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Nora and I have been going to NYSC for awhile. And we know to expect the gym to be packed at the beginning of the year from people joining for New Year’s resolutions, but it’s almost March and the gym is still packed. Today it was even more packed than usual, there were no cardio machines or weight machines available. What did we end up doing? We ended up looking for jump ropes. We couldn’t find one so we asked one of the trainers. He could only find one for us. So, we had to alternate jumping rope for our workout today. We did not join NYSC to jump rope! When will the gym be less packed??

Virginia, my cousin who lives in Hong Kong, came to visit for Chinese New Year. Last week we took her to Sripraphai Thai (64-13 39th Ave., Woodside) for dinner. You can take the 7 train to 61st Street - Woodside or to 69th Street, depending if you’re coming from Manhattan or Queens. Sripraphai Thi was voted 2006 Best of Queens for “Thai You Up” from Queens Tribune. Nora had suggested it a few times for one of our birthday dinners, but we didn’t think our parents would go for it.

Nora, Alan and Eric have been there before, while Cora, Peter, Virginia, Nancy and I have not. Alan took care of the ordering. For appetizers, he ordered:

• Papaya Salad with dry shrimp & peanut
• Crispy Chinese Watercress Salad with shrimp, squid & chicken
• Fried Calamari with chili sauce
• Chicken Curry Puff served with cucumber salad
• Tom-yum soup

For the main course, he ordered:

• Pad Thai saute rice noodles with bean sprouts & shrimp
• Fried Tilapia with curry sauce
• Masaman Curry beef, with onion & potatoes
• Pan Fried Egg with ground pork or chicken
• Sauteed Pork Curry with thai eggplant

We ate it with some coconut rice and brown rice and washed it down with Thai iced tea. The meal was very inexpensive and was very good, though some of the dishes were a little spicy for me.

Nora’s co-worker Barry suggests crispy thai catfish salad and Nora suggests fried softshell crab, papaya salad with shrimp squid and mussel, roasted duck in hot & spicy sauce with thai eggplant and bamboo shoots and beef in massaman curry.

You can find a menu at nymag.com

My co-worker, Ally, sent me a link to the “Circle Circle Dot Dot” video by Jamie Kennedy and Stu Stone. As Ally says, “it’s cute & funny AND catchy.” Enjoy!

And the winners of the 79th Annual Academy Award are:
(in order of acceptance)

• Art Direction: Pan’s Labyrinth
• Makeup: David Marti and Montse Ribe, Pan’s Labyrinth
• Animated Short Film: The Danish Poet
• Live Action Short Film: West Bank Story
• Sound Editing: Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman, Letters from Iwo Jima
• Sound Mixing: Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer and Willie Burton, Dreamgirls
• Actor in a Supporting Role: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
• Animated Feature Film: Happy Feet
• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): William Monahan, The Departed
• Costume Design: Milena Canonero, Marie Antoinette
• Cinematography: Guillermo Navarro, Pan’s Labyrinth
• Visual Effects: The Pirates of Caribbean
• Foreign Language Film: The Lives of Others
• Actress in a Supporting Role: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
• Documentary (Short): The Blood of Yingzhou District
• Documentary (Feature): An Inconvenient Truth
• Honorary Oscar: Ennio Morricone
• Original Score: Babel
• Writing (Original Screenplay): Little Miss Sunshine
• Original Song: “Inconvenient Truth”, Melissa Etheridge
• Film Editing: Thelma Schoomnaker, The Departed
• Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
• Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
• Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
• Best Picture: The Departed

Full list of nominees

There was a cute montage with the nominees of the Academy Awards. A lot of the nominees have been nominated a lot of times without winning. Ok, now the montage seems to be going on for way toooooo long. It went on for five minutes.

177 artists and craftmans are at the Kodak Theatre. All the nominees are standing. Here comes Ellen DeGeneres. So we’re here to celebrate the nominees and not the winners this year. =) Do other people hope to host the Oscars when they are little kids? I’ve never had that dream before. This year is the most international Oscars. A lot of nominations for Mexico, Spain, Japan and Britain. Oh good, Jennifer Hudson took off that ugly wrap thing she wore before the show started. Funny joke on Al Gore. Leonardo DiCaprio still looks pretty hot. She had no joke about him but thought all the women would want to look at him. =) 15 minutes into show and I think we’re going to give out an award. Nicole Kidman looks like she’s had work done on her face. It’s looking a little plasticy. Maggie Gyllenhal looks pretty good for someone who recently gave birth.

iPhone, coming in June. I want it, but it’s so damn expensive! If Henry was a dad, McDonald’s would be for dinner too. We had McDonald’s for a very late night snack last night, it hit the spot! How can anyone not enjoy their french fries and McNuggets with a Coke on the side.

Will Ferrell is really keeping that fro. Since Ellen isn’t going to be singing, Will gets to. Now Jack Black is singing too? Mark Wahlberg is hot. Now John C. Reilly is joining in on the singing too. He’s a good singer. It is pretty funny. Mainly it’s about how comedians have a harder time winning an Oscar. 8:57, the second award is handed out. Abigail and Jaden are so adorable. Jaden should walk slower, poor Abigail looked like she had to run to catch up. Poor Jaden, he was ready to start announcing their next category before they gave out the award for Animated Short. Jaden seems to have trouble reading. Was that a bald Jack Nicholson in the audience? Next an intro to Letters from Iwo Jima narrated by Clint Eastwood.

Andy Garcia is doing Cadillac commercials now.

The Elements & Motions bit is pretty cool. Steve Carrell and Greg Kineear are pretty funny. Oops, just saw a camera man run by the aisle, probably shouldn’t have been able to see that on TV. Why does Jessica Biel get invited? Has she been in a movie that has been nominated? Her hair and dress don’t look too nice. She looks kind of manly in her dress with her muscular arms. Maybe if she didn’t bare her shoulders it would have been better. Rachel Weisz looks pretty. I was wondering what clip they were going to show of Mark Wahlberg in The Departed since he curses so much during the movie. Ok, it was a very short clip. I really wanted him to win, but knew it was going to be a tough one. He’s so hot, though I hated his hair in The Departed. So Ellen just spoke with Mark (though I couldn’t hear what Mark was saying) and Martin Scorsese and she supposedly liked The Departed. The dancing segment was cute, the penguins were cute.

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Leonardo DiCaprio is narrating a bit on The Departed. All songs that were nominated are being performed. Leonardo DiCaprio and Al Gore are presenting together. Cute, Leonardo refers to him as Mr. Gore. Jerry Seinfeld is at the Oscars. They are encouraging us to fit against global warming. It was a cute bit.

Cameron Diaz looks like she’s had work done on her cheeks. She has a nice white dress on. Ben Affleck isn’t looking too good and his hair is strangely styled. Helen Mirren looks nice in her sparkly dress. The Departed is NOT a Japanese film, it is a Chinese film and William Monahan didn’t adapt Infernal Affairs, he pretty much copied it verbatim, it’s very annoying.

For costume design, instead of showing the designs, they actually have people dressed in the costumes. Kind of neat. I wonder if Tom Cruise has had work done. George Clooney recently admitted that he has had some work done. Ellen’s funny, she wants to take a picture with Clint Eastwood for her myspace page. And Steven Spielberg took the pic for her.

I liked the MasterCard commercial with the elephant. It was sweet.

Does Naomi Watts look pregnant? Her dress wasn’t tight, so maybe. It is a pretty yellow dress. But that’s the rumor. Cate Blanchett has a nice shimmery dark gray dress on. Was Jennifer Hudson really that good or no one wants to be the one to not give her an award since American Idol. Can someone who’s seen Dreamgirls tell me?

They actually played the Seinfeld music for Jerry Seinfeld. Al Gore is looking really big these days. YounG Richard Gere was pretty hot, old Richard Gere is still pretty good looking. Wow! Celine Dion, haven’t seen or heard from her for a long time.

Hugh Jackman sounds weird with his native Australian accent, I rarely ever hear it. Kirsten Dunst’s dress looks kind of ugly.

Steve Carrell narrates an intro to Little Miss Sunshine, a movie I actually want to see and haven’t seen yet. Will Smith has come a long way since Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Kate Winslet looks very pretty. I like her little greenish dress. Yes, another win for The Departed, it’s Thelma Schoomnaker’s third win with a Martin Scorsese film. Jodie Foster needs to get the hair of our left eye. Oh, she has the sad category, announcing for people who have passed away. It always makes me sad and I shed a couple of tears. I wonder what order they display them in.

Couldn’t Philip Seymour do something better with his hair, like comb it? As expected, Helen Mirren won for Best Actress.

Reese Witherspoon looks really good in that dress and the long hair. As expected, Forest Whitaker won too. Yes, Martin Scorsese finally won. And it’s great he won for The Departed, which I actually saw and loved, even though it was a total rip of Infernal Affairs. They should have just called it Infernal Affairs, in English. Helen Mirren narrated the video clip for The Queen. Woohoo! The Departed won for Best Picture. I really didn’t think that was going to happen, but am so happy! Now I really hope that people will go out and watch Infernal Affairs, though it is probably better if you understand Chinese and not just reading the subtitles.