The Magical World of Harry Potter

Who doesn't love Harry Potter? I do, so when the Harry Potter Exhibition came to the Museum of Science in Boston, I just had to go. And luckily Nathan likes Harry Potter too, so he wasn't opposed when I dragged him along with me.
Now, unfortunately the exhibition didn't allow photographs! Lame! So I'll do my best to describe every exhibit. Haha, just kidding. We started out with a "British" wizard allowing some children to be sorted by the Sorting Hat. She asked them which their favorite house was first...and they all ended up where they wanted! Imagine that. Nate said I'd be a Hufflepuff and that he'd be a Slytherin. It's true. He's not evil, but he's very science and power oriented, in a good way. He'd be a good Slytherin. And I'd be a sweet, kind, lowly Hufflepuff. :)


On display were costumes and props from the movies. They had that big portrait of Lockhart, remember? From the second movie, I think, when the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is all into himself? So they had his big portrait, and other things from his office. OH! One thing that was cool was Umbridge's office. Remember how she had all those plates with kittens on them and how it was all overly pink? They had all that.
There were a few interactive exhibits. You could pull mandrakes. The weird root-like creatures that had the piercing scream. Yeah, that was fun. You could also throw a quaffle...or some ball through a Quidditch hoop. There was a dragon egg forever "hatching" in Hagrid's hut...Oooh, and they had the big huge model of Aragog...and some centaurs in the forest, it was all dark and creepy.
Oh, another part that was really cool was this tall wall covered in the notices Umbridge keeps coming up with, remember? She kept making up new rules and then they'd get nailed up on the wall. They had all those up, and you could read 'em, that was neat. At one point they also had newspapers, I think from the 4th movie...where Sirius Black has escaped, and maybe some were from the most recent movie...but it was cool cuz you could read 'em, and they had articles everywhere in this hodgepodge of words and articles, it was really neat. The pictures didn't move though...
Something I was surprised about was that they had Cedric Diggory's Quidditch robes, and no one cared. Do we remember who played Cedric? Robert Pattinson, aka Edward of Twilight fame. I'd think that girls would be fawning over a costume that he wore. But no one cared, weird.
Those are the highlights. Overall it was fun, overpriced, but fun. Some people came dressed up. And of course it wouldn't be complete without a big overpriced gift shop at the end with all kinds of Hogwarts memorabilia.

In Memory

My brother Stefan made this great video/slide show in honor of my younger brother Adam.

Christmas in Thailand

Who knew a Buddhist country would be so crazy about Christmas? I guess Thais just want an excuse to party. It seems like every building has their own gaudy tree, there are lights and Santas a plenty.



Even now, several days after Christmas, it's not dying down. At the aquarium today we heard the same string of 4 songs at least twice..."Feliz Navidad" was one of them...what's up with that?

Autumn in New England

Here in Boston Sunday we had beautiful weather...maybe our last nice fall day. It was sunny and warm and the leaves are all bright and colorful...So where do I choose to go on such a wonderful day? The cemetery of course! Look at the great photographs I got!









Here are some more artsy ones...I had fun editing them...Which one is your favorite?

A video for a friend

Nate and I made a video for our friend Mandie who got married this past weekend. We weren't able to make it to Colorado to be there, so we made a video. We got started late...so we progressively got sillier and sillier. Oh, for the dancing scene, I've gotta give Sam props for playing the piano. Sam also threw the bouquet and you can hear him laughing as Nate pummels me.



Here's the extended version of the throwing of the bouquet.

The Longfellow House

A couple weeks ago I went on a tour of what is now known as the Longfellow House in Cambridge. It's right down the street from where we go to church (at the Episcopal Divinity School actually. our building burnt down).

This house has a lot of history. It was built by a Tory, a guy loyal to the British, back in the mid 1700s. But when Washington and his men were taking control of Cambridge and later Boston, all the Tories left. Washington took over this house to live in and to be used as a headquarters.

Then much later (around the mid 1800s) a young Henry Wadsworth Longfellow rented a room out of the house while he attended Harvard (or he was a teacher there...I forget). When he married his second wife, Francis Appleton, he asked his father-in-law to buy that house for them. Francis' dad worked in textiles, I think he owned a mill...or was somehow involved with one. That's why there are all different kinds of carpets in the house. Not only was it the style then, but Mr.Appleton used it as a way to showcase his product. There was also a lot of colorful wallpaper used which was also so "in". I loved all the colors and patterns, hence all the pictures.



And what's really cool is that after the tour (which was done expertly by a park ranger lady who dramatically recited Longfellow's poetry) we were able to go down to the basement to meet the archivist! It was really neat. All the papers, documents and items concerning the house and the Longfellow family are all kept there. What's even cooler is that I get to volunteer there. H.W. Longfellow owned a lot of books and I get to do some data entry to get the handwritten cards which catalog all the books into a computer database. I'm really looking forward to going to this house every week!!

New posts will come

...eventually. My laptop is broken, so I won't be posting new blogs with Costa Rica and Boston pictures until it's fixed. But, I think I figured out a way for you to at least see my CR pics...so enjoy! Most of them have comments, you can read 'em if you click the little guy in the left corner with the word bubble.