Academy Awards - Carol's picks

At this year's AMC Best Picture Showcase we were given a mock ballot to play along with the Academy Awards.  While I've seen all of the movies up for Best Picture, I have not yet seen all of the movies that some of the Best Actors or Best Actresses are in.  However, based on what I have seen so far, if I were allowed to vote, I would pick these.

Best Actor:  Brad Pitt, "Moneyball"
Best Supporting Actor:  Max von Sydow, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"
Best Actress:  Rooney Mara, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
Best Support Actress:  Berenice Bejo, "The Artist"
Best Cinematography:  "War Horse"
Best Costume Design:  "Hugo"
Best Director:  "Martin Scorsese, "Hugo"
Best Film Editing: "The Artist"
Best Music: (Original Score) "Hugo"
Best Writing: (Adapted Screenplay) "Hugo"
Best Writing: (Original Screenplay) "Midnight in Paris"
Best Picture: "Hugo"

As you can see I really enjoyed "Hugo".

RESULTS:  The Academy only agreed with one of my picks.  "Midnight in Paris" did receive an Oscar for Best Writing.

Helicopters

Helicopter Launch Pad

Our living room has been buzzing lately.

The small red helicopter given to Pete for Christmas has been buzzing me daily. It is great for indoor use.  

The middle red helicopter is a birthday gift for my brother. It can be used indoors or outdoors. Originally we had purchased two of these, one for him and one for Pete. Unfortunately they were both defective so they were returned. We ordered a new one and had it delivered to us so Pete could test it out.  It arrived in good shape and is now in North Carolina with my brother.

While we were waiting for the replacement to arrive, the large yellow helicopter magically appeared.   Apparently it was in our basement for the past few years waiting until Pete had time to work on some modifications. This one is for outdoor use and he did get it to fly for about 5 seconds before it crashed.  More modifications...

I've not attempted to fly any of them, as I prefer to be the co-pilot; meaning that when they crash I run and pick them back up.

My Camera Is Back!

Yippee, my camera came back from FUGI on Valentines Day all fixed and ready for action.   Here are a few photo's I took right away. 

1.  I took a picture of the box my camera came in.  Isn't it slick?

2. Zooming in on flowers and testing some of the settings.  Julia gave me these - aren't they colorful?

3.  More zooming in on the yellow roses sweetie gave me for Valentine's Day.

4.  Just for fun - sweetie bought this statue awhile ago on one of our many trips to Las Vegas.  It makes me smile because it is so different from anything else we have in our house.

What's all that racket?

The local utility company "WE Energies" is coming around trimming trees that have grown around power lines.  A guy stopped by our house a week ago to let us know they'd be trimming a pine tree in the backyard soon.  The past two days, lots of heavy duty equipment have shown up on our block but so far they haven't gotten to our property.  It's only a matter of time though.  Here are some photo's you may enjoy:

UPDATED 2/17

1.  A "before" photo of the tree they'll likely cut in half!  (The power lines are about mid-way between the bottom and top of the tree)

1.1 The after photo: 

 2.  Another view showing the powerlines before the tree is attacked!

2..1  The After Photo:



3. The workers had a "pizza" delivery for lunch yesterday.  They sat in their trucks eating and napping I think.  At least it was quiet for about an hour.

Lifelong Bowler Celebrates 90th Birthday - Video - WXII The Triad

I love this story. My Aunt Marge (mom's oldest sister) was a life-long bowler too and I believe she also continued well into her 90's. I do love bowling and miss being in a regular league. Something I'll check into before the fall season begins for sure. If anyone wants to be on a team, let me know.

Lifelong Bowler Celebrates 90th Birthday - Video - WXII The Triad