81st Annual Academy Awards Party

This year's Oscar Party was a lot of fun... although we missed KO, Kathleen, and Elizabeth. No costumes this year took some of the pressure off the attendees. Of course, Miss Karen dressed in India garb... costume contest or no costume contest Miss Karen dresses the part! Big hit on the drinks. As usual we served champagne with gold leaf. As a nod to Slumdog Millionaire we had Bombay Gin and Tonics. And a new entry... The Tropic Thunder which was a mix of tropical fruit juice and Malibu rum. We thought about making a Dark Knight, but it just seemed to morbid. Meri made footprint cookies again this year, and some red velevet (carpet) cupcakes. Gordy and Linda won the Oscar pool, with Patrick as runner up.

Dark Ages Ball

Saturday night, Patrick and I went to a Naval Academy Ball. Annie and Mark stayed overnight with the kids and we stayed at the Manchester Grand Hyatt in downtown San Diego. It was a very nice dance, and we met some of Patrick's classmates.

Sunday morning we had lovely breakfast on the water at a restaurant called "Busters". But we had to hurry back home to set up for our Oscar party.

Shopping for Madigan's First Communion Dress

Yesterday I took Madigan shopping for her First Communion dress. Linda came along to help with the decision making. We picked up Selma and her mom and they took us to a dress shop down in Chula Vista. It is called "Little Kids Wear" and they had the largest assortment of First Communion dresses I have ever seen. Madigan tried on 9 of them. Gram, click on the gray arrow in the bottom left of the box below, and it will start a slideshow.

The very first one in the slide show was the one she originally chose to purchase until Linda had her try it on again. The first thing she said was that the arms were "itchy". So we had to go with her #2 choice (but the one that I think I liked best).

This is the one she chose, but Mrs. Penolio is going to add some more embellishments. I have a claddagh applique for the front. And we want to replace the buckle with a claddagh pin. I'm hoping to add some trinity knots to the veil as well.

Madigan's Patriotic Performance

Madigan's class had a Patriot Performance today. She is the first one on the left in the first row with the pigtails.

The Soup Taping

The Soup Taping started by meeting Michael & Liza at the Marie Callender's for a couple of happy hour drinks.
The taping started promptly and there were at least 40 more people there this time. Apprently they have a bit of a cult following. After the taping, we posed for pictures with the host Joel McHale. That's Annie, Joel, me, and Sally (Annie's sister). This is Annie and I posing in front of the background used for E! News.

Special Guest Star Evan Rachel Wood staying after the taping to pose for some pictures. She was absolutely delightful and teeny tiny. Her waist is the size of Madigan's!

On the way out of the parking garage, we spied a fleet of E! vans... so of course we had to stop and take a few pictures!

My New Favorite Charity

A friend from junior high school and high school, Erik Klaver, started a charity a year or so ago. I think it's a brilliant idea. Basically you sign up to donate a $1/month through PayPal and Erik forwards the money to the charity of the month. Fantastic. Here's the website:

http://www.charityamonth.com/

Clint Eastwood is a WD-40 Fan!

OK, maybe Clint isn't a fan, but his character in the movie Grand Torino is part of the WD-40 Fan Club! In the movie Clint Eastwood's character Walt Kowalski gives his student Tao his version of a basic tool set: a can of WD-40, vice grips and a roll of duct tape. "Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." Click ont he link below to watch Clint:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMKVDib76Vg