Mental mumblings

Gosh, the kids are growing fast.  The pixie has been through three shoe sizes this year alone, and the imp just grew into a second shoe size for the year.  They're both picking up new words and combinations daily.  Sometimes, with all the crap in the news, it's hard to make sure they don't pick up the wrong words...

I'm almost done with classes.  I finished grading the fourth (out of four) papers for my Comp I class, and am working through grading the Comp II papers as they come in.  I have four more blog posts to grade for Comp I, and three for Comp II--then any revisions that get turned in for a better grade.  A week from today is the last day of class, and a week after that I'm going to be turning my grades in for the Spring 2012 semester.  I'm planning to revise my Comp I textbook (adding screen captures, and maybe a few pictures) over the summer (since that's all I'm teaching next fall), then my Comp II textbook after I'm done with what I'm going to need sooner.   If anyone wants a copy of either the original or the revised version (either for their own reference or to give me feedback) leave me a note in the comments.

Odysseus and I have a new .22 handgun on the way.  Whoever shoots it first will write a range report on our blog.  I'm looking forward to it.  I'm also looking forward to another chance to shoot my Winchester Model 69A, a fun little gun that's had its iron sights removed.  Holographic red dot sight works fine, even though I'd've preferred the iron sights.

I've been writing a collection of short stories about the Greek pantheon of gods, and how they've adapted and integrated into the modern world (side note: I'm aware of Gaiman's take on this, but haven't had the chance to read it, yet).  I've noticed that the Norse pantheon, and a few individuals from other pantheons have kind of crept into some of the stories.  I'd planned on writing another anthology focusing on the Norse pantheon, but I'm reconsidering.  I might work the stories I have planned into the current anthology, maybe with a loose plot connecting the stories into a more cohesive whole. Right now, at about three stories to go on just the Greek pantheon, the anthology is standing right at about 49,000 words.  With the addition of those last three stories, it ought to be right around 60,000 words.  I'm guessing the addition of the other dozen or so stories I have in mind will push it towards 90-120,000 words.

I've got an anthology of some of my older, non-genre work mostly done, but I really don't want to send that off even to be Amazon Kindle published without having someone with fresh eyes reading it first.  So far, the only taker is my claimed kin who happens to have a degree in social work/clinical counseling, and I'm not so sure I want a professional mind-f***er reading a set of stories I wrote while I was dealing with the aftermath of recovering a lot of really bad repressed memories.  I still don't remember a whole lot of my childhood.

The longer I live in town, and the more crap happens economically and politically (and the more prices keep creeping up on everything), the more I want to sell our house and buy about 20-40 acres out in the middle of nowhere, complete with our own water supply and enough flat, fertile ground to grow enough to not have to buy anything but meat, milk, cheese, and bread.   The school district we bought this house to be in is declining in quality, and has been for the past four years, since the superintendent retired.  So, it'll be private school or home school, rendering the higher than usual for this area property taxes redundant.  And no, I don't particularly like the idea of paying for someone else's special snowflake or Indigo Child to go through the rubber-stamp diploma factory. 

Guess where any money gained by selling books is going to go?