was one of his mother's favorite products. They will show their commercial to a popcorn chomping audience at an AMC theatre.
After watching the real commercial for Renuzit, neither ad is terribly inspiring, but the audience seems to like both and Trump does not fire any candidates. On to next week when Trump will pick the winner from the final four.

Damaris Wins Next Great Food Network Star

Southern Cooking Chef Damaris Phillips beat "The Pie man" Rodney Henry to win this year's Next Great Food Network Star.  The reality show on the Food Network has as it's reward, a show for the contestant on the Food Network.  I normally do not blog about the show, but unlike most of the past winners, most of whose shows have been cancelled, this lady has a high degree of star power.    Guy Fieri, was one of the winners of the competition to have staying power (along with Jeff Mauro,the Sandwich Guy), but with the recent departure of Paula Deen, it looks like Damaris could be a breakthrough. She has a winning smile and an inviting personality.  She was a slow starter, who gradually improved as the season progressed.  She apparently has real cooking chops too.

The Apprentice: There's Something About Michelle

If you caught the last half hour of last week's show, you know that Arrow Corporation had zero respect for one team member. The candidates singled her out for being disagreeable and unable to make a decision at crunch time. This week, Michelle made her very first decision and when the heat was on, almost seemed to want to back away even from that.
Team Kenetic has won exemption from an entire task, Trump sees them as real winners, what Trump may be forgetting is that in the first season of the Apprentice, Protege won every task for several weeks and not one of them made the final two.
Everyone meets poolside at the Loewe's Hotel in Santa Monica, Kenetic gets to stay poolside for a day of pampering. That leaves Arrow, Trump splits them into two teams. Aaron enthusiastically volunteers to be project manager. Trump asks Michelle if she would like to be PM. She says yes in a rather "if I have to" tone.
This week's task is to run a "Starliner Bus Tour" James, the Seattle based software engineer comes up with the idea of having the Laker Girls cheerleading squad as a promotional gimmic. The team seems to be all together on what they want to do. James takes a tour himself to see what the tourists like and dislike. Michelle's team cannot figure out what to do, never mind that planning a tour in LA is like finding candy in Hershey PA, she is indecisive. Her idea of "A Day in the life of the Rich And Famous" falls through when she finds out that Hollywood is a dump and Beverly Hills is boring. The sad part is that she lives in Santa Monica. Hello? She makes her team stay up all night and then her tour is a big disaster. Aaron's team found that James, although full of ideas, is a lousy tour director. That is no surprise, how many software geeks are good at PR?
Aaron's team wins the task and their only reward is that they did not lose. We are all ready for an intense boardroom when Michelle decides to chuck it and quit. Trump grills her and it almost looks like she may change her mind. She does not and Trump decides to let her walk, her teammates fear that one of them could be fired. But Trump decides that the team has suffered enough.

After 52 Years, Heisman Returns To Pacific Northwest

Marcus Mariota quarterback of the Oregon Ducks has been awarded the 2014 Heisman Trophy as college player of the year. Although there have been many winners of the trophy from what is now the Pac-12, he is the second Pacific Northwest player to win the trophy and the first since Terry Baker of Oregon State was award the trophy in 1962.  Since there is intense rivalry between the 4 Pac-12 schools from Washington and Oregon, only Duck fans and maybe a scattering of Oregon State fans see this as a victory, the way I see it though, as a graduate of Washington State and a lifelong Washingtonian, the two most sought after football trophies, the Heisman and the Vince Lombardi (World Champion Seattle Seahawks), at this moment, rest here in the Pacific Northwest.

Elections Go Our Way

It has been said that the best creative writing is born out of misery. There is not much to be unhappy about as this weeks election seemed to indicate that common sense is creeping back into politics.
County Executive Ron Sims won a 3rd term as David Irons Jr is now back in the private sector. I think that Mr Irons needs a little time in the private sector to iron out some of his personal woes.
I-912 failed and our state can start improving our roads. We know how prone to earthquake this area is and it would be nice to be proactive in shoring up the highways.
I-330 which asks us to surrender our rights to the Insurance companies also went down. If the insurance c0mpanies need solace, the smoking ban bill, I-901 passed as well. That has got to drive down rates by improving public health in general.
John Rittenhouse will serve on the Issaquah City Council, I worked with John on the 5th district policy committee.
Glenn Smith is elected to the Maple Valley City Council. I was impressed with him when he doorbelled my house.
Kathy Huckabay easily coasted to victory on the Sammamish City Council. Congrats to all these winners and good luck. Let's keep the victories rolling.

It was down to the wire, but the Seattle Seahawks outlasted the St Louis Rams 37-31. The Seahawks did it without their 2 main receivers Bobby Engram and Daryl Jackson and with some curious play calling at the end. The Seahawks were sitting on a slim lead when they got the ball back, but instead of running down the clock, they attempted 2 passes. Holmgren must read the columnists who accuse him of being too conservative. Fortunately the Rams fumbled the punt and the Hawks left St Louis as winners. 

Baseball Has A Triple Crown Winner

For the first time in 45 years, Major League Baseball has a triple crown winner, leading the league in batting average, home runs and runs batted in.  Miguel Cabrera has done it for the first time since Carl Yastrzemski won it leading the Boston Red Sox to the pennant in 1967.  The previous year, Frank Robinson won the triple crown leading the Baltimore Orioles to a World Series championship.   After the back to back winners it took a couple generations until the Cabrera feat. Cabrera's Detroit Tigers are Central Division champions.  The last National League triple crown winner was Joe Medwick of St. Louis in 1937.

EWU's Larry Weir Named Sportscaster Of The Year

Walla Walla area native Larry Weir, the voice of the Eastern Washington Eagles, has been named Washington's Sportscaster Of The Year by the National Sportscasters And Sportswriters Association.  Weir and I were co-workers at KTEL in Walla Walla.  At the time, Weir broadcasted Wa-Hi Blue Devil games and also had a daytime radio program.
Past winners include Bob Blackburn, Dave Niehaus, and Bob Robertson.
Weir grew up in Waitsburg and got bit by the radio bug by listening to Bob Robertson doing WSU games.  Weir does both football and basketball for the Eagles.

Sada Jacobson Wins Silver In Beijing

pictured: Sada, Mariel, and Becca

The US Women's fencing team swept Gold, Silver, and Bronze in the Olympic Saber competition. A notable feat, considering that fencing is a sport that is more popular abroad.

Portland's Mariel Zagunis won took her second Gold Medal by defeating Dunwoody Georgia's Sada Jacobson. Sada came back and beat Ukrainian Sofia Velakaya for second place and the Silver Medal. Becca Ward, who is also from the Portland area, also beat Velakaya to take the Bronze. Jacobson was the only one of the medal winners not from Oregon, however her Great Grandmother, who was my Grandmother Barer's sister, did live in Portland.

Bellevue Native Sheila Houlahan Featured In New Release "The Little Things"

 Sheila Houlahan, whose parents are friends with my wife's family is headlined as  a "breakout star"  in the Warner Brother's release, The Little Things.   The just released film also features Oscar winners Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto.  She plays the part of Paige Callahan. 

Houlahan also is  a music career,  having attended the prestigious Manhattan School Of Music.   Some of her musical work is featured here.  

Houlahan has also done modeling work for companies such as Amazon and T-Mobile.

Rusty Successfully Defends Senior Title

Last year, our lovely 14 year old Golden Retriever, Rusty won the Savvy Senior award at the Fido Fest competition at University Village.  This year, he not only won Savvy Senior again at 15, he won amongst the winners as Fan Favorite.  Shown above, Rusty is paraded in front of the judges by his Mom and cousins.

Dave Reichert Declared Winner In 8th District.

In another Democratic year, Republican Dave Reichert once again pulled a rabbit out of his hat and won another squeaker in Washington's 8th Congressional District. In a previous post from election day, I listed Darcy Burner with the winners, after she was ahead toward the end of the race. Well in my opinion, Darcy Burner really is a winner.

Oscars 2024: 'Oppenheimer' wins Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards

Well, I did watch the Academy Awards last night (March 10th, 2024), actually, I usually watch bits and pieces.  The program ran twice, so I could watch most of the program.  

Congrats to Oppenheimer, seemingly a well deserved best picture winner.   For other winners, click here.

Good Time At Key Arena

Yes, Seattle does have an NBA team, although they have not gotten much press or aroused much interest this season. Deb and I headed to Key Arena last night as we got near courtside seats for Christmas and sat closer than ever before. The Sonics played like winners as they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 121-105. Although Memphis also was having it's problems, it looked like the Sonics were playing for something rather than playing out the string. Rachard Lewis scored 34 points and Ray Allen chipped in 27 for us.

The Winners