Random ramblings

The imp got to spend a couple of nights with Grandma and Grandpa, this past week.  Grandma asked me to pack his swimsuit, and I've heard tales of going to their local town's swimming pool.  Lots and lots of tales of such. 

He's greatly looking forward to kindergarten.  I'm very glad of that, because it's only a few weeks away.  I haven't been able to do much with working on reading, unfortunately--I have been, until recently, far too sick. 

He's starting to really get a firm grasp on base 10.  Odysseus helped him count to fifty, yesterday, and he did it with little trouble (naming the tens), and only a very little prompting.  I'm deeply impressed with my boy.

The pixie has found her other new dress that her grandparents found on their last trip (a bus tour of the national parks in the Southwest).  It's way, way too big for her--goes down to her ankles--but she's worn it for three days, now.

I've noted a cue for when she's getting tired and ready for bed (nap or sleep): she starts putting her baby dolls down for sleep.  And her stuffed animals.

I'm feeling a lot better than I was.  There's still some lingering congestion, but not much, and I can do some housework without having a coughing fit that steals my breath. Odysseus is almost completely recovered. 

The weather has been so hot the past couple of days (and is projected to be at least as bad today, if not worse) that I've gone out and gotten the dog around lunch time and brought her in until supper (or later).  She has not been a happy dog.  She hates being inside so badly that she does things* that she thinks will get her booted out--unfortunately for her, when it's this hot, all it gets her is booted to her crate until it's cool enough to go back out.

The cats have been cats.  Shadow gets in odd places and odd positions to sleep, or else takes over the top of my table and pushes everything else off onto the floor.  Cricket is completely spastic, and acts affection starved--but doesn't seem to realize that all she'd need to do was actually crawl into someone's lap to get the affection she's so crazy for.  Instead, she walks all over people, yowling and headbutting them.  She does it to the kids (who giggle), Odysseus, TinCan Assassin when he's over here, and me (upon whom she drools, because she's so happy she purrs with her mouth hanging open). 

Speaking of the cats, we really need to put more flea stuff on them.  We were too damn sick the day it was supposed to be done.

Classes start back up for me on 8/18.  My class site will be built on Monday, so I'll need to spend some time customizing it for my classes.  I'll also need to email the admin for the course sites to request both of my classes be placed in one shell. 

Last, but not least...I've finally felt good enough to pick back up on the writing.  I've written two chapters for Fire and Forge in the past week, and aim to try for another one tonight.  Word count is up from 15,000 to 21,500.  The chapters are an average of 3,000 words each (and the published version in the size I use has around 300 words per page).  We'll see what I can do about finishing a first draft before mid-August. 

*Dog hates being inside, so she'll piss or shit on the carpet, eat the kids' toys or clothes, chase the cats, or chase the kids.  There have been a few times that she's done all of the above.