It's funny how on the Race, the simplest tasks can cause the most trouble. Sure, there's the exhaustion factor.

But who would think tea would bring someone to their knees?

We're in China and we're down to eight teams. The cowboys, who won the last leg, leave first. The clue sends them to a tea shop where they are to participate in a traditional tea tasting, get a brick of tea and then the clue. Phil tells us that the tea the teams drink will appear in another leg of the Race.
 

That's not to say it wasn't exciting.

In fact, it was pretty close, and at more than one point, it could have been anyone's game.

But I suppose the inevitable is called inevitable because it's inevitable.

Whew. That was a close one.

Last night's "Monk" finale gave fans of the show exactly what they wanted: justice for Trudy's murder and closure for Mr. Monk.

And they did it all without giving me a heart attack.

The first part of the series finale, which aired last week, made a nice case for killing off the Monk character and reuniting him in the afterlife with his beloved Trudy. The more I thought about it over the past week, the more sense it made -- and the more anxious I became. But thankfully, the "Monk" writers had a much more artful ending in mind.

BIG SPOILERS BELOW:

Two moments of clarity.

1) So happy for a solid education that would allow me to look at these five letters:

Z N F A R

and be able to see F R A N Z -- even without having trotted around the globe.

2) It's Dan. Dan is the gay brother to hate.

In truth, it was a smart move, not nice, but what the gay brothers did to the Americas was in the realm of gamesmanship rather than villainy.

But those brothers are just so annoying, aren't they?

Collections from Irina, Carol Hannah and Althea

Last night's finale saw major sniffles, a minor meltdown from Tim, a made-up runway show and maybe some cheating? (It was also brought to you by the letter 'M', apparently.)

Last night saw, perhaps, Top Chef's most difficult challenge: the remaining five challengers had to participate in a shortened version of Bocuse d'Or, an international "Food Olympics" for chefs. (That's really all I know about it, admittedly, so Wikipedia away!)
Each competitor had to prepare an elaborate, technically impressive platter of a protein and two creative, intricately-presented garnishes for a panel of 12 judges.
You could tell that it was a doozy of a challenge - because everyone made mistakes:

Our guest blogger Lenni G. gives her take on last night's show:

Finally, a happy, almost totally positive, night of dance with host Cat Deeley channeling her inner "Balloon Girl" in dazzling and crinkled aluminum foil.

And our Sanford gal Noelle Marsh had another good night!

That's a double double entrendre.

Because you can take that headline to refer to the emotion that the Globetrotters drew from Sam & Dan, the gay brothers.

Now if I had put: The brothers let it all hang out, well, that would be different.

Once again, the Happiness bloggers elected (begged) my mom to be our Dancing with the Stars correspondent. After each show, she calls me with her report...

We're down to five couples, and those remaining had to do two dances again last night -- gotta keep filling up those two-hour time slots! They did a Ballroom round and a Latin round. Plus, there are some big time guest stars and a special feature on tonight's show.

Keep reading for my mom's recap, predictions for the next elimination, and info on tonight's show.