Oh other blog...I've been neglecting you

So I am attempting to pose every day in the month of February on my other blog.

Which of course means I'm not posting here.

Two blogs!  That's a lot people!  Especially when you consider I get maybe a half an hour of computer time a day.

But I do love this blog, so here I am, however briefly.

I recently watched the fabulous Lifetime movie (is there any other kind?) The Pregnancy Pact.

So great.  Based on a true story, of course.  Here it goes (non spoilers ahead):  Girls in a small town all try to get pregnant.  Which is pretty easy since they're all having unprotected sex because all the boys are too embarassed to buy condoms.  But then once they're pregnant they realize it was probably a mistake.  Because having a baby?  Not so easy.

Shocking, I know.  The twists!  The turns!  The stupid, stupid characters.

Still, it was fun to watch..  There's just something about Lifetime.  It's like TV crack.

I promise to post more.  I just got Lauren Conrad's book, which I can't wait to read.  Perhaps next month I'll try to post here every day.

Yay! Random British TV

I love the Brits and their television, despite the somewhat cringey-ness. I randomly got the first season of Gavin and Stacey from Netflix and heartily enjoyed it.

It’s the story of two people who have been talking on the phone through work and decide to meet and fall madly in love and immediately get engaged, you know…as you do.

The two writers are also in the series as their friends and are very funny.

It has the added benefit as being a nice glimpse into a different culture. Lots of British slang and jokes about people from Wales that I didn’t get at all.

Go...watch...enjoy.

I'm hooked on e - well, actually on E!

I somehow had managed to go almost 30 years without watching E! (the entertainment television channel).  And then I had a baby.  And I had a LOT of time laying around, napping, nursing, etc.  And it was winter.  And my husband was working.  And I don't get Tivo up in my bedroom.

And somehow all of these factors led to me watching every season of The Girls Next Door on DVD. 

I figured my son was already seeing a lot of boob action, so a few (hundred) more couldn't hurt.

It's not that the show is good, exactly, it's just that it's fascinating.  Like a nature documentary - except instead of chimps it's very young girls who cannot keep their clothes on and a very very old man who should really know better.

I was hooked, and am in fact watching the current season now, which is much worse and the new girls are a lot less interesting.  Although grown twins who still dress alike and sleep in the same bed is odd enough to be intriguing.

And, sadly, The Girls Next Door was just a gateway show.

I watched the whole season of Kourtney and Khloe Take Miami and just got my first disc of Keeping Up With the Kardashians in the mail.  It's a slippery slope strewn with dumb topless girls.

I admit, everyone else was right

The history of "The Office" and me is this: Several years ago I started watching the British version, which everyone said was so funny, and I absolutely hated it. It was just too awkward and not funny to me.

So when the American version came out and people said this one was great too, I completely ignored it and thought it would be more of the same.

This is despite everyone I know telling me that it was really funny and I would like it if I watched it.

That is, until this weekend.

My husband and I curled up in bed and decided to try a few episodes off of Netflix with their watch now option.

And now I'm in love. All I want to do is lay in bed and watch "The Office". Luckily we have four whole seasons to get through.

So, yes, everyone else was right.

Pretty much the best. show. ever.

For my husband's birthday, I got him season three of How I Met Your Mother.

It is one of my absolutely favorite shows, and it just keeps getting better.

It is so consistently funny and the characters are fabulous. I am completely in love with Neil Patrick Harris, who just makes the show.

Have you not seen it? While I don't know how that I possible, I am almost jealous that someone would have three unwatched seasons stretching before them.

Go, go now!

Celebrity rehab? How did I miss this?

In scanning the channels this weekend, I stumbled onto the VH1 show Celebrity Rehab. I don't know why on Earth I haven't been watching this. I remember hearing that it was good it a trashy, train wreck kind of way, and boy is that true. No one seems to go off the deep end like famous people, probably because they're the only ones with the money to do drugs in really massive quantities. But it's a good time to hear their stories, plus there's the fun of watching Nick Nolte just be completely insane. (Edited to add: Kim was totally right, it's crazy Gary Busie, not Nick Nolte...I find them eerily similar...)

Lipstick Jungle = hot boy

I know it's a slightly less good version of Sex in the City, but I do enjoy Lipstick Jungle.

It's a little trashy, and all of the women are queens of making bad (bad!) decisions. But the actor who plays Kirby is too cute, and you get to watch him making out a lot. Plus there are lots of good clothes and jewelry. Definitely worth watching.

DVDs I love

I have so been enjoying television seasons on DVD lately.

Two that have recently come out that I love:

30 Rock:

So good and funny and Tina Fey is just enjoyable on every level.

And although I know I should completely hate Alec Baldwin because he is such an unbelievable ass, he is entirely funny on the show (which always leaves me feeling a little guilty).

CSI NY:

I love this one as well as the regular CSI, although for some reason I only like them on DVD. There's something nice about watching them four at a time.

It's a little cheesy, but I am always completely entertained by this show.

Although I would happily own both of these, right now I am waiting for Netflix to parcel them out for me.

Fun with new shows

I am a little behind on watching (and judging) the new fall shows, but I did enjoy The Ex-List on Friday night.

The main character has to find her soul mate and get married within the year or she'll be single forever. And her soul mate is someone she's already been involved with.

This concept does raise two questions for me. How is this show going to last longer than a year? Also, if I had to track down every boy I'd been even remotely romantically involved with in the course of my life, I'd be totally screwed.

Still, it looks like it's going to be cute and I am looking forward to episode number two.

Better late than never

I finally sat down and watched all three of the 90210 episodes I had Tivo'd.

I loved the original 90210. It was the first (in an eventually long, long line) teen show I really fell for. But I wasn't too excited about the new one, especially because I heard it wasn't very good.

I was actually pleasantly surprised. The plots are interesting, trashy, but they move along, and the characters are likeable for the most part.

A definite new show recommendation.

My odd new DVD obsession

I have been watching the first season of Third Watch on DVD and have been enjoying it a bizarrely large amount.

It's a show about firemen, paramedics, and police. Not something that would normally be my cup of tea, but the people are cute and the stories are completely interesting.

Totally recommended, plus I think it ran for five or six seasons, so I have much more enjoyable DVD watching ahead of me.

Books don't always translate

I blogged earlier this summer about a book I had liked that the CW was going to turn into a TV series, Privileged.

This weekend I watched their season premiere.

It seems like something I would like, given my proclivity for teenage

shows and the fact that I enjoyed the book.

And? It was okay. I will probably continue to Tivo it, but I didn't even make it through the season premiere in one sitting, I kept turning it off to watch something more interesting.

A little slow, and definitely no Gossip Girl.

Oh TV, I missed you

Ever so slowly, the new TV season is returning. Lovely.

My current excitement does, of course, center around new episodes of Gossip Girl. If loving that show is wrong, I most certainly don't want to be right. Great clothes, and unbelievably involved teen drama (considering they're supposed to be half my age, they really manage to have a large spectrum of issues.)



I am also watching Bones this season. I have watched it after the fact on DVD in the past but decided to watch this season despite not having seen any of the last one. I'm guessing I'll be able to catch up.



Two new shows that I have Tivo-ed but not watched - Privileged and 90210. I will be passing judgement soon.


And I am looking forward to more returning favorites in the upcoming weeks. Good times.

Yay! The Hills is back!

I am no stranger to reality television. Such trashy, fluffy fun, for the most part. But I have a special love for The Hills, whose new season returned on Monday.

I find the whole show completely addictive, and am oddly obsessed with Lauren Conrad. I literally buy any magazine with her on it. Why? I cannot explain for the life of me.

The show isn't even all the interesting. Yet I am somehow very invested in rooting for Lauren and against the always evil and vacuous Heidi and Spencer.

Try it and you'll be hooked, in the best possible way.

You can even watch the old seasons on DVD. What fun!

Gorging on Lifetime movies

I have been Tivo-ing Lifetime movies non stop lately.

Yesterday I watched two of them.

First up was The Fab Five: The Texas Cheerleader Scandal. Texas? Cheerleaders? Scandal? What's not to like?


Basically these girls were bad to the bone cheerleaders (drinking! sex! being rude!) who met their match in their couch and Lifetime movie heroine. They did not, however, get the comeuppance smack down I was hoping for.



I also watched Poison Ivy: The Secret Society. This one had an innocent girl (from Iowa, of course) who was lured into a secret society. These girls were slutty and murder-y, as I assume all secret society members are. In the end our heroine prevailed, sort of.


What have I learned from all these films? I was right not to ever be much of a joiner. It only ends in tears.

The Olympics are oddly like heroin

While Leisure Girls enjoys many kinds of television entertainment, I am beyond not a sports person. Other than faking interest when I was first dating someone ("I LOVE football!") I can happily go my whole life without watching any sporting events, the Superbowl included.

And, in the past, this disinterest has included the Olympics. Un-American? Perhaps, but I just didn't find any of it that interesting.

I have now spent 80% of the last weekend watching the Olympics, and it seems like the more I watch, the more I want to see. I cannot at all explain this phenomenon, but I do know what I will be doing tonight.

Is it a cliche to like Project Runway?

In the cycle of returning cable shows, I have been once again delighted by the return of Project Runway.

I know, who's surprised? Doesn't everyone already love this show? But it is so good, in a way that so many other competition reality shows are not.

In general, I am not of the "do something and then be judged for it" genre of shows, and completely avoid American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, etc.

And yet, Project Runway manages to totally rock.

I am so not a fashion person. If it were possible, I would wear pajamas all the time. And I am invariable wrong when I try to predict what the judges will like. But it's so fun to see what they create and the judges aren't mean and creepy and it's just a good time for everyone.

I can't recommend this show enough. It's super addictive.

How is USA so good?

I swear that until a few years ago I never watched the USA network, except for a few late night and over-run movies.

But in the last couple of years, they have come up with some great original series.

My personal favorite (also loved by my husband) is Psych. In it, two friends pretend to be psychics and solve mysteries. It's so funny and different.

They also have the (slightly less) great Monk, Burn Notice, and In Plain Sight. All of them are enjoyable, plus they're all new in the summer when not too much else is.

My only complaint is their bizarrely short seasons. I am always thrilled when I see new shows are going to be coming on, but they often show about six episodes and then disappear for another four months.

Still, try them and I promise you will not be disappointed.

Japanese game shows rock!

So I may be one of the two people in the world who has been enjoying "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" this summer.

The show itself is kind of lame, but I do so love the parts when they compete in Japanese game show competitions. I have loved Japanese game shows ever since watching them in a hotel room in Hawaii.

So the show is worth watching especially if you can fast forward to just the game show parts. The rest of it is your typical reality show fare of stupid people arguing.

Look! They often dress up in costumes. Who doesn't enjoy that?

Christy is a little like 7th Heaven...

Leisure Girl has been alone for the last week or so while her husband has been traipsing around the country.

I have spent these nights curled up in bed by eight watching Christy: The Complete Series. This is one of those shows (think 7th Heaven, Doctor Quinn) that I usually find a little too wholesome/slow. But I wanted to try it because I like Kellie Martin, the main actress.

All in all, it was quite fun. At times a little slow or preachy, but the characters are relatively enjoyable and it has the two guys fight over one girl aspect that I love (and is so often found in Korean TV).

The series is based on a book by Catherine Marshall, which I have now added to my library queue.

Unfortunately, the series ended with a cliff hanger, but they they made a mini-series to follow it up. I've heard the mini-series is awful (and has different actors) but I must have closure, so watch it I shall.