Champagne orange juice Happy New Year!  I awoke Sunday morning to our beautiful Cally weather only to find out that the Rose Parade would not be taking place until Monday.  I doubted I would remember to turn it on to watch the next day.  Zyla Alter Served at the New Years Day Mass with some other friends from school.  The alter looked festive with the Christmas trees, poinsettias and nativity still in place.  My family New Years Resolution was to start saying the Family Rosary every night.  We occasionally said it together during car rides, but I wanted it to be more of a daily evening ritual.  After sharing it so often with Ed's family over Christmas it would be a nice spiritual meditative time we could share with each other.  After the freezing cold weather in Ohio, it was wonderful to dethaw in the soaring summer like temperatures.  Chilly mornings gave way to mid 80's by noon.  Monday, Ed and I went for a hike up the Verdugo Mountains, then Tuesday Zyla came with us to hike down river to Switzer Falls.  By Wednesday Zyla was back in school.  Ed and I enjoyed a date day to Disneyland.  I loved riding the rides next to him, something we never do when Zyla comes since she refuses to ride alone.  We were planning another date day when I was called into Whitney a day early.  Finally I got a turn to come in on a Thursday to read for one of the guest stars during the Producer Run Thru.  As it turned out there were many guest stars and almost all the stand ins were brought in.  It was wonderful seeing everyone again after the holidays and catching up on the adventures we had been on.  I was told to play the role of ‘Carrie' who was not cast yet.  She had one scene with Chris D'Elia in a restaurant.  I had no illusion of being considered for the role since the character was 10 years younger than me and supposed to look 12 years old, but I had fun pretending.  Derrick was our guest stand in filling in for Matt, who could not make it in.  I remembered working with him last summer on the Nickelodeon show Bucket and Skinner.  Besides doing the lines for ‘Carrie', I also did bit parts for the Run Thru.  In a diner scene I played the waitress and in a scene were Whitney and Alex exit a bathroom after having sex, I am waiting outside to use it next.  It was fun running the lines, and acting out the scene with Chris for the new director David Trainer and then later in the day for the entire network.  I thought since it was called a Producer Run Thru less people would show up to watch, compared to Fridays, but I was wrong.  I felt a little nervous when the 50 executives, writers, producers, etc all started to pour in.  I hate the feeling of being judged that you get at auditions.  I kept reminding myself this was just for fun, I was not really trying out for the role.  I fused the energy into the character who was an insecure girl on a first date with Alex.  It went beautifully.  I walked back to the parking garage and headed home right before Zyla got out of school. 

Friday the call time was really early since the cast had to be at some promo party in Pasadena later in the day.  When I got to set I was told I would be reading ‘Carrie' lines again, but later was told that Zoe was covering it.  That is usually how it always went, the other principals covered guest star lines for the Network Run Thru.  I still did the little bit parts and after the Run Thru was asked if I would please do the role of the customer waiting outside the bathroom where Whitney and Alex are having sex.  I said sure.  Whitney and Alex were comfortable with me and the AD's did not want to have to worry about teaching some other random BG, when I knew the timing and had done the scene with them a number of times already.  Meagan was our guest stand in for the day since Tiffany had an audition and could not make it in.  She was nice and I enjoyed talking with her most of the day.  We were not needed for lighting, wrapping out at 1:40pm.  I received my Christmas gifts from the Whitney executives, the jacket and a coffee mug.  Ed had gone to the First Friday Noon Mass at Zyla's school that her class was presenting.  She had been upset that she did not have a part in it, but was the alternate.  I told her that was important too because someone always gets sick.  Someone did and she got to have a part in the Prayer of the Faithful.  I was happy for her and glad Ed could be there to watch.  That evening we watched the season finale of Make It or Break It.  What an awesome show.  We had all grown to love the Rock girls and looked forward to when Netflix would have season 3 available.

The Secret of Kells was a beautiful cartoon I found on Netflix that made me want to color Celtic circles all day.  The music and animation simple yet touching became my new favorite cartoon.  The weekend was a whirlwind of busy that could be blamed on the beautiful full moon.  I helped Zyla finish up her President Adams report.  Jessica's List called with a rush call Saturday morning while I was in the grocery store.  I could not drop everything at that moment to go.  I grabbed up Anais last Diary at the library along with Zyla's next book report book.  The Help came in the mail as a SAG screener.  The movie felt a little long, but the story line and acting was great.  Sunday, my family drove down to the South Bay to visit my sister's family.  We all went for a walk on the beach in Hermosa.  It was so crowded.  Looked like a typical summer day with girls in bikinis, volleyball matches, Strand residents relaxing on their decks with beers.  We stopped to let Zyla swing and watch a large portion of the beach get closed down.  Cops showed up.  About 10 blocks of The Strand were closed.  Zyla wanted to get in the water and grab some shells.  The tide was pulled out really far.  Rumors were flying that there was a torpedo bomb threat.  We left the beach.  Back at home, I found No Ordinary Family available on Netflix instant and remembered how much fun I had standing in on that show last year.  Even though it was cancelled after its first season I knew it would be a fun show for my family.  We watched the first two episodes back to back. 

Monday morning I was back at Whitney early, dressed in winter wear for my scene at the bathrooms.  It was not first up.  We were doing reshoots of an Andy episode and he was there directing them.  The new dialog in the reshoots made the scenes better, funnier.  Then the new episode preshoots started.  Everything went smoothly.  Amber had called over the weekend saying she would be at the show doing BG on Monday.  It was great seeing her again and catching up.  She missed standing in on our show.  Rebecca, the script supervisor told me she had loved my performance of the ‘Carrie' role last week.  We had a guest stand in Chris, who was replacing Ryan for the day.  We also had a new stand in named Ryan. He would be a regular whenever Hayes Macarthur playing ‘Lance' was in an episode.  Wardrobe approved my clothes and my scene was up after lunch.  At walk away lunch I went to move my car from the far lot to the closer structure and read from my current book Daniel Stein, Interpreter by Ludmila Ulitskaya.  I had started it on the plane to Ohio over the Christmas break.  It was interestingly written, like nothing I had read before.  The entire book was made up of letters between different people tying together the era of pre and post WWII.  The main character was a German Polish Jew's journey through the Gestapo to becoming a priest in Israel.  I went back to set and finished up my scene with Whitney and Chris.  One of the camera guys told me I did a great job with the scene, which could easily have been overacted.  For the remainder of the day I stood in for Rhea and our guest star Carrie Wiita playing ‘Carrie'.  Carrie played the scene exactly as I had read it Thursday, she did really well.  Chris shaved his face surprising everyone!  The entire episode was a flashback to when Alex and Whitney met.  All the actors were getting make overs for the flashback scenes.  Zoe's character went from being a red head to black hair.  Rhea got super long blond extensions.  It was funny because it all felt very 80's, like a 20-year flashback instead of what it was, a 3-year flashback.  Chris said he had not shaved in 5 years!  Whitney was enjoying his soft face since she had multiple make out scenes with him in this episode.  By the end of the night the actors were all getting a little loopy, adding in extra lines, which had us all dieing laughing.  We did not finish all the camera blocking, but the network pulled the plug at 8pm and told us all to be in a little earlier Tuesday to finish. 

Tuesday morning I took Zyla into school then came home to get ready for set.  My call time was 10:45am, but I got to the stages a half hour early.  Ryan was back to stand in for Chris, the 3 scenes we had left to camera block did not take long, then it was sit and wait.  Like the previous month, we were told we could not leave and would be needed the entire show.  I went to the catered lunch having a custom made pasta bar meal and salad.  At 4pm I let the AD's know I was there and that I would be hanging out in on the Mason House set since we had already preshot that scene.  They said they would keep the reading lights on in there for the stand ins.  I sat down on one of the back couches and read Ludmila's book while the audience was loaded into the stands.  From where I was sitting I could see the whole audience and they could see me, but I doubt anyone was paying attention.  Tiffany did not want to hang there and went to the BG changing rooms in the building next door.  Alex and her boyfriend hung out on the couch opposite me.  The show got under way and was running smoothly.  It was such a funny episode.  After 3 hours my eyes got tired of reading and I just laid down on the couch listening to the show, the takes, the Audience Warm up DJ keeping the audience pumped up between takes.  Ryan came by and decided to hang out.  Good thing because all of a sudden he was needed to stand in for Chris.  We ended the show at a decent hour wrapping out at 10:30pm.  I got home exhausted.  Two more screeners had come from SAG, The Artist and Moneyball.  I had a glass of wine while telling Ed about my evening.  We decided to hold off on watching the screeners.

My days off I spent alone.  I went on a Rosary Prayer Hike at Stough Canyon and finished reading Ludmila's novel Daniel Stein, Interpreter.  When I first started it I did not know whether I would be able to finish it.  The structure was foreign to me since it was not laid out like a typical novel.  There were many characters with their personal stories scattered through by way of letters, random memos, etc.  But I trusted Ludmila as I love all her other novels.  At the end of each section Ludmila would right a letter to Elena Kostioukovitch about the work she was producing.  Toward the end of the book Ludmila was in tears over her work, doubting her efforts as a writer.  I wanted to give her a hug and tell her how beautiful it all turned out.  Even though I know it is historical fiction that she made up some of the characters and embellished on others who were real, the story was weaved brilliantly together and I consider it a masterpiece.  It felt like a journey, I gained much more in depth knowledge about those times and appreciated her effort.  Thank you Ludmila for not giving up on this labor of love.  More movie screeners came from SAG including Bridesmaids and The Descendents.  Ed and I started watching Bridesmaids that I had been looking forward to for a long time.  It started out strong and we were dieing laughing, but then it felt like it dragged for a bit.  By an hour and 40 minutes in I was tired and did not finish watching it. 

Friday I was back at Whitney for the new episode ‘Mad Women'.  Chris had not grown back in his beard because he was doing a spoof on Mad Men, with the clean shaven look.  Rhea was only in three scenes so I had an easy day of it, watching her rehearsals and taking notes on all she did.  One of our executives Betsy was directing this episode which Whitney had written.  Whitney was watching all the rehearsals she wasn't in and at one point playing texty games with Chris who was at the other end of the sound stage.  Whitney took a pic of herself with the 1^st AD Joe and sent it to Chris.  Then she came over and put her arm around me and held her cell phone out in front of us and took our picture to text to Chris.  Then she did it with Matt.  It was a fun happy atmosphere on set.  Whitney was wearing fake boobs and fake butt implants in one scene that had everyone dieing laughing.  We had a guest stand in, Hillary; back replacing Alex who was rehearsing for a gig her band would have on Monday.  Ryan was out at Two and a Half Men standing in for Ashton, so the other Ryan was replacing him for the day.  Antar used us for a few minutes before we wrapped out at 2pm.  I went to pick up Zyla from school and headed home.

The weekend was relaxing.  Watched Moneyball but could not finish it.  Brad seemed to have lost the magnatism energy he used to bring to roles and I found myself falling asleep.  Disappointing because I had heard it was a great movie.  I did finish up Bridesmaids but really a comedy should not be two hours long.  I found a great little Greek foreign film on instant Netflix called Dogtooth that was a pleasant surprise and very entertaining.  Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day and I had to be back on set of Whitney while Ed and Zyla had the day off.

Back at set, Whitney and Chris had been shooting promo videos for the Superbowl and were just getting started on pre-shoots for our episode when I arrived at my late morning call time.  It looked to me like Chris was growing back in his scruff, so maybe he would not be totally clean-shaven for this episode and they were trying to get his original look back.  The second scene up was with Rhea and I headed over to stand in for her.  She said hi to me and seemed in a good mood.  Later in the day when we camera blocked her scenes in her apartment she told us that the sketch drawing of her on the wall were her own personal artwork, along with the paintings of birds on her bookcase.  I thought that was really cool that they were using her original art to decorate her character's apartment.

An Asian taco truck came for us at lunchtime, which was a nice treat considering Monday is usually walk away lunch.  I really enjoyed the garlic fries!  Dinner was served around 6pm.  On the schedule I thought I would have a short day, but then the scenes all got flip flopped around and I ended up staying until 8pm.  I almost got run over by a guy driving one of the studio lot golf cart things on my way back to the parking structure.  I made it home in time to say good night prayers with Zyla, then relax with Ed to watch yet another screener The Artist.  So there is no dialog and it is shot like a 1920's silent film, I found myself sleepy after an hour of that and went to bed.

Show Day!  Episode ‘Mad Women'.  My call time was late and the day went by easy enough.  Watched the camera refresh from the stands on the monitors, everything looked great.  Some really great funny moments.  The stand ins were asked to stay for the show, so I went to lunch at 3pm, not as good as last weeks, then back inside to chill in the Mason House set on the back couch and started the 7^th Volume of Anais Diary. Most of the other stand ins swung by to see me and grab food at crafty during the course of the evening, but they mainly stayed in the dressing rooms next door.  I enjoyed listening to the show and watching everything play out from the Mason House.  The pineapple upside down cake was the bomb.  Everything was finished early, wrapping out at 9:45pm.  I had some wine with Ed telling him about the evening.

I spent my day off having my breasts molested by some guy for $100.  Well, he was a doctor and it was a breast clinic, not that it made much difference.  I was just happy to hear I was healthy with no signs of cancer.  Around 7pm Central Casting called to see if I would go to Whitney the following day.  They had called Jessica's but were told I was unavailable.  Usually Jessica's then calls me to see if I'll swing it on a day off and I always say yes, but they did not.  Later Jessica's called upset I had taken the job when I was listed as unavailable.  I should have been the one upset that they did not call like usual to ask if I wanted it, but somehow I was left apologizing for not letting them know I would take a Whitney job if they called on my day off.  I thought I had told them that last month. 

Thursday was an easy day.  Alex, Matt and I were brought in for the guest star roles to act out the lines for the Producer Run Thru.  Alex and I each had one line in a scene with Dan/Mark and Maulik/Neal.  I thought the episode was a little depressing with Lily and Neal's characters' abandoned engagement, but there were funny moments.  I was glad to see Andy back directing as we had all missed him.  Allison, the onset PA, asked me to collect all the stand ins emails because production wanted to send us an e-vite.  I assumed it was for the wrap party.  I guess the list I had compiled last year was thrown away when we were not added to the crew list.

Friday morning I arrived on set to another script revision.  The two guest star girls that Alex and I had read lines for the previous day were written out.  Not their characters, just their lines.  For the Network Run Thru we still performed with Dan and Maulik, we just did not say anything.  I got Allison the list of all the stand ins emails.  Antar needed us for a few minutes to figure out lighting then we were released for the weekend.  Rhea and Zoe were given Monday off since their scenes would not be part of the pre-shoots and there would be no time for camera blocking their few scenes that day.  That meant Tiffany and I were given Monday off too.  I picked up Zyla and headed home.  Helped her finish her minimal weekend homework, then when Ed arrived we took an evening stroll over to some tasty Chinese for dinner.  We watched No Ordinary Family together, then Zyla went to play with her friend while Ed and I checked out Mrs. Henderson Presents.  What a great movie, I really enjoyed it.

I awoke Saturday morning to the sound of rain.  Zyla went to gymnastics while I went for groceries.  Other than that, we stayed bundled in for the day.  Sarah's Key had arrived from Netflix.  I watched it with Ed.  I had read the book years before and the movie was just as brilliant.  The story was horrifying but a part of history.  They did a remarkable job on the movie, and I loved hearing the French dialect. 

Sunday we headed down to Disneyland.  While it was cold and overcast, there was only a slight chance of rain.  I have no idea why I did not notice on the Disney website the park would open at 9am instead of the usually 8am.  I woke my family up super early so we could walk right into the park when it opened but instead we were there almost an hour early.  I stood in line at the gate and was told they sometimes open the gates early.  They did and we were able to walk right onto Star Tours, no wait before 9am.  Zyla was chosen as the Rebel Spy this time and my favorite underwater world was part of our show.  We hit Space Mountain next, again no wait, just walked right through onto ride.  When we got to AutoTopia, there was a minimal wait because the cars were still getting their engines warm and with the current weather it was taking a little longer than usual.  Back by Small World there was a big festival celebration for the Lunar New Year!  It was the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, Zyla's year, so she was really excited.  They had special strawberry cheeros, which she devoured.  It really was the most perfect day to be in the park, the weather was perfect, the lines were short.  We walked right onto Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones and Pirates.  Zyla ran up the Tarzan tree, then we headed over to the California side.  I was in a mood for chili cheese dogs so we stopped at Award Weiners on the back lot for lunch.  We wanted to see the live musical stage spectacular of Aladdin in the Hyperion Theater.  The last time we had seen it was maybe 5 years ago and I remembered it being amazing then.  I had heard rumors that there had been issues with the carpet flying stunt they used to do and wasn't surprised that was written out of the show this time.  But that aside the musical was just as brilliant, the acting amazing and whoever was playing Genie deserves a special shout out!  He had me laughing so much.  I love the random new dialog current with today's hot topics, he was great!  After the show we headed to the back of the park to ride Screamer, Silly Swings, Zephyr, and Ariel's Underwater Adventure.  Our clamshell was paused for a while in the Under The Sea room, which allowed us way more time than we should have had to study all the fish.  I had gotten fast passes to Soarin' Over California which we rode last before we left the park.  Hit up Jamba Juice on the Disney City Walk before heading home.  Actually we drove straight to church so Zyla could Alter Serve at the 5pm Mass with her friend.  Our beautiful family day ended with Ed grilling up steaks then watching No Ordinary Family.  As a SAG member some of our screeners were available for free download rental from itunes.  I downloaded My Week With Marilyn first.  After prayers and putting Zyla to bed, Ed and I watched it over some wine.  I really enjoyed this movie, so beautifully shot and acted which held my attention.  I would definitely be voting for this one.

Monday the weather was back to rainy again.  I thought I might go hiking or shopping but the cold wet day made me feel lazy so I turned on the fireplace to curling up with Anais Diary.  Jessica's called later that evening with my call time for Whitney.  Not too early, so after watching No Ordinary Family with Zyla and sending her to bed, Ed and I started Beginners, a SAG screener I had downloaded off iTunes.  It was a comedy, but sort of sad.  I enjoyed it, but got tired an hour into it.  We paused it to finish the following night.

Tuesday, I got Zyla off to school then home to finish getting ready.  I got to set a little early and had breakfast.  Todd, the 2^nd AD, asked why I was so early, then realized he had not changed the stand ins call times when late last night he had changed the shoot schedule order.  The boys scenes were up first, but the boy stand ins were not scheduled to come in for another hour so Alex and I had to cover the first two scenes with Dan and Maulik in them.  I stood in for Dan O'Brien who plays Mark; it was a funny change of pace!  Todd said to let everyone know he was just gender confused when he put out the schedule.  Matt and Robson showed up and were thankful we had done half their job for them.  They finished standing in for the last camera block scene with the boys, then we moved on to the girls' scenes.  Rhea looked so beautiful in her eggplant colored bridesmaid dress in the scene with Lily working through her break up from Neal.  It was an easy day, especially with Andy there directing.  The camera blocking and refresh went quickly.  By 2pm we were done and told we could leave, but had to be back by 5pm.  I drove home to make dinner for my family.  It was nice to spend a few hours with them before heading back for Show Night.  Back at the stages, I found the Mason House furniture all covered with sheets.  I wanted to chill on my favorite back couch, but had to settle for the table and chairs in the way back.  Alex hung out in Mason House too, but the other stand ins all went to hang in the BG changing rooms in the building next door.  I enjoyed listening to the show and it was a lot funnier than it had started out to be last Thursday when I felt it was so depressing.  The rewrites were really good.  Had some tasty treats from crafty, read a lot of Anais Diary.  About two hours in we were half done and I thought it would be a quick night.  At one point Alex and Ryan were needed to stand in for a few minutes.  Falafel wraps came which were really good.  The new script came out for our next episode entitled ‘Is Neal...'.  I remembered hearing Whitney say the other day that they were doing a script on Neal exploring being gay.  That is where the next episode was going.  Of course Maulik who plays Neal really was gay as well as his stand in so it seemed like a cool twist of fate that the episode explored something they were both familiar with.  The pre-shot scene of a squirrel sneaking in through a window into Whitney and Alex apartment was really cute, who knew that squirrels could be trained for TV, good job squirrel!  We finally finished right before 10:30pm and I headed home.  Unfortunately I could not finish watching Beginners, because as a SAG screener download off iTunes you only had 24 hours to finish watching it once you start it or it disappears off your computer. 

My days off were beautiful.  The weather had done a 360 allowing for me to head up into the mountains for a hike.  I also put some time in at Zyla's school library, volunteering to help clean all the books and shelves for the school's Open House.  Ed and I watched The Descendants, a SAG screener we had gotten in the mail.  It was wonderfully done, incredible acting, very sad story.

Friday I was back at Whitney ready to see what this new gay episode was all about.  The tag had been re-written but I did not like it at all.  Neither did Whitney, so they did not rehearse it to show the Network.  Basically the episode is Neal exploring his gay side and having to let Lily know with an intervention type scenario.  Most of the episode takes place in Whitney/Alex apartment.  I did not find it that funny, but believed the writers would turn it around like they always do by show night with re-writes.  Water for Elephants had arrived from Netflix.  I had really enjoyed reading this book a while back and looked forward to seeing it especially with Vamp Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon playing the leads.  I was not disappointed the movie was wonderful. 

The weekend came and went before I knew it.  I worked in Zyla's school library helping to straighten up and give final touches to the place right before the Open House began.  Zyla Alter Served at the 1pm Mass and I enjoyed watching my little girl up on the stage. 

By Monday I was ready to get back to Whitney.  Ed was not feeling well and took the day off work.  I was able to spend a little bit of time with him before leaving for set.  Arriving to set I ran into Andy who always says hi to me and remembers my name.  He was one of the coolest directors I had every worked for and treated the stand ins like we were lead actors as well.  We had a guest star Bianca Lopez playing the waitress and a guest stand in for her named Kyra, who was on hiatus week from her show that worked next door to us Last Man Standing. The morning went by easy enough.  Rhea and Zoe were only in one scene being pre-shot so after that scene they were given a few hours off.  Tiffany and I were also told we could take three hours off.  I drove home to hang out with Ed.  We started watching one of the SAG screeners that had come in the mail The Iron Lady.  I had not thought I would enjoy it that much, but I was delightfully surprised at how wonderful it was.  Meryl did an amazing job and I enjoyed learning the history of all the things the great lady Margaret Thatcher did for England.  I arrived back to set after the lunch break and still wasn't needed for a few more hours.  I did get to watch the pre-shoot of the TAG scene, which had been re-written again.  This time it was much funnier and I was happy with it.  A last minute demand from production came and a reshoot was immediately scheduled.  Zoe/Lily had a line in a previous episode about what type of Indian Neal was and I guess the type she had said was in conflict with that group and possible lawsuits could ensue.  We were not reshooting the entire scene, just that one line so it was with meticulous detail that the previous footage of the scene was put up on all the monitors to make sure her hair and where she was standing, etc were all an exact match to fit it in flawlessly.  We finished the pre-shoots and started camera blocking after that.  Andy decided to let everyone off early and leave one scene to block for the next day.  I got home by 7pm with plenty of time to hang out with Zyla before she went to bed, then finish up The Iron Lady with Ed.  Before falling asleep I read a bit of Anais Diary, then lights out.

Tuesday I had a late morning call time and knew it was going to be a super easy day.  The episode was really simple and I was sure I would not be there all night long.  As it turned out I arrived to the stages and saw Chris sitting in his car with the AD and UPM trying to find out if he would be able to make it inside.  He was very sick.  About 20 minutes later he did come inside the stage to camera block the last scene we needed before the refresh commenced.  He looked so sick and I felt awful for him, knowing how much it sucks to have to perform when you are not feeling well.  When the camera refresh started Chris was taken to the medic while Ryan, his stand in, performed all his lines with the 1^st Team actors for camera.  Whitney was on top of her game and adding in lines that had us all dieing laughing but totally inappropriate for live taping!  The SAG rep showed up as usual to watch some of the show and talk with all the SAG actors on set.  She told me that only three SAG movies were shooting in town and one was just a movie of the week.  I could not believe how slow things were and how many of our jobs were off somewhere else being filmed.  Usually at this time ten or twenty movies should be in production.  She said after stopping by to see us she was heading over to the production of Lovelace.  I was excited to hear it was in production as I remembered reading about it a while ago when Lindsay Lohan was supposed to star in it.  I was happy to hear Amanda Seyfriend had taken over the role, loved her in Mama Mia and knew she would bring a beautiful performance to the piece.  After refreshing a few scenes it was decided that the show would be cancelled for the evening and Chris was driven to the doctor.  Thankfully our hiatus week was starting tomorrow and he would have time to get well.  Everyone was asked to make sure they were available during the hiatus to come back and shoot the episode the following Tuesday.  I headed home after 2 hours of work. 

I had some time to relax before picking up Zyla from school and helping her study for her science test.  Ed came home and we decided to hit up our favorite Mexican restaurant down the street for dinner.  Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Pt.1 arrived from Netflix.  I had read the final novel of the series 5 years ago and eagerly awaited the film adaptation.  It had been years since I had seen the last installment of the series on film, but from the start I was immediately drawn back into the whole wizarding world.  I was glad that the last book had been split up into two movies and felt everyone did an amazing job.  After putting Zyla to bed, our friend Andrew came over to share some time and treats with us.  My stomach hurt from laughing so much and I fell asleep before midnight, knowing I had to get up early the next morning to work at Zyla's School Book Faire.