Why I'm not a Harry Potter Fan

I know I'm going to get some flak for this, but I have to vent. This is a re-post of one of James' posts from almost exactly 2 years ago. I share his sentiment on the Harry Potter movies, and and I couldn't say this better myself.

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The New Harry Potter Movie

I haven't seen the latest movie, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" yet, but I don't really need to. I already know what's going to happen.

1. Harry goes back to Hogwarts.
2. There's a new Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher who seems suspicious.
3. Malfoy is stuck-up and arrogant towards Harry & Co.
4. The Old Witch Lady gives Harry & Co. explicit instructions NOT to do something.
5. Hermoine tells Harry not to do it.
6. Harry does it.
7. Hagrid helps out.
8. The aforementioned DADA teacher is either Harry & Co.'s greatest enemy or their greatest friend. Either way the audience will act surprised.
9. The Old Witch Lady is initially upset that Harry & Co. disobeyed her orders. But since everything worked out ok, she just grins and gives Harry a trophy.
10. Harry & Co. humiliate Malfoy without losing the audience's respect.
11. End Credits.

Oops, I just spoiled the movie for you. Sorry. -James

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I just don't understand the fascination with these movies, because the all have the same plot! I have continued to watch them - after they make it TV, I'm not going to pay for it - just to see if anything changes, but I am always left scratching my head wondering why these movies aren't so transparent to everyone else. I will admit that I have not read the books, and maybe I would appreciate the movie better if I had read them. The thing that puzzles me most regarding these movies is the number of Christian parents who let their kids watch these movies. There is always a terrible problem brewing that Harry and company know about, but the adults either are oblivious to it or think it doesn't matter. The adults tell Harry not to worry, & are impotent to solve the problem in Harry's eyes. The kids disobey the rules, but solve the problem, making their elders look like fools. That is just telling kids, "Your parents are really stupid and incapable of doing anything when you have a problem, so forget listening to their rules, instruction, and wisdom. Have your own adventure saving the day." And you wonder why your kids don't take what you say seriously. . .

Summer Rolls

A few weeks ago, I made my first attempt at making spring rolls. We first had these at a restaurant in Baton Rouge, and we love them. Here is the recipe that I used:

1 lb. cooked shrimp
cellophane noodles
1 Tbs. seasoned rice vinegar
Boston lettuce leaves, separated and dried
fresh mint, basil, and cilantro coarsely chopped (no quantity was given for the herbs in the original recipe that I had, so I just grabbed a handful of each our of my garden)
carrot, coarsely shredded
Rice paper rounds (8.5 inches in diameter)

To prepare the cellophane noodles, cover them with boiling water and let soak for 15 minutes. Drain well and pat dry between paper towels. Toss with Rice vinegar.

Fill a pie plate with lukewarm water. Immerse one rice paper round in warm water for a few seconds, just until it is flexible. Remove from pie plate & let rest on a kitchen towel for about 30 seconds until it is more pliable.

Arrange one piece of lettuce on bottom half of soaked rice parer, folding or tearing to fit. Leave a 1 inch boarder along edge. Top with shrimp, herbs, cellophane noodles, and carrot.

Pressing down on the filling with your fingers, fold the bottom end of the rice paper over the top of the fillings and roll into a cylindrical shape halfway. Fold the left and right sides inward and continue rolling.

This is served with peanut sauce, here's the recipe.

1 bunch fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
1 Tbs. sesame oil
1/2 c soy sauce
3 Tbs. sugar
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbs. hot chili sauce
1 Tbs. rice vinegar

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth.

The Arkansas Shuffle

The speed limit on the interstates in Arkansas drives me nuts. The speed limit for cars and small trucks in 70 mph, and it is 65 for 18 wheelers. That doesn't sound so bad, until you are stuck (for like the 5th time just trying to LR from Memphis) behind an 18 wheeler that is trying to pass another 18 wheeler in the other lane. . .on a two lane interstate. That is a rolling roadblock, my friends.

Crawfish boil

Memorial Day weekend, we had the chance to got to the crawfish boil that is hosted by the Missouri chapter of the LSU alumni association. It was held rather close the where we live. They boiled about 700 lbs of crawfish, and they also served hot dogs and red beans and rice. The food was really good and weather was nice.
Interesting tats.

I think this is supposed to be football, but there was not football around. They improvised with a kickball.

The cooks

Yummy!

In our front yard

We saw this pair of bunnies in our front yard today. They look young to me. The daylilies attracted them. They both ate the flowers off of them.

The saga continues. . .

Well, our renovations continue. The grout in our master bathroom is still chipping up off the floor. I spoke with the man who had done the repairs a few weeks ago, and he think that person who mixed up the grout to begin with put too much water it. This has made the grout weak, and he is going to remove all of it. Ugh. I am so sick of this, but I am glad that the company is doing to right thing by re-doing the work properly. It's just that for what we paid, it should have been done right to begin with. Someone is coming to remove the grout and put new grout down next Friday. This will 10 days that I've had to spend at home because of this project. . .when it was supposed to take only 5.

So it's not finished after all. . .

Sunday before last, we were asked to host our small group with short notice. Good thing too, because we spent to afternoon tidying up. While we were cleaning the half bath, we noticed that the new baseboard behind the toilet was wet. The new toilet was leaking, and probably had been leaking since it had been installed. . .so about 12 days. James was able to stop the leak. I called the foreman the next morning.

He sent someone new to us over here that evening. There were 5 other things that needed to be fixed. Ralph was supposed to fix these things, but he had already put me off for 4 days . . .telling me each day that he would be here. Ralph never showed, he has been fired by the foreman.

Here's what needed to be done. . .we found more things as late as this morning.

• the grout on the wall in the guest bath did not dry to a uniform color, and it should have
• the grout on the floor in out the master bath and the laundry room was chipping up in a few places. This meant that two tiles in the master bath had to be removed and replaced.
• the closet door in the guest bath needs to be trimmed because it scrapes the floor.
• the access panel that installed for the tub is coming loose from the ceiling in the kitchen.
• the grout around the new tub is cracked
• the base of the toilets need to be caulked

Here is a picture of the grout that should be the same color, but it is not uniform. The blue arrow indicates one of the worst places.

So far today, the grout has been removed from this part of the wall, the rotten wet baseboard has been replaced, the tiles in the master bath that needed to be replaced have been, & the cracked grout around the tub has been removed.