how i met your mother: The Anti-Barney

Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother focused on Barney's case of "The Yips." He lost his ability to hit on women, a power he originally gained, we learn, after his first sexual encounter with an older woman. After running into this woman at the gym, he discovers that her praises of his sexual ability were fake; that she had been put up to it by his then "straight" brother.

His confidence broken, Barney loses control of his actions around women and embarrasses himself at the Victoria's Secret party with all of the models. Luckily, Hedi Klum lends a sympathetic ear. Barney eventually convinces his "Mrs. Robinson"to sleep with him again, and this time he really does "rock her world."

This episode was okay, but it really didn't rock my world. I find most episodes to be laugh out loud funny, but this one didn't connect with me at all. The rest of the gang spent their first and only week at the gym, which was humorous but not exceptionally so. I hope the next one's better!

how i met your mother: And a Slappy Thanksgiving to You!

On Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother, Lily and Marshall hosted Thanksgiving at their new home for the first time, Marshall kept Barney on his toes with the promise of a slap bet fulfillment, Robin dated on older guy and Ted learned how to be friends with his ex.

Things I loved from this episode:

• Robin celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving, aka "Real Thanksgiving." As a lover of all things Canadian, I love it when they throw a little bit into the show--and I learned a little bit about the Canadian version of the holiday!
  
• Hip Bob, Robin's date. Since we see the show through Ted's memories, grandfatherly Bob played the part of the young 41-year-old he actually was. So much funnier than if we had seen an actual hunky older guy!
  
• Countdown to slap bet. Remember a few episodes ago when we saw Marshall taunt Barney with his Web site, counting down the seconds to his next slap? Well, the countdown led us to 3:01 p.m. Thanksgiving Day. Lily temporarily put an end to Slapsgiving, but gave Marshall slapping permission with a couple seconds to go to catch Barney off guard and end the episode with a Slapsgiving carol.