Wild applause for everyone who played scavenger hunt this week with me! Did I say…wild? Why yes…the book title you were seeking (in case you didn’t find it) was Wild Rain featuring three-legged alligator, Cleopatra. Wild Rain was a spin off from my third Loveswept, Black Satin. The answer was on the page for Wild Rain, in the first review beneath the back cover copy. Spin off information was on the book list page - the link to that is on the bookshelf page. You all rocked this one!

Our winner this week is the lovely and clever Robyn from Saskatchewan! Woo hoo!! And because you got both questions correct, you get the signed collector’s set. (These puppies have been out of print for over ten years! I know you feel special. )

Tune in Monday to see what new devious plans I have to test your mad scavenging skillz!

Now it’s MAC time!

First up, Amazing Phil and his Bathmat of Many Eliminations!

Five teams left…who will (or will not!) go home next?

This was one of the better legs in the race this season. It starts with a lot of bunching up as everyone is heading to the airport to fly from Greece to Oman. Another bunching in Oman at the biggest incense burners I’ve ever seen. Then it’s all raaaaace from then on and no one in the line is safe. Everybody gets their clue and heads out in their cars across the sand and stream.

I have to say that, for once, Eric and Jeremy deserved their lead spot when they come up on everyone balking at crossing the second stream and just plow ahead with no hesitation. (And Monica, please. No cutting in line? You all were sitting there too scared to cross. It’s a race. If they think they can do it, why sit and wait for you to jump?) And of course, as soon as they prove it can be done,the other teams all fall in behind. So at that point, I had no problem with them taking the lead - they deserved it. That is not to say I wasn’t totally thrilled later when, after boasting about what great racers they were because they always get better directions, on three separate occasions in this leg alone, they got screwed over for bad navigation. (Karman is so funny that way, being a bitch and all. Did I tell you about Karman? Eh, later.)

So the first test is hunting for the scroll inside one of three watch towers, or hoisting a camel into the back of a small pick up truck. I was so happy when the Frats decided to do the camel just because I wanted to see at least one team do this. In the end, three teams did, and it was pretty funny. It was even more hilarious when the Frats got hopelessly lost delivering said camel. Oh yeah, you guys are great navigators!

So now the team order is completely topsy turvy and this is great. They all head off into the desert and bunch up again at another “dig up the gnome” kind of task that, every season, kicks one teams ass just for having the bad luck to not dig in the right pile (hole, hay bale, whatever.) This time around that team was BJ and Tyler.

Coming out of that task, it’s time to head to the pitstop. MoJo has a tough time finding the pitstop and, believe it or not, FrankenBarry come in first! They ran a great leg and absolutely deserved the placement. (Plus, Joeseph was getting a bit of killer fatigue and being a jerk, so I was glad it was the oldsters over them, this go around.) MoJo comes in second (and is pissy about it.) Ray and Yolanda drag in, in third, after bickering for a couple of days, though I have to say, Yolanda? Lighten up, man. Maybe we didn’t see all of it, but considering the conditions and fatigue, nothing Ray was doing seemed to warrant your snippiness. I’d have flipped you the bird, too. Get over yourself already and give the man a break. Now nothing he does is right and you just keep picking… I thought he did a pretty good job keeping his cool, all things considered.

Eric and Jeremy take a “short cut” to the pit stop that gets them so hopelessly lost I really thought they had a shot of coming in last, but BJ took even longer finding the right food pit in the desert, so they are in fourth. Still, humbling enough for ya, Mr Excellent Navigators? But this leaves the hippies in last place and I KNEW it finally had to be an NEL leg….and, SHEW! I was right. They started last and ended last, but they’re still in it. (Oh, and the bus trip where they pretended to be with all the teams who’ve already departed? I thought that was pretty funny. Especially BJ’s dead on impersonation of Lake.)

Next week? Australia!!!

On to Survivor…

Tonight we finally get our medical emergency. Boy, how could you not feel bad for Bruce? Considering how badly his entire lower digestive tract ended up being impacted, it really is amazing he lasted as long as he did.

So…they all head out to reward challenge, playing for a helicoptor ride and massages at a spa. It’s the ‘ol answer questions about your teammates, then guess how everybody else voted game. Pretty much if it was a negative question, the answer was always Courtney. That couldn’t have been any fun for her. But worse was stupid Terry grousing about how Casaya was all against him all the time. Gee Terry, YA THINK? Like, did he honestly expect them to turn on each other before him? Why would they do that? But he takes it so freaking personally, which is stupid. It wouldn’t have mattered who was sitting there, if they were La Mina, they were getting their ropes chopped. And if he’d been in their place, he’d have played it exactly the same way - because you kind of have to, Terry. You don’t piss off your own team until you absolutely have to. So I was way tired of him about five minutes into the show and perfectly happy with them sending him to exile (which also made him a whinypants and please….again, like they were going to send one of their own when you already told everybody you had the damn idol? Get over yourself and play the game solo like you have to since you refused to save anyone on your own damn tribe. Idiot.)

Terry rant over, back to the crowd. Cirie ends up winning and, after sending Terry off to sulk some more on Exile Island, she picks Aras and Danielle to go with her, which completely blows Shane’s mind as he assumed she’d pick him. Now, she had a promise to Aras, so cool. But even I was surprised she picked Danielle, but, you know, I was glad she did. Shane needed to get over himself, too. And I thought it was hilarious how he picked on Courtney the entire time about taking things so personally when he was wigging out the whole time about not being picked.

So while Terry is exiled and the other three are getting mud massages, Bruce finally is forced to call for medical help and is medivaced out in the middle of the night, with the help of Courtney and Shane. (And did anyone else think it was funny that Aras, D, and Cirie all agreed Courtney had the hots for Shane? Really? Hunh.)

Once they are all reunited and everyone is being pissy and weird, Jeff shows up with Terry in tow and explains that Bruce will not be returning to the game except, hopefully, as a jury member, so there will be no immunity and no tribal council. Which is fine by me, except I’d have liked to see Probst knock Terry down a few pegs the minute he began to whine about being picked on by the Casaya tribe. But that can wait for next week. It’s still 5 to 1 and he still has the damn idol, so really, shut up Terry.

Also funny? That next to Courtney, when asked to name the person who just never shuts up? Terry. Not a surprise to me. So they all want him to shut up, too. Ha.

Next week? More inter tribal fun for all! Six players left…who goes home next? Not Terry, with his idol of immunity, so one of the big five…. Will it be Aras? Danielle? Courtney? Or, heaven forbid, my favorite, Cirie? We’ll see….

Have a great weekend everybody…see you Monday!

Tags: Writing //