This post idea is completely stolen from Yoonamania’s most recent Thursday Thirteen. I found it so entertaining that I had to do a version of it myself, even though it’s not Thursday.  My excuse being that it is summer and due to my eratic work schedule, I find it difficult to keep track of what day of the week it is.

Without further ado, here are thirteen things I say to Benny on a regular basis.

1.  Benedict! Said in a low, slow voice, usually when he’s sticking his head in the garbage.  He then turns and looks sheepishly at me, as he backs away from the garbage.

2.  Don’t eat that! Probably the most used phrase, for obvious reasons.

3.  That’s not food.  Again, something that is used on a regular basis, although Benny has not fully understood the concept.

4.  Be good. Another highly used phrase, usually when we’re walking and we come upon another dog.

5.  Has there every been a time when we’ve forgotten to feed you? Used when he starts begging for dinner at four o’clock, a full hour before he gets fed.

6.  Just do your business.  Used on walks when he’s just starting to squat and he sees another dog/human/other animal/the wind blows/a car honks/you get the point which causes him to decide not to go.

7.  Hold your horses. Used when I get a bag and treats before I take him out and he can’t possibly understand that I have to take two seconds to do that.

8.  What?! Used when he jumps up on me, and no he does not answer.

9.  You don’t need a treat every time you pee.  Because he usually expects one, but you know, peeing is not that impressive.  One does not need a treat for peeing.

10.  What did you do? Often the first words out of my mouth when I come home and see whatever mess he’s made while I’ve been gone.

11.  You’re insane.  For obvious reasons.

12.  Walk normally. Because sometimes he walks like he’s drunk.

13.  You know you’re cute. He does know he’s cute and he uses that to his advantage.

I haven’t done a Thursday Thirteen in a while, mainly because I can’t think of anything.  So, today I’m just going to post thirteen random things.

1.  I watched a movie in Creative Writing today that was about a Nursing Home Beauty Pageant.   It was possibly the strangest thing I have ever seen in my life.  I could have done without the scene where the old lady put on her stockings.

2.  I am very addicted to MyLeaky, The Leaky Cauldron’s newest form of online communication.

3.  Benny ate half of a homemade bread the other day, because my mom didn’t put it in the microwave when she left.  The only reason he didn’t eat the whole thing is because there was only half of it left.  I’m just happy he didn’t eat the tin foil it was wrapped in.

4.  It is very cold today, yet sunny.  It is going to be 40 degrees on Saturday, which is pretty much a heatwave for Upstate NY in the beginning of February.

5.  They keep the dorm rooms way too warm at night.  The heat is on too high if you have to kick off your blankets when you’re trying to get to sleep in February.  Why don’t they turn it down and save money?

6.  I am not very good at the drums on Rock Band 2.  I am decent at the guitar and not very good at the singing.

7.  I have to write a 3 page paper about research methods for psychology, but not in my Research Methods class.  It is for my Honors class.  That means I have done research methods in every single class this semester except Creative Writing.  Maybe I can write a story about how much I detest research methods and then I will have done something involving it in every one of my classes.

8.  Dr. Foreman did something incredibly stupid on House on Monday.  Something that could have cost him his medical license and probably would have if it had been done in real life.  But since it was House, he was able to keep his license.  Also, 13 (another doctor) got cancer due to Foreman’s stupidity, but was cured the same day she was diagnosed.

9.  My iBook’s battery is dying and I will soon have to purchase another one.  However, my bro informed me that 2.5 hours is a perfectly acceptable amount of time for a battery to last.  He would think this since he does not have a Mac.

10.  I have a bunch of pictures to post of Benny, but have not done so because uploading pictures to WordPress takes forever due to the fact that you can only upload one at once.  Also, WordPress no longer lets me post pictures from Photobucket, which drives me insane.

11.  LeakyCon is less than four months away!  I cannot wait to meet other people who are obsessed with Harry Potter as I am.

12.  I have way too many classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

13.  Nobody has shown up to my tutoring sessions for Statistics yet.  This might be due to the insanely early hour I hold them.  Nobody wants to do Statistics at eight in the morning.  Thus, the three sessions I have had so far were in essence study halls for me.

My brother, one of my sisters, and my mom are lucky enough to be able to go to DC for Obama’s Inauguration.  Security for the event is getting stricter by the day.  Since the historic moment is less than a week away, I thought it would be appropriate to list thirteen prohibited items for the day of the Inauguration.  Visit The Inauguration Website for more items.

1.  Strollers.  Yep, you’ll have to carry your kids if you bring them.

2.  Umbrellas.  Makes sense.  If everyone had an umbrella, people are going to poke each other’s eyes out.

3.  Backpacks.  Guess you can’t bring your homework to do while you’re standing around waiting.  What a shame.

4.  Firearms.  Well, that’s a given.

5.  Weapons.  Another given.

6.  Signs and posters.  Get a Support Obama t-shirt, don’t bring a Support Obama sign.

7.  Bags larger than 8″x6″x4″.  Break out a ruler before you decide on a purse to bring.

8.  Thermoses.  Guess you’ll have to buy your coffee down there.

9.  Sticks and poles.  And the reason for wanting to bring those would be…?

10.  Structures.  Er, all right…

11.  Bicycles.  It would be impossible to navigate a bike in DC on the 20th anyway.

12.  Animals (besides service animals).  Anyone who would consider bringing their non-helping dog to that chaos isn’t too bright.

13.  Alcoholic beverages.  Save your celebrating for after you go home.

And there’s even more on the website I linked to above.  It is certainly going to be a hectic day, but I still wish I got to go.  It would be so cool to attend this historic event.

The Thursday Thirteen website seems to not be available today, but I am posting a Thursday Thirteen anyway.   So, here are thirteen of my favorite  websites.  They are in no particular order and I have excluded my favorite blogs from the list.

1.  J.K. Rowling’s Website.  Not only is this the website of my favorite author, it is one of the best designed websites I have ever encountered.  It’s unique and interactive and I have spent hours at a time exploring it.  Plus, the little extra bits of Harry Potter information that are scattered throughout the site make any Harry Potter fan’s day.

2.  Broomsticks and Owls is the first Harry Potter related message board I ever joined.  I have been a member there for over two years now.  It has a very close-knit feeling to it, as it is very small.  But, we’re very welcoming to new members and always appreciate them!  I like all the Harry Potter forums I’m a member of, but this one will always be special to me.

3.  Petfinder.  Without Petfinder, we never would have found Benny, so that one is self-explanatory.  It is great to be able to look at listings for pets that are far away from your house.

4.  Harry Potter Fan Fiction.com is where I ‘publish’ my fan fiction and read numerous other wonderful stories.  I spend a lot of time there and it has definitely helped with my post Deathly Hallows Potter withdrawal.

5.  The Leaky Cauldron.  What can I say about Leaky?  Well, it is my favorite place to go for Harry Potter related news.  Plus, it has a forum and TLC is organizing a Harry Potter convention, which I plan on attending.

6.  Dogster.  Because any site where people can create profiles for their pets and then talk to other pet owners while pretending to be their pet is brilliant.

7.  Harry Potter Fan Fiction Forums.  As affiliated with #4.  It’s where all of us fan fic writers go to talk about our stories with people who actually get it.  Plus, if it weren’t for that forum, I am sure I never would have completed my NaNo.

8.  The Harry Potter Lexicon.  Despite the lawsuit between it’s owner, Steve Vander Ark and J.K. Rowling, I would be lying if I said this site wasn’t one of my favorites.  It’s an invaluable resource for fan fiction writers, who don’t want to spend hours leafing through the books to find out a tiny bit of information needed for a story.  However, I must note that I did not support Vander Ark’s side of the lawsuit.  A book form of this website is blatant copyright infringement and completely unfair to J.K. Rowling.

9.  Bored.com.  Anytime I have a few minutes to do absolutely nothing, I can always count on this site to provide me with useless entertainment.

10.  PotterCast.  Because what Harry Potter fan wouldn’t want to listen to an hour of Potter-related stuff once a week?  I won’t say much about PotterCast in this post, as I plan on devoting an entire post to it in the near future.

11.  MuggleNet Fan Fiction.  This was the first fan fiction website I came upon and it introduced me to what spawned into quite the addiction.  Although I like the way HarryPotterFanFiction is designed better, I still read stories on MNFF and enjoy every one of them.

12.  Capitol Steps.  The songs they have on this site are absolutely brilliant.  It’s a must visit for anyone interested in making fun of the hysterical people who run our country.  No politician is save from their parody skills.

13.  Things My Dog Ate.  This site is a must see for anyone who has a dog who destroys things.  It’ll make you laugh and probably feel better about the kind of destruction your dog inflicts upon your house.  Plus, Benny is on that site.

Anyone sensing a pattern with these?

For this week’s Thursday Thirteen, I shall set my iTunes to shuffle and post the names of the first thirteen songs that come up.

1.  Stay on the Line- Jared Campbell

2.  Mary’s Song- Taylor Swift

3.  Love Is A Beautiful Thing- Phil Vassar

4.  Papa Loved Mama- Garth Brooks

5.  The River- Garth Brooks

6.  Little Bit Of Life- Craig Morgan

7.  Find Your Grail- Spamalot Soundtrack

8.  Where Is Your Heart- Kelly Clarkson

9.  Christmastime At School- Gred and Forge

10.  Angels We Have Heard on High- Josh Groban

11.  Tied Together With A Smile- Taylor Swift

12.  Don’t Waste It- Jared Campbell

13.  His Name Is Lancelot- Spamalot Soundtrack

To balance out last week’s Thursday Thirteen, Thirteen Things I Hate About Finals Week, I shall now blog about thirteen things I like about the end of finals week.  I took my last final yesterday, so finals are over.

1.  The end of the semester.  (Obvious, I know, but true).

2.  No more studying.

3.  No more homework.

4.  The freedom to forget the 37 formulas I frantically memorized prior to Wednesday’s statistics exam.

5.  Getting to see Benny.

6.  Getting to see my family.

7.  Working.  Yeah, not normally something people enjoy, but I need money.

8.  Getting and decorating the Christmas tree.

9.  No more dining hall food for a month and a half.

10.  Sleeping in.

11.  Christmas being 2 weeks away.

12.  Having an immense amount of free time on my hands, which will enable me to really get started writing my third fan fic about Albus Potter.

13.  We’re that much closer to having Bush out of office.

And this week, I’m actually going to stop at 13.

This is my first foray into Thursday Thirteen I can’t guarantee that I’ll do it every Thursday, but today I managed to think of an idea.  So, here are thirteen things I hate about finals week, which is next week.

1.  Devoting a weekend to studying (obvious, but true).

2.  8 am final.  Enough said.  There is a reason I do not schedule classes before 9:30.

3.  Two finals in a row.  Yes, there is a half hour in between, but that is not nearly enough time to cram in extra studying and obtain sustenance that I was unable to get before the aforementioned 8 am final.

4.  Writing papers.  Why do all the professors have papers due around finals?  Aren’t they aware that we are already swamped with studying?

5.  Re-memorization of previously forgotten statistics formulas.  I have no less than 20 formulas that I need to memorize for my stats final.  I’ve had them all memorized at one point during the semester, just not at the same time.

6.  Distractions.  These usually come in the form of Christmas movies on TV.  They make it incredibly hard to study.

7.  Tedious extra credit that provides one with a mere point or two.  If I am going to spend two hours working on an extra credit paper, I would like more than two points for it.

8.  Reading the books I should have been reading throughout the semester.  My computer science quizzes have always been online, which means they are open-book, open-Google, pretty much open-everything.  The final is not open anything.  Thus, I have to crack open the text book that has been collecting dust on my desk.

9.  NaNoWriMo is over.  All right, it’s not directly related to finals week, but NaNo was an excellent distraction from studying that I no longer have.  And yes, I do appreciate a distraction every once in a while.

10.  Selling back books.  You purchase a $200 text book at the beginning of the semester.  If you’re lucky, you’ll get $50 for it.  Chances are, it will have gone to a new edition and the book store will not take it.

11.  Classes where the professor teaches new material right up until the end.  Some professors review for the last couple classes.  Others cancel class knowing that their students would rather be studying.  Then there are the ones who teach new material on the last day and tell you it will be on the final.

12.  Packing.  When I am not studying this weekend, I will be packing to go home.  I just know I am going to forget something and I will have to live without it until I return in January, due to the fact that the dorms will be locked.

13.  Pre-leaving laundry.  Laundry is always an irritating task in my dorm, but I am sure everyone is going to need the washing machine early next week, which is when I will need it as well.  Chances are, I will do my laundry at midnight while cramming for the 8 am final.

14.  Papers that are worth a quarter of your grade.  My final essay for English class is worth a quarter of my grade.  I currently have a horrible grade in that class and desperately need above a 90 on that essay, but the chances of getting a grade that high are slim.  I’m trying to write it exactly how she wants, but it is proving to be difficult.

15.  Knowing that freedom is only moments away.  In a week I will be done.  Completely and totally done with the semester.  But right now, it seems incredibly far away.  It’s so close yet I cannot grasp the freedom.  Thinking about it only makes the time creep by even slower.