from last night

I have managed to last this entire decade without buying any Harry Potter books. My mom bought them, initially for my little sister, when they first came out, as she was the target demographic then. I would read them when at home visiting. I stayed up all night a couple times, as I'd often just be home for the weekend, but I am either proud or ashamed to admit that it's never taken me more than 36 hours to read a Harry Potter book.

In more recent years, of course, my mother just buys them for herself. She doesn't fuck around with pretending anymore. She was bitterly disappointed this time that she was busy taking care of Grandma during the local bookshop's Adult Harry Potter Launch Party, which featured a special microbrew by a local bar. (OK, I'd totally have gone to that too. In costume, no less. I'm not into HP cosplay so I'd have to pick a character, and I admit I'm a bit behind on the whole fandom concept so I might just randomly put a witch hat on and not even come up with a character I was being. Shut up, I am an incompetent geek.)

But I never get home, of late, so I can't rely on her for my HP fix either.

BUT! Ha ha ha. Z's mom, who lives two tenths of a mile away, is a fourth grade teacher. Of COURSE she gets the books when they come out.

But she is not a crazy person, and so sometimes it takes her some time to read them. No biggie. We house sit for her whenever she leaves town. I was figuring that I'll just read HP:DH while she's next in California.

Well...
She leaves Thursday.
What, do you think, are the odds that she'll have finished the book by then?
Or do you think she'll have saved it and be taking it with her to read on the plane?

(added next morning: oh, I laugh, I chuckle, at this whole thing. I'll tell you later. Now I'm working. Working, I tell you.)

Potterdammerung

So I wrote out that whole post yesterday and then it wouldn’t post. Annoying. I abandoned it, and went home, and then went out to dinner with Z’s mom, so she could give us the detailed rundown on precisely how to manage the incontinent dog and chronically constipated cat. (The dog has to be carefully shepherded outside; the cat needs a scoop of canned pumpkin mixed in with her cat food. Z’s mom is such a conscientious and precise person that she has pre-measured the scoops of pumpkin and frozen them in the correct portion sizes so that all Z has to do is thaw one overnight and then mix it into the can.)

We got to her house and came in to be instructed in the means of pumpkin-scooping, and there on her coffee table was Deathly Hallows. I squeaked and went over and picked it up. “Of course you have this,” I said. “How far have you gotten?”
“Done,” she said, a little triumphantly. “I finished it Sunday night.”
“Ohmigod,” I said.( No spoilers whatsoever, I do mean that. )

But what I think is the most entertaining about this whole phenomenon is that of course when I finished, the first thing I did was run to my computer and go back through all the spoiler posts I’ve been itching to read.
Yes, that’s right.
I was more interested in what y’all had written than in what JKR had written.
Take that as you will.
*
My reactions to the book will doubtless come later. At the moment I am quite tired—I was trying to sleep by 2:30, which isn’t all that late, but then Chita decided that it was time to be Awake, because instead of playing with her all evening I’d sat and cuddled her, so now she was all wound up and prowling around. Nugh.
Of course, when I got up, she stayed in bed and looked at me smugly through one slightly-raised eyelid.

today's Awesome

Today's Awesome is this:
In the list of dealers I have to contact today, there is one who is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
Her practice?
It is a veterinary chiropractic practice. Which is cool, in and of itself.
But more cool? In fact, Awesome?
Is the fact that it is named...
wait for it...
Animal Crackers.
BWAHAHA.

Unrelated but also awesome:
My building has several companies in it, owned by the same dude. One of the sister companies here makes fake bricks to use in facades. I have just scored me a handful of these. I thumbtacked them up on my cubicle wall.
I am going to try to cadge a whole box of these. Then I'm going to glue them to magnets. Then I'm going to stick them to my fridge.
If all goes according to plan, I will have a brick refrigerator.
How hard would that rule?

am i nuts to be disappointed?

I've bought stuff from Stockingirl.com before. Cool stuff, funky stuff. Expensive stuff. Kinda can't bring myself to spend that kind of money anymore, now that I've found sock-dreams.com.
But still.
Stockingirl sends me newsletters. Whatever, I deal.
However. I noticed they were having a sale. ! A sale! $15 for 10 assorted random stockings, a "grab bag" of odds and ends they didn't have enough of to sell separately.
This sounded perfect.
You specify size, they give you whatever they got, at random. You can't pick and choose color or style. Fine by me! I want some random in my life. I want more color in my wardrobe. They'd surely give me something I wouldn't choose otherwise, and it would be fun to make it work, right?
So I ordered it. You know? Whatever! Sure! Live a little!

...
I got it today.
It is:
Ten pairs of identical nude stockings.

I can't even really express how disappointed I am. Am I crazy? They're really, really boring stockings. Not even reinforced heel-toe, not even a backseam, not even finished nicely at the top. Nothing. No features whatsoever.
And one has a run in it, before I even open the clear plastic package I could see it.
Ten pairs.
Completely and totally identical.

Am I right in thinking that this "grab bag" was falsely represented?
I mean, I know I shouldn't expect much of an odds and ends sale, but I was sort of hoping for... some odd ends?

So, that's it. I'm unsubscribing from Stockingirl and letting them know why. I'm just trying to think of a way to put it that doesn't make me sound like a whiny bitch. Yes, I know, i got the clearance rack.
But an assortment implies...
that there'd be more than one thing. Ten times.
What the fuck am I going to do with ten pairs of nude stockings? They're the kind that need a garter belt. Which is fine, I have one. But to get it out just for nude hose?