The following was written and ready to post late Tuesday, early Wednesday, but the internet messed up again and I'm just getting to it now. I'm not worrying about editing tenses, so please forgive me.

Sorry I haven’t updated since getting home, but Mother’s Day was Sunday and Susan and Renee came in last night. We finally got wireless working in the house, so I’m downloading the last few episodes of Desperate Housewives I need to complete the series. (My laptop’s lack of hard drive and questionable “S-key” cancel out the wireless, meaning we’re still at a neutral, but it’s a neutral heavy with Eva Longoria, so I think I’m winning.) It’s rambling time, as I’ve got a day-long visit from a couple of South Bend’ finest, the NBA Playoff, a double OC and potential summer job problems.

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As much as I hated losing an episode of The OC two weeks ago, it was great to be able to close out my Welsh Family Hall watchings with two episodes that included a guest performance by TI, Sandy Cohen quoting Will Smith, Carter leaving, a semi hitting Kirsten, the ascension of Evil Zach, countered by Uber-Clever Cohen, a near-rape, Ryan having real reason to brood and some fantastic editing with the Trey/Ryan switch from Marissa’s perspective.

Two episodes left, what do they do? I believe George Lucas is making an appearance on Thursday’s episode, which hopefully doesn’t overshadow the fact that JuJu’s making a run at keeping the relationship with Caleb alive (through drugs and seductions, but that’s sorta how things roll in Newport, right?). Hopefully Sandy and KiKi patch things up –as they are the moral center of not only The OC, but all of television – and Trey plays the wild card in the Marissa/Ryan relationship.

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Susan and Renee stopped in for a day at the Ranchero. They were supposed to get into Clarion around 9 on Monday night, but a small detour had them quite a bit south of us. After some masterful driving in Dill’s new Talon and some quality emergency directions by my mother, they were here by 11.

For only being here for less than 24 hours – they were en route to visiting Jess C out east, with Susan taking a diversion to the White House for her national championship presentation – they apparently had a good time. They got to hit up Sheetz, ride the four-wheelers and horses, have wings at Livey’s and enjoy the minimal perks offered here, but I just realized they didn’t sign the Big Fish board. We didn’t play much in the way of cards, but in what was an amazing upset, Dill and Shane actually defeated the murdersome Euchre duo 10-2 with extremely limited – and I do stress limited - experience between them. I’m really depressed that Brendan and I won’t get to play them until next August, one of the many things I’ll miss about ND.

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I know this is sort of blasphemy, but Desperate Housewives is really good. Maybe I’m just suffering from Teri Hatcher withdrawal since The New Adventures of Lois & Clark went off the air (yeah, I realize this was years ago, but why in the world couldn’t someone find a proper vehicle for Dean Cain that didn’t involve believing it or not?). The storylines, at least five episodes in, are all interesting and the characters have a lot of depth. You know you’re rooting for Teri Hatcher’s character to get Mr. Lyle, who carries over some of the mysterious qualities from The Pretender, but otherwise, it’s basically a free-for-all of what morals you feel are more important than others. Is happiness worth adultery? Is it more important to be happy with your career or happy with your family? Would you leave someone if they were too perfect?

All this, and Eva Longoria doing yoga at random intervals and having sex with Miguel from Passions. He really moved up in the world, as I always thought Charity was too much of a head-case for him to worry about. If you’re looking for a quality television show to download for your summer guilty pleasure, look no further than the lovely ladies of Wisteria Lane.

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Dear Lower Seeded Teams In The NBA Conference Semifinals,

Please get swept if you’re not going to win more than one game. The Wizards couldn’t win when Shaq had a sub-20 and 10 game, and it’ll take a blazing hot shooting night for the Sonics, Mavs or Pacers to take one from their clearly better opponents. We just need to get to the conference finals, where the top four teams for most of the season will face off a Final Four that would make Illinois and North Carolina blush.

Right now, the Spurs are my pick to win the whole thing, simply because they’re so good at both ends. I suppose the Heat are as well, but the Spurs trump them as far as role-players go. If you’re going into a Game Seven and have a choice between a Brent Barry/Glenn Robinson/Robert Horry trio as your support, or Keyon Dooling/Udonis Haslem/Christian Laettner, who do you take? The Spurs can score points with the Suns – as they did tonight, when Seattle couldn’t slow them down, even with Ray Allen getting hot – and they can defend with the Pistons – like they did in Game Five against Denver, simply taking away every option the Nuggets put out on the floor.

The X-Factor in this whole thing is Dwyane Wade, who has the potential to run the NBA Point Guard Gauntlet over the next month. He already took out the consensus Best Point Guard of the Last Five Years, Jason Kidd, in the first round, and now he’s two games away from eliminating The Best Young Point Guard In The League, Gilbert Arenas. He could then potentially play last year’s Finals MVP, Chauncy Billups, and this year’s NBA MVP, Steve Nash. Tonight, after a speedy drive by Tony Parker, John Thompson wondered aloud whether or not anyone was quicker to the bucket from the foul line in than Parker. The answer is yes, and it’s Dwyane Wade. He’s quicker, more powerful, more explosive and completely unstoppable when he chooses to be so.

So to the players of Seattle, Dallas, Indiana and Washington, please don’t drag this round out any longer than it has to be. We’re ready to see the Suns multi-tiered offense face off against the Spurs perimeter defense, and we don’t need to wait to see Shaq vs. the Pistons Front Line, Round Two.

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Susan may have set some kind of record for "Most degrees off the ground on a wheelie without flipping the four-wheeler" Tuesday morning - with me on the back. That was exciting.

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WANTED: Someone in the West Shamokin attendance area that watches The OC. Was I really the only one cultured enough around here to watch it?! Someone has to appreciate the finer points of Mischa Barton’s bad acting and the joy of Sandy Cohen conversing with anyone. Please, if you don’t want to see me curled up in a ball crying from 8:00 to 9:00 on Thursday night, help me out.

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Plans are to see Crash within the next couple of days, then I need to go see Hitchhiker’s Guide, as it’s now been recommended by both Livey and Barcus. Kicking & Screaming comes out Friday, then it’s Star Wars next Thursday and it’s officially the summer movie season. New Mr. and Mrs. Smith trailer is up, if any of you folks are interested.

If that movie bombs….let’s not begin to discuss the potential ramifications on my faith with the Hollywood system.

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Bonus Entertainment Weekly Back Issue Fun: They gave xXx: State of the Union a ”B”.

Oh yeah.


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Probably post tomorrow night with some OC/NBA doubleheaderness, then it's the Bucco game Friday night and Kicking & Screaming sometime in there. Happy Summer.