Like the time she meant to rent Empire of the Sun and came home with The Last Emperor.

I went to a sleepover where this exact thing happened! And I still haven't seen Empire of the Sun.

Is Empire of the Sun the one with a young Christian Bale?

I have basically nothing left to take away from mac (that is not totally true, I could take away everything superficial from his room) and getting him to do work is STILL a fight. He knows he will not get back anything until he is doing schoolwork, and yet he still does not do what is needed and also lies about it. I am at a loss.

Today he "missed the bus" and "walked home" which means he missed tutoring. I don't believe him. He had his phone and did not call me. Furthermore there was a call to a friend on the phone it was only 26 seconds so I do not think they talked, but seriously WTF. There is zero trust right now.

Why is it that the times you most need a new job are the times you feel least able to deal with all the work involved in getting a new job?

Susan, we should grab coffee and commiserate. I swear.

We totally should.

Overall Annabel is much less interested in anything romantic/sexy than I was at her age. At 10 I hadn't run across anything explicit yet, but my Empire Strikes Back movie tie-in novel fell open to the Han/Leia scenes, and I was MADLY in love with Han. While at one point I did think Annabel might be developing a John Barrowman crush (and I approved her good taste), I ultimately decided Captain Jack amused her rather than made her all swoony.

That said, she's very fandom-savvy. We went to GeekGirlCon together, and King County Library System had a booth with various questions for attendees to answer. One of them was "Who do you ship?" I wrote "Ichabbie," and she took the marker from me and wrote two dragons from the Dragonet Prophecy book series. I commented that I didn't know people shipped those books. She gave me this LOOK and said, "All fandoms ship."

When she tells me about her story ideas, she asks which characters I think her readers will ship, and when we watch TV together she'll nod sagely at various Ichabbie or Korrasami moments and say, "The shippers are going to be all over that." But when it comes to actual established pairs kissing, that's still watch from the hall for her.

Susan, my kids love those books! Franny started a fan page on Instagram and got a scary-zillion followers. We should get the girls in contact.

Franny's shipping is all very innocent at this stage, but, well,... I know how things go. But hey, I kinda think exploring her sexuality via books and fic is way less stressful on me than other forms of sexual exploration.

I was raised by parents who were mostly okay with us reading sexy books, but I do recall being scandalized by The Happy Hooker when I was in 5th or 6th grade.

Does Franny read the Warriors series, too? I bet Annabel would talk her ear off, given the chance.

My mom didn't really police my reading, but if she knew I was reading something explicit, I'd get lectures on the Importance of Waiting Till You're Married. So I'd sneak the books into the house and hide them in the back of my bookshelf just to avoid the lectures.

I remember getting hold of a copy of "Coffee, Tea or Me?" that scandalous stewardess paperback. We were puzzled more than traumatized.

Silly flight victory. I've gotten in the habit of just asking for a seat belt extender when I board instead of chancing it not fitting or having an attendent pointing out that I need one. It was a hit to my pride but if I ask first I feel less embarassed.

A few minutes ago, I boarded, asked for one and she said she would bring me one. So I get to my seat and give it a try. It clicked with room to tighten. Not like I've lost weight, just random luck. But I'll take it.

Lilly's reading Warriors right now, too.