Oscar Watch: 2011

"So you thought the Oscars were weird?"
(beat)
"You didn't think they were weird?"

Well, not initially...

Oscar Watch: 2011!
Cambria was sweet enough to host an Oscar party! It was lovely. Pizza, truffles, gingersnaps....mmmm. Lots of good food. Lots of fun people. I always like watching awards shows with company. Eric won the Oscar Ballot race with 12, while Brad and I tied in last with 7.

The Hosts
I can wrap this one up pretty quick. I thought James Franco was mostly a dud, but that Anne Hathaway was lots of fun.

Quick Thoughts
Honestly, I went in with low expectations. I expected Hathaway and Franco to be fun and lighthearted, which at least Hathaway was. And for the most part, I don't remember anyone getting really ragged on this year (except Hugh Jackman which was all in fun and one poke at Charlie Sheen). The lack of cruel ribbing was nice.
I have to say, I did love the backdrop this year.
I wished they would have incorporated the history of the Oscars better, if they were going to go that route. Suddenly Gone with the Wind was in the background and none of us knew why. (I was disappointed that for Best Animated they decided to feature Shrek in the background, but eh.)
I had heard a few days earlier that the show choir was going to sing, so it didn't strike me quite as random as it seemed to strike everyone else. Had I not known that was planned, it probably would have seemed strange.

The Movies
As I stated at the end of 2010, I really didn't see too many movies last year. The only ones I had that were up for Best Picture were Toy Story 3, Inception and True Grit. And let's face it, none of those were actually in the running for Best Picture.

The Winners...
....were mostly not surprising. I hadn't been following too much Oscar talk, but didn't see much upset either. Their speeches were mostly expected.

Disappointment
Okay, I know Toy Story 3 was a lock. There was no doubt. Nonetheless, How to Train Your Dragon was the better movie and should have won. (And not just because I want a Toothless.)
I liked TS3. I thought the ending was perfect and it was a lot of fun. I'm glad they completed their story. But I still think HTTYD was put together better overall. The story, the characters, the animation...all of it was beautiful. My favorite film of 2010.

After Effects...
I'm really interested in Social Network now and I certainly wasn't before. I think the plan is to see Black Swan tomorrow night, and hopefully sometime between now and Awesome Summer Blockbusters come out I can see Social Network, Fighter and Kings Speech. That's the hope anyway (because if it doesn't happen by then, it probably won't happen at all.)

The Interviews
I watched the ones that mattered to me. Christopher Nolan (director of Dark Knight Rises) deftly tossed away all attempts at discovering tidbits about the film. Practiced ease, I'm sure. And now it seems Hathaway just dropped a rather large (although entirely expected) spoiler. Nonetheless, I'm a little disappointed in that, especially after just watching Nolan avoid the subject entirely. Oh well.

Memorable Moments
I wouldn't really pull any from this Oscars. BUT you SHOULD watch this. (Embedding was disabled.)
I stumbled across this a few days ago. This is an acceptance speech by Gerda Weissmann Klein, who was a Holocaust survivor. She won an Oscar for the Best Documentary Short Subject "One Survivor Remembers" in 1995. You can skip to 1:30 where she starts. Can you imagine what would have been lost if they had pulled her off the stage? Beautiful speech.

By the way, this is my 95th post. Can you believe you've stuck around that long? Almost to 100....

Also, it's almost MARCH. Almost SPRING!

"Oh. So you're that shop."

By my bosses reaction, I already knew what the representative had said when she called to schedule an update for the computers. I don't think she was actually trying to be rude - just that she was caught off guard that it was actually us. That we were indeed that shop. The shop that caused chaos when our computers wouldn't work. The shop that called. every. day. The shop that was really, really hacked.

Our reputation has apparently preceded us now.

I would be amused to see what exactly is on our record at their company. By this point, I envision a thousand red flags and blinking warning signs. "BEWARE! BEWARE!" "PROCEED WITH CAUTION." "ABORT!"

And I want to say, We're not angry people! I promise! We just wanted it to work!

Ah well.

A year later now, it still taunts us but not to the same extent. We may not necessarily like what it's doing, but at least we mostly understand why. It's not "Why does it show her account on this screen, but not this one when they're essentially the same thing?" Or "Why did it suddenly change all their account info??" Or "WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S THE MOTHERBOARD?!"

Ahem.
But really, we haven't been on the phone regularly with their company since...August-ish? So we're doing good. The system appears mostly patched. It's not that user friendly, but livable.

At any rate next week an update is rolling out, I suspect to all the shops. And supposedly its including a training session which makes me wary. What exactly are you changing so drastically that requires a training session? And if there's not a drastic change and you're just training us on what we already know, its just going to revive old resentment. Rar. Rar.

Mellow. Yellow.

See? Fish in a barrel.

I love Community. I just watched this weeks episode and, particularly the the Firefly reference, was way too perfect. I laughed so hard. Especially with all the Firefly commotion that just popped up this week.

I disappeared. I just haven't had anything of interest to post in awhile.

Sooo...check out this awesome Lego Victorian house!

Wait, a link post? We're getting a link post? That's it?

Mm. Yeah.
I don't keep up with most sports, but I love this story about the new winner of the Daytona 500, Trevor Bayne! Rumor has it he didn't even know where victory lane was. I'm happy he won.

No really, I've been busy, just not with much noteworthy material. My steering wheel controls are fixed now? Yay for me. Boring for you.

Though I did watch a basketball game played with three - five year olds this week. That was pretty awesome. And super cute. And then I watched Ashia play basketball, which was also awesome, because she's incredibly fast.

Spiderman: Turn off the Dark is still in previews if you're interested. And now this: a musical named Spiderman Smackdown is planning to open a day earlier than the current opening date for S:TOTD with a budget of $0 and a restriction of getting the show up within thirty days.
"In a statement Moran said, "How important is $65 Million in making good theatre? We’re going to develop a story, write a complete musical score and script, design sets and costumes, cast, rehearse, advertise and ultimately mount the production on March 14th."

Last week when we had those first 70 degree days? That's when Nowata, OK saw a 100 degree change of temperature in one week.

Honestly, it's been kind of a strange week, simply because of its sense of normalcy. Two weeks ago we were having blizzards. Suddenly I wasn't always at work, or if I was it was because my boss picked me up, or we couldn't get flowers in, or we left and came in at odd hours. Until this past Sunday I hadn't been to church in three weeks. Last week was Valentine's and wildly trying to prepare since the snow had chopped up our preparation time and then making it through the rest of the week with the shop slowly getting cleaned back up and us recuperating. This week? Our first normal week in almost a month. Bizarre.

And now we're back in the 70's. I wore flip flops for the second time this month tonight. It was glorious.

See? A link post. Fish in a barrel.

See how the sun shines brightly...

"Hey there Mr. Blue! We're so pleased to be with you! Look around, see what you do, everybody smiles at you..."

Two weeks ago we had a blizzard.
A week ago we had a near blizzard.
Today it was a gorgeous 79 degrees.

It's crazy, but I love the variety. Nonetheless, I'm ready for spriiiiiiing! Yehehehehe! Spriiiing! Mr. Blue, I've missed you!

"We never said our designers could add.

Only that they could make it look good."
- My boss, after a phone call revealed one of the 35+ sets of dozen roses I made only had ten. Hey, after about 30, you start to fade in and out a bit. :) (Also, my favorite quote from the day.)

I did survive Valentine's. I also survived today, which is crucial in Valentine's Day survival. Sometimes the day after is worse than the holiday. But even though we spent the first half of the morning terrified to answer the phone, it was all good. No angry customers today.

It went well, we think. More kind people this year (to us). More people genuinely happy to send their loved ones gifts, which is always nice.

A random puppy that wandered into the shop. Lovely customers and twitch-worthy customers. I was sinus sick (but felt awesome for V-day). Still sickish. Only two missed deliveries - they just weren't home - some sort of a record. Only one irritatingly angry customer - a record. Giant stuffed animals. Red, pink & white everywhere. Roses. Lilies. Roses. Lilies.

The lovely customers make it all worth it. Even though the rest of the day makes us crazy - the lovely customers make it worth it.

But I'm still glad it won't come around again for another 363 days. (Is that right? Can I subtract?)

'Cause we love all the fluffy animals!

A mission, should you choose to accept....

I am looking for the Arbuckle Wilderness commercial from the late 80's/ early 90's.

You know that one with the awesome jingle that I just can't remember?

I've actually been looking for this commercial for several years now. I have found one from the 90's, but this isn't the one I remember. (I was so disappointed.)

The one I remember is way more upbeat and ended with "come feed the animals."

Admittedly, I haven't searched completely through Retrojunk, but I've really struggled to even find anything on this at all. Anyone else remember? I LOVED THAT JINGLE! Any suggestions?

COME FEED THE ANIMALS!

(In the process, I did find this commercial for CATS at the Winter Garden. Okay, so the show is strange anyway, but the commercial is actually really creepy! Apocalyptic looking! Ahhh!)

I hugged a bucket of daisies today.

You know it's cold when...
You're going to get flowers out of the cooler at work. And upon entering said cooler you flip around in a panic to check the thermometer. Certainly it has gone out again since it feels like a sauna. But then it dawns on you, no, it's at its regular 50 degrees, where it always stays and you shake your head. :)

I have to say though: the shop usually feels like an icebox, and this time around it was not nearly as bad. Maybe its because Bobby was okay with leaving the temperature up to 80 degrees. Or maybe it's because I finally have this clothes combo of tights, jeans, two pairs of socks, boots, tank top, thermal top, long sleeve top, vest, hoodie, hat, scarf, gloves down. Either way, I am content.

I did go back into work for Thursday and today. I have not driven since Monday home from work - my bosses have kindly been picking me up. The roads are still pretty treacherous in parts, particularly the side streets. While we're hoping to get out at least once this weekend to pick up some essentials, I won't be traveling out much beyond that. Three more inches fell this morning, and I have to say that it was really beautiful.

The being said it is causing problems. The story for us is funerals. Within three days of February we had nine services on the list (our total for January ended up at 60, by the way). A few were postponed earlier in the week preparing for this snowstorm and after today's snowfall a couple were postponed again. We haven't been able to get any flowers in since Monday and are working strictly on what we have in the coolers for family pieces. That is why when I desperately ran to the cooler, expecting to find my white daisies already missing, I hugged the bucket that held the few precious blooms left.
And then turns out the funeral was postponed and I didn't need them after all.

As for me, I have to admit I'm relishing this "trapped in the house" thing. Certainly by Monday my tune will have changed - it will be Valentine's week, I will be tired of it and want to get my car out. But since the last few weeks have entailed my leaving the house almost every single night, I love that I'm snowed in. Haha, you can't get me. I'm trapped in my house. It's pretty glorious. My own personal snow moat. The introvert in me is so giddy I skipped around the house all of Tuesday.

But that will be over on Monday. Our flower arrivals for the big day were supposed to be here this past Tuesday and they're trapped in the city (we did finally get some in today). We're expecting more flurries Sunday night and "significant snowfall" Tuesday night. I've been looking to figure out what "significant" means in this case. Will our flowers be frozen? Can our vans make the deliveries? Am I going to be sleeping at the shop? Details, weathermen, details! Your flower shops are hanging in the balance! ;)

On the bright side of the snow, check out this sweet face:


Aw...such a doll. Little Lex was certainly excited to go out and play! :) I love that girl.

Sharks for Snickers

I love this commercial.

It's a magical world....

Current weather conditions: No more falling snow, but blowing snow still remains. 12 degrees with a -10 to -20 wind chill.

Early this morning I made the phone call in to my boss, who informed me there would be no work today. After sleeping off another few hours, I'm now gleefully skipping through the house. The term 'snow day' still holds that magic touch. My plans today include possibly cleaning my room and watching Wall-E.

And honestly, since we're not supposed to get above freezing before Friday or Saturday - and there's an 11" drift in my driveway - I'm not sure how tomorrow or even Thursday will go. And that brings some complications in, but those concerns can be dealt with later.

For today, bliss. :)



We averaged 10" - 11" of snow, with this being our tallest drift.


Winter Wonderland...




Let's go exploring.

PopSci Image: This Is Your Massive Snowstorm, America