TVSquad

So, we have a new head of household in the Big Brother 9 house, eh? I'd say Natalie's reign is probably going to be predictable, but things could very well go back to fickle once again. With this crowd, nothing's a sure bet.

Wait, I stand corrected. It is indeed a sure bet that Natalie and Sheila will keep talking and talking and talking. Most of the time they're talking about things they've talked about before.

For show spoilers from the 24/7 live feeds, read on past the jump!

It's amazing how popular the person who wins HOH becomes in such a short period of time. All of a sudden, everyone's your friend when they didn't have a civil word for you before the comp. Of course, Natalie is stuck with her Sheila friendship for better or worse. Now Sheila's even chummier -- separated at birth almost! Adam and Ryan feel pretty confident and are bestest friends with her, too!

Then you have the other side -- Joshuah, Sharon, and James. Natalie doesn't have all that much against Sharon, so Sharon's acting much like she did before. She plays them all fairly well even if they're on opposite sides. Then there's Joshuah and James. They believe they'll both be nominated. James has a record in this season for winning when he needs to win. Joshuah is worried because he knows he's the secondary target. If they're both nominated and James saves himself with the POV, it's a given that Joshuah would probably go home against anyone else in the house. If he's up against James, he would have the votes to stay.

Both of them are campaigning Natalie. They both know there really isn't much of a chance she won't target them, so it's getting down to throwing each other under the bus. Although James has spent a lot of time just wandering and looking worried, he has been talking to Natalie. From what she's saying to the others, it's not going to do much good.

Natalie finally got her HOH room and goodies basket, one of the main reasons she's been wanting to win the comp. She received all kinds of snacks, some beer, photos of her family and her beloved dog Sampson. I think she misses the dog more than the family!

There was a lot of discussion about Chelsia's behavior and her rants on the way out the door last night. In particular, when she said Sheila was "rode hard and put away wet." Sheila never heard of the expression before and, if I'm not mistaken, it has to do with horses (Chelsia is from Iowa). If you ride a horse hard and put them away wet, the blankets get wrinkled and the horse ages. Adam kept teasing Sheila about being "rode hard." I think he might think it's about sex.

It was the return of the food comp today. Everyone except for Adam and Natalie (due to her HOH) is on slop after a few weeks of eating. Sharon still has that slop pass from the POV comp, but she says she won't use it and will be on slop with everyone else. Whatever the comp entailed, it left smashed watermelon all over the yard. The feeds were blocked with trivia throughout it. They used to let us see the food comps in past seasons, grr.

In house crumbs:

• Natalie keeps saying over and over that she's going to give Matt a birthday gift by sending James to sequester.
• Joshuah likes good teeth and older white guys. (I knew you needed to know that.) He didn't like Neil's teeth and Neil was Latin.
• Natalie thought pickles grew like that on trees. She didn't realize they're cucumbers.
• Natalie keeps practicing her speech for when she nominated James and is the first to put Joshuah on the block.
• Sheila, for the 678th time, said the winner of the season had to be someone who would do something worthwhile with the money. She means not James!
• Chelsia's behavior remained a huge topic throughout last night and the day today.
• Ryan thinks that Natalie should backdoor James instead of directly nominating him. Natalie disagrees -- she plans on putting both Joshuah and James up together on the block.
  
• Natalie is all about the number 7 again ... or still.
• Ryan told Adam and Natalie that Sharon's a mole for the other side.

There you go. There's been a lot of celebrating, moping, scheming ... but no brouhahas. The nominations aren't in yet, but Natalie's been practicing her speech so much that I doubt it will be anybody but James and Joshuah.

UPDATE: The nominations ceremony has been held during a long feeds block. Adam's key was drawn first. As expected, James and Joshuah were nominated for eviction.