8/4: What I Accomplished Today

1. Today is my birthday. Now I am 43. Most of my presents will come tomorrow at my birthday-lunch-cum-Puzzle-Day, but today I received a set of three containers of Foamy Soap. I love Foamy Soap. Two of the three are Bubble Gum Foamy Soap. I love Bubble Gum Foamy Soap. It makes me inordinately happy.

2. Co-Vivant and I went to lunch.

3. We saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. This was the longest of the books; I believe it had 800-odd pages, yet they movie was kept to a little over two hours. I enjoyed the movie, but I think it's the weakest of the series so far; it had sort of the breezy airiness of impressionism without actually telling people who didn't already have the broad strokes of the plot in their heads from having read the book. All of the other films have had several really delightful, fresh, new images; here, the primary new image was the thestral, which was made to look like an emaciated, depressing horse. (Giving the Death Eaters sort of a blacky ethereal speedy travel form and the Order members a white ethereal speedy travel form was cool, and made sense within the confines of the book, but there wasn't enough of it for it to count.)

There were some nice visuals and foreshadows; the entire Percy Weasley subplot was cut down to one or two visuals, and he wasn't even a speaking role in this film, but if you knew what you were looking for, you saw it. In the books, one of the first hints we get that Ginny kicks keester is her Bat Bogie hex in Half-Blood Prince; here, her Protego is faboo. (She's the seventh child, and both her parents are from large families; they could also be seventh children. There's a nexus thing goin' on there.) We also see just a split-second of her turning around and looking unhappy when Harry is heading for Cho.

Co-Vivant doesn't read the books; she only watches the movies. She said she enjoyed the film but it lacked continuity; for someone without the background of the books, it wasn't always apparent what was happening, although she's very good at reading nuance. For her, the constant changing of directors and screenwriters in the series has left some disjointedness, not so much in the kids (the changes felt like their maturing), but in the adults. I totally agree that many of the adults were flattened; both Sirius and Molly become Generic Caring Adults, a grave disservice to rich, interesting characters. (There seemed to be concerned that Sirius needed to be likable. No, he doesn't. Frankly, I never much cared for him; he was an arrogant jerk. That doesn't mean I didn't bawl my eyes out for Harry's sake when he died.)

Her overall assessment: she enjoyed the film, but it was the first one in which she'd wondered what time it was. Since it's the shortest of the films, that's rather damning.

4. We bought a floor lamp. Now we've done things like this before, obviously, but normally, our technique is, "Go to Target; select least hideous option; drive it home and try not to break it by putting it together." Due to a series of circumstances that aren't particularly interesting, we don't have to do that anymore. We went to a dedicated lamp store. There were dozens of floor lamps. The cheapest was two or three times the price of the most expensive model at Target. Now we like Target; it usually offers fine value. But this was like we'd died and gone to Lamp Heaven. (I shouldn't say that; if I die, there are lots of sorts of heavens to which I wouldn't object, but I'm not convinced Lamp Heaven would be a heaven for all that long.)

I'm having the same issue with presents this year. Normally, I have an extensive list. Often, it contains things most people wouldn't consider presents, like Tennis Shoes (I get one new pair a year, on my birthday; in previous years, more than that has seemed like foolish wastefulness, poor stewardship). I also usually have all the books and movies and such that I'd like to see but that I couldn't have bought for myself. I usually also have some sort of household things (towels or sheets or pans or such) because we need some but can't realistically buy them. Well, this year, we've bought all the household necessities and several of the non-necessities; we also have Netflix now, so all the movies that I suspect we're going to watch once and never see again don't have to be $20 expenditures. I had only three things on my list this year: new tennis shoes, the Stephen Fry audiobooks of the British version of the Harry Potters (okay, this is seven things), and some white or gray Ohio State T-shirts. I am fairly certain (primarily because I helped Co-Vivant order several of them) that I am getting all of these things, although probably not all tomorrow. I also know that I am getting the British version of Harry Potter at my birthday party with friends (which may not be for a few months). It's odd, not having to use the birthday list for necessities. My attitude toward Stuff is different. I've never been a particularly greedy, materialistic person, at least I hope not, but since we can go get things if we need them, I'm just less...panicky about the whole thing. It's going to be okay.

5. Went to dinner. We were going to go to P.F. Chang's, but the wait was too long, so we went to Claim Jumper. She can never remember from visit to visit that we've eaten here before.

6. Worked a little on Pogo badges. Watched Big Love and a Biography of celebrity mothers and daughters.

7. Level 31 Gnome Warlock. Missing Crystals. King's Tribute. Yeti Fur Cloak. Farren up to the nagas. Dinged 32.