How I only watched two things last night

(Continuing a pattern that I think is going to hold through the end of the season, I had to table the Fox Monday dramas for later, so Tuesday morning just deals with "HIMYM" and "Grey's.")

Well, I can finally watch the "How I Met Your Mother" finale now that I'm all caught up, though between sweeps and pulling column double-duty, I may not get to it much earlier than the rest of you.

I'm glad I waited, though, since significant things happened for both Ted and Lily in the last couple of episodes, with her getting cold feet and him bailing on a date with who I have to assume is the kids' future mom (with her face conveniently blurred so they can plug in any random hottie when they finally decide to go through with it). But for all the soapy stuff, my favorite parts of the episode were Barney trying out the greatest pick-up line of all time (with the show's co-creators/theme song singers in the roles of the fake paramedics) and Barney recruiting Marshall for his prank war. Now, wouldn't either or both company have some kind of policy against sending pictures like those via the company e-mail server?

Craig and Carter have said that season two will be moving in a new direction, so I'm hopeful that they finally put a bow on Ted/Robin next week and then focus on what they're best at: bringing the silly.

My "Grey's Anatomy" malaise continues. When Callie started comparing Meredith, Izzie and Cristina to the popular clique at high school, I cringed. Don't we already have David E. Kelley to write wacky shows about adults who never got over their teenage hang-ups? My problem with the show used to be that I didn't especially like or care about Meredith, but the list of characters I actually like is dwindling rapidly. At the moment, it's Bailey, Burke, George and maybe the She-Shepherd. I'm hoping that the mega-monda-ultra two-part finale helps bring back the love, but I'm not feeling it right now. And what was Harold doing as an intern? Wasn't Kumar the one who wanted to go into medicine?

In today's column, I preview the "Veronica Mars" and "Gilmore Girls" finales, mainly comparing how Rob ties up most of the ongoing threads in the event the show doesn't come back, while Amy and Dan pull a Sorkin and blow up the show on their way out. Since I've already seen both, I hope to have reviews of both ready by sometime tonight or first thing tomorrow.