waiting for Potter....
I can't stand it... argghghgh. At this point I would suffer through the American version of the book.
Okay, not really. But the bunnies who work at Amazon.uk emailed
doubleplus to say that the book will arrive in one to two weeks. The earliest estimated date is July 27th! And he ordered it months ago.
Ack!
It is not that I *have* to have the book now. It is that I am afraid of spoilers. Not from people on lj (who will be good and post an alert when they are going to do a spoiler), but just general idiots who delight in ruining other people's fun. (see info below...)
We had a busy evening. I picked the girls up for camp a little early (they call it school, but it really is camp, it is just held at the local school).
We had dinner at my parents, because I wanted my mother and father to met the girls. It went well, but as usually happens after dinner, it was so obvious that my father's blood sugar was screwed up mightily and he just hung out in this easy chair doing nothing and saying almost nothing for the rest of the time we were there. And he looked not great.
Before dinner he was fine.
I am so very, very annoyed at him and his lack of willingness to be more pro-active with his diabetes. (this annoyance has been going on for several years). He goes to a crappy doctor - actually, he went to a crappy doctor (who was personally wonderful), but the M.D. did a terrible job of managing my father's diabetes. He doesn't even have my father monitor his blood sugar! Instead it is done in the doctor's office once a month.
Now, this very nice doctor died two months ago (which is sad because he was very nice and he did lots of volunteer work.) But the person who has taken over his practice is still doing the poor diabetes management.
It is just appalling. I have tried and tried to tell my father that he needs to see someone else, that he needs to take his blood sugar frequently.
But try to tell a 80 year old Marine what to do.
Yeah, right.
We did have a good time. The girls enjoyed playing the backyard before dinner and for a bit after dinner, they read their books in Russian (Stela is reading "Treasure Island" and Dasha is reading "Black Beauty".)
After dinner we went to Gravelly Point Park to watch the planes take off and land. The taking off is very neat. Dasha and Stela thought it was neat, but not nearly as cool as
doubleplus and I think it is.
Then we went to Old Town Alexandria for Harry Potter related events. Once out of the car, I put on my "official" Harry Potter authorized Robe and Gryffindor scarf. This impressed Dasha and Stela quite a bit.
Our first stop was the children's book store, A Likely Story. They had a trivia contest (well, that wasn't interesting for the girls since it was in English - I would have liked to hear more of the questions), but at the same location the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra had a mask making activity, which the girls enjoyed.
We brought some glow stick necklaces for the girls which were fundraisers the National Bookseller Association's anti-censorship organization. We walked down King Street a bit. A number of stores had Harry Potter related signs, but two of the places where you could collect stickers were out by the time we got there.
I knew I couldn't walk from upper King Street down to the lower part (its about a mile), so we drove down near Union Street (built on landfill btw - its really good we don't get major earthquakes in the DC area). Then we waited in line at "The Christmas Shop" which sells year round Xmas ornaments, decorations and related stuff. They had free wand making. Which was neat, although not worth the wait in line. They also had a treasure chest that kids could pick out a key to try and win a prize. The girls didn't open the treasure chest, but they got a nice snowflake ornament for trying, which I thought was pretty neat.
While were waiting in line, some bozo along Union Street with a megaphone was yelling out what he thought/knew was a significant part of the ending of the book. I think the guy was a b.a.c. (born again Christian) because there were a bunch of signs he had set up near him and it looked like there was someone dressed up as Jesus near him (I kid you not). And at one point he was talking about ..."son"... sounded religious, and not in a good or useful way.
Luckily, before I got to hear much (being hard of hearing is helpful sometimes!), we were in the store and out of earshot.
By the time we were finished with wand making, it was past the girls bedtime. On our way back to the car we stopped by Barkley Square, which is, I kid you not, a bakery and food store for DOGS. It was one of the places you could go to get a sticker. The people there were very nice, had plenty of stickers and they even had free candy for the kids (which I would not allow them to eat, since they already had ice cream after dinner.) I figure they will get the candy in their lunches next week.
Once home (doma) I had hoped the girls would go straight to bed, but after they got changed into nightclothes, there was the usual delaying tactic of asking for a banana. And then they need to pet the bunnies.
But they got to bed before long.
fyi, for those not familiar with Old Town Alexandria. it is the historic district in Alexandria. It is so very touristy, therefore the reason for really odd shops (like a Xmas store and a dog bakery - although Alexandria is a very dog-centric town on its own).
I was quite pleased. When we walked by the Torpedo Factory Art Center the girls pointed out "museum".
They are pretty smart, especially if you consider they had only been in that part of Old Town Alexandria once before, and they have seen so many different neighborhoods and streets during their five weeks here.
Well, off to bed. If you missed Countdown tonight, Keith Olbermann was being a big, big, big geek about Harry Potter. I had tivo'd the show and just watched it now. Keith was broadcasting live from the big Harry Potter event in NYC. And loving it. Keith Olbermann is great.
See, geeks can be gainfully employed. :-)
Okay, not really. But the bunnies who work at Amazon.uk emailed
doubleplus to say that the book will arrive in one to two weeks. The earliest estimated date is July 27th! And he ordered it months ago.
Ack!
It is not that I *have* to have the book now. It is that I am afraid of spoilers. Not from people on lj (who will be good and post an alert when they are going to do a spoiler), but just general idiots who delight in ruining other people's fun. (see info below...)
We had a busy evening. I picked the girls up for camp a little early (they call it school, but it really is camp, it is just held at the local school).
We had dinner at my parents, because I wanted my mother and father to met the girls. It went well, but as usually happens after dinner, it was so obvious that my father's blood sugar was screwed up mightily and he just hung out in this easy chair doing nothing and saying almost nothing for the rest of the time we were there. And he looked not great.
Before dinner he was fine.
I am so very, very annoyed at him and his lack of willingness to be more pro-active with his diabetes. (this annoyance has been going on for several years). He goes to a crappy doctor - actually, he went to a crappy doctor (who was personally wonderful), but the M.D. did a terrible job of managing my father's diabetes. He doesn't even have my father monitor his blood sugar! Instead it is done in the doctor's office once a month.
Now, this very nice doctor died two months ago (which is sad because he was very nice and he did lots of volunteer work.) But the person who has taken over his practice is still doing the poor diabetes management.
It is just appalling. I have tried and tried to tell my father that he needs to see someone else, that he needs to take his blood sugar frequently.
But try to tell a 80 year old Marine what to do.
Yeah, right.
We did have a good time. The girls enjoyed playing the backyard before dinner and for a bit after dinner, they read their books in Russian (Stela is reading "Treasure Island" and Dasha is reading "Black Beauty".)
After dinner we went to Gravelly Point Park to watch the planes take off and land. The taking off is very neat. Dasha and Stela thought it was neat, but not nearly as cool as
doubleplus and I think it is.
Then we went to Old Town Alexandria for Harry Potter related events. Once out of the car, I put on my "official" Harry Potter authorized Robe and Gryffindor scarf. This impressed Dasha and Stela quite a bit.
Our first stop was the children's book store, A Likely Story. They had a trivia contest (well, that wasn't interesting for the girls since it was in English - I would have liked to hear more of the questions), but at the same location the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra had a mask making activity, which the girls enjoyed.
We brought some glow stick necklaces for the girls which were fundraisers the National Bookseller Association's anti-censorship organization. We walked down King Street a bit. A number of stores had Harry Potter related signs, but two of the places where you could collect stickers were out by the time we got there.
I knew I couldn't walk from upper King Street down to the lower part (its about a mile), so we drove down near Union Street (built on landfill btw - its really good we don't get major earthquakes in the DC area). Then we waited in line at "The Christmas Shop" which sells year round Xmas ornaments, decorations and related stuff. They had free wand making. Which was neat, although not worth the wait in line. They also had a treasure chest that kids could pick out a key to try and win a prize. The girls didn't open the treasure chest, but they got a nice snowflake ornament for trying, which I thought was pretty neat.
While were waiting in line, some bozo along Union Street with a megaphone was yelling out what he thought/knew was a significant part of the ending of the book. I think the guy was a b.a.c. (born again Christian) because there were a bunch of signs he had set up near him and it looked like there was someone dressed up as Jesus near him (I kid you not). And at one point he was talking about ..."son"... sounded religious, and not in a good or useful way.
Luckily, before I got to hear much (being hard of hearing is helpful sometimes!), we were in the store and out of earshot.
By the time we were finished with wand making, it was past the girls bedtime. On our way back to the car we stopped by Barkley Square, which is, I kid you not, a bakery and food store for DOGS. It was one of the places you could go to get a sticker. The people there were very nice, had plenty of stickers and they even had free candy for the kids (which I would not allow them to eat, since they already had ice cream after dinner.) I figure they will get the candy in their lunches next week.
Once home (doma) I had hoped the girls would go straight to bed, but after they got changed into nightclothes, there was the usual delaying tactic of asking for a banana. And then they need to pet the bunnies.
But they got to bed before long.
fyi, for those not familiar with Old Town Alexandria. it is the historic district in Alexandria. It is so very touristy, therefore the reason for really odd shops (like a Xmas store and a dog bakery - although Alexandria is a very dog-centric town on its own).
I was quite pleased. When we walked by the Torpedo Factory Art Center the girls pointed out "museum".
They are pretty smart, especially if you consider they had only been in that part of Old Town Alexandria once before, and they have seen so many different neighborhoods and streets during their five weeks here.
Well, off to bed. If you missed Countdown tonight, Keith Olbermann was being a big, big, big geek about Harry Potter. I had tivo'd the show and just watched it now. Keith was broadcasting live from the big Harry Potter event in NYC. And loving it. Keith Olbermann is great.
See, geeks can be gainfully employed. :-)