Extravayarnza

So, I hope you all had a nice holiday. I sure enjoy those 'extra' days off I can occasionally sneak in. This day off was quite unusual for me in that I got up earlier than I do on a work day, why?
I was asked to march in the 4th of July parade. Perhaps it's more accurate to say Robin was asked to be in the parade...

Actually I was there supporting Friends of Greater Lansing Dog Parks. Robin & I got all decked out in our Red White & Blue and basically went for a walk in the rain. Robin was just so excited when we first got there & there were all these other dogs, and floats, and belly dancers, and giant purple dinosaurs (no not Barney, the Big Lug!)... He didn't get overwhelmed until close to when the parade started and things got a little crazy, and then cars started back firing. Luckily once we started walking he relaxed again. I love the group of people/dogs that we meet at these events & I'm really looking forward to the dog park opening so Robin can go & play with his new friends!

Later we simply settled in watched a ball game, watched some movies, and attempted to keep Robin calm once the fireworks started going off.

Tour De Fleece(s) is/are starting up this weekend. I'm signed up (twice). The reason this is getting a little confusing is because I found two separate groups running Tour De Fleece.

You can find one here.
And another here.

I just signed up both places & am calling it good.

My main challenge is going to be to spin every day of the Tour. Since I'll be working long hours between the store & also at my second job working on Wicked it will be quite a challenge to find time to spin every day.

My secondary challenge is to spin up this fleece:

This is a Jacob Fleece I purchased in 2005. It's washed (despite what the photo looks like there is no yellow in it), but full of vm & not yet carded.
It took an hour or so to come up with this:

One batt Brown, One batt White
Only a few dozen more to go.

Okay, now the excuse~
I've been getting alot of flack lately about the fact that I haven't read any of the Harry Potter books. There are many reasons why:
1~ When they first were released they were too popular. I hated popular. Anything the majority of America loves I just assume I will hate. That pretty much brings me up to about 2 years ago when I finally accepted that perhaps, on this one fad, they were correct.
2~ I'm impatient. I know once I start reading them I will burn through those books like brush fire & will then be in the same pond as all you guys drooling for the last book to come out. Right now I don't fully understand what I'm missing, so I'm patiently waiting. I've waited all these years, what's a few more weeks...
3~ I perhaps am a little OCD. When I have books that belong in a series I hate having different editions. I sometimes purchase a whole new set just so they can all have the same covers (and they can NEVER be movie covers, I hate movie covers). I even purchased my set of The Hobit & The Lord of The Rings Trilogy in Canada just so I could get the edition I spotted in Belgium & fell in love with.
I hunted down the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy books for years to find the ones that had the matching set of cover art that I really like.
My books need to match!
The reason this applies is that if I purchase the first 6 books now I will be purchasing the boxed set of the first 6 books. That's the most economical way for me to do it. My issue is there are 7 books & I'll have a boxed set of 6 (plus one Hard Cover). That will haunt me forever. I suppose I can purchase a second copy of book 7 once it is released in softcover (hopefully with a cover that matches the current books...), but still the box will only hold 6 of them. I'm not sure if I can deal with that.
I have no desire for a set of Hardcovers. I don't like reading from them. Ideally I like trade back editions (which I believe the current set of soft covers are).
Okay perhaps that's further into my mind than I should show all of you.
I hope you guys will lay off me a bit on the HP thing. I will read the books. I really really want to read the books. There is a big chance of me heading over the Schulers tomorrow to perhaps buy a few books...