I *heart* Harry Potter.

For awhile I was really debating what to do come July 20th. I mean, it’s the last book. This is the last time that Cassidy will have the chance to wow her grandkids someday with, “I waited all night in line for that book.” So in the end, I’ve decided that doing it for her alone is worth it.

But I swear to God, if somebody decides to drive through the crowd yelling out who is killed, it will become that time where, “Your great-grandma finally crossed the line to Crazyville and killed somebody over that book. True story. She grabbed him by the neck and actually shoved his own head into his own asshole. Up until then it was just a figure of speech that nobody ever really thought was possible. Not your great-grandma though… she proved them all wrong.”

Plus, I totally bet Ben $10 that I’d make it to midnight.

Friday Five: The one in which I talk Geek.

It’s been far too long since I’ve done a meme. I never do the actual Friday Five on the week it comes out it seems, I look through them and pick one that I feel like answering.

In this one, I firmly secure my geek title. You know, in case you all forgot.

1. What is your favorite board game?
For a big group (SEE: drunk people) I like Taboo. It can be really funny what people will blurt out while drunk. TeeHee My family used to play this game a lot (only, not drunk) and we used to laugh so hard I’d be sore the next day.

For the three of us, Monopoly. Although, Cassidy pretty much kicks my ass at every board game we play (excpet Operation ) so I stopped playing games with her after she completely ANNIALATED me at the Game of Life. Three times.

I’m a sore loser. Especially when it’s to a (then) 7 year old.

2. What is your favorite card game?
Uno. HA! I’m so lame. After that Jin then Poker.

3. Do you like to play games on the computer or on a gaming system?
PC > Console

*ducks*

4. If so, what is your favorite game to play?
I supposed I should say World of Warcraft since I’ve been pretty much filling every second of free time with it for the last two weeks (Cassidy has been out of town, I’m bored!)… BUT! I’m a big Old School FPS geek. I love me some UnrealTouornament, Quake, Splinter Cell, Tribes, etc.

5. Do you like to play games with people or to play them alone?
I like both but I hate having to depend on random people to play. That’s a big problem when trying to play something like Tribes where you HAVE to team up. I don’t so much mind in Counter Strike becuase you usually LAN or end up teaming up with people you know which isn’t so bad. We used to LAN Counter Strike in the same house but teams would be in seperate rooms so you couldn’t hear stratagy talk. God, I was a geek.

In games like WOW, I just wait for Ben to outlevel me by enough that if I need help, he can come in and wipe out all the baddies while I run around and collect money and loot. It MAY seem like I’m using him but this is a guy I used to follow around in City of Heroes JUST to heal. Not many people have their own personal healer. So I think it balances out somehow.

Redoable.

After I got the site back from being hacked, I decided to do a complete overhaul. Like, everything has been touched. I’ve updated WordPress and every single WordPress plugin. I probably dumped 100 datebase tables that hadn’t been used in AGES. Gallery, forum, guestbook, tables created from plugins that I haven’t used in over a year, it was a mess. A MESS! I’d been telling myself that I was going to do that for months and months and had I actually DONE it, the lame ass hacker wouldn’t have had a way in.

SO! The new theme I’m using is Redoable. I really, really, really tried to come up with something on my own and I’d get 75% of the way through a Photoshop mockup, then coding, then tweaking CSS and suddenly I’d hate it and delete the whole thing. Like 5 times. With 5 different themes.

I’d been watching Dean develop and update this theme for quite some time and I liked it from the very beginning. After he developed the twitter plugin I was pretty much sold but gave ONE MORE theme a try and still just wan’t feelin’ it. So I went ahead and started to manipulate Redoable to mold it to my liking. There are still some things I want to work on. I’m going to add back the recent comment plugin but I’m going to tweak the CSS first. I’m also thingking about doing some CSS work to the blogroll… just small stuff here and there.

Overall impressions of the stock theme though are that it’s fantastic. The admin interface makes customization so simple that even if you don’t know much about HTML, PHP or CSS, you can very easily add widgets, change color scheme’s, menu placement, and more.

So there ya go! I wanted to make sure to give the theme a proper plug.

4 days.

My first photo hit Explore today on flickr. The highest it got was #371 #299 #210(!!). I’m excited because I’ve secretly wished to have something Explore but at the same time I’m perplexed that it’s a picture of my FEET! Not flowers, or a cute kid, or a car. My feet! (Although they are my feet in some of my very hot shoes. ) It’s kind of silent vindication for all of those who have called me vain or narcissistic (my dad used that one and I thanked him for finding a much longer, more sophisticated word to make fun ot me ) because it was just a road to better photography people! That’s all! Okay, so it was totally me being vain…

So, original plans were to do that Half Dome hike this weekend. A part of me is kinda sad we don’t get to do it because I’m sure I’d end up with some amazing shots with the XTi. A bigger part of me is happy that I won’t be left on the side of a mountain with an ice ax in my head.

The reason we can’t go is because Ben has some stuff that HAS to be done to the track car this weekend or he won’t make it to next Friday’s track day. So since I already had approved PTO for Friday and Monday off, I’ve decided to take it anyway. A four day weekend sounds FABULOUS, yes? I got up and took Cassidy to breakfast before school today. Took a long hot shower with nobody knocking on the door to ask a question, or worried that I was going to use all the hot water, and I SO DID! Then I met Ben for a nice long lunch. Picked Cassidy up from school and now I’m blogging before I lay down and take a nice long nap! She’s off to the park with the neighborhood posse and a few parents to play some baseball.

I had originally planned to do a power cleaning on the house today but, WHY?! I’m on vacation! That’s my montra for the next three days. ‘Why? I’m on vacation?’ I wonder how many times I can use it till Ben snaps?

And! Because I’ve had nothing better to write about lately, another conversation!

This one happened when I got home and Ben had left the cell phone bill on my chair. The same day that my site got hacked and I still had a sense of humor! Previously he said that if we were billed extra for all the Twitters being sent to my phone via SMS he’d not be happy. We weren’t being charged. But GOOD LORD, did you know that Cingular sends you a log of all the text’s? ON PAPER. All 2,356 of them I got last month.

Antigone078: SEE?! I TOLD you the texting wasn’t extra…
Ben: can you call the parents of the tree you killed and give them the bad news?
Antigone078: BWAHAHAH! When I get my blog back: TOTALLY GETTING POSTED!
Ben:

Lens Envy

Last week I bought a Canon 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro lens for the XTi. It’s. Amazing. Simply amazing. I’ve only just begun to explore around and play with it and so far it’s just blown me away. I should have gotten this MONTHS ago but I guess now was a perfect time because the weather is clearing up and I’ve realized natural sun light + this lens = MAGIC!!

Here are a few of my favorites so far but there will be many, many, many more to come. Oh, and I started 365 again and I promise not to be a complete failure this time. *grin*