Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

*****It took me almost 8 hours to read this book. I'm not intending to release spoilers here!! I promise!!******

I have to say, I loved it. It was fantastic -and only the second or third time ever, that I've cried so hard about characters who have died or been killed.

Such an emotional response is only natural to give to characters that you have known so well over the last 8 -10 years that it's taken to get through all the previous books and wait hungrily to devour the last course.... the Deathly Hallows.

Death is never a joy to write, I'm sure. But I took comfort in the fact that a couple of the people she killed off were a 'couple' and in the romantic style, one could not have gone on without the other. Order members until the end, they fought beside Harry at the Battle of Hogwarts, leaving their newborn child to suffer the same fate as Harry... now a young godfather to a child who would know his parents sacrificed themselves for the defeat of Voldemort.

So much in this book made me cry. I think Alli, to quote Ron, would think mommy "...was mental, that one!". Reading each page and knowing this would likely be the last adventure to share with these characters - human with their flaws, written so well and lovingly drawn. If you are a reader of the Harry Potter series, you sobbed when Dumbledore was killed by Snape, you laughed and snickered when Ron found out about Harry and Ginny and their stolen moments...I'm sure your heart melted a bit, too.

And so, I read through the entire book, trying to process the story as I went, rushing but trying to savor the story, who was doing what, and what I thought was to be the foreshadow of events to come.

When all was said and done, I was happy for the most part. 3 deaths I found unnecessary, but I can see why she wrote them in. The Order needed to suffer losses and a large family has to lose someone, right?

The Epilogue was satisfying in the way that you knew what happened to the central characters - the best that was suspected all along.

Closing the book, it was 11:30pm by the clock. I felt weepy as I realized this was, again, the last adventure at Hogwarts....maybe EVER. Knowing what became of the characters was all well and good, but now I had nothing to look forward to at Hogwarts... or the Burrow.... or Grimmauld Place with Kreacher.

With everything tied up in a neat and tidy bow, I effectively felt left out as I looked inside the crystal ball and realized this was it. A happy exit for those who lived and thrived after Voldemort was destroyed.

I'm still stunned at the amount of reading and the auto comprehension I put my brain through yesterday; from 2:30pm until 4pm and then again from 5:30pm to 11:30pm. But of course, it was entirely worth it. And one day, when I'm not so emotional, I will read it again and hope to enjoy the epilogue more.

I can only wonder how Book 6 and 7 will fare under a screenwriter's script. Book 7 is full of so many places and so many close-calls. There's no telling how they'll be able to fit it all into a 2 and 1/2 hour movie. Maybe they'll make a 6 hour movie, released in two parts to combine Book 6 and 7. Hmm....

Getting My Book

I didn't think I was even going to get my DH copy on time - due to my issue with putting the wrong address down, my amazon order went to Kathleen & Charlie's, and yes, I tried to change it with amazon and they suck because they told me no (about a week to go before it shipped!).

So... I resigned myself to the fact that Kathleen would get the first book I ordered. I started checking around the internet. Walmart had a 97 cent shipping special where the website said the book would arrive on or around the 21st. That tempted me. I checked out Barnes and Noble. They could do overnight shipping guaranteed for $15 galleons. Guaranteed. Hmmm.

I put in my order with B&N and waited. I got an email from them the next day saying that oh by the way, they didn't have enough copies due to high demand and they would try to get me a book of DH in the next 30 days. It wouldn't let me cancel my order online their website so I called them, furious! I got Cathy from Customer Service on the line and explained my issue. She and a supervisor checked my order and it'd already been PACKED! *whew! WTF??* They told me I should be getting my confirmation shipping email the following day.

Lo and behold... I got the email. And hit refresh every half hour on the tracking information. Dave giggled at me and sent me this cartoon:

Saturday morning dawned clear and bright. About 10 minutes after waking up, I was rushing downstairs to Dave's laughter. I opened the door to a smirking FedEx guy holding my BOOK!
"Harry Potter, eh?" He grinned at the Do Not Open until July 21st" label as I mumbled something unintelligible and nearly snatched the package from his hands, closing the door practically in his face.

I calmed my racing heart and turned off my mind. Breakfast. Must eat.

I made sure to spend some measure of time with Alli and Dave... meals count, don't they?

And then...around 2:30, Alli gave me permission to start cracking open the book.

Updates

Okay.... so Kathleen has found out she is currently not prego. She is okay with it for now and knows that ovulating is 99% of the battle... and the Femara is doing it's job! :)

We went and saw Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

One word: AWESOME!

Faithful to the book, it was fantastic. SEE IT NOW. YOU MUST SEE IT!


And then....

We made another major purchase ladies and gentleman.... Drum roll, please....

A Sleep Number bed! Yep, we went today to the store in Ridgedale Mall and we got our sleep numbers (Dave is a 45- 50, and I'm a 45- 55). It was kinda wierd laying on the bed that probably so many other people have slept on. It gave me the willies a bit... but they gave us our own pillow towels to gently place on the pillows so my freshly washed hair wouldn't get cootified.

In the next two weeks we can expect to see our new sleep number bed. WAAAHOOOOOOOOO!!

And ..... Alli had her first real eye exam today - Dave and I had our own, too. Turns out those 'headacks' Alli's been mentioning are quite possibly real.

Dave didn't get new glasses... but it's a cute picture of them, eh? :)

Isn't she cute? She's so excited to have glasses!

Circle of Life

So on Monday afternoon I got an email from Kathleen.

"OHMYGOD! I woke up this morning and I'm OVULATING! OHMYGOD I'm SHAKING!!"

I emailed her back with "I TOLD YOU SO! GET ON IT!!!"

She said that her and Charlie had been talking the night before, and they had kinda talked about how maybe her dad could give them a nudge in the right direction.... and then all the sudden, the next morning, to have her ovulating according to the Clear Blue Easy monitor.... Her mom, Linda definitely said it was a blessing, which it is.


So now, in the circle of life, where a death has occurred, so must a birth.

Believe me, we ALL needed to hear this good news, despite her saying earlier this month that she wouldn't tell anyone if she even ovulated. *l* We all just needed to know that good things can still happen.

So cross your fingers and toes. I'll start the baby blanket to get a head start. ;)

In Memory

Grandma Linda, Grandpa Gary, and Alli (about a year and a half ago)

Man Dies In Boating Accident Near Lake Sturgeon

(WCCO) A man is dead after a fatal boating accident on
Island Lake near Sturgeon Lake, Minn. Wednesday.

The accident happened around 4:30 p.m.Gerhardt Pfeifer, 64, of
Sandstone, Minn. was attempting to get water out of a boat by pulling the plug
and driving rapidly around the lake.

Witnesses said Pfeifer was driving around in circles very fast,
hit a wave and was thrown into the water.

One witness got into a pontoon and went out to try to save
Pfeifer, but was unable to bring him up on the boat by himself. He held Pfeifer
above water until help arrived.Once on the pontoon, CPR was performed and
Pfeifer was brought to shore where an ambulance was waiting.

He was immediately transported to Mercy Hospital in Moose Lake
where he was pronounced dead.Pfeifer was not wearing a life jacket at the time
of the accident.

What they didn't tell you is that he was my best friend's dad and she and Charlie and his wife saw the whole thing happen. And that it was Charlie & Kathleen's boat that he flipped accidentally, causing him to fall out and drown. Because, despite his 20 some years in the military as a medic and then later as a Physicians Assistant, and later, his service at the Federal Correctional Institution and Duluth Camp, he didn't know how to swim.

If you know me, I've told you what happened. I've told you how I had the dubious honor of driving Linda, Kathleen, and her grandmother Margie in the very van that Gary had helped me pick out 5-6 months ago....never knowing that I would one day be driving behind the hearse that carried his body.

At one point, Kathleen asked how fast I was going. The hearse kept slowing down and speeding up as it followed the firetruck escorting us. Kathleen laughed and said it was just as Dad drove; he would never set the cruise.

I laughed and said "I don't know about you guys, but I think it'd be kinda rude to pass a hearse..." and Kathleen chimed in with "....and flip him off as you go!" So for a moment of time, giggles filled the van from all of us. And then we remembered why we were there.

Gary was what I imagined my dad would be if he was still around. He was a good man, a wonderful dad, and a fantastic grandfather. He and Linda always treated Alli and I as one of their own - and they still have. It was a long and harrowing weekend.

When Kathleen called she was hysterical and Dave couldn't get a word out. I called her from where I was, and then she passed the phone to Charlie who asked, "How soon can you get here?"

We drove up to Sandstone on Wednesday night and clustered with the other gathered peoples - family and some friends. Thursday was a blur. Friday was the wake, with the funeral on Saturday.

Alli cried. She wasn't scared by Gary's body in the casket. She was sad. She knew he'd never be around to play horsey with her and Dillon again, not tease her again about bugs, or be around to fix her bike tires and watch her play in the playhouse. No more Grandpa Gary.

Maybe I'll talk about this more later. Maybe I won't. I was there and present for the family all weekend. I think now is my time to finish grieving in private.