Cheap Thrills

Summer is winding down already! It's hard to believe that August will be here this week. I start Graduate Assistant training (to work on the reference desk in the library) on August 14th and start classes on August 22nd. I'm looking forward to it, even though it means that life will become much busier. We've had a lovely (and eventful) summer vacation. The last months have felt kind of like an extended honeymoon, with lots of time for hanging out, recreational reading, etc. etc. etc.

We've been enjoying these last few weeks of summer freedom by pursuing the "cheap thrills" of the title.

Lask week on the Harry Potter release date - July 21 at midnight - we went to the release party at the Urbana Free Library. It was quite a fun event.

There was an Owlery. . .

. . . with real owls!

There were games (like Quidditch), a magician, a storyteller, a caricaturist, and lots of people in costume.

It was really fun. After hanging at the library for a while, we went to the Borders release party, which was just a zoo. It was packed!


(Michael's getting the book for his birthday on Tuesday. Shhh! Don't tell.)

We saw the latest Harry Potter movie this past week at a drive-in movie theatre (my first time at a drive-in) in Gibson City, a small town just outside of Chambana. The Harvest Moon Drive-In Theatre was a lot of fun.

We also visited the Champaign County Fair and watched the 4-H livestock auction. Yeehaw! (The grand champion pig was nowhere near as good-looking as Nick's grand champion last year at the Franklin County Fair.) But the highlight of the fair for me (and Nicholas Hugh will appreciate this) was the food. We had a deep-fried bratwurst on a stick AND a deep-fried Milky Way on a stick. The Milky Way was so delicious -- it was like a fatty, chocolatey, caramely cookie. Except better.

In other news: Michael has a calling in the Rantoul Branch now. He's teaching the 9-11 year olds in Primary. He's also been working the last couple of days for Brigitte, the owner of the yarn store in town. She's moving in to a new building and needed some temporary help with cleaning and painting, so that's kept Michael busy for the past two days and he will probably be at it through at least the first part of this upcoming week.

What I'm reading: I just finished a book of short stories by Dave Eggers called How We Are Hungry and am starting on John Steinbeck's East of Eden (September's RS book club pick).