July 2005
Harry Potter and the Asheville Wolf Pack!
(continued)
Saturday
Woke up dead. That writers meeting in Atlanta
I'd been wanting to go to had been hanging in the back of my mind that
I'd have time to drive back for it if I left early enough, but when I
could only imagine barely opening my eyes Saturday morning, yeah, no
way I'd be driving back this morning. (Plus Allan was going to
make pancakes!) I peeked through the window into the hallway --
and through to Ginger and Allan's open door -- to see Jameson
bright-eyed and sitting up between her unconscious parents. No
one else up either, as far as I could tell. I walked downstairs
with Maida the cat meowing at my feet every step of the way ("Still
don't have catfood, Maida," I told her, and wasn't up to opening a can
of tuna this early, so she'd have to wait for Ginger), and read on the
clock that it was a little after 7. No one would be getting up for a
while. Uuuggghhh, back upstairs and read the first two chapters
of Harry Potter. And rested my eyes (nodded off) a little.
Then I heard movement in the house, so I went back
downstairs where Ginger was making coffee ("Do you want espresso with
milk, or just regular coffee?" "Can I have regular coffee with
milk?" Pause in genuine reflection, then, "Yes, right, I could
offer that, too"). Jameson wanted me to help her put together a
puzzle, and Ethan was up and wandering around with his beloved owl (and
a mouthful of blue Drooble's Best Blowing Gum -- if I'd known better, I
would have rethought saying "Sure!" when they'd asked the evening
before if they could go ahead and eat that, as it threatened blue dye
on so many things Ethan and Jameson touched). Ethan also
innocently asked where the invisibility cloak was, and I assured him it
had been put safely away -- and promised him I'd keep a look out for
another one and if I found it, send it to him, which made him very
happy.
Ginger said she'd checked on Simon earlier in the
morning when she was up, and he was asleep in his chair with the book
open, as if he just... couldn't... keep his... eyes... open... I
popped back upstairs and quietly opened the door of the boys' room to
see if he was asleep -- and was met with his face looking up from his
beanbag chair to see who was interrupting him from reading!
Caught, I apologized and confessed to wanting to see if he'd crashed
yet -- and
don't tell me you've been up all night! He said he'd fallen
asleep for a few minutes a couple of times, but he was awake at dawn
and still reading. "What page number are you up to?" "87!"
We smiled.
Back downstairs, Ginger was getting the kids ready
for a small outing down the street to a neighbor's garage sale.
She'd just talked with her mom on the phone (she was looking for an
update on the party), and had talked earlier with Allan's brother Eric,
who had called to wish them a happy Harry Potter day! (Eric said
their little ones were dressed as Hagrid and the troll from the
bathroom in the first story, and Ginger was tickled at the image of two
little kids dressed
as the two largest characters in the books. Their crew also
consisted of Aunt Petunia and The Weasleys) Allan was still
asleep upstairs -- the
pancakes would have to wait!
So we walked down the street and checked out the
incoming new neighbors and outgoing neighbors (I think -- I was still
pretty sleepy). Simon was intrigued at the prospect of owning a
wireless computer keyboard that didn't have the receiver thingy that
made it work (which is why the guy said, yeah, that's like a dollar --
or you can just have it)(a similar price for another inquiry -- I
didn't see them making much off this garage sale), because, y'know,
maybe one day he gets a receiver thingy and then it would work, and the
guy just gave it to him. Another neighbor gave him a cool
handpuppet of a preying mantis that she said she found in the attic and
thought he'd like (Ethan happily took that over), and we left with more
than we arrived with for free.
Meanwhile, a woman pulled up in her car and told us
this guy was just giving away bread at the other garage sale, so much
she didn't have room for anymore, but we should go, because he was just
giving it away. It was a neighbor Ginger knew, and we wound up
over there looking around, too. (And he did indeed have lots of
bread to give away -- some guy at Ingles gave him day-old bread, so his
car was covered with bags of hotdog buns, hamburger buns, sandwich
bread -- all very white.) He loaded us up with a box of bread,
and we, once again, left a garage sale with more than we arrived with
for free. 
When we got back to the house, Allan was up (he
thought I was still asleep), and we showed him our loot. Then a
friend (who's going to open a gelato stand, but he's having trouble
finding a dairy with cows that produce enough fat for gelato, because
drinking milk cows are bred too low fat) dropped by with his little
girl and boy, and robes were donned, wands were flying, and all the
kids were running around screaming (or screaming from) spells and
enchantments. (By now, Simon and Ethan were pulling the hoods of
the robes over their faces and pretending to be dementors -- who cast
spells.) The party moved outside, and the grownups checked out
the chickens while wand pointing and spell screaming continued.
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