Bit of Ivory

*sniff*

This is just tragic. Siriusly. I have to wonder about this– no Oliver Wood means, at the very least, reduced screen time for Quidditch. While Quidditch may not have been an extremely essential part of the last two films, in Prisoner of Azkaban it’s quite essential to the plot. Will we even see Cho Chang and Cedric Diggory? What about the Dementors storming the pitch? Harry won’t need Patronus lessons if that doesn’t happen. And Sirius won’t need to send Harry a Firebolt, so Harry and Hermione won’t fight. And. . oh, there’s just so much wrong with this decision. Eliminating Oliver Wood means some serious tampering with the plot. I’m going to have to add this to my List of Weird Decisions Regarding PoA That Make Me Wonder if the Thing Is Going to Be Any Good at All.

In honor of our loss, I’ve compiled this List of Brilliant Oliver Wood Moments In Prisoner of Azkaban That, Thanks to a Stupid Decision By Warner Bros., Will Never Be Immortalized On Film:
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. . . was definitely my hardest yet. We were doing big vases using the lacing technique. We were supposed to be able to fit 3-4 fingers in the mouth of our vase. Well, I could fit 4 fingers in my vase alright, but it’s rather short– it’s more of a bowl than a vase, actually. So I had to cut my stems really short, and no matter how much I laced my leather leaf fern and lemon leaf foliage, nothing would stand up straight. I was getting rather frustrated, but finally decided to let the fact that nothing was standing up work to my advantage. After much wrestling, though, it looks stunning. I think it’s my favorite design so far.

It’s very asymmetrical, which I’ve never done before (my head says “let’s do an asymmetrical design!” buy my eye just *won’t* let things be out of balance). I simply *couldn’t* get this design to balance, so I made it as asymmetrical as possible. For my focal point flower I used a bright yellow gerbera daisy. My line flowers include a dark purple stock, a white snapdragon, and a green Bells of Ireland, which I love, and three spikes of heather. For mass flowers I used white-and-purple lisianthus, yellow carnations and dark purple pixie carnations, yellow and purple Peruvian lilies, and three yellow Persian buttercups. For filler flowers I used a few yellow button mums and some purple aster. For filler foliage, I’ve got Ming Fern, plumosa fern, and sprengeri fern (I can’t find good pictures of these).

I’m going to take a picture, no worries. I need to get my film developed, and then I can scan my other arragements as well.

Someone would ask me to explain.

Teri asked:
This has nothing to do with computers. What happened to your front six teeth? Or do we really want to know this story?

It’s a long story, but not particularly gory. Well, I guess one part might sound a bit unpleasant. Anyway, it all started because one of my front baby teeth–the one on my left– was a double tooth. When it came out, only the front tooth grew back in. That left me with one too few teeth in front. I got braces in third grade to move the teeth to get a big enough space for a fake one.

But before I got the braces, I was playing Don’t Touch the Floor (which involves much jumping around on furniture), and I jumped onto a pillow on the floor. The pillow slipped out from under me and I fell face first onto the hearth of our fireplace. It cracked my other front tooth in half, which lodged in my lip. I got bonding on the tooth and stitches on my lip.

After I had a big enough space, in 6th grade, I got a retainer with a tooth on it, on the understanding that I’d eventually get a bridge, which involves grinding down and capping the two adjacent teeth (in this case, my unbroken front tooth and my first canine) with a floating tooth in the middle. I got that done in 9th grade– and since we were at it, we decided to cap my broken tooth as well. I also had rather a large gap between the tooth opposite the one that was missing and my first canine. My orthodonist said that braces wouldn’t help, so we decided to cap that tooth as well, making it a little bigger and the gap a little smaller. So that made a total of five fake teeth.

Unfortunately, the work I got done in 9th grade looked awful. The teeth were way too big for my mouth, and just weren’t styled very well. They also had porcelain on the front only, and metal on the back. My gums became really big and puffy and bled alot, as well. Mom was really upset, but by that time I’d had to go to the dentist 5 times in two weeks and wear awful temporaries and frankly, I was sick of it. Mom was so upset over what that dentist had done with my teeth (that and he was just a pig) that we eventually found a new dentist. The new dentist agreed that my teeth looked awful, and thought that I was probably allergic to the metal on the backs of them. Since I’d got them done, a new type of cap had come out that was entirely porcelain. We had to wait until I’d had them for five years to replace them, though, or the insurance wouldn’t cover it.

Finally, at the end of 2001, I’d had them for five years. My new dentist decided to put a veneer on my other canine to balance out my mouth. He also recommended I get a gingivectomy (cutting my gums) to relieve some of the puffiness and make my smile more teeth than gums. I got that done, then got the new caps. The first time they came back, they were way too big again, but after sending them back to get cut, they looked great– much better than the old ones, I must say.

See? Long story. But highly interesting, I think. All these trips to the dentist and getting novacaine has pretty much cured me of any fear I might have. A shot in the mouth is nothing to me anymore. So I guess that’s a good thing.

We had a practical exam this morning in my World Dance class. I swear, she picked all the most exhausting dances, and then put them all in a row. I was tired enough after the Doubleska Polka, but follow that up with the Salty Dog Rag and Koza, and I felt like I was going to fall over. By the end of class I was sweating like mad, badly in need of water, and barely able to put one foot in front of the other. Unfortunately, I traded nights with a coworker to go to a friend’s wedding reception tomorrow, so I’ll be at work until 10:00 tonight. No way to take a nap. *yawn*

I’m so sad. Ginny (my laptop, for those who don’t remember) is in bad shape. Not only is the keyboard having problems (the 8, i, k, and , keys don’t work most of the time, and I have to idea how to fix it), but the battery suddenly decided not to hold a charge anymore. So I need to buy a new battery and figure out how to fix the keyboard. Unfortunately, I don’t have $120 for a new battery, and I’d have to pay someone to look at my keyboard as well.

*sigh*

*sings* “Happy anniversary, happy anniversary, happy anniversary, hAAAAppy anniversary! Oh how happy we will be on your Anniversary! Oh how happy we will be on your anniversary!”

Okay, that’s about enough. That little bit of Flintstones homage is brought to you by. . .my parents twenty-fifth wedding anniversary!

TA-DA!!!

So yesterday, I skipped my last class–for good and solid reasons, of course. The first is that I was behind on the reading, and didn’t feel like discussing something I hadn’t read. The second is that I have a bad case of senioritis. However, considering that it was the first class I’ve intentionally skipped all school year, and that its one of only about 5 or 6 times I’ve skipped in my entire college career, I think I’m doing quite well. And I only feel a little bit guilty about it.

My sisters and roommate went to Salt Lake last night, and my other roomie had to take a test and then went to a dollar movie with her boyfriend, so I was left to my own devices. I had a vague notion of beta reading Forgiveness for Elizabeth, since I wasn’t about to do any homework (I’m so bad), but my next-door neighbor (and probably best friend in my complex) came over and asked if I’d like to join her and another mutual friend in a movie-and-pizza fest involving My Big Fat Greek Wedding and lots of Kool-Aid. Of course, I couldn’t resist that offer. I’d never seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding before. It was good– I was amused that the wedding singer was singing All My Only Dreams from That Thing You Do!, but I didn’t find it as entertaining as I thought I would, considering all the hype it’s gotten. Maybe I wasn’t in the mood. *shrugs*

Anyway, after MBFGW, we moved over to my apartment (because Katrina’s was rather noisy and their TV screen is tiny) and watched The Winslow Boy. Katrina and Charissa had never seen it, so it was fun to see their reactions. I doubt most of you have ever seen it either. Go rent it, if you can find it. It’s a very artsy-fartsy kind of flick, and extremely understated, but altogether very entertaining. And it’s got Jeremy Northam in it, which is a good enough reason for me to see any movie, right there.

By the time The Winslow Boy was over, Kat and Charissa were falling asleep, and I was feeling quite awake. They went home, and I bleached the bathroom. At 11:00 at night. We get these little spots of mildew growing above our shower, and this semester we have unfortunately let the run rather wild. It was something I’d been meaning to do for simply weeks, but never gotten around to. I figured that then was as good as any time, so I did it. Then I went to bed.

I’m currently at work– until 4:00, when my brother should be picking me up for a drive to Murray. He’s got a bachelor party to go to for his last remaining single best friend (until Wednesday, that is), and I’ve got a family dinner with my granparents, who have been in Arizona for the last month, and aunt. Now don’t go imagining things with the bachelor party. This is a Mormon bachelor party, and they’ll be drinking nothing harder than Coke (although it will probably be root beer or Sprite for most of them), go out to dinner, and maybe watch a PG-13 movie (although it will probably be PG).

Today/yesterday is my uncle’s birthday. He’s a leap baby, so he only gets a real birthday every four years. I think he’s up to 12 now. He’s the only person I know who’s had fewer birthdays than his children.

And I’ve just remembered that today is Ron Weasley’s birthday as well. Happy birthday, Ron!

to being able to send in IFL 1 to SQ. Tonight Teri and Melanie gave me some very helpful chat betas. I’ll make the changes tonight.

I need to ask Alec a British culture question, then I’ll be able to send it in.

*Emily crosses her fingers for lots of reviews*

to the wonderful world of Blogging.

Ben’s Blog.

Now all we need is to get Mom and Dad set up. Then we won’t even need the phone anymore.

Very very badly.

But I’m stuck at work until 10. Yawn.

Oh, well.

Everyone should take a look at The Letterbox Project. I know I’ll be writing a letter.

If you don’t watch Gilmore Girls or Smallville, the post below will mean nothing to you. If you do watch them and haven’t seen tonight’s episodes, don’t click on the link until you have. ‘Cause there’s major spoilers ahead.

Oh, I can say one thing. The WB needs to hire new preview people. Their previews are not only misleading, they downright LIE.

Hmph.
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