Kel. 28. Lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Graduated from UC Berkeley 2001. Has a small obsession with TV. Enjoys chick lit and teen movies. Major shopaholic. Blogging since January 17, 2002.

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Date/Time: Fri, Jan 04 @ 11:13pm
Reading: Wicked by Gregory Maguire
Listening: No One, Alicia Keys

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July 29, 2007

Back in high school, my best friend Carmen used to give me the 14,000 Things to Be Happy About daily calendars because I was constantly making myself sad. I had a hard time going through adolescence with just my dad around so I always complained and made my life seem even more depressing than it was.

I haven't entirely grown out of that phase. :P

Sometimes I'll catch myself making a bigger deal out of something than it deserves (a good example would be wedding-related stuff) so I force myself think happy thoughts. Tonight would be such a time...

5 Happy Thoughts
1. coffee sprinkled with chocolate
2. playing hooky from work (I am *so* tempted to call-in-sick at least once a week)
3. warm chocolate chip cookies
4. Sharpie pens in the colors of the rainbow
5. the smell of barbecue

I'll get around to posting Harry Potter thoughts... Someday. :)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Posted by Kel at 11:48 PM | Comments (4)

July 21, 2007

That was me after picking up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. I'm wearing my Harry Potter track jacket (it's similar to his triwizard robes in the GoF movie) and my Gryffindor scarf. :D HEE. But uhhh, please excuse my greasy face. My friends and I checked out the midnight release party but there wasn't anything going on that captured our attention so we came back to my apartment and played Harry Potter Scene It? until about 11:15 when we went back to Borders to get in line to buy the book. SQUEE. The line went super fast and Rob and I were home by 12:30. (We live right across the street from Borders). Of, course, I cracked the book open right away.

And I finished it tonight. But don't worry, no spoilers here... I'm going to wait a bit to let the finality of the series sink in and then I'll post my thoughts. Maybe tomorrow.

For now, an HP meme courtesy of Sarah...

Favorite Book: Goblet of Fire. I just love the Triwizard tournament and the Yule Ball. Prisoner of Azkaban is a *very* close second.
Favorite Character: Harry. I can't help it. ILUFFHIMSO.
Favorite Movie: Prisoner of Azakaban. So far, it's been my favorite interpretation.
Favorite Spell: Expecto Patronum. The idea of your happy thoughts acting as a a protector against dementors is just so hopeful.
Favorite Couple: Harry and Hermione. I know it's not canon. But their relationship touches me just the same.
Favorite Magical Building: Hogwarts.
Favorite Magical Creature: House-elves.
Favorite Non-Human Character: Hedwig!
Favorite Scene: This isn't fair... there's so many! Off the top of my head... all the Time-Turning scenes and learning about the Marauders in PoA, St. Mungo's and Dumbledore's Army in OotP, the Yule Ball in GoF... I'm sure there's tons more.
Favorite Family: Well, the Weasleys, of course!
Favorite Class: Charms.
Favorite Movie Scene: Again, I have a few... when the trio first meet on the Hogwarts Express in SS, the Gryffindor boys eating candy in their tower on their first night back at Hogwarts in PoA, Harry asking Cho to the Yule Ball in GoF, and all the Dumbledore's Army scenes in OotP.
Favorite HP website: Don't really have one. Though I do always go to The Leaky Cauldron for news... it's too bad the site layout is awful and loads so slowly.
Favorite House: Gryffindor!
Favorite Bad-Guy: Draco Malfoy.
Favorite room in Hogwarts: Gryffindor Common Room.
Favorite Teacher: Professor McGonagall.
Favorite Ministry Employee: Kingsley Shacklebolt. Or Tonks.
Favorite Ministry Department: Department of Magical Games and Sports? Or maybe the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.
Favorite Magical Transportation: Apparition.

Posted by Kel at 10:08 PM | Comments (1)

July 19, 2007

OMG. I'm currently watching Victoria Beckham Coming to America and I don't know why, but it is *seriously* the funniest reality show I've seen in a LONG time. Mostly because Victoria Beckham is a lot more sarcastic than I would have thought. Which makes her totally likable to me. Plus, her husband's not too shabby himself. Hee!

Posted by Kel at 10:33 PM | Comments (3)

July 16, 2007

I have seriously been hit with Harry Potter mania.

I've decided to re-read the entire series before diving into Deathly Hallows this weekend. I'm currently on Goblet of Fire. :D

So I'm sitting here at work (shhh! don't tell!) thinking about the differences between Order of the Phoenix movie and the book. I know they had to cut a lot out due to time but I would have loved to see:

-- The Howler Dumbledore sent to Aunt Petunia (REMEMBER MY LAST, PETUNIA!)
-- St. Mungo's
-- Snape's worst memory (ok ok, I know this was in the movie but I would have liked to see MORE of it -- and with Lily too)

Other thoughts:
-- Was it just me or was Mrs. Figg totally... off? She completely didn't match what I had envisioned.
-- I don't care for Michael Gambon's interpretation of Dumbledore. He doesn't understand the character. At all. I didn't notice it much in PoA or GoF but it was pretty jarring in OotP.

Ok, back to work...

Posted by Kel at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2007

Aahhh, 3-day weekend for me. YAY! I took Friday the 13th (!) off from work as my "summer Friday." We get to choose 5 Fridays to take off from Memorial Day through Labor Day. It's a nice little perk to have a breather once in awhile. :) I didn't do much... went over to a crafts store to pick up some new rubber stamps (I've become obsessed recently -- I don't know why) and then went home and watched 8 straight episodes of The OC season 3. I love the show but wow, s3 was pretty awful. I need to get the s4 DVDs so I can watch that the next time a summer Friday rolls around.

I also started re-reading the Harry Potter series. Finally! I quickly finished Sorceror's Stone so now I'm on Chamber of Secrets. I don't think I'll get through them all this week so after book 2, I might jump straight to Half-Blood Prince. Ack, I can't believe Deathly Hallows is almost here. I don't want the series to end. *tear*

So today I went to see Order of the Phoenix again with some friends. I liked the movie the first time around but I liked it A LOT better the second. Some spoilery thoughts (in list form like Sarah because it's easiest)...

Things I Didn't Care For
1. Sirius's death. I just... it's not how I pictured it. I thought the curse was instant.
2. Details that were different from the previous movies. For example, both the Dementors and Sirius communicating through the fire were executed differently in Movie 3. I like consistency. :/
3. Cho selling out the DA. I know it's easier for the storyline not to introduce another character and it makes it clear that a romantic relationship between her and Harry didn't work out. But I have a soft spot for Cho.
4. Not enough Occlumency!
5. I missed Quidditch and Ron and Hermione being prefects.

Things I Loved
1. Dumbledore's Army. SQUEE. Exactly how I imagined.
2. The casting of Professor Umbridge, Luna Lovegood, and Bellatrix Lestrange was spot on. They were all pretty darn perfect.
3. Daniel Radcliffe. He really just keeps getting better and better. ILUFFHIMSO.
4. The kids in the Department of Mysteries holding out their wands ready for battle. It seriously gave me chills.
5. The Dumbledore/Voldemort fight was SO AWESOME.

If anyone else has written a blog about the movie, let me know in the comments! I love to read everyone's thoughts. But for now, I've got to get back to my reading... :D

Posted by Kel at 11:46 PM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2007

Back from the midnight showing of HP OotP. Enjoyed the movie (but what can I say -- I'm easy to please). Will see it again this weekend.

Now, it's bedtime.

Posted by Kel at 02:46 AM | Comments (1)

July 8, 2007

It's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix week! I'm pretty sure Rob and I are going to catch the midnight showing on Tuesday/Wednesday night. Woohoo!

Tonight was the HP OotP premiere in LA and I have to share this photo of the trio.

Look at Rupert's shirt! He is so AWESOME. LOL. And wow, Emma is gorgeous. I hate her. Just kidding. Sort of.

I saw Transformers this weekend and LOVED it. Weird, right? I've been looking forward to seeing it (Josh Duhamel, baby!) but I thought it would be cheesy and over the top (I mean, come on, it's a Michael Bay movie). Well, it was both of those things but it was also hugely entertaining. I completely enjoyed myself (and even found myself laughing *out loud*) throughout the entire movie (yes, even during the cheesy "more than meets the eye" lines). Shia LaBeouf was a huge reason why the movie was so fun. I've liked him in other movies before but now I'm definitely a fan. He totally carried the movie and gave it a heart. Plus, his delivery of all the one-liners is so spot on. ILUFFHIM. Megan Fox, on the other hand, apparently took classes from the Jessica Alba school of bad acting. She *is* pretty hot, though. And Bumblebee is officially my favorite Transformer. Anyway, go see it!

Posted by Kel at 11:18 PM | Comments (3)

July 4, 2007

It's so weird to have a day off in the middle of the week. It's totally throwing me off. But YAY for the 4th of July!

It was an absolutely gorgeous day here in the Bay Area... spent most of it a friend's BBQ chowing down on ribs and potato salad. YUM.

Anyway, I'm making a bit of progress on the wedding front... I contacted a church in Southern CA and I'm just waiting for the pastor to call me back to discuss our situation and see if he'll allow us to be married in his church. I also contacted a priest (Fr. Joe!) who was the pastor of the church I grew in and he's agreed to preside over the ceremony. YAY. I think I've known him since I was 6! He was there for some big events in my life (8th grade graduation, confirmation, my mom's funeral) so it kind of makes sense for him to be a part of the wedding as well. I've communicated with him via email so he doesn't know the *whole* story and he's on vacation for the next week but I'm hoping he'll still agree, despite the fact that Rob's not confirmed. He's also willing to preside at another church, which is huge because his home parish isn't close to any of the reception sites we've been looking at. I'm crossing my fingers. I just want the venues and the date to be set! Then the real planning can begin... :)

Posted by Kel at 11:37 PM | Comments (3)

July 2, 2007

I can't believe it's July. Craziness.

Haven't been doing much of anything but I did see Ratatouille on Saturday morning. YAY. Awesome, awesome movie. I never thought that a *rat* could be CUTE. But somehow Pixar pulled it off. Everyone needs to go see it.

Harry Potter and the OotP in 1 week! Whee! I've watched the midnight showing for each of the other 4 movies so I contemplating doing that again... but OotP's being released on a Wednesday. Why?! That's totally going to screw up my work week. At least when I caught the midnight showing the previous times, there was only 1 more work day left until the weekend, when I could "catch up" on sleep. Grrr. I also haven't started the HP re-read that I wanted to do before Deathly Hallows. Oh well. I'm kind of resigned to the fact that it won't happen. Maybe I can at least read Books 5 and 6...

Anyway, thanks to all of you for your comments and emails regarding my previous wedding rant. I am such a drama queen. LOL. I was in a really bad mood when I was typing it up. :/ Sorry about that. Hopefully my next update will be more positive. :D

Posted by Kel at 11:36 PM | Comments (1)