Random ramblings

The imp woke me up at about 6:30 this morning, coming out of his room to play in the hall.  We don't let him get up until 7:00 at the earliest, so I had to shoo him back to bed.  And, as soon as I had that done, the pixie started waking up for her morning nurse back to sleep.  By the time I was done with that, it was time to let the imp get up. 

The imp has started to associate "tummy hurt" with "hungry."  He'll tell me, "tummy hurt.  Want eat Apple Jacks/Cheerios/cookie [granola bar]/peanut butter crackers."  If it's a granola bar or a package of peanut butter crackers, he'll go get them himself, since I store those in his reach. 

The pixie just comes running up and asks to eat her typical meal.  If it's time for lunch or supper, I'll go ahead and fix her her chicken nugget, spoon full of green beans, and spoon full of corn.  If it's not, I'll ask her if crackers/cookie/dry cereal is okay.  If she shakes her head and repeats herself, I bring out the big guns: peach yogurt.

The pixie has started using three word phrases more and more often: "put clothes on?  put shoes on.  put hat on."  She also says the opposite, including "take diaper off." 

If she's not wearing shorts or a dress with bloomers, first she says it, then she does it.  I've learned to watch her really closely, or she'll come stand next to me and then say "here go," and hand me her wet diaper.

The kids are cute.  Frustrating, and sometimes disgusting (the imp has gotten to the play in the toilet stage.  Sometimes while he's using it), but cute.

I've got Survivors (linked up at the top right) marked as FREE for today and tomorrow.  If you don't want to risk three dollars on a complete unknown, go ahead and order it while it's FREE.  (Just do me a favor and leave a review?  Please?)

I think my favorite story out of that particular collection might well be "The Good Shepherd"--not because it's not a horrible situation (it is: a minister got a teenage girl he was supposed to be counseling pregnant), but because there was a similar situation at the church pastored by the male donor of half my genetics.  Unfortunately, the girl didn't come forward like the girl in the story did.  The pastor in the story wound up losing everything--his congregation, his family, and probably his day job--instead of the girl being quietly moved away before she started to show.  

Yeah, my father might have escaped justice here on earth, but that character, who was closely based on my father, did not.

I finished another story for the collection revolving around the Greek and Norse pantheon of gods.  It won't be long before the first draft is done.  This collection is completely different.  The stories are different.  Instead of having mostly dark stories, most of the stories from The Godshead are funny.  The first story is set in the tavern that the collection is named for, and an unnamed first-person narrator (who shows up later in the collection) enters the tavern to find Odin and Zeus drunkenly arguing over which of them is a better king of the gods.  Then their wives show up.

The next story, "Drunk and Disorderly" concerns what happens when Eros and Dionysus get bored, get drunk, and go out on the town.  It's some pretty funny stuff.

I think my favorite story out of that collection deals with Hades.  He kind of took over the story--it's one of the few told first person--and he's a complete smart-ass.  He's attending a convention of underworld gods during the summer, when he's forbidden contact with his much beloved wife Persephone. 

The gods in my anthology may carry the same powers they did in the old myths, but they're very different people.  Their personalities have mostly totally moved past what I originally intended them to be.  They're a lot of fun to write.

Like I said, that collection is mostly done, now.  All I've got to do is write the falling action. 

Then?  Back to work for the university.  Right now, I have thirteen students enrolled in one class, and none in the other.  Sometime this next month, I'll probably be getting an influx of more students--hopefully, enough for both comp classes to make.  I have to have at least ten students in the other class before I can keep it. 

Right now, I've only built one class.  I'll do the other when and if it makes minimum enrollment.

Hopefully, I'll have students that are actually ready for the responsibilities of online classes, but I'm not going to get my hopes up too far.  Too often, too many of my Comp I students expect me to stay on them to keep them on task with regards to where they need to be in writing their papers.  Or, if not, let them turn the papers in late.

I am not their mother.  Nor am I their nanny.  Nor yet their high school teacher.  I do not have the time nor the inclination to baby them through doing what they're going to have to do out in the real world: budget their time, set priorities, and work on projects without an overseer. 

Well, there's my rambling for the week.