Need an earlier bedtime

I really gotta go to bed earlier. Last few weeks, I've been staying up late, and getting up early to do stuff around the house. Today was no exception. Got up with Goof, cleaned up the bathroom after him, did the dishes, cleaned the bedroom, started laundry, emptied the garbage. This was all before 8am. I had called the house warranty and had a few things repaired. The electrician came over at 9am, did his thing, left within 30 min. Waited around until 1pm for the plumber, thank God he showed up, Stinky's toilet was running! Then the appliance guy came at 4:30pm. He's got to order the dishwasher part. I really didn't get much done waiting around for them. I took a little nap on the sofa with the dogs while waiting for the repairmen. I'm sure it must have been interesting for nosey neighbors, seeing 3 different service trucks on my driveway.

I did notice that Eldest, Bug, and Fred were out playing the the cul de sac. When Stinky noticed them, I was yelling at him to call his friend. We are having another playdate tomorrow. I still don't like them. Interestingly enough the night we went to get Harry Potter, Fred's family were out in the cul de sac setting off fireworks. So is it the fireworks Eldest's mother and Kiosk man don't like? Or is it the lies and exaggerations that came out of his mouth?

I had a great conversation with Egg today about Harry Potter. He finished it Sunday afternoon. Just as I expected. Shark finished it before he did, but as he says, she reads for speed, he reads for retention. Some parts of the book, we pretty much expected, other parts, we were not expecting. Some disappointments, but all in all, we both enjoyed it. He felt the same as I did, the epilogue was for the women who need a happy ending. It would have been enough to end it, and let our imagination take flight. Egg, says that J K Rowling is stepping away from the books for a while, but is not against coming back and addressing the support characters. She won't write about the main three, but that's okay. I'm sure that they would pop up some how. There are some characters, I want more back story on, but now must wait. I've been taking the book, and letting it open where it may and reading from there. I find it's a great fun. Also pick up on details I might have missed.

I made banana bread today. I think I need to work on the recipe. There needs to be more moisture if I want to make muffins, the loaf itself was fine. Stinky felt that I did not put in enough bananas. I guess 6 wasn't enough, though I must say the bananas were a bit on the small side. It was easy enough to make, and I didn't make it too sweet. Perhaps that's what he meant by not enough banana flavor. Hmmm, well we are out of bananas, so next week, we'll try again.

Very busy friday.

Wow, I had a full day yesterday. Stinky and I got up at a decent hour, and while he enjoyed his morning playing video games, I was running around busy. Stinky had a friend coming over. So the usual cleaning, was done. I even mowed the front lawn! Gave myself an asthma attack, but oh well. Dogs, got to run around a bit in the yard before the visitors came.

The boys were going to swim and then play 360 afterwards, but that changed quickly enough. The clouds came and the rain began. Oh well the boys were happy. The mom and I enjoyed ourselves chatting. We decided to make ramen noodles for the boys and had one bowl ready in the dining room, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash, and a bright orange ball! Immediately a crack sounded in the air. Lightning stuck. It struck a tree in our backyard. The rains were so heavy we couldn't see how much damage was caused, but it was enough to scare us. Electrical items were turned off, and the boys were told to stay with us downstairs. So lunch was eaten and some games were played. The storm lightened up and the boys went back upstairs to play.

Later when Goof came home he explored the damage. The tree is 200 ft tall, the limb that fell to the ground was over 18 ft long. When goof walked behind the branches I realized how big the limb was. I couldn't see a 6ft man behind it. He thinks the tree will survive. I hope so. It also looks like another tree was hit too in the storm. It's on the other end of the property and if it falls it's not going to damage any homes.

He and Stinky cleaned up most of the limb this morning. I on the other hand did nothing. I was finishing reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I went to BAM and got my copy and started reading immediately. Again, we were with Whinis and Droopy. Yet again, I am disappointed by Whinis. Stinky has yet to rise above him. It's pretty obvious to all parties, that Stinky cannot be around Whinis at all. Whinis is too argumentative, and Stinky is too strong willed to let an 8 year old get the better of him. It just means loud voices and lots of pushing.

Back to Harry Potter. That was fantastic. I cried, and laughed and cried again. It was just the best. I spent the night reading and converting the audio cds to mp3 files. I am so glad I did that. Stinky says he wants to listen to the book rather than reading. I would rather he read the book, but then I'm not against him listening to it really. I plan to listen to it while I clean. In fact the basement is still calling me. I find I can't talk about the book. It's not fair to anyone that wanders here and isn't a fast reader. Egg, my very knowing little brother, sent me a text message this afternoon. The message was short, "Finish It yet?" How he knows me. So of course I had to let him know I was done. He had read only a few pages, as he had commitments upstate. He's only on page 200. He'll catch up over the next few days. I didn't tell him anything, just that it was great, and the ending was rather maudlin, as per a woman writing.

I'm gonna play on the random house site and find some audio clips from the audio and shove it here.