Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/ Los Angeles Times — Officials red-tagged some severely damaged homes as unsafe for entry or habitation in La Cañada Flintridge today.

Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez/Los Angeles Times — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and local officials tour a storm damaged neighborhood in La Cañada Flintridge today.

More  storm photos on the Los Angeles Times website.

Sooner or later it was going to happen. “Avatar” getting dethroned, but who suspected a chick flick would kick the sci-fi epic out of the top spot at the domestic Box Office. Yet, that’s just what occurred on this Super Bowl weekend. The military love story, “Dear John” trounced “Avatar” with an estimated $32 million debut to become the number one film in the country.

“Dear John” stars Channing Tatum as a U.S. Special Forces Army sergeant who falls in love with a college student played by Amanda Seyfried, however, their romance gets tested when the sergeant re-enlists after the 9-11 attacks. “Dear John” is based on the best selling novel of the same title by Nicholas Sparks, who has had four of his other books turned into movies as well: “Message in a Bottle (199),” “A Walk to Remember (2002),” “The Notebook (2004),” and “Nights in Rodanthe (2008).”

The mega-hit, “Avatar” slipped to second after seven weeks at number one with around $23.6 million, bringing its domestic take to a humongous $630 million. In third, earning $8 million, another new film, “From Paris With Love.” It’s an action/spy thriller shot in Paris, starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers.

The Mel Gibson crime drama, “Edge of Darkness” came in fourth with $7 million, followed by the family comedy “Tooth Fairy” in fifth with about $6.5 million.

Photo: Anne Cusack/Los Angeles Times — a runaway mud flow sweeps away trees and rocks and races down a street in La Cañada Flintridge today. Check out the L.A. Times storm photo gallery here.

A vicious storm sucker punched the Southland early this morning, unleashing landslides, swift mud flows, causing power outages, damaging around 43 homes, and forcing evacuations. Some areas got as much as four inches of rain from this latest series of stormy weather.

Here in Burbank, I was awakened by loud, rumbling thunder followed by some intense pounding rain on the roof before dawn. By this morning’s light, the devastation was shockingly clear in the nearby fire scorched hills. At a news conference this afternoon, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich described a hard hit La Cañada Flintridge neighborhood as looking like a  ”… war zone area…” 

In La Cañada Flintridge 24 properties were damaged, including a dozen homes which were heavily damaged or destroyed. As mud flows careened down streets, as many as 25 vehicles were swept away along with trees, boulders, and debris. 540 homes in La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, and Acton have been evacuated; details on that on this Los Angeles County Public Works website.

Also, 300 more evacuations ordered in neighborhoods burned by fires two years ago in nearby Sierra Madre.

Throughout Los Angeles and Orange County, flooding, mudslides, weather-related accidents on streets and roads. Also, repair crews worked all day to restore power to more than 20 thousand users; some still in the dark this evening.    

Tonight, the forecast is for scattered showers and cloudy skies. Sunshine is on tap for Sunday, but by Tuesday and Wednesday, another storm is due to arrive and it could be just as much of a terror as the Saturday morning deluge.

The Southland is getting pelted by more rain showers again. The rain rolled in overnight and by morning, there were reports of flooding and snarled traffic on local highways and roads. Weather watchers are predicting this storm will come through in three waves — the first is dumping on the region now — light showers to heavy rain — depending on where you are. The second wave is due this afternoon and then, the third arrives sometime on Saturday.

A light rain falling in Burbank this morning, but it will become heavier later on in the day. At around 10 a.m., it was 52 with a high of 60 forecasted.  The storm could drop somewhere between an inch and two inches in the valleys and two-to-four inches in the foothills. In nearby fire-ravaged neighborhoods of La Canada Flintridge work crews are already on the scene clearing debris and keeping a close eye on those soaked hillsides.

The recession and the tight job market have made the workplace even wilder and crazier for far too many overburdened employees. No matter how demanding or over-the-top the boss or office manager may be or simple-minded the job, quitting is not an option. Some of these workers need a place to vent and that’s where the website Please Fire Me comes in. It’s a site where workers can anonymously diss the jobs they can’t afford to ditch. 

I found the link for Pleasefireme.com in a post on the book publishing site GalleyCat. The “why you hate the job you can’t leave” site was created by literary manager, Adam Chromy of Artists and Artisans to promote his client, David Ellis Dickerson’s memoir, “House of Cards, Love, Faith, and Other Social Expressions.” The book is about Dickerson’s adventures in corporate America as a greeting card writer at Hallmark.

If the book is half as entertaining as the Please Fire Me website then it’ll be a bestseller. I gotta tell ya, some of the worker gripes and boss-outings are throw-down-funny, in fact, I was screaming with laughter over a few of them. Some comments describe the strangest, the weirdest, and most ridiculous behavior in the workplace. While others were sad and poignant revelations about how workers are mistreated and exploited.  You know, a lot of it has the ring of truth. Whatever happened to professionalism in the office and all those legal and government regulations that are supposed to protect employees from abuse?

Here are some of the worker complaints:

“Please fire me. My boss sent an email asking me to find her a stuffed animal frog wearing pink high heels and order it online pronto. And she prioritized the email.”

“Please fire me. My boss gave me a one-hour lecture on the two most important things in life: a good mattress and good shoes. I feel bad that his wife and three kids didn’t make the list.”

“Please fire me. I just booked Valentine’s Day reservations for my boss at a restaurant that I’ll never be able to afford to eat because of how little I get paid. “

“Please fire me. I just caught my old boss copying down my goals from last year’s review and noting them as his own for this year.”

“Please fire me. I’ve been working here for a year. Since then, my last two bosses were fired and a high school girl who started last month just got promoted to be my new boss.”

“Please fire me. I’ve written four bestselling novels at my desk in the past two years and no one has noticed.”

“Please fire me. I work at NBC.”

For more revelations from frustrated workers click over to the Please Fire Me site.  Oh yeah, I’ve added this site to my favorites list.

Official White House photo by Pete Souza — A beautiful shot of the White House this morning after a night of snow from The White House Blog.

East Coast vs the West Coast. They’re shoveling snow in Washington, DC, while we’re basking in the bright sunshine here in the Southland.

This morning, they woke up to a snow day at the White House after a snowy night in the nation’s capital. The snowfall created a lovely snapshot of the White House and surrounding grounds, but made traveling on local roads and streets treacherous. The high reached only into the 40s in DC today.  

The snow began to melt during the day, but forecasters are predicting another snow storm for the city by Friday —bringing with it perhaps as much as a foot of the white stuff!  burrr!

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — A scenic view from a Burbank neighborhood on a warm, sunny afternoon last month.

 Here in Media City another terrific winter day. Sunny and very warm; with a high that reached 70 degrees!! I love weather like this whether the calendar says February or April or November. Another reason to hang out in Burbank.  

Tomorrow the weather is expected to shift back into a more wintry groove with cloudy skies in the evening and a good chance of rain on Friday and showers likely through Saturday. Oh well, keep those umbrellas handy.

“The Blind Side” nominated for best picture

Some surprises when the nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were announced in Beverly Hills today. It was pretty much a given that sci-fi epic “Avatar” and the gritty Iraq drama “The Hurt Locker” would be in the best picture category. However, eight other films made the cut as well including the provocative sci-fi thriller, “District 9,” and that heartwarming football drama, “The Blind Side.”  Both surprises and good examples of the kind of variety in the best picture category we like to see.  

The other best picture nominees are the animated comedy, “Up,” the Nazi drama “Inglourious Basterds,” the British coming of age drama, “An Education,” the dark comedy, “A Serious Man,”  the teenage mother drama “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” and the comedy/drama, “Up in the Air.”

Already there is controversy and competition underway for the best director and best picture Oscars. Kathryn Bigelow scooped up the best feature film director award from the DGA a few days ago and a number of other accolades, while James Cameron’s “Avatar” has been breaking all kinds of records at the Box Office and making a ton of money. Cameron and Bigelow were once married to each other. That adds an interesting twist to the Oscar race.

Also, Nikki Finke is reporting over on her Deadline.com Hollywood site about the behind-the-scenes drama over producer credits on some of the nominated films. In the past, the jockeying for  the chance to be on stage to pick up a best picture Oscar has turned ugly and in at least one case, ended up in court.

Here are the nominees in the other top categories: 

For best director: James Cameron “Avatar,” Kathryn Bigelow “The Hurt Locker,” Quentin Tarantino “Inglourious Basterds,” Lee Daniels “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” and Jason Reitman for “Up in the Air.”

For best actresses the Academy voters selected Sandra Bullock for “The Blind Side,” Helen Mirren “The Last Station,” Carey Mulligan for “An Education” Gabourey Sidibe for “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” and Meryl Streep for “Julie & Julia.”

Best actor nominees:  Jeff Bridges “Crazy Heart,” Colin Firth “A Single Man,”  George Clooney “Up in the Air,” Jeremy Renner “The Hurt Locker,” and Morgan Freeman for “Invictus.”

Best supporting actor: Matt Damon “Invictus,” Woody Harrelson “The Messenger,” Christopher Plummer “The Last Station,” Stanley Tucci “The Lovely Bones,” and Christoph Waltz “Inglourious Basterds.” 

Best supporting actress: Penélope Cruz “Nine,” Vera Farmiga “Up in the Air,” Maggie Gyllenhaal “Crazy Heart,” Anna Kendrick “Up in the Air,” and Mo’Nique “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

Best adapted screenplay: “District 9″ Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “An Education” Nick Hornby, “In the Loop” Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “Precious: Based on The Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Geoffrey Fletcher, “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner.

Best original screenplay: “The Hurt Locker” Mark Boal, “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino, “The Messenger” Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, “A Serious Man” Joel and Ethan Coen, “Up” Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, and Tom McCarthy.

For a complete list of the nominees click here.

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony will be Sunday, March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.