Emma and I went and saw the new Harry Potter movie last night and loved it. We thought it was a lot of fun and very well paced with some great effects and excellent casting. Dolores Umbridge was perfect, I thought, just as I imagined her. Emma thought that the Veil was just right, too, appearing as she imagined it. My only minor quibble is that I thought it was just a little bit too short. I felt like we were — if you’ll pardon the bad analogy — skimming like a stone across the book, hitting the highlights for certain, but missing a lot of the depth. Wait…I can’t believe I just called a Harry Potter book “deep.” Next thing you know we’ll be eating dinner at Applebee’s and watching “Deal or No Deal” every night on the TV. And we did have dinner at Applebee’s the other night! Ack! I draw the line at “Deal or No Deal,” though. Sheesh.

At any rate, the pace of the movie left me thinking: If you hadn’t read the book, or known much of the plot going in, how much sense would the movie make? The girl sitting behind us had trouble following the plot, but I think that she was just stupid and not necessarily the best candidate. I probably shouldn’t pass judgment, because I know that I am not the best at following plots sometimes, but still.

This makes three good movies that we’ve seen in the theaters in the past couple of weeks. We saw Die Hard 4 (whatever) and also really enjoyed it. Again, not Great Art, but a lot of fun and certainly worth the price of admission. Lots of ’splosions, and what more do you want from a summer movie? For our anniversary, Emma and I went and saw Ratatouille, which was excellent. Just wonderful. Fun and enchanting and funny and touching and everything a good Pixar movie is. The short before the movie was great, also, one of the best I’ve seen, and I’m already excited about next year’s release after seeing a 30-second clip. We had a great time.

Now to the other half of my title. Our A/C died sometime on Sunday. Can I tell you how much it sucks not having an A/C in Florida? In July? Ugh. It started getting warm on Sunday afternoon and it was in the 80’s (at least) by the time we went to bed Sunday. Last night we got clever and slept in “Susy’s Room,” the converted garage with an independent A/C, but the rest of the house is still pretty warm. We can open the front door and the door to the breezeway and turn on the attic fan, but it only does so much. I’ve got an appointment with a repairman between 3 and 5 this afternoon. Hopefully it’ll be something minor but I doubt it. The fan outdoors is still working and the fan in the air handler seems to be working, but the air that it’s blowing isn’t cold. Maybe the condenser? Beats me. I’m not nearly as mechanical as I wish I were.