Random ramblings

So, the imp has spent the days this week playing outside.  Today is supposed to be very nice, up to the lower eighties (and when I stepped outside with the dog, the wind actually didn't have teeth), so I'll take the pixie out to play. 

The imp is decidedly looking forward to school.  He's been asking almost daily if he gets to go to school today.  I'm sure that once the pixie has her interview and gets her place assured, she'll be the same way. 

I'm in the process of putting up the heaviest of the winter clothes, and pulling out the summer clothes.  We're in that part of spring where one day is in the eighties, and the next is in the forties, so we need some long sleeves, but not the heavy sweaters and long underwear and flannel lined jeans we spent the winter in.

I am also coming to the realization that I'm going to have to get some new clothes for both kids.  The imp's shorts and shirts from last year should fit, for the most part, but some of the shirts will need replaced--they're too short.  The pixie's shirts, especially, are too small. 

We'll be going up to visit Odysseus's parents tomorrow.  We'll leave the kids with them, and go watch Captain America: Winter Soldier.  When we go home, we'll leave the imp with them.  We need him watched on Monday, and he is in desperate need of a haircut, which he insists he will only get at Grandma and Grandpa's. 

So, the other night, Cricket came out of the hall way, and stood in the edge of the living room looking around and trying to figure out what to do next.  Shadow came rushing up behind her and grabbed her butt with both front paws, and Cricket levitated and teleported onto the back of the couch (about six feet from where she'd been) facing the other way, back arched and every hair on her body standing up.  Shadow falls over on her side and rolls onto her back like she was cracking up laughing.  Seriously one of the funniest things I've ever seen the cats do. 

I cut the drawstring out of one of my pair of yoga-pants style sweat pants--it'd gotten double-knotted, then had some of my hair tangled through it to the point where it couldn't be untied, and wasn't very comfortable to begin with.  So, I cut it just beside the knot, and pulled the drawstring out.  Shadow grabbed the knot and started to play with it.  At one point, she had it clutched between her front paws, sitting up on her haunches, and started hopping.  Straight up and down.  Flung the knot in the air, then caught it.  She played like that for about fifteen minutes on the end of the bed, and kept me giggling like an idiot when I should have been trying to go to sleep.

Last night, I went out to get the dog at 8:30, and she ran from me.  Tried again at 9:00, and she wouldn't even come out of her dog house.  Tried again at 10:30, and found her in the back of her pen, trying to poop.  And trying to poop.  And nothing happened.  She was a very subdued little dog, very unhappy.  I got her to walk a bit, and she ate some grass, then tried again, with no luck. 

Come to find out, she had some poop stuck right up against her butt, smashed into her butt fur.  It was acting like a cork.  I think I may know what happened, because I've seen her do it before: she probably saw a squirrel while she was squatted, tried to jump toward it, lost her balance and fell on her poop while she was doing it.  Like I said, this is something I have personally witnessed.

I sat her in some warm water, and worked that out, then took her out for a walk...where she pooped.  And then, after that, the normally hyper, happy dog returned. 

My classes are almost done.  We are done for the semester on 5/1.  This Tuesday, we'll be going over citing sources (discussing in-text citations as well as how to put together a Works Cited page), and I'll check on their progress and see if they need more time, more help, or if they're ready for a freewrite day on Thursday.  After that, they'll workshop, then turn the papers in to me.  After that, I'll do a brief, two week unit on blogging.  And then, we'll be done.  I'll be done until August 12.  

We've got some things to do today--we need to go to Sam's Club to fill some prescriptions for me, and we need to get some canned dog food for the pup, and a few other things at Wal-Mart (and maybe some more shirts and stuff for the kids, and some stretchy bicycle style shorts for the pixie, for under her dresses).  Right now, the kids are watching Cinderella, but after that, I'll turn 'em loose to go play (and wake their daddy).  I'm hoping to have some time today where I get to go hide back in the bedroom and work on Pendragon Resurgent, but I may have too much to do.  I'll see what I can manage. 

I'm still waiting on the beta readers for Lizzy's Tail (or should I just use Tale instead?).  And the cover art.  But I'm pretty sure I'll have that published before I get Pendragon done.