Make yourself at home, sir.

So let's see, volume two of Saga (ISBN 9781607066927, this volume encompassing chapters seven through twelve) continued Marko, Alana, their daughter Hazel and her ghost-guardian Izabel's story with the rest of the galaxy at war and the warring sides dispatching bounty hunters ("freelancers" in the story) to find them. And we pick up just after baby Hazel meets her grandparents -- in this case, Marko's parents Barr and Klara -- and in order to hide out from everybody hunting them, they take their rocket ship to the planet Quietus where their favorite author is hiding out in a lighthouse.


Just so you know, this is the third-worst babysitting gig I've ever had.


There are moments even though I am Sarah and Jeffrey's DAD and not their babysitter that I feel that way too. But last night I confess was not one of those moments, hallelujah! So after work last night I picked Sarah and Jeffrey up at their aunt Margaret's house and on our way home (Martha works a second job Monday nights) we got into discussing the mid-season premiere of Once Upon A Time we were going to watch with dinner. Most of the main characters are going to the land of the dead to rescue Captain Hook who died in the mid-season cliffhanger a few months ago our time.


You're in politics, which means you're connected, which means you're rich, which means you probably don't buy into all that jingoistic crap you've been taught to recite.


The thing is, Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina, Robin, Rumpelstiltskin, and Henry are now in the land of the dead (which on-screen was a wrecked, red-skied version of Storybrooke full of people with "unfinished business"; evidently in the show's context it's a purgatory between "heaven" and "hell") and Hades the man (god) in charge is unlikely to let anyone getting their alive get out without a fight. And the kids already know that Zeus is Hades' brother and so is Poseidon, but it seems Percy Jackson and The Olympians contributes more to their classical education than mine.


An ever increasing enrollment combined with a need to have a semi-equal distribution of students by gender, achievement levels, behavioral concerns and special needs is a very challenging feat.


Ok, THAT line's not from Saga but yesterday's school flyer giving us some details on changed boundary lines for all the schools in Minot Public Schools district as well as reminding parents and guardians what they should be doing already, picking the kids up and dropping them off within a certain timeframe, etc. And while I appreciate it is "a very challenging feat", is a distribution of students by these criteria really necessary or possible? To be in a class where you're one of the few who succeed or guaranteed to be average or just not panning out ...


While I may disagree with your message, I can still appreciate that it was delivered in a highly sophisticated manner.


Did I tell you how much I was impressed by Saga? (We're back to quoting from it in italics.) Oh, there's some other reads I have done that I will be getting to, but I especially want to relate the book Jeffrey's class made, a 3rd Grade RECIPE Book I bought yesterday from his teacher because I'd forgotten to order it first and she had some extra! It wasn't until this morning though that I realized -- because Martha pointed it out to me, like most things -- this was partly a joke book as well! Unless you really put corn kernels into a bottle of pop to make popcorn. Among other things.


Just don't forget whose home it is, David