Who else needs smiting?

Oh Laura. And Betsy. This is when you just want to open the top of their heads and spoon in the common sense. I don't know why the manufacturers didn't install that option.

Gud, you've gotten some excellent advice. I realize we get only half the story, but it does seem as though all the positive things you do and the efforts you're making don't get recognized. I hope things get clearer, for both of you.

Taxes. I'm oh so tempted to do a Joan Baez and deduct those portions of my taxes that support public schools which are teaching ID and bible history, and abstinence-only sex "ed", or that fund the war effort, or that contribute to tax cuts for polluting corporations who out-source jobs to other countries for miniscule wages, and that support "faith-based" outreach to indigent poor or low- or no-income women seeking contraceptive help. Gee, that would leave me paying $1.74 in taxes, approximately, wouldn't it? All that money not going to the government could go to private campaigns to get actual education, sex-ed and contraception, food and shelter, and maybe actual cost-of-living paying jobs, to the people that taxes are supposed to support. What a concept.

R and I call each other about once a day, just to check in, unless we are radically busy. On workdays, we have lunch together, so we don't usually talk on the phone, unless something crucial comes up...like if R gets a new idea for a game that he needs to bounce off me, or if I get an email that says "Athen's embassy" and I have to bitch about it.

Aimee - my DH could use one. Pretty please.

This is when you just want to open the top of their heads and spoon in the common sense.

This visual is making me smile.

But I hate to see good dads feel bad about themselves. Cause I didn't get one...not really, so I want to treat the ones I know like...condors or something.

Yes. This.

His progress reports are all 100's and 0's and you know how that averages out. If he chooses to do the work he does a great job. Or he doesn't bother at all. See me hitting my head against desk again. Sob.

Are you sure your son isn't my son?

My son often does the homework AND THEN FORGETS TO TURN IT IN. A book report he worked on for a month? Gone. And that teacher has a strict on-time or no credit policy.

To aid the Empress in writing a memo for that nothing-better-to-do VP:

Passive-aggressive punctuation skills

And Happy Birthday Owen!

Oh Laura, that silly boy.

Of course, now we can all play "when I was a kid" and talk about when half the people we knew carried Swiss Army Knives.

I did home school him for a while and it was pretty easy since he does get stuff so quickly. The main reason he is in the public school system now is their gifted program. The gifted teachers are wonderful. Also, he does love his sports and could end up with a scholarship in basketball like his dad, which would rock.

The education stuff doesn't worry me about home schooling. I just worry that my daughter is six getting close to seven and has only one other kid that she plays with and that's pretty infrequent. I keep trying to talk her into soccer team, but she doesn't want to join a team even she talks about liking soccer. Parenting hard.