Three till Seven

I just bought Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, and I’m already tickled I did. Here’s why I love Terry Pratchett^*:

Two shadowy figures, one hunched and squat, the other lean and menacing, both of them Olympic-grade lurkers. If Bruce Springsteen had ever recorded “Born to Lurk,” these two would have been on the album cover. They had been lurking in the fog for an hour now, but they had been pacing themselves and could lurk for the rest of the night if necessary, with still enough sullen menace left for a final burst of lurking around dawn.

I have been pretty surprised by an instance of “wouldn’t of” instead of “wouldn’t have” (page 114) and “could of” earlier on in the book instead of “could have.” Honestly, I wouldn’t expect that from two excellent writers.

* Even though what I’ve read of Neil Gaiman’s is good, too, this quotation is very Pratchett-esque; I just know he was responsible for it.

We caught a lizard! (The excitement never dies down in my life, does it?) There have been a few plump, gray lizards that sun themselves on Todd’s parents’ front porch, which is very sunny during the day. Todd and I caught one yesterday but he gave us the slip before I could photograph him. Today, Todd and Brent caught another one and I got him on camera, so when I get back in town later today, I’ll upload the photos to my Flickr account. The little fellow scurried under a planter and then across the wall, leading to a mad chase with Todd in hot pursuit. He finally was able to grab the lizard off the wall and get a sufficient grip on him so I could snap a couple of photos. We released him under the planter again when we were through.

Edit: I got the photos uploaded:

I’ve been a fan of Starbucks’s frappuccinos for a few years now, but I’ve only recently discovered that I can darn near recreate these things myself, and with a much lower cost. I’ve grown accustomed to the taste of coffee, and even fond of it if it’s layered with milk and sugar, but I still can’t stand the heat. That’s the main reason I like frappuccinos: they’re iced. Now I just mix hot coffee with sugar and milk, then stick it in the fridge for a few hours. I don’t understand the appeal in hot drinks because I don’t like any pain associated with eating. Food is sooo wonderful, so I don’t understand the appeal in mixing discomfort with the ritual of eating when it would otherwise bring me such pleasure. It’s the same reason I don’t enjoy overly spicy foods, such as jalapeños or too much wasabi—it hurts. So I cool my coffee down and voila, I get all the nice flavor without any burnt taste buds.

I finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on Friday night and started on The Half-Blood Prince Saturday morning. I’m now on the chapter titled The House of Gaunt where Dumbledore and Harry go see Morfin, Merope, and their mean father in a memory. It kind of sucks that I’ll finish this way before the seventh book comes out in July, but it should still be fresh enough in my mind. I could’ve gone ahead and read through the entire series if I hadn’t gotten impatient with wanting to reread book five.

Nothing much happens when you’ve not got work or class to attend. I’ve been hanging around my apartment each day, reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix like mad and occasionally doing the dishes. I can have a completely empty sink then make one meal, and it’s full again; dishes are a perpetual chore for me. Todd and I will be going to his parents’ house this weekend, which means I’ll be reading even more Harry Potter because I tend not to be online a lot there.

I need to get this fifth book reread and get going on the sixth one so that I’m prepared for the movie and seventh book. I’m so incredibly excited about the movie coming out and I keep watching the trailer, which has been updated on the official movie site, I saw yesterday. I was also able to download a neat wallpaper of one of the original movie posters, and I just love the slogan “The rebellion begins.” It just adds to my excitement that I’ve gotten to the part in the book where Dumbledore escaped the Minister and his goons in flashy style, and Fred and George have begun wreaking havoc. Every time Umbridge and Fudge get taken down a peg or two, I cheer, “Yeah, bitches!”. That’s me, alone in my apartment, cheering on fictional characters in a book.

Contrariwise, I’ve got some anxiety about the seventh book. I’m sad that it’s the last book in the series, and also that Dumbledore appears to be dead. I keep hoping he’ll spring back in the seventh, and that his death was all part of some elaborate plot to trick Voldemort, something like that. That would also clear Snape, who I was fond of before and would like to be fond of again.

Kathy from work emailed me today; she has already returned to Lexmark for her co-op position. She says we’ve been moved to a different lab that’s much smaller, which actually perks me up. I was kind of dreading going back to work, knowing that I’ll go back to having 8 hours to fill with work, and just wanting each day to be over so I could have some free time. Now that I’ll be in a smaller lab, though, she says we can talk as loud as we like and the atmosphere is just more comfortable. I think I’m more suited for a relaxed atmosphere rather than a corporate one; small, personal groups of people I know, rather than bunches of people in the same room as me, but whom I’ve never met, doing jobs I’m unfamiliar with. I’m also happy with the idea of a change. I know I’ll be doing new work when I return, but just relocating makes me more excited about coming back.