... and the Oscar goes too

Figures the year I decide to see all the movies nominated for best picture, they all left me a bit "grouchy". All of them were very well acted, I just didn't like them.

We saw Michael Clayton over the weekend, and on the good side I only had to shut my eyes for about 30 seconds of the movie, and George was good, but the ending of the movie fell flat.

So even though VH1 is picking No Country for Old Men as the winner, I think I am going with the popcorn boy and picking There Will Be Blood- it was definitely an epic movie, unfortunately the main character was not very likable.

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Today we have guest frog for my Earth Hour segment:

It is my nephew Ian, who is soon going to be four years old. The reason he gets to be a guest frog, is because he and his dad went to pick up trash at the park where he plays, and he was really excited about it, and mentions it when they pass the park. So next time you go on a walk or to the park, take a bag and pick up the trash you come along.

Thanks Linda for the idea and the pictures!

Photo Hunt:Free

Michael has been feeling a little nestolgic for home these days, and asked me if I think we will ever move back to the East Coast. Then we talk about all the wonderful things our coast has to offer like all these FREE beautiful landscapes that I can admire and Michael can hike and bike to his hearts content.

On the way up to the top of Mount Witney:Highest peek in the contential United States that just happens to be in California-taken by Michael (Sept '07) since I could never survive this hike!

The Grand Cayon: Just one state away and a future blog story of why I owe Michael a better hike at this location.

Owens Valley on the way to Death Valley, if you time the visit right you get to see beautiful wildflowers on the trip to Death Valley



And my favorite place for the FREE peace and tranquility of beautiful scenery: Yosemite Valley, which is also in California.

...And this blog wouldn't be complete without Kermie in his green surroundings. Michael and I walked down town for breakfast this morning, we had an outside spot, and all of a sudden Michael is up talking to this bike dude. Well it seemed the bike dude had just cleaned out his pockets and emptied the unwanted contents on the street. Michael politely reminded him that he lived in this town, and to please keep it clean- needless to say the bike dude picked up the trash and threw it away. For the Earth Hour site click here.

I know there are a couple of spelling mistakes, sorry about this, the blogger spell checker is still not working :(

Our Busy Cat

Just thought this was a cute picture of our cat Sam, relaxing on the bed while playing on the internet.

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Don't frog-get to be green this weekend :), turn the lights off when you leave a room. Earth Hour is just 43 days away!

Happy Day (part one)

Hi all

Normally I have been posting my Kermit picture at the end of my blogs, but I did a You-Tube Clip for the very first time today, and it would get erased every time I tried to upload "Kermie"

Even Kermie is giving some lovin' today- and of course your Earth Hour tip is obvious today-candles instead of lights at dinner tonight!

Don't forget to read below too!

Wordless Wednesday

Do you know what this is?

A Tyuonyi (Qu-weh-nee)was once two stories tall with over 400 rooms, most of which were used for storing food. Picture taken in Bandelier National Park, New Mexico, Dec 2007.


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Earth Hour fact of the day


If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.(more info on light bulbs click here)

This & That

This weekend we saw our 4th best movie picture; No Country for Old Men. I spent about a fourth of the movie with my eyes closed basically due to Javier Bardem and how evil he was.

So far Javier (left) is my pick for best supporting actor (Suzie I came up with this pick all by myself-with no help from PB). However I can't recommend the movie, even though all the actors were great- it was just too violent and had a bad ending.

This week I recieved two awards:

Thanks you Nancy for my Rated E for Excellence award, she gave me this award for making her smile and laugh- Hopefully I can live up to her impression of me. I would like to pass this award to a new blog I have been reading Sandi's Blog Holding Patterns for her interesting take on life.

And also thanks to Michelle for the "You make my day" award, I would like to pass that on to Nancy, since I love her joy of life, and her comments.

...and for my green section for preparing for Earth Day, I walked instead of driving to church today. For more information about Earth Hour click here.

Photo Hunt: Heavy

Although the more astute reader of my blog might of notice the absense of Target Thursday (I have gained 10 lbs of the 34lbs I lost), I am not going with my first thought of posting a picture of me.

Also , before looking at the picture, I want it duly noted it is not the people in the picture I am using for my Heavy reference :) It is the wooden bar from our wedding. As I blogged before my reception was in my parents back yard, and dad was very busy getting the yard groomed, and making all the center pieces (see corner of the bar). He also had to make the bar itself out of HEAVY wood .

My Uncle Dale (my dad's brother) was my bartender. I had bought only beer and wine and soda, however at the end of the night there were other drinks on the bar??? Not sure how that happened.

Any way, after the wedding, Michael and I kept the bar in our "game room/basement", however when we moved to California we decided not to bring it with us. So my dad said just bring it home and put it in his shop. So we brought it to my parents house, and Michael and I proceeded to carry the bar about 150 yards (not feet) to his shop.

Did I mention the bar was HEAVY??? Well Michael was walking backwards (his regular position of how we used to move things together) and I thought he was navigating, since I could not see over the bar (see Michael this was totally not my fault!). Well we must of forgotten about the bench in the side yard - which you guessed it Michael tumbled over. And the HEAVY bar landed on top of him.

His body was twisted, and he did not look good at all. Unfortunately this was before I had become very good at being calm in emergencies. (I have had to call 911 at school 3 times, and perform the Hymlic manuever). So of course I just left him there and ran into the house to get my mother (a registered nurse at the time).

Amazingly Michael was fine - we have since learned not to move HEAVY objects together. (See Michael a learning experience!)

Well although it is not a great picture of the bar- Here it is:

* I am sorry for any spelling mistakes, anyone know why spell check isn't working on blogger lately?

** I have decided to post a picture of my green friend every time I post until Earth Hour to remind people to conserve.

Earth Hour

Hi All,

I was just over at Carver's Site, and she posted about Earth Hour. It started in Syndey and all the buisnesses and residents joined in for an hour to turn off their lights- even the Opera House and Mc Donalds participated. They saved an amazing amount of energy.

There is going to be an Earh Hour 2008 in March, to make your committment and to find out more about Earth Hour please click here. (this is the link to resigter, hit "about" once in the web site to see clip)

Although "It isn't Easy Being Green" we all need to try to do our part- sometimes we think what can one person do? But watch the video and it is amazing what "one person's" idea did in the city of Sydney.

So please join Carver and myself for Earth Hour- resigter today!

Wordless Wednesday

Just Another Reason Why He's Cool Uncle Michael

Wheelies on the Car Port :)

Here's why I Need to get back to Menu Planning

Does this happen to anyone else???

Lucky for the Chinese New Year, I can begin anew tomorrow!

...And the winner is???

Although not a great picture, here I am at the Arc Light in Holloywood. It is a very Hollywood movie theater. It has a cafe in the lobby, a bar upstairs, your seats are assigned. The big feature is the dome (which you kind of can see top left of picture), which is acustically correct and many premires are shown there.

One of my friends host a annual Oscar party, I went for the first time last year, we put $20 in and try to pick the winners. I did not do well, so this year I wanted to make sure I have at least seen the five pictures nominated for best picture.

So far I have seen, There Will be Blood, Juno, and Attonement. So far I wouldn't pick any of them for Best Picture, however the popcorn boy told me he had seen them all and he would pick There Will be Blood.

Photo Hunt: Narrow

Yes in the super-size era, things have gotten big. We had my husband's grandfathers' kitchen table in our house for a while, and it was barely big enough to hold our microwave.

When we were in New Mexico for Christmas, we went to Bandelier State Park, where it had some Aztec ruins. And they had very NARROW doors leading to their living areas.

On the right I am using Michael as scale to show how NARROW the doorway is. (Suz if you were there we would of used you- you are the best scale there is!)

The Results

Hi All,

Thanks for playing the reverse meme, I loved all the creative responses, however nepotism is alive and well: since I am declaring my sister-in-law Linda the winner! She got them all correct!

1. How did Hubby and I meet?

This one was way too easy for everyone! Although I did like how the story went- so yes it was Skydiving- and it was lust at first site :) well at least for me, I had to clunck Michael over the head to notice me!

2. Take a stab at my middle name:

Mary( Linda was correct with the reason that my mother wanted all her girls to have Mary in their name), although Marie is my confirmation name (Michelle got that one) My mom's name is Anna (Carver's guess)

3. Do I have any siblings? How many?

1 sister Marybeth: and Nancy was correct I do admire her hair

4. What's one of my favorite things to do? Have spa days with my friends

5. What's my favorite kind of music? 70's, christmas and country

6. Am I shy or outgoing? Shy, I was voted shyest of my senior class

7. Am I a rebel or a rule follower? A definite rule follower, but am not afraid to fight for something I believe in.

8. Special talents? besides eating a jar of peanut butter in one sitting,it would have to be my math ablity. (I was just born with it)

9. If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is the one thing I would bring?

Michael, he is like my personal MacGyver. When ever we go kyaking, I only pretend to paddle, he is the one who actually has his paddle in the water.

Thanks again for playing along