zorb came over today to help wade through the stack of Lumos surveys, and between the two of us, we got them all tallied. We amused ourselves in many different ways, and the topic of funny pictures came up. I know I saw the one of the Dementor with the vanilla bean Frappiccino - can someone point us in the right direction?

Yes, I'm up at the crack of dawn after going to bed past 1am. Hee.

I was a complete dope and forgot one bag on Monday - the bag with all of my tolietries in it! Thank goodness for zorb, since she was kind enough to drop by my house to pick up my errant bag and will be bringing it later on today.

So far I've maganged to fit way more boxes into my Vue than I thought humanly possibly. The past two days we've been relocating all of our supplies from several local's houses and get them over to the JW Marriott. The bell boys both love us and hate us, because every time we pull up into valet, we've got another 3-4 carts worth of stuff to unload, but they love the massive amount of tipping we've been doing.

Yesterday, we met with the hotel staff, sampled some cold, sparkling butterbeer, and stuffed all of the registration bags. *plays with super-cool pockets in bag* Today, it's move in. So far, I've been way too busy to even pick up my camera, so I really hope that someone else is taking pictures for me.

*wanders off to Starbucks for a coffee and scone*

My bags are packed, my car stuffed full to the brim. All I need to do is to pack up my computer and my tote bag and I'm ready to go! I'll be eating breakfast with my family before I hit the road, getting a last few hugs and cuddles.

Wheee, Vegas! See you there!

Are you attending Lumos?

Do you want to get creative?

FictionAlley and HPANA are sponsoring a Creativity Booth - it's a chance for you to showcase your talents and skills for your fellow
fans - sign up to spend an hour at the booth, drabbling, drawing, debating or filking.

Drabblers: Attendees may visit the booth and request that the writer on staff write a short piece — approximately 100 words — to their specifications. The only submission requirement is that you provide us with links to 3-5 short (under 10,00 words each) samples of your writing.

*

Artists: Attendees may visit the booth and request that the artist on staff draw a small sketch to their specifications. The only submission requirement is that you provide us with either a link to your online gallery or links to 5-7 samples of your art.

*

Filkers: Attendees may visit the booth and request that the filker on staff write a filk — based on a particular song, theme or other specifications. The only submission requirement is that you provide us with links to 3-5 samples of your filking.


*

Debaters and Meta: Attendees may visit the booth and request that the writer on staff write an essay or argument — approximately 100 words — on the topic or theme of the attendee's choice. The only submission requirement is that you provide us with links to 3-5 essays or other arguments that you've written.

Just go to http://www.fictionalley.org/lumos_creativity/ and fill out the form.

( exercising and stuff )

I'm just boggled with it being July, let alone 4 days into the month.

Some of our neighbors have been setting off fireworks the past couple of nights, and I am saddened that they are illegal. I used to love setting off worms in the afternoon, scramblers at dusk, and various rockets after dark. Instead of starting our own fires, we'll walk down to the park and shopping center tonight to have dinner with all of the city, and try to talk M into staying long enough to see that fireworks display that'll go off about 9 or 9:30 tonight.

The past few days have been really busy - the girls started their college for kids class yesterday, and it seems like we're running from one place to another all day. Play dates, birthday parties, karate classes, everything. I just signed up K for orchestra camp that starts while I'm still at Lumos, so J will have to get her there the first two days.

Speaking of Lumos - who's going? I know there's been some people changing since the last time I asked. If you're there, come say hi to me! :)

All you going to Lumos, have you supported your favorite group today?

The bids on Fandomopoly properties are coming in. The current standings are, from Boardwalk on down:

HPFilks
Trust Snape
HP Orange County
Harry/Ginny Shippers United
Harry/Draco Shipper United

and FictionAlley has claimed the Free Parking corner of our board.

There are still plenty of slots left to get your fandom on the board. Don't forget, all bids are due by this Saturday at midnight (that's actually Sunday, for those technically minded) Pacific Standard Time.

Quick links:
Fandomopoly Main Page
Fandomopoly Synopsis
Donate toward your ship
Send all questions to fandomopoly@gmail.com

*thank you to sevensickles for the gakkage*

My intention tonight was to go to bed really, really early tonight, sleep 10 hours, and wake up cheerful tomorrow morning. No luck, though, as my Lumos project for tonight has taken much longer than I expected. However, it was quite worth the effort, and it completing it tomorrow will have fulfilled one of my major goals for the event, whee.

Tomorrow's Friday, yay. It's been a hell of a week, students sick like crazy. I had a 33% show rate yesterday, and a 50% show rate today. Some flakage, quite a bit of illness. I did get spotted at the mall this afternoon (with my MAC bag and blended mocha - I struck out on the Mother's Day present) by one of my students doing an ROP project, the second time in a row that I got caught at this mall on a weekday afternoon.

Damn, I need to get to bed.

The trip this weekend was very successful. Quite a few loose ends were tied up, pints and sushi consumed along with the plotting and planning. The JW Marriott is still beautiful. I managed to swamp the gigantic-tub with bubbles this morning, swaping an extra hour of sleep for a bath instead. J.C. Wooloughan's still has really good food, although I have yet to try the fried pickles (in July!), and we checked out Shizen, which was really good. I haven't had sushi in ages. So much food, yum.

Flying was definitely the way to go - McCarren even has free wireless in the airport, whee! :D I've been catching up on some emails while typing up some notes and my springtime_gen fic. I swear, it's almost done! I am still not used to the slot machines in the airport though - I haven't been in this airport since I was 13 since I usually drive in. Sanity is good, especially when one has to return to work after a sleepless weekend. The terminal that I am waiting in is horribly crowded though - 5 gates off the spoke of a wheel, and people crammed at every gate. The flight in the gate next to me is delayed and overbooked, but mine looks like it will be on time- the plane has been here for over an hour, and we've still got 40 minutes before take-off.

Another good thing - I don't have to report for jury duty tomorrow, yayz. I have to check back tomorrow after 6, but at least I don't have to go into work this afternoon to finish prepping for a sub. I will stay late tomorrow to finish prepping for the week in case things should change. No appointments or obligations to managed in the afternoon, always a nice thing.

The deadline for submitting a Lumos proposal is just 4 days away! Midnight
on January 15, 2006 is the last chance to send in your proposal to present at Lumos 2006: A Harry Potter Symposium.

In addition to formal papers, Lumos is seeking a variety of presentation models, including pre-organized critical panels, workshops, roundtables and poster sessions. Suggested topics include:

• Discussion of themes within the Harry Potter books and films
• Exploration of legal and political issues related to the texts, both within the world of the books and as they relate to our own Muggle world
• Critical responses to the texts through the lenses of anthropology, sociology, psychology, folklore, etc.
• Programming suited for educators and librarians
• Discussions of the unique cultural issues arising within the Harry Potter fandom.
• Examination and discussion of original fan-generated responses to the texts

* * *

Are you a stickler for good grammar? Are you obsessed with the proper spellings of HP-canon terms? Do you understand the difference between
question marks and quotation marks?

Then please, please, please take the FictionAlley Fic Intake Team Quiz/Application and volunteer for Team FA. A commitment of eight hours a week is all that is required, and you can split it up among as many days as you wish. We really need new staffers, because during the launch of our new system, we didn't actively recruit, which leaves us a little short-staffed now. The more people we have on the team, the shorter the turnaround time for newly submitted fics!

The clock's a-ticking. Just a couple more weeks before the deadline for submitting a proposal for Lumos. Submissions will be accepted until 11:59 PM Pacific time.

So, in the interest of using my paid account to its fullest benefits, a poll! This is just for my own curiosity, not in an official capacity. I would really appreciate it if y'all would pimp this poll in your journals too. :)

Poll #642801 Lumos - submitting a proposal?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 33

Are you going to Lumos?

Will you be submitting a proposal?

If you're submitting a proposal, what kind will it be?

If you're submitting a proposal, when will you send it?

If you're planning to submit something, what will be the topic?

I made it home by 5:00 tonight. It was a nice weekend, but I've discovered that I have a giant pile of things that needed to be completed *yesterday*. Eek. It's time to put some of the stuff I learned this weekend to use.

While most people around the country get the pleasure of becoming pyromaniacs for a few hours tonight, we here in Southern California only get to watch. Yes, I know that fireworks are dangerous, yadda, yadda, yadda, but I really want to teach my girls to write their names with sparklers, to watch the little worms grow when you light them, to have a spinner "zzzzzz" around on the ground. *sigh* I suppose it is for the public good. So, tonight we will traipse down to the park to watch the community display, provided that the girls are awake enough to do so.

In Lumos news, the Call for Proposals is now up. Go on, go take a look! You know you've got that great paper, presentation, panel or poster floating around in your head. :)

And whee, next weekend kicks off lots of fandom-type goodness. ConStruction, then HBP, then Comic Con, then a trip to Vegas for Lumos, yay!

I just got my Lumos totebag, license plate frame, and postcards in the mail today. They look great! Hee.

I don't think my husband realized what I was doing in the garage...