One of the things I have discovered being home all day is The Tavis Smiley Show. Tavis Smiley has done and said a lot of things I disagree with over the years, but his interview show is great. It (or at least the version I see the day after it airs) is a 30minute one-on-one interview. I have seen a select few that are two 15minute interviews. He gets a wide range of guests (I have seen Serena Williams, RZA, Edward Norton, and a bunch of news/media people I have never heard of).

A few weeks ago his guest was Paul Mooney, who I was not familiar with. Very funny interview.

The episode today featured Yo-Yo Ma. If you ask an average citizen to name a classical violist or flutist, 99% of them (myself included) will not be able to name one. If you ask people to name a famous classical cellist, they will undoubtedly name Yo-Yo Ma. That in and of itself is an achievement. Beyond name recognition, Yo-Yo Ma has critical acclaim beyond any instrumentalist in the past century. He may already be the most celebrated instrumentalist of all time (on any instrument), and he is only 54 years old. On top of that, he is thoughtful and extremely humble, and open to music that is not in the classical/baroque style. He's even done an album with Bobby McFerrin. His new box set features over 90 CDs and he has only been recording for 30 years.

Anyway, that is what was on my mind.

The following are not reviews (and definitely not spoilers), just opinions and announcements of the shows I watch.

Nip/Tuck is sort of 'back.' It has been dark, and slightly more realistic than the previous two (three? four?) seasons. That show jumped the shark a long time ago, but we still [stupidly] watch it.

Dexter may be in its best season (4th) yet. I disagree with most people; I think season 2 was awful, and season 3 was sort of a redemption. Most people seem to think it was starting to lose them in season 3. Regardless, Dexter is probably the best show on TV right now. All the characters are great, most of the side-stories are good, and the dialogue is extremely witty without being unrealistic.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is excellent, as always. Irreverent and impractical as ever.

Modern Family has been getting a lot of praise, but it deserves more. It's more than just a comedy; it has touching moments that are really effective. It's nice to see Ed O'Neill in a meaningful role. I may end up liking this more than I liked Arrested Development (something I thought I would never say about a network comedy).

As always, I enjoy my documentary shows: NOVA, Frontline, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours Mystery have all been solid.

I am really getting sick of both Top Chef and Hell's Kitchen. Hell's Kitchen is just so fixed... it's the same show every season/week. Top Chef is pompous, particularly the judges. IT'S JUST A PLATE OF FOOD, GUYS. Someone sends out a "bad" dish and the judges act like the chef just killed their cat. I think it is completely lost on them that the show has an audience of standard U.S. citizens who know virtually nothing about food.

Cake Boss is a good show. Several cake-bakery-type-shows have emerged in the past 24 months, but this is the only one worth watching. The shop is a great atmosphere; the cast members are all very entertaining. It's a large Italian family from Jersey, how can you go wrong? Also, they make much better cakes than the other shows. Amazing cakes. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these custom cakes go for over $3,000.

For whatever reason, I stopped watching The Soup when Stephen was born. It was a 3 year run of watching it every week, but I was getting sick of it. It makes me know too much about celebrity news and the like, and the inside jokes are built in such a way that you have to watch it every week or you don't get the jokes.

In an ongoing effort to trim the fat from our spending habits, I just called COMCAST to cancel HBO and turn in one of our DVRs. This should save us about $32/month. We still have four ENCORE channels, so we get a lot of uncensored movies, just no HBO original programming (I'll miss the documentaries and the boxing). OnDemand still works, but with no access to the HBO OnDemand, it's next to worthless.

Poop watch continues on to Day Ten.

Busy weekend. Got Jaime's old car running again, cleaned out all the junk. Now we just have to vacuum, scrub, wash, wax, etc. and we can [finally] get rid of the thing. Finished mounting lights at LP's house, went grocery shopping, and spent a good four hours at the Mulligans' yesterday. I plan to walk Stephen down to the bank with me today to deposit some checks.

My wife wanted me to help her with her fantasy football draft this year. She has played the previous two seasons without knowing anything, and she has done very well. This season, probably not so much. Blame me. First round pick was more than likely a complete waste, and Kurt Warner may be starting to show his age. We shall see. This week, Zach took us down to Chinatown, as promised.

Tennis was also good this weekend. Weird things happened, and Kim Clijsters won the U.S. Open after taking off almost two years to have a child.