Winnie, The Bell, and the Underland Chronicles

That's the name of the dog we're "dogsitting" this week, and for the last two days, I've been assigned to watch, play, and feed her... and she's a LOT of work! But the really aggravating thing is... the bell. Winnie's owners have trained her to report if she has to go to the bathroom by taping a bell to their front door and instructing her to ring it when she needs to go. Frankly, she doesn't use it for its intended purpose. Because it turns out it's her way of dragging me outside to run around and play with her. Now, I'm not saying that's a bad thing. It's fun. But listen: yesterday, I took her on THREE jogs around our neighborhoods block and played and ran around with her in my backyard for two hours. And guess what? Every time when we got back inside, she went and insistently rang the bell again and again until I responded and went back outside. I despise the bell. I can hear it right now as she rings it with that wicked grin on her face. jk But seriously, can't people come up with other ways to teach dogs to get attention? Why not the simple "innocent puppy-eyes" routine or something? Anything but the bell! Oh well, at least I'm getting paid. $-) But, to be honest, Winnie isn't a bad dog at all. She's actually AWESOME. She's surprisingly obedient for her age and really fun to be with. It's just... *glances darkly at his front door* the bell...
Anyways, I'm on spring break so NO school tomorrow! :D My three youngest brothers are gone at my grandparents house up in northern Minnesota for the week so my parents, brother Alex, and I pretty much have the place to ourselves, making it REALLY quiet around here. Perfect for reading. So... I stayed up till midnight last night and finished the Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins. They were incredible and COMPLETELY original. There wasn't ANYTHING in the series that's common or regular like elves and dragons or any "over-used" and redundant plots. It's totally fresh and fabricated by Collins, who's an excellent author. I don't really know where to rank her though. Sometimes, it gets to the point where you've read so many phenomenal books, you just can't tell which are the best. Their all so spectacular in their own way. To be blunt, I never thought I'd read the Gregor the Overlander series. I mean seriously- it's about colossal cockroaches, ruthless rats, behemoth bats, scheming spiders, and complaining, insatiable fireflies for pity's sake! But I learned something important after reading them: you can't judge a book by it's characters (even if their cockroaches), cause it turns out, I wouldn't of liked the series half as much as I do if they, or the bats, or rats, or even fireflies hadn't been in them! It's crazy but Suzanne Collins can make you like ANYONE in a novel, no matter what or who it is.
Well, I have 180 youth group in a few minutes so I should probably get ready.
Later,

Jake