My cold is a LOT better. I spent yesterday just resting at home, and my voice is much better. I think I will still have this for a few days, but hopefully it's not turning into anything worse.
I finished the new Diana Gabaldon book yesterday, An Echo In the Bone. I was so disappointed. Nothing was resolved in the end. In fact, the book meandered along for more than 700 pages before things really got going. This is an unfortunate phenomenon I have observed in other popular authors, like Ann Rice and Stephen King. They get where they just write and write and no editor fixes their work to make it more readable. They just blather on and on. Eventually, they turn off a lot of their readers. I am getting to the end of my patience with Gabaldon.
I wanted to hear Gabaldon speak at the Decatur Book Festival, but Lesleigh and I got to the venue about 15 minutes before her speech and the line had 500 people in it, standing in the rain. I said Forget It, no way will they get even half the people in that church. She is an excellent speaker, having been a university professor.
Her first novel, Outlander, is a terrific story about time travel, history, romance, adventure, and suspense. It's very exciting. The next one is also good. If you read her books in order, read the first three, and then stop.
Michael was grumpy when I picked him up from school, telling me about failing 3 tests last Friday. I tried to talk to him, and he didn't want to listen. I emailed his teachers in those subjects and asked them to please check his agenda before he leaves class, to make sure he has the homework assignment right. About 30% of the time he doesn't understand it. I let him see the email and said in there quite plainly, he will not be playing sports in the spring if his grades are not good.
I gave him a speech I've given Alesia many times, the Do You Want to Go to College Or Clean Toilets The Rest of Your Life? speech. I told him I would help him, but the responsibility of getting his assignments right and studying for tests rests with HIM. He is smart and capable and I am not going to baby him any more.
He spent more than an hour on math homework he should've done in class, and hadn't even brought his book home so he could finish it. I finally told him after dinner that's it, we have family time now, and you will have to take it in incomplete or finish it before school starts. He was not happy, but that's the only way he will learn, I see now.
Nobody said the worst part of parenting was going to be the homework...
I posted a review of the movie Year One on my movie review website. Check it out..




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