I won’t have anything to whine about on Wednesday because, after MONTHS of preparation, Jennifer LaBrecque and Vicki Lewis Thompson and I will be launching a group blog entitled The Soapbox Queens.  Why the Soapbox Queens you ask?  Tune in and click over on Wednesday and I’ll tell you.   Jen, Vicki and I have a ball together and I can promise you that our blog will be just as fun.

 In other unrelated news, the bassinet I ordered for my sis is supposed to arrive via UPS today.  Here is a picture…

Now do you see why it’s so important???  Isn’t it gorgeous???

Squee!!!!!

Husband to son:

“We’ve got a lot to do tomorrow in the yard, so you’d better go to bed early.”

“Sorry, Dad, I’ve got to read tomorrow.”

This is lovely to me on oh-so-many levels.  Hubby is going to work in the yard–hip hip hooray!  And son can’t help because he’s got to read–double hip-hip-hooray!  (He’s left his summer reading to the last minute and must get it done, reports written and all that jazz before school starts back.  Still, I am thrilled that he’s actually going to do it without asking me for the Cliff’s Notes or to rent the movie.)

At any rate, things are getting done around here which warms my heart and makes my toes tingle.  Dare I hope the gate will get fixed?  My swing put back up on the deck?  The carport pressure-washed?

:::sigh:::  Happy times, people.  Happy times….

The bassinet I ordered for my sister’s shower isn’t going to get here on time.    I absolutely hate it when a plan falls apart.  Now onto Plan B.  (And I hadn’t made one, so that makes it worse.)

     

My September release…

Pretty, yes?

My dh recently installed a cool new programmable thermostat to help reduce our heating/cooling costs.  I thought this was wonderful…until I realized that I don’t know how to work it.  I can’t change the settings and I’m frying in here.  Argh!  What?  Is this PRISON?  Today, I am going to find the directions for the bloody thing and figure out how to work it.

Also, my writing hidey-hole has gone high-tech.  On would think this would be good…but it’s not.  I don’t need internet access when I’m trying to work.  I emailed Jen from the bookstore yesterday and shared these three words.

I.AM.DOOMED.

What about ya’ll?  Come on!  Share the whine!

…the level of my own stupidity amazes me.  Last night I was laying down, letting my daughter pluck my eyebrows because… 

Well, because I am lazy and she’s good at it.

Anyway, she hands me the mirror, I take a look and see a lone hair that she’s missed.  I asked her for the tweezers and promptly stabbed myself in the eye.  Apparently, plucking eyebrows while laying flat on your back isn’t a good idea.  

No worries, though.  I’m fine.  It hurt like several curse words last night–am making a concerted effort to clean up my language–but feels much better this morning.

Oy, vey, the things I can mess up.

Well, I picked up my copy of Harry at midnight Friday night and was home with my stash of Diet Mt. Dew, cookies and M&M’s by 12:30.  I’m going to read it again soon so that I can go through and catch all the things I undoubtedly missed racing to the end to see the conclusion.  I know there’s at least one person who regularly reads my blog who hasn’t finished the book yet, so please no spoilers.

In other news…I have to work.  Nothing like a Monday to give one that reminder, eh?   In the meantime, let’s play a little game.  Finish this sentence.

I wish I had a___________.

I don’t ordinarily do two posts in one day, but it occurred to me that I really need some help.  I’m hosting a baby shower for my little sister next Friday and while I have the traditional cake, nuts, mints, punch covered, I could really use some tips.  I haven’t done this in a while.  Like in almost 10 years, when I hosted her last baby shower.

So.

Any ideas?  Suggestions? 

Please.

The kids were at my dh’s aunt’s house last night, so he and I took the opportunity to go out to dinner–alone of all things!–and then came home and watched a movie.  (The Astronaut Farmer–pretty good.)  Anyway, by the time the movie was over my poor little dog was desperate to go to bed.  He kept bringing me his stuffed pig and whacking me with it, then taking off down the hall and waiting for me to come on.  When I didn’t, he’d trot back down the hall and start the process all over again.

“What’s wrong with that dog?” my dh wanted to know.

“He’s sleepy.  He’s ready for bed.”

Blank stare.  “You’re kidding me.”

“Nope.”

Dh shakes his head.  “So he’s going to sleep with us?”

“Yes.”  (Ordinarily Ollie sleeps with my son, but since he wasn’t here….  )

A grunt, then “Well, he’d better stay on his own side. 

Some mean-spirited fool–who should be whacked by every Harry Potter fan in the world–somehow managed to get a copy of Deathly Hallows, then scanned it and posted it onto the internet.  Though it has been taken down thanks to some fancy footwork on the publishers part, spoliers are cropping up everywhere, including the news articles reporting the crime.   I have avoided said spoilers by keeping my information source limited to The Leaky Cauldron –where I just read that the freaking New York Times has posted their review complete with spoilers less than two days before the book comes out, thus destroying any hope oodles of Potter fans had of reading the book on their own and discovering Harry’s fate.  (I will be writing a letter of complaint.)

I don’t understand the mentality of these people.  Potter fans have waited years to get to this point.  Why ruin it?  What sort of petty joy is there in that?  I can’t even imagine how disappointed J.K. Rowling must be at this moment.  At any rate, from this moment forward my TV is staying off, I’m not going to poke around the internet, and tomorrow night at 12:01 I will be at my local Wal-Mart with my iPod earbuds in my ears to avoid hearing anything anyone else might have heard about the book in the check-out lane.  Then I am going directly to my house, where I will curl up with the book and settle in.

At least, that is the plan.  What about you other Potter fans?  What’s your Harry-plan?