I'm Not Spoiling, I Promise!

Okay, you all know my Harry Potter mania. Well, I'm so happy to say that I'm not the only dweeb in the family! I managed to escape complete and total "dweebness" by maturely skipping the midnight book selling at Bookworld, but I just had to get up early and purchase the book as soon as Wal-mart opened at 7:00 this morning. Guess who I ran into there?

Brother-in-law Tom, who was there to purchase not one, but two books; one for himself and one for my MiL. Hee hee! Tom is very tall, and hates to be seen in the company of other dweebs, so this was the best picture I could get of him. . . . I thought it rather funny that he headed out of Wal-mart a few minutes later with his books under one arm, and an ENTIRE pack of Mello-Yellow in the other. (The man is addicted, I tell you! People really shouldn't form addictions . . . . ah . . . right . . . must continue . . .where was I? Ah yes, Harry Potter!!!)

After standing in line behind a sizable number of people who were all as excited as I, we managed to file into the store without any shoving or fighting to pick up our coveted tomes. I was pleasantly surprised to see a fair number of gray heads in the queue. The elderly lady who checked out ahead of me said that there was "no way her grandson was going to get to read it before she did; he'd just have to wait another day before getting his present!". Wonderful woman; displayed a true sense of priorities.

After barely suppressing the desire to giggle with glee, I headed to one of my favorite guilty haunts, Amigos, where I ordered breakfast and read for an hour or so (much to the waitress's amusement!)

Yes, I realize you can't see me very well in this photo. It's 7:00 in the morning, and I haven't fixed my hair. Deal with it.

After that, I had to head home to watch the kids for an hour so Andy could finish up a tile job. Not to worry! I put on a handy-dandy movie, and read on!

Now, Andy and I had made an "agreement", that he would watch the kids all day so I could read. I have suspicions that Andy has some goblin blood, because he "watched" the kids all day by playing 10 games of settlers (on-line game) while the kids climbed in my lap as I tried to read. Thankfully, as family members will attest, I have an amazing ability to ignore catastrophic happenings while engrossed in a book. (My brother once piled all the dining room chairs over me while I was reading; when I finished my book, I looked up to discover I was trapped in a mountain of furniture. Never noticed a thing.)

When I finished the book at 3:30 this afternoon (yes, it took me a little longer than the last book that came out. I was trying to savor the story . . .) I looked up to discover . . . .

This. (Look at all the toys piled under the piano).

And this.

All in just 7 short hours. When Andy emerges from reading the book I'm gonna kill him. It's a good thing he bought me more bottles of gin and tonic while he was "babysitting".

Avada Kadavra!

All Pottered Out!

I am so excited I could just scream (okay, well, I already have!)

THE LAST HARRY POTTER BOOK IS COMING OUT TONIGHT!!!!!!!!!

I'm trying to decide how much of a Dweeb I want to be; do I go to Walmart at 12:01 and get the book, or do I just go early tomorrow morning? Hmmmm, can't decide. The suspense is killing me!

I've been speculating for weeks about the title, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Notice the title says "hallows", not "hollows" (some people think it refers to Godric's Hollow where Lily and James lived before they were killed). Just some interesting coincidences; Harry's parents were murdered on Halloween, or "All Hallows Eve"; Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost, was beheaded on Halloween too. Okay, I'll quit boring you with my mania (Andy's so sick of hearing me speculate; of course, he's been re-reading all the books, too, so he's not quite as ambivalent as he would like to appear!)

Harry Potter Mania

I just love fantasy books, and I've been a fan of the Harry Potter books for quite some time. I think I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've read every book in the series at least 12 times. (Okay, I'm going to start getting all gushy over J.K. Rowling's books now, so you might want to skip this post . . .)

One of my favorite ways to enjoy Potter is to listen to them on the audio books. The narrator, Jim Dahl, is the best reader I've ever heard. The man is a genius with accents and voices. It's down right spooky!

Anyway, Andy took me to see the latest Harry Potter movie a few days ago, and I just LOVED it. This was a bit of a surprise, because it's my least favorite book. Whenever I read The Order of the Phoenix, I just want to give Harry a good slap and say, "quit whining and stop being so moody". Oh well, perhaps he's going through post-traumatic stress disorder, or something like that, after Cedric's death.

Anyway, I liked the movie so much I want to see it again. (Let me state, that unlike the normal Kahue, I do NOT usually see movies more than once.) The funny thing was, though, that the knitter in me was really thrilled with the movie, too. I kept seeing all these cool sweaters and hats I wanted to knit.

If you don't already know, there's a huge knitting group out there that likes to knit Harry Potter related paraphenalia. I think this movie is playing off that following, because the number of cool knits is amazing. Can't wait to try to knit Hermione's hat and scarf (I think Lion Brand Wool-Ease is just the right coloring . . .)

If you haven't noticed, I've put a count-down on my sidebar for the very last Harry Potter book. I've already warned Andy that he's going to have to babysit the kids this Saturday, because I'm going to temporarily quit motherhood. I plan to get the book as soon as Wal-mart opens, and read it straight through. When the Half-Blood Prince came out, I was able to read it in 7 hours. (Then I took my time and read it through again in 24. I really did try to read slow. It was just sooooo much fun!)

Can you tell I'm excited? Even knitting doesn't get me this worked up! (Well, okay, Malabrigo is close . . .)

Dr. Who and Harry Potter

If you're not a Dr. Who fan, please forgive me, as this next post will not make much sense.

Oh, okay, I'll fill you in; Dr. Who is a sci-fi/fantasy show that airs in Britain, and is about a time-traveling man who calls himself the "Doctor". No one knows his name, thence the Dr. "Who". (Yes, I know, terrible pun).

Anyway, as I live in the USA it takes me a few days to get the episodes after they air in Britain. Last night hubby and I watched it, and were thrilled to see the writers of the show acknowledge Harry Potter! In the episode!

Here's a short version of some dialogue after they find themselves in Elizabethan England:
Jones: Isn't this all a bit "Harry Potter" and all?
Dr. Who: Oh yes. Just wait till you read book 7. I cried. (Remember he's a time traveler)

Then, at the end of the episode, Shakespeare has to banish three witches (hmm, this is a terrible summary of the plot, isn't it?), he comes up with a sonnet on the spot (as curses simply must rhyme), and cannot think of the last rhyming word, which Jones supplies for him - "Expelliarmus!"

Okay, just take my word for it, if you like Harry Potter, you'll probably like Dr. Who too. And what could possibly be better than them both!

And, as this is primarily a knitting blog, let me assure you that my fingers were busy flying along with the witches!