Heidi's Big Oscar Weekend

It’s me, Heidi, not Diane, writing this column because Diane doesn’t know about the things I want to write about. The reason she doesn’t know is that last weekend she was too busy going to Hollywood awards shows to notice that I was having a very important weekend myself.

This very important weekend was last weekend, not the regular weekend that is just starting right now.

 I usually don't write two columns in a row, that is a lot for a dog. But just like I predicted in my last column, Diane left me at home while she went to all the fancy Awards ceremonies like the Oscars with Mr. Ben Affleck.  She didn’t go with Ben in the same car, I know because he never came by the house, but they went to the same places.  So that left me, Heidi, alone in charge of Studio City and Sherman Oaks, too. Mr. George Clooney who lives in Studio City wasn’t here either to help me because I think he had to drive Ben Affleck around.

Mr. Ben Affleck was not nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director. Neither was I, so I thought I also might win something for my best picture like he did because I look very good in pictures (I have attached some that have me in them, I am cute). But I didn’t win. Still, I was part of two very important news stories right here in our neighborhood.

The first big story I wouldn’t have been part of without the Oscars so I can’t get too mad about not winning.  On the Thursday before the Academy Awards, Diane went to Riverton Jewelers in Sherman Oaks to drop off a necklace to be fixed so she could wear it when she went to see Ben Affleck on Oscar Sunday. On Friday, I went with Diane to pick it up.  At the jewelry store I met the owner Chuck Lire, who is 81.

But I didn’t know then that Mr. Chuck Lire is a famous crime fighter!  On the news during my important weekend I saw a video of him charging after some guys who came into the store and smashed a glass case and stole some watches that didn’t belong to them, they belonged to Mr. Chuck Lire.  This was on February 2, but the vidoe just made the local news a few days ago. He was very brave and I am proud to have met him.  If I had been there on February 2 I would have chased those bad guys for him, just like I chase Sherman the squirrel!  Maybe when Ben Affleck is 81 he can direct himself in the movie Mr. Chuck Lire, Sherman Oaks Superhero.

Then there was another more sad-type story: I heard that Studio Sub on Tujunga would close on Oscar Sunday. I was so upset about this on Friday that my Dad Alan promised he would take me there for one of the very last sandwiches on Saturday while Diane went to the Independent Spirit Awards at the beach.  Alan had a sandwich and co-owner Stephanie Levy gave me a big snack of roast beef to remember her by.  Still I feel sad about all those good sandwiches that will not be eaten by all of us anymore. 

The good news about my important weekend is, I got invited to an Oscar party after all! My friend Heidi the German shepherd (she has my name and is the same kind of dog too) invited me and my Dad to come to her peoples party. We got tired playing so we slept through part of the show because it was long with so much singing and dancing. But I thought Mr. Seth McFarlane was good no matter what the critics say.  I liked the boob song (I have eight of those).  I also like him because he is the voice of a very funny dog named Brian on Family Guy.

Oscar night was also good for another dog, a little dachshund named Rudi.  He belongs to my editor Mr. Mike Szymanski.  Even though from the stories on the Patch you’d think Mike was out on the Red Carpet like he has been since 1986, he was actually monitoring everything via computer from home with Rudi, who is 17.  Maybe Rudi has lived so long because he is a long dog.

Anyway, Mike my editor sent me an e-mail saying that on Oscar night he was wearing his pajamas, eating microwave popcorn and taking care of Rudi, who is kind of sick just because he is old. “He was on my lap occasionally throwing up and losing bladder control, so I got to go and change during the really long musical numbers,” Mike wrote to me.  That is being a real family guy, I think — and better than winning a Best Picture Oscar for not being nominated for Best Director.