Oh nanners

I went to a pic-a-nic last night, you know. Sassafras and marjoram, but was it hot or what? Steamy. And I went into the forest that was near the picnic. And I was lost in the woods! But I wandered on for a while and I found myself again.

Some people at the picnic prepared a Southern delicacy called low country boil. I was nervous, but it wasn't like I expected. Sure, it was crabs, shrimp, sausage, potatoes, corn and onions boiled together in big, nasty vats. But they took the stuff out of the vats and stacked it neatly in serving trays and the corn and potatoes didn't taste all shrimpy and weird. Also there was an open bar, although they only served until 6:30. Actually, that was a good thing.

Cat story

This is a picture of my bro's cat; the cat's name is Boy. Also, the cat is a boy, or was one before, you know, the surgery and all that unpleasantness. The caption was provided by another brother. Boy was named by my nephew when he was like, 4 or 5. That cat is eight years old or so but he looks like he's a million, doesn't he? They used to have another cat called Socksie. I believe they were brothers. Also, guess what? Socksie had white feet! Then a few years ago Socksie died, under mysterious circumstances. I believe Boy killed him.

Quick like a bunny

That's how fast I read. If bunnies could read, that is, and who's to say they can't? It took me under 8 hours to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and if you think that's a lame thing to brag about, I won't disagree with you! It is super duper lame, yet I persist in my childish pride. In fact if you trim out the inevitable breaks, it was probably more like 7 hours. Yeah. Lame.

How about I tell you the tale of my Quest for the Book? At six am or so I went to Wal-Mart and bought the book. Remember how I said I was going to go the bookstore thing last night? Really, I did, but I just stood and talked to my friends there for a few minutes and left. You may not know this about me, and I'm only really figuring it out myself recently, but I hate standing in lines. Lines bother me, not waiting. I was happy to go home and wait until morning for my copy and not stand around 3 hours waiting for it with a bunch of jerks. Very early this morning I woke up and went for the book. Even though I'm not a big fan of Wal-Mart, I knew it was a place that was open and had books. Sometimes that's what matters!

I was very pleased with this book. I've had a poor track record at guessing what will happen in the new books or figuring out clues once I'm reading the book. Seriously, someone had to point out things like Knockturn Alley and Diagon Alley - the simplest puns. (nocturnally and diagonally in case there's anyone else out there with the same brain block) Snape and Neville, among others, had the fates I thought they would. I got a piece of the plot figured out early on, although not entirely. Maybe Rowling put in a few easy clues for those of us who are a bit obtuse. :)

I think I was a little leery of writing a post like this, because I don't want people to make fun of me for being a Harry Potter fan. But I don't care, or more accurately, I don't want to care about that. Yeah, I'm sure some of the adults out there in costumes or whatnot were kind of creepy or weird, but there were also many who, well, weren't creepy or weird and just had fun. In fact my friend knitted a Gryffindor scarf for her boyfriend and he wore it to Barnes and Noble very proudly. Ok, they might be weird but I view that as a wonderful quality, and they weren't at all creepy. Haters gotta hate, but I encourage you to read some of the cool articles and reviews out there by bright and fascinating people, good stuff. I bet some of the kids whose parents brought them out for the "Midnight Magic" stuff will remember it for the rest of their lives.

This book, for all the sad parts, left me with a good feeling. It seems the author genuinely cares about the creatures of her imagination and the fans who've come along for the ride. It's hard to put into words, and it's not anything huge, just that it seems like the person who wrote this book must be quite nice. From what I've read in the past, she actually has a lot more material and backstories for the characters than she put into the books. I don't think she'll put out anymore about the Harry Potter-verse but it would be amazing if she did.

I do feel as though I've been babbling on for long enough. I have, haven't I? So I'll stop here.

If you would like a spoiler, the biggest spoiler, the one that's probably out everywhere now, but what the hell -- there's an acrostic in the second paragraph of this post. Don't look for it if you don't want to know.

Also, I'd love to hear what you thought of the books -- even if it's just "It was good" or "It sucked". Did anybody go out for the book at midnight? Do you have a favorite part or line (just be careful with spoilers).

Here are two of my favorite lines: "I was a fool!" and "NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!" Note: the two lines are not from the same conversation, if you were thinking What The Hell. There was also a great little callback to the first book, I believe it was, an exchange between Ron and Hermione...but oh look! I'm babbling again. See ya.

I'm excited about the last Harry Potter book

And I don't care who knows it. :) A couple people are actually going to a party at a bookstore so I'm going to go join them, I think. I'm terrified of hearing spoilers, so I'm staying off the interwebs until I'm done reading the book. I think. Hey, if anyone feels like discussing the book w/me, comment below or email me at gmail.

I'm watching Mad Max

I've never seen it before, it's very good. I enjoy the whole genre of the post-apocalyptic near future - can someone give me a better phrase for that?

I'm trying to think what else is important to say.

There isn't much to say, I guess. My oldest brother's girlfriend's mother died a couple of weeks ago. Today the girlfriend and my brother came over for lunch and she and my mom talking about funerals. My mom wants to be cremated. She also said my dad can get a free plot at the veteran's cemetary in Mandan (or maybe Minot?) which is way the hell far away. I was not thrilled to hear about this, but it's good to know their wishes. I think we will try to get the money together to have their eternal resting places in our time zone. I mean, in the unlikely event that my mommy and daddy die which I am going to make them promise to never, ever do. I would like a wooden casket and then I'd like to be buried out in the woods and left to rot. That sounds restful. I mean, once I'm dead. Not, like, today or anything.

Here's another video I like

I used to watch VH1 a lot to find new music, isn't it weird? Especially after Drive 105 died and went to hell, it's hard to find music that I'll like a lot and listen to endlessly then I will get so sick of it that I will never want to hear it again. The music I end up hearing is missing the "I like it a lot" part and a surfeit of the "sick of it and never want to hear it again" thing. So this video is catchy as hell and very cheerful, no? Here's another link. The theme that connects the last video I posted and this one are interesting lyrics and lots of pretty colors.

Ok here, just so's you know

My 'puter is being naughty (fried motherboard and such) so I am less online than previously. I will be checking email less frequently for a bit. I have this romantic idea that I can get along perfectly well without a high speed internet connection - so I'm switching to a dialup connection once I get the new computer home and hooked up.

I think it will be fine. I'm going to put up a few posts today so people who come here can look at stuff. Like this music video from Regina Spektor, which is cool and I like it. I am putting a different link in the previous sentence that is different from the embedded video below because I like to give ya a choice.

Making wishes

Have you ever heard that thing, that at 11:11 you can make a wish and it will come true? I'm not sure if it matters if it's AM or PM, or if this sort of magic nonsense works best when used with military time. Anyway, it's never worked for me.