long time no bitch

In the 10 day forecast is our long anticipated trip to Iceland! We leave not this but next Friday and don't get back until July 29th. So as you can see, this creates a complex and many layered problem for us and I'm just not sure how to deal with it.

Two words: Harry Potter.

We will be in-flight from the 20th through the 21st. And then we'll be in Iceland where, although they have 100% literacy, they also are very proud of their language, and they're websites for bookstores are all in Icelandic, so not very helpful.

Icelandic/English dictionary? Not so much online.

Babelfish? Not so much the Icelandic on there.

Even as I write I'm feverishly combing the internet for a possible solution.

The fact that it may be out of bounds might not be such a big deal if NO ONE spoils it for us before we get back. Yes, we will be in remote areas in towns with populations of less that 2,000, but still. It could happen.

And now on to the bitch. On February 1st, I, like the good HP fan that I am, ordered 3 copies from Barnes & Noble to be delivered via expedited shipping (free) to our front porch. But that was without realizing that we'd already booked our trip for Iceland. We dithered about what to do, but I decided we either needed to cancel the order or change the shipping address because we weren't going to be seeing our front porch for 10 days after the books had been delivered. Only today, 10 days before it is supposed to arrive, I can't change the order, I can't cancel the order, I can't change the shipping address. According to the nasty on the phone, "Due to the large number of orders blah blah blah." Hateful.

So unless we can find someone to come scoop them up for us, 3 copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be sitting on our doorstep for 10 days.

We've just returned from a lovely 5 day trip to Bumpalot, where I baked both light carrot cupcakes from this and a banana bread from this. I would omit the chocolate chips from my next batch of banana bread--weird with the cinnamon. We went for a drive and a walk on the mountainside, where we interrupted a rather shaggy mountain goat that went bounding down the mountain across our trail about 8 feet from us. We went to Aspen (me, a native Coloradoan, had never been)--totally unworth it. Not sure I found any reason to return.

We also attended a "get to know your neighbors" type 4th of July picnic, which I'll have to expound on in another post. Let's just say I never thought Miss Havisham would be there.

So now we're busy packing up our raingear, sorthing through the books, loading the mp3s with music and trying to learn how to pronounce ANYTHING in Icelandic. Wish us luck on the Harry Potter front, the travel front, the weird Icelandic food front, and oh, any other luck you want to through our way. I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

Oh, one final note. After six or more months of ridiculous anticipation, our new favorite grocery store (located 1 1/2 blocks from our humble abode) suprised us by opening one day before the announced opening day. Kinda like somebody moving Christmas up and forgetting to tell you. But we went and had a snoop and can't wait to go back for produce. And fish! And bread! We're excited silly by the quality and proximity. We plan to become european and go to the store every other day or so. La di da.