Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Tuesday night I was able to attend the Muggle opening of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." Uncle Vincenzio was able to get tickets for myself and my two best friends: Malibu Riddle and Johnny Malfoy. We arrived early and had time to stop in a nearby pub for a pint of Butterbeer before the show.

There were many Muggles dressed in Wizards attire, so we blended in perfectly. There was a moment when one young Muggle tried to grab Malibu's wand and many of them commented on how authentic our wizards attire and wands looked. If they only knew :-)

I will say that the Muggle who made this film did not stay true to the history of Harry Potter. He completed ignored my cousin William being attacked by Greyback and the attack on the Weasley family home did not happen until Bill and Fleur were married. Malibu explained that these Muggles tend to change stories around to make what they think will be a more appealing story.

By the time the show had let out it was quite late and it had been a long day. Although we were asked the strangest thing outside of the theatre. A young Muggle approached us asking if we had jumper cables and could give him a jump? I had no idea what he meant, but Johnny quickly responded, saying that we couldn't help him. I guess it has something to do with those Muggle automobiles. After he was out of site we each mounted our brooms to head home.

It was a long night but we had a really good time.

SUMMER CAMP GAMES - Week #3

I've never been fond of snakes. They are alright in a case, behind glass. But I don't want to hold one or have it crawling over me.
Riddikulus!
What walks down stairs, alone or in pairs, and makes a slinkity sound?
A spring, a spring, a marvelous thing! Everyone knows it's Slinky.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. For fun it's a wonderful toy.
It's Slinky, it's Slinky. It's fun for a girl or a boy.
It's fun for a girl or a boy!

Wizards Vernal Equinox Knitting Retreat

During the break between HSKS7 and HSKS Summer Camp, I was able to attend the Wizards Vernal Equinox Knitting Retreat with Uncle Vincenzio. It was held at a lovely mountain resort in a Muggle area known as Greenwich, NY... with is 30 miles from Albany. The resort isn't on the Floo Network and our brooms could not hold everything we needed to bring with us, so we traveling in Uncle Vincenzio's Muggle automobile.

Uncle Vincenzio isn't used to traveling remote country roads, so there were times we thought we would never get there. But we did arrive and checked in just in time for dinner that first night.

Wizards from all over America and Canada traveled to this retreat. There was even a wizard who came all the way from Australia! There were 42 wizards total who attended. Here is a group photo of those in attendance.
We shared a cabin with 3 other wizards; Kyle, John and Chuck.
We worked on a group project where those of us attending knit or crocheted a 15" blanket square. At the retreat the squares were assembled into a blanket that was donated to the Easton Mountain Resort on behalf of the Wizards Knitting Retreat.

The attendees volunteered to teach workshops on specific knitting and crochet topics. Uncle Vincenzio taught Continental Knitting and the Magic Loop Technique. There were some great workshops and a whole lot of knitting and crocheting going on.
Of course there was spinning as well.
We even got some staff members to take up needles and learn the basics.
After a hard day of fiber related fun, there was also time for relaxing.
We also had a night of Show-N-Tell, where everyone showed off their creations.
We had a great time and will definitely be going back again next year!

The Truths

Well last week we posted our get to know your cabin-mates activity. More than one person guessed correctly, but one person got it right and knew the reason why. Here's the explanation of each:

1. I am living in the house that I grew up in.
TRUE - this is a 2 family home that my parents own. Mom and Dad are living in the downstairs flat and I live in the upstairs flat.

2. I have never traveled outside of the United States.
FALSE! - Wisteria got it exactly right. We are located by the Canadian border and you only need cross the Niagara River to enter Canada. Growing up we would go to the Crystal Beach Amusement Park every summer. Until 9-11 it was not considered uncommon to cross an International Border to go play Bingo or go to a Chinese Restaurant.

3. My job in the printing field had me working on Books 1-6 of the Harry Potter series.
TRUE - the company I worked at until 2006 had a contract with Scholastic Books. I worked on many of the illustrated children's books they published as well as Harry Potter 1-6. We all had to sign non-disclosure agreements so once the materials were in house my official statement was "Harry Potter? I don't even know who that is!"

4. I have two brothers, an older brother and a younger brother.
TRUE - I am the poor middle child who never got anything! ;-)

Bernadette, Emma and the visiting Wisteria guessed correctly!

SUMMER CAMP GAMES - Week #1

PART 1 - What's In Your Trunk"
Antonio brought...
1. Apricots
2. Alpaca Yarn
3. Angel Food Cake
4. Apple Cider
5. Alarm Clock
6. Ankle Socks
7. Art Supplies
8. Aardvark
9. Ant Farm
10. Abba's Greatest Hits (on CD)

PART 2 - WINGO! Wizard Bingo
It took some doing. I didn't think I would find a May birthday who was at Summer Camp.
The only I didn't have was a Patronus. I don't like the answers I get in the quizzes. Plus I would say my Patronus would be something like a giraffe or a penguin. Highly doubtful anyone has that :-).

PART 3 - Get to know your Spoiler & Spoilee
Left a comment on the project page for:
SPOILEE Violet le Veela's Lucky Diamonds socks (want!) and
SPOILER Luna Stalette's raglan baby sweater

WINGO Assistance
For anyone who needs help filling spaces for Wingo, here are things about me that fit
I'm a Hufflepuff
I like Dark Chocolate
I have 2 brothers
I dye yarn
I've been to a castle, the Casa Loma in Toronto, Ontario
I have a wand (2 in fact), but not a wizard hat
I collect Depression Era Green Glass
This is my 5th HSKS
I was born in May
I'm a Hufflepuff
I've taken the train to NYC
I live in Buffalo, NY... don't know if anyone is with 100 miles. Have to check on that one myself

Hope this helps

WELCOME TO SUMMER CAMP!

It's almost the start of HSKS 8 - Summer Camp! This time around I am a Camp Counselor for the Manticore Cabin. We've got a mix in our cabin of 2 members from each of the four Hogwarts houses. Plus two of them are joining us at HSKS for the first time. It's a great mix of people and the Manticores are already looking to be a chatty group, especially our youngest member Gryphon the Great who is a ball of excitement and the most awesome 13 year old you'd ever want to meet.

To start out our summer we are doing a camp activity in each cabin called:

3 Lies And A Truth!

Here are 4 things about me (not about my HP character Antonio, but 4 things about Vince). Three of those things are the truth and one of them is a lie. My cabin-mates have to guess which one is the lie.

1. I am living in the house that I grew up in.
2. I have never traveled outside of the United States.
3. My job in the printing field had me working on Books 1-6 of the Harry Potter series.
4. I have two brothers, an older brother and a younger brother.

The members of the Manticore Cabin should all respond to this post with their guess as to which is the lie.

Spoiled By Belladonna Boomslang Moody

I arrived home today to find this Muggle Post package hung on my door. I had received an owl from my spoiler Belladonna Boomslang Moody earlier this week, stating that she needed to send my package by Muggle Post because she could not find an owl large enough to carry it.
The package was stuffed full, as you can see from the copious amounts of Muggle Spello-tape that was needed to secure the package.
Once I had opened the package it was filled near bursting, with all sorts of goodies! First was this totally awesome felted shoulder satchel. I'm sure to be all the envy at next week's Knitting Guild meeting. Uncle Vincenzio and I will also be attending the Wizard's Spring Knitting Retreat next weekend, so this will come in handy to carry my projects. Uncle Vincenzio has been eyeing the bag and I'm sure I heard him say soemthing about transfiguring the tag from an "A" to a "V".
The satchel was just filled with yarn, needles and loads of other goodies.
There was also a black cloth project bag holding sock yarn as well as worsted weight yarn so I can make myself a hat to match my Hufflepuff house scarf.
KnitPicks Harmony circulars, my favorites; a pocket knife; mini book light, initial book mark; sock shaped point protectors, Hufflepuff mini calculator, Puff Picture Frame.
I'm not one for "dangly stitch markers" so she sent be a bag of black rubber O-Rings! O-Rings FTW!!!
A whole bunch of patterns: 3 sock patterns and 2 hat patterns.
A coffee lovers favorite... there's nothing like that 459th cup of coffee in the morning!
And since she had to include at least one dangly stitch marker; a potion bottle filled with a powdered potion from Professor Slughorn (who knows what it might do... luck potion, poison antidote, powdered unicorn horn?)
Again, thank you Bella for being an awesome spoiler! I'm going to clean out my knitting bag to put it all in my new satchel!