The Book

lazystars joined me this weekend for a short trip to Portland, OR, where we took in the Rose, Japanese, and Chinese Gardens of the city, and spent a cold, rainy morning on the Duck tour to escape the drizzle.

What this means, however, is that I could not perform the same ritual of running to Costco first thing Saturday morning to be one of the first ones to purchase the new Harry Potter novel at 18 or so dollars in that venue and taking it home to read in bed all day until I'd finished it. Yesterday, lazystars and I walked a good 20-some blocks to a Fred Meyer supermarket to pick up a copy after the first Borders we'd found had run out.

And this morning, she took said copy with her on her flight home, while I stay here to attend OSCON.

So after I dropped her off at the airport, I tried to watch a Netflix disc, but it kept crashing my software DVD player. I finally gave in to the inevitable and walked 15 or so blocks to a different Fred Meyer supermarket, and squatted down in the book section in various uncomfortable configurations to read the first 263 pages.

After stopping to register at OSCON, I returned to my hotel room, and then walked 10 blocks to Powell's Books to continue reading until a friend called me to join him for dinner.

If you're wondering, yes, my hands are shaking, my eyes are twitching, and I'm cursing those who would take me away from the aisles of the bookstores.