Completely off topic: what is your favorite brand of coffee that you can buy in a grocery store? I need to find a good grocery store brand.

Yeah. And whether he did anything legally prosecutable, I'd still classify his relations with kids as "inappropriate" at the very least, which is still a different thing from calling him Chester, ie, Chester The Molester. It's sad. I used to be a big fan.

Timelies, all.

I skipped like a skipping thing, and I have been mostly lurking lately due to lots of deadlines and kid-related stuff, but I reappear with a question for any of our teachers or parents:

What's an appropriate homework load for seventh graders? I say "appropriate" with a grain of salt, obviously, since it's going to be different for different kids, but is coming home with only twenty minutes of homework (and, last week, it was four xeroxed worksheets, with one short chapter to read) standard now? I remember seventh grade being a bit more challenging, and J. is not a motivated student in the first place. The lack of work (and the work he has is far from challenging -- a writing assignment recently had to be a few paragraphs) is not exactly impressing upon him the importance of study and the time he should expect to put in to do his best work.

Thanks for any help. It's a crappy Monday here, and now I'm stressed and upset because the issue of school with him just never stops being a huge struggle, whether it's getting him to do the small amount of work he has or trying to supplement it myself so he actually learns something.

Dave Chappel did a really funny skit as a prospective juror. They did three different trials: OJ, Scott Peterson and Michael Jackson.

The first one he gave some answers about a police conspiracy and a set-up. The second, he said, deadpan, "Dude's guilty." and He mentioned innocent until proven guilty with the MJ segment. Then the actor playing a lawyer asked him if he'd let his child spend the night with Mr. Jackson.

"Oh, HELL NO!"

ION, my final W-2 came in. If we can get the interest statement on DH's student loan, I can do my taxes this weekend.

I had shitloads of homework in seventh grade.

I had lots of homework in 7th grade, but was usually able to finish it at the end of class or on the bus and rarely had more than 15-20 minutes to do at home, if that much.

what is your favorite brand of coffee that you can buy in a grocery store? I need to find a good grocery store brand.

Trader Joe's -- do you have one?

Trader Joe's -- do you have one?

Yep. It's not terribly convenient, but I do try to get there every other month or so. I could load up on coffee while there.

I *think* I had a lot of homework because I was in advanced math and English classes. And I seem to recall a social studies teacher from hell that assigned a lot of work. But I also had a study hall where I could get a lot of work done.

I drew a lot and read a lot of comics, in class, too.

This probably isn't a lot of help.

Trader Joe's -- do you have one?

Yep. It's not terribly convenient, but I do try to get there every other month or so. I could load up on coffee while there.

How do you like your coffee? Dark? Mild?