Wilmington Weekend Update #4
Okay, this is a long one, sorry, but it’s been quite a week! It started with the excitement of hearing Margaret on the Dr. Christian Daniels Show on local talk radio. Christian, a family practitioner, flattered Margaret between callers, at least one of whom was a drug rep for a product Margaret doesn’t favor. Posing as a patient he asked her if there, “was anything new on the horizon for hypertension,” after which she gently trashed his product. Dr. Daniels suggested many hypertensive patients were “fat slobs who don’t take care of themselves,” allowing Margaret to counter that her patients were all trying really hard. One of her former Southeastern Nephrology patients called in to tell everyone what a great doctor she was, and how attractive. I was so proud I almost didn’t yell at the kids for fighting while I was trying to listen.
Friday was the big event, the Midnight Magic party at Barnes and Noble for the Harry Potter book release. Almost nothing can keep us from observing our ritual of picking up strombolis and watching TV Friday nights, but we couldn’t miss the last-ever Harry Potter book release! Julian got his favorite sitter and the rest of us dressed up. For those of you who haven’t watched all five Harry Potter films, I’ve included our pictures along with our characters’:
Abby
Hermione Granger
Sellers Voldemort
Professor Snape Professor McGonagall
We had actually pre-ordered our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon, so we rather sheepishly admitted to the gatekeeper at Barnes & Noble we didn’t have an advance copy reserved. The crowd was pretty thick, and there were some good costumes, but we were the only family dorky enough to have all dressed up.
We worked our way through the crowd to the center of the store to sign up for the costume contest, which was about to start, only to learn there had been a formal registration that closed that afternoon. Of the 50 available slots, four people hadn’t shown up yet, so in desperation Margaret hoisted Sellers in front of the store manager and plead, “How can you say no to this?” Sellers got a yellow piece of paper with “46” drawn on it and we nudged our way into the line. Abby was a tremendous sport. Giving up her chance to be in the contest, she urged Sellers on the whole way.
When they called 46 to the front of the crowd, Sellers became so shy he had to be carried by his mommy. Then we squeezed our way into the audience to wait for the judges to pick their top five. When the lady called out, “Forty-six, Baby Vladimir!” we were confused, but we realized this non-Potter-fan meant Voldemort, and this time Sellers ran up alone to stand next to Hagrid, Molly Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Hogwarts Castle. As they announced the top three we were sad he didn’t win third or second and braced ourselves to comfort him. Instead we all screamed as the lady announced his victory! Of course now what was going to be a couple of hours at the party had to stretch all the way to midnight so we could be first in line and receive our free copy of the book.
As the evening wore on we entertained ourselves standing in line half an hour for drinks. When we finally got to the front the children chose large cookies: “The pink frosted one for the Dark Lord, please.” Then the news crews showed up. One of the fun things about living in a small town is that sometimes all you have to do to get on television is dress oddly. So we were in the live shot from the bookstore at 11:05 and then again yesterday afternoon at 5:00. The kids went to bed around 12:30 AM, and we stayed up another hour reading the first two chapters and sipping wine.
Julian woke up at 5:55 AM, and we cat-napped while he drank milk and watched Thomas. Saturday’s big event was Julian’s haircut, the first in two months. Having been banned from our usual salon as well as Great Clips Julian’s only option was Fantasy Hairland, where they specialize in cutting children’s hair. Julian climbed up in the race-car/barber chair with some trepidation, and as soon as he saw the shears even two ladies offering him candy and balloons wasn’t enough to stop his frantic screaming. So we switched to Plan B, which involved me wrestling him through a tear-streaked, sweaty, itchy screaming fit. They swore they’ve seen worse…
From there it was on to Home Depot and an Oaxacan restaurant where we were reminded 1) why we don’t take our kids to restaurants more often and 2) why there aren’t more Oaxacan restaurants. We planted garden beds until the sun went down, bathed, put the kids to bed, and read more Harry Potter.
This morning dawned 65 degrees and breezy, perfect for a run under the last of the bats and the first of the herons to take to the sky. Margaret rounded at the hospital, then it was more Home Depot, Costco, gardening, and Harry Potter. Now it’s time for baths, dinner, laundry, and bills. This week we’re looking forward to a field trip to the Jungle Rapids water park with Abby and Sellers. Have a great week!
David
Professor Snape Professor McGonagall
We had actually pre-ordered our copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Amazon, so we rather sheepishly admitted to the gatekeeper at Barnes & Noble we didn’t have an advance copy reserved. The crowd was pretty thick, and there were some good costumes, but we were the only family dorky enough to have all dressed up.
We worked our way through the crowd to the center of the store to sign up for the costume contest, which was about to start, only to learn there had been a formal registration that closed that afternoon. Of the 50 available slots, four people hadn’t shown up yet, so in desperation Margaret hoisted Sellers in front of the store manager and plead, “How can you say no to this?” Sellers got a yellow piece of paper with “46” drawn on it and we nudged our way into the line. Abby was a tremendous sport. Giving up her chance to be in the contest, she urged Sellers on the whole way.
When they called 46 to the front of the crowd, Sellers became so shy he had to be carried by his mommy. Then we squeezed our way into the audience to wait for the judges to pick their top five. When the lady called out, “Forty-six, Baby Vladimir!” we were confused, but we realized this non-Potter-fan meant Voldemort, and this time Sellers ran up alone to stand next to Hagrid, Molly Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Hogwarts Castle. As they announced the top three we were sad he didn’t win third or second and braced ourselves to comfort him. Instead we all screamed as the lady announced his victory! Of course now what was going to be a couple of hours at the party had to stretch all the way to midnight so we could be first in line and receive our free copy of the book.
As the evening wore on we entertained ourselves standing in line half an hour for drinks. When we finally got to the front the children chose large cookies: “The pink frosted one for the Dark Lord, please.” Then the news crews showed up. One of the fun things about living in a small town is that sometimes all you have to do to get on television is dress oddly. So we were in the live shot from the bookstore at 11:05 and then again yesterday afternoon at 5:00. The kids went to bed around 12:30 AM, and we stayed up another hour reading the first two chapters and sipping wine.
Julian woke up at 5:55 AM, and we cat-napped while he drank milk and watched Thomas. Saturday’s big event was Julian’s haircut, the first in two months. Having been banned from our usual salon as well as Great Clips Julian’s only option was Fantasy Hairland, where they specialize in cutting children’s hair. Julian climbed up in the race-car/barber chair with some trepidation, and as soon as he saw the shears even two ladies offering him candy and balloons wasn’t enough to stop his frantic screaming. So we switched to Plan B, which involved me wrestling him through a tear-streaked, sweaty, itchy screaming fit. They swore they’ve seen worse…
From there it was on to Home Depot and an Oaxacan restaurant where we were reminded 1) why we don’t take our kids to restaurants more often and 2) why there aren’t more Oaxacan restaurants. We planted garden beds until the sun went down, bathed, put the kids to bed, and read more Harry Potter.
This morning dawned 65 degrees and breezy, perfect for a run under the last of the bats and the first of the herons to take to the sky. Margaret rounded at the hospital, then it was more Home Depot, Costco, gardening, and Harry Potter. Now it’s time for baths, dinner, laundry, and bills. This week we’re looking forward to a field trip to the Jungle Rapids water park with Abby and Sellers. Have a great week!
David
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