Oscars

Like most people who avidly watch the Oscars, I made my picks of who I thought would win. I managed only to get half right, but it's hard to choose winners for films I haven't even seen.

One of the films that did well the other night was Pan's Labyrinth which is set in post-war Spain about a girl named Ofelia. Powerless and lonely in a place of unfathomable cruelty, Ofelia lives out her own dark fable as she confronts monsters both otherworldly and human.

It seems like such an amazing story, and I would really love to see it.

I was very impressed to see that Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar. It isn't always easy to succeed after being eliminated from American Idol.

The Oscars did a montage at the beginning about all the nominees. They were in front of a white screen doing or saying whatever they felt like - and that's what I like most about people - when they're being real.

There was a musical number (like most years), but this time it was with Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly about how people in comedic movies don't get nominated at the Oscars and about how sad it is. But they quickly get the idea to do both kinds of movies so that they could be Oscar worthy actors.

They also had a group from the Pilobolus Dance Theatre, seen above, that does a collaborative choreographic process and a unique weight-sharing approach to movement. It was really cool.

The show ended up going into the wee hours of the morning, and I had to go to bed because of getting up early for work the next morning. If only they showed these things on Saturday nights, I'd be up all night!!

Oh, my nola

I am absolutely in love with Harry Connick Jr.'s new CD Oh, my nola.

Nola stands for New Orleans Louisiana.

The CD has the whole New Orleans theme to it with the essence of jazz from Harry.

This is his tribute to his hometown and what it has been through with Hurricane Katrina.

I absolutely love it!! I totally recommend you buy it!!

Some songs on it are Hello, Dolly! Working in the Coal Mine, & Won't you Come Home, Bill Bailey?

As soon as it starts, you just want to begin dancing!! Harry just possesses the talent to make you dance and to put a smile on your face.

Roasted Asparagus

So, the roasted asparagus didn't work out as well as I'd hoped. I think it would've worked better had the aspargus been thicker stalks, but we learn from our mistakes, don't we?

I can't wait for the weekend to come as my super cool aunt is coming up north from NJ. It has been awhile since we've seen each other so it'll be great to catch up and introduce her to Will. My other super cool aunt and her fiance are coming up from TO to visit as well with my Grams. We're visiting some traditional spots in Ottawa, but overall I'm just excited to see everyone together.

The blister that I received after skating last weekend on the canal has finally gotten better enough to wear proper shoes. I tried wearing shoes Monday (after the fact) and I ended up limping all day because the shoe kept pressing on the blister. It took me about 1/2 hour to scrounge up some guts to take off my first bandaid (which did NOT have any polysporin on it) after soaking my foot, and it still hurt. It actually hurt even more to put my foot back into the warm water after the bandaid was taken off. So, the last couple of days I have been wearing these shoes that have open backs but they felt like flip flops to me and I had to keep clenching my toes so that they wouldn't fly off.