And the winner is....

The presenter takes a dramatic pause, while I cross my fingers and close my eyes hoping that maybe just maybe the next words out of his mouth will be the movie I chose to be the winner. Or not.

Sunday night was the 84th Annual Academy Awards (like you needed me to remind you). And I must say I was a little happy at times, but mostly shocked.  Let's just say that out of the 24 categories I correctly predicted 3.  That's pretty bad.  Last year I had 17.  Sad face.

I know you are seeing pictures, articles and Oscar hype everywhere, but I know you are just dying to hear what I have to say about this grand event.

I said you are DYING to hear what I have to say....

That's better.  I have appropriately named this...

My top three happy and sad moments:

My happy moments:

1) Octavia Spencer winning Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Minnie Jackson.  If you have not seen The Help you need to put that on your must see list right now.  Right. NOW.

I'll wait while you write that down. 


Ok, moving on...


2) I enjoyed Billy Chrystal as a host, much more than James Franco and Anne Hathaway's sad attempt last year. 

3) Critiquing the fashion of the red carpet.  What else can you expect when you have a small gathering of girl friends.  And I must say the guys in the group did a fine job....making conversation amongst themselves and leaving us to our important business.  :)

My sad moments

1) Best picture going to The Artist.  Now I don't have much to say about the movie, it's still on my need to see list, but I was totally rooting for The Help.  It is so good!  The acting is brilliant, the script is brilliant, the costumes are, you guessed it, brilliant! It should have won.  I demand a re-vote.

2) I don't understand how this: 

beat this:

for Best Make-up.  Huh??  and I'm not saying this because I'm a Harry fan (I haven't jumped on that bandwagon); I'm saying this because it seems that creating the characters of Harry Potter is a little more intense than making Meryl Streep look like Margaret Thatcher. 

Just saying.

3) Transformers should have gotten a little pat on the back for something!  Hello!!!  You want to see visual effects?  How about when giant robots fighting each other magically and suddenly transform into cars midair.  Come on, how cool is that!?  (Yes, I am on the "in love with Transformers" bandwagon.)

There you have it.  Now your Oscar coverage is complete. 

So were you shocked? or spot on with your predictions?  I need to know I'm not alone! 

Thanks. 

Now go watch The Help.

My car likes to pretend it is an SUV....

but it's not.

What I drive:

A Toyota Celica

What my car thinks it is:

Some sort of SUV type car that has 4 wheel drive.

I love my little car.  We had had some great times together.  Some of those times included being stuck in the snow.  See how low it is to the ground? So imagine, if you will, when it snows a good 5 inches, and then add the lovely piles the plows make.  

My car sees those piles and says, 

"Watch this, Jenny. I'm going to go right through that pile!"

"VVVRRROOOOMMMM!  VVRRoooommm.....wrroom....

um I'm stuck." 

Car remember, you're not an SUV. 

"Oh, yeah....oops"

Last night on the way home it started snowing.  Big ginormous flakes.  It was actually.....kinda pretty, but you didn't hear that from me.  Only once did my car try to convince me it was an SUV on the way home.  Thankfully there wasn't enough snow on the ground to cause problems, but she was ready to pave the way for the other cars.  

Who knew Celica's could be so delusional.  ;)

Odds and Ends

Hello there friends!  I was going through my phone and found a couple of pictures that you need to see.

Remember my story about my shovel and umbrella?  Here is a picture of my sad broken free umbrella.  sniff...sniff. RIP umbrella...ella...ella.

Not sure if you can see, but trust me it is wabber jawed and broken. :(

When I came home from Florida, I went to the Professional Bull Riders competition downtown.  Why did I go?? One word. Cowboys.  Ahhhh  it was wonderful.

It was really cool.  It takes a special kind of person to say, "When I grow up, I want to ride a bull, possibly get stepped on, and most likely thrown off."  My neck hurt just watching them.

Speaking of Florida.....

On my way to Sanibel Island...where I got my picture taken for a magazine.  No really I did.  I always knew I would be a model.  I was modeling the Sanibel Stoop.  Basically I'm bending over looking for shells. My Floridians know what I'm talking about. :) And boy can you tell I don't live there!  I'm just a little on the bright white side.  Ha ha ha. 

Knitting Pro

Ok, maybe not quite a pro, but I did finish my scarf!

Isn't it beautiful! It's not perfect, but it's not half bad either.  

Unfortunately, I'm not sure where to go from here.  Is there another easy project I can do to get more experience with different uh knits stitches you know...techniques? 

Any knitters out there, some advice would be awesome right about now. 

I'm almost tempted to try this project...

using this yarn....

It looks a little complicated and I don't really understand half of what they say.  I need a knitting mentor or translator. I'm serious!!! It is a different language or a secret code.  

What have I gotten myself into?

I survived!!!!

I think I will like tennis.  I wasn't amazing or anything, but I managed to hit the ball a few times and not completely embarrass myself.  Here I am with my friend Hannah (hi, Hannah!) and our two instructors. We had an hour lesson and went over some basic swings.  I now know how to properly backhand and um front ways front hand forehand swing.  (I'm still working on the lingo.)

My fun moments:

1. After missing the ball and seeing my frustration, the one instructor said "Don't worry your swing was almost good." LOL!
2. I hit the ball into the light fixture....an easy15-20 feet high.  oops.
3. I hit the ball into the next court...where people were playing an actual game.
4. I did one of these numbers...just not with two rackets, I don't know why he has two rackets.

 Do you see how the ball would be out if he just let it go....yeah me too. What can I say, I felt like I needed to hit everything.

So I go back next week for lesson 2 of 2 and then maybe I'll sign up for some more.  I think I need to marry a rich guy if I want to keep this up.  Tennis was meant to play outdoors (for free), I think I feel another bout of Belongitis Southernexia coming on.  When I was in Florida there were tennis courts in the neighborhood just waiting to be used.

Ok I feel better.

So there is my mini-adventure with tennis.  I don't feel that I can cross it off my bucket list yet.  Maybe after a few more lessons.