Yes, I’m talkin’ about you.

BUT LOOK! Mr. Squirrel and I have seen THREE… and, like last year, I’m ranking them as we see them, so I hope this makes sense.

1. “Moneyball” — I’m surprised that I liked this movie so much, and I’m not a big Brad Pitt fan. I also don’t enjoy baseball that much, but what I do love? Statistics. So, there ya go. I liked the movie, and I’m not sure why exactly I like it more than “the Help” — maybe I wouldn’t if I hadn’t read “the Help” already, which made it less surprising and appalling — I’d already felt those emotions. Jonah Hill was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in “Moneyball,” and if he wins, I will effing crap my drawers and yell at the tv (the yelling is rather common, the crapping not so much). His performance was fine, but worthy of a nomination? Dude. No.

2. “The Help” — I’d read the book. The movie did a great job following the book. I thought Viola Davis rocked the vote, and I’m so glad Jessica Chastain received a nominated as the awful, Hilly. She was fantastically awful. UPDATE: Thanks to Britt for knocking me on the head with a brick of DUH that Jessica Chastain played “Celia” and NOT “Hilly.” Ergo, Bryce Howard got screwed out of a nomination, and Jessica Chastain was good, but well, if she wins the Oscar, I’ll lose that bet.

3. “Hugo” — You may remember my thoughts on this movie. Art Direction, cinematography and director awards would be well-deserved, but that doesn’t add up to a Best Picture.
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Still to come…

“The Artist”
“The Descendants”
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”
“Midnight in Paris”
“The Tree of Life”
“War Horse”

Your thoughts? Have you been able to see any of the ones I’ve seen — do you agree with my opinions? Have you seen the others? My dad’s take on “War Horse?” He told me not to waste my money and that he could have written better dialogue. He did not, however, crap his pants.

Last you knew, I’d seen seven of the 10 best pic nominees and this was the order of my preference:

1. The Social Network
2. The Kings Speech
3. 127 Hours
4. Inception
5. Toy Story 3
6. Winter’s Bone
7. The Kids are All Right

I finally saw Black Swan this past summer with our family babysitter– dang. That was creepy, and Mila Kunis is stunningly gorgeous. I think it was worthy of a nomination. You’ll see where it fits in the list at the end of the post. Nail-biting, isn’t it?

Then showed up on Netflix, so we caught that last month. That was good, too — I love the Coen brothers, and I hadn’t known before seeing it that Matt Damon was in the movie. Jeff Bridges is wicked talented and deserved the nomination. I love how much he loves acting. I also love that I live in a time period with better dentistry practices. There were some gnarly chompers on deck.

And just this week, I made my husband watch , which watch out top of the chart, because holy jeeez that was some good acting. A well-deserved Oscar to Christian Bale as supporting actor. I’m still not sure why Amy Adams was nominated. She was good, but not nomination-worthy. Also? Crack is whack.

SO, the FINAL list of the venerable Hollow Squirrel Oscar Movie Review (2011…because YES, it’s hard to believe, but the

1. The Social Network
2. The Fighter
3. The Kings Speech
4. 127 Hours
5. True Grit
6. Black Swan
7. Inception
8. Toy Story 3
9. Winter’s Bone
10. The Kids are All Right

Yep, that’s right. I’ve gotta sew up some ribbons for the winners and runners-up. It’s over, people. Roll up the red carpet and head home.

I’m already on the path to seeing the nominations for THIS years awards… I’ve seen “Hugo” (seriously? Best Picture nominee? booooooo.) and redboxed “Moneyball” today. I plan on seeing “The Help” this weekend…and then I might actually have to *gasp* go to the theater.

Anyway, thank you for checking in with me this lovely year! Off to draw dragons.
xoxoxo

and Wednesday nights at the roller rink.

He did attend my school and was a grade ahead of me. My good friend and neighbor, also a grade ahead of me, had a crush on the boy, so we’d be giddy on the busride home Wednesday afternoons fantasizing about this boy (and the many other awesomely 80s-tastic boys on 8 wheels).

After lacing up our rental skates and tying on my rainbow pom-poms, we’d head out for some laps and check who showed up. Halfway through the night, the DJ (seriously) would announce some special skate where the boys would be on one side, girls on the others, and you could skate out and ask another person to skate, hand in hand.

That. Is what it was all about.

My friend and her crush often skated hand in hand. Mostly, I stood and waited and…then shuffled to the edge and grabbed a surprisingly delicious hot pretzel and melty cheese from the snack bar.

Or, just as often, I’d skate to the bathroom and put that big ass comb from my back pocket to work on my feathered locks.

Fastforward to now, when my friend’s crush, the boy, popped up on FB, and I clicked over to his profile.

He’s married with children. Not surprising.

He lives in the south. Somewhat surprising.

He and his children are a religious country singing group. um, what?

He owns a salvage company. For UFOs.

The end.

Absosmurfly nothing fits in my weak collection workplace holiday party attire. We no longer live in a household where I can head to Banana Republic and pull something, sale or not, off the rack to bring home.

And, unless I can swing a homerun in the 2 hour gap I’ll get tomorrow while Nugget is a school, I’ll have to bring him along on the torturous shopping excursion.

During my solo trip to Target yesterday, I hurriedly tried on a couple of options, three of which were from the maternity collection.

I’m not pregnant. I am, however, carrying baby Fat Bastard around my midsection…but the (adorable otherwise) Liz Lange dresses did make me look pregnant, and I don’t want to risk causing Mr. Squirrel a heart attack.

I’m pretty sure last year, I made my husband go without me for the same reason I’m thinking of backing out this year — nothing to wear. I’m not going to do that to him this year, even if that means having to drag Nugget along, thereby establishing a hatred of shopping most men seem to harbor. Awesome.

Nugget and I had just finished storytime and decided to get a treat at a local indie coffeeshop. I’ve never taken in him there, and we shuffled to the back of the store near the baked items, and there in the booth behind us was a very skinny, pretty yet exhausted woman. I recognized her as someone I’d seen before, but didn’t make the connection until she spoke to the waiter with an accent. I had given her my classic “I know you from somewhere, and I know you’re friendly” smile already.

But I know better than to do the whole “I know you from somewhere” exchange since I almost IKYFS‘d the registered sex offender from up the street at the grocery store. Seriously. Glad I bit my tongue and repressed my inner midwesterner on that one.

Anyway, all the clues came together and I realized she must be in town for the movie — she told the waiter she was going to the set, and this I like — she walked back to her hotel by herself to catch a lift to the set. It’s not the best part of town, and it was rather chilly, but off her skinny little legs went.

AND cut.

Happy birthday, dear Jojo. I adore every single cell of your body, your megawatt smile and the joy that bursts from your body like uncontainable sunshine. I love your mind, your curiosity, your energy, your laugh and, well, a trillion other loveable traits you share.

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I’m knee deep in Lego Star Wars party-planning and my parents just came into town, so I have to get back to work, but many of you have been with my blog since early on, when Jojo was just a wee little blonde puffball. To all of you CyberAunts, thank you for your sweet fondness towards my eldest son and your support towards me as a mother. I adore you, too.

The boys did great on the plane, although the painful ears on the landing affected Jojo both ends of the trip. Nugget didn’t adjust to the jetlag as well as Jojo, and they often were overwhelmed by the number of new family members (over 20 in the first day alone), but we all had a great time!

My husband’s extended family (his dad has six siblings with 21 kids between them, and his mom had three siblings with 7 kids) is nothing short of inspiring, welcoming, loving and very, very fun. Coming from my own small family (two cousins! Woot!), I absolutely love connecting with them all. Even the spouses are fantastic — welcoming, interested, interesting and just plain nice.

My husband’s paternal grandmother turned 90 this year. I’ve met her before on other trips, but she hadn’t met Nugget before, and I hadn’t seen her in almost five years. Sometimes she calls or writes, though, and although she’s always apologizing for her English, it’s very good. She’s incredibly supportive of me as a mother and a person. She’s also the most elegant and chic woman I know. We drove to her house near Eindhoven and all raked her leaves for her. That’s the kind of family my husband’s family is. We bond as a family doing things, helping others, or at the least, coming together over a lengthy, delicious meal.

More to come but it may have to wait until after this weekend, when Jojo turns SIX. I’m in party planning madness. Plus, did I mention my sweet Jojo will be 6? Good God.

It was fun for awhile, but I knew I was kind of over the cool factor when one of my close friends told me a house on her block was going to be used for filming, and I didn’t go over to check it out.

Of course, none of the hotties were there, just Eva Mendes, and I can’t get excited about her.

A couple blocks over from my house, I spotted Ray Liotta getting dropped off at the set…the kids and I just walked over, and there he was. Crazy. You know he’s playing a crooked cop — he’s gotta be. Has he ever played a kind, gentle soul?

We stopped two houses over because one of the elementary school teachers was there, and Jojo wanted to say hi. I instantly liked her more because she was there in her running clothes — sweaty and not ashamed.

One mom kind of worried me because she was all gussied up and apparently had searched out the sets all summer, bringing her child every day to catch a glimpse of the stars. What does she expect? I’m not sure. But her intensity creeped me out, so we left shortly after seeing Bradley Cooper arrive at set, which happened a few minutes after seeing Ray:

What? You don’t see him? I needed a better lens? Yes, but if you squint and get REALLY FREAKY close to your screen, you can see him in the middle of the picture, wearing a blue tshirt heading into the house — he’s to the right of the crew member in the yellow tshirt.

Apparently, he’s rather snooty and has no interest in talking with locals. What gives, Coop? The boys weren’t impressed with any of it (although I’m more interested in seeing all the goings on needed to make a film and the fact that it was RIGHT down the street! Crazy!), so we left.

I’m looking forward to the film, though, since they shot at several area locations we know well. I’m rather surprised at how quickly I got over the initial excitement considering how into movies I once was. Sorry I didn’t score more insider gossip or scandalous photos for you, dear Reader.