A Weekend of Harry Potter (double) and H.M.S. Pinafore

My weekend was full of fun! I had taken off Friday, the 15th of July, in order to view a few apartments (apartment hunting is horrendous, and a story for another day) and to go see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with Marisa and Theresa. Fun, fun, fun! The movie was awesome! However, as a reader of the books, it was hard to watch for entertainment’s sake. I’ve found that when I’ve read the book of a movie I’m watching, I have to see the movie more than once because I spend the whole time of my first viewing comparing the book and the movie, and this time was no exception. I spent this viewing wondering why they did this and that, which is frustrating for me, so I have to see it again. I left the movie with this “whoa” feeling, like I couldn’t process the whole thing and that it was over. It was a similar feeling when I finished the 7th book too.

After the movie, Marisa, Theresa, and I went to dinner at Famous Dave’s…yum, yum, yum! I had the open-faced Georgia chopped pork with fries, broccoli, corn on the cob, and a cornbread muffin. Well, I had part of that! I took half of it home and had lunch the next day. We sat and talked for a couple of hours, and then went to head out. We ended up taking Theresa’s car and heading over to look at an apartment I was interested in that I had viewed that morning, and made plans to go and re-view the place for Monday.

Saturday was much the same as I usually have, except that I had to get up early for a chiropractor’s appointment because I had missed my regularly scheduled appointment during the week (due to apartment hunting). After that, I went home and cleaned up the kitchen and living room, and then read for a while. That evening, I went to Marisa’s for a BBQ and movie. While I was there, I had been texting with another friend, Caytie, and we discussed seeing Harry Potter the next day with her girls.

I met Caytie (and company) at the Rogers’ theater where I got the shock of my life…movie tickets were $5 for a matinee! Cheap!!!! Gotta love that! After purchasing goodies (which were also not horribly expensive, and all large sizes included refills), we headed into the theater. The screen was huge, which was pretty cool. I definitely enjoyed the movie the second time as well, and I felt a little less “whoa” about the whole thing. Afterward, we got an ice cream at DQ, and talked for a while until I had to leave for Angela’s, a friend who had recently moved from St. Cloud to Wayzata.






I met up with Angela and got to see her new apartment, and then we headed off to Minneapolis to the Guthrie Theatre. Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore was AWESOME! I loved it! It is a funny, romantic musical with sailors…what’s not to love? The music was great, and there was a very cool tap number where the sailors go to town. The set was the bow of a ship, with the orchestra up in the bridge, with a platform above and in front of it. At the back of the bow of the ship, under the bridge, was a revolving wall that changed the set from deck to boiler room to captain’s office to the boat that the sisters, cousins, and aunts of the Admiral come in on. If you are interested in seeing a clip, there is a video that is only about 3 ½ minutes long. Here.


The day I went was incredibly humid! It was so humid, in fact, that it looked foggy outside! When Angela and I tried to get a picture outside at the intermission at 8 o’clock at night, the camera lens fogged from the humidity! It was crazy!

The Week Without God

I saw this quote from a friend on Facebook, and thought it was neat...

Without God, our week would be: sinday, mournday, tearday, wasteday, thirstday, fightday, shatterday; seven days without God makes one weak!

4th of July Weekend Was Too Expensive!

I got off a bit early on Friday, July 1, and went home to vegetate for a bit before leaving for an errand and then Craft Night. I ended up leaving early in hopes of missing a huge storm headed for St. Cloud and, instead, ended up driving through torrential downpours! I ended up sitting in the parking lot of ShopKo for about 15 minutes waiting for the rain to let up a bit, and when it did, I ran inside. I picked up a few things I needed, and went to the cash registers to pay…the cashiers turned off their lights, locked us all inside, and all the customers were herded to the back room. We were in a tornado warning! I hung out in the stock room with about 50 other people for about a half hour, and then we were released! I went back to the checkout lines to purchase my items, and headed outside. The parking lot was flooded! The front half near the store was okay, but the back half toward Park Avenue (Cash Wise) was filled with water, and I couldn’t get onto the street. I drove around onto Second Street, and turned onto Park Avenue…that street was flooded too, and I had to turn back around! I ended up going all the way to 10th Avenue in Waite Park because all the other streets heading to Division Street were flooded. There went Taco John’s for dinner!

I decided since I was all the way down in Waite Park, I’d just go to Culvers for dinner instead. I pulled into the drive-thru and stopped at the order menu. The attendant asked what I wanted, and I pushed down on my breaks to turn in my seat…and my foot went to the floor! I said “My breaks just went out, I’ll be back” and then I coasted around Culvers (to a very strange look from the drive-through girl) and into Gateway Tire and Auto’s parking area. With a little jump of the curb, I stopped using the parking brake. It was open!!! Mom came and got me and we hauled my crafting stuff into her van, and left my car at Gateway.

The huge storm had flooded a lot of streets, as well as downed tons of trees, all over St. Cloud. My mom dropped me off from Craft Night somewhere after midnight. The next day, I got a call from Gateway, and my brake cables were rusted through…some $400 later, I picked up my car on Saturday, and headed over to my friend’s for a BBQ and movie, and had a great time as we were re-watching the Harry Potter movies to get ready for Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Well, I woke up at 7:40 a.m. on Sunday morning to a series of beeping alarms…the power was out! I had known that several areas in St. Cloud were without power due to the storm on Friday (and were still out on Sunday), but we hadn’t gone out until Sunday. All I could think is what did the cut while trying to fix everyone else??? 24-hours later, and my power was STILL out…happy 4th of July? I was lucky I hadn’t already picked up my ingredients to make my pretzel dessert for the BBQ I was going to that night, because everything in my fridge was SPOILED! The power finally came back on at 10:20 a.m. on Monday, July 4. Some $70 later, I restocked my fridge with the essentials (eggs, butter, cheese, milk, and condiments).

The fun part of the weekend? BBQs galore (three) and fireworks (two sets)! Happy, fun pics below!