Planning a vacation

I'm trying to plan my time off for the rest of the year. 

It occurred to me recently that I really do have somewhat of a talent for my job in that I love to plan ahead.  I still hate math and spreadsheets and sitting under fluorescent lights for 8+ hours a day, but there are aspects that come somewhat naturally to me.  I like planning ahead and being organized.  I like it when I can help the agents in the call center with their scheduling problems and conflicts.  I like helping other departments with forecasting their call volume and scheduling their agents. I am getting much better at training the supervisors and team leads on using the workforce management computer programs, and leading meetings with a bunch of people around a conference room table, and it's possible that one day I won't dread having to stand in front of the new hire classes and talk about workforce expectations and answer questions.

Anyway, I want to go visit Mom two more times between now and Christmas, and I want to take a little vacation with my sweetie to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary the first week of October.  We just went on a vacation to Cleveland to celebrate Greg's 40th birthday in April at the Cinema Wasteland convention, which means two things: One, he's super grateful because, even though I had a great time, he feels like it was his vacation and I think he kinda feels like he owes me one now.  Two, we spent a lot of money (relative to not going on vacation, anyway) and I think we both kinda feel like we shouldn't spend much again so soon.

There are new cheap flights between the Orlando area and Roanoke, which means we could go back to my "home" (it will always seem like home, but since I haven't lived there since 1988 I'll go ahead and add grammatically incorrect quote marks).  I feel guilty that I'm reluctant.  I should go back now while my 100-year old aunt is still around, I should go visit all those relatives I haven't seen in decades, I should go while my Mom is still around for me to tell about where I go and who I see.

That thought really stabs at me.  She would love to hear about me visiting "home", just LOVE it.  I could bring back pictures and stories of people who haven't been so good at staying in touch. Not to mention visiting my father's grave. And this would be a lovely time of year to visit southwestern Virginia, the Appalachian mountains. Not too cold but a little nippy, possibly leaves turning brilliant red and yellow.


It just doesn't seem fun, though, it seems like an obligation, which makes me feel guilty.  I wish I wanted to do this, I feel like I ought to do it, and honestly I feel like I ought to want to do it.

It's also an expensive option.  Even with the cheaper flights it's still a car rental plus gas plus hotel for 3 or 4 nights plus meals. I may be able to get good discount hotel rates through my company, but still.

Or... we could go to Universal and go to the new Wizarding World expansion.  Oh man, it looks SO fun.  We could stay onsite for two nights in the brand new super cute lower-priced Cabana Bay resort and get a Florida Resident discount; staying onsite would get us into the parks an hour before they open to the non-staying-onsite general public.  We could do the new Hogwarts Express train ride between Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, and the Gringott's ride.  It would be less expensive than going to Virginia, even factoring in meals and buying a reasonable amount (!) of Harry Potter crap.

Or we could just say home and spend a bit of money and time on fixing up our house, which has an ever-increasing list of things that need to be repaired or replaced or just fancied up.  That idea has a lot of appeal and would, in many ways, seem to be the most mature and adult option.  Plus a nice staycation would be relaxing.

What would I regret later?  How badly would it hurt me if my mother passed away before I went back to Virginia?  How guilty would I feel if I chose a children's book and an amusement park over an opportunity to delight my mother?

The thought of going back "home" after my mother isn't here to tell about it is just heartbreaking.  There is no one, no one, who shares my memories from my childhood.  I grew up without siblings in the house, and my father is gone, my aunt who lived next door is gone.  I have a few cousins who remember their own slice of childhood that sometimes overlapped with my own, but no one who knows it all like my own sweet Mom.  The neighbors next door who had an outhouse and raised bees, the way the snow drifted in the hilly backyard, the taste of the Silver Queen corn that Dad grew in the garden, the constant breeze from living in between two mountains. 

It's also worth considering that the Wizarding World is going to be crowded; the first week of October is not peak and kids are not out of school, but the new expansion will pack in tourists anyway.  If we waited to go in January we'd have nice (?) cool weather and the smallest crowds of the whole year.

I am sure of one thing, if I hesitate too long to book a Universal trip for October, it'll be too late.  All the media coverage of the Wizarding World will ensure sold-out onsite hotels very quickly.

I suppose I'm lucky, really.  Trying to make a decision between nothing but nice vacation options is a pretty good thing.

He's My Hero

Well, this made me laugh.  And I can't give anyone credit for it, I saw it several places on the internet, all uncredited.  The whole "awkward moment" meme is kind of a hoot.

But daaaaamn, Neville is such a hottie now!  I love it.

Look Who Works In The 7-11

A real live Death Eater!  My goodness, they are everywhere.  

Other than the obvious negative attributes one has to assume of all Death Eaters (being evil, serving the Dark Lord, disliking the super awesome Neville Longbottom, being mean to Harry Potter, etc.) this particular Death Eater seemed quite nice.  She sold me my Coke Zero and my sunflower seeds quickly and efficiently, and if any evildoings happened while I was in the 7-11, I was unaware.

The Last Harry Potter Movie, Ever

The tickets were for the 12:20am show, so we got to the theatre a little after 11pm, expecting to wait in a long line.  Walking up to the theatre we saw very long lines of people waiting outside, and when we went in we saw people sitting along every wall in the lobby and in the hallways, waiting.  We walked up to the ticket taker guy and gave him our printouts, and he said our theatre was already open and seating.  Woo hoo!

The theatre was around 80% full when we walked in, but we managed to find two aisle seats near the back, and had a great view.  The one thing we were worried about was ending up in the front row, there's just no way to watch a movie from under the screen without ending up in pain.  We got some popcorn and a coke and settled in, and the hour+ wait seemed to go by pretty quickly.

The crowd seemed to be mainly college students, which makes sense because we live near UCF.  There were a couple of people in costume and many people in Harry Potter t-shirts, but the majority just wore the Florida college student uniform: t-shirt, shorts, flip flops.  While we waited I quizzed Greg about what horcruxes had already been found, which had been destroyed, and what the Deathly Hallows are.

I wore my Death Eater logo t-shirt, which I did feel slightly guilty about.  I am clearly not rooting for Voldemort, but you have to admit the Death Eaters have a very cool logo.  To counteract any appearance of Dark Lord sympathy, I also wore lavender nail polish with a thin layer of pink glitter, in honor of Luna.

At only two hours and five minutes long, the movie is one of the shortest (taken by itself), but I thought it did a pretty good job of including everything.  I knew there would be things they would leave out, it's happened every movie and I am numb to the injustice of what they choose to cut, but overall I really, really liked it.

Also, great googly moogly, when did the kid who plays Neville grow up and become suave and handsome?  Behold little Neville and his pet toad Trevor:

How is that kid now this guy?

Also, Greg and I discussed briefly going to see the movie at Citywalk at Universal, just because I knew it would be bigger and more awesome in general.  We decided not to, because it's a lot farther away from us and we knew we wouldn't want to walk a mile back to our car and then drive 30 minutes to get home at 3am, because we are old and lame.

Wow, that was a mistake.  When the movie ended at Citywalk, the moviegoers got to go to a special event: Universal opened up the Wizarding World until 5am!  Free!  Everything was open, all the rides were running, it was a celebration of the final movie!

Here is the video of the event on YouTube.  Well, no point in beating myself up for not being there, but holy crapmuffins that looks like it was amazing.

Still, the movie itself was very good, I wasn't disappointed.  I can't wait to see it again, actually.  :)

I'm Pretty Sure Casey Anthony Caused My Migraine

Another migraine!  Gads.  When I was younger I'd get migraines more frequently, but they only lasted one day.  I get them less often now -- it's been about seven months since my last one -- but they seem to take forever to go away.

This one started last Saturday, and was held at bay somewhat through use of pain pills/frozen washcloths/sleeping in a cool dark quiet room/massage.   It never completely got its hooks into me (by which I mean I never puked and was able to move about for at least a little every day) but it was bad enough to basically ruin a perfectly good weekend.  I went back to work on Monday, and probably shouldn't have.  

 

I did have to go a few days without writing, and I broke my streak.  That's okay, I'll just have to start a whole new streak now that it's finally gone.

 

Despite the migraine setback, I have still managed to re-watch all of the Harry Potter movies, from the Sorcerer's Stone through the Deathly Hallows part 1, and I also re-read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

 

I've never done the midnight movie release thing, but since this is the last one ever I decided to go for it, and I bought my tickets weeks ago for the 12:20am show tonight/tomorrow morning.  Woo hoo!   I'm hoping to see a lot of kids (maybe some adults?) dressed up in costumes.  I'm ridiculously excited about it.  I've already warned Greg that I will need at least a half an hour immediately after the movie to explain to him everything they left out or screwed up in the movie.

If the movie starts at ~12:30 and runs for 2 hours and 5 minutes, it'll be nearly 3:00am by the time we get home.  I am so going to take a nap this afternoon...

Ellen's Birthday ~ 3/17

I really didn't want to get up too terribly early on my birthday, but I knew that Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios would be crowded with spring breakers, so to be kind of in-betweeny we ended up getting to the park at around 10am.  (This time I listened carefully to make sure Greg locked the car.)

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, bright yellow sun and blue cloudless sky, with a high in the mid-80s.  We walked straight to IOA to pick up my passes at the Guest Services counter.

The nice Guest Services lady also gave me an "It's My Birthday" pin to wear, which netted me several Happy Birthdays from employees and random strangers, one employee in WWoHP singing Happy Birthday to me, and an unauthorized discount on one purchase (I won't specify, just in case it really was as unauthorized as he (or she!) said it was).

Having done advance research on crowd levels at WWoHP (the Orlando Informer site was particularly helpful) I knew that it would be at or near capacity and that we would probably be getting a return ticket.  My hope was that we'd get a return ticket for around lunch time, so we could have fish and chips at the Three Broomsticks.  We had to go there first and hope for the best, though, because once all the tickets were handed out, that was it for WWoHP for the day.

Sure enough, WWoHP was already closed off, but we got a return ticket for 12:40.  Sweet!

We wandered around IOA, taking pics and riding rides (I love the Spiderman ride).

At one point, a woman in the crowd randomly turned to Greg and asked if we wanted two Meal Deal tickets, she said they had two extra that they couldn't use.  Greg said sure, thanks!! and we went off to find out what the heck a Meal Deal ticket was.  A lady at a customer service dining kiosk took our two tickets and gave us both Meal Deal wristbands and a map showing the three restaurants where we could eat free.  Not surprisingly, Three Broomsticks was not included in the plan.  Still, pretty sweet!

At 12:30 we headed back to WWoHP.  Even with the restrictions, it was tremendously crowded inside. 

Even the stores had long lines to get inside. Hungry and getting hot, we went straight to the Three Broomsticks, only to discover there was an hour and a half wait.  Forget it, we decided to just go eat free somewhere else.  

My two big priorities were to get a frozen Butterbeer in the cute souvenir mug I'd regretted not getting last fall, and to do the walk-through tour of Hogwarts.  We made our way through the crowd to Hogwarts and explained we just wanted to do the tour and not the ride, but somehow once inside we ended up getting in the wrong queue and suddenly we were trapped in the middle of a tightly crowded area.  We managed to get out and thought we were back on track but then once again ended up squeezed in with a group inside a small confined room, and Greg's claustrophobia kicked in.  Looking for an exit, he went out through a small metal gate outside, and whew! we were out of the crushing crowd.

But then I looked up, and realized we were not just out of Hogwarts, we had come out in a whole different part of the park.  We were no longer in the Wizarding World at all, we were not even anywhere near the entrance.  We had had to give up our ticket to the WWoHP when we went in, so we had nothing, and no way to get back in.

I panicked a little.  Should we go back and try to get another ticket for later in the day?  What if they had already given out all the tickets, and we were too late?   We wandered away, trying to decide what to do.  I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that I got a wee bit teary.

Greg, seeing my eyes well up, went into Save Ellen's Birthday mode and grabbed my hand.  Leading me back to the place where we'd exited, he pried open the metal gate and in we went.  He walked straight up to an employee standing nearby and explained how we'd gotten lost and then accidentally ended up going out the wrong exit, and she led us back into the main area and put us in the correct queue.  The next thing I know we are in the deserted "tour only" line, standing in the Portrait Gallery.  Whew!

After a leisurely walk through Hogwarts, we bypassed the extremely long lines of people standing in the hot sun to buy Butterbeer and ducked into the Hog's Head pub.  We waited for a few minutes behind a half-dozen people, but clearly it is not general knowlege that you can buy Butterbeer there.  We had a nice wait in the cool pub, looking through at the attached Three Broomsticks restaurant (glad we didn't wait for it, it looked uncomfortably crowded), then bought my frozen Butterbeer with the adorable souvenir mug.

We just stood inside the main gate for a while, looking around.  The Wizarding World still amazed me.  Not only is it so perfect in every detail, not only is it all about being an actual representation of Hogsmeade/Hogwarts (as opposed to being all about the characters, with costumed Harry Potters and Voldemorts walking around, which would be so cheesy and lame), not only is it just so realistic that it literally takes my breath away, but it is all a physical representation of a book.  I love books, and I love the fact that some people loved some books so much that they actually built them, physically.  Imagine such a thing.  It's beautiful.  :)

So we left.  We found one of the Meal Deal restaurants and had an extremely mediocre but free lunch. 

After lunch we walked to Universal Studios and spent a lovely afternoon wandering around and drinking lemonade.

Overall, I had a great birthday!  :)

WWoHP Part Three: In Which I Go On A Bit Longer

The thing that really got me about the WWoHP was the lack of characters.  I mean, you expect to see characters in a theme park, right?  Either actual people wearing suits and walking around like Mickey and Minne Mouse do at Disney, or at the very least lots of merchandise with the character's images.

There is nothing like that at the WWoHP, which might be why it's called the Wizarding World, instead of Harry Potter World.  It's clearly meant to make you feel like you are walking around in a world that really exists, not that you are walking around in a world dedicated to the characters.

There are plenty of souvenirs for sale.  I did see a few t-shirts with characters on them, but shockingly few. One stuffed white owl puppet that could have been Hedwig, but then again she probably wasn't the only white owl, right?  Pretty much everything jived exactly with what you'd expect to see if you really did go to Hogsmeade/Hogwarts.  They sold a lot of t-shirts and hoodies with each of the four houses on them, and notebooks with the Hogwarts crest, and candy items in Honeyduke's and jokey items and toys in Wonko's. There is absolutely no reference to Voldemort himself, or any of the specific teachers, and only minor references to Harry, Hermione and Ron.

And that, above everything else, was what really got to me.

Knowing nothing at all about the planning process, I'm going to go ahead and just assume that I can give JK Rowling all of the credit.  I mean, you know that Universal must have wanted to sell stuffed Voldemort dolls and have employees dressed up as house elves, right?  I'm just going to imagine a big conference room in London where JK yelled at them and told them how it would be!  And I'm also going to assume that she did it just for her readers, so they'd have a place to go and experience the books, not the commercialization.

In other words, I think she made it just for me.  And it is perfect.

After the little intro movie, if you click on Hogsmeade, you can see just what it looks like HERE (this is even the same Hogwarts Express engineer guy we saw) and/or click on Hogwarts.

And... now I'm finished.  :)

See also:
WWoHP Part One: In Which We Park The Car And Walk For Miles
WWoHP Part Two: In Which We Actually Get There

WWoHP Part Two: In Which We Actually Get There

Halfway across the bridge, I can see the gates of Islands of Adventure in front of me, and I am thrilled!  From that moment on, I completely forget to worry about the car.  Being me, I had done the research and looked at the maps on Universal's website, and had plotted the quickest way to get to WWoHP, so we turned right, walked through the Dr. Suess area, and as we walked through the Lost Continent I saw it suddenly, in the distance; the rooftops of Hosgmeade.  OOOoooooooo!

The terrible weather had not yet arrived, but it was cloudy, so the very first view we had was against a cloudy gray sky, and it looked exactly like a dreary, snowy English day.  SWEET.

The entrance is a big stone archway with a black metal sign saying: Hogsmeade  -  Please respect the spell limits.

The first thing you see is the big red Hogwart's Express, which spews smoke every few seconds and looks utterly real.  It manages to look clean and yet used at the same time, and it comes equipped with an engineer guy, who will happily pose for photos, speak to you completely in character with his British accent, and when not being bothered by tourists he appears to perform mainentance on the engine. 

And the street stretches away before you, with cobblestones and street lamps and shops right out of Hogsmeade/Diagon Alley.

Okay, full disclosure here.  It was at this point where I started crying a little.  It's just so perfect.

There's an Owlery, with real fake owls flapping high in the ceiling rafters, and real fake owl poop underneath them.

The Hog's Head pub is right next to the Three Broomsticks restaurant.

Visitors can buy a butterbeer or pumpkin juice from the stand.  I tasted both, and pumpkin juice is sweet with a spicy, pumpkin pie flavor.  You can buy one of the pretty pumpkin-topped bottles to take home.  Butterbeer is only sold in the WWoHP, and it's a two part drink: the carbonated butterbeer part and the foamy top part that they actually add separately.  It tastes a little like cream soda, maybe with a hint of butterscotch, and I thought it was delicious.

There's an owl post, selling quills, sneakoscopes, and Hogwarts stationery.  It was a tiny shop and extremely crowded, that's someone's back pressed up against the door.

There's a Gringott's ATM!

Several of the shops are fake, but look so real, and have wonderful details.  In the picture below, the shop on the left sells quiddich supplies, and has a set of bludgers in the window, rattling around and struggling to get free of the chains.  The shop on the right is a bookstore with a display of Gilderoy Lockhart books in the window.

One of the real shops is Zonko's, where you can buy pygmy puffs and extendable ears.  This is a view of the fun, colorful ceiling at Zonkos.

Another real shop is Honeyduke's, which is attached to Zonko's.  You can buy chocolate frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans here. 

At the end of the street, visitors walk around a little curve, and then there it is.  Hogwarts!

Oh, it's just breathtaking.  The actual Forbidden Journey ride is in a structure right below Hogwarts, which appears to be on a mountain above you.  Visitors don't get to walk around inside the castle seen above, but just to stand below and look at it is genuinely amazing.

The idea of the Forbidden Journey ride is that you are a Muggle, on a tour of Hogwarts.  The tour starts outside in the greenhouse, and then goes into the Portrait Gallery, which is purely amazing.  We stood for quite a while looking at the paintings, which do look exactly like a painting until suddenly it begins to move, and talk to you.  The effect is flawless. (The big one at the bottom that appears black was actually moving when I took the pic.)

The next part of the tour is Dumbledore's office, where you see the pensieve, and then Dumbledore appears and gives a little talk welcoming the guests.  Then into the Defense Against Dark Arts classroom, where Harry, Hermione and Ron suddenly appear and, instead of letting you suffer through the boring talk about the history of Hogwarts (which is actually really interesting, Hermione protests) they are going to sneak you out to take you on a ride.

The ride itself is a lot more intense than I expected, and I got a tiny bit motion-sick, but overall it was exciting, and really well-done.  There are giant spiders (ack!), dragons, dementors, and the Whomping Willow.  

The ride, of course, exits into a gift shop, Filch's Emporium of Confiscated Goods, and this is the only place in the whole of the Wizarding World that I saw items for sale with specific characters on them.  There are a couple of t-shirts with Harry, one with Bellatrix (THAT BITCH!), and you can also buy a Marauder's Map and quiddich supplies.

Outside Hogwart's is a small performance area, and we were lucky enough to be right there at just the perfect time.  There is a Tri-Wizard performance, with Durmstrang students performing a choreographed martial-arts type demonstration:

And Beaxbatons students doing a pretty, twirly dance.  She might be a Veela, don't you think?

We heard barking coming from Hagrid's house.  Fang must be home!

We headed back to the Three Broomsticks for lunch.  Visitors are not allowed into the restaurant unless they are having a meal, so you really can't get a good look at the awesomeness unless you're going to eat there.  But why wouldn't you want to?

Again, I did the research beforehand and all reviews said that the shepherd's pie, while delicious looking, is dry and tasteless, so I ordered the fish and chips.  My fish and chips were actually very good, and Greg confirmed that the shepherd's pie is not the way to go.  The butterbeer was great, and I kind of regret not shelling out the cash for the souvenir mug, which, although plastic and fairly small, was very cute.  Here's my butterbeer in the generic cup:

Attached to the Three Broomsticks restaurant is the Hog's Head Pub, which sells their own specialty Hog's Head Brew beer.  I didn't try the beer, but did enjoy the actual head of the hog, behind the bar.  He periodically moves around and snorts.

There are two other rides in the WWoHP, one is a small, fairly gentle rollercoaster called the Flight of the Hippogriff, and also the Dragon's Challenge, which is basically just a re-theming of the already existing Dueling Dragons coaster.  While I do like coasters, there was kind of a long wait, and we'd ridden Dueling Dragons, so we skipped it. 


We spent some time just hanging out, and looking around.  There are an amazing number of tiny, perfect details that make it so real.  The sun came out, despite the dire warnings from the doomy weatherpeople, and the snow and icecicles sparkled.


Finally, we had seen everything at least twice and we were tired, so we headed off on the long journey back to the car.  When we got there, it was locked, of course.




Part One: In Which We Park The Car and Walk For Miles


Part Three:  In Which I Go On A Bit Longer

WWoHP Part One: In Which We Park the Car and Walk for Miles

It's no secret that I LOVE the Harry Potter books (and the movies, too, but mostly the books).  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter officially opened mid-July, and I have been dying to go, and have been waiting impatiently since then.  Living in Orlando, it's relatively easy for me, since Universal Studios/IOA is only about a half-hour from my house.  A 1-day 1-park pass is $82 per adult, but as a benefit my company provides two free two tickets a year, and though my husband and I often go in the spring to see their Mardi Gras parades, obviously this year I have been waiting.
 
Here's how the Universal Resort area in Orlando is set up:  There are two theme parks, Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure (where the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is located).  There are also several hotels onsite, and an entertainment complex called Citywalk, full of restaurants, shops, clubs and a giant movie theatre (that's where I go to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show).

I have a few Facebook friends who work at Universal, so I knew from their status updates that the crowds at WWoHP were just terrible.  For a good long while after opening, the staff at Islands of Adventure were having to control the number of people who could enter the WWoHP, there were lines of people waiting to even go in the area.  Given how bad they will let it get before restricting access, things must have been extremely crowded.  Plus, this year we had one of the hottest summers ever.  98 degrees + humidity + crushing crowds of sweaty tourists = WAIT.  
 
Greg and I always try to take at least a couple of vacation days to celebrate our anniversary on October 1, so that seemed like a good time.  Fall weather + tourist offseason + going on a weekday when kids are in school = WIN.  A month beforehand I put in my request at work to go on Wednesday, September 30, got it back approved, and then all I had to do was try to contain my excitement.  Which I didn't do successfully, and ended up gushing about it to Greg pretty much every single day.
 
After spending the morning agonizing over whether or not to believe the weather people who all promised a day full of flooding rain and wind due to Tropical Storm Nicole, we decided to go for it and arrived at the main parking gate at around 10:30am.  We drove through the gate and paid the parking lot attendant, then we spent the next few minutes bitterly cursing a $15 parking charge.  (It really does seem like a lot, doesn't it?  Geez. I feel bad for the people who have to pay a buttload to get in the park, and then pay the huge parking fee on top of it.)  I made the difficult decisions about what was absolutely vital to carry around with me (small camera, extra batteries, debit card, cell phone), left my big purse in the car, and we headed off excitedly.
 
After parking in the huge multi-level garage, visitors then walk to an escalator and up (or down) to the main level, then walk to the walkway (which is a moving sidewalk, like in a lot of airports) that's around 47 miles long, give or take a hundred miles.  Then, those people who can't read any of the several languages that the many signs are posted in or figure out what the word "walkway" means stand stubbornly in the way of those of us who do not wish to use the walkway as a standway.  Then the walkway/standway ends in a big covered circular area housing the first (or last, depending on your direction) opportunity to buy stuffed Spiderman dolls, Simpsons water bottles and Rock-n-rollercoaster t-shirts.  There are also wheelchair/stroller rentals, restrooms, and an M&M vending machine.  WTF?  This is the only place I have ever seen an M&M vending machine, and it always strikes me as odd.
 
Then the next walkway/standway, for another few hundred miles, then we are finally in Citywalk.  We walk past the movie theatre and the stage area for live bands and the restaurants and the shops, and then we are at the bridge that will lead to Islands of Adventure.
 
It is at this point that my husband stops walking suddenly, looks at me, and says, "I don't think I locked the car.  Do you remember hearing the car beep?"
 
I love my husband so much!  A lot of the time, anyway.  Did I mention that I left my big purse in the car?
 
After a brief but urgent conversation, we decided he was being weird and neurotic, and that he probably did lock the car.  Solemnly shouldering the burden of worrying about the car all day, we walk across the bridge.




Part Two:  In Which We Actually Get There

Part Three:  In Which I Go On A Bit Longer

The Marigold Project: End of Phase One

I will not burden you with yet another visual of my dirt-filled planter, but the latest update is that the teensy little green thing that may or may not have been a weed has disappeared.  I have definitely given Mr. Marigold plenty of time to show up, but he has apparently missed the bus; new arrangements must be made.

One day soon I'll go to the store and buy a few baby marigold plants, and I'll post some actual pretty photos of flowers.

I wonder if now is a bad time to plant marigolds in Florida?  The weather here is gorgeous, 80 degrees during the day and 65 at night.  I guess I'll give it a shot and see how Mr. Marigold Jr does.

Also, Greg and I took a few vacation days last week in celebration of our 7th wedding anniversary on October 1.  One day we spent at Islands of Adventure in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, so stay tuned for an upcoming blog entry with lots of gushing and lots of photos!

Me + Harry Potter = Love

** Warning -- Harry Potter movie and book spoilers within! **

So many books just suck, right from the beginning, and I bail immediately. Life is too short and there are too many good books to waste time slogging through badly written junk. Some start off promisingly, but then let me down with lazy plot devices, unrealistic dialogue, not fully-realized characters behaving in ways that are psychologically inconsistent. But the HP books, in my humble opinion, are all completely wonderful, perfectly crafted from beginning to end. I loved the characters, I loved the wizarding world, and I love JK Rowling.

Of course, the movies must disappoint, given the industry's inclination to make movies that are less than 10 hours long. (sigh)


Worst Movie Omissions/Inaccuracies:

1) Mad-Eye Moody not saying "CONSTANT VIGILANCE", even once.

2) Who Moony, Padfood, Wormtail and Prongs are, and why they created the Marauder's map. That just broke my heart! Don't even get me started on how the patronuses often just looked like shields instead of animals.

3) The detail about the Weasley family in general. I feel like Percy's betrayal has not been shown adequately, poor Bill has been completely ignored (as well as his engagement to Phlegm), and Charlie has only been mentioned briefly (in relation to the dragons at the Tri-Wizard Tournament).

4) The house wizards in Hogwarts never having been shown in any movie, especially poor little Winky (sob!) and Hermione's SPEW initiative. I feel like house elves and their rights and powers are an important theme in the books and are a factor in the end, and at this point they'll have to take it out completely or show it in a way that lacks the depth and meaning of the books.



Best Movie Moments/General Movie Coolness:

1) The neato swirly smoky effect when wizards zip around, particularly with the Death Eaters. There is nothing like that in the books, and honestly, what is it? They are not apparating/disapparating, they are not flying, so... But still, it looks awesome, and I won't question it too much.

2) The appearance of all the characters. Pretty much every single character looks exactly like I pictured them in the books, especially Voldemort's weird snake face. Eeeek. My one nitpick is how Hagrid's size seems to be inconsistent, even within each movie.

3) The moviemakers really did justice to Fred and George's amazing departure from Hogwarts. Fred and George are rock stars, their leaving was legendary, and it looked GREAT in the movie!

Most Embarrassing Personal Harry Potter trivia:

I made my own Harry Potter t-shirt to wear to the last two book release parties. And if I do say so myself, it's SUPER. I took the lovely Mary Grandpre drawing from the first page of the first chapter of the first book, with the title under it: The Boy Who Lived. I added a tiny bit of color in Photoshop and used CafePress to have it made, and it's so cool. Stop laughing at me!

How to read a 900 page book overnight in one sitting:

1) Sit at a desk or table. 900 page hardback books are heavy after the first 8 or 10 hours.

2) Have plenty of caffeine handy. I prefer Diet Mt. Dew or Coke Zero. Actual energy drinks are bad, as most will cause you to crash at some point, and you need to be awake for the duration (up to 12 hours or more, depending on how fast you read).

3) Snacks are important, but any snacks that are going to leave ook on your fingers and get on the pages (like Cheetos) are bad. This is not the time for the fried chicken leftovers. Maybe some nice saltines... but make sure not to drop any crumbs in the book.

4) Your spouse/family/friends will try to talk you out of it. They'll say it's silly, that you are actually hurting yourself by depriving yourself of sleep, that you probably will be too tired to fully understand what you're reading. Do not listen to these "helpful" people. Persevere!

5) Know that you will need the next day, and possibly two, to catch up on sleep and recover. Give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back, and bask in your superiority! Think of all those other silly people out there; why, the book was released almost 15 hours ago and they haven't even read it yet. Tsk.


“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” - Albus Dumbledore


Oh, the terrible dark future of a life with no more new Harry Potter books to read, EVER. :(

Day Six Without My Sweetie

Greg has been gone since last Sunday afternoon, almost a week. I miss him, but it's okay. I have been pretty busy this whole week, so it's not like I'm sitting around pinin'.

Tonight after work I go to my Nikon D40 class at Crealde. I am excited, my camera has a lot of really technical thingamajiggies that I don't fully understand. I even read the manual, twice, but it's confusing. The class is taught by a guy from Colonial Photo and Hobby, and those guys are all great, very knowledgeable and very good at teaching.

I've always wanted to take a class at Crealde! I had some artwork in a show there once, but I've never been there except for that one time.

It looks like my sweetie will be home on Thursday night, assuming there are no big problems between now and then. :) I have to work on Thursday, which sucks because I won't be home until 10:00pm. But he'll be there waiting for me with a big hug! I could use one of those.

Friday is Harry Potter celebration day. Woo! I am so sad that this book will be the last one ever. In my weird geeky Potter-fan mania, Friday is VERY IMPORTANT to me, and I'm so looking forward to it. First, Greg and I will go to see the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie, which he hasn't seen yet. I saw it on Thursday after I got off work, and I can't wait to see it again.

Then, we'll go to the Barnes & Noble at around 4:30 or so to be there before 5:00, when they will start handing out bracelets for the book release party. (The bracelets are numbered and determine your place in the line at midnight.) Then, we'll to to Greg's favorite restaurant ever (a giant Chinese buffet) to celebrate his return home. Then, we'll go back to Barnes & Noble around 8 or 9 for the book release party.

Then, just after midnight, I'll bring home my last Harry Potter book ever (sob) and sit down at the dining room table to start reading. Position is very important: I discovered the year of book 4 that it's too tiring to hold the giant hardback book while reading through the night, those freakin' things just get too heavy after about the 4th hour of holding. I'll get my tissue box and my bottles of Coke Zero and I'll be up all night, reading the whole book in one sitting. (Minus pee breaks.)

Did I mention I made my own Harry Potter t-shirt? What?? Stop looking at me like that! It's very cute, and unique, and I can be a Harry Potter geek if I want!

Day One Without my Sweetie

Greg is out of town on business for the next two weeks. He left yesterday morning, 7/8, and won't be back until next Friday, 7/20. Gads.

I am really not one of those women who is afraid to be alone, I actually LIKE being alone. Before I met Greg I lived alone, and loved it. But now I'm used to having someone else give me a hug when I get home from work, and grab my butt when I walk across the living room, and sing the Entourage theme song with me, and yell "boobies!" when I am taking a shower, and fuss at me when I forget to eat breakfast.

Anyway. The house seems really empty with only lil' me and lil' Syndney.

That's okay, though, I have a lot of stuff to do. I am rereading the Harry Potter books in preparation for the last book release, and I'm only just at the very beginning of book 6. I am meeting Jen and Debe to record two episodes of Say Anything this week, one tomorrow and one on Friday. I have to go through our stuff to find things we can give to Jen to include in the big garage sale this weekend. I am still adjusting levels/color balance, cropping and resizing all the pics from Jacki's wedding... all 452 of them. I need to wash the dirty dishes and put away the laundry and clean the floors. I need to dye my hair, and get on the treadmill for at least 30 minutes a day. I am taking a Nikon class at Crealde this Saturday, and sometime next weekend I have to find time to see the new Harry Potter movie. I'm also working 10-hour shifts on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday of this week (and today), and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of next week. Then next Friday I'm going to the big Harry Potter book release party at Barnes & Noble, then staying up all night to read the book.

I really hope Greg can come home early, next Thursday instead of next Friday, so he won't be too tired to go to the book release party with me. Today is just the first day, but he said things went really quickly, so it's possible they will be finished ahead of schedule.

*sigh*