Oscar thoughts

How cool that we're on the West Coast so we can enjoy the Oscars at 5:30 and not have to fall asleep waiting for them to be over.

I hate the pre-show. Everyone just seems so overly fake about everything. We skipped most of it.

Nicole Kidman's face looks totally frozen and plastic and scary looking. Way too much botox.

Jack Nicholson gets more bizarre every year. The shaved head, the sunglasses indoors....yeah, he's weird all right.

Good for Alan Arkin. I didn't see it, but I heard Eddie Murphy got really pissed that he didn't win and stormed out of the theater. Or maybe he just wanted to leave early. Whatever, he didn't stay for the rest and I think that's pretty rude either way.

Poor Peter O'Toole. The man looked like death warmed over, and I think his last chance of getting an Oscar before he's gone went by the wayside.

Forest Whitaker's eyelid is seriously creepy. Dude, have that fixed.

Ellen Degeneres was funny but seemed really subdued. I think she was nervous, but I still liked her.

Al Gore got big since his election. Tipper too. I think part of their global warming campaign consists of clearing every plate put in front of them. Good for him though for being there and being so personable. Too bad he couldn't show that side a few years ago.

Meryl Streep obviously goes for comfort over style. I still love her.

Gwyneth Paltrow looked fabulous. Reese Witherspoon too. Great dresses on both of them. Kirsten Dunst however looked like she hadn't washed her hair in three days. Kelsey and I both laughed at the look Toby Maguire shot her when she elbowed him away from the microphone.

Where was Brad Pitt? So disappointed he wasn't there.

Kelsey thinks Leo DiCaprio looks old...like in his 40s old. She was amazed to discover he's only 33. I think he looked and sounded very poised.

Yay for Martin Scorsese....I was happy he finally got his Oscar.

What the hell is wrong with George Lucas's neck?

I don't think little Jaden Christopher yada yada yada Smith can read. Love Will Smith, he looked great. Jada Pinkett Smith looks robotic.

I was happy for Jennifer Hudson, but Kelsey doesn't think it's fair that somebody gets an Oscar for their very first acting role.....says she hasn't earned it yet. I did feel bad for her doing the musical part though when her right boob kept threatening to escape. It made me very uncomfortable to watch her.

All in all, not bad...not that exciting, not horrible either. No terribly stand out moments. The best line of all the winners goes to Melissa Ethridge, who said the next morning on Good Morning America that the Oscar would be the only naked man to EVER be in her bedroom.

Gaming

Once in a while, we need a little break from the moving. (maybe it's not such a good thing to have so long to move...especially when your entire family is made up of procrastinators)

So, we got the Wii the other day (courtesy of Nintendo and a special offer to Midway employees). Jay also went and got Zelda to play on the Wii and Crackdown to play on the XBox 360. So now we officially have 4 game systems set up. Oh, the wires.....the wires.

Anyways, the Wii is pretty fun, 'cause it came with Wii sports and we've all been having fun bowling and playing tennis, and testing our "fitness age". I don't want to mention what my fitness age is, because I think Nintendo is smoking crack. (it's freakin' 68!!!) Obviously, I have some work to do on my reflexive gaming moves. Kelsey started out in her 50's but is down in her 20's now. Jason started out not far from his real age, so good for him. Too bad he has osteoporosis. (or so the lady at the fitness fair at his work told him the other day) I think he's just trying to get out of beagle-proofing the backyard by using brittle bones as an excuse. What a whiner.

***okay, really...that diagnosis was a little surprising and scary, so he's going to get a follow up by somebody who wasn't trying to push their alternative medicine services on scared, brittle boned people.****

The bathroom contractor was here today, and we ordered us a new tub. If all goes well, the bathroom should be done by end of March to mid-April. Mostly depends on us, as we're doing a lot of the work ourselves to save $$$. I can't wait.

Yay! Officially moved in!

It's been a busy few days, and we just got Beaglehaus back up and running so I can finally update everyone on the move.

The movers came bright and early 9am Friday, and worked pretty steadily through until 5pm. We couldn't bring the green couch from my old house, and we couldn't bring Jason's maroon chair, because we couldn't get either one of them up the stairs to the loft where we had the "lofty" goal (hehe) of placing them. So they went back to the old house. We were all in bed by 7:30 Friday night, utterly exhausted.

Comcast came right at 8am on Saturday (we had one of those sometime between 8 and 12 appointments). I had a touch of panic when the guy said he wasn't going to be installing any outlets, it wasn't on his work order. I told him I made it very clear when I set up the appointment that we needed three outlets installed, because there is basically no cable set up in the house. He made some calls and cancelled all his morning appointments, and he was at work from 8am until after 1 pm, even after calling in some reinforcement. Up on the roof, dropping lines, drilling through walls, and we were set up with our triple play :-) Cable, phone, internet all courtesy of the Comcast monopoly.

We don't have everything moved yet, but we're working on it a little every day. It's mostly books anyway, so it won't take that long to pack up. The NY professor is taking the house, starting April 1, so we still have all of March to get stuff out. The landlords will come over March 18 to do the walk through and start some painting, so our goal is to have most of the stuff moved out by then.

Whew....long post. I'll keep updating later.

Last night at the old house

Just finished taking the beds apart, so things will go faster with the movers tomorrow. They will be here at 9 am to start, and they've got 4-6 hours scheduled. I think that should be plenty of time, since we live so close and we're basically just having them move furniture. Kelsey and I moved all the kitchen stuff today, which fit a little better than I thought it would actually.

Things we need:
Microwave
Chest freezer
Throw/Area rugs

Things we have way too much of:
Furniture
Glasses
Coffee mugs
Books and bookcases
Knick-knacks
Spices
Washers (1 too many)
Computers and computer parts
Board games with missing pieces
Curtains/various window treatments
Crockpots
Dogs

Tonight we sleep good - tomorrow we work hard. It would have been awesome if we could have bought the house we're renting, then we wouldn't have had to move at all :-) Oh well - we'll miss this place but we're excited to sleep in the new house tomorrow. I'll post pictures as we get organized.

NY visitor

The professor from NYC came today to look at the house. We think it went pretty well. He said he had been looking at quite a few, and had some more to look at yet, but he said he really liked the place, and we were probably in the top 2 of what he had looked at so far. We should know one way or the other sometime Tuesday, so we'll still cross our fingers until then.

We've all been working so hard this past week. Jason has one gate almost finished, and he's going to start working on the second one tomorrow. Hopefully we'll have them done before we move in officially on Friday. We tried to go meet the neighbors today and ask about putting in some green wire fencing along the property line, but they weren't home. Kelsey and I painted the remaining two walls in her room, and we'll finish the second coats tomorrow. I bought the pot rack for behind the stove, so I'm hoping to put that up tomorrow too. That should save us a lot of valuable cabinet space, if we can keep the pots on the wall. We still have to find a small microwave somewhere, and would like to pick up a used chest freezer for downstairs if we can find one on craigslist. We're all exhausted, and I can't wait until we're all moved in and settled. At least the weather has been really nice lately. I sure hope it won't be raining on Friday.

Moving update

We got the keys and we've been busy moving stuff back and forth between houses. It's nice that we don't have to move out of the rental right away so we can take our time moving. The furniture gets moved next Friday, and the goal is to have most of the other stuff moved by then.

This past weekend Kelsey and her friends were busy painting her room while Jay and I took inventory and made a trip to Lowes. We were there over three hours, trying to make sure we got everything we needed so we wouldn't have to go back. Of course, we had to go back the next day to get outside wood screws for the gate that Jason is building for beagle containment. But now I think we're set.

The guy from New York is coming this week to look at the house and decide if he wants to take over the rental. Please please please please please please please please please. oh, and please.