Holiday Weekend

Yesterday was Memorial Day, fka Decoration Day. Thank you to corporate America, the general public follows the traditions of barbecuing and searching for big sales at Sam's Club, instead of taking time to decorate the tombstones of fallen soldiers, remembering the sacrifice they all made for our country. Ashamedly, I am one of those citizens that shopped and failed to recognize the reason for the holiday. So, for that I am sorry.

So, with that confession said, I'll give a re cap of my 3-day weekend. Friday night Brad and I met up with some friends at Mars Hill Cafe for dinner. Thank you, Corky, for the amazing dinner and the mango tea. Saturday I don't remember the details. I really hate when that happens. I do remember that I slept in some, worked out at the gym and went to see the new Indiana Jones movie with Brad, Will met us there. Thanks Will, for saving us seats.
I really liked the film. It got rave reviews from tough Hollywood critics, but the general public is kinda "meh" about the whole thing. I thought it was great.

Sunday we went to the morning service at church, People of Mars Hill and then I did some grocery shopping. I also bought a jalapeno plant. That day Brad worked in the yard and I cleaned the house. We had our "small group" friends over for a grill-out that evening. We wanted to do one big get together to visit before Brad left for his long trip. Man, the food kept coming! I made baked beans (for the first time, my own recipe), roasted potatoes, queso dip, and a strawberry shortcake. It was a bring-your-own-meat deal, and I filled up the grill three times, I think. It was a great night. Brad was awesome, he did most of the clean up while I was still visiting with friends.

Monday we really took the day off. I meant to go for a run, but it didn't happen. We slept in, watched some Monster Quest on the History Channel, then decided to do some shopping. He needed electric guitar strings and I wanted some more herbs. So we went to Musical Walmart, I mean, Guitar Center, then to Lowe's. We bought a few hanging planters, a thyme plant, and a cucumber plant. So now, in the yard we are growing:
tomato
cucumber
jalapeno
thyme
sweet basil
rosemary

Over the weekend, we discovered we have 6 gladiolas plants! For the past 3 years we thought they were only tall decorative grass. This year they are budding in bold red flowers. I am ecstatic! We plan on laying a pallet of sod in July. Our backyard is shaping up beautifully.

I took a few pics of some things we are growing and I also got a few of the babies.
Here's Lucille looking like she wants to kill me.

Here's a pic of my sweet basil plant, and you can see Arwen in the back ground going to town on a rawhide.

Here's Batman with HIS rawhide, in his favorite "chew spot".

And last but not least, is our fearless feline, Robin.


I finished the 6th Harry Potter book last night. I wanted to re read it before the movie came out. It'll be released in November, so I'm kinda ahead of myself.
Now I will finish reading Echoes of His Presence. I should have that done by next week if I don't allow myself to get too busy and distracted. After that I'm going to dive into more C.S. Lewis. I'm not sure where to start. I began to read Mere Christianity this past fall, I may just start that one over and go from there.

Today is a weight lifting day. I'll do that after work, hopefully I'll have time to put in some good cardiovascular exercise afterward. I have already cleaned the house for small group tonight so I have no excuse.

I'm looking forward to our discussion tonight. Jack's teaching this past Sunday was really good. I need to listen to it again though.

Hummph... I'm having a hard time getting into the swing of things today.

Where HAVE you BEEN???!!!

I'm sure the blog gets bored with all my goings on of my life from day to day. I'll spare the blog of it's dullness and write about more exciting things...like Harry Potter.
I'm actually going to go down the list of my obsessions. I've already written about my dogs, so that's one down and many more to go. Today I'd like to discuss all the wonderful things of Potter. Well, okay, some of them... there's really too much to tell. ha ha!
I first became a fan with the movies. I didn't begin watching until Prison of Azkaban came to DVD. I watched the first through the third and waited for Goblet of Fire to come out. After GOF was released I decided to read the books. I didn't start from the beginning though I read book 3, then 4, then 2, 1, 5, 6 and 7. I didn't mind going out of order since I knew the movies line for line. But I was so wrong and soon realized I had missed out on so much.
People will always tell you the book is always going to be better than the movie. That is because hardly ever does a film's writer, director and producer follow the plot of said book from scene to scene. Noooo, they have to throw in an extra battle scene, skip some underlying plot that's usually important, skip over characters and include a few love scenes that were never written by the original author.
So it is in Hollywood. It's okay. That's just how it is and how it will always be.
I will join the masses and proclaim, "The books are better than the movies! So go read them!"
I think I've convinced Brooke to read them. She's going to love it, I can already tell.
My favorite of the films is Prisoner of Azkaban. Which is strange for a book lover, because this movie is where the film direction begins to vere from Rowling's work. But I loved the new characters that are introduced: Buckbeak, dementors, Lupin and of course... Sirius Black. Oh, how I love Sirius. He's just wonderful. I also like that I can purchase my own Monster Book of Monsters.

My favorite book, however, is Order of the Phoenix. There's such an underlying plot that's not included in the movie that made me love it so much. Everything is getting...well, deeper, I guess is the word. (Complicated, or "hairy" - no pun intended. ) In OOTP, it seems most of the fun days are over. Things are getting serious as Harry matures. The books mature with him and become darker. This one you really see how bad it's going to get and what it may cost to end the evil that's returned.
The movie for Half Blood Prince, which comes out in November, is going to be SICK!!! I cannot wait. The cast is on target, too. I really like who they've chosen for Slughorn. We'll all get to view the behind the scenes of Voldemort's making. I do think Quidditch will not appear in this movie, and that upsets me. I loved watching Quidditch. I'm wondering just how far they're going to take certain scenes, assuming they are included. This could very well be a dark and disturbing film. David Yates who directed OOTP will direct this one as well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get what I'm expecting.

Deathly Hallows made me cry. It did. I'm not ashamed of that. There is this one passage at the end that I won't reveal because some of you may not have read it, that is simply beautiful. I read it twice. Afterwards I think I spoke out loud, "that is the most beautiful thing Rowling has written yet". I cried some more.

Okay, so let's talk about characters. My favorites are Ron, Hagrid and of course Molly Weasley. I love all the Weasleys, but Molly is the best.

What I love about Ron is his pride in who he is. Yeah, everything he owns is rubbish, he does get easily embarrassed over his dress robes, and usually finds himself in Harry's shadow. But, he will always stick up for himself, his friends and his family. He has a great devotion that I love and he has a great humor.

Rubeus is one of Rowling's greatest creations, in my opinion. He's huge, but so sensitive. I think he cries in every book? I think it's his unusual love for animals that draws me to like him so much. However, I'm arachniphobic, so Chamber of Secrets always freaks me out. (Brad usually skips the whole monstrous spider attack because I just can't watch it.) I love Fang, though. Which shouldn't surprise anyone, because I absolutely love large dogs. Fang is kinda cowardly which is also funny. You have a large man who cries at the drop of a hat and gets his feelings hurt very easily and you have a dog the size of a couch that gets really nervous at night in the forest. I love it.

Then there's Molly Weasley. You gotta be one bad woman if you're going to maintain a household like hers. I once read that Molly Weasley made Chuck Norris eat his vegetables and he liked it. It's fitting. I like everything about Molly, however she can be a little too protective sometimes. I would be the same way though. In the book, Order of the Phoenix, she has a very emotional meeting with a buggard. You see what she values most is her family, including Harry. You see her worst fear, which is losing them. When those two meet you can't help but worry that those fears come true.
So in reference of this courageous woman, remember these wise words:
Guns don't kill people. Molly Weasley kills people.

Concerning the series, I love just about everything. It has drama, love, magic, fascinating characters, culture, mystery, and an uncertainty that stays until the last chapter of the final book. Now that it's over I have the movies to look forward to. After that, I have no clue...

About my Saturday, and well Sunday, too.

I'm pretty tired now, so I'll try to keep it short. It's already past my bedtime.

Saturday I slept in just a bit, then headed over to Fairhope to hang out with Whitney and Craig. We had a great time, of course. We ate at a restaurant called Panini Pete's (i think is the name) and Oh mah gah. It was good! I had a mozzarella, basil and tomato panini. I loved it.

We looked at some boutiques, I got a rockin pair of white shades, and strolled through a few art stores. That was really interesting, given Craig is a great artist. He painted an incredible piece for Brad and I, I'll post a pic later.

After we said our goodbyes, I met with Brad and hung out at Felix's for a while. He was working a table for the Crawfish Bowl, featuring some bluegrass and folk musicians. The proceeds of the event went to the LARSH foundation in Mobile.

Once he was done we set out to our favorite restaurant, Big Time Diner. It was great, as always. We saw a late movie, Prince Caspian.

um, it was meh. See, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film followed the book very well. I was pleased. This however, did not. I knew it would happen this way because there's a lot of dialogue in the book and the action, though good, is not very frequent. So, there's some added fight scenes, and a love connection which I did not approve of since it wasn't originally in the book. I mean, I'll watch it again, but I wasn't overwhelmed with joy once the credits rolled (like Ironman).

Today we went to the 11 o'clock service at church, did some grocery shopping, then I made lunch. Seraph played at a local church and I stayed at home and did laundry, cleaned bathrooms, cleaned floors, watched Raiders of the Lost Ark and read a few chapters of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. The HP is a re-read. I'm preparing for the film.

Robin, the kitty-son, got hurt today. Brad thinks he got hit. His back leg is real swollen, but it's not broken and his skin is fine. He's shut up in our bathroom with the necessities. I found some pain medicine I bought for Batman when he was neutered. I broke it in half, minced it and put inside some leftover shrimp. Hopefully he'll be okay. That darn cat has been injured more times than our other pets combined, and he's the youngest.

Well folks, time for bed.