It’s another late morning wake-up for the HGs today on the 23rd day of our feeds. An eviction and a new HOH loom on the near horizon, but the HGs’ excitement is less than palpable as they continue to snooze on past noon. Dave, Erika and Jack are the first awake and talking, though being that the fate of two of them lies in the telling of the afternoon, it’s not surprising that their minds turn early to the question: who will be evicted? Apparently, despite all they’ve been told, they all agree that it “could go either way.” In fact, they are even considering the thought that the Blondies have been spreading: that the Rat Pack are lying to them and David ~won’t~ go after all.

Soon after, everyone physically gets out of bed and begins their morning routines in the bathroom and kitchen; in particular, most of them seem to have voracious appetites, and we wonder if they are storing up for fear that tomorrow they might be subjected to the horrors of PB&J? Good thinking, since this is the alternate week where one half of them ~are~ going to have to say goodbye to Jun’s cooking, their breakfast sandwiches, and meals upon meals of steak.

Now, apparently last night some kinky stuff went down with Dave and Alison. It happened after I finished my summary for the day—because as I posted it, the HGs were all sleeping and I assumed they would stay that way until morning. Some people saw it; some people speculated they had sex; some people speculated they only, er, gratified each other with their hands while making out. What exactly happened? Well, as we hear David telling Erika about it this morning, we eagerly hope to find out, but alas, he does not reveal much at all. In fact, what he did seems to have been more of a strategic move than it was about any sort of emotion (even lust) for her (strange that—he must have hopes to stay today): “I’ve totally got Alie now. I just ***** with her head. She plays by her emotion.” Sensible-headed Erika interjects, “Don’t you think Amanda would be upset?” Well, Dave’s plan now, as he states, seems to be about messing with the “girls” and using that to his advantage. While he feels “bad about Amanda,” it’s “just a game.” Now folks, can we think of all the horrible names a woman would be called if she were to sleep with someone to try to stick in the game to win the money? Whore? Prostitute? Slut? What makes David any different, despite the fact that he is a cool guy and most of us like him? Well, as Dave says himself, “My fan base just dropped on the girl side and the guys are like, “Yeah, dude, ***** that bitch!” Nice.

As the live show approaches and the HGs have nothing to do but lie around or get ready, mundane chatter slowly wavers out of their mouths, rebounding off the walls, into the microphones, through the wires and into our ears in a tedious, tiring journey. There is talk about the turtles and what “boring animals” they are (no duh; cute they may be, but I want another Pugita or Ophelia!). They delve into their last Burger King lunch with verve—okay, I think it may have less to do with it being their last Burger King experience and more to do with it being the last day before the dreaded food challenge. We cheerfully get to watch Dana move her belongings out of the HOH room. Jee and Nate get into a elastic-band war, but Dana only gets peeved at their actions: “I’m about to lose my ***** marbles!” I am sure I am not the only one to think hearing that, “about”? Her anger doesn’t faze them, however, and two new competitors join the battle, Dave and Justin. All bare-chested and full of energy, they have more fun with the hair elastics than any tye-dying or ponytails could hope to generate.

Around 3:30pm, we go to FOTH and the feeds don’t return until an hour later. What greets us is only about a flea’s hair more interesting than watching for ripples in the moat on FOTH. Justin cleans the windows in the Sandbox; Erika lies in bed and looks sad; HGs primp and vie for mirror-time as the biggest moment of their week lies only an hour and a half away. Dana, for example, makes a point of showing her cleavage to Justin and pointing out how thin her top is: “If I get excited, it will be easy to see!” When Erika suggest that Dana wear a beige bra with the top, Dana only shakes her head and remarks that this “clingy” type of top doesn’t require that a bra be worn with it.

In the wee minutes left before they have to gather for the show, most of the HGs, especially Alison and Nathan, all look tense, weighted by obvious pressure. Well, that is, except for Dana who ~continues~ to talk about her “boobage” (as she calls it). “God, my raised areolas” are “inflamed,” and she is bothered by her microphone that is interfering with her “low neckline, seductive cleavage-look."

At six their time, as is expected, we go to FOTH and return about ten or so minutes after the show is over. If you don’t know by now, you’ve been living in a hole!! Because while, sadly, David was evicted (oh well, Jack is still cool) with a vote of 5-2, Alison won HOH! What a site that was watching her take that key from Dana…weee! Okay, okay, enough of my own jubilation; back to the feeds…

As we come back, it is apparent that the slow, rather pleasant day of the afternoon is long over as once again a new week gets underway and more people are scared or cocky or angry. Dana is heard bitching about Nathan, as usual, and the “smirk” on his face. After that rant is over, she and Justin fall to wondering whom Alison will nominate and they both agree it will be either her and him or her and Jun. “It just sucks because one of us is leaving.” (Ahahahahhahahahahahahhahaahahaha! Whew, sorry…no more outbursts, I swear.) Justin, who is clearly a bit shell-shocked, mostly only grunts back answers to Dana’s babble, but he does tell her that if she is up and he is not, he will use the POV if he wins it. Dana only continues to bitch and remarks that “it’s a fluke (Alison) won; it wasn’t based on skill.” Well, yes it was a game anyone could have won, but did just anyone stand outside most of yesterday practicing? Hmmm? Dana goes on to bitterly suggest that there were “magnets” in Alison’s ping pong balls.

A rather funny moment occurs around now when Jun, who is snacking down on food and really enjoying it while no one else is eating, mentions to Justin that she wouldn’t mind losing the food competition tomorrow since it might help her to lose weight. Now, I am a big non-believer in making fun of someone’s disorder and it drives me nuts to see how much ridicule is thrown her way over it, but I have to admit that the “irony,” as Alanis Morrisette would incorrectly term it, was fairly amusing. Jun then asks Justin whom he thinks Alison will put up with Dana, him or her, and Justin makes a point that I made immediately as well: it would be stupid for her to not put Justin up, because if he won the veto and used it to save Dana, it would be a repeat of last week which blew up in Dana’s face.

The evening trudges onward, and the interesting bits are as follows: We learn that David chose gourmet peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for their dinner if he were to stay (the nominees choose what meal they’d like the night after the live show, and if they stay, the whole house gets that meal)—always a jokester to the end; Jack chose filet mignon, which only makes Dana angry since she feels they’ve had enough steak. She wanted something more ethnic, and no one has the guts to tell her to stop whining since it was not ~her~ choice, but his. The HGs again wonder where they will be sequestered and places like Acapulco and Cancun are mentioned. Dana again states how she wants to “punch Alison’s face into the wall,” while all Alison is doing, in fact, is taking part in a DR-session. Dana, however, believes that she must be “talking so much *****” about her. Paranoid and crazy much? Er, well, she’s probably right.

OOOooog, aaaagh, uuuughh… I am trying SO hard not to be so rough on Dana in my summaries, but she makes it so damn hard! Just about now she is talking about how she is “still a winner.” She believes when she is sequestered, she will get to go to the beach. She doubled her salary with the stipend while she only made $450 at her job. “I’m a winner and I don’t have to work.” Just like when she doesn’t win at a competition, she always has an excuse. I wonder how long it will be before she starts touting how she really ~wants~ to be evicted? (To be fair, Alison even sang that tune a few times.)

Meanwhile, Alison and Nathan are discussing nominations. Alison takes a moment with him to look at the pictures of the HGs on the walls and point out all of them people she hates and wants gone. Though the list is large, Nathan steers her in a more focused direction when he suggest putting Dana and Justin up together. Though Alison doesn’t say anything about Justin, she does say that Dana is “definitely going to go up.” The DR apparently asked her if there was “any way” she would “not nominate Dana,” and Alie replied, “Yeah, one way… A voluntary exit!” Dana, however, is tooting a different horn in the BlueRoom with her cronies; she believes that no one’s plan ever goes as it does, and her number may not be up yet. All she knows for sure is that one of her group (Dana, Jee, Jun, Justin, and Robert) will go.

Jun and Robert, once Dana is not around, agree that Alison will put Dana up because Alie is “so immature” and takes everything personally, “just like a little girl.” I swear, with all my logic and understanding, HOW can they say that and not the same about Dana and her witch-hunt for Alison last week?? *Sigh.* As their group gathers again, they once again feed off the anger of each other as they bitterly watch Erika jumping up and down outside, clapping her hands. They are mad that the others (meaning Erika, Jack and Nathan) are so happy that Alie won HOH, when—as a poster points out—THEY did the exact same thing last week! And it is not all Dana; Jee, too, is upset and declares that the only one of the other four he “wouldn’t mind” winning the game is Jack. He’d be “pissed” if any of the others got “that money.”

Though Dana suggests cards at this point, as she doesn’t “want to deal with this anymore,” the embittered conversation continues as they shuffle the deck. “It still kills meeeee. It still kills meeeee,” she repeats over and over. Still? Dana, you’ve got a whole week of this to endure! About this time, Alie gets let into her HOH room and is excited to see her new things: a filled basket, a new stuffed animal (a cat) and pictures. She cries a bit as she looks at the latter, especially those of her boyfriend. Her sadness flips to happiness fairly quickly, however, as she jumps up onto her bed while listening to her CD (Ashanti) and begins boogieing with her kitty cat and elephant. She appears to be engaged in some good-natured fun, though some posters speculate that she is intentionally trying to rub her win in Dana’s face as the door to the HOH remains wide-open. Yet Dana doesn’t get to see the show as she sits over in the BlueRoom and conjures up different ways that she and the others can hurt Alie—one of which is to put pepper in Alie’s eye shadow. “I’d do it, too, if no one could see me,” she says.

As the night dwindles into morning, the bits to note are: Alison mentions a “sequestering house,” and we immediately go to FOTH. Alison tells Jun that she was “really mean” to her (Jun knows, or at least says, that she might be a possible nomination). The HGs try on their jumpsuits for the food competition on the morrow; some get red jumpsuits, some get blue. The teams are as follow: Dana, Erika, Jee and Robert are Red; Jack, Jun, Justin and Nathan are Blue. Robert complains that the teams are unfair—that Nathan and Justin should not be on the same team. The Stooges all agree to veto one another should one of them be nominated and should one of them win the veto; they also agree that they will be “pissed” beyond belief if Erika makes it to the final two. Jee tells the others how he wants to leave his “mark” on all the women he has been with—literally. Apparently he branded Jun and his girlfriend both with a knife with his name on it (this makes me so seriously ooky, it is not even funny). The Rat Pack talk about Dave and all say positive things about him—he was “awesome,” he was “real,” and he was “one of the coolest people in the house.” (I concur.)

Throughout all of this, various HGs are tipping their glasses and getting a bit sloshed. Jee, in particular, rambles on in his usual-drunken way about how “slammin’” his girlfriend is and how “high” he wants to get when BB is over. The others chat away; both groups are separated and both take the opportunities to throw jabs at the others. Alie accuses the Rat Pack of hoarding alcohol in the HOH (she found three bottles of win in the cooler); Justin says he will “kill” himself if Alie wins the half million; Jee is mad that “they” didn’t do what he wanted when he was HOH; the Rat Pack makes fun of Erika for crying when David left (“she’s such a ***** actress,” Robert bites out). It goes on and on. A bit later, Jun makes her way over to Alie to have a talk, and though nothing much is said, Alie does tell Jun that none of her alliance ~hate~ Jun, they just view her as a threat. Alie also says that she is considering nominating Dana and Jun together, because none of the Stooges would use the veto to save Dana and Dana would go. There is discussion about a deal, too, that Jun wouldn’t nominate Alie next week if Alie didn’t nominate her this week—but Jun couldn’t say the same about Nathan. The conversation continues on, but eventually ends as Jun says she doesn’t want to be seen jumping from group to group—it would look bad. Really? And the thought of an imminent nomination doesn’t already prove to you that you are balancing on a tapered fence, Jun? Dana, meanwhile, is telling her Stooges that they are “still strong” because, even though they will lose someone, none of them would ever turn on one another like the others would (oh hohohohoho….heee. Ha. Okay, a little outburst of laughter. Sorry.)

Three o’clock looms on the clock and the HGs are mostly preparing for bed. Some of the women work on beautifying their competition overalls. Nathan wanders into the Sandbox and wonders where he is going to be sleeping now (Alie will be in the HOH and the Rat Pack has taken over the LoveRoom); Jack suggests that Nate take David’s bed and he moves over to test it out. Soon after he realizes how scratchy the blanket is, he tells Alie, “I’m going to have to sleep with you tonight.” And he does. Everyone settles down into their beds, thought the Rat Pack keep speculating on what the nominations tomorrow will be and Nathan keeps worrying that the other side will be targeting him next week (egads, take a week off from the worrying and rest!). There is various strategizing monopolizing the feeds, as usual, but though it is the night before new nominations, none of it is very interesting and it is all highly repetitive. Eventually it settles into general chatter about past competitions with Erika and Jack and friends and family with Dana and Jun.

The HGs all fall asleep anywhere between three thirty and four thirty in the morning. It appears that an early-morning food competition (which four of them will lose and be subjected to a PB&J diet all week) was not enough to encourage them to get to bed earlier. So that’s all it wrote, folks; that is, until they are forced to wake up in a few hours and I will once again begin to work my summary magic. Till then.

PS: Again, my apologies for a late summary. I’m having a very busy week, but I try to get them out at least within 24 hours from the end of the day.