"I'm not an owl!" - Hermione Granger

I began my Christmas shopping Friday. No, I am not one of those getting-up-at-6-am-to-shop crazies, although I was up at 6 am to feed the baby. But it occurs to me that Primo’s birthday is in two weeks and Christmas is in a month and I should immediately begin trolling the Internet for appropriate gifts. Especially since said baby is being held nonstop by his adoring uncle who is in town for 36 hours.

In the spirit of true romance, the digital camera was Dan’s and my Xmas gift to each other – never mind that the poor man has not even been able to get his hands on it since it came.

He plaintively mentioned he needs slippers, since our house is old and cold and due to the high cost of heating this winter, we have the thermostat set at some insanely frigid temperature. (I also might mention that, due to his neuroses, he refuses to turn the heat *on* when he’s home because the noise of the boilers bothers him.) At any rate, I have icicles hanging off my nose and earlobes as I type. So, slippers: I am buying him boring old grey corduroy moccasin-type slippers, with a rubber sole. But check these out: Brightfeet lighted slippers. Pure genius!

I am going to get this photo enlarged and framed for him. I of course know already where it will be hung but still it is ostensibly a gift for him.


Primo wants an “electric guitar with real strings.” His electric guitar is a little old plastic thing I bought at the Red White and Blue for two bucks two years ago. Dan thought he meant he wanted a real guitar and so therefore pompously pronounced that “any child of mine will learn to play on an acoustic guitar.” I patiently explained that Primo wants a TOY - he wants something he can strum and play as he pretends to be John Lennon or Jeff Tweedy or Joe Strummer. He’ll start piano lessons in kindergarten and guitar lessons when he’s a bit older, but for now, he just wants a TOY guitar with strings. Thank God women pay attention to their children.

I am however ignoring the request for a telescope this year, since even a toy telescope would run into the hundred-dollar range. But I will give him The Child’s Introduction to the Night Sky.

The baby is easy – he’ll get a few books to gnaw on and a Teletubbie, probably Lala, as Primo has Tinky-Winky and Segundo is a Po fan.

Segundo is a little tougher, mostly because I know whatever I get him, Primo will want. But I have some puzzles lined up for him, because he is a puzzle whiz. And this cool art book, Nature’s Art Box, with projects we can do together while Primo is in preschool. And some sort of sport-y equipment since he is my bruiser/athlete. Or maybe some Lincoln Logs. Buying for the second is harder because the first already has received many of the things the second would like anyway. Ergh. It might get easier when he gets older and they develop more disparate tastes.

Most of the Thomas the Tank Engine paraphernalia is being taken care of by the boys’ very generous aunts and uncles, who are buying them like a gazillion engines. And I don’t want to buy them any of the sets other than tracks and some signals, since they use their Legos and blocks and TinkerToys to build the water tower and the roundhouse and the big, big bridge now and I’d like to encourage that creativity. Also because have I mentioned that all our money is being used to pay heating bills this winter, and one of those Thomas sets could cover our gas bill for a month or two.

***********************************

Finished Prime. I liked it, as I said, because of the parts about G-Man. But the ending, similar to Liquor’s ending, was contrived and predictable. Still, I’ll read the next Rickey and G-Man book.

Also finished The Penderwicks - a pleasant little book but, really, worthy of the National Book Award? I’m not so sure. I will still look forward to more, especially about Batty, the youngest Penderwick who is charming and quirky.

I started Douglas Adams’ Last Chance to See then. It’s amusing in a chuckle, chuckle – Bill Bryson-y sort of way, but for whatever reason I was expecting laugh-out-loud funny (even though his other books aren’t really laugh-out-loud, either). Maybe it’ll pick up though, I am only in the first chapter. I am conscious of Adams *trying* to be funny, though, which can be the kiss of death.

***************************

I saw “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” last night. My impressions, in no particular order, and subject to change:

• The first half of the movie was so concentrated on special effects that the dialogue and characters suffered, but it got better about halfway through.
• Although I must admit that most of the special effects were very cool – I especially liked the Yule Ball scene, and the underwater scenes.
  
• The actor who played Cedric Diggory was gorgeous.
  
• Ralph Fiennes was PERFECT as Voldemort.
  
• Ron Weasley’s droopy-mouthed, snivelly-nosed, long-haired whinyness just GRATED on me.
  
• Hermione gets prettier and prettier every movie. While I didn’t particularly love her Yule Ball gown, she looked wonderful in it. And her little giggle of pleasure and anticipation just before Viktor Krum leads her into the Yule Ball was spot-on.
  
• I loved Viktor’s transformation into a shark for the Black Lake scene.
  
• Viktor was cast all wrong – he should be dark and mysterious, not some bullet-headed thug. I never got the impression from the book that Viktor was dumb, and that’s exactly what impression the movie tried to give.
  
• Loved the French girls’ costumes, hated the Bulgarians’.
  
• I had a brief moment where I thought they’d implied that Fleur was a lesbian, until I remembered that her prize at the bottom of the lake was her little sister.
  
• I hated Rita Skeeter.
  
• I adore Severus Snape.
  
• My other movie option last evening was “Pride and Prejudice,” in which Alan Rickman plays Mr. Bennett. So either way, I couldn’t lose.
  
• What was up with that bizarre torture cage thing that Barty Crouch Jr was held in during the Pensieve scene? How very Inquisitional. All those spells and the best you can do is an Iron Maiden? And when Crouch tries to run, Mad-Eye is the only one who uses MAGIC to stop him – the rest of the wizards try to tackle him. Play to your strengths, people.
  
• I adore Neville Longbottom too. I foresee great things for him.
  
• That band – at the Yule ball – parts of Radiohead. I kid you not.
  From the Amazon CD review: …with three songs by the Weird Sisters, the group that performs at Hogwarts' Yule Ball. Led by Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker, the ad hoc band also includes members of Radiohead [Jonny Greenwood, guitar; Phil Selway, drums -bb] and Cocker's side project Relaxed Muscle.
  
• If the rest of the movie’s music had been anything like the song that played through the end credits, we’d have been in trouble. It was AWFUL.
• I want Richard Harris back!
  
• I liked the idea that Mad-Eye’s eye was this cool camera-type thingey, but did it have to look so dumb? A reviewer compared it, rightly so, to Marty Feldman’s eye in “Young Frankenstein,” and I found myself wanting to say, “Hump? What hump?”
  
• Will Harry develop some gumption in the next movie? I hope so. For all his supposed wizardly skill, he is sort of gormless. He seems to be shaping up to be the milquetoast Christ-figure, and I don't like it. You figure JC must have had some serious gumption to get the Pharisees all riled up - so why can't HP have some too?
  
• And speaking of Christ figures, did anyone else see the preview before HP for the new Superman movie? What's with that? "I sent my only son to earth..." Weird.