Hello, everybody, and welcome to our first blog of 2014. The road to the Dolby Theatre began in Beverly Hills on Sunday and the 71st Annual Golden Globe Awards, where "12 Years A Slave" (Drama) and "American Hustle" (Musical/Comedy) took the top film honors and setting things up for the ultimate showdown on March 2.

Matthew McConaughey picked up Best Actor-Drama for "Dallas Buyers Club" (which also earned Supporting Actor for Jared Leto), Cate Blanchett beat out Sandra Bullock for Best Actress ("Blue Jasmine"), and Leonardo DiCaprio collected Best Actor-Musical/Comedy for the profanity-laden "The Wolf of Wall Street." 

But it's "American Hustle" that's prematurely coming in with the huge advantage, thanks to wins by Amy Adams (Best Actress-Musical/Comedy) and Jennifer Lawrence (Supporting Actress). Meanwhile, Foreign Language Film went to Italy's "The Great Beauty" and Animated Feature Film, "Frozen."

On the television spectrum: "Breaking Bad" picked up where they left off from last September's Emmys by cooking up Best Drama, with Bryan Cranston finally Best Actor. Robin Wright received Best Actress for Netflix's "House of Cards", leaving -- you guessed it --  a now-pregnant Kerry Washington in the dust yet again. "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" shot out perennial Emmy winner "Modern Family" for Best Comedy (ditto for Best Actor Andy Samberg), while repeat Golden Globes co-host Amy Poehler collected Best Actress ("Parks and Recreation") after planting a big one on Bono. Other winners include fellow Emmy leftover "Behind the Candelabra" (Miniseries/TV Movie and its star Michael Douglas) and Jacqueline Bissett, who not only took forever to get up to the stage, but sort of woke up the censors a bit. Woody Allen was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in which Diane Keaton accepted on his behalf.

The only malfunction that occurred well before the show was a water sprinkler flooding a portion of the red carpet and the press line -- yards away from the "Entertainment Tonight", "Access Hollywood" and E! platforms -- leading up to the entrance of the Beverly Hilton.

Once again bypassing the usually dull fashion rundown, I'll say that Amy Adams (in Valentino) gets my best-dressed prize, while Sandra Bullock (Prabal Gurung)? She may be turning 50 soon, but I didn't think she didn't look it.

The Golden Globes ended a thaw from the Deep Freeze that numbed most of the country in the first full week of the year. Temperatures plummeted to as low as -15 in Minneapolis, which is the Lower 48's equivalent to -40 in Fairbanks, which I don't have to deal with anymore. Here, it went to as low as 8, which resulted in a growing number of school closures all throughout metro Atlanta including Clayton County, where I live. But three years ago at this time, a violent snowstorm shut the whole city down, turning roads into instant ice rinks for the vehicles. Compare that to the recent ice storm Fairbanks had this past fall, which left most residents without power for days.

Long story short: I'm glad that I'm enjoying real weather once again, especially when it's 50 degrees above zero...in January! Take that, Mike Shultz, and so long and stay strong.