I saw Harry Potter last night!

No spoilers! What an unexpected treat! I happened to see an ad at 7pm that said it's out. I was like, "Wha....???" Well, without too much thought, I told my husband that my older daughter and I were off. I nabbed tickets online, thinking it might be sold out, wondered how I'd missed that it was released, and off we went! It was not sold out and even though I bought tickets for the 8:00 showing, we snuck into the 7:30 theater, which was still showing previews.

It. Was. Awesome!

By far, the best Harry Potter movie. Actors: more refined. Effects: amazing, except for Voldemort's nose, which still looked all blurry in many scenes and distracted me. Plot: Great - moved right along and was very true to the book. I haven't read it in over a year and I don't recall missing anything critical. I wonder how they do that? What a job; boiling down so many pages and letting go of so much good stuff.

I'd have liked to see more of Tonks. I was really looking forward to her character but she, like many aspects, was glossed over.

Still, I found it much lighter than the previous movie, and walked out with a bounce in my step.

I think my daughter was quite lost. She's seen all the others and we thought she followed, but now maybe she's getting old enough to realize how much she's been missing. Anyway, she didn't find it as scary as some of them.

I wonder when it is officially coming out. I thought it wasn't until this weekend. Oh well! How lucky I was to get this early look and not have to deal with lines or crowded theaters.

Wow! I've visited 19 countries!

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

For someone who feels like she hasn't traveled much at all, this is pretty darned amazing!

Here's my list:
England a few times, with a lot of driving and even trips to Jersey Island
France but only briefly
Portugal also briefly
Spain twice, 2nd time alone for 2 weeks
Italy briefly, including Vatican City
Greece briefly, including one island, sorry can't remember which
Germany briefly and again 2 more day trips
Holland for a month on business
Belgium weekend trips to Bruigge - wow!
Finland for a week for business
Argentina for 5 weeks for business
Uruguay during weekend break on business trip
Brazil during weekend break on business trip
Paraguay, I think, during weekend break on business trip
Chile for a week for business
Canada a few times
Mexico for our honeymoon

I think that's it! And yet, I feel like I haven't traveled very much at all and definitely not nearly enough. I'd love the time and money to do a lot more traveling!