Random rambling

The kids have three more weeks of school, starting Monday.  The pixie goes from eight to noon MWF, so I'll have nine days where I won't have children underfoot for four hours, and can get some housework done. 

Last week, the kids' school took school-wide achievement tests--the Stanford Achievement Test.  Yep, my kindergartener has taken a version of the SATs.  His teachers said he worked hard and did his best, so he got rewarded with a trip to the local bounce house yesterday afternoon.

Today, we took the kids up to their grandparents' house, and left them there while Odysseus and I went out on a date.  We ended at the new Avengers movie, in a 2:00 matinee, and I learned that what passes for popular music today may be popular, but it ain't music. 

The movie rocked.  There is no way to describe how it rocked without giving away spoilers.  It...just...rocked. 

We got back to rescue Odysseus's parents pick up the kids around 5:30, and the pixie was exhausted.  So was the imp.  I have hopes that they'll sleep in a little bit, then be a little quieter tomorrow.  If not, and if the weather is decent enough, I'll take them up to my mom's so Odysseus can get some work done on his final paper for his internship/research assistantship. 

And the cats have been...cats.  Alternately being clingy and annoying, and standoffish since we got back.  I had a long, wide stripe of cat drool down my arm at one point from where Cricket sat on my table with her head on my biceps, and purred with her mouth hanging open. 

I discovered that one of the pens I'd restored had a damaged nib--I think one of the tines may be broken, but I'll have to look at it under magnification to be sure--and a second one had a nib that kept slipping out, and would not seat with the feed.  You can imagine what kind of a mess that made.  Only one of the three I reassembled and tested yesterday worked, so...yeah.  Disappointing. 

I have two more re-sacked, reassembled, and ready for testing, but I'm a little tired tonight. 

And I've got a few more to do before I'm out of pens to fix. 

Why, no, I don't have an addiction...what makes you say that? 

I am done with teaching for the semester.  I'll have revisions coming in for my 8:00 class until 10:00 tomorrow, and plan to turn in grades no later than noon.  I'll have revisions coming in until 11:00 on Wednesday for the other class, and plan to turn in their grades no later than 1:00, and then I'm totally done for the semester. 

And...the sort-of hard science sci-fi story I had inspired has taken over totally.  I do not know what will come of this, but I'm gonna find out.  I think it's going to be fun...and something I might try to send to a publisher.