Domestic Geek

I haven't done one in a while, but I'm going to make this TT short and sweet:Thirteen Things For Which I Am Thankful

1. Marcus
2. My father
3. A roof over my head and food to eat
4. A decent paying job with full benefits that I actually don't hate doing
5. My dream car (Subaru Baja)
6. Good friends (online and IRL)
7. An intelligent, logical mind
8. My creative abilities
9. My natural curiosity and thirst for knowledge
10. Netflix
11. The Internet
12. Relatively good health
13. My computer

Thirteen of my Online Friends You Should Visit

I've been fortunate and met quite a lot of interesting people online. This week I'd like to share the sites of 13 of those friends with you.

1. hello! yoshi — I met Yoshi while looking for an Expression Engine blogroll link manager. I was sick to death of blogrolling.com always hanging my site and he had written a nifty little module that works wonderfully (I still use it to this day). Since then, we have been through two blogathons together and he's always quick to help when problems come up and Marcus isn't available. He sent me a tutorial on how I can do private posts on here, I just haven't managed to find the time to take a look at it yet.
2. LaLaGirl - Twinfinite Chaos — Oddly enough, I met Laura before I even knew what a blog was. She and I were attending the same stupid school and my friend Rev and I would chat with Laura once in a while during lunch. It was while doing a search to see if anyone else hated that stupid school as much as I that I found a link to Laura's blog. She had written about this stupid programming instructor that everyone absolutely hated. She's quite the busy gal with two sets of twins and a tween daughter. She won't admit it, but she's quite the superwoman. I really admire her.
3. Simple Kind of Life — If you're blogging and haven't been to any of Colleen's many sites, what rock have you been hiding under? Her first blog is SKOL and I found her a few years ago through Laura's site, but only became really well acquainted with her in the last year or so since I emailed her about a paid blogging site question I had. She's another one of those superwomen... three kids, a career and a blogging celebrity all rolled into one. She's quite an inspiration.
4. Whatever I Feel Like — I also found Amy through Laura. I was like this little insider hanging on the fringe of this group of online girlfriends. Amy is another woman I really admire. She's really smart and has some wonderful insights into life. She's another source of inspiration. She and her family recently go a chocolate lab named Grace. I'm so jealous.
5. Cass Knits — I met Cass on a paid blogging site forums. She's a Southern gal with 8 kids and a whole slew of interesting blogs. She shared the process of making sweet tea with me and I'm ever so grateful! I don't know how she manages to raise a family, blog, moderate forums and find time to be crafty, but she does.
6. RADHOLE — Russ is a Denverite that I know through Marcus' best friend Mike's sister Valerie. *whew* Russ is quite the character. He is an amateur movie maker, a writer and a successful urban gardener. He also is fascinated with space and space exploration.
7. Marisa's Dandelion Patch — Marisa (another PPP friend) is a grandmother, but you'd never know it by looking at her. She's an extremely geeky, wise and opinionated woman.
8. Shameless Reality Show — Another online friendship forged through the PPP forums. Terri went MIA for a couple of months when an errant Wordpress plugin took her site down. She's a budding astrologer and in exchange for a chart, I helped her get her site back up.
9. An Indian Summer — I met Bug during last year's blogathon. She may be young in years, but I think she's an old and wise soul. Unfortunately, she hasn't been blogging very much lately due to her job getting in the way, but she gave her notice and hopefully we'll get to read more from her in the near future. She has a radio program that you should check out. The link is in her sidebar.
10. Surviving NJ — Deb is another online friend I made via PPP. She's a published author as well as a blogger. She's also quite the traveler.
11. Stitching the Night Away Craft Blog — Loretta is another gal that I met of the PPP forums. She also runs several sites, but my favorite of hers is her craft blog.
12. Julie's Journal — Dang, I can't remember if I read Julie through Laura's site or not. I have also gotten to know her through a paid blogging site. She's a techy gal like me, living in Nevada and had a wedding in Vegas sponsored by previously mentioned paid blogging site.
13. MarcusLingl.net — If you've read my site for any length of time, you should know Marcus. If not, he's my boyfriend of 15 years, a computer geek, lover of all things Mac, a gamer and a mountain biker. He doesn't blog very often, but when he does he posts well thought-out, insightful content (and I'm not just saying that).

So, there you go. I have several more friends that I'll introduce in a later T13. If you stop by any of them, tell them I sent you!

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Please consider Sponsoring Me in this Saturday's Blogathon in support of Livestrong: The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Thank you!

Now that I'm done with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and I am no longer obsessing over it with my every waking moment, I need to get cracking on some other things that were put on the back burner.

Thirteen Things I Am Going to Tackle Now That Harry Potter is Over

1. Stephen King — I've got all those Stephen King books I bought earlier this summer to tackle.
2. Home Inventory — Marcus and I need to do an updated home inventory and get it to a secure, off location spot. You never know when a disaster will strike and it would be a good idea to have our possessions cataloged.
3. Learn to Knit — I've had this on my list for years. I want to learn NOW!
4. Sell Stuff on eBay — I have a huge box of stuff I want to get rid of. Hopefully someone will want it.
5. Wax my Car — I came to the sad realization that I haven't waxed that poor car once since I've had it.
6. Find Another Income Source — I am not getting much OT at work and paid blogging is unpredictable. I need another revenue source so I can make it to Vegas in November and so we can get our house on land.
7. Clean the Carpets — Winter will be here before I know it and I won't be able to have the house opened up to dry them.
8. New Blog Design — hopefully this will happen before Saturday's blogathon. I'm really close to having it finished.
9. Purge More Stuff — It's amazing with everything I've let go of, I still have a ton of stuff. I don't use it, so I need to get rid of it.
10. Find Old College Buddies — I have a few people from college I want to try to locate and see how they turned out.
11. Establish Exercise Routine — Now that my ankles have finally gotten better, it's time to concentrate of getting the old body fit.
12. Get My Hair Done — I haven't had my hair cut professionally since well before my mother passed almost 10 years ago. I'm tired of the long, stringy pony tail.
13. Craft — I started a craft blog, but haven't made time to craft recently.

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Also, 3 Days Until HP and the Deathly Hallows

I stopped by Mike and Nina's after work today to leave my car in their parking lot so that Marcus and I can retrieve it once he gets home from work. While there, Nina gave me the Chocolate Frog that she picked up for me at Borders the other day. Guess who my wizard card was? Yep, Severus Snape! w00t! Nina got an Albus Dumbledore one. How cool is that? At least we didn't end up with unheard of wizards or witches, y'know? So, thanks again, Nina and Mike! It was very thoughtful and very much appreciated.

It's getting increasingly hard to concentrate at work. It seems my every waking thought is on this book and the desire I have to see how Jo ends it all. I thought it would be interesting to get all my thoughts, hopes and predictions down here in writing for my TT this week and we'll see how close or far off the mark I am on Saturday.

Thirteen Predictions About Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

1. Voldemort will die. Hopefully that one is a duh, no-brainer prediciton.
2. Snape is one of the good guys. I know there are two sharply divided camps over this one. I believe that Dumbledore made Snape kill him for one of two reasons. Either the piece of Voldemort's soul that was in Marvolo's ring transferred to Dumbledore (making him a Horcrux) and therefore Dumbledore had to die to destroy the fragment or else it was necessary for my next prediction to happen.
3. Dumbledore is a Phoenix Animagus and was reborn. The absence of Dumbledore in the former headmaster painting speaks volumes. Also, are we to believe the greatest wizard of all time isn't an animagus? If Gandalf can come back in LOTR, then so can Dumbledore...that's all I'm saying!
4. Lucious Malfoy will die. Hopefully he is one among many Death Eaters that will bite the dust. Although I find the actor that plays him in the movies incredibly sexy, the character is an ass.
5. Draco will redeem himself. I think he will end up on the side of good in the end.
6. Crookshanks will be a major player. I'm pretty sure we haven't seen what Crookshank's purpose in this story is yet. True, he played a big role ferreting out Peter Pettigrew/Scabbers, but that cat will have a part in how things turn out in book 7.
7. Wormtail/Peter will help defeat The Dark Lord. I don't think he'll do it intentionally, though. He's a bumbling idiot and a coward. Since he is also indebted to Harry for keeping Sirius and Lupin from killing him, that will have to be a factor.
8. Ron and Hermione will not be a couple in the end. One, how many school romances last into adulthood? Not many. I think Ron is too much of a dunderhead for someone as smart and talented as Hermione. Not to say that they can't remain good friends, though (providing neither of them is killed in the final battles).
9. Harry and Ginny will not be a couple in the end. There are many reasons other than the school romance thing why I don't think this one will continue. First, I think there is a strong possibility that Ginny will die. It could be the final straw that pushes Harry over the edge for revenge. Also, is Harry survives the final battle, he's going to be one messed up dude. I don't believe that Harry will be with anyone
10. Aunt Petunia must have some part to play in the final book. Since Harry's protection ends when he turns 17, I doubt that Jo would just have the Dursley's drop out of Harry's life for good. On a separate but kind of related note, what happened to Harry's grandparents (i.e., Lily and Petunia's parents)? I always wondered why they weren't in the picture.
11. Percy Weasley will fall under control of Voldemort. I don't know if he'll be under an Imperius curse or if he goes of his own free will, but Percy has always bothered me and I could totally see him ending up on the wrong side.
12. Harry will be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. I believe there will be a little epilogue like LOTR. What a fitting end for Harry to live out his days at the one place that felt like home to him in the position that Voldemort cursed because Dumbledore wouldn't hire him for the position. Harry is already good at teaching Defense as shown by the DA lessons in Order of the Phoenix.
13. Neville will ultimately defeat Voldemort. I think all along that old Voldy has had his attention (as well as everyone else) on the wrong boy wizard.

So, there we are. Will I be right? Only J.K. Rowling, those involved in the production of the book and those putting up leaks all over the Internet know for sure. It will be fun to see if my thoughts play out or if Jo throws us all for a big loop. We'll find out on Saturday.

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As with many of my hobbies, I've let pleasure reading really slide in the last few years. I've decided to allow myself to get back into it and have hit a few used book stores and Amazon the last few weeks and have gathered a few books to keep me busy reading this summer. The Stephen King books are part of my goal to catch up on all his works that I've missed.

Thirteen Books I Bought to Read This Summer

1. Angels and Demons by Dan Brown, author of The DaVinci Code. I really enjoyed that book and am looking forward to reading another of his works.
2. Prentice Alvin by Orson Scott Card. I started reading this science fiction series about Colonial America that believes and uses folk magic back in college. I'm excited to get back into it since he's written several more books in the series.
3. Alvin Journeyman by Orson Scott Card.
4. The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower II) by Stephen King. I've only read the first book in the series. I put off reading the rest until he finished writing them, but the series drug on for over 20 years. He's done now, so time to read them.
5. The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower III) by Stephen King.
6. Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower IV) by Stephen King.
7. Four Past Midnight by Stephen King. A short story collection.
8. Nightmares & Dreamscapes by Stephen King. More short stories.
9. Needful Things by Stephen King. I used to have this and somebody stole it. I don't remember the story, so I'm reading it as new.
10. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King.
11. The Regulators by Richard Bachman (OK, really Stephen King's Pseudonym). It has a companion book called Desperation that I read a while back.
12. Cell by Stephen King. Told you I had a bunch to read. There's still a handful to get yet — eight, I think.
13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. The seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series. OK, it isn't used and I don't have it in my possession yet, but it will be in a little over five weeks! Since I've already ordered it, we'll go ahead and add it to the list.

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