Brrrrrr

Had to turn the heat on for the first time in six months. It got down into the 30s overnight. I sleep better when it’s cool, I find.

I decided to get on the WordPress bandwagon and redid my website using that software. I haven’t settled definitely on the theme, but I test drove a few and found I liked three columns better than two, and I like this one’s link bar across the top and its clean look. The “Rorschach” pattern reminds me of inkblots, so it seems vaguely apropos for a writer’s site. I’ve turned on comment moderation for the time being to see how that goes—my web hosting provider recommended it to alleviate spam attacks. I “cheated time” by adding selected back-dated posts to the main page to give it a little depth on launch. I wasn’t sure that was going to work, but it did.

I received an e-mail message via a circuitous route that originated with a second cousin in the UK who is doing genealogy research. His grandmother was my grandfather’s sister. My grandfather was born in England and emigrated to Canada in 1908, so there’s a lot about the Canadian branch of the Vincent family the UK branch doesn’t know about, and vice versa, so we will be able to exchange notes.

For a while I thought Sugar had committed one of the biggest gaffes in Survivor history by giving the immunity idol to Ace, but she redeemed herself by taking it back. Not asking for it back, taking it back.I think the team is starting to realize that Ace isn’t really doing them much good, so I think he could be at risk next week if that tribe loses yet again. Getting rid of Kelly was probably a good strategy, though, because she was dead weight. I wonder if the other tribe will mutiny against eat-everything-in-sight Dan, who may be the only contestant in Survivor history to gain weight. I’m surprised how open they all were to eating that turtle, though. I’d have to be mighty hungry.

C.S.I. was a tad strange this week. Bob Booth opined that it was an updating of the old Roger Corman classic Bucket of Blood. The “corpses” looked like waxworks effigies rather than real people, which is contrary to the norm on shows like this. I like the new recruit, though—I think she’s going to be fun, the way she rattles people’s chains. Her first interaction with the medical examiner (“I saw that, and I’m never going to forget it”) was priceless.

I wonder how Cuddy’s change-of-life development will alter House. The return of the interplay between Wilson and House is welcome and the Thirteen-centric storyline this week was very good indeed. The best stories aren’t about the diseases or the symptoms but about the reflection of those on the cast.

I’m continuing to enjoy Life on Mars. They finally tackled the paradox issue, in a way, with Sam seeing himself at the end. The world didn’t explode, so I guess that’s a good sign. I wonder if the little girl in the picture is Sam’s modern-day girlfriend. They’re doing a good job of injecting Sam’s anachronisms (gaydar, for example) into the show without overdoing it. They’re still avoiding having Sam take real advantage of his knowledge, though. Since his younger self attended that specific Knicks playoff game, he probably remembers what the exact final score was, so he could have made a killing betting on it. His next door neighbor is a trip.