Category Archives: Television

On the set: Randy to the Rescue

Posted in Everyday, Television

Confession: one of my favorite things to do on Friday nights is coming home, changing into my pajamas, and watching Say Yes to the Dress. Yup, we’re living large and doing big things at the Talda house, folks.

Side bar: I remember when I was practically dying to go out clubbing on a Friday night or just out hanging with friends. Never would I have thought being in my pajamas and in bed at 9:30 as a great evening. But it’s the best.

Anywho, one of my favorite things about SYTTD, besides watching people try on wedding dresses, is Randy. I absolutely adore him and if I could have him help me shop for my wedding dress, I would be in heaven. So imagine my surprise, and joy, when I received a call from a friend to come with her to attend a taping of “Randy to the Rescue” as she went dress shopping.

Me? Help you dress shop? AND I get to see Randy? What the what what?! Naturally I accepted and had to warn her not to get offended if I’m more excited to see Randy. Just being honest and managing expectations.

Randy to the Rescue set at Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco

We showed up to the Fairmont Hotel not quite sure what to expect but looking forward to dress shopping. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram (which you totally should. It’s a private account but if you send a request, I’ll accept. Just let me know and I’ll give you my handle), you would have seen one of the confections that caught my eye:

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I want to put this dress on and twirl until I fall down.

Thankfully, the cameras did not follow us around the entire appointment. They had a mini camera attached to the top of the mirror to capture our conversations as she tried on dresses but it kind of made us hyper aware that it was there, but we eventually forgot about it. We didn’t make for very compelling television though. Between dresses we were either messing with our phones, chatting in whispered tones, or one of us (usually me) would wander away to look for more dresses. And Randy. But mostly dresses.

And Randy.

randy of randy to the rescue


Randy Fenoli is just as charming in real life as on the television.

After a handful of dresses, the bridal consultant, Kim (if you’re shopping for a wedding dress, go see Kim Storms at Bridal Galleria in San Francisco. She was really helpful and amazing!) pulled out what turned out to be the winner for the night. Once my friend decided she was going to buy the dress, things got a little exciting and the cameras appeared around our station to film the exchange with Randy.

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What? Cameras aren’t a usual thing at dress shopping excursions?

We had to wait until they were finished taping the runway portion with the cast bride, but then Randy came over. A funny thing happened the moment we started filming: we shut up. It got really awkward really quickly. No one knew what to say and no one really directed us. Her other friend and I both looked at each other as if we expected the other to give some hint as to what we were supposed to be doing. Do we share our opinions on the dress? Do we fluff the dress? Do we just sit here and look awkward? That last one? Okay! I can do that!

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity but then Randy appeared and charmed us out of our shoes (he is super nice and has a fantastic handshake. I really appreciate a good handshake), laughed, and then bled on the dress. Yes. He bled on the dress. He was smoothing down the skirt of the dress and was pricked by the straight pins they used on the dress and accidentally wiped it on the dress. Whoops.

We ended up having to film the “Say yes to this dress?” question twice and it was kind of awkward feigning suspense and excitement when we already knew the answer. So while I highly doubt we’ll make the final cut (though I wouldn’t be surprised if I find myself playing “Where’s Talda” since I was wandering around so much) it was a fun experience and my friend is going to make an absolutely stunning bride.

As the pie turns

Posted in Everyday, Food, Television

My stomach is so full. I think I can probably go a day without eating. Serious. Of course I’m not because I’m apparently channeling a glutton but I’m sure it wouldn’t hurt if I kept my meals on the smaller side the next few days. Especially with the eat-a-thon that’s coming up this weekend!

But last night I feasted on burgers, fries, onion rings, and milkshakes. And that was just on my plate. I had dinner with the Baker and the Fire Lady at their house and was treated to some very delicious burgers that reminded me of our dinner at Barney’s. Utterly delicious.

Even though I came with an appetite, I couldn’t power through the rest of my burger. I ate about half and a couple bites before having to throw in the towel. And then I couldn’t move. So I sat on the couch and watch TV with the Baker. When the only part of your body you want to [or can] move is your head, you know you had a good meal.

Or maybe you just ate too much.

Have any of you seen Mental? Is one of the newer shows on Fox. We watched it last night [right after House] and let me tell you, it’s cheesy. And not in a delightful way either. First off, the timing of it is extremely unfortunate. Coming on after House, its way too easy to draw parallels between the two shows, and in this case, Mental is DEFINITELY the weaker of the two. It’s basically House in the Psych ward of a hospital but bad House. They have a House, Cutty, Foreman…practically everyone has a doppelganger. AND there’s a bit of Grey’s Anatomy thrown in with a philandering married psychologist and one of the doctors that we so called 15 minutes before anything was revealed.

And the “dream sequences” are HORRIBLE! And so obviously fake. I mean, I know it’s season one but I think Ally McBeal’s fantasy sequences were better than these during its first season. And what was up with the wardrobe? On Foreman lite, they had him in a jacket that was obviously too small. Like, he could only button one button and that button was STRAINING for dear life to stay closed. It was very distracting to say the least.

But man, my eating isn’t even over. I still have a key lime pie sitting in the fridge from the Baker AND I have two spam musubi left to eat [I ate one this morning] AND my mom was kind enough to bring home some kalbi and rice for my lunch. Oh, and I’m STILL full!

I think I might just finish off the rest of the musubi for lunch and then save the kalbi for tomorrow’s lunch. Aye. There is just too much food!

Thank goodness I opted for that tankini. It hides a multitude of sins!

That Cloris Leachman sure gets around

Posted in Television, Weekends

There’s only two weeks left in this quarter so we’re hitting things pretty hard; especially with finals being next week [eep!].

So guess what I did this weekend.

Don’t you know all the cool kids stay home to do homework? I actually got a fair amount of work done this weekend. Knocked out three out of five homework assignments while catching up on some of The Office [I only have three more eps to catch up with…that is until they start airing new ones]. Oh how I’ve missed The Office!

But in between the homework I made an awesome dinner that I’ll be writing about this week: roasted chili-lime chicken with roasted asparagus with a basalmic brown butter sauce and parmesan-garlic smashed potatoes [because, in addition to my love of basil is an equal amount of love of garlic – so maybe I don’t need to worry about the vampire neighbors after all].

Though I did wish I could have been up at Tahoe snowboarding. I heard it was supposed to be a great weekend to go up too. Oh well. Maybe next season.

Sunday was just as interesting. No really, it was. I taught Sunday School and even though they fed the kids pancakes with the special sugared syrup [seriously, every time they have something with syrup those kids come upstairs and are super rowdy – their blood flowing with all those sugar crystals of hyperactivity] they were actually pretty laid back and we even had an interesting discussion in which we tried to explain the concept of “mercy” to a bunch of 8-10 year olds. Which ended with the ever eloquent: it means being nicer than you could be when someone does something wrong.

After church, I made my way to Walnut Creek for a group meeting, with a stop at the mall in Concord to kill some time. It was there I realized what Hell would be for me: having to relive my teenaged years. Ugh. Not that I had a horrible teenage experience; it was actually fairly pleasant but still something I don’t want to go back to. I discussed it with one of my group members later and we came to the conclusion that when you’re a teenager, everything is SUCH A BIG DEAL. And it’s quite mentally exhausting. It’s a miracle any of us managed to get our homework done when we were too busy overanalyzing and agonizing over whether or not my “crush of the semester” liked me or not. Seriously people. These discussions were like hostage negotiations. THEY WERE THAT SERIOUS.

And I can’t live like that anymore. It takes way more sleep which I’m not getting on a regular basis. Besides, I like being comfortable in my own skin.

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Yeah…I only half tried. Can you tell?

Posted in Sports, Television, Weekends

Don’t you hate it when a million and one things conspire to hit you all at once? I certainly do. And I hate it even more when I make it worse by wasting the very precious time by messing around online.

It gets me every time.

This weekend was no different, which several homework assignments due this week, a midterm to study for and write up notes for, more reading and notes to do and send to my group, the nephew’s birthday party oh and a little thing called the Super Bowl.

Fantastic.

The stress did get to me a little, unfortunately but nothing that couldn’t be worked out. And the whole note taking during the Super Bowl was simply laughable. I spent my time wandering around the house eating whatever was within arms reach and looking up Youtube videos of people dancing to Beyonce’s Diva and Single Ladies’ songs [had to show Tam the video of the Single Man doing the dance] and pictures of Will Demps with Tam.

I couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard of him before, especially since he’s a Hapa like us. And very easy on the eyes. And eats Shrimp Chips and owns a rice cooker [I tried, unsuccessfully, to find a copy of the MTV Cribs episode he was on – if anyone knows of one, let me know so I can send it to Tam].

And would you believe that I didn’t really pay much attention to the commercials either? There was just so much talking and yelling going on that i couldn’t hear them from the kitchen anyway so I just gave up.

It was nice hanging out with the family though, even though I didn’t recognize my own aunt. I know, how sadly pathetic is that? But neither did Tam so that made me feel better. How do we not recognize our own family? Well she’s a married in member and, to be honest, there’s no real defensible way to make this sound better. We don’t go down to the grandparents’ house all that often. It’s bad, I know and I should know my family but…but nothing. That’s just how it is.

Anywho, I did manage to get most of what I needed done. The group work was sent out that night [along with the homework that I wanted to send out Friday night] and I gave up on the notes. By then I knew it wasn’t happening so I figured I’d get it done the next day at work [and I did]. And that’s all that matters right? Right.

And seeing how I don’t have much more focus left in me to finish this post, I’m going to quit while I’m kind of sorta ahead. For now.

How do you say, "kafjklda;jfdk;" in jerk?

Posted in Everyday, Rants, Television

I came home to some very disappointing news: the cable is GONE.

I thought it was a fluke but nope, I confirmed it with my dad this morning. Of course they don’t care because they still have DirectTv hookups in the living room and their bedrooms but me? I’ve got nothing but the very basic channels. Plus Food Network. At least I have that.

So what happened was Comcast did an audit and found out that we were not being charged for our cable [just our high speed internet] and when given the offer to pay $60/month for the honor of watching their stuff, my parents balked. Sigh. Gone are my late nights/early Saturday morning viewings of Daily Show and Colbert Report and cartoons. Gone are my leisurely Saturday mornings of Nickelodeon and Food Network, gone are my Family Guy mini-marathons and gone are my guilty pleasures on TLC: What Not to Wear, Jon and Kate plus 8 and Say Yes to the Dress [I KNOW…I can’t believe I watch that last one too. That’s my real guilty pleasure].

And I don’t get to watch college football either! I’ll have to wait for the afternoon games on ABC but I’m usually gone by then! Sigh. And it’s not like I’ll be any more productive with the cable out of my room. I do still have my Internet and my uncanny ability to waste away entire days doing all kinds of nonsense stuff. I know people live quite happy and fulfilling lives without cable, the bf is one of them, but you know what? I’m not and I’m not afraid or ashamed to admit that either. If anything I need it on for background noise at least.

But I need it. No, strike that, I NEED IT. Like a fish needs water. Like a polar bear needs ice. Like a Talda needs food.

And we all know how much I need food.

I hear whispers of people getting around the ways and keeping the special promo rate months after it expires. How is that even possible?

So until I figure out what to do I’ll be cableless in California. Because I’m too lazy to walk downstairs to watch TV. Besides, that’s where my dad is most of the time watching that “fair and balanced news station that is deluded into thinking that they’re actually fair and balanced” and I become physically irritated after prolonged exposure. That, my friends, is bad thing.

I know it’s not the end of the world to not have cable, but it just sucks that the other options are severely lacking. I wish there were more competition within the area so prices wouldn’t have to be so stupid high. I mean, $60+ and I’m not getting a SINGLE movie channel? That’s ridiculous!

Stupid Comcast.