As the roads here are coated in ice, I've decided to go in late today. I spent ten minutes scraping ice off the car windows, pulled to the end of my drive, and saw cars moving at about two miles per hour, so I pulled right back into my drive and came back inside. They said on the news that cars are off the road all over the place, and there was a three-car accident here in Westfield, so I think I made the right call. Snow I can handle; ice, not so much.

I watched the Oscars last night, of course. The show was too long, as always, and it was not particularly entertaining, as expected. The real fun was reading and posting comments on Facebook and Twitter. I have some very witty friends. :)

Dear Oscar telecast producers/writers/directors:

I have a few suggestions on how to make the telecast more palatable, and thus increase your ratings (which is what it's all about, right?):

1. If you must have an announcer, please find one who can actually pronounce the words she is given to announce. I heard her say "best pitcher" and "Barber Streisand." Come on.

2. Just say "no" when it comes to musical and/or dance numbers. Really. I love Neil Patrick Harris, but it serves no useful purpose other than to bloat the telecast. I'd rather get to bed fifteen minutes earlier, thank you very much. And that dance number was just bizarre; it had nothing to do with any of the movies it was supposed to be representing.

3. Hosts singling out guests and making fun of them is not funny. Well, mostly not funny. You should be going for class, not embarrassment.

4. Speaking of hosts, one is sufficient. Really. Preferably one with some class. He'd never do it, but George Clooney would be perfect.

5. I understand wanting to appeal to the younger demographic, but could you try and find some young people with a little personality? The brooding look doesn't translate to the over-15 crowd very well.

6. Please tell your musical director that "I am Woman" was not the appropriate music to be playing for the first woman to win the Best Director award. If you can't figure out why, it's time for sensitivity training, bub.

7. Cutting off the mics and starting to play music to cut short thank-you speeches is just plain rude, especially when you don't do it to the Big Stars at the end of the show. The guy who won best short documentary (or whatever) is just as proud as Jeff Bridges.

8. Long dresses + high heels + moving staircases = recipe for disaster. Just sayin'.

Respectfully yours,
LizzieBelle

Do you think Heath Ledger would have won if he hadn't died? Not to be disrespectful or anything, but I don't think so. Still, it was a touching moment for his family.

Today is Cranky Day here at The Reminder. Everyone is cranky, for one reason or another. At least there is cake: one of the Nancys is having a birthday, and someone brought chocolate cake. Nancy even brought it out to us, the sweetheart! From now on, she will be known as the Good Nancy (there are four Nancys here).

It's not helping that the weather has once again turned crappy. The snow has already started, albeit very lightly, and visions of a difficult commute have reared in our heads. I do hope that it chooses to wait until we're all home before accumulating, if at all.

Some of the problems with the new software have yet to be fixed, and it's getting tiresome. I can't get a last run report or a sales report. We can't price legal ads. Yet another category has gone missing. *sigh*

At least my boys George & Johnny got nominated for Oscars... hopefully there will be an actual ceremony that we can watch. I do love to see George in a tux. He's so dapper.

Ooh, and to make my day, I just spoke with Elvis. Well, it was Ray, who is an Elvis impersonator. He just had a front-page story in the Valley Advocate, so I got to tell him what a great story it was. He was very pleased with it. He's doing a Valentine's Day show in Chicopee, and is putting in an ad.

So, cake, George, and Elvis made my day less cranky. *g*

Yay Melissa Etheridge! Yay Al Gore! (It still breaks my heart that he's not our president.) And yay Ellen Degeneres! She rocks. :)

Today was the annual SEF meeting at the barn in Grafton. I slipped outside after the meeting was over to take a few pix of the farm in winter. Click the link to see the rest!

It was lovely to see everyone, and to see all the new pictures in the slideshow. Some of them were mine! That was a nice surprise. The potluck was yummy. Someone brought fresh fruit! That was a treat. The pears were the best.

Tonight is the Oscars. I love when someone unexpected wins, and some of the speeches are fun.

It looks like we're going to catch the edge of that storm that's been making its way across the country. I think I picked a good day to take off! Hopefully they're wrong about the *other* storm that's scheduled for Thursday.

Stay warm and safe, everyone!