Finished with Potter...

I have finished my first reading of HP7. I'll go back for another reading , at least of several of the final chapters...there was a lot in there.
But in the meantime, for those who just don't care about Harry...
We spent the weekend in Burlington, doing general Burlington things. We had a very nice walk through the cemetery and followed this deer around for a while. The cemetery in Burlington is the most beautiful I have ever been in, and the one I have spent the most time in. I have fond memories of visiting there with my grandma and watering the flowers. Later that day we went to visit the First United Methodist church which had a fire months ago. It was pretty hard to see the damage. They are still determining what they are able and unable to do with the building. They haven't even been able to get inside to see if there is anything at all salvageable, and the street is still blocked off on two sides of the block. My family traces many weddings and baptisms at this church and I truly hope they're able to maintain some of the original structure.
In this shot you can see how the inside is still just full of everything that came crashing down. That night we went to hear some Django Rheinhardt inspired guitar music at Mr. Moto's. We met Charlie Downing and his wife Carly there. Charlie is the minister who married Pete and I. He had just been assigned and taken the head pastor position in Burlington when the arson happened. Henry told him we saw "the broken church" and Charlie told him "we'll fix it".
On Sunday we went to a Burlington Bees game. Much fun was had by all. Henry is sporting his new Bees hat in this photo. Later Joyce caught a free Bees t-shirt, which she gave to Pete.
Henry didn't want to stand by himself with Buzz, so I helped him pose.
He didn't actually spend all of his time sitting and watching the game, but this picture is pretty cute.
My cousin Sam and the two daughters of another cousin were there to keep Henry entertained. Here you can see Molly, Lucy, Henry and Sam about to run the bases after the game.
Henry expresses his general feelings about baseball....
Sam had a ball that he got signed by the players, Henry didn't have anything for signing, but he does enjoy giving a high-five.
Here's some video of the little sporto running the bases. Note that he occasionally has to stop and take a rest....he is his mother's son.

Please.....don't.

I have my mom to thank for introducing my to Harry Potter. Thanks Mom! It must have been in '98 or '99 because I was working at the Barnes & Noble in Iowa City. She had heard about this book on NPR, something about a young wizard...it was really popular in Britain. It was really a kids' book, but seemed like something Rob would like and would I pick it up for him for Christmas? His birthday? I don't remember that, but I do remember exactly where the book was in the store. I think there was only one on the shelf. I bought it, Mom gave it to Rob. After he read it I borrowed it and then bought myself The Chamber of Secrets. It's my oldest book, and if you look closely you can see that it doesn't have the number at the top like the other 5 do. Anyway, I was hooked. I remember when Order of the Phoenix came out, Pete and I were at a wedding in a tiny town in Colorado. We had to search the town for a store that was open, not to mention one that would have the book. We finally found it and I was one of at least 5 people on the plane home that was reading the book. A woman I didn't know at the airport took a picture of several of us holding our books. When The Half-Blood Prince came out I finally had Sharon to share my love of the books with. She's light-years ahead of me in knowing the minutiae of the stories, but we both a delighted to have another adult to discuss the stories with. Granted, my brothers love the books too, but they're not into talking....you know....boys. So this year, in anticipation of the final book (The Deathly Hallows) coming out, I've been re-reading and listening to the audio books and re-reading again. I've had the countdown widget on my computer for months. I've become a fan of The Leaky Cauldron and check it frequently for news and interesting ideas. In this photo you can see the spot on my bookshelf that has been saved for The Deathly Hallows. If you look closely you can also see some 'Snape- Friend or Foe?' bookmarks (I'm still torn!), my Quidditch-themed bookplates and my copies of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and Quidditch Through the Ages. Pete has frequently been heard to say that I'm "geeking out". Last night Sharon and I went to see the fifth movie- The Order of the Phoenix. It was great. I liked it a lot. I'm a big fan of the movies, but nothing is quite like the books. And now we come to the last few days (my widget says 1 day, 15 hours, 52 min, 7 seconds) before the midnight release. I'll be picking mine up at a B. Dalton's in Burlington. Joyce has already reserved it for me, and Pete has agreed to attend the midnight release. Sharon will be taking her girls to Naperville on Friday, where they turn the whole town into a Hogsmeade village- every store changing it's name (the LaSalle bank will become Gringott's) participating with a craft, activity or special treat. Then they'll come back to Northbrook for an outdoor showing of the first movie and a walking parade over to The Book Bin (our local independent) to pick up the books at midnight.
This really is an exciting time for me. I know it is the epitome of dorkiness to most...but I'm really looking forward to this book. This is really a once in a lifetime thing. So now I have to send out my plea.... Please! Don't be a spoiler! I know you won't, because you're good people. I just need to send that general thought out to the world at large. I'll be avoiding the news and probably the internet as well, because there's no getting this experience back. You can only read the story for the first time once. As of now I don't want any more suppositions or rumors I just want to get my book and hunker down for a bit. And if you're still reading it when I'm finished (my brothers) I promise not to spoil it for you either.
I'm sure I will not be blogging again until I'm finished reading. See you then! And again, thanks Mom!!

Good Books....that are not Harry Potter

Rob posted about the Golden Compass movie...I introduced him to the books, so I had to find out what my daemon would be as well. In the books each person has a 'daemon' which is sort of an animal incarnation of their soul, but also is their best friend. The daemon is always the opposite gender of the person and it's animal personality reflects the personality of the person. You can tell me if you agree with my assessment...it determined my daemon to be a jackal, but it could change, depending on your answers. I notice, for example, that based on my answers it describes me as modest and humble. While these may be accurate for my understanding of myself, I do recognize that my outward appearance may not always come off in that way. Probably similar to how most people would probably not describe Rob as shy....but I've known him longer than most.
Note: If you're checking to see if you agree, you have to click and drag on the little slider.

Happy Birthday Liz!

Here's Liz in my all-time favorite photo of her! I hope you have a fun one Liz.
When I told Henry it was Auntie Liz's birthday today he thought for a moment and then he said "where will she eat her birthday cake?" I told him I wasn't sure, but that we would definitely get together soon and all eat some birthday cake together.

Won't spoil my weekend

Even though I'm fighting a bad headcold, we still enjoyed a fabulous weekend in Iowa. I'm needing to get to bed asap, so I'll keep this brief.
On Friday we made our first stop at Rob and Carrie's to ooh and aah over baby Eleanor. Here's Eleanor and Uncle Pete checking each other out. I suspect they were both impressed with what they saw.

Henry plopped himself down on the couch and immediately held out his arms in a gesture saying 'let me hold my cousin!' He was so gentle with her. Gave her sweet little caresses on her face and commented on her tiny toes.
And then he got some time with the new dad- watering the flowers with the squirt gun.
We spent the night out at the lake with Mom and enjoyed a relaxing Saturday morning there. Henry loved the little mini beach down by the docks. Here he is enjoying himself in his Superman swimwear.



Around noon Uncle Will and Aunt Sandy showed up. Henry spent some quality time with each of them as well. After some napping we all hauled ourselves in to town for more baby time. I think Eleanor enjoyed her first outing to Pagliai's. You can't see it here but her onesie says "My Aunt Kicks Butt". Indeed. Sadly, I didn't get any photos holding her. I tried to limit my snuggle time- due to this stupid cold.
I also didn't get any photos of the proud Grammie with her two grandchildren. I guess I'll get one soon enough.
Here's a little clip of Henry holding Eleanor and having a baby conversation with Carrie. Take note of the point when Henry seems to say to himself "enough about this baby- let's talk about me for a while".

Playing

Henry had some friends over to play today. First Molly came with her mom Kerri, then Ava and Gabe came over with their mom Cari. We played in the backyard a bit...
Then went to Louie's for lunch.
Then played in the park across the street.
I didn't get any photos of Gabe...sorry, pal! But I did get this video of Henry and Molly on the motorcycle!

Greens

We've let quite a few of our weeds go this year. This one turned out to be a happy weed! We suspect the seed came over from the bird feeder, perhaps in the mouth of a hurried chipmunk. Tomatoes on the left, broccoli on the right. Doing okay, but not producing much.
One little tomato trying to make his way...
We've had a bit of heavy rain the last few days. Needed the moisture, but the force with which it came down was substantial. You can see that the phlox took it hard. I think they'll be fine, though. Also in this photo you can start to see a little of the cicada damage that my redbud sustained. I'm not sure how well it will recover. I had it protected, but those guys got in anyway. Most of the branches have slits carved into them where the cicadas deposited their eggs. In young trees like this it really weakens the thin branches. At least one branch has already broken off entirely, several others look ready to go and the leaves are turning yellow and brown. Sad.
Here's a little bit of happy though, pretty little Zinnias on my table. They remind me of my wedding.

Drumming

Henry has developed a new technique in his drumming....

Not standing so close to me...

Last night we went downtown for The Police! We met up at Kevin and Beth's place, then took the el down to Wrigley. Here are Kevin and Pete texting each other on their Blackberries on the train. They were saying really important things to each other like "jerk" and "you're hot".
I really wasn't looking forward to a dinner of a hot dog or nachos at the concert- fine for a Cubs game, but not on a normal night. So we tried to get into several of the local establishments, which were all packed. Finally we got into a little Irish pub and found two seats at the bar.
With our bellies full of decent sandwiches we still got to the park in time to hear part of the opening act- a group with Sting's son on vocals- sounding very much like his father in his younger years.
Here we are in our seats in the very last row of the first level (I don't know the technical name....). We knew our seats wouldn't be too hot, as we only paid $90 apiece for them!!!!! The girl who sold them to us was upgrading to lawn seats for $225 each. Yikes.
The sound was decent where we were, and the view was only slightly obstructed.
Later on we moved down a little bit, where we were more directly behind the post, but the upper deck wasn't in our way as much. And so, the music! They pulled out all their hits. Not a tune I didn't know. If you've read anything about the tour so far, it was probably pretty much on track- they were great to see, sounded pretty good, but didn't exactly pull out all the stops. The seemed like they could have been having a little more fun, and Sting seemed to be guarding his voice a little. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and was very glad we went. Didn't want to leave early at all...which is saying a lot for me!
This video is pretty poor quality, not sure why my resolution was so tiny. The sound was much better than it comes off here, but here's a little bit of Roxanne...

Another Post

Henry put on his fire hat and put one on me and then said "Look Franklin! We're firemen!"
I really wanted to post this photo because you can see his cute big boy underpants. Today Henry and I went to Starbucks and Target- even into the dressing room for a moment- and all the way back home keeping the big boy underpants dry!!!! We did use the restroom at Starbucks, and I said "do you have to go potty?" about every three minutes, but we made it!
Anticipating the victory, I bought Henry a basketball hoop. He's been noticing them everywhere and talking lots about basketball hoops, so I thought he should have one. In this picture he was actually saying "where is the big hawkeye sticker?" True fact.
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Bolo

In case your eye isn't as keen as Amber's, here's another shot I found with Bolo in it. Bolo is sniffing the Bocce....which we never did really play last night. What am I doing in this photo? Wiping something off Henry's face I think.

Independence Day

We had a chock-full Fourth of July here in Northbrook. We started out our day at the pancake breakfast. This (unflattering) photo was taken at about 7:30 AM. The pancakes were delicious.
After breakfast and some cleaning up at home I convinced Henry to take a short early nap with me. It took him about 45 minutes to settle down, and the nap lasted about 45 more minutes. Better than nothing though. When we awoke it was time for lunch and then off to the parade. Mary and Peter and Liz and Van joined us for that. We also saw Sharon and the girls, and Henry sat with them for a bit (closer seats means closer to the candy!).
Immediately after the parade we hoofed it over to the house of one of my students from this year. We had seen the family at a music in the park event earlier this summer and they invited us over for their ice cream social. Very nice. The walk back was a little tiring in the heat, however. Thanks to Pete for pulling the wagon.
We tried for another short nap but Henry was just too excited. Around 6:30-7:00 people started showing up for the party. Pete's parents came back, followed by Liz and Van then Jonathan and Amanda came with Kevin and Beth. It was a very nice group. Van doesn't seem to have absconded with any of my garden friends, but he did encourage Bart into some rowdy behavior.
Jonathan joined Henry at his picnic table for a bit. Bolo (the Boston Terrier) came along too, but I don't seem to have gotten any photos of him. Franklin decided this was the night to act a little territorial, so they didn't get too much playing time in together.
Here's a picture of the group. We had some delicious eats! Mary made yummy baked beans, a fruit salad and Pete's favorite chocolate cake. Jonathan and Amanda made mildly spicy cole-slaw with farm fresh cabbage (they get it delivered from one of those places...we need to look into that) and Beth and Kevin made a Spanish tortilla- what we would consider a fritatta, with eggs, potatoes and onions. I only had to grill up some meat and throw out some chips! Love it!
Around 8:45 we headed around the corner and set up our blankets on the baseball field. Henry took his "earring 'tection" but ended up not really needing it. We had a nice view of the fireworks, but weren't too close. I actually kind of missed the loudness. Henry wasn't completely mesmerized. He spent a good deal of his time running in circles around our blankets.
Oh...I did make some fancy ice cubes too. They were delicious in the lemonade.
Here's a picture of our porch, taken from the living room, after everyone had gone. Doesn't it look cozy and inviting? Don't you faraway friends just feel the need to come visit? We can sit out there and sip iced tea...
And here's Pete reading to Henry. I think he may have conked out after one story. I'm not sure why they chose this Olivia book- it's the other one that has the marching band and the fireworks in it- but it seemed to do the trick. Henry conked out quickly after a long long day.
And now I"m realizing it's past eleven and I should be conking out too....
I hope you all had just as lovely of a 4th, surrounded by equally cool people!

Laura, Nicki and Mr. Toad

Most of the wildflower seeds I scattered at the beginning of the season don't seem to have taken, so in order to add some color to my yard I bought some fully grown phlox yesterday.
The 'Laura' and 'Nicki' varieties are lovely purple and purple and white. It was a nice reward after the weeding-with-abandon I've done over the last couple of days. Clover and some sort of annoying succulent-looking ground cover had taken over my vegetables, so I did lots of weeding there too. I sprinkled some fertilizer on them today and gave them a little water, though not much because it looks like it's going to rain- just in time for the 4th.
Due to that possibility of rain I decided to clean the porch. We're having a few friends over for grilling and fireworks tomorrow and we may need to hide out if it's stormy. When I moved some of our fold-up chairs from under the outdoor couch I was startled to find this:
I didn't realize that our friend, Mr. Toad, had moved into the porch. After a bit of chasing I relocated him back outside under the flowers where he usually lives. Henry likes to call him "Ribbit Ribbit" but I think "Mr. Toad" is a better name. In any case, we hope he's happy where he is.

On a different subject, we've been doing small amounts of home improvement, or home improvement prep. Here's Pete and Henry installing new lights in our bathroom. You can see that the horrid wicker medicine cabinet is still there, but it's not long for this world either.
Here's Henry in the new vanity we bought to put in that same bathroom. It's a little bit smaller than what we have now, so we're going to have to re-tile the floor, which really could stand to be done anyway. We're waiting for a response from our handy man to see if he can help us with this, as we're not sure we're up to the task.
Pete also spent some time on Sunday cleaning out our garage. This is the first time we've ever parked a car in there! Very exciting! It probably won't last, but on the 4th we're not supposed to park on the street on our block- because the fireworks are around the corner. It doesn't really make sense to me....but we learned the hard way last year when all of our friends had to scramble to move their cars. This year we thought we should make the most of our driveway so people don't have to worry about it.
While we're talking home improvement- take a last look at those outside lights and the mailbox. They're on our short list for replacement as well. We're taking full advantage of the new Lowe's that's practically right next door.

What you said?

Henry and I had a very busy day so far. We reviewed part of our day while having lunch on the porch...during which he said one of our current favorite Henryisms- "what you said?"
Please be warned, the video does end abruptly with some canine interference.