UngsungBlog: A (Fantasy) Sports Blog

Raise your hand if you saw all those plot twists coming! Tonight’s episode was awesome, though I’m not sure where I’d rank it compared to the mid-season premiere.  Did anyone notice how almost R-rated the finale was?  Pregnancies, a marriage proposal, a foiled one, a hazing involving the idea that one worker is “special,” fraud, and a mentally scarring make-out scene at the very end?  Was this The Office or Scranton, PA, [zip code of Scranton]?

Jan’s pregnant? And it’s NOT Michael’s? Not that that was much of a surprise; Michael did have THREE vasectomies, no? And how could he have gotten her pregnant while he was sleeping by the foot of her bed?

(Talking about the three vasectomies still hurts, BTW.)

The donor came from a sperm bank? I thought it was Hunter’s baby for sure! And now Michael thinks he’s back with Jan, throwing away a possible relationship with the new HR girl?  Sure, his “relationship” with Holly was completely rushed, but it looked like he was going to wise up, before Kevin’s fateful call.  And what happened to Jan not wanting kids???

Also, raise your hand if you noticed that Holly kinda resembled Jan. Nice job by casting to get a bunch of actresses to look like Jan after their breakup!

Damn Dwight for telling Holly that Kevin is “special,” causing her to treat Kevin the way she did.  I think Kevin enjoyed Holly’s affection a bit too much.  And I loved the way the other office workers acted around Kevin in the presence of Holly, especially Phyllis’ “Kevin, take your shoes off first!” as he runs towards the moon bouncer.  Holly’s treatment of Kevin got exponentially more weird as the episode progressed.

I guess “the temp” will be spending the next few years in prison for fraud. Yeah, like people weren’t going to figure out that he demanded the sales staff to enter their sales twice. Wunderkind, or what-a-dumbass? And who didn’t enjoy the way Jim taunted Ryan? “…you obviously have your hands tied!”  Talk about dropping a bomb!  Ryan had it coming, though. “Congratulations!  Don’t interrupt!  Congratulations on doing your job.”  What an ass!  As the episode progressed, I was thinking that Ryan was going to try to implicate Jim in the fraud, citing the two “threatening” phone calls as some sort of proof of the allegations.

(Actually, that could be a great future storyline. Ryan could eventually come back on the show and accuse Jim of ratting him out. Of course, that depends on how much time Ryan spends in jail.)

Poor Toby! All he got out of his last day was a party, a watch, a few pics with an unhappy Pam, a horrible tribute song (that’s stuck in my head as we speak), and an escort off the office premises by security?

(Tangent: Did anyone notice that the certificate on the wall behind Michael’s desk is a Certificate of Authenticity for a Seyko [sic] watch? So Toby got a FAKE??? LOL!)

Farewell, Toby Flenderson. Be sure to tell Dwight to update his office hierarchy!

(EDIT: I just noticed that Toby’s “new” watch went off right as he left the office for the last time, just as how Michael set it. Nice attention to detail!)

As for you “Jam” lovers (that’s Jim-Pam, for you non-”shippers” out there, not that I am one), you must have hated the finale. I’m pretty sure you guys were screaming “F**K YOU ANDY!” when Andy stole Jim’s thunder with his own marriage proposal. My sister nearly threw something at my TV when that happened.   What is next to happen in Jim’s relationship with Pam?

(What really stinks about the whole ordeal is that Pam has no idea that it was Jim that put up the money for the entire party!  Yeah, I know…typical guy response…worried about the money :P)

Throughout the episode, I was almost sure that Jim was going to quit his job. From the first phone call to Ryan, to the huge amount of money he spent for the party (I didn’t know you could get a same-day Ferris wheel rental :P), I thought he was gone for sure, whether or not Pam accepted the marriage proposal. Then again, what would the show be without him? And did you see the look on Pam’s face during her last talking head? Then again, could you blame Jim for not proposing after what Andy did? What’s going to happen when (if?) Pam enrolls at the art academy?

During that talking head, did Pam mention starting a family with Jim? How far their relationship advanced in a year’s time!

And Dwight and Angela making out in the darkness of the office? ZE GOGGLES DO NOTHING! And Phyllis was the one to discover this?

Overall, I loved tonight’s episode, especially because of all the potential story lines that this episode set up for next season. By next season, Jan should either be close to giving birth, or would already have had the baby. Pam might already have started her art career, unless she decides against it for some reason. Andy could be in the midst of wedding planning. Maybe Toby will have second thoughts of leaving his position. Maybe Ryan will plea bargain his way out of prison. And what’s going to happen with Jim and Pam?

Most importantly, what the hell am I going to do between now and next season?

Favorite moments:

• Who didn’t enjoy watching Jim screw around with Dwight’s phone? As if the writers weren’t going to give us one interaction between these two in the finale. “Hang that up right now”? Dwight had the phone in his hand. Why didn’t HE hang up? If you’re keeping score at home, that’s now two phones that Dwight has destroyed. (EDIT: I didn’t notice it the first time, but apparently the phone rang again while he was trying to destroy it! HAHA!)

(Tangent: I’ve dealt with five or six different Bluetooth headsets in the past, and I don’t recall EVER getting good sound quality from any more than three feet away from the phone itself. Yet Jim was able to speak to two different people just fine? Amazing!)

• Michael’s shoe money. I don’t even want to imagine how long that money’s been sitting there.
• Pam: “…So the timing’s perfect. And THAT is the first time I’ve ever used the word ‘perfect’ in here!”
• Holly: “What do you do here?” followed by Creed’s talking head. “Qua-something…[qua-sounding junk]…”
• Toby:  (screaming at the top of his lungs) “DOES ANYONE HAVE A CAMERA HERE?”  Something tells me he ran off to the nearest Staples to buy a digital camera.
• Jim explaining that all his firsts with Pam occurred at the office.  How pathetic!  Then again, that makes his attempted proposal to Pam at the party even more fitting.
• Kevin:  “I am totally going to bang Holly!”  Did that come out of right field or what?
• Jim finally growing a pair and chewing out Ryan.  Too bad that Ryan probably never got the message.
• That entire exit interview was awesome, in a truly awkward sense.  I would have loved to see Toby throw the rock through the window.
• Yes, Hank, I thought Kelly’s talking head about visiting Ryan in jail was damn funny.  I’m coming around!
• How did Michael resist the temptation to say “That’s what she said!”???
• Michael getting flustered after Holly touched him, followed by the talking head.  Jan didn’t show affection?  Well, I suppose sex != affection.
• Pam:  “Don’t tell him [Toby] I said this, but I always thought he was kinda cute.”  Wait until that gets back to Toby.
• Michael:  “Are you nauseous?  Do you have cravings?  You never touched by Propecia…?”
• Michael:  “You cheated on me?  When I specifically asked you not to?”
• Holly:  “Andy proposed to one of your accountants…”  Michael:  “Well, I can see Andy proposing to Angela.  I can also see him proposing to Oscar.”  How did I know that was coming?

One final thought: now that Toby has (seemingly) been written off the show, and it seems that Ryan won’t be around (for at least a good while), does this mean that B.J. Novak and Paul Liberstein are no longer going to write/produce on the show? And if they do, wouldn’t it be kinda weird to see their names in the credits, even though their characters are gone?

Tags: The Office by Peter
No Comments »

Quick-hitters:

- Thank you, Time Warner. My internet connection was out as soon as I finished blogging last night, and was still out when I first signed on earlier today.

The connection was eventually fixed (not sure when), but now my ESPN-HD feed is out! Oh well, I’d rather watch the season finale of The Office.

- I got a “final notice” renewal letter on my Car n Driver magazine subscription today. Now I could’ve sworn that the sub was good for at least another few months.

After a few minutes of researching, I saw this notation next to the address of the renewal notice:

Oct. 08

I didn’t realize that last notices come five months before the fact. Who do these people think they are? BofA?

- Before I get to my review of The Office season finale, let me quickly give my thoughts on last week’s episode (Job Fair):

(Note: I’m doing this on-the-fly, so pardon any grammatical/structural/spelling errors!)

Michael in a shirt and jeans? Haha.

Michael: “Pam will be eye candy.”

Jim’s on probation? Shocker. And he has to play golf with a potential client? AND Andy has to go golfing with him? I’d submit my two weeks’ notice now.

(Of course, if he had tried, he wouldn’t be in this position, now would he?)

Did Dwight really admit that Jim is in charge once Michael is gone??? And did he just admit that both he and Andy are third in charge?

Dwight: “I will tell on you.” (shudder…)

I’m amazed that Creed is still in the office! (EDIT: This was before the rest of the Office decided to “ditch this b!tch.”

Michael has a normal ring tone?

Michael: “Who cares? I’m not there. Jim’s not there. Why should anybody else be there?”

Pam: “Are you serious?” Michael: “Yes. And don’t call me Shirley.” Sigh. Yet another epic reference ruined by Michael Scott.

Why the hell is Pam only taking ONE sheet of paper? TWENTY MILES???

Tell me they did not just destroy a golf cart for THAT!

Michael: (paraphrasing) “I would rather be jobless, on a beach, with a huge inheritance, than to take one of these crap jobs.”

Michael: “I wouldn’t say this to her face, but she is a wonderful person and a great artist.” Oscar: “Why wouldn’t you say that to her face?” I spit out my bite of spaghetti on that scene alone. And it took me a bit of time to realize that the Justin kid was the first kid that visited the Dunder-Mifflin booth.

So was Jim’s block-the-car-to-get-a-sale “trying” enough to get him off probation? Hey, at least he shot 102!

Michael: “Jim could do anything he wants, but he chooses to sell paper…like me.” And Pam is thinking about moving on to a graphics design job in NY or Philly?  What a great storyline episode; think about how many possible story arcs there are for the finale.  Dwight and Angela seem to be at peace with each other.  Jim had to fight tooth-and-nail to score the client and (probably) keep his job.  And now Pam might be finished as the receptionist?

Why do I have the feeling that we’ll be left with a brutal cliffhanger at the end of the finale?

I plan on replacing this quick-hitter review with a thorough one, once I get around to watching this episode again.

Tags: The Office by Peter
No Comments »

No quick-hitters, as I still have a headache. Let’s get to it:

- Tonight’s Office started out pretty slowly, but when it got going, it really got going! Tonight, we got the prototypical “storyline” episode; tonight’s episode wasn’t over-the-top funny, but it served its purpose to further a number of existing storylines, and may possibly lay the framework for future episodes. Look what we discovered from tonight’s episode alone!

(BTW, I loved the whole opening scene. Would it have been too rated-R for someone to suggest that Michael put an impression of something else into the cement? Why did Oscar waste his time trying to convince Michael that an impression of his face didn’t seem safe?) And why didn’t Michael’s head get kinda stuck in the cement? That would have been hilarious, in a morbid way…

We know Ryan has issues with Jim for Jim’s interaction with David Wallace, and now we know that Toby hates Jim for his relationship with Pam. Is Jim’s job possibly at risk? Perhaps Jim will be demoted, and Dwight will be promoted to the real #2 and not the #2 in his mind only. Or perhaps Jim will get fed up with the negativity towards him, and he has to choose between keeping his position with the company and staying close to his girlfriend. We’ve got Dwight already against Jim, and now Ryan and Toby…Andy, logically, has to be next to attack Jim, right, perhaps with a little prodding from Angela?

By the way, Toby, what happened to going to Costa Rica? Couldn’t afford the plane ticket? And Pam’s blind as a bat sans corrective lenses, eh? You just knew there were going to be some inappropriate comments made to Pam by the men of the Office (namely, Kevin and Creed). As far as the main storyline of the episode is concerned…

Also, did anyone notice that, on the company hierarchy chart that Dwight has—why he has one is a completely different story—Dwight’s name is just slightly above Jim’s?

EDIT: If you look carefully at the office hierarchy, you’ll see the following (I nearly spit water all over my laptop when I first noticed this):

• Above Dwight’s name are the words “Original Assistant Regional Manager.” Over Jim’s name are the words “Assistant Regional Manager.”
• Creed’s name (Creed Bratton) is in quotes.
• All the females in the office have the female symbol next to their names. Next to Oscar’s name is two male symbols. Next to each female is a moon symbol (quarter moon, half moon, etc.), presumably to indicate their “time” of the month. Phyllis’ and Meredith’s symbols are crossed out, for obvious reasons.
• The members of the Party Planning Committee are indicated in purple.
• Toby’s name has the Star of David next to it. Kevin’s name has a shamrock next to it.
• Next to Andy’s name is a Chess pawn is the image of a college graduate (did nobody else in the office graduate college?). Next to Darryl and Stanley’s names are a symbol that I can’t quite make out, but I presume they are an indication that these two are black. EDIT: Krunk said the image appears to be a fist. A sign of “Black Power,” perhaps?
• Devon (the guy who got fired in Halloween) has his name crossed out.

Speaking of Andy, who didn’t see Dwight doing something with Andy’s car to upset him? I gotta take down a transcript of what Dwight did to persuade Andy to sell his car for cheap, and try that out at a used car dealership

Finally! Someone grew a pair and called Michael out! Too bad it was Stanley; I would have loved to see a partially-drunk Meredith do it instead. Then again, it was awesome to see Stanley finally get more than a couple lines in an episode, and the tension between the two of them was great. It came as a pleasant surprise to me that Michael finally figured out that he was the authority figure of the office, and expected Stanley to treat him with some respect. And I loved the end of the episode, where Phyllis called Michael’s “summer Christmas” plan the worst thing she’s ever heard of, only to have Michael clear the room of everyone but himself and her.

If only I didn’t have to endure Michael butchering the series of jokes in the final talking head segment.

Favorite moments (coming soon…):

• Oscar: “Michael…that doesn’t seem…safe (rolls eyes, as if to remind himself who he’s talking to)”
• Pam: “Yeah…I slept over at a friend’s house, and…I forgot my contact lens solution, so I had to wear my backup glasses. Shut up!” (No comment.)
• Michael: “Pam, those make you look so ugly. In order to get hotter, you take the glasses off. You’re moving in the wrong direction.”
• Jim’s second fake proposal. Much funnier than the first one.
• Jim’s one-up on Andy’s idea for a new outgoing voicemail message. That had a bit of Dwight in it.
• Andy: “You meet a lot of ladies driving an Xterra, because…you pull up to a stop light, and look over, and there’s an Xterra next to you, they’re always driven by chicks. So there’s your ice breaker.” OK…
• Michael: “What’s the pink?” Dwight: “Menstrual cycles.” (see above)
• Kevin: “All the girlfriends that I’ve ever had have worn glasses. It’s kinda a turn on for me…like librarians…could you just say ‘These are due back Thursday’?” Creeeeeeeeeeepy…
• Creed: “I’d like to put the piano in front of Pam, without her glasses, and see what happens. I’d also like to see her topless.” LOL!
• Michael: “I would have never thought that gangs would be tickling each other.”
• Michael: “It’s the only possible solution I have left.” Toby: “Well, you can actually fire him.” Michael: “Ok…I’ve had enough of you.” Poor Toby
• Stanley: “Are you serious?” Michael: “I am serious…we are all serious. You are fired like a heart attack.” I swear I knew Michael was going to screw up this line!
• Michael: “Why don’t they just make the plane out of the airline food?” See above.

- Raise your hand if you were surprised that the B(S)CS rejected a plan to have a four-team playoff to crown an NCAA football champion every year. Apparently, not determining a champion on the field, according to these clowns, is the best way to determine a champion. Using arbitrary computer numbers and “try to be as unbiased as possible” football writers, these clowns would like us to believe, is the best way to determine a champion. According to Big 12 commish Dan Beebe,

“Even though we could construct barriers at this time, we felt like … there could be easily an errosion of that; more pressure to add more teams with an ability to get to the national championship game as we went over time. The system is under a lot of scrutiny that can result in pressure to add games. Our league is not favorable to a playoff system as a whole, and viewed this as the first step in that direction.”

Let me summarize: a four-team, plus-one playoff system would shaft team #5. If the playoffs were expanded to eight, team #9 would get shafted. Also, the B(S)CS would also like us fans to understand that adding additional games adds additional stress onto the students, both physically and academically. However, nobody seems to complain when NCAA basketball players have to spend up to three weeks outside of the classroom. The B(S)CS believes that players already play too many games; I didn’t hear anyone complaining when teams started adding a 12th game to their schedules.

I love this quote:

“We have decided that because we feel at this time the BCS is in an unprecedented state of health, we feel it’s never been healthier during its first decade, we have made a decision to move forward in the next cycle with the current format,” ACC commissioner and BCS coordinator John Swofford said.

By “unprecedented state of health,” these people are referring to their bank accounts, if that wasn’t painfully clear. I say, if we’re going to use an arbitrary system of picking the two teams to play in the National Championship game, we should be allowed to vote American Idol style.

Vote 1-800-BCS-0001 for USC, or text message BCS01 for USC! Standard text messaging rates apply!

American Idol-style voting can’t be any worse than what we currently have, right?

Tags: Sports, The Office by Peter
1 Comment »

Quick-hitters:

- In an effort to do more family-related things, my aunt wanted all of us to hang out and do something “fun” sometime this upcoming weekend.

When my sister and I got back home on Sunday night, I asked her if we were going to take up our aunt’s offer. She said that we were not going back next weekend under any circumstances.

Today, she found out that our four-year-old nephew will be in town this weekend. I guess we’ll be back in MPK sooner than I thought :P.

- I’ve been told that my blog is awfully negative in nature, so here’s something positive to report. On the way from the parking lot to Dodger Stadium, I grabbed my wallet to pull out my ID and credit card—I ordered tickets for Will Call—and I guess I left a $20 in my pocket, because the bill hung out of the pocket, flapping in the wind.

If it weren’t for the woman and girl who yelled “Sir, you have money coming out of your pocket!” I would probably have lost the bill seconds later, possibly into the hands of the guy who yelled “Why did you tell him? I would have caught it!”

- Quick Lakers thought: raise your hand if you thought Kobe wasn’t going to go off in Game 2.

That’s what I thought.

BTW, reports had it that J.R. Smith was unhappy with the way Kobe was taunting Denver, posing his fingers in the shape of a gun and flashing that to TNT analyst Reggie Miller. Apparently J.R. Smith chewed Kobe out for it, and Kobe responded with ” ‘Better learn not to talk to me. You shake the tree, a leopard’s gonna fall out,’ ” before responding on the court with a drive right at Smith for a layup-and-one.

First of all, why was J.R. Smith the one chewing Kobe out for his taunting? Where were Carmelo or A.I.? Second, if he was going to chew out Kobe, he had to have expected Kobe to destroy him the next time down the court, right? Third, Kobe had been able to drive through the lane all day! Where was another Nugget to help out on Smith, knowing that Kobe was going right down his throat on the next play?

Why do I see this series going only four games?

- So it was my mom’s birthday this past Tuesday, and I thought we were planning a dinner for the weekend of the 26th. That’s when my older sister told me that my mom demanded that we have her birthday dinner on the weekend before her birthday. This demand came on the 17th, giving us three days max to plan something.

Having none of that, my older sister exclaimed “Lunch. Saturday. Golden Gate (?) buffet.” My other sister and I each made a single phone call, expecting the invitations to osmose down to other family members.

(That’s how we roll.)

The guest list gradually increased, even though several people got their unofficial invites an hour before lunch. The food was pretty average, especially for a Chinese buffet. I started out with the sushi, and that was a huge mistake. The wasabi was about as runny as ketchup.

One item that piqued everyone’s interest was a seafood dish called “Assorted Delicacies on Crab Shell.” Calling something a “delicacy” without naming it is bad enough. “Assorted delicacies,” and you’ve gotta be thinking “cat food.” Now, I’ve never tried cat food before, but that stuff tasted like what cat food would taste like.

They also had cream cheese wontons, which tasted super sweet. Absolutely disgusting. The most popular food that we gorged upon was the Korean BBQ spare ribs, and the meat looked like it was boiled, not grilled.

(Actually, I take that back. The ice cream was the best part of the meal, by far.)

(Tangent: If there’s one thing I love about doing stuff with family, it’s the pop culture discussions we have.

BTW, when I say pop culture, I mean The Office.)

- Tonight’s Office episode was, by a mile, a lot better than last week’s episode. While the main storyline, understandably so, involved Michael’s continued search for a girl, we got to see practically every member of the cast contribute to the episode. From Kelly continuing to harbor hard feelings for Ryan, to drunken (drugged, right? Massive nuclear holocaust? Jungle warfare? Sure, Troy has a drug problem. Right…) Ryan partying at the club, to Toby literally running off to Costa Rica after grabbing Pam’s knee (AWK-WARD…), I laughed nearly every minute. I especially loved how Michael became super-protective of Ryan, especially in the scene at the bar.

I loved how another one of Jim’s bright ideas—staying late so that the crew wouldn’t have to come in on Saturday to fix Ryan’s mess—blew up in his face. Between this, the one birthday party for all, and other events that aren’t coming to me at the moment, clearly the Scranton office needs Michael to run things. By the way, I wonder if the writers are going to develop a story based on the tension between Jim and Ryan; are we supposed to believe that Ryan didn’t mean anything when he said “Watch your back, Jim?” Ryan better watch his back; perhaps the stress of the failing Dunder Mifflin Infinity (two-point-0!) project is weighing on him. Is his job at risk? Is corporate already regretting their decision to hire him?

It was hilarious to watch the rest of the office pile on Jim for not notifying the security guard—(paraphrasing) Eddie, Evan, Hank, Edgar, Elliott…is it Elliott? The guy who sits behind the desk…the African-American guy…!—but what did Pam do to get the scorn of the office as well…well, other than doinking a football off Meredith’s face? Speaking of Meredith, what’s next for her? Is she going to get shot next?

Speaking of Pam, poor Toby! Clearly the guy still has feelings for her. I hope this isn’t the end of the Toby character; if it is, giving him more lines than normal is a nice way to go out. “‘Everyone, let’s get your boss laid Saturday’”? . And how sad is it that Andy and Angela are the favorite couple in the office?

By the way, why the hell does Dwight have the keys to the office, and not Michael’s #2 (Jim)? And did anyone notice that the girl Michael was chatting with kinda looked like Jan as well?

So, Michael’s gotta end up with Jan in the future, right? Why else would he constantly be running into people that look like Jan? Maybe the next time they meet up, she’ll have a face lift as well, not that I’m saying Melora Hardin needs a face lift. And when did Dwight become such a playa?

Favorite moments:

• Did anyone think that Dwight used a bit too much peanut butter to get the gum out of Michael’s hair?
• Michael: “Look, men are visual creatures. We crave beauty, like a piece of fine art by any number of renowned artists, or an art-y photograph of Cindy Crawford nude…[the persons Michael have dated] just lack a certain Crawford-ness.” (Does it surprise anyone that he couldn’t name a single artist?)
• Ryan: “Yes. I’m having the Scranton branch come in on one Saturday to re-enter sales that they made on the phone as sales made by the website, which they should have done in the first place…if the website had been working.” (I love Ryan’s character.)
• Ryan: “Yes. The social networking feature of the Dunder-Mifflin Infinity website was infiltrated by sexual predators.” LOL! WTF does a paper company need with a social networking site?
• Michael: “It’s not the horniess, ok? It’s the loneliness.” I might have just found a new subtitle for my blog
• Andy: “I am in SERIOUS need of some bro time! Ol’ ball-and-chain has been a lot more chain than ball lately, if you know what I’m saying.” Right in front of Dwight and Angela, no less!
• Michael: “I am going to get laid. Goodbye!” followed by Dwight: “With sex!” HAHAHAHA!
• Andy: “Show of hands. Who thinks we’re a better couple than Jim and Pam?” The cameras should have panned on a grinning Angela.
• Dwight referring to the basketball team as “Amazons” followed by Dwight’s idea of pairing up two girls to a guy to get in to the club (how did Dwight learn all this stuff while running a beet farm?)
• The collective groan of the office when they receive Michael’s cell phone video of Dwight making out.
• Michael: “I’ve asked a lot of girls to dance, Mom…” WTF?
• Jim: “Cleaning people…Oscar! OK…so all you need to do is explain to them what happened because I think they can help us.” Oscar: “Why are you assuming they only speak Spanish?” followed by the exchange between Oscar and the cleaning ladies, ending with Oscar saying “they happen to speak Spanish.” Way to straddle the line of racism, writers :P.
• Michael’s advice for Ryan’s “friend” with the drug problem. I really need to start watching The Wire…I hear it’s great.

Tags: Food, Sports, The Office by Peter
1 Comment »

No quick-hitters tonight.

- I got myself a new toy today: a Logitech VX Revolution notebook mouse. My old Microsoft Blue Optical Mouse was getting completely worn out; the sides of the mouse, the three feet that were still stuck on the bottom, and the textured scroll wheel had all seen better days.

I may post a full review of this item later down the line, but for now, here are my quick thoughts on the mouse:

1) The mouse has two scroll wheel (dubbed “MicroGear Precision Scroll Wheel”) options: precision (click-to-click scrolling, which we’re all familiar with), and a free-spin mode, where the wheel will spin continuously for a few seconds with one quick flick of the wheel. The latter is great for scrolling through several pages of a document, but so far, I see no personal use for it.

2) I love the rubberized feel of Logitech mice, and this is no exception. The stow-away receiver is nice, too, though the button used to eject the receiver out of the bottom of the mouse has, at least one, launched the receiver like a cannonball being shot out of a cannon.

3) This is the first notebook mouse I’ve ever used that uses AA batteries (1xAA). It’s also the first notebook mouse I’ve used that has the back/forward buttons.

4) As with every other notebook mouse I’ve ever used…the mouse is just too small for my hands! After about an hour of use today, my right hand started cramping up. I should probably just start using a desktop mouse with my laptop.

- Naturally, one would except the episode immediately following a season premiere to be a let down from the prior week. Since I treated last week’s Office episode as a premiere, I didn’t expect much out of tonight’s episode.

The episode was fairly funny in bits and pieces, but overall, I was right not to expect much from tonight.

(I expect to read a bunch of dissenting opinions on other blogs tonight.)

Personally, I thought the writers should have given more time to the “date” between Michael and Pam’s landlady, as well as the parking lot situation with Kevin and Andy. Michael’s jerk-dom was also pretty over-the-top in the episode, especially with the way he acted in front of the landlady (though I did chuckle at his reaction to seeing her for the first time).

Breaking news! Michael’s single! Where’s Jan staying? Ooooh…I hope she hooks up with Hunter! That would make for an awesome storyline! Also, did anyone notice that the chair model looked a hell of lot like Jan, and Michael’s description of what the model might be like describes Jan to a T? Anyone wanna bet on the over/under on the number of weeks it will take for Michael to get back with Jan? I say three weeks, and I’ll take the under.

Poor Kevin! Oh well…in the immortal words of Michael Scott, “You don’t deserve her.” LOL. Also, I didn’t realize that there were so many ways to ask whether or not someone is fat. I’m surprised Michael didn’t ask if Phyllis’ friend looked more like Pam or Phyllis :P.

Great investigate work by Dwight, by the way. Why the two of them have to go and butcher “American Pie,” though, is anyone’s guess.

The whole scene with Jim joking about a marriage proposal, followed by the talking head where he shows the ring, I thought, was puzzling. Did Jim really want Pam to move in with him ASAP? I thought Jim was joking when he initially said that a proposal was “happening,” and, of course, we found out that this was not the case. He bought the ring a week after they started dating??? I guess that this was the writers’ way to play off Jim’s dorkiness, but I thought the whole scene was awkward. Joking about marriage after what Pam went through with Roy? The fake-proposal scene was fairly unfunny as well, though I love how my sister fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.

(Upon further review, I think the first Jim/Pam scene would have been a heck of a lot better if we were able to see Jim and Pam’s faces during the entire conversation.)

Favorite moments:

• Kevin: “I will quit. As God is my witness, I will quit if this is not fixed.”
• Pam: “I definitely remember your dinner party.”
• Michael: “Hello, Oscar Meyer Wiener…lover,” followed by Michael’s request to look for “liberal girl-type friends who trust [him]” Real subtle there, Michael.
• Michael: “I want to play ball with my kids before I get too old, and before that happens, I need to get laid.” That entire diatribe might have been the highlight of the episode, up until the ultimatum at the end.
• Michael again: “Wish I could, but I can’t. Well, can, but won’t. Should, maybe, but shorn’t (sp?)” At least he’s being honest!
• Jim: “Michael, you didn’t even know her,” followed by Pam shaking her head at him.
• Michael, once again, looking at the date cards: “Wendy…a juicy red-head.” I totally missed that joke the first time around!
• Michael: “You wanna see what I walked out on? This is going to blow your mind…and you can’t see her whole body (pointing)…she had a boob job…” followed by Jan saying “Michael?” Haha!
• Michael: “What do you do?” Dwight: “Wait ’till next year’s chair catalog comes out and find someone that’s still alive.”

Until next time!

Tags: Deals, Technology, The Office by Peter
No Comments »

I’ve got so much to blog about, but every day, other material comes to me (take, for example, The Office returning tonight!)

Oh well…on with it!

Quick-hitters:

- Seriously, Brett Favre, please go away. You might consider coming back if the Packers need you? You just got the entire town of Green Bay, WI, praying for a serious injury to Aaron Rodgers.

What did Rodgers ever do to you, by the way? You’ve hated this guy since day one, it appeared (anyone remember when Favre said something to the effect of “I’m not here to groom a new QB?”).

Go away. Seriously.

- Taxes are due in five days, and yours truly still has not filed them yet. Geez…what is so difficult about clicking the “submit” button?

- Current rebate-o-meter: $1800, and that’s after receiving $80 worth of rebates.

I’ve got about another $300 coming soon, though.

- One bit of television talk before I get to my Office review…

(For the record, I will neither confirm nor deny that I watch American Idol.)

but did Michael Johns really get eliminated this week? And WTF was with Ryan Seacrest reminding the viewers that, at this time last year, nobody was eliminated…but that wasn’t going to be happening this year? That was seriously messed up.

Did I just rant about reality television? Let’s just pretend that that never happened…

- So I’ve got one thing to say about tonight’s episode of The Office:

L O [expletive!] L.

Tonight’s episode was just like another season premiere, and boy, was it worth the wait! Michael had three vasectomies? Just the thought of that hurt me down there.

(Totally OT, but I live just a few blocks south of that hot dog stand that Jim and Pam were at, at the end of the episode. I’ve lived near it for almost three years now, and I have never eaten there!)

Watching the Michael-Jan relationship slowly obliterate around the rest of the party was incredible. I kinda expected something bad to happen between them, especially after how nauseating they were at the beginning of the episode. WTF happened to Michael’s condo? Jan has an office AND a candle-making room? And WTF was with that painting??? Was it just me, or were those images of Jan? Well, at least Michael has a little (literally!) area to sleep in. He might as well sleep on the couch every night. Oh yeah, and don’t forget his awesome TV! Seeing that thing made me spit water all over my TV, which, I should point out, is slightly larger than Michael’s.

Speaking of the party…who didn’t figure out immediately that Michael intentionally kept the staff at the office for some reason?

When Michael had Jim and Andy in the garage, and he started with the line, “Did you know that candles are the #1 fastest-growing product…,” I was immediately thinking “Oh no…Jan’s candle business is an MLM??? LOL!!!” The writers should have gone with that…not that Michael’s straight-up asking for $10,000 investments wasn’t hilarious enough. And did it surprise anybody to find out that Jan put Michael up to asking for investors? All I know is, I’d like to know what a bonfire-scented candle smells like :P.

Also, was there anything more priceless than the look on Pam’s face when it was brought to her attention that she had a relationship with Michael? And I loved how Angela chimed in with the “I’ve noticed how you look at him” remark. The tension between Jan and Pam—I forget the details, but there was an earlier episode where Jan reminded Pam that Michael was hers, or something like that—were evident, starting with the embrace between Michael and Pam, and I loved Pam’s facial expressions each time Jan threw a jab at her.

I also loved what Jim was willing to go through to get out of the party, even if it meant abandoning Pam. My sister wasn’t happy with what he did, but I thought it was hilarious. She loved how Pam got Jim back, though, by pointing out that Jim could not “buy a new party.”

(Tangent: John Krasinski, I found out earlier today, was interviewed on the Jim Rome Show last Thursday. That was a damn funny interview.

At the end of the episode—when the cops were called over—I was expecting Jan to run out crying, pleading with Michael not to leave, and I figured the episode would end with Jan and Michael embracing, thus immediately smoothing things over between the two of them. Once Michael insisted that there was nothing wrong, I was certain that the writers were going down this route. You could imagine my surprise when I found out that this was not the case; we were left with Jan literally picking up the pieces (of a Dundee), while Michael morphed back into the laugh-at-him idiot that we know and love. Could Michael finally be coming to his senses?

(Nah.)

Favorite moments:

• It wasn’t funny at all, but who wasn’t happy to see the opening scene with most of the cast there?
• Dwight: “Does it bother me that I wasn’t invited to Michael’s dinner party?” followed by his running off-camera. Poor Dwight.
• Jan (referring to the bottle of wine Pam gave them): “…this will be great to cook with!” (At this point, I knew that the party was going to be a disaster, with Michael and Jan right in the middle of it all.)
• Pam: “What a cute bench.” Michael: “Thanks. That’s my bed. Jan has, uh, some space issues, so I curl up on that puppy.” (Great choice of words, BTW.”
• Michael (after Pam announced that Jim couldn’t set up her TiVo): If you ever need any help, I’m just a phone call away.” Did you see the look on Jan’s face???
• Andy (to Pam): “I bet you’re sick of tuna, right? You probably have tuna every night.”
• Pam: “I just want to eat…which I realize is a lot to ask for…at a dinner party.”
• Jan’s stare of death at Pam after Michael gave Pam his jacket. Now THAT was priceless. The back and forth banter between Michael and Jan afterwards was great, especially Michael remarking that Jan loves to sue! Something tells me that Jan hasn’t forgotten that Michael cost her…er…them a great deal of money!
• Angela remarking that Jan and Michael shouldn’t joke about the devil.
• Michael: “Snip, snap, snip, snap, snip, snap…you have no idea the physical toll that three vasectomies have on a person.

(I just keeled over again for a minute.)

• Pam: “And now you guys are dating?” Dwight: “Purely carnal. That’s all you need to know.”
• Michael: “That was a $200 plasma screen TV you just killed! Good luck paying me back on your zero dollars a year salary + benefits!”
• Cop: “Not now, Dwight.” A nice way to remind us that Dwight was once (still is?) a volunteer cop.
• Jim: “My apartment’s on fire” which was immediately followed by Pam saying “Flooded.”

And for my sister’s one un-favorite moment:

• Angela slamming the Cold Stone ice cream cone on Andy’s car door. What a waste of ice cream!

It’s good to have The Office back.

Tags: The Office by Peter
1 Comment »

Wow! It’s been over a week since my last blog entry?

Lemme make this one a quickie (well, as quick as possible).

Quick-hitters:

- I hate being sick. I hate people. I’m not sure which one I hate more.

- Seriously, how hard is it to change seven digits? The damn HOA that runs my apartment complex, apparently, cannot figure out how to do such a seemingly easy task. It’s been two weeks since I’ve requested that my front-gate intercom # be changed to a new phone number, and they haven’t done anything about it yet! Two weeks! That’s 2 days per digit!!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

- Current rebate-o-meter: ~$2800, although it appears that I’m going to be jerked around for about $150 of that rebate money.

’tis the rebate game, after all…

- Given that this week’s Office episode might be the last episode for a while (thanks to the WGA strike), I wasn’t really looking forward to tonight’s episode.

That being said, tonight’s episode was great! It had a little bit of Jim/Pam (boy does Jim suck at ping-pong!), psycho Kelly (and I’ll admit that the Kelly character is growing on me, in a fingernails-on-the-chalkboard kind of way), and most importantly, it had the pathetic, let’s-feel-sorry-for-him Michael Scott! Poor Michael; he must have felt like he got stabbed in the back after finding out that Jan gave him a less than exemplary, albeit warranted, performance review! Despite that, I was REALLY surprised that Michael didn’t agree that Dunder-Mifflin “exhibits a pattern of disrespect towards its employees,” especially after hearing David Wallace’s deposition. Not to mention, isn’t Michael always whining about his superiors–first Jan, and now Ryan? Obviously this revelation is going to scar Michael’s relationship with Jan…or will it?

(I also wonder how long it’s going to take for Michael to realize that he blew a chance at a share of $4 million.)

By the way, I don’t know a single guy that keeps a freaking diary. I was half-expecting to see one of those tiny locks on the front cover. And when I saw Michael actually decide to sit with Toby for lunch, I was suckered into believing that he would actually be nice to Toby for a change (yeah, right!).

I loved the Kelly/Darryl and Jim/Pam scenes, and I especially loved Kelly’s smack-talking. That stand-off between Pam and Kelly at the door of the women’s bathroom was one heck of an awkward moment! At the end of the episode, though, I was hoping for Pam to slug Kelly right in the face, prompting an all-out-brawl. You could imagine my disappointment when they started playing ping-pong instead.
(I assure you that I say this not as a chauvinistic pig who wouldn’t mind watching two women clawing each other’s eyes out. I swear this on a grilled porterhouse! :P)

Favorite moments:

• Ryan demanding that Michael answer the call from a very important non-existent client.
• Pam: “I bring him juice…My boyfriend is svelte.” (LOL!)
• Jim convincing Dwight to play ping-pong by suggesting that the client challenged Jim to a ping-pong match.
• The diary entry: “…tan all over…Jan all over…he he”
• Jan: “I stole your diary and gave it to my lawyer. You e-mailed a topless photo of me to everyone in our company. Let’s call it even” followed by the awkward exchange of “I love you”s.
• “Who is this other woman…Ryan…who you refer to here as ‘Just as hot as Jan, but in a different way” (*gag*), followed by Toby’s girlish laugh.
• Dwight: “Wait a minute…Darryl is the client? He works here, dumbass!” (:P)
• Michael: You expect to get screwed by your company, but you never expect to get screwed by your girlfriend.”

Dwight and Mose’s ping-pong rally at the end of the episode was pretty awesome as well.

Now, to go cry a little over the fact that there will be no more Office episodes for the foreseeable future.

- Here are (very quickly) my Week 10 (Fantasy) Football thoughts.

1) I’m 5-5 in the BargainShare fantasy football league (tied for first…and last :P), and just plain pathetic in the other leagues (4-6, 3-7 in the LT league, and somehow 5-5).

In the BargainShare league, I started Justin Fargas (he of eight fantasy points) and Travis Henry (he of DNP). On my bench? Selwyn Young (18 pts) and Ryan Grant (19 pts). Fortunately I didn’t need either of them.

I hate Fantasy Football.

2) The Pats are the most awesome-est team EVAR! They are so super cool! They’re not going to lose a game for twenty years!

(I just put that little blurb up there to appease Boston myopics; if I didn’t, Pats’ fans might accuse me of disrespecting their team).

By the way, Pats’ fans, I love how you guys are whining that the Colts are going to make excuses now that DE Dwight Freeney is out for the season. I can’t wait to see how myopic you guys are going to act when the Celtics begin their playoff run.

3) You know your football team is sad when you are pissed that they got their first win of the season.

Stupid Rams! Go 0-16! Get the #1 pick next year!

Oh well, hopefully Miami continues their run towards history :P.

4) What was more depressing to watch last weekend? San Francisco’s “offense” or Peyton Manning throwing six picks?

Who am I kidding? San Francisco by ten miles!

5) Donovan McNabb? HUGE game!

What does this mean for fantasy owners? People will start him next week, and he’ll probably lay an egg.

Until next time (whenever that is)!

Tags: Fantasy, Sports, The Office by Peter
1 Comment »

Apologies for not blogging in so long. Things have come up, I’ve been sick, yada yada yada.

On with it.

Quick-hitters:

- Am I the only one that hates to cash checks that have those cool security features on them (inks that disappear when you apply heat to them, e.g.)?

Yes, I’m easily amused.

- Speaking of checks…current rebate-o-meter: $2700. Unfortunately, that does not include the $400 or so in rebates I have yet to file.

Sigh…

- I hate adjusting to Daylight Savings changes. I’ve been waking up an hour earlier than usual for the last three days, and for some reason, I am still sleeping at the same time as usual.

Maybe I need a sleep aid, if you know what I mean.

- I never did get a chance to finish my spanakopita (it went bad).

I think it is time to make some more.

(There’s nothing wrong with cooking at 11:30PM, right?)

- Here are my quick “Game of the Century” (Patriots @ Colts) thoughts:

• This game was, in a number of ways, the reverse of the ‘06 AFC Championship Game. The Pats wore the Colts’ D out, and rallied to win late in the fourth quarter. BTW, if the Pats finish this season, they better send the Dolphins a gift basket for getting Wes Welker from them for some seashells.
• I wasn’t at all upset that the Pats won the game…until that one Patriots defender spiked the ball on the Colts’ midfield logo, followed by Bill Belicheck’s non-handshake with Tony Dungy. Way to be classy, guys.

(Now I’m not one to wish injury on people *whistles*, but if the Patriots continue to act like classless jerks, and one of their key players happens to get injured on a dirty play, don’t expect me to feel bad for them.)

• One must wonder what the outcome of the game would have been if Marvin Harrison were healthy and Anthony Gonzalez didn’t leave the game with an injury…

By the way, idiots like me are allowed to paste an asterisk on the Patriots’ season. Legends like Don Shula, on the other hand, need to show a bit of restraint. For those of you that haven’t yet heard, Shula thinks that a Patriots’ unbeaten season deserves an asterisk because of the whole Spygate scandal. It doesn’t help that Shula happens to be the coach of the last NFL team to go undefeated. Shula is a Hall of Famer, but that doesn’t give him a right to whine about being joined in the record books by an alleged cheat.

(One might argue that a 19-0 Patriots record would be more impressive than the Dolphins’ 17-0 mark, due to the extra two games and the parity in today’s NFL.)

Hopefully, if New England loses a game, the living members of that undefeated Dolphins’ team don’t party too hard. By the way, I wonder if they’re worried that the 2007 Dolphins might go 0-16 this season.

- This won’t be a thorough review of today’s Office episode, as I don’t really feel like spending too much time on it.

That being said, I really enjoyed today’s episode. Watching Jim totally fail at replacing Michael for the day was awesome, and poor Jim for being called Michael by Phyllis! I LOL’d when they showed Jim’s talking head while in Michael’s office! At least Jim tried to be not-Michael when he insisted on resolving his birthday party idea outside of the conference room (though I would have loved to see how THAT would have worked out!).

And who didn’t see Jim’s genius idea of one big birthday party blowing up in his face? Speaking of Jim, you could see it in everyone’s faces–even Pam–that his idea wasn’t going to work out at all.

I was hoping Michael was going to use some fake British accent and go with Bear Grylls (Man v. Wild) instead of Survivorman, but Michael was still awesome in this episode. I wonder how much Rainn Wilson enjoyed whacking Steve Carell with his shoe :P. Same goes with Dwight having to run down to Michael to stop him from eating those mushrooms.
The end-of-episode scene was great, and showed how important (believe it or not) Michael is to running the Scranton office. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jim acting like Michael while trying to run the office for the day. Is he the second coming of Michael Scott? *shudder*

Favorite moments (a brief overview):

• Michael suggesting that something was wrong with a bunch of guys hanging out in tents, making S’Mores, and then suggesting that people should go camping alone…or with another person.
• Dwight: “Don’t worry…the safety is (pause) *click* on.” (LOL!!!!)
• Toby explaining to Jim that Michael “threw” a party for him on a Friday at 4:58pm.
• Jim being scarred for life after Phyllis called him Michael (could he sue for that?).

By the way, am I the only one seriously sweating the fact that The Office may be coming to a premature end–for this season, at least–because of the writers’ strike?

*cry*

That’s all I’ve got for today.

Tags: Sports, The Office by Peter
No Comments »

Ugh, I ate some really horrible Mexican food for dinner tonight, and now I feel really sick.

(Tangent: Tums Sugar Free is NAS-TY! I’d almost rather have the aches than have to chew and swallow these things. Maybe if I chased them down with some juice or milk next time…)

- After reading Krunk’s blog last week on Spanakopita, I decided to try to make the dish myself, using the recipe found on Wikipedia.

I actually never got around to cooking it until Thursday night :P.

I mixed together all of the ingredients, save the eggs, and sampled the spinach mix. O M F G. I could have eaten the filling by itself! I had to restrain myself from snacking on the filling as I layered two glass baking dishes with the phyllo dough.

(Tip: If you’re using phyllo dough, either get someone to help you, to speed up the process, or lay a wet cheesecloth on top of the unused portion of your dough. Otherwise, you’ll end up with hardened, tough-to-peel pieces of phyllo at the end of the preparation. Fortunately for me, only the last couple of pieces got stuck together.)

An hour of baking later, and my spanakopita dish was done! One bite into the dish, and I could have died happy on the spot :P. I think I overdid it on the fresh dill and the parsley, and I might have used too much salt, but I didn’t care. The phyllo dough was perfectly flaky, and the Mediterranean-seasoned feta cheese–Trader Joe’s didn’t have any regular feta cheese, so I went with what they had–was awesome.

I have pics (just for you, Hank), but I’m too lazy/sick to grab them off my camera at the moment. Trust me when I say that the pics I had won’t do the dish justice. I’ve got so much left over, in fact, that I could probably freeze a whole baking dish’s worth.

EDIT: Here’s a side pic of one of the slices (never mind the hideousness of the way the crust looks; this batch was from the latter sheets of phyllo dough, where they became impossibly difficult to work with. Besides, taste matters to me far more than presentation!)

Next time, I’m going to have to try wrapping them individually, like the way Krunk bought them.

- Presenting UBMe #4, aka “A CompUSA Dilemma.” Readers may want to read about my history with CompUSA before offering an opinion on today’s UBMe topic.

A week ago, you ordered a refurbished Targus Universal laptop charger from CompUSA (it was quite cheap). At about 8:30pm Thursday night, you were surprised by a knock on your door; it was Fedex with the charger!

(I don’t recall ever getting a delivery THAT late!)

You open up the box, plug in the charger, and was dismayed when you realized that the charger wasn’t compatible with your Dell laptop, despite the item description saying that it was compatible with “most” Dell laptops. You found the part you needed to get the charger to work with your laptop directly from Targus, making your cheap laptop charger a slightly more expensive, but still cheaper-than-OEM charger.

Fast forward to today…you opened your front door this morning, to find a package left in front of it. Puzzled, you picked it up, and noticed that it was from CompUSA. Certain that you didn’t order anything else from CompUSA, you noticed a sticker on the side of the box: it was another laptop charger!

You knew immediately that the right thing to do was to call CompUSA and let them know that you received a second item, even though you only ordered one. That’s when you recalled all the crap you’ve gone through with CompUSA; they’re not called “CrapUSA,” “CompUSSR,” “CrapUSSR,” et al., for nothing, right?

UBMe! Do you do the right thing and get in touch with CompUSA, telling them of their mistake? Hey, maybe they’ll tell you to keep the item anyway! Or, do you say “screw CompUSA” and keep the item, justifying your decision by the fact that the item was only ~$20?

I haven’t yet decided what my decision is going to be.

- Apologies for not having a thorough review of last week’s Office episode. I loved Michael’s version of the Dunder-Mifflin commercial, though, much more than the one Dunder Mifflin went ahead and used! Easily the best line of the episode was this insight into Michael’s creativity (quote borrowed from TV.com):

Michael: (To camera) Alright, let me ask you this: how many of you think this is creative? When I was five, I imagined there was such a thing as a unicorn. And this is before I had even heard of one, or seen one. I just drew a picture of a horse that could fly over rainbows, and a huge spike on his head. I was five… FIVE years old. Couldn’t even talk yet.

LOL!

As for last Thursday’s episode, I’m still not 100% sure what I think about this episode. Sure, there were tons of funny moments (the scene where Jim and Dwight wheel the copier down the hallway, causing hilarity to ensue, was so over-the-top ridiculous that it was funny), but I thought the episode was quite disjointed; it was literally all over the place. It appeared like the episode was going out of its way to crack as many jokes as possible, without giving us viewers any actual substance.

Mike’s “kidnapping” of Jim, for instance, was clearly a case of the writers trying to get laughs (and it only served to piss me off). The same goes with Dwight tossing Jim’s phone out of the window. At that point, any normal person would have quit his job on the spot, right? I was also not amused to hear of Michael and Dwight’s plans for the Utica office. Was it just me, or were those Molotov cocktails? Seriously, Michael and Dwight could be idiotically funny without committing near-crimes, right (see my review on “Launch Party”)? We need more of the pathetic, idiotic Michael that we could sympathize with, and less of the over the top, outrageous, and–dare I say–criminal Michael that we saw in this episode. I was again ready to change the channel at this point, and I don’t remember ever saying that TWICE in the same season of The Office, much less twice in six episodes.

As far as Jim and Pam are concerned, it’s pretty clear that their relationship is going to hit a rocky patch, and I’m interested to see how the writers are going to proceed. The seeds of doubt were firmly planted in last week’s episode; did you notice how uncomfortable Jim was when he showed Pam “Philly Jim?” Also, was it just me, or was Pam not thrilled with Jim interrupting her work on the commercial? Are we closing in on an imminent meltdown? Furthermore, I thought it was very interesting that the end-of-episode skit, which generally offers nothing of substance to the episode, showed Jim clearly unable to fit in with “The Finer Things Club.” And how much Pam find out about what happened in Utica? Maybe she was told about Jim and Karen’s conversation? As for Karen, I thought she played her role perfectly in this episode. I really hated the “if you wanted to see me, you could have just called” line, but you would have expected Karen to be pissed about seeing Jim again.

All in all, the second-half of the episode was great for the quick laughs, but I wasn’t too impressed with the episode as a whole.

My favorite moments:

• Karen: (on becoming Utica’s Regional Manager) “Turns out it’s a pretty easy gig when your boss isn’t an idiot and your boyfriend’s not in love with somebody else.”
• Oscar: “Besides the having sex with men, I would say ‘The Finer Things Club’ is the gayest thing about me.”
• Utica’s best salesman (to Michael): “Aren’t you the guy that hit the woman with your car?” (Did anyone catch Pam’s laugh, Michael’s whispering of “Get out!,” and the fact that Meredith was walking past them in the background?)
• Michael (to Toby): “Oh. My. God. That’s why people are leaving! I have no words…” (poor Toby!)
• Dwight: “I think I cut my penis on the lid.” (Ewwwww…)
• Kevin and Phyllis’ interrupting of “The Finer Things Club” (that was LMFAOPMP funny, I must admit). I wonder how many takes it took to complete that scene.
• Dwight: “I have to do something to his eyes,” followed by “The eyes are the groin of the head.”
• Michael: “Jim…if this is it for me, promise me something. Host the Dundees,” followed by “Do not tell Karen about the industrial copier.”

And I LOLed when Stanley revealed that Michael had “called his bluff.”

Until next time!

Tags: Food, The Office, UBMe by Peter
3 Comments »

No quick-hitters this time. Let’s go straight into my review.

- Since I forgot to review last week’s episode of The Office, I’ll do so here.

(Note: This review was written before I watched the current week’s episode.)

Last week’s episode was pretty good, but not fantastic, and awfully disappointing for an hour-long episode. There were a few good moments, but overall, I thought the episode was pretty boring. After the first ten minutes, I nearly fell asleep as the episode wore on. When Michael kept the pizza guy hostage, I was seriously considering changing the channel. How he didn’t get arrested for kidnapping is beyond me (oh yeah, that’s because this is TV). Yeah, I understand the parallels between Michael/the pizza guy and Michael/Ryan, but that was some seriously boring crap. The scene with Jim and Pam on the roof saved the second-half of the episode, for sure.

The interaction between Andy and Dwight, though way over the top at times, was pretty damn funny. I can’t wait to see how Andy’s interest in Angela is going to ruin their chemistry. And I was especially happy to see Jim and Pam pulling a prank on Dwight again! Dwight’s facial expressions were priceless! Phyllis’ handling of an increasingly bitchy Angela was quite enjoyable too. I LOL’ed when Phyllis threw the crumpled-up post-its at Angela’s face.

As soon as I saw the DVD player screen saver on the television in the conference room, I knew that everyone was waiting to see if the little box was going to hit the corner of the screen. I will admit that I have done that once or twice before

My favorite moments:

• Meredith asking Jim to sign her cast. “Can you write where I can read it?”
• Pam: “[Killing Angela’s cat] has caused a lot of unpleasantness between Dwight and Angela…who are both already prone to unpleasantness.”
• Jim (to Pam): What would you say if I told you we could pull a prank on Dwight at the same time and not be working?
• Dwight: “I did so well last February that Corporate gave me two plaques in lieu of a pay raise.”
• Michael: “It’s a club called ‘Chat room’ and there’s a password to get in, which is actually ‘password.’”
• Kelly sticking the pizza on the TV screen, followed by the pizza guy’s plea for help.
• Andy’s a capella rendition of “Take A Chance on Me” via the speakerphone, followed by Angela realizing the other workers were standing in the room.

- Today’s episode was FAR better than the previous two, even though it was awfully mushy at times. Then again, who didn’t enjoy the last few minutes? From Jim consoling Dwight, to his explaining why he left Scranton, to his never wanting to wish his emotional pains on his worst enemy (”and that includes you”), to Dwight turning towards the space that Jim had occupied, to Jim planting a kiss on Pam, and finally, to the declaration that Jim is very passionate about Italian food, who didn’t find those last few moments enjoyable? I agree with my sister’s comment that many female Office fans just fell (further?) in love with Jim Halpert. And LOL at Dwight turning back into his old self at the very end, knocking over Jim’s pile of stuff hanging over Dwight’s desk.

Speaking of relationships, poor poor Michael. Although it was great to see Jan prove that she values her relationship with Michael, nothing got resolved with regards to his money problems! I was kinda hoping Michael was going to chew her out, pointing out that she is the one sending him to financial hell. Dammit Michael! Grow a pair! And whatever Jan’s psychological disorder is, it must really be serious if she can’t figure out that she is causing Michael’s financial strain. Oh well, it seems that the writers will be dragging this storyline out for the entire season.

(Nice job screwing up the lyrics to “Runaway Train,” by the way!)

Of course, as long as there is a substantial Jim/Dwight interaction in an episode, the episode can’t be awful as a whole, right? And “agro-tourism”??? I didn’t even realize there was such a thing! Oh yeah, any episode that prominently features Mose can’t suck either.  And of course, I loved how Michael got bossed around for a change. If only his superiors at Dunder Mifflin would do the same to him.

(Tangent: If I were Jim, Pam’s taking me to Dwight’s non-bed-and-breakfast would be a relationship killer.)

(Tangent #2: The Beets Motel? The Embassy Beets? Radish Inn? HAHAHAHA. Borscht hotel? *groan*)

It’s a damn shame that this was the last hour-long episode for the foreseeable future. I’m still bent over the fact that two not-so-great hour-long episodes were sandwiched in between two excellent episodes.

My favorite moments:

• Dwight (answering Pam’s call): “This is a misuse of company phones!” (Pot, meet kettle.)
• Dwight’s story about Schrute family members giving males a bag of wild oats when he has sex with a woman.
• Kevin’s new band, Scrantonicity II. Of course that’s what it’s named!
• Michael taking the bus to his second job…also in sales. LOL!
• Jim’s explaining how he dreamed of his and Pam’s first night away together, and how he imagined it to involve less manure.
• Michael cold-calling Stanley, and then attempting to disguise his voice to hide his identity, followed by the talking “head” scene with Stanley over the speakerphone (LOL!!!!)
• Mose sitting in the room, while Dwight was reading from a Harry Potter book.
• Michael’s impromptu presentation, complete with him having to register the new version of PowerPoint and download updates.
• Pam: “Now that I think about it, Angela and Andy might actually make a good couple. But I couldn’t do that to Dwight. Or Angela. Or Andy.”
• Michael trolling around the office, asking for advice on how to get out of his financial woe, especially when he asked Kevin about how to double his money seven or eight times. I wouldn’t mind doubling the money in my wallet seven or eight times!
• Michael: “If I had money problems, would I do this?” followed by him crumpling up a dollar bill, then putting it in his pocket.
• Michael literally declaring bankruptcy.

If there’s one good thing about the hour-long episodes ending for now, it’s that these Office reviews will be much shorter

Tags: The Office by Peter
No Comments »