May 23, 2011 - Let's hope that the third times the charm for the surgery. My wrist is still casted, but I no longer have shooting nerve pain, so I'm keeping my proverbial fingers crossed. I want to thank everyone for their patience.

September 16, 2010- I've revised my livejournal page. I've opened it up and removed all, shall we say contemplative content. If you do choose to read the stories posted there, keep in mind that they are usually in a fairly unbetad form and very subject to change.

I write Harry Potter stories. Most are challenges laid out for me by my niece. I flatly refused to write the one with Molly as a kindly self sacrificing woman (my imagination doesn't stretch that far), but did manage to somehow make Ron into the true best friend in a story. Well, maybe not true best friend, but at least not a complete waste of magic.

I didn’t dislike the Weasleys or specifically Mrs. Weasley, until book five (except for Ron, he was much earlier. I was hoping by the end of book three that she'd kill him off), although her story to Hermione and Ginny in POA about how she used love potions has never set well with me. Is there much of a difference between love potions and Rohypnol? I find it disturbing really. I guess she never considered that it was immoral and then several books later we see how disastrous the results can be when Merope Gaunt used them on the object of her affections. Later, it was Mrs. Weasley's overbearing, I know best attitude and tantrums until everyone did as she dictated that became too much. Good lord, do functional people yell that much? At the beginning of OotP she stated that Harry was as good as a son. How can that be? Sure he was her youngest son's best friend, but just how well did she know Harry? The boy spent two weeks with the family before second year and two before fourth. It was two years between those two trips to the Burrow for Harry. The only contact in between was the one night in POA at the Leaky Cauldron and the two times he got off the Express. I find the whole thing a bit creepy. Obviously she didn't know him well or she wouldn't have tried to console him at the end of GoF by telling him to imagine what he was going to do with his winnings. I am also unclear what her issues were with Fred and George and their Wheezes at the beginning of book four.

In case I wasn't clear, I really, really don't like Molly Weasley. I just don't buy that she was the one that defeated Bellatrix. I know that was what was written, but I just don't see it happening. It was Hermione and you will never get me to acknowledge otherwise.

That brings us to Ron. I don’t see why either Harry or Hermione would continue to beat that dead horse. Friends don’t treat each other with that much contempt or disrespect. Constant bickering and arguing are not the signs of love, they are the signs of two people who don’t really get along. Why would anyone want to live with that much discord? And no, I do not buy into the theory that it was intellectual debate. Furthermore picking fights, demeaning someone’s achievements, and making fun of the things that someone enjoys doing are not a way to declare to the world that you love someone, it just means that it will be an emotionally abusive relationship. Most teenage girls have at one time or another subjected themselves to that abuse and I find it disheartening that Hermione was another victim of the phenomena. Furthermore it is irresponsible for an author to portray it as true love in a children's tale. After all I am sure that Ron and Hermione together for the epilogue was for the Greater Good of the Weasley family. Also, I was saddened by the way Hermione was dumbed down in the sixth book to make her more compatible with Ron.

Ginny- The thing is, I would have been able to live with this paring if her character would have been better developed, but it wasn't. What little we do know I wasn't impressed with. The biggest mistake JKR made with Ginny (other than not really writing her into the series) was that she made her the fan girl in book two. Had Ginny not been in love with the BWL, poured her heart and soul into the diary, and everything else, she could have gone from Ron's sister to girlfriend, but the other is quite a hurdle to overcome. Also, in an effort to make it clear to everyone that Harry and Hermione are not together or compatible, JKR goes a bit overboard. Ginny is elevated at the expense of Hermione. It could have been done much better.

Ships: H/Hr, H/O, Hr/O; never Hr/R and personally, I don't sail the harem ship.