Real Housewife of Oak Hill

I came, I saw, I conjured

I did it!

I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night at 10:32!  I had been reading for 12 straight hours.  I then forgot how to work a Muggle telephone and said "Accio wine" and was puzzled when it didn't appear in my hand.

Saw the movie this afternoon... heard second part comes out next summer - maybe on Harry's birthday!  Teeheehee...

I have to give it to them. I think they do (and always have done) a GREAT job bringing these books to life.  Ya know how in a lot of movies the people, places or things don't look like they did in your head?  Well everything they create is spot-on and the adaptations of the text to screenplay is very good.  I was way more aware what they chose to leave out or change this time since I had just read it, but there was nothing lost in translation.

What a long. strange, magical trip it's been, Harry Potter.  Your adventures will be missed.

 

Meanwhile, my husband refuses to get me a house elf.  Says they don't exist.  What does he know?

 

 

Oof

I just checked.

759 pages.

 

Hello weird dreams!

652 pages down...

I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night at 1:34am.  

Do you know what happens when you read an entire Harry Potter book in two 6 or 7 hour stretches right before bed?

You dream about bull fighting.

OK, so not really.  But you do totally dream about wizardry.  I don't think I was a witch in either dream, but they were swarming with witchy things.  Like I was going to be tested on it.  Sorta like the nightmares you'd have before a big scary test, when everywhere you turn are giant beakers with teeth and looming periodic tables and multiplication symbols are trying to squash you and minus signs are trying to cut you in half.

Or was that just me?

Either way there is no rest for the wicked.  I have another... lord, I haven't even looked at how may pages the next book is... to go.  

 

I hope I'm not naked in front of a classroom full of wizards in the next dream...

 

Son of a Banshee!

I've been feeling so guilty about not posting lately.  Obviously not enough to actually POST, but feeling guilty all the same.  Thought I could knock a few out in the next few days, but...

I have a date next Friday afternoon with one of my best friends to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I.  Problem is I haven't READ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  But Cheetah had a copy and since they read fairly quickly I thought I could get through it by next Friday.  And as a fail safe since the movie is only Part I, I don't even have to finish it.

I was refreshing my memory about all the other volumes as it's been a long time since I read them and as I'm reading the synopsis of The Half-Blood Prince, it's not coming back to me as vividly as the others.  I know some stuff (yes, I know the end!), but I don't KNOW stuff.  Holy crap.  I don't think I've read this one either!

Now that's TWO Harry Potter tomes I have to read in a week!  My only saviour will be if I get a little farther into The Half-Blood Prince and realize I really have read it.  (I've done that before. Bought the sequel to The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, all excited, only to realize a quarter of the way through that I'd read it before.  Thank God I hadn't left the airport yet.)

So I'm off to see the wizard... literally.

 

Tangent - If you liked Silence of the Lambs and haven't seen Manhunter, I urge you to rush out and get it.  It's based on Red Dragon, has a fantastic 80's soundtrack and is one of my favorite movies ever.  And if you liked the original cast of CSI, you'll be pleasantly surprised at who plays the good guy.

 

• Thomas Harris
• Manhunter
• J.K. Rowling
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I

  

 

Got my Celtic on

Instead of blogging or crossing off one of the last things on my List, I did new things!  'Cuz I'm crazy like that!

Had an eyebrow wax downtown which afforded me good parking so I took advantage and strolled through the Barkitecture display on 2nd Street.  I decided I want to build our crazy Basset a dog house... that she will never use because we always keep her inside.  (But wouldn't it be fun?!  I could make it match the house!)  Since it was still early, I walked over to the Gypsy Picnic Trailer Food Festival at Auditorium Shores.  Thirty haute food vendors replicating the vast array of fun trailer restaurants we have around town, most of which I have never been too.  And I still haven't. After making a pentadecagon around the park dodging the lines, I decided I wasn't up for standing around waiting for food that I could get next week with no line; so I skedaddled.

I had also wanted to go to the Austin Celtic Festival today so I headed across town.  Figured I could eat there with presumably 1/3 of the wait.  $15 to get in (kinda steep), but somebody's gotta keep these people in kilts and drinking horns I guess.  Passed up all the "If It's Not Scottish, It's Crap" booths and went straight to the food - let's see... jumbo corn dogs, funnel cakes, mmm... gyros, wraps, oh! fish 'n chips!, wait - bangers and mash?, mince and tatties?! - you had me at bangers! Tried the Mince and Tatties (Scottish Highland beef stew with carrots and onions over mashed potatoes) - take that Gypsy Picnic!  Wandered around, wanted to see the Highland Games, but must have missed them, listened to the Irish music trio Flashpoint, missed a Viking Battle reenactment, bought Irish Soda Bread and shortbread and molasses cookies at the bake sale (it's for charity!), got a cherry-strawberry lemonade as big as my head and went to see one of the dance troupes - main reason I wanted to go.  That and the Silver Thistle Pipes and Drums (which I had also missed). I may not be of Scottish decent, but I sure love me some bagpipes.

The Hill Country Highland Dancers had live accompaniment from one of the pipers from the Silver Thistle so I sorta got two birds stoned at once.  (I decided I really want to learn how to play the bagpipes!  Do you think my husband will divorce me?)  The dancers did several traditional dances from jigs to lilts; it was really fun so I decided that I should take up Highland dancing too... if I can find a bra strong enough to keep my boobs under control.  I'll keep you posted.

I made a lot of decisions today.  I think I need to go take a nap before I decide anything else.

Whoops

Guess I should have warned you that I had to get through Book Group at my house before I posted.  I'll get on that as soon as these dishes are done.  And the wine glasses washed.  And I eat the leftover Chicken Marbella...