I know I’ve been a little obsessed with Harry Potter lately.  It’s hard not to with having just listened to all seven books, watched Half-Blood Prince in the theater, and having just watched the other five movies over the last five days with Corey.  And, as it’s Harry’s “birthday” today, I wanted to post one last thing before I got off my Harry Potter kick for a while.

Before Sorcerer’s Stone was made into a movie, I tried to read the book.  I got through the first chapter and I didn’t really understand what was going on.  Because I wasn’t much of a reader back then, I didn’t give the story a chance to unfold around me; I just gave up.  Once the movie came out, however, I was so enthralled with the story that I breezed through the four books currently published in less than a week.  My love for Harry Potter was born!

Because I saw the movie before I read any of the books, my perception of Dumbledore came from Richard Harris.  I think I read the books with Richard Harris in mind rather than forming my own opinion of the character.  When Richard Harris died, I was sad that a new actor would portray Dumbledore and I didn’t give Michael Gambon much of a chance to show me he could be just as good or even better than Richard Harris as Dumbledore.

As I’ve been listening to the books and watching the movies, I’ve finally formed my own opinion of Dumbledore.  Both Richard Harris and Michael Gambon do a good job as Dumbledore.  My only complaint is I didn’t like that Dumbledore was angry with Harry in Goblet of Fire when his name came out of the cup.  In the books, Dumbledore wasn’t angry.  He was worried and curious.  I don’t think Dumbledore was ever angry with Harry in the books.  Disappointed, yes.  Angry, no.  Also, I miss the half-moon spectacles.

Anyway, if you could take some of Richard Harris’s characteristics as Dumbeldore and combine them with Michael Gambon’s, I think the perfect Dumbledore would be born.  For example, take Richard Harris’s loving demeanor and reverence, combine them with Michael Gambon’s strength and awe-inspiring power, and voila–you have the perfect Dumbledore.

I’m glad I can finally see Michael Gambon as Dumbledore and appreciate his portrayal of the beloved character.  I look forward to seeing him at the end, possibly sooner, of the second Deathly Hallows movie.

Happy birthday, Lori!

Here are this week’s words:

1. Untoward: unfavorable or unfortunate.
2. Vagary: a whimsical, wild, or unusual idea, desire, or action.
3. Vapid: lacking or having lost life, sharpness, or flavor; insipid; flat.
4. Venal: willing to sell one’s influence, esp. in return for a bribe; open to bribery; mercenary.
5. Virago: a loud-voiced, ill-tempered, scolding woman; shrew.

Yesterday, we closed Froyo in Provo.  It was supposed to close last week, but due to some issues with our sub-contractors, our floor was delayed in the new location.  We didn’t want to close the current location too early so we decided to keep the Provo location open until the 29th.  The 29th? Wait a minute!  Yesterday was the 27th.  Because we don’t have a freezer truck, we can’t take any of our frozen goods to the new location.  It’s against health regulations.  And, we didn’t want to waste anything if possible so we’ve been ordering barely enough to get us by until the next delivery.  We thought we had enough to last until the 29th, but we didn’t.

Anyway, our new location is opening on Saturday. The address is 598 W. Main St. in American Fork.  Because nothing’s moved in and the floor’s still being finished, I don’t have any pictures to post.  But, I’ll post some after the opening.

Our grand opening won’t be until late August/early September.  The signs for the outside of the store are taking a bit longer than we expected.  We’re delaying our grand opening until we get the signs.  I’ll post the date once we know.

Updated: The health inspector can’t come until Monday and we can’t even bring any product in until we’ve been given the okay.  Our store’s not opening until next week on Tuesday or Wednesday.  Sorry about all the plan changes.

You may remember the post I did a while ago about Simon’s cat.  I love his videos.  They’re so clever, funny, and true!  Another video’s available and I think it’s hilarious so I had to share it.

I just finished listening to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  I forgot how much I enjoyed this book.  Even though Azkaban is my favorite story in the Harry Potter series, Deathly Hallows is my favorite book of the series.  I love seeing everything come together and knowing how everything turns out.  I also love the Epilogue.  It think it’s so touching and a perfect ending to such a wonderful epic.

When I read Deathly Hallows two years ago, I read it so quickly that I had a hard time remembering some of the finer details.  As I listened to the audiobook, I was amazed at how easily everything came back to me.  JK Rowling is truly a master and I love that she shared the wonderful world of Harry Potter with the world.

As I listened to Deathly Hallows, I realized I was too hasty in declaring my love for the Mortal Instruments trilogy.  Yes, I do love that trilogy.  However, it can’t usurp my love for Harry Potter as easily as I thought it could.  When I wrote this, it should’ve been my first clue:

[T]he funny thing is that the Harry Potter series will remain in the small bookcase in my bedroom with the Twilight Saga. Whereas, the Mortal Instruments have found a home in one of the bookcases with the other books in my home.  I just can’t seem to part with my Harry Potter books because they were such a huge part of my life for such a long time.

Harry Potter has been a part of my life for far too long to be usurped so easily.  I may seem wishy washy with my thinking, but sometimes you have to “lose” something before you realize how much it means to you.  Harry Potter has taken its rightful place as my second favorite series.

PS–I realized as I was listening to audiobooks at home, I could be crocheting instead of playing mindless games on my computer.  As of last night, I started to crochet again!

Happy birthday, Brandi!

Since I didn’t get a chance to post any words of the week for the last three weeks, I’m going to post twenty words instead of five this week.  Here are this week’s words:

1. Sinecure: an office or position requiring little or no work, esp. one yielding profitable returns.
2. Somniferous: bringing or inducing sleep, as drugs or influences.
3. Sophistry: a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning.
4. Specious: apparently good or right though lacking real merit; superficially pleasing or plausible.
5. Spurious: not genuine, authentic, or true; not from the claimed, pretended, or proper source; counterfeit.
6. Supercilious: haughtily disdainful or contemptuous, as a person or a facial expression.
7. Supine: lying on the back, face or front upward.
8. Surfeit: to supply with anything to excess or satiety; satiate.
9. Sybarite: a person devoted to luxury and pleasure.
10. Taciturn: inclined to silence; reserved in speech; reluctant to join in conversation.
11. Temerity: reckless boldness; rashness.
12. Trenchant: caustic; cutting.
13. Truculence: fierce; cruel; savagely brutal.
14. Turbid: confused; muddled; disturbed.
15. Turgid: swollen; distended; tumid.
16. Tyro: a beginner in learning anything; novice.
17. Ubiquitous: existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent.
18. Umbrage: offense; annoyance; displeasure.  (I wonder where Umbridge got her name. )
19. Unctuous: of the nature of or characteristic of an unguent or ointment; oily; greasy.
20. Undulate: to move with a sinuous or wavelike motion; display a smooth rising-and-falling or side-to-side alternation of movement.

My friend Debbie gave me this award for my blog.  It’s the first award I’ve ever been given.  Thanks, Debbie!

This award has four requirements:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and list his/her blog (with a link).
2. Pass on the award to seven other people whose blogs you find brilliant in content or design.
3. Notify the bloggers you choose for the award and hopefully they’ll join in.
4. List 10 honest things about yourself and post a copy of the Honest Scrap Logo on your blog.

I wish I could give the award back to Debbie because I love reading her blog so much. This was really hard to decide who to pass on the award to.  There are so many blogs I enjoy reading.  However, I have chosen the following seven people to receive this award:

1. Ali & Tyler: Ali and Tyler are our best friends and their kids are my three favorite kids in the whole world.  There’s nothing better than seeing pictures of Jack, Sheridan, and Henry, or reading about something funny they did.  Okay, spending time with them is better, but if I can’t do that, then seeing their pictures or reading about them is a good second best.  Ali also has a great sense of humor, which you can definitely sense in her posts.
2. Alysa: She’s one of my friends and has two blogs I like to read.  I’m giving the award to her blog known as Everead.  Alysa reads a million books a year.  Okay, I exaggerated a tad bit, but she reads a ton and always posts reviews about her books.  Most of the books she reads are children’s or YA books.  I think her reviews are really helpful and I know a lot of parents would appreciate them.
3. Ashley & Jordan: Ashley is Corey’s cousin and I enjoy reading her blog a lot.  She always has fun stuff to read.  I get to read about her family and the crafts she likes to do.  And, even though those are fun to read, I also get to read fun, little tidbits about the things she likes to do or finds interesting.  To me, getting to read about stuff other than one’s family or favorite crafts is what makes a blog interesting.  I get to know the person a little more this way.
4. Brodi Ashton: She’s an upcoming author and I love to read her blog.  She’s hilarious!  I always look forward to her posts on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  (She has a blogging schedule.)  They always brighten my day because of her creativity and wackiness.  If you choose to follow her blog, she’ll give you a free YA book of your choosing.
5. Corey: Even though Corey doesn’t update his blog very much and sometimes his content’s a little questionable, I enjoy reading his blog because he likes to post funny anecdotes in the form of videos, stories, and poems.
6. Jules: She’s one of my friends and has two blogs I like to read.  I’m giving the award to her blog known as Knowing Better.  It’s all about her struggle to lose weight.  I’ve realized by reading her blog that everyone goes through the things I’ve gone through and it gives me encouragement to keep going.  It’s very inspiring to read!
7. Rachel & Don: Rachel’s one of my friends and I think she’s one of the smartest people I know.  I love reading her blog because she’s so insightful, funny, and always posts good book reviews.  She definitely has a way with words and I love to read them.

Now, for the ten truths about me.  I’m going to try to come up with different things than what I’ve posted before.

1. I put ketchup on my mashed potatoes because I hate gravy, unless it’s biscuits and gravy and only biscuits and gravy without sausage.
2. I usually have to be talked into going places.  I love hanging out with my friends, but for some reason, I have a hard time going.  Usually when I hear about a party or outing, I’m all gung ho about going.  Then, the day comes and I always come up with excuses for not going.  Luckily, Corey knows this about me and usually talks me back into going.
3. I’ve never been to a concert.  When I say concert, I mean a concert for a musical group like Green Day, Linkin Park, etc.  But, I have been to plenty of performances that one might call a concert.
4. I think everyone’s out to get me.  If someone is upset or has a not-so-happy facial expression, the first thing I think is, “What did I do to make him/her upset?” or, “Why doesn’t he/she like me?”  I always have to talk myself out of those thoughts and realize that even if I did do something to make someone upset, I need to wait for them to tell me they’re upset instead of worrying about something that may not be fact.
5. I haven’t crocheted for almost a year.  I love to crochet, but for some reason, I can’t get myself to do it right now.  It’s sad because I have three or four unfinished afghans.  Sorry to those of you who still haven’t received yours.
6. I love to be weird!  Today, while Corey and I were running errands, I was drinking bottled water that was slightly frozen.  I caught the still frozen part in my mouth and made a sound.  Corey proceeded to ask me, “Is it stuck to your tongue or your lips?”  I shook my head and said, “I just wanted to catch it in my mouth.”
7. I’d love to be nominated for How Do I Look? or What Not to Wear.  (This isn’t a plea for you to nominate me; I’m just stating a fact.)
8. I don’t mind doing laundry.  I just hate to fold the clothes once they’re clean and dry.
9. I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.
10. When I observed a dental office for a day, I really enjoyed watching patients get their teeth pulled, get a root canal, or have implants put in.  I really thought about becoming a dental assistant for a couple of months, but I’ve decided that it’d get old after a while.