Another delayed Anacdote

Ana had fallen asleep on the train. Well, I get her out of the train, and have her sleepwalk up a flight of stairs and an escalator (I had a lot of bags). At the entrance to the station, a cop stops us to say "She's asleep!"

(Yeah, no duh)

I don't say that, exactly, I just say that I really don't want to pick her up, and she's safe sleepwalking as long as we go slowly. Then it occurs to me... "Hey, if you finish carrying her up this last flight of stairs, it'll be pretty easy for me to get her to the boat."

So she agrees, and Ana gets carried upstairs. Naturally, this causes her to wake up entirely...

( Ensuing conversation )

Of course, Ana didn't fall back asleep the rest of the day, but such is life.

Questions that have popped into my mind

1. In Harry Potter, do the Wizards have a Deaf community? Would their spells be completely different, or would they have to simply adapt to saying things aloud that they couldn't hear? Would they sign "broom for sweeping" differently for "broom for flying" just because? Because, I mean, I totally would.

2. In keeping with that, do very different areas (Asia, Australia, the Americas) separate from Europe have entirely different spells? Maybe spells that only translate partially, not entirely? Like, Summoning Spells in England bring things right to you, but maybe Summoning Spells in Ethiopia drop them five feet away on the ground, and maybe in Japan they hover above your head....

3. How do we know wandless magic is really rare/impossible? It seems logical that wizards had to, at one point, invent wands - and to do that, they must have already had some form of controlled, wandless magic. Perhaps it's simply a lost or mostly-lost art, rather like flint knapping. (I know people have gone through this before, but the question appeared to me now, so now I type it up)

4. Why is that spelled knapping?

5. Why would one want to tickle a sleeping dragon? That seems especially foolhardy and pointless.

6. Why are both Weasley parents redheads? I know there's a high level of inbreeding going on with Purebloods, but still! It doesn't seem to me that we've seen any other redheads in the series....

7. Is it just me, or are Wizards an awful lot like Borrowers, taking things from the rest of the world and then thinking they came up with them themselves?

8. Why is the scoring in Quidditch so messed up? I know JKR sucks at math(s), but this is absurd!

9. What if every book, every story, every stupid fanfic (even the really bad ones) were true in an alternate universe? Is this a scary thought or a fun one?

10. Is Hermione's method of completely and totally assimilating into Wizarding society, to the point where she seems to hardly ever see her parents (much less ever tell them anything about her life) normal? Or do other kids usually have more resistance?

11. Tell me again why Wizards, with their portkeys and floo system and apparation, don't have primary schools...? They really ought to get on that.

12. Tell me again why Hogwarts has no facilities for the mundane aspects of education, like "how to write" and "literature" and "basic mathematics"? Or even "foreign languages"? Most jobs in the Wizarding world seem to be identical to their Muggle counterparts, except that the people involved can use magic. How did Rita Skeeter even learn to write articles? It certainly wasn't at Hogwarts - and I can't imagine entering any form of journalism course with only the education in that respect attained by age eleven (with a few intervening years of practical experience but no direct instruction).

13. How many Squibs, would you say, are killed by their well-meaning (or not) parents? Much like real-life changelings of old, they can't be a desired outcome by most.

14. Why are the Squibs we know so tied to the Wizarding world? If I were a Squib, and I were otherwise me, I'd want to get as far away from the Wizarding world as possible, straight into the culture where my lack of magic was normal, not disabling and pitiful. How self-loathing does Filch have to be to voluntarily spend so much time in a school full of children who hate him and who can do things he can't?

15. Why do Wizards respect current (Muggle) national boundaries? When the Statute of Secrecy was signed, the political map was entirely different! Why are American Wizards not English instead? Or, why did they divide the same way? Maybe, while Muggles were having the Civil War in the US and the North won, Wizards had a similar war and the nation was divided into little bits, each state or region being independent unto itself. Now, that would make for some interesting fics.

Evangeline turns ten months today!

Wow.

This is where she is right now.
And here, another link.

For the curious, two different "milestone charts" from the same sites:

One
Two

( Yup, that about sums it up! )

Yup. That's the baby. I need an icon for just her, and I'm hoping to get a modification of the icon with both niecelings together.

Oh, and before I forget, I cannot believe I neglected to mention Christopher Thomas Paul's birthday (in fairness, it's not just that I dislike the name Topher - I really think Christopher Thomas Paul is a fun set of names to say aloud). Happy birthday, and to Libbet, and to 'dul, and to my mom, and to anybody else with a birthday within 35 days from this date.

More pictures, from a visit to Ana's Grandma upstate

(By upstate I mean "north of the city limits". I don't care that it's a five second walk from the Bronx, it is not part of the city, so it is up. state.)

( Ana and her grandma )

( Everybody but 'dul )

( Everybody but 'dul and Ana )

( Same as before )

( Everybody but 'dul's mother )

These pictures are, of course, months old by now. I'm rather irked by that fact.

I also have some pictures of Liz's kids:

( Seth )

( Not grinny Seth )

( Seth on his new diet )

( Seth sleeping, or pretending to )

( Baby and dog )

( Baby, dog )

Well, that's it.

Liz, my mom wants you to know that Seth (and, as he gets older, the baby) is cordially invited here should the house ever get cleaned. Which may yet happen. One of these days. But probably not until later.

We say "kids" instead of "you" because we were talking, that day, about how the week I left kindergarten, I was shipped on a plane with my sister over an ocean to stay with my grandparents for six weeks, and how that actually worked out pretty well. Parents weren't involved :)

*laughs*

Okay, yes, violence isn't the answer... and, no, I do suppose that stabbing the man was a bit much for the provocation... but you have to laugh at his story:

"It was a hate crime against a straight man by a ton of lesbians

Or, as the Daily News reports it, "a gang of petite lesbians".

Frankly, I trust the cops and bystanders a bit more than the man who claims he was jumped for simply saying "Excuse me, how are you doing?"