Sunday, July 15, 2007

Harry Potter Weekend Recap

First off, yes, Harry Potter was #1 at the box office for the extended weekend. I got to talk to Ashley about it and she was disappointed in the same bits and pieces that I was, so I'm guessing that many Harry fans feel the same way. They were discussing it on the radio and most viewers gave it a grade of A-/B+, I think I fall in about the same area. Needless to say, I'll be buying the movie when it comes out on DVD so that my series continues intact. Speaking of which, the seventh book comes out this week! I think I'll be sitting in the backyard reading all day Saturday :)

Since we saw the movie on Wednesday, there was plenty of time to do other stuff on the actual weekend. Friday we went to ValleyFair with Sarah, Ben, Ken and Sarah's dad and brother. We had a lot of fun running around and going on all the roller coasters. I really liked Renegade, which is the new attraction for this year. Steel Venom was cool as always, and I found out that Sarah is excellent at the Tilt-a-Whirl. Along with Nick, the three of us had that thing maxed out on speed! After about 4 hours of rides, Nick and I decided to hit up the water park. No one else had a suit, so we were on our own for the rest of the day. They only have 3 slides and a lazy river, but we enjoyed about 3 hours there on our own.

Saturday was spent on boring mundane things - cleaning the house and yard. But Smeeta called and saved us - we were invited over for dinner! We ran some errands and went bowling on the way over - I destroyed Nick yet again! I had two good games - 177 and 160 - and one bad game - 100 - and beat Nick in all three of them. We had a mini-cookout in Dave's backyard, then moved inside for card games and Trivial Pursuit. Nick won at cards and the guys won at TP so that pretty much reinforces my "Smeeta is bad luck" theory (ok, Smeeta, I'll stop saying that).

Today we made a trip to Costco, after which I worked on my scrapbook and Nick worked on the deck. I am bored with the wedding stuff, so I'm taking a break from that and working on the Christmas pages instead. Nick was able to borrow a pressure washer from one of the neighbors and clean off the deck. He's fixing some loose nails now before he stains the whole thing. Another bit of storm damage almost done!

To finish off our weekend, we had a "Stew and Seafarer's" party in our backyard. Nick used up some more of the stew meat (just making those T-Bones more accessible in the freezer) and we ate outside on the picnic table. After I forced everyone to take a walk, we ate Drumsticks (the ice cream kind, not the chicken kind) and played a long version of Seafarers. Partially long because it was six players and partially because there were some new rules that caused debate, either way, a loooooong time. Ed was victorious in the end!

A final note: The Twins swept the A's! We are 4-0 off of the All-Star break and trail six games in our division. We play both the Tigers and the Indians in the two weeks so if we continue to win we're golden!

27 comments:

Erin said...

What was the last HP about? I can't remember what was the last one I saw. I know I know I am not cool and HP crazed.

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

Book or movie? They're at different places.

Erin said...

Movie. You know I can't read. I live in GA. Come on Karin, get with the program.

On a more serous note, due to my acute blindness and constant need to have people read signs, subtitles, menus, etc. for me, I decided to go with "I have been literate long enough, you read it for me" instead of "yeah I can't see that. what does it say?" I figure that will cut down on all the people saying "really you can't see it?" Like I am too lazy to read "Zoo Exit 254." Come on people!

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

Harry must save all of Hogwarts from You-Know-Who because none of the grown wizards are clever enough to do it on their own (plus Harry has the inside track to You-Know-Who's name). :)

Erin said...

Ummm....isn't that every movie? Is there a snake involved? A map with footprints? I need something more tangible. How about the name.

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

Pretty much, Mrs Observant!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Snake, yes, map, not in this movie.

Erin said...

Is this the one where they save Hackfort's pet dragon? O is this the one with the dance?

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

If by "Hackford" you mean "Hagrid" the answers are "No" and "No".

Erin said...

Yeah okay I am hopeless. When people say HP I think Hewlett Packard not Harry Potter. Which as you can imaging led to some very interesting misunderstood conversations.

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

You need to stop living in the 90s. And I need some more commenters.

Erin said...

What!? You don't like me as the only commentator? But I do it so well!

Preston said...

Well, karin... I appreciate the fact that you blogged about the new HP movie without actually talking about the movie.

I still haven't gone to see it and I was relieved that you didn't say, "I really hated this, this, and this" about the movie. Thanks for being a good internet-er. :)

Erin said...

Preston says that the last one was the dance one. Are you trying to mess me up, Karin?

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

I think you are referring to the Yule Ball, which was part of HP4 (Goblet of Fire), not the most recent movie (Order of the Phoenix). Probably what Preston was talking about since he hasn't seen this one.

Preston, I had that conversation with friends who did see the movie. I don't want to ruin it for everyone!

Preston said...

erin was asking what the movie was prior to this one, silly. :)

Trust me... I know all about Harry Potter. I've been a fan for quite some time.

http://www.qctimes.com/articles/
2002/08/05/gatelocal/export39883.txt

(the above is one link, but it's too long to let me post it here)

Erin said...

What? That link didn't say anything about Harry Potter but way to go on winning. I never win anything. Even my good luck charms have bad luck.

Unknown said...

I haven't seen the new movie yet either but will admit when I hear "HP" I first think hewlett packard, then wonder why anyone would ask such a random question. I thought I saw a preview that had a dance in it which confused me. I think this is the movie where Harry and Ginny and Ron and Hermionie couple up, right? I also think they save Hagrid's dragon in the third movie/book (prizoner of azkaban). I feel like a not very crazed fan, but I can boast that my former roommate appeared in a mini-documentary about Wizardrock, on the other hand, I vaguely recall what has happened in each book. Also, since the books have been so slow in coming, the kids in the movie who were 11 when they started (so they would age correctly for the role), are now 17 or 18 and they're only on movie 5 (should be 16) just pointing that out. Were you paying attention to that Preston? Karin?

Erin said...

Okay. So my original question for clarification was what happened in the movie that came out right before the one that is currently in movie theaters now. Because I thought I would actually go to one of this HP movies in the theater and wanted to make sure that I have seen all the ones up to this point.

And I guess you can officially call me a fan because I was the first in line to buy tickets to one of the HP movies. And then sat in line all day to get good seats. And then body checked a few boys (with Jamie's help) who tried to budge in front of me. Yeah we about put a hole in the wall with the boys. They were older so I didn't feel bad. If their mama's couldn't teach them manners I will.

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

Erin, that wasn't clear, I'm sorry. I have all the movies, if you ever came to MN you could watch them.

Beth, all the coupling up happens in book 6. I know the actors are older than their characters, but that's pretty common in movies so it doesn't really bother me.

Preston, way to go! You now beat out my friend Krista for best prize won!

Unknown said...

Ohh, so is book 5 where Harry spends his time mooning over Cho, a character who seemed to magically (pardon the pun) appear at the end of book 4, then retract into the shaddows when no longer needed for the story line (around when coupling begins, apparently in book 6)?

Erin said...

Umm...whatever Beth. People don't care about the books. No one really reads.

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

Pretty much. She annoys Harry with her whining plus her friend isn't very nice to Harry and *POOF* off she goes.

Unknown said...

Wouldn't it be nice if that happened to exes in real life? Once you're done with them, they just "POOF" disapear?

Karin - BluePip Designs said...

Lucky for me none of my exes live in this state :)

Erin said...

All your exes live in Texas. What?

Unknown said...

I have never read a Harry Potter book and have seen only little parts of the movie but I really enjoyed the comments.

Who's Hewlett Packard? :)

Erin said...

Harry's smarter cousin