This is a great post on creativity.
Monthly Archives: July 2009
More of the same
Sigh.
Perhaps I should spend my spare time building an ark?
An easy way to spruce up your weekend – go see Harry!
Here is something which will not be a surprise to anyone who knows me even a little – this weekend we went to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The reason this wouldn’t be a surprise to most people is because I have always gone offline completely whenever a new book came out in the series so that I could read it without fear of spoilers, and the only times I missed the movies in theaters was because one time I was experiencing horrible morning sickness (with Hayley) and another time I had just given birth (to Breanna).
I’m a bit of a Harry Potter fan. You know, just a little. To the point where I know all the spells, characters, debates, and prior to the final book had a great deal of fun indulging in theories all over the Internet. I’ve also been known to enjoy some good Harry Potter fanfic and even wrote some myself.
So yeah. It’s no surprise that I saw Harry Potter this weekend. It made $104 million on its opening night; I don’t know how much it made over the whole weekend but I certainly contributed to it. Also, oh my GOD. It was so ridiculously good. They’ve all been fun but I’ve usually had some gripes after the fact. This time the movie was two and a half hours which helped avoid cutting out too much of the important story parts which was really nice. There was only one thing that they left out that I would have liked to have seen included but the story didn’t suffer for it so it was okay. I really think that this was the best adaptation of any of the books so far.
George made fun of me for crying. It’s okay because I made fun of him for jumping so high that he nearly fell out of his seat. Good movie indeed.
Can you tell I was really happy to have seen it?
(What? What do you mean you don’t take pictures in your in-laws’ bathroom? I thought everyone did!)
*******
The amazingly crappy summer continues with further instances of rain and cloud and temperatures that are way too low to be considered normal July weather. It rained today which ruined my plans of hitting the park – not only were all the swings and slides wet, with the proximity of the woods it also means the park was a total mosquito paradise so that was out.
However, thankfully the sun broke through the clouds after supper – of course! Just when it’s time to start setting! But at least it was there, so I grabbed both the kids and we went out for a nice long walk around the neighborhood. They needed the fresh air and exercise, and the air felt pretty good to me too. It was also nice to actually have some evening light for taking pictures.
I know that by this time I’m usually bitching about the humidity but honestly, it’s getting ridiculous. The kids tried to swim last weekend at the party but the pool was brand new so the water was cold and so was the air – they didn’t last long and I didn’t get in at all, choosing to just hold Breanna up on the side of the pool to splash her feet instead. I haven’t been swimming yet and it’s been almost a full month since summer started. Enough!
I need some pool time. Really desperately. Please?
Blogathon 2009
If you’ve been reading here long enough then you know that I’ve participated a few times in the Blogathon. Last year they didn’t hold one because of some changes they were making, but it’s back on this year. For those who have never heard of it before, the Blogathon is a 24-hour way for bloggers to raise money for organizations that they care about. The only guideline is that the cause you choose must have an online donation page.
I’m participating again this year. As I have always done, I am blogging to raise money for my pet cause, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees – the UNHCR. As most of you know, I write over at PittWatch.com and I started there over three years ago because Angelina Jolie is my favorite actress. However, acting skills aside, what really moves me about her is her tireless work with the UNHCR. It’s because of her that I learned about the organization and the work they do to provide relief, shelter, food, and communication for refugees all over the world. I would love so much to go to a UNHCR post one day and really help out in person, but in the meantime this is the next best thing.
During the Blogathon I am required to post every 30 minutes for 24 hours. I know! It’s about as exhausting as it sounds. But it’s worth it. This year the Blogathon starts at 9:00 am on July 25th and runs until 9:00 am on the 26th. (Those are in Eastern time zones) During that frame I will update every half hour.
In return I ask two things of you.
1. If you can, please consider sponsoring me. You can do so by going here. You simply make an account and then decide what you would like to donate to the UNHCR if I complete the Blogathon successfully. This is an important detail so forgive the bold and caps lock: THE MONEY DOES NOT EVER COME TO ME IN ANY WAY. You don’t send the money to me and hope that it will be sent on as promised. When the Blogathon ends you will receive an email within a couple of days telling you where to go to make your donation TO THE UNHCR DIRECTLY. You don’t need to donate a ton of money. Even five dollars helps, and if a lot of people donate a little, it WILL make a difference to a refugee’s life – I’ve read Angelina’s journal notes from her first four UNHCR trips. Trust me, that little bit of cash is huge on the other end.
2. If you can’t sponsor me (and even if you can!) please support me by dropping by whenever you can during the 24-hour period to leave a comment, shoot me an email, chat me up on gmail, whatever. The beginning isn’t so bad, it does pass quickly. By late night though, it slows way down. I get tired, it’s quiet, it’s lonely, and the time drags like you wouldn’t believe. Interacting with me keeps me going and keeps me from falling asleep (well, that and the extra caffeine that I ingest!). People in different time zones come in really handy during the Blogathon because it spreads out the support!
That’s it! So you can basically expect a whack-load of posts from me this time next week. The summer has been craptacular so if it’s a nice day and we’re invited out to go swimming (our friends have gotten a new pool) I’ll be going but so will my laptop – hooray for knowing so many people with wireless connections! – and I will be out of the pool every half hour to update! That should be a whole new challenge, trying to stay up all night long after swimming, woo!
Please, PLEASE consider sponsoring me here. As of this moment this is my first time mentioning the Blogathon so I have a grand total of ZERO sponsors. Help me out? Thanks!
An outdoor party on one of the few nice days so far
Honestly, so far this has been one hell of a crappy summer. There’s been way too much rain and while it may be great for the grass, we can’t enjoy it since we’re INSIDE all the time. Also, it is killing my flowers. Totally killing them. They can’t handle it and I’ve lost all the flowers on my geranium, an entire box of white pansies, and the yellow ones may be next. It figures that I wait ten years before finally planting flowers, only to do it on one of the most monsoon-like summers.
And it doesn’t help that it rained again today, and when I went to check the forecast I found this:
Well YIPPEE.
Anyway. It wasn’t looking good on Saturday, but Hayley had a birthday party in the early afternoon. This left Breanna very sad since she wasn’t invited (I told her she’d get birthday invites when she starts school but this was of little comfort) so I took her to the park for a picnic. We had to eat really quickly and get to the swings as fast as we could because I could see the clouds coming in, but we got some fun time in together before it started to pour.
When we had to go back out later it was just ridiculous driving. There was so much rain coming down that even though we parked all of 15 feet from the door we were all soaked by the time we got in.
Luckily it didn’t rain on Sunday though because we had an outdoor party that day. The sister of the drummer in George’s band was having a party at her house but it was intended to be outside in the backyard and the band was going to set up beside the back deck. A storm would have been a disaster. It ended up being quite chilly but there was nary a drop of rain so that’s all that mattered.
The house is in a rural area and surrounded by farm land. I LOVE it out there. They have two kids as well, not much older than Hayley, so their yard is like a child’s paradise – pool, treehouse, swing set, slide, trampoline, tons of toys. Hayley and Breanna were NOT bored, let’s put it that way. Also, they’re at an age where it’s so much easier to go out with them because I don’t have to hover and follow all the time like you do with younger kids. I just let them go and they had a blast – the entire day they must have jumped for a total of three or four hours on the trampoline. They slept SUPER well that night.
Meanwhile, I had a great time because I hadn’t heard George play in a really long freakin’ time. I miss that so much. Also, *rawr* and all that.
It was a really good time. The food was delicious (lots of grilled chicken, sausages, plus side dishes of pasta salads, potatoes, and oh my GOD Tabbouleh – I ate so much Tabbouleh), everyone had fun, and it was so nice to be out. Unfortunately, the second that the sun went down, approximately 500 angry mosquitoes came out of nowhere and attacked us so the show came to a stop at about 9 pm and we had cake and coffee in the kitchen, leaving by about 10 pm.
I love that my kids are growing up in a world where it’s totally normal to have parties that involve live bands.
The last day before a new year
Today is my last day to say that I’m 34 years old. I’m not disappointed, 34 is an awkward-sounding number, I think that 35 is much nicer. I’m looking forward to 35 to be honest. I have lots of things in mind to make happen during this next year of my life.
Tomorrow will be spent hanging out with the crazy people who share my home, the one who looks for Heffalumps in the tall grass at the park:
The one who swings way too damn high (without any pushing from anyone anymore, she does it all herself) and scares the crap out of me:
And the crazy guy who helped bring them into the world:
I completed over half the work that I need to do on my actual birthday so that I don’t have to work too much. I’m going to relax, try to pretend the forecast isn’t full of RAIN, make a chocolate cake, and enjoy starting another year of my life.
Sounds pretty good to me!