Has anyone other than me read these books?  Oh my goodness.  I just finished Changes the last one (so far) and it’s driving me nuts to have to wait a year for the next one.  I love love love the characters in this series.  All of them.  I don’t think there’s any of the main characters (or even a lot of the not main characters) that couldn’t have their own spin off series with their own stories (different from Harry’s) and still be great reads.  I was loving Lea particularly in this one.  Anyone read them????

Robert bought pit tickets for Edgefest 20 and took time off work to go.  Rebecca’s friend bought her a pit ticket and I called Vanessa and got her to come too.  She drove up the toll way and through the traffic by herself (and was a nervous wreck about it).  When she started seeing signs that said PAID parking, she began freaking out.  I told her to pay it and I’d give the $20 back to her when she got in.  She didn’t want to though so she drove past the parking attendants and parked farther up….still in a parking lot..er pasture, but where no cars were yet.  She then wanted me to meet her outside the gates.  I told her I couldn’t leave without paying to get in again., but if she’d stand in line and buy a ticket, I’d be waiting inside the gate.  She came in a different gate and somehow managed to get in before we got to the gate.  When I saw her, I asked what was wrong.  She said she bought a ticket from a guy for $75 and when she came to the gate, they scanned it and said it was already used.  She then began to cry and the lady told her, “It’s okay honey.  Go on in.  Just don’t do it again.”
There were plenty of tickets although no pit tickets left.  She could have gotten in for $50 instead of $75, but she didn’t want to stand in line alone.  I felt bad.  I told Robert that on the way out, I’d go by the ATM and give her half her money back.  He said, “Oh no you won’t.  You told her what to do and she didn’t do it.  This is a life lesson.  She’s got the money to spend.”  He also told her throughout the day that he hoped her car wasn’t towed since she didn’t have a parking sticker.  At the end of the night, we saw tow trucks hauling cars and she freaked…but she got lucky.  Hers was still there.

The concert was a lot of fun.  It was an all day thing.  The line up was Limp Bizkit, Three Days Grace, 30 Seconds to Mars, Deftones, Flyleaf, Switchfoot, 10 Years, Phoenix, Metric, Cage the Elephant, Violent Soho, The Crash Kings, Neon Trees, and Hole…we didn’t stay for Limp Bizkit.  Hole is Courtney Love’s band - that’s right.  Courtney Love’s Hole.  They were funny - only because the audience was yelling, “You killed Killed Kurt!”…and eventually she picked one particularly loud fellow and told him she’d come down and kick his bottom if there wouldn’t be a lawsuit…lol

Of course there was lots of smoking and drinking.  At one point we were sitting in the stands cooling off when Ethan said, “Mom, I want to go sit with those kids.”  I looked to where he was nodding and saw four boys his age passing around a pipe…and I don’t think it was legal because there were no giant bubbles coming out of the end of it.  I told him to go sit with them so I can get a picture, but he suddenly changed his mind.  Boys.  You never know what they’re going to do.  The four no-bubble boys got up and left just a few minutes before two cops came down searching the stands obviously looking for the boys…or maybe just their lost pipe…All week before the concert, Robert was telling Ethan that he was going to have him crowd surfing….and during Cage the Elephant’s performance, Ethan tapped Robert on the shoulder, took off his glasses, and said, with a serious look on his face, “Robert, I’m ready…” at which point Robert hoisted him into the air and off he went….with Vanessa right behind him….lol  They had a blast…and it only got better from there.

We picked up some over priced pizza and drinks afterward and went to sit down and watch the children devour it like the scavangers they are.  I happened to turn around and notice a line forming and people walking away with CD’s.  I grabbed Robert and made him go with me to check it out.  It was Three Days Grace.  If you bought their CD, you got to skip to the front of the line to get autographs and meet them.  They’re his favorite band.  He bought a disk and went through the line faster than I could get my camera out for pictures. =(  Later that night, he wanted to take it to a birthday party his friend was having, but I wouldn’t let him.  I knew he’d give it away as a birthday present.  He knew I was right so he left it and I framed it for him.  It looks good.

If I’d thought about it at the time, I’d have sabotaged Three Days Grace’s tour bus.  If even just one of them got killed, we could sale the cd and at least by a 3D TV, right?  *sigh*  I didn’t think about it though so instead of ninjaing my way to their bus, we went back down to the pit where 30 seconds to Mars was setting up.  We couldn’t talk Vanessa into sneaking in.  She didn’t have a pit pass, but the yellow band Robert had gotten to meet Three Days Grace was the pit band with smiley faces stamped on it.  We saw people walking in with them, but she wouldn’t even try.  She and Ethan stayed behind until later in the night when Ethan went through and handed Vanessa his wrist band back through the fence….lol

30 Seconds to Mars put on a fantastic show.  Their lead singer is very high energy and played to the crowd.  At one point, he disappeared from the stage and someone hit Robert in the back.  He turned to look and it was the singer running on his way into the stands.   They were a good band, but they were a GREAT show to watch.  When they ended, there was about a 30 minute break before 3 Days Grace.  As people moved to get drinks or whatever, we ooched up ever closer to the stage. Of course I could only see people’s heads, but Robert assured me we were going toward the stage and that we ended up about 10 feet away.  I believe him because when the band began playing, the force from the speaker system made us lean backwards until we could fight our way upright again.  Judging from the pics Robert took, he had a great view of the stage.

Three Days Grace rocked.  Period.  They sang all their hits and did a bang-em-up job.  During the set though, the drunk lady in front of me decided to feed beer to my feet repeatedly and to booty dance right into me when she wasn’t grinding on her boyfriend or flipping her hair back into me.  She was a little woman, but she apparently required 5 feet of room for drunken flirting.   At one point, her boyfriend decided to hold up his lighter…to see if she’d had enough alcohol yet or not.  Her breath didn’t catch fire, but her hair might have if the band hadn’t picked that moment to ask people to put their fist in the air rather than lighting lighters.  As I said before, she wasn’t very big so her fist didn’t go very high into the air.  She decided to make up for this by bringing her elbow back inches from my face so that her fist could get a running start and therefor get more air.  I was just thinking, “If she hits me, I’m going to punch her in the nose and then lay her boyfriend out too!” when she tried to lay a big sloppy kiss on her boyfriend and he remembered that her breath wasn’t flaming yet so he sent her for more alcohol.  Luckily, she didn’t make it back until the very end of the set.

Since the only band left was Limp Bizkit who I really didn’t care to see, we made a run for it.  It was a fun night and I was glad the whole family was there to enjoy it together. =)

I love this song by the Plain White T’s.  TBF doesn’t like it, but too bad.  He has to listen to it anyway…lol

I love love loved it!  What more is there to say?  =)

Ethan, TBF, and I went to see Wolverine Saturday.   It was a little hokie.  Okay, maybe a lot hokie.  A decapitated head that breathes?!?!  *sigh*    If you’re just looking for some fun action that doesn’t necesarily make sense, this is your movie!

We saw the midnight showing last night.  Don’t bother.  Wait and rent it.  So much potential there, but the story was lacking.  It was easy to figure out who done it and the violence, language, etc was too much, not to mention it was too long.  They took 3 hours to explain what I figured out in 30 minutes. The graphics were good though and the tidbits dropped here and there in the background were neat.

I really really liked this movie.  It was like watching a kids school play because a lot of the acting was bad, but the movie still managed to be good despite that.  I’m a little shocked that all the racial comments made in the movie haven’t been complained about (or maybe they have and I’ve just not noticed).

The theater TBF and I saw it at is in a progressively worsening area.  We’d gone to dinner before that so we were catching the late show.  There were soooo many kids with baggy jeans - their underwear showing, and their dates with their undies showing despite their jeans being skin tight.  Almost every show was sold out.  When we got into the theater, we expected it to be packed, but there were lots of seats left - and only older white people in the audience.

There’s a scene in the movie (they show it in the previews so I don’t think I’m spoiling anything) where Clint Eastwood’s character stops at a corner where three guys are harrassing this girl and says, “What are you spooks doing?”  It was so shocking to me, but funny at the same time because of the look on the kids faces in the movie - surprised that someone would have the nerve to say something like that. 

When we left the movie, the police cars were patroling and starting to say over the loud speaker, “10 minutes to curfew.  Get your ID’s ready!”  It was just as packed outside the theater as it had been when we’d come in.  I told TBF, “Why don’t you try out that spook line from the movie?”  He didn’t think it was as funny as I did.  “Do you want me dead?!?” 

Of course I don’t, but the movie did make me a little curious as to how people would react to such extreme nonPCness.  There were so many racial slurs in the movie that TBF didn’t even know them all - and some he didn’t get (remember, he’s a young pup).  To me, the guy sounded like my real dad - who survived the Vietnam war (is it a war now or still just a conflict?) and came back with all the same slurs as the Walt character that faught in the Korean war.

It reminded me of that one night that my sister and I spent in the Veteran’s hospital with my dad.  He was throwing out so many ugly comments in every direction and I was appologizing profusely behind him.  People seemed to ignore it - writing it off to an old man.  Everyone but me that is.  I’d never seen anyone act like that before…but that’s how the Walt character in this movie is.

If you can believe it, it really was a good movie….despite all that.

When I was waiting for Ethan to get ready for school this morning, I checked my email and had an iTunes Gift. with this note attached:

“Hope your week gets better! *hugs*

I like this music video, thought you might enjoy it and if Vanessa doesn’t already have it on her new iPod Touch she might enjoy loading it on there.

Never know what the future will bring, I try to remind myself! :)”

The song - Bad Day by Daniel Powter.  I love that song. =)

Thanks so much, Mycroft.  You really brightened my day!!

Sunday was a rare day when TBF and I both were off work.  TBF wanted to go shopping for clothes.  I’m not making this up.  Sometimes I think he’s more of a girl than I am - but then others, I know that’s not the case (like when he makes fun of me for fixing my hair or when he gets angry about losing a video game).  Anyway, we went to the mall where he bought many clothes.  I was prepared to frown at bad picks and override any loud colors, but I didn’t have to.  He picked out nice stuff all by himself. =)  I didn’t even have to fib about liking what he picked because I really did.  Apparently I did mention one too many times that perhaps it was time to replace the old boxers, but I’m happy I did as they got replaced with nice new Docker ones that are much prettier to look at and again, he picked them out all by himself. =)  He wore one of the new button up shirts to work today where the men teased him about having a date after work and the women told him how nice he looked all dressed up.

After shopping, we went to Texas Roadhouse where TBF and Ethan tried to eat their weight in beef.  Since they probably couldn’t walk any further after eating all that, we went to the movies.  I didn’t want to see Yes Man, but they did.  It was okay.  One of the better Jim Carrey movies.  TBF said it’s his second Carrey favorite behind Liar Liar.  I’d probably agree with that.

Since I had wanted to see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button but was over ruled,  I went on Wednesday, my day off.  I love love loved it and cried just like I knew I would.  Half way through the movie, I was wishing I’d waited to see it with TBF.  Of course he wouldn’t enjoy it as much as I did, but it would have been nice to watch it with him anyway.  Halfway through the movie though, I got a text and couldn’t keep from reading it.  “Love you” is all it said.  It was enough to make me smile and again wish I’d drug him along to see it.

I know all you guys are going, “What a rediculous movie.” and to some degree I agree.  For instance, the thought of him getting physically smaller and reverting to an infant is just absurd.  He was shorter as an old looking child and should have stayed big as a babyfied old man.  Despite that though, I still liked the movie. =)

TBF told me he thought I’d like this movie so Wednesday on his way home from work, he stopped and bought it.  We stayed up until 1AM watching it and he was right.  I LOVED the movie!  The faun was a little scary.  The medical scenes were horribly painful.  The story was great.  I just completely loved this movie!