I got to see “Twilight” last night!  No thanks to my loving husband.  My dear mother in law offered to go see it with me.  And it was so exciting to get to go see it on the opening day.  I didn’t even know what to expect, actually.  I was almost afraid to get my hopes up too much.  I know how hard it is to fullfill fan expectations in book-to-movie situations such as this.  I didn’t want to get my hopes up too much.  But I also didn’t want to be stubborn and dampen any thrill of actually seeing the movie either.  So I felt oddly keyed up, sitting in the theater, waiting for the movie to begin. 

There was a good crowd there, a lot of pre-teen girls, quite a few 30-something women.  But there were men too.  Most likely dragged by their significant others.  But they didn’t have a long-suffering look to them, so one can only figure that they weren’t entirely opposed to seeing it (unlike some people I know).  everyone was feeling rather festive.  There were a lot of smiles.  The line waiting to go into the theater was long, but orderly and the crowd wasn’t actually that obnoxious.  I was pretty pleased.  

The Harry Potter trailer?  Awesome.  Of course.  I’m still annoyed that it’s been moved to July, but it looks as though it will be worth the wait.  And hey, at least now we can go see it in the drive-in.  Bonus!

Okay, so here’s what I thought of the movie.  I’m going to put it behind a “more” tag, so if you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know, don’t click through.  Mmkay?  

I surely can’t be the only one who is just about DYING for this election to be over.  One way or the other.  I’ve made a habit of watching Keith Olberman and then Rachel Maddow when I’m nursing Evie to bed at night.  And while, being MSNBC, they aren’t really telling me anything that I don’t want to hear, it’s not exactly distracting me from the election.  And I find myself examining electoral maps and the latest polls and pretty much wanting to drop kick all campaign strategists, regardless of party affiliation.  And now that I’ve voted, I have even less patience for it all.  LET’S JUST GET IT OVER WITH!

But, alas, it’s a whole ‘nother week away.  And since it doesn’t appear that either campaign is willing to take a break, I need to find ways to distract myself.  Here is what I’ve come up with so far:

• I’m watching Evie do this thing with her nose where she closes her mouth (almost making “duck lips” if you will) and snorts in and out of her nose in a rapid fashion.  The end result is almost too cute to bear and if she does it again, I’m going to go beyond distracted and just eat her.
• I’m also stalking goodmama prints.  If you’re unfamiliar with cloth diapering and the community surrounding it, this probably sounds very strange.  Suffice it to say, they’re releasing some great prints this week and I’m hoping to be able to snag one.  Fingers are crossed (and websites are refreshed)!
• I’m still researching cameras.  Hmm.   Kile’s wondering if he can find someone local who has a camera that is looking to upgrade their professional rig and is interested in selling at a reasonable price.  I’m not going to hold my breath, but I am going to hope that there’s a new camera in my future!
• It’s now less than a month until the “Twilight” movie comes out!  Am still planning to go see it by myself.  Because I’m a major loser.
• I’m trying to catch up on my blog reading.  This is a never-ending project, it seems.  I am NEVER caught up.  I think I cleared the reader ONCE in the last two months.  GAH.
• (OMG, Evie just did her nose thing again.  Save me from myself.)
• We’re watching DVR’d episodes of “Blue’s Clues” and “Jack’s Big Music Show”.  Good thing I have them DVR’d, because our On Demand STILL doesn’t work with the new box we got.  SIGH.  But I think I’ve now officially seen every “Blue’s Clues” and “Jack’s Big Music Show” episode in existence.  Hey, did you know Joe’s real name is Dominick (cuz I’m a dumbass) err Donovan?  WTF?
• I’m contemplating ditching out on Trick or Treating altogether in favor of a Harvest Festival or something of the like.  Just cannot get excited either about handing out candy or dragging the kids around the neighborhood this year.  I may change my mind yet again.
• We’re planning a trip down to Elko for the second weekend in November.  Harry’s birthday is that weekend and there’s a craft day at my in-law’s church that I used to go several years ago.  It was always a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to going again.  This will probably be the only time we go back there during the “holiday season” so why not make it awesome?  Not looking forward to the price of filling up the van’s gas tank, but thank goodness gas prices are down!
• Naturally, we’re not answering our phone so we don’t have to listen to robo calls or anything.  Not like it would matter because we’ve already voted!

That should be enough to keep my mind on other things, don’t you think?  So what are you doing to distract yourself?  (I heartily endorse not answering the phone, by the way.)

Nope, you’re not seeing things.  My YNTR list is back this week!  And, bonus for you, it includes two weeks of linky goodness. I still maintain that I may not be doing this list every week.  But I will when I can and when it’s not going to cause me an undue amount of grief to put it together.   And, as it would happen, this week the grief has not been caused.  It’s a mellow Saturday morning around these parts, Liam is watching “Ratatouille” on cable and Kile is snoring in his recliner.  All is right with the world.

This first post is something I could relate to.  Should I go Mac and never come back? from Mandajuice is much like a similar post I wrote not that long ago.  And, just like myself, she finds herself wooed by the seductive iPhone and repelled by a crappy PC.  I’ll be interested to see what she picks, especially since I’m 99.9% sure I’m going to get a MacBook when the time comes.

And in the “Long-Awaited” category, we have Ezra from amalah . com.   I literally felt my heart swell when I saw this sweet picture and the details on the birth.  She is officially the mom of two boys!  I can’t wait to see how the weeks and months ahead are for her and her family.  Congratulations, Storchs!

I can DEFINITELY relate to The Hot Fuss™* and Me from temporarily me.  In fact, I may have thought these very words myself on more than one occasion in the last week or so.  Or the last month or so.  Or the last six months or so.  Sometimes, a bad mood just gets ahold of you and you can’t shake it.  And sometimes, your kid wants to be superglued to your side.  And when the two meet?  Well… that’s when you get a post like this.

And I know you’re probably sick of me talking about it already, but Her New Hobby from Confessions of a Pioneer Woman made me cackle a little bit because The Power of the iPhone can grip ANYBODY, even housewives who live out in the country. And the text messages from her daughter were just too darned funny. I think someone likes “Napoleon Dynamite”!

On the flip side, we have My Grandpa: October 5, 1921- October 14, 2008 from Joy Unexpected. This was a touching and sad post about her grandfather who passed away this last week. It’s been a long time since all of my grandparents passed, but I could keenly feel her loss through her words. I hope she finds peace, now that her grandfather has found his. My sympathies to her and her family.

Being a Reno citizen as well, I can appreciate Fall Where? from EmilyPie. I love her summation of the season here in our town, and how schizophrenic they often tend to be. However, I do disagree with her assessment of summer and the need for air conditioning (I am sure I would perish without it). I love winter, always have, always will. But yes. Fall is like a week long around here. I could do with some more fall, to be honest.

This post gets filed under the “ZOMG” category. ZOMG! Twilight Soundtrack Playlist Just Released! from MamaPop shares with us the fantabulous news of the new “Twilight” movie soundtrack. Can you believe I already have some of these songs on my iTunes? BEFORE this list was released? Oh, I’m a hardcore fan, ya’ll. And you can bet I’ll have the rest of these songs when the soundtrack is released. I cannot WAIT to hear the one recorded by Robert Pattinson.

Enough is Enough from Queen of Spain Blog is a post about the turn in tone the political race has taken lately. And I wish I could say in the intervening days since she first posted this that the voices of hate have toned down but I really don’t think they have. I think they may have gotten worse. But I definitely share her feelings and hope that people settle the heck down. And lets find some decency in all of this, please? Aren’t we better than this? Please tell me that we are.

Lastly, we have My Husband is Not My Keeper, also from temporarily me. This spoke to me because I have often had these very same feelings. Being a stay at home mom, and not having any of my own income, I often feel like my voice is dimmed somewhat. I think that’s pretty common. And it’s as much my fault as any one else’s. But all the time, this is an impassioned, important post. You should all read it.

So there we go.  Another week’s list in the hopper.  This should be enough to keep you out of trouble this weekend.  As for me, we have a baby costume to find and a pumpkin to pick out (nope, we don’t have that yet either).  Should be fun!  Happy Weekend, ya’ll.

So I finished “Breaking Dawn” last night.  I’ve been holding off talking about the book until I was done, so now the time has come to give my honest and forthright opinion.  It took me a little longer than most people to finish the books, but my reading time is limited.  Still, I was reading every moment I had a chance, often while nursing Evie before naptime and bedtime.  Evie probably won’t know what to think since I won’t be holding a book over her head anymore.

I started of “Twilight” not feeling that impressed.  In fact, I was pretty scornful.  Everyone and their dog was reading these books and sometimes I tend to roll my eyes in the general direction of fads.  Not always, but more and more as the years pass.  But I was intrigued.  Who was this “Edward” fellow and was he REALLY that great? (_{note: yes he is})  So I stuck through it, even though the first half of the book was pretty dull.  The writing wasn’t that spectactular and I thought Bella was kind of a twit.  I was very tired of her “all these boys want to go out with me!  Boo hoo!” shtick.  Give me a break.

And then.  Then things picked up with the infamous trip to Port Angeles and from there, the book went a lot quicker and was a lot more interesting.  In fact, by the time we got to the baseball game, I was convinced I was reading the best book in all the world.

I went out right away and got “New Moon”.  Now, that was a different book.  And, to be honest, I still don’t get the Team Jacob people.  Sure, he was nice and all.  He helped her when she was at her lowest, blah blah blah.  But he’s no Edward.  There’s just no comparison.  And his mood swings and hasseling Bella all the time really wore on my nerves.   But, yet again, the book picked up towards the end when Alice showed up.  It was about this time that I decided I sorta loved Alice.  She was all kinds of awesome.  And I practically shrieked aloud with glee when Bella and Edward were finally reuinited.  The Volturi were creepy, to be sure, but I don’t think I felt nearly as creeped out by them as Bella was.  Though their feeding scene was pretty grisly.

Before I was even finished with “New Moon”, I had to go get “Eclipse”.  I didn’t want to chance being left with no book to read, after all.  The timing in this book had me confused for a while.  It seemed like an awful lot of action stuffed into a couple of weeks time.  Which is basically what it was.  Again, I really didn’t care for the triangle with Edward and Jacob because as far as I was concerned it was no contest.  And yes, I was annoyed at Bella for having any feelings at all for Jacob.  Tramp.  But the fight scene at the end was freakin’ awesome and the details on how the vampires are dispatched are both disturbing and fascinating.  Seriously cool.  Oh, that reminds me.  I was also annoyed with Bella’s reluctance to marry Edward.  I didn’t really think her reasons were very good ones, to be honest.  They were pretty weak.  Dude, it’s EDWARD.  I don’t care if you don’t like attention, are nervous about what people will think, don’t like to accept diamonds and whatnot or wear rings… it’s EDWARD.  Don’t make me come to Forks and beat you, woman.

And then we had “Breaking Dawn”.  I was seriously excited to read this book.  A lot of people have bagged on it and I really didn’t think it was that bad.  A lot of people complained about the story getting ridiculous by the end, but I felt it was in line with the rest of the series.  The confrontation went about the way I hoped and expected it would.  Had it actually become a FIGHT, well, I think that would have been awful.  I don’t want to give away too much about this last book, just in case some of you want to read it and haven’t read it (so, you know, NOT YOU Michelle).  But it was ALL fascinating.  The wedding to the honeymoon to the … ahem… “illness”, to Jacob’s perspective, to Bella’s rebirth and everything that came after.  If anything, I was so sad to see this last page and know that it was over.

photo credit: kimberlyfaye

_{(have you seen the new trailer yet?  GO WATCH.)}

Twilight HD Exclusive Trailer