"I guess just one too many..."

Ha, Ha, My favorite line from "A Christmas Story" when dad plugs in the tree and a small fire starts in the outlet. There's about 15 cords all plugged in. Well, I experienced my own little scene yesterday while working on my tree. Every year, I have to put tons of white lights on my tree. I like to wind them down as many branches as possible. And, even though this year's tree seems smaller, I still ran out of lights. So off I went to the local True Value and bought some more, determined to get enough. I laughed to myself as I noticed the box said "connect up to 3 strands" as I literally connected probably my 8th or 9th. Well, as soon as I plugged the new strand in, it lit and then went out. I tried the next one, yep, same thing. I realized that I was blowing the tiny fuses in the strand plug. Of course, this was after about 4 hours of working on my tree. I seriously considered opening up the front door and just throwing the entire tree into the middle of the lawn. Thankfully, Rian came downstairs just in time so I put him on the fuse replacement and I got a couple small extension cords and divided up my lights so there were only a few strands per cord. Finally, after 6 hours, I have a beautifully lit tree...but, no ornaments...that will be today's job...

Crappy ending to a fun weekend...

After a fun weekend in Toronto (I was there with my friend Amber to watch our hubbies play Miami), I received a call from my pet sitter that my cat Cole wasn't doing well. His health has been deteriorating for about a year. Last month, he had another "seizure" and I found out his heart wasn't working correctly and his lungs had a bunch of fluid in them. After some tests, he was put on a diuretic in order to help his failing heart so that it wouldn't back up into his lungs. He seemed to be doing better but I could tell it wouldn't be long before his little body gave up. So, when I got the call from my friend, I asked her to bring him to the vet, knowing that this was probably it. The vet called a short time later and told me his left lung was completely full of fluid as was about 1/2 of his right lung. I asked her to keep him comfortable and I would come in as soon as we got back into town and put him to sleep. It was a tough ride home knowing what my night had in store.

When I arrived (about 11:30pm), he was breathing really hard but purring and "talking" to me. I burst into tears and gave him lots of hugs before asking the vet to put him down. It was so hard to do but it was time. I can honestly say, I lost a very good friend on Sunday night. He has been my buddy for 12 years and I will miss him dearly...

A new day...

Things seem to be ok here this morning (well, afternoon now!). We got hit pretty good last night but I was safe and sound in my condo. We somehow managed to get lucky enough to have power all night so it was quite nice having tv and internet to help me pass the time. It was incredible watching the winds and rain out the windows...

I turned everything off and went to bed about midnight. Fell asleep to the sounds of the waves crashing. So, now that it's all said and done, what an amazing experience. It truly makes you in awe of what Mother Nature is capable of. I'm glad I was able to experience this but hope that it's my last run in with a hurricane. I was able to get booked on a flight out on Monday, which is exactly what I wanted because I don't want to be flying tomorrow during the Bills game! Have to watch that!

I hope the people on Little Cayman and Cayman Brac are safe as they got hit WAY worse than us. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers are we start to learn of the devastation on those islands...

The eye

Still have internet...Yay! Here is an updated satellite photo as the eye is getting ready to pass the island. Now winds are 80 mph sustained with gusts of 100. Eek!

The adventure continues...

It's dark out now so my storm watching out the window is done. I much prefer to see what's going on out there! I am absolutely amazed at how secure this building is. The new hurricane windows we installed a few months ago are able to withstand a Category 5 and I'm not surprised, as I cannot hear a whisper of wind! We still have power and internet so I'm going to continue to keep myself occupied. Here are some current satellite pictures of Paloma as it goes through Grand Cayman. The little outline on the bottom image is the island...

They are saying it now may be a Category 3 as it passes the island in the next few hours. Winds are around 50-60mph now with higher gusts and are expected to be over 100mph as it passes us by. This is crazy! Sure wish I wasn't sitting here alone and that my hubby was with me!

My crazy (hurricane) adventure...starts now!

I arrived in Grand Cayman on Oct 29th. This was supposed to be 9 days of me, myself and I enjoying reading on the beach and diving as well as drinks in the evening with our friends, Stu and Cheryl. Let's fast forward to today, where I am sitting in my condo awaiting Hurricane Paloma. I learned of this storm on Wed evening and did all I could yesterday to get a flight out. I was booked on a flight at 10:30a today but things got bad earlier than expected and the airport was shut down. Thankfully, I was able to get my bags and Lee, our condo manager, came and picked me up. I have enough food/water to get by and my bathtubs (yes, all 3!) are full of water for re-filling toilets, handwashing, etc...if the island water gets shut off. I have power and internet currently but who knows how long that will last. Things aren't too bad right now but windy and rainy and huge waves are starting to pound the shore. Originally, the worst was supposed to hit around 1:30-4pm but the storm has slowed and now it looks like it will be sometime during the night. Being alone, I would prefer the bad stuff hit during the daylight! And, being the Curious George that I am, I would prefer to get some good pics to document this adventure.

Rian and I truly love this island so it is interesting (to say the least) to experience this. Life in the Caribbean is not always sand and sun and now I will know that first hand! I will update again after it's over and hopefully have some good pics as well...

Wish me luck!

Old School

As of last Thurs (at 12:00am) Time Warner can no longer broadcast our local CBS and CW. The contract to carry these channels has expired without a new agreement being reached between Time Warner and Lin TV (who owns the rights to these channels). So, who's in the right here? Lin TV wants TW to pay to carry their channels and...they are available for FREE for anyone with a antenna. Why is this an issue to me? Well, because CBS is the channel that airs the Bills games! Eek!

My friend Amber and I spent a couple of days figuring out where we were going to watch the game. Do we battle in a local bar with all the ridiculously drunk fans (and risk having to listen to their negativity if the Bills aren't winning??) or listen to it on the radio? I got an email yesterday saying the M & T club at the stadium will be airing the game for the players/staff families so that was an option. Or, I could go buy an antenna. Well, problem solved. The Bills handed out antennas to the guys at their practice on Sat and my night in shining armor (aka Rian) brought it home before heading to the airport. Long story short, I'm up and running and ready for the 4:15 kickoff.

Funny though, in the day and age of plasma tv and HD, I'm watching the Bills game on a tv with rabbit ears facing the window and a plastic dial to get the picture as good as possible...what is this world coming to?

Back in Buf

After 9 fun-filled days of sun and sand, I am now back in Buffalo. Wish I could say I'm glad to be home but I'm not. Rian isn't officially home from training camp until next Wed, so I could've easily stayed in Grand Cayman another week!! Oh well, I'm back now and can't do anything about it...so I should just quit complaining.

Preseason game #2 was last night in Toronto. We won (yay) and Rian had a nice 43 yd field goal. It's hard to get excited about preseason since it's difficult to get a good idea of how the team is really going to be. The starters are in for such a short time. The rest of the game is more for players to show why they should be on the team and also a chance for the coaches to see what they have. As a fan, it's difficult to get into it with players constantly coming in and going out, half of whom I have no idea who they are. I don't mean to sound insensitive as it's great these guys are getting their chance to show what they've got. I guess I'm trying to say, let's get the players set and the season going so we can see what this team is capable of!!

Rian got home late last night and has today and tomorrow off. It's great having him home for at least a couple of days. He will have to drive back to camp tomorrow evening but will be home for good next Wed. I can't believe we're only a couple weeks away from the home opener...

Another Day in Paradise...

My friend Amber and I arrived in Grand Cayman on Mon afternoon. We're here to spend a week lounging on the beach. Oh, and also to squeeze in some "accessory" shopping to finish my condo remodel project. After Rian and I left here last April, we had the entire place painted and ordered new furniture. Until Mon, I hadn't seen the final project. It's beautiful! The colors we chose are really beautiful and the new furniture looks great.

We spent all day yesterday on the beach getting some sun and catching up on the latest celebrity gossip. Today, however, is furniture day. I'm hoping to get a new area rug for the living room and a couple more things to add some pizazz to the place. Since this was the major reason we took the trip, we figured we'd better get that done so our husbands (who are working hard at Training Camp) will know we actually were serious about wanting to do that on this trip :-)

I'm planning on getting a couple dives in as well but have yet to schedule myself on the boat. Hopefully either tomorrow or Fri afternoon...we'll see.

Weight loss and training camp...

After almost 1 year of Jenny Craig, I've lost just over 20 lbs. All of that was lost over the first 5 months and I've spent most of the remainder of the year maintaining. I say "most" because I've lowered my goal weight another 5 lbs and have had a couple struggles along the way. One being the 3 lbs I gained (and then re-lost) after 5 weeks in Grand Cayman and the other being the 4 lbs I gained on my recent month-long trip to visit family. I can honestly say our summer trip home is always the hardest for me to behave. The trip consists of many a night out with friends and an alcoholic beverage in hand almost every night of the week. Not so conducive to the Jenny Craig program! I tried to counteract most of it with workouts but even that is hard away from my home equipment and twice weekly Pilates class. I am happy to say that after a week back on track, I've lost 2.4 of those unsightly 4 I gained.

Things should be smooth sailing now because Rian took off for training camp today so our lives now have structure. Well, for the next 5 months or so. Another NFL season is upon us! This will be Rian's 9th year...unbelievable! It feels like just yesterday we were hoping he'd make it through his first season. As an "NFL wife" without children, training camp is always fun for me. Of course I miss my husband but I also love the freedom of a month to myself. Quiet days, no cooking (well, I don't cook that often to begin with, but at least I don't have to feel guilty about it), and the only things I have to put away are those that I, myself took out. I'm heading out to dinner with my friend tonight to celebrate the beginning of training camp...shhhh, don't tell the guys!!

World's prettiest road trip???

Here are a few pictures we took while driving from Vancouver, WA to Ephrata, WA. It takes about 5 hours but the scenery can make you forget that part...

Start off with Mt Hood



Past Multinomah Falls...



Past Mt Rainier (near Goldendale, WA)...



Up through the Columbia River at Vantage, WA...



The "wild horses" statues above Vantage (the sagebrush means you're definitely in Eastern WA now!)...



And, arriving at beautiful Blue Lake, WA to my folks' lake house...





Since we moved to Buffalo 5 years ago, I've really grown to appreciate where we grew up. I miss it so much and can't wait to move back closer to home...

The beautiful Pacific NW

We had a really nice time on our trip back "home" to the NW. We had 3 weeks of family time and 1 week of play time.

A very close friend of mine from high school got married on July 5th at Lake Pend Oreille (near Sandpoint, ID) so we drove there on the 4th for a weekend of camping and wedding fun. We had 3 boats full of people out on the water to watch the Hope, ID fireworks. The weather was perfect...not a whisper of wind. Here is Rian's picture of the "world's best 4th of July plate". He told me he'd already eaten the burger and baked beans on the first trip through the line...



They had a small ceremony in a little church in the woods and then back to their lakefront cabin for an outdoor reception. It was so fun and the weather was beautiful all weekend. And, I got to see other close friends from high school that I never get to spend time with.





We spent our last few days in Seattle playing "tourists". We stayed at the Edgewater Inn, right on the waterfront. We ended up getting the exact same room as last year, which was perfect. There are worse places to be than sitting on the balcony watching the ferries and sailboats go by, with Mt Rainier on the horizon. The Alaska cruise ships were literally right outside our room!





We took a 2 hour Argosy Lakes Cruise one day and finally did the Underground Tour of Seattle. It's fun spending time doing the things you never do when you live there.



The weather was absolutely beautiful all 4 days we were there. I can honestly say there might not be a more beautiful place than Seattle on a sunny day.





Now we're back home and Rian is counting down the days before he has to report for training camp (7 left!). This time of year is always feels like summer is over. It may as well be fall for us since football season is right around the corner. This is about the time that I start getting excited for football games. After 7 1/2 months of travel and leisure, it's always nice to be grounded for awhile...

Wasting time

I'm sitting in Detroit waiting to head to Seattle. Rian and I have recently gotten "Priority Passes" that enable us to utilize the club lounges in the airports. So, I'm hob-nobbing with the business elite. I look so official sitting here with my laptop and Starbucks coffee. Although, the jeans and sweatshirt don't quite fit in and god forbid anyone looks over my shoulder and realizes I'm perusing perezhilton.com. ha ha

I will admit, these lounges are pretty nice. Free internet, coffee and food that you can enjoy in a comfortable chair! I will definitely be back, now that our passes are finally in with our passports instead of sitting somewhere at home...

Well, better go so I don't miss my plane.

Triathlon

Rian competed in his first triathlon last Sunday. Our friend Brian asked him a few months ago if he would be interested in participating to help raise money for his PUNT Foundation. If you know my husband, he's always up for a challenge! This was the 5th annual Pittsford Triathlon and consisted of a 300m swim, 15 mile bike ride and 3.1 mile run. Rian was excited about it at first and then as the day arrived, he kept saying "what did I get myself into?"

We all drove up to Rochester on Sat and had a nice dinner at Black and Blue before settling in for a good night's sleep. Got up around 5:45 and headed to the local high school to get everyone's things set up in the transition area. Our "group" of competitors consisted of Rian, Brian, Ryan Neill (long snapper), Tiffany Neill (who was teaming up with her husband and doing the run portion) and Bobby April, the Special Teams coach. Everyone did very well and it was impressive to see them take this challenge head on. Of course, after reading the "official triathlon rules", almost everyone would've been disqualified for things such as mounting their bike in the transition area. Ok, ok, so maybe we didn't listen that well during the debriefing at the beginning...oops!



I enjoyed being a "support person" for Rian and took picture after picture to document this event for these guys. Who knows, maybe next year I can get involved. I say "involved" because I'm more apt to team up with another person and share the experience! ha ha I think I could train to run 3 miles but training to run AND bike AND swim is another story. But, never say never. Maybe that will be something I'll be ready for next year. After all, we did just buy bikes and yesterday, I rode 5 miles. I know it's only 5 miles but it's a start!

Here are a few more photos from the big day. I laughed when I saw the huge smile on Rian's face as he pulled in from his biking leg. I said "you looked so happy to be out there!" and his response in true-Rian fashion, was "I kept laughing and thinking what am I doing out here?"




He finished with a total time of 1:31:17. Not too shabby! His goal was 1:30:00 and he said if he'd had his stopwatch, he would've pushed himself to meet his goal. Oh well, something to shoot for next year. I'm so proud of him!

Little Cayman adventure...

Backtracking a few weeks, I wanted to share the "vacation from our vacation" that Rian and I took for our 7th anniversary weekend. On Easter Sunday, we decided it was time to book a trip to Little Cayman to check out the diving at the world famous Bloody Bay Wall. 5 days later, we were off.

We boarded a 15 passenger plane (which felt more like a small bus) and took off on the 35 min journey. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful so we had a smooth flight. We landed on a small airstrip (that used to be grass) and exited the plane. We just kind of stood around at the airport/post office/fire station and waited for them to pull our bags off the plane...no worries about "lost" luggage here!

It was about a 2 min drive to the Little Cayman Beach Resort. Along the way, we passed the one church on the island as well as the one little grocery store and one rental office for cars/mopeds. We got settled into our beautiful oceanfront room and took in the view. Right outside our door was a hammock, that Rian found his way into more than once!

We decided to rent mopeds and tour the 10 mile island (the road was 23 miles around). What a fun trip! The mopeds were a great time and driving on the left hand side was getting to be pretty normal for us after a month on Grand Cayman. It took us 4 hours total (we stopped a lot to take pictures and a swim to cool off). After getting back, we got cleaned up and went to dinner. The resort was all-inclusive with meals and diving. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was served buffet style and the table had several delicious "island specialty" dishes. We were not disappointed in the food!

On Sat morning, we headed out on the dive boat. 2 dives in the morning and 1 after lunch. We met a group of people who get together each year to dive in Little Cayman. They were all underwater photographers and we were lucky enough to get our picture taken off the wall. And, they also shared some beautiful photos they took during the dives.

We dove again on Sunday twice in the morning. We saw a 8-10 ft reef shark on one dive and I felt like I sucked down about 1/2 of my tank while watching him casually swim by. Very cool! I have to admit, Little Cayman diving is even better than Grand Cayman. The visibility was spectacular and the sheer wall (starts at 20 ft and goes down to 6000 ft) was absolutely amazing.

We spent Sunday afternoon out in the sun and took a short kayak trip across to Owen Island. On Monday morning, we decided to take a bike ride down to Mahogany Estates to feed the iguana. They were all over the side of the road when we went by on our mopeds but we didn't have any treats for them. This time, we brought bananas. They really enjoyed this and one even took a piece out of my hand!

All in all, it was by far one of my most favorite trips. We would never give up our beautiful Seven Mile Beach view in Grand Cayman but I hope we are able to return to visit Little Cayman each year so we can continue to enjoy the quaint and quiet life that exists on this "island that time has forgotten"...And, to explore the underwater paradise that awaits us there.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we are settled back into reality after a wonderful 5 weeks in paradise. We got into Newark last Fri to find out our flight to Buffalo was cancelled due to weather. So, we got a nice little romantic night at the Newark Courtyard Marriott! ha ha

Thankfully, we were able to get out the next morning and after 40 minutes in a holding pattern waiting for the fog to lift, we landed safely. We had a full day of running errands before we headed up to the Seneca/Niagara Casino for the Make-a-Wish gala. Rian and I have gotten involved with this wonderful foundation and this was the main fundraising event of the year. At the end of the night, they had raised $570,000!!! Wow! A very successful event and we had a really nice time.

After almost a week back in the states, I'm having to work hard to keep our Cayman trip in the front of my mind. It's slowly fading away...boo hoo.

The life of leisure continues...

I may or may not have had too many drinks last night and am feeling quite sluggish today. My friend Cheryl invited me to "ladies night" last night at a local pub where (a faux) Tom Jones was performing. I thought, why not? We had a bite to eat at my favorite Cayman haunt, Coconut Joe's, with our guys and then left them behind as we made our way down the road to The Triple Crown Pub. After a couple glasses of free champagne, Tom hit the stage. It was quite fun watching him strut his stuff up there in true "Vegas lounge" fashion. The ladies in the audience were swinging their panties around and throwing them onstage. Tom made quite a spectacle of picking them up and wiping the sweat off of his brow...A good time was had but I could've done without the headache I woke up with! I will say however, that a couple of Tom Jones' songs found their way to my ipod this afternoon. "Sexbomb" makes me want to get up and dance. ha ha

Settling in nicely...

We've had a nice first week filled with lots of activities. On Tues, my dad, Rian and I chartered a dive boat with our friend Stu and spent the afternoon diving. Did 1 deep dive (100 ft), 1 shallow dive (40-50 ft) and right after sunset, dove in for a night dive. Rian and I have done 3 dives in one day before but never all 3 in an afternoon! Needless to say, we were all pretty tired by the end of that day! All 3 dives were great but the highlight was the huge, free-swimming Green Moray Eel we saw on the 2nd dive. Very cool!

On Wed, we took a catamaran out to Stingray Sandbar for a 30 min encounter with the Stingray and then over to Rum Point, where we spent a couple hours relaxing on the beach. Rian and I have done the Stingray trip several times but didn't know they offered one with a stop at Rum Point. A neat way to do it when we have guests who have never seen either as Rum Point is about an hour and 1/2 drive around the island. Much more pleasant when you have the option of sipping a drink and sailing rather than worrying about which side of the road to drive on (left, down here!).

Thursday we spent the morning having coffee and visiting on the patio and then loaded up our snorkel stuff and went into Georgetown. Swam out at Eden Rock and snorkeled around. A great snorkel spot but when you are a diver, all you really want to do is dive down and swim around...not be confined to the surface! We had a fabulous dinner at The Wharf for our final night with my folks. Even better, Dad treated! A great way to end a nice week with the family...

A little bit of bad news however, our friends from Buffalo (who were supposed to be arriving here in 1 hour) never got out of Buffalo this morning due to the 2+ feet of snow they got yesterday/last night. Arrrghhhhhh. We got a call at 6:30am this morning saying their flight was cancelled and it doesn't look good for them to get out until Wed. Our next batch of company comes in on the 19th so hopefully they can get out on Wed or Thurs and still make it down for a week...Good ol' Buffalo...

Rough Life

As I sit here on the patio of our condo in Grand Cayman, I'm realizing how lucky and spoiled I am. This is my view as I sip my morning coffee...



Ahhhhh. The sounds of the waves hitting the beach is all I hear. Well, other than my typing fingers on the keyboard. This really is our special place and we love it! My mom and dad are here with us for a week (after spending a week here on their own). I will admit, it was a little fun to be able to kick them out of the master bedroom once we arrived...that is a first! We have friends coming down on the 2nd week and then Rian's mom and stepdad will be here for our 3rd week. We have a couple days in between company to relax with a little alone time. All in all, we will be here for 5 weeks! Now do you see why I think I'm so spoiled?

We spent yesterday lying on the beach getting some sun. Pretty relaxing and I got a good start with my tan. Actually, I got enough of a tan that I had tan lines showing with my strapless top I wore to dinner. I HATE the look of tan lines showing. A good problem to have, I suppose! I'd better wear my bandeau top today to even things out...

We are headed down to the brunch at the Westin today. It's a fabulous champagne brunch that has a spread of food like no other. Omelette stations, crepe stations, seafood buffet, etc. We went one other time and managed to sit there for 2 full hours. Needless to say, we had too much to drink and eat. The perfect definition of gluttony.

That's about it for now. I will keep things updated as we continue to enjoy our time in paradise...

Not bad at all!

Not to toot my own horn, but I'd say I did pretty well on my Oscar choices. I only missed one on the major categories but who saw Tilda Swinton's win coming? She did a great job in "Michael Clayton" but no one was buzzing about her taking home the award. Of course, unless I have a strong opinion to the contrary, I love a good surprise winner. Case in point, I felt Marion Cotillard deserved the Oscar for Best Actress and was tired of hearing all the talk about Julie Christie. When Marion's name was called on Sunday night, I was so excited for her. She was so graceful and humble about her win that you couldn't help but be happy for her. And, I will admit, I had a bit of smugness in me the next day when everyone was talking about her being the surprise win of the night...I called that one all along!

I can't be too proud though because I was beat in our Oscar contest by a guess. Rian takes the ribbon by blindly choosing "A Golden Compass" for visual effects. We didn't even see the movie! But, I will accept my defeat and move on. After all, if I wouldn't have changed my choice for Art Direction (from Sweeney Todd to Atonement)at the last minute, I would've at least tied him. I did however, also change my choice for Costume Design to "Elizabeth" after watching that film...and, it won so therefore paid off!

Here are all of my correct choices for this year's Oscars:

Best Picture: "No Country for Old Men"
Best Director: Joel & Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"
Best Actor: Daniel-Day Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"
Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"
Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"
Adapted Screenplay: "No Country for Old Men"
Original Screenplay: "Juno"
Original Score: "Atonement"
Costume: "Elizabeth"
Makeup: "La Vie en Rose"
Animated Feature: "Ratatouille"

Ok, I know that 11 out of 24 doesn't sound so great but when the others are mostly "guess" categories, I'd say I at least deserve a little kudos.

All in all, it was a good show and the 2 hour arrival special was enjoyable as usual. Gary Busey interrupting Jennifer Garner's interview was great and when he had no clue who she was, that was even better. Gotta love that!

I will say that the most entertaining part of the night was the last few minutes of the broadcast when Channel 7 accidentally broke into the feed with audio and you could clearly hear them talking. Right after the announcement of the Best Picture, you heard "I don't believe in this Oscar bulls**t but this is the best movie of the year." Someone says "What's it about?", "A guy with no expression keeps blowing up everything." ha ha. Great to hear the uncensored opinions of the news broadcasters waiting for their go ahead to do the news...

I will stop back by later this week with my Best/Worst Dressed list...

Ladies and Gentleman...

The countdown is at 7 hours...Red Carpet arrival, here we come! Oh, how I love Oscar Sunday. Last year I was on a family vacation in Maui so we enjoyed the day in the sun and then cranked up the BBQ and had a nice dinner in while watching the show. The broadcast was delayed there so it took all my strength not to cheat and check the winners on the computer. This year, I'm at home. It's 29 degrees outside and the ground is covered with snow. A perfect day to cuddle up with a blanket and enjoy the hype.

We are down to one last movie, "In the Valley of Elah" which we are just about to watch. Then, I need to sit down and finalize my picks. It was a great crop of movies this year and will be interesting to see who takes home the Oscar for Best Picture. I will be even more surprised to see who wins Original/Adapted Screenplay since I am still struggling with my own choice.

For those other movie lovers out there, enjoy this "Super Bowl of the movie world" and I'm sure I'll have something to say later this week regarding the winners and fashion choices. Ah, if only I could figure out a way to be a seat filler, I would die happy...

Oscar week is upon us!!

It's Oscar week! yay! Time for me to write my predictions (and opinions) about the main categories...


Best Picture: "No Country for Old Men" Although the other movies in this category were enjoyable, my personal opionion is that this movie should take the award. It was completely disturbing and (spoiler alert) doesn't have that "feel good" ending that I so hate in movies. Come on people, occasionally the boy shouldn't get the girl and things don't turn out all hearts and flowers!


Best Director: Hmmmm. This one really is hard for me. Since I really have no idea how the Academy decides what makes a "best director", I am going to go with "No Country" solely because I think Best Director and Best Picture should go hand in hand. If we feel a movie deserves Best Picture, then the Director certainly did his job!


Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis deserves this Oscar. His portrayal of a money-hungry oil man made you both love and hate him.


Best Actress: I'm going away from the buzz and giving the award to Marion Cotillard. I think she did a fabulous job in "La Vie en Rose". I think Julie Christie's role was good but I feel Marion had to stretch farther to portray her character. She was a believable quirky Edith Piaf and well deserving of this Oscar.


Animated Film Feature: "Ratatouille" Not much to say about it except that as an adult, I found myself completely entertained with this movie.


Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem. He definitely deserves this award. Javier's role outshined everyone else in this category.


Best Supporting Actress: I'm completely going to take a guess because all of the nominees seem pretty even to me. So, I will choose Cate Blanchett...solely because she won the Globe. Lame, I know but give me a break, some of these are really hard!


Original Screenplay: This is another hard one since all of these stories are so different. I need more time to mull this over.


Adapted Screenplay: All of these were good movies! Can "Atonement" take the Oscar after winning the Golden Globe? I have no idea. I need more time to think about this one.


Art Direction: "Sweeney Todd" gets my award. This movie really makes you feel like you are watching a Broadway production.


Cinematography: "Diving Bell and the Butterfly" If this category is chosen solely on making lighting and camera choices, I choose "Diving Bell." Watching this movie placed me the hospital bed feeling and seeing what Mr. Bauby felt and saw. I thought the camera angles played a huge part in the feel of the film.


Costume Design: "Atonement" is my pick...but, I won't be surprised if "Elizabeth" wins because I haven't seen it and can't make an educated guess on whether it should win. But, I still have 6 days left to fit it in!


Makeup: I'm giving the award to "La Vie en Rose." As the main character ages, the makeup transforms the young and beautiful Marion Cotillard into an older, sickly Edith Piaf. And let's face it folks, can they honestly give an Oscar to "Norbit"?????????


Film Editing: Come on, do you think I really have the knowledge to know the hard work that goes into editing a movie??? I pick "Into the Wild" because that story took place over 2 years yet the editing made it very fluid and easy to follow. I might be way off track but who cares...that's my pick.


Original Score: Total guess..."Atonement"


Sound Editing: Another blind pick..."There Will be Blood"


Sound Mixing: Blind pick again..."No Country for Old Men" Sorry sound people, I have NO idea how hard your job is or even if I could tell if you made mistakes...


Visual Effects: "Transformers" To me, this movie was surprisingly enjoyable. To be honest, I didn't really want to see this movie but did because of its nominations. I found myself glued to the screen the entire 2 + hours. The visual effects were fantastic! As much as I liked the "Pirates of the Caribbean", my Oscar goes to this film.


Alright, there is my list. We didn't complete the other categories so I my picks would be completely based on the title. We saw more movies this year than ever and I'm expecting a great Sunday night....Bring on the Oscars!!

Movies, Movies, Movies!!

Well, Oscar season is in full swing at the Lindell house. We are avid movie-goers and each year we try to see as many Oscar nominated movies as we can (prior to the big day!). I will admit, it sometimes gets a little frustrating considering the HUGE number of "limited release" movies that are nominated. Some are only in theatres in NYC/LA while others are released on DVD after the Oscars air. So, we have our fair share of searching for those little artsy theaters around the Buffalo area in order to complete our quest. This year, we've been pleasantly surprised at the availability of the nominated movies. Here is our list (as of today) that we've seen:

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sweeney Todd
Eastern Promises
Away From Her
La Vie en Rose
The Savages
Ratatouille
Surf's Up
Charlie Wilson's War
Into the Wild
I'm Not There
American Gangster
Lars and the Real Girl
Across the Universe
Pirate's of the Caribbean: At World's End
The Bourne Ultimatum


Ok, so I admit, there are a couple of older ones that we saw last spring/summer but most of them have been seen over the past 2 months. We do get a good head's start after the Golden Globe nominations come out since a lot of those cross over into the Oscars. It's a fun endeavor each year because we have a lot of time on our hands and love the weekday afternoon empty theaters. Also, it's great because there are several movies each year that we see because of their nomination that we probably would've just skipped by on the title alone. You definitely get away from the usual "blockbuster" types...sort of like our own "book club" but with movies. Maybe we should start having a pow-wow in a coffee house at the conclusion of each film. :-)

We have a few more to see:

In the Valley of Elah
Assassination of Jesse James
Gone Baby Gone
The Golden Compass
Elizabeth
The Kite Runner
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Other than that, we need to hear the nominated songs (will probably just listen to them instead of watching the movie) and there are 2 documentary features that are available on DVD:

Sicko
No End in Sight

Unfortunately, the Foreign Language Film, Short Film-animated, Short Film-live and Documentary-short aren't available for us lay-people to see. Oh well, those are what make our contest (to see who picks the most winners) more fun as neither of us have a clue who should win in those categories...it's a blind pick.

Well, that's about it for my movie post. I've gone on long enough. Hopefully there are other movie lovers out there who can read this and not think I'm crazy...Now I just have to hope this writer's strike ends soon so the Oscars will go on!!

If you don't feel the burn....

Oh my goodness...I had my first full workout pilates class yesterday and I'm feeling it today! My core and triceps are the worst. I've been doing so much walking and elliptical the past few months that my leg muscles are decently strong right now so they weren't as affected. But, ouch, I felt every other muscle in my body as I got out of bed this morning. It will be interesting to see how I feel for tomorrow's class.

Small (rather large, actually) Victories

Yes! Today I went to buy some new jeans and ended up with 4 pairs of......are you ready for it???......size 28!!!!! I used to wear 32 and occasionally had to go to a men's 33. Holy cow, a 28! A little back story, about 5 months ago, I joined Jenny Craig. After carrying about 25 extra lbs for the past 7 years, I decided it was time to get rid of it. I've tried Weight Watchers in the past, losing 16 lbs. Then, gained back 10. That was 4 years ago. I decided to try Jenny Craig so there wasn't quite so much "wiggle" room. I needed pre-packaged foods so when I was finished eating, that was it. No "just one more spoonful won't hurt" or taste-testing while cooking. Anyway, fast forward 5 months and I've now lost 22 lbs and several inches and feel GREAT! I work out 4-5 times/week and today was my first Pilates class. They use the machines, which make the moves really smooth and comfortable, well as comfortable as they can be. So much better than doing squats, etc on your own. The "reformer" really is a godsend.

Ok, ok, I'm getting off topic. So, my original goal was 140 and then when I hit that, I lowered it to 135. Once I hit that, I felt so good that I decided 130 was reachable. I'm at 133.7 right now so only 4 lbs away. That will be a 25 lb weight loss. Why oh why have I been such a slug for so many years?? Since I've lost and re-gained and now lost again, I never want to go back. Hopefully that will be all the inspiration I need to eat healthy (with occasional splurges) and stay active...it feels so much better!

I will be sure to keep updating as my twice weekly Pilates class continues. The cardio makes me feel great and full of energy but now I need to tone and add strength. I really never knew my body could feel this good...amazing.

Those darn pets!

My cat, Cole, gave me quite a scare on Monday morning. I heard him fall down an entire set of stairs and found him at the bottom with his head tilted and his eyes moving back and forth very quickly. He looked like he was blind. I thought for sure he had a stroke. I put him in his carrier and almost immediately he lost control of his bowel and bladder. I was sure he was dying. I was completely bawling as I took him into the vet and it turns out he had a "vestibular incident" which is basically vertigo in animals. He spent the night at the hospital and had some tests run. He was a lot better the next day and got to come home. Evidently, it comes and goes quickly and doesn't usually happen twice in the same animal. I hope not. It made me realize I'm not ready to lose him. He's been around longer than my husband! I feel like a freak being so upset but I dearly love my pets. If nothing else, it's made me give him a little more attention and enjoy those extra moments because you never know when they won't be there anymore...