Our young Padawan

Our young Padawan

Last night's Clone Wars sneak peek was the stuff memories are made of, as far as Eric is concerned.

Mike came home from work early and we were in the Pacific Place parking garage by 5:00 (well, actually we were there at 4:54 and wanted to pay the after-5:00 parking prices, so we drove around the block a few times. No small feat in downtown Seattle). When we finally reached the top of the last escalator we were dismayed to find a pretty good line of people already forming for the movie, which didn't start until 7:00.

Our plans to go to McDonalds were scrapped when we realized that we needed to stay in this line, so Mike got takeout from the Johnny Rockets next to the theater for us while the boys played I Spy and checked out all the different lightsabers in attendance. This gave me a chance to take note of the crowd. Never have I felt so out of place. In a good way. Aside from the grown men in full costume, we had the unwashed teenage boys complete with bedhead, deeply engrossed in their DS's. We had scary-comicbook-store-guy wearing his looonnnnngggg lank hair, old concert t-shirt, and his man skirt with combat boots. We had alternative-girl-with-attitude proudly carting around her book on Ancient Religions (I'm thinking Druid). I know it looks like I'm stereotyping here, but I'm just tell you what I saw. It should come as no surprise that I was the only person in line wearing lipstick and knitting a cupcake hat.

The premier was sponsored by KISW, Seattle's hard rock/heavy metal/classic rock/I-don't-know-we-don't-listen-to-it station. The KISW guy coming around handed out Clone Wars activity books to the kids (and all the geeky adults wanted them for their shrines back home). He thought Eric was especially cute and made a point of telling him that, if he wants to win a t-shirt later on, be sure to say "KISW" to him. So Mike and Eric practiced that until it was time to go in.

Inside the theater we were greeted by several Storm Troopers and a creepy looking woman from the movie and this one Storm Trooper gave Eric a high 5. I have never seen a bigger grin on Eric's face. He gave a Storm Trooper a high 5! And then while we were waiting in line to check in our cell phones (yes, they honestly made everyone check in their phones), the KISW guy found Eric and, after several tries, Eric proudly said "KSIW!" and got himself a t-shirt. Which he wore during the movie, last night to bed, and I'm thinking all day today.

We all got wanded by security and when I beeped they asked me if I had keys or a recording device. I explained that I just had knitting needles and they shrugged and let me through. In other words, sharp impaling weapons are fine, but a 30 second grainy diagonal recording of the movie from my crappy 2 year old phone with a box of Mike and Ike's rattling in the background will get me thrown out.

We saw the preview for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which scared the crap out of all of us, and then the movie began. Aside from the weird animation, the movie was not as bad as I had feared. It was actually pretty funny in some parts (including Jabba the Hutt's flaming gay uncle doing a great Truman Capote impression) and the boys loved it. I knit half a hat.

And the best news of all--apparently Clone Wars is becoming a series on Cartoon Network this fall. Does this mean we can replace Pokemon?