Ummm...where TF did your house go?

So I'm feeling basically pretty crappy today/tonight; I think maybe it has to do something with the chocolate mousse that I ate after it sat out all night. Ooops. D'oh.

In any case, I'm stuck in the room getting my weekly Duggar fix, and I'm just...confused by this week's ep.

The story seems to be that the Duggars make a trip to build a new laundry room for the Bates, their even more pronouncedly "we're religious! look at our clothes!" friends from somewhere else that isn't California of New York or Indiana. The Duggars- ever the aw-shucks publicity hounds- wrassle up what appears to be every contractor, builder and supplier in the area and get them to "donate" their time and materials, proudly proclaiming that they only paid $400 for labor. Once again, they seem to attribute this directly to divine intervention, and not to struggling mom n' pop businesses desperately hoping for any publicity they can get. One supplier even says through a grimace/grin that Jim Bob's "an old pro...who's probably stuck it to the diaper companies a couple of times."

Jim Bob, this is not quite the glowing compliment of that you seem to take it as. That is the type of "compliment" that would perhaps better be appreciated by folks such as Kenneth Lay, Bernie Madoff and their compatriots. But, last I heard, the ability to effectively "stick it to diaper companies" and all the inherent implications is more Mr. Burns than WWJD.

But, back to the show. Okay, so Jim Bob is going to "surprise" the Bates with a new laundry room. However, "visionary" that he is, he just gets totally caught up in the excitement, cut to footage of parts of the Bates home being demolished, cut to time-lapse of the Bates home being gutted, cut to somebody talking about the "frustration" of 50(!) people having to share 1 bathroom...aaand, the Bates have a massive, brand-new, steel-roofed home that they never asked for. And the kicker? No laundry room. Jim Bob says, offhandedly, that they never did get around to adding that laundry room...he says he figures the Bates can use their "old" space to do laundry. Which, um, is what I thought they were doing, before you came and dropped a huge Monopoly game-piece on their house and called it their new house.

Remind me never to indulge the Duggars if they somehow happen to enter my life and offer to babysit. I can just see it- us coming home from Date Night to find The Child has vanished...only to be replaced by a dozen larger, less attractive, donated Children and a "you're welcome" note.

If anyone's in the area, please feel free to drop off some delicious noodley soup and crispity crackers, because feeling ill regresses me. Obviously.

In Summation:

http://galleryoftheabsurd.typepad.com