Harry Potter Release Party

Well, I'd say it's about time to talk about the Harry Potter book release in the city! Sorry it's taken me so long to write about this. I've been too busy with life and day to day stuff (like everything from my cat destroying my computer keyboard to driving to Quebec City to spend the night).

So, last Friday, Tim and I headed into town to visit Scholastic's "Harry Potter Place" in Soho. It was PACKED with people, so thank goodness it was outdoors. We got there around six-ish and waited in line to get in (they let in groups at a time so it wasn't a total mob scene). While we waited, we got some funky pictures with other HP fans who were probably more excited about the whole thing than us - at least more dressed up than us. There were, shall we say, "all kinds" at this party! We giggled at the little kid in front of us who kept shouting spells and waving his plastic wand... We laughed at teens who came all decked out in their goth garb... We smiled at mothers all face-painted and at grown men who were sporting their graduation gowns and home-made hats... It was a feast of eclectic and eccentric people. But we were all united in our love for all things Harry Potter.

I dressed for the occasion as well - I am sporting another home-made shirt made from the band Harry and the Potters. It's taken from a song of theirs called "Save Ginny." (It is totally their own design and I promise I would have purchased a shirt from them if I could have found a place selling them. Their online store just sells the music - which is great, BTW.) I did see other folks wearing the real shirt, which kinda made me feel bad... But I saw a look of jealousy from some of the original shirt wearers - I think they thought mine was cooler. Heh.

Anyways, "Harry Potter Place" was a cool and FREE event (except the cost of the train and dinner, of course). There was a giant 20-ft high moving Whomping Willow, the "Knight Bus" (which only Tim got to see - I kept missing stuff - too easily distracted, you know), the "Pensive" that held the first U.S. copies of the Scholastic printings of HP (signed by J.K. even), a HUGE "Muggle Board" where you could write messages to Harry, loads of magicians and fire eaters and whatnot, face-painting (with an insanely long line), wand-making (with another insanely long line), and a photo booth to take your picture in the book cover (previously posted). It was a lot of fun. If you want to see some funny pictures from the night, go here.

We planned on party hopping and hitting the Jim Dale party at the Union Square Barnes and Noble afterwards, but we desperately needed dinner. So, we crashed at a cute bistro place across the street from B&N and had some bizarre expensive salads. By the time we finished dinner it was around nine-ish, so when we tried to get over to the B&N, there was a massive line and four scared-looking police officers blocking the door, saying that there was no entrance because of fire capacities and whatever. So we decided to head home because I already had the new HP on CD (perks of being a librarian). Also, we needed to get home to get some rest before leaving the next morning to take a drive to Quebec (more on that later...).

But we had a great time. I just think that Harry Potter is such a cultural phenomenon and I'm thrilled that I got to experience the craze at it's peak. It's like the Beatles or something. Harry Potter has revolutionized how kids approach reading. Heck, HP even created a voracious reader out of my little brother (who formerly HATED to read anything that didn't have lots of pictures). Kids come into my library having read the individual HP books three or four times each - and those are thick books! I'm just truly thankful to be able to witness this fever for reading in a time when the world seems so rushed and flashy and TV-centric. It makes me realize that some values will never fade away and that is a good thing.

The Whomping Willow

This is the crazy 20-ft tree the smacked us around while we waited in line to sign the "Muggle Board" at the scholastic Harry Potter Party last Friday. (I'm still working on the photos...)

HP7 Again...

Finished it. Loved it. Now I'm physically and emotionally drained... going to bed. Loads of pictures to follow. (Tim and I had HP7 on audio - so we decided to just drive somewhere. We left Saturday morning and drove about 9 hours to Quebec City, spent the night, and drove back Sunday afternoon. It was amazing and crazy and spontaneous. And yes, US Customs was a b****. They didn't seem to understand why we might drive 18 hours to listen to something, so they decided to "extend" our mini vacation into a 20.5 hour trip. So, I'm T.I.R.E.D.) And then I had to work. It's been a busy weekend.

HP Trivia

A bezoar - a stone taken from a goat's stomach - will serve as the antidote to most poisons.

(Today's the day... I'm off to the city to Harry Potter party hop. I'm really looking forward to the Scholastic party at "Harry Potter Place" - they are going to have the triple-decker purple Knight Bus and a twenty-foot high Whomping Willow. Ahh Yeah.)

Dag-gum. The new Harry Potter arrived at my library yesterday and the cataloger lady has hidden it. As a librarian - I feel that I should have rights too! If I could just read the first few lines... Yeah, well maybe it is good that she hid it - when it comes to HP, I have no real sense of self-control.

HP & the Order of the Pheonix

Heh. We look like total dorks. At least the movie was cool. We saw it on IMAX at the Lincoln Center AMC and wow! The screen had to be like 5 stories high, meaning we were the size of Harry's wand or possibly Hagrid's nose hair.

If you can see this movie in an IMAX, it is so worth the 16+ bucks. The fight scenes are incredible and almost scary. Yeah, speaking of scary, this flick was WAY more frightening! Good gosh, I was tense throughout most of the movie.

As far as the film itself goes, I don't want to give anything away. I will say that the flick definitely won't mean as much to you if you haven't read the book. In fact, you may not even get it. And the movie takes some interesting book liberties, of course. But over all, I can say that this was my favorite of the 5. I think the warmth in the characterization's developed really moved me. It was the emotion that the 3rd movie lacked - the friendship and loyalty between Harry and Sirius Black that is so entrenched in the third book (but was missing in the 5th book). I know that the critics weren't fond of this 5th flick, but this one rubbed me the right way.

Harry Potter

Tonight Tim and I are meeting up with boy-wonder in the city for an IMAX experience. We've been waiting to see the newest Harry Potter with my brother Andy. I am totally all geared up for an awesome night of Harry magic. This weekend, Tim and I had a HP marathon, re-watching the first four flicks. We wanted to go back through the books but just ran out of time.

We plan on going into the city on Friday, as well, for the final book release. Jim Dale will be at the Barnes and Noble Union Square. Ahh yeah. More on that later.

Me Love You Long Time

Happy Anniversary to one of my most favorite couples - my mom and dad! Now-a-days, it's rare to find a love that lasts and lasts like a Duracell battery. These two birds have been together for 34 years (I think?) now and that is a huge accomplishment. Have a happy one ya'll, and many more to come.
*** Picture was taken at the NY Botanical Gardens this past spring, amongst the tulip trees...

My Friend Ann

These are pictures of my friend Ann and her newish daughters, Scarlett and Edie. Cute, eh? We're both children's librarians, so when I saw these onesies - I just HAD to buy them for her! (Isn't Ann so beautiful?!? She glows!)

So, I think that Thing 1 is Edie and Thing 2 is Scarlett. In Ann's letter, she said this "I'm convinced that Edie looks like Dr. Evil from Austin Powers though--with the bald head and brown eyes--or like mini-me." Heh. What do you think, reader? Regardless, these cute little ones are going to be child prodigies. Ann is one smart cookie. I can't wait to meet her daughters in person!

Find out your Harry Potter personality at LiquidGeneration!

Why I Blog...

In light of all the blogs I read - and especially in light of all the dang blog awards going out to everyone except for me (sigh) - I must remind myself why I continue to blog... I wonder if there is a "pity" award? But hey, that's cool.

"What were you shouting about?" asked Yvaine.
"To let people know we were here," Tristran told her.
"What people?"
"You never know," he told her. "Better I should call to people who aren't there than that people who are there should miss us because I didn't say anything."
Stardust - Neil Gaiman

Wednesday Morning Breakfast

You know how breakfast is supposed to start your day off on the right foot? Well, today mine didn't.
Yep. I found this sucker right after taking approximately three big bites. (Then I saw that he had a friend...) So I did what any normal person would do after finding such a thing in their cereal... go to flush my buggy cereal down the toilet. But see, I have this terrible gag reflex anyway, and I am already feeling like I could yack at any time because Mr. Bug may have been having a family reunion or something and I probably swallowed his Aunt Maude and his Cousin Louie. So when I dumped my cereal in the gleaming porcelain basin, it looks as if I've already thrown up. Naturally, my body decides to expel my three bites full and add to the pool party. I'm just hoping that if I did swallow Aunt Maude, she was able to rejoin her family reunion in the end. Ick.

I've brushed my teeth twice now and I still feel really gross. I don't think I'll be eating Special K Red Berry Cereal for a while.

The Bodies Exhibit

Let me start off by saying WOW! Tim and I have been wanting to see this exhibit for a while now, ever since we missed out on seeing the cadaver cross-sections at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Don't think it's crass that we wanted to see cadavers - because deep down inside yourself, I bet you want to see one too reader. Don't lie.

(This is a picture of Andy in front of the museum. Remember what I said about how great little brothers are? That they will strike a pose on command? Isn't he cute? This is his Marilyn Monroe face.)

Well, we went to see the exhibit on Saturday afternoon, down at the South Street Seaport. Andy met up with us and had dinner with us afterward (we had hamburgers right after we saw the exhibit... not too wise a choice).

Anyway, the exhibit starts off easy with an array of bones and cross-sections of bones. It then progresses into muscles and then to the circulatory system and onward. The exhibit uses human remains preserved through a polymer preservation process that shows the complete body, including the internal anatomy. The laboratories prepared the skinned bodies and body parts with “plastination”, a process where body water and fats are replaced with liquid silicone rubber. It's crazy. The parts look so real that they actually look fake (if that makes sense). Well, actually the muscles look a bit like beef jerky and the organs are more pallid than their fresh counterparts (so I hear) but retain the exact shape and size they did in real life. And they'll probably stay that way for centuries. There is no odor. One thing that bugged us was the fact that some of the bodies were a bit dusty. That was kind of creepy.

There were bodies posed in different positions so you could see how the muscles all work together, there were bodies standing upright in various cross-sections, there were different organs in glass cases, and there was a really cool exhibit of veins and arteries that were injected with some type of red dye that hardened and left their intricate framework all together. That was probably my favorite part of the exhibit. It was incredible to see the shape of a man in just his intricate array of ruby red veins. That was more like art than science. And that is really how I felt for most of the exhibit.

My highlights (or maybe I should say the most memorable because some of these scared the willies out of me...) were: the flap of skin tattoo in a glass case (freaky), the cross-sections of brains that suffered from stoke (VERY scary), the array of fetuses ranging from conception to birth (how absolutely incredible human beings are... at 9 weeks, we already look like little people!), the uterus that had the rare tissue growth disorder that grew teeth and hair (good. lord.), the giant toe, the complete nervous system with the optical nerves and EVERYTHING, the entropic birth (where the fetus gets stuck in the fallopian tube and ends up killing both mother and child - wow scary), and my least favorite - the cross-section of the overweight woman. Andy and Tim's least favorite part was the cancerous penis. It's one thing to see this kind of stuff in a medical book. Seeing in real life, actual former people, it is beyond memorable... it's mind-blowing.

Oh, and just as you are leaving the exhibit, don't forget to check out the information desk. They have all kinds of organs on the table to look at and to touch. Yeah. I was watching someone else holding an organ, and so I picked up a brain. I told Andy to pick up the heart. He was like "Eww, no way." And so I called him a chicken. Then I told him that they weren't real. The lady behind the desk informed me that they were, in fact, real organs. I think I turned a couple of shades of gray as I proceeded to put the brain back where I found it and look for the nearest water faucet to wash my hands.

So yeah, right now I'm feeling really heavy. I'm contemplating life, mortality, and display cases.

It's been a little while since last I've posted. I just want to say that it is not for lack of blogging material that I've been radio-silent. It sucks when you have lots to say, but for discretion sake you just can't. One thing I WILL say is that I am still in the market for a good local friend and that I HATE HATE HATE when people do not show any sense of gratitude when you go out of your way for them. That is the sentence that sums up last week. Hey, I just want a thank you. You know who you are...

In other news, yesterday Tim cleaned my car and even armor-alled and vacuumed. What a fella. He knows how to treat his lady. He even brought up the CD changer for me to put in my new tunes. I love this man.

Speaking of new tunes, have you all heard Amy Winehouse? She is one of my new fave singers. (Okay, okay, I know that she's been around for a while now, but I just recently found her music. I'm a little behind!) She has a voice to die for - kind of deep soul jazzy funk sound. Have a listen, on me... So Good.


Saturday Tim and I had a play date. We played tourist all day long in the city and visited sites I have on my NY to-do list. We had never been to Wall Street or City Hall, so we visited those two on our way to the South Street Seaport where we met up with fun-times Andy. Along the way, we saw multiple big red sculptures - but I'm saving those for a whole other post. Our main destination was the controversial Bodies exhibit, where we saw lots of cadavers and exciting organs and whatnot - again, saving that for a whole other post. I'll put pictures up soon of our trip.

Finally (I know I've rambled here), I want to say something about little brothers. If you have one, consider yourself lucky. They happen to be among the list of my very favorite things. Mine is such a great guy. He is funny and considerate, sweet and loving, and lately, he has been my only girlfriend! When Tim was out of town the week before, Andy made sure to come over and have a movie night with me. When my dog Spot died just recently, Andy offered to come see me and just hang out. He does the crazy things I dare him to do (usually - but he wouldn't touch the cadaver's wiener at the Bodies exhibit... understandable) and he takes silly pictures on command - this is a MUST in my book. He refills my Brita water filter and even puts away his dirty dishes in the dishwasher (most of the time). When we were younger, he would even play the Sweet Valley High board game with me and be the ugly girl - Enid. A truer friend you cannot find! I just wanted to say that I really love my little brother and that he's really been there for me lately. (If you're reading this, love ya kiddo.)

The end (for now).

Happy B-Day USA

Happy Birthday America. I'm celebrating your day by staying at home and watching the Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest on ESPN (mostly because I'm still home alone). It's Joey Chesnutt vs. Takeru Kobayashi. Ahh Yeah. Should be a great showdown - I wonder who is going to win the "mustard" belt?!? My vote is on the American.

The day before the day before a day off...

Ahhh.... (Did you hear that? That was me breathing a sigh of relief.) Today was a L.O.N.G. day and I am relieved that it is over!

We (or I - the royal "we") are trying something new at the library and offering a teen summer reading program this year, which has never been done in our town. So far, everyone has been really pleased with it. It's called Book Bingo, where the kids get a bingo sheet that has different book genres in each of the various squares and they have to read five squares in a row to get a bingo. It is great because it is seriously low maintenance and it gets the kids to read different kind of books to get a prize. So far, I've signed up over 60 kids in just a week (it started last Monday)! I'm really happy with that.

Anywho, today was the official kick-off party for the teen summer reading game and I had 35 ACTUAL teens show up! Now that number may not sound so impressive to the untrained ear, but let me just say that getting 35 teens to come to a program at a library, when they could be doing anything else, like watching TV or being a mall rat, is basically down-right incredible. (Especially since they are not used to coming to us for anything else - other than books.) So, not to toot my own horn or anything, but this is one for the library's history book.

The party was a Harry Potter Magic Show. We had a great magician, Terry Parrett, who kept the kids attention for a whole hour with demonstrating and then training the kids how to do magic tricks. He was completely fantastic. He even gave the kids tricks to take home with them, like double-sided cards, a wand, and this freaky fish thing. After the show, I gave out raffle prizes and best Harry Potter Costume prizes. The party was a huge success! I plan on making it even bigger next year.

(BTW - that very cool drawing of Hermione, Harry, & Ron was done by this chick named Sarah - she really is an artist. I love this rendition of the trio because this is totally how I would picture them (movie aside). Check her blog. She is crazy talented.)

So now, I am wiped. I'm headed to my bathroom where I will proceed to spend the next hour soaking in my bathtub.

Before I go though, I just want to say that I hate yellow polo shirts on men. I know this sounds completely random - and it is - but please folks, don't let your fella dress like an Easter egg. I swear to you that this past Saturday night, Tim and I went to the movies and saw not one, but SIX DIFFERENT men wearing yellow polos, all within four hours and at the same place (and two of them were on a double date together... yikes). Just don't let your man do this. And if you are a man reading this and you wear yellow polos, shame shame you know your name. I am still having nightmares about these tacky shirts, I just didn't feel it worthy to dedicate an entire post to writing about it. But now you know how I feel.

My Inner Villan

You are Poison Ivy
You would go to almost any length for the protection of
the environment including manipulation and elimination.

Poison Ivy 81% Magneto 74% Dr. Doom 70% The Joker 68% Dark Phoenix 66% Lex Luthor 65% Apocalypse 65% Mystique 61% Two-Face 61% Riddler 57% Mr. Freeze 55% Catwoman 55% Venom 55% Green Goblin 41% Juggernaut 41% Kingpin 23%

Click here to take the Super Villain Personality Test

Ain't No Sunshine

I know it's not poetic, but it's true... It's how I feel right now. Tim is away on his camping trip and I'm home alone again. Sometimes it sucks being a "good" wife, because what I really want to do is pitch a temper tantrum.

Ain't no sunshine when he's gone.
It's not warm when he's away.
Ain't no sunshine when he's gone
And he's always gone too long anytime he goes away.

Wonder this time where he's gone,
Wonder if he's gone to stay
Ain't no sunshine when he's gone
And this house just ain't no home anytime he goes away.

And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know...

Hey, I ought to leave the young thing alone,
But ain't no sunshine when he's gone, only darkness everyday.
Ain't no sunshine when he's gone,
And this house just ain't no home anytime he goes away.

Anytime he goes away.