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We were lucky that Ros got into Harry Potter before our trip, so we could plan a few Harry Potter themed activities. The big one was a visit to the Harry Potter sets in Leavesden. (When we bought our train tickets at St. Pancras to Watford Junction, the bloke at the counter said "So, you're going to see Harry Potter, then?" Apparently, there's nothing else to do at Watford Junction. *g*)

The Sweetie and I figured it would take an hour or two to do the exhibits. When we got there, the signs said to allow three hours. In the end, we took five, and I feel like we could have spent even more time, there's just so much stuff there. Ros is not generally a big one for museums or exhibits, but she loved it all. If she hadn't, I'm sure she'd have managed to drag us through it all in an hour.

( On to the pics... )
Today had a bit of a Harry Potter theme, too. It's Ros' birthday--how did she get to be nine?!--and we surreptitiously picked up Hermione's wand and a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans in the Harry Potter store for her. It took her about 0.5 seconds to guess what was in those pressies. *g*

I booked a Harry Potter walking tour of London through Muggle Tours today. It runs from London Bridge to Leicester Square, so it'll cover some cool territory even without the Harry Potter thing.

The Sweetie has taken to singing "My Patronus" to the tune of "My Sharona." He is evil.

Finally saw Age of Ultron tonight. I liked it. Not loved it (at this point I think that would have taken lots of Steve moping about Bucky, and then him and Sam going off to bring Bucky into the Avengers fold, followed by lots of OT3 sexy tiems, but then that's why I read fanfic) but liked it a lot. What I did love was Paul Bettany as The Vision. And I thought Natasha and Bruce were sweet together. But I was rather annoyed that Jeremy Renner being a sexist ass on the Marvel promotional tour has rather soured me on Clint Barton's character, because Barton was basically a good guy in the film.

I got Ros and I tickets to see a Canada v. England friendly match on the lead up to the women's World Cup. Still a little bitter that the world cup is in Canada, but Toronto doesn't get any games. WTF, FIFA?

Soccer season is gearing up. I'm coaching Ros' team again this year, and I've drafted the Sweetie to be lineup guy again. He's even got an official coach t-shirt this year. I picked up the uniforms yesterday, and will be meeting the team and handing them out on Saturday morning. It'll be my fourth year coaching, and yet again there are no kids we know on the team except for three of Ros' friends who requested Ros as their teammate. (Getting the four girls on the same team is totally awesome, though. The club's head coach definitely likes us!)

Even more than usual, I've been swamped. At work we're gearing up to implement a big project that I'm going to be doing all the documentation and training for. And my new boss, who I mostly like (mostly) is STRESSING ME OUT. By doing things like asking me to plan out what the training will look like when we still have no earthly idea what the system even looks like or how it's going to change our business processes. ::deep calming breaths::

At home, Ros is her usual busy self. By the time we get her home and to bed most nights I am utterly shattered. Which is frustrating because there's tons I'd like to watch or read or write. I've been doing a lot of staying up too late attempting to write, poking about on Tumblr instead until I stumble to bed like a sleep-deprived zombie.

But there's still good stuff going on, so this is a catch up post before I completely forget it all.

I'm back in full swing at Taekwando, and as of yesterday the hematoma has finally stopped hurting. Yay!

I hit a little milestone on AO3 this week. My Yuletide story for this past year,
The First Time 'Round, is my first story to hit 100 kudos. Not huge by some standards, but it's kind of satisfying. I'm just amused that it's a one shot, Edge of Tomorrow fic that got there first and not fic in one of my major fandoms.

A couple of weeks ago we took Ros to her first actual concert: The Decemberists at Massey Hall. Here's the picture she let me take of her in our seats while we were waiting for the show to start:


We wanted to take her to a gig before the big Take That show so she could test her new (pink!) ear defenders and get a sense of what a concert is like. (Seven weeks today we'll be leaving for England!) The Decemberists seemed like a good band to try her out on because they were, for the first time ever in Toronto, playing a soft seat venue, and they're a pretty genial live band. She did okay, but conked out three songs in, and only woke up for The Mariner's Revenge song at the end. Which is a good song to wake up for because as well as getting the audience to scream for the giant whale attack in the song, they now have a giant foam whale on stage that "eats" the band. Trust me on this, it's hilarious.

The Toronto Film Fest's Kid Film Fest is on at the moment. Last Saturday we took Ros and a friend to see Shaun the Sheep the Movie. (Or at it is in the credits: Shaun the Sheep MOVIE.) Which the girls enjoyed immensely, and so did we. Tomorrow we're taking Ros and another friend to the fest for a Looney Tunes program preceded by a pancake breakfast. And tonight we watch the second Harry Potter movie. Ros has started nitpicking all the things they change for the movies. Our little fangirl!

And finally, the rehearsals have started for Ros' ice show. The theme for the year is the Seasons, and Ros' number is Sunshine. Last weekend was also the picture day for the ice show, and I have to say that ( Ros' costume is adorable )

And now I must crash.

Ros and I have been pushing through Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and finally finished it earlier this week. She loved it, and has been discussing the books with her friends. (I was all set to retire my spoiler t-shirt, but she already knows that Dumbledore dies!)

Tonight we watched the first movie for family movie night. It's the first movie she's been enthusiastic about since she was a toddler and wanted to watch Snow White over and over again.

It was adorable watching her react to all the bits in the movie she knew from the book. Mostly she kept saying "that's not how I imagined it." Except for Ollivanders Wand Shop, which she said was exactly how she imagined it.

She freaked out a bit at the end--Fluffy and Voldemort appearing in the back of Quirrell's head were just a bit too much for her--but still gave it a firm thumb's up at the end. Yay!

We've already started reading The Chamber of Secrets. The Sweetie picked it up this week whilst I was indisposed. (I'm finally feeling mostly human! Yay!) Ros loves the flying car. The Sweetie, on the other hand, keeps wondering why the heck they keep sending Harry back to spend summers with those horrible Dursleys! (I have to admit I question Dumbledore's wisdom on this point as well.)