I Want My Own Street

I was entering a claim today and the name of the street the person lived on was the same as her last name. I pondered the circumstances that would lead to such, and decided the most likely scenario was that they’d bought a lot, built a house, and had a new street put in to accommodate the house, which the city/town/borough/village allowed them to name.

Isn’t that cool?

I live in a suburb that used to be rural and is now rapidly gobbled farm country. It’s quite conceivable that someday we could buy a lot on an old corn field and have our dream house built there, with our own street (that would eventually be a street for at least half a dozen other people, of course). But if we were first, we could name the street.

I wouldn’t name it after our last name. That seems pretty arrogant, actually, and Damschroder Road doesn't click for me. No, I’d name it after my brand. I’d live on Indulgence Lane.

Now doesn’t that evoke images of sitting on a comfy porch swing, reading a thick, engrossing romance, and eating Dove ganache-topped ice cream straight from the carton?

More Thoughts On Harry

I’m listening to my favorite scene in the whole series again. Book 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban, in the Shrieking Shack, as Lupin and Sirius explain to Our Heroes about their past. I’m not sure why it’s my favorite, but I think it’s because of the purity and depth of the friendships involved in that scene. Everywhere else they are complex and rife with the negative aspects of life—poverty, immaturity, desperation. But in that scene, they are all about love, and what people are willing to do for those they really care about.

Anyway, it got me to thinking. The Big Stuff right now all centers around Snape’s murder of Dumbledore and what those repercussions will be. There are varying thoughts on Snape’s true intent. Intellectually, I think it’s possible that he’s evil and really on the side of Voldemort, that Dumbledore made a mistake. Rowling has said that no one is infallible, and Dumbledore himself admitted such in Order of the Phoenix.

But emotionally, I believe Snape is good at his core, that whatever attraction the Dark Side has had for him, he has overcome it in a way Anakin Skywalker had no hope of doing. I think he was trapped into doing what he had to do, and that he will be instrumental in helping Harry, somehow, bring down Voldemort.

But I also think he has to die.

No matter how noble his ultimate goal, no matter how ready Dumbledore was to make the sacrifice, I don’t think in the end Snape can live with what he’s done. I think he, too, will have to make the ultimate sacrifice.

I also think Hagrid will die. Rowling said in an interview that the hero has to go on alone, and I don’t think she really means that Harry will be totally alone, but that all his guiding adults will be taken from him. It’s already happened with Sirius and Dumbledore. Hagrid is the only father figure left, and though he’s been more childish than Harry, Ron, and Hermione have, I think he’ll be the last one Harry has to watch die.

I love these books, and I adore JK Rowling, most of all because of how much she’s like me. I “knew” when I read Sorcerer’s Stone that Ginny would wind up with Harry in the end, because that’s how I would have written it. I “knew” when I read Prisoner of Azkaban that Sirius wasn’t evil, because that’s how I would have written it. I “knew” Fred and George would succeed in their defiant, laugh-filled way, overcoming oppression (Umbridge) and misunderstanding (Mrs. Weasley) because there is no one right way to live a good life, and because that’s how I would have written it.

I certainly do not claim to be as clever as JK Rowling (I didn't, of course, "know" how these things would come about, just that they would), and I will never be as good a storyteller as she is. But I have ultimate confidence that I will obtain absolute satisfaction in my reading of the final book…because of the way I would have written it.

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Chaos Needs Love

Love Quotes, to be more specific. Help her out here.

Going Too Far

Who even knew there was a too far? I mean, every time I get together with Megan Hart or Jacki King, we talk lust. Lust for him, and him, and himandhimandhim. And this. And that. So I never really thought there was a "too far."

Until last night.

Jacki just cracked up at me. Hard. Barely made it to the bathroom, which was a good thing, because it's a new theater and pee on the seats isn't appreciated.

Megan, who I thought would at least understand, even though I knew she wouldn't agree, gave me a really odd cyberlook. It had "you are so weird" written all over it. And those of you who know Megan will understand how uncommon that is.

So what was I lusting after so breathily last night? I'll give you a hint. We were at Dukes of Hazzard.

No, not him, though he's the most likely candidate.

And not him. I don't dislike him, but really. Come on.

No. And no. And DEFINITELY NOT.

Is this really that hard? Okay, fine. I'll show you:

End of Summer

Summer seems so much shorter now than it used to be, because my kids, unlike when I was in school, start the week before Labor Day, instead of the Wednesday after. One of my kids has already started soccer practices, and next week we have to have a reading assessment for my first-grader, and do school shopping and stuff.

I was oh-so-ready for this summer, after a late spring jam-packed with stress. But I’m looking forward to this fall, too, even more than usual.

What Fall means to me in 2005:

1. Football season, watched at home every week, every game, with our new satellite dish and NFL Sunday Ticket purchased for this sole purpose.

2. Gorgeous days of perfect temperatures and still plenty of daylight.

3. After a summer of truly mediocre or worse films, an influx of really good ones (well, we can hope):

Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown, starring Orlando Bloom

Everything is Illuminated with Elijah Wood

An apparently funny film, Waiting, with my new heartthrob Ryan Reynolds

The really big one, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

4. DVDs! Kingdom of Heaven, which I think was much better than anything I’ve seen since. Also Crash, Fever Pitch, and Mindhunters (which might not be a good movie, but it has Christian Slater in it). Even bigger: Season One of LOST and Season Four of ALIAS on DVD, with all those yummy extras.

5. The return of LOST!

6. The return of ALIAS!

7. The start of KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL!

I adore LOST, the entire cast, the mysteries, the drama, the humor, the hunks…and I can’t wait to get some answers. But even more, I want to know, who the hell is Michael Vaughn???? And I missed Bradley Cooper, Will on Alias, very much last season, so I’m all about his new comedy.

So, what do YOU like about Fall?

I Have an eBay Problem

I never had a problem before. In fact, I never ever used eBay before. The only time I ever even WENT to the site, it was to do a search for the word “erotic” when PayPal started giving erotic romance web sites a problem about using their services (hypocrites—for those who don’t know, eBay now owns PayPal, and they had over 3000 items on the site under the word “erotic”).

Several wonderful people have donated books and manuscript critiques for bid to raise funds to help Marianne Mancusi, an author whose house was struck by lightning and burned down while she was away. These items are up for bid on eBay, so I went to check them out. Some of the things I would like to have had fairly low bids so far, so I went ahead and set up an account and started bidding on them. I don’t really care if I get the critiques or not, but I wanted to drive up the bidding a bit. It’s for a good cause.

So I bid. And I’m told that I’m outbid. ALREADY. Before my bid even goes IN. And this is where it gets bad. I increased my maximum bid. TWICE. On the same item.

Luckily, the very satisfying message that I am the high bidder came up before I remortgaged my house or something, but man, that gets real addictive, real fast.

Now, I just have to ignore those pesky notices in my e-mail box.

Service by a Hunk

Once in a while, I get hash browns from this Burger King that’s right near my favorite coffee place. I’m not much of a breakfast person but when I do it, it’s always best to have fat-laden, high-calorie, barely-recognizable-as-food potato products that enhance the caffeine high with their shot of energy.

Anyway, this nearby Burger King normally only has one person working the counter and/or drive-thru at that time of morning. She’s always exasperated by how much she has to do, and always full of excuses for why she ignores me at the counter for five minutes or why it takes 10 minutes for one car purchasing one small product to get through the drive-thru.

But now it's summer. College kids are back. High school students want jobs. Now, when I go to Burger King, despite the Sunday Funnies spread all over the counter demonstrating their lack of “real work” to do, I get my food immediately.

Icing on the cake? I get it efficiently, with attentiveness and a smile, from a young guy with gorgeous green eyes.

Summer is almost over. I may have to increase my BK frequency, just to offset the imminent return of frustration.

Movie MeMe

Stolen from Shannon Stacey:

Total numbers of films I own:
Probably well over 100, even not counting the kiddie stuff.

Last film I watched:
Good Will Hunting, a Netflix selection, preceded immediately by Napoleon Dynamite. GWH—nicely done. ND—just “huh?” Not award-worthy, IMO.

Five favorite films I either watch frequently or that mean a lot to me:

1. Galaxy Quest— It just has so many quotable lines.

2. Aliens— Ripley is one of the original Bombshell heroines: “Get away from her, you bitch!

3. Princess Bride—Which was also a book I loved—totally romantic.

4. Lord of the Ring—all three, for a hundred reasons

5. Pirates of the Caribbean—Because it’s possibly the last summer movie good enough for me to see multiple times. Plus…duh, Orlando Bloom!

Worst film you’ve ever had to endure:
They All Laughed for older movies and Catwoman for modern movies. Yes, Catwoman beats out Gigli, but only barely beats out War of the Worlds.

Favorite movie quote: See above. :)

Favorite movie adapted from a book:
Lord of the Rings. Before that came out and forever superseded any previous and future films, it was The Hunt for Red October, because for once the movie was so much better than the book.

One book I’d like to see made into a movie:
Mine

Thoughts on Harry Potter

Well, for right now, I have just one big thought.

Voldemort is pronounced “Vol-deh-more.” End of discussion.

It’s how Jim Dale pronounced it in the first four audiobooks. How the Scholastic pronunciation guide on their Harry Potter web site says it should be pronounced. And, per the report of several interviews of JK Rowling since the release of Book 6, aka HBP, it is how JK Rowling pronounces it.

It’s significant. “Mort” in French is “death” and is pronounced “more,” not mort. It bothered me a lot when they pronounced it wrong in the first movie, and I still don’t understand how JK Rowling could have allowed it. But it drives me nuts that Jim Dale changed his pronunciation in his performance of Book 5 (and now 6).

Pllleeeessse, in the last book, can we have it the right way?