Now THIS I can get excited about!

I'm not necessarily dying for the day when I get to (/have to) take Leila to Disney and other theme parks, but this one's another story! You all know what a self professed geek I am, but if they only had more illustrations, I'd be starting her on the books at bedtime now...

Harry Potter Theme Park Headed to Fla.
By JIM ELLISThe Associated PressThursday, May 31, 2007; 1:04 PM

ORLANDO, Fla. -- Universal Orlando Resort is opening a Harry Potter theme park that will let fans visit many of the iconic locations in the books and movies that endeared the boy magician to millions.

"The Wizarding World of Harry Potter" is set to open at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in late 2009, complete with the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Forbidden Forest and Hogsmeade village.

"The plans I've seen look incredibly exciting, and I don't think fans of the books or films will be disappointed," said author J.K. Rowling, who has been working with a creative team to make sure the park resembles the books and films.

More than a dozen artists lead by Stuart Craig, the production designer of the movies, have set up house in the studio where the movies are being filmed to make sure every detail is considered, said Scott Trowbridge of Universal.

"We're really going to the people who know this world best to ensure that level of authenticity," he said.

The park will let visitors view the famed locations in Rowling's magical world, like Dumbledore's office in Hogwarts and the shops in Hogsmeade. Some locations may be in upcoming books, Trowbridge said.

Many tourists outside the theme park said the experience would boost its appeal to a younger audience.

"I'd go to Universal before I would Disney World to go on a Harry Potter ride," said 15-year-old Alex Moran, who was visiting Orlando from Pleasant Hill, Mo.

Brandon Wilson, another 15 year old from Pleasant Hill, said he can't get enough of Harry Potter. He has read every book and watched every movie.

"I hope we get to simulate flying like Harry Potter," Wilson said.

Trowbridge said while there would not be any character lookalikes at the park, fans wanting to see Harry Potter and his magical friends wouldn't leave disappointed.

"This is Harry's world," said Trowbridge. "Most every fan wants to have an encounter with the star of the show."

The Harry Potter book series has been translated into 65 languages with more than 325 million copies sold in over 200 territories around the world.

The fifth film in the series, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," will be released in theaters July 13 by Warner Bros. The seventh and final book of the series will be released July 21.

Yeah, I went there...On my first Lost-less Wednesday, I flipped to the CW to see what 'Hidden Palms' was all about. Yeah, I'm 32 going on 33 and I still need to see a little dark teen angst every now and again to fill the Dawson's Creek/OC void. And this one could be great OC filler w/ "Oliver" and "Zach Stevens" in the leads, tho' Oliver's not nearly so hot with a ridiculous mop - described as Jarvis Cockeresque (ha!) in one review - of blond hair. He wore dark dangerous psychopath stalking Marissa much better. And the perfect, worldly Zach Stevens the Senator's son is now kicking small pugs in the face. Anyway...I only saw the last 20 minutes or so because I was putting Leila to bed (nope, we STILL haven't upgraded to DVR), which was enough to get the gist. It's pretty bad. But I am one who did watch North Shore until it got the axe, so we'll see!

It's been quite a while since I've had a Wiggles song trapped in my head the whole morning because Leila will sleep 'til 7:30 if I let her so we tend to miss them now as we get ready for daycare in the morning. Cesar was home later this morning though, and wanted to see her before he left, so he roused her closer to 7:00 then left us with our friends Anthony, Greg, Murray, Jeff et al. And the song that is now haunting me is "Fruit Salad", but not just any old version of Fruit Salad, the SPANISH VERSION as sung by the "Mariachi Wiggles" (their cartoon selves in sombreros and porn-staches --- I've never seen a lot of mustachioed men in Mexico, but all those Mariachi caricatures must sport them!) "Ensalada, de fruta fresca...Ensalada, de fruta fresca...Que sabrosa, Que sabrosa, Que sabrosa es..."

And in other randomness, Jimmy Buffett is the graduation speaker at the American School of Tangiers this June. My dear old friend Joe McPhillips, the Headmaster - or rather his secretary Blanca - always sends me an invite. The speaker is usually someone from interesting artistic/diplomatic circles, but who knew that Jimmy Buffett was "An American Troubadour Who Loves Morocco." Curious!

Weekend High and Low-lights

Finally got sprung from the office at 4:30 Friday and headed home for our standard Friday evening at Target. Diapers, detergent, wipes, sunblock a toddler swimsuit and hat = 80+$ The joys of Target shopping = priceless. Followed that up with a Thai dinner then watched The Last King of Scotland (Amazing acting. Disturbing, but most of Amin's brutality was implied rather than graphically presented - until the last 10 minutes or so - I did a little squealing and cringing then.) from bed.


Cesar played golf with my dad and grandfather Saturday, so Leila and I hit the playground and candy store. It was extremely hot and humid, so we were not out of doors for long. I ran about trying to do a half-ass cleaning job while she napped and midway through, that new bottle of Dreft detergent from Target fell off the top of the dryer, the lid and spout cleanly snapped off and it spilled all over the bathroom floor and into the linen closet. All our spare pillows are on that linen closet floor. More on that in a moment. Our bathroom floor has never been cleaner, nor smelled more fresh. Leila and I met back up with the family at my parent's for burgers and such. After she was all done with her burger, which she deemed "perfect" (where does this kid get this speech?) she was running about. She sprinted back in the dining room to give me some purell (why carry toys in your diaper bag when the bottle of purell hanging from it will do?), tripped over her sandals and landed head first into the leg of my chair. An instant black and blue egg sized knot swelled from her pretty forehead and we all melted down from there. Once she had control of herself and determined that it was funny that we were holding a bag of frozen corn to her head, she looked at me and insisted that I stop crying. Later, at home, I put two of the Dreft soaked pillows into our washing machine, turned it on and instantly had water pooling around my feet and leaking downstairs through a light fixture into the kitchen. Cesar chastised me for treating our washer as industrial strength (it was only two pillows!) and I threw a fit about how much I hated our house in between my hysteria that we were all going to be electrocuted by the kitchen light switch.


Massi and Hazem were in town for the weekend and she had us over for Persian BBQ at her parents. Carlo was also in town and he and his parents joined as well, which was a nice surprise. It's quite funny to talk Nicaragua with the Castillas. I never would have thought I'd be married to a Nica (and mother to an Ameri-Nic) when we hung out in and just after college 11-12 years ago. Everybody loved Leila, who was quite well behaved, and who had woken that morning saying she wanted to go to Massi's house. We'll have to go to NY for a visit soon. Massi's father remains the king of Kebabs. Because Leila had been so good, we took her into Old Town for ice cream early evening in spite of the gathering black storm clouds. We had barely sat down to orange sherbet in What's the Scoop before it began hailing! It was a quick storm, but amazing how quickly that lower part of King street becomes a raging river. I then actually got to read the Sunday Post on Sunday night since there was nothing on TV to my turn my brain to mush.


Yesterday we went and spent another 80+$ on Leila in Old Navy. For someone who wears a uniform 5 days a week, she certainly has enough weekend wear now, but the poor child had no shorts and I can't begrudge her shorts now that our humidity is sinking in. Plus, I can't feel too guilty when $80 at Old Navy buys 3 pair of shorts, 2 skirts, 5 tee-shirts and 4 tank tops (and the way we go through tee-shirts w/ pizza/tomato sauce/catsup and watermelon stains, that many is necessary!) Then hit the grocery store. Then my sweet mommy took pity on me for having no clothes of my own I suppose and took me out to TJ Maxx for a discount dress hunt. Anyone prepared to spent $150 on one dress at J. Crew or Banana should check the discounters first. I got 4 for less than that! Also, lots of cute Isaac Mizrahi stuff at Target now, but my store has been wiped clear of any aside from size 0 or size 14.


And that's all I have to report for now!

Modern Times

My husband had the brilliant idea to order pizza via the Internet last night. What a novel concept! He felt like Papa John's over our usual neighborhood joint Monterey's. I was preparing to go to the coat closet, dig the yellow pages out from layers of hats, gloves and scarves on the shelf and call through a handful to see which outlet delivered to us. He went up to the computer, plugged in our address, clicked through our order, paid on-line tip inclusive and voila! - we had hot thin-crust pizza and bread sticks (and yes, I do see how bread sticks sort of defeat the purpose of thin-crust!) at our door in under 30 minutes.

Can I just say that I am slightly bitter that it is now 3:41 the Friday before Memorial day and I am still in my office. Yes, yes I brought my kiddo to work with me this morning and have accomplished nothing beyond scribbling all over post-it notes with highlighters with her (actually, that's not much less than I accomplish on your average day), but I do remain bitter!

Un-freakin'-believable!

That's about alls I have to say about the Lost finale. Wow! Phenomenal mind-blowing stuff. It may be good to have the 8 months or so until January/February 2008 to mull over all this. And R.I.P Charlie. Though I was prepared to see you go last week, your heroic demise did hit hard. I will continue to sing "You All Everybody" in my head in tribute.

Playground Pics

Mommy could never do this! She's still traumatized by those Presidential Physical Fitness Tests...

MISS MESS!! But I am my daddy's girl w/ my clubs and my attitude!

In case anyone's dying to know what we did this weekend...

...This got tacked on to an earlier entry that I posted from draft.


Will get some pictures up soon, but I foresee a summer full of visits to every playground in Alexandria. That is all the child wants to do (and I don't blame her in light of our close living quarters.) We went to playgrounds three times in two days. The newest discovery is the sandbox and I was still finding grains in her diaper this morning. Other highlights included the parrot rescue people by the Torpedo factory, the balloon man, and a visit to a mammoth candy store (yep, she has my sweet tooth - anything gummi is the current obsession.)


In TV/Movie news, watched Notes on a Scandal. Excellent acting and score. Tracked well with the book and Judi Dench managed to play Barbara even more brilliantly creepy than she read. I can't get too jazzed about Housewives even though a lot went down. Brothers and Sisters was great. Loved the McAllister clan and Jason + Kevin = HAWT!!


And in randomness. Does anyone else know a two year old who asks their mom to sing "Ring of Fire" to them at bedtime? We do have one funny child!