woohoo, I just got a call about a possible job in Littleton- I haven't scared them off yet so that is good. I am off work today and am stranded at home because I have taken my car in to get a new master cylinder. I also took Simon into the vet this morning for his annual shots. He did a pretty good job because we were the only people/animals in the office at the time. But still he made these noises when the vet was handling him like he was possessed and his head was getting ready to spin around- poor guy. I have never seen him scurry into his carrier as fast as he did after his shots. Any thing to get home away from the man with the hands.
And I did better this time too. Last time he got his shots in bloomington, he sounded so scared that I got tears in my eyes and had to turn away from the vet. Even though I know he is ok, I can't stand to hear the kitty terror in his little cat screams. I just love the darn feline. He is now over 6 years old. I've had him since my junior year of college. I remember when I first got him from the shelter and he was still a kitten. I had classes the next day and had to leave him in the apt. alone--or with Keith-my roommate's nutty video obsessed vegan mustached boyfriend. I walk/ran all the way home from class to check on the little kitten. I wish more people would get their pets from animal shelters. So many people have to give up pets or lose pets for one reason or another.
Here he is with me as I am trying to wrap up a book to mail off this morning. He has to be in the middle of everything.
THIS POST CONTAINS HARRY POTTER SPOILERS!...if you don't want to see them, start reading after the pic
I finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows last night. Overall I was really pleased with the book and the way that it brought the series to a close. There are some cloudy areas that I didn't think were explained very well- they were just a little distracting. Mainly, how did Harry not die when Voldemort hit him with the killing curse when Harry gave himself up? The books explains that because he did give himself up with out other motives that is why he lived. hmmm...but um, why? I don't see how that would affect the spell.
Then I couldn't remember why Draco was the rightful owner of the elderwand before Harry won it from him. I must be forgetting something.
The important thing is that...I was right about Snape! He was loyal to Dumbledore and the school. Joseph and I were talking about the fact that he didn't get much credit though for what he did. He had to be in a really dangerous position and be made to look a "bad guy" at Hogwarts--Harry cleared his name sure, but he didn't seem to get the attention he deserved after he died.
I didn't like the "nineteen years later" chapter. Cheesy. Plus, I don't like people always getting named after others. This in itself is a topic for me- I won't go into it now, lucky for you, I can really get going on that one.
But over all, I give the book a big thumbs up. I like the tug between the horcruxes and the hallows- that was fun. Well played.
Here is a picture of Joseph and I cooking the other night. We made orange glazed pork chops and rice pilaf. We ate dinner at about 10:30, but we had lots of fun. I am wearing Tara's old Moonstruck apron from when she worked at the chocolate shop in Bloomington. That was my favorite job of hers. Why ever change from a career in chocolate and giving your sister free stuff?
Yesterday Joseph and I drove up to Bloomington for our last visit with Kirk and Megan before we move. We had a nice little slumber party. First some dinner and black and tans at the Irish Lion and then today we had breakfast at Uptown Cafe (cottage cheese pancakes Tara!) and played miniature golf.
Joseph and I took a walk down town before we all met up. I love walking in Bloomington. There are always interesting people to look at, flowers growing- just good walking atmosphere. We saw a guy playing the recorder on a corner of Kirkwood and some hippy types on the courthouse lawn with mixing bowls and boxes with a sign hanging- "free meal." I took a picture of some graffiti in an alley that Joseph knew about. They are utility meters that look so real that I didn't even see the graffiti. We walked by Howard's Bookstore on the square and all three of their cats were sitting by the front glass doors watching the people go by on the side walk. These cats just roam the store. It somehow seems really appropriate for a cat to be rubbing up on your legs while you shop for books. I don't know why.
Kirk loaned me the book, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. However this book has to wait in line for me to finish my Atwood book, The Robber Bride I got from my Aunt Tammy and then I must read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. We got this book shipped to us on the big day and now it seems like everyone is reading it- Megan during pauses in the conversation last night, Joseph on the couch next to me right now, the girl in the cooking supply store today, my 60 year old co-worker...
It is great to see people going bananas for a book. Really, for a book to be making any kind of news at all is a good thing- refreshing. They have some much to compete with these days, but a well written story is so absorbing and you just keep thinking about it. Personally, having read all but one of the Harry Potter books up till this final one, I think that Dumbledore is not really dead. Did anyone catch those little Lord of the Rings movies? Wizards have a tendency to be hard to get rid of- plus, Dumbledore kept saying to trust Snape and so I do.
I think Snape hasn't really killed him. They were possibly in some agreement to make it look like Snape killed him so that the Dark Lord would not be watching for him to be there for Harry. (I just got to write a post with the words "Dark Lord" in it.) If Snape turns out to actually be fighting for the Dark Lord I am going to be disappointed in the story. It seems really important that he has a further layer to his character that is neither all good nor all bad, and isn't simply a person who was treated badly in his life and thus became bad. Please, anyone who is reading the Harry Potter books feel free to leave a comment with your theory about the the plot of the last book- it is fun to hear. Just no give aways if you already know what happens!
So back at home this evening we made bltaps- bacon lettuce tomato avacado pickle sandwiches and are now hanging out at our posts. Joseph with Harry Potter and I with the computer- doing our duties to our selves that desire entertaining and don't want to think about going to work tomorrow. After this...reading in bed with a cat curled up beside me.
Ok, there is an organization out there that I have just heard about that totally indulges my negativity towards the human species. Really it is not a organization in the way of having meetings and a leader and such, but a movement with a looong term specific goal. It's called the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement. Their goal is to persuade people to stop breeding in order to reduce and eventually kill off the human race. They aren't a cult; they don't want people to kill others or themselves, just to stop having babies in order to avoid the destruction of earth's ecology.
So to be part of this group you just- decide not to have biological children. It is all so funny and serious at the same time. I mean it is a hysterical proposition to ask people not to make babies- it is instinctual, and it's fun! But also it's the only thing we can do to keep the good ole mother earth and her trees and frogs and waters from going down the toilet.
I feel pretty certain that the humans are going to muck it up in ultimate and permanent proportions- it is just a matter of time. It sounds fatalistic, I know, but I can not see how we all, across the world, can change our life styles in such a drastic way in so short a period of time that it would stop us in our greedy destructive little tracks. People in our government are calling global warming a theory...by the time a majority of the people (or the people with the power) honestly realize that this plane is going down if we don't do something drastic, it is already going to be too late.
I don't think our kids or our great great grandchildren will see the end, but I don't question that we are going to be the species shooting off the farewell fireworks at the end of the story.
Personally, I don't think that there is anything wrong with having your own children. I think it is a forward thinking and good thing to have just one or two, so that way as a couple you are decreasing the population by one, or at least just replacing yourselves. I don't know. It is so easy for me to give up on us, but it's because I believe that we are not any more important than all of the other species that are going extinct regularly under our noses. It seems that evolving consciousness is not so good for you in the long run.
It makes me think how many times I have watched my cat, Simon, sleeping on the floor and wished that like him I didn't know so much. Yes, yes, there are things I love about life as a person. Being in love, laughing with my mom and my sister, eating foods with more than one ingredient...I just wish we didn't have so much power.
So it is 6pm on friday night and I just prepared a Publisher's Clearing House entry and Joseph is sleeping because he worked at 2:30am this morning. It's going to be a wild night at the callis/clere house tonight...watch out Clarksville; lock up your young men and your liquor.
Our going out recently has been movie focused. I have seen Ratatouille, Transformers and The Order of the Phoenix. Ok, Ratatouille- the worst thing about it is typing it. This movie I really enjoyed. It was not predictable in the way that most animated features are and it had just enough adult humor. Also the animation looked so real at times, especially the food. It made me want to sit down with a plate of brie and hot bread and ignore everything.
Transformers...there is more than meets the eye to this movie. he he he...I'm so funny. Seriously, I thought it would be worse. Not every movie is made with the ambition of winning awards and this one wasn't, but it was fun to watch and you get to hear that erh erh erh erh sound when they transform and to me that was worth it...really they got me with that. It sounded just like in the cartoons.
Finally, The Order of the Phoenix. Another enjoyable movie right in the vein of the other H.P. movies. Not my favorite just because the book had so much in it that it is getting hard for the movies to squeeze it all in so it feels a little busy or- more like you wish you could see deeper in to it. But, it must be said that the kids growing older is a tinsy bit distracting. In response to this, I have chosen Ron as my favorite, and I would officially pick him if ever forced to choose an adolescent celebrity boyfriend.
Also in the life and times of Leah Callis- I have had to replace a tire on my car this week and now my car makes a noise when I drive between 17 and 24 mph- so I try to accelerate really quickly through that part because it is annoying. Next week I am having my master cylinder replaced because my brake is sinking when I press it. Why do things have to age and breakdown?
For some reason this is slightly disturbing to me. I am fine with the general life and death cycle--it is only man made things that bother me. I hate the idea that I am going to go through my life maintaining all of these belongings that I have accumulated. Rotate the tires, sharpen the knives, increase the computer's memory, grease the bla bla bla bla. It isn't laziness; it is just the feeling that even though I am thankful for my car and enjoy my computer I end up having to do some much work for them--it's the slave to your belongings idea. Plus, what if one day something happened and all of these things were gone- what would I do? The dependency is scary. Ok.....and I'm a little lazy.
Well, I am back home from the lake in old Clarksville. Simon didn't throw up on the ride home from my parent's house last night so it really set a positive tone for our home coming. (This is noteworthy because he did throw up on the way to their house.)
Joseph and I had a wonderful time in Michigan, as we do every year. There were two additions this year however. Patrick Burke was there for the first time and well, he won me over. He was a good baby which means he let me hold him with out going to the bathroom or spitting up, much. It feels good to connect with a tiny person by holding them; it is the only way to communicate, by touch. Here, Melissa is holding him and he looks like a great cat sleeping in a tree. I am holding him in the other pic.
This is the fruit pizza my mom, Joseph and I made. The picture looks like wall paper in Willy Wonka's factory that you could lick and taste the fruits. Introducing Sarah's birthday puppy. Her proper name is Sparkle Oreo, but Joseph and I have supplemented it for a more regal fitting sound, deeming her Sparkle Jaws Oreo Dyer I (the first). I must say, she was quite a toe nibbler- and I just loved her. 
Also, Uncle Jack and Aunt Tammy have gotten kayaks recently and we took those out to Lost Lake. It's a lake that motorized boats can't access because the channel that leads to it is only a few inches deep. This makes it a serene spot where you can catch sightings of some wild life not noticed on the rest of the lake. Joseph and I saw two swans with their baby. As we were paddling out, one of the adult swans flapped across the lake at us saying, "and stay out!" I think. But he was beautiful.
Oh, also we saw a turtle that we slowly paddled toward, so carefully, so gently, so that he would stay above the water where we could see him better. We iiiinched closer. It was a plant. Drat.Well, I am thinking about going to see a matinee of Transformers this afternoon. Yep, that's right. And you know you want to too. It takes me back to the days when my brother had a transformer toy and I could never make it into whatever it was supposed to transform to. But I could however have my barbie ride on the back of his Heman Battle Cat action figure. She was a little big for a realistic match, but then again, the cat was green with orange stripes and helped to fight evil, so I guess I was willing to let the realism go.
