Oscars Night

We love the Oscars around here. It started out that I loved the Oscars and would watch them every year (I view it as my Super Bowl) and Adrian would be on the computer or doing something else. Then a few years ago we discovered online Oscar ballots and ever since then it has become a friendly competition (friendlyish, but it wouldn't be a right without some smack talking and banter) between Adrian and I to see who can get the most categories right. It's awesomely fun! This year we let the kids fill out their own ballots, though none of them actually watched the show since it goes too late. They were super excited this morning to see how they did. The results: I got 13 right, Ben 8, Adrian 5, Sophie 5, and Nina 5. Didn't Ben do well!:)

As for the show itself, I was super excited that Colin Firth won best actor. Yay! His speech was very nice and self deprecatingly cute. Love that guy! And can I just say that I was over the top excited that Trent Reznor, of Nine Inch Nails fame, won for best musical score for The Social Network. That's amazing! Seeing Trent Reznor in a tux looking well groomed and normal was awesome. I used to sketch crazy looking early 90's Trent on my notebooks in high school. It's nice to know we've all grown up including Trent and that he is a soundtrack composer now.

Then for the rest of the show. Hmm. I think there was a ton of cringe worthy moments, a lot more than normal. Kirk Douglas for one. The best supporting actress and the F bomb for another. And  as excited as I was to see Anne Hathaway and James Franco host the Oscars I just didn't think they worked very well together. Did anyone else notice that James seemed super stiff/distant and never seemed to even look at his co-host?? Their timing was a little off too. But then again they are actors and not comedians so I guess I should cut them some slack. Trying to be funny on live TV must difficult. I do miss the days of Billy Crystal and Steve Martin; they made it seem effortless. Even with all the awkwardness I still had a good time watching it and I don't think it hurt my enjoyment that I won our little ballot competition.:)

Our Valentine's Day

I know this is more than a week overdue, but we had a very fun Valentine's day. We had our traditional Valentine's breakfast together; this year it was caramel pull-aparts with orange juice. And I gave everyone a book, candy, and Valentine. Adrian got a book of math riddles (and he loved it, oh how I love my geeky man), Sophie got The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan, Ben got The Mouse and the Motorcycle, and Nina got an Angelina Ballerina book. I got myself this copy of Jane Eyre - how cool is that?! Happy Valentine's day to me! Fun morning. Then when the kids got home from school and Adrian got home from work we had spaghetti and meatballs, which had also become a tradition I think because I really loved Lady and The Tramp when I was little. And after dinner we all went to Gnomeo and Juliet. The kids loved it. I think it was cute and entertaining, but must admit that the story of Romeo and Juliet with a happy ending just isn't right. But of course I wouldn't take my kids to a movie with a double suicide at the end... So Gnomeo and Juliet fit the bill for a fun Valentine's family movie night.

Just to add a little Ghost of Valentine's Past tidbit, for our first Valentine's day together I got Adrian a really nice copy of the tragedies of William Shakespeare thinking it was a super romantic gift - mostly because of how much I love Romeo and Juliet. Adrian thought it was super weird, not being a big Romeo and Juliet fan himself, but he still loved me so it all worked out.:)

False Positives

Yesterday was a weird day. It was great, but weird. Sophie had her long awaited appointment with an allergist. We wanted a second opinion on her food allergies from a specialist. We are very very glad we got this second opinion because they did the skin test and the results were negative. Negative. No allergies to eggs, peanuts, or fish. The blood test her pediatrician ordered apparently had false positives. Can you imagine if we hadn't gotten a second opinion?? False positives suck. Now, the only way to know for sure is for us to add back into her diet, slowly and one at a time: eggs, peanuts, and fish (not that she ever ate fish really, but I plan on giving her Caesar salad dressing with anchovies in it later). Last night we had Belgian waffles to start it off and this morning she was not sick. Yay. Big fluffy breakfast for dinner waffles!! She is looking forward to some scrambled eggs this weekend. She is happy. I am happy. This is awesome.

But, the thing that's really frustratingly weird is that now we still don't know what is or was wrong with Sophie. We stopped eggs, peanuts and fish and she got better. So of course we thought that's what it was. But now it's still the mystery illness that her doctors can't figure out. The allergist did say that you can develop food sensitivities after you've had a bad stomach flu and that's what might have set it all off. Let's hope it was that and she's all done with being sick. As we start giving her these foods I'm going to have my mental fingers crossed that the tummy troubles will have gone away too. Wish us luck!

Happy Valentine's Day

Romeo and Juliet by Jennie Harbour, c. somewhere around 1920

Happy Valentine's Day!! I hope you have a wonderful day with those you love!

I'm breaking from my Pre-Raphaelite Valentine's tradition and instead am bringing you this gorgeous illustration of Romeo and Juliet by Jennie Harbour, an early 20th century illustrator who worked for the Tucks Postcard Co. I saw it whilst searching for a Pre-Raphaelite images (even though it's not Pre-Raphaelite) and just couldn't pass it up. It's too pretty!! And perfect for Valentine's Day! This was an oil painting that was made into a print, especially for postcards. Can you imagine that kind of work being put into a modern postcard?? I love it's oh so lovely Art Nouveau style. The decoration and composition is just so curvy and organic. That's gorgeous Art Nouveau for you! And it's such a sensitive portrayal of this intimate scene were Juliet is saying good-bye to her new husband at dawn before he is exiled to Mantua, the last time they will see each other alive (well Romeo sees Juliet when she is alive, but he thinks she's dead...you know what I meant :)). This was probably produced somewhere before and near 1920, but it's super hard to get information on Jennie Harbour. She kind of fell off the map after working for Tucks for a few years. It was a hard world to be a female artist in the early 20th century. You can count the popular/successful female artists from the late 19th and early 20th centuries on one hand. But my goodness she was talented. If you googled her you'd be amazed at how beautiful and original her illustrations are. So there you go. Hope you like the image and I hope you have a wonderful day of love!