Just Finished

I've just finished The Half Blood Prince about 4 minutes ago.

I am utterly speechless.

It's Here It's Here!

I've been negligent about posting, but I've also been rather boring.

Well, as I'm sure you all know, Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince has come out.  Very very exciting (at least for me).  Now...I try to ration my Harry Potter first readings since there is only one more book and....I suppose I want to prolong my enjoyment as long as possible.  To be fair, however this was my strategy with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as well and...I failed miserably.  I was good for that first day...only reading one or two hundred pages...and then the second day I binged and finished the entire book.  =/

I'm actually not done with HBP (half blood prince) so...don't spoil anything for me yet!  I'm around 460...

The reason for my lagging is that I have been extremely busy preparing new material for my incoming 4th graders.  Charts, graphs, rote books, the works.  There has been a lot of acrylic paint involved, and I'm actually starting to get a headache from the fumes.

But yesterday I went to Laguna Beach where I sat and soaked up the sun for a few hours (and read 200 pages of Harry Potter).  It's amazing how the only part of me that managed to get darker was the part that was already relatively dark and sunblocked.  Oh well, go figure.  I didn't burn, so I'll take that as a success since I'm rarely in the sun. 

Oh, I was at Plaza Vista AND Vista Verde earlier this week.  Man, I can't believe some of you left your instruments there!  LAME.  And they were all violin players!  Where's the love guys, where's the love?

I leave you to contemplate that eternal question.  And finish painting.  And....to go read some more Harry Potter.  Or...sleep.  Mmm....sleep....

It's Coming It's Coming!

In less than 24 hours (hopefully 12), the UPS man will be bringing me...Harry Potter And The Half Blood Prince!!  Woo hoo!  It was about 5 or 6 years ago that the obsession began, and began with extreme skepticism and dubiousness.  The whole Harry Potter phenomenon had been in action for a year or two, and I was very sketchy about the whole notion.  As a general rule, I tend to avoid trends and fads and all things "in" because they eventually pass and people are no better as a result.

My father, however, bought me Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone for the holidays one year and asked me to read it and tell him what I thought.  So, being the good daughter I am, I obliged.  And I just got sucked in to the whole Harry Potter world.  It really is quite delightful, and I enjoy the books much more than I do the movies (though I have to say that I love that goofy  Rupert Grint). 

I still think it would be amusing if I got a magic wand and used that to conduct instead of a baton.  Though that may be taking my geeking out to a slightly unhealthy level.  Heh.  We'll see.

If you are as adamantly excited about Harry Potter as I, then you should check out The Leaky Cauldron.  It's a very good website.  Very informative.

Now tonight, I have to finish the book I'm currently reading so that I may dive into the Half Blood Prince tomorrow. 

w00t!

Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

I love this sleeping in business.  Forget sleeping in, I love this sleeping thing.  It's delightful.

On Tuesday, a knock on the door awoke me, along with the shouting, "UPS!"  I dragged myself out of bed to open the door, and huzzah (yes, I said huzzah), there was a very large package on my porch.  The UPS man, who had walked away at this point, came running back for a signature.  "I'm really supposed to get a signature for all packages," he admitted, which is amusing since I get a lot of packages and almost never sign for them.  Sidenote:

I love getting packages.  There's something strangely exhilarating about the whole process, even if you're just getting shampoo or something.  I'm a big fan of the whole online purchasing thing, and since I'm normally exceedingly busy, I enjoy the convenience.  I'm still waiting for my Bach Cello Suites to come in the mail, and some shorts and something else...I forget.

The UPS man said, "Oh yeah?  I have a birthday coming up too!  It's on the 11th!"

A little too excitedly, I exclaimed, "So is mine!"

He said, "Really??  That's so cool!  Well in case I don't see you before then, happy birthday!"

On Friday there was the same knock on the door, and he left a really awesome lamp in front of my door, and ran away again.  (This may have to do with the fact that I lag so bad in answering the door since I'm always asleep when he arrives.)  When I opened the door, he was already a good 30 feet away, and he yelled, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

I returned, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU TOO!"

The UPS man and I have bonded.

Happy 4th!

Happy July 4th everybody!  I  write this now as the sound of fireworks and firecrackers pop in the background.  In about 10 minutes I plan to go peak outside and see if anything interesting is visible.

Now something very important: in one week is my birthday XD  And no, I'm not going to tell you how old I'm turning.

I have a new addiction.  In the mail on Friday came Super Mario All Stars.  This is a game for Super Nintendo (I know a lot of you have no concept of Super Nintendo.  Sigh) that actually comes from the original Nintendo.  The OG Nintendo.  Heh.  It has Super Mario 1, Super Mario 2, Super Mario 3, and some "lost levels".  This is my childhood, people.  Granted, it should've happened earlier in my childhood, but my parents were quite clear that if I wanted video games I'd have to buy them myself.  So I had to save up for a LONG time ($100 is a lot of money!) until I could afford my very own Nintendo.

And it was awesome.

It's amazing the stuff that fills the space in our brains.  After...many years, coming back and playing these games...I still remember where to warp, which pipes to go down, where the 1ups are...oh, for Mario 3 I remember the matching card game...it's incredible.  This is the stuff that's taking up a chunk of my brain.  I don't know whether I should be happy or depressed.  So for now, I'm just amazed.

Gratitude, DVDs, and Pizza

Yesterday, I put all those wonderful Barnes and Noble Gift Cards you wonderful students gave me to use.  I spent quite a bit of time in the B&N nearest me and picked out some books I've been meaning to read, and most exciting...I bought a box set of Jaqueline du Pre playing 8 cello concertos!  All right, obviously, to some this isn't an exciting moment.  But this is Jaqueline doing....Dvorak, Elgar, Schumann, Saint-Saens, Boccherini (blech)...and one more I'm forgetting.  Oh, Monn.  I've never heard this cello concerto, actually.  She rocks my socks.  w00t!

My DVD/VCR player seems to have died.  So now I'm looking into getting a dvd recorder/vcr, because I have copious amounts of vhs tapes and it'd be nice to get them on dvd.  I have this small obsession with recording tv shows I like that date back to my Sesame Street years....and then later The Cosby Show...Friends, 3rd Rock From The Sun, etc. etc.  But I'm not quite sure how dvd recorders work so I am going to go do some research to educate myself.

Hope you guys are practicing!  I am!  It's hard to start, but once I start I can't stop.  It's like Pringles.  But not as delicious.  Or...fattening. 

Speaking of fattening, I just ordered pizza.  Mmm....pizza.

May the Force Be With You?

I finally did it.  I saw Star Wars Episode III.

Now...as I am nothing close to an expert (having seeing each Star Wars installment...once)...I was a bit confused. 

1. What were Padme's last words? 
2. What happened to Padme?  In the first episode she was this butt kicking, gun toting, jumping out of aircraft awesome chick.  And then she turned into this annoying weepy "You're breaking my heart" girl.  What what?  Boooooo Padme.  BOOO.
3. I can believe Yoda flipping around.  But as soon as I see older gentlemen such as Christopher Lee (a.k.a. Dooku, Sauruman) doing flips off the landing...I'm sorry, but it makes me giggle. 
4. After Anakin kills...Samuel L. Jackson...he sits around saying "What have I done?"  Ah, remorse.  But then, 2 seconds later, he's pledging his allegiance to the big evil guy?  What the...what?? 
5. So Anakin decides to aid in the genocide of the Jedi.  Not a good move.  And it's all to save his weepy pregnant wife.  How awesome would it have been if Padme told Obi wan where Anakin was?  I thought it would've been a wonderful way to stick it to him.  But alas.  She is lame.

Just Bumming Around

     Well, nothing really going on.  I've been cleaning and practicing (something I've been somewhat neglecting this year).  And I have every intention of finally going to go see Star Wars Episode III on Monday.  Which would be...tomorrow.  Of course, I've had every intention to go see it about 3 times now, and something inevitably happens to thwart my plans.  There's a good word for you boys and girls.  Thwart.  There's a good word for ya.

     Now I'm just enjoying the wonder that is tater tots.  I never used to understand them.  When I went to school, the tater tots were always a bit soggy and undercooked, and not exactly a favorite of mine.  Skip to many years later, I find that when cooked properly and to somewhat of a crisp, tater tots are actually quite delightful.  Who knew.