Curses!

1. My Harry Potter book arrived last Saturday afternoon (delivered by a large man who looked suspiciously like Hagrid), and I've barely had any time to read it. I've passed the halfway point (see #7 below). If only there were more time in a day...

2. I stayed up late that last Friday to finish up the other books I'd been reading, so as to clear my plate for Harry. I finished Jonathan Stroud's book 2 of the Bartimaeus Trilogy, The Golem's Eye, which was highly entertaining (not much to it in terms of plot, but some very good character development). And I'd been reading The Portrait, by Iain Pears, which, well — will I write more about it? I don't know — while full of interesting ideas, felt contrived. I had to stay up, to keep reading, to see how it ended, but it was less than satisfying in the end.

3. I lost my vegetable peeler. Its absence was noted about 2 weeks ago, and the last I recalled using it was about a week before. I loved that peeler — a sleek curve of perfectly weighted acrylic; it looked like a bending raindrop. I paid an outrageous $8 for it (for a vegetable peeler!) some 6 or 8 years ago. And now it's gone. Maybe slipped far under the fridge. Maybe scooped among discarded vegetable matter into the garbage. I'd seen such a peeler in recent months in a little kitchenwares shop on Mont-Royal; I'd even considered purchasing a backup as I'd detected a crack in mine — a purely aesthetic disruption. I made a detour this week to pick one up (maybe in translucent orange this time, I thought), but allegedly, this particular design has been discontinued. I hold out hope that the sales clerk was mistaken and in fact had no idea what I was talking about, a likelihood borne out by her tossing out brand names that didn't ring a bell and Google searches of which do not produce the desired result. I cannot find my vegetable peeler on the internet.

"Ergonomic" peelers such as Good Grips tend to have handles wide in the same plane the blade spans; my peeler handle was wide in the other direction, perpendicular to the blade edge. Do you have any idea what I'm talking about? I should just draw a picture. Do you know my peeler? Do you know where I can get one?

4. I made the mistake of purchasing the first season of Doctor Who on DVD. It was too good a price to pass up, and it was something I'd been thinking about acquiring as a birthday or Christmas treat, but it's a mistake right now, because I have a ton of work to do (honouring an ongoing pre-full-time-employment freelance contract). If I'd been thinking clearly, I would've set it up as reward, not to be opened until the job was delivered, but I wasn't thinking clearly, so I opened it. Helena's been watching it (she's never known the Doctor as Christopher Eccleston); I've been working and being distracted by it, alternately watching it and feeling guilty for not working. This is a less than satisfying arrangement.

5. I don't understand Facebook. I mean, what does it actually do?

6. I fell in love with a $785 pair of shoes this week. It's remarkable — there's no seam between the sole and the upper. Oh, they're gorgeous. I want them.

7. I'd started writing this entry Wednesday. I've since finished the Potter book (just this morning) — I'm looking forward to poking around those blogs I know to be talking about it. Also, now I can get on with Bartimaeus book 3. Phew. And maybe now I can email all those people I've been meaning to write, and blog a little, and finish that freelance job, and get a decent night's sleep. Maybe.