Sunday, March 16, 2014

happy spring!

Other than remembering to prune and feed my roses back in January, I've totally neglected my gardens the last few months and as a result, all my herbs and many of my potted plants died :( 

So today I got up bright and early (for a Sunday) at 8:30 and spent four hours pruning, re-planting and laying down mulch to pretty-up my backyard. Yay! I cleaned up the rose garden (where the kumquats have begun to fall), planted a bunch of annuals and updated my herb and pepper garden with things I will actually use for cooking. Now all that's left to do is clean the patio furniture and the grill (ick!).

My first fully blooming rose bush of the season!
Rosemary for seasoning (and keeping mosquitos away), Basil for pizza and Cilantro for guacamole :)
Jalepenos for guac and a Bell Pepper because I'm
curious to see if it will actually grow to size...
Oh, and a lavender plant because I don't have enough
bees in the front yard swarming around my giant
lavender plant there :p
Spearmint for mojitos :)



My shelves of impatiens that were wiped out
when someone got too busy to go out and
water them this winter. Oops
New gerber daisies (my faves!) and geraniums
galore because they are hearty (ie: can survive
a week when I forget to water them)





Monday, March 10, 2014

gal pals rock

I went to an event with my dear gal pal Cwennen on Saturday night at her church (yes I went to a church) in celebration of International Women's Day. Her's is not a normal church like I - the ex-Catholic - grew up being forced to go to. They had a rock band playing and people singing rock/pop songs for the first 15 or so minutes of the event, which whatever remnants of a Catholic still exist inside me had a hard time comprehending. But the overall theme of the evening was "amigas" aka girlfriends, and their girl power. And that's something I could get on board with. 

Our "parting gift" was the "suitable for framing" card below, which I loved so much I had to share. I'm lucky to have Cwennen and many other amigas in my life that fit this bill :)


Sunday, March 2, 2014

random thoughts during the 2014 oscars

Who knew Lupita Nyongo’s brother was in Kid-n-Play?

Ellen just said what everyone has been thinking about Lisa Minnelli for years by calling her a man (aka a drag queen). Burn.

And now it's time for the lead singer of 30 Seconds to Mars to win his Oscar.

Will be hard to beat Jared Leto for best speech of the night. Love to his mom, dreamers and victims of AIDS and injustice.

American Hustle did not win Best Costume. That was honestly the best shot they had unless there is a major acting category upset. Some woman wearing a sequined Hawaiian mumu won for Best Costume... for The Great Gatsby. Oh she's married to Baz Luhrmann. That explains it. Oh she's the woman who showed up in the American Express gold card dress long ago. She's old now.

Thank god Bad Grandpa did not win for Hair and Makeup. I'm now 2 for 3 in the Oscar pool.

I guess Harrison Ford isn't presenting Best Picture like he normally does...

Matthew McConaughey deserves the Oscar just for making it thru that award presentation with Kim Novak.

Kind of ironic that Kim Novak and her frozen face were chosen to present the Best Animated Short and Feature awards.

Visual Effects goes to Gravity… as it should.

Shorts, documentaries... the hit or miss categories in the Oscar pool. Entertainment Weekly you've failed me.

Darlene Love is singing really loud, which the Academy producers obviously weren’t prepared for. There goes their Sound Mixing Emmy. And does the Academy have clearance for that song?

Yay Italy wins… as it should... just because it's Italy.

It won't win Best Picture, but Nebraska wins in my book as best surprise film of the year. I had no expectations going in and loved it. Sweet, loving family drama that in many ways reminds me of the men on my dad’s side of the family.

Brad intros U2, who's performing acoustically... Highlight of the show thus far. And they get a standing ovation. Too bad they won't win.

Ellen just broke twitter. I can't retweet the celeb group shot.

Best Supporting Actress. Great category. June Squibb was awesome. JLaw was hilariously over the top. Julia held her own with Meryl. Too bad they can't all win. But Lupita Nyongo’s performance was too heartbreaking. The soap scene stole the film.

Thank you Brad Pitt from saving poor Lupita from that drag queen Liza Minnelli.

Okay. The pizza bit looked like it was going to bomb, but was actually pretty funny. I hope Harrison Ford made Calista eat part of his piece. And the owner of Big Mama and Papa's pizza just started crying tears of joy.

Great callout to Harold Ramis from Bill Murray during his and Amy Adams' presenting bit. Nice to get him into the broadcast in the event they weren’t able to edit him into the “In Memorium” in time.

Train wreck approaching. Here comes the Wizard of Oz/Judy Garland tribute. Don't let Liza talk. Don't let Liza talk. Oh good. Pink is going to sing instead. Phew. Actual entertainment.

Great dress on Jennifer Garner! Sassy fringe flapper dress. Love!

Great ad for the Pepsi mini cans with famous movie lines. "Show me the mini!"

Ellen's celeb selfie just broke the Twitter record and passed one million retweets*. That makes me one in a million :) (And shout out to Lupita's brother from Kid-n-Play for being more visible in the photo that three of the people who actually won Oscars this year!)





Harold Ramis made it into the “In Memoriam.” “Slates for Sarah” sort of did (after the fact).

I knew Bette Milder would be singing the sad Beaches song during the “In Memorium” the moment they announced her as a performer. See, I could produce the Oscars :p

The bubble people Oscars at the back of the stage are starting to freak me out. They look like the casts for the people stacked in the pod holding bay in The Matrix.

Hey John Travolta, her name is Idina Menzel. Ass.

"Let It Go" wins best original song, which Bono called on The Tonight Show two weeks ago. Robert Lopez is now an EGOT winner thanks to a Disney movie and....The Book of Mormon. And U2 is NOT an Oscar winner.... yet.

And the Let It Go winners’ speech is the most entertaining of the night...all rhyming. But Jared's is still the most heartwarming, followed closely by Lupita's.

Alfonso Cuaron is Best Director. Duh. Gravity was amazing. So was Sandra Bullock, but she won't win because of that crappy Woody Allen movie. (No offense to Cate Blanchett.)

Best Actress goes to Cate Blanchett. Yeah. Whatever.

Alright, alright, alright. And Matthew McConaughey is rewarded for putting up with Kim Novack. And playing a devastatingly heartbreaking role in Dallas Buyers Club. Whoever thought the stoner in Dazed & Confused and Ed TV would win a Best Actor Oscar? I can believe the lawyer in A Time to Kill one day would though.

Really like the graphics for Best Picture nominees.

And 12 Years a Slave wins Best Picture. Brad Pitt is now an Oscar winner too. Take THAT George Clooney and Matt Damon!

The end. 3 hours and 30 minutes exactly.

The only real surprise of the night was that American Hustle was totally shut out. Oh well. Yay for Gravity!

P.S. I won the Oscar party pool with 20 correct. Yay me!

PPS: By an hour after the show ended, Ellen's celeb selfie has ready 2.1 million retweets... a 7-digit number that Twitter designers apparently never thought about how to display (see screengrab above). So that one tweet has actually broken Twitter in two different ways tonight.