random ramblings

My imp completed his pre-K camp on Thursday.  His teacher recommended he repeat the early skills version instead of the advanced skills version, because the advanced skills version is for kids who are beginning to learn to read.  She said he was a very sweet and cooperative little boy whose attention lagged in the last half hour (when he was starting to get hungry).

Huh.  I know he's sweet, but cooperative?  That's new.  ;)

In any case, I think he's going to really enjoy kindergarten when it starts.

The pixie was  her normal, fluttery happy little self, this past week--except when her brother was gone to school.  And that was because she wanted to go, too.   I think she will greatly enjoy her preschool this fall. 

For the most part, they've been pretty good kids this week.  The imp's few issues I think are more related to mild allergies (the mimosas are blooming, and thick enough that I'm having issues, and I don't have allergies).  He's much better behaved on the Zyrtec syrup.  Sleeps and eats better, too. 

I'm thinking I'll be getting the imp to practice writing his name this week and next.  I also plan to get him started on Hooked on Phonics, probably after Odysseus's and my tenth anniversary, week after next.  I hate to start him on something like that, then take a several day break and let him lose ground.  I also think that the pixie will more than likely want to work with him on that, and learn to read, too.

So, we got Odysseus a new chair.  Nice, big executive's chair.  It took putting the back seats down in the Subaru to get it home...and half an hour to pull it all from the box and put it together. 

Which left...the box.  Odysseus's favorite cat, Shadow, is obsessed with boxes.  Especially nice, big boxes she can hide in and jump out of to scare Cricket into collapse (which she'd done three times before I got the thing out onto the porch and out of the way). 

We got a couple of boxes of assorted sizes of space bags from Sam's Club, this past week.  Yesterday, Odysseus spent the day filling them and vacuuming the air out.  We first tried putting the filled and vacuumed bags into the big chair box...but there were major flaws in that plan: namely, the fact that Shadow simply loves boxes.  And one of the bags got punctured.

The dog has had a miserable day, today.  It stormed, and rained hard, all afternoon.  When I went out to get her, she didn't want to come in.  Kinda tried to tell me she was fine in her doghouse.  And if the wind hadn't been whipping rain every which way, and if I hadn't been seeing lightning and hearing thunder, I'd've left her out there.  She's been whining on and off ever since.

Writing is...going.  The story chapter I've been working on is temporarily stalled.  I should have that finished tomorrow night, assuming I get adequate sleep tonight.