Random ramblings

Yesterday, we went to visit the in-laws (where I was a lump on the couch all day).  On the way up, the imp started chirping "That's weird!"  Then the pixie started repeating it.  They had a responsive chant going for about ten minutes, mostly because it started Mommy giggling.

The imp spent the night with his grandparents, last night.  If I wasn't so sick, I'd be down at the range today with a brick of .22, the new Ruger we have that I still haven't shot yet, and my little Winchester that somebody took the iron sights off of (damn them) long before I got it, then added a 3/4 inch wide rail that I can't mount any optics on other than a holographic red dot sight that I don't like very much.  I'd rather have iron sights.

Anyway, back to the kids.  Grandma and Grandpa love having the imp sleep over.  The imp loves staying over at Grandma and Grandpa's house, and is firmly convinced that the guest room is his room.

The pixie is out in the living room with her daddy (I'm flat on my back with the UTI kicking my ass).  She and Daddy both sound pretty happy--I've heard her start giggling a few times, and I wonder if she's trying to feed her pancake to the kitten with a sweet tooth.  Or feed her sausage to one of the two kittens.

In a month or so, we'll be adding a puppy to the mix.  We went to my mother's for her birthday on Thursday, and I pulled our puppy out of the pile to hold her and let the kids pet her.  "Aw!  So cute!  Cute ears, cute toes, cute tail and butt.  Have eyes open, awake!  Baby dog look at [imp].  Take two home!"

Again...no.  One's going to be enough, even though Scotties tend to be calm by temperament.  But the pup is really affectionate, and very snuggly.  I held a hand under her rump but let the imp hold her and pet her, and the first thing she did was climb his chest to get into his neck to sniff and lick him.  "Aw!  Baby dog kiss [imp]!"

The imp refers to himself in the third person, most of the time.  He is, however, using first person more and more, instead of his name.

The pixie is stringing together three and four words, now.  Sometimes, she'll string together three or four two, three, and four word phrases to tell me about something.  She's really getting the hang of this communication thing. 

Writing's mostly been on hold.  I've got an outline for the rest of the Pendragon story worked up, but other than that, I've been too sick to think and focus on writing much.  I still think I can finish a rough draft, though, and I will try (since, other than answering email, and keeping an eye on the discussion board, I won't have anything to do for class for the first couple of weeks).

I'll probably spend fall semester going over The Godshead and tweaking what needs it, then doing the same for the rough draft of The Last Pendragon.  After that, I've got about five projects in mind to do outlines for, and will probably work on the detailed outlines over Thanksgiving break, then pick the one that calls me the most to work on over Christmas break.

Last Tuesday, I got a call from my department head.  He called to let me know the dean was closing one of my sections of 101 because it didn't have a single student in it, but that they were going to open a new section of 102, because there were a dozen students in desperate need of a 102, and all the other sections were full, and could I please take it????

Umm...sure.  No problem.  Saved my paycheck from being cut in half for the semester.  Why wouldn't I take a second section?  Now, a third...yeah, that's a little much, the way I teach the classes.  But I can take two.

Except...apparently, the university is dragging their ass on the new class paperwork, and I'm still not listed in their system as the instructor.  And since they've automated everything, that means that my class is not showing up in my account, nor do I have a course website to put content into.

And classes start Monday, but I have access to only one of the two I'm supposed to teach.

I called the registrar's office to get the class listed as mine, and was told that they couldn't do anything about it anymore, not until my department head files the right forms with the right people.  That new computer system wouldn't let them.

They get that new computer system, and load everything they can into it to save on the workload for the administration (frankly, it makes more work for the professors), and then they don't reduce the number of administrators, secretaries, sub-secretaries, and secretary help in the administration (which would be, in my opinion, the best thing for the university, financially, given what the administration in their infinite uselessness are paid--and their secretaries are paid better than department heads, by the last audit).  Not only that, but the fucking system doesn't work.  It's constantly freezing up and breaking down, not to mention you have to do things in exactly the right way, in exactly the right order, far enough ahead of time before everything shows up properly in it.

Fucking "improvements" almost never are.