Ha ha ha, I am caught up! I am caught up! I corrected 180 pieces of homework this weekend, give or take a dozen, and I am caught up!

Okay, so they weren't essays or big writing assignments, but still. I also wrote up a dozen teacher recommendations, and I prepared my vocabulary assignment on the last chapter of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, so I am very, very happy.

Up next comes Of Mice and Men, a nice, short novel that I hope the kids will enjoy. I don't know--so many of them are so quick to judge harshly. They cannot understand why it's important to read these old books written by dead people about old people who seem to have little relevance to their own lives.

It is kind of hard to point out the delightful nastiness of Crane's style in Maggie, but he is good there. It is quite darkly funny. "Is it yer fadder beatin' yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin' yer fadder?" It's almost Simpsonsesque.