Harry Potter Mania!!

Hello Everyone,
You haven't heard from me this week because Naomi and I have been working hard!!! (I don't even think I wrote that Naomi came! She flew out last Saturday night and is rescuing me yet again. I'm losing count of how many times she's swooped into my life to set things in order). We've accomplished a LOT and I'm happy to say I'm in a much better state of mind than I was a week ago. Still have some left to do, but it is much more manageable now, and my panic has receded for the time being. The play room is organized, the hardwood floor in the master bedroom is down (which meant we could finally move our bedroom furniture in from the garage), furniture is rearranged in each room to their final positions, I got the day bed put together (took me a while, since I had no directions, just a bunch of pieces and hardware), Naomi and I assembled six bookcases, and the garage is well on its way to being organized.
Tonight we rewarded ourselves by having an evening of Harry Potter. We watched Prisoner of Azkaban and the Goblet of Fire, and then Naomi and I headed off to Barnes and Noble for the midnight Opening Of The Boxes. We were over there by a few minutes before midnight, and quickly realized we should have been there much, much earlier. Every single parking space in this large shopping center (Barnes and Noble, PetSmart, PierOne, Outback Steakhouse, Coldstone Creamery, and a bunch of other smaller shops) was taken. We parked illegally next to a storage trailer. We literally ran through the parking lot, around the back of Barnes and Noble through a dark, muddy alleyway, and headed around the corner to the front of the store just as the first boxes were being opened, amidst screams of hundreds of people. I hadn't pre-ordered the book or anything, and we soon realized that we would easily be there until 3:00 AM before it would be our turn in line, if there were any books left, so we just wandered around soaking up the ambience and then left after a half hour or so. It was fun to see all the many different ages and kinds of people there. Many were dressed up; we saw a bunch of Harry Potters and Hermione Grangers, of course, plus dementors, house elves, I saw a Luna Lovegood and a Tonks (complete with bright pink hair), someone with a sorting hat on, and lots and lots of other Harry Potter paraphernalia. It was pretty fun.
Ben wanted to go see the Order of the Phoenix tonight, but I told him I'm not watching it until I've re-read (listened) to the book. He thinks I'm pretty weird. And I'm not reading the new book until I've finished #5 either. I listened to #6 last week. I tried to get #5, but there's a waiting list for like 170 days at the library, it's not available for download through Audible or Simply Audio, and there was also a very, very long wait to rent it through Simply Audio. So I asked Mama to mail me their copy so I can listen to it this next week. I'm excited for the movie and the book, but also pretty sad that it will be the last book. Let's start a letter-writing campaign to J.K. Rowlings to beg her to write a 7-book series of prequels, giving us the full story of James and Lily, Dumbledore, and all the characters that came before Harry, ok?
All right, that's it for tonight. I took pictures of the play room and garage before Naomi came, and tomorrow after she leaves I'll take some "after" pictures so you can see how much she and I were able to get done this week.
Have a great Saturday everyone!