In Spokane...

Nice town. I'll post more later, once untethered from the woefully slow internet at the hotel.

In other news, saw the Simpsons with Andi and Anna over the weekend. Pretty good. I'd give it a "D'eh."

New Family Member!

The Accord came down with a flat tire this morning, which triggered a chain of events that resulted in the procurement of our second (as yet unnamed) car. Pretty cool lookin', eh?:

Aussie turns down a 5 billion AUD offer...

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/gone_fishing_ma.php

"I'm not interested in money. I've got a job; I can buy tucker; I can go fishing and hunting. That's all that matters to me."

"A Sketch Towards a Taxonomy of Meta-Desserts"

Librarians gone wild (again): http://raspberrydebacle.com/this-may-be-the-most-useless-thing-i-have-ever-done-and-ive-seen-at-least-one-episode-of-allo-allo/

Andrea's New Hair

Honestly, I'm surprised that it didn't end up shorter... Looks great, tho:

Potter was pretty good...

...I didn't think that Hallows was Hollow! Bwah-ha-ha!!! Ha!

...see, it's a pun.

...

OK, not really.

Never mind.

Anyway...

I feel that Rowling hit the beats that she needed to hit in order to finish off the Harry Potter story, without too much tap-dancing to tie up her loose ends. I definitely enjoyed the ride, and it was kind of fun to feel the synergy of sharing the read with so many other people (I saw tons of copies of Deadly Hallows running around campus today).

It struck me -- as I was pondering the "quality" of the writing, which is a hot-topic and favorite target for the semilliterati talking heads, both large and small -- that my experience of Harry Potter has really benefited from the movies. I think that many of the shortcomings of the novels are improved by the pacing and visual experience of the movies, and, of course, the intricacies and depth of the written narrative make the movies a much better experience. I will say, though, that the movies, alone, would really suffer if evaluated as isolated creations.

Pott-heads

Oh, and, of course: The Deadly Hallows came yesterday. I'm trying to take my time, so I'm only about a third of the way through, but it's pretty good so far. Amazingly, I've dodged any significant spoilers, so I'm probably reading on borrowed time.

Terminal

Well, the end of Summer Session II is upon me and I've a couple o' papers to write. Not really a lot of work, but my motivation is a little low. For whatever reason, I'm having a hard time getting organized and prioritized as of late. Oh well, this, too, shall pass.

In more important news, everybody is doing fairly well around here (with the exception of Piper, who's broken toe and hot spot problems are making for a pretty depressing experience right now).

On the horizon: Our tour of Washington and Oregon (well, just Spokane and Portland, really).

If we haven't had a chance to tell you...

...here's the BIG news: Elektra turned out to be a Skrull in New Avengers #31! Craziness! This certainly hints at some seriously wacky implications for the post-"Civil War" Marvel Comics universe.

Oh, and Andi is pregnant. We're pretty sure I'm the father (*fingers crossed*).

Our early attempts to control the information seemed somewhat slipshod, so I'm not sure who knows and who does not -- If you see this before one of us tells you, please don't be insulted. I expect that I'll put together some sort of online something to keep friends and family up to speed, but here's what they call a "teaser" image.

It is a very exciting thing and we're both looking forward to taking a more active role in the corruption of future generations of monkeys.

The Order of the Phoenix!

OK, this isn't about the movie. Or the book. Instead, I just wanted to share this joke from Daniel Radcliffe (courtesy of http://www.aintitcool.com/node/33245):

A guy goes into his doctor and he says, "Doctor, doctor! I think I'm going deaf."

The doctor says, "Well, please... I think you should stop masturbating."

The guys says, "Why? Would that help?"

He says, "No, but it's affecting the other patients."