Thank you, J.K.R.

Amazon delivered my Deathly Hallows copy yesterday just before noon, and I knew I couldn't open the box until AFTER I'd taken DQ to her friend Noah's birthday party and after we had returned to have dinner with FIL, GF, UM and kids. I finally opened the box and got started reading after the kids were in bed (around 8pm -- I've never started a Harry book so late!) I was up reading until 2am, alternately cheering and sobbing quietly in the living room so I wouldn't wake anyone. My favorite redheaded LitQueen called to tell me she was done as I was 53 pages into the book -- and she too was shocked that I was just getting started! We have yet to have our post-book discussion. Anyway -- today is recovery day, as I am obviously an old fart not used to staying up into the wee hours. :) I loved the book, and I know I will be rereading parts for quite a while. Well done, J.K.R.!

almost there....

Last day of both kids in camp/daycare for the summer - The Boy is done. Drama Queen has a bit more than a week left. Went into work today and did the second coat on the shelving unit behind the circ desk. Didn't get to paint the removable shelves as Zinicoma and Co. were getting started cleaning the carpet and they didn't want anything on the floor in their way. The carpet guys came and put a nice large new rectangle of carpet where the wall used to be. These guys too said "We'll put the new carpet down, but you know it won't match, right?" Did my best fake shock look and said to Ralph, "Did you KNOW that???" Then I laughed my ass off and told them I didn't care if they matched the carpet to the duct tape -- the ancient rug in there is so trashed and so many different colors of blue it doesn't matter WHAT they put down. Anyway, will go back next week or the week after and do the shelves in two days -- one side one day then flip them the next day and do the other side. The Boy can help with that. The Hundred Acre Wood is improving slowly.
Went to our beloved head secretary's non-retirement luncheon (she didn't want a fuss and a bunch of nonsense) Monday. Kanga and Eeyore were there. K was lots of fun as usual, E was... well, E. I did some studious avoiding but didn't pull it off for the entire party. She cornered me toward the end, but I left soon after.
House is getting better -- piles of crap are greatly dimished, still need to pack up or throw out some stuff in the basement, and need to paint my bedroom and makeover the curtain panels. All in all I've gotten a lot done in the last few weeks at home, and I didn't go hellforleather and do it every day (probably should have though).
Harry #7 arrives tomorrow morning (thank you Amazon special delivery) so not much else is getting done this weekend!

I'm Just Wild About Harry...

Went to see Harry Potter 5 (Order of the Phoenix) this afternoon with Beloved Blonde and family. Excellent movie overall! There were whole chunks of the book missing, but if they had tried to shove more in it would have come off piecemeal and rushed, so I'm glad they pruned as they did. Very impressed with the battle in the Dept of Mysteries scene -- extremely well done overall, but missed the statues getting in on Dumbledore's rescue act. Loved the first view of the outside of Azkaban also -- never imagined it quite that way but it made sense and impressed me. No Howler for Aunt Petunia, no Quidditch, no Ron and Hermione as prefects (and all the attendant pissing and moaning from Harry was missing), no visit to St. Mungo's to see Arthur and finding Neville and his vulture-hatted Gran visiting parents, no replacement of Professor Trelawney with Firenze (missed that one -- that would have been good special effects), no swamp in the front hall of the castle, and no disastrous lesson of Hagrid's with the thestrals. Excellent choices of actors for Dolores Umbridge, and for Luna Lovegood's part especially -- she came off with exactly the right intelligent spaciness. Harry was somewhat whiny but it was much more understandable in the amounts they put in the movie -- I didn't have the same "want to slap him into next week" reaction I did when I read the book. Dumbledore's Army was betrayed by Cho (who got grilled by Umbridge with truth serum in her office). In the book it was her friend. This sets up some interesting dilemmas, as Snape reveals she did it under duress, and therefore Harry could conceivably forgive her (doesn't get her out of the way for Ginny). The Half-Blood Prince movie will have to deal with that issue.
This is not in any way a stand-alone movie. It's one where you really have to have seen the other ones for it to make sense, and it does a solid job of setting up the continuing escalation of the conflict in the wizarding world. Can't wait to see what they do with Half-Blood Prince (which now I have to reread to get ready for next weekend's delivery of Deathly Hallows).
After the movie we went to the Mirage Cafe in Port Chester. It's like Piero's in that it is very small, but phenomenal quality. Excellent, excellent food and drink. I was very impressed -- have to take Hubby, FIL and GF there sometime just for fun.
One more day of LA dept curric work, which hopefully will mercifully end early. Today was righteous deadly as 12 English teachers debated the exact language they would use to describe curriculum tasks (do you say writing? editing? revising? composing? do we use nouns or verbs for this?) I ended up finalizing the summer book orders just so I'd feel like I'd done something worth getting paid for today.
Frankenstein came back with a carpet guy who took a sample, and they will be coming to patch the place in the rug where they removed the half wall behind the media desk. Hurray and hallelujah. Apparently Eeyore did not ever give Kanga final info on ordering encyclopedias so that didn't get done, nor did she do anything about ordering coffee tables/ottomans or sharing final info on bookfair. Big surprises all. Guess we'll see what happens in August but my guess is that the usual answer will appear: "I didn't know I was supposed to do that." Fearless Leader said this afternoon that Eeyore and I had both been officially transferred over to him for evaluation next year and his one comment was "she's not going to like it." Hmmmm. Guess we wait to see what that actually means.

And I got paid how much for this?

First day of curriculum work: I did three booktalks, made a few general comments, and listened to the 7th grade teachers discuss their books. I forget what the daily staff work pay is, but even after taxes come out, those were damned expensive booktalks.
I am not seeing a guiding vision of where we're going here -- feels like we are stumbling around in the dark. Also got a lovely tidbit: apparently our kids tanked district-wide in the state reading assessment scores for "reader response" (ie the open-ended questions like "Explain how this applies to your life" or "Briefly describe how this would have altered your existence"). Okay, those are not exactly accurate question examples, but it's all of the short answer, non-multiple choice options. This is going to make things exponentially more complicated, given the fact that all of the media district-level department meetings will be joint with LA this coming year. Why? The amount of CYA that is sure to follow the townwide shitstorm of finger-pointing and blame when the school board has to deal with the test scores publicly. Like that will make any difference in whether or not these kids learn how to deal with questions like those.
Saw the curriculum mapping software again, and heard one of the "real" reasons we are going to have to do this -- the coordinators will be able to track what units and objectives are being taught when and see which objectives and state standards are being addressed "enough". Big Brother, thy name is School Board. They'll be able to tell which books are being taught when (as teachers will be asked to use the software to map out everything chronologically through the year). No doubt this will bring some new statistics and information to the glut, but my question is what will become of those? How useful will those be in terms of moving the district to change successfully? I don't mind doing this if it will help students learn better, or give new teachers more resources, but if the bottom line is that this is a way to watchdog the staff, then I object.
Like that's going to make an ant's left nut cheek of difference in the long run.

Harry Week #1 and Curriculum Nonsense

It's curriculum work week -- so Mon-Thurs I go in to work to discuss books and such with the LA dept. I am still foggy on what we exactly need to get done despite multiple emails from Boss Lady and the LA Lady. Curtains arrived, needing cleaning and sunning. That might happen this week, might not. We'll see. Painting did not happen, scheduled loosely for this coming weekend. Computer desk is much improved, have list going for this week into next as to what else should get done. We'll see -- this week will either be most productive or a total tank.
Order of the Phoenix starts showing (at reasonable hours) Wed, so have a date with the girls for dinner and movie that evening. :) Something to look forward to!

Tuesday the 3rd

Yesterday I did most of the attic, and it looks much better. Tackled part of the basement -- under the pool table is cleaned out and over by the stairs is cleaned out also. I used the shopvac to clean up the floor. Very noisy but it did a good job.Took a truckload of bags of clothes to the dropoff bin, and threw out about 8 bags of garbage, so I feel like I did a lot. This morning was ironing morning, and I am going to finish the dining room corner off. Maybe take care of the counter in the kitchen next to the back door and or the computer desk mess if I have enough time (have to go see Dr. Devine at 1:30).
Unforeseen benefit to all this cleanout -- it actually makes me feel lighter, like I am getting rid of the monkey on my back piece by piece (kind of a sick way of looking at it). I feel pretty good so far. I like being productive and seeing a difference in my house. Elizabeth is coming Thursday, so I am going to get out of her way and go in to work and run errands that day.
Might get to paint this weekend... maybe.