Road to the Oscars: Part III

I am on Day Two of a movie marathon. I am hoping to squeeze one more in before I go back to work on Tuesday.

I thought I would give you a heads up about a few more movie's that are nominated.

The Artist
Nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Jean Dujardin), Supporting Actress (Berenice Bejo), Art Direction, Cinematography, Best Director, Film Editing, Music, Original Screenplay.

This is the "silent" movie that your peers might be talking about. It is a through-back to "old Hollywood". Days of black and white, silent movies.

I really thought I would have to suffer through this one just to mark it off my list. But this is why I see the nominated movies, you never know when you are going to find something you would not normally watch and fall in love with it.

The general story follows a man, George Valentine, who is a silent film star. He helps out an upcoming actress, Peppy Miller. They fall in love but two things keep them apart. The first is that George is married. And the second, the movie industry moves away from silent films into talkies. And George stumbles hard while Peppy shines like the star she was destined to be. Peppy is George's guardian angel, but George is too proud to take help.

Yes, this movie is almost 100% silent.However, I still loved it! I found myself annoyed with the crowd but only slightly. {The movie is silent and you can totally hear every little crunch of food in the theater!} The two main actors are great! In addition, I really liked John Goodman's character.

The Descendants
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actor (George Clooney), Best Director (Alexander Payne), Film Editing, and Adapted Screenplay.

What did I know about this movie before I saw it? Well, I knew it was about a man who lived in Hawaii whose wife was cheating on him. I also knew the cute actress from Secret Life of the American Teenager was in it along with the ever classy George Clooney.

I learned the movie is about a man, who is the descendant to Hawaiian royalty who is on the verge of making a huge decision that could change Hawaii, who is dealing with his wife's near fatal accident that has left her in a coma. He has two daughters on the verge of being out of control and then has to deal with the fact that his wife was having an affair before he accident.

We (Tracy and I) saw this one last night and both liked it. The setting is breathtaking. (Anyone want to take me to Hawaii?) I loved his obsession. I loved his anger and his composure to try and keep it together. I loved his insecurity about becoming the primary parent when he had always been the secondary. I am glad to see Shailene Woodley on the big screen. I bought her whole rebellious out of control teenager role. I would like to see her in other big screen movies.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Nominated for: Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Max von Sydow).

My husband and I saw this movie yesterday afternoon on a date. I always worry taking him to a nominated movie, but I am happy to say this one turned out okay. Okay except, I cried off all my makeup.

The story is a little boy who struggles to deal with the loss of his father. He finds a key and he sets out to find the hidden message he believes must exist with the key. In the process he located and develops a relationship with many people, including his long lost grandfather.

I have seen a lot of movies with the post 9-11 theme. It is hard not to get all emotional over them. But the focus of this movie is not on the attacks of 9-11. But rather on a little boy, who may the on the Autism Disorder Spectrum, struggle to deal with his loss. It is about a mother who must learn to relate to her child in a way that the father typically had done.

It was a nice movie to see. I liked it. No offense, Extremely Loud, but you are not my choice for Best Picture this year.

Other movies I have seen this week:

Nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Christopher Plummer)

Nominated for Costume Design (of course!)

Nominated for Best Documentary Feature (yes, I watched at least 90% of this movie. If you have seen it, maybe we can chat about it. I will say, I had some interesting thoughts after watching it!)

Until next week my movie-watching-lovers! It is my goal to see Hugo and War Horse this coming week.

My Weekend Project: A PVC Camping Lamp Post and Flag Holder

I have seen a few of these around campsites and I knew I would like to have one. The only problem that I had is The Husband. He already thinks we drag too much stuff with us when we go camping and if I had told him my desire to have a PVC Camping Light Pole he would have shut it down quickly! So, that leaves a girl with only one choice: Figure out how to do it by herself. I did some internet searching and found a few road maps on RV forums. They seemed easy enough! I visited the local hardware store for the supplies: An exterior post lantern light 2 inch PVC pipe (I used 5 feet but had to purchase a 10 foot piece) A 3 inch toilet flange A 3 inch to 2 inch Reducer PVC Glue A 12 foot electric cord kit 2 - 3/4 inch PVC Caps I also used a few supplies we already had on hand: White Spray Paint 3 1/2 foot - 3/4 inch PVC Pipe Drill Bits (1 inch and 1/2 inch) Tent Stakes The first step was preparing the lantern light. I could only find black i

Tonsillectomy (Warning Photos!)

The Short Chic came down with a pretty nasty case of strep throat back in April. So, when The Boy started complaining about his throat hurting about 12 days later, I was pretty confident that he had inherited his sister's strep. Instead, The Boy was diagnosed with a peritonsillar abscess growing on his right tonsil. We had to immediately see an ENT Physician who took a needle and drained the abscess. He removed about 5.5 cc of puss from The Boys throat.and then told us that once you have a peritonsillar abscess you were high risk to keep getting them. The Boy's tonsils were now compromised and needed to be removed. We were told to plan for a two week recovery so we worked a surgery into our summer plans. Between family vacations, summer sports, and the beginning of school The Boy had his second surgery. A tonsillectomy. Pre-surgery prepping went well. It must be nice to be young and have healthy veins for an IV! The Boy had lots of pre-surgery visitors. My

Liver Cheese: A Family Tradition

Today is an anniversary date. One of those dates you wish you did not have to remember but there is no way you can forget. Fifteen years ago today,two days after his birthday, my father died of lung cancer. He was a lifelong smoker and his cancer was aggressive. His battle was short. He fought for six short months after his diagnosis. He knew the chemo was not working and that his time was limited. When he came to this realization he became the best dad in the world. In the days before my father's passing, my family shared some memorable moments. One of those moments centers around the deli meat: Liver Cheese.I would not be surprised if you have never heard of it, or even never tasted it. But I was raised on it as it was one of my Dad's favorite things. What is it? Well, it is a German food that is actually called Leberkase. It is bacon, corned beef, pork, and onion that is ground together and baked. It comes with a

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