In which I am the fly killer, feared by all!

Yes, it's true. Mid-air fly-swat, people. Mr Miyagi's got nothing on me. Except he did it with chopsticks. I guess.

So this morning I got up at 5am (or, you know, thereabouts) to drive out and watch the balloon festival. Still pretty dark, but the smell of dutch pancakes was in the air, and someone was doing a fairly bad job of radio commentary. Nevermind, balloons! Right?....Right?

WRONG! Stupid prevailing winds. And where's the challenge if you're going to give up over a little breeze? These balloonists need to toughen up, that's what.

Anyway, I have to do it again tomorrow morning. Ugh.

Ah yes, the Oscars. Remember them? I was on the whole quite pleased with it. Thought Hugh Jackman did a pretty good job of entertaining, and while I was thrown by the fact that Jack "How Long Til We Can Cut to Nicholson" Nicholson was nowhere to be seen, I was mollified by Jackman's "home made" opening number. So:

In which we were pleased:
Danny Boyle. Just awesome. He was so excited.
The Slumdog Millionaire kids on the red carpet - they. Are. Fantastic.
Sean Penn winning (let out the biggest gasp at that point) and his acceptance speech.
Tina Fey and Steve Martin's "religion about aliens that they made up".
Kate Winslet's dad whistling to indicate his position in the audience. Awww.
Heath Ledger's win. YES I CRIED. I'm only human.
Two acceptance speeches in particular: Man On Wire, where the guy DID MAGIC ON STAGE (I mean seriously, more of that, please), and the winner for "The House of Little Cubes" ending his speech with "Domo arigato, Mr Roboto". Hell YES.

In which we could have been more pleased:
Not sure I'm loving the "five actors/actresses present the acting nominees one by one". Takes longer than a clips show, for one thing, and for another, I was really looking forward to Robert Downey's clip.
Also the creative camera movement during the In Memoriam segment. Seriously. Now is not the time, guys.

But on the whole, pretty damn good. Ich bin pleased.