Random ramblings

We went up to my in-laws' house, yesterday.  Odysseus's much-older sister and her grandson (our kids' second cousin) visited yesterday, too, and the bigger boy brought water guns.  He'd obviously put significant thought into matching his water blasters to my kids' sizes.  The three kids had a blast, although the pixie wasn't happy with the aftermath: she got stripped down to the skin, and dry shorts put on (with no underwear).  She told me she was "terribly not comfortable" and wanted to go to the store for dry panties.

The imp...well, we had recently watched Guardians of the Galaxy with him.  He loved it.  Loved Groot, and loved Rocket.  The other boy had the refill bucket covered, and squirted the imp every time he tried to reload.  The imp, however, was using a watergun with a magazine.  Odysseus showed him how to detach it, reload it in the garage bathroom sink, and put it back.  The imp slaps the magazine home 'til it clicks, gets this huge smile, and says, "Oh, yeah."  Just like Rocket in the movie when he got ahold of a blaster (which the imp's watergun resembled). 

It was hilarious.

The imp also had a milestone this week: he lost his first tooth.  Poor little guy lost it at recess, and lost it in the rocks on the playground.  He bawled.  A lot. 

(The tooth fairy left him a note that she'd found his tooth on the playground, and brought him money anyway.)

I ordered a 10 pack of Hero 616 pens.  They arrived this last week--some of the nibs are slightly off-center with the hood, and in one or two, the nib tines were misaligned, which will make them scratchy and unreliable (but which is easily fixed).  I have two of them loaded with ink--green and red--and I'm very satisfied with the quality.  The pens themselves are slightly smaller than the 616 my mother bought for me, and have stainless steel nibs, rather than gold (like the one my mom gave me has).  They write incredibly well, and seem like they'll be nice, reliable writers. 

The cats are still trying to adjust to a different lifestyle and schedule of most of us being gone most mornings.  Sometimes, Shadow gets clingy, and sometimes she gets mad and won't interact with us at all.  Cricket...I'm not sure she remembers we've been gone after we get home. 

I've picked up my first set of papers from my students.  No, I haven't started grading yet.  I'll be working on grading starting later this afternoon; we'll be going to the local range after babysitting gets here for the pixie.  After that, I'll be much more relaxed, and in a far better mood for actually figuring the grades (which is the part I HATE).   We'll also likely be watching Clint Eastwood comedies later this evening, after the pixie goes to bed. 

I've got about four pages handwritten of The Schrodinger Paradox.  I've been too busy this week to sit down and type them up--the handwritten bits were written during a few minutes snatched here and there, while I was waiting for something, or when I had the draft book at hand and nothing else that needed done at the moment.  I should hopefully have some time for transcription this coming week.

FFOT: careless, oblivious fucktards

Specifc ones.  Ones with kids.

Two incidents that I personally witnessed this week:

1.  A mother about my age with a two year old, picking up her four year old at the same time I was.  She brought the family puppy (cute dog, by-the-by), and permitted the toddler to control the leash and harass the puppy the whole time we waited for the preschoolers.  While she herself played on her fucking smartphone, and ignored the small child and puppy.  The puppy, after almost fifteen minutes of constant harassment by the toddler, attempted to bite--I put my purse between dog and toddler arm, and the woman FINALLY picked the dog up.

2. A grandmother, waiting for a four year old from my pixie's class, had two smaller grandsons (about 2 yrs, and maybe 8 months) in the car...in the sun...with the windows down.  I pointed out the shaded parking spots just behind her, and she said she was fine.  And the boys in the back were in the shade, so they were fine.*  AND THEN SHE FUCKING LEFT THEM IN THE CAR TO STAND IN LINE TO PICK UP THE FOUR YEAR OLD because she could still see the car. 

Parents: first, never let a small child be around an animal unattended.  That the first woman not only did so but let her small child control the dog's leash, AND IGNORED THE CHILD, is stupid.  That particular woman can fuck off, and I'd be happy to help her take a selfie of the interior of her esophagus after I've shoved her phone so far up her ass that she'll taste shit for a month.

Second: yes, the car's roof shades kids in the back seat at certain angles.  HOWever.  A black car roof GENERATES heat into the interior, and it's a lot more comfortable to small children strapped into car seats to have the CAR'S roof shaded.  I can attempt to shove the grandparent's car up her ass, but I'm sure the keys would be sufficient.  I imagine having the car alarm go off every time she twists around or something might draw attention to the fact that SHE LEFT HOT KIDS IN A HOT CAR TO STAND IN LINE IN WHAT BREEZE THERE WAS.

I'm sorry, people but the safety of a child FAR outweighs convenience or boredom.  If it doesn't, then that person does not deserve to have care of a plant, much less a child.

*Lethargic, panting, and literally having clothing soaked with sweat is NOT FINE.

To continue a theme...

I'm dyin', here!

Shamelessly stolen from FB:

WTF???

Who studies these things?  How much money was wasted on this study?  And who fucking cares about why Tutenkhamun was mummified with a stiffie?

Honestly, my despair at the state of academia is only partially fueled by my own discipline. 

random ramblings

I'm late, on this.  In my defense, it's been a hell of a week.  Tuesday, I called a pest control service.  I asked for soonest available, assuming that it would be a week out. 

Nope.  The lady I spoke with told me they'd be out on Wednesday afternoon.  And I had that long to get my cabinets emptied out. 

With Odysseus's help, I got that done.  Started clearing the countertops, but didn't finish that part.  They came, they sprayed, they left, and I looked at the mess, and declared that I was not cooking supper that night.  I couldn't even really get to the stove. 

I spent Thursday morning trying to put the kitchen back together, and did well enough that I was able to make supper, and made chili.  It was delicious chili, and the person who came in to babysit the pixie (who had not woke up from her nap) stayed to eat chili with us.  Because I made a lot--somewhere around 3 quarts. 

Continued trying to put kitchen back together on Friday, between things going wrong (it only started with bad imp behavior--and didn't get better throughout the day).  Yesterday was a trip up to visit my in-laws, then grocery shopping, and we didn't get back home until around 5:30.  By which point I was exhausted. 

Note to self: definitely talk to doctor about this.  It cannot be normal.

The kids have continued acting up.  Maybe it was the so-called "supermoon" last night affecting behavior--I don't know.  I do know I'm about at the end of my patience with all the tantrums and refusal to follow instructions that both have been displaying.  Yesterday, when it was time to leave the grandparents' house, the imp set up a wailing, tearful fit that he didn't want to go, because he wanted to go outside and play some more. 

And that has been par for the course all fucking week.  If it was the "supermoon," then I anticipate another week of similar behavior...and I'm not sure my sanity will survive that intact.  Not without the application of more whiskey than I'm willing to drink, with my family history of alcoholism. 

The cats have been really flighty since Tuesday.  Their world got shook up with the kitchen being taken apart, and with strangers tramping through their house.  They're friendly kitties, and will come up to someone who's sitting on the couch that they don't know to check them out and maybe get some affection, but are rather frightened by a high level of activity by said strangers. 

I was ready to kill the last two students in the classroom, on Friday.  They decided to stay put in the room, despite being finished with the day's work, surfing the net right up to the last minute of class...which put me almost late picking up the pixie.  At which point I was faced by the tears of a small child who feared she'd been forgotten. 

I'm going to start kicking them out ten minutes from the end of class at the latest.  I hated that. 

I got 3K words written, last week.  Only 3K.  I've been too busy running like a chicken with its head chopped off.  I've gotten some of the second draft of a friend's book read, but nowhere near what I'd intended to have done.  I'm going to work on the reading today, while the next bit of my book gels in my head.  I'll have morning office hours on Monday to get more done, if I don't finish today (which I'm intending to do).

So far, I've got 30K words done on The Schrodinger Paradox, with another 8-10K words to go in part 1, and two more parts to write.  I'm doing my best to write, but life is getting in the way big time.

Need moar coffee...

It's been one fucking long fucking bad day.  Starting with the kids' egregious behavior this morning, continuing through hitting every intersection where I didn't have the right-of-way exactly wrong, and with two of my students keeping me right up to the last second of class to the point I was met with pixie tears because I was almost late to pick her up.  And she wouldn't nap.  And hasn't left my general vicinity since, and I need some fucking space after the fucking awful day.  

Cricket left me a lovely gift in the middle of the floor: a hairball the size of a tennis ball.  Right about the time I had to leave to pick up the imp.

And the kids' behavior has not improved over the morning.  It's not necessarily bad behavior, not constantly, but they are a lot more prone to fighting than they even usually are.  And I am less patient with their spats and their carelessness with each other, with toys, and with the dry-erase marker caps than I usually am.  

I want coffee.  I need coffee.  Coffee is my comfort drink.* 

I also need sleep tonight, because we have plans tomorrow. 

Fuck it.  If I don't get coffee, I'm going to end up screaming.  Either at the ceiling, or at one of the children.

FFOT: antics

I did not get my coffee*, this morning.  Due to various antics perpetrated mostly by the imp, we were running late.  Coffee got made, got put into a travel mug, but got left behind as I was trying to get the kids out the door.  And we were running late enough, courtesy of the imp, that I could not go back and get it.

I am NOT HAPPY. 

The antics can definitely fuck off.  When, not if, they're repeated, Mama's gonna come down on the perpetrator (whichever child it is) like a ton of bricks.  

*I am not un-caffeinated, because I had a massive sinus headache for which I took a dose of Midol. But damn it, I wanted that cup of coffee.

Once more unto the breach...

Exterminators came yesterday.  Sprayed roach birth control all over the place, put out baits, and sprayed poison (non-toxic to children and animals, after it's dry) everywhere in the kitchen, bathrooms, a couple of places in the living room, and in a barrier outside. 

It's now dry, and I've got a kitchen to put back together. 

You never realize just how much crap you have shoved into your cabinets until you have to clear them all out for someone to come in and spray for bugs...

Wish me luck getting it done today...without causing myself harm. 

Sometimes, it's the little things...

It's been a rough day.  I don't deal well with dealing with the public--pretty bad case of social anxiety disorder--and I managed, despite that, to go grocery shopping alone, call to cancel the health insurance that we'd had for nine years, and call around to find a pest control company that wanted our money.*

On top of that, I've got a solid case of cramps.  I want to just curl up around a heat pad and drink 'til they stop, but I've got to go get the boy in an hour and a half, and I've got housework to do.

However.  At the grocery store, I found something that happens to be one of my all-time favorite things: jalapeno bologna.  I hadn't even seen jalapeno bologna in years.  And I found rice flour penne.**

Yes, I have a fuckton of work to do (clear out all the cabinets in the kitchen) before tomorrow morning.  Yes, I'm still jittery from my morning of doing things way the hell outside my comfort zone.  Yes, I probably should be taking some thyroid support supplements (and some B vitamins) and getting off my ass and getting to work.

But.  I've had a fried jalapeno bologna and sharp cheddar cheese sandwich, and another cup of coffee, and I feel like I can manage what I still need to do.

The little things bring great comfort.

*We've contacted two that wouldn't return our calls. 

**I wanted some pasta bake, and I've found I prefer the taste and texture of rice pasta over corn or quinoa.  

My take on the Hugo Awards*

Why bother?  I mean really, why?  It seriously doesn't even fucking matter. 

I read through the list of winners and placers from the beginning of the award (including the retro-award).  Most of the time, the better books did not win.  And the rot started around ten years before I was born (so, somewhere around 46 years ago).  Before that?  Some real, quality books were nominated, and often won.  Now?**  Yeah.  Not so much.

The only function that the Hugo Awards serve is as a popularity contest among a small group of people in a circle jerk, kind of like voting for homecoming/prom king/queen. 

And that...that is my take.

The Sad Puppies really need to tell the Hugo Award judges to go fuck themselves, and instead judge by what people are reading--and buying. 

*I have no dog in this fight.  I've looked at the Hugos for a suggestion of what not to pick up for two decades, now.  The books are, for the most part, badly written, preachy, and boring--except for when somebody manages to slip in a good story and it makes it all the way in.  

**Come on.  Two Harry Potter books have won or placed in the 2000's.  They are entertaining, but are, by no means good.

random ramblings

The kids had a good week, this past week.  The imp is really shaping up, behavior wise.  I'm really proud of him.  His new kindergarten teacher knew him last year, and says that there's a huge difference in his emotional and mental maturity and readiness for school.  I'm thankful for that.

The imp is settling into his new routine fairly nicely; however, he's starting to get up at five thirty or earlier to play before school.  And he gets just loud enough to wake the pixie so that she comes to play with him. 

It's not as big of a problem on school days: I get up sometime between 5:30 and 6:00.  However, he also did that this morning.  And got loud enough, more than once, to wake us up.

I put him down for a nap when I put the pixie down.  And I explained to him that he'd gotten up far too early for him to have gotten enough sleep.  He isn't happy, but I think he gets it.  And he grew about an inch over the summer, when I was making him take naps every day, so...yeah.  I think he's not getting enough sleep, not because his bedtime is too late, but because he gets up too early. 

The pixie managed to hurt her foot--she tripped over one of the imp's toys, and managed to scrape between her littlest toe and the slightly bigger one next to it.  She's been subdued and whiny, since--apparently, it hurts.  A lot.  Most of the time.  Whether she's playing or sitting still. 

Last weekend, we got a laser pointer to try to get the cats to play a bit more (especially Shadow, the fat one).  It was...a dismal failure.  Even Cricket didn't care to play with it.  I might take it up for my sister to try out on her cat. 

I have two classes full of engaged, interested students, this semester.  I'm pleased.  I'm much less pleased to have three or four single Muslim men between the ages of 17 and 40 in my classes, partially because I trust them a whole fuckton less than my colleagues do, and partially because they don't understand, speak, or write well in English.  I mind them a lot less when they have no problems understanding the lecture, and can write a decent paper, because then I can interact with them a lot less.

So.  This week was rather non-productive for office hours.  Monday, I had to spend the first forty-five minutes rushing to the department to sign my contract, then back to the library...only to find that there was already a Comp II class in my classroom.  Wednesday, I needed to run to IT, but couldn't on foot (and wouldn't in the car because campus is batshit insane for the first three weeks or so).  It was raining.  So, I scouted around and found a good place for office hours.  It's the same as a couple of semesters ago, a cozy nook in the bottom floor that's fairly quiet and out of the way.  Friday, since it was dry, I had to run over to the IT department and get them to set me up with internet access.  Took up the first hour of my office hours again, but worth it.

I'll be starting standard office hours--and back into the writing--as of Monday.  I'll have next week to go through and write, and then the week after, I'll be picking up papers.

Tuesday and Thursday, I drop the pixie off, come home, do housework that I can't do with "help" quickly or efficiently, then go pick her back up at noon.  I haven't gotten caught up with that to the point that I can write, yet.  I'm sure I'll eventually get there.

Yup.  Routine.  Settling.  Getting frustrated, because the most I've been able to write is a few words here and there in my various draft books on three or four different projects.

FFOT: WTF???

To the brainless, mouth-breathing, flaming bag of douche that drove the tractor with the chop-trees-apart brush-hog attachement at 15 mph in a 35 mph zone for three miles through a main north-south route between my daughter's school and my lunch, I hope your tractor gets plowed into by a speeding, giant dumptruck, overturns, and pins you away from your phone, on which you spent the entire twenty-five minute drive (which should have taken about half that long, at most) alternately yammering, and braking without warning.  You, sirrah, can fuck right the fuck off with the brush-hog attachment directly powered by your rear exhaust.

To the oddly unChristian individuals in the Christian school parking lot, are you sure this is the example you want to set for your kids?  Really?  Running up on my bumper, flipping me off, and screaming invective that I can almost understand despite having closed windows because I chose to slow and let one of my fellow parents of a pre-K student (3-4 years old) into the queue to leave?  If so, you may fuck off with a poster-board of "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" made of rusty razor blades and barbed wire embedded in it, sideways, up your ass.  This is the second time you've done this, and I am glad my daughter was distracted enough to miss it.

To the students who...no, I can't tell students who needed help to fuck off just because I'm late enough getting off campus to go pick up my daughter that I don't get to wave at my son through the door as he goes to lunch.  But that did kinda suck, since I missed one of the little things that brightened my day just a little every day this week.

To the stinking twatwaffle that shoved me sideways into a wall because you have such piss-poor planning skills that you were already fifteen minutes late for class: you need to lose about two hundred fifty pounds, at minimum, and start dressing like a respectable college student, rather than like you're advertising for specialized services to a certain demographic that prefers to fuck things with five times their body mass.  And you can fuck off chasing a rolling plate of nachos to help you drop at least a little bit of that weight.

Yes, my day has rather sucked.  If yours has, too, sound off in the comments.

In a perfect world...

This individual (can't call him a man, and calling him a pussy insults vaginas) would never have faced the test he failed.

Couple of kids decided to commit a home-invasion robbery.  Individual stood in their way and begged them not to go in his house, where his wife and kids were.  The kids shot him in the legs, and left him crying and bleeding on the floor while they chased down his wife and infant daughter to steal his wife's phone, then robbed the house.  The thugs escaped unharmed. 

As he was loaded up by paramedics, he was reciting Christ's prayer when he was nailed to the cross: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."  

The individual's mother in law called him a hero, but admitted that the thugs were likely to do it again, and were still out there. 

I'm gonna cut in here, with a little bit of commentary. 

This individual is NOT a hero.  He's a failure.  He's a failure as a man, he's a failure as a citizen, he's a failure as a husband, and he's a failure as a father.

First.  A man does not react as he did.  A man has the means, ability, and willingness to protect himself.  He had none of the above. 

A citizen does not rely on others to protect him or her.  And does not permit those committing violent crimes against him or her to walk away to continue perpetrating those crimes.  Any thug trying that at my home--my home where my children are playing and/or sleeping--is getting perforated.  Several times.  I have the tools and mindset to shoot until the threat stops.  I am a citizen.  The individual in question is government- and church-owned livestock. 

A husband that is not a failure does not permit the thugs to chase his wife, nor does a father who is not a failure permit said thugs to have access to his children.  This individual succeeded only in incapacitating himself, not in protecting his children or his family. 

Forgiveness follows contrition, or else it isn't forgiveness.  It's nothing more than a cloak for cowardice. 

This individual is not a hero.  He simply used Christ's words to excuse his own inadequacies. 

Busy days...

I make a round trip between the kids' school and home twice on MWF, and three times on TTh.  It's four miles, one way.  Ninty-six miles per week. 

Monday, I spent trudging across campus, first one way from the parking lot near my class building, all the way across campus to the department I teach for, then back.  I got to campus a bit more than an hour and a half before class; I got my business done and back to my building about a half an hour before class. 

Today was less busy, but a whole lot more brain-dead.  I got the kids in to school...and managed to get my left foot tangled in my right shoelaces, and wound up with a skinned knee.  The pixie almost cried about it. 

Got the kids safely to class, got home, went to get a pixie...and discovered that clouds had rolled in.  The day went, in less than three hours, from bright, sunny, and pretty, to cloudy, windy, and sporadically spitting rain.  It got a bit heavier before I had to go get the imp, but did let up before I had to be on the road. 

I am not sure what tomorrow's going to bring.  I've got a laptop that won't access the internet, an IT department that wants me to bring it to them to mess with (and take God only knows how long), a single parking lot that I'm comfortable parking in, across campus from the IT department, and a forecast of more rain.  I'll have to see how things look in the morning.

On the upside, Odysseus is really enjoying his new job.  I haven't seen him enjoy a job this much since 2003, before he sold the computer shop. 

I'll try to write something for y'all tomorrow, with a bit more thought and substance, but I need to find a good spot for office hours, first.

Random ramblings

So.  Week one down of school.  Yeah, I know: two days is hardly the first week, but I think it counts.  Both kids did well, according to their teachers.  I'm hopeful for the rest of the year, in some respects, but the imp went into it sick and subdued (a cold), and the pixie picked it up from the imp as of yesterday. 

For that matter, so did I.  As I'm sitting here, typing this, an hour after the kids went to bed, I have a lemon and honey and honey whiskey hot toddy at my left elbow. 

I think the imp is settling into the new routine (and school is incredibly helpful with that).  Yes, he's still whiny and a little prone to weeping and tantrums, but it's lessening as the boundaries don't change, and he gets used to Daddy going to work just before he leaves for school, and getting home right around supper time. 

He's getting bigger, and some things that used to bother him worse in the past don't seem to bother him as much anymore.  Others...not so much.

One thing the imp is absolutely delighted by is his first loose tooth.  He spends a lot of time wiggling it.  

How is the pixie taking the changes?  Quite well, I do believe.  She hasn't seemed upset by anything.  In fact, she loves seeing Daddy in his work clothes: "Oh, Daddy, you look so handsome!"

I think she's also adjusting well to the five day per week pre-K.  She doesn't thrive in daily routines like the imp does, but it certainly does her no harm. 

The cats...are adjusting.  Both of them get a little bit clingy with the kids as soon as they get home, but that doesn't last too long.  I mean, yeah.  Cats. 

Speaking of cats, Cricket forgot how to cat yet again, yesterday.  She flung herself from the arm of the couch into the kitchen (crossing around four feet of carpet without touching the floor), skidded all the length of the kitchen, and body-slammed the bottom of a folded-up stepstool...which toppled over and squished a kitty.  I chased her down and ensured that nothing was actually hurt but her non-existent dignity (and it wasn't...seriously).  And after ensuring that she had nothing worse than bruises, I had a good, hard laugh at the scramble. 

Monday, I start back.  I've got both sites all set up, so all I have to do is get the kids dropped off, get myself in and parked, then walk across the campus--twice--to check in at the department, then go teach my classes.  Think I'm wearing these instead of these for that first day.  I also have the stuff I need printed already stuck in my class binder.  I'll need to take in a couple of books to leave in my classroom for student use and reference. 

I'll also need to figure out where I'm holding my office hours.  I do not want to share a large space with many desks and many leftist leaning, well-meaning morons with whom I get along (for the most part) until politics comes up.  I'd rather have a small room all to myself...maybe I'll talk to the library secretary about reserving one of the small study rooms for a couple of hours per class day...

I'm still working on writing.  It's taken a bit of a back seat to the mad scramble to get the new routines set.  And we're still working on that--it's a bit of a change to have to get up a bit before six to get myself ready, then the kids, then the kids' and husband's lunches (one kid eats at the school, the other in the car on the way home from school), and then get my coffee and catch my breath.  I've been crashing by ten or before for the past week, and that cuts into my kids are sleeping writing time.  Thankfully, office hours will fix that.

Once I get my music transferred from either the old laptop or the flash drive acting as a music player in the Subaru, that is.  I got most of it transferred, but somehow missed grabbing Starset's Transmissions album.

Deep breath of relief

The imp's teacher said he did great.  She seems easier going than the other teacher; we'll see how the imp does with her.  I'm hopeful that this will be a trend, but we'll see.  This morning, he was a very whiny, tearful imp that wasn't very well-behaved.  I really hope today's not any different from yesterday. 

I got one class site set up yesterday, while the kids were either out or asleep.  I just finished the other one a few minutes ago.  I have another forty minutes before I go pick up the pixie, so...break time. 

After the pixie gets home, it's lunch time, then work time while she's napping. 

1st day: half over.

I got a bit done--I've got the semester schedule set up for my classes.  And then, my laptop decided it was time to update and restart.

And then, it was time to pick up the pixie.

I'm going to spend the time she's asleep (what little there is) to get started on building my classes.  Should only take about four hours altogether--an hour and a half while she sleeps for nap, before I go pick up the imp, and two and a half after the kids go to bed.  And then, tomorrow, I'll have just a free morning to get some cleaning done.

I half dread picking up the imp.  I am afraid he was a very badly behaved imp.  I hope otherwise, but I'm braced for bad behavior.  It's been par for the course for the past two weeks.

rebuilding a professional work wardrobe

So...Odysseus is back to work.  Work attire is slacks (which he needs more of), button down shirts (ditto, and in colors other than white), and ties.  Ties he has, ties he can find. 

He's just under 6'4".  The slacks and shirts are a bit more of a challenge to find.  Most of what's sold in town doesn't fit where length is concerned. 

Thank God for Amazon.  Easier to find things that fit through Amazon than to hunt through all the stores in town.  Better yet, most things aren't taxed, and I can usually find what we need with free shipping.

My professional wardrobe is still under construction.  I need tops that don't gape at the buttons (which means, with my build, absolutely no button down shirts).  I have pants, some of which I haven't been able to wear in years.  I still need some nice blazers, mostly because my classroom is freakin' cold, summer and winter, because there are a couple of computer labs on my floor, and the computers function better that way, given the heavy use they see. 

Or so we all have been told.  No, it's not a sexist conspiracy--the men I work with whine about it more than the women do.  The women just dress in layers and bring blankets. 

The kids' school wardrobes are mostly done.  I had to order something for the imp that our local stores don't seem to carry, anymore: orange jeans.  We found some for him two years in a row, and those pants were his absolute favorites, to the point he wore them out before he outgrew them. 

His grandma turned them into shorts for him, with hemmed edges and everything.

I'll probably have to supplement as time goes on for the kids (the imp is outgrowing his socks, and between sizes in underwear), but their wardrobe is done for the year, and we only paid county sales tax due to the state and city suspending sales tax last weekend. 

And so, it begins...

Odysseus had an early day, today.  He's already on his way to work--has to be there by 7:15, for orientation.  He's looking forward to the challenge, and to the work environment.

I've been up since six.  I'll be getting up at that time from here on through the end of the school year--it'll be easier to get me ready before I chase the kids through their morning routines, especially on days I work.  I'm just about ready for my second cup of coffee (and it's just about ready for me).

I don't know what time Odysseus will be home, tonight.  Normal days, he'll go in by eight a.m., and be done by 4:30 p.m.; however, today, he's got orientation.  I don't have any clue what he's going to be up to, today.   He did to say goodbye to the boy--the imp wakes up around 6:15-6:30 a.m.  The pixie didn't wake until an hour later.  Most days, that will be the time he leaves for work. 

Tomorrow night is the back-to-school open house, for parents and students to meet teachers, and drop supplies off in classrooms.  I should be able to find out teachers' names and room numbers this evening. 

We'll have Wednesday with nothing to worry about for school for the kids, then school starts on Thursday.  Imp will be in all-day kindergarten, and the pixie will be in daily half-day pre-K 4 classes. 

I start back a week from today.  I'm going to spend this week getting into a morning routine for getting myself ready before I mess with the kids. 

Deep breath...I think I can do this.

Random ramblings

So, apparently, my imp is way more perceptive that even I thought.  He's been really insecure and upset about the rapid changes happening around here, and spent all of last week testing boundaries.  As of last month, Odysseus graduated college with an accounting degree, and was employed less than two weeks after graduation in the accounting department of a large local employer.  I think getting into a solid routine will help immensely--if I can manage to not strangle him beforehand.

I can't tell whether the pixie has noticed the changes or not.  I'm pretty sure that the cats either don't notice, or don't care.

Odysseus starts Monday.  He's got to be in by 7:15, which means he needs to leave between 6:30 and a quarter till seven.  He should be home by about five, most days--enough time for me to pick up the imp, feed the kids small snacks, get homework done, and start supper.

School starts for the kids next Thursday.  We have a back to school night at six on Tuesday (which means my dinner plans will have to be fairly quick and easy, since Odysseus will get home around five), and then the kids start back at 8:05 a.m. on Thursday.  The pixie will have a four hour day, five days a week, and the imp has a full school day. 

And I will have those two mornings in a row to myself.  I'll need to get my class sites built before then so that I can use those days to work on housework. 

I start back the next Monday.  I'll drop the kids off, then go find somewhere to set up for office hours.  I'll have about an hour and a half per day, then two classes, and will be done to go pick up the pixie at noon.

Tuesdays and Thursdays I'll have free.  I'm planning on doing what I can to keep up with the house on those two days.  Grading and writing will happen during my office hours.

It's going to be a hell of a juggling act.  We'll just see how well I can keep the balls in the air.  Hopefully, it'll be easier with both kids in school every day.

As for writing...I have the first part (of three projected) of The Schrodinger Paradox nearly done.  I've got three more chapters, and about 27K words.  I think part 1 will be nearly 40K words, if it doesn't tip all the way over.  Part 2, I've got 2.5K words done on, and have it set up to really take off when I can focus on it.  It should be about the same length.  Not sure about part 3.  I've got it semi-mapped.  I'm pretty sure this is going to be my longest work, to date.  Also my most complex. 

I'm having a blast with it.  The problem is finding the time and mental energy (and right headspace) to write.  Thankfully, 90% of the time all it takes is picking up my draft book, picking out and picking up a pen, and drafting longhand. 

Much done, much to do.

We got out the door a bit before eight this morning, and avoided the "I ain't gettin' up 'fore noon, even to buy my kids' shit for school" crowd.  Got the kids' basic school wardrobes, supplies, etc. 

And, from here through the end of the weekend, I'm fucking hiding.  I want nothing to do with the crazy that will be clogging stores for the rest of the sales tax holiday weekend. 

Much to do refers to catching up on housework.  I seem to have a limited amount of ability to get up and get things done, and that kinda fell by the wayside Tuesday and Wednesday, and yesterday was me recovering.  I've gotten some more done, but...yeah.

And, of course, the ants took my lapse in getting dishes done promptly as a signal to riot around my sink.  Damn them. 

I also still have much to do in preparing for classes, and getting things organized and together for back to school night (which is this coming Tuesday), and then school (this coming Thursday morning--I'll have two half days next week in which to do housework without anyone getting underfoot). 

Monday will bring another huge change for my family.  My other half, Odysseus, has graduated from the university where I teach, and has acquired a job related to the second degree he has earned.  It's a done deal, papers signed and everything, and he starts orientation on Monday.  I cannot be prouder of him.

Time for one, deep breath...

We have been insanely busy for the past two days, since the weather was cool enough to take the kids and do some fun things.

Tuesday, we took the kids up to Prairie State Park where they have bison that roam free through the park.*  The visitor's center has a display of all the different things you might run across in that particular environment in an area about the same square footage as my living room, as well as a tank with a couple of fish and a turtle, and another tank with a tiny bull snake.  We went ahead and got them each a noisy little bird stuffed animal, made by the Audubon Society with accurate to the bird calls.  The imp has a rainbow bunting, and the pixie chose an eastern oriole.

After they explored the visitor's center (and touched buffalo hides the park had had stretched over some low tables for kids to touch), we took them to the picnic area for lunch, play time, and exploration.  Next time, we'll make sure the kids and I have water shoes so I can take them wading and see if I can't find something of interest to teach them about in the water, like mussels or crawdads, or something.

Then it was up to my mom's for supper.  We'd taken a roast up for her, and she fixed that.  Sadly, it hadn't been feed-lotted long enough for her tastes, and was a little gamey.  I liked it just fine--closer to venison than what you'd think of for beef.  The leftovers came home with us.  Think I'll get potatoes and do up a nice dinner built around the leftovers for supper tonight.

Yesterday, we took the kids to Branson.  No, we did not do any shows, or go to Steal-Your-Dollar City**--we took them on the two hour scenic train ride.  It was pretty fun.  They really enjoyed exploring the train.  Twice, for the imp.  I enjoyed sitting in the dome car and watching the scenery (I'm unstable enough on my feet when the floor's not moving.  No way am I going to go wandering a train without absolute necessity).

On the way back, we took them to Bass Pro's nature center in Springfield.  Yes, it's a huge store.  But there are alligators, fish, ducks, and turtles.  The kids really enjoyed the animals.

Today, we will be taking the imp to drop with his grandparents, and that's it.  All the plans we have for the day.  It's going to be nice to have a day to breathe without worrying about what-all needs to happen when.

Because tomorrow?  Starts the state back-to-school sales tax holiday, and we're going to get their school shopping done as early as we can tomorrow morning to avoid the worst of the crowds of morons and leaches, who tend not to appear until closer to midday--can't interrupt their sleep for school clothes and supplies, after all. 

*If you want to see the herd of buffalo, they're at the far corner of the park from you.  If you want to walk a trail, they're where you want to walk.

**Silver Dollar City.  

Again, it's culture. NOT race.

So.  Recently, there was a black thug that got himself ventilated by a cop because he either (at the very least) started to drive away from a traffic stop that discovered his license was suspended, or (likely, but can't tell from the video) he grabbed the cop as he started to drive away, trying to drag the cop under the car. 

I say likely, because it's become a popular move with certain, inner city cultures. 

There is a certain crop of social justice warriors bullies out there that are aghast that black people almost invariably* have negative interactions with the police.   Well, maybe a large segment of the black population does have negative interactions with the police; however, how much of that is the fault of their own behavior?  They act out, getting up in the cop's face, and trying to intimidate them into going away.  They curse at them, act belligerent. 

How the fuck do they think police will react to a valid threat to their lives and safety?  Because that is what they are presenting themselves as. 

I've seen plenty of white people do the exact same things.  And I've seen whites have the exact same reaction from the police.

The neighbors from a couple years ago living in the house across and down from us with no electricity, heat, or water...their trouble with their kids getting yanked started when the cops saw the kids (three years, and eighteen months) playing in the unfenced yard, didn't see their mother watching them from the open door while she changed a diaper, and stopped to investigate.  She got belligerent and a bit nasty with them, her husband got verbally abusive, and their kids got yanked, and he got arrested.  No, he didn't get physical, just mouthy.  And no, he wasn't flung to the ground and beat--but he had been in the past, when he did get physical. 

He learned.  He learned from the consequences of his own actions, and he learned from watching what happened to others. 

You'd think that a certain segment of the population would be capable of learning the same. 

I am, by no means, trusting of the police.  The county cops around this area, yes, but not the city.  I've had too many belligerent officers (probably high school bullies) try to tell me and my family that we don't have the rights that I know we do.  I likely will not call the police for help with problems, and not unless it's absolutely necessary.

But.

We do not act, nor do we react, with the same stupid, saving-face behaviors that the tribal-minded inner city thugs tend to, so I am absolutely unafraid that we will be physically harmed. 



*Buried amonst the other stories are ones like this, or this, that don't fit the narrative of racist cops murdering innocent black choir boys. 

Random ramblings

This weekend is my mother-in-law's birthday.  Two weeks from Monday is my mother's birthday--she's two years younger.  Ironically, Odysseus's mother and mine had both of us at almost the exact same age to the day: he's almost exactly the same amount older than me. 
 
Yeah, we went to see my in-laws today, and permitted the pixie to overnight with them.  The imp chose playing outside for a while, then his Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes cartoon series, then playing a kids' computer game on the desktop over watching a movie.  The imp has just gone to bed with a book, and with the door cracked to let the cat in to sleep on him if she wants to.

We had some cooler weather this week.  It wasn't bad weather, just a cool front with drier air coming through--no storms for us. 

The kids enjoyed it a bit, but the nicest day was one where neither Odysseus nor I really felt up to taking them outside to play.  So, today, they took advantage of being at Grandma and Grandpa's (and the weather still being halfway decent) by playing outside until they were content with it.

The cats have been discomfited, yet again.  I got one of the things I'd intended to do done: I pitched the old printer, and got a pair of shelves to hold a bunch of stuff on top of the long set of heavy wooden shelves that act as an entertainment center/storage unit.  I'd cleared the clutter, first, so Cricket thought she'd found a wonderful, new sleepy spot. 

Sad kitty.  I won't even let her climb into the new shelves to sleep.

I discovered that I hadn't gotten all of my music off of my old laptop.  I may or may not be missing files, as well.  I'm going to ask Odysseus to try the trick that had it working all day the first time it started in with this little trick, and see if I can't get the rest of my stuff off. 

As I've done research on what may or may not have been going on, it seems like the cooling fan is going.  It may be fixable, at least enough for the kids to play with it.  I'm probably not going to trust it for writing and work, though. 

One of the things that didn't transfer was the album I've been writing to for the past couple of months.  I really do need that--it helps me think in this particular world.

I've pulled through and finished the chapter I was working on for the current Project.  Yes, with a capital P.  It's bigger than the short story I thought it was at first, and it's a lot more complex than the other things I've worked on, and has me jumping to research things more than once per chapter.  And it's getting more and more complex all the time.  I'm having fun with it, but I'm probably going to try shopping it out with Baen after I finish it.  It's...yeah.  It's some hard science, some social science sci-fi.  I'll probably finish sometime within the next six months or so, then go back to work on another project for a while.  After that, I'll do the edit thing, and send it off to whomever wants to beta read for me before I submit it to a real publishing house. 

I've got other news to announce next week.  Don't want to announce it too soon, though.

New laptop up and running.

The new laptop is simply another Acer Aspire, ordered through Amazon.  It's a lot thinner and lighter than my old one (which is a bit under five years old, and purchased to replace a netbook whose wireless card was going).  It's a much better built machine out of the box than the older Aspire was.  The way the keyboard's made, I'm less likely to end up with crumbs under the keys, blocking utility.  It's a gorgeous, dark red that will be impossible to confuse with Odysseus's computer. 

One of the wonderful things about working for a university is the availability of Microsoft Office for faculty download and use onto home machines.  I had Office 2010 on the old laptop, and I've got 2013 (Office 365) on the new one, thanks to my university.  Simple, easy, and more programs than I really need.*

I do like the new version of Word.  Makes navigation through a multi-part document really stupid simple--just click on the header on the left, and it takes you to the chapter you left off writing on. 

My documents and stuff just got dumped into the machine's My Documents.  All of my music, my pictures (baby pics, wedding pics, etc.), the videos of the kids we've taken...all of it.  All jumbled together, but I think it's all there.  It's gonna take some organizing, but I'll have the rest of the evening tonight, and tomorrow to get that done.

Guess I best get started, then. 

*All I really use is Word, OneNote, and Excell (at the end of semester, when I'm downloading the gradebooks from the course site).

I think Rand Paul might have gotten my vote next November.

He's busting ass to defund Planned Parenthood.  Yes, there are other senators in on it, and lots of representatives (though, oddly enough, no Democrats).  But Paul is the one running for President. 

He's someone I can hold my nose and vote for. 

Especially on this particular issue (which has been compounded and made worse by this).

Edmund Burke was right.  And, for the most part (and probably due to a fuckton of blackmail), many good men have been recently either doing nothing or siding with evil.

WTF!!!

I'm sure my readers have heard about the senseless, horrible murder of Cecil the Lion by a ball-less American dentist* on a canned safari hunt.  I mean, I actively avoid the news and headlines, and I've heard of it.

What I want to know is how many of you had heard of the second video of Planned Parenthood "leaders" negotiating the sale of "tissue"?  Or that Planned Parenthood is so freaked out by an honest representation of their own sheer evil that they've gone to court to acquire a gag order to prevent the release of more videos?

There is something seriously wrong with a good number of the people of this nation.  And even worse wrong with the media.

*Not my opinion.  The opinions of those threatening to kill, stuff, and mount said dentist.  I couldn't care less than I do about somebody with more money than sense paying to have big game brought to them to shoot.

Update on computer issues

Good news: I've ordered a new computer which should arrive sometime on Friday.  It's a newer version of the exact same model as my old one, with the same OS, so it shouldn't take much getting used to.  It's also the same model as Odysseus's, so I ordered one that there will be no danger of confusing with his.

More good news: I managed to keep my laptop up and alive long enough to change the password to my blog, and Odysseus has made me a short-term loan of his laptop, so I can do a little bit here and there.  

Little bit more good news: I can get Office through my job at MSSU, so I should be okay once I get everything set up, and transferred over.

The last of the good news: it was a hundred dollars less than I was assuming it would be, and ordered with Amazon Prime, so there's no sales tax, and shipping is the free two day shipping.  In other words, I didn't need to spend near as much as I was afraid I would.

Bad news: the breaking-down laptop is resisting moving all of my data.  I've gotten some of the most vital moved, but nowhere near all.  Granted, I don't need all of it, and will likely winnow out old shit that isn't needed any longer once I manage to get it moved onto my new laptop.  Unfortunately, I lost something like four or five hundred words of my current project (tentative title: The Schrodinger Paradox) through what the dying laptop is doing. 

Worse news: what the old laptop is doing is randomly turning itself off.  Not shutting down and rebooting, powering off without warning.  The fan isn't broken, so what I think is wrong is a power supply that is in the process of dying.  It might be salvageable, but I am not confident in replacing a power supply, and there's a diagonal crack in the lower right hand corner of the laptop's screen's frame, going from about 1 cm above the bottom right hand corner of the screen to about an inch above the bottom corner of the screen, heading up and to the right. 

What I am planning on salvaging is the 4G memory chip (probably to go into Odysseus's machine) and the battery (if it fits). 

Otherwise, I'm not sure if I'll do anything but have the system wipe itself once I save the data I can, and trash the thing. 

It's a pity.  The laptop has given me four solid years of heavy use without much complaint, until yesterday morning when I had warnings that this issue was starting.

Blogging forecast

Light to nonexistent until sometime Friday or Saturday.  My laptop is in the process of going tits-up, and I've had to order a new one through Amazon, while thanking GOD that this isn't happening during semester. 

See y'all later.

Tough call.

My sanity is starting to win the argument.  I don't have much left, and probably should protect what I have. 

Bad governance

I've noticed, recently, a larger and larger percentage of people have started simply ignoring laws and doing what they were planning to do anyway.  Only a small minority of that group happens to be violent criminals. 

We have huge majorities of people ignoring gun registration laws in their states--far too many to prosecute.

We have increasing minorities of legitimate, peaceful, otherwise-law-abiding gun owners noting that most mass shootings have occurred in gun free zones, and beginning to do the common sense thing for their own safety, and ignoring legal postings.  And nobody catches on, because hello, concealed carry.  

We have whole states decriminalizing drugs that the federal government still consider illegal.

Hundreds of thousands of people are simply...ignoring bad law that steps on their own personal freedom.  There aren't enough prisons in the country to deal with all of them. 

Same with a whole lot of EPA over-regulation of private property, like the twunt that confronted a Florida homeowner to tell him that the "barbecue smell" and smoke from his grill was not allowed to leave his property.  Or the new regulations of wood-burning heating stoves. 

The federal government has forgotten a few different things that it learned during Prohibition (when most people were ignoring a major law that had been amended into the very Constitution): you can't legislate morality, and never pass a law that you know won't be obeyed. 

Seriously, the only thing the government is doing is ensuring that the people no longer respect the rule of law.  And that...that's the first step in making sure the government loses the consent of the governed.

random ramblings

Odysseus had his last final exam this past week.  He is now finished with his Accounting degree.  I am incredibly proud of him--all of his classes were A's and B's, with two semesters of straight A's. 

We got a big box of sidewalk chalk a couple of weeks ago...right before we had a long period of mid 90s for highs, with heat indices in the low to mid 100s.  It's nowhere near that hot at either grandparents' houses, but it certainly is in town.

I took them out to go play with the sidewalk chalk anyway, yesterday morning.  Odysseus had a short telephone interview set up for yesterday, and the kids were really loud and restless. 

They did really well on the cleanup--there were half a dozen pieces left out, and the imp ran out and got five of those.  The last one was half-buried in the grass, and he just didn't see it.  I didn't see it, either, until we were getting back from doing grocery shopping late yesterday evening.

After the interview, Odysseus took the imp, the imp's bike, and two changes of clothes, and drove up to the barber shop that the imp likes--the one his grandparents take him to.  Both of my guys needed haircuts, so it seemed like a case of time and effort saved. 

Right after they'd left, one of the jobs Odysseus had applied for (not the one he'd interviewed for) called to set up an in-person interview.  And an hour later, the place he'd interviewed with called back to set up an in-person interview.  Either job would be fantastic, and either commute would be about the same length, where time is concerned.  Both jobs are simple, entry level positions, and Odysseus would rock either of the two.  

Needless to say, Odysseus feels lots better, and much, much more hopeful. 

Shadow has picked up an odd new habit: her spine is really, really itchy, and she loves having fingers dug through her plush-toy thick fur and given a good scratch up and down her spine.  She loves it so much her ears go limp, eyes fall half shut, and she starts licking the air.  If she gets an arm within reach, she whips around and starts licking the person doing the scratching, and purring as loud as she can. 

Cricket absolutely hates this, and will turn wrong side out, lash out with no-claw slaps, and run away to hide. 

The cats are nearly complete opposites where personality is concerned. 

My dog has begun trying to knock me off my feet as soon as she sees me, so that she can climb in my lap and roll over and over and over--it's a little weird.  I don't mean just rolling onto her back to get belly rubs.  No, I mean all the way over as fast as she can squirm, as many times as she can, until she gets dizzy from it. 

Dog is nuts.

Next weekend is our state's back-to-school sales tax free weekend.  So this coming week, I've got to try all of the imp's jeans from last year on him to see just how much too short they are. 

They go back to school on the 13th of August. 

I go back the next Monday. 

I'm finally caught most of the way up with the housework I fell behind on while I was sick, so my focus for reading and writing is returning.  I should be finished with the book I'm editing within the next day or so, and then will be getting back into my own writing.

Oh, brilliant.

Dumbing down college degrees further, semester by semester.  Basic Economics has been replaced as a core class by something simpler that emphasizes Keynes's theories.  And now, my state has decided to do away with basic Algebra as a requirement to graduate.  

Wonderful.  By so doing, they're devaluing the degrees of those that took Algebra.  I mean, I can sort of see it for trade schools, for trades that have little to do with math (which are damn few), but not for liberal arts colleges and universities. 

Coming soon: Master's degree required for a basic, entry-level position at most jobs.

Sorta, but not quite.

So.  Ran across something last week that I've been ruminating on: "Skull-Stomping Sacred Cows: People are Dying Because We're Weak." 

We aren't weak.  Well, the American people (the real ones, the ones that remember what it is to BE an American, rather than European, or a "citizen of the world") aren't.  Neither are our military branches. 

Our politicians--the ones in control, and the ones our enemies look to when they assess the rest of us--are.  They desperately want to be "liked." 

We are not up against a similar culture, like we were in WWI or WWII, where we fought (mostly) in Europe against others who come from the same racial and cultural heritage that our nation was built on.  No, this is more like fighting on the Pacific front: we have facing us an enemy that sees nothing wrong in acts that seem, to us, to be cowardly, or barbaric. 

The thing is, they seem that way because they come from different cultural roots.  Ones that we only sort of shared.  These roots are in the Old Testament of the Bible.  Ours are almost completely founded in Europe alone, or in the New Testament.  Theirs are formed by tribalism,* ours by feudalism.**

We have it within our culture to overcome and wipe out theirs.  We've done it before, when we had to (see the early colonial period when we were forced to defend ourselves from the aggressive aboriginal tribes).  We are capable of doing it again.

Should a massive attack happen that hits us in the nerve center of the nation (i.e., Washington, D.C.), I do believe that our declared enemies, those who've declared war on us time and time again, will find that we are capable of doing it again, and that what they perceive as weakness--an unwillingness to cause unnecessary harm, or to torture instead of a swift death, or the discipline to not charge screaming into the fight but to wait and aim until there's no way to avoid our shots--are not weaknesses at all, but a massive well of strength that they, in their fractured, tribal based culture cannot hope to match.   

*Tribalism is focused on family, then extended family, then tribe, and to hell with anyone else.  And if stabbing a relative in the back is necessary for your own advancement, it's for the good of the tribe.

**Feudalism, done right, is a ruling class that cares for and protects its everyday people, right down to the individual families.  Advancement is not handled at the point of a knife, but by proving merit and working hard.

Rather proud of myself for this ruse...

I convinced the kids that they were both "It" in a game of hide and seek with toys in the imp's messy room; first, the blocks; then, the dozers (and steamrollers, and diggers); the wood trains and the die cast trains; and the Matchbox cars and trucks into one big box for sorting tomorrow once their boxes are found.

I pulled a Mary Poppins, and got one of two disaster areas cleaned up.  And the pixie wants the same done with her room tomorrow.




I cannot believe I managed that.  I will have to admit I'm a little more impressed with myself than I may have any right to be.

We are not Europe.

Recently, New York passed a law that states that "assault" rifles must be registered with state authorities.  I recall reading in the article that followed it up some time later that less than 20% of "assault" rifle owners in the state registered their rifles.  I'm pretty sure it was probably fewer than that, should all of the facts be known. 

Connecticut, after Sandy Hook, passed something similar, swearing that they only wanted to know where they were.  I'm pretty sure more registered there than in New York, but probably not as many as they'd've liked. 

And now, they're sending out confiscation letters.  Granted, they're only sending letters to those they think own an evil murder rifle, but I doubt the rest are far behind. 

The government officials involved in this stupidity are forgetting something: those that meekly registered their rifles like they were told may be sheep, but those that chose to disobey the law that ran contrary to their rights stated in and protected by the second amendment are likely to use those very rifles to protect themselves and their rights from a tyrannical government. 

They've also forgotten that Concord and Lexington were prompted by a government gun grab. 

In the twentieth century, there have been numerous gun grabs throughout Europe and Asia: The Ottoman Empire in 1915; the Soviets in the '20s; the Germans in the '30s; China, Uganda, Guatemala, and Cambodia through the second half of the century.  In each case, gun registration was near-immediately (within a year or two) followed up by gun confiscation.  In each case, the citizens meekly and lawfully turned over their arms.  And each case was followed up by massive numbers of people murdered by the very governments they turned their guns over to.  Millions.  Tens of millions.  Mostly either minority ethnic groups, persecuted religious minorities, or political rivals. 

Many Americans are both aware of this and wary of this happening here. 

This nation was founded by men and women who keenly felt the injustice of a hereditary political class that controlled their lives to a huge extent, and thus, left for freer pastures.  Though some two hundred years of political neglect--almost entirely benign--those who made this land their home learned to govern themselves, and learned to like the freedom to be left alone that they'd found here. 

In the early 1770s, that freedom started to be constricted.  The people were treated very unfairly (see the Declaration of Independence for further detail), and it chafed.  In 1775, the British government decided to quell the rebellion it could smell brewing before it got started, and misstepped.  King George III either didn't realize, or forgot, that the American colonies were made up of steel-spined malcontents that clanged when they walked.  And, in trying to seize the means for the colonies to defend themselves, triggered the very rebellion he feared in Concord an Lexington. 

Americans in 2015 are, for the most part, descended from these men who laid their lives, their fortune, and their sacred honor on the line.  We are not sheep. 

And, most of all, we are not European. 

We will not lay down our God-given rights to defend ourselves just because some chattering, inbred nitwits in the hereditary political classes that have grown like a tumor in the heart of our nation tells us to.

random ramblings

The various UTI problems I've had were triggered by an underlying issue: a small kidney stone that had decided it was time to go.  It was uncomfortable, yes, but not intensely painful, which says it was very small. 

The very day I started feeling better, I managed to food poison myself at lunch.  I spent Thursday and yesterday sicker than a dog. 

The kids have (mostly) been good for me this week, but not perfect.  In fact, the imp was a rancid little shit all day, yesterday.  I think the problem was that he hadn't gone to bed (and to sleep) until an hour, hour and a half past bedtime the night before...yet still got up yesterday morning at the stinking ass-crack of dawn.  And, since we'd gone up to my mother's to give Odysseus quiet to study because the library was closed yesterday, the imp also did not get a nap.

Today, Odysseus is taking the pixie up to visit his parents.  There's a live on stage version of Cinderella that they're taking her to go see.  She's spending the night. 

Last weekend, the imp spent the night, and Odysseus took the pixie to watch the new Minions movie.  The last time the pixie spent the night, we watched the first Captain America movie with him.  I think we may watch The Avengers tonight for the first time.  I think he's gonna love it, and he's going to be mesmerized.  He was with Captain America.

The cats have been sweet, this week.  Shadow has been "sneaking" into the imp's room and perching in a dark corner either of his shelves or under his chair (sneaking doesn't really work when she strops my legs before she goes to hide.)  Then, when he goes to bed, she sleeps on him for a few hours before she knocks to come out.  She usually wants out around 9:30-11:00 pm.  Cricket's been sitting on the arm of my chair, draping herself up and over my arm and shoulder, and purring in my ear.  It's been fairly nice...until she starts trying to eat my hair.  She has enough trouble with hairballs from her own hair, and she's a domestic short hair cat.  She really doesn't need to eat my hair, too, since it's about waist-long. 

My dog's been happily taking baths when my family gives them--she's figured out that the Dawn that they add to the water when they run the water (making bubbles that she plays with) kills fleas.  She loves baths, now.  And, since she's getting more frequent baths, she's not the little stink pot she used to be.  So, I sat down on the floor and scratched and petted my dog, who just half-smothered me with affection. 

I am past the writer's block--and the editor's block--now that I'm feeling a lot better than I have since the end of last month.  Kinda sucks that I'm so far behind on my housework, but I'm not so far that it's interfering with creativity levels.  I've got a bit done on my book, some more written out long hand, and a little bit more edited on DaddyBear's newest book draft (I'm about halfway done, and loving it).  I strongly recommend it, when he gets it up and published.

FFOT: IIC*

We have some real winners proposing and making laws.  First, we have sanctuary cities, where people who committed a crime to even be in this country, where apparently it's only a little thing where one of these criminals murder a woman who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

There are reasons I refuse to visit St. Louis and Kansas City in my own state.  That is one of them.

Then we have to appease the sackless herbivores** by creating a policy which disarms our soldiers and prevents them from defending themselves, despite the fact that they also argue that our soldiers and cops are the only ones trained enough to be permitted to own and carry said firearms.  And, of course, gun free zone equals target rich environment for those who have no intention of obeying the law, which led to four of our United States Marines being murdered by hajji at a gun free recruiting area.

And now, we have yet another law passed aimed at public schools in VA: the Every Child Achieves Act. They're so proud of themselves for naming art and music as core subjects.  Sad and sorry thing is this: they just doomed the teaching of art and music to go the same way as reading, writing and math--teaching the subject is going to go the way of teaching subjects tested always do.

And that's leaving aside the simple truth that not every child is capable of achieving to the same levels.  Many are not capable of achieving to the lowest level deemed adequate.  Are they going to do the same as they did with reading, writing, and math, and dumb everything down to the level that the least capable is able to reach, and ignore the ones that are capable of the top levels of achievement?

I know, I know: these things I've mentioned are either against the law (which criminals ignore, as I have already pointed out) or an unintended consequence.  Actually, all three instances are all unintended consequences of totally asinine laws, written and passed by mouth-breathing morons who happen to be for sale tto the highewst bidder.

I'm still debating whether our elected civil servants are whores or pimps, considering that they take the money while the rest of us get screwed. 

I wish they'd go fuck themselves instead.


*Idiots In Charge

**I do not claim credit for this lovely turn of phrase.  It was coined either by the lovely Tam from View From The Porch or one of her friends. 

Disgust is the mildest term

I'm sure everyone's heard about the latest kerfuffle with Planned Parenthood.  I'll summarize, but won't link to the story plus video.  I don't want to owe anybody a new keyboard because they vomited on theirs.

In a breathtakingly horrific flouting of U.S. law, they are not only performing partial birth abortions by delivering late term babies breech and murdering them in the process, they're harvesting and selling organs when they think they can get away with it.

And each and every individual in the United States, willing or not, is complicit in this atrocity.  Because Planned Parenthood is supported by our tax dollars.

Never have I ever been so glad that we get more back than we pay in.  Because every dollar heading for the EITC is one that cannot be handed over to the murderers of the most innocent among us.

I am so far beyond angry that I cannot even express it.

I feel like an idiot.

Odysseus found my draft book within about five seconds, yesterday.  It was about six inches from my right foot, under the edge of the coffee table. 

On the upside...

...I should be mostly recovered in a couple more days.

On the downside, it's gonna hurt like hell, should all of the accounts be believable, and not exaggerated.

I think, once that's done with, and semester's over, I shall take the little guns and a couple of rifles to the range.  I want some trigger time. 

In the meantime...has anybody seen my draft book?  I can't find it to transcribe what I'd written, and I can't remember what I'd written. 

Goodnight, everybody.

random ramblings

So.  Sick imp was no longer sick when he woke up yesterday.  Ate two sausage links, and then ate well for lunch.  Which meant that we were able to go ahead and keep up with our plans yesterday to drop them off with Odysseus's parents, then go out for lunch.  He spent last night, and will be spending tonight, too.  And Grandma took them to the water park yesterday, and will be taking the imp (or already has taken, probably, by this point) back today.

Since the imp is at their grandparents' house, the pixie's here on her own.  I usually let her watch a lot of the things she likes that the imp doesn't, when he's gone, but today's a bit different.  Today, Odysseus took the pixie to her first movie theater movie: they went to see the new Minions movie. 

I've posted a half a dozen pens on my Etsy page.  Most of them are fairly inexpensive, but one is fairly rare, and it's rare to find another of the pens I've posted in as excellent of condition as it's in.  I've still got four more pens to fix (three to sell, one to keep as an exemplar of filler type).

My family has discovered the Dawn dish soap trick for fleas, and my little dog loves her bubble baths.  Mom says she huffs on the bubbles to blow them around. 

Shadow has been spending the early parts of nights sleeping on the imp for a while, now.  Last night, she spent most of the evening looking for her boy before she gave up and slept on his desk.  She's been sleeping on his desk for most of the day...and then decided she'd sleep on my recliner's footrest.

Cricket has been playing "the floor is lava" throughout the carpeted areas of the house.  Odysseus has three big, heavy plastic trunks in the hallway.  She jumps from the one closest to the living room doorway onto the pixie's desk, then from there to the back of the couch.  She jumps from the couch to the kitchen.  Does not seem to like carpet at all.

I've got just about one more month off before fall semester starts.  The kids' school starts on the Thursday before, sort of to give the kids a chance to get back into (or into for the first time) the swing of things.  And during this last month I have off (and once I've finally got this stupid UTI kicked to the curb), I'll see just how much I can get done.  The house has gone from debris field disaster area to a mere train wreck.  I'm not sure it's going to get better than that, given that I've got the kids following me and working on making new messes as I clean them up.  And eventually, I'll have to take time off and rework my textbook (again) and work on revising/revamping the class for next spring.  I've got a lot to learn for my plans, which should make my students better prepared to write in whatever their major is.

I'm just under a third of the way through the book I'm proofing.  It's slow going, because I hadn't been able to focus for long periods of time.  Too miserable.  I'm hoping I'll feel less like I have the flu tomorrow.

As for writing...I think I got through the most recent block, but I'm not entirely sure.  We shall see.

My God.

It's so cute!

Our local pawn shop has had a Colt 1908 Vest Pocket pistol for going on six months, now.  Today, they threw an offer at us that we couldn't refuse (especially with how much I wanted it the first time I saw it), by knocking $50 off of the tag price, if we paid cash, and paid the sales tax for us.

Odysseus went and got it for me.  I can pocket-carry the adorable little thing, and I can't do that with a Kel-Tec .32.

My new tiny gun was made in 1911, judging by the serial number, has some wear on the finish, and some nincompoop tightened the screw a bit too much on the factory original grip on the left hand side, and cracked it.

Seriously.  It's just too cute to be believed.

And, sorta, matches my Colt 1903 pocket hammerless.

I cannot wait to go shoot it.

Update:  By request, here's a pic of my 1903 and my 1908 (both of which were made in 1911).

This is not my year.

January--pneumonia.
February--intestinal flu, and acquired gluten intolerance.
March--bronchitis.
April--possible stomach flu, possible food poisoning.

And in June, toward the end of the month, I felt a UTI coming on, so I started taking cranberry pills, and chugging water, and tried the Alka-Seltzer thing that supposedly works for my mom.  I thought my precautions knocked it out, but it came roaring back, and I went on a week of Cipro.  Took my last dose last night, and woke up with a backache this morning, on the right side.

Yep.  Fucking bladder infection traveled, and turned into a kidney infection.  Doc had the nurse shoot me in the hip with a horse's dose of keflex (with what felt like a horse needle).  She doesn't fuck around with potential kidney infections that don't respond to the antibiotic that takes out 90% of UTIs. 

I am outright dreading what August through December have in store.  Dreading it, I tell you. 

This has been a downright bad year for my health...and for my sanity.

Damn it.

The imp started squalling last night, just as I was starting to drift off to sleep.  Turns out, he was puking.  Said he had a burning tummy ache that made him sick and throw up.  We fed him a peanut butter sandwich to quell the heartburn (with a children's Pepto), gave him a fresh bucket, and left him to sleep. 

This morning, we found out that he'd puked again sometime during the night, and hadn't squalled or made a mess.  And was feeling too sick to eat, or to go to granny's.  He's ensconced on the couch, watching DVDs of season one of Scooby Doo.  The classic series.  And he's not feeling good enough to do more than that.

This bodes ill for the rest of the weekend.  We'd planned on letting my in-laws have the imp overnight tomorrow and Saturday. 

And, that means I still have sick imp care added to my chores list for the day.  At least he's simpler to deal with than a sick pixie: he mostly just wants to lay still (for the most part) on the couch, watch something, have a full water bottle, and maybe some peanut butter crackers to nibble on when he feels up to it. 

The pixie wants constant snuggles, as well as all of the above.

Time to get my ass up and get to work.

Food!

I hadn't realized just how much I'd been eating dairy, recently, until I started taking Cipro (antibiotic).  It requires that I abstain for two hours before taking, or six hours after.  Since I'm taking it every twelve hours, that's about four hours (while I'm awake) that I can eat dairy.

We've been going through a lot less cheese, a lot less yogurt, and a lot less ranch dressing. 

Concomitantly, we've been going through a lot more meat. 

I've also discovered that pretty much all grains (except corn) make me feel sluggish to varying degrees.  I try to keep those to supper.

Last night, I decided to try something different: enchiladas.  The recipe is simple--just meat and cheese rolled up into a corn tortilla, and drenched in enchilada sauce, then cheese on top, bake 'til bubbly.  I did half a dozen beef, half a dozen chicken. 

They were really, REALLY good.  Gooey good.  There are leftovers, but less than half a pan.  Both kinds were very good, but the chicken ones edged out the beef by a narrow margin. 

I'm gonna try it again, but with taco meat, and a lot less sauce. 

And in the meantime, I'm trying to plan supper...it's a cool, rainy day, so I have more options than I usually do, during summer weather.

And all this while I'm trying to ignore a major cheese craving that I can't indulge until 3:00.

Oh, great.

I have a pukey boy.  The imp is really sick to his stomach.  Threw up his breakfast, and the children's Pepto I gave him. 

I'm going to have to add "take care of sick imp" to my list of chores today, and hope it's something not catching.

Little done, yesterday

Not a whole lot beyond doing a lot of cooking, and even more clean-up.  Necessity (running a little short of one ingredient) forced a variation of my normal sloppy joe recipe* that I liked a lot better, and wound up eating about a half cup of the mixture over the top of a baked potato...and almost wasn't hungry at supper time. 

For as little as I got done, it took a lot of time and energy.  Experimentation in the kitchen is fun, though, especially when done under constraints that force me to get creative (like my newly acquired gluten intolerance...grumble...or being limited in when I can eat dairy by the antibiotics I'm taking).

I mean, even taking pictures of and posting half a dozen pens on Etsy took me almost an hour and a half.  Not hard, just a little time consuming and draining.  

So...that just means I need to bust my ass today and tomorrow to try to get caught up the rest of the way on what I didn't get done while I was down with the UTI (and self-inflicted water intoxication from trying to water the UTI's strength down a bit), and what I didn't get done yesterday because of faffing about in the kitchen. 

I probably ought to get started now, with the last load of laundry and making myself a to-do list to stay on task.  Because most of the time, I'll get started with one job, and get distracted by another when I'm only half done with the first, then get distracted by another, and then have a house full of chores half done, and a bigger mess than I started with by the end of the day.  A list helps keep me on task.


*Sloppy joes
1 lb meat
1 c bbq sauce
1/3 c mustard
1 can corn
1 can diced tomatoes

My modification is the addition of about 2-4 Tbsp A-1.  Gives it a smoky, spicy flavor that the Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce doesn't have by itself.

Busy weekend

I have one thing to say. 

If the White House isn't lit red, white, and blue for Independence Day, it shouldn't be lit any color for any other day.

Much of the weekend was spent picking at the things I fell behind on while I was sick, with regards to the housework.  Today will probably be more of the same, with the addition of cooking for someone who can't currently cook for themselves.  I'm gonna make a Sloppy Joe goulash for someone who shall currently remain nameless to avoid having them harassed by other parties who happen to be trying to financially ruin them.  I'm going to try to feed this person more often.  I didn't realize how bad their financial situation was until last night.

Another of my pens sold last night.  I'll get it shipped today.  I'm going to need to wrap it after Odysseus wakes, and address the mailer, like now.  It's going to Illinois.  I hope the buyer loves it as much as I do.  The Parker 21 is an absolute darling to write with. 

I've got half a dozen pens to take pictures of, then post to Etsy.  I love the ones I've sold, and hope that the people that purchased them are happy with them.  I feel the same about the ones I'm selling. 

Really isn't a whole lot else going on right now.  My mom's going to watch the kids on Tuesday or Thursday so I can get completely caught up (and maybe ahead) on the housework, and then their other grandparents will watch them on Friday so that Odysseus and I can go out for lunch on our anniversary. 

Between those efforts, avoiding news headlines about anything I can't affect, alpha reading (I'm about a quarter of the way through), and my own writing, I think my week's going to be a bit busy. 

Random ramblings.

I am an idiot.

In the course of trying to keep a UTI under control until I could get to the doctor's office, I wound up giving my self a mild case of water intoxication.  With symptoms of nausea, lethargy, and dizziness, and a weight gain in one day of ten pounds.

A night and a day of mild diuretics fixed it, but it was a little unnerving to realize that the UTI wasn't the only thing wrong, and the other thing was something I'd done to myself.  No more drinking more than a gallon a day, and only that much when I'm busy and sweating (which I don't do much...which really sucks during hot weather).  

The kids are the worst of monsters for night owl parents: they're morning people.  Doesn't matter how late I put them to bed, they're up no later than 6:30 in the summer, and often emerging from the imp's room, where they're supposed to play and be quiet until at least 7:00.  No, it doesn't seem to matter if they can't see the sunrise--I think they feel it like vampires feel the sun setting in fiction. 

Why, no, I didn't get back to sleep this morning.  Why did you think to ask that?  ;)

Yesterday, the kids and I went up to Mom's.  I had Odysseus take us and leave us there, so that he could join us for supper, after he'd had a chance to take the unit test for the online class he's taking. 

It did not work out that way.  The kids had a ball, but the fucking course website was buggy as hell, and he didn't want it to freeze in the middle of taking his test and boot him out.  Here's hoping it works today, during the hour I have the kids playing in the front yard with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. 

But in any case, we did go to Mom's yesterday.  Where I found that yes, Mom actually did order me a pen that had been on my Amazon wish list.  It's a Hero 616, with a gold filled cap and a gold nib.  I'm pretty sure it's a reproduction of a Parker 51.  It's an extremely fine nib, very pretty, has an old fashioned aerometric filling system, and has a clear, plastic ring between the section and the filling system and barrel that shows ink level--something few of my other pens have.  It's a very nice feature. 

I've read in Amazon reviews that some  of these pens have a(n easily fixable) problem with leaking, but mine needed no tinkering before I could fill it.  And it hasn't burped yet, like some of my pens do when they're one of the older ones and get shaken about. 

Once we got home, the cats were incredibly possessive and clingy.  I don't know if it's because they missed us, or smelled my sister's and aunts' cats on us.

There wasn't much writing done, this week, and what was done was done longhand.  I need to get that gathered up (three different notebooks), and get that transcribed.

I am alpha-reading and helping with the first edit on a friend's book.  I can advise this: when it comes out in the Amazon stores, go buy it.  So far, it's really hooked my attention, and I'm only a few pages in.  Which I read while I was feeling my worst, wasn't interested in much, and still got hooked.

I don't care.

I don't care if someone calls themselves gay, straight, conservative, liberal, black, white, Oriental, Hispanic, atheist, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto, Wiccan, Asatru, or something else I can't think of to name.  I don't care if someone's bright or dim.  I don't care. 

The main things I think are:

• Is this person acting like/going to act like a threat to me, or to my family? 

• Is this person acting courteous or rude/thoughtless?  

• Is this person acting like an asshole?  

• Is this person open to listening to facts and changing their minds when proven wrong, or are they close minded? 

• Is this person capable of changing behaviors that prove destructive?

This is what I judge people on.  Most people are rude/thoughtless assholes that maintain their decided ignorance with a passion I find breathtakingly obnoxious. 

I do not care about political correctness, but I will keep my opinions on someone's politics to myself, unless and until I no longer can.  Many do not permit me to do that.  And then I get called names, that I don't care about, but still get worried about keeping my job because of.

And this is why I like individuals just fine, but don't like people in general. 

Oh, ugh.

UTIs suck.  They really, really do.  I'd started chugging water and taking cranberry pills and drinking cranberry juice and alka-seltzer when I felt it coming on...and the symptoms went away.  All of them.  So, I thought the problem had gone away.  I kept taking the cranberry pills, and chugging the water, but quit with the rest because it was starting to bother my stomach.

The symptoms came roaring, as of this morning, only worse.  This time, it includes nausea, mid-back pain, and a low-grade fever. 

Damn it.

Got a doctor's appointment for tomorrow morning.  I'll feel better next week.