Harry Potter and more (no spoilers)

Death Eater
Originally uploaded by snarkmeister.

As I may have mentioned (once or twice or a million times), Rugrat and I had planned for the past six months to attend the Harry Potter book release party at our local B&N. Rugrat decided, the day before the party, that he wanted to dress up as a Death Eater. I think his costume turned out rather well, don't you? I also drew a "Dark Mark" on his left forearm with a dark green pen, and we got many compliments on it at the party. It was a MADHOUSE there...we waited in line for an hour and a half just to check in and get the armband. My armband was #96, which means I was the 96th person to check in who had reserved a copy of the book already; many people had not reserved a copy, and they got a different-colored armband.

At 11 pm, they started lining people up according to the numbers on their wristbands. There were different sections of the store for each group of 50 people. At midnight, they opened up ALL the registers and they moved people out FAST. They had the books pre-bagged; you just paid and they threw the receipt in the bag. We were way at the end of the second group of 50, but we were still out of the store within fifteen minutes. It was incredible.

We came home, I hurried Rugrat into bed, and then settled in to read for about an hour before I conked out. I ended up finishing the book around 1 AM on Saturday night, and I have to say, it was fantastic. This is how you finish off a seven-book series. Yeah, I'm looking at you, Stephen King (I'm still bitter about the ending of the Dark Tower series). HP7 was very satisfying. Of course, it also made me feel super-smart, because pretty much all of my predictions came true. ;-) Knowing (or thinking I knew) what was going to happen didn't stop me from sobbing like a little baby when I read those parts though.

OK, enough about Harry. Just a quick update about Mr Wonderful -- we have started discussing, seriously, the idea of his moving in. To the point that we are talking about what we need to get rid of (in order to fit the things he's bringing), and him transferring to the local Kaiser, and redoing the office/spare room for Tomboy. Of course none of this is happening right away, because the kids still need to spend more time together (which they won't get to really do much of until September), and Tomboy needs to spend more time with me, and get comfortable with the house and stuff. But this is happening, and it will likely be within the next few months. Mr Wonderful and I are very excited about it. I just can't wait to go to bed with him every night and wake up next to him every morning.

And because my life has taken this turn...I am sorry to announce that I am giving up the dream of opening the used book store. At this point, it just doesn't make sense for me, or for us. I can't afford to quit my job and strike out on what would likely be a very financially unstable business venture, especially as Mr Wonderful will soon be going back to school for a couple of years, and will probably only be working part time. And I can't keep collecting these books and storing them in boxes in my garage; quite frankly, we need the space. So I am going to make plans to get rid of the books I've got - whether via garage sale, donating to libraries/other causes, selling to used bookstores, or whatever...they've just got to go. I'm a little sad, but the fact that I haven't made any real moves towards starting the business (besides amassing HUGE numbers of books) tells me that it's obviously not the right time. And making a life together with Mr Wonderful and Tomboy is more important to me than holding on to a dream that may or may not ever happen.

Today's the day!

Or, rather, tonight's the night. Rugrat has decided that he wants to dress up this time...as a Death Eater. Heh. Yeah, that's pretty standard for him. I think we're going to have to hit a party store or something for some costume materials this afternoon/evening. He really needs a black hooded cloak to pull off the costume, and Mr Wonderful suggested that we get a mask and spray paint it silver (as opposed to just using the "mask" Rugrat made out of tinfoil taped to a pair of sunglasses).

The bookstore party starts at 7 PM, and Rugrat is so excited to be allowed to stay up until midnight (without being forced to take a nap in the afternoon). Whereas I am just excited to get my hands on the book I've been eagerly anticipating for several years now.

Final countdown

There are now less than five days to go before the final Harry Potter book is released. Yes, I'm counting down the hours. Yes, I'm a total and complete spaz.

I started re-reading the series late last month, and am probably a third of the way through the sixth book as of right now. So I'm fairly sure I'll be all caught up by Friday night, when Rugrat and I will head on down to our local B&N for the Midnight Madness party. I have to say, I haven't looked forward to something this much since...well, probably since Christmas when I was a wee munchkin and still believed in Santa Claus. I've been reading the Harry Potter books since Rugrat was just a tiny little monkeypod in diapers, and he's in third grade now!

In other news, Rugrat and I will NOT be going to PS at the end of August. Tomboy said that she didn't want to have to cut her vacation short (which we would've had to do, as Rugrat returns to school on Aug 30). That's totally understandable (and very diplomatic of her to give that as the reason), and quite frankly I was surprised that Mr Wonderful had thought it would be appropriate in the first place. Because, as I mentioned before, we've only spent time with Tomboy once. But all that will be changing soon, as Rugrat will be going to summer camp in a few weeks, and when he returns we'll finally be on synchronized weekends. Then they'll be spending more time together than they ever wanted, I'm sure. ;-)

Mr Wonderful is still, well, wonderful. I love that we have so much fun together - and I'm not just talking about the sex. We laugh together all the time. He's my favorite person, and there's not a day that goes by that I don't feel incredibly lucky to have found him again after all these years. And he tells me the same thing - that he is so very glad that I found him on myspace. That it feels so right, being with me. That it's getting harder every day to be apart from me. Knowing that he feels the same way I do, hearing him SAY these things, gives me such a sense of security and joy. I think we're building something great here, and I just can't help thinking that all those years of being single were preparing me for this. Because I don't think I will ever take this for granted. I want to cherish him, and US, every day.

Lazybones

I've been so lazy recently. This morning I just couldn't seem to drag my ass out of bed when Mr Wonderful got up; I vaguely remember him kissing me goodbye before he left, and then I conked out again until 8 am.

Last weekend was even worse - I didn't do much of anything besides eat, read (I'm re-reading the Harry Potter books in anticipation of book 7, which comes out in a little more than a week), and sleep. I napped three times on Sunday, I swear to God.

And blogging? Hah. I haven't updated the food blog in weeks - I still have to post the chicken chili recipe that I made when we went camping. All I want to do is just curl up and sleep the day away...but I have too much to do. Obviously there's work; I've got to do that. And then I have to pick up Rugrat a couple of times a week, meaning that I'm dealing with the awful Hwy 4 traffic. Tonight the Harry Potter 5 movie comes out, and we're going to see that before we head back out here (hoping to miss the traffic). On Friday I have to go back in to the dentist to have a tiny cavity filled. This weekend I've promised to set up a CMS shell for my project manager's new pet project, and I want to get through the last of the HP books (or come really close). I'm about a third of the way through book 5 now, so I shouldn't have any problems polishing them off before next Friday.

So I have things that I need (or want) to get done, plus of course the nagging crap that I really SHOULD do, like clean up the backyard again and reseed the patches on the front lawn. But....I'm just so sleeeeeeeepy. Maybe I'm iron-deficient. Or pregnant. Oh God, that would SUCK. I so do not want to be pregnant. Mom, don't get your hopes up, I'm on the pill.

Oh. My. God.

D came over last night after dropping his daughter off at her mom's. We spent two hours making out, and I have never been so freaking horny in my whole entire life. I can think of nothing but his lips, tongue, hands...

Test results came in the mail this weekend, and I have the all-clear. Woohoo! Now just waiting on the diaphragm. D will have a whole weekend free in two weeks as his daughter is going to Disneyland, but I won't get the diaphragm until 2 days later. So...I'm thinking about the sponge. Anyone used it? All I know about it is from that one Seinfeld episode where Elaine hoards them and will only sleep with men that she deems "sponge-worthy."

Oh, and I packed up FOURTEEN boxes of books over the weekend! About 1200, boxed and scanned.

Eeeeee!

I am so excited. Earlier this week I was perusing the chicklit boards and one of the threads was about organizing your books. Now, my books are decided UN-organized. Ever since I put out the word among family & friends that I'd like to open a used book store, I've been inundated with loads of books. I have thousands - taking up practically every square inch of storage space in my home. There are bookshelves in nearly every room, with books double-stacked on most shelves. There are boxes and bags filled with books in the garage. There is no sense of order or reason; everything has just been shoved willy-nilly, wherever it will fit when I acquired it. My two-car garage barely fits my little old Honda Accord anymore, because it's so overrun with books. And to make matters worse, I set up a database with the intention of cataloging all those books in order to keep track of what I have and what I plan to sell it for, but I couldn't keep up with it because: thousands of books, yo. All having to be entered by hand. NOT HAPPENING.

So on Tuesday, when I was reading through that thread about organizing your books, I got a bug up my butt. I found some great, cheap software from collectorz, and ordered it as well as a BARCODE SCANNER! The scanner will store up to 500 codes in memory. Then you just hook it up to your computer, and it downloads the barcodes into the book collectorz software. It automatically puts in the details of the books (author, title, cover price, etc), and you are free to go run off and scan 500 more books. Is that freaking awesome or what?

So the barcode scanner just came in the mail, and I am totally jacked. I'm spending the weekend organizing my book stash, y'all! Scan the books, put them in boxes, tape 'em up, and store them OUT OF SIGHT. Ahhh...I am so looking forward to less clutter.

HP7!!

The seventh and final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, has an official release date now: July 21, 2007. You can bet Rugrat and I will be down at our local B&N for the release party the night before!

Books, books & more books

Last year I started keeping track of the books I read. This year, so far, I've read 133 books (although seven of them I either did not finish, or am still reading). I knew I read a lot, but more than 11 books per month, on average, is probably a little excessive. Maybe I should cut back next year and do something a little more productive with my time, like keep up with housework or, maybe, find a date. Heh.

Anyhoo, the standouts on my list this year were (in the order I read them):

• The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini - this book was fabulous and heartbreaking
• Something Borrowed and Something Blue, both by Emily Giffin - fun chick-lit fluff, but with substance; taken together, the books form two sides of the same story
  
• A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey - not exactly non-fiction, but VERY well written and compelling
• Undead & Unwed, by Mary Janice Davidson - another fun fluff piece, this time about a rather shallow young woman who becomes a vampire
• The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls - disturbing non-fiction memoir
  
• Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger - a coming-of-age story about the bonds of family and duty
  
• A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving - another lovely coming-of-age story, focused on faith
• A Dirty Job, Christopher Moore - more fun stuff: a man who becomes one of Death's helpers (Christopher Moore is always a good bet for offbeat, humorous "horror" stories)
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer - powerful story about a boy searching for clues to his father's past after he dies in the 9/11 attacks
• Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro - creepy but hopeful at the same time

I hope one or more of these books ends up on your 2007 list, if you haven't read them all already!

Party Jinx

I am pretty sure I have a party jinx. Whenever I throw a party, invite people over for a get-together, whatever...if it's not family, they don't come. I had ONE person come to the book club meeting last night. Three people emailed to cancel the morning OF the meeting (like they didn't know it was coming up? Even though they got a reminder email a week ago?). Two other people just didn't bother. Whatever.

I, of course, spent the better part of two days cooking & cleaning. I bought $40 worth of wine. I made fantastic food: caramelized onion & goat cheese tarts, prosciutto & gruyere pinwheels, stuffed mushrooms, lacy almond cookies with fresh fruit. And now? I have half a bottle of wine leftover in the fridge (because the one woman who showed up was 8 months pregnant and I had to drink the wine alone), and I gorged myself on mushrooms last night so I wouldn't have to throw them away. I have a couple of the onion & goat cheese things left, and I sent the other lady home with most of the remaining pinwheels, half the cookies, and all the fruit. It's not like I can just keep this stuff around - I'm leaving for Washington tomorrow, for the family reunion thing.

I am never throwing a party again. It's just not worth the stress.

Book club!

I've started a book club! We've got 7 members, and our first meeting is coming up a week from Thursday. I am so excited, y'all!

Exciting weekend!

Rugrat & I went to the HP Midnight Magic party at the local Barnes & Noble. I made Rugrat take a nap after school, and then we went down there around 9 PM, after dinner & stuff. It was *packed*! I couldn't believe how great Rugrat was though...instead of being tired & whiny, he was just excited & kind of bouncing off the walls. Not too bad, though. Anyhoo, got my copy of HP&HBP, and got home around 12:30 AM. Started reading it right after putting Rugrat to bed, and managed a chapter & a half before I passed out.

Saturday morning, our lovely Ginger came over! She's here now, and Rugrat just adores her. He loves it when she gives him "kisses". But she definitely needs some work - she doesn't seem to know any commands (or else she doesn't much care because I am giving them). She hates going in her crate - I literally have to pull/shove her in there (and no, throwing treats in doesn't work, I tried that). She peed on the carpet in my bedroom about 15 minutes after the rescue worker left, but thankfully she hasn't had any accidents since then.

Saturday I spent a good amount of time reading, and stayed up late that night. Sunday morning I finished the book, and it was EXCELLENT. My favorite so far. Much more mature than any of the others in the series (which makes sense, since Harry is growing up), and heartbreaking at the end. Of course, I see why it had to happen (you know what scene I'm talking about if you've read it), but I was still crying my eyes out. Two more years (or so) until the final book!! Let's hope JKR can give us the satisfying finish...because Stephen King sure didn't with the Dark Tower series; I'm still kinda burned about that one.

Septimus Heap: Magyk Book One

About halfway into this fun kid's-lit book. It's similar to the HP series, but more focused on adventure and less on mystery, I think. Anyway, cute book if your kids have "wizard fever" - it's something to keep them entertained while (impatiently) waiting for July 16!

Name of the Rose

Meh. The story might be great, but so far it's pretty hard going. Umberto just goes off on these tangents where he babbles incessantly about stuff that seems to have nothing at all to do with the story. Seriously, do I need to read three pages of description of the entrance to the freakin' church? No. Just get to the mystery. He seems to do OK with dialogue, there's just not much of it. He'd be better off with less rambling descriptive crap and more dialogue that actually propels the story along.

In other words, the author seriously needs a decent editor.

Yay, Series of Unfortunate Events!!

Book 12 is coming out on October 18, 2005! Still no idea what the title will be, but Rugrat will be glad to know that the audio book should be available at the library before we make our trip to Disneyland at Halloween this year!

Finished two books today

First: The Daughter of Time, by Josephine Tey. Interesting fictional story but with quite a bit of historical fact thrown in. Story centers around a policeman, who's stuck in the hospital after a nasty fall. While trying to keep from dying of boredom, he stumbles upon the mystery of Richard III, who supposedly killed his two young nephews in order to gain/keep the crown.
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Our story's protagonist hooks up with a researcher at the British Museum, and together they uncover all kinds of interesting factoids about Richard which make it clear to them that he did not, in fact, kill his nephews, and while he's been reviled for about four hundred years as a notorious murderer and callous blackguard, he was actually a very enlightened ruler and loving family man.


Second: Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi. An unusual non-fiction book written entirely in comic strip format, about the author's childhood growing up in Iran, and all the political and social turmoil she was living through. Very touching in places. Also, a super-quick read.

Next up: The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco.