Oscars, it's the most wonderful time of the year!

I should be jumping *not literally* for joy with my pregnancy happiness, shopping for adorable rompers for Olivia but sadly I'm sitting on the bummer couch. I had jury duty yesterday and it was torture. It took all day, my body is sore from sitting and waiting all day, I am sure I caught every disease from all those people and I had to cancel my weekly acupuncture appt. What a nightmare, I basically had to say I was going into labor to get the judge to excuse me. The cherry on my bullshit sundae is overall financial drama. My mortgage company made a huge boo-boo and deducted this month's payment twice, still trying to straighten that out, meanwhile I'm trying to negotiate lower payments with my first mortgage and so far have only been successful in increasing our payments. I am tied up in medical billing hell due to a technical error and I can not get in touch with the billing dept to correct the mistake and my homeowner's insurance somehow increased by $123 this year. Needless to say I am getting it from all sides and my usual juggling routine is not going so well. I would like to start shopping for nursery furniture but the powers that be are making that very difficult. The good news is I am feeling Olivia kick on a daily basis, as a matter of fact she feels like she will be a soccer player for sure. I have spent this morning dealing with all these companies and made absolutely no progress. My head is aching and I feel emotionally and phsyically drained. I still have the big decision of fixing our leaking garage or having my dream shower. To my friends and husband its a no-brainer, fix the garage and have a less expensive shower but to me, that's like saying have no shower at all. I have economized all I could and there is nothing I could cut from the shower budget. Oh well, nothing I can do now, I'll think about that tomorrow *Scarlett O' Hara*



Now on to my good buddy Oscar.
I adore the Oscar's, it's the only time of year besides the Golden Globes *which is really a fancy keg party*
that you see old fashioned movie star glamour. Here are my picks for this year's ceremony.

Best motion picture of the year *many contenders this year*

Precious *my pick*
Avatar *obvious choice I'll be shocked if it doesn't win*

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" *he took it a the GG's but I don't understand the appeal*
George Clooney in "Up in the Air" *my pick*

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire *would be nice but she's a rookie*
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia *she'll take it, no question*

*Please tell me, why oh why is Sandra Bullock nominated???

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds *no doubt in my mind, he has got this!*

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Mo'Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire *there is no competition*

Best animated feature film of the year

Fantastic Mr. Fox *my pick, this movie was incredibly well-written, smart and well cast*
Up  *it's gonna win*

Achievement in art direction

Avatar *will take it*
Sherlock Holmes *I thought it was visually entertaining*

sidenote, we are seeing The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus tomorrow night so my vote may change

Achievement in cinematography

Avatar *hard to beat, Harry Potter usually owns this category*

Achievement in costume design

Coco before Chanel *although I haven't seen it, noone will defeat the reigning Queen*

Achievement in directing

James Cameron *it's his night*
Quentin Tarantino  *if I had it my way, I'd give it to QT*

Best documentary feature

Food, Inc *there has been so much buzz about this doc, I couldn't see it or I would never eat meat again*

Best documentary short subject


China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province *I choose this only because I happened to see it on HBO, nothing brillant but it was touching*
 
Achievement in film editing
 
Avatar
 
Best foreign language film of the year
 
The White Ribbon Germany *this is still on my Netflix queue, no release date yet*
 
Achievement in makeup
 
The Young Victoria *it was between this and Star Trek, I go with the period film everytime*
 
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
 
Fantastic Mr. Fox *I really enjoyed this score*
Avatar *will most likely take it but it annoyed me how Lion King this score felt*
 
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
Take It All from Nine  *my pick*
The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart) from Crazy Heart  *not at all a fan but they won at GG's and films based on musicians tend to win*
 
Adapted screenplay
 
District 9 * they were robbed at the Golden Globes, redemption!*
 
Original screenplay
 
Inglourious Basterds *fingers crossed*
The Hurt Locker *maybe?*

That's my 2 cents, I hope next year I will be able to sit in the red carpet audience however I've been saying the same thing since I was 13! On the plus side of things, our house is being considered for a TV show *although I doubt we'll be picked because our house is too small* and we went to Lowes this weekend to replace our sad dying houseplant and I picked up some home reno mags and this guy, makes me want a sewing machine.