No no no no no no no no - JE

In the immortal words of Robin Sherbatsky when she finds that ring in the bottom of her champagne: No no no no no you cannot do this to me, no no no no. Harry & Hermione? No. Not at all. Hermione is, as we all know, the brightest witch of her age. And she picks Ron, who is loving and loyal and imperfect. And not as smart as her and that is perfectly okay. And maybe he goes on to run a joke shop with his brother while she does crazy genius things. And she appreciates the balance that he brings to her intellectual activist life. And he, after the therapy that they will all need after that ordeal, is perfectly okay being in her shadow because he has more than established his worth because after years of being the sidekick to the boy who lived, not to mention decades of being the youngest brother he finally gets that the spotlight is just that, a spotlight. It doesn't determine your worth, it just makes you visible. Ron Weasley is no fool and he has witnessed what comes with the kind of glory he wanted when he first looked into the mirror of erised and he is just fine being Mr. Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's best mate.  There is no, Harry and Hermione make more sense. The brainy girl with big teeth and crazy hair is suddenly beautiful and ends up with the leading man? Where have we heard that before? Oh, I know, everywhere. You can't develop this relationship over 7 books and come back and say, eh, should have completely re-written that. That epilogue that is way too pretty (so much post-war therapy) and if you want to discuss that, then perhaps. But leave Ron Weasley alone. He grew beautifully over 7 books and more than merited the love of the girl who saved all their asses repeatedly. 
Not to mention, by making it always Hermione & Ron, and not a question, it made it so that the book was about everything else.  It wasn't which one will she pick (unless you were a little delusional) because it was established that Harry & Hermione were fantastic friends.  There wasn't Team Ron vs Team Harry because that would have been completely foolish in so many ways.  It was Team Trio all the way.  Or maybe Team Hermione, cause we know who the real hero was (sorry Harry, you are very brave and talented too, but that isn't the point of this post, so just get over it)

Ms. Rowling, I am a tremendous fan of your work and will continue to be so, but in this case I will stick to the wisdom of one John Green. Once they are out there, books belong to their readers. This reader will be ignoring this ridiculous revelation.

Okay, now that I've gotten that taken care of, let's see what else.

Currently I have the Olympic Opening Ceremony on in the background.  I had thoughts of a little live blogging, but I missed the first 45 minutes and now it is just the athletes parade and while the sweaters are certainly intriguing, I don't think I can come up with that many creative things.  I could just make Putin jokes, but I don't want to lose any potential Russian audience by getting blocked. 

So, I certainly don't want to defend the media, but the State of the Union was kind of uneventful.  Obama was like, you losers can't do anything, so here is what I'm going to try and do with executive powers, anytime you want to try and accomplish something, I live right down the street.  Whereas the Beiber antics might get him deported.  Okay, not really.  I don't think we deport Canadian pop stars, but we probably should when they commit crimes.  

Interjecting: Team Bermuda for the win, they are wearing shorts.  Apparently no one told them it was the Winter Olympics or that they were going to Russia.  

I am pretty sad about Philip Seymour Hoffman.  Such a horrible waste, a horrible thing for his 3 young children, and on a purely selfish level, I am just sad that there will never be another film that is improved by his perfect performance.  There are not many performers on his level (I'm thinking Meryl Streep, Daniel Day Lewis... in my opinion Amy Adams & Christian Bale are close or at least getting there... a few others) where every role is extraordinary and unique and exactly what the movie needed.  At least from the work that I saw, he made bad movies good, good movies great, and excelled when the movie was truly exceptional. Drug addiction is terrible and tragic and I hope that from this high profile death, a few people take notice, pay attention, and maybe think about getting some help.  I think Aaron Sorkin, someone who certainly knows about addiction, wrote a simple but elegant obituary here: http://entertainment.time.com/2014/02/05/aaron-sorkin-philip-seymour-hoffmans-death-saved-10-lives/

Interjection: With the cyrillic alphabet, I never know who will be coming out next.  It's just all over the place.  But don't worry, Canada is here!  I love those guys.  I also love when countries have just one athlete.  Like Kyrgyzstan. And Malta.

Okay, since we are talking about the Olympics, I think the most interesting thing is the addition of a team figure skating medal.  So while they will have the normal competition for the individual and pairs medals, there is also a team medal, which means more figure skating (which I enjoy) and better team spirit, which is nice.  Someone Nancy Kerrigan is thinking, really?  Where the hell was this idea when I got clobbered in the knee?  And Tonya Harding is like, eh, wouldn't have stopped me.

So, I didn't go to the parade on Wednesday.  I really thought a lot about it, but I decided I didn't need to go.  Although maybe I should have because it all still feels a little surreal.  I can't really wrap my head around it.  Superbowl champions.  With the intensity of the NFC championship game and the one-sidedness of the Superbowl, I can't help but think of the 2004 World Series.  After that legendary ALCS, the Red Sox's World Series win and ending of their curse was completed in an anti-climatic manner.  The real series had been that ALCS agains the Yankees.  
But ultimately on Wednesday I had way too much to do at work, it was ridiculously cold (not polar vortex cold, but close), and I knew it was going to be crowded and delayed, and I could just watch it on my computer.  I just love how excited everyone was and that there were more people downtown than live in Seattle proper.  Speaking of the World Series... when we win that, I'll be one of the people camping out on the street the night before.  But you already knew that.

I have seen more Oscar flicks, as you know, but will wait until I've gotten through them all for a full review and award prediction post.

I mentioned the polar vortex and now Sarah is in a real life winter wonderland.  Portland has been blanketed with snow.  I haven't seen Frozen yet, so I don't know if this means she succeed or not on her last mission, but she is going to have to wait it out with her Bailey's & hot chocolate.