Roblog

• PICT7227_fawnwalking.MOV (26.6 MB) - A young fawn timidly walking around
• PICT7228_fawnrunning.MOV (16.6 MB) - The fawn running and exploring a little
• PICT7229_sheepandfawn.MOV (12.9 MB) - A young sheep meeting a fawn for the first time
• PICT7232_sheepandfawn.MOV (50.3 MB) - A long movie of mostly bad footage of the young sheep and fawn walking around. The fawn comes right up to me while I'm filming.
• PICT7239_sheeprunning.MOV (28.1 MB) - The sheep running and then wandering around. I love the way it hops up when it runs!
• PICT7240_sheepbottle.MOV (9.5 MB) - The sheep eagerly taking a bottle.
• PICT7282_elenarunning.MOV (8 MB) - Elena running down a hill.
• PICT7284_elenarocketballoon.MOV (4.8 MB) - Elena launching her "rocket balloon"
• PICT7285_amandarocketballoon.MOV (7.3 MB) - Amanda launching her "rocket balloon"
• PICT7357_mollywalking.MOV (23.9 MB) - Molly tromping around her new house. Mostly bad footage.

Maybe someday I'll create a movie cataloging system like I have for my photos. But for now, I'll rely on my blog to record their locations.

The release of the final Harry Potter book is now close enough to warrant some excitement. Donna stopped by the local Borders to verify she was on the reservation list, since she hadn't gotten any confirmation. She was, and while she was there she got some vital information about the evening. They will be handing out wristbands starting at noon on Friday, July 20 to the people in line to identify what group they are in. At 12:01 AM on Saturday they will start letting people into the store, by group, to purchase their copy. So she can no plan on getting in line around 12:00 PM on Friday to get her wristband, and then return to the store close to midnight.

Donna has graciously been allowing me to participate in the planning of her approach to the evening, since I won't be the one waiting in line. What if some malicious book-buyer turns to the last chapter and shouts out the ending (e.g. "Voldemort kills Harry!") to the people in line? Donna will have the iPod as a bit of protection. The parking lot might be crowded, so she should be prepared to walk a ways to the store. Shouldn't she take the camera or the audio recorder?

Seeing the most recent Harry Potter movie (The Order of the Phoenix) did not help quell our anticipation. We both agreed it was a good movie and true to the book; Donna liked it best of all the Harry Potter movies so far. I enjoyed it a great deal, too, but I may have liked movie #3 (The Prisoner of Azkaban) just as well.

The day we saw the movie happened to be the day that marked Amanda and Elena's 2,000th day since they were born. We did not celebrate the occasion beyond going to Chili's and getting them desert, since their half-birthday would be just a week later ("Halfty Birthday to You").

I took advantage of my every-other-Friday off last week to redeem the free Circus ticket coupons the girls earned though a reading program in the Houston Public Library system. I got the free tickets and bought two others (so that Donna and I could go with them, at $28 a piece).

We went to the Sunday afternoon (1:00 PM) show at Reliant Stadium. It was the girls (and possibly my) first visit to a circus, but they had been to Reliant Stadium once before to watch a Rice football game. We parked ($8), walked to the stadium, found our seats, and waited for the show.

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus show ran about 2 hours, with a 15 minute intermission. They both enjoyed it and the two cotton candies ($10 each) I got, although Amanda ran out of steam midway through the show. Elena liked the motorcycles and the acrobat walking upside down the best, whereas Amanda preferred the clown food fight. All in all, we had a good time. They comfortably slept in the car ride to Sweet Tomatoes afterwards.

I couldn't help, though, applying a scientifically skeptical eye to the show. It was quite well done, and I really liked the way they integrated a big, circular video screen into the show, but some of the demonstrations were fakes. Actually, the only one that comes to mind is the "strong man" feats. He supposedly caught a 70-lb cannonball shot at 70 mph from a cannon (it was obviously a lighter version and a slower speed) and had a jeep run over him. Those fakes put a bad taste in my mouth, which is a shame, since there was a lot of amazing stunts that were done: trained dogs, cats, elephants, tigers, hat jugglers, acrobats (my favorite), motorcycle tricks (in a ball), cossacks, and clowns.

I would go again and enjoy it, I think. I'll just keep in mind that Barnum's name is in the title and that I should expect a certain amount of showmanship.