Random Ramblings

With the weather steadily improving (between thunderstorms and rainy days--normal for this time of year), the imp has spent more and more time in the back yard playing.  We have a trench under the slide, where it's hard for Odysseus to mow, anyway.  He's spent most of the last several days playing out there, and, according to the weather, can spend until dinner playing out there today.  Around dinner time, it's supposed to start raining again.  He's been, for the most part, very well behaved with plenty of outside time. 

He's been sleeping for the past two years on a queen-sized memory foam mattress on the floor in his room.  He'd had a toddler bed, and had been sleeping in it for a while when we replaced our mattress with a thicker one.  We stood our old one on edge in his room, and he played behind it until he'd knocked it flat.  Then he laid down on it, and when bedtime came, he laid down in his bed, then got up, dragged his pillow and blanket over, and curled up on the queen-sized memory foam mattress on the floor.  He's slept on it since--until last night.

We needed to replace the pixie's toddler bed--the frame was splitting under children's abuse, and you could run your hand down the mattress and feel the outlines of the springs.  Well, the imp asked what kind of bed I was ordering from Amazon for the pixie, and I explained that I was getting her a mattress like his, only smaller.  He then asked for a smaller bed, so that he can have more room to play in his room. 

The mattresses--for which I paid $99 each (marked down from nearly $500)--arrived on our porch on Wednesday.  We unpacked them yesterday, let them air out, and set them up in the kids' rooms.  Both kids are thrilled.  Although, the pixie wants us to replace her salmon pink top sheet with the purple one.  Easily done...

I wish the nicer weather came with less wind, or with warmer wind.  The imp has been able to play outside nearly all day, every day last week.  The pixie can't.  She's prone to awful earaches when she plays outside when it's windy.  Yes, we have hats, but we can't keep one on her. 

The other problem with the pixie playing outside has to do with her behavior: the imp stays within the boundaries we set (stay inside the fence, stay away from the deck, don't go up to the fence on the north side of the house), but the pixie doesn't.  And, while the imp would not use the adult-sized gap between the fence and the house to get out of the back yard, the pixie would.  And then, she'd go exploring.  She cannot be out in the back yard without close supervision.  

I haven't said anything about it to her, mostly because I haven't felt up to going out with her.  I've been slammed with yet another cold, which comes with a sinus headache, earache, and nasty sore throat. 

The imp can be trusted, which means he only needs to be checked on every half an hour or so, especially with the barky little Scotty out in her pen. 

Speaking of, we had the world's happiest little dog, last night.  I did a roast in the crock pot, yesterday (Odysseus almost prefers them as sandwich-sliced leftovers), and gave the dog a couple of bites of the fat.  Dog's eyes glazed over, her ears went limp, and she licked the bits of fat out of my fingers very slowly, kinda like a little kid with an ice cream cone. 

Cricket found one of her jingle balls, last night.  Scared the snot out of Shadow, who then went and hid--quite well--in the imp's room.  It was only fair, though.  Cricket had been wandering into the kitchen, toward the food in the back room, when Shadow perked up, and jumped down off the back of the couch with a very loud thud*--at which point, Cricket arches her back, goes fuzzy, tries to turn to face the "threat", looses her footing on the linoleum floor, and falls on her butt. 

Those two crack me up.

Yay!  Spring Break!  I get to see my husband more often than just in passing!  If anything drives me back into teaching the poorly designed online class, it will be either getting pregnant before we're financially stable with one income, or because I hate just seeing my best friend in passing.

I also haven't been able to make it up to visit my mother for almost a month.  Haven't seen my in-laws in a while, either.  Having to hold all of my office hours on Thursdays kinda sucks.

So, I've finished the first draft of Pendragon Resurgent.  It's sitting on the printer, waiting until I've had a bit of a break from what I've just written, so that I can go through and revise it with fresh eyes.  I'm planning on starting on Monday. 

For right now, I've pulled up the children's story I've been working on.  I'm thinking that it won't be longer than about 20,000 words or so.  We'll see.  I'd like to see if I can finish it before April.

After that, I'm going to start on the next Modern Gods book, Fire and Forge.  I've been asked to include an appendix of characters--what pantheon they're from, what position they held, any tales and prophesies attached to them.  I'm also planning on putting it up on the other blog.  Hopefully, it'll increase my readership of those books. 

After that, I'm debating between a couple of different books--either a near-future speculative, or an urban fantasy involving elves.  If Lost Girls comes unstuck, I might well write that to get it out of the way, since I'm planning on it being a stand-alone.

Lots to do, limited time...