Luck O The Irish!

I have always been a big St. Patty's day fan, especially since I have to have some kind of Irish heritage with my maiden name. They celebrate it a little differently here in Dallas though, not as traditional in my opinion. In KC, the parade is always on actual St. Patrick's Day, rain or shine. It was fun to ask off of work for the event, months in advance and then get a group of friends to go to the parade. Drink away and then head on over to McCoy's in Westport. Even if it was FREEZING cold, which happens a lot of times in March in KC or unseasonably warm as can happen sometimes too, my Irish celebraters and I would get up early, go eat breakfast and then settle in to enjoy a long day of Irish drunkeness. KC really does have one of the top 10 parades around so its worth it!!!
But down here the Texans do it a little different. The party is on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day. The parade starts around Mockingbird station area and is a couple hours long. Then everyone heads down to the block party on Greenville Ave. This year we lucked out and got gorgeous weather. Ryan was even sporting a slight sunburn after it all! And to top it all off my sister, Brooke and her husband Dave came up from Austin to enjoy the festivities with us. We got dressed up in our green garb and had a great time!!!
But that's not all we did while they were here. Since the weather was so nice we headed down to the Ft. Worth Stockyards on Sunday to walk around and eat some Pit Smoked BBQ at Cooper's (also not as good as KC, but still yummy). It was a fun weekend and I'm glad we got to spend some time w/ my sister and BIL since they are going to be really busy, really soon. They are expecting their first baby, due Oct 29th and we are all so excited.

St. Patty's Day 2005

St. Patty's Day 2006

St. Patty's Day 2007

St. Patty's Day 2008

St. Patty's Day 2008

St. Patty's Day 2010

Brooke and Dave

Me and Brooke

The Oscars

So after all that hype of going to see all the Oscar nominated movies, I kind of slacked on following up. So better late than never. I started out the night watching the red carpet on E!. Here are a few of my likes and dislikes from the red carpet.

First off, the dresses I liked!


What a beautiful pale pink dress. Great with her skin tone and gorgeous details!

While I'm not a fan of Kristen or Twilight, I loved this dress and thought it was a great choice and a really beautiful, Oscar worthy gown!

Usually I would think a dress like this would be TOO much, but I loved the color and the texture. Pretty, pretty, pretty!

I think Cameron looks like a total classic beauty in this dress. I love the flowiness of it and the beading.

This isn't the most gorgeous Oscar dress by any means but I thought it was a great choice for her and a very flattering cut!

Love the color and I am definitely a fan of ruching!

Now the ones I didn't like as much!

Too much, the beading, the coloring, the ruffles, just too much!

I think we all agree on this one, not a fan of the color and not a fan of the bewbies!

The color just washes her out!

Don't care for the print and don't think its flattering at all.

She's so young and hip and cute and this dress doesn't say any of that to me. It says 70's and boring.

After the Red Carpet and the Oscars started I liked Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin together. Classic funny guys. I am sad to say that I did not win the bet that Ryan and I set. He picked more winners than I did. But sometimes its hard to know who will win Best Sound Editing to Best Sound Mixing, am I right? But it was fun to give us something to cheer for in the more obscure categories. Overall the Cinderalla story was The Hurt Locker with Kathryn Bigelow winning best director and the movie winning best picture, meh. I had high hopes for the movie Precious which I would have liked to see win Best Picture. The Hurt Locker just didn't resonate with me that much, and while I get the importance of the first female best director, this film didn't move me or make me think or bring me to tears or any of the things I like to get out of a Best Picture. So better luck to me next year!!!

More movie reviews!

We saw the last 2 movies we had left on our list for the Best Picture noms.

An Education
I really liked this movie but that being said I think it is more of a chick flick. It's about a teenage girl (Carey Mulligan)in London during the 60's trying to decide between her continuing education or settling down with a man almost twice her age (Peter Saarsgard). At first she sets her sights on attending Oxford but once her new, experienced, fun, exciting, cultured boyfriend comes on the scene and asks her to marry him she gives up her Oxford dream and decides to be a wife. She believes she is getting more of an education by having all these new found experiences with him, travelling, going to jazz clubs and museums, etc. She soon finds out that her boyfriend is not what she thought, in more ways than one, and she is forced to end the relationship with him. Since she had not taken her final exams at prep school, her Oxford dream is also shattered. She is left feeling hopeless, no future husband and now no schooling option either, until she reunites with her previous professor to get back on track to Oxford.

My grade: A-, this was a good movie, with some interesting twists. I liked it more than Ryan, probably bc it dealt more with women's emotional issues.

The Blind Side
Based on a true story about the well to do, white Tuohy family that takes in a near homeless high school aged African American boy, Michael Oher. After seeing Michael alone at school and walking around town in cold temps in only shorts and a T-shirt, Leigh Ann Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) makes the decision to welcome him into their family home. Mr. and Mrs. Tuohy and their 2 kids take to Michael and help him believe in himself, believe in school and believe in football. Ultimately he becomes an All-American and gets drafted into the NFL. But Michael wasn't the only one who benefits from the deal, the Tuohy's feel just as blessed to have him as part of the family too.

My grade: C+, I think we saw this movie too long after it came out. I had already heard so much about it for months but I am honestly SHOCKED that this film was nominated. In my opinion it is one step above a Lifetime channel movie. The acting wasn't that great, the movie was too long, and I didn't leave feeling inspired.

Finally, it is Oscar night. I am excited to see who wins and Ryan and I have a friendly wager going on to see who gets the most right. Fingers crossed for me!!!!