everything but the girl

In the last ten days I have: Had a child graduate from elementary school and win the first Outstanding AR Reader award for hitting 945 AR points (he would've hit a thousand by the close of the school year but the librarian took ill *at* the graduation although she is doing fine now, so they didn't open the library on those last two days); taken said child and friend to camp; been home for 36 hours; started the younger kids at camp; gone to Orlando; got terrible blisters because of a bad shoe choice; listened to John Williams conduct music from Harry Potter, met JK Rowling in the shop inside Hogwarts Castle as I was putting my stuff in a locker to go on The Forbidden Journey ride for the first time; participated in round tables with cast & park-and-film art & producer people; flown on a Hippogryff and on a broomstick; pondered kareoke songs to sing during Infinitus; got a terrible bugbite on my back (I blame Aragog); eaten two Cauldron Cakes; drank far too many Butterbeers; hung out with friends at The Three Broomsticks; tweeted a lot and counted the days to Infinitus.

26, btw. 22 until I get on-site.

Registration closes in three days, so if you are coming and haven't registered yet and have any interest in going to the feasts, you need to now. And Night of a Thousand Wizards sold out a few days ago, but there is a waitlist if you're registered.

Things I know I am doing at Infinitus:
Presenting twice on Thursday
Selling "Keep Calm & Carry Wands" gear at the Craft Faire to support FA's upcoming server purchase (more on this next month) on Thursday evening
Going to the amazing luncheon on Friday featuring naominovik, sarahtales, aliwilgus, karenhealey and rj_anderson, moderated by pegkerr.
Going to Night of a Thousand Wizards
Drinking frozen Butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks with friends on Wednesday night
Going to a dozen amazing panels on Friday & Saturday
Helping at Registration on Tuesday and Wednesday

Things I am doing before Infinitus:
*Choosing what dress to wear for NoaTW (more info on clothing coming on Tuesday)
*Trying to get many of you to volunteer to be programming prefects and/or security volunteers. Programming prefecting is easy - you just sit in your assigned programming sessions (and you can choose the ones you want if nobody's claimed them yet) and keep time and make sure the question process is organized. Volunteer sign-up info is here and programming prefects have almost nothing to do before the event starts. If you haven't seen the formal programming times yet, they're all up here
*Finding better shoes to wear around the parks because those sandals cut me.
*Catching up on LJ. If you posted something this past week that you think I should read (fic, meta, news, etc., please link me to it!)
*Getting a chair massage tomorrow. SO much driving this week, so I desperately need it.


There is one thing I wanted to post about re the Forbidden Journey ride. As Reuters reported yesterday and others have reported in the last few weeks, there is an issue for people of larger size in being able to ride the Forbidden Journey:

Jeff Guillaume of Lansing, Michigan, who in 2002 founded an early online Harry Potter news aggregator and fan site HPANA.com, said fans like him will be disappointed because of limitations on body size to ride the Forbidden Journey.

At 5 feet, 8 inches and 265 pounds (1.72 meters and 119 kg), Guillaume said his mid-section would not allow the restraint system to close, so he could not board the most heavily promoted ride. He said some other rides include special cars for larger guests.

But [Thierry] Coup said that Orlando Magic basketball player Dwight Howard fit into the restraint and rode the ride this week. Howard is listed on the NBA's website as 6 feet, 11 inches tall and weighing 265 pounds (2.11 meters and 119 kg).

I can't tell what the maximum weight-height ratio is. I know people who are 5 foot 5 and 200 pounds who got on, as well as someone who is 5 foot 7 and 230, but I think we'll hear more on this. But if your BMI is over 37 or 38, you may have an issue getting onto the ride. There are seats out front to test, and if you can't ride you should still walk through the castle queue - it's definitely worth an hour to get to see it all! And hopefully they will figure out a way to tweak the seating system to allow people of larger size to ride.

With a few notes and a HUGE and terrific announcement:

1. I have tasted some of the wonderful treats that will soon be on sale at the Three Broomsticks and they are all amazing. I can't talk about specifics yet but omgflail everything is beyond delicious.

2. Hogwarts at the WWoHP looks lovely in the rain. But the sunshine on it is gorgeous, too. Check it out!

3. The Elvis Library at the Hard Rock Cafe is wonderful, but it's sad when a bar runs out of absinthe.

4. I still haven't had a chance to wander around CityWalk. Maybe after the Park closes tonight - we are having meetings and working all day but we should be able to go to the Park for the last three hours. Any locals want to meet up at Margaritaville at 8:30-ish tonight?

5. Amazing meetings at Universal yesterday, and we got a terrific piece of news:

We are excited to announce that our exclusive Infinitus event in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter only at Universal Orlando Resort’s Islands of Adventure will take place on Friday, July 16! More details, including pricing and times, will be coming soon - our park access will be after hours and will be only for Infinitus attendees (and possibly a guest per attendee). We know you are excited as we are for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

We can't talk yet about the awesome that this add-on event will include, but soon, we will. I strongly recommend registering for a single-day pass, a full registration or a Merlin's Circle registration sooner than later. Also, the Royal Pacific is filling up - although there are still many rooms available at the Portofino and the Hard Rock - so it would be a good idea to make your hotel reservation. too. There will be in-park benefits during regular operating hours for those staying at any of the three Universal Resort hotels.

6. Six is on the Simpsons Ride. Again.

7. Have people seen Percy Jackson? Aaron is taking the kids today and I think they may want to go again on Monday, so I may have to sit through it. Is there a scene equivalent to the ninety seconds of Hedwig flying in PS/SS that I hated so much?

8. Because of all the blackouts and blizzards and school and road closures and weather-ish messes, we've extended the deadline for programming submissions. If you haven't looked over the CFP yet, check it out here.

To submit a proposal for Infinitus 2010, please send an email to fpsubmissions@infinitus2010.org no later than midnight EST on February 28, 2010 with the following information:
· Name of presenter(s):
· Email address(es) of presenter(s):
· Phone number of presenter(s):
· Title of presentation:
· Presentation format (Lecture, Panel, Roundtable or Workshop):
· Time needed for presentation (20, 50, 80, 120 minutes):
· Presentation proposal (fewer than 500 words):
· Presenter biography (fewer than 150 words):
· Equipment and materials requested (e.g. whiteboard, projector [LCD or overhead]), if any:

I've seen a bunch of submissions from many of you, but so many of you have interesting things to talk about. Suggest a round-table that you want to lead, put together a panel, or do a paper - it'll be terrific. Also, remember that you can present if you only have a single-day registration.

So as you may've seen from my Tweets yesterday, I was in Orlando for some of the fun surrounding the announcements about the Wizarding World of Harry Potter aka HarryPotterLand. Now, I've been a Disney fangirl since birth, and I do still love it there, but working with Universal Studios in the lead-up to infinitus2010 next July has been an amazing experience because of the love they have for the books (and the films) and how much they want all of that to be evident in every visitor's experience in walking through Hogsmeade OMG we get to walk through Hogsmeade! With Hogwarts right overhead! And then we get to go in!

We're going to go into Hogwarts. All of us.

And we can go to be an outpost of Ollivander's and The Three Broomsticks and you can get Extendable Ears and Butterbeer and they're re-opening the unicorn roller coaster which I've always loved and turning it into a ride on a Hippogryff and the ride inside Hogwarts is going to be amazing and I know this because Dan Radcliffe said so at the HBP premiere and we still can't share what he said because Universal asked me to embargo it, but it's all fantastic.

Yes, I am giddy. And of course there's going to be some major commercialization of things like the foods and confiscated items from the books and I don't know if Horcrustaceans will actually be on sale or not, and a visit to Honeydukes might include purchases of muggle rice crispie treats the likes of which you would never find in a Hogwarts common room, but you'll walk around with your wand, and the hat you brought - or purchased on-site and you'll be at Hogwarts.

Wow.

Also, the sticky toffee pudding that the folks at Universal's on-site catering company makes? Is so, so good. And so were their sweet pumpkin pasties, or so I was told.

Ten years ago, when the HP fandom was a nascent little thing, could we have ever imagined something like this? A place where all Harry Potter fans could go - where on your worst Muggle day, you could plan for your next trip to Hogwarts, and know that it's possible to actually (kinda sorta) go.

Ten years ago... when HPforGrownups started. Well, it's ten years ago tomorrow. Keep an eye on the Yahoogroup tomorrow and through the weekend for some semi-off topic frivolity and reminiscing. ( But for my personal amusement, a poll. )

I'm on a live webcast from Leavesden right now courtesy of WB, and they're announcing a massive theme park addition to Universal that's all Harry Potter-themed, including Hogwarts Castle, an immersion-style Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade, etc.

It sounds REALLY cool!

More later as we learn more...

ETA: GAH! 2010?!?!? Too long to wait! Piffle!