random ramblings

So.  Back around Christmas, I got a replacement for my laptop's keyboard (it had lost a couple of keys, and I've just been using it anyway).  Yesterday, I finally got stuff together and went to install it.

And there was a sticker, and a few dents, on the contact areas on the back side of the keyboard.  It.  Doesn't.  Work.  So, I was without a working keyboard yesterday evening.  I've ordered another new keyboard, but it won't arrive 'til Monday. 

So, for right now, I'm using a USB keyboard balanced across my laptop's keyboard.  It's kinda different--the backspace key is a regular key, and the enter key is a big, huge L shape.  I'm used to the enter key being the same width as the shift key, and the same height as standard, and the backspace key being a double-wide key.  This has messed me up a bit, but I'm getting used to it.

Now that I'm getting used to it, I can write again.  Last night kinda sucked, because I couldn't. 

There's something in the air that the kids are allergic to.  It's causing behavioral issues in both, hyperactivity in the pixie, and difficulty sleeping for the pixie, and suppressed appetite in the imp. Things have gotten a little better with the application of a half teaspoon of Zyrtec syrup before bed, but they're still acting up more than usual. 

So yesterday, the imp ate better than he had been for breakfast: three sausage links.  Then, he asked for more, and had the last two (which I'd been planning to have for myself).  And ate both of those.  It made him kinda sick to his stomach. 

(He's kinda sick, now, but I think that's because he got to playing too hard outside, and got too hot.)

And the pixie took a three hour nap today (she just got up a little bit ago).

I think the Zyrtec is working.

I wish I could find something that would work to calm down my spastic cat.  Cricket has been spending a couple of hours per day running and somersaulting up and down the hall.  She's run over the pixie twice, the imp once, and the dog a half a dozen times (while the dog is eating, usually).  She's very spastically affectionate, too--she won't settle down and snuggle; rather, she runs circles across my lap, climbs my shoulders on on one side then down the other, and grabs my head and nibbles on my nose.  Or tries to eat my hair. 

Shadow, on the other hand, has been too warm lately to want to snuggle.  She loves to be petted, but she's been a very long cat any time she's laid down anywhere.  Sometimes, like this morning, it gets comical: when I got out of the shower, she was stretched full length on the foot of the bed.  On her back.  With her front paws folded across her chest, and her hind legs sprawled apart.  Purring and staring at me.  That's her version of a request to have her belly petted (which she loves). 

The dog has wanted to go outside first thing in the morning, and refuses to come inside until ten or later, when it's not raining.  I've not seen much of the dog, other than when I feed her, lately.

I picked up papers last Tuesday.  That's honestly part of why I was so upset about being unable to do anything last night: I need to get the papers graded and back by Tuesday, so that they have time to revise by Thursday...which is our last class day.  After Thursday, I won't be back on campus until August, when fall semester starts (and when my kids start to school).

So, after Thursday (when I plan to have "Bar Tabs" finished), I'll be writing full time until August 12.  I'm going to try to finish the first draft of Fire and Forge, as well as start working on the first draft of what I hope to finish over next Christmas break.