(Brief back story for newish friends: Tamora Pierce was my entryway into fandom, and it's how I met at least a third of the people on my f'list. So that is why this is a MOMENTOUS OCCASION.)

So every now and then Little Miss Ten Whole Years (a.k.a my favorite person in the whole world) will sit down in front of my bookshelves, poke around the books, make a big pile of things that look interesting to her, and then ask if she can borrow them. The Tamora Pierce books have always really interested her, for obvious reasons. Girl knights! I mean, you cannot get much more viscerally awesome than girl knights. Since the SOTL series does have a fair amount of sexytimes in it, I have been resisting letting her read them. SHE IS JUST A BABY. Except not, so I finally caved, and she tore through them this past week. We were discussing WWRLM, and since she obviously had some STRONG FEELINGS about what was going on, I asked her to write a guest blog. She happily agreed, so here are her brief thoughts on the final two books in the series. I have edited them for paragraphs and basic errors, but that's it!

( Little Miss Ten Whole years on WWRLM )

( Little Miss Ten Whole Years on LR )

I still hate Idol, but I really do dig the whole play-your-own-instrument thing. I like David Archuleta, Jason Castro and David Cook the best of all the boys. I bet David H. (There are three Davids? How did I not realize that until tonight?) and Luke go home Thursday. Luke because he sucked again, and David H. because he's a gay stripper who also sucked. Gay strippers don't win American Idol, sry2say. Probably it would be a more interesting show if they did.

I watched with my family tonight and had a funny conversation with Little Miss Ten Whole Years. I was flipping to CNN during the commercials, and Wolf Blitzer informed us that a town in Vermont approved a resolution to arrest and try Bush and Cheney for... war crimes or something. I mean, it's Vermont. Anyway, my littlest sister said: "Good! Bush is a bad president, not like Woodrow Wilson!" This amused/interested me, so I asked her what she meant.

Little Miss Ten Whole Years: He ended the World War!
Me: That's true. He also had the idea for the UN!
Little Miss Ten Whole Years: What's the UN?
Me: You know, the United Nations?
Little Miss Ten Whole Years: You mean the League of Nations?
Me: Well, yeah. The UN was like the new and improved League of Nations. The League of Nations didn't work because--
Little Miss Ten Whole Years: DON'T TELL ME!!!! We're not there yet! *glares*

HAHAHAHA. She is such a dork. Who is afraid of history spoilers?

( Primary Politics )

It snowed last night, and it has been snowing all day. It is still snowing! (Except things got to melting around 3PM, and everything is just muddy and gross now. It's dropped back down to below freezing, but I'm thinking we'll have more in the way of ice than snow tomorrow.) My sisters and I played in it outside for so long that I had to take a nap under extra blankets to stop feeling cold after we got in.

Our neighborhood is full of kids, so it was completely surprising that we were just about the only people outside, except for our neighbors. Someone even stopped us and was all like, "Wow, you guys must be the Floridians." Fair enough, but I've lived here eight years, and we've only ever had snow like this two other times. So I think everybody else in this neighborhood is just kind of lame or something.

Anyway, there was sledding and snow fights, and we built a gigantic and awesome snowman and dressed him up like a pirate. (Mostly just because we found a pirate hat left over from Halloween in the garage.) So that was fun!

Kierra also showed me her new Top Model Barbie, and I swear she looks exactly like Phyllis from Young and the Restless. Like, I could stick pins in the doll, and I'm pretty sure Michelle Stafford would feel them. Freaky.

Little Miss Ten Whole Years had off from school today, so I went out with her and my mom to do some shopping. There's a brand new American Girl store at the mall, so we visited this afternoon while most kids were in school to avoid the INSANITY. Mattel has totally raped that company, I swear. I loved seeing lots of little girls running up to the displays and exclaiming in awe, but it kind of hurts my soul. The Pleasant Company used to rock so hard, and now it does not.

I also dodged into the Apple Store and fiddled around with an iPod touch! It was awesome! And I stopped by Whole Foods, and they had blood oranges! They NEVER have them! I can never find them anywhere! So it was a nice day.

( Addison's Anatomy )

( Brioche of Comedic Boredom a.k.a. Gossip Girl )

My thoughts on Bionic Woman (let me show you them) are here.

I still need to watch DSM. How was it?

1. My sisters and I watched High School Musical 2 again this weekend, and OH MY GOD. It is a boundless source of entertainment. "Bet On It" is my favorite song, but the dance number just gets funnier and funnier the more times I watch it. It is so completely melodramatic and hilarious. We are talking Eye of the Tiger degrees of lameness. Oh, Zac Effron! THANK YOU FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL GIFT.

And I didn't notice this the first time, but I am pretty sure that Mr. Evans's many attempts to make Ryan wear all of his his fabulous hats straight are supposed to be a nudge-nudge-wink-wink joke about his 100% canonical gayness. I am totally the last to realize this, aren't I?!

2. We also all went to see Stardust, which I had already seen twice. (!!!) It was every bit as cute as I remembered. If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely go. It is greatness!

3. It is common knowledge that I consider my littlest sister to be made completely of awesome. I try to save some of the cuter notes she writes, and here we have an apology to my mom. (Kierra got sent to bed early for talking back; Mom found the note when she went upstairs to wake her up the next morning.) The second is a note to me and Heather. Kierra was acting a little funny, and when we asked her why, she said it was too sad to say and that she'd write it down instead. She wrote the note and gave it to Heather. Cute, but kind of morbid for someone who is only TEN WHOLE YEARS old, though.

         

4. In music news, I am reallyreallyreally hoping that Kanye's new CD will leak sometime soon. But in the meantime, I am enjoying the new Eisley album. Still no summer album.

I am thinking about taking Heather to see Linkin' Park for her birthday present. Which doesn't even involve that much sacrifice on my part! I actually kind of like most of Linkin' Park's old singles, back from when I was in high school. I especially liked their IN THE END IT DOESN'T REALLY MATTER song, which was the soundtrack to my final exams in 2002.

EXCEPT. They are performing with My Chemical Romance. And, look. I am sure they are very good if you like that kind of Fall Out Romance At the Disco type of music that all the kids are listening to right now. But I am not a fan. I do think their costumes are totally cute, and I do not dislike "Helena." But I know I will HATE them if I have to listen to them play for an hour.

And, I mean, there is the matter of the crowd. And the heat. It's in an outdoor arena in the middle of August, so it will be sweltering, and we will probably be surrounded by sweaty teenaged boys. And hopefully we will skip most of the other bands, but there'll also be HIM and Placebo and all of these other probably shitty alterna-rock bands that I have never heard of before in my life. Oh, and also Taking Back Sunday. (See, this is why I believe in karma.)

Teenagers. Bad music. Sweat. Dehydration. This is basically my idea of the seventh level of hell. So I have sort of talked myself out of it. But it would be such an awesome birthday present!

Little Miss Nine Whole Years is about to become Little Miss Ten Whole Years, so I took her out for a pre-birthday sisters'-afternoon-out type of thing. And we ended our evening at the movies, watching Spiderman 3. Her choice, obviously.

WHAT WAS THAT?! Peter Parker stole Peter Petrelli's emo-bangs and started randomly dancing around everywhere! There were lots of seriously terrible and crazy things about the film, but Peter Petrelli Parker emoing and dancing his way across a New York montage was simultaneously the funniest and most horrifying thing I have ever seen at the movies. And what the hell was up with Harry suddenly having an Alfred for a butler?!?! What kind of crack was everyone involved in this smoking? I do not even know what to say about this movie.

I am going to see Shrek the Third tomorrow, and it had better be good halfway decent or else.

ETA: But then she stuck this on my computer (she knows me well!), so it was all worth it times ten billion!

1. I wore my "The Fake News Is All I Need" t-shirt today for the first time. My littlest sister (NINE WHOLE YEARS!) didn't get it.

Kierra: What's that mean, on your shirt?
Caitlin: You know The Daily Show?
Kierra: Oh. With that grey-haired man?
Caitlin: ...

I mean, really. Did you ever think you'd see the day when Jon Stewart is "that grey-haired man"? It makes me feel old and decrepit.

2. There's a woman on MySpace who is organizing a hunger strike to try and get Sanjaya kicked off of American Idol. This amuses me.

3. I really like Filter, an iTunes plugin that analyzes your iTunes library and then generates playlists. I have a lot of eclectic music, and I DESPISE making playlists. Mostly I just listen to CDs or I shuffle my Recently Played list, etc. With Filter, I can choose two or three songs that reflect what I'm in the mood to listen to, and it generates a playlist of similar songs/genres/artists from my collection. I've been using it for a week, and I've been really impressed with it.

4. Poll #957112
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Why are the Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse books by Stephanie Meyer so insanely popular in fandom?

What is it about vampires, seriously?

I've been doing some SERIOUS spring cleaning. Like, seeeeriously cleaning everything out. I've taken a full load of trash bags to the dump and a car load of stuff to Goodwill.

I've found some funny things, like the Empire Records soundtrack on tape, but the funniest thing by far was a statue of St. Joseph. When I was about fourteen and living outside of Tampa, we were having a lot of trouble selling our house. Some little old lady at our parish gave us the statue and told us to bury it in our front yard because it would help our house sell faster. Somehow it ended up in some stuff that I never bothered to unpack.

Heather and I toyed with the idea of giving it to Goodwill. We wouldn't throw it away because, hello, HELL. So we decided to hang onto it. We figure our parents will need all the help they can get selling their house this fall. Anyway, it just sort of reminded me of the superstitious, ritualistic parts of the Catholic church that harken back to paganism. They're exceedingly creepy in a fun sort of way.

Also, Leopard is supposedly being delayed because *drum roll* Apple needs more time to integrate Vista into the Boot Camp program that allow Macs to run Microsoft Windows. BOGUS. This is part of a pattern I am seeing that I do not like. I couldn't believe it when I got my new iPod this Christmas and saw that iPods now use slower USB technology in place of Firewire technology for syncing. It used to be that Apple released only the "Windows" iPods with USB. Now there's just one model with the inferior technology. I upgraded to a Mac for a reason, and I don't want to be stuck with second-rate technology just because PC users are where most of the money is.

Maybe this is what they mean when they tell you to Beware the Ides of March.

( Smallville )

( Grey's Anatomy )

ETA: ( Why I don't watch Supernatural )

So I watched Casino Royale with my sisters tonight. At the part where we're making fun of James's CPR technique...

Caitlin: It's too bad he couldn't get her to the hospital. Seems like they might have been able to save her.
Kelly: This isn't Grey's Anatomy, Caitlin.

Good thing too, 'cause Vesper is about as lame as Meredith Grey.

My littlest sister had this really funny project at school -- a "wax museum" of important figures from the American Revolution. (Her teacher is fresh out of college and therefore kind of insane. The entire project was ridiculously elaborate.) But it ended up being cute. All of the kids wore costumes, and they each had a special place to stand in the cafeteria. And they would stand completely still until you walked up to their "exhibit" and pressed a red "button" that they'd taped somewhere on their person or around where they were standing. Then they'd come to life and give you a spiel about who they are and why they were important to the Revolution. Kierra was adorable as Mercy Otis Warren. But my favorite (besides Kierra, of course) was the little boy who was Crispus Attucks. Attucks was a runaway slave who happened to be the first American to be killed (during Boston Massacre) for Independence. He had a little wooden crate so he could pose jauntily, and he looked *so* bummed out when he informed us that he was dead. Thomas Jefferson was also awesome. And then there was this one kid that even affected a British accent, heee. They all really enjoyed themselves.

(Also, since I helped Kierra with this project, I gotta tell all my British friends that her text-book makes the Brits out to be superbad guys. I mean, it's thisclose to propaganda. My kid sister thinks you are all evil and calls you "redcoats.")

Afterward, we went to Target to buy Kierra some valentines for her classmates. They were all out of the kiddie cards, so we decided we'd just use whatever left-overs we could find from previous V-Days. Surprisingly, Kierra eschewed the Disney Princess valentines.

Kierra: Caaaaitliiin, I'm NINE years old!
Me: Nine WHOLE years?!

And try as I might, I couldn't convince her that Strawberry Shortcake is totally retro. She ended up using Magic School Bus valentines, which was very geeky of her. I approve! We taped a bunch of Crunch candy hearts to the front of the envelopes. Of course, we had to test a random sample of them for poison. And then we discovered that there were Trivial Pursuit questions on the insides of the foil wrappers, so I had to eat a lot of them. (To get to the questions!)

( And now I'm going to spoil the sisterly hi-jinks with some political discontent. )

( Ugly Betty )

This is non-specific to tonight's GA episode. I gotta say that the conjecture that you'll be a terrible parent if you don't like kids is nonsense. Honestly, I do not like kids at all. I have no special affinity for them whatsoever. But there is a HUGE difference between "kids" and your own kids (or kids you're close to -- my littlest sister being born when I was fourteen, for example). It's just a totally different. It's hard to explain, but I swear it's the truth.

( Grey's Anatomy )

The angst in our house is THICK. Kelly was accepted to Brenau University today. She received a $34,000 academic grant, but even with that and the money she'll get from HOPE, tuition is still $5,000 a year. And my parents say they can't afford to pay that. Therefore, ANGST. She still has a portfolio review for an art scholarship, and she might be able to get another break if they have a work-study program. So I think she can do it. But still. ANGST.

Not to mention that she committed the ultimate act of rebellion and did not apply to UGA. To say that my dad is furious does not even begin to cover it. ANGST.

My littlest sister has been incredibly ill since this past weekend. She's got some sort of virus. She ran a fever all through Tuesday night, and today we went to the doctor's for a prescription for the ear infection she's developed (you know how little kids are; they blow their noses too hard). And it was SO HILARIOUS. We got through the appointment just fine, but at the end the doctor wrote her a note for Tuesday, but said that Kierra could go back to school immediately because "if they don't have a fever, I think they should always be at school." Dr. Crazy said this all VERY SERIOUSLY.

Which AHAHAHAHAHA. My sister has spent most of today being weepy because her ears are hurting her so badly and coughing with her. whole. entire. body. until I almost wanted to smother her with a pillow, just to stop her from making such horrible noises. Not to mention that I have her on four types of medicine now at various intervals. I mean, even if we took her medicine to the nurse, and even if she isn't contagious at all (which I find hard to believe), her going to school while she's feeling so genuinely rotten and horrible is completely stupid. I mean, GOD FORBID she miss learning about Paul Revere's midnight ride or something! Doctors and teachers, I swear.

So whatever. Doctor's note or no, the school can bite me. She's not going tomorrow, either. (Of course, probably no one is going anywhere what with the ice storm coming.)

Theoretically, my littlest sister has pet fish. In actuality, they're my mom's fish, since she does all the cleany/filtery stuff. Theoretically, I hate all domesticated animals. But I get attached to things pretty easily, so being at home I've sort of become attached to the fish. And I have learned that they are often pretty short-lived. We bought the cutest little spotted-koris (sp?) today, and one of them died tonight, and it is much with the sad-making. One of our other new fish seems ill. A flame tetra died the other day, too. Fish are sad. :(

Also, our stupid neighbors with the evil cats moved so we've been able to put out bird feeders again, and we have masses of songbirds, including a bunch of bluebirds. It's lovely.

I watched That Thing You Do today and ended up reluctantly defending Jimmy from the rest of my family, even though I think he is a total jerk in all of the ways that really count. But fact of the matter is that he never intended "That Thing You Do" to be such a snappy, bubblegum pop hit; he meant it to be a ballad. It did sound better as a pop song, but it was an inadvertent happy-accident. Jimmy certainly wasn't gung-ho to sign the contracts. I think it's fair to say that Mr. White handled Jimmy several times over the course of the movie. "Never trust a label" isn't paranoia or ingratitude -- Jimmy was right to take that advice to heart. In the end, Play Tone was a machine looking to capitalize on the Wonder's teen-appeal, which they'd carefully modelled and marketed. They weren't interested in the music Jimmy wanted to record -- they wanted to make a quick buck by having the Wonders do endless promotion, covers and crossover records of their single. And as much of an ass as Jimmy was to Fay, why on earth would Mr. White have told the media that he was enaged? And his reaction, as assy as it was, could easily have been influenced by the fact that he was ill at the time.

So I can't really hate Jimmy. And I don't think it's his fault or even mostly his fault that the Wonders ended up being One-Hit-Wonders. Although at the end of the movie, they do say that Jimmy went on to record three records for the Play Tone label in another band, so he clearly turns out to be a huge(er) hypocrite, so whatever. Why am I even worrying about this? SIGH.

I found my long-missing copy of Rebecca while I was cleaning my room today, which is A+! I looove that book. I will have to apologize to Kelly, since I accused her several times of stealing it/lending it out.

Siege of the North was on TV tonight, which was totally wicked! My sisters and I sat around and watched it and made fun of Zutara shippers. We specifically looked for and did not see the alleged sexual tension in their fight scene. I did think it was funny that he called her a peasant, though. And, you know, totally meant it. Besides being a racist terroist traitor to all that is good and holy, he is also totally a snob. And yet somehow indispensible to the show. He's weird like that.

Watching Siege of the North also generated a fresh batch of rage for Mattel, because it reminded me that Admiral Zhao has an action figure and HE'S BEEN DEAD FOR AN ENTIRE SEASON! And as much as I prefer Zhao to Princess Azula, I must admit that Azula kicks a helluva lot more ass than Zhao ever did. And, you know, KATARA IS THE ASS-KICKIEST OF ALL, and yet no action figure! Yes, I have been here several times before, I know. But the INJUSTICE and SEXISM of it all really infuriates me. Especially when Mattel is being all liey over in Pleasant Company Land about how they think girls are awesome. (BTW, Kierra's American Girl stuff arrived today in PINK boxes, OMFG.)

While Kelly was taking a shower tonight, me and my other sisters stole her door! It was much with the awesome, only we botched it up because Kierra freaked out midway through and tried to warn Kelly. She was afraid that Santa was going to bring her coal or something because we were being naughty. But Kelly deserved it, so I say we were merely dispensing karmic justice. But anyway, Kelly heard what we were doing so the effect was mostly ruined. But otherwise, it was A+! And I still have the door right here in my room! Mwahahahaha.

I have felt opressed by The Man this week for various reasons, and of course the one I'm blogging about is the most inane of them all. I was at Target with my mom to buy... I can't remember what. But we bought a lot. (Target is like that.) And I saw Avatar action figures and reverted to toddlerhood. I may have jumped up and down and done my hand-claspy thing and squealed a little. And Mom bought them for me, for Christmas! She bought me an Aang and a Sokka. (She would have bought me a Zuko, but they only had Zuko in his racist-terrorist stage, which I am so not about.) So I told her she had to find me Katara! And then when we got home, I got them out of the bag to look at (because I am five), and on the back it says that they don't have a Katara! TRAVESTY!

Katara is practically the main character of the show! She was the first character we met! She narrates the opening! Is Nickolodeon so sure that stupid, nose-picking little boys won't play with a girl action figure that they can make three types of Aangs and two types of racist-terrorist Zuko's but can't even be arsed to make a non-boobified Katara?! Or even a boobified Katara?! Oh, I am pissed off. I want my damn Katara action figure.

And I finally picked up Terrier today. I groaned when I saw it because it looks like a tome. Except, really the writing is just FREAKING HUGE. And I hate the design. What's with the boxy frame thingy around the edge of every page? Anyway. Now I just have to force myself to read the damn thing. And I do mean force.

Last but not least... Heather and I agreed to trade episodes last night, so I had to watch Supernatural in order for her to watch some FNL (which I am obsessed with, yay!). And I suppose I owe all the SPN fans on my f'list an apology. I didn't say anything bad about it because so many of you like it, but I have been thiking very nasty thoughts! And not the fun kind! Anyway, it's not quite as terrible as I thought it would be. And not really terrible at all, but it's just not my kind of TV. And I still think Jenson Whatshisface sucks at acting, but admitting that I know him from the most painful seasons of the many painful seasons of Dawson's Creek and Smallville probably means my glass house on the sand is now fully furnished. Or something.

YAY FALL BREAK!

( My sisters have the most tragic taste in alternative rock. )

I really enjoyed Michael Ausiello's CW Launch Party interviews. (Beware the spoilers!) And how much do I adore Kristen Bell? Lately the fandom has been up in arms since she said that she doesn't watch the show, but in the interview she whined to Michael that she hadn't seen the season premiere yet - it's pretty clear that she *does* watch her show. She just doesn't watch it the way the fans do. Which is probably pretty standard. I also loved how she was like: "Veronicaisafictionalcharacterwhoisnotreal" when Michael asked her about the fan reaction to her comments about Logan/Veronica. Because, ha.

ETA: So I was poking around YouTube, and today's Featured Video is two guys making fun of the Diet Coke + Mentos = Asplode thing. And I was like, 'Hey that one guy is really cute.' And then I was like, 'Dude, he reminds me of BSG Billy!' And that's because it totally is Billy! You guys, watch it. I swear to God it is him.

Caitlin: OMG, I have four new albums! You can pick which one we listen to on the way back!
Heather: Which ones?
Caitlin: I have the new John Mayer, the new Beyonce, the new Justin Timberlake and the new Rapture.
Heather: I'm not listening to any of those.
Caitlin: What? *is genuinely crestfallen* But...
Heather: No.
Caitlin: We at least have to listen to John Mayer.
Heather: I hate John Mayer. I have always hated John Mayer. I am not listening to John Mayer.
Caitlin: Well then, what are we going to listen to?!
Heather: Not those.
Caitlin: Okay. I have the new Knife too.
Heather: Ew!
Caitlin: :(

Well, today was interesting. I ended up missing my two afternoon classes because Heather's book bag got stolen in the SLC. It actually worked out in as ideal a way as possible, because I was going to take her back her apartment after her last class and before my first class. Traffic was so bad, and I kept calling her to get her to get her to walk across the street so I wouldn't have to brave the Student Learning Center intersection, but she didn't pick up. I was ready to chew her out when I finally pulled up to the SLC. Only she was standing there, crying. I roll down my window to aks her what the heck is the matter and she says, "Some fucking asshole took my bag!" And Heather doesn't cuss.

Anyway, her iPod, her wallet, her keys, her credit and debit cards, her checkbook, her student ID, her driver's liscense, her telecom book and all of her notes are all gone. As is the $200 dollar flip-phone she just had to have. I think she is most upset about her iPod, honestly. She bought it with her own money less than a year ago. And she's really upset about her class notes, obviously.

Anyway, my entire afternoon has been spent ferrying her around to file various lost & found, security and police reports, getting new copies of her keys, a new wallet, cancelling her banking accounts, loaning her $200 to hold her over for the rest of the week and other stuff.

The moral of the story is that people suck, and never ever put your book bag anywhere out of your immediate line of vision or some asshole will think nothing of walking by and scooping it up.

ETA: Who robs college students, anyway?! (Besides the bookstores, I mean.) Geez. At least go pick on someone with an income!