Gary
2/29/12
Cool new photos today -- special leap-day photos, and a portrait of Oscar. Thanks to Amanda and Teghan.

Hope everybody is doing something unusual on this unusual day. Drive home the long way, or go to a new restaurant!

John, hope the Tooth Fairy brings you something nice. --Gary

A rainy spring day all day here too. --Gary

You Minneapolis and Sioux City players will note that the checklists you received yesterday are now incomplete... But you can still print out our "official" checklist if you go to the Oscar picks page and download the form. The download link is right at the top. Lincoln players can do the same, of course, or if you make it to Grandma's Sunday night I will have plenty of checklists on hand.

Tristen: If you remember it, please bring the Oscar over to Grandma's so we can gaze at it during the show. :-)

So, I think we're ready for Oscar night. Good luck, everybody!

Aaagh, another bat! Y'all need some kind of bat-scarecrow. --Gary

Got it! Thanks, Teghan. I will add all the Metcalf votes to this page tomorrow. Should be a fun Oscar night! --Gary

You are so welcome, and good luck to everyone. There is some last-minute voting going on in the Metcalf house as I write this, so stand by. Have received Amanda's, Tristen's, and Ryan's, but still awaiting Teghan's. I'll post those results tomorrow. --Gary

For those of you who won't be in Hollywood on Sunday night, feel free to view the broadcast at Grandma's. As she does every year, Grandma will be preparing an exact duplicate of the menu that will be served at the Governor's Ball (which is held after the presentation for the winners and nominees only). I know that she's already working on the 24 Karat Chocolate Oscars; she mentioned that the hard part is getting the face just right.

I think Lincoln schools and the University are all off today, but we UN-L staff will report for duty. --Gary

You can see it in Google Earth. Find Ford's Theater and zoom all the way in down to the ground. You'll be in "street view" and can look around using your mouse. --Gary

I was playing around with Google-Earth yesterday (one of my favorite pastimes) and I went to Washington DC in street-view. I navigated up 10th Street to see Ford's Theater, and got a surprise: There was a new-ish looking building right next to the old theater, and the new building signage also read "Ford's Theater." Hmm, that wasn't there on my last visit, years ago. Apparently they have enlarged the museum part into this new building. And then this morning I ran across this amazing picture taken inside that very building. It's a 34-foot-tall stack of books -- each one of them about Abraham Lincoln. (That's 6800 books!)

Update: I learned they have also added a new museum and visitor center across the street, right next to the Petersen House, and that the photo of the books was actually taken there. This new museum opened just this month.

A few inches of wet snow that is already turning to slush on the streets. Not really a problem here -- just messy. --Gary

Speaking of time, if you are Amanda, Anna, Donna, Grandma, John, Lindsey, Lori, Marsha, Olivia, Paul, Ryan, Samantha, Sean, Teghan, Tristen, or Zachary you have only one week to get your Oscar ballots in. Brent, Emily, Erika, Gary, and Karen have already done it -- so how hard can it be, eh? :-)

If you want to make informed predictions, you might want to look at the Golden Globe winners and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG). I'll be sending out an email reminder today, to annoy those of you who haven't made your choices yet.

Couple inches of new snow on the ground, but not much more is expected so no closings around here. I don't really want to go out there today, but... --Gary

On another subject, I tried your Beef and Noodles in crockpot recipe yesterday -- and wow, it's good. Where you noted it is not necessary to brown the meat first, I went a step further (due to a lack of planning ahead): I took the meat from the freezer and put it directly in the crockpot. And it came out perfectly. Dee-lish. Thanks for the recipe!

It was excellent! I added mushrooms (chopped portobellos) and used frozen spinach instead of kale. I found that two large cans of chicken stock would have been way too much (for my 3-quart crockpot); I used only one. And don't leave out the cream -- that really made it, in my opinion. Anyway, it was great yesterday, and I'm looking forward to leftovers today. --Gary

Power is on here, and will stay on, knock wood. I did hear a big crash outside while still in bed this morning, but it sounded kind of overhead, so I think it must have been a big chunk of icy snow sliding off the roof.

I'm ready for the snow-day. I've got that Tuscan soup working in the crockpot (thanks, Amanda!), so I've got a bowl and spoon ready and I'm just watching the clock til it's done....

Be careful with that snow, Lincolnites -- it's dense and heavy, so instead of shoveling it, just call Ryan and have him bring the snowblower over. :-)

P.S. to the above: I just now looked outside and saw the cause of the crash I heard this morning. The 20-foot crab-apple tree in my backyard looks like it has split right down the middle, and one half of it crashed down right outside my back door. I think the sound of chainsaws will be in our ears over the next few days....

In a related note, the groundhog winter forecasts have been analyzed and compared to the actual weather records for as far back as they exist -- and the rodent predictions have absolutely no relation to what actually happened. Just in case you were wondering.