Proceeding with caution

So, I'm starting season 3 of The Shield and I have to say, with each episode I have to re-evaluate whether or not I have the strength to finish this series. Each new episode shocks me more than the last and I'm really not certain how I'm going to make it to season 7. (Mom, this show is not for you.)

The only things keeping me holding on are the awesomeness of my favorite, Lem, and the amazingness of Walton Goggins' performance, which knocks my socks clean off and into the washer.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, carry on.

Stay classy!

Spotted in the area:

I cannot begin to imagine what this establishment purveys.

FYI...

Just to let you know, oh my goodness, The Shield is SO good! How did I waste the last eight years not watching this show?

Went to church, got beat up by a two-year-old...

Here's how it went down. I was sitting in the pew, holding Julsie in my lap, and she threw her head back in a fit of joy or something and smacked my lip into my teeth. Oh, my low pain threshold! I turned to Jen and asked, "Am I bleeding?" and her reply was, "What? Oh! Yes! Ick!" or something along those lines. Melis was like, "Ooh, yeah" as in "Ooh, yeah, you just got walloped by a toddler. Julia's reply was, "You have a boo boo."

Thanks, pumpkin.

Tonight it begins...

The next 29 items in my Netflix queue are the DVDs for seven seasons of The Shield.

Yeah, that’s right, seven seasons. I’ll see you on the other side.

All aboard!

I was transferring my photos to the computer when I came across this shot and realized I hadn’t written about my stagecoach ride across the state last week.

So, you all know how my wretched deathtrap of a car broke down in Philly last week. So, after birthday/Oscar weekend, I caught I ride back with Linda, Giz, and Kris so I could pick up my car.

Picture it: I was sitting in the back seat behind Linda, and Kris was behind Giz. The sun was beating down pretty hard on me and Linda. I was trying to snooze and had rigged up my sweater in the back seat to shield me from the sun, but to little avail. Then Linda had a flash of brilliance. Linda keeps a sheet in the car as a blanket/sunshield and she decided to hang up her sheet along the side of the car and create a sunshade for us both. But instead of telling anyone her idea, she just decided to put it in motion.

She lowered her window a bit and fed a little of the sheet out, but the wind created by a car speeding down the Turnpike is enough to make mincemeat of even the sturdiest bed linens. A several feet of sheet flew out and up like a kite as Linda held on to the remaining end of the sheet. Kris and I heard Giz shriek in astonishment and we snapped awake in time to see a billow of white protrude from the passenger’s side window. The people in the car in the next lane must have thought we were deranged. Linda scrambled to pull the sheet back in and when the four of us stopped laughing hysterically, we were able to create a serviceable sunshade:


From the outside, it must have looked like a stagecoach, but from the inside it was wonderfully shady.

A bit of Irish trivia

The correct response to "Top of the morning to you" is: "And the rest of the day to yourself."

I hope you'll have a chance to use it today.

Happy St. P's Day. Don't get too blitzed on green beer.

OK Go, once again, blows my mind.

So, you know how amazing OK Go's video for Here It Goes Again is? You know, on the treadmills?

Well, they've created something amazing-er. Behold, the video for This Too Shall Pass. I think I might love those chaps.

Now go outside, turn around three times, and spit.

So, tonight I put away my scarves, gloves, hats, electric blanket, and space heater. Do you think I've tempted the wrath of whatever from high atop the thing?*

*TM Toby Ziegler

Oscar round-up: who needs to burn that dress, who needs to carry on just so, and who needs to eat a sandwich.

I was going to write about this earlier in the week, but I have come down with a case of something or other. My head simultaneously feels heavy as lead and like it’s going to float away and take my limbs with it just to be spiteful. Blasted pseudoephedrine.

So, we had the Oscar party and most of the people who read this blog were there, but for those who weren't, it was awesome, the food was fantastic (except for my molten chocolate cakes, which I sort of gave up on), and the games were so much fun. Jen won most of them, but I think Liz and Melis got a win or two as well.

The awards weren't much of a surprise. Things I loved:

1. Neil Patrick Harris!
2. Steve and Alec’s snide remarks to each other and snide stares at George Clooney, who snidely stared right back
3. Sandra Bullock's hilarious/moving/delightful acceptance speech
4. Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. sniping at each other in their presentation of the screenplay award
5. Ben Stiller painted blue and acknowledging just how humiliating it all was
6. A tribute to John Hughes!
7. The lovely presentation of the Best Actor/Actress awards with tributes from the nominees' past co-stars (Oprah calling Gaby Sidibe an American Cinderella! Colin Farrell talking about sharing a pillow with Jeremy Renner during a drunken weekend in Mexico! Love it!)
8. The Hurt Locker winning a much deserved Best Picture Oscar

There were some annoyances:
1. Edward Scissorhands is not a horror movie so get it out of that montage.
2. In The Loop should have owned that Adapted Screenplay award.
3. Who is this crazy woman taking over the speech for the Short Documentary award?
4. Barbra Streisand, stop trying to make this moment about you and just read the flippin' winner's name.

But aside from all that, I thought it was a great show. Now, on to the fashion!

Looks I loved:


Had she worn a red dress, I would have won my Oscar Bingo game, but this looked great. She came prepared for the accessory she’d be taking home.

They don’t call her Queen for nothing.

Perhaps not the best color (she looks a little washed out in some photos) but I still think it’s my favorite dress of the night. So dreamy and feminine and it fits perfectly.

Stunning, age appropriate, bon appétit.

She’s 59 and she consistently looks better than any 20 year-old starlet. It’s almost disgusting.

Divine.

So fabulous.

The shades, the bowtie, the Kicks. Could you love him more?

And can I just take a moment to say that Christoph Waltz is perhaps the most adorable man I have ever seen? He is so precious. I want to wrap him up and put him in my pocket and just keep him next to me like my pet. And maybe take him out every once in a while to pinch his cheeks. I'm so taken with him.

Ahem. Perhaps I've allowed you a little too far into my psyche.

Looks I loathed:

Your dress should not look like it's groping you. It's just bad form.

Is that bubble wrap? It's like a Project Runway challenge. “You must create an Oscar gown using only what you find in this Fed Ex facility. Make it work!”

When did Nicole Ritchie turn 70 and retire to Del Boca Vista?

Maggie, this is the Oscars. Really.

"All I can say is that my life is pretty plain. I like watching the puddles gather rain..."

James Cameron and his wife, Skeletor.

Mariah Carey is a beautiful girl with the means to hire an army of stylists. So why does she so often look trashy? It makes me a little sad.

I usually give SJP a little extra leeway because I feel she's earned it. But that is a satin sack and there's nothing to be done for it. And when you know you're going to be presenting an award with Tom Ford (who dons tuxedos as loungewear) you have to look extra-specially good. Fail.

I wanted to love this, but I found I could not. I like ruffles and sparkles and graduated shades of purple and slits up the skirt and the delightful Zoe Saldana. I just don't like them all together at once.

And now I settle in for the long wait 'til next year's Oscars.

Inflict your opinion upon me.

I love podcasts, particularly This American Life (Ira Glass, marry me!) and Radiolab. Ignore those and you're only punishing yourself. Wait! Wait! Don't tell me! is also pretty awesome.

Does anyone have any others they love and adore and can't live without? I'm looking to expand my repertoire.

I think I might need this.

It is possible to need, I mean really need, a ginormous chandelier made of acrylic gummi bears?

I love how they call it a "candelier." Who wouldn't want that hanging above her head?

Alas, these are the words that terrify me: "An edition of ten, price upon request."

It could be much worse, in addition to really high unemployment and Nazis running rampant in Europe.

So, we're all feeling a bit weary of shoveling ourselves out, over and over. Yes, even me, the winter-loving, summer-hating freak girl. But don't despair too much. Just be happy you're not living in 1936 (which you were already happy about because, hello Great Depression!) because J-town had it a lot worse back then. A co-worker just sent me these photos of 219 and Colver Road during the winter of '36 and, well, just take a look.

Incidentally, this is the snow that melted suddenly over St. Patrick's Day and flooded the city for the second of three major dousings.

So, I'm sitting at my desk...

...and I cannot get the cap off my water bottle. Blargh. This is my water bottle:

It is the orange one, and it is full of ice cold, delicious, Brita-filtered water and I really want a drink and I cannot get to it! I have twisted and pulled and shaken and... nothing! And I'm really getting thirsty. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.