More Reality

Last night was another reality TV night. Well, Bryan and I started the night with a little dinner out at Ted's Montana Grille. Every time I eat at that place I feel like I need to give it the benefit of the doubt. I convince myself that Bison's not all that bad. I had bison meatloaf - It was all that bad. The mashed potatoes, squash casserole and free cookie were good though!

After dinner it was off to Super-Walmart for grocery shopping. We stopped by the baby department and saw some cute stuff, but didn't make any purchases. So far the only baby items in our house were given to us by the grandparents-to-be. Grocery shopping was a particularly overwhelming event. Why? Because I've gained about 7 lbs between my last visit to the doctor. Seeing that my visits are a month apart, I should have gained something more in the range of 2-4 lbs. My doctor suggested that I cut back on the carbs. Now I've become one of those carb-conscious, food-loathing morons (By the way, I think the whole "carb" fad is an absolute crock).

I did make one food purchase that I don't wholeheartedly regret - Quakers new Q-Smart bars. The Cranberry & Almond bar I had with breakfast was definitely acceptable.

After shopping, it was home were I was pleasantly surprised by a new episode of Survivor on DVR. I love this time of year: Season Premieres. I was pretty thrilled to see that they'd brought back Bobby Jon and Stephenie from Survivor Palau. They were definitely two of my favorite survivors. Especially Steph 'cause she kicked butt on her own when the rest of her tribe was decimated.

As of right now, I can't say who I see going to the end. People's inherent greediness makes me think that Bobby Jon and Stephenie don't have a chance solely because they've had this opportunity once before. It's only a matter of time before they're voted off. Otherwise, it seems like a good group this time around.

One observation I did have is that everyone on the new cast seems to have a relatively common name. Yes, as a mom-to-be, I'm investigating every baby name possible. There's Amy, Blake, Bobby Jon, Brandon, Brian, Brianna, Brooke, Cindy, Danni, Gary, Jamie, Jim, Judd, Lydia, Margaret, Morgan, Rafe and Stephenie. Throw out the two previous survivors, and with the exception of Judd and Rafe, all of the survivors names were found on the Top 1000 Names of 2004 list. Most of them (all but 2) are in the Top 150 Names of 2004.

Speaking of names, my friend Nathalie shared some interesting articles with me yesterday all about how baby names become popular. I haven't had a chance to read the articles in their entirety, but the gist of it is that affluent people name their babies unique or unusual names and eventually this trickles into mainstream pop culture.

A sidebar to the article looks at current demographics and what affluent people are naming their babies in an attempt to estimate the most popular names in 2015. Fortunately, I don't particularly care for any of the boys' names. No offense if your name makes the list:
Aidan, Aldo, Anderson, Ansel, Asher, Beckett, Bennett, Carter, Cooper, Finnegan, Harper, Jackson, Johan, Keyon, Liam, Maximilian, McGregor, Oliver, Reagan, Sander, Sumner, Will