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Magic of Various Sorts
17/7/05 17:44It's been a big weekend. Younger Girl spent Friday night at her camp sleepover in a State Park over in the East Bay. Older Girl, after having her last acting classes for the summer, went off to spend the evening with a chum from class, culminating in the Harry Potter scrum at the local Borders. So Spouse and I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I liked it. I have a certain fondness for the first film version, mostly because Gene Wilder is so lovely. But, perhaps because I was almost 20 when it came out, I felt even then that Roald Dahl wouldn't have liked it--it was far too treacly. This one is certainly Tim Burton's version--the visual sensibility is unmistakeable. But unlike something like Sleepy Hollow, which I thought was over the top visually and underwhelming in terms of the story, the visual stype works here, and the story does too. And Johnny Depp--particularly when he's interacting with the children in the factory--has the panicked, uncomprehending look that adults who don't know or like children get when forced to spend time with them. And I never thought of Michael Jackson once. After the film we went off to get our reserved copy of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince; then to Borders to retrieve Older Girl.
We got home by about 1am, and went to bed at once, because the next day we had to drive out to Orinda to pick up YG, adter which we drove down to Coyote to Spouse's company picnic. It was a big, lavish, fun day, but incredibly hot--much hotter than we from The Land of Fog are used to. I kept chasing after everyone with sunblock and water, muttering "Hydrate, dammit, hydrate!" No one swooned, the girls each won some prizes (YG, to her infinite satisfaction, won a Super Soaker. My joy is beyond communication, I assure you) and we stopped at Costco on the way home to buy a second copy of HP 6, in order to avoid the inevitable sorietal conflict with only one copy in the house--not to mention, I want to read it before I go to Scotland.
And today we rose early and got on the road (or onto a bus driven by a psychotic woman with a lead foot) to get to the AIDS Walk. I had a backpack with water bottles, bandaids for sore feet, YG's copy of HP6, the various paperwork, and hats for all. As a family we raised somewhat over $800 (there's still time, if someone wants to send money and do good...). Sarcasm Girl took off within fifteen minutes, walking faster than her sister could (and faster than I could go since I was walking with YG). Within another fifteen minutes we'd lost my husband, who had stopped at the porta-sans, where there was a half-hour wait. So I walked along with YG, reading Harry Potter to her as we went, to the considerable interest and sometime amusement of our fellow walkers. It's a 10K walk--6.2 miles not counting the wandering around in Golden Gate Park that we did before and after, getting to the sign-in area and getting out. By the time we got home it was 3pm, we were all kinda cranky and very hungry. So we had a late meal (there is no satisfactory term for a combination of dinner and lunch--tea doesn't quite do it) and the girls are taking their turn at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I will be interested in seeing what they say. And when everyone else is in bed, I'm going to soak my feet...
We got home by about 1am, and went to bed at once, because the next day we had to drive out to Orinda to pick up YG, adter which we drove down to Coyote to Spouse's company picnic. It was a big, lavish, fun day, but incredibly hot--much hotter than we from The Land of Fog are used to. I kept chasing after everyone with sunblock and water, muttering "Hydrate, dammit, hydrate!" No one swooned, the girls each won some prizes (YG, to her infinite satisfaction, won a Super Soaker. My joy is beyond communication, I assure you) and we stopped at Costco on the way home to buy a second copy of HP 6, in order to avoid the inevitable sorietal conflict with only one copy in the house--not to mention, I want to read it before I go to Scotland.
And today we rose early and got on the road (or onto a bus driven by a psychotic woman with a lead foot) to get to the AIDS Walk. I had a backpack with water bottles, bandaids for sore feet, YG's copy of HP6, the various paperwork, and hats for all. As a family we raised somewhat over $800 (there's still time, if someone wants to send money and do good...). Sarcasm Girl took off within fifteen minutes, walking faster than her sister could (and faster than I could go since I was walking with YG). Within another fifteen minutes we'd lost my husband, who had stopped at the porta-sans, where there was a half-hour wait. So I walked along with YG, reading Harry Potter to her as we went, to the considerable interest and sometime amusement of our fellow walkers. It's a 10K walk--6.2 miles not counting the wandering around in Golden Gate Park that we did before and after, getting to the sign-in area and getting out. By the time we got home it was 3pm, we were all kinda cranky and very hungry. So we had a late meal (there is no satisfactory term for a combination of dinner and lunch--tea doesn't quite do it) and the girls are taking their turn at Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I will be interested in seeing what they say. And when everyone else is in bed, I'm going to soak my feet...