Gary
2/29/04
Congratulations to Oscar-winners Donna and (in the 17-and-under crowd) Lindsey! A very close race this year. Full details later!

Woo-hoo! See you tomorrow night! :-) --Gary

Sounds good to me. :-) Stay for the whole weekend and we can watch the Oscars on Sunday night! --Gary

By the way, I sent out the Oscar sheets yesterday, so watch your mailboxes....

The Hon. Doug Bereuter, making Nebraska proud by always being on the cutting edge, does not believe in email. There is no way to contact him electronically. (You can call his Lincoln office at 438-1598.) You can email our senators, however, via this link.

I heard that Irag is now saying it had bought parts for WMD. Why would they ever admit that? Especially now when the US is saying we made a mistake--that there never were any WMD? I'm betting the news pleased Bush.

I'm betting the news was created by Bush....

AND did you hear Johhny Depp won best actor at SAG Awards last night??? What is this world coming to?

That was surprising, considering the competition like Sean Penn. LOTR won an "ensemble" award for the entire cast. --Gary

Well, if he had witnessed it, I think he might have hired me as coach. You see, both cans landed without... well, I guess I made my point... --Gary

Sounds cool, Erika! --Gary

OK, I fixed it. Only 95 days! :-) --Gary

Sorry, that's a code phrase that I thought was more widespread -- especially as it comes from Tristen! From her we learned that a courteous audience member should laugh with the performer, not at the performer. :-) --Gary

Amanda sent me the link to this William Hung website -- you know, the "She bang" guy from American Idol. If you want to just view his audition, click on this movie clip. Amanda says they've watched it hundreds of times. :-) (Remember: With, not At!) The clip is 3 or 4 megabytes, so it can take a while to download to your machine. If you expect to view it more than once, just right-click on the movie clip link above and select "Save Target As..." That way, you will save the clip to your machine and can watch it while off-line.

And one more thing: I got a newsletter item this morning from Paul & Lori, but there was no text in it. Could y'all re-construct what you wrote and try it again?

The countdown on the front page makes tomorrow the last day, but I can extend that deadline through the weekend because I won't get the scoresheets in the mail until Monday. But that's the final deadline: If you haven't made your picks by Monday morning you will only be a seat-filler on Oscar night, not a contender. It's sad, when you think about it.

Ok, this is how your right and left brain affect you.

While sitting at your computer pick up your right foot off the ground and start moving it in circles clockwise.

Now while you're still doing that try and draw a 6 in the air with your right hand.

Your right foot will automatically start changing directions and there is nothing you can do about it no matter how hard or how many times you try........ :) Just thought it was something to start conversation on the webpage!

Every couple of weeks, the Chancellor of the University (Harvey Perlman) sends out to all the faculty and staff a chatty informal e-mail about what's going on in his office and around the campus, etc. Last week's message started thus:

First there are budget cuts, then football coaches, and now the worst snowfalls in decades. We should probably get ready for locusts and the plague this Spring.

I wrote this back to him, saying I would respectfully like to take issue with that statement:

Including "football coaches" with budget cuts and snowfalls suggests that the coaching situation was something out of your control, like an act of God or legislation from the Capitol. But that shameful and embarassing business, which tarnished the Nebraska football program to the point that Tom Osborne wants to remove his name from it, was an act of Steve Pederson -- with, I gather, your complete support.

Later that day, he replied:

Sorry if you were offended. You are free to think as you will but as you might guess I didn't see anything shameful and embracing about changing the leadership of a program that was declining in quality.
Harvey

(By "embracing" I'm sure he meant "embarassing.") I don't know which papers he's reading, if any, but I would hope he knows it was more than just me who was "offended." :-) I always liked Perlman before this coaching fiasco, but he's taken a real popularity hit (here on the campus certainly, and elsewhere I'm sure) by siding with Pederson on this.

I did read in the paper today that Osborne is giving up his skybox. He says as senator he didn't want it to appear as though he was being shown favoritism (the skybox was a gift in '99 from former athletic director Bill Byrnes). Osborne said he just wanted to be like a regular person and sit in stadium seats like everyone else. He just hopes he can find tickets for next season. (Uh, I bet he has no problem.) He said his decision had nothing to do with the firing of Solich, but I think he's trying to show his disapproval of all that's happened.

Still pondering their answers are Brent, Donna, Lori, Olivia, Ryan, Sean, Teghan, and Tristen. When you think you've got the combination that can take the trophy away from Samantha, vote!

I don't think you all fully appreciate the fact that it was two cans, and they both landed right side up. Both of them! Each of the two, at the same time! --Gary

Dang, Lindsey, that thing does really hang on -- I know! Hope you get over it soon! --Gary

Sure, one is "enough" for a snack. But not enough for variety. One Jelly Belly jellybean is good, but two or three or more different kinds is much better! :-) --Gary

I just want to say that was a pretty good story, I thought. Did you catch that it was two cans? And they both landed without spilling?? --Gary

Ahhh, my evil scheme worked....! --Gary

Not yet on board are Anna, Brent, Donna, Lori, Olivia, Ryan, Samantha, Sean, Teghan (though sadly Jay-Jay the Jet Plane was not among the nominees this year), Tristen, and Zachary. Can't win if ya don't play!

And here's yet another reminder: Unless your name is Amanda, Emily, Erika, Gary, Grandma, Karen, Lindsey, or Paul, you haven't voted yet. Please do!

You also can participate in Gift of Sharing, which is a charitable contribution. Just tell us how many boxes you would like to order for the charity our troop chose to donate to (the Friendly Door, a senior citizen center in Iowa Park) and we will add it to your order. The cost is the same, so donate in increments of $3.

Please have your order to us no later than Saturday February 21st. You can email us or call us with your order. Tristen will deliver a personal thank you. Cookies will be delivered sometime in mid March. After you order we will figure out payment arrangements.

"Finding Nemo" it is! Well done. I'm putting together an interesting collection of Oscar Trivia right now. I'll include it when I mail out the score sheets. I agree about Mortar Board on your resume. Can't hurt! Plus the cool merchandise! I like the navy sweatshirt. --Gary

Nope. --Gary

And you would be wrong! :-) That would be the natural guess, I agree; but even in that category there was some disgreement. I'll post the answer later today in case others want to think about it some more. --Gary

By the way, in one category so far, the voting has been unanimous. Any guesses on which category that might be...?

Happy Valentine's Day everybody!

Amanda, The aromatherapy stuff sounds wonderful. I'm going to have to take a look at all the scents. The lavendar would be great if it wasn't for the vanilla--gives me a headache. Uh, how do I go about using your discount here? Just mention your name or what? ;-)

She bangs, she bangs...

Jimmy Fallon did an impression of that guy on last week's Saturday Night Live. Too funny. I'm betting American Idol brings him back as a wildcard just because he's gotten so "famous." :-) --Gary

And speaking of weather photos, Emily has sent in a few more for the recent photos page. (I like your hat, Erika!)

Hey, if the Oscars were shown tonight, the winner would be either Emily, or Karen, or Lindsey, or me -- because we're the only ones who have sent in ballots! Don't forget to make your choices!

Snowing here too, but school is on. We're not getting nearly as much as predicted. Even so, I got stuck last night! This was before the new snow even started. I was in the alley behind my house, not six feet from my parking place, and I got high-centered. I noticed another guy further down the alley who was stuck too, so I helped him dig out; then he came over and helped me get my car moving. A lot of work though! I called the city snow removal guys and reported this alley; they said they'll add it to the list.... --Gary

Yeah, the doc gave it to me in 5-day amounts too. The first round didn't do it, but the second round (just finished) did -- I hope! BTW, the UNL webcam isn't working at the moment; we just had a campus-wide power outage (thanks to a construction crew slicing a cable or something) that lasted nearly half an hour. And we're noticing some things (like maybe the webcam) have slower start-up times than others. --Gary

When the sun/shadows are just right, you can see that in the lower right, someone has spelled out "I (heart) U" in the snow. --Gary

Get well soon, Tristen!

I just finished taking Zithromax myself! --Gary