Just call me Elphaba

Because I'm melting. July and August are always hard months for me. I hate being hot. I can't handle heat well, so living in a house without real air conditioning in a desert is probably not the best situation for me, especially with triple digit temperatures.

I need to find something to do today that involves air conditioning. This may mean taking four kids to the store with no intention of buying them toys. This is how desperate I am.

I love being right

How was I right? I had one, only one, real prediction for Harry Potter 7. I was right. A lot of people told my I was crazy for believing it because it couldn't be possible. Heck, even a Muggle.net editor (whom I met in line at Borders while waiting in line for my number) didn't buy it. That's ok because I was right. neener neener.

Yes, I'm an HP nerd. That's what you call yourself when you plan a family vacation around an HP book release. We were in Vancouver, WA last week visiting my sister and her family. The trip finale was a Harry Potter Day. Rebecca and I put together a Day at Hogwarts Party for all the kids Friday afternoon. We had the practical portions of Hogwarts final exams in Herbology (they had to identify local plants) Potions (they mixed vinegar and soda but we added a few things and gave all the ingredients magic names) and Care of Magical Creatures (where they had to do a hunt for magical animals and name each one.) For the last one, we had Steve direct the hunt and then give hot/cold clues for how to find the last animal, a thestral, which only he would be able to see in Harry's world. (there are drawbacks to working geriatric PT, and one of those is seeing death first hand.) After the final exams, we had an End of Term Feast. We thought about calling it "start of term feast" but with the book release being the last one, having it be the end of term was the only logical choice. If anyone wants my recipe for canary creams, let me know. ;)

I'll have pictures of our vacation up later. I didn't get my camera out on Friday at all so no pictures of the HP party, darn it. We do have some fun ones from Cannon Beach though.

My new alarm clock

is a piano. It was moved in Wednesday morning and for the last two mornings, I've been woken by children playing it. They don't just pound, thank goodness, they've found Sarah's beginner books and are trying to teach themselves to play. They are actually pretty good at that.

The piano used to belong to my mother. It's the piano I grew up with. My parents got it so they could have kids who play piano and they ended up with one daughter out of seven children who play competently enough to want a piano as an adult. That daughter isn't me. That daughter got her own piano ages ago. I lucked out having musical children. My mom felt sorry for Sarah learning to play on an electric keyboard and decided that her piano was just collecting dust so she offered it to us. We were happy to take it just as soon as we had space for it.

We needed quite a bit of space, actually. This is not a modern low slung upright. This is an Upright built in 1900, which means it's very tall and wider than a modern one. It's got lovely carved wood all over the place and the wood has aged to a mellow dark color. There's one broken key and it needs tuned quite badly. However, it was free, and it's pretty. I'm very glad to have it.

Thanks, mom.