Harry Potter Finale
JK Rowling goes into a little more detail about what happens to the main characters in the Harry Potter series in an interview. The article contains spoilers, so avoid reading it if you haven't finished the book.
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JK Rowling goes into a little more detail about what happens to the main characters in the Harry Potter series in an interview. The article contains spoilers, so avoid reading it if you haven't finished the book.
A public school in Australia is requiring students through Year 6 to wear sunglasses while outdoors during recess. I think that this is a great idea, as long as the sunglasses actually have the appropriate UV protection and are not just "cosmetic sunglasses". Though other factors can contribute to ocular conditions, I wonder if this group will continue to wear sunglasses outside of school and possibly see a decrease in macular degeneration and an older age of onset of cataracts...hmmm.
Things have been busy lately. This whole house/moving stuff is taking up a ton of time. There are the normal errands plus a lot of extra. My "to do" list has 30+ things on it and I am attempting to finish at least 15 of them today (I wish). Wednesday Gabe and I decided to do something fun together. We went to the Elmhurst Art Museum. There was a pretty impressive water colors exhibit featuring several local artists. Thursday night we went to Hollywood Boulevard and watched Superbad. They were having an advanced showing and the tickets were free. We decided that we had to eat anyway, so why not watch a movie while eating. I wouldn't rush out to see the movie on its release (I think August 17th)...I would say that the movie was on par with its title. The weekend was a lot of "trying to get stuff done". I am going to try to knock off a couple of more things before Gabe gets home.
Happy Birthday Jimmy!
Gabe sent me a couple of links to some pretty interesting articles.
HIV Vaccine
Cornea Regrowth
Well, I am a little over halfway through Harry Potter. I did not get a chance to read more than about 30 minutes on Sunday, maybe an hour yesterday, and 30 minutes or so today. I plan *hopefully* to be able to read some tonight.
Yesterday, Gabe and I hung out at our potential house while the home inspector did his thing. There were a few things that need to be fixed, but we are hoping to have the lawyers hash all of that out. We finished watching Derailed. I must say that I didn't care for it. Though I seem to watch all of Jennifer Aniston's movies, I am starting to think that I might not be such a Jennifer Aniston fan.
Today I have been busy doing errands and trying to get things done. We met Gabe's parents for lunch and did a quick drive by our potential future home. Then back to errands for me. There is a lot of crap to do when you are thinking of buying a home. We have about about a bazillion (yes, that is a technical term) meetings every week with various people.
I am watching HGTV while typing this blog entry. I think it would be fun to be on a show where the fix up a room/the house. I like Clive and Lisa. Maybe they will come and redo the house and we can decide not to sell it ;)
Friday, Gabe and I went to the Harry Potter celebration in Oak Park. It was a lot of fun. They turned the entire town into places like Hogwarts, Gringotts Bank, Azkaban, Diagon Alley, and Knockturn Alley. You could take a potions, herbology, or divination class. They also had a Wizard's chess tournament and a quidditch tournament. We left the festivities to pick Brandi up from the train station and we headed straight to Barnes and Noble. We met Beth in the parking lot and went to the party. It was fun. There was a costume contest. We didn't dress up, but it was entertaining to see everyone else in their costumes. We came home and I stayed up until 3:00 a.m. reading the book, which was a really good thing, because I haven't had much time to read since then. Yesterday I made appointments for Brandi and I to get our hair cut. She really wanted to get it cut like Victoria Beckham. It looks really cute on her, plus, she instantly lost 5 pounds ;) Afterwards, we picked up Gabe and went to Ra for some sushi. Next, we headed into the city. We went to Lincoln Park Zoo for several hours. I think that I liked the Tigers and Lions the best since I have the most pictures of them. After walking around the zoo we built up an appetite and we went to our reservation at Meson Sabika. I was really happy that she liked the food. She didn't like the Bacon Wrapped Dates though, and those are my favorite. I doubt that they are very good for my arteries, but boy do they taste good. We came back, read Harry Potter for about 30 minutes and went to bed. We returned from dropping Brandi off at the train station about 10 minutes ago. Her train left at 9:15 this morning. Apparently it was cheaper to leave in the am as opposed to the pm. On the way to the train station we discovered that she left her copy of Harry Potter at our apartment. So, I gave her my copy (I had it with me to read in the car). Then she realized that she left her cell phone. Well, we didn't have time to go back, so I am going to mailing her a few things tomorrow. We will see how the rest of the day goes. I am not sure how much reading I will accomplish, but I am going to try to read some tomorrow.
I just returned from getting Harry Potter wristbands for the Harry Potter Party tonight at a nearby Barnes and Noble. I obtained wristbands for myself and Beth (a friend from college, not ICO, that lives up here). Brandi is coming back up, but I reserved her book on my wristband. So, we will all head out to the party tonight and have our books in hand very close to midnight. I was pretty much in line (yes, there was a line) to get my wristband when Barnes and Noble opened this morning. So, I have the wrist band that allows us to be in the very first group that gets their books. I should probably go back to bed :)
Tuesday Gabe placed an offer on a house. Wednesday the owners counter offered, we countered again and they accepted. Pending an inspection and all of the lawyer stuff, we might just be the owners of a house. No more apartment living for the time being.
We didn't make it to the Melting Pot last weekend, but there is always this weekend. Sunday we ate at Redstone, shopped a little, and went downtown to the train station. I went inside with Brandi while Gabe waited in the car. Her train had been canceled and she ended up taking a bus back home. My allergies have been acting crazy lately. Yesterday I had a fun trip to the doctor. I went to a local Starbucks today and picked up a couple of free parking passes for the Chicago Botanic Garden (available 11-1 today). We enjoy going there (once my allergies are under control...it doesn't help when you are allergic to the entire botanic garden) but the parking is pretty expensive ($15.00). Basically, that has been my day so far. I didn't feel like going to Starbucks, but I really wanted the free parking passes. I came back home put my pj's back on and I have been relaxing.
Check out the picture of the Weasley twins with Brandi and me. Friday Gabe and I picked Brandi up from the train station. We had her favorite pizza...macaroni and cheese. We attempted to watch the first four Harry Potter movies. I am sad to say that we didn't even make it through the first one before we were too tired to watch anymore. This morning we watched over half of The Goblet of Fire and headed off to meet the Weasley twins. They were so nice and down to earth. They talked to us for a while. We had our picture taken and picked up our autographs. We stood in line to meet them for over two hours and we were all starving. Then we went to eat. We had a very filling meal at El Famous Burrito. Our movie started about two hours after our taco feast. Needless to say, we weren't very hungry come show time (Gabe and I usually eat dinner at Hollywood Boulevard). So, Brandi and I had candy instead of an actual meal. Now we are back and I am getting hungry. We might go to the Melting Pot.
Happy Birthday Aaron!
Today I went to the library to return some books and to my surprise, the elusive Brookfield Zoo Pass was back in the library. There are actually four of them, but they are normally checked out. They are usually snatched up right after they are returned, so it is basically luck that allows you to find one. Well, luck was on our side today. So, we headed to the grocery store to buy necessities for the week and after walking the dogs we headed to the zoo. We spent around four hours walking around and enjoying the exhibits. I really enjoyed watching the gorillas. One was gathering hay to make a spot to sit. He actually beat his chest and then started playing with ripped up brown paper. They were all fascinated by the paper. The gorillas would toss it around, wind it around their wrists, and rub it all over their bodies like a wash rag. We pretty much closed the zoo down and then we came home and fixed dinner. I feel much better after a shower. Gabe said that he thought we actually smelled like the zoo. I hope that I didn't smell like the rain forest exhibit. It was not refreshing, but rather stagnant smelling. I think that we might watch a little T.V. before heading off to bed.
Here is a random fun zoo fact. Bison are often mistaken for buffalo. Buffalo live in the Southern hemisphere, while bison are found in the Northern hemisphere. So, give me a home, where the buffalo roam should actually be where the bison roam. Also, Bison have a hump on their back, buffalo do not.
One more before I go. A giraffe drops about 5 feet to the ground when it is born and this starts its heart beating and its respiratory system working. Okay, I can't resist...a full grown giraffe's heart weighs 25 pounds.
Gabe and I did make it to the movies on Wednesday. We watched Evan Almighty and then caught the fireworks from the parking lot. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday I finished my quilt...finally. If I ever make another quilt I think that I am going to machine quilt it instead of quilting by hand. It will go a lot faster that way. Today Gabe and I went to Wisconsin and bought cheese. We also went to the outlet mall in Kenosha. We stopped at Gurnee Mills on the way back. Our major purchase was a bottle of tea for 80 cents. Now we are back and trying to decide what we should do tonight. We might just hang out at home and watch a movie.
Congratulations on your wedding Stephany and Don!
Gabe and I decided to watch a movie on Monday night. We arrived at the dinner and a movie theater and everything was sold out. So, we went to Max & Erma's for dinner and came home. Gabe went to Peoria on Tuesday and I stayed here. I was going to go with him, but the tickets to the new Harry Potter movie went on sale Tuesday at 2:00 p.m. and he didn't get home until after 5:00 p.m., so I wouldn't have been able to purchase tickets. Luckily, I was able to purchase tickets for the exact movie time that we wanted. Brandi, my niece, is coming up to watch the movie with us. The reason that she is coming up is because we are also going to meet the actors, James and Oliver Phelps, that play the Weasley twins in the movies. Both Brandi and I are really excited. We might watch fireworks tonight at a surrounding suburb, but we haven't decided. I think that we are going to try to go back to Hollywood Boulevard tonight and see if there are still tickets available for a show.
Happy Fourth of July everyone!
Wednesday Gabe went to Peoria. I went with him. The plan was to open a bank account, get a pair of shoes, then I was to be dropped off at his parent's and hang out with his mom while he went to work. Well, he did more work than he expected before we left and we ended up leaving quite a bit later than expected. He also worked the entire way to Peoria (on the phone). Opening the account at the bank took longer than we expected. The person that we needed to see was busy so we had to wait for a good while. You might be wondering why we opened a bank account in Peoria. His employer provides a bank, well actually it is a credit union, but bank is easier to type. They apparently have very good interest rates. We opened the account and went to buy shoes. He needs a pair of steel toed boots and his employer will pay for a pair, but it has to be from a specific shoe store in Peoria. So, that is why we went to Peoria for a pair of shoes. Sounds crazy, I know. Basically, everything took longer than expected and we ended up going straight to his parent's house. Once his dad came home we went to eat at the Cutter. It was pretty good. We celebrated Father's Day a little late.
Thursday we had dinner at the Melting Pot. It was great, as always, but it is too much food. We ended up bringing home half of our meal and we didn't even get dessert. Dessert is on of my favorite things at the Melting Pot. One day we are going to go for just dessert. I always say that, but it doesn't happen.
Sunday we went downtown to the Taste of Chicago. We didn't actually eat (we had already eaten at home), but we did walk around. We went to Buckingham Fountain and Millennium Park. I decided to make a list of all of the fun things that we would like to do in Chicago/the Chicagoland area and plan all of the activities. So, I did that last night/this morning. We are going to take a salsa lesson, swing lesson, listen to concerts, and many more things. The best part is that they are all free.
I am going to meet Gabe for lunch today. I am getting ready to leave to go to the store to buy some groceries to be able to make our lunch. The water in our apartment has been turned off today until 5:00 p.m. to fix a water main. We were warned before hand, so we have pitchers full of water and sinks full. It is actually kind of funny. Later tonight I plan on replying to emails. So, if you have sent me an email in the last two weeks and you waiting on your reply, hopefully you will get it today.
