On living without boys...

M has been away in the last couple of weeks -he's coming back tomorrow!- and I had some time to reflect on the current state of things...

Pros of living without boys
1. It can be incredibly productive
2. EVERYTHING around the house stays cleaner longer
3. Having to do only about a third of the usual amount of laundry
4. Getting the cat's undivided attention
5. Being able to get deep, sound, restful sleep (because he moves a lot...)
6. Nobody is around to ask me to cook or wash dishes

Cons of living without boys
1. It can get lonely
2. When the time comes to clean something, there is nobody around to help you
3. There's nobody who folds my clothes the way I like it!
4. Realizing that the cat likes him better
5. Having to use hot water bottles and wear four layers to bed (because he keeps me warm...)
6. Nobody is around to cook for me or wash my dishes

Overall boys also are there to help move heavy stuff, open jars and do odd jobs around the house. So I guess that says it... I missed him a lot.

Parry Hotter

I just came from seeing the latest and (so far promised) last Harry Potter movie: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

I should admit that I never read a single HP book. At the time the first one came out, I was too busy being a rebellious teenager to subscribe to fads. Everyone in school was reading it, which only meant that I wasn't going to. By the time all my friends were on book 3, 4 or 5, I convinced myself that I was doing the right thing by sticking to my very adult-like classic literature. By the time the last book was published I was just finishing college and too busy with more artsy, dark, contemporary literature thanks to my (new) artsy, dark and contemporary friends. So in short, I just didn't have the time to read Harry Potter.

However, I, never missed a single one of the movies.

And here I am, puzzled as ever, as to why I continued to waste my time and money with a plot I couldn't follow or understand. I like the Harry Potter movies, I really do, but if you ask me who is who, or what they do, or whether they are a bad or a good guy, I would probably not have an answer for you.

Combine the lack of context with my inability to understand the british accent and you end up with 19 hours and 38 minutes, and at least some $120 (some popcorn included) of my time and money completely wasted.

HP&TDH Part 1 was impossible for me to follow for the reasons above. Luckily Part 2 had more action than lines, so it was far more entertaining. A few things that I took from the movie:

1. Daniel Radcliffe is very short. Seriously, he makes everyone look like giants.

2. This guy:

Source

It's Willow!!! I never noticed him before but today I did. Now there's a movie about wizards that I love.

Source

Not that I would watch it again, it would probably ruin it for me.

3. These kids are grown up! Deathly Hollows Part 1 and 2 had some serious adult scenes. There was some naked making-out action on Part 1 and several very bloody (and one very abstract) scenes on part 2. This last movie was rated M (recommended for Mature audiences) in Australia.

Source

4. Whatever happened to the Asian girl that Harry had a crush on? When did Ron all of a sudden have a sister? And when did she and Harry fall suddenly in love?

5. Thumbs up. Even though I still don't know who's who in the world of HP, I think I was able to tell that there were some bad guys who turned out to be good, and some good guys that were not so good. And there were a few loving characters that evolved from being nobody on movie 1, to being the hero who saved the day on movie 7. I quite liked all the twists they added at the end.

6. I don't want to spoil it for you, but the ending is nothing short of cute.

So will I read the books now? Probably not... but maybe I should watch all the movies again.