Departed!

Best director, best adapted screenplay and best picture! I'll go along with that. I ate that movie up, man.

The best picture was mildly surprising, but I honestly didn't see a favorite in that race. Every critic had a different front-runner.

Food hangover

That groaning sound you hear from hundreds of miles away is me.

Yesterday, I didn't eat anything until 6 p.m., then I had half a chicken, two cheeseburgers, eight Caribbean Jerk boneless wings and a burrito in an eight-hour span. I also had seven drinks, but with all the food I ate I'd have gotten more drunk gargling mouthwash for thirty seconds.

Hi Mom! Can you believe I'm already 27?

COME ON

A week ago, I took comfort during a frigid snap when I saw that Saturday's forecast was for 65 degrees and sunny. Today, I'm looking out my window at gigantic snowflakes flying through the air on a day that couldn't be grayer.

Weather guys get a bad rap, and I don't want to kill them too much, but sometimes they're just cruel.

At least Holly's already in Aspen, with hot toddies and rich people and nice rental skis. And I have the cats and their meaningless yelping to keep me company. Awesome.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

Man, this show crackles. We saw it at the Kentucky Center tonight and howled laughing through pretty much the whole thing. It's directed by the guy who directed Into The Woods, the show that is the only reason Spelling Bee is my second-favorite thing I've seen on stage.

Magic fooooooooooooooooot...

Studio 60 sacked

Boo. No more Studio 60. I didn't love it, but I liked it, and I thought they might have been able to become more cohesive with a little more time.

Cheers finished almost dead last in the ratings its first year, but it caught on. The environment today won't allow something like that to happen ever again.

I like to move it, move it

We helped my sister Paige, brother-in-law Brian and almost-three-month-old niece Lea move from suburban Philadelphia to southwest Virginia. Well, we didn't help them move, we helped them move in, since we met them and my parents at their new house. I love it. We got a few inches of snow, too.

Here's my sister, niece and girlfriend talking about sewing notions, or whatever it is that women gab about these days.

Dude, the colors. We're a color wheel here, and we match by couple! The sack of flour in my lap has the same haircut as me. I don't think we can keep matching hairstyles for too much longer.

I just have to point out something that is probably obvious, but nonetheless: Cutest baby in the galaxy.

Stupid cats

While I was reading something online for two minutes, Mojo drank the rest of my orange juice and Moxie started eating my Golden Grahams. Sigh... breakfast is over.

Finally

Put one in the win column for journalism.

It's still not as good as the government coming to its senses and dropping the charges, but it beats these guys getting prison time.

Hoops and trips

It's been two days of excellent college basketball news:

• My alma mater, Maryland, beat our No. 1-with-a-bullet archenemy Duke by 12 points Sunday night. We're far from a lock for the tournament -- I think we're on the bubble -- but a win over Duke, even a crappier-than-usual Duke, will always stand out on a resume.
• My adopted hometown team, Louisville -- another unranked bunch -- stomped all over fifth-ranked Pittsburgh on the road tonight. Thanks to Marty Schottenheimer getting canned in San Diego, it was only the second-shockingest sports development of the night, but it was a huge boost to the locals.

In other news, Holly and I are road-tripping to southwestern Virginia to help my sister, brother-in-law and baby niece move into their new digs. My parents will be there too, and I haven't seen any of them since Christmas, so I'm very excited.

Supposed to be some winter-mixy precipitation on Tuesday, but local weather dudes have been pretty off the mark of late, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Muchos pictures of my niece

Here.

Um, brrrr?

Six degrees this morning -- wind chill made it 14 below.

FOURTEEN BELOW! In Louisville!

Drove Holly to school, after letting her in the driver's side door because the passenger's door latch froze shut.

Anyway, the high w/o wind chill is 19 today, but the 10-day forecast looks encouraging: high 40s by mid-next week!

My favorite Seinfeld moments

No reason, really, but please comment with your own favorites.

Watley!...
J: Yeah, well, I don't trust this guy. I think he re-gifted, and I think he de-gifted, and now he's using an upstairs invite as a springboard to a Super Bowl sex romp!

The golf ball and the whale...
G: The sea was angry that day, my friends - like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli.

The busboy gets a visit...
Busboy: La puerta esta abierta! LA PUERTA ESTA ABIERTA!

Elaine on painkillers in Florida, meeting a friend of Jerry's mother...
E: STELLA! ... STELLA! (Obviously, you have to see it to appreciate.)

After Elaine takes an IQ test on George's behalf and bombs it amid distractions...
G: Oh hello, professor!

No other explanation needed for "The Contest"...
J: We have to do it, it's part of our lifestyle. It's like shaving.
E: Oh, that is such baloney. I shave my legs!
K: Not every day.

George on Jerry's new jacket:
G: Can I say one thing to you? And I say this with an unblemished record of staunch heterosexuality. It’s fabulous.

Two moments that were all about the buildup and a bombshell from Kramer, and both make me laugh out loud every time I see them.
-The first: "The Nose", when George dates an otherwise pretty friend of Elaine's with a huge nose. Jerry and George talk at length about not fixating on it - they and Elaine are handling it delicately when the woman laments how intimidating she finds the throngs of beautiful New Yorkers. To which Kramer replies off-handedly, "You're as pretty as any of them. You just need a nose job."
-The second: "The Hamptons", after George goes off to run an errand and thus misses his girlfriend, with whom he has not even fooled around yet, walking around topless.
J: Boutros-Boutros Ghali!
Jerry and Elaine agree not to tell George and resolve to remind Kramer of the same. But Kramer returns to the beach house with lobster, much to George's delight, and before Jerry can intervene...
G: This is fantastic. Man, what a weekend. Swimming, lobster for dinner...
K: I know it's great. And I saw Jane topless.
Jerry is stricken, like he just missed catching a home run ball.

Ted Danson's salary relative to George's prospective cut from the pilot...
G: Who's he?
J: He's somebody.
G: Who am I?
J: You're nobody.
G: Why him, why not me?
J: He's good, you're not.
G: I'm BETTER than him!
J: You'rrrrre worse. ... Much, much worse.

Hennigan's...
J: Would you do me a favor? Would you take a drink and let us smell you?
K: You can smell me without the drink.

The four of 'em each take a crack at delivering "These pretzels are making me thirsty," and George's is melodramatically angsty...
G: What was wrong with that? I had a different interpretation! Do you know anything about this pretzel guy? Maybe he's been in the bar a really long time, and he's really depressed because he has no job and no woman and he's parking cars for a living.

The menage a trois. The following might be my favorite Seinfeld moment ever. Talk about "The Switch." George's lightning-fast transformation from incredulous and excited to incredulous and infuriated is ... I don't know, it's just friggin hilarious...
G: Do you ever just get down on your knees and thank God that you know me and have access to my dementia?
J: What are you talking about, I'm not gonna do it!
G: You're not gonna do it, whaddya mean you're not gonna do it?!?
J: I can't, I'm not an orgy guy!
G: ARE YOU CRAZY?!? This is like discovering plutonium, BY ACCIDENT!