Well, the book finally arrived around 1:30 this afternoon. I ripped the box open and settled right in. At 8:00 tonight, I finished it. When I came to the Harry Potter series many years ago, I had no idea the extent to which Rowling's opus would enchant me. After a couple of hours' reflection on book seven and the entire series, I don't quite know what to say, except that it has been one of the most rewarding reads of my life. For those who've read it, feel free to comment (spoiler-free, please!) and share your thoughts. For those who haven't finished it, enjoy every page! This is the piece de resistance of the entire saga. Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

A lot. A lot is the answer to that question. A lot more than I did a couple hours ago, while I stayed home from the dog park just in case the UPS man showed up with my Harry Potter book (he didn't). But, truth be told, not as much as I will in a couple hours if he hasn't shown up by then.

Last night, John and I punted and went to our neighborhood pizza place to pick up dinner. While we were catching up with the owner, he happened to mention that he's on a diet, he's quit drinking, and he's about to quit smoking. When I congratulated him to his success, he started talking about how he owes it all to this fruit juice he's been drinking. He made sure nobody else was looking, then furtively reached into the mini-fridge and pulled out what looked suspiciously like a bottle of wine. Screw-top wine. He explained to us that this fruit juice was made with berries from the Amazon and that you're supposed to drink 2 ounces each morning and 2 ounces each evening. Not only is it great for your health, he claimed, "but you can make money off of it!" He leaned in, for full effect: "You get a bunch of people involved, you see, and then you've got one leg here and one leg here [making motions with his left, then right hands] and the money just starts to trickle down!" Before you could say 'underpants gnomes,' we thanked him for the pizza and took off. Berries from the Amazon, I ask you!

You see one caterpillar on your front stoop, you think, "hey look-- a fuzzy caterpillar!" You see two caterpillars on your front stoop, you think, "huh... Caterpillar 1 must have brought a buddy." You see EIGHT caterpillars on your front stoop and you scream, "YOU GUYS BETTER NOT BE HAVING SEX ON MY STOOP!"

I've just gotten back from watching the new Harry Potter movie and I can't quite shake this funny feeling I've got. Clearly, the movie was never going to be able to capture each and every detail of the Order of the Phoenix book, and I wouldn't expect it to. The book is nearly 900 pages long and the movie only took 2 hours! So I was prepared for them to skip over a lot. But... I don't know. Maybe it's because I re-read the book just yesterday, so everything is fresh in my mind, but it seemed to me to fall pretty short of the mark. There was SO much that they left out, SO much that they glossed over that I wondered if the remaining movies would make sense to someone who hasn't read the books.

I don't want people to get the idea that I'm not working feverishly furiously hard on my dissertation, but I do take some time out of the day for myself and when I do, I usually read Other People's Blogs. It's great because it's reading, which I love to do, but it's not intense dissertation-related reading. After my meeting with my advisor this morning, I took some time to read Other People's Blogs and I came across this post by Alice Bradley over at Finslippy. It's a lovely homage to her son's stuffed bear, lost on a trip to Montauk. I wanted to share this because Alice has a remarkable gift with words and this post is written in such a careful, gentle way. May we all be so lucky to have a bond as pure as the one Henry and Minty Bear share.

Yes, sorry, another Harry Potter post. I've just finished reading a blip from an interview with J.K. Rowling, found on the ever-fabulous Leaky Cauldron website. Leaky reports that in the interview, Rowling describes her feelings as she wrote one chapter in particular. She said, "when I finished one chapter near the end I absolutely howled, it had been planned for so long. I was in a hotel room on my own, sobbing my heart out. I downed half a bottle of champagne in one and went home with mascara all over my face. It was really tough." One has to wonder: given that there were no such reports of emotional distress when she disposed of Dumbledore in the last book, does she-- in fact-- kill our hero in this book? Two more weeks and we'll find out, I suppose. The suspense is palpable!

Since we're stuck at home today, monitoring Amos (long story), I decided to whip up a batch of Classic Soft Pretzels. I got the recipe from a food blog I read (formerly Bakingsheet, now reborn as Baking Bites). I pulled the ingredients together relatively quickly, then put the dough into an oiled bowl to rise. An hour later, the dough had ballooned more than twice its size and was ready to be punched down and formed into pretzels. Because the dough was a bit sticky to work with, I lightly floured a sheet of parchment paper and rolled out the pretzels on it. After dunking them in their water and baking soda bath and then baking them for fifteen minutes, they were ready to be brushed with a small amount of melted butter and sprinkled lightly with sea salt. The result was wonderful: crisp and bronze on the outside, warm and tender on the inside. The perfect treat for a rainy day.

Classic Soft Pretzels

1/4 cup warm/hot water (110F)
1 teaspoon sugar
1 packet active dry yeast
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup water

2 tbsp baking soda
1 cup cold water

Combine yeast, hot water and sugar in small dish and leave to foam for 5 minutes. Stir flour and salt in medium bowl. Add yeast mixture and 1/4 cup water and stir until everything comes together. Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth.

Place in a slightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and leave to rise for one hour.

Dissolve baking soda in cold water. Preheat oven to 400F. Punch down dough and cut into 8 pieces. Roll out each piece until approximately 18 inches long and twist into a pretzel shape. Dip pretzel into baking soda mixture and place on parchment covered baking sheet. Repeat to make 8 pretzels. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown.

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Posted on July 4, 2007 8:10:15 PM EDT #