Don't worry, this isn't going to be a critique of the Oscar ceremony or the Academy's choices for best actor, actress and best picture. I was in bed when most of the big show was on Sunday night and I've only seen two of the five nominees for best picture, so I don't believe I'm qualified to give my opinion.

However, I did watch one of the best picture nominees over the weekend and I was curious if you've ever had the same experience I did. I watched "The Departed" on DVD, which ended up winning the Oscar for best picture and finally allowed Martin Scorcese to win for best director, an honor that should have been bestowed on him a long time ago. (I would have picked him for "Goodfellas," but I don't have a vote.)

With all the Oscar hype and a great cast including Jack Nicholson, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, I had very high expectations for this film. And I was disappointed. It was a good movie, maybe even a great one. All three of the actors I just mentioned gave strong performances and the plot was interesting, but there was something lacking and I think I know part of the reason for that, at least in my own head.

My expectations were too high. Sometimes, if you just go into a film with nothing for it to live up to, it can be a much more pleasant experience. I think I watched a good movie that could have never reached the level I expected. In our modern media-laden society, however, where you hear so much about a movie beforehand, it's hard to go in with an open mind, especially if you're like me and have two young children. I wait until movies come out on DVD instead of watching them in the theater, which requires a baby sitter.

So I think Scorcese's Oscar-winning film was a victim of Hollywood hype for me. Of course, there's a another example that proves my theory wrong. The only other best picture nominee I've seen is "Little Miss Sunshine." I had high expectations for that movie as well, and it met them. In fact, I was hoping it would win the Academy Award. So perhaps "The Departed" wasn't a victim after all. Maybe it just wasn't a great movie, even if it did win an Oscar. I guess that's why I don't have a vote.

I hope you're sitting down because the information I am about to pass on to you may be disturbing and unsettling. It's certainly not for the faint of heart. Okay, here it is: I'm taking part in Dancing With The Stars. Uh.. you can stop laughing now.

Not the national TV hit "Dancing With The Stars," of course. I'm not a professional athlete or a former boy band singer so I'm not on their list of possible candidates. Then again, I didn't think I was on anybody's list, but apparently these people are desperate.

Actually, this is for a great cause. All the money raised will go to the Cristo Rey School in Kansas City. The school allows underprivileged kids to get a great education and provides real-world job training at the same time. I'll be dancing in a competition on April 14th at Starlight Theater and since people are willing to pay to see folks like me make a fool of themselves, I think it'll be a great fundraiser for the school.

And I'm not alone in this little endeavor. Donna will also be part of the competition and she's already promising to dance circles around me, which shouldn't be too hard. Seriously, it's going to be a lot of fun. I've already had my first dance lesson and I didn't even trip. I'll keep you up-to-date on my "progress" here on the blog.

If you'd like more information about the "Dancing With The Stars" event, benefiting Cristo Rey school, contact Andy Stith at 816-457-6044. I can't promise you great dancing, but I can promise you a good laugh and a good time.

When most people think about the week of February 14th, they think of Valentine's Day and everything that goes with it. But this is also National Hospitalized Veteran's Week, a chance to honor those who sacrificed so much for our country and are now battling medical problems.

Every year since coming to metro, I've had the opportunity to visit veterans at the VA Medical Center in Kansas City and this year, again, was a great experience. Donna, Joel and I stopped in earlier this week and were amazed at the great spirit we encountered. We had the chance to talk with veterans from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and even the first Gulf War. This is what truly amazes me: many of the veterans wanted to take pictures with us, as if that was something special. Believe me, they were the true stars in the pictures, not the TV folks. It was an honor for us to meet with them and hear their stories.

I want to use this opportunity to encourage everyone to visit the VA center if you can. The veterans enjoy having visitors and I promise you will leave a changed person. Our country owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to these courageous men and women.

You know what? It wasn't that cold after all. I mentioned last week that I would be playing in the Idiot's Open over the weekend, an annual fundraiser for Kansas City Hospice that gives hardcore golfers an excuse to hit the links in the middle of winter. Yes, the temperatures were very cold Saturday morning, but there was no wind and no snow on the ground, so really, it wasn't nearly as frosty as expected. In fact, except for the six layers of clothing I was wearing, it was actually pretty nice.

That doesn't mean it was easy to play golf, however. We walked up to the first tee and encountered our first problem: the ground was so frozen that we couldn't get our tees to go into the soil. So, we were hitting off the turf all day long. The frozen tundra (yes, I know that's redundant but I've watched a lot of NFL Films shows on ESPN over the years) was the major problem all day. It was like playing on a parking lot. You could hit the ball right on the green and while it would be a great shot in May, in February, the ball just bounced high into the air and off the putting surface. A challenge to be sure, but that's what the Idiot's Open is all about.

It will surprise no one that the KMBC 9 team didn't win the tournament. Our team featured Jim Flink, Joel Nichols, myself and a Kansas City Hospice board member who was, unfortunately for him, paired with us. As you can imagine, he carried our team.

So, if you've never golfed in cold conditions, I encourage you to come out to the Idiot's Open next year. It's held at Smiley's Golf Club at K-7 and K-10 in Lenexa and it's always a great time. Anybody can play golf in June, but it takes a real golfer to hit the links in February.

I had a wonderful time Friday night helping out a great group of people who do some very important work. I emceed an event for Global Education Plus at the KU Edwards campus in Overland Park. The group raises money for children, teachers and schools in developing countries. Thanks to funding from Global Education Plus, schools in Guatemala, Mexico, Brazil and other countries have been able to buy textbooks, provide teacher training and rebuild schools. Obviously, it's a great cause and I was impressed with the passion everyone involved with this group has for helping impoverished children. As they mentioned several times Friday night, it's all about providing something so important: hope.

Golf is a game that's very easy to get addicted to. You probably know someone who is a devoted golfer, finding time to fit in 18 holes (or 9) whenever they can. But you have to be a special kind of golf addict to play when it feels like zero degrees outside. Well, some of us at KMBC are just those kinds of golf addicts.

Saturday morning, Jim Flink, Joel Nichols and I will once again play in the annual Idiot's Open golf tournament at Smiley's Golf Course in Johnson County. It's truly one of the unique sporting events in the metro. Last year, my first, we played in a snow storm. One time a few years ago, there was a foot of snow on the ground. Yes, this is for golf nuts only. But man, it's a lot of fun.

This year, there won't be a lot of snow, but it's going to be bone-chilling cold. The good news: it gives Jim, Joel and I a good excuse to play really poorly. "It's because it's so cold!", we'll exclaim. "If it was only warmer, we'd be five below par right now."

This idiocy is all for a good cause. The money raised goes to Kansas City Hospice. Check out the blog next week and I'll let you know how we did. And how many holes we actually played before calling it quits.

Congratulations to Tony Dungy, Peyton Manning, Ryan Lilja and all of the Indianapolis Colts on their Super Bowl victory. Dungy becomes the first African-American coach to win the big game. Peyton Manning finally proves he can win the big game and Ryan Lilja is a local guy who got to take the field in the big game. It was a fun contest to watch, which certainly can't be said for most Super Bowls. It started with a bang and most of the first half was exciting. The driving rain made things interesting.

So, this year the action on the field was actually more exciting than the incredibly expensive commercials that have become as much of a spectator sport as the football itself. Which commercials were the best? I checked out the popular Ad Track survey, and I was surprised.

I didn't see the top commerical (crabs and beer) because it ran during the fourth quarter. Yes, I was already in bed at the time. But I saw it this morning thanks to the magic of the internet and I wasn't impressed. I did like the Doritos commerical that placed high, but most of the Top 10 was mediocre in my book.

It just shows how difficult a job it is to come up with an ad when you're trying to appeal to tens of millions of people, even if you've got millions of dollars to spend. What a grandfather in Kansas City likes will be much different than a 22-year-old in New York City. Or, perhaps it's not that difficult at all. The Doritos spot I mentioned was not created by a fancy ad agency. It was created by a regular person and entered into a contest. There you go: no need for local companies like Sprint and Garmin to spend all that money on high-priced advertising pros. Just find someone creative and produce a commerical on a shoestring budget. It would probably come out better than Garmin's ad, which placed in the bottom five on the Ad Track survey.

Well, what this all means is the football season is over. I'm sad to see it go... but baseball season is right around the corner. How about those new and improved Royals?