Bit of Ivory

I made screencaps of the Easter Egg things. Click on the thumbnail to bring up the full size image.

A drawing of the Midnight Duel in Philosopher’s Stone. Notice Dean was originally accompanying them, but his name was Gary.

A typed page from Philosopher’s Stone. It’s a good thing she edited the crossed-out portion. Too much tell, not show. I like Oliver Wood’s line, though.

Some concept sketches for the Sorting Hat.

A very early handwritten page from Philosopher’s Stone. If you can decipher it, you’ll notice that it changes the story A LOT. Hermione is very Hermione-like, though.

Ginevra Molly Weasley! I love it!

Am listening to the AOL Listening Party that TLC just posted, and the PoA soundtrax is AWESOME. I think the track I’m listening to now is the Knight Bus. It’s really fun. Can’t wait for May 25!

Or June 4, for that matter.

ETA: OOoh, this must be the dementors. Creepy.

ETA 2: Drums! What’s with the drums? But the music that’s following it is beautiful. Very emotionally engaging. Apparently, it’s Buckbeak’s theme, which would make sense. The track following it is even more beautiful– a haunting Celtic-type melody with a recorder-like flute. It’s making me want to cry. I reacted this way the first time I heard Fawkes’ theme on the CoS listening party, I’m remembering. Can’t wait to find out what this track is called, and what context we’ll hear it in.

ETA 3: The flute-melody is called “A Window to the Past”, and is amazing. It’s repeated several times throughout the soundtrack. The whole album is superb– lots of new music, but with hints of the old themes in just the right places. The soundtracks just keep getting better.

Must listen again!

Life just keeps on comin’
But don’t go bummin’ out, yeah
‘Least you’re not dead.

–Life, Cool Hand, Pride and Prejudice soundtrack

Yeah, that about sums it up.

• Was so incredibly bored Friday night that I bought a Game Boy Advance SP. Spent much of weekend playing Chamber of Secrets. Must get Quidditch World Cup.
• Went shopping with Jeb on Saturday. Helped her enter the 21st century as she bought a new cell phone. I bought new jeans to replace ones I tore jumping over fence at Primary activity two weeks ago, as well as 2 t-shirts. I love Old Navy. Also bought Mothers Day stuff.
• Saturday night babysat best friend’s 3-year-old daughter. Was very much fun. Rosie is a doll. Has very cute habit of saying “Oh. My. Dosh.” Can’t say her G’s, apparently. Gave her the kids size small Gryffindor robe I had laying around. She was very much excited. Is also excited at prospect of meeting Dobby at Wahleecon. Didn’t have heart to tell her it’s only a statue.
• Know Dobby is coming to Wahleecon because got e-mail from Lou with her flight plans! Whoot!
• Baked yummy apple pie on Mothers Day. Am glad I can cook.
• Went Grandma-hopping on Mothers Day. Very fun, but meant we had to record HP&tSS. Family very strange– sang Broadway tunes A Cappella out-of-tune very loudly whole way home. Hilarious.
• Loved, loved, LOVED PoA preview which we watched when I got home. Had to rewind R/H part ’cause I squeed so loudly. Am much encouraged, Ron-wise. Am also slightly less worried about Lupin. Can’t wait for Wahleecon.
• Had more ticket requests for Wahleecon. Am now up to 115 tickets for midnight show, 75 for matinee.
• Had to skip=120 to catch up with LJ flist after weekend. Whew!

I think that takes care of everything. Now, must work. If this project isn’t done by Wahleecon, I don’t get to come! In an effort to keep myself on task, I’m not going to be on IM at work anymore, and have reset my Semagic notification to 5 entries instead of 1. Must. Work. Hard.

So that car I told you about yesterday? The one that hadn’t moved for 3 weeks? When I left work yesterday, it was GONE. I just about dropped my purse. Alas, it seems like a mystery that will never be solved.

Because this sounds like fun:

On your current playlist, hit shuffle and pick the first twenty songs on the list (no matter how cheesy or embarrassing), and write down your favourite lyrics. Then, have your friends comment and see if they know the songs.

1) When the sun begins to shine I’ll hear a song from another time
2) Everything I want the world to be is now coming true especially for me
3) I wanna stand with you on a mountain, I wanna bathe with you in the sea
4) So take a good look at my face, you’ll see my smile looks out of place
5) It all comes around you run yourself down, you’re playing the clown, yeah, you’re painting the town
6) I beg of you don’t say goodbye, can’t we give our love another try?
7) All you have to do is close your eyes, and just hold out your hand
8) The radio and the telephone and the movies that we know, may just be passing fancies and in time may go
9) Comin’ on like you really love me, girl we haven’t gone that far
10) I swear that I’ll be true, I’ve made an everlasting vow to find a way to you
11) Don’t sigh and gaze at me, your sighs are so like mine
12) Forget all the time you have wasted, remember the love you have tasted, it will be yours again
13) Sometimes when I’m almost to surrender, then I stop and I remember, I have you to save my day
14) I see the wind, oh I see the trees everything is clear in my heart
15) Say my name sun shines through the rain, a whole life so lonely, then come and ease the pain
16) It’s hard to tell what’s right or wrong, but I just heard you sing my song, and I know you can hear it too
17) Why do stars fall down from the sky every time you walk by?
18) Let me see what life is like on Jupiter and Mars
19) This thing we’ve begun is much more than a pastime, for this time is the one where the first time is the last time
20) And still you steal each breath I’m breathing from me, with just a touch you overcome me

If anyone guesses all of them correctly, a hundred points to the appropriate house. Some of this is REALLY obscure.

And now:

Gilmore Girls spoilers!

*does happy dance*

Man, that self-help tape Luke listened to– hilarious! And the fact that he got the idea for Lorelai– heh. I loved his epiphany though. So well done! And then he asked her out! He’s confident! He’s pursuing!

It can’t last.

Those cats were hilarious. I think they’re animagi, actually.

They totally dropped most of the storylines from last week. So I guess we’ll have to wait to find out about Richard and Emily and DiggerJason.

But we’re one step closer to having my icon come true. And not just in a psych-you-out dream, either! Whoot!

Have done mucho plenty Wahleecon stuff. Everything is now being tracked in a spreadsheet. It makes me feel much better to have everything written down in one place.

What a weekend. Wasn’t nearly long enough, of course. However, I did get a lot accomplished. Or maybe it didn’t seem like it was long enough because I *did* get a lot accomplished. Hmm.

Anyway, on Friday night I went to Tucci’s with Jen, (mmmm, spinaci appetizer), and then went to my house to watch Strictly Ballroom. I find that movie highly entertaining, but most of the people I’ve seen it with so far don’t seem to appreciate it as I do. *le sigh*

Saturday was my big day. I cleaned out, vacuumed, and Armor-Alled the interior of my car (I also Armor-Alled my left hand in the process). Now Lizzy is pretty and shiny and clean on the inside. Must wash outside next. After I got Lizzy done I correlated the data from the Wahleecon Mayan mini-menu poll and created our menu. It’s going to be delicious. Must still call Jordan Commons and give it to them, though. And up our ticket count. We’re at 87 for the midnight showing! Anyway, that was restful after my hard work of cleaning out Lizzy (she was FILTHY), so I got started on my other momentous task: cleaning the bathroom. That room hasn’t been this clean in AGES. I even washed the walls! It was exhausting, though. I was very happy to eat the homemade baked beans and barbequed hamburgers we had for dinner, and then watch Benny and Joon with my family. I’d seen parts of it, but not the whole way through. Highly entertaining.

Sunday was good, too. We got done with our Primary lesson a bit early, so I took my kids on a walk around the building. It was a gorgeous spring day, and the activity helped get rid of some of the wiggles that 7-year-olds inevitably develop. After church I helped make the stuffing for dinner, then I powered Ginny up long enough to watch the new French PoA trailer and get REALLY mad. Am seriously considering starting a petition to send to JKR and the WB requesting that they stop assasinating Ron’s character, thank you very much. The turning-to-Ron-for-comfort moment was not enough to make up for it. Must make an icon that has Ron saying “Hermione, will you *please* stop stealing all of my lines?” Would make me feel better, methinks.

In between all of that, I managed to read The Curse of Chalion over the weekend. Was very impressed. I especially liked the way Bujold handled the religious aspect of it all. Very believable– the saints weren’t perfect, mere ordinary mortals could be tools of God, and it was all treated as real rather than mostly illusion. I must get a hold of Paladin of Souls now.

The windows on our building are currently being washed, and they’re outside my window now. Dude, am I glad I’m not a window washer. But now my window will be all nice and clean, and I will finally be able to take a picture of the view. Will bring my camera tomorrow.

Speaking of cameras, I’ve been researching digital ones. I’m going to get one for my birthday, so I can upload pics from Wahleecon ASAP, and make all you people who couldn’t come as jealous as possible. Heh. Anyway, at the moment I’m leaning towards the Nikon Coolpix 4300. I’ve always been a Nikon gal. We’ll see, though. I’m going to do a bit of brick-and-mortar shopping before I decide for sure.

So something made me giggle this morning. There’s this blue Trailblazer in the parking lot that I swear has not moved since I started working here. On Thursday, when it was all rainy and gross and had been since 5:30 that morning, the ground underneath it was dry. So, ever-curious, on Friday I put a penny on top of the passenger-side front tire, to see if it moved. The penny was still there this morning. I do wonder what has become of the driver of that Trailblazer, though.

Now, bax to worx.

I tried staying up entirely too late last night to see if being incrediby exhausted would help me not be so restless. It didn’t work. On the other hand, I’m not any more tired on 5 and a half hours than if I’d gotten my full 8 hours, so. . . *shrugs*. The new regimen isn’t helping much so far, but it does take a few days for the steroidal nasal spray to work. And I haven’t been itchy or sneezy, so the Zyrtec might be helping my allergies at least. I did get a report on my blood work yesterday, and it looked “excellent,” so that rules out the possiblilty of continued Epstein-Barr infection. It must be something else, then.

In my attempt to keep myself up, I read bits and pieces of The Vor Game. I have decided that this is one of my favorite of the Vorkosigan series, mainly because of the presence of Gregor. Miles is wonderful, don’t get me wrong– but Gregor is incredibly attractive to me. He’s a man with enormous power, but he knows exactly when and how to use it. He’s incredibly moral, he’s doing his absolute best in an impossible job, and he’s so *intelligent*. Entirely snoggable. I often find myself reading just the Gregor scenes in the other books, usually with a silly grin on my face. Unfortunately, we don’t see nearly enough of him. *sigh*

It’s been cold and rainy the past two days, and there’s a heavy snow warning for today. The rain has reminded me of this little– well, Thing I have about windshield wipers. I am very wiper-concious. If I see other people on the road using their wipers less than me, I feel like a Wiper Wimp. I find myself waiting until the last second to use my wipers because I’m afraid of what other people will think. It’s completely irrational, I know– I doubt most other drivers on the road even notice my windshield wipers, but– there it is.

Wahleecon planning is coming along swimmingly. We’re getting close! Things are starting to fall into place, and life is good. I still have a lot to do, but it’s getting there. Although I’m convinced that if this thing comes off without a major crisis, I will be amazed.

For all of you who are coming to Wahleecon and DO NOT check the Wahleecon LJ regularly– I’m talking at least every other day here– you really need to change that. Announcements and polls are being posted almost daily, and they will continue to be posted from now until June 3. So if you’re attending Wahleecon in any shape or form, PLEASE either bookmark the page, join the community, or friend it. It’s THE PLACE to stay up-to-date on Wahleecon information.

We’re getting close!

*tries not to get excited*

because my calendar has Sexy Elf Boy on it, and I am loathe to change it. Today is Frodo, Sam, and Gollum in front of the Black Gate, so I might be tempted later. But for now I’ll keep it on Legolas.

Yesterday turned out to be busy. Busy at work, busy at home. That’s why there wasn’t an entry. I got a lot accomplished, though, which is good. I did my final beta on Ancient Prophecy 18 and uploaded it to the Yahoo! Group, I finished part of the project at work and started on another part (which I have to do over again today because of some problem in the database. Grr. Stupid Microsoft.), I made a to-do list for (man, I have a lot to do! I may be farming out some of these chores), and. . .I got an idea for an original fantasy novel. It could be really, really good, too. Don’t worry, , this is waaaay far into the future. I want to hone my writing skills a bit more before I even attempt it. I’m not a good enough writer at this point, and I don’t want to write it until I am. But the best thing about it is that the premise leaves it open for many, many sequels. Depending on where I want to start in the timeline, the plots for 3 books come to mind immediately. I might do the first kind of in the middle of the chronology, and leave the beginning for a prequel. Anyway, I’m quite excited about it, as I’ve never had a viable idea for an original novel before. Whoot!

Now, must get to work. I’ve got to re-do 2 hours of work already. . .

Well, I’ve been. The doctor spent a lot of time looking at me like I was from another planet. But the wheels were turning behind that expression. He doesn’t know for sure *why* I’m tired, but we’re going to try to fix the things we can fix. For instance, the inside of my nose is red instead of pink, which means I have active allergies which the Allegra isn’t helping. So we’re trying Zyrtec instead, which I’m supposed to take at night because it makes you drowsier than Allegra, and that might help me sleep better. He also gave me some Rhinocort Aqua, which is a steroidal nasal spray, which I’m supposed to use once a day– two sprays in each nostril. I’ll do this for two weeks, paying close attention to whether or not it’s helping. After two weeks, I’m supposed to try taking half of my 180-mg Allegras in the morning, and two Benadryl at night, keeping up with the Rhinocort. I get to see him again in four weeks.

If those don’t work, he has some other ideas. He also took some blood to check my liver enzyme levels. The Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mononucleosis, affects liver enzymes. I was diagnosed with mono almost 4 years ago, but they haven’t bothered checking my levels since– they’ve checked thyroid and just about everything else on the planet, but not liver– even though it’s been discovered recently that Epstein-Barr can be active for years on end. I actually hope it’s *not* Epstein-Barr, because if it is there’s not a darn thing we can do about it.

He said that most of the other doctors have focused on the sleep. We’re going to focus on the other stuff, and hope it makes my sleep better.

So, we’ll see.

Oh, and I made a new icon. *points* We were watching Road Runner cartoons tonight, and I was inspired.