Random ramblings

I've been up since just a bit after 7:00 this morning...the imp was up and playing quietly in the living room.  I got his Hiro of the Rails turned on, got him a cup of dry cereal, and a cup of water--then had to run in and nurse the pixie back down for a while.  She's trying to transition to one nap a day, and it works--as long as she sleeps 'til nine in the morning.

The imp is doing really well on potty training.  He might start to go in his underwear, but then he catches himself and goes to the bathroom to finish (usually at a full run while pinching it with one hand to make sure no more pee-pee comes out, yelping "No!  No!  No pee-pee come out penis!).  Last night, he declined a bathroom break before I took the pixie to nurse down.  I was putting her down when I heard the bathroom door open and close.  I checked on him after I got her down, and he looked up at me and gave me the sweetest smile. 

He'd done his bathroom run in silence, because he knew his pixie was going to sleep.

The pixie is putting together more and more two word phrases.  Her latest is, when she enters a room where Mommy and Daddy (or one parent plus kitties) is "heddo guys" (substituting d for the l in "hello").  She tells me when she needs a clean diaper, eats a pretty good meal three times a day (plus snacks and chocolate milk).  She'll be two in December, and probably be starting potty-training sometime between October and April.  I'm going to bet she gets it quicker than the imp--she's a lot more persnickety. 

Having our anniversary this week, then getting really sick with a case of food poisoning has really set me back in terms of where I'd planned to be with regards to publishing my book.  I've got the cover art sitting, waiting to be scanned in.  I don't have a scanner, the campus is closed until Sunday afternoon, and Odysseus works 4-10 until Tuesday.  I plan to take the thing in to the campus Monday morning.  In the meantime, I'm trying to get Odysseus to read the Amazon legalese, and confirm my understanding of how it works, and how the pricing and royalties work before I set up my publisher's account.  Let's just say...it's taking a while. 

The other one's been pretty darn hard to work on while I've been first, too busy to sit down; then, too sick to sit up; and now, am having difficulty focusing on writing my fiction while I'm worried about my housework that hasn't gotten done much with since Monday.  Loading the dishwasher night before last left me weak and shaky.  Fiddling around making lunch yesterday left me weak and shaky--as did fixing the kids' supper.  It's difficult to focus on what I'd like to do when what I need to do is undone, and even more difficult when I'm not sure when I'll manage to get back on my feet enough to do it. 

Sometimes it sucks, being an adult. 

Regardless, the story I'm working on is nearly finished.  I've figured an approach for an idea that Odysseus and I got in the car that had both of us giggling like loons, and think it will fit in the second, plot-heavy set of stories.  After that, I'll have one more story to write in that section before I write the section of stories with the falling action/resolution.  I've got the rest of this month, and the first three weeks of next month to get it finished.

I have an idea for a follow-on for that, but it's going to go on the back burner until my take on the Arthurian legends (which is nearly a third of the way finished) is done.  I'm planning on focusing on that this Christmas break, and see if I can finish the first third.  Hopefully, I can finish the rest next summer.

I've got one of my course sites set up.  It's got students loaded into it already, and has already made the minimum enrollment.  I haven't bothered with the other, yet, because it might well not make.  I'd hate to spend hours building it only to have it deleted and cancelled for not making minimum enrollment.  Last summer, one of my two Comp I classes didn't make, Comp II needed a new section opened up, so the last department head's nearly-final act was to assign that one to me.  The new head doesn't seem to think I'll have that problem this semester.  I hope he's right.