Liam is Jesus' right hand man.

This is Liam.



This is his version of God's Plan.

"That's me. That's Jesus. We're shiny because we have bodies. That's Satan. He's in the dark because he's bad [you have to read "bad" in Liam's slight southern drawl: Baa-yad] and he doesn't have a body. That's me and Jesus lighting the path to Earth for Amelia. She's shiny, too. Those are houses for people to live in. Jesus built them. That's the moon. It's shiny but I didn't make it yellow because it's white. See that green? It's 'upposed to be the grass. See that blue? That's the river. The biggest river is the United Steaks of America. And that big grass is also the United Steaks of America. I was going to draw some angels but I got too tired. Angels have bodies but they wear special coats so I wouldn't make them shiny. Jesus is wearing a coat but it's just a regular robe that goes like this [imagine Liam making wooshing sound effects while his arms flailed wildly around his shoulders ] so he's still shiny. And when people die me and Jesus will light their path back to heaven. I'm going to play Legos now."

Unstructured play.

Totally unrelated to the post. I just thought the world needed to see it.

So, normally there would be a Lunchtime Poll Topic right here.

Not anymore.

Well, sometimes there might be. Maybe.

Same goes for Thursday Morning Confessions and Mailbag Monday.

I'm in a writing rut, and feeling the need to write something specific on a certain day has been making it worse. I mean, c'mon...I wrote an entire paragraph about my laundry detergent preferences a couple of weeks ago.

So, here's the deal. When I have things to confess, I'll do it, even if it's Tuesday. If there's a burning question I want to pose to you all, I'll do it, even if it's a Wednesday. If I get a particularly awesome specimen of hate mail, I post it, regardless of the day of the week.

Everybody on board? Oh, good.

And since I don't want you to feel as though you completely wasted your time visiting today, here's a list of things I'm currently in love with:

1. Annie Chun's Udon Soup

2. This salsa recipe. I've spent years trying to buy or make the perfect salsa--salsa like I get in Mexican restaurants where the wait staff can't even speak English. I was unsuccessful until PW rocked my salsa-connoisseur world yesterday. I made some earlier and it's perfection. I'll never go back to jarred or my even my old home made recipe.

3. Fiestaware's new Lemongrass color. I started collecting Fiestaware 12 years ago. My mother bought me 4 sets in the pastel line as a wedding gift. I don't buy whole sets anymore--I just buy individual pieces that I need (o.k., want). I've got at least one item (mainly plates and bowls) in almost every color now.

4. Powerade Zero's new orange and lime flavors. I don't care for their other zero flavors (grape is tolerable, I suppose). As someone who can no longer drink juice or carbonation, I'm always glad to find yummy new no-cal, uncarbonated drinks.

5. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I'm dying to read the second one.

6. The fact that everyone is wearing cardigans now. I've always loved cardigans, even back when only old ladies and Mister Rogers wore them. Popular fashion has finally caught up with me.

7. Blogs. Seriously, I would have no friends without them.

8. Harmony's photography. And I'm not just saying that because I think she's awesome (which, I do). There's something about the light in her pictures that makes them special. She's not just some mom who seems to think that simply having a digital SLR and Photoshop makes her a photographer. She's the real deal. I think I need to convince Will that we need to go to Hawaii just for a photo session.

9. Spinning classes. They make me sweat. A lot.

10. No sugar added cherry pie filling. I can't get enough of it lately.

Thursday Morning Confessions

1. I should really give up the pretense of calling these Thursday Morning Confessions. I never get this posted before noon.

2. I really wish McKenzie Phillips had not shared about her alleged, consentual, incestuous relationship with her father. Now I get creeped out whenever I hear a song by The Mamas and The Papas.

3. It really annoys me that Firefox thinks that consentual is spelled incorrectly. I looked it up. It's correct.

4. I really should be cleaning bathrooms right now, but I just don't feel like it.

5. Will cost me a Kindle and a $50 Amazon gift card. Pioneer Woman had a quiz last night. The first person to answer all the questions correctly would win a Kindle and the gift card. I know for sure I got all the questions right except one:

4. Name a word that begins with the letter “P” that can be defined in the following way:

…an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public

I could not think of the answer, so I asked Will. He said "Professional." It kind of works, and I truly could not think of a better answer (mainly because once I had professional in my head it was impossible to think of any other word), so I went with it. My answers were submitted FIRST, so if professional had been correct, I would have won. Unfortunately I realized about 15 minutes after I submitted the answers that the word she was looking for was pundit. Sigh. Maybe she'll see that professional could be correct and give it to me anyway? Maybe?

6. I don't even care about getting a Kindle--I prefer real books. I just wanted to win something.

7. I sprinkled sugar free hot chocolate powder over my fat free popcorn for a snack earlier. It was yummy. So yummy, in fact, that you'd never know I got the idea from getting sick after eating popcorn and drinking hot chocolate last week. After the retching stopped I was like, "Hey, that after taste isn't half bad..."

8. A positive thing about being morbidly obese? I never knew that I was bloating up every month. I've gained 10 pounds of fluid in 2 days and it sucks. And it shows, which is worse.

9. Max & Ruby pisses me off so much that I cannot be in earshot when it's on.

10. Other than cheap car registration, I can't think of a single reason to keep our residency in Utah. We pay them a lot of taxes for no reason. We haven't lived there since 2000, and we own no property there.

Bonus confession: I'm going to go nap before I clean the bathrooms. If I clean the bathrooms.

What I did instead of studying.

And housework.

And showering.

Here you go, Ariella.

(Pause the playlist, turn up the speakers)



It's stuff like this that's probably the reason some people were uncomfortable with the idea of me attending that other girl's weekend...

**Note: No actual kissing was involved in the making of this video.**

Alright, people.

In response to to the onslaught of e-mails I've received the past couple of days:

1. I am not going apostate.
2. I am not taking up drinking.
3. I'm not even taking up coffee.
4. I'm aware that charity and kindness often require sacrifice. You missed my point.
5. I'm getting over myself right now, as a matter of fact.

Anyway...

Please to enjoy a little Weekend of Awesome montage. I even set it to music (I also have a version of it set to "I kissed a girl," but I didn't want to press my luck) . So, go over there ----> and pause my playlist, then turn up your speakers.

Miss Scarlett in the bedroom with algae-fix

I'm officially the worst mother ever. I know people like to give themselves that title and joke about it, but I'm the real deal today.

I killed Ben's fish.

Not deliberately, but I could possibly have prevented it and chose not to.

And it wasn't a quick death.

Friday night I added some water to the tank, and some algae was growing on the rock cave we have in there, so I added algae-fix to the water. Except I forgot to add it to the jug of fresh water before I poured it in, so I just added it directly to the tank. No biggie--I've done that before. Except the cap was loose and instead of 5 drops, I poured in...oh...about 1/4 of the bottle.

A good mother would have pumped out most of the water and refilled it. As I already stated, I took the bad mother route. I just left it and hoped for the best. Also, I didn't mention my little chemical spill to anyone.

Saturday--the fish was fine.

Sunday--the fish was a little sluggish and his blue wasn't as brilliant. I was slightly worried.

This morning--the fish was quite literally disintegrating. There was a big, blue fin just laying on the floor of the tank. An eye was gone. His skin was peeling. It was pretty bad, but he was still alive. Which honestly, made it worse.

And of course Ben cried. All morning, all the way to school.

I just checked and the fish has officially gone to the big fish tank in the sky.

I guess my punishment is that I now have to deal with disposing of a disintegrated fish and cleaning out the tank.

*sigh*

I Just Want You to Know Who I Am...

I was listening to that song ("Iris" by The Goo Goo Dolls) yesterday and the lyrics kind of hit me for the first time, especially the chorus:

And I don't want the world to see me
'Cause I don't think that they'd understand
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

That's how I feel most days--like I don't want people to know the real me for fear of their reaction, yet I'm tired of faking it.

I recently heard that a woman I know from church thinks I'm a fraud and a fake because who I am on this blog is completely different than who I am in real life.

Umm, yeah? I've made no secret of that.

But what she (and you) may not know is that this blog is the more authentic me.

Not completely--there are parts of me that I don't put here--but I'm more me here than I am in "real" life.

I've spent most of my adult "real" life doing what I'm supposed to do. Being nice. Pleasing people. Following the rules. I think part of it stemmed from being fat my whole life. If people weren't going to like me for how I looked, then maybe they'd like me because I was so darn accommodating and sweet*. Part of it is probably because I was (and am) painfully shy and awkward. Socially, it's easier to exist when you fly under the radar.

But inside I really just feel like breaking the rules (or at least some of them) and saying what I really think and accommodating me for once. And for the past several months I have been doing that more. Mostly here (Because it's safer. It's easier. Because I can be me better through writing), but some in real life, too.

The result?

Drama. Adult women acting like high schoolers. Hurt feelings (my own and others'). Exclusion from things. Arguments. My husband being talked to by my bishop about this blog. The loss of a few people I hoped would be friends. Gossip. And all that almost makes me want to go back to being a quiet, amiable doormat.

But the other result is that I found a group of people who like me. Me. This me. Who possibly even like the real me better than the me I've pretended to be. A group of people who, I'm pretty sure, would still like me even if I really let loose with the inner Brandi. And that's made it worth it.

You know who you are.

And you know, I don't mean for it seem like I'm a rule-breaking, rebellious, mean-spirited bitch on the inside all the time. I mean, I am those things--who isn't at least a little? But I guess I'm simply confessing that I'm nice a lot of times when I really don't want to be. I do a lot of things for people that I really don't want to do. I don't say a lot of things I want to say. I feel a lot of things people don't think I should feel. I follow some rules even when I don't think there's really anything wrong with breaking them. In other words, a lot of the time--maybe even most of the time-- when I'm good and when I'm kind and when I'm genial and pleasant, I'm also faking it big time. And it's wearying.

So, woman from church: You are correct. I'm a fake and a fraud, just not in the way you probably thought.


*I know my husband and family are probably thinking, "Sweet? Accommodating? Brandi??? Since when?"

Lunchtime Poll Topic #24

So, it's Friday.

And in honor of the 15 awesomely awesome women I got to spend last Friday with, our LTPT today comes straight from The Chick Game (It's a three point question, FYI).

"If there were a way for you to find out exactly what day you were going to die, and how you would die, would you want to know that? Why or why not?"

Yes. Because I'm a planner. And because I'm the kind of person who loves spoilers. I always look up the complete plot of a movie before I see it. I always read the end of the book first. It's just how I am. The more things I know in advance, the better.

So yeah, I'd want to know.

By the way, check THIS out. It's the death clock. It'll tell you when you're going to die. Apparently I'll be saying adios on October 31st, 2054. I'll totally ruin Halloween for my great grand kids. Awesome.

Thursday Morning Confessions

Look, it's morning somewhere.

I finally started feeling better yesterday, got unpacked, cleaned my bathrooms, dusted, vacuumed...all my usual Wednesday chores, and today I got up and went to the Y for the first time in a week (it felt so good to sweat that hard again). But I'm still feeling kinda crappy and I still have a mountain of laundry to wash and fold and put away. So, there's just a couple of confessions today.

1. I would totally have his babies if I hadn't already.

Sorry, not a great picture--he was in a hurry. But doesn't he look all officer-y? And anyone know how to stop flash glare on glasses? You know, besides by not using the flash? (Sorry, Harmony.)

2. Three Rainbow salespeople have come soliciting over the past month. I just completely flipped out on the one who rang the doorbell a few minutes ago. I was in the middle of homework with the kids, starting dinner, and had two scary looking men up in my attic fixing the furnace. The last thing I wanted was to deal with a pimply faced 18 year old boy trying to sell me a $2000 vacuum. Pardon me, a $2000 air purifying system. So I launched into a tirade about fiscal responsibility and debt and savings and how $2000 could feed, like, 20 families in Haiti for a month. I'm pretty sure he was crying by the time I finished.


O.K., so can I go back to North Carolina now?

***Read yet another AWESOME description of The Weekend of Awesome HERE***

Post-Awesome Let Down

So, I'm pretty sure I have an Awesomeness hangover.

All I've really managed the past two days is laying on the couch and napping.

I have a constant headache, bordering on migraine, and I'm nauseous all day.

All I've unpacked are my slippers and my toothbrush.

I'm only half joking when I say that I think I had an overload of Awesome and my body can't handle being back to regular life.

Can I go back?

The Weekend Of Awesome

O.K., I've gotten some flack from you, my loyal readers, for posting rather lame updates about the big Weekend Of Awesome. I'm sorry, really I am. I would sit down to blog about it and get overwhelmed. There was just too much awesome going on. And let's be honest--it was usually 3 or 4 in the morning when I'd sit down and try to sum up all that had gone on. It was just easier to throw up a few pictures from the day.

So here's my attempt to make it up to you.

First, some details. We met up at a beach house in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. There were 16 women and 4 babies. We arrived from everywhere--Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Utah and Hawaii. Most of us arrived late Thursday evening and left Monday after lunch, though a few arrived on Friday and those who had flown in stayed through today.



As far as the weekend goes, it's hard to describe. It'll sound completely boring to anyone who wasn't there. There was a lot of eating and talking. Lots and lots of talking. Our resident yoga experts taught some classes (my thighs were sore for two days). Some people took advantage of the hot tub out on the deck. Some took advantage of the huge, jetted tubs in some of the rooms. Everyone spent time walking the beach. There was a lot of knitting and jewelry making going on. A photography class was held. Two women were even brave enough to run out into the ocean (albeit for about 30 seconds). Games were played (I remain the undefeated Scrabble champion of the world), movies were watched (including a bootleg copy of New Moon straight from the streets of Los Angeles. Which I slept through.) and babies were oohed and ahhed over.

But mostly we talked.

I know it sounds completely lame and boring. You'll just have to trust me--the awesomeness was there.

It was in the talking. It was in the 16 women who were there.






And we're totally going to do it again next year.

Want to come?

***For more entertaining descriptions of the weekend, go HERE and HERE.***

Day Five*

So long...


Farewell...


Auf Wiedersehen...


Adieu...


Goodbye...

*I know, I missed day four. There was just too much awesomeness to blog about when we finally called it quits at 4 am.

Day Three

Day three of The Weekend Of Awesome was pretty much like days one and two.


There was the early morning walk on the beach.




The day still revolved around talking and eating.



(This is what it looks like when Mormon girls go bad)



Then there was this.

Show offs.



Oh, and there was this, too.

Marianne? This is what I do to someone who beats my Bejeweled score.

Day Two

The Weekend Of Awesomeness continues.

The day started like this. I could really live here year round. Who wouldn't want to wake up to this?



There was lots of eating.



Lots of talking.


And we totally figured out how to get the jukebox to play Achy Breaky Heart.



Oh, and we pitted the babies against each other in a battle to the death.

Day One

So, the Georgia contingent of The Weekend of Awesome (you need to read that in the monster truck show ad voice) has arrived at the beach house.

The night has already ended in nudity.



Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

This is what can happen in 364 days.

So, tomorrow will be the one year anniversary of my gastric bypass surgery. I would have waited until tomorrow to write about it, but I'll be in a van full of women and babies driving nine hours to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to a house on the icy cold beach where we will meet up with even more women and babies and have a weekend that will force the writers of Webster's Dictionary to come up with a new definition for awesome because the current definition will no longer suffice.

Don't worry, you'll get to read all about it and be jealous.

Anyway.

My surgery.

364 days ago I looked like this.

Now I look like this.

And in between I looked like this.

I started out at 305 pounds and am now at 149 pounds. I started out wearing a size 28 and now wear a size 6. Will and I have the same waist measurement. I fit in his jeans (granted, there's a little muffin top involved...). Have you met Will? He's a beanpole. Me being able to fit into his clothes is a big deal.

But wait, there's more!

I've stopped needing insulin, blood pressure medication, cholesterol medication and a daily aspirin to keep me from having a heart attack at 34. I exercise 6 days a week, I seek out exercise classes that will make me beg for mercy, I drag friends on freezing cold 13 mile bike rides and I'm halfway through a course to become a personal fitness trainer (which, if I can get past my social anxiety and awkwardness, I think will be my dream job).

Of course, the past year has also left me with this.

I'm hoping the next 366 days will involve its removal.

And some new boobs.

A lot can happen in a year.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain...

Want to know a secret?

This is who actually writes this blog.

Mailbag Monday: A Word From Our Sponsors

If only I had sponsors...sigh.

I do, however, get a lot of people asking me for suggestions for various types of products, and I'm always happy to answer even though I'm in no way affiliated with or get any money from the companies I recommend. Trust me--I wish I could get money from them. But I don't. It's just free advertising on my part. You're welcome, Libman Wonder Mop people.

Brandi,

I've tried a few of the things in your favorite things post and I've liked them all! Can you suggest something cute yet useful for a baby shower gift? The sex of the baby is unknown. Also, I procrastinated and now everything on the mom's registry has already been bought so I actually have to be creative and thoughtful in coming up with a gift. Help!

Oooh--I have one for you! My friend Jen has an Etsy shop where she sells handmade bows and baby dresses and shoes. The bows and dresses are cute, but the shoes...well, the shoes made me want to have my fallopian tubes untied just so I'd have a reason to buy some. I wish she made them in women's size 10. (Hey Jen, do you have that pattern in a woman's size 10?) See the shoes HERE. Just be warned--you'll want to gestate.
------

Brandi,

What kind of laundry detergent and fabric softener do you use? Clean freaks always have the best smelling clothes!

I use Gain Island Fresh detergent, but I also love Tide with Bleach and Original scented Gain. For fabric softener, my favorite is Snuggle Blue Sparkle, but I also like all the Gain scents. I also really like Swavitel. It's all I used in Germany and now they sell it in the US. The only problem is that it's so thick and rich that it leaves a slime coat in the fabric softener well in my washer, so I don't use it anymore. I use the cheapest bleach possible on whites and Tide Boost powder in my colors. I like Arm 'n Hammer Spring Fresh dryer sheets.

Basically, I'm all about the scents.

I can't believe you all just wasted 30 seconds of your life reading about my laundry detergent preferences. I love you guys.
------

Brandi,

Your house is gorgeous. Where'd you get everything?

First of all, complementing my house, even if you're lying, is the fastest way to earn my undying affection, so thanks!

As for where things came from, there are a million answers. The couch and giant wall unit (officially called a schrank, but if you've never lived in Germany you likely wouldn't know what I was talking about if I just said schrank) came from Germany. The wall unit was made in 1971 and we got it for a steal at a second hand store (note: move to Germany and frequent thrift shops. They have awesomely nice stuff).

I sewed the drapes and slip covers myself (the couch and ottoman are actually covered in spectacularly hideous fabric underneath the slipcovers. Germans like ugly fabric.)

Book shelves are from Target.

Decor mainly came from TJ Maxx. That's the best place ever to find accessories for next to nothing.

My biggest decorating advice is keep it simple. Crowded walls and shelves look cluttered and close in a room. It's O.K. to have open space.
------
Hatemail of the Day:

Hey Brandi,

I read "Little Women" because you so highly recommended it. It never appealed to me growing up so I never read it, but I liked the other books you suggested so I read it.

What a piece of crap! It's a horribly written book.

I'll agree with you on one thing, though. Jo and Laurie should have gotten married, but only because it's obvious that Jo was a closet lesbian and Laurie was gayer than a $2 bill.

Andie

P.S. I was happy when Beth died.

Andie,

I'm officially speechless.

369 days ago.

Do any of you remember what happened 369 days ago?


THIS happened.


And then I spent a week posting pictures like this:

I know you've missed them.

By the way, that was the easiest 8 pound weight loss ever.

Lunchtime Poll Topic #23

So, before I get to today's LTPT, I just have to share this. Last night I had a very bizarre dream that I was shaving kittens and sticking weird little rubber caps on their heads. FYI: Kittens are hard to shave.

Anyway.

Here's today's topic:

Do you think that women and men should have differing requirements for the same job?

No!! Heck no! Oh hell to the no, Bobby Brown.
This situation comes up in jobs like being a policeman, or a firefighter or in the military. The physical requirements/tests that women have to qualify for those jobs are (usually) much less than what is required for males.

Sure, it's been shown scientifically that women are physically different.

But do you want to be the person that a woman who can only lift 100 pounds is rescuing from a blazing fire? Yeah, me neither.

I think in those types of jobs, one set of requirements needs to be established, and anyone who can meet them, regardless of gender, qualifies for the job.

"But Brandi," some of you feminists might say, "that could essentially keep women entirely out of certain career fields. That's not fair!"

Honey, life isn't fair. Get over it. If you can't do the job, you can't do the job.

And this needs to go for age as well. I don't think the physical requirements should be less for those over a certain age. If they have to do the same job they needed to do 5 years earlier, then they need to be able to meet those same physical standards. If they can no longer meet them, it's time for a desk job.

What do you think?

Hell had better have frozen over.

Guess whose county decided to have a two hour delay for school today? Yeah, mine.

They didn't decide this based on any actual weather conditions (it's a little cloudy, dry and and in the mid 20's right now). They decided this last night because we were maybe going to get a light dusting of snow.

Maybe.

A dusting.

Which didn't happen.

So now I have to skip the Y today, including the Torture with Tex class that I'm still in pain from that I just started this week. He's going to think I sissied out.

And the thing is, what good would a two hour delay do if there had been snow? It's not like the state owns plows or salt or sanding trucks. If it was snowy at 7:30, it'd still be snowy at 9:30.

I swear they do it once a year just to do it. They did it last year. We won't be here, but I'm sure they'll do it next year, too.

Next year we'll be living someplace where three feet of snow overnight might get you an excused tardiness. None of this delaying school over the possibility that a few flakes might fall and, heaven forbid, a puddle might freeze.

Have I mentioned that I freakin' hate Georgia? Because I do.



(Since I preempted the usual lunchtime poll topic with a rant, I'll do the LTPT tomorrow. It's a good one.)

Thursday Morning Confessions

1. I'm truly afraid I'll freeze to death when we move to New York. We're in the middle of a cold snap here--lows in the teens, highs in the high thirties/low forties (I know, shut up. It's cold for Georgia.) Anyway, I'm cold all the time. My fingers and lips are always purple. I shiver even when I'm inside. I needed some things from the frozen foods at the store today but I was so cold, even inside the store, that I couldn't do it. What will I do when I'm in NY and it's in the negative numbers?




2. I'm on a temporary swimming hiatus. See #1.

3. I almost became one of those mothers last week. The kind that force their daughters to look a certain way even when the daughter wants something different. Amelia has been begging for a haircut for awhile. She hates having her hair brushed and styled every morning. But I liked her long, wavy hair--It was to the middle of her back. Anyway, I was taking the boys for haircuts and Amelia started in again. And I realized that if I couldn't give in over something as unimportant hair length now, then I could possibly look forward to a future where she practically shaves her head and sticks a safety pin through her eyebrow for sophomore pictures (which is a totally true story about someone I know whose mother made her choose between having bangs and getting her ears pierced, because doing both would surely turn her into a godless whore).

Still cute with short hair.

4. Yesterday I let a very tiny but very powerful man named Tex totally kick my butt. I decided to try the Commando Cardio class at the Y. It should really be renamed "You'll feel like you're going to die but you'll secretly like it until you wake up bloodied, bruised and unable to walk the next day Cardio." Tex is a hardcore dude. His itty-bitty stature fools you into thinking you can handle his class. Next week Sylwia is coming with me. Little does Tex know that his class will suddenly become bra-optional.

5. I haven't read a book in 4 months. How sad is that? I used to read at least 4 per month. If I bleach my hair and buy a chihuahua, somebody stage an intervention.

Putting the V in TV

(Caution: This probably will contain spoilers about V, so don't read it if you haven't watched it yet)

So, true to our geeky selves, Will and I finally watched V over vacation (I suppose that really dedicated geeks would have watched it when it aired).

We tried watching it while playing Settlers of Catan, but we decided that might throw off the balance of the universe and take us from merely geeky to full on dweeby.

Anyway, there have only been four episodes of V, so it's hard to know if it's going to be great or not, but so far things look promising. I mean, it has almost all of my favorite geek-show actors all in one place! Who wouldn't love that? You've got Morena Baccarin who played Inarra in Firefly, Alan Tudyk who played Wash in Firefly (The poor guy just can't stay alive on TV), Rekha Sharma who played Tory on Battlestar Galactica, and Elizabeth Mitchell who played Juliet, my favorite character on Lost. Now if they could get Nathan Fillion, Michel Emerson, Patrick Stewart and Wil Wheaton on the show, I'd probably explode from joy.

About the only part of the show I find annoying so far is Erica (Elizabeth Mitchell)'s son and his creepy V girlfriend. And unfortunately it seems like they'll play a huge role in the upcoming season. Hopefully the rest will be good enough to make up for that.

I know I watched the original series because my cousin and I used to play V (we'd eat marshmallows and pretend they were rats, because on the original series the V ate rats), but I don't remember any of the plot (other than that they disguised themselves as human and ingratiated themselves to the humans before divulging that they were really evil lizard people. Oh, and I remember a human giving birth to a slimy lizard baby. That was pretty awesome--I hope the new series incorporates that!), so I really have few expectations about the plot in the new series.

Any way you look at it, it's got to be better than "Defying Gravity."