An Oscar recap (of sorts) and... some new fish...

What a likable group of Oscar nominees last night! Seriously - love Jeff Bridges - love Sandra Bullock (Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, George Clooney, Woody Harrelson - the whole lot of them, really) - completely happy that a woman won for Best Director and for such a good, purposeful movie. Precious grabbed my heart - what an adorable girl they found for their lead,Gabourey Sidibe and... Mo'Nique - just great - out on a limb with that role. I never really care if the person was deserving of the Oscar. A couple of times have felt that the nomination was a bit odd - even the win, but... for the most part... I like to see people have their moment - my analysis is usually pretty personal - I think they seem nice - they did a good job in this movie - whatever - I forgive past bad movies - all that. So... by "love", I usually mean I like the person, and... though some of these movies seem powerful and beyond Oscar -worthy (others not so much - District 9 ??? I mean I saw it - I love scary - I like aliens - I like the sense of justice in this movie - but Oscar-nominated - ????), of course, hubby and I rarely have time to breathe let alone see movies, so... have some catching up to do.

Speaking of catching up.... I almost attended an Oscar party last night :-). Sent hubby down the street with hot Oscar-themed hors d'oeuvres (mini ham and cheese quiches - get it? ;-), and... District 9 prawn and crab puffs...). He chatted with friends and neighbors for an hour or so, then.... per the plan laid out... headed home to relieve me of duty. Everyone bathed, fed and in pjs, I started to get ready, but... Milo would not stay in bed - was disrupting Enzo, who had school today AND Lilliana, who just needed to sleep given the fact that she was up for hours in the middle of the nght on Sat - and Olivia had a test to study for, so... she wasn't interested in a party at all. Anyway, we had to divide and conquer, and... I ended up with chicken salad, tomato soup and non-alcoholic Italian blood orange soda (i.e. no champagne cocktail for me :-) on the couch watching most of the show by myself (running upstairs now and then to confer with hubby, who was on "watch Milo" duty, on details :-). It was fine. I was able to privately get weepy over some emotional moments. For me - the documentary on unsafe food (Food, Inc.) with a quick reference to the sweet two year old boy who ate a hamburger and died 12 days later of e.coli - was a big cry moment for me - mentioned in passing, the image of the little angel eating his lunch on the home movie next to his tearful mom's interview saying he went from that to dead 12 days later was almost too much.... Oh - the things I notice. For the record, the dolphin documentary, The Cove, won that category, though I am certainly looking up Food, Inc. as well - gotta keep our kids' food supply safe. On the lighter side, I am shamelessly checking out all the fashion reviews from Oscar night today :-) - off the top of my head - loved Cameron Diaz's dress and Demi Moore's - among others like Jennifer Lopez, etc. (though, for example, love Charlize Theron, but... the dress? Not so much...). Also, enjoyed the fact that this year's hosts, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, kept it kinda light.

My day? Enzo starts piano today to strengthen his little hands and improve his handwriting a bit (and his experience in class, in the longrun) - plus, he shows interest and my Olivia played for years (will have to dig out my sappy post when I lament the loss of our broken down piano to a couple of "guys who haul stuff"). Olivia has a couple big tests today. Milo is with me and so is Lil (and, lately, they are so BUSY, that I don't have five seconds to myself - food and drink demands, problems with games, fighting, wanting to take several baths during the day for water fun - more - makes the time I try to carve out for them more difficult to obtain - between readying the school uniforms and making dinner everyone will like and keeping "it" all organized - REALLY - a rant for another day..... trying to focus on my close time with them lately... LOVE IT :-), for the most part, despite the fact that I run the stairs 50X a day to the point that my muscles feel like I'm training for a marathon just to unlock the childproof gate that they "accidentally" shut again, to wipe up lemonade, to respond to shrieks that could be glee or pain, to find a lost toy - and another toy - and another.... AND I'm losing my voice because of a cough that, due to lack of downtime and CONSTANT talking - please eat your lunch, don't hit your sister, share with your brother, quiet for a sec so I can make your dr. aptmt., etc. - will NOT go away). We will, most likely, gaze at our new fish tank. Yes, we bought fish - Mr. T, Tom Tom, Sally and Jack. We also washed our van and discovered a whole buncha yukky scratches and pretty dramatic paint and other winter-ish issues, so... a trip to the body shop is in order this week. My two oldests need to have their passports renewed this week (the little ones need passports, I guess). All of Olivia's paperwork needs to be in for high school this week. I have a lot to remember. Better get crackin'....

Photo: Two divas - me and Olivia - take a couple weeks ago. I'm dressed for confirmation night; Diva Olivia prefers to dress down until the outfit is unveiled just before we leave (SUCH a diva - though look at my pose - WHAT am I trying to prove? ;-). Are we red carpet-worthy? Hmmmm......

Hope this makes sense.... I am A LOT fried lately... not a little... A LOT ;-).