Snowcation Day 4, a.k.a. Like A Whirlpool It Never Ends

So, Tuesday morning was like the calm before the storm. Kathy and I started the day with another trip to Target, as she needed laundry detergent and I needed a present for my cousin, which I had forgotten to get on Monday. I also had to stop at my office to get some things that I'd left there and needed to work on my thesis, as never in my wildest dreams did I think we'd get Tuesday off of work too. (Little did I know I'd be sitting here writing this on the eve of my fourth bonus snowcation day!). I also went to the Post Office to mail said present to my cousin, and learned that Route 85 outside of the Buckeystown Post Office were the cleanest I'd seen in all of Frederick.


I returned home to battle the ice on the porch roof again. This time, I went at it with hot water, thinking I could get the heavy ice to melt faster. This seemed to help, but I think I'm still going to have to have someone look at it when this is all over (if this all ever ends). Grr.


After Roof Fight: Round Two, I sat down to grade more of my thesis documents and watch one of my favorite movies, Garden State. I can't find either of my favorite scenes on YouTube (when they're in the quarry and Large tells Sam not to mention knights around Mark, and when they're leaving the quarry and they play Only Living Boy In New York), but I did find this one, which is the reason that scene is so funny. And also, Jim Parsons is awesome. So there's that.




I had to pause Garden State to go over to Kathy's for dinner. Tricia had gotten her a cast iron pan for her birthday, and she invited people over for the unveiling and first use. She made paella, which was delightful (and I'm not just saying that because it had chorizo in it and I love chorizo).
We all stayed far later than we should have, given that about two more inches of snow had accumulated in the time we were there. That's right, folks - another snowstorm was coming! The two inches of snow, combined with the big, fluffy flakes that were falling, made it quite a scenic walk home.

However, it was more ominous than anything., given the condition of the roads before this snow started, and the fact that the forecast predicted another 10-15 inches of snow and wind and blizzardiness. A thought - is it bad when you hear that there's 10-15 inches of snow coming, and all you can think is "eh...that's not too bad." Stay tuned tomorrow to see if that forecast came true!

Snowcation Day 3, a.k.a. My Snow-Called Life

So, work was closed Monday because of the Snowpocalypse. The lovely snow people decided this Saturday night, so I had plenty of time to plan how to continue the movie- and thesis-writing marathon. Sadly, neither of those things got much action on Monday, but I did get quite a few other things done. But first, a brief vignette from Sunday...kids, if you have an air-supported structure, it can only hold so much snow before it collapses. Case in point - the Hood College Outdoor Pool Bubble. Such a phenomenon has only happened two or three other times in my memory, and sadly, never in my presence. I am forever grateful to Danielle for capturing this phenomenon on camera:

You'll all be happy to hear that it is back up and in working order now. Not that it matters to me, because swim lessons have been cancelled all week because of the weather. Anyway...back to your regularly scheduled programming:

Monday began with my first excursion out into the world since Friday. I was really glad that I went and fetched my car from the car-fixing place in Mt. Airy on Friday, because the roads were awful, and I would not want to be the one responsible for driving my mother's car (which I had borrowed) into a snowbank. Tricia and I went to Home Depot, where I bought one of the last snow shovels they had (I had been borrowing Kathy's tiny car shovel, so I bought her a nice new one too); Target, where I replenished my baking supply and bought more hot tea (because that's what I am, a hotty); and then drove back by way of my office, the parking lot and surrounding areas of which were slushy death traps of doom. And every shopping place we went to was mobbed with people with cabin fever.

When I got back, I finally dug out my car. You'll note the giant pile of snow next to it. It took me like 2 hours.

The plows had come through to take care of the sidewalks, but they could only do so much. On the one sidewalk by my mailbox, they had just pushed it all into a giant pile, so if you wanted to get your mail, you had to either walk two thirds of the way there on the sidewalk and then go around into the street, or penguin yourself over the snow pile that is taller than I am.
I also spent a good hour and a half leaning out of my second floor windows with a shovel, smacking at the snow and trying to get it to fall off so it would stop making my gutter hang precariously off of the edge of the roof because of the weight of the ice. It was lovely. But sometime in that timeframe, I learned that work was to be closed on Tuesday as well. Yay!

That night, Kathy and I went to Tricia's to eat awesome cream of crab soup. Before it got dark and the roads started to freeze again, we went to the grocery store, which was rapidly running out of cheese,meat,

and more meat.

Also, Super Bowl cakes were on sale, since no one had made it to the grocery store the day before to buy them. I think there should've been a bigger discount on the losing team's cake, but there wasn't.

After that treacherous excursion, we returned home for the evening. Before and in between my regularly scheduled Monday night programming, I finished the last disc of My So-Called Life so I could mail it back to Netflix the next day. I maintain that Jordan Catalano is an idiot and I can't imagine what Angela saw in him, and I also have a crush on Brian Krakow. If that makes me a loser, then so be it. But I do like Ricky too, does that make me cool?! And then I went to bed, to rest up for another day of Snowcation.

Snowcation Day 1, a.k.a. The Walk Has All Been Cleared By Now

So...it snowed a bit here this weekend. And by "a bit," I mean "multiple feet." If we lived somewhere like Michigan or Massachusetts or Alaska, this would not be an event. However, we don't. We live in DC, Land of the Snow Pansies. Although as snow freakouts go, this one was rather warranted. Roads covered with wet, heavy snow; 2-3 inches an hour during the worst part; and, apparently snow lightning. I was asleep when this happened, but people assure me that it was real. It started Friday afternoon around 11...this picture is from about 2 pm, after we had been released from work early, and I'd gone to pick my car up from the car-fixing people in Mt. Airy.
The snow still wasn't sticking too much - it was more like sleet. By about 4, it was starting to get a bit fluffier.
By the time it got dark around 7:30, there was enough snow to make good footprints (which I made going to the mailbox to send back a Netflix DVD. My So-Called Life, Disc 4, if anyone cares.)
Annnnd...then I woke up Saturday morning.
Yeah, there were like 20 inches by then. The trees were covered,and so was everything that was on my front porch, including the flip flops I leave out there for emergency purposes. I think this was the snow trying to be ironic...beach shoes covered in snow.

And the snow wasn't done yet - it kept snowing for the better part of the day.

It was up to 22 inches by lunchtime,and almost two feet at its lowest point by the time Kathy came over to retrieve her shovel that afternoon.

That afternoon, I shoveled the front walk, which took entirely too long. But luckily, the snow had pretty much stopped by then, so I only had to do it once. I am a firm believer in the "wait until it's done" school of snow shoveling. Sunday morning, the sun was out, glaring off of the snow, and the people were tunneling their way out as well.

So...now I'm holding out hope that the sun will melt everything off of my car and the surrounding area. This will likely not happen, but since I don't have to go to work tomorrow, I'm in no hurry to clean it off anway.

And now...time to make cookies like last time! I think I'm going to start calling these Snowstorm Cookies. Any votes on what shape to make them?

Snowcation Day 2, a.k.a. We're Not Gonna Protest!

So, everyone in the DC area is all frantic about the snow. I choose to accept it. Anything that gives me an excuse to stay inside and watch movies all day, and cancels swim lessons and might even cancel work on Monday, is super duper in my book. My stupid thesis and the fact that my house is a mess got a little bit in the way of my weekend of sloth, but I've managed to fit in quite a few movies too. And I'm sure you want to hear all about them!

I started Friday night with the esteemed PCU, as inspired by Erin quoting it on Facebook. This movie is awesome, and if you haven't seen it, I would highly recommend it. David Spade's best work not accompanied by Chris Farley, and you can never have too much of The Piven unless you count how many seasons of Entourage there have been. It's highly quotable, as well - it's the origin of the quote that serves as the title of this blog. Here, the trailer, if you've never seen it:




Saturday afternoon brought Walk Hard, a spoof of Walk The Line, which I've been meaning to rewatch since Sarah visited a few weekends ago and we watched one of the greatest scenes I've ever seen - when Dewey Cox meets the Beatles:



That scene will never, ever not be funny. "I know a song about an octopus!" Heh.


After a brief intermission for thesis-writing and cupcake-making for Kathy's mini-birthday party, the movie shows resumed. Next up - The Hangover, also known as the reason I walk around singing about tigers.


Kathy came over for dinner, as we were supposed to go out for her birthday that evening. Clearly, that didn't happen, so instead, I put an umbrella in her glass and told her it was a party. And I let her pick the movie. Since she has excellent taste, she picked Mamma Mia! You know what I love about Meryl Streep? That she's such an acclaimed actress, and that she's reached a place in her career where she can basically pick whatever the hell she wants to do. And she picks things like this. She clearly has fabulous taste. And also, I want to be Christine Baranski when I grow up.


Next up was a disc of Seinfeld episodes, including my first favorite episode (as in, the first episode to be my favorite one, not my favorite episode ever), The Parking Garage. I think of this scene every time I'm in a parking garage...




Sunday morning started with another Facebook-inspired choice. More than one of my friends had posted that they were watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. This is my favorite Marilyn Monroe movie, so I decided it would be next. Although, to be honest, I prefer Jane Russell's character to Lorelei, if only for this scene:




I also enjoy the part where Lady Beekman says "You'll find that I mean business!" and Dorothy says, "Oh yeah? Then why are you wearing that hat?" I want to be her when I grow up too.

Next, I chose For Your Consideration, in honor of Oscar season. You all may or may not know that I have coerced the Party Planning Committee at my office into having an Oscar party. Apparently no one was surprised when I suggested this. Can't imagine why. By why wouldn't you want to honor such fine cinematic moments as this?



The movie fest was paused after that, though, for it was the day of one of the greatest moments of the year. Yes, it was Puppy Bowl Sunday! My personal favorite was Jersey Boy, although Jake and Fava were quite the competitors as well.

Next, there was this football game on too. Last year there was one, and it was super awesome and we had a party and the Steelers won their sixth ring, and did I mention it was super awesome? This year, it wasn't nearly as exciting. Let me just tell you, football is not nearly as fun when you like both teams but don't have a preference between them. If you love one, you want the other to lose and you can yell at them. And if you hate one, you want the other to win, and you can yell at the one you hate. There's no one to yell at when both teams are fine! That being said, whenever they'd show Peyton Manning, I'd think of this. And I would be happy.



And so goes the weekend's television watching...stay tuned, because my work is closed Monday and Tuesday, and there's supposed to be more snow Tuesday night, so there will likely be another whole list of entertainment coming soon!

In The Lane Snow Is Glistening

Welcome to the world's most worthless snowstorm. It's Saturday, so I don't get out of work (and believe me, there's enough out there that even my work would let us go home early!). Had it started during the night, there's a fair chance that swim lessons would've been cancelled, but it didn't start until the second-to-last class was ending. An unrelated note - today's quote of the day from swim lessons is "Yay, water!", as spoken by a very excited two-year-old while she was splashing.

But I digress. Back to the snow. It took me more than 20 minutes to get home, I almost died multiple times, and it's a good thing that my car was going to the car place to get fixed this week anyway. If the alignment wasn't messed up before, it's a pretty safe bet that sliding into the curb at the bank messed it up pretty well.

So now I'm stuck here. Chances are good that I will be baking again this afternoon. Which is not good, because I really should be writing my thesis. We'll see what happens.

As mad as I am at the snow, though, I do have to say how pretty it is. I feel like I'm living in a snowglobe.

Some Will Win, Some Will Lose

Now that I've made my semi-educated guesses regarding the Golden Globe Award film nominations, it's on to my area of more expertise - television. Yay!

Best Television Series - Drama: Disclaimer - I'm about three seasons behind on Dexter and House, and one season behind on True Blood. That being said, I don't think any of them really stood a chance anyway, except maybe True Blood. From what I've heard, while all three were both wonderful in their earlier seasons, and continue to be great, none is as good as it was in their respective first seasons. And none could compare to the remaining two nominees. Although, let me just tell you how weird it is to explain to someone why you like the show Big Love so much. "Yeah, it's great! What's it about, you ask? Um...polygamy." Yeah, it goes over well. But it is tremendous, and this past season (which I just finished watching, courtesy of Netflix) was one of the best. That being said, I think Mad Men is the one to beat in this category. And for good reason - the show wins awards left and right, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The show essentially revamped throughout the season, and rather than jumping the shark, it seems to have come through even stronger. That, and Jon Hamm is dreamy :-)

Best Actor in a Drama Series: Jon Hamm. See above - Mad Men wins awards like it's its job, and this part was made for him. The rest of them (Simon Baker, Michael C. Hall, the fabulous Hugh Laurie, and Bill Paxton) can't compare.

Best Actress in a Drama Series: If ever there was a year for January Jones, I think this is it. That being said, I'll be surprised if she wins against any of the difficult competition: Glenn Close, Julianna Marguiles, Anna Paquin, and Kyra Sedgwick. My limited knowledge of any of the actresses' shows except for Mad Men and True Blood makes it difficult to choose, but based on history, I'm tentatively going with Glenn Close.

Best Television Series - Comedy: I think this is the year that 30 Rock is going down. Not that it should - it's one of the greatest shows on television right now - it just has the misfortune to be getting to be the old, unexpected answer in a category with two bright, shiny new toys in it. I still don't know why the ancient Entourage was nominated over something like How I Met Your Mother, but it's here to be ignored, so let's ignore it. You know how I love The Office, but this season, while great, was nothing compared to its competitors. Which brings us to the real contenders - the aforementioned 30 Rock and new toys Glee and Modern Family. 30 Rock is getting old. Not worse, just old. And the Golden Globes have always been good for recognizing fresh, new shows. Which leaves us Glee and Modern Family. All season long, I've been trying to get people to watch both shows, which is made all the more difficult by the fact that they air at the same time. But now that Glee is on hiatus, it is the time for all of you to listen to me and start watching Modern Family. When have I ever steered you wrong? And once you've done that, you will agree with the following statement: Despite the fact that Glee is an original, beautifully crafted masterpiece, and I love it and am counting the days until it returns in April, I want Modern Family to win. I'm not saying it's better, I'm just saying that it is equally deserving and would benefit far more from the win. OK, I said it. I'm going to lock my door to protect myself from the hordes of Gleeks coming to kill me. But seriously, go watch an episode and tell me you don't find it delightful.

Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical: I want to marry Matthew Morrison and have his babies. And if Glee is to win an acting award this year, I think it will be his. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's Alec Baldwin (over my future husband Morrison, Steve Carell, David Duchovny, and Thomas Jane) again this year. I never thought I'd love Alec Baldwin, but there you go.

Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical: Have you guys seen United States of Tara? Because it's pretty darn awesome. And Toni Collette makes it that way. Of the other four nominees (Courteney Cox, Lea Michele, Edie Falco, and Tina Fey), I think she has the best chance. To be fair, I haven't seen Edie Falco's show yet, and I've heard that she's great, so she probably stands a pretty good chance as well. But my money's on Toni Collette.

Supporting Actor and Actress: I hate how the HFPA organizes their supporting actor categories - all actors and actresses in television programs, whether comedy, musical, drama, miniseries, whatever, get grouped together into these two categories. This leads to stupid things, like Chloe Sevigny and Jane Lynch vying for the same award for their performances in Big Love and Glee, respectively. Or Michael Emerson versus Neil Patrick Harris versus John Lithgow in Lost, How I Met Your Mother, and Dexter, for vastly different performances. Between the differences in each performance and the fact that I've seen very few of the nominated miniseries and TV movies, choosing is rather difficult. So I'm picking who I want to win - Jane Lynch and Neil Patrick Harris. And I'd be happy with Chloe Sevigny or Michael Emerson as backup choices.

So there you go - watch tonight! See how well I guessed! And be happy for my coworkers that tomorrow is a federal holiday, and they won't have to listen to me recap the entire show for the better part of the morning!

What Do Tigers Dream Of When They Take A Little Tiger Snooze?

As you probably know if you've spoken with me in the past week or so, the Golden Globe Awards are tonight. I love the Golden Globe awards, and as usual, have spent far more time than usual analyzing the nominations. I've come to a few conclusions about some of the major film awards:

Best Motion Picture - Drama: This is a really depressing lot of films. To be fair, I've only seen two and a half of them at present, but let's go through the list. A technologically gorgeous film that says that, basically, in the future, Americans will be evil and aliens will be good and the Americans will kill all of them because of undescribed and unjustified capitalist greed (Avatar). A very well made and realistic film about the war that, no matter how expertly done, is still not what I'd call uplifting (The Hurt Locker). Nazis and Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds). Another reportedly depressing film about an obese minority girl with a wretched family situation (Precious). And a sleek, shiny film about firing people (Up in the Air). How is a girl to choose?! Well, I'll omit the one that made me want to smack it for being preachy and having a crap plot (Avatar). I'll also omit the two I haven't seen (Inglourious Basterds and Precious), because it's easier that way :-). Which leaves me with one that is depressing, realistic, and topical, and one that is depressing, pretty, and topical. Normally I'd go for pretty, especially when that pretty is Intern George, but in this case, I'm picking The Hurt Locker. I feel like the war will resonate more than the country's economic difficulties, although I'd be OK with either. As long as it's not the overrated and vapid Avatar, I'm happy. And either way, this category is like a freaking ray of sunshine...I feel like they should hand out Prozac to the voters after they've viewed the nominees.

Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical: I like when I've seen the majority of the nominated films in a category. Well, I do as long as I agree with the winner (case in point - last year's Oscar Best Picture race.) Such is the case for this category. The only one I haven't seen is It's Complicated, which I don't think has much of a chance anyway. Of the others - Nine was gorgeous. I love Rob Marshall, and you all know my weakness for musicals. And check out the trailer - isn't it fabulous? I could watch it all day. However, it was missing this little thing called a plot, which is kind of important for moviemaking. When your movie compantion turns to you an hour into the film and says "Tell me again what this movie's supposed to be about?", you know there's a problem. Julie and Julia was carried by the spectacular performances of its lead actresses, but may be a bit too frothy to win - much like the aforementioned It's Complicated. Which leads me to two of my top ten movies of the past year - The Hangover and (500) Days of Summer. I have a great weakness for vulgar comedies like The Hangover. I quote them like it's my job. (Actually, I often quote them AT my job). And this one has the added bonus of a talented cast; an intricate, well planned plot; and this - one of the greatest moments in cinema in all of 2009. I'd be thrilled if it won. That being said, if I were a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, my vote would be for the endearing (500) Days of Summer. While it's a bit depressing for the category (maybe it should've been in the other one!), it's an overall lovely film. Go rent it. Now. Go on, I'll wait. And buy Zooey Deschanel's CD while you're at it.

Other Awards: As I haven't seen all of the nominated performances and animated films, it's a lot harder to judge them than it is the films as a whole. Therefore, I give you this list, generated purely out of my personal preferences: Emily Blunt (even though she's marrying John Krasinski). Colin Firth (for obvious reasons). Meryl Streep (same thing). Joseph Gordon-Levitt (see above regarding (500) Days). Up (which was a delight, and deserves everything it's won so far). Anna Kendrick (even though I'd bet money that it'll be Mo'nique). Stanley Tucci. And Kathryn Bigelow (because anything that involves James Cameron losing is OK with me).